Mom of a Missionary...The first phone call home...And more e-mails....

You only get to talk to your Missionary twice a year...Mothers day and Christmas.  So our first phone call from our Missionary came soon after he left which was nice.  It was nice to hear his voice and to ask him questions.  We got to speak with him for 30 minutes.   Perhaps at Christmas we will be able to skype.  So we can see him too.  I have to say when I miss my son's voice I have a voice mail message from him on my phone, and I play it.  I know sounds silly, but it's like he is talking to me for a moment.  I don't listen to it that often.  But every now and then I do..


The photo came from his e-mail.... So here you go the next e-mail from Mexico...
¡Buen Dia, Amigos y Familia!
Soy yo, Elder Bowlby! It´s already been a month since I left home, time is going by quickly! It´s so bizarre that I haven´t made it to the field yet, either!!
My district is going to the temple today, as a result, there aren´t going to be many new photos (I´m sorry! I know you love them, but there´s not going to be time to send any!) On the flip side, our next Prep-Day is going to be Miercoles (Wednesday). Apparently there has been a strange schedule swap on my last week here at CCM. Looks like you won´t have to wait an entire week to hear from me.



Here´s a photo that was taken of my District a couple weeks back. I´m on the far right. The Elder with the teal tie right next to me is Elder Curran, to the left of him is Elder Muncey, then Elder Gunness, Elder Spunaugle is in the front with his tie in the air with Elder Grilliot behind him, and then to the far left is Elder Fielding. 
I've been using this can as a water bottle for the past few days. I don´t know why I wanted to share a photo of it with you other than to say that the Peach Nectar is probably the best flavor, and since they don´t have tons of restricting laws in Mexico regarding sugar, any sort of flavored drink is much better tasting because they can use real sugar. Not exactly healthy, but I love my sweets so what can I say?

And it wouldn´t be a complete week​ without at least one drawing from yours truly. Hardly a day passes where something doesn´t give me some sort of inspiration. Check out this big fella!

Speaking of striking inspiration, I've been working on focusing on my studies more and my daydreams less. I bought a journal from the tienda which I call my TiWiFi book, meaning "Think it, Write it, Forgeddabout it!" I bought it wednesday afternoon and already there´s three pages of notes that I´ve written down in haste to pay better attention to my teachers. So far, it's been fairly effective.

I´ll try to answer some (if not all) of your questions as well, so here we go! 

"What is the weirdest tasting thing you have eaten so far?"
Strangely, the sweets have been the oddest tasting items on the menu. The main entree's for the meals are always great (I'm not picky, I just like hot food). The sweets however, have always been strange. From a milky-strawberry gelatin, a lemon-lime flavored frozen mousse bar, and there´s this strange ice-cream called "Dulce De Leche" and it's flavor, while very good, nobody in my district can quite nail down what it is.

"What's the weirdest Spanish word you've learned?"
I once asked my teacher for the longest Spanish word he knew, and he gave me the name of a mountain here in Mexico. Parangaricutirimicuaro (Or something of the like). Stranger yet, I know how to pronounce it!

"Are you learning how to deal with the more reticent investigators?"
I have no idea what reticent means, but if it means anything along the line of "Stubborn" or "Difficult" then yes, I am learning a lot! One of our teachers is playing the role of a man named Jair, and in our lessions with him, we've had to push really hard to get him to follow commitments and to read el Libro de Mormón. We´ve been making good progress, though. At the end of every lession, he´s always sure to give us advice and feedback.

"When do you leave for the field?"
In short, the 29th of May is when I finally ship out of the MTC and go to The Mission Field.

Thank you all so much for your love and support. I'll be honest, my e-mails have been quite sugar-coated the past few weeks, and this is quite a difficult journey that I have embarked on... But I want you to know that I am doing better every day. I am learning to rely on the Lord more and more, and I am learning how to deal with stress more and more. Every day is a new experience, and I´m sure that it will be no different in the field. In the wise words of the Prophet Moroni:

Ether 12:6; And now I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye recieve no witness until after the trial of your faith.

Trials are abundant in this work, but having faith I will overcome, I will recieve that witness of the Father´s love for me.

Love you all! God Bless, and see you Wednesday!
Elder Bowlby

Mom of a Missionary.... The weekly email...That can't be written and sent fast enough.

I'll be honest on E-mail day, I carry my phone around with me and check it constantly.  I can't wait for that e-mail from my son to arrive.  It's hard to only hear from your child once a week, and only by e-mail.  You get into a pattern of thinking you know exactly what time the e-mail will arrive, and when it is late...Like really late in your mind....Well that is hard... But here is the next e-mail from Elder Bowlby Somewhere in Mexico...
Whether you wanted to invite them in or not,
 you´ll be hearing from a Missionary these next two years!

It´s me, Elder Bowlbot! Boop bop, would you like to hear a message?

Just kidding! It´s yours truly, Elder Bowlby. Had some spare time, a cardboard box, and a sharpie today, so I made a little TV head for myself. The other Elders in my Casa thought it was pretty funny. In all seriousness, Missionaries aren´t robots, and we´re not just giving out carbon-copy messages. I´ve got to learn how to understand the needs of the investigator so that way the spirit can work in our discussions and bring others closer to Jesucristo! (That´s how you say Jesus Christ in spanish, by the way).

So in class, we´re practicing teaching people, not lessions. We´ve been practicing with our teachers as investigators since week one, and since last week, we practice with volunteers on saturday mornings. This week, the students are going to practice being investigators to better understand how the spirit works with a person. We were asked to choose a person who we know really well and take their role, being authentic as possible. In my mind, there was nobody better than my Dad, because I know his conversion story, likes, wants, and history with the church pretty well. In a sense, I want to re-live those discussions he had with the missionaries to get a better understanding. Quick! Send me some things my Dad would say so I can translate them into spanish! I just hope my spanish to english dictionary has words like "Carbuerator".

Last week, we went to the México City Temple! This is the view from the front. It looks like a huge fortress!

Oh, and by the way, I went into Mexico City today to get my green card! I can officially live here now, fellas! Mexico City is a crazy place, and while I wasn´t able to bring my camera with me to Immigration, I was able to bring it with me to the Temple, of course. I'll send a bunch of photos in a secondary e-mail so I have space, but most of them are blurry reference photos... Wonder what I'm up to behind the scenes, yet?

Speaking of behind the scenes, one of my struggles I´ve had in the past week is to stay focused! Oops! I'm not accustomed to long days of studying, and there's often nothing I want more than to draw... but if I want to bring others to the Savior, I have to bring myself there first! Don't worry, I'm getting better. I´m almost at the point where I can have a discussion in spanish and not have to stop because I don´t know a word.
That being said, it doesn´t hurt to have fun every once in a while. 


I´m also learning how to consecrate my talents to the Lord! I used this in a discussion about the Plan of Salvation (And yes it´s all in Spanish). Notice that Jesus and his atonement are the center of the plan. That´s the most important part!​

Thank you all for your concern over my loss of cash, by the way. I´m grateful that you all would like to send something, but the postal service here in Mexico is inclined to open all letters that 1: Are adressed to anyone with the first name "Elder" and 2: Don´t have a picture of the Virgin Mary on it. Don´t know why, but apparently having the Virgin Mary on your mail will keep people from opening it unjustly.
But, please, refrain from sending me things ;)

And, as you all are excited to hear from me every week (at least I hope), I too look forward to reading all of your e-mails every week. I´m overjoyed to hear how you are all doing, and It´s definitely the highlight of my e-mail hour. Thank you all so much for your love and your prayers, and most of all, thank you for your time! It means a lot to me that you´re willing to read and send messages.

The next e-mail will mostly be photos. Love you all so much! Stay strong, and God Bless!

-Elder Bowlby
​¡Más Photos, otra vez! 


So, Ciudad de Mexico has a lot of funky structures, parks, and buildings! I have no idea what this was for, but it looked nice!

Love the colors and funky designs on the buildings. The city seems to have a shop for just about everything! Guitars and ice-cream... you name it! (I even saw a piñata in the likeness of President Trump (Uh oh!)))


Captured very poorly here, Oxxo is the Mexican equivalent of 7/11. You can find one on pretty much every block (Or at least every block that I could see). Also, Mexican taxies are a bright pink and white! Imagine that!

Apparently, this housing complex was so ugly, that CDMX was like "Okay we´re just gonna paint your house a color and you're gonna like it." It looks beautiful from afar on the CCM campus.


​A solemn MYSTERY CHARACTER (who will probably be talked about later) reminds me to not forget my things in the AM. Very forgetful. If I forget my name tag, I´m pretty much nobody!

Bought some colored pencils with money that wasn´t stolen (More reason for you not to send me money), and I´ve been doing what I do best! Making confusing-looking trading cards.
This one is "THE TWISTER OF TIME"

And this one is "SNAKE OF BREAKS" (Like, taking a break.) 
​Next time, I might have one or two based on the 10 commandments or a scripture or something ;)Love you!!
It always a relief to get the weekly email.  To know my son is doing well.
G.G.

Mom of a Missionary... E-mails from Mexico

I have to say I am so glad to be a Mom of a missionary in this age of e-mail.  I can't think of how hard it must have been to wait for mail to arrive from your missionary in the days before e-mail.  It really would have felt like a snail was bringing the mail.  I do pretty well each week with my son gone, until about a day or two before our e-mail day.  Then the days can not go by fast enough.  Is he safe?  Is he being treated kindly?  What adventures has he been on.... Here is our second e-mail from the mission field...
I've alread been robbed?! (Not Clickbait)
 

Hola, amigos! It's Elder Bowlby, here with a quick update.

Thank you all for your e-mails! I´m going to try and alternate between one big group e-mail one week, and then smaller, more personal e-mails with each of you the next! Hopefully that means I will be able to answer all of your questions, as I only have an hour here each friday to read and send e-mails.
(Clouds rolling off of my favorite mountain early in the morning. Tree didn´t exactly help out with the shot.)

But, in brief, the highlights of this week.
I´ve had a lot of classes to go to! A lot of learning spanish, a lot of learning how to better teach and serve the people, a lot of learning about (and by) the Holy Ghost. My companion Elder Curran and I are working out the issues in our companionship, but we learn a lot about each other each day.

(The CCM even has a cat that likes to lurk around. ¡Escalofriante!)

One day, we returned from our studies, and one of my roommates checked their wallet to find that they were missing 1500 pesos (Like, 50 bucks US). We all checked our wallets and, surprise! Somebody had picked the locks to our closet and secretly stolen our cash. I lost my only 100 dollar bill, which I was saving for emergencies (and sweets (and buying myself a christmas souvenir)). I still have some cash left, but a loss is a loss. I'm now keeping better track of all my valuables so I don't lose anything of huge value. Thank goodness nobody is in the mood to steal sketchbooks!

On the flip side, I made a new character because of this experience! I call him "Golpego". Check him out!
That´s all for the mass e-mail. Hopefully I´ll have enough time to mail you all individually, but if you don´t get one, please don´t think I have forgotten you! An hour isn´t a ton of time, sadly :(
I love you all! God Bless!

~Elder Bowlby

here is our personal letter...Hello, Hello!

Hello everybody at home! I´m glad to hear that you´re all keeping busy and that you´re all perservering with faith! I´ve been very busy as well, and I've had a lot of challenges recently!

If you haven´t gotten my snail mail yet (I sent it last week because I didn't have enough time to send it at all) then I won´t spoil it for you. Just do me a favor and don´t actually send me anything like I ask for in the letter. I don´t need that kind of temptation, as I´m already way too tempted to draw in class o_o

There´s no such thing as dandelions here at CCM. Every morning the lawn is carefully cut and cared for by a lot of workers. I kinda miss the vibrant yellow.

Every morning, I get up at 6:30 AM, shower, and then head off to an hour of personal study time from about 7:15 to 8:15. Breakfast is at 8:15, and then the following hours until Lunch at 1:15 are a mess of language study, practice investigators, Technology Assisted Language Learning, Gym, and planning time. It´s likewise in the hours from lunch to dinner at 6:30. After dinner, there´s an hour or so of just study time, and then at 9:00 we retire to our casa (where I spend most of my time drawing and doodling before bed.

There is in fact a store here on campus where you can buy things. Found out that I left my umbrella behind and that my exercise shorts were far too small, so I saved up some pesos (we get 100 per week we stay here) to get them. Truth be told, I´m also buying cookies and chocolate milk to comfort myself. The routine is not easy on me, that´s for sure.

We only leave the MTC on P-day to attend the temple. Today is actually our day to go! I´ll be going shortly after I finish e-mailing people.

Please feel free to open my door. Poor Amber must be beyond confused as to why I haven´t left it in forever.
And yes, I have had to do my own laundry! It´s pretty easy, and all you have to do here is buy those little soap pods at the tienda, and ta-da! Clean clothes.

I´m very glad that things have been going well for Dad. I´ve been keeping him in my prayers, and I´ll be sure to start praying for all of you as well! I have faith in you all, so have faith in the Lord and anything is possible!

Love you so much!

-Elder Bowlby

P.S: Thought you might get a laugh out of this, Dad. There are a lot of knockoff characters as mascots and on advertising here in México, so here´s a picture of Calcifer advising for his own demise on a fire extinguisher.

Also, showed this drawing to a Latino at dinner and he said that "It´s like Mexican Thomas!"




So what do you do when your child e-mails home that they have been robbed??  Do you freak out?  Do you try to get them to come home?  I actually felt peace with it.  You can be robbed anywhere really.  I had told my son when he was leaving to take only little bits of money with him and to hide his valuables.  Unfortuantely he did not listen to me and he lost some money.  But he learned a lesson, even when you feel you are in a safe place, things can happen.
I did e-mail back to him and said to be grateful that the person did not attack them to take their money, be thankful that you are all safe.  And I also told him that perhaps he should pray for the person who took the money.  Perhaps their life is hard, perhaps they had no other way to feed their family.  I also told him to pray that this persons life might change so they don't have to steal.  It is interesting how we are all growing and learning through this mission.  Each relying on The Lord to keep us safe.  And each sharing our perspectives and praying for each other.
Until the next e-mail.
G.G.

Mom of a Missionary...Waiting for news from my son....

Waiting for the first e-mail from my son while he began training at the Mexico City MTC was hard.  The whole first week of him being away was hard.  I began picking up items around the house that were his and putting them in his room and then just shutting the door.  The nice thing about working full time is that work keeps you from going crazy when you are waiting.
The above photo is of part of Mexico city.  But do you want to hear my story?  Probably not.  You want to read that first e-mail.  So here you go...Welcome to my son's adventure...
¡Felicidades! Guess who?

If you guessed Elder Bowlby, you´re right! HOOOOOOOOW´S IT GOING?

This is the middle of my second semana (week) at CCM (Centro de Capacitación misionero). So far, things have been quite good! Yo soy aprendieron mucho de la idioma español! (I´m learning a lot of the spanish language!)


Up here at Mexico City. we´re over 7000 feet above sea level. Sadly, no humidity yet. Did you know that La Ciudad de México is one of the biggest cities in the world? It´s because they don´t stop building! The houses are all like, connected! Check it out, I snapped a few "fotógrafos" of some houses on the mountain side! (I love the colors and diverse structures!)




My companion´s name is Elder Curran! He was actually one of the first Missionaries I met at the airport. Funny thing is, we were companions there, and now we´re companions here! He´s a huge brainiac (and in a good way). He knows tons of stuff about all kinds of stuff. He says he can construct, program, and adjust machines in his mind! Woah! He´s apparently done a lot of work with computer science, and he´s just all around cool. Here´s a picture of him in front of our "casa" (house).

This place was actually once a Highschool before it was a Missionary Training center. Escalofriante! (Spooky).

Uh oh! Looks like somebody decided to travel with me. Can´t seem to shake my irrational fears, it seems. This is what I drew on my first day, at the airport. Note the big AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA at the top.

And what might these be? I drew these just yesterday. I´ll let you guess~

​

Uh oh. Looks like I´m running out of space for pictures. No google drive = no more than 25GB file attachment space. Bummer.

I´d like to show you so much, but it looks like I´m going to have to be more conservative with the Photo´s I take and send. I´d send you a picture of some food (Which I admittedly almost got yelled at for taking because I was clogging up the line (oops)), but just know that if it´s hot food, Elder Bowlby is going to enjoy it! Strangest foods I´ve eaten so far: Cream of Potato soup (It´s like liquid potato! Surprisingly good?!), a few bizarre Mexican puddings and yogurts which I can't decide whether I like them or not... they even have fish for lunch sometimes! Fish! Wow!

If there´s anything else that I need to say, it´s that Friday is my Prep-Day, so I'll only be able to read your messages then. I've been learning a lot about El Evangelio Restaurado, and myself.

(Ack! No more photo space! Read the next e-mail!!)

This is just a photo dump at this point. See ya next time!


"Your doubts only have the power you give them". Go away, Krozj!

​More cool architecture! STEEP STREET!


​I´ll try to get a photo of this at night. It would make a beautiful desktop background, I say.







​Can you figure out what these are? We can see them from our casa. My companion and I call them "Giant Lego Hands". What do you think?

​​
Oh hey! Here's that picture of food I almost got yelled at for taking. It's pork. Tasty...

​Last picture, an unflattering shot of one of the mysterious green birds that fly around campus. They´re really cool.

Love you! I´ll see you next week.

~Elder Bowlby.

The only thing with the weekly email is you never get enough, you want to know more, and yet once the last email is sent you have to wait a whole week to get answers to questions and to just know your missionary is safe.   A week or so after my son left I had a dream that he had to come home, I can't remember why, but in the dream I was sad that he was home, I felt he needed to be in Mexico, and so that left me with comfort, that he is where he is supposed to be.  I keep thinking as soon as we get used to him not being here the two years will be over and he will be back.

G.G.

Mom of a Missionary....Waiting to hear from my son...The First e-mail.

We dropped my son off at the Airport and then the first thing I did was put his flight information into my phone, so I would know when the plane landed.  Then I waited, and waited to hear from someone that he arrived safely.  We did not know if we would hear from our son or from someone that ran the Missionary Training Center.

I set up our count down clock, and waited some more.  I think that is the hard part of every week.  Getting to the day before you are to hear from your missionary.  You want that day over, you want to have that e-mail...you want your weekly connection.... here is our first e-mail...That was it for a whole week all I knew was that my son arrived safely and that he was safe and I would hear from him in a week.... But really that is a blessing.  We are blessed to have e-mail.  How long would we have had to wait had there only been snail mail.
Hola!

I've arrived safely. I can't talk a lot right now, but I assure you, I am alright.

Preparation days start next week. Fridays are my P-days, just so you know.

I love you! Try not to be too sad, okay?

~Elder Bowlby

Do you have any missionary memories to share?  
G.G.

Called To Serve Him....The Last Goodbye, and the Sad Airport Farewell.....

When Suitcases come out what do the family pets think?.  I'm not sure what our little cat thought of all the packing up of our sons clothing.  But while she was good company and help to me, I don't think she really wanted to be in the suit case when it left.  She has flown across the country and I don't think she liked it one bit...

The night before our son left on his mission was spent packing everything into the allotted amount of suitcases.  Doesn't seem like enough for a two year journey.  The our Bishop and Stake President came over and we all talked about our son and gave him some last spiritual thoughts.  Good thing we had lots of tissues.   And then They set my son apart as a Missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Once set apart as a missionary you have to always have a companion with you.  So for the first night as a missionary we got to be my son's companions.  That I think was a wonderful thing for us.  Our son would say I need to run something over to one of the neighbors and we would say, you have to take one of us with you.  There was a wonderful spirit about our house.

Early the next morning we were off to the airport.  Don't expect there to be many good photos.  I realize now that my son was trying very hard to put on a brave face.  And to not cry.  I think we were all trying not to cry. We did not succeed in the not crying...I think that was the hardest, seeing my son crying before he left.

The Airport in Salt Lake City is used to this missionary drop off ritual... Some Missionaries come with their parents because they are going to Missionary Training Centers in different countries.  Other Missionaries come on a bus, having been trained at the MTC in  Utah.  They may also be going to a different country, but had their training in Utah.  Our son was going straight to his new country.  In some ways we were lucky as this made it possible for us to have a long goodbye.  If you go to the MTC in Utah, you just get dropped off at the curb...no long goodbye.   We were not alone in our hugs, and tears.  It was nice that someone stopped and took a photo of us all together.  Somehow our son was able to find the courage to move on and get on a plane and go take an adventure he dreamed of for a long time.  The rest of us went back home, ate breakfast.  My Husband then went off to work, my daughter to school, and I went where I find God...

To the garden.  And He spoke peace and comfort to me.
G.G.

Called To Serve Him...The Farewell Talk...

The Sunday before my son left on his mission he was assigned to give a talk in church.  The farewell talk.  After his talk we had a farewell party for him.  This is the cake that we had made for him.

Here is his talk from that Sunday....
     For those of you who haven't heard, I'm leaving on my mission in two days.  I am going to be serving in Mexico, Spanish speaking.  It is my pleasure to address you today before I leave.
     Today being Easter Sunday, we remember the great sacrifice and Resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  What a better day to talk about Christ's great sacrifice for us, namely, the Atonement.  This brings us to my topic today, specifically, what is the atonement?
     On the surface this is a simple, yet broad question.  There are a lot of sources to read and gather information from, so I turned to the Bible dictionary to gather some information to start with.

Let's start with some Old Testament symbolism.  With the Old Testament Prophets and law of Moses, animal sacrifices were God's way of setting the way for Christ's ultimate sacrifice.  Animal sacrifices were to be made with young lambs, pure, and free of sickness and disease.  Symbolic of Christ, pure and clean, without blemish.  As the lambs were sacrificed by the faith of Christ's followers, in a similar fashion, the Son of God would be sacrificed for all mankind.  These sacrifices were made in similitude of Christ, preparing the wold for his holy ministry and his great work.
     What is the Atonement of Christ?  The actual act of the atonement is the suffering of Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, his hanging on the cross, and his resurrection.  The Savior sweat drops of blood from every pore as he took the bitter cup, eventually being crucified for us and willingly giving up his spirit, to rise from the tomb three days later.  What makes this act so profound is that Jesus Christ, being the Son of God, was the only sinless person to live on this Earth.  His suffering made for a perfect atonement that covers all of mankind.  Christ stood in our place and suffered the penalty for all of our sins, and because of this, he is able to plead in our behalf to the Father and help us receive mercy.
     Something I find amazing is that because of Christ's atonement, all mankind will be able to receive a restored body of flesh and bone and be resurrected.  To quote 1st Corinthians chapter 15 verses 20-22 : " But now is Christ risen from the dead, and became the first fruits of them that slept.  for since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive."  This is a free gift to all who walked, walk, and will walk this earth.
     At a glance, the Atonement of Christ could be simply defined by just the act, but there is a lot more to the Atonement of Christ.  There is not only the act, but the power of the Atonement, and it's application in our daily lives and modern times.
     To quote the Bible Dictionary: "The word describes the setting " at one" of those who have been estranged, and denotes the reconciliation of man to God.  Sin is the cause of the estrangement, and therefore the purpose of the Atonement is to correct or overcome the consequence of sin."......

My Son's talk was really long, and sorry to leave you with just the beginning, but at some point soon I will break into his computer, figure out the codes, save the talk on a flash drive and then copy and paste it into a new blog post... I have an issue with my right arm and typing the amount that it would take to put the whole talk on here was more than I could do in one sitting, and then the printed out copy of the talk went missing.  I've yet to crack the computer code, and decided I need to move on in this blogging.  The above photo is of my son and some of his friends on the Sunday before he left.  It was nice to see all these young men come out and support a friend before he left on a life changing event.

This was a good, goodbye day for us.  Not too many sad faces to be seen.  I'm always amazed at the faith of my children.  Their love of other people, and willingness to help others.
G.G.