Pictures 6/30/2014

This is me in front of the Vierra's home (one of the ward members).

They have the most incredible house! It's super cute with a courtyard

and a boardwalk and a blue gate and blue door and everything!

Hi!!!! 6/30/2014

Hi Everyone!

This week has been kind of Crazy! So we went back to bring cookies to Tracy (the lady who had us over for a barbecue) and she invited us in and we had a first lesson with her! She's been looking for the spirit in her life, and when we asked her if she felt the spirit while reading the book of mormon if she'd be baptized, she was like"Heck Yeah!!" It was pretty funny :) Everything is going great, the Scotts actually changed their baptismal date to the 12th so that Jeremy's cousin could come and baptize him, so no baptisms this transfer :( but we have 5 in the 3 weeks after that, so it's okay! My companion is a little sad though because she's most likely leaving this next week. Transfers are on Wednesday and Sister Hamilton has already been in this area for 4 transfers, so there is very little chance of her staying here. :( It's sad, I get along with her really well and she is one of the best missionaries in the field. Oh well though, the Lord knows where we need to be. It's also sad to see all of the missionaries that are going home! One of my zone leaders, Elder Boswell, is going home, so last Monday he decided that he needed to use up all of the money left on his card, so he bought a bunch of expensive steaks and had a barbecue with the missionaries in his apartment complex :) One of the AP's who is going home gave his departing testimony and he was like, "So the other day we were driving, and I looked out at the beautiful rolling hills and the green grass and I thought to myself, I am so tired. And I have been so tired for 2 years." Haha. It was super sad and hilarious and completely true all at the same time :) 

Hope everything is going well at home! When is the cousin camp? Is everyone going to bear lake for the 4th? Have a fun week! Happy 4th of July!!

Mom:

Thanks for the package! The shirt fit perfectly and looks so cute! I got here and realized that I pretty much only have sweaters, and I'm probably gonna end up with heat stroke one of these days. If you find anything else cute be sure to send it my way :) I'm glad you've decided to start having family home evening regularly! That will be good for the whole family, and I've seen how it brings families together and brings the spirit and happiness into the home. How are you holding up getting up so early in the morning? :) Has anything really fun happened? Have you decided to go on trek? Love you! I love hearing from you guys and getting letters and packages :)

Kari:

Sorry you didn't get my letter! Thank you so much for the package, I really loved it. That day had been really hard so you really made my whole day :) I'm all ready for the 4th now! There's going to be a pancake breakfast and pinewood derby at the church that morning, so I'll be all decked out for it :) Thanks for all of the candy! All of the sisters in the apartment and I really enjoyed it!! How has your week been? Anything really exciting? Is everything still really busy? 

Grandma and Grandpa Bowcutt:

Wow, I can't believe you guys are already done with your mission! It's amazing how fast time flies when you're in the service of the Lord :) So what are you planning to do now? Just hang out with the family? That will be fun, everyone's missed having you at Bear Lake, It's just not the same without you!! How did your last day at the visitors center go? What miracles did you see? Thank you for all of the advice! You're right, smiling and being exactly obedient are the biggest keys to being a successful missionary. I had to go on exchanges with the hermanas last friday because my companion had a meeting all day, and it's amazing to see the difference between being kind of obedient and being places a little bit late and staying at the apartment just a few minutes longer than we were supposed to, and being with my companion where we are exactly on time with everything. There's a huge difference in the spirit and the miracles that we were able to see. Hope you guys enjoy being home! Enjoy your summer and continue to look for the hand of God in your lives :)

Grandma Nana: 

Thanks, I really like my hair too :) I'm sad that I can't see everyone! But maybe we can have another family get together in two years when I'm back :) I'm so grateful for you and for everyone who has been giving me encouragement on my mission, I feel like everyone's letters come just when I need them :) Take lots of pictures of everyone and send them to me please! Hope everything is going well and that you're all having a great summer! 

Mandee:

It sounds like everything is going good. Now you can share my pain of early mornings :) Has anything hilarious, crazy, or frankly unfortunate happened this week? :) haha. Thanks for sending me pictures, you're the only one who does! The ones with Wyatt were so cute!! What are you learning at Les Mis practices? Why on earth are they working you so hard? is there going to be cool stunts and stuff like in Tarzan last year? Are there any puppies yet?!?!?

Addy:

It was so good to hear from you! I loved getting your letter, my companion was making fun of me because your handwriting is so much better than mine :) Everything is great in California, and it does feel good to know that I'm serving the Lord. When did you start doing golf? Do you like it? Have fun in Utah!

Bridger:

It sounds like everything is going good! Thank you for the letter. I haven't seen Mickey yet, but you'll be the first one to know if I do :) It is very fun to be a missionary, I hope you plan on serving a mission one day! Are you still playing football or just golf now? Say hi to everyone in Utah for me! 

Boston:

Thanks for the picture, I love it! How have you been doing? Are you still playing the Cello? Are you doing golf too? It sounds like you're going to have lots of fun in Utah, make sure you have extra fun for me, alright? :) 

Aliza:

Thank you for the package! It was so great to hear from Addy and Bridger and Boston. When do you guys head up to Utah? It sounds like everything is going good and that you all have been having a good summer :) So what is everyone going to do at the cousin camp? How long are you guys staying in Utah? Have a safe trip! 

Hola mi familia!

Hi Everyone!

As you can see I am now proficient in spanish! (not). I am getting a little better though :) emphasis on the little. This week has been pretty awesome! We met this lady while we were heading to a potentials house and asked her if she could use any help or service, and she was like, "are you serious?" and then she said, "Okay, but you have to eat!" We were super confused but were like okay,we like food! So she told us that she would invite us for dinner and she did! She invited us to a barbeque that she was having with her whole extended family yesterday. We did get offered alcohol, but one of them was a less active member so he stood up for us :) It was pretty cool though, and we got to contact like 11 people, but we couldn't really share much because they were blasting loud music and half of them were drunk. But Tracy invited us back and said we had to come eat with her again, so potential investigator!!

The family that we met last week is getting baptized on July 5th! They are so cool! Jeremy is doing research on his own and stopping things (such as drinking coffee) before we even talk about it! It's like a dream being with them, It's our one week baptism! We also had a referral from the couple that we ate dinner with saturday night. They said that a new lady moved into an apartment near theirs and they didn't know much about her, so we went over and shared a video with her and invited her to church, and she came! Afterwards she told me that she felt so welcomed and wanted to come every single day :) I'm serious, Dixon is getting translated soon! I do get a little homesick every once in a while, but the good times outweigh the bad :) Hopefully everything is going well at home and everyone is healthy and happy! I love getting all of your letters and hearing how everyone is doing!

Mom:

I'm sure your talk was awesome, and at least it's over now :) I found out a way to send pictures! I just take them with my Ipad and email them to you, you'll love these ones! Could you send me some more drysol please? I accidentally squeezed my bottle too hard and it exploded everywhere. Have you guys been reading your scriptures and saying your prayers? I want to challenge you guys to try and have family home evening once a week! It's really important! By coming out here and seeing all of the different types of families, I've seen how important it is to spend time with each other and not just run your kids around to their various different activities. Thanks for all of the e-mails! I hope that everything is going great in Brigham and that you guys are having a great summer! Send lots of pictures of Bear Lake! Also, we're not allowed any contact with any family members, so I can't meet up with Lacey and her family, sadly :(

Dad:

It was so good to hear from you! I'm glad that you finally got my father's day card and that you spent that day doing stuff that you love :). I'm doing great! I love my companion and my roommates, and I don't have to worry about overheating because of my hair anymore.... :) haha, I hope that everything is going well at home and that you get to spend your summer doing fun things like hiking and golfing. You should try hiking down in zion (particularly Angel's Landing) and tell me how it is so I know if I have to try it when I come home :).

Mandee:

Your letters are always my favorite because you're the only one who sends me pictures! They're always so random though, I feel like you're instagraming me through an e-mail :) I'm glad that everything is going good and that you're going to get in shape this summer! haha, It's nice that you're going to see your friends from EFY again, I wish I had kept in touch with mine. Is one of them that guy that you're convinced you're going to marry? Hope everything is going well! Keep sending pictures please!

Tyson:

Loved the burn lines last week :) Hopefully you fared better this last week at lake powell! It sounds like your having tons of fun with golf! Keep it up, maybe you can join the golf team in high school!! You can have the arrow holder, you probably already took it anyway :) I haven't heard any crickets, but there are tons of bugs here! We are over run with rollypolly bugs and giant spiders, It's like a horror movie! I don't know if it's because I'm in California, or because I've knocked more doors than I have before in my entire life, but I've noticed that EVERY SINGLE DOOR has a nest of giant spiders above it. At least 4 spiders. Without fail....also, no one has doorbells, what's up with that?

Grandpa and Grandma Bowcutt:

That's so crazy that this is your last week! It's cool that you had an authentic luau, it's like a celebration for you guys because you're such awesome missionaries! It's always fun to hear about the cool people that you meet! Dixon isn't too diverse, but Davis (a little college town about 10 minutes from Dixon) is. I go tracting there with some other sister missionaries every sundaywhile my companion is in her Sister Training Leader meetings. This last week we met a guy from Egypt who pretty much ripped my Book of Mormon out of my hands and was like, "I need this!" It was pretty funny actually. We also met some really cool Muslim girls who do like religious exchange things with the youth groups in the LDS church. They go to the temple and talk to the missionaries, and the LDS youth go to their Mosk and get toured around and get to see what goes on there. It's pretty cool. It's really interesting getting to see all of the different kinds of people there are, Utah isn't exactly a diverse place, so this is an interesting experience for me. :) I hope you guys LOVE your last week and that you continue to be missionaries even after your mission ends!

Love you guys!!!!

Sister Lesser

6-16-14

Hi Family!

How's everything going? Everything has been fantastic here! I've officially reached the 1 month mark as of Saturday! Elder Falabella from the quorum of the 70 came on Friday and now we're really pumped up and ready to work hard and work smart! We picked up like 4 new investigators this week, including this super cute family, the Scotts. It's a really cool story! A member from like Vacaville or something called us and was telling us about this guy that he works with who lives in Dixon and has been taking missionary discussions by phone. So we agreed to give him a call, and when we did Jeremy (the Scott dad) was like,"yeah I would love to meet you, can you come over now?" So we met him on Saturday, his whole family (a wife and 3 kids under age 8) came to church on Sunday, and then he texted us today and was like "I really loved church so much yesterday, I've never known something is so true in my life as this Gospel!" We were literally screaming! Things like that just don't happen in real life! but it did, and we're trying to figure out a baptismal date for them now :). The days are starting to all blend together, I'm half asleep most of the time, yet somehow manage to keep walking and preaching all day long. Hopefully it gets easier because this whole 6:30 thing is still really ridiculous. The ward here is super great, they are always wanting to help and feed the missionaries, and we have some of the best member missionaries I've ever seen here! We like to joke that Dixon is going to get translated like the city of Enoch soon, so if I stop replying to e-mails you'll know why :) Well, I hope everything is going great at home! How is everyone? How has your summer been so far? Any fun plans?

Mom: 

Thanks! I will look forward to that package this week then. I'm serious though, I would love some cute t-shirts or something, all I have is sweaters and I'm melting! Just have mandee try them on if you ever get around to shopping or something :) I'm glad that everything is going okay and that your listings went through. Did you get the father's day card that I sent to dad? We have a new system on our I-pads, so I can read your e-mails every day, sadly I can't write back, but please let me know if you got it. How is everything going at home? Anything fun happening? How was father's day without dad? Have you been exercising? I've lost 5 lbs! Love you and hope everything is going well :)

Mandee:

Good to hear that you're keeping busy. My companion freaked at your towel picture, immodesty! :) Have you talked to your future husband again lately? Thanks for the picture of Titan, next time maybe a cuter one though :) Don't tell mom but I'm going to chop my hair off next week, I was going to do it this week but I didn't make an appointment in time! How is everything going? how have les mis practices been? what do you do at the practices? What are they for? Have a great summer! Use time wisely!

Kari:

Thanks for the card, I laughed like crazy! I'm glad everything has been going good for you guys and that you got the corn planted. I'm sad that I cant be there to husk it and wash it for hours this year ;) How has everything been going? Do you guys have any fun plans for the summer? Love you, keep in touch!

Libby:

It was so good to hear from you! Thanks so much for writing me and for keeping me in your prayers. How has everything been going? are you still in Florida? how is your family? Love you guys!

Grandma and Grandpa Bowcutt:

I'm super jealous! Tuacahn and musicals are things that I really do miss a lot. We were visiting one of the less active sisters in the ward, and she was telling us all about how she had gone to see Wicked that day for her son's graduation and for her birthday, it was so not fair! But all in good time I suppose. I'm trying to stay focused on the work, and I have been getting a lot better at talking to people and giving the lessons. I know that the Lord has been helping me and comforting me. I also know that I was sent here to Dixon (the greatest place in the mission!) and also to my companion, Sister Hamilton, for a reason. I'm not going to say that it's easy, because it's not, but it has been exactly what I needed to help me grow while not overwhelming me, and my companion is super patient and really cool, so it has been great. Thank you for all of the uplifting messages :) Has anything else fun happened? How many more people have been coming now that school is out? Love you guys, hope you're having fun in the heat too!

Love you lots!

Sister Lesser

6-9-14

Hi Family!!!!

 

Wow this week has really flown by!! It is HOT here, like 110 degrees hot! I wasn't even able to sleep last night because we're not allowed to use AC at night (and our AC it terrible anyway), and even though the window was open it wasn't cold at all last night! So pretty much it's a good thing that it's P-day because I'm a walking zombie.

Anyway, other than that things have been going great here! We have a couple of investigators that are so ready for baptism, we just have to help them to see it. Most of the food that they serve us is pretty normal. Since there are only 4 missionaries in Dixon, we all go to dinner together (the ward members feed us every night!). One of the Hermanas is lactose and gluten free so we don't get very much bread or anything, but other than that, hamburgers and meatloaf seem to be pretty popular. We actually had one sister who only eats raw veggies (like that is LITERALLY all she eats) so we got lettuce, raw asparagus, raw zuccini, and other such things as a meal one day, but that was probably the strangest.

We've seen a lot of miracles this week. The Lord really does work in mysterious ways, and he really does know what he's doing if we just take time to listen to him. Our motto is if something falls through then The Lord just wants us to be somewhere else. And we've really found it to be true. A couple of days ago I decided that it was time to clean out our area book, because I'm pretty sure no one has gone through it since 2008, so we were going to contact some potential investigators, and Sister Hamilton got a prompting to go and visit a woman who she had met briefly before. When Tanya answered the door she just looked at us and was like "I was just praying for God to give me a sign that he hears my prayers, and then you guys just showed up at my door a minute later!" It was a super cool experience. I've been seeing so many miracles on my mission!

We've only had one day where we really did any kind of service, but I noticed that that was the day that we saw the most miracles happen. I'll have to see what else we can do to fit service into our schedule, becasue I know God blesses us when we serve his children. Either that, or he could be blessing us for surviving an hour cleaning a woman's house who smokes inside. I'm pretty sure I have lung cancer now and The Lord is just making me feel better before hand. :)

I've gone on a couple of exchanges already and it's really interesting to see how other missionaries work and teach and contact. I was with one sister the other day who LITERALLY chased some guy down who was riding a bike. He was some hispanic guy who was shouting "No habla ingles!" and she was just booking it after him yelling, "Hablando espanol!" (or something along those lines). It was pretty much the funniest thing that I've ever seen in my life :)

So all is well in California, besides the fact that I'm literally melting (I'm pretty sure my brain is already fried). But other than that, we're seeing miracles and being obedient, and avoiding the creepy old guys at church who like to hit on us! haha. People keep telling me about a movie called the Son of God. Has anyone seen it? everyone is like "I can't believe you haven't seen it! It's so good and about Jesus Christ, aren't you missionaries?!?!"

Anyway, hope everything is going well at home and everyone is doing well! Have you gone to bear lake yet? how is everyone doing? anything super fun going on right now?

 

Mom:

I got your package, thanks so much! I love getting stuff, it's always super exciting! Sorry about the zipcode mix up, It's just what my trainer told me so I can blame her :) But I really do love getting packages :) If you ever see any really cute pattern skirts or shirts, have mandee try them on and then send them my way :D. I'll try to print out all of the pictures that I have at walmart today and then send them to you as soon as I can.

Personal revelation happens differently for all of us. Read D&C 8:2-3 and D&C 9:8. Personal revelation can come in many forms, it can come in a verse of scripture that stands out to you, or you can have a feeling that something is right or wrong, or sometimes it can come through other people. My MTC companion said that she always go answers to her prayers by reading the scriptures, and then the answer would just pop into her mind, even if it had nothing to do with what she was reading. Remember, prayer is how we talk to God, the scriptures are how he talks to us. Hope this helps a little! Maybe try finding a conference talk on it or share a personal experience. :) and please tell dad to send me pictures of Titan and any puppies that you guys have!!!

 

Mandee:

I'm glad you had such a good time at EFY! That's awesome that the prophet's grandaughter was in your group! I can't believe she felt that way about the apostles! I thought having president Bednar come and talk to us was one of the greatest times of my life!! :) So Ben huh? Was he the one in those pictures? I hope he's cuter without the braces, haha :). Good job, don't date until you're 16! And don't get married while I'm on my mission!!!! :) I'm glad that you got some personal revelation at EFY, you should tell that to mom, she seems to be struggling with her talk :P You really will make a great mother. I was just thinking that the other day when I was taking to our ward mission leader's kids. You just popped into my mind! So that's really cool :) I hope you have a great summer! Don't hang out with boys too much :P

 

Marcia:

Thanks for the letter! It was really great to hear from you. I'm glad that everything is going good there, I was thinking about you guys the other day and wondering how Emma and Wyatt were doing (and you and Rob of course)  :)  Our ward here is really awesome, they invite us to dinner every night so I have already gotten to know a good portion of the ward, but that is a really good idea! We're actually going over to a ward member's house for FHE with one of our investigators tonight. He's really close to setting a baptismal date, so we're really excited!! Have you guys been doing anything really fun? How has work been going? When do you go to Cancun?

 

Grandma Nanna:

Yes this is the right e-mail :). I got your letter in the mail the other day too, thank you so much!! It's always fun to get letters throughout the week since we can only check e-mails on mondays. And I promise I will only use the emergency money for emergencies :). I'm glad to hear that almost everything is going well. Have you found out if your skin cancer is really back yet? That's scary! Please don't let it get bad, and I promise I will wear sunscreen. :)

 

Love you all!!

Love,

Sister Lesser

6/2/2014 Letter

Hi Guys!!!

 

That's a wierd word to say, we're really not allowed to say it here, everyone has to be either Elder or Sister. So I made it to California alive! I was the ONLY one out of our missionary group who wasn't sitting by missionaries, and I ended up by a nonmember couple from Texas. I was just like, I KNEW this would happen! So I talked to them for a while and offered them a Book of Mormon, but they said that they already had one from a friend who lived in Utah or something like that. They were really nice though, it was a good experience. So we got here to California and were whisked off to the mission home, which is beautiful. Everything is really pretty here. Santa Rosa doesn't even look like a big city, it is literally a forest. Anyway, when we got there Sister Alba (the president's wife) was just like, sit down, take a nap, relax, we're making you a super delicious lunch. And then we got to sleep in a Hampton Inn for the night, so the first day was pretty much awesome :). I've been assigned to the Dixon area. It's a cute little town with lots of parks and is almost completely residential areas. Everyone is super sweet, but there are a lot of spanish speaking people here, so I'm trying to pick up on the language (I was not blessed with the gift of toungues). We have tons of potential ivestigators, 2 investigators with baptismal dates, and 3 who are close. Everyone is willing to talk to us and give us their numbers, even if they don't want to! The ward is incredible here, they are really into missionary work and are always willing to go out with the missionaries, and a different family feeds us dinner every night. We like to tease that Dixon is going to be translated soon because the people here are so righteous and have such strong testimonies! I think Heavenly Father knew that I needed a lower stress area for my first transfer, and Dixon is awesome! My companion is really sweet, her name is Sister Hamilton. She has about 5 months left in the field, and is a seasoned trainer (she's been a trainer every transfer since she was done training!!). She's been in this area for about 4 months, so she knows everyone and is super on top of things, which I really needed. There are only 4 missionaries in this area, us and the hermanas. We all live in the same apartment so I've been trying to get the hermanas to teach me a little spanish :) I have learned exactly 1 sentence, "Somos Missionaras de la iglesia de Jesus Christo, de los santos, de las ultimas dias". I'm pretty much pro now :). Since I've been here we've picked up a new investigator and a lot of potentials, and I gave out my first Book of Mormon a couple of days ago. We work a lot with bringing less active people back to the church, there are so many less actives in California! almost 70% of members in most places! I really miss home a lot, but being on a mission has been a good experience for me. All of the missionaries in my zone are really fun and all of the people that I've met have been very sweet (except for this one guy that pretty much slammed his door in our faces, but that was only once, I think I can handle that!)

Love everyone lots! Tell everyone hi for me. I can't wait to hear back from everyone!

 

Love,

Sister Lesser