Bogota Temple Week for Our Buenaventura Branch

Elder Welling and Elder Belnap with their great companions and Sister Maryam, who takes great care of them in BV.
Monday 
November 19, 2012

Hey family and friends,

This week was great
. On Tuesday the bus left for Bogota to go to the Bogota Temple. That was nuts!!! So my companion, and I had to go get the bigbus and drive it to the Capilla (our church). It was great, and my companion drove the bus! Then when we got to the church here in BV my companion parked the bus and we got everybody ready to get onto the bus.

We all sang a song first, then they started to get on the bus. A lot of the members started to cry and knew their prayers had been an
swered. It was a really special moment. Then when they were all in the bus, Elder Belnap, and I entered the bus and took a picture of everybody. Then Jose(our BV Branch Presidente) came to us and started to cry and gave us huge hugs. It was a really special moment. We said some stuff to everyone, and then the bus went off to Bogotá. That was amazing!

God sometimes just wants us to work our faith a little bit harder. To do a little more. I learned a lot of lessons from that experience and
I am so happy that they got to go. During the week we taught a good amount of lessons and worked hard. Didn't find many new people, but stayed focused on those that have been progressing.

Then later the bus came back on
Saturday. We talked to all of the members and especially with Jose, our BV Branch President, that night. SUPER special, all of the members wrote their testimonies on a piece of paper about the experience, and I cried a lot when Jose was reading them to us. It was just amazing!

Then the next day, Sunday, it was a special sacrament meeting in the church. A lot of people went up to the pulpit and bore their testimonies about the experience at the temple. Some of my converts got the chance to go, and they said they understood now and want to invest themselves next year. They know more and said know that they will never fall away!!!! That was amazing and super special for me. I loved it. I cried during that meeting, too. The spirit was just overwhelming, and it is just awesome to see our Branch progressing in ways I never thought possible in only 4 months.

I am really learning what it means to be a missionary. Loving my time here in B
uenaventura, and I will never forget these experiences that I have gained. I hope also that my family never forgets how they blessed the lives of others in what you have all done for them, too!

Love you all and miss you!  BTW, this next week is super busy with a ton of activities and we get to go to Cali to have a conference with Elder Juan a Uceda de los setenta, estoy animado por eso y que tambien tenemos mucho bautismos por la semena que viene. Pero, la aproxima lunes seria dificil para me porque el elder Belnap se va por Utah. Seré muy triste, eso yo sé.

--

Elder Tyler Welling


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