Monday, August 18, 2014

Week 62

Good morning y’all!!! Y’all will be happy to hear that I am fully recovered from that NASTY virus that attacked me last week haha! WOWZER!  SO grateful to be back in full action! That was not fun!! Thanks for all your prayers! I FELT EM :)

This week has been awesome! We set 2 BCD's :)  Kalia, Steven Jone's neice, will MOST LIKELY be baptized on August 30th if all their family can make it that day!  We are thrilled for Kalia.  She is so excited, as is all her family.  We have the lessons at Kalia's grandmas house and it is really cool to see how much her grandma loves her and wants her to grow up strong in the gospel.  Then Phil came to his lesson and said he'd been praying to know what day he should be baptized and after much prayer he feels that September 20th is the day.  That is one of the most rewarding things as a missionary is to be able to witness God answering His children's prayers.  We have a lot to do to help Phil be ready by that date, specifically with his smoking, BUT he has such a strong testimony of this Church and of the Atonement that we believe in him!!! Can't wait to see him in a white jump suit one day :) He is working so hard to get there. 

So I don't think I've shared much about the Wilkerson family but we work with them a lot.  They are a part member family.  The mom is the only member but she is less active.  She has 4 beautiful children, two girls ages 14 and 17 and then two boys ages 5 and 9.  I love them so much, especially the girls!!! We teach them each week and they've been learning from the missionaries for a long time now.  They were able to come to church for the first time though two weeks ago!  The YW and Primary took them in and welcomed them like family! The kids loved it and hopefully will continue to come.  They all want to be baptized in the future.  The key is to continue strengthening the Mom and getting her more motivated!  But one night this week we took a member with us and he was able to give all the kids back to school blessings!! THE SPIRIT WAS SO STRONG IN THAT HOME! The kids absolutely loved the blessings and were so appreciative.  One of the little boys said the closing prayer but then the 14 year old girl asked if she could say one too.  It was a beautiful prayer!! So grateful for the power of the Priesthood.  It made me really really want a fathers blessing though!!!!

We were able to travel to Troy safely on Saturday and attend the baptism so Sister S could interpret.  It was such a great time!  I was able to see lots of people I love but especially my girls Jazz, Lakenya, and Cheyenne.  They are all doing SO GREAT! Cheyenne is preparing to go to the temple next month and Jazz and Lakenya were in high spirits!  Such a great reunion. We also drove through GA to get there so I can officially say I've been to Georgia now!! :)  The only thing that would have made it better was if we could have jammed to "Florida Georgia line" on the FL GA line! HA.

I got a letter from a family in Lynn Haven this week :) It made my day! They updated me on everyone in the ward and I was so happy to hear how well everyone was doing! Oh good news....I'm staying in TALLY :) I live to see 6 more weeks here! YAY! No change for us!!

I'm so grateful to be serving a mission!  Each morning we recite our purpose of "inviting others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost and enduring to the end." Its amazing how hand in hand our purpose is with Heavenly Father's purpose of "bringing to pass the immortality and eternal life of man."  Its been great to see the work of Salvation explode the past 2 years and to be a part of it is INDESCRIBABLE!! I hope to continue fulfilling my purpose as a missionary the last 3 months I’m here and also for the rest of my life as a member missionary! Greatest work on earth.

Well I hope y’all are having a blast together!!! Thank you so much for the Get Better Soon card mom :) I loved it :) You guys truly are the best and I LOVE YOU SOOOOO MUCH!!! Have a fun week!!! <3/ Sister Lauren Holmoe

ps H&M had their grand opening here in Tallahassee last week!!! We may go check it out today :)  That blue and white blouse was Sister Bertoldo's! She left it for me haha :)

SOOOOO PUMPED FOR FOOTBALL SEASON!!! <3

This is Phil everyone!!! He is awesome! Notice the WOW pamphlet, his new best friend :)
 FL-GA line! :)
 I've always wanted a picture of this sign!!! It's in between Dothan and Troy. Never thought I'd see it again but I GOT IT :)
 Reunion with Sister Ford! Love this girl so much!!
 Some of my favorite people of all time!
 Me and Ryan! He baptized the guy who got baptized! It was cool because it was exactly a year ago from when he got baptized! 
 It has been a crazy busy week so I just took this 14th month pic on our walk to the computer lab haha! Not the cutest but it will do! :)

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