Mom of a Missionary....Emails from Mexico June 25, 2018

The battle of Mante
Hello, friends and Family! It's me again, Elder Bowlby.

The week has brought some new and interesting challenges. We said goodbye to our Mission President, President Ramirez and his family. They are returning to Monterrey after three years of service in the mission field. Our new Mission President will be arriving soon and he'll be going around the mission getting to know us all. I'm sure it'll be as equally great to serve alongside him as it was Presidente Ramirez.

We had to return to Ciudad Victoria to say goodbye. It was really weird because I was able to see my last companion again... only a week after I had said goodbye. He told me that the last two investigators we had in Victoria did end up getting baptized. That was good news to me.

Our week was very interesting. There were many days where we lacked food because the members forgot, but we kept on chugging. Looks like I've got my first case of athletes foot too. I'm surprised how much one can sweat! The area here is very humid. Victoria was an area very, very dry, so I never had to worry. But now, Mante has lots of rivers and canals! Wherever there's water, there's more humidity and heat. I have to drink a lot of water.

I also did a sort of double-take this week, and ended up giving away some of the Yu-gi-oh cards I bought! There's a recently baptized kid in our area who has a lot of rip-off cards that people make out of cardboard to snag pesos from the kids. I felt kinda bad that he only had pirated cards so I gave him a bunch of official cards that I probably wasn't going to use anyways. He was happy to have them.

We're working hard to try and memorize scriptures and study more in-depth about the gospel. We're also trying to pray and fast with more real intent. 

Here's a scripture that I liked during my studies:
1 Nephi 15:11 
Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you.
There are many things that even I have to learn. God has many mysteries and missions for us. We have so much to learn, and we have so much yet to do. We need to learn how to increase our faith in the Lord! He gives us the answers, but we need to search, ask, believe, and act. That is the formula for an answered prayer.

I love you all. I'm glad to hear of your adventures and I hope that you are all finding little joys and successes in your daily lives. Trust in God!

-Elder Bowlby