Pictures 10-27-14

 The rainbow square! It didn't take very well, but it was pretty cool :) 

Brother and Sister Maseda took us to Fenton's and they made me get a whole 'black and tan' (the giant ice cream in the picture) and eat it all by myself as 'initiation' into the ward...I still feel sick. I don't think I can ever eat ice cream again! 

 Cheryl's baptism!! Yay!

Weekly Letter 10-27-14

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe it's already the start of week 5 of this transfer! The last couple of weeks have gone by so fast! Thankfully this week has been a little less eventful, though we did have one guy spray us with a hose. Never a boring day in mission life, seriously. :)

We've been doing a TON of tracting and contacting this week trying to look for new investigators! We've picked up a couple of new investigators, but we're hoping that this week we'll be able to find a solid family to teach.

This week we found out that most of Vacaville is haunted, haha. We were talking to a potential investigator and she was telling us about all of the paranormal activity going on on their street, and how all of those houses were built on a landfill...creepy! I've become a believer on my mission, stay away from the indian schools!! haha :)

I got to go back to Dixon on Saturday and see Cheryl get baptized! It was so exciting to see her make that commitment. She was so happy after she was baptized!

I love the ward members here in Vacaville! Last Monday a sister from another ward saw us checking out of WinCo and came up and payed for everything. She said that she had a daughter who was putting her papers in soon, and how she loves the missionaries. :) All of our ward members are so gun-ho on missionary work too! we've had so many members ask for Books of Mormon or pamphlets to hand out to friends and trying to share the gospel with everyone, it's great to see!

I hope that everyone is having a great week! I challenge all of you to read the Book of Mormon every day this week, even if it's just a couple of verses a day, and see how differently your week goes! do it! :)

Happy Halloween!

Love you all!

Love,
Sister Lesser

Mom:

Tell Grandpa to get better! Grandma says their going to Texas this week too! That sounds just like him...

Anyway, I'm glad that Dad and Tyson got back safe from hunting! I'm looking forward to that Jerky! Oh, poor daddy :( tell him to feel better! (and to make me some jerky, haha)

Mandee sent me some pictures of her costumes, they look good! You did a good job, like always :)  Also, whatever warm clothes are in mine or mandee's closets that I could possibly wear on a mission :) Thanks, love you lots!! have a great week!

Dad: 

What are you doing catching the flu?!?! Feel better, love you! :) hope you had lots of fun hunting! 

Mandee:

It sounds like you're doing awesome! That's great that everyone loves your voice so much, you should totally go pro! :) Why did they make it so you can only join productions or madrigals? That's a dumb rule! Which do you think you're going to go for? 

Thanks for finally telling me what day the play starts! (it took you long enough, haha!) November 14th is my 6 month mark, think of me while you're performing, I'll be there in spirit! Have a great week! Don't get sick! Take lots of airborn and essential oils :) Love you!

Tyson:

Congrats on the Deer! It sounds like you guys had tons of fun on your hunting trip! Make sure to send me lots of yummy jerky :)

How big is your deer? Are you going to hang it on your wall? How is school going? What has been the most exciting part of your week? 

Love you :)

Grandma Nanna:

Thanks for the letter and all of the pictures! I love seeing pictures of what's going on! So Tyson got a deer? How did everyone else do? Where did you go hunting at? That sounded like lots of fun :) 

Tell Marilyn happy Birthday for me! I'm jealous that you guys went to city creek! I'm glad you had lots of fun though! 

How is everything else going? How are the puppies? What are your plans for Halloween?

Love you, have a great week!

Grandma Bowcutt:

Yay, meet the Mormons!!! I love that movie! Elder Holland told all of the mission presidents that they had to show it to us, so we got to see it :) I love David Archuleta's song that he sings in it too :)

Tell Alicia congratulations on the new baby! That's so exciting! I haven't seen her in forever, I didn't even know she was pregnant! It's so weird to think that I've already been out 6 months! What's the baby's name?

I'm glad that you guys had a fun time at the Halloween party! I'm sad that I've missed it for two years in a row now! :( I'll make sure I'm there in 2016 :)

Have a great time in Texas! Take lots of pictures to send to me please :) Love you!!

PS Tell Grandpa to get better and to get that knee rested!

Pictures 10-20-14

Weekly Letter 10/20/14

Hello Everyone!
This week has been pretty eventful! Saturday specifically. No one can say that missions are boring, I'm still in a little bit of shock from what happened, I really feel like I was in a movie! So here's the story...We got up in the morning and were out the door at 6:30 to go running like usual. We were going to go running around a park that's about 40 ft from our apartment complex. So we're just walking over there when a cop car pulls up behind us. They asked us if we'd seen a green car with one of the headlights out with a bunch of Mexicans in it, apparently they had been 'causing trouble'. So we told them no and asked if it was safe to run around the park. He told us we were fine and drove away. Not 5 seconds later, this car that they were describing peels around the corner onto summerfield st. and was being chased by 3 cop cars! They were going probably 80 miles an hour and crashed onto this lawn no more than 10 ft from us across the street!! They then proceeded to flip around and back onto the road and started driving around the caldasac. At this point we were running for our lives back to our apartment. When we were almost in the ONLY ENTRANCE to the apartment, this car came back around and tried to turn into the complex but slammed into a tree instead, the cop slamming into the back of him, both almost hitting us in the process!! The driver hopped over into the passenger side and started sprinting into the complex with a bunch of cops chasing after him. One of the Lady cops started screaming and dropping the f-bomb saying, "Put your hands up or I'm gonna shoot you!!". At this point sister Clawson and I were in the process of having a heart attack, being in the middle of all of this. So there was one kid sitting in this car with his hands up, and the cops managed to grab the other one and drag him out kicking and screaming, while me and Sister Clawson were sneaking around behind the cops in an attempt to get to the Elder's apartment. All the while more and more cops are showing up until eventually we had 30 plus cop cars on our street. So finally we get to the gate and the Elder's happened to see us there and let us in thankfully. By this time we were both bawling and the elders were just kind of like, "sorry, we wish we could give you guys hugs!" But they ended up bringing us donuts later :) SCARIEST EXPERIENCE OF MY LIFE!!!! I now have a testimony that God protects his missionaries though :) And it makes a pretty good story, good journal entry that day, haha. Although I don't trust cops anymore, the member that we went to dinner with last night showed up the news report on what happened. We are now going to invest in some pepper spray :)
Anyway, the baptism later on that day was great though :) Kathy had been having so much anxiety about it over the week, but once she came up out of the water she was absolutely glowing! She has really bad anxiety and depression, and I'd never heard her say that she was happy before, but when we asked her how she felt afterward, she said that she felt so good and happy :) Sister Clawson and I were in tears (again, haha). It was really cool, Sister Clawson's old companion, Sister Beach got to skype in, and Kathy was so bummed that she wasn't going to be there to sing for her baptism, that sister Beach sang to her over skype. :) It was awesome, It really made Kathy's day. It's amazing what we can do with technology nowadays!
I love being on a mission, but i've never felt how real the adversary is before this, he's really hitting hard right now! But that's okay, because it just means good things to come :) I've never really noticed up until now the difference that being set apart as a missionary makes in how you feel the Holy Ghost. it really is like a warm blanket that is just constantly with us, and it's terrifying to be in a situation where the spirit just leaves. There were several times this week with certain basher's where I was convinced that they were possessed. Like full on, New testament Jesus casts out evil spirits possessed. It's a strange feeling to try and wrestle to keep the spirit around. It literally feels like you're just hanging on for dear life, but these experiences have really strengthened my testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel and the importance of the work that we're doing as missionaries. it's so amazing to see the difference that it makes in people's lives, like Kathy's. The greatest thing to see is when member's really get involved in the missionary work themselves. I love the feeling that comes from walking into certain member's homes, and you can just feel that they are doing everything they can to follow the example of the savior, and It really helps me to see how I want to live the rest of my life :)
By the way, Happy birthday everyone that is having a birthday in October! :) Have so much fun at the Halloween party!! I will be there in Spirit. Just imagine me dressed up as an Elder, that's what I'm going to be for Halloween :)
Love you all! Have an awesome week! Be safe!
Love,
Sister Lesser

Mom:
Aw, cute puppies! are those the frenchie/oldies? That's too bad that Andrew got an infection. That actually happens more often than you would think. There's quite a bit of missionaries in our mission who went to South America and then had to come back because of medical issues. It's alright though, he did what he was supposed to there and now he's going to where God needs him to be :) 
I'm so jealous that you get to go to Grandpa's Halloween party! Have lots of fun :) I'm sure that mandee's costumes look great, and I would really appreciate pictures and stuff :)
Hope that you guys are having an awesome week! How are dad and Tyson? have they shot anything? Tell daddy to send me jerky please :) Also, whenever you send a package, will you please include my black coat that I got for Christmas and the tan one that looks similar to it? If there's not room that's fine. It's starting to heat up again, but the last week has felt so good! Nice and cool :) well, I hope that you have a great week! don't get too overwhelmed with all of the sewing. And I'm sorry for not practicing piano all of those years.
Love you!

Mandee:
When does the play start?! I think I've asked you that question in every e-mail for the last couple of months. I bet you guys will do awesome :) I'm glad that you are having so much fun in school :) Grandma Nanna sent me some pictures of Brie going to homecoming! It was so crazy, I can't believe you guys are that old! Don't date til you're 16, I'm serious! Anyway, have an awesome week, work hard, and read your scriptures and say your prayers everyday. I promise it will make a difference in how your week goes :)

Kari:
Thanks so much for the package! I love the holiday packages that you send :) It's really cutsied up our apartment! It was an elder's apartment not too long ago, and it definitely looks like one, so it's been nice to have cute decorations up :) It sounds like you guys have been having lots of fun, just staying really busy! I can't believe that Kaden graduates this year! (In all honesty I still can't believe that I'm graduated!) But he'll make an awesome missionary :) Serving a mission really does make you a better person and change your perspectives on things if you let it! I know that I'm a completely different person because of it! I'm glad that your talk went well!
How is everything else going? Do you have any fun trips coming up? You had a birthday last week right? Happy belated birthday!
Love you!

Grandma Nanna:
Haha! Thanks for the pictures! I can't believe that Brie is old enough to go to homecoming, that's so crazy!! They all still seem so little to me, my mom keeps telling me how Mandee has started driving and it's freaking me out! She's just not old enough!! Haha, Stryker's picture!! That just seems like a picture of a normal day in the Lesser/Hoppe house :) haha. How is everything going? Is grandpa still hunting?
Have a great week, Love you!

Grandma Bowcutt:
I'm so glad that you guys made it back safely and that you were able to have a good time with Daniel, Tayler, and Daren. :) How are you remodeling the upstairs bedrooms? What are they going to look like now? Have you guys gotten more used to being off your missions? Just think, now you can take that trip to the great wall of China that grandpa wanted to do! :) haha.
I love you guys, hope you have a great week!

Hi Dad!!
I hear that you're back up hunting again, so you probably won't get this letter for a while, but thanks for your letter last week! I didn't get it in time to write back, but we can read e-mails throughout mondays. I was so happy to hear from you :) One of the recent converts in this area, Bill, really likes hunting to, so I get to talk to him about sitting in trees and shootin' stuff and what not :) haha. We'll have to go hunting when I get back! Also, If you happen to shoot something this time, I would really appreciate some jerky. teriyaki flavor. yum :) How did Tyson do on the dear hunt? Is he shooting better? Mandee sent me a picture a couple weeks ago of his poor bruised arm! Poor kid.
Vacaville is quite a bit different than Dixon. A little more dangerous, a lot more people, and a lot more places to go shopping :) yay! Not that I have the funds for that, but they have lots of really good stores to come back to after the mission :) It's fun, but all of the solid investigators got baptized in the few weeks before I got here, so we've been doing quite a bit of finding.

Hope that everything is going good at home and that you guys had fun hunting! How are you liking the puppies? I think poor mom's ready to get rid of them all :) Have a great week! Love you! Be safe!

Weekly Letter 10-13-14

Hi Everyone!

How is everything going? Everything has been pretty good here in Vacaville!  We got to see Meet the Mormons on Friday! It was like Christmas! It was so good, I really recommend that everyone go and watch it! Each story progressively made me cry more and more...in a good way :)

The weather has still been in the high 90's this week, but is supposedly going to start cooling down to the high 80's this week. Everything is still green as can be, not an orange leaf to be found. I just want to be able to wear fall clothes :( There's lots of cool fall decorations though :) I think Californians really really like Halloween, I can't count the number of full on grave yards that people are setting up in their yards! One of the less-active members of the ward literally turns his home into a haunted house every year! We went over to visit with his wife and all we could hear were screams coming from the garage! People are crazy... :)

We have a baptism coming up on the 18th! Our investigator Kathy is officially getting baptized this Saturday, she's already passed her interview and everything! We also set another baptismal date with our investigator Tamara, for November 8th. It was so cool, we have only taught her twice, but she has been reading the Book of Mormon and absolutely loves it! We invited her to be baptized and told her that we think she can be ready by the 8th, and she was like, "That's so weird, everything good happens to me on the 8th! Both of my children were born in the 8th month. I think I'm supposed to be baptized on that day!" It was so cool :)

Love you all! Hope you have a great week!

Mom:

I'm glad that everything is going good :) You should send me some pictures of the puppies! You should send me pictures of Mandee in all of her costumes too, I want to see them! I wish I had learned how to sew, there are so many talents that I want to develop after my mission, like playing piano and sleeping... :) haha. Cheryl's baptism is on the 25th and I still get to go back to that, thank goodness!

Did you get my last letter? If not, I need to know the name of our dental insurance please. I may or may not have a cavity... but everything else is fine, except my legs hurt every time I even think about running in the morning. I think I would be getting in shape, but the members here not only feed us every night, they also feed us huge desserts!! Last Monday a member took us out to lunch at 'Fentons' which is a famous Ice cream place. It was a mountain! I never want to look at ice cream again for the rest of my life. In fact, I think I'm going to swear off sugar soon. and then the other night we had rice pudding with tons of whipped cream after dinner, and then we went to a recent converts house and they gave us a 3 inch slice of a huge, rich, four layer cake with a mountain of frosting on top! I think I may be developing diabetes....literally.

Good luck with all of the sewing and dogs and stuff this week! :) Love you!

Mandee:

I should have made you promise not to get married before I got off my mission :) Send me pictures of you in all of your costumes, I want to see them!! I can't believe they've got you in heels! they should know by now to keep you at least 10 feet from them at all times! Good luck :) I want a video of you biffing it :)

Have a great week! Love you! Be nice to Tyson!

Grandma Nanna:

Me and my companion live in the apartment alone, but we are trying to get the YSA sisters, Sister Kwan and Sister Decker, to move in with us. Sister Kwan is from Hong Kong and has promised to show take us on a tour of Hong Kong after the mission :) She makes the best Ketchup rice ever!  I'm sad you can't go to see libby! You should go and have grandpa stay home with the puppies :) haha. It sounds like you've got a busy day planned! Have fun! I know that you can meet your goals! 

Love you! tell grandpa and Lacey and her family hi for me. I love them too! Have a great week!

Grandma and Grandpa Bowcutt:

Good for you guys, going to the temple and indexing, those are definitely worth while things to do! We had stake conference yesterday, and the Sacramento temple president came and spoke to us. I loved what he said, "I don't like it when people come out of the temple saying, that was so good, but now I have to go back out to the real world. This like if a temporary time preparing for eternity. When we come into the temple, we come into the real world, not the other way around."

That's cool that your friends are coming back from their mission as well! The Nauvoo mission would be so fun! 

Tell Daren hi for me! It made me so happy that he came to my farewell! I hope that he's doing good and that he's happy with whatever he's doing :) This gospel and our Savior Jesus Christ really does bless families and bring them together in ways that nothing else can. I've seen the way that reading scriptures together has really brought families together and brought the spirit into their homes :) That's cool that Daren's going down to Arizona with you! Tell Daniel and Tayler hi too!

Love you guys! Have a great week and a safe trip!

Kaden:

So I hear you get to put in your mission papers soon, congratulations! I hope that you are really thinking about and considering a mission, this is the best thing that could have happened in my life! I've learned so much and grown so much more in the gospel than I thought I could have. The most important convert you can have on your mission is yourself. A mission tries and tests your faith more than I ever thought it could, but because of that you learn and grow much more than you could anywhere else. 

Go on a mission as soon as you can! Don't wait!

Just some tips for things I wish I had done before my mission:

-Read the WHOLE preach my gospel (not just chapter 3, but study that part really good!)

-Read the New Testament

-Really study the Book of Mormon, say a prayer before and after you read it!

-Learn a few hymns on the piano :)

-Don't skip Seminary EVER!

:) So how is football going? Are you first string now? What position do you play? How is school? Do you go to the school dances? Always ask a girl to the school dances! :) Love you dude! Have a great week!

Me and Sister Clawson

The house that we're standing in front of is painted neon green and yellow for the Oakland A's baseball team :) it was probably one of the most outrageous things I have ever seen!

Weekly Letter 10-6-14

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe that it's already October! Actually, I can't believe that it's already October and it's still 100 degrees here! I just want to wear fall clothes :( haha.

This week has been great! I got transferred to Vacaville on Tuesday. My new address is:

100 Summerfield Dr. Apt. 215

Vacaville, CA 95687

Vacaville is so fun :) It's only about 10 minutes outside of Dixon, but we actually have little hills here so it feels a little more like home! Also, Vacaville is much bigger than Dixon, so we have fun shopping centers, yay!!! haha. just kidding, ain't nobody got money for that!

I'm in the Vacaville 5th ward, and our area is all out in the country, which is awesome, so much more fun than the busy city! My companion's name is Sister Clawson. She's awesome! She's super sweet and outgoing and makes everyone her best friend as soon as she meets them. She was on the BYU swim team, and she's also a health nut who LOVES to run, so I'm getting in shape!...or dying, I can't decide which one will come first.

The ward is amazing and I can tell that I'm really going to love it here. We have a baptism coming up on the 18th and a few investigators who are close! Sister Clawson is awesome at contacting so I'm really learning that from her. We have seen so many miracles this last week! All of the lessons that we have taught together the spirit has been there so strong, and we have picked up 4 new investigators already, including a cute family :) I'm so excited to be here!

How did you all like conference?!?! I thought it was amazing! The talks were all so powerful and exactly what I needed. I loved President Monson's talk about walking as Christ did, and it really got me thinking as to how I can be more like our Savior, and I came to the conclusion that first I had to learn more about him and his life, so I have started reading the New Testament for the first time! I also loved Elder Klebingat's talk about how we can have more spiritual confidence...I just loved them all!

I hope that everyone is doing well and was spiritually fed this last weekend. Have a great week! Love you all!

Love,

Sister Lesser

Mom:

I'm jealous that you got to go to Bear Lake for conference! That's okay though, the Saturday morning session of conference we got to watch in a member's home, the Masedas', with a recent convert named Lilla and her less-active son "Dirty Don". She's super sweet! Sister Clawson is so funny, she calls Lilla "grandma" and she calls brother and sister Maseda "mom" and "dad". I'm really getting to know the ward well because of her. She kind of reminds me of Mandee, very out going and no filter :) haha.

Are you guys all super busy? When does Mandee's play start? How are the Frenchie/Oldie puppies? 

I really loved the conference talk that talked about the importance of daily family prayers and scripture study and weekly family home evening :) It might be a good one to read again and implement :)

PS: I can't believe you chose laziness over sending me a longer letter! I expect a 5 page long letter next week!

:) have a good week, I love you!

Mandee:

Haha, you poor thing. I'm sorry that you keep developing new strange allergies! You probably need to be put on some kind of daily allergy medication in addition to carrying around an epi pen and inhaler at all times :)

That's fun that you got to go work the corn fields though!! I'm glad that you are enjoying drama and high school and making lots of good friends. 

Are you ever going to figure out how to send me that video? 

Have a great week! Be safe! Make good choices! Love you!

Tyson:

I'm glad that you got to go to the priesthood session with grandpa! Where was Dad, working? One of our recent converts, Jeremy Scott, from Dixon went all the way to salt lake to attend the Priesthood session and the Sunday morning session. I'm kind of sad that I don't get to talk to him about it, but Vacaville if fun too. 

Fun fact: "Vaca" means "cow" in spanish...I live in Cow ville :)

People had way too much fun naming the streets and towns in California. We have the most ridiculous names here!

I'm not sure what the wierdest thing I've seen on my mission is...I'll let you know when something weird happens though :)

The coolest thing has probably been the baptisms, those are always awesome!

What was your favorite conference talk? Who was your favorite speaker? What has been your favorite part of the week? Have you been to the temple yet?

Have a great week! love you!

Grandma Bowcutt:

What commentary were you listening to? I agree, the Prophet and apostles are more in touch with the world than people think. In fact, that was focused on a lot during conference, about how they know what their talking about, a lot more even than the younger generation would. I loved the Sunday sessions, a lot of the morning session was focused on listening to the Prophet, which I feel is very important. My all time favorite session was the Sunday afternoon one though. So many good talks!! We actually had a recent convert and an investigator at that conference, and it was great! Elder Bednar's talk was absolutely perfect! I think I'm going to print it out and start giving it to every investigator, haha :)

I'm glad that you're enjoying your time at Bear Lake and with the grandkids! How has everything been going? How is Grandpa? What miracles have you seen this week? Love you, have a great week!

Allyson and Kevin:

Thanks so much for the letter, it was great to hear from you guys! I loved Harper's picture, I'm going to hang it on my wall :) 

I can't believe that Monroe is big enough to walk and Harper's already going to preschool, ah! It's so weird! I'm glad that you guys are doing so well though! That's awesome that you're the Seminary teacher Kevin! I bet that will be really fun! How early is early morning seminary? What is the subject this year? I bet you're a great teacher!

The Santa Rosa mission is indeed a great place to serve! President and Sister Alba and all of the missionaries here have worked hard to make it that way. But It's incredible to see how God has prepared these people to receive the gospel :)

Thanks for the bracelet! That's such a fun idea, I will definitely "keep the love traveling"!

Love you guys! I hope that you have a wonderful week!