THOUGHT: "GOD DOESN'T CARE NEARLY AS MUCH ABOUT WHERE YOU
HAVE BEEN AS HE DOES ABOUT WHERE YOU ARE AND WITH
HIS HELP WHERE YOU ARE WILLING TO GO" Jeffrey R. Holland
There was an elder in Mexico City from Colombia who had had several seizures and it was felt he needed to go home - not safe in the mission. Seizures are one of the few illnesses that require someone to accompany the missionary home. I tried to get one of the other doctors to do it but the buck stopped on my desk. I had to leave a little after 5 am and took a taxi to the airport (couldn't get Peg up that early.) The flight to Bogotá was about 4 1/2 hours, the elder watched a movie and I read a book. We got to Bogotá and had to clear customs, go to an adjacent terminal and then we were hungry. I changed some Mexican Pesos to Columbian pesos - 500 Mexican pesos got me 62,000 Colombian pesos. I bought the elder lunch at Subways for about 20,000 pesos and we caught our plane. Pasto Colombia is near the Ecuadorian border and in the Andes. The airport used to be in Pasto but it is at the base of a 12,000 foot active volcano and surrounded by other peaks and too many planes crashed. The moved it 45 minutes away on a mountain where they removed the top and placed a runway. There is barely enough room for the planes to land and they really had to hit the brakes hard and reverse the engines. At the end of the runway was the end of the mountain. The family of the elder was there and his uncle who is also his bishop gave me a ride to my hotel. Pasto is supposed to be the Switzerland of Colombia - beautiful mountain side meadows. My hotel - Don Saul's - was very interesting - they kept calling my room to make sure I was ok. I had dinner in the restaurant and hit the sack early.
I on the other hand had a great day! I got Sister Anderson and Sister Rice and we drove to the fancy mall up the street and shopped all afternoon! I got 2 new birthday outfits so my time was not lost!
Everyone here is so nice to think of me and include me while Greg is gone! The Andersons invited me up to their place for homemade pizza and a movie - "Sweet Home Alabama" Good times! I am sure I had much more fun than Greg today!!
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| Runway in Pasto Colombia |
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| The Andes in the background |
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| The drive from he airport to Pasto - 45 minute drive |
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| Beautiful country side |
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| 12,000 foot volcano covered by clouds |
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| Pasto is called the surprise city because you come around a corner and there it is |
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| Pasto |
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| My hotel room |
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| my room |
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| Main square in Pasto |
Sat Sep 19
Up at 5:40 to catch a taxi at 6:20. We got to the airport about 7 and I found I barely had enough Colombian pesos to pay my fare - minor miracle. It was $37,000. The plane revved its engines with the brakes on and then lurched to a start. I looked out the window as we started to leave the runway and we were at the end of the mountain - a few feet to spare. I had a long layover in Bogotá and got home about 8:30. Exhausting day. I will let Peg tell of her day.
I had another nice day! Poor Greg! I offered to drive anyone to a store that needed to go! The Andersons took me up on the offer and we went up the street to Fresco and Superama. I bought a few groceries but saved most of my shopping for Costco. The Griffins were waiting for me to get home so we went to Costco. But before we got to Costco we had to stop at the mall to get something fixed with Sister Griffins laptop at the Apple store. We wandered around there and ended up eating a late lunch at Johnny Rockets. Poor Elder Griffin was worried about how he looked with his two wives out to lunch! HaHa! The Costco trip was successful. I was tired of all this playing around stuff so I spent the evening resting and waiting for Greg to get back!
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| Airport next morning |
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| airport |
Sun Sep 20 - Happy birthday Scot - we got to talk to him briefly. Church was great - Our Sunday school teacher recently went through a tough divorce and related how hard it is as she wonders what will become of her temple blessings. She was in the sealing room where she was married at the dedication of the temple and someone in the room asked for someone to talk a little about how that room is special to them - she spoke of being sealed in that room and having a testimony that her temple blessings will remain intact for her if she continues to endure to the end. Very courageous. Our priesthood lesson was on pride and I am proud to say I didn't sleep at all during the lesson. We had dinner with the Griffins and the Rices. Peg made a wonderful roast that almost tasted like home. We had choir practice for upcoming stake conference. There were about 20 tone deaf Mexicans with Elder Rice and me trying to get through "The Lillies of the Field." It wasn't pretty.
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