Week 28

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! woot woot! What a FUNNN time this is seriously!! I lovvvved all the pics and videos y’all sent me! SO FUNNY! The fashion show...classic!! Y’alls PJ's were BOSS this year!! Looked like so much fun!!! Now in Cali already! #GOCOUGS!

Where to begin, where to begin.......The half mission conference was AMAZING!  It was a blast!  It honestly felt like a huge family reunion! (pictures coming your way)!  We had a musical program and guess who in the world SANG!? MEEE...hahaha I know what a joke right!? But seriously I did!  I sang an arrangement to "I Know my Redeemer Lives" with 4 other sister missionaries!  It sounded pretty good! I basically just stood and looked cute ha (: It’s all about the lip sinking haha!  Then we had a stocking exchange which was sweet!  Cute Sister Dawe had me (: love her!  I had one of the senior missionaries!  I made a good stocking for her!! It was just so good to see old friends and have the Christmas spirit!  Our Relief Society had ham, potatoes, and pies for us. Delish!  It was also good to be around President and Sister Smith!  I had to say the closing prayer...I felt like I was saying the General Conference prayer there was so many people there!  Mom, I had to time it perfectly when to walk up at the end of the song.  Do you remember when we used to decide when people should go up!? I finally had to do it!

Ashley is getting baptized Jan 11, 2014 (: WHOOO. SO so excited for her!  We had some amazing lessons this week and she knows it is right for her.  We took her to a baptism on Saturday and it confirmed to her it’s what she wants!  Then the Copelands brought her home her very own quad with her name engraved on it from Orlando!  She was SO happy! Then she asked Austin (17) to baptize her and he just cried and cried.  BEST MOMENT!  Sister Sam and I won some money from the mission office for turning in receipts on time and so we all went out to get some Japanese food on Friday (:  It was fun!  Ashley’s bomb!

We had some SWEET church tours this week!  One was with a part member family who really has not been to church for 10 plus years.  The lady who is a member hasn't prayed for us since we met her but at the end of our church tour we asked her AGAIN, and this time...SHE DID IT.  It was a beautiful prayer and she cried at the end.  We all sang "I am A child of God" in the chapel and the spirit was so strong it was unreal!  Then they came to church on Sunday for the first time.  Did I mention we had 8 investigators at church on Sunday????  8 investigators!!! That's not even counting all the many less actives that showed up as well!  Christmas brings out the best in people I'm telling ya!!! What a sweet program we had and a very very full chapel! But anyways, you had some questions about the church tours...it’s a worldwide thing I believe but our stake is really involved with them.  We designed flyers on the computer and pass them out with time and dates on them to everyone.  We've given tours to members, nonmembers, less actives, whoever.  We try to encourage the members to invite friends and neighbors.  It’s pretty fun to do!!  Every church tour has been a good experience so far!

Some fun memories this week:

-a lady in our ward making ME sing a solo...so embarrassing haha.
-Caroling with the YSA's last night!
-A less active member crying to us as she says "I know God specifically sent you two to me."   I mean, it’s moments like that that are just SOO indescribable!!

-We were out proselyting and this man was talking to us and he said he thinks it is so amazing how some athletes leave their scholarships to go do what we do.  He said one time when he heard that on ESPN or something he went and looked up the Mormons.  He told us he would be interested in us teaching him what we believe in so he could understand better why athletes choose to take a 2 year break!  It was great!! We are going back soon!  He said he liked the cougs ;)

The members continue to just give us gifts upon gifts!  We got handmade slippers, handmade scarves, necklaces, and more! It’s amazing.  So grateful to be here.

So for Skyping on Christmas, WHICH I AM SO EXCITED FOR!!!!!!, the Morses are planning on picking us up around 1 o clock my time and then skyping anywhere from 1:30-3:30 my time.  Not sure who is going first between me and Sister Sam or anything but plan on any time from there! What is y’alls Skype accounts?? So as far as I know that is the plan.  If it changes, someone from the ward is bound to call y’all and let you know!!  Hopefully it all works!! 

THANK YOU to everyone who has sent me Christmas cards! Shout out to BYU athletics, Gunn Family, Shelly Reynolds family, and Papa Joe!  Made me so happy to receive them in the mail!! I love y’all!!!! Well I'll close for now because we can just talk on Wednesday!!!! Text or call Sister Morse if you have any questions (:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3/ Sister Lauren Holmoe!

 Sister McCan spoiled us!  How rad are these?!?!

 So good to see Sister Wells!

 Love these girls!

 MTC Friends

 4 Generation Pic; grandma, mom, me, daughter

 MTC Elders

 Sister Dawes

 Me and Sister Brigham, one of my all time favorite sisters!

 Me and Elder P Davis!

 Japanese Food with Ashley

 The scarf and headband someone gave me!

 Carolyne's Family

 Caroling with the YSA's

Week 27

Hey Y’all!!

Words cannot even begin to describe the happiness that this week has brought!!  I always thought Christmas away from home would be one of the harder times but I must admit this is the best time on my mission thus far!!!! Each and every day this week brought more and more happiness.  It’s really just unreal!  Hard to describe in an email!

I'll start off with our investigator Ashley.  This girl is one of those Golden Investigators that every missionary dreams of having.  She is the 18 year old girl who is friends with members of our ward.  Anyways we had two of the most amazing lessons with her this week, probably two of my favorite of my entire mission.  Even thinking back to them makes me get emotional because they were such spiritual moments!!!  This girl is AMAZING.  She is so easy to teach because she soaks it all in, asks awesome questions, has goals, keeps her commitments, and loves learning.  We have the lessons at the Copeland’s and hearing them testify in places is just AHH...so cool!!  Heavenly Father has been preparing this girl her entire life for her to find the church.  She has a strong testimony that everything happens for a reason and it’s so cool.  She came to our RS night on Thursday, the ward Christmas party on Saturday, church on Sunday (and choir practice after) and the YSA fireside on Sunday night.  She also cancelled our lesson for tomorrow night so she could go to FHE with the other YSAs???? I MEAN COULD IT BE ANY BETTER??  Sister Sam and I are nervous that something bad is going to happen because we are not used to investigators acting like this! It’s pretty cool because for the past year she has been following this blog of a Mormon family.  She didn’t know they were Mormon originally.  Anyways she reads the blog daily because she loves how happy they are....so after the two lessons we had with her she told us how she typed an email of how much their blog has changed her life and given her a direction.  She doesn’t even have their email but she just felt the need to type it.  Ashley’s prayers are DYNAMITE.  She was SO nervous at first, but she did it and WOW....coolest moment!  It’s also SOOO good for these lessons to be given in the Copeland home! We are hoping to get a BCD (baptismal commitment date) this week....DUN DUN DUN..........pray pray pray for us.

On Saturday was our ward Christmas Party!   It was so much fun.  Sister Sam and I basically planned the entire thing but it turned out great!! I love this ward.  Like 5 people have given me and Sister Sam wrapped presents for each of us!  Last night this lady gave us presents and we couldn't wait till Christmas so we opened them....THE NICEST GIFTS EVER!  She got Sister Sam these big stud earrings because that’s what Sister Sam just LOVES and then she bought me a fabric headband because I always wear those!! This lady has never even talked to us about earrings or headbands but just from observing what we wear she bought them for us! I mean, how blessed are we to be in such a great area for Christmas??  We also went Christmas Caroling with the Simonds yesterday!  Felt like home!!!  We sang all the songs we sing as we went to neighbors, ward members and a nursing home near St. Andrews.  It was so much fun.  Then we had the YSA fireside we had been planning last night and it was a huge success. Good turnout, great speaker, and just overall awesome night! 

Some more cool stories are....we were working with these less actives who wanted to learn more about family history.  We set up an appointment with the FH consultants and them and they were getting teary eyed as they found some of their ancestors! We started teaching Michael and Kelly again, who want to be baptized the DAY after they get married. We are going to start teaching some of Beth’s family members next week! We made some huge improvements with other people as well. Carolyne didn't come to church so her BCD has to be moved!  But this week we were really focusing on her smoking so we made signs and put them alllllll over her house and printed out pictures of the temple and stuff !  She’s cut down to about 2-3 a day...which is good! She LOVES the BYU shirt!!! I wish you could have seen her face!!! I just gave it to her on Saturday so haven’t seen it on her yet but she absolutely LOVED IT! I told her it might be too big and she was like....Sista Holmoe, if you knew me well, you would know that I LOVE my t's big! haha! She was just dying! I'll get a pic one of these days with her in it!

Another good thing that happened this week was.....WE GOT OUR OWN CAR!!!!!!!!!! It’s amazing!!!!! However, we just found out yesterday that we only have like 100 more miles the rest of the month so therefore we will be biking a lot. We might beg to get a few more cause that’s just ridiculous! But it is super super super nice!  Merry Christmas to us!!  Remember how I used to not drive on the freeway?? How weird was I!?  I'm a pro now fyi ;)

We went to RED ROBIN for our District Activity on Tuesday!!!! Can you say DAY MAKER!?!??  I was dying!!!!!

Remember those teenage boys we wanted to teach but their parents were less active?? Those parents are killin us man!  So hard to teach those boys when the parents aren’t all for it!

So I got your packages this week and opened the big one! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!! <3 The cocoa roasted almonds....(: (: (: delish!!! the decor, nativities, water bottle, stocking, I love it all!!!! I am anxious to open everything!  You have no idea how tempting that opened stocking is to peek inside!!  Also the reindeer poo (or Christmas mix (:) hahah!  I gave one to the Morses who LOVE it!  Going to give another one away and keep the other for myself (:  Y’all are probably so glad I'm not there to eat all the pretzels and chex pieces!  Especially Erik! He used to get so mad! haha!! The socks are darling, the cake bites are delish and the Christmas letter sounded great! I liked how Dad highlighted the "many" dolls of Moms! Also I got your Jubilee stuff Dad! Thanks! Good to keep my info straight!

So I think time zone wise we are only two hours behind Cali time...I'm in central time zone...our mission has two different time zones! Thanks for the info on that!  I will keep you posted but it will be sometime during that time frame!! Can’t believe Utah guy won Survivor!  I laughed out loud when you said you skipped when the 3 finalist walked around the torches! You know that’s my favorite part!!!! Carlee, that squash soup looked DYNAMITE! So jealous!

Well, better go email some more peeps! I love y'all so much!!! ENJOY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!! <3 Know I love y’all and miss y’all so much!!! Thanks for everything!! Who’s going to be Santa this year!?! I'm not there to pass out the presents to everyone’s spots ha!  E...looks like you’re on it! BYE!!! Merry Christmas! Love you!! <3/ Sister LA GIRL!

Christmas

 Caroling

 Santa

 Ward Party

 6 months

 Last District Meeting and District Activity

 Red Robin

 Sister Slocum always gives us things to make our apartment smell good!

Week 26

Looks like I'll be spending Christmas in LYNN HAVEN! (: They may just keep me here forever!!! I am relieved though!!! Obviously I will go where I'm needed but secretly I wanted to stay here one more (: (: YAYAY! Sister Sam is still my comp!  We are losing one of our elders but he gets to go be with his best friend so we don't feel bad for him!

I will start off with this weekend, WOW!  What a powerful weekend and such a memorable one!  It will probably be one of my favorites of my entire mission!! It started with Gabe’s baptism!  This boy is the other 8 year old we were teaching, who comes from a less active family!  Well over the past few months of teaching their family the day finally came!  Aaron, the dad, WAS ABLE TO BAPTIZE GABE!! We weren't for sure if he was going to be able to, and he did (:  Then, the step mom prayed in public for the first time!!!! The spirit was so so so strong you have no idea!  People who I would never imagine crying, CRIED.  It was such a beautiful sight.  Just to see how happy and united that family was made me picture them getting sealed in the temple one day.  PURE JOY!  I did indeed lead the music again (:  I actually volunteered myself this time so I could redeem myself!  Everyone was so impressed (:  People in the ward are so funny, they feel as if I am a permanent member here! 

Then on Sunday, Sister Sam and I spoke in Sacrament!  We found out on Thursday and then only had like 3 hours to prepare and practice giving our talk!!  (if that)!  It was on Christmas, the nativity mixed in with missionary work and stuff like that!  The main theme on mine was “Sharing the Good Tidings of Great Joy!”  I was a little nervous and frazzled in the planning stages but it went SOOOOO WELL!!!!  The talk went great but it was when I was bearing my testimony that the spirit just bore witness to me that everything I had just said was 100% true. I felt really prompted to talk about the BOM and bear strong testimony of that so I actually cut out some of my talk and shared my feelings about the BOM for a while. It was a really cool moment on my mission and it came at a good time, right around my 6th month mark!  I sat down and just felt sooooo unbelievably happy.  Looking around at all the faces I just knew this is where I am supposed to be right now, sharing the gospel every day.  I am so grateful to be the Lord’s servant at this time in my life!!!!  Church is true, book is blue! Carolyne, Teresa and Stella were all in Sacrament yesterday so that made it great too (:

We are starting to give church tours!!!  We had the BEST one this week!!!  It was with an 18 year old girl we are starting to teach and her less active friend and her family.  The family is always pretty goofy and funny so we were nervous how it would all go giving a spiritual church tour but it was AMAZING.  They bore such strong testimony and were quiet and listening!  The girl, Ashley, reallllly liked it and agreed to let us start teaching her the lessons with Austin who is preparing to serve a mission.  It’s the family who always takes us out to Outback! Not sure if you remember me talking about them or not! I'm realllly excited about it!!

We had some more cool moments this week.  One included us praying to find out how to involve the parents more in a teaching situation where we teach their children.  We had NO idea how we were going to do it but we prayed and then went inside and the furniture was completely rearranged.  The new arrangement made the environment for teaching SOOOO much better to where the parents would have to be more involved in the lessons.  Hard to explain but right as we walked in Sister Sam and I just looked at each other and smiled because we knew Heavenly Father planned that one out for us (:

We also had a cool experience where we wanted to meet with this less active YSA who comes from really active parents.  We didn't really want his parents to be a part of the conversation though but we didn't really have another option.  Well we knock on the door and hes the only one home!! (WHICH NEVER HAPPENS)  We couldn’t go in obviously but he came out and talked to us on the porch.  We shared an awesome lesson with him and it was possible only because the parents weren't home at the exact time we tried knocking!

Some funny stories this week include:

-a wasp swarming through our car while I'm driving!!! (CAN YOU SAY SCARY MOMENT) haha!

-this lady seeing us walking towards her and saying "OH NO, DONT YOU TAKE A STEP CLOSER MAMS. I KNOW WHAT YOU’RE ALL ABOUT. LEAVE." haha!!

-Tracting in the Christmas tree lot (: We had a few good contacts.  This one boy seemed awesome but then he told us he goes to Northstar, the church that every young adult goes to.....they have like drums and stuff haha.  There was no way he was coming to ours! 
One of the Gulf Coast bball players is interested in coming to church!  He was out of town this week for games but hopefully this next week he'll come! 
-At a dinner appointment we were telling this family about when we saw a fox.  Their little girl in the closing prayer said, "please bless the missionaries to stay safe from foxes on their bikes." It was the CUTEST THING EVER! haha! (:

We were able to watch the Christmas Devotional!  LOVED IT!  The Motab did really good!  I got Aunt Rhonda and Shan’s package! AUNT RHONDA. THANK YOU SO MUCH! Well, I haven't opened the presents yet but I had the pumpkin bread and the cookies (: (: Holy cow, they were so good!!!!  Made me feel right at home!! Seriously, I really appreciate it!!!! Love you!!! Shan, your package is sealed and under the tree since you told me to wait (: I opened your Christmas card though and loved it!!  Your dress in the pic is so cute!! I also liked the shout out I got in your letter (: made me happy!!

Mom, I did wash Aunt Rhonda’s bag!  It turned out nice!! My return date is actually Dec 25, Christmas day, so I'm sure they will have to change that!  So who the heck knows when I'll actually come home!  I think we are going Christmas caroling this week with a family! (: STOKED!!! I LOVVVED your video!!! I actually got to listen to it with sound this time and it made my day!!!  (: The tree looks great! I was laughing out loud about what happened about it tipping over!! CLASSIC (: Hey, question is there a certain time that you will want to Skype??? Just curious, because it is coming up! Like 50 people have volunteered to let us use their computer!  Love these folks!! A nice lady fixed all the repairs I needed on my clothes (: So nice of her! Oh by the way, I have no idea what time I'll be emailing for the next few weeks because our library will be closed so we might have to email at the church later in the afternoon. No clue!!! Just a heads up so you don't have to wait at the comp all day!

WELL, I LOVE YOU GUYS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thank you all for everything!!!! This is such a wonderful season!!!! It’s been up to 80 degrees this past week! Doesn't feel like December!! Can’t believe y’all have so much snow!!!!  I kind of miss it......haha not really!! ;) Thanks for all the emails and pics and videos!!!  They make my day!! LOVE YALL <3/ Sister Lauren Ashley Holmoe (:

Huge Lindor Ball I found in Walmart

 Christmas Tree Lot

 

Gabe's Baptism

 Lauren, the bride!

 Who knew I would ever hold a cat?!

Week 25

DECEMBER? That is just crazy!!  HEYYY everyone!  So if you feel that this email is all about food.....just know this week was all about food too!  Y’alls videos made me literally laugh out loud in the library and you will crack up when you get a CD from me because I took a video of me laying down in the relief society room in between 2 of our dinners hahaha!  Same idea (: 

Where to even start with Thanksgiving......we went to 3 MAIN dinner appointments.  One at 12, one at 1, and one at 2:30! CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT? I'm not talking a little snack at each one, I'm talking a full course meal and dessert.  I realized that it’s all about the dessert in the southern Thanksgiving!  I'm coming home with diabetes!  The first dinner we had was with Beth’s family!  It was realllllly good!  We had a fried turkey and it had the best flavor!  SO GOOD!  Other highlights from that meal were the sweet potato casserole and the peanut butter pie!  It was fun to see them all again.  We met even more of them and they asked a lot more about the BOM this time!  We gave them some and it seemed like some of them were really planning on reading it!  Awesome family.  All the husbands were huge sports fans so we got to talk a lot about that!  PS. HOW ABOUT BAMA VS AUBURN!?!  Was that not just the craziest thing you've ever seen!?  The Bama fans down here are CRUSHED! Like literally, some of them didn’t show up to church!  BYE BYE to national championship and HELLO to #1 NOLES!

Our second dinner appointment was at the Church Pot luck!  Sister Sam and I made peanut butter blossoms.  They were not as good as Mom's.....but still pretty good!  The Church was the only dinner appointment that had mashed potatoes....what’s up with that!?  My mouth salivated when I saw Mom’s mashed potatoes in that video!  The Carrot Cake was BOSS though!!!  Yum.  Afterwards we played a little BOM trivia game!  It gets heated man!  I love this Ward!  We are already planning fun things for the Christmas Party on the 14th.  Even thinking of leaving before then makes me cringe!!!  So we were SO FULL at that moment that Sister Sam and I HAD to go lay down in the RS room for a little.  AND THEN...

We went to the NEXT dinner appointment at our mailman’s house!  There were probably 50 plus of the coolest people you will ever meet in this one house!  It was hilarious!!  This was a true southern Thanksgiving dinner. HUGE things of Mac N Cheese and Greens and more!  At first some people were like who are these girls?? Then when they saw we knew Darryll they were all like OHHHH...WELCOME!!  It was pretty fun!  So yeah, then we like could barely move and on our way walking back to our apartment our NEIGHBOR invited us in and made us try her sweet potato pie!  I was like ohhhhh boyyyy....I have no clue how in the world that fit in my stomach!  It was a wonderful day though spent with great people! Very blessed!! 

We had a Zone Training on Tuesday and it was awesome!  Elder Rowan, one of our ZL's gave this awwwesome lesson on the Abrahamic Covenant and where we as missionaries fit into that and it was just like BAM, so powerful! 

Some more highlights from the week were me finishing my first journal!  That was the first journal I have ever completed in my life!!! I'm now onto the Owl one!  We got some new investigators this week! We are now working with this part member family where the 13 and 16 year old son WANT to start coming and want to join our church but their less active parents are VERY hesitant, needless to say it’s tricky working with them!  The boys want to be taught and start coming to everything but we have to work with the parents so it’s a little more difficult!  One of the boys is in a picture with me I'm sending.  I'm holding their new little puppy dog!  Last night we went to the Cornelius Ranch for dinner.  They have a missionary wall and every missionary that comes through draws a pic and puts it on the wall.  Considering I've been here for 6 months, I have a lot of pictures up there (:  We got to go to Lauren's bridal shower this weekend!  She’s getting married in Georgia on the 21st. So happy for her!  Sister Sam and I taught mission prep this Sunday!  It was fun!  We passed out TONS of Panera.  Probably to 25 families! There was even an extra chocolate crescent for me (:  Dad, do you remember in New York when you ran around everywhere to find me one for breakfast??? haha (:

Kaitlyn sent me SNOW!!  It was awesome!  We made some cool videos with it that you'll see one day! THANKS KAITBA (: 

When we were driving around one day, we were stopped at a light and there was a lady on the street who was holding a sign that said, "I Love Jesus" and a bunch of crazy stuff below it.  I dared Sister Sam to run out and give her a BOM and she did (: CLASSIC!  The lady was like, I can’t take this because I believe in Jesus Christ.  Sister Sam was like....we do too as she pointed to the words "ANOTHER TESTAMENT OF CHRIST"!  The lady probably now wants to be baptized but we forgot to put our number in the book so we'll never know (: jk!

Shannon, do you know any Broadwaters in Kentucky??  They are in the Louisville 2nd ward and one of their sons is a YSA in our area! 

This week I got sick! Everyone had the cold so I was bound to end up with it!  It lasted like 4 days and now I have a cough!  BOO!  I'm feeling A LOT better though! The change from really cold days to really nice days and back to really cold days just mess with everyone! 

I got the Big Christmas Package!!! I'm so excited to open it all (: Christmas season is SO FUN!!  People put up lots of lights here in Lynn Haven which is fun!  We will most likely Skype from the Morse’s house on Christmas so that will be great!  Many people have invited us over so it will probably be Thanksgiving all over again.  NEVER BEEN MORE FULL IN MY ENTIRE LIFE!!  haha!  Gabe’s baptism is this Saturday! YAYA! He is so excited!  That would be awesome if you would send me that navy dress! They are probably my favorite things to wear, next to the sweatshirt skirts (:  It’s always nice to get new skirts, so if you were to see any cute ones, go for it!  I'm not in NEEEED though!  Dad, I have seen Wicked!  In NY with dance co!  SO GOOD!  Although I remember falling asleep because we were just exhausted! I LOVE SIS DAWE!!!! She was in the MTC with me, different districts, but we sat next to each other on the plane and became really good friends!! I've seen her twice since then and she’s the best!  Love that girl!  She was made the first Spanish speaking sister missionary in our mission last transfer!  She had some background in it but she was so nervous!  Love her!

So I have decided that one of my ALL TIME favorite talks, if not MY FAVORITE is "Safety for the Soul" by Elder Holland.  I actually think we were at that conference if I’m not mistaken!  THAT TALK IS SOOO POWERFUL!  I do not know how anyone could deny the BOM after reading that.  Chills up my spine!! 

Thanks again for the videos!!! BEST THINGS EVER HAHA!  I love and miss y’all!!! Thanks for all you do for me.  I'm so grateful for y’all!!!  I'll hopefully send the Christmas package home soon!  If I find the last few things I need!  ENJOY (:  Love y’all to the moon and back! Have a great week!!!! <3/ Sister Holmoe!

 Turkey Bowl

 Peanut Butter Blossoms for the pot luck

 Thanksgiving with our mailman

 Downtown

 Snow!!  Thanks Kaitba!!!

 Bob.  The weirdest looking cat I've ever seen.

 Lauren's Bridal Shower- They made me a toilet paper wedding dress!

 The perfect Christmas dog!

Cornelius Ranch

 Jenna Belle!  Love this little cowgirl of mine!