Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Weekly Letter 5-20-15
Hi Everyone!
President Alba sent us a really cool e-mail about the temple last week. He was quoting a book by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone. Elder Featherstone listed some really cool blessings that we get for attending the temple. He promised that if members of the Church would spend half a day in the Temple each month the following blessings would be ours:
1. A man would become mighty, and a woman powerful.
2. It would serve as great "insurance protection" for your marriage.
3. The blessings of the eternal God will be called down upon you, and great spiritual growth will be yours.
4. Unseen angels will watch over your loved ones when Satanic forces tempt them.
5. Your families will draw close to the Lord and there will be no empty chairs in the Celestial Kingdom.
6. Your children will go on missions.
7. Your children will get married in the temple.
8. The veil will be thin, you will have spiritual growth, and many spiritual experiences will distill upon you.
9. You will be prepared for exaltation-with a celestial body, a celestial mind and a celestial personality.
10. You will become receptive to divine guidance and receive spiritual perception to help you grapple with your problems and cares.
11. You will see clearly how to make critical decisions that weigh heavily on your mind.
Super cool blessings of the temple :)
It has just been a really good week in general :) I've been learning a lot for sure! We've run into a couple of people in the last week who have really stuck in my mind. One of them seemed to make the worst out of any situation, while the other made the best out of the absolute worst situation! It was so amazing to see the difference between the happiness level in these two people! One was a less active lady who contracted a virus one day and was completely paralyzed within 24 hours. Her husband left her, she couldn't take care of herself, and she just had so much faith that it was unbelievable. She joined the church and got herself a job as a member of the state disability department and is now trying to help out others who have disabilities. She is so happy, even though she can't do much, she does as much as she can and she knows that God will make up for everything in the next life if she endures to the end. She was such an inspiration to me. truly if we focus on what we're grateful for and we strive to lift others more than ourselves, then we will be much happier than if we wallow in our own shortcomings and despairs!
I hope everyone is doing well and has had a great week!
Highlights of my week:
I made banana pancakes this week, and they were the best :) I haven't eaten those in over a year, weird! We also went on exchanges this week and had a really cool experience! So my STL is a spanish speaking missionary, so we were tracting a street in our area and we ran into a former investigator who we had dropped at the beginning of my time in Santa Rosa. We talked to him for a minute and had the opportunity to teach him and the people that he lives with, but it turns out that the people he lives with only speak Spanish! So it was a super cool miracle that we were able to teach all of them because I happened to have a spanish missionary with me that day :) It's so cool to see the way that God provides and guides us. We also had a scripture war with the AP's. So long story short, the ap's made a bet with us that whoever could set a baptismal date with someone first, the other companionship would have to make them cookies...and we won :) So they made us super delicious cookies, but played a nasty trick on us and FILLED one of the cookies with tons of salt! So we decided to get them back and decided that we would only talk to them in scripture references. That was pretty fun :) they "apologized" and got 2 nephi 9:34 in return, haha. :) But we're friends again. We're going to sticky note their entire car this week, but we're friends :) mwahahahaha.
And the super highlight of my week was going to the temple, Yay!!!!
The temple was so fun :) the Oakland temple is beautiful and there is always such an amazing peaceful spirit in the temple. I've been studying a lot about the temple for the past week in preparation to attend. One thing that really stuck out to me this week is the important of being Reverent. Not like primary "fold your arms and don't speak" type of reverent, but really showing a deep quiet respect for God and for our Savior, directing our every thought toward them. As I continued to learn about reverence, I thought of the scripture D&C 101:16 "Be still, and know that I am God". So many times we get caught up in all of the loud things going on around us, and we don't take time to listen to the promptings of the still small voice and to remember our Savior.
I made banana pancakes this week, and they were the best :) I haven't eaten those in over a year, weird! We also went on exchanges this week and had a really cool experience! So my STL is a spanish speaking missionary, so we were tracting a street in our area and we ran into a former investigator who we had dropped at the beginning of my time in Santa Rosa. We talked to him for a minute and had the opportunity to teach him and the people that he lives with, but it turns out that the people he lives with only speak Spanish! So it was a super cool miracle that we were able to teach all of them because I happened to have a spanish missionary with me that day :) It's so cool to see the way that God provides and guides us. We also had a scripture war with the AP's. So long story short, the ap's made a bet with us that whoever could set a baptismal date with someone first, the other companionship would have to make them cookies...and we won :) So they made us super delicious cookies, but played a nasty trick on us and FILLED one of the cookies with tons of salt! So we decided to get them back and decided that we would only talk to them in scripture references. That was pretty fun :) they "apologized" and got 2 nephi 9:34 in return, haha. :) But we're friends again. We're going to sticky note their entire car this week, but we're friends :) mwahahahaha.
And the super highlight of my week was going to the temple, Yay!!!!
The temple was so fun :) the Oakland temple is beautiful and there is always such an amazing peaceful spirit in the temple. I've been studying a lot about the temple for the past week in preparation to attend. One thing that really stuck out to me this week is the important of being Reverent. Not like primary "fold your arms and don't speak" type of reverent, but really showing a deep quiet respect for God and for our Savior, directing our every thought toward them. As I continued to learn about reverence, I thought of the scripture D&C 101:16 "Be still, and know that I am God". So many times we get caught up in all of the loud things going on around us, and we don't take time to listen to the promptings of the still small voice and to remember our Savior.
1. A man would become mighty, and a woman powerful.
2. It would serve as great "insurance protection" for your marriage.
3. The blessings of the eternal God will be called down upon you, and great spiritual growth will be yours.
4. Unseen angels will watch over your loved ones when Satanic forces tempt them.
5. Your families will draw close to the Lord and there will be no empty chairs in the Celestial Kingdom.
6. Your children will go on missions.
7. Your children will get married in the temple.
8. The veil will be thin, you will have spiritual growth, and many spiritual experiences will distill upon you.
9. You will be prepared for exaltation-with a celestial body, a celestial mind and a celestial personality.
10. You will become receptive to divine guidance and receive spiritual perception to help you grapple with your problems and cares.
11. You will see clearly how to make critical decisions that weigh heavily on your mind.
It has just been a really good week in general :) I've been learning a lot for sure! We've run into a couple of people in the last week who have really stuck in my mind. One of them seemed to make the worst out of any situation, while the other made the best out of the absolute worst situation! It was so amazing to see the difference between the happiness level in these two people! One was a less active lady who contracted a virus one day and was completely paralyzed within 24 hours. Her husband left her, she couldn't take care of herself, and she just had so much faith that it was unbelievable. She joined the church and got herself a job as a member of the state disability department and is now trying to help out others who have disabilities. She is so happy, even though she can't do much, she does as much as she can and she knows that God will make up for everything in the next life if she endures to the end. She was such an inspiration to me. truly if we focus on what we're grateful for and we strive to lift others more than ourselves, then we will be much happier than if we wallow in our own shortcomings and despairs!
(Good Video, watch it!)
Well, I hope that you all have a fantastic week and have the opportunity to attend the temple sometime soon, because it's the best :) Love you!
Love,
Sister Lesser
Hi mom!
Hi mom!
The temple was awesome! Sorry I couldn't write you on Monday. How is
everything going? Did Mandee find out what play she's doing next year? My companion really liked the temple :) it was weird, we went to the visitors center and one of her friends from college was there. Our investigators are doing good. We're going to see mike tonight. He's working on the word of wisdom, so we're going to talk about that. We're also going to see Wally tomorrow and hopefully set a baptismal date with him! We don't have anyone new yet, but we're working on it! we've been struggling a little to meet our daily goals, but we're working on that as well, and we're going to do better next week! Love you!!!
Mandee:
Good luck with swim practice :) You'll have fun as a lifeguard, just be yourself and make friends! The drama fundraiser things sounds like fun. So when does school get out for you? any fun plans for the summer beside lifeguarding and drama camp? don't forget to save the money you earn and to pay tithing. Tithing brings blessings :) 3 Nephi 24:10. Love you! have a great week!
Dad:
I'm glad you got my card! Happy belated birthday! I hope it was an awesome one :) I'm glad that you had a fun time fishing too! We'll have to go sometime when I get back, I don't think I've ever been to lake Powell before. We are supposed to be at about 2 Nephi 20 right now in our reading :) So what's fun this week? Love you, have a great week!
Grandma Nanna:
I really loved your conversion story, thank you for sharing that with me! That's such an amazing story! I love the plan of salvation, it's one of my favorite lessons to teach because it touches peoples hearts and the spirit really testifies to them of the truth of it. God really does love all of His children. :)
So what's going on this week? Anything fun? Love you! Have a great week!
Grandma Bowcutt:
How is grandpa doing? I'm glad the surgery went well and that you're enjoying st. George! It was so good to see you on mothers day, I didn't think you were going to be there, but I'm glad you were :) I can't believe that kaden is old enough to graduate and go on a mission, weird! Well, tell him congratulations for me! Love you! Have a great week!
Monday, May 11, 2015
Weekly Letter 5-11-15
Hi Everyone!
It was so great to be able to talk to so many of you yesterday! Happy day-after-mothers day! It was fun to be able to hear everyone's voices and see all of you :)
This week has been great. Sister Thompson and I get along really well and i don't feel like her trainer at all, she's awesome! We've been doing a lot of finding lately. Hopefully soon we'll see some fruits of our labor and find someone new to teach. We are teaching some really great people right now though! We had the opportunity to give a church tour to our investigator Wally, and he is hopefully going to be at church this upcoming Sunday. We're hoping this week that we can set a baptismal date with him :)
We have really been trying to pay attention to the promptings of the spirit this week, and we've had some really cool experiences! The other day I felt like we should go visit a lady who had just moved into our ward a few months ago. I pushed it off for a bit because she's active and we had already stopped by to see her twice since she'd moved in. But I really felt like we should stop by, so we did, and it turns out she really needed us there at that time! She found out that even though she just moved in, that she needs to move again in the next few weeks and she was really stressed about it. We offered to get someone to give her a blessing and she said that was exactly what she needed. So we were about to call someone, when we got a text from some Elders saying that they had just got done visiting with someone who they wanted us to meet, who happened to be right around the corner from where this sister lived. So we were able to get them to come and give her a blessing. It was a really cool experience. then we had a similar experience last night when we felt prompted to go and visit with a less active member in the ward. It's an incredible feeling to know that you're being used as an instrument in the hands of God. and it was such a testimony to me that he really does look out for and love his children.
We really feel the spirit with us when we are in the service of others. I've really found that on my mission when I am truly trying to forget myself and get to work, that's when I learn and grow the most and when I really feel God's love for me as well as for those around me. I guess there's wisdom in the second great commandment, to "love thy neighbor as thyself". When we slow down and take time to notice and help those around us, even to offer a smile, it really makes a difference in how your day goes and how their day goes.
Another thing that I've been really pondering this week is really how easy it is to do missionary work just by living what we believe and being willing to share it with others. In stake conference a couple of weeks ago one of the speakers talked about how him and his wife made a goal to use the "miracle words" once a week, the miracle words being: My church. So once a week they would slip the words my church into a normal conversation.
Ex. "Hey how was your weekend?" "Good! I attended 'my church' and taught a bunch of 13 year olds about fasting, it was quite the experience!"
He said that just by slipping in the words 'my church' it grabbed the attention of the person he was speaking with if they were ready to hear the gospel, and from that simple goal he was able to baptize two of his neighbors! I always thought that doing missionary work would be one of the hardest things ever, but the more that I'm out here, the more that I realize the importance of our message, and how people are truly seeking for it, even if they don't realize it.
I hope you all have an amazing week this week and that you have the opportunity to do some unexpected service for someone :) Have a great week! Love you!
Love,
Sister Lesser
Mom:
It was good to talk to you all yesterday :) I think this is the first
Monday my whole mission when Mandee didn't write me, haha. Did you geta video of her skit?
How was your Mother's Day?
Thanks for the recipes by the way :) They will be put to good use! Where are you reading at now in the Book of Mormon? What are you learning? Love you! Have a great week! Tell mandee that I hope she gets feeling better. Good luck with the puppies!
Mandee:
I can't believe you didn't write me this week! This is the first week that you've missed my entire mission, you were on a role! But mom says you're sick. I'm sorry, I hope you get feeling better! Love you!
Tyson:
Have fun fishing!
Dad:
Happy, happy birthday Daddy, dear, Happy days will come to you all year! If I had a wish then it would be, a happy happy birthday to you from me! (you can get Mandee to sing it for you!) I love you and hope that you have an incredible birthday and lots of fun fishing!
Monday, May 4, 2015
Weekly Letter 5-4-15
Hi Everyone!
This week I got my new greenie! Her name is Sister Thompson and she's awesome! She's full of greenie fire and a desire to work hard and set this area on fire :) We're having a great time, we get along really well which is awesome. I'm pretty sure they gave me the best companion to ease me into training. :)
So this week we have been doing A LOT of unplanned service, which is awesome :) I've done more yard work in the last couple of weeks than I have my whole mission! It's really cool though because it grew my testimony of contacting potentials. :) So the story is, a couple of weeks ago we were going through our area book and contacting people and nobody would listen to us. We contacted this one potential, Joseline and she said she was too busy, but we told her that if she ever needed anything that we would love to do service. So last week she called us up and wanted us to come and help her in her yard/jungle. So we did and it was really cool because she was asking quite a few questions about what makes our church different, so we'll have to go back and see how she's doing soon :) Then there was another family who some elders found who were moving, so they helped them move out of their house and then called us up and we helped them move into their new apartment. They were crying because they were so happy! The husband has a lot of family members who are Mormon in Utah, so hopefully there will be some potential there :)
We really saw God's hand in our lives this week :) Almost every day I kept thinking to myself that there was no way that we were going to reach our goals that day, but then in the last 15 minutes of the day God would lead us to exactly where we needed to be in order to accomplish all that he wants us to do. Just the other night I felt like we should go and see an certain potential, and she wasn't home but we ran into a guy on the same street who turned out to be a less active who had been looking for the church in the area because his dad, who is active in the church, was coming to stay with him. So we gave him our card with our number and the church address and then he asked if he could have a book of Mormon as well! It's so neat to see how God's hand is always in the work.
This week while I was reading the book of Mormon, it really stuck out to me how God can only bless us as much as the faith that we are willing to exercise. I've really been studying about faith and conversion lately, and it struck me that the book of Mormon talks so much about faith from the very beginning. It says that Lehi only received his visions and revelations because of the faith that he had in Christ. I also thought about how absolutely everything is centered around the Savior. God's plan wouldn't have worked if it wasn't for the atonement of Jesus Christ. I was reading in this last General Conference the talk "Stay by the tree" by Elder Kevin W. Pearson, and he talks about how the tree of life is the love of God, which is Jesus Christ. It was really awesome to think of it that way, that our whole goal in life is to hold to the rod (the word of God) and work our way towards the tree of life (becoming like Jesus Christ).
Moroni 10: 32-33
32 Yeah, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.
33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.
So that's what I've been learning about this week :) I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week! Be safe! Follow the prophet! Love you!
Love,
Sister Lesser
Mom:
Hi mom!
I'm doing good. I'm not an STL this transfer because I'm a trainer. Being a trainer isn't as hard as I thought it would be, but I think that's because I have a stellar greenie :) haha. I don't know if I'm going to be able to miss a week of college. I guess it depends on what classes I'm taking, but I'd prefer not to. I'm still praying trying to figure out where God wants me to go. I'm probably going to apply to the BYU's just in case. It would be the smartest to go to Dixie probably, but I just don't know how I feel about it. We have church here from 11-2 as well. We'll probably call around 5 pm. I think I'm going to try facetiming this time and see if that works better than Skype. What is your facetime name? Love you! Thanks for the shampoo and conditioner. I really needed it!
Mandee:
Good luck in life guard training, you will do great :) just have fun and be friends with everyone. And pay attention. That's important. It sounds like you've been having a fun time :) That's good! How is your personal progress going? I've started over and I'm going to do it all again :) I never really realized how important it was and how much you learn from doing it, you should make sure that you make it a priority :) Love you! Have a great week! Congrats on making productions!
Grandma Bowcutt:
I'm glad that you and Grandpa are both staying busy down in St. George! I didn't know that you did embroidery, that's cool! you'll have to teach me one day :) I'm glad that the house is getting fixed up and that Grandpa was able to get in to get his leg fixed so soon. I'll keep him in my prayers :) Love you both, have a great week!
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