Elder and Hermanita Weatherford: Early January in Bogota

Exploring and Learning
(January 10, 2020) This week I am going to write about what I'm learning about myself. Ha ha! I have learned so much. Last week, I now realize that I was incredibly tired and not finding wholesome foods to eat. As a result, the people around me were frustrating me. I felt embarrassed because my Spanish was not good enough. I felt out of sorts. This week, I had more time to sleep and eat (because the temple was closed on Monday and today Friday is our day off). I'm eating a little meat, too. Also, this week, the Colombian youth went back to school so we had only half the number of people coming to the temple as we did last week. I feel so much better. I love the people around me. I love Colombia! So the moral of the story is that we absolutely must take care of our precious physical bodies. They influence our minds very much.

Right now, there are 30 or so people outside our apartment in tuxedos and beautiful dresses, a bride with a huge bouquet of Colombian flowers, and lots of amateur photographers. The Colombians dress so beautifully. I'm sure that when they see Larry and me in our jeans and t-shirts, they are shocked. Ha ha! The couples here get married at home in their churches, and then when they have enough money to come to Bogota, they get sealed in the temple, and they all dress up and party just like they did at the wedding. It is really fun! Two weddings to celebrate a wonderful union.

On Monday, Larry drove us to the top of the mountain outside of Colombia. It is a gorgeous green high mountaintop. I had been wanting to go because at the top is a statue of (I thought) Jesus, like the one in Rio. But no matter how much I googled it, I could not find it, and instead, the word "Mary" kept coming up. So we figured they named the statue of Jesus after his mother, Mary. We drove to the top, and we realized that Bogota does indeed have a Mary with her arms outstretched, looking over and loving the city (see pictures below). We LOVED it! The views are amazing. It was a perfectly clear day, and we still could not see all of Bogota. What a huge city! We loved watching the airplanes take off and land. Everything about our life here is different from our life in Laramie. Gosh!

Basically, this was a typical week. A woman gave me a ring because she loves me; I am accumulating quite the ring collection. :) Another asked me why I don't dye my hair black -- good question. Ha ha! Larry and I had some really special moments as we saw living families around an altar sealed to each other forever. We sent off some missionaries who we love to places like Argentina and Temple Square. We processed hundreds of youth who did baptisms for the dead. Some of the names were German, and it was a lot of fun to hear our Spanish-speaking friends pronounce those names. :) I actually prayed in a meeting this week in Spanish. I was terrified!

We are doing great! We love you all so much. Thank you for reading my ramblings and musings. I suppose that, while I feel like I'm learning so much, I'm actually relearning things that I've learned before, maybe a little like Job. And that's great! Every time we relearn something we learn it more deeply. Have a great week, and please take care of yourselves. We love you more than words can say.

Montserrate

Most interesting confessional I've ever seen--glass outside and both priest and confessor in full view of each other

They do lots of recycling here

Typical beautiful flowers

Our Mission Testimonies Requested by our Stake President

(Jenny)

Hi, President Allen,

How wonderful to hear from you! We love you so much! We are so grateful for our setting apart. You have blessed us with great blessings and they are all directly from Heavenly Father because He knew what we needed. We definitely needed that blessing of health because we got really sick, and we loved the blessings of inspiration, of meeting the people we needed to meet, of feeling our Heavenly Father's love, and of understanding Family History.

Our mission has been both much harder and more wonderful than we could have imagined. Wow! Every single day brings tremendous growth, in ways that I can't really put into words, because the growth is so personal. The hard things about our mission are the times we have been really discouraged, sometimes hard times come because we want to teach and help, but the culture gets in the way, and we feel defeated. Some days we are so tired and we wonder if we have made any difference at all. These are the hard days. The good days are amazing! We receive so many more spiritual insights on the mission than we used to receive in our daily life. We have learned from Heavenly Father how much he loves our family, what goals He wants us to set, and how different aspects of His gospel find fulfillment in our lives. We understand our Savior and His gospel on a new, wonderful level. Many days, we feel this wonderful stream of revelation as we go about our work. The revelation is very personal to us, so I won't share specifics, but we both feel that the Lord has shared with us so much understanding and insight. It has been amazing! Also, on our best days, and really every day, we feel so much love. It is hard to describe. Two sisters have told me that they are sure that they knew me and loved me in the pre-existence. I feel it, too. I recognize and love so many of the amazing saints that we serve. I see how dedicated they are to the Lord, and I am in awe of them. Their lives are not easy, and they teach me every day what it means to be Christlike. In addition, serving with my companion has deepened my love for him SO very much. Larry and I feel bonded together with a love that is eternal and strong through this service. Serving a mission strengthens marriages. We serve with a bunch of retirees with gray hair who go around holding hands and smiling at each other. Ha ha! You may not see that depth of love in Hollywood, but it works in the mission field. :)

If I were to give advice, I would encourage everyone who is able to serve to consider a mission. We are only here for six months, and sometimes we feel guilty that this is not enough, but we also feel that the growth and the work has been grand. Six months is indeed enough. We know that Heavenly Father has accepted our sacrifice, and that is a wonderful feeling. I think that part of the preparation is learning to accept the bad with the good. I had great visions of being a super-missionary and changing the world. In reality, I'm just me, and I might be making a small difference with my love, and that is enough. I'm still human. I got homesick on Christmas. I have learned to pray and to think that all these emotions are okay and normal. In fact, the church has some wonderful support materials that help with discouragement. I keep telling myself that this is all part of the process. We feel so high and filled with the spirit some days, and then so discouraged other days. In our mission, it is important to be healthy, so I would encourage people who are preparing for a mission to walk and exercise daily. Of course, scripture study is the best preparation. The practice of prayer is a lifesaver, so I would encourage potential missionaries to pray all the time, about everything, because that is what they will want to do on the mission.

I have a testimony that Heavenly Father is more loving and ready to bless us than we can even imagine. He loves every person living on this earth, and if we knew ourselves better, we would realize that we loved many of our brothers and sisters before we came to earth. They are waiting to meet us, and we can recognize their spirits when we get to know them. Serving others with love ALWAYS feels good, it always brings blessings. Heavenly Father is waiting to pour the blessings out. We may not be able to convert many or even one, sometimes we just move people a little closer to God. Perhaps our purpose is to radiate that love that Heavenly Father has for His children. I can testify that He uses us where we are as instruments for Him. All we need to do is to open ourselves up to loving everyone who we meet. A mission is the most intense way to do that, but in our daily lives, Heavenly Father can help us meet people who need His love.

The Laramie Stake is such a wonderful stake. You are our family, and we love you so much! Thank you for caring about your missionaries. Thank you for serving us so tirelessly. We love you and your beautiful family! Please say hello to them for us.

Love, Hermana y Elder Weatherford

(Larry--a few days later)
Dear Pres. Allen,

Thanks for your thoughtful message! We are so grateful for your support.

I think Hermana Weatherford has done a great job sharing our thoughts.

The only other thought I would add for those deciding on whether to serve a mission or not is the following question:

Do you want to grow spiritually? If so, a mission is the greatest opportunity. I would estimate that 1 month in the mission field is equal to about 1 year's worth of spiritual growth in your normal life! It is simply unbelievable how close you are to the Spirit and how the Holy Ghost refines you and teaches you!

Thanks again for all you do to love and serve the great Saints of the Laramie WYO Stake.

With love and respect,

Elder Larry W.