Christmas Pictures

Weekly letter 12-29-14

Hi everyone!

I hope everyone had very happy holidays! I know that I had tons of fun! It was so good to be able skype home and hear your voices, you almost had me in tears!! Especially Tyson (from laughing so hard, haha!) I didn't even recognize that it was him speaking! I saw his mouth moving and I couldn't understand what he was saying because I didn't recognize the voice! haha :) I'm so grateful that I got that chance to talk to everyone on Christmas! It was a short amount of time and not too much was said, but it was just so great to hear everyone's voices again :)

So Christmas for us was a day of service! yay! It was such an amazing experience, we went caroling at a retirement home, and just to see the looks on their faces and to have some of them hug us and tell us how grateful they were completely made my day :) I really felt like I was a servant of Jesus Christ as we devoted our Christmas to serving others, because that's what he would have done on his special day :)

I was really sad to be away from home for the holidays at first, but I've really come to realize the true meaning of Christmas while being out here...as cheesy as that may sound :). I have learned so much from being out here during the holidays and I really feel like I have grown and learned more in the last couple of weeks than I have in my entire mission. It's been such a blessing to me, and as hard as times have been lately I really wouldn't have rather spent my Christmas doing anything else this year :)

I love you all! I hope you had a very merry Christmas and that you have a happy new year!!

Love,
Sister Lesser

Mom:  

How's it going?!?! I loved the pictures! mom, you never send me pictures of you so I was happy to get them :)  Do you remember how last year around this time my leg started hurting really bad and I though I had sciatica? (or a blood clot, haha). that's happening again, so I haven't really been running, which is bad because I've been living off of pure sweets lately because that's all people have been giving us, and I'm pretty sure I've contracted diabetes!  If it gets worse I probably will go see a chiropractor again. Right now it seems to get better throughout the day and it just hurts at night and in the morning, so I can deal with it :) Being away from home and not being able to consult with dad on what strange disease I think I've contracted that day has been hard, haha :) How was bear lake? I see Mandee has taken over my entire closet and is going to have to save up her money this summer to buy me a new wardrob! Haha :) I love you! Have a good week! Happy new year!

Mandee:

Haha, I laughed so hard at the video of that puppy and all of the pictures with titan, so cute!! That puppy has the most squished little face I think I have ever seen! How was temple square? I'm excited that I get home around the holiday time next year so I'll be able to go and see the pretty lights right away! I really want to go through the Salt lake temple when I get back :) Maybe we can take a trip to salt lake and go through the family history center and then go do baptisms in the salt lake temple :) 

It sounds like you've really been keeping busy this week! Is Tyson taller than you now, he looked taller than you in the pictures! ah!! so weird! So you go back to school on the 7th? What classes are you taking this trimester? Is this a continuation of 2nd tri or are you going into 3rd now?
how is seminary going? Pay attention in seminary and don't sluff! That's something that I really regret is how much of seminary I missed and how much more I could have learned if I had just gone and actually studied what we are learning about! Don't forget to say your prayers and read your scriptures every day, it really will help you in your life, I've seen the difference that it's made in mine :) love you! have a fun week!

PS. were you able to get that Christmas card to Tami ever? 

love you!

Tyson:

Haha, she's just preparing you for a mission! Typing is an essential skill! :) I'm so glad that you are going to take singing lessons, that's going to be awesome! singers are the best :) You will love singing and you will do awesome! You should take drama as well, that would be fun for you, or you could join the golf team or learn to play the piano, so many possibilities!! :) Well, I hope you have a wonderfully awesome new years and make some great goals for this upcoming year. :) love you!

PS. Titan is an answer :)

PPS. One of your new years resolutions should be to learn to sing opera...just saying :P

Dad:

Just curious, what are the symptoms of diabetes?? haha, jk...but really. :) I'm so glad I got to talk to you on Christmas, even though you were out of the picture for most of the skype session :) Have you saved yet?!?! haha. I hope that you stay safe while mandee is driving you around, that's some pretty sketchy stuff! I can only imagine that Tyson has been using his gift of annoyance on my sister, I can also imagine that that's why they both got coal this year, haha, that's the best thing I've ever seen!! Don't worry, Mandee and Tyson will learn to get along one day...maybe one Mandee moves out and Tyson goes on a mission, but one day it will happen. :) haha. Love you! I hope you have a wonderful new years and make some good achievable goals :) Just a thought...temple once a month, that's a good goal :) Love you!

Grandma Nanna and Grandpa Bick:

 It was so good to see you guys on Christmas! I'm glad that you could be there to talk with me, I wish we had more time to talk, but it was good to hear your voices! :) I love the pictures! I hope that you both had a wonderful Christmas! Love you both! Happy New Year! (can you believe we're already in 2015?!?!) haha!

Grandma and Grandpa Bowcutt:

Thank you so much for all of the presents, I love them! I freaked out when I saw that mormon tabernacle choir cd set, that's exactly what I needed!! It was great :) I'm glad that you guys were there to skype in on Christmas! I'm sad that we didn't have too much time to talk though! I hope you both had an awesome Christmas, and I hope grandpa starts feeling better! Love you! Happy new year!

Kari:

Thanks so much for all of the cute stuff! I love the shirt and sweater and scarf, super cute! and the sausage was really yummy :) I loved the Christmas card too! You guys all look so cute! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas! Love you!

Marci: 

Thanks for the present and the card! You guys all look so cute, I couldn't get over Wyatt's cute smile!! I love the bracelet! It was one of my favorite presents, I've been wearing it everyday! I hope you all had a merry Christmas and have a happy new year! Love you!

Aliza:

Thank you for the package! It was so exciting to open it up and see those cute letters from Addy Bridger and Boston! I love you all! I can't believe you're pregnant! That's so exciting! Have you decided what you're going to name him? Love you guys! Hope you have a happy new year!

Kevin and Ally:

Aw, you guys look so cute on your Christmas card, I can't believe how big those two little girls are getting! I laughed really hard when I read the letter about Monroe, poor thing, Mcdonalds for every meal, no! haha :) I hope you guys all had a merry Christmas! Love you, happy new year!

Taylor and Daniel:

It was so good to see you guys on Christmas! I wasn't expecting you to be there, so it was a pleasant surprise :) I hope you both had a wonderful Christmas! have fun in Arizona! Love you both! Happy new year!

Daren:

I hope you had a merry Christmas too and that everything is going well for you :) Love you! Happy new year!

Weekly Letter 12-22-14

Merry Christmas Everyone!!!!

I hope you all are having Holly Jolly Holidays! Haha.

Everything is going great here! Our members are taking really good care of us and making sure we are well stocked on chocolate, haha :) Our kitchen is stock piled with candy and sweets that are going to last us until march! haha, I've given up on trying to eat healthy, there's just too much temptation!! :)

Anyway, We have three baptisms coming up on January 24th, yay! Our investigators Zach, Shannon, and Max are all going to get baptized :) yay!!!!

So yesterday for some unknown reason we ended up in the Spanish Relief Society class, and I think my brain exploded :) I couldn't understand anything, and my companions have taken to only speaking in Spanish and then I started dreaming in Spanish last night! I just can't get away from it! ah!! haha :)

Anyway, I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! Love you!!!!

Love,

Sister Lesser

Mom:

Hi mom! hopefully you're on right now, just wanted to let you know that we will be skyping (not facetime) at 10:30 california time on Christmas. I don't know what time that is in Utah, either 9:30 or 11:30 :) Everything is going really well :) I got a little bit Christmas trunky last night because it's hard to be away from family right now, but I really liked being able to wrap up in that super cute blanket that you sent, thank you so much! I love it! The companionship is good! I like her but sometimes it's hard for all 3 of us to get along, all of our personalities clash a little bit, but it's okay we really like each other and we're working through it :) The Christmas party was really fun! Some how I got roped into singing a duet with another sister in my district, but that turned out pretty fun because I got to sing in the Choir as well :)

Mandee:

Haha, that's awesome that you got the lead part in the play! You're so talented :) I can't wait to see you perform when I get back! I loved the videos that you guys sent of your vocal recital, you did so good! My companions want me to tell you how amazing your voice is and how talented you are :) Haha, I almost passed out when I sang in sacrament last week, I was shaking and super nervous because I haven't really sang in like a year and a half and I didn't really practice the music at all (we sang "oh holy night") and I had to hit a high A. It was ridiculous! Haha, it went pretty well though and every single person in the ward came and gave me a hug afterward and told me how good I did, so that was fun. Hugs for days! haha

Well, I'm excited to see you guys on Thursday! have a great week! Love you!

Tyson:

Oh, poor buddy :( Feel better! That's sad that you're not feeling good and that your ear hurts! I hope that it's better by Christmas! That would be no fun to be sick for the holidays! Feel better!

Grandpa and Grandma Bowcutt:

Hi! I'm sorry Grandpa isn't feeling well! That's good that you got everything checked out though and you're going to get it fixed :) I'm so jealous that you got to go see the Piano Guys! They are amazing! I hope that you are both having happy holidays and a merry Christmas!! Love you!

Pictures 12-16-14

Weekly Letter 12-16-14

Hi Everyone!

We've had a great week this week! We picked up 2 new investigators and are tearing it up here in Vacaville! We're really looking forward to the upcoming holidays! Yesterday we learned how to make "Almond Roca" and fudge with a member and her non-member granddaughter, so that was really exciting.

We also had 5 investigators at church on Sunday! It's so cool to see the way that Heavenly Father prepares people for the gospel.

Well, I hope that everyone has a great week! Happy Holidays! Merry Christmas!

Love,
Sister Lesser

Mom: 

Hey! I did get the big package from you! It was really exciting, thanks! We think we will be skyping on Christmas at around 11 am.  Thanks for all that you do for me :) I really appreciate it, I love you so much! I'm excited to talk to you guys on Christmas! We are getting a new companion, her name is Hermana Grant. I've heard that trios can get tricky, so wish us luck! Love you!!!!

Mandee:

Haha,I'm so not interested in looking for guys :) You're forgetting that I'm never going to get married! I'm glad you're liking your internship and Choir and everything. Treasure high school, it's the only time you're going to get to be there! :) love you!

Dad:

Wow, that's awesome! I'm sure those missionaries really appreciated that and I'm getting blessings on my mission because of it :) Haha, John and Patrick always go all out for the holidays, they're awesome. You should decorate more! It's my favorite thing to see all of the super decorated houses, it just brings in the holiday spirit :) We are going to spend Christmas Day at the Rayfields house, they are awesome, we're actually teaching their less-active son and his non-member daughter, so it's going to be awesome :) Make sure you're driving safe to work and not drowsy driving! Love you! Merry Christmas!

Tyson:
That's awesome! I'm so glad that you're doing lots of baptisms at the temple, it's the best! I'm glad you're enjoying my iPad and having lots of fun, I hope you guys have an awesome Christmas! I miss everyone and all of the Christmas parties, but it's awesome being out here too. :) love you, merry Christmas!

Pictures

Ward Christmas Party

Zach - Getting Baptized soon

Weekly Letter 12-11-14 (NOT REALLY)

Tori: Hi Everyone!

Mom:  I want the letter - it isn't here...  Just Hi Everyone!!!  Hopefully it is a mistake and not the only thing you are saying today!!!

Tori:  Haha, I don't know what happened, it just sent! :) real weekly letter coming soon!

Mom:  Oh good - I was going to cry as it has been a LONG time since I heard from you.  I will be patient!!!  Love you

Tori:  Love you too :) thanks for the cookies! I was super excited and a little sad all at the same time because I thought that it meant that I wouldn't be getting lackerlies, but since you told me that they will be coming I'm super excited again :)

Mom:  I'm glad you liked them.  You never know if they are going to be good when you order them online!  The lackerlies are still coming.  We are making them tomorrow so I will probably mail them tomorrow also.  Can't wait to hear about your  very long 1 1/2 weeks and about the temple and see pictures!

Tori:  Yeah, we weren't sure if we were going to be able to go or not because today is supposed to be the worst storm that Northern california has had in 5 years, but we made it there and back safely (thank goodness because the kid that was taking us was a pretty sketchy driver!) haha. I'll send some pictures. I'm never sure if they'll send or not because only half of the pictures that I try to send actually end up sending for some reason. we weren't able to take any of the temple because of the rain, but we took some in front of the Christus in the visitors center.

Mom:  Oh good.  I heard about the storm on the radio and wondered if you still went.  The radio said that the schools in the San Francisco area actually were closed today.  Weird.  Let them get some Utah weather and then they can close schools - haha!

Tori:  haha, for real! I guess it's supposed to get worse but it wasn't too bad this morning. we've been told to stay inside if it gets too bad. :) hey! I have a request. Could you please gather any cute old pictures of me and the family and everyone? I want pictures! grab some off of my face book or just anything cute that you can find please, my companion's been begging me for pictures :)

Mom:  okay - but can I log into your Facebook again???  I thought it was supposed to be "inactive" and I was supposed to stay off of it.  Let me know.  I will look for others and send them.  Can you read letters daily again?  Grandma and Grandpa sent a xmas package on Monday and I sent mine on Tuesday, so keep a watch out for them and don't cheat and open them early unless they are labeled to open them!!!

Tori:  You can because we're not on facebook anymore. I would just say deactivate it again when you get the pictures :) I got grandma's package and one from aunt Kari as well. I was really tempted to open them, but I restrained myself, they're on our fireplace since they don't fit under our baby christmas tree :) I got the cookie package from you, should I be looking out for another?

Mom:  Yes - a big box is still coming.  You can open the box, but don't unwrap the presents unless they say to.  There is one to open each day starting the 14th in the box and a extra one for xmas eve.  How old of pictures do you want?  Senior year or newer or do you want even older pictures? 

Tori:  Any :) I really like the ones of me at bear lake, and at the festival of color, and any other cute ones that you find. :) if you find any of our family I would love those as well!

Mom:  K.  I will try to find some now and get them sent today.

Tori:  Yay! Thank you :) I'm so glad mandee sent me a picture of your tree! Every tree I've seen I've compared to yours and it's just been like, "ah, my mom decorates better" :) There's these two really cool streets in vacaville though! During the holidays they turn into "Candycane Lane" and "Lollypop Lane" and all of the houses on both of the streets are outrageously decorated, you can't even see there's so many lights everywhere! some of the members took us, it was really awesome :)

Mom:  Cool - take a picture if you can and sent them to us next week. 

Tori:  Will do :) We took some videos but I still can't figure out how to send those :) A really cool less active member took us to this super expensive japanese restaurant last night where the chef cooks the food right in front of you and does cool tricks and stuff :) It was really yummy and we took some cool videos of that too :)

Mom:  How fun.  I love that type of a restaurant.  That is way cool that they took the missionaries there.  I guess I need to be better to the local missionaries!!!  The way that we are able to send videos is through either the iPad or Mandee's iPhone.  We just go to the video and then click on it and a screen comes up and we check e-mail and then put in your e-mail address.  Hopefully that will work with your iPad also.

Tori:  Sweet, I'll try that! I really like the 12 days of Christmas idea by the way :) I'm not sure I'd be able to wait until Christmas otherwise, haha! I'm so excited! By the way, whenever you get a chance, could you please send me some Crystal white acne stuff and face lotion? I'm not completely out so it's fine, but whenever :) My face is actually doing amazing, this california weather is good for me :)

Mom:  I will get that stuff from Crystal.  Do you need face wash also?  I'm glad your skin is doing better!!!  Do you have a tree in your apartment?

Tori:  Nope I'm good on soap :) So funny story, we were cleaning out this random closet in our apartment that has the most random stuff in it (20,000 volt gloves, like 6 table lamps, golf balls, etc.) and we found 2 mini Christmas trees, 2 stockings, a nativity, and a strand of Christmas lights! It was the most exciting day ever! haha.

Mom:  How fun!!! Did you share one of the trees with the elders or did you just put up both tree's in your apartment?  

Tori:  Haha, on of them is about 6 inches tall, so we just put that one on our fire place and the other one is the center piece for our kitchen table. :)

Mom:  So they are REALLY mini christmas trees - Wow!!!

Tori:  Yup :) haha, we found out today the the spanish elders are having their area closed down, so me and my companion are going to be teaching the spanish people, and they are going to give us another spanish speaking companion, so maybe I will learn another language on my mission, haha!

Mom:  That will be really neat - so I take it that your companion already speaks spanish and that there will be 3 of you in your companionship.  So you will be staying in Vacaville???

Tori:  As far as I know, that's just what president told the spanish elders today, but I guess it's possible it could change. I hope I stay though!! I'm going to try and send some pictures and then I have to log off. I'm glad we got to talk :) I'll try and figure out when I'll be calling on Christmas and let you know :)

Mom:  K.  Thanks for letting me know.  Find out about xmas day and the time and the mode that you plan on doing it (sorry if you already said that in your letter that I haven't read yet.  Loved chatting with you!!!!  Have a great week.  Until Monday...  

Tori:  Love you! Have a good few days! Be safe!

#realweeklyletter :) 12-11-14

Hola!

This week has been super awesome! We've picked up 5 new investigators, and they are all awesome! It has been so great to see such great miracles happening, because this has honestly been the hardest transfer of my life! We've had some pretty rough patches as a companionship and as a zone, but everything is finally getting worked out and now this has been my favorite transfer yet!

We now have two investigators with baptismal dates, Zach Wilde and Max Bloom. They are both awesome :) Zach has a bit of autism, but he loves God so much and now that he has received his answer that the church is true, he has been so missionary minded and has been telling his testimony to everyone he knows! He has also been bringing his girlfriend to church and she wants to get baptized as well! Max has turrets or something and lives in a group home, so he has a care taker who brings him to church every week. It's really cool because his care taker "secretly" listens in on our lessons, and this last lesson he asked for a book of Mormon and gave us his personal number, so we were able to pick him up as an investigator as well! Milagros Pues!

Speaking of spanish, the spanish area in our zone is getting closed down, and since my companion speaks spanish they are making us a zebra (1 spanish sister and 1 english sister) and we are going to be teaching all of the spanish people in vacaville! They are also going to give us another spanish sister and make us a trio next transfer, so that's going to be exciting! I'm practically an Hermana :) ...If only I could understand spanish!

haha, well, I hope that everyone is having a good holiday season! Did anyone see the LDS take over of youtube on December 8th? I heard it was pretty cool :) If you haven't seen the 'He is the Gift' video, watch it!

Love you all! Have a great week!

Mandee:

Your singing was beautiful :) I have a job for you! please send me (either through email or in a physical scrap book) all of the cute pictures that you can find of me and our family and everything :) Old family pictures or baby pictures or any fun pictures that you can find, and make sure you include some of me with black hair please, because my companion won't leave me alone about it! 

Haha, so you won't believe what happened! So this zone is super messed up and everyone hates everyone and no body gets along. I've never been in a zone like this before! So anyway, my companion got in a fight with this one elder over some stupid teasing or something, and long story short we found out that the whole root of the problem was that he had a crush on me. It was super awkward. 

Anyway, that was the fun story that I had for you :) Love you, have a great week!

PS. Please tell Daddy that it's about time for a hair cut :)

Tyson:

It was good to hear from you again! I'm super excited for Christmas too! I don't know exactly when I'll be able to skype you guys, but I'll let you know soon! I'm so excited that you went to the temple!!! Was that your first time going to do baptisms? haha, whatever national hug day, that girl just thought you were cute!! :P  I hope you helped mom put up her Christmas decorations. :) Every Christmas tree that I see I compare to mom's. You just can't beat her award winning tree! haha! Love you! have a great week!

Grandma Nanna:

Thank you so much for the Christmas card! I love you and hope you guys are doing so well! Merry Christmas!

Kari:

Aw, dang, it would have been cool to randomly see you guys on the street :) haha, I'm glad you had such a good time in Disney Land though! I can't believe how big Lindsey is getting, whoa!! Thanks for the present! I'm really looking forward to Christmas so I can open it :) haha! Love you guys! Merry Christmas!

Grandma Bowcutt:

Thanks for the package! I freaked out when I saw the Idle isle candies, me and my companion were in heaven!! :) I love you guys!! Hope you have a great week and a merry Christmas!

Lacey:

So fun!! That's awesome that you guys are going to come to California for Christmas! I can't believe your kids are getting so old! I still think Braven is so young, every time I see a picture of Stryker I call him Braven, haha :) I hope that you guys have a Merry Christmas! Love you all lots!

Marilyn:

Thank you so much for the card! I was really happy when you told me you had been reading my letters! :) Where are you living now? Still in Utah? I love you and hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Pictures 12-1-14

Weekly Letter 12-1-14

Hi everyone!

Hope that you all had a happy thanksgiving! Thanksgiving here in the mission field was pretty awesome! We got together as a zone and played games all day. We have one sister in our zone who is from New Zealand and she taught us some of her Mauri games, so that was pretty cool! We also had dinner with some members, the Berkheimers. It was hard being away from home at first, but it really was a good day, and it really made me think about what I was grateful for, like good friends and modern medicine :)

It's so weird to think that Thanksgiving already passed and that Christmas is just around the corner! It's really exciting though, everyone is starting to put their Christmas lights out, and Vacaville has a ton of fun Christmas stuff going on through December. On Saturday we helped set up for  the festival of trees. It's put on by the church in the area, but there are a bunch of different businesses that put together really cute and creative Christmas trees to sell, and all of the proceeds go to a local charity. It was really fun to see all of the cute trees, there was this one that looked like it was straight out of 'candy land' and another that was turned into a snow man! It was really fun, Christmas is a good time of year :)

Speaking of which, has anyone seen the "he is the gift" video that the church just came out with? It's really good, we've been asked to share it with every member in the mission, active and less-active, and invite them to think of a gift that they can give Christ this Christmas :) So I'm going to invite all of you to do that as well! go to  christmas.mormon.org   and watch the video, and think of something that you can give Christ this Christmas. It doesn't have to be big, maybe making a goal to read the scriptures every day or pray more often or give a little service this year or something. It will really help to bring the spirit of the season :)

Well, I hope that everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving and a wonderful week! I love you all!

Love, 

Sister Lesser

Mom:

Sorry I worried you, I didn't mean to! I was sick all last week because I had some type of cold on top of having kidney stones. I'll have to try the lemonade idea. It's been like on and off pain. It's never been as bad as last Monday, but I'm really grateful for that Narco stuff and anti nausea pills that they gave me :)

Unfortunately I stayed in for a lot of this week, but the members and other missionaries took good care of me :) My companion was really sick with cramps at the same time that I was sick, and some elders came over to see if they could help us at all, and she sent them on a mydol trip, haha! They came back with Mydol, 7-up, hershey's kisses, and nutella...smart guys :) haha. We also had a less-active member who we were supposed to go to dinner with on monday stock our entire kitchen with fruit and crackers and sprite and cookies and all kinds of goodies. I felt so loved :)

So they actually moved the temple trip to next Thrusday, and we'll be going to the oakland temple instead of the Sacramento temple, so that's will be exciting :)

It's hard being away from home around holiday times, but I'm looking forward to skypeing you guys on Christmas :)

I hope that you guys have an awesome week! Love you!

PS. Sister Holguin says hi :)

Mandee:

I'm glad you had such a good week! I would avoid that Travis kid if I were you! By the way, did you and that curly haird kid coordinate outfits or something? 

Well I hope you have a great couple of weeks of school before the holidays :) love you!

Grandma Bowcutt:

It sounds like you guys had an awesome thanksgiving! I missed being there with you guys, but I'm glad you had so much fun and that almost everyone was able to be together :) I'm super excited to be going to the oakland temple, I've heard it's beautiful! I hope they have Christmas light up!

Well I hope that you and grandpa are doing well and that you have a great week and wonderful holiday season! love you!

Weekly Letter 11-24-14

So this letter is going to be super short, We're headed to the doctors
soon because I've been super sick all morning. I think I'm having
sympathy kidney stones because another sister in my zone got them just
a couple of days ago and we had to take her to the doctors, so I guess
now it's my turn.
Other than that it's been a pretty good week. We met Ezra Taft
benson's atheist granddaughter, that was pretty exciting. We also had
three random people just walk into church on Sunday and we've now
picked them up as investigators. Next week we are going to the temple
on Wednesday so we don't have p-day on Monday so we will probably
write next Wednesday.

I hope that you have a happy thanksgiving!

Mom:
Thanks for checking my card! We did do some fun shopping, I bought a
couple sweaters and skirts and a pair of really cute little boots. For
thanksgiving we're doing some zone activities and some service
projects. A member family, the Berkheimers, are feeding us. In fact
their feeding us three times this week because no one else signed up.
This ward is really good to their missionaries :) So there's this
tactless elder (as many elders are) in our zone, and a few weeks ago
he pretty much called me fat, and then today he came over to give me a
blessing and the first thing he said was "whoa, You look terrible!".
So that was probably the highlight of my day...not. I was telling some
other sisters about it when they came over to drivers to come e-mail
and to go to the doctor (because I'm the designated driver and I can't
drive like this), and they told me that yesterday the same elder told
gem that they would never get married because they were both too
short. I'm not sure what the moral of this story is, I just wanted to
tell you about it. I'm sorry you haven't been feeling well! I hope you
start feeling better soon. I was thinking about Christmas a few days
ago, and I decided that I want a new family picture calendar, I can't
really think of anything else right now.
I hope that everything else is going well at home! Have fun in st
George! Love you!

Dad:
So, I woke up this morning and it felt like I had slept on side wrong,
but it wasn't too bad, and then I got up and got ready, and then I
just felt super uncomfortable during personal study and then I drank
some water and then super suddenly it just felt like I had been
punched in the back and the side really hard and I just kind of had to
throw myself on the floor and die there, and I was super nauseous and
throwing up all morning. It started to get better and then it got bad
again, and now it's feeling better again. I just wanted to get your
medical thoughts on it. It's hard not being able to just call, but
it's okay. Are you going with mom to st George for thanksgiving or are
you working? How has everything been going for you?
Love you! Have a great week!

Mande:
Have fun with your last day of les mis! That's cool that you got the
internship, congrats! Have a great week! Have a good thanksgiving!

Grandpa Jay:
I hope your knee starts feeling better! Have you tried getting a
blessing yet? Blessings work miracles :) I hope your guys' house gets
done soon! So are you going to be in st George for thanksgiving with
everyone else?
Happy thanksgiving! Have a great week! Love you!

Grandma nana:
wow! I can't believe Ella is old enough to be baptized! It seems like
it was just the other day that they were staying with you guys and
Ella was just a baby! I'm glad they're doing good though! So what are
your thanksgiving plans? How has your week been? Love you! Happy
thanksgiving!

Weekly Letter 11-17-14

Hi everyone!

So this week I got a new companion, Sister Holguin! She's from El Paso, Texas, and I'm excited to get to work with her because we had the same trainer!  We work pretty well together already, so it's going to be a pretty good transfer :)

Everything is going great! It's finally starting to cool down, big time! It's like 50 degrees at night, and our furnace decided to die last night so our apartment temperature is 65 degrees and declining until the people can come fix it on Friday, so that's gonna be interesting...  but we did find a whole bunch of Christmas decorations! We have this crazy huge closet in the apartment that I had never looked in before and we have the most random stuff, but we rearranged the apartment and pulled out a whole bunch of Christmas decorations, so that was fun :)

Anyway, this week we went and saw a less active in the ward who came to church last week for the first time in 20 years. He doesn't know if God is there or not, so we asked him if he wanted to believe and read Alma 32. We talked about God and showed him the 'Hope of God's Light' Mormon message, and as we bore our testimonies about how God is there listening to his prayers, he started crying. The spirit touched his heart so strongly! It was such an amazing experience because we could feel the spirit as well. He came to church on Sunday! His parents (who are also in our ward) were freaking out because they were so excited!!

We also have an investigator named Zach. The sisters have been teaching him for a while, and his biggest hang up was always that his dad really doesn't like Mormons and he was afraid to tell his parents that he was taking the lessons and reading the Book of Mormon. We kept asking to at least meet his mom but he wouldn't hear any of it. So on Friday we said a prayer with him and prayed for him to have the courage to tell his parents that he wants to be baptized, and he did it!! He told his parents and now his mom wants to meet us! His dad was angry, but his mom wants him to make his own decisions and now Zach is really excited about being baptized and wants to set a date this week :)

Yesterday Zach came to a fireside that was going on. It was for a man named AJ Munech who has been quadriplegic for the last 20 years. Yesterday was the anniversary of the accident. It was so great, he talked about how he had seen a lot of hardship from the accident, but how he became so much stronger and closer to God because of it. He talked about how the atonement of Jesus Christ really can help us through all of our trials and because of Him we can be perfect in the next life. His testimony of the atonement was so strong it really touched the hearts of everyone there, and it really inspired me to continue to strengthen my testimony and to be more mindful of gratitude.

Hope you all are having a great week! Love you!

Love, 

Sister Lesser

Mom:

Thanks for sending that package, I'm excited to get it! I'm sorry you got sick! I'm glad that mandee's play is going so well though, it looks like she's having lots of fun.

We haven't sang yet, they moved us back into December so we're going to sing a Christmas song instead. I'll make sure to record it and try and send it to you :) The Elder's name is Elder Stuart, he's from Tremonton. He sang in madrigals there to and he's actually a music major at Utah State, so he's got a really good voice.

We didn't really find any new investigators this week, but we're going to try harder this next week. It's hard with transfers week.

I hope that you start feeling better! Have a great week! Love you lots!

PS. could you check my debit card account? We went shopping a couple weeks ago and I was just wondering how much was left on the card. Thanks, love you! :)

PSS. I would love some lackerlies for Christmas, that would be the best gift ever :) ... and maybe a space heater, haha :)

Dad:
Haha, I love the selfie pictures that you and mandee took :) It sounds like you had quite the eventful week! Tyson says that the dogs aren't feeling too well, poor things! :) Well I hope that everything else is going good for you. Is there still hunting stuff going on? How's everything going? 

Love you!

Mandee:

It sounds like you're just living the dream there! How much longer does the play have? I hope you guys have another really awesome play next week that gets extended as well, because I think I come home 2 days before thanksgiving next year, so lets pray that the play will still be going on :)

You and Dylan make a cute couple, haha :) you look like you have lost quite a bit of weight too! Have you and mom been lifting weights at the gym? haha :)

love you, have fun with the play! 

PS. have you decided whether you're doing madrigals or productions next year?

Tyson:

You're just as crazy as ever :) That's cool that you're almost as tall as mandee now, do you think you're done growing? haha :) I'm excited to see you guys on Christmas too, It's weird to think that it's only 5 weeks away, it seems like it came so quickly!
So how is school and everything going? Are you having fun with the snow? Do you want to build a snowman? haha :)
Have a great week, love you!

Grandma Nanna:
Have fun with Libby and her family and with the new puppies! Are you going to do anything fun on your visit? They live in Florida, right? Thanks for the pictures! 

have a safe flight! Love you!

Grandma Bowcutt:

Aw, it sounds like you guys had so much fun! I'm glad that Bridger's operation went well, what did he need surgery for? 

Wow, I didn't know that re carpeting and stuff took so long! I'm sure it will look great after you guys are done though :) That's fun that you got snow! How was St. George?

Love you both! Have a great week! have fun at Mandee's play!

Pictures 11-10-14

Zone Conference

Carving Pumpkins

Zone Conference

Eating bread bowls at Boudins

My District

Weekly Letter 11-10-14

Hi everyone!

I can't believe transfers are here again already! It really feels like I just got to Vacaville. My companion, Sister Clawson, is getting transferred to a tiny little place called 'Middletown', It's about 6 streets long and 6 streets wide and happens to be one of California's capitals of crystal meth and toothless hippies :) I'm sad that she's leaving, but I'm getting a pretty cool companion, Sister Holguin! She was trained by Sister Hamilton right before I was! ...I kicked her out of Dixon :) She's awesome and has a fun personality, so I'm sure this will be a fun transfer.

So highlights of this week:

-We had dinner with one of the families that we picked up last week! They are so sweet and have so much potential! They fed us really yummy thai food and we had a good gospel discussion. They both know a lot of Mormons and David loves all that the church is about and how close our families are, but he can't get over our 'founder' Joseph Smith. Liz doesn't really see the need for a church but loves having us come over and talk to them. They didn't come to church, but we're working on it!

-A less active member who we've been working with came to church for the first time in like 20 years! He said it was just like he remembered it being, not very interesting...but he said he's coming again! :)

-We had a lesson with another less-active member, Anthony, who has been struggling with believing in God. He told us that he's been praying and that he's been seeing how much happier it makes him! He said he's going to buy some church clothes and bring his whole family to church next week!

-I was adopted into a barbershop quartet and learned how to sing tenor and learned a cute barbershop quartet song :)

-We went to the grand opening of chick-fil-a in Vacaville and got gift certificates and cute little stuffed cows for attending! haha

So overall a pretty awesome week :)

Hope you all are having a great week! Love you all!

Sister Lesser

Mom:

Thanks for the Videos, they were great! It sounds like Box Elder has just as much musical talent as ever! They'll do awesome! 

I'm glad that you got Sister Monson's e-mail! We were actually just talking with her late last night when she asked for our parents e-mails, so I can't believe she sent one already! 

At the moment we have 2 baptismal dates, Jennifer Medil and Zach Wilde, but they're both pretty iffy right now, so they'll probably get pushed back a while.

Anything that I need for Christmas...whatever you decide to send me will be great :) I can't really think of anything in particular right now, so I'll get back to you on that :)

Thanks for all that you do for me! I love you :)

Dad:

Love you too! I'm glad that everything is going well! I'm not sure how 'in-shape' I'm going to get here in Vacaville, I can run all I want but I'm pretty sure I've already gained 10 lbs here! I guess I shouldn't complain that the member's love us though :) Have you heard of Fenton's before? It's a really yummy Ice cream place :) 1 order of ice cream is enough to feed a family of 5 and the members love to get each missionary their own! I also found out that Fenton's is in the Disney movie "up" pretty cool, huh? :) Anyway, love you, have a great week!

Mandee:

You make me laugh :) It's way weird to think that I'm already 1/3 the way through my mission, it's gone by so fast! You guys sound awesome in les mis, I'm sad that I'm going to be missing it! You'll have to sing me all your parts when I get back :)

That's good that you still have a 4.0, don't lose that, work hard! Learn spanish! :) Love you!

Tyson:

It's good to hear that you're liking school? Have you started doing any sports? Football? Wrestling? Golf? Golf is fun :) That's so cool that you got to go on a field trip to hardware ranch!! Is it snowing up there yet? I feel like it should be cold right now, as it is almost the middle of November, but it's still about 80 degrees here. In California the weather stays really hot for a while and then plummets over night. I thought we were done with the heat but apparently mother nature thinks otherwise. 

It sounds like you've been doing awesome! What's the weirdest thing YOU'VE eaten this week? Have a good time at Mandee's play! Tell me how it goes! Love you!

Grandpa Bick:

It sounds like you guys have been keeping busy! I'll have to go hunting/camping with you when I get back. And golfing, I'll be a pro by then :)

That's cool that you've got a big presentation coming up! You're really good at stuff like that :) what is the presentation for? is it for a specific company? I forgot that you wrote a book! How is that going? 

I'm glad that Grandma is doing so much better this year! Tell her and Lacey that they should sign up for a yoga class, yoga is fun :) Or water aerobics! That's pretty fun too :) 

Thanks for writing me! Love you, have a great week!

Letter from Sister Monson 11/9/14

Hi.  We just had a nice visit from your daughter.   I wanted to let you know that she is well, and loved here in Vacaville.  Her comp. is leaving after having been here for 6 months and they came by for pictures and hugs.  Thank you for raising and sending out such a special girl.

Her quiet and sincere testimony is making a wonderful impact on our ward.  I hope she can stay in our ward through Christmas.  We love her.

We have good friends from my husband’s mission in Brigham City.  Mark and Linda Peterson have been friends for over 40 years.  Maybe you know them.

Have a wonderful Sunday and  Sister Lesser sends her love.

Sincerely,

Joanne Monson

Vacaville 5^th ward

Letter from Sister Strickland 11/6/14

- TEACHING BUBBLES THE TORTOISE - 

These lovely girls came for dinner with our family tonight and had to get a picture of themselves with Bubbles the Sulcata tortoise.  We all had a delightful time with these sweet sisters. They are lovely young women and have such a sweet spirit about them. They wanted you to see this.
-- Sister Kristin Strickland

Weekly Letter 11-3-14

Hi Everyone!

This has been an amazing week, we worked our behinds off and our numbers skyrocketed! We picked up 8 amazing new investigators this week, and we're going to try hard to continue the good work! It's really a testimony to me that God blesses us when we do what he has asked and try our hardest to be completely obedient to all of his commandments.

Our week has been exciting in different ways than the car chase :) About a week ago we gave a Book of Mormon to some lady that we met on the street. We had read Moroni 10:3-5 with her and she told us that she got chills when we read it to her. When we went back to see her this last week her Mom, who was visiting, told us that she had been reading from the Book of Mormon every time she felt sad and that it made her feel so much better! The Lord really has been preparing these people and softening their hearts. A few transfers ago Vacaville was known as the area that never baptizes. "the wards are good, but the people are mean and you're not going to see much success there". But we came in at the right time, because "the field is white, already to harvest!"

We met a "prophet" this week, that was pretty cool :) haha. She may have been a little bit crazy, but it's cool to see the different spiritual gifts that everyone has. One thing that I really loved that she said though was that she had a vision where satan was trying to drag her down and the Savior rescued her and told her, "If you would have been the only sinner on earth I still would have come down and died just for you." It's so amazing to see the faith that some people have in the Lord. 
I've been trying to work hard this week at strengthening my faith in the Savior and my confidence as a missionary. I was reading in Alma chapter 26 and I love how the sons of Mosiah are perfect examples of good missionary work, and how to be a good member of the church in general. They gave themselves to much study, fasting, and prayer. They trusted in God. They had confidence that they were where they were for a reason, and they bore with patience all of their afflictions. There are definitely many ups and downs on a mission, but I have learned so much more out here than I ever would have other wise. I don't know where I'd be right now if I hadn't come out.

Hope that everyone had an amazing Halloween! Have a great week! I love you all lots!

Love,

Sister Lesser

Mom:

Thanks for the coats and the jerky! (and for not rubbing the coats all over titan!) It has been freezing here lately! It literally went from high 90's down to 60's within a day! 

Next time you get a chance to send a package, could you please send my copy of "Jesus the Christ"? Also (you might have to look in Mandee's room for these) but could you send me my winter scarves? There should be a cream on and a gray one that look alike, and a green one (maybe in the right hand top drawer of my vanity) and a green and purple one, and a silvery blue one (In the top of my closet?). And then my black boots :) 

haha, thank you! You do so much for me, I really appreciate it :) 

I love you guys lots! have a good week! Have fun at Mandee's play! Oh! That reminds me, I'm going to be singing in sacrament sometime with one of the elders in our ward. I'll try and record and send you a video some time :) Love you!

Dad:

I'm glad you guys had such a fun time hunting! I'll have to go with you next time, it sounds like fun :) I've definitely been running in the morning, I would weigh 300 lbs by now if I wasn't! The members love us a little too much here in Vacaville :) 

I love the Jerky! You guys did a good job :) Guess what! Brother Maseda took us golfing last monday :) I have pictures I'll have to send to you. It was fun, but I was so sore for the next couple of days! I didn't realize that golfing was such a work out! I'm pretty good at it though if I do say so myself :) must be in my genes!! haha!

Love you! Have an awesome week!

Mandee:

It sounds like you've had an exciting week! I loved the all day practice days, those were so fun :) Savor the High School years, you're going to miss them!! 

You look like you've lost a lot of weight! Congrats! What's your secret? Haha :) I love the members here, but they feed us so much (and like 3 desserts a day!!), I'm barely fitting in my clothes anymore!!! Oh well, I guess enjoy it while it lasts :)

you've never told me about Harrison before, what's he in the play? Are you other friends in the pictures in the play as well?

Yeah, I think you would love productions. That's sad that they won't let you do both!! You should try out for both mads and productions and see what happens. :)

Love you, have a great week! Have fun with your last week of play practice!

Tyson:

Good job on getting a deer dude! The jerky is really good, I love it! Are you going to hang the deer head in your room?

The most unusual food that I ate this week...well there is a cute thai lady in our ward who made us some authentic thai food. That was pretty good, the only problem was that it was made with shrimp, so the rest of that night wasn't too fun. I think the allergy is getting worse. Also, I think I'm allergic to bell peppers, is that possible?

Anyway, my favorite person that I met this week was probably this atheist guy that we met yesterday. When he first opened up his door he was ready to run us off his property, but we got to talking to him a little and read a scripture out of the Book of Mormon about faith, and his heart completely softened. We ended up giving him the Book of Mormon and he said he would read it and think about being baptized, so that was a really cool miracle :)

I'm glad that everything is going good for you and that you're liking school! What is your favorite subject? What field trips have you taken lately? How is scouts going? what is the most fun thing coming up? What were you for halloween? 

Love you, dude! Have an awesome week!

Grandpa Bowcutt:

Aw, that picture is so cute!!! I can't believe that Harper is turning 3 already! I'm glad that everything is going well! Except for your knee, get better!! :) I hope that you start feeling better soon, maybe you should consider a priesthood blessing, those work miracles!

Thanksgiving in St. George sounds fun! Hopefully most everyone will be able to go. I'll be thinking about you guys! 

Have a great week! Love you and Grandma!

Lacey:

It's so good to hear from you! It sounds like you guys are really keeping busy, that's awesome! It's so great to hear that everyone is still loving soccer and that Skylee is doing so well in it! If she keeps up her track record she'll have scholarships galore soon! :) haha.  

Haha, Stryker :) he sounds like bunches of fun! It's good to hear that everyone is doing well! What was everyone for halloween? Do you guys have any fun plans coming up for the Holidays?

Love you all!