Curse of the MAD EYE

8-11-2014

This has been a great week.  Some difficulties with peoples agency, but i know that we put forth our effort.  I am going to be honest, right now i feel like i am about to give up the ghost.  Not sure what happened today, but i think i caught my first cold of the mission.  For the past year i have been watching people get sick all around me, and i was beginning to think i was invincible.  Turns out its not true.  Hopefully now that Mad-i is finishing her mission her luck isn't passing to me.  But that's where I'm out right now in this moment.  Feeling real poopy.  

But apart from today we really have had a really good week.  The Familia Jimenez, the family we have been working on for the past couple weeks could not make it to church.  they said that right when they were about to leave the house, long lost family came to their door for a good long visit.  So they couldn't leave the house.  I know that these people are ready for baptism though.  This week we had a lesson with them that was incredible.  We talked about the book of Mormon a lot and we asked the dad what his feelings were toward the book, now that he had read a little in it.  He took a while to respond, and then told us that he thought it was true because it was helping him stop drinking.  We had no idea that that was a problem for him.  Then we invited him to be baptized (for the 3 time).  He said no because he feels like he still doesn't know enough stuff to make the decision.  We are still working with him on that, but he is being really stubborn about it, so we decided to let him think about it some more.

This week we also found two new famillies to teach.  Great news.

My body tells me no mas.  I love you guys bunches.  Have a great week.  

Love, Elder Durup

¿Exorcism?

8-4-2014
This has been a really long week.  I had my last days with Elder Watson.  That was a little sad.  And then i went to Osorno in bus.  That took 7.5 hours.  Way too long.  Then i stayed the night in the office elders apartment.  We played UNO with the elders who were finishing the mission and the all of the elders who were training.  The next day (Tuesday), we were trained by the AP´s and Pres. Obeso.  It was really good, it just made me feel more stressed about training.  I really cant mess this up.  

Then i got to meet my new companion.  Elder Kvarfordt.  I want everyone to send me their best attempt at their pronunciation of that.  Took me a good 2 days.  But he is way cool.  He´s from Saint George, he is the state champion in shot put and discus, and he is a great guy who is way excited about working.  On the way to Dalcahue the bus broke down 2 times for 20 min. each, so we ended up getting to Dalcahue at about 9 at night.  We got in a quick visit to the fam. Barrientos.  They told us that they are going to the temple at the end of the year.  AHHHHHH! i love it.  Elder Kvarfrodt is having a hard time with Spanish, but he is learning fast.  The next day we were walking toward an appointment when a guy said hi to us from 3 houses back.  We stopped and he motioned us to come inside.  We go in and this guy and his brother and his wife and daughter are all there.  We sit down, and the dude picks his bible off the shelf and sits down on a kitchen chair right in front of us and says something like, lets begin. Turns out he and his brother are Pastors for some Evangelical church.   He then continues to question us about all of the things we believe in and why we believe in them.  Lets keep in mind this is elder Kvarfordt´s first day in the Field, so I'm going solo on this, and this guy is trying to Bible bash so hard.  I  let him go and then when i think he is all out of steam i testify of the Book of Mormon and the restoration. He listens politely, and then kindly says we are wrong.  By this point I'm done with this guy so i ask if we can leave.  He says that we need to have a prayer, and of course we accepted.  We all get down on our knees, and this guy and his brother start going nuts! The guy is shouting all of these Haleluya´s and his Brother stated to shout in the gift of tongues ( just a bunch of random sounds. Not a real language).  It goes on like that for a good 2 min., and then they both get up and put their hands on our heads and the guy starts commanding devils to come out of us.  Elder Kvarfordt has been laughing this whole time, and i start getting really mad.  Who are these guys to think that i have devils in me.  I'm not the one speaking in Gibberish you big dummy!!!

Well thats about it from me.  Ill write more next week, i guess i just needed to vent with you guys.

Love you lots and lots,

Elder Borup

(They can pronounce my name now that i have elder Kvarfordt as a companion)

Hueeee, Dalcahue

7-28-2014

Well this has been another great week.  But like a really great week.  No half great stuff.  real great.  The Jimenez family came to church this week!!  It was awesome.  And they loved it, and said that they were going to be coming back every week now.  They don't have a date for them to be baptized right now but that is going to change this week.  They will be ready.  

This week we went back to Hernan´s parents house.  We went in and just tried to apologize for about 30 min.  then we listened to hernan´s dad tell us why our church isn't true for another 40 min.  and then we listened to the reason why Hernan hates living with his parents for another 20. And in the end we finished in the exact same place we left off.  It was a long visit, and the whole time we were trapped sitting on a bench right behind a ragging wood burning stove.  It was easily 3 times hotter than the sun.  

So cambios were this week, and i get to stay here in Dalcahue!!!  I am going to stay here and i will be training a fresh new elder from Utah.  HIs name i don't know... when i got the call from President Obeso he said he could not pronounce it, all i know is that it starts with a "K".  So anyways i have to go to Osorno tomorrow, which is a five hour bus ride from here.  We won't get back until late Wednesday night,  which is really lame because we have a ton of good appointments planned.  

I am going to miss elder Watson.  We have had some good times together.  Probably one of my best companions so far.  Well I honestly have only had one companion who is not on that list.  By the that Delgado guy is now companions with Elder Warren.  Haha! we are going to be able to talk about that when we get back together someday.  

Well thats about it from me.  Thanks for all of the emails.  I love all you guys bunches.  Take care.

Elder Bourut

( I honestly have no idea how you get that out of Borup)

Borún

7-21-2014

Well this has been a really fast week.  It really is starting to go by way too fast, and i don't feel like it will ever slow down.  I turned a year old in the mission this week.  that's really weird to think about.  I feel like i just left, but at the same time it feels so long ago.  

We had a good week lots of new investigators, none of them in church but we have hi hopes for the next week.  We found 2 different ladies that want to be members of the church but that their husbands are way too catholic and they wont accept us in their home.  Thats stupid.  

Today i was looking forward to a nice bright sunny day so that we could have some fun playing soccer.  Then mother nature smacked that plan in the face.  It was pouring all morning.  We went out anyway.  Im fed up with the weather dictating what we do and what we don't do, no more.  The weather here has gotten really bad.  Lots and lots and lots of rain, and to make things worse, my umbrella broke this week (i would still use it because its not too bad, but there is a Chilean saying that if your umbrella is broken it means your gay, so i don't want that).  So i have been going around with three rain jackets on. It works well.

I love you guys lots.

Elder Borún

I wrote something for the missionary newsletter so that's why its so short this week.

Why?!

7-14-14

Well this has been another good week.  It was actually a great week.  And then Sunday came.  We had lots of great lessons with lots of great people.  We were doing a great job at finding new people to teach, and then we went on a intercambio with the Zone Leaders.  I went with ElderJauragui.  He is a great guy.  I learned a lot from him.  We were in their sector in Castro, and Elder Watson got to stay here with the other zone leader.  I had a great time.  Elder Watson did not.  Our sector has been ravaged.  Last week i told you guys about Hernan, the guy who is trying to quit smoking. This week i tell you that, thanks to some thing that were said to his parents, Hernan will not be meeting with us, or attending church, or having anything to do with the church.  Apparently there was some hard core bible bashing going on, and there were some very devout Evangelicals who´s feelings were badly hurt. Hernan was really sad to say that he cant visit with us.  He was actually starting to tear up.  It really really stinks to go away for one day, and then come back and have your star investigator drop you like a rock.   Well i don't want to talk about it anymore. 

Positive.  We found a great new family.  We taught the restoration and then invited them to be baptized.  They all accepted.  Family of four to be baptized the 9 of august.  That sounds so nice.  They were way receptive too.  When i had finished saying the first vision the dad said that he had always had the doubt on who was right between the catholic church and all of the protestant churches, but now it all makes sense, none of them are true, because none of them have the authority.  It was way cool, Ive never taught someone who understands that the first time around.

Last week my district got cut down.  Now it is just me elder Watson and the zone leaders.  I thought having Hermana missionaries would be hard, but it was actually great.  Our district meetings are really small now, and a little quite at times because only 1 zone leader is there each time.

MOM! I got the package!!! its so great.  Those are some of the coolest ties ever. I especially love the Hawaiian flower one.  I also love all of the ginger candies. Its great.  Thank you so much.  Love you.

Well that's about it from me.  Remember to study the scriptures. They are great, especially when you feel upset or angry. They will just calm you right down.  And never use the bible to atack people, please.  It never ever ever ever works.

Well, i love you guys bunches, I always love your letters. Have a great week.

Amór,

Elder Brún

So Pooped

July 7, 2014

Well, this has been a really long hard week.  This week we have done so much service.  I Think we have chopped at least 3meters of wood.  That is too much for two gringos who have a terrible plastic ax.  I like it though.  The only thing that stinks about this week is that we have been so busy helping people that we have had very little time to do proselyting.  This is a first for my mission.  Usually there is no one who lets us do service for them.  This week is something special.  We also helped a guy move houses.  The guy who got kicked out of his house because his wife hates the Mormons.  He has had it rough. He was baptized in Santiago 30 years ago. He moved to Chiloe 15 years ago, but there wasn't a church in Dalcahue, so he went inactive.  Then we came and he has started to come back.  But he has had some problems with his wife.  Now he is out though.  And he has a cool new house, where we can visit him all day.  In his bathroom, the toilet stands on a 1 foot tall platform, so it looks like a throne.  I´ll have to try that out.  

This week we did have Hernan in church.  He is coming to church every week now with out us even calling him.  We have been calling him every night to check up on how he is doing with the cigarettes.  He is having a really hard time leaving them behind.  I hate tobacco.  It's stupid.  I just wish that this guy could get baptized this week, but he has to be off the stuff for 2 weeks before the baptism for him to be baptized.  

We had an awesome day today.  We went to go look at some Flamingos, and we got to see a whole ton of them.  I loved it.  We took like 1 and a half hours to walk around this huge lagoon where all of the birds were.  We got really muddy but it was worth it.  Nature is so cool. Then we went into Castro and went to a Catholic cathedral.  It is completely made out of wood.  It was cool.  While inside i was sitting on a bench and this drunk guy came up to me and started telling me all about how he was Italian and that Italians are so much smarter than Americans.  I just nodded in agreement. There are lots of really vocal drunk people in Chile.

Thats about it.

Elder Drup 

So sad, so sad, its a sad sad situation

June 30, 2014

Well this was a really good week.  The only thing that is bringing me down, is the Chile game.  We almost beat Brazil.  So so so so so so close.  I don't even want to talk about it.  Everyone we watched it with were so sad.  Especially this guy named Efrain.  He went into the Bathroom to be alone for a couple minutes and came out after about a half hour, with his face all red.  So dang close.  I think if we would have gotten killed it would not be so sad.  But we lost on the last penalty kick.  

Bueno, así es la vida.  You win some and you lose some. Its has been a great week.  We are teaching a new guy named Hernan and his 8 year old daughter Joana.  We have been teaching them for about 2 weeks now.  He has gone to church 3 times.  He really enjoys it.  He is reading in the book of Mormon and also is loving it.  The only problem is that he smokes.  and he smokes a ton.  He smokes between 40-60 cigaretts every day.  Well he smoked that many. now he is on about 15-20.  Thats a ton of progress for a guy who has been smoking 2 packs every day for the past 20 years.  He has a ton of desire to change, and i think he will be baptized the end of this month.  

Today we went on a nature walk with our friend Efrain.  He is the brother of a member who we are working with.  We went out to the wilderness of Chiloe and were taking pictures of swans and flamingos. It was really fun.  It made me realize how much i miss learning.  I really miss my zoology class.  That was really fun to go out and just learn about nature.  

We still need to find a house for the new meeting house.  I hope we can find it soon, because that is about the only thing that is holding us back from being a branch.  

Lots and lots of service projects planned for the week. 

love you guys lots and lots.  

Elder Baurup

(thats the new favorite of the members)

PS Scott,  i told a guy we are teaching to look you up.  He is into ryming too. cool right?