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!

Every time I see an advertisement for Catching Fire it KILLS ME!! Looks SO GOOD!!

 THEE Waffle House

 Teresa's Painting for me

 Hannah's Baptism

 Fried Oreos

Week 23

Hello Fam!!

This week has been AWESOME!!! Seriously I love my mission more and more and more each day!!  SO many great highlights this week! (: Get ready!!!

I'll start with the biggest miracle!  It was Thursday and we had a long list of people we wanted to try and visit (returning members, potential investigators, investigators, etc) and it seemed as if NO ONE WAS HOME!! Those days are just the worst but as we continued to try the people it got about that time where we could have stopped and gone early to our dinner appointment but both of us felt like we needed to try the LAST name on our list. (word of advice for future missionaries...ALWAYS try that last house).  So we are driving around trying to find this house, its pitch dark at 5 o clock here, and it takes us forever to find but we don’t give up!  We finally knock on the door and a lady talking on the phone answers and immediately waves us in.  We are sitting in her living room for a few minutes waiting for her to finish the phone convo.  We hear her say, "Child Services are here, gotta go."  I'm like oh goodness, she thinks we are child services.  She comes in and it takes her about 20 seconds to realize we are not child services.  At first, she seemed a little nervous but then she couldn't fight back her emotion.  She started crying and said how she was just barely praying on the phone with her mom for some miracle in her life, or some light in this darkness she was experiencing as we knocked on the door!  (THANK YOU HEAVENLY FATHER) She goes on to ask us tons of questions and we basically taught the first lesson, gave her a BOM and told her to read and pray.  She is having us over for dinner this week to learn more!  She couldn't stop taking about how we were angels sent from God.  She is really sweet and humble and really normal if you ask me.  I am so excited to see her again!  It was a sweet experience!!

Some more highlights....we've been teaching two 8 (almost 9) year olds the lessons to prepare for baptism for the past 4 months!  They both come from pretty less active families but we have seen MAJOR improvement and testimony growth in the entire family since we've been teaching them!  BOTH families set Baptism dates last week!!! WAHOO (: Cute little Hannah will be baptized this Saturday and Gabe will be baptized December 7th!!  These kids feel like children to me! <3 I am so excited to see them be baptized!  It’s funny cause when we first started teaching them, neither of them EVER wanted to pray, and now both of them fight with their siblings over who GETS to say the prayer! We teach Hannah every Thursday and Gabe every Monday night!  This will be the last week of doing that though!  SO HAPPY though (: 

Another cool experience.  On Thursday morning, we get a call from one of our ward members with a referral in JACKSONVILLE, FL.  They wanted us to call and find missionaries there and get people over to their friends’ house ASAP!  We obviously need to get permission to call outside our mission but after we did, we spent about an hour getting a hold of all the people to make this work.  Last night, our member called us telling us how the missionaries got there within 3 hours of her calling us.  These nonmembers LOVED the missionaries, are reading the BOM, came to church, got blessings, and are wanting more and more!!  I LOVE being a part of the WORLD WIDE missionary work! It’s fun to be a part of something so amazing and uniting all our efforts and working together!

Every other Saturday "Panera Bread" gives our ward all the left over breads, treats, pastries and bagels from the week.  The missionaries, with help from a few members, then go out Saturday morning and deliver things to needy families in our ward and community.  It’s one of my favorite things to do!!! (and not just because we get to eat all the broken pieces ;)) haha!  It’s great to see how happy the people get!

Teresa the lady we are teaching wants to be baptized on December 14th.  She’s got to quit smoking before then but I really think she can do it!!  Stella came to church again but says she needs one more week before any lessons.  Carolyne won’t be baptized till December either...but she is still making slow progress.  After we threw away all her coffee and tea she hasn’t had ANY to drink since (: mwa ha ha! The smoking is killer though.  GAHHH!

A cool experience with an active member.  We met with her.  She’s been a member for 40 years and NEVER been through the temple!!!! Needless to say, now is the time...she wants to but we are going to help her prepare and motivate her! She's from Louisiana so I can barely understand her but it was very cool when she started crying talking about how badly she wants to do her mother’s work.  She just says every time she gets ready to go, SOMETHING comes up.  NOT THIS TIME!!  Getting to know her was fun.  I got to say I've been to New Orleans and walked on Bourbon Street (:  Remember that!?! SO FUN! 

Sister Sam and I have been given an added responsibility to our work.  We are to help bring the YSA's back! There are like 80 YSA's and only like 4 active...so sad.  We've already planned a sweet fireside for December and have some good ideas!  Julie (the cute flag twirler) should be putting her mission papers in this week or next! SOOO pumped to see where she goes! (fingers crossed for Provo, Utah) (:

Yesterday we ate at the Simonds (the best cooks in the ward).  For dessert they had cookies and ice cream and I made mine into a smart cookie (: They were like,,."That is Genius"!  Hence, they all made smart cookies (:  It reminded me of home how we always used to make those ice cream sandwiches! Miss that!!

Exchanges this week went fine!  I like exchanges a whole lot more when I leave the area and don’t have to worry about anything.  It was cool because we taught two people who don’t believe in God.  In the South, we RARELY have that opportunity...so it was fun for a change to bear testimony of a God.  We also got to try boiled peanuts at our dinner appointment.  I don’t see the hype about boiled peanuts.  They tasted like soggy, overly salty normal peanuts to me!!

Some funny stories this week, a dog’s tongue touched my tongue TWICE....nasty (I don’t know why all dogs here love me) on ACCIDENT by the way!  haha!  One night we were at a member’s trailer, eating pizza on the floor, watching Mormon messages...I was just like....this is the life (:  I really do love the South man!  There’s a family in my ward who has a son on a mission in Italy.  Everyone’s trying to futuristically hook us up.  I just laugh! These people are great!

Glad to hear BYU won BIG!!! Sounds like an awesome week of sports!!  Can't believe the soccer team will be in TALLY!?!?!?  What are the odds!!!  So cool!!  Thanks for your letters this week! Mom, the target memories are so great (:  Speaking of that, Target and Walmart have my watch but say they can’t resize this one.  I'm like.....yes you can....they did it in Utah......ps I'm so sad my letter didn’t get to you guys.  I'll let you know about Cd's and CD players!!  It might be cool.  I might take you up on that offer to send me a coat! Some days are cold, some days are hot, I can’t keep track!!  Our tree in our house is artificial!  Thank you for the wedding invite!!!! MADE MY DAY!! Kara danced at Jive mom!! I'm really happy for her!!  I wanted them to get married (: I am glad to hear all the missionaries in the Philippines are safe!! How scary is that???? Devastating.. but good to know the missionaries are safe! 

I LOVE YALL SO SO SO MUCH!!!!!! Miss you every day!!!!! GOOD LUCK VS NOTRE DAME!!!!!!!!!!! We can do it!  Think...next home football game...you'll see me right around the corner (:  Crazy! Have a great week and know how much I pray for you and LOVE YOU! <3/ Sister LA GIRL!

Celebrating 5 months

 Throwing away the tea and coffee

Week 22

November 11th, 2013! (Almost my 5 month birthday) (:

This email will be so hard to write because the delete button is broken so I have to type very slowly!  It is a holiday today so all the libraries are closed hence our members are awesome and let us use their house (: 

Thanks for all the emails and pictures today!! I LOVVVED the one of y’all at the Marriott center with my seat open (: Made my day!!  Glad to hear the bball team is coming out strong!!  Also glad the bulldogs are being represented well as usual by Kyle!  Aint no party!!!  Sad to hear about the football team....but GUESS WHAT?  We were eating at a restaurant on Saturday and the BYU GAME WAS ON TV!! It was like right in front of my face too....I was like hahaha oh boy!  As badly as I wanted to watch it, obviously I could not but I did take a few glances here and there hehe (:  It was fun to see Bronco and Taysom and a bunch of other people I knew! It felt like seeing family!!  Notre Dame this week should be a good game!! 

So update on Carolyne!  She is going strong for baptism on November 30th.  President Smith had to come down and interview her on Saturday!  She was the one getting interviewed, not me!  But it was a great day to see them meet and as long as she quits smoking then she is set for the 30th!! I have faith!! It will all work out how it’s meant to!  We had one of our former investigators show up for church on Sunday. We were SHOCKED!!! It was great to see her there but bless her heart.  She wants to be baptized BEFORE she gets the lessons!!  Hopefully she will allow us to teach her.  I guess she will have to if she really wants to be baptized!!  Another one of our investigators experienced the death of her cat.  She asked us all these questions about if cats were sealed to us and if they go to the spirit world and I was just like Oh Boy....not so sure how to answer those questions but I think we did okay and lifted her spirits a little!!  HA!  I'm telling ya....the people in the South are CRAZY about their animals!!!  I have decided I'm NEVER having a pet haha!! 

We also got a new investigator this week.  He is the grandson (26) of an older returning member!  We were able to teach him the first lesson and it went well!!  Funny story after the lesson though!  We were riding our bikes away from the house and the song "Cruise" came on from a distant car and both Sister Sam and I were OBSESSED with that song before we came out so I turned my head to see where it was coming from and she had stopped her bike to see and then BOOM I crashed into her hahahah!  Luckily no one was hurt so we just laughed and laughed for like 10 minutes! 

We went to a baptism on Saturday for someone we actually initially taught!  He was referred to the missionaries from a member of our ward but he lives in the Callaway area so we had to let them teach him but we've gone to lunch with him a few times since our first meeting and then we got to see him get baptized!!!  There was a GREAT SPIRIT  there!!!  Perfectly clean (: 

I was thinking about how many attacks are put on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how many people think so negatively and try to prove us wrong.  That is really just a HUGE testimony to me that ITS TRUE!!! Why else would Satan work so hard to tear our church down and convince men to as well if it weren't true!!  I just love being a missionary and bearing the truth to all the haters out there!!  (:

Last Monday when we went to Pier Park....AHHH IT WAS A BLAST!! What a fun cute mall.  It is an outdoor mall and just really sweet!  They had pretzel bites so OF COURSE I got some (: They also had a RED ROBIN!?!? I about died!!! They also had a Dicks Last Resort.  Remember when we went there in San Diego with all of Dads friends!?  It was fun shopping and seeing stylish normal clothes again!! There were lots of cute things but not really for the mish if ya know what I'm saying!!  I also didn't find any good Christmas gifts for anyone yet :( Still working on that!!  It was just the perfect weather though and we got to watch the sunset on the beach and it was awesome!! In one of the stores we walked into the employee was like "Woah, you guys really stand out.  I like that." and then walked away!  Haha.  We all have that light of Christ in us that is SOOO recognized by the world!

We did have dinner with the Petersons on Monday night! He did not say ONE thing about him playing football with you though!?!?  They were the nicest people.  It worked out because Sister Sam was good friends with their daughter so President gave permission for them to take us out!  It was really fun! Their daughter is wayyyy nice so I hope I get to serve with her one day! HOLMOE/PETERSON the 2nds!! (:

Oh I finally am connected to Esther now on Family Search (:

Dad, I forgot to mention...I read a paragraph from your conversion story in the paper to Carolyne.  It was like the very last paragraph and she just LOVED IT.  I think that was part of what made her finally say yes to baptism! 

A member this week gave us a Christmas tree (:   So our apartment is already for Christmas!!

A member took us to a Mexican restaurant this week and I got a burrito hoping it would be SOMETHING AT LEAST A LITTLE SIMILAR TO COSTA! It was not TOOO bad but definitely not costa material!!!  MAN, do we crave those on the daily!!!  Another member this week took us to Target and let us pick out 3 pairs of tights each and toilet paper and other things we needed!  HOW NICE WAS THAT!?!  These people are the greatest!!  The weather is weird.  Some days are wayyy cold and some days are way hot again.  I will keep you posted about mailing one of those coats!  I’m definitely turning into a true Floridian because it gets to be like 60 degrees and I'm cold???? Where’s the UTAH in me!?!  haha!

Thank you so much for the package!!!! It had everything in it I needed!!!  The pictures were awesome!  Danny is the new Malcom!!!! Love it!  The Doll Room looks great!!!  The girls camp pics hahaha oh boy!  I miss that Hope Squad hoodie!   Sad to hear about J.D.  Hopefully he will heal quickly and with prayers from a missionary; maybe it will help (:  I was just thinking about the Middleton’s pumpkins the other day!!  Those were always so rad!  NORDSTROM. ahh how was the sale!?!  There are NO nordys here that's for sure!  I miss that heavenly place!!  Dad, your articles you sent me were AWESOME!  Sister Sam and I definitely got a good laugh out of them!  You’re awesome.  How come we were not in the paper for our FH booth? (:

I heard about the Philippines.  Wow, how scary is that.  We heard that all the missionaries were safe so hopefully Madi Evans and more people I know there are all protected.  At least it’s something they knew was coming so they could prepare.  Sad to hear about all those deaths though......heart breaking. :(

Bad news....we can’t have iPods anymore..........I'll have to mail it home sometime in the near future....lame sauce I know!  We have no idea why but President’s decision has been made.  No iPods.  The mornings have been so quiet this past week! I miss my Jenny Phillips!!  Oh well!

So for this month of Thanksgiving each day Sister Sam and I write something we are grateful for and one thing I thought of was back at home when I would wake up and Mom would surprise me with McDonald pancakes or Einstein bagels!!  SURPRISE BREAKFASTS!!  Those were the best!!

We have exchanges this week. I have to go to Callaway this time with Sis Treiber.

I started the BOM over again this week!  I LOVE IT! I'm reading and studying it really slowly to get new insights and it’s going great!  I have decided to impose a CHALLENGE!!! A family CHALLENGE!!!! I challenge everyone in the family, or anyone for that matter who desires, but specifically in the family to read and finish the book of Mormon before I come home!!!  You can start Jan 1st if you'd like or get a jump start now but THAT’S THE CHALLENGE (:  I've thought about it since last Monday and think it’s a great idea!! (:

A new favorite verse from the BOM would be 1st Nephi 17:50 Nephi says, "If God has commanded me to do all things I could do them.  If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth and if I should say it, it would be done." THE FAITH OF NEPHI IS RIDICULOUS!!

Anyways, this week was GREAT!! I love love love this area, the people, the colder weather, and all (: THANK YOU FOR ALL THE SUPPORT AND LOVE!!! <3 I miss watching the Cougs BADLY!!! But know I'm cheering them on from Florida!!! So pumped that Oregon lost so FSU will move to 2!!! YEAH BUDDY! The south will rise again!!!

Have an amazing week and know I love you all so much!!!!!!!!!! And miss you more than costa burritos and my jeggings combined! (And that's saying something) (:

<3, Sister Holmoe!!!

Week 21

FAM!

WARNING: THIS WAS THE BEST WEEKEND EVER!!  Lots of explanation points and excitedness coming your way!!

You will NEVER believe this, but Carolyne came to church!!!! SHE CAME TO CHURCH.  After 15 years of saying she was coming and then backing out, SHE CAME! I wish every missionary who has ever worked with her could have witnessed it!! PURE AMAZEMENT! Heavenly Father was definitely planning the perfect meeting for her to go to. It was testimony meeting and every single testimony was exactly what she needed to hear.  Like I was dying because it was just too perfect!!  We also had lots of visitors in our Ward that were here for the Ironman and some of them even bore their testimonies and said THE PERFECT THINGS!  It honestly could not have gone better.  ALL our members came up to her and were so nice and she had such a good experience.  She was even telling some people, "You might see me get baptized here soon." Also one of the returning members I have been working with since I got here  got up and bore her testimony.  The closing hymn was "I know that my Redeemer Lives" and that is a song that Carolyne always makes me and Sister Sam sing for her! What are the odds!?!  I could ramble forever about yesterday.  We also taught Relief Society on Member Missionary Work and I think it went AWESOME.   Our meal calendar got so filled up after that lesson that we do not have a single open date in November for a dinner.  haha!  We also got like 6 invitations for Thanksgiving dinner so we will probably be eating all day long when that glorious day comes!  Church was also great because all the members came up and were telling me how happy they were I get to stay another transfer.  I just love these people!!!

Now onto Saturday!! AH I don't even know where to start with Saturday.  It was the funnest day on my mission so far!!  We volunteered at the Iron Man from about 11-8:30.  First off, an Iron Man is CRAZY! It’s a 6 miles swim, 112 mile bike, and THEN running a marathon! I mean these people were INSANE!  Our job was to pass them anything they needed during their marathon like water, perform, grapes, energy gel, chicken broth, and all sorts of random things.  It was intense because there were about 3000 runners!  Sometimes they would call out for something but they don’t stop running so then you have to run along with them and give them all the stuff.  It was so intense and so fun!  The best part was I saw about 3 BYU fans running!  I always yelled Go Cougs and they always got SO excited to see our nametags!  A few other runners ran past and said, "Hey Sisters I'm from Utah!!"  It just made our day! (:  The PCB Ironman is a huge deal.  It sells out every year in about 40 seconds!  Crazy huh!?  It was such a fun experience and we got SWEET T-SHIRTS for volunteering!  We were standing ALL day though and can I just say, it felt like we had been at Disneyland all day our feet hurt so bad. We were actually SORE in the morning?? Imagine the Ironman athletes!!  Cool story, there was actually 2 Arabian Princes (maybe Tajikistan haha) participating.  I got to hand one of them water (: I also got to give the 1st place female an energy bar!  I felt pretty cool!  Our ward covered about a half a mile so it was a whole ward event volunteering and it was a blast!  Good bonding moments with the ward.  It was literally right along the beach, they do swim in the ocean, and we saw the prettiest sunset ever!!  I have lots of pics!  I did get sunburned though.  My forehead especially, cause usually a helmet is covering it!  So worth it though. I will NEVER forget it!  We also planted tons of seeds and lots of people recognized our name tags and were really grateful! Awesome experience!  Oh and the extra hour of sleep came on the perfect night cause we were just exhausted by the end of it!

Earlier in the week we came across a few BIBLE BASHERS/ANTI-JOSEPH SMITHERS.  I was like whoa peeps, settle down. It was kind of intense but kind of fun at the same time!  It’s frustrating though because sometimes I just want to yell in their face, "WE HAVE THE TRUTH I PROMISE."  But obviously as representatives of Jesus Christ we would never act like that so we bear strong testimonies of what we know is true and that’s about all we can do.  Although of course I'm going to throw out a few scriptures and see their response ;)

Also, this week one of our members gave us a referral and then set up an appointment for us to teach her in the members home.  That is just the exact circumstance that missionaries PRAY FOR EVERY DAY.  It was awesome and we will continue to teach her this week.  We got 4 new investigators this week!  Heavenly Father is really leading us to some awesome people and I appreciate everyone’s prayers, they truly do help!

On Tuesday we got to have a District Activity so we played some bball in the church gym for a while.  Whoo, I'm a little rusty but by the end I had it back!  Crazy to see another transfer begin!  Two of my favorite elders in the mission finished their two years, Elder Murdoch and Elder Buchanon.  They were awesome and it’s sad to meet friends and then they leave! 

Each week we get trained in Family History a little and no one can figure out why I am not connected to Esther??? It’s the weirdest thing.  I’m connected to everyone else including Dad, and Esther is connected to dad but I'm not connected to Esther! It’s strange and no one can quite figure it out! 

This week a Returning Member we just met for the first time opened her door and was like "You are the two most stylish missionaries I have ever seen in my life time.  This is crazy. Come in!" We were like yessss score!

Each transfer we work on a new Christlike attribute and this transfer I chose Humility.  I think humility is sooo important not only as a missionary but in everyday life.  I really am going to focus on that more. 

Dad, you looked AWESOME as ABE!  That seriously is the greatest costume I've seen in a while! LOVE IT!  I'll let you know if I have any ideas for next year!  You killed it this year though!!!!  Danny you look pretty sick as well! That better not have been my jean vest ;)  Aunt Rhonda also looked WAYYYY GOOD! She should be the real actress for Effie no joke! I loved hearing about the Cougar Growl and how you made the Bowl guy do it.  Haha I tried doing one for Sister Sam and it was my usual Fire hose sounding one haha! 

Shannon, thank you so much for sending me the Halloween card!  It was SO CUTE!!  The pictures were so cute and I keep them in my bag and show people (:  Your hair looks way long! 

Mom, thank you for the letter!!!! Made my day! 

                                                                             
Well as you can see this week was just one of those weeks where everything was going right.  I'm so grateful to be here, especially in this area at this time.  I miss y’all so much but it sounds like everything is going well! Happy to hear BYU had a great weekend!!!  That’s always good news!!  Good luck this week vs Wisconsin!!  FSU steppin’ up big time vs MIAMI! Although, how are we ever going to get ahead of Oregon?? I want to see FSU in the Championship man!  Dad in answer to your question, no one really has talked much about basketball yet.  All football so far.  I have a funny picture of a huge Bama fan house I'm sending today!  Mom, thank you so much for putting the pictures on Iphoto! That will be the easiest for me to get to and will save me tons of time when I start making the slideshow!  THANK YOU! 

A cute girl named Lauren, she’s about 20, is taking us to Pier Park today.  It’s the best mall they have in the Panama City area.  It’s right by the beach so we are pretty excited!  May not have time to write y’all :( We'll see though. 

I LOVE YALL SO MUCH. PRAY FOR YOU EVERY DAY.  Thank you for everything and have a great week!!!! <3/ Sister Lauren Holmoe!!

Bama House

 Panama City Ironman