................Sister Lauren Holmoe..... .......Tallahassee, Florida Mission....: Week 24

Hello Family!!!

Thanks for your emails and pics!! Loved them AS USUAL!! This week was another great one!! We met a ton of new people and basically I can hear the fonts filling up with these people!! Exciting times!! I'll start with the update on Teresa. Teresa came to church yesterday and LOVED it! She felt the spirit really strong and wants to keep taking lessons and coming back! She is the sweetest lady. She painted Sister Sam and I each paintings that remind her of us. Mine is a painting of an angel that says, "gentleness". How nice is she!?! I'm keeping it foreva! One of our lessons with her this week was the Word of Wisdom. Our member who was with us drinks coffee?!? It turned out to be a huge blessing though because we were able to teach her too and then 3 days later she texted us and was like "3 days without coffee girls!” So both the member and the investigator needed the lesson! Teresa is still smoking but hopefully she'll be able to lower the amount she smokes! I either come home from the day smelling like smoke or fried grease! Gotta love the southern smells!!

We had some awesome lessons with Carolyne. We just go and read a chapter from the BOM. She’s LOVING it! I've never seen her so invested. She wants to share the BOM with everyone! Everything is starting to click with her and it’s all cause of the witness she received about the BOM! (ps how’s the reading coming fam? (:)

Hannah’s baptism was SOOO good!!!! I'll remember forever! She was pretty nervous at first but seeing her come out of the water ALL smiles just made my week (: She was so happy and couldn't stop smiling! It was good to see her family support her too. It was a room full of tatted people and I was just like, “this is too good (:!” We bought her a cookie cake and put congrats Hannah on it! Everyone loved it! Funny story. They needed someone to conduct the closing hymn and Bishop was like last second, "Sister Holmoe, will you conduct??" It was like a 6/8 thing and I had no idea what in the world I was doing up there! I could never figure it out and it was pretty cool! whatevs haha!

Oh another embarrassing story real quick, this lady was expressing how her son had died 5 years ago and it was SILENT for like 5 seconds and the ONLY thing that came out of my mouth was..."nice." HAHAHA how terrible right!?! Then in the prayer Sister Sam called the man a “she.” We were tongue tied in that lesson as you can see!!

We met someone famous this week. The wife of Alan Jackson’s old guitarist! She may or may not be an investigator by the end of next week! Holla at celebrities convertin!

We had some GOOOOD food this week!! Sister Sam and I went to Waffle House late one night cause our dinner appointment cancelled! Everyone calls it the "grease bucket" but I thought it was pretty dang good!! Chocolate chip waffles for the win. You can’t serve in the south without going to waffle house! We had fried pork chops three times this week, mustard and collard greens, lots of fried okrah, AND......FRIED OREOS!!!! (: (: (: I had been craving the fried oreos ever since the fourth of July so Bishop’s family finally made them for me again!! WOW! NEVER have I tasted anything better than fried oreos!!!! Yep. I'm coming home with diabetes. Bishop Young’s family signed up to feed us for Christmas and to let us skype our families at their house! So nice of them!!!! We will most likely do that if we are both still here!! Anyways back to food. Erik, have you heard of Sonny’s B-bque pit?? It’s like Wallabys but 10 times better! For Sunday dinner last night, we went to a non-member lady and her less active boyfriend’s house. They fed us a wayyy good meal and they had CRESCENT ROLLS! The exact ones from home! It was awesome though because she asked us if we wanted ours to be taken out of the oven early so they were doughy! I was like..."yes, this lady speaks my language!" I felt so at home!!

The package came at the perfect time!! This weekend was COLD!!! We were biking and the gloves were so nice to have! So thank you!! I also lovvvved getting the coat, sweatshirt, and sweater (: Oh and the Christmas Card is so cute as well! It’s on the wall in the apartment! Sad to hear my Avalon is struggling :( Love my baby!! Every time I see an Avalon here I'm like.....awwwwww! Our Malibu is on its last leg. It’s about to retire from the missionary world anyways but its breaking down! We just take it to the shop when the car says the oil is low! SO FAR luckily I haven't had to do all that stuff Erik showed me before I left!! Remember how I was just stressin in our drive way!?! That’s crazy the soccer team flew into PCB!!! They had to have driven RIGHT THROUGH my town to get to Tallahassee!!! I wish I would have seen their buses!! Small world!! So, another hard rule that has come up is we are NEVER allowed to be in the car with the elders. Needless to say, it’s hard because we SHARE A CAR......so now we only get the car every other P-day! I was hoping to be able to find my last few gifts and mail the package but it’s going to have to wait till NEXT WEEK!

Mom and Shannon, have you heard of the book "Blackmoore" by Julianne Donaldson. It’s the same author that wrote "Edenbrooke"! Y’all should read it! I read the back at some member’s house and it looked really good!!!

Well that’s about all I have for today!! Sad to hear the cougs lost :( At least we’ll be bowlin’ FOR SURE! Good luck against Nevada!!

As Thanksgiving comes this Thursday...know that I am FOREVER GRATEFUL for y’all! My family and friends! I could not have it better!!! Thank you for all the love!! Enjoy some good food, probably some card games, and know I love you and am planning on dominating in all the games NEXT Thanksgiving (: Have a great week!!!!! <3/ Sister Lauren Ashley!!

Christmastime in the mall! Reminded me just of University Mall!