Weekly Letter 6-8-15

Hi Everyone!

So this has been a pretty crazy week, like usual! We found out on Friday that I'm getting transferred to Benicia. I'm pretty sad about it, but I know that that's where the Lord needs me to be. 

My new address is:

900 Cambridge dr. #57

Benicia, CA 94510

I'm going to be in a trio again, at least for the next 30 days. One of the sisters that I'm with extended for 30 days, so she's going to be leaving in the middle of the transfer and I'm going to be follow up training the other sister. 

So this week our investigator Wally dropped us. It was so sad and so unexpected. he had come to church and was loving the lessons and the Book of Mormon, but suddenly on Saturday he called us out of the blue and told us that he just doesn't feel comfortable learning anymore. Hopefully one day he'll feel the spirit again and change his mind. It's hard to see people who you have grown to love make that kind of decision in their life. We have so much truth and goodness to share, which we sometimes take for granted, and it's so hard to see others who choose not to have that truth and happiness in their lives.

We also picked up a new investigator this week....kind of. His name is Bruce and we caught him outside his house about a week ago and got talking to him. He is so sweet, one of those people that you can really just feel how much God loves them. He has no religious background whatsoever, and when we talked to him it was like he had never heard of the Savior. So we explained who the Savior was and about his life, and he was so interested in learning more, so we went back this week....and Bruce had no idea who we were. We found out that he has severe short term memory loss. So we retaught him exactly what we had taught last week. It was just like the movie 50 first dates, but in this case it's 50 first lessons...it's hard, because he truly does have that desire to learn, but with no capacity to remember anything we can't keep teaching him. It was definitely an interesting experience though :) If nothing else, I have definitely learned this week that God loves all of his children, especially those who have disabilities and do all they can, even if they can't live the gospel quite like we can :) We actually visit occasionally with a lot of less active members who are like that. They do all they can, and you truly can feel God's love for them as you visit with them. It's an amazing experience to be able to visit with and get to know those wonderful people :)

I love you all and hope that you have a wonderful week and a fantastic summer! Keep praying and reading your scriptures every day, that's the most important thing we can do to come closer to our Father in Heaven. :)

Love you! 

Love,

Sister Lesser

Mom:

it's good to hear that everyone is doing good! It's so weird to think that Libbie Bakker is already old enough to go on a mission, but I guess it makes sense. I forget how old I am sometimes :P. You should send me pictures of the puppies! Cute! It's good to hear that Tyson is working hard! Tell Mandee to keep working hard too :) Swim lessons are fun and that's when you get really tan, so she'll love it. I never was able to get that ring back, but don't worry about sending me another one, I'm afraid I'll lose it again, haha :) I have still been praying about what I want to do for school, but I still haven't really gotten an answer, so I'll keep praying and get back to you about that :) Do you have any fun plans for the summer? You should get mandee to do like a Zumba or a Yoga class with you or something, that sounds like fun! haha :) Love you! have a great week!

Dad:

Have fun golfing and fishing! Love you! Have a great week!

Tyson:

You're doing a good job dude, keep up the hard work :) also, don't forget to read your scriptures, they're awesome!

Mandee:

Good luck with lifeguarding! It will get better and you will love swim lessons :) That's awesome that you're in the dance core, good luck with that! That will get you in good shape, haha, just try not to fall on your face too much :) Love you! have a great week!

Grandma Nanna:

Good luck with the puppies! That will be fun :) Thanks for the encouragement! Love you! Have a great week!

Grandma and Grandpa Bowcutt:

I'll keep praying for you Grandpa! I hope you get better soon! That's exciting that everyone is going to Bear Lake for the 4th of july! I'll be there in spirit :) it sounds like everything is going well though! I'm glad that you both are having a good summer! Any other fun plans? Love you! Have a great week!

Pictures 6-1-15

1. All of the movies that were filmed in this are :)

2. Me!

3. Sister Ngawharau (roommate from newzealand) got a letter and the

return address was for middle earth....  

1. One of our senior couples went home today :(

2. Group selfie!

3. That's my companion :) haha

4. Apartment selfie :)   

Weekly Letter 6-1-15

Hi everyone!

This is one of the first pretty normal weeks that we've had in quite a
while! It was really cool though because we picked up a couple of new
investigators, yay! It was even better because Wally came to church
for the first time as well as four of the less active members that
we've been working with, it was so cool! We sang in sacrament meetingas well :) this Sunday we

also had the bishopric changed! Our new bishop is from Hawaii so the
whole chapel was filled with Polynesian family members and everyone
was wearing lays, including the bishopric and stake presidency. Not
even fake lays, real lays made out of real flowers. The whole chapel
smelled unbelievably good! It was funny though, Wally was so confused
and asked us why we wear lays at church, haha :)

So the other day we were walking to a lesson, and this random guy ran
up and stopped us and proceeded to tell us that he loves Mormons, but
that our doctrine is wrong because we're not vegan...what made it
really funny though is that everything he said was in rhyme, haha!
From him we learned that Shakespeare wrote the King James Version of
the bible and that crazy rhyming vegan conspiracy politicianism is
apparently a religion, haha. That was a really interesting
conversation, but it really strengthened my testimony, because I
hadn't realized how much the spirit had left as he was talking to us
until we went to our lesson right after that and the spirit came back
very strongly in the lesson as our member bore his testimony about the
power of the Book of Mormon. I am really grateful for the truths that
we have been blessed with. :)

It's so weird to think that it's transfer time already again! We find
out this Friday what's going to happen, and I'm afraid that I'm going
to get transferred again. I hope not, but wherever the Lord sends me
is where I need to be :)

I hope that everything is going well and at you all have a wonderful
week! Love you! Happy summer!

Love,
Sister Lesser

Mom:

Thank you for the package, it came right when I needed it :) also,
those idle isle chocolates are delicious! I probably don't need more
chocolate....but they sure are yummy! Mandee emailed me and I saw so
much of myself In that email as she talked about the pool, haha :) how
is everyone doing? I'm sad to hear that great grandma isn't doing too
well. I'll keep her in my prayers for sure, as well as Kaden. I'm
excited to hear where he gets called to!
I'm glad that Tyson is going up to help grandma out! That will be
good, put him to work! Haha :)

Mandee:
I'm sorry that you don't like the pool, some days are better than
others, I promise :) congrats on making call backs for footloose, I
hope you have lots of fun with that! So does school get out this week?
What are your plans for summer? Summer jobs are more important than
school musicals anyway :) save up your money, don't spend it all at
once. Remember, any clothes you buy are subject to my stealing them
upon my return, haha :) have a great week! Love you!


Grandma Nanna and grandpa Bick:
Congrats on the new puppies! I hope that everything goes well and that
they don't give you too hard of a time :) how is your floor doing? Is
it all dried up yet? I hope that you can stop sleeping on the couch
soon, haha :) Grandma, have you been able to do any family history
lately? We have been talking a lot about temples and family history
lately and I was wondering if you knew any cool stories about your
ancestors that you can write up or pictures and send to me or update
to family search or something. Have fun with the puppies! Love you!
Have a great week!

Pictures 5-25-15

1. Really cool snoopy statue outside of a frozen yogurt shop

2. We had comp study with our district leader and he decided to bring

mustaches....we had to teach each other like this....haha

3. One of our roommates is an illustration major and she drew us this

wonderful picture which pretty much describes this whole transfer.

It's a long story......  

Weekly Letter 5-25-15

Hi everyone!

This week has been pretty crazy! Everyone asked us to do stuff last minute this week, so we ended up doing a missionary moment at a baptism, and teaching relief society on Sunday, and we're singing in two sacrament meetings next week! I was pretty stressed about the whole thing, but it ended up going really well. The spirit was
definitely there directing us and helping us to stay calm, which I'm really grateful for :) one of the biggest things that I've been learning is at it doesn't really matter what I say, it all depends on if the spirit is there or not, because he's the real teacher.

We also set a baptismal date with our investigator Wally this week! It was awesome, we brought our ward mission leader with us, who actually knew Wally before hand because they are both attorneys. Brother McOmber asked Wally why he was taking the lessons and what he wanted his end goal to be, and Wally said that he wants to be baptized! He's been reading his Book of Mormon every day and he knows that it's the word of God. We were able to set a baptismal date with him, it was so cool :) It's so fun being a missionary :)

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

Love,
Sister lesserMom:  

Oh my goodness! That's so scary that mandee rear ended some body! I'm glad that she's okay!  So funny story about the ring, I had it for about two days and it fit fine, but then I accidentally dropped it in the car and it went in between the metal track and the plastic guard under the seat and then we were finally able to get that off and we realized that it fell into a hole and is somewhere under the carpet in the car..... We're going to take it in and see if there's anything we can do to get it back.It's a pretty depressing story....

I've been making lunches as well and making sure that I'm getting in all of my fruits and veggies every day! I'm trying to eat healthier, and i've

rediscovered my love for cooking :) since I haven't done it in like a year, haha :) we don't get very much time or money to cook at all, so I'm just throwing quick little healthy things together. 

We are singing a song called carried by love. I'm singing with the other sisters in our apartment. I'm singing alto and my companion and one of the other sisters are singing a combination of the tenor/bass parts, it's pretty funny :)

Mandee:
I'm glad that your safe! That's a scary experience! God is definitely protecting you :) footloose, that will be exciting for you! Good luck with tryouts! Are they going to do practices throughout the summer again? Good luck with your last few weeks of school, work hard, read the Book of Mormon every day! Love you!

Tyson:
I did happen to eat something pretty strange on Friday. A single lady in our ward made us this strange split pea soup mixed with mashed potatoes. It was pretty scary. Then for desert she fed up overly ripe cantaloupe and warm vanilla pudding. Our tummies were not doing so well for the rest of the night. The elders were on bikes that day, so she gave us sisters the leftovers, so we went and doorbell ditched it on the elders front porch and then sticky noted their car :) haha. Well , have a wonderful last week of school! Love you!

Grandma Bowcutt:
Wow, that's an amazing story! I love hearing stories like that. Since I've been out on my mission I've really realized how easy it is to do missionary work! You just follow the second great commandment and love thy neighbor as thyself and do unto others as you would have them do unto you :) I hope that young man get the opportunity to check out the temple grounds and to feel the spirit there!  Have a great week! Love you! Tell grandpa to get better soon :)