Hurrah for Israel!!!

Thursday was one of those days where nothing happens as planned.  After lunch I went to get on my bike only to find I had a flat tire, so I pumped it up and we headed out, only to have it go flat again half-way to our destination.  I'm talking really flat... like wrinkly!!!  So we walked to a friends house where I patched up my tire and took out the steel prickly that I found in it.  Then on our way to save the world.  Well... we were going to see a media referral in a part of town I've never been.  Come to find out that it's a really busy 2-lane road with no shoulder.  So, it was a bit scary to ride on.  I got more intimate with a semi-truck than I'd ever like to again!  ;)  Once we were there our appt was a no show but a semi-active member spotted us and drove us back to their home for 20 minutes where they unloaded some family drama on us, and then it was off to the other side of town to our appointment whose address ended up not existing.  Oh well.  Such is the life of a missionary, right?

 

Anyway... we're teaching a cool family named the Solanos.  They came to church this Sunday for the 2nd time in a row.  They're Columbian, and every time we teach them they fell the need to feed us Columbian food.  Fine by me!!!  They've definitely been prepared to receive the gospel right now. 

 

Yesterday was Stake Conference, and Elder Cornish of the Seventy was there to preside.  It was a great meeting, and the Solanos LOVED it... they were even taking notes!

 

Well... the time has come for me to conclude.  This is the last email I will be sending out to y'all as a missionary.  I am so grateful for the experiences I've had over the last 2 years that have reshaped me into a much different man than I began as.  I know without a doubt that God lives, that Jesus Christ is His Son, and that His Gospel has been restored to the earth in preparation for His Second Coming.  I know that They appeared to the boy Joseph Smith, and that through Him the authority & doctrine of Christ was restored.  I have come to know this through study and prayer, and the Lord promises to answer all who seek to know.  Heck... He answered the prayer of a chubby, timid, unsure boy in CA... why not you?!  SO... the challenge I give to each of you who don't know YET is ASK!  The Lord promised... put Him to the test.  I love you all very much, and I thank you for the support you've given me.  See ya soon! 

-Elder Borgia

 

PS- Any of you that can, I'll be speaking at 11am on February 8th in Sacrament meeting in Morgan Hill!  The building is located on East Dunne, just about 1/2 mile from the freeway. 

PS2- If you haven't joined the "I wrote Elder Borgia on his mission" club... this is your last chance!  *wink*

 

 

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What just happened?!

Well hello there everyone!  I'd like to share with you a way sweet experience.  So we tracted into a sweet girl named Yanni.  However, when we were going back for our return appointment, we realized that I'd forgotten to write down her address.  We knew the street she was on, we knew the building was brown, and we knew that it was apt. D.  Soooo... we knocked on every single one on that street.  But this story isn't about her.  While we were looking for Yanni, we met a girl named Terry.  It's all a blur, really, but somehow after a few minutes the Spirit was really strong, she had a baptismal date, she was excited to come to church, and she'd committed to live the Word of Wisdom.  She even has LDS family members in W. Virginia!!!  We walked away like "What the heck just happened?!"  Another little example of the Lords hand in this work, and I quite enjoy watching.

 

In other news... IT IS FREAKING COLD!!!  Now, before you Utards start murmuring... I will have you know that on Friday the high was 45 and with the humidity it felt more like -10.  So I was riding around Orange Park with a long-sleeve shirt, a sweatshirt, a zip up jacket, and gloves.  Who would've thunk???!!!

 

Well... that's it for this week.  Talk to ya soon! 

-Elder Borgia

 

 

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Firmer & Firmer in the... abs?!

Well hello again!  So my journal has been quite neglected as of late, and so I'm sorry if this won't be as detailed.  Let me start off with this... never again will I have Mountain Dew anytime after 1-2 pm.  I had some of the new Voltage stuff last night with dinner (which tasted very good, I might add!)  and then I couldn't get to sleep until 3:30am!!!  AACCKK!!!!  So right now I'm fine, but I have a feeling that tomorrow I'm going to be really tired. 

 

This week was zone conference... my last one.  It's sad to think about, because large meetings of missionaries like that are awesome.  It's klinda like in Alma when it talks about the great joy of the sons of Mosiah when they all meet back up.  I've made a lot of close friends serving here in FL, and it's sad to think I might not see some of them again.  After the meeting I went with Elder Terry on a trade-off to Middleberg.  Oh man, talk about a redneck town.  I felt like I was in Darien again!

 

So one of the things President talked about at ZC was "Firmer & Firmer in the Faith".  We're trying to increase our faith as we shoot for 1050.  And so he gave us a workout plan.  At first I didn't really understand... in fact I didn't think that he was serious.  But alas, he was, and now I'm starting to get it.  Our entire mission is going to be unified in working out together each morning, and it'll also help up be more obedient in the mornings.  So, each morning we're to do:

*10 10-yard forward sprints

*10 5-yard backward sprints

*10 10-yard grapevines

*10 straight jump-ups

*100 pushups

*100 situps

 

So, I'm a bit sore right now, as we've been doing this for the past few days. I'm not quite up to 100 pushups yet, but it'll help me to be skinny & buff... eventually !  ;)

 

Friday night we had a pretty cool experience.  We went to Taco Bell for their amazingly cheap yet filling food!  As we were waiting for our food, a guy behind us in line started talking to us about the church, and he ended up coming to sit with us.  We talked until his wife came to get him, but we're meeting him for "coffee" at Starbucks tonight.  I guess that'll be the perfect time to teach him about the Word of Wisdom, huh?

 

And lastly... GO GATORS!!!  From what our neighbors told us, it was a pretty good game.

 

So on that note, have a great week!  Love ya, Elder Borgia.

 

 

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Holidays = WAY too much junk food!

Naps are of the devil!!!  So I took a nap last p-day, and it felt really good, until I couldn't sleep that night!  My sleep schedule was thrown off a bit this whole week, culminating with some insomnia last night.  Luckily I have lots of reading material for times such as those!  And don't forget the blessed Monster energy drinks to get me through!!!  ;)

 

But really, we had a pretty good week.  Friday we had a pretty cool experience... we had been tracting for most of the day without success.  We were walking down a road and we saw a lady pull over on the other side of the road to get her mail.  Elder Van Genderen said "Wouldn't it be cool if she pulled over to talk to us?"  Right as those words escaped his mouth she yells at us: "Ya don't happen to have a Book of Mormon, do you?"  "Uh, yeah!!!"  So we ran through traffic to get to her.  She talked very openly and comfortably with us, and so we asked her if she was a member of the church.  "No, but I'm considering it"  (???!!!)  Apparently she has some family members that are LDS, PLUS she's a geneologist.  Who does that?!  It definitely boosted us in our day when we had started to get a bit worn out.

 

I'm grateful for miracles such as these.  The Lord knows us, and He wants to strengthen us.  If we seek Him in setting our goals and raising our vision, His strength will make it possible.

 

Happy New Year to everyone!  Love ya!  -Elder Borgia

 

 

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...and a Happy New Year!

Why hello everyone, I hope y'alls Christmas was AMAZING!!!  We had a pretty good week here.  Tuesday we had a sweet experience.  We were riding back from an appointment and we passed a street that Elder Van Genderen said he felt like we should tract, so we locked up our bikes and started knocking doors.  Pretty much no one on the street was home.  :(  HOWEVER... as we were getting ready to leave, a minivan pulls up and motions for us to come over.  "Are you Latter-Day Saints?" a woman asks.  "Yes".  "My niece was supposed to send you over a month ago and you never came!"  So apprently this lady's sister has been a member of the church for 10 years.  The lady we were talking to had become dissatisfied with her church and wants to investigate "the mormons".  (!!!)  So we'll be heading over tomorrow to teach her about the Restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  How sweet is that?!  That taught me to ALWAYS follow promptings of the Spirit, even if the reasons aren't obvious.

 

Wednesday we had an awesome district meeting... the Spirit was so strong.  We talked a lot about goal setting and raising our vision, and then we knelt together to set a baptismal goal for our district.  So, by February 8, 2009, we will baptize 25 people.  The Spirit confirmed it!

 

Christmas was awesome.  We spent Christmas eve at the Grieve's house eating ridiculous amounts of food, and of course reading Luke 2 and singing every single christmas song in the hymn book!  Christmas morning we went over to Bishop Ross's (OP2) house for breakfast along with a few other missionaries.  Then we stopped by a few more places until we ended up at the Gonzalez's home, where we spent most of the day (1:00-8:30).  It was there that I was able to call home and talk to my family for a good 3 1/2 hours!  Man, I LOVE my family.  In these last 2 years I've really come to appreciate 100x more how much of a blessing my family has been in my life.

 

Then yesterday we wrapped the week up with a baptism... IN THE OCEAN!  We started teaching Marvada on the 14th and she was supposed to baptized on Saturday.  Well, then she was scheduled to work a double on Sat. so we put it off until Sunday.  THEN she got a staph infection called Mursa on her leg that is transmittable through water!  So, rather than postponing the baptism, we hurriedly planned to do it in JAX beaches in the Atlantic Ocean.  (The salt water kept Elder VG from getting it too!)  Then we met back at the church for her confirmation.  It was such a sweet experience, even if the water was freezing cold!  (We forgot it was December!)

 

So, Happy New Year everyone! (in a few days, I guess).  Its a time for a fresh start, so don't squander it!  Rather than setting resolutions to be broken, how about praying about it and making goals & committments with the Lord?!  Lets make this a time of growth both temporally and spiritually.  Love ya!  -Elder Borgia

 

 

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2 more makes 5! :(

So this was a way sweet week!  I started the week sending off all y'alls christmas cards (if you didn't get one I don't have your address).  And because of that, I never want to lick another envelope in my life!  I really had to keep a glass of water next to me to make it physically possible!  ;)  Tuesday we had a SWEET lesson with an investigator... watching Finding Faith in Christ.  The Spirit was SO STRONG!!, which makes our job easy.  After all, it's not us that convinces or converts, we just act as the guides to help people act on their own feelings.

 

This week I was blessed with 2 more flat tire stories, making that 5 just in my time in Orange Park.  I have slime tires (which I thought would prevent these type of things) which have green slime that supposedly stop up punctures.  Right.  All that accompished was to spray green slime all up the back of my bike and leave a bright green trail all the way down Blanding as we walked to our next destination.  Ugh.

 

Friday afternoon/evening was definitely the highlight of the week.  The entire mission (about 140-150 missionaries) met together at the JAX W Stake Center for a Christmas devotional.  Most of the time was spent with President calling up different missionaries to bear their testimonies.  We were also able to hear quite a few musical numbers.  Elder Kenworthy and I were able to sing a duet of "Joseph Smith's First Prayer", which was sweet.  It definitely brought back memories.  Speaking of memories, you may remember that a year ago at that same meeting we announced a mission goal of 650 baptisms for 2008.  It definetely stretched our vision and our goals, and tried our faith (prior to this year the highest was 320).  As of this weekend we will have baptized 650+ people.  The Lord has definitely blessed this area.  And He's not done yet... we set a goal for next year of 1050, and I've decided that we need to accomplish it by January because I'm selfish and I want to be here to see it happen!

 

Sunday was pretty cool.  We sang in the ward choir music program, including a mens octet (sp?) of "Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel".  Also, the other elders (OP2) brought some people that they've been teaching that their going to switch to us.  They're from Haiti and have only been here a few months.  There's a few people in our ward that know French, and so they'll be doing some translating, while Elder Van Genderen and I will be doing some creative teaching.  (I can hear Mama telling me I should have paid more attention in French class!)

 

And lastly... transfers have come and gone, and for the 3rd time on my mission I will be keeping a companion for longer than 6-weeks.  (I dare not think about what that says about me).  Elder VG will be my last companion.  In fact, our entire apartment will be staying.  The only change is that I've been asked to serve as district leader.  I suppose it'll be good to keep me going strong 'til the end.  President Newman told us we have permission to run that stop sign!

 

Merry Christmas everyone!  It's crazy to think that it's come and gone so fast.  I pray that, even in the hustle & bustle of the season and everything else going on in the world, we might have time to stop and honor Him who is our Savior and our King.

 

Love, Elder Borgia

 

 

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Is that a raisin?!

This week was horrible, crazy, depressing, and there were horrible little demon goblins with crazy eyes running around screaming and giving us the heebie-jeebie's. OK... well maybe not. I just didn't want to start off yet another email with: "It was a good week". Anyhoo...

We had some sweet experiences this week, and some weird ones. We were able to do trade-offs with our zone leaders, which was great. It really showed us some areas that we can work on in our area to help move the work along. One of weird experiences... we were at a gas station buying gatorade and some guy walks up to us and handed us some anti-mormon DVD's. Then without saying anything he walked away. He didn't even have the huevos to say it to our face! Ugh. So he ended up donating 2 new frisbees to our apartment! ;) However, a few hours later we met a woman named Mary who was SWEET!!! She's already taken the discussions before, but she never acctually prayed about the Book of Mormon... so she's going to do it this time around! After we talked to her for 10-15 minutes she invited us inside and showed us all of her paintings. !!! :0 She does watercolors, and she's GOOD! She told us that she'd give us a print, so I'll have to show y'all eventually. Friday was the ward christmas party, and the theme was "Christmas around the world". They had different dished from different countries and a little presentation about how that culture celebrates christmas. It was really good, even some of the weird food. (I would have never thought to add sausage, apples, and raisins to stuffing... but I guess the Germans did!) Then Sunday was the highlight of our week. There's a girl in our ward who invited us over to teach her roommate, Marvada. The Spirit was SO STRONG and she was just giddy the whole time, and she's going to be baptized on the 27th. It's amazing to see the work of the Lord progress. Last night we went to a fireside here in OP with President Newman speaking, and he talked about our baptismal goal of 650. As of this weekend we're at around 645... and we've got about 40 more scheduled before the end of the year. How awesome is it to see that if the Spirit is there when we set a goal, and then we work for it, the Lord will help us to achieve it. Merry Christmas everyone! Talk to ya next week! -Elder Borgia

PS- I've got a few more addresses, but I could use a few more!

 

 

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Sour, then SWEET!

OK everyone... so the only people that sent me their address were my grandparents... and I definitely already have their address. SO... REPENT! Send me your freaky-leaky addresses, and then you'll get mail! Anyhoo...

We had a pretty good week here. Monday after emails most of our district headed to a Mexican restaurant called La Napolera that is WAY GOOD... and a member who was there saw us and ended up paying for all of our food! That's the first time that's happened to me out here, and it was sweet! It was a reminder that there are still some nice people out there. Also, Monday night I picked up my bike from getting fixed, and it's BEAUTIFUL!!! It rides like a Cadillac! It doesn't even make any grinding noises when I pedal! Tuesday was zone conference, which is always a good boost. Our area definitely has a lot of room to grow, but we have several people who are pretty solid. Right now our biggest obstacle is health problems! For some reason, as soon as people set baptismal dates they either get kidney stones, pnemonia, or swollen feet. Go figure!

Saturday was one of those days where you know something miraculous is going to happen. Why? Because everything that could happen happened. All of our appointments cancelled, my right shoe started falling apart, one of investigator's Dad (who we found out was a holy-roller minister) called and told us to stay away from his family, and then my bike tire blew out. I didn't even know bikes could have a blow-out!!! But Sunday it became worth it, when 2 people showed up at church wanting to start meeting with us. So I'm glad for trials and opposition, because they strengthen my faith and prepare me for sweet stuff! (and they provide for some pretty rockin stories as well) The appointments were rescheduled, the shoe still wearable, and the bike tire fixed, so in the end the Lord worked everything out.

Have a great week everyone! God is our Father, Christ is our Savior, and we are under Their constant watch and care. Love, Elder Borgia

 

 

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