Papa Relleno, Maybe one of the best street foods in the world!



 I’m a week behind on my weekly report so I hope today is the makeup day. This blog is for the week ending on December 1, 2024 (Thanksgiving week). 


One of the highlights of being a senior missionary is meeting members and helping them along the covenant path. If you remember several weeks ago we had a missionary activity where we acted out Lehi’s dream. The hermano who played Lehi is a wonderful faithful member. We don’t remember his name (names are hard here), we just call him Lehi. We love to visit him and his wife. They are always so kind and encouraging. This week we talked about the light we can share with others. As members of the church we get to and have a responsibility to share the light from Christ’s birth, life, and atonement. 


This week there was an unexpected change in our mission. One of the Senior Couples that we saw almost every day and loved being around had to go home suddenly due to some medical concerns. Nothing life-threatening, but that news came fast, and the next thing we knew they were gone. But not before we helped them take care of some things at their apartment which left us with bags full of food that they had bought for themselves and we got to enjoy. They are going to be missed. 


That brings us to Thanksgiving. The office for the South America Northeast Area of the Church is in Lima. In a part of town called La Molina. La Molina is a different world than Peru Lima North Mission. To save long descriptions, La Molina is like Beverly Hills and our area is like South Los Angeles. It takes anywhere from one to two hours to get there. Since some of the Senior Missionaries decided to have a “Fun” Run on Thursday morning, at 6:30 a.m,. we decided to go to La Molina the night before. We found a very unfancy hotel right on the “race course”. It felt like we were going to a real race in some faraway destination. We even had a pre-race meal the night before.


Thursday turned out to be a wonderful day. We had a 5k race at 6:30. Lynette tied for first, of course. I made the podium as well with my 4th place finish. I found a side of competitiveness that I didn’t know I had. I wasn’t really worried about placing high on the podium (I never am because that usually isn’t a possibility). I was, however, worried about getting beat by old people who look out of shape. I ran way more of the race than I wanted to. After a nice rest in our hotel, we went to the temple and then had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, including turkey and mashed potatoes! The desserts were all made by the senior missionaries. They were amazing! There is nothing like a group of seasoned grandmothers making their best desserts! We enjoyed being around this amazing group of missionaries who have put life on hold for a year or two to serve in a place far away from their homes.


As it turned out, our trip there took 2 hours and so did our trip home. We got home exhausted. It felt like we went away for a race weekend. The journey there consists of walking, a long bus ride, and then a taxi ride. We tried to do the last leg by bus also, but the wait for the bus would have been more than an hour just to catch a bus that would have taken about 45 more minutes to ride.


We started the week by saying goodbye to the Palmers but ended the week by saying welcome to the Hatches. They are a couple from Arizona most recently but have spent much of their lives living in Mexico. He was a farm manager who worked for the Church. Other than Mexico, they spent time in Chico California, and Argentina. He was born and raised in the Mormón colonies of Northern Mexico and she is from Canada. They both speak excellent Spanish. They are assigned to work in the office so we will get to see them often. They are going to be fun. 


OK, now I’ve got to write another report to get all caught up.


We love this adventure, serving as missionaries is the best!


Hermana y Elder Borup


2 amazing things!


Noche de Hogar en nuestro casa

Pre-race meal

Do I look confused?

A clay sculpture done by a member of the church.

The Palmers, we miss them already.

the finisher's trophy for the Turkey trot.

Turkey trot participants. 

Race meeting, explaining the course!

Our place at the table.

the Thanksgiving group. There were 3 missions presidents along with Senior Missionaries.

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