................Sister Lauren Holmoe..... .......Tallahassee, Florida Mission....: Week 53

Good morning y’all!! You may have noticed my subject line this week is "blackberry cobbler"! Apparently it’s berry cobbler season because no joke we got fed blackberry cobbler 4 times this week! HAHA! Sister Bertoldo and I would just die laughing! Gotta love the south!

This week has been great! I've officially been out a year! Crazy to know that this time last year, I was on my mission!! haha! That’s sweet you went to Michelle Isom’s farewell! She left about the same time of the year I did! Aw she’s about to embark on such an epic journey :)

Zone training went great on Tuesday! It was a great experience to be able to teach. I felt it went really well! The whole theme of the meeting was on unity. I know as our Zone is obedient, diligent and united the work here will explode!! It already is exploding. We hope to have 3 baptisms this Saturday from the sisters in our zone! I got to see Sister Chandler!!!! That was probably the highlight! I love that girl so much! It was a great reunion!!

Cora is all ready for her baptism this Saturday! She is SO excited. We met with her a lot this past week and she is fully committed. It was cool to observe her throughout her repentance process! A lot of weight has been lifted from her and she is so much happier. Tears of joy stream from her face in like every lesson. She took us out to Golden Corral on my year mark :) Such a nice woman! Her husband also came to church yesterday for the first time which was awesome!!! Cause that’s ultimately what it is all about....families entering the Kingdom of God TOGETHER!

We started teaching Steven Jones’ niece this week named Kalia! She is 10 and SO CUTE! Oh I love her spunky little personality! It will be fun teaching her :)

We had a powerful lesson yesterday on the Book of Mormon. In the South you see the prophecies of the end of 2nd Nephi being fulfilled every day as so many people say, "Bible, we have a bible, we don’t need another Bible." But I will NEVER get sick of testifying of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. Aw it’s my favorite thing! Eventually everyone will be backed up to that wall of faith where they HAVE to take Moroni’s promise!

All the wards in Tallahassee are doing an awesome musical presentation called "The Lamb of God" at the end of the month. It is a huge production and they have been working so hard! We've been able to pass out A TON of flyers and it is going to be a great way for nonmembers to come to the building and it gives us an easy in to giving them a tour! We are looking forward to that. We've done a lot of tracting this week using that as our "in" and we've met a lot of promising people!!

COOL moments of the week! I saw the Simonds family from Lynn Haven!!!! It made my week!!! Got to give them all big hugs :) I love them so much. Lynn Haven was the place! Sometimes I think of people and can’t remember if they were in the Lynn haven ward or my home ward!! haha. Feels like part of my home!

We had dinner with a sweet older woman in our ward named Anita. Turns out Brennen Russon was the missionary who taught her! She just ADORES him!!!! She is so strong in the church and one of the most faithful members I know! However she makes us eat A TON when we go to her house haha. She doesn’t take no for an answer!

A cute girl in our ward is trying out to be the next Mormon bachelorette! SHE IS SO GOING TO MAKE IT! Oh she is darling!!! We are all crossing our fingers!!

The first exchange went great! I was with Sister Hill who actually came out with me. It was great to get to know her better and help her think of ideas to spark their area! Loved it.

Mom, the BJ's card made my day!!! Oh you have no idea how excited I am!! Thank you so much :) Dad, that conversion story you sent me was INSPIRED because we are teaching a 15 year old girl who wants to be baptized SO bad but her parents won’t let her! Her name is Asha and she LOVES the gospel and knows it’s true. She reads the Book of Mormon every day and comes to Young Women’s BUT just like that story, she has to honor her parents. We can’t wait to share this story with her. I read an awesome talk called "Patience" by Neil A. Maxwell (highly suggest it) and I loved a quote he said, "The pressure of now, time and time again, goes against the grain of the gospel with its eternalism." Even though Asha wants to get baptized NOW, it’s all in God’s hands and in the eternal perspective 3 years won’t be a problem :)

I continue to be amazed at how God’s hands are in all things each and every day. There is a quote that hangs in the mission home that says, "Coincidences are God’s little miracles wherein He desired to remain anonymous!" How true is that?

I love you all so much and miss you!!! Thanks for the love!!! Have a wonderful week!!!! <3/ Sister Holmoe

ps people are already starting to get so excited for football season here! In ward council the entire calendar is centered around the football schedule. It’s awesome haha. #gonoles