Late October in Bogota

Then we got sick . . .

Incident # 19000792602 Policy/ID# W254551195

Buenos dias,

Le adjunto la Garantia de Pago  para uno de los misioneros.

Aetna Intl Carta de Garantía de Poliza//ID#  W254551195

    

La contraseña para abrir el documento adjunto es la misma que siempre.

Agradezco de antemano por sus servicios y atencion de este nuevo caso.

Jenny at the clinic

(November 1, 2019) Dad and I think about you all the time in the temple because of the experiences we have that only someone who attends the temple would understand.  Here are a couple of things we have experienced --

At the veil, I had the amazing opportunity to work with a young woman who was going through for the first time. Thank goodness Dad was nearby because on the other side of the veil was a worker who insisted that I say she was in the temple representing a dead person. This man insisted that I talk as if she was a proxy for a dead person, so he would not move forward with the veil ceremony. Our temple president did some training and told the workers that if the person is standing right there, then please do NOT say that they are dead. :) Anyway, Dad helped the veil worker understand that this was a living ordinance. I think a few of the workers hear my English accent and they freak out and they assume that I'm making mistakes. They forget to stop and listen and take it slow. Learning to communicate is interesting. Some people know that they must slow down and give me the benefit of the doubt. Others freeze up and stop trying. I understand that my language can be intimidating. 

One group of very poor members came on a 22-hour bus ride to spend a week at the temple. They did two endowments every morning and two every afternoon. Larry and I came to know and recognize them. On Saturday morning, they came to do their last endowments, and some of them had tears in their eyes. Dad and I just cried, too. It was so beautiful! The youth who came got the vomiting and fever thing that Dad and I had, they call it the gamboo. They came to the baptistry with masks on their mouths. I just smile and thank Heavenly Father that I'm not sharing the baptismal font with them. :)  I don't want the gamboo again.

They do a pretty cool thing here. After a person gets the new name, they go through a door to the chapel and the door counts them and puts the tally on a screen. That way we know how many men and women are going on the endowment session. When I was the woman who helped lead the endowment (the seguidora), I saw that no women had come through the door, according to the screen, yet there was a woman waiting in the chapel. At the time, I figured that she had come through right after I looked at the count. But, no, after the session started, she raised her hand and told me in Spanish that she had not received the new name ceremony. I pulled her into a sealing room and gave her the ceremony in Spanish (thank goodness I have almost everything memorized) and then we went forward with the endowment. It was almost a panic attack. :) 

Things like this are a rush for Dad and me. Wow! Every night, we get home and we compare notes. Did you meet this person? Did you ever experience this problem? Our temple mission is amazing and intense! Just today, Dad and I talked about how happy we are here, we are so happy. Even though our feet ache, we are always hungry, and we are always being scolded for making mistakes. :) Ha ha! Colombians are very vocal about everything, they ALL love me tons, and they all like to tell me what to do. Anyway, Dad's insight was that we are fulfilling the sacrament prayers, the ability like never before in our lives, to ALWAYS remember Him, and the blessings of being constantly reminded of our Savior and His Atonement are real. He's right. This experience has been incredible. We love it; we also count the number of weeks until we can go home and sleep in our own beds (for 8 hours) and eat American food, and have a desk to work at, and know that there will be hot water in the shower in the morning, etc. :) 

Dad has some great stories, too. There is a young man here who has a mission call to California in December. He follows Dad everywhere and speaks English; he loves Dad. Sometimes Dad just needs a little peace, so he (and I do this, too) grabs some scriptures and opens them and bows his head so that he can rest for a minute. We have been able to read the scriptures a lot in the temple. Some days when we finish our work at the temple, it is pouring rain, so Dad found a little tunnel that we can take to get to our apartment. Then we climb 4 floors of steps. Whew! Also, every night, Dad and I leave the temple all sweaty in our white shirts, while the Colombian women leave in a puffer coat, a scarf, a big snow hat that covers their mouth, gloves, and more. They tell us they are freezing, and Dad and I just smile. This usually happens when it is 60 degrees outside. :)  I am almost never cold here, and I LOVE walking in the rain. 

I have been learning more and more Spanish, but I still have a long ways to go. Ha ha! I'm sure the Colombians will ask me to give a talk in Sacrament meeting. Yikes! I am the ward chorister, and today we sang a hymn that is not in our English hymn book. It had 3 formatas, which the Colombians do not understand. In fact, they do not really adhere to the rhythm, either. Ha ha! But they sing with SOOO much passion!  I play the organ in the temple for our preparation meetings and Dad leads the music. One time the workers were singing so badly that the president stopped the song and told them to look at the little italics instruction, which said to sing "with fervor." He said, "Are you singing with fervor? NO." Then he made us start again. It was tough. Ha ha!

Ah, I will continue to gather stories and send them to you. All I can say is that we love it here, and at the same time, this is probably one of the hardest things we have ever done. Even the temple president's wife says this is harder than being mission president and companion. Ha ha! We will never forget this experience, and we are so grateful that you pray for us and that you love us enough to support us in this adventure. Thank you.   :) I love you!! Have a great week!

(Larry) I’ll just add how much we are growing and loving this mission, even though it challenges us so very much.

I like to say that “I eat a healthy portion of humble pie and meek salad every day!”

I am putting together some insights and thoughts on being washed clean by the blood of our precious Savior Jesus Christ, that I’ll share with all of you.

We love and miss you so much!

Plaza Bolivar

"Great" road repair

Big A** ants for sale--anyone??

Museo de Oro--quite famous and very good

View of downtown from a nearby mall

Cake from Monica Gonzalez to wish Larry well

Botero museum

One of my favorite photos of us

A common tradition that we saw often--future missionaries opening and reading their call letters on the Temple grounds

Early October in Bogota

We arrived in Colombia on October 4!

Editors note:  this blog is based mostly on letters that Jenny sent to our 7 kids, & pictures that we both took.  Larry's journal also has 20 entries full of stories and spiritual insights for those who are interested.

(October 11, 2019) Elder Weatherford and I have now been in Colombia for almost one week, and what an adventure it has been! Today is our day off, and we are grateful, because on Saturday we will work nonstop from 6:00 AM to typically 3:00 PM. Saturday is when the most patrons come and we add endowment sessions if the participants need them. Tomorrow is stake conference, and the tradition here is that all the new converts come to the temple to do baptisms on Saturday morning before conference. We are expecting about 160 people in the baptistry. We work until everyone goes home. This Monday is a national holiday in Colombia, so the temple will again be open from early in the morning until the afternoon. The saints here are very dedicated and come to the temple on their holidays. Tuesday will go back to a normal day, working from 7:00 AM to 8:30 PM with a long lunch from about 1:00 to 3:00. On Wednesdays we provide a temple session at 6:30 AM so Larry and I wake up to prepare at 4:45 AM and then we work until 1:00 PM. Last Wednesday night at about 7:30 I had to go home because I was dizzy. But I felt great again the next morning. The work is hard, but the people are amazing. Even with my very limited Spanish, I can feel their love and friendliness. The people here have welcomed us so lovingly. 

On most days and on most shifts, there are only 6 or 7 men and 10 women, so we tend to run (reverently, of course) from place to place in the temple helping everyone with the work. Ha ha! Workers here do not have schedules or assignments because it is impossible to know who will show up. The presidency just takes those who arrive and asks us to begin in a certain place, and then when that is finished, they tell us where we are needed next. My favorite place to work is the baptistry because the youth are so cute! Now I can also serve as witness and that will be great!  I love helping the young women on the computer. This week is spring break here in Colombia so we have had busloads of youth come to the temple. For example, last night, three huge buses came to pick up the 100 youth who had finished their temple work and take them back on an 11-hour drive over the mountains to their homes. At the same time, the next three buses dropped off another 100 youth who came from Bucaramanga, 8 hours away. The youth stay here in the temple housing with us. There are beds for everyone and there is a cafeteria. Larry and I are on our feet for about 6 hours in the morning shift-- we try to help 100 youth do baptisms. But the youth all smile at us and express their joy; it is pretty great. We collapse into bed after our last shift at night, trying to decide whether we crave food or sleep more. Ha ha! Sometimes dinner at 8:30pm wins, sometimes sleep takes over. 

The weather here is gorgeous, and the mountains are right outside our apartment. We love it! We can walk to a small grocery store where we buy milk that does not need to be refrigerated and lasts for months. (?) We can do laundry in the basement. Ha ha! So we have everything we need to survive. On our first day serving, the hot water in the temple complex was broken, so we took cold showers just like Larry did on his mission 40 years ago. So, yes, we call every day an adventure. And like Amy said about Brazil, we do love this wild and crazy place we call Colombia. And if we can avoid being run over by one of the hundreds of motorcycles that own the roads here, we will thrive here. Ha ha! Bogota has 8 million people and the traffic is crazy. I'm trying so hard to learn the language. The presidency asked me to raise my hand anytime I did not understand their instructions. I told Larry that if I did that I would walk around the temple with my hand permanently up. Ha ha! 

We love the temple presidency. They work so hard and they have welcomed us with open arms. Thank you all for supporting us, for all you have done to make this mission possible for us, and for your love and prayers. We are loving this experience so far! This would not be possible without your love. 

(October 14--note to MTC tutors of Jenny) Oh, yes, this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen! We are LOVING it here! We are meeting people every day and I'm speaking with them. Ha ha! I tried to ask a man in the laundry how to find the garbage. I'm still trying to figure out what he said about basura. He said something about jovenes getting it. I have been looking for a dumpster, but I cannot find one. There is not much English here so I'm going to continue to learn. That's great news! Tonight, we have our windows open because it is always cool. We can see the temple and it is beautiful. Everything that I saw on the google map is here, but the Dunkin Donuts is across the puente and that part of town is not safe. Ha ha! La directora de obreras del templo (Matron) told me that the security guards will go get donuts for us if we share with them. Isn't that great!? What an amazing place and what an incredible experience!

(October 13, 2019--note to Elder Joshua W)  Wow! What a week we had. I’ll be honest. Not knowing the language is so frustrating! I can only imagine how hard your mission was for you those first few weeks. I think you are amazing! I am so proud of you!

Today we had a Seventy visit in stake conference (Elder Falabella from Guatemala). It was wonderful. He said that he always asks people if they would like to know more about the gospel, and so many say no. But he asked one man who let the missionaries teach him. He decided to go to church the next Sunday. He was lonely because his wife had left him, and she and their daughter were living with her parents. So he met the missionaries at church. He looked across the room and he saw his wife and daughter. From that day they began working on their marriage. They all joined the church. Every so often we have that sacred opportunity to change lives. When that happens my heart is so full.

I had a few moments in the temple this week when the spirit was so beautiful. This mission is the hardest and most wonderful thing I have done in my life, except for having children. And as for my children, they make me deliriously happy.

Here at the  Bogotá temple, and also at the San Diego temple (and a few others), there is this symbol.

It was discovered on a fresco in Italy in 550 AD and the basic symbol is 2 squares, 1 tilted at 45 degrees, and is called the seal of Melchizedek.  To turn it into the 8 pointed star, you just extend the lines a little outside the basic squares.

You can Google that term and find some interesting ideas that relate to the symbol and the Temple if you’re interested.

Our lovely apartment

Look where we keep our microwave!?

Cedulas

(an email we received from the Bogota Colombia North mission office)

Muy buenas Tardes,

Según Conversación telefónica, Tendremos la Cita con migración Colombia a las 9:00 am del día Martes 15 de octubre de 2019 Con Jennifer Lynn Weatherford y Lawrence Robert Weatherford (Favor de llevar consigo sus respectivos pasaportes)

Enviaremos un Taxi que los pueda recoger en el templo  y llevarlos a migración Colombia y lo mismo de retorno, La misión se encargara de pagar por los tramites de la cedula de extranjería.

Muchas Gracias.

Cordialmente,
Elder Josept Rosales from the Bogota Norte Mision

This trip, including a taxi ride and long wait to be processed for the cedula took about 4 -5 hours. Traffic in Bogota is the 2nd worst in the world. 

Stake Center at Alhambra chapel

Look at the view from near our apartment

Bunuelos

Lots of fresh fruit and veggies from Canasta Campesina--papaya, maracuya, aguacate, mandarina, platano, tomate, naranja

One of our favorites from 'La Spiga del Rey' panaderia--croissant with arequipe y bocadillo