Elder and Hermanita Weatherford: Early December in Bogota

Beautiful Relationships

(December 8, 2019) Well, this was another CRAZY week! Dad and I are so tired. But very happy. We have really hard days, to be honest, but if we could choose, we would come all over again. We have no regrets.

Last night was the Night of the Virgin Mary, so our temple president's wife took a few of us to see the lights, the fireworks, the music, and the candles that people here light for Mary. It was absolutely beautiful (see pictures). We also had a party and ate bunuelos (little fried cheese balls) and natilla (caramel pudding) to celebrate Christmas. The people in Colombia love Christmas, and it is really fun to celebrate with them. This morning we walked to church in beautiful sunshine, took pictures on the temple grounds with other missionaries, and then this afternoon we enjoyed pouring rain. It is always so beautiful here when it rains. I look at Facebook, and I see that the weather in Wyoming is SOOOO cold. But here, the weather is so beautiful. We love it. The altitude, location on the equator, and the weather here make Bogota a paradise. Ha ha! But, yes, paradise has its problems . . .

The young people here just love me. Most of the time, I feel like an exhibit in the zoo. Ha ha! They like to touch me and to practice their English on me. That is so sweet. It melts my heart. So I usually am assigned to work in the basement in the baptistry. Well, this week, the elevator broke. Unfortunately, the elevator and the stairs in this temple go all the way from the baptistry in the basement to the roof with Angel Moroni. So a big part of my job is to ride on the elevator with the young people when they are ready to leave the baptistry, so that they don't ride the elevator all the way up. :) That means that this week I climbed up and down the stairs more than I can count because I needed to accompany youth who might have been able to climb the stairs all the way up if they were not chaperoned. My feet hurt a lot! Because Dad's Spanish is so good and he is organized, almost every day this week, the temple presidency put him in charge of the men's work (Shift Coordinator). He basically has to make sure that everything in the temple is running smoothly. That is not easy. :) Especially when someone decides to bring hot chocolate. We have this kitchen in the basement, and quite often, someone will start cooking a big pot of hot chocolate. Well, then all the workers say, "chocolate" in Spanish and go downstairs for a party. The workers disappear. Ha ha! And it is hard to find someone to do the work while the chocolate is being served.

Also, this week on Wednesday, the city had another protest (mostly students paid $20 by Venezuelan and Russian operatives to protest) and the protest means that the buses cannot run. The protesters crowd the streets where the buses run, and they threaten the drivers. So Wednesday night, we had 5 women and 7 men to run the entire temple because no worker could come on a bus. Thus, we had no participants from Bogota, but the housing was full of people who had contracted a bus to bring them from Cucuta, 18 hours away. So we had 50 people wanting to attend the temple (from the housing -- Cucuta) and only 12 of us to run the whole Temple--baptistry, sealings, initiatory, and endowments, etc. We usually have about 40-50 workers. We worked so hard. As usual, Dad was in charge of the men. We were so blessed. A couple came from Brazil (yes, Amy and Nathan, they were wonderful) to pick up their daughter who had served a mission in Bogota, and they stayed in the temple housing and helped us with baptisms, etc. They love us so much, and we love them, and they invited us to their home. We might visit them, in the southern part of Brazil (Curitiba, and then see Igausu falls too).

Cucuta is a town on the border with Venezuela, and so many of our participants last week were Venezuelan. These three cute little boys came (about 11 years old) to do baptisms every morning and every afternoon, and I got to know them quite well. On one afternoon, I got a complaint in the baptistry that there was too much noise and it was coming from the men's locker room. So I asked a man (Pte. Tobon) to go check. The three little boys were all in the one shower together laughing and wrestling and sliding and having a blast! The man asked them to finish showering and to be more quiet. He then came and explained to me that they did not have hot water in Venezuela, and they had never had such a good time in water. Can you imagine? Later, the man in charge of the baptistry told me that he had to leave and would I please take care of the "negritos"? I had no idea what he meant, last week I returned some black bracelets to a girl who lost them in the locker room, so that's all I could think of -- little black things. Then, the man pointed at the three little boys, and I realized that they had African ancestry, and in Colombia, there is no shame in calling them, "negritos." Things are so different here, and yet, still the same. People are people.

On Friday, the group from Cucuta got on their bus and rode back for 18 hours. Dad and I were not there, and so we did not get to say good-bye. The youth sent messages with several people to tell us that they love us. It was so sweet. We cried. This week, it will all start again, with another bus full of Colombians who have ridden for 12 or so hours through the night to live in our Temple housing and attend the temple. Some groups are so special to us that we will never forget them. After a week of living and working together, we really grow to love these people. By the way, last week, some church leaders (Elder Gong of the 12) were in Cucuta observing our program for getting food and medical supplies into Venezuela, and that made me so happy! There are so many good people in this world trying to help Venezuela. In fact, the nation of Colombia has an open-door policy for Venezuela, as far as I understand it (they estimate there are 2 million Venezolanos in Bogota alone). That's not easy at all because refugees need so much assistance, but that's love.

On Friday, Dad and I had the day off, and our president and matron told us to go to a craft fair where the native Colombians sell their artistry. Well, we loved it. But the traffic here is so horrible that it took about 1 1/2 hours to get there and another 1 1/2 hours to get home -- it was only 7 miles away. We were exhausted from our shopping trip. We almost hate to go anywhere because the traffic is horrendous. We spend hours in cars. Everyone honks their horns, and some of the vehicles have terrible exhaust. I always take two dramamine. But we got something for each of you that we hope you will like (see pic below) :)

There is one family in our ward from England. I love to talk to them because it is a relief to speak English. They are going back to England for a month and they have offered their car to Larry and me. We are going to drive outside of Bogota to do some sightseeing this next month--a lake (Guatavita), a salt cathedral (Zipaquira) and a beautiful monastery (Montserrate), and I'm excited! Yes, we will be spending hours in a car. :) That's okay. (See pics in "Early January" post)

From Amy --
Hi Mom and Dad!

Today the Light the World challenge is to call your parents and tell them what you love and appreciate about them. Since I can't really just call you up, I still wanted to email you and let you know what amazing parents you are. I am so beyond grateful for you both! The Bogota temple is lucky to have two such dedicated and hard-working people serving there, and even though I miss you a lot, I am so grateful for your example. I hope you had a good day of service in the temple, and know that your baby daughter loves you with all her heart. ♥

From Esteban Duran --

Hi!!!

I wanted to write to you for a long time, I'm trying to write in English, but it's hard for me because I don't know many words,entonces escribiré en español, jeje.

Desde que llegamos hemos estado haciendo muchas diligencias para que todo esté listo cuando tenga que viajar al CCM . Ustedes también deben estar muy ocupados con toda la rutina en el templo, sin embargo si le es posible leer el mensaje, quería decirle que además de extrañarlos mucho a usted y a su esposa, les admiramos y los apreciamos mucho Y quiero agradecerle profundamente el gigantesco amor de ustedes dos por la obra del Señor y su especial atención hacia mi. Gracias por su mucha ayuda al enseñarme y ayudarme tanto los primeros días en el Templo, una de mis experiencias favoritas en ese lugar sagrado, fue conocerlo a usted en el bautisterio, ese fue uno de mis días favoritos. Usted tiene ese don especial de hacer sentir bien a todas las personas que lo conocemos, gracias también por ayudarme con el inglés. `Lo practico todos los días y me esforzaré por aprender a con más diligencia ese idioma, antes de ir al templo no era algo tan prioritario pero después de conocerlo a usted, se que es algo que tengo que incluir dentro de mis prioridades porque aprendí a amar ese idioma. Extraño mucho todo en la casa del Señor. Pienso en lo afortunado que soy de no recordar mi vida preterrenal porque supongo que, sí ya no estar en el templo ha sido tan difícil, no quiero imaginar cómo sería el alejarme de la presencia del Padre.

Ustedes sirven con un amor puro y verdaderamente Cristiano en el templo, todos lo podemos sentir siempre. Los admiro mucho y espero que a su hijo le este yendo muy bien en la mision, estoy seguro que es el mejor, porque tiene unos maravillosos Padres.

Por último quiero desearles una feliz navidad, que milagro poder haberlos conocido, ojalá disfruten mucho la navidad en el templo, debe ser super chévere. Muchísimas gracias les amamos mucho y espero que nos volvamos a encontrar pronto, mis abuelos les envían saludos, ellos también los quieren mucho a ustedes . Don’t stop filling all those around you with light.

And excuse my English, jeje. Chao!!