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Weekly Letter 8/25/14

Hi everyone!

This week has been crazy! We got to help build a house, I fell in a hole, I momentarily received the gift of tongues, we got to be salvation cops and save some souls from the eternal consequences of vandalizing an LDS church (at like 9 at night), we had an earthquake, and we planted some basil seeds! (they are starting to sprout! they're so cute and I'm so excited!!)

Everyone here is safe, but thanks for all of your concern! It was crazy, It was like 3:30 in the morning and I just woke up and the whole apartment was just rocking back and forth.I thought I was dreaming at first until Sister Hartson was like "stop kicking my bed!" and the hermanas ran in, freaking out, and wondering if we were okay. There wasn't any damage done in Dixon as far as I know, but it freaked out a whole bunch of people. Apparently that was the biggest earthquake in this area since like '89 or something.

Hermana Anderson left to Eureka on Tuesday, which was super sad. I'm pretty sure she was my companion almost as much as Sister Harston was because we went on so many splits! Hermana Zurita is pretty cool though :) She's from Bolivia, but she lives in Provo. This is her last transfer, and she's been my companion for most of this last week (I didn't even know it was possible to go on this many splits!). 

We picked up a couple new investigators this week! It's a mother and daughter named Kim and Samara, and they are living at motel 6 right now. It was so amazing how we found them, a new family just moved into our ward into motel 6, and their son was having a birthday and they were having a party and invited us. We were crazy busy that night, so we went on splits with the Hermanas and Sister Harston and Hermana Melgar-Fetzer went to the party. But lo and behold Kim and Samara were there! Kim said that she thought she recognized sister harston, so they started talking and Sister harston found out that Kim and Samara were really looking for something more in their lives, and they just felt like they needed to up and move to Dixon, and they didn't know why, but after talking with Sister Harston she felt like that was why she was there and she wants to learn more about our religion!! The Lord really does work in mysterious ways!!

I also whipped out more spanish than I knew that I knew the other day. We were talking to these two guys (who spoke only spanish), and one of them kept asking what the difference was between mormons and catholics and christians and all of the other religions. We kept trying to tell him that we don't speak spanish and that we would send the other hermanas to come talk to him, but he just kept asking the question. I'm pretty sure I was speaking really bad Spanglish, but something I said made him stop and agree to have the hermanas come and meet with him, so that was pretty cool :)

How has everyone been this week? Is everyone starting school now? what was your favorite part of summer? is there anything really fun coming up? Have a good week, love you all!

Sister Lesser

PS. Please tell Dave Bang that I really appreciate his letters :)

Mom:

Thanks for the package! It's always the best part of the week to get something in the mail! And thanks for the pills, I realized after it was too late that I forgot to tell you that I was almost out! It sounds like everything is going good at home! That's crazy that Chris' wife is pregnant already! Poor Chloe won't get to see her nephew :( That's awesome though that Dallin is going on a mission, it's amazing how the spirit of the Lord can touch people and change them for the good :) 

I found out the other day that I'm so not over my fear of public speaking! One of the Primary workers came up to me the other day and asked me to give the talk at Lily Scott's baptism, and I'm petty sure my heart just stopped for a minute! I can speak in front of just a couple of people, but a whole room full of people still makes me feel light headed I guess. They haven't asked us to speak in sacrament meeting yet.

I'm SOOO glad that you guys had family home evening! You know what they say, the best thing that you can give to your family is your time. I've seen the way having the gospel in the home and families spending time together can change lives! Keep it up! 

I hope that everything is going good at home and that you have a fantastic week! 

Why didn't anyone tell me that grandpa was getting surgery?!?! I want to know about this stuff!

Mandee:

You shot bambi!! :) Haha, you're such a weirdy, I can't believe you put that little snake in your mouth! My companion was freaking out at that picture :) 

I can watch the videos you send, but I don't know if I'll be able to open them from the e-mail or not, I guess you'll have to send it to me and we'll find out.

I'm glad that you had such a good time hunting and with les mis practice! You'll have to send me pictures of the costumes or videos of the practices or something! 

Hope that you have a great first week of school! Have fun!

Dad:

It's good to hear from you! It sounds like you guys have been having all kinds of fun without me, I can't believe you made your steak and eggs without me!! 

You should go to the gym with mom and mandee and show them how to weight lift. A lady in the Ward here who is very big on health and exercise says that lifting weights 3-5 times a week and building up muscle is the best way to lose weight, way better than cardio (running), because you need that muscle to burn fat :) I would if I could, but we just don't have too much time to exercise, so I'm trying to stick with running in the morning (no matter how much I hate it! blah!) 

Also, going on really long hikes up steep hills :) Our ward mission leader loves to run and hike and do all of that fun stuff :) This week he was gone for the entire week hiking. Him and his friend were trying to hike into yosemite from (I can't remember where, but they were supposed to hike 39 miles a day to make it) and it was all super steep and rocky and they were only getting three hours of sleep a day trying to make it there in time. He lost like 8 lbs this last week :) I don't think that's really healthy, but it would be interesting to try!

Are you going hunting again? How was your summer? Anymore fun plans coming up? Love you! Have a great week!

Tyson:

Hey Dude! How is school going? Mom says that you're going on an overnight trip to hardware ranch, that's super cool, I'm jealous! 

Alright, question and answer time... I have had 3 baptisms...You may use anything in my room for the next 15 months...I have eaten some pretty weird stuff (Peruvian food is no bueno, I don't recommend it) I also had some cactus fruit. That was pretty good, it tasted like a mix between a watermelon and a cantaloupe, and it was jam packed with seeds...I will probably switch companions in about 5 weeks...I get homesick every once in a while, but I love being out here :) ...There are STILL spiders above every door! If I ever move to California I will be out on my front porch sweeping spiders every single day!... I have killed A LOT of spiders... I haven't been bitten by one yet, but I found an earwig chilling on my pillow the other day, that was when I decided to move all of the furniture out of the room and deep clean... My favorite part of the mission has been all of the people :) I love the people, the missionaries, the ward, the investigators, everyone is amazing! I especially love spending time together with all of the sisters in our apartment and making new friends. 

Hope you have a great week! have fun in school! Remember who you are! Be a good example! Return with honor!! :)

Grandpa and Grandma Bowcutt:

It's good to here from you! I had no idea that grandpa was getting surgery! Did everything go okay? Are you really feeling better? 

Happy belated birthday Grandma! I hope that your birthday was amazing! It sounds like everything is going pretty good for you guys, I'm glad :) 

So you're going to visit everyone? That's great! Tell them all hi for me! Have a fun (and safe) trip!

Love you, hope that you have an amazing week!

Grandma Nanna:

That's exciting, 4 litters of puppies! And Marilyn is still going to church! Keep working with her, the spirit will touch her heart and she'll want to get baptized :) Is she staying for all 3 hours? Are you taking her to the gospel principles class? 

Haha, I'm sure that returned missionary will be married within the week :) 

How is everyone? Have all of the kids started school yet? Anything else exciting going on? 

Love you lots! Have a great week!

Weekly Letter 8/18/14

Hi everyone!

This might be a pretty short letter because I'm writing from my iPad.
We're currently at a members house. She's a professional make up
artist, and she's doing our make up today for our Facebook pictures :)

I'm so happy! I'm staying in Dixon another transfer!! Sadly Hermana
Anderson is leaving, but she's going to eureka, so that's pretty cool
:)

Anyway, we've seen lots of miracles this week! We met a girl on the
street the other day who was about 13 and she was like, "yeah, my
family needs Jesus! You should come over!" So we went to their house
on Saturday, and it turned out to be a family who told us they weren't
interested twice before. But the Shay was like, "mom, These are the
girls I was telling you about!" So they let us in and we said a
blessing on their home, and we found out that the mom recently started
working with one of our less-active members, and she absolutely loves
her! And Jen (the less active member) has been telling her about the
church and clearing up misconceptions so now she wants to learn about
the church and they invited us back! It was really cool, and we get to
go see Jen tonight and congratulate her on being a missionary :)

How is everything going back home? Is everyone doing okay? How has
everyone's summer been?

Have a great week! Love you lots!

Love,
Sister Lesser

Mom:
Thanks for checking out Deseret book for me! If you could order the
cd's online and just have them sent to my address, that would be
great, thank you! I'm staying in Dixon, yay! It sounds like lots of
fun being with all of the puppies :) hope that everything is going
good this week! Love you!

Mandee:
You're so funny :) which life guards were flirting with you? ;) haha!
I'm sure that school will be great, and you have pretty good teachers
as far as I can tell! Love you, have a great week!

Lacey:
It's so good to hear from you! Those pictures were so cute! Haha,
stryker's poor little shoe :) it sounds like you guys are having lots
of fun before school starts! How are grandma and grandpa doing? I'm so
excited that Marilyn is coming to church! You should get the
missionaries over there! have a great week!

Pictures

Weekly letter 8-11-14

haha! A computer opened up, success!!!

Anyway, Hi Everyone!!

This week has been pretty slow and uneventful. We've done a whole bunch of tracting, and the weather is finally starting to cool off (thank goodness! It was only 90 yesterday!!).

I can't believe it's already time for transfers again! We get transfer doctrine this Friday and I really hope I'm staying, I don't want to leave Dixon!

We had a really awesome lesson with our most promising potential on Friday. His name is Sonny Walker. He's very analytical and really takes time to think things through, but he's been coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon (we know he's been reading because he gives us detailed recaps of everything he's read every time we see him!) Jeremy Scott (our recent convert) came with us to his lesson on Friday, and he was so awesome! He pretty much taught the whole lesson and extended the commitments while we just sat there nodding our heads. We really couldn't even get a word in! But he did a really good job and I think that Sonny is really progressing. The best part was that Sonny told us that the reason that he started taking the lessons was because when the Hermanas tracted into him, he saw a light about them, and he could tell that there was something special and good about them and he wanted to learn more.

Being out here has really made me realize how important it is to really live this religion the way that we're supposed to and how happy it makes people. I've met way too many less active members, and you can just feel the difference between their homes and the homes of the active members or even people who aren't of our religion but who are still trying to live their lives the best that they know how. It's just too easy to get into that rut of not really going to church or praying or reading scriptures, and it really effects family life more than people realize. One of our less active members is less active because she's so busy doing all of this stuff for her kids and rushing them from one lesson or place to another, but they aren't happy as a family. In fact, when we talk about her family life she cries. It's so important to spend that time together, and especially focusing on things of the gospel.

hopefully we'll see even more success in this upcoming week!

How is everyone? Is there anything really fun going on? When does everyone's school start? i can't believe that it's time for school already! When I came out school was just ending for everyone and now it's starting again this wednesday here! It's hard to believe that I've already been out 3 months!

Hope that everything is going good and that everyone is happy and healthy!! Lots of Love!

Sister Lesser

PS. Happy Birthday Taylor, Monroe, Rob Graves, and Kevin! Hope that you all had and have amazing birthdays! Also, I have no idea who's having birthdays on the lesser side of the family because I don't have a cool calendar to tell me, so happy birthday to anyone that I missed as well!! Extra love for you guys!!

Mom: 

It sounds like you guys had a good time in St. George! I'm super jealous that you got to go see the little mermaid! How was it? Would you go see it again? I probably would have had a panic attack if I had seen the partner cartwheel, I had a mini one when you mentioned it! Bad memories!! 

I feel exactly the same way about my mission. I feel like I've been out here for ages, but it has gone by super fast! (I'm just glad I'm not in the MTC anymore. Those were literally the longest days of my life!!) 

I'll defiantly pray for Tyson. Tell him that everything will go good and to say his own prayers, God will help him :) 

Everyone in the apartment is sick in one way or another, I think it's just a missionary thing. One of us has a UTI another is getting chronic migraines, another might possibly have ovarian cysts, life is crazy in Dixon!! I'm just glad that another lice incident hasn't broken out. That was what happened in the transfer before I got here. We're being attacked by the fiery darts of the adversary!! But really though, I've recovered from the raw fish incident :) 

If you could also send me my sunglasses, that would be great. I'm not really sure how I forgot them, but my eyes are dying! Also, as of last weeks we are no longer allowed to go to desseret book when we go to the temple, so if you happen to come across the Motab David Archuleta Christmas CD and The Motab Christmas CD with the guy who sings "through heaven's eyes" then I would be a very happy missionary :) And if you find any cute stickers as well (there's lots of cute church ones at deseret book, but also non church ones that are cute if you happen to come across some, so I can put them on letters and stuff :)  

thanks, Love you!! Hope that everything is going well and that you can endure more time with the puppies :) what did you guys end up naming them? can you send me pictures? Have a great week!

Mandee:

You may just be the klutziest person in the world. I wouldn't be surprised to see your face in the guiness book of world records one day. For real. World's Klutziest girl. :)

Glad that you had a good time in St. George though. So I went and got my eyebrows done today with Hermana Melgar-Fetzer. My eyebrows are now scary thin. I regret it. It was interesting how she did it though, it's called threading and she uses a piece of string to shape the eyebrows. It hurt. I wouldn't recommend it. There was a huge group of girls that came in after us, and we found out that they were all going into 9th grade. They all looked like babies!! I was like, what are you doing out without your parents?!?! I don't think that you ever looked that young.

How are all of the puppies doing? Are you taking a life guard class at the outdoor pool or as part of the high school curriculum? Who is the teacher? If you decide to work at the Brigham Pool next year, you pretty much have an in with Tori Tuft :) just let her know! 

Is there anything else interesting going on? When do you start school? What is your schedule for this year? who are your teachers? You should write me back right away so that you don't forget the questions that I asked! And I like getting letters throughout the week :) Have a great week!

Tyson:

Sorry I didn't get to write you back last week! You got some cool pictures in Alaska! Did you catch the biggest fish? The most fish? Did you use that little fish that you caught as bait? :) haha. 

Tell Mandee to write me earlier in the day instead of 11 at night so that you have time! My mission is going good, and I do like my companion, she's pretty cool. She likes to tease a lot more than my last companion though. :)

I hear that you're starting school soon! That's cool! I know that you're going to have a great time and make lots of friends in your classes. (just remember that you have to be nice to them!) You'll have lots of fun, don't even worry about it, and if you go to school every day and try your hardest to get good grades then I bet dad will take you with him and let you shoot a dear this year. :) 

Have a great week! Make sure to let me know how amazing your salmon tastes!

Grandma and Grandpa Bowcutt:

Sorry I didn't get to write you last week! The computer kicked me off, and I wasn't even sure that my letter got sent or not! 

Anyway, it sounds like you guys are doing pretty good! That's too bad that Nadine died, but we know that she is in a better place and doing a lot better than she was here. That's good that you got to see everyone again though! 

I'm sure that you'll get back into the swing of things soon :) And then there's always that trip to China that you wanted to take! haha.
Do you have any fun plans for the upcoming weeks? Has Daren come to church again? Hope that you have an awesome week! Love you!

Grandma Nanna:

I was so excited to hear about your miracle!!! Did Marilyn come to church again this week?! I was freaking out when I read your e-mail, and my companion thought I was crazy until I told her what happened and then she started freaking out with me :) 

How is island park? is it nice and cool? I never thought that I would say this, but I really miss snow. I would love nothing more than to have it snow and be freezing cold outside and to go out wrapped in sweaters. It's rained twice since I've been here, and we pretty much had a little party in our apartment when it happened! Technically it was only a barely there sprinkle that lasted about 30 seconds, but it rained and it was overcast that whole day!

Anyway, do you have any fun plans for the rest of the summer? When do Lacey's kids go back to school? What was the best things about this summer? Love you guys!!

Kari:

It was so good to hear from you and to see your pictures! It looks like you guys had a great summer! What was the best part about the summer? Did you see any miracles? How did your training go? I can't believe Lindsey is going to kindergarten!! That just blows my mind, everyone is getting so old! I can believe that kaden grew 4 inches :) is he a senior now? Woah! tell him good luck with football, hopefully his lucky beard works out for him! Grizzly is definitely a fitting name for him! How did Kylee do at soccer tryouts? So is she going to do both high school and comp soccer or just high school? How are Lindsey and Makell liking dance? What style of dance are they taking? What grade is Makell going into? When does school start?

Hope that you guys had an awesome week and summer! Love you all!

The computer kicked me off!

This is the curse of using library computers! Well I hope you guys got

my letter because I'm not typing all of that again on an iPad!

Weekly Letter 8-4-14

Hi Everyone!

It's been another crazy week here in (overly) sunny California! Haha. You know it's bad when it feels nice and cool at night and the thermometer says 95!  It actually was overcast and rainy today which was a miracle in and of itself! Our ward must have prayed and fasted extra hard yesterday :) Everything has been going good for the most part. I've been pretty sick for the last couple of days though. I think it might have been the Peruvian food that one of our members fed us the other night (Saviche AKA. Raw fish soaked in lime juice). It was a little bit sketchy, but I'm in recovery :)

It has been a little bit difficult here as we have been doing a lot more tracting. Our teaching pool is diminished after 3 baptisms! But we have one new investigator and two potential families, a Fijian family who I can't remember the names of and the Budweiser family. All of the ward members in the Santa Rosa Mission fasted and prayed yesterday that the missionaries will be able to find families, so I'm really excited to see how everything goes! 

I'm glad that everyone returned safe and sound from Alaska and that you all had a good time! What part of Alaska were you guys in? Thanks for all of the pictures (Dear Kaden, when you start to resemble Chewbaka it might be time for a trim....just saying!) haha. That was quite the haul that you guys got! Who caught the biggest fish? Who caught the most fish? Who is going to send me some fish?!?! haha :) 

How is everything else going? What did the girls do while the guys were gone? 

Love you lots!!

Sister Lesser

Mom:

puppy names: 

Milady, Dutchess, and Duke

Snickers, Twix, Skittles, Reeses, Kisses :)

Haha. You must use these names!!! I'm glad that everything is going well. It really is amazing how the spirit can work with someone and change them, no one is exempt from repentance and the atonement!! I don't actually remember sending you a website, that's good that you taught about journal writing though, you should start keeping one! (That's something that I need to learn for myself, I have been terrible at keeping a journal!)

I'm glad that you guys survived the puppy fiasco without dad :) Were grandma and Lacey able to come help? You have to send me pictures of them all! Are you excited for Mandee and Tyson to go back to school? People here are starting school this week, it's insane, I feel like school just got out!! Have fun at the gym! One of the ladies in our ward is super big into exercise and getting in shape and stuff, and she says the the very best thing that you can do is body building and lifting weights 3-4 times a week. She says it's much better than cardio, as you need muscle to burn fat. Just something to think about :)

Daddy:

Good to hear from you! I'm glad that you had a good time in Alaska! So what are you up to now? Just going back to work again? You sound like mom, I'll send pictures when I take them!! I don't have time for pictures! haha. I'll see what I can come up with, for the moment you guys might get a badly taken selfie :) Have fun with the puppies! (*See mom's letter for names)

Mandee:

Yeah....that dress is pretty bad :) I'm sad that I'm not going to be there to see you guys perform! (And also for tuacahn, I'm pretty upset about that as well). You look like you're still pretty burnt :) Poor baby :) Speaking of which, what's up with the picture of you as a baby? I'm so jealous that you got to baby sit Harper and Roeroe!! not fair!!  Anyway, have fun in St. George and killing yourself at the gym!! are you still doing workouts for les mis? 

Grandma Nanna:

Thanks for helping my mom out with the puppies, Heaven knows that she needed it :) They are so cute! So how was your guys' week? anything super fun going on? Have a great week!