My Trip to Colombia

I had the blessing to go visit my country again this summer. The boys and I were there four weeks. Daniel couldn't go with us since he had to work. This was the first time I have traveled with the boys to my country without Daniel. It was hard dealing with them by myself but Heavenly Father helped me.

This time in my country was different than my previous visits in 2001, 2007, and 2009. It was very fun, and also very spiritual. In the beggining of this year, I knew my time was getting closer for my trip to Colombia. Daniel and I had set this goal in 2007 to take the boys to Colombia every two years so they could get familiar with my culture, and get to know my family and also speak Spanish better.

I started going to the temple at the end of March of this year every week. I wanted to go once a week and do our own temple files since we have plenty. Every week, the Lord would make it work for me so I could make it. It was a very spiritual experience. I went every week from the end of March until the end of May when they boys got off school. Every time I was at the temple, I would go to the Celestial Room and pray there and ask Heavenly Father if I should go this year to my country. I was not sure because I knew Daniel would probably not be able to go with me and the trip would cost a lot of money that we were not sure if we should spend.

Every time I ask Heavenly Father about it, I felt that I needed to go, but that it was going to be hard. I am so glad I listened to Him and went. Before my trip, I read my patriarcal blessing. It says there that I need to share the gospel with my family. My mom and I are the only members in my family. So I prayed to Heavenly Father and ask for guidance and thought about how I could share the gospel with my two brothers and my sister and their families if I went. I thought about a great idea. Everytime I go to my country I take a lot of presents for each of my siblings and their families: clothes, shoes, toys, decorations, lotions, accesories, all kinds of stuff, pretty much everything I see on sale I buy if I know they could use it. My boys also give their cousins some of their toys. I tell them that they don't have as many toys and they should share some of them with them. They are always excited to pick toys to give to their Colombian cousins. Each of my siblings get a big trash bag (gallon size) full of stuff for their families. So I told each of my siblings that the way they could thank me for all the gifts I give them was to go to church with me at least one time since they have never been. (I have been a member since November 1997). They agreed to do it.

I was so thrilled to have my two brothers and their wives and children with me at church. My sister and her kids also went with me more than once. I felt so overwhelmed to have them sitting next to me during sacrament. It felt so unreal. I got to go with them to Gospel Principles class and sat with them. I helped them find scriptures for the first time. They have never read the scriptures before, so to hear them read them aloud was so overwhelming and humbling for me.

I remember during a testimony sacrament meeting I got up and bore my testimony and saw my brother there with his wife watching me and I felt to overwhelmed. I had tears of joy running down my cheeks. Mateo also got up and bore his testimony half in Spanish and the other half in English since he couldn't say it all in Spanish. He tried so hard and said that he wished that one day all his Colombian family could get baptized in the church. I think that touched my brother. It was so wonderful that testimony meeting. A lot of people were moved by my nine-year-old son testimony because he made an affort to say in a different language that he's not very fluent, because he wanted his auncle to hear it.

I also got the missionaries involved in our house in teaching my siblings. They came over and taught them the first lessons of the gospel. We had FHE's with them. I had family prayers with them at nights, all of us kneeling down. My brothers didn't know how to say a prayer so they learn the steps and said the most simple but beautiful prayers. I gave a copy of the Book of Mormon with my testimony on it to my ten-year-old niece who is so intested in the church.

I just learned that tmy sister went to church last Sunday all by herself. That is huge because I wasn't there since I had to return to the USA. I said to myself once I come to the States, she would probably not go anymore but she did. All of these things are huge blessings and I know they are a result of me going to the temple weekly and praying for guindance. I gained a stronger testimony of the temple. I also understand that things happen when it is the right time. My siblings were not ready before when I was there, but now their hearts are softer to the gospel.

I also went to the beach twice. Once to Cartagena and the other time to Santamarta. They are both tourist cities in Colombia. They are beautiful cities with beautiful sites and beaches. We also celebrated Mateo's 10th birthday, and Anthony's 8th birthday there. I did it they way we celebrated in Colombia, with loud music, pinata, games, lots of food, candy and lots of people, adults and children. It was kind of crazy but fun.

My niece Daniela turned 15 years old, so we celebrated her 15th birthday which is the equivalent to sweet-16 here in the USA. My two brothers had their birthdays too, and my sister-in-law and my niece had her 12 birthday. So lots of birthdays we celebrated. I danced and sweat a lot. I visited my neighbours that saw me as a baby. They still live there in the same houses. It is so wonderful to see those people and remember how nice and humble they are. One of them made me a pot of soup and brought it over to my house while I was having lunch. Another one gave me a guanabana (a tropical fruit) that she grew from her garden. Another one made me an orange cake and brought it over on a Sunday evening. It was still warm. It was so yummy. All those things touched my heart. I miss that so much and my culture. But I am grateful to be here and have my life here too. I am blessed to have both worlds and enjoy both peoples and cultures.

My kids got to play soccer with their cousins, and some of the games I grew up playing like Parchese and dodgeball and others. They got to experience the heat. The temperature there is in the 90s. The houses don't have AC. We stayed at my mom's bedroom and luckily it had AC. But that was the only room in the house. So that was nice at nights, but during the day it was just cool there, it didn't feel cold because it was so hot. A couple of days the power went off so we did not have electricity for a couple of hours. We were hot! We also got mosquito bites, even though I used repellent. I always carried with me repellent and the insect bites lotion. Our skin is just not used to that climate and was too sensitive to all that. If we lived there long enough it would get tougher and used to that so we wouldn't get anything. But I loved that my boys got to see all that. Also the houses there don't have all of the luxuries that we enjoy here. But they got to appreciate more what we have here, and how blessed we are. I think they got a better understanding of how there are people in the world that don't have as much as we do.

Overall, I think our trip was a success. We enjoyed being with my family and like I say, I recharge my latina battery. I reconected with my culture and my roots. My kids got to experience a piece of their mom's life growing up. I got to share the gospel with my family, and I danced my butt off. It was great!!