................Sister Lauren Holmoe..... .......Tallahassee, Florida Mission....: Week 52

Y’all!!! Hey! This week has been AMAZING! Sheesh I don’t even know where to start!! I can't believe this is my 52nd POST! Crazzyyy....you best believe we'll be having some great celebrations this week for my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!! Yaya!! haha!!

The MLC overnighter was SOOO good!! Can you say spiritual feast!? We all got there on Tuesday and played games outside, had an awesome home cooked meal, sang around the campfire, roasted s’mores, bore testimony, and such. It really brought the spirit of unity which is what we were striving for. I love the leaders of our mission and it was great to get to know them more and spend time with them, especially President and Sister Smith of course! The sisters all slept at the mission home that night and it was a blast! A huge sleepover with lots of my long lost friends :) It was soooooo good to see Sister Dyches and Sister Sam and Sister Crandall! Aw I love them so much! Then that next day we counseled together, discussed items of business, the plans for the mission, set goals, accounted of Zones, and learned from President. He talked about motivation and commitment and being ALL in the mission, laying it all on the line. CHILLS. I loved it. We get to teach on a lot of what he talked about tomorrow in Zone Training which will be great. I also learned a lot about what it takes to be a leader in the mission. Since that meeting I've found myself on my knees A LOT praying specifically for the sisters in my zone and the people they are working with and how we can help them in their work. The love I already have for them is unreal. Exchanges start this week which will be great!

We are teaching some amazing individuals! One is named Cora! We invited Cora to be baptized on June 21st and she is soooo excited. She is doing awesome! Keeping all her commitments and just immersing herself in the fullness of truth. She stays up all night reading the Book of Mormon. I'm really excited for her. She is about 55!

We are also teaching a single mom of 4 kids named Violet! Violet has been prepared for this her whole life! Ah she is so great. Brother Roberts (who loves Erik) works with her and has been planting seeds for a year now and then asked if she'd want to meet with the missionaries and she agreed! Her lessons have been some of my favorite on my entire mission! We teach her like every other day because she just can't get enough. Teaching her the Plan of Salvation was incredible. She was getting so emotional saying how all her life long questions were being answered. She is in her 30s and so classy. Last night we invited her to be baptized on July 5th and she started crying because apparently that day means something really special to her. She told us she would tell us next time but there are a lot of great things in her future, as well as her kids! We've been praying a lot and studying and preparing lessons by the spirit and we've seen so many blessings this week from that preparation! And it all came from one member who opened his mouth. MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK IS KEY!!! I love it and am so grateful to be helping them!

Yesterday at church in walks Steven Jones!! I don’t think I'd ever had a real conversation with him before. He is really really cool! His wife and baby are cute too! His whole family is in the Tally 4th ward and I met them all yesterday and they LOVVVE Elder Holmoe haha. Willy Jones started crying when he found out I was his sister. Then his brother Richmond told me how Erik gave Willy a blessing when he was like about to die and in the blessing said that he still had purposes to fulfill here on earth and then two weeks later Willy was back to normal health. Everyone in that family has such a strong testimony of the power of the priesthood ever since then! I was getting emotional listening to them all share this experience with me. It was really cool. That family is pretty rad and we are hopefully going to start teaching Steven’s niece who is 10 but not baptized and wants to come back to church!

We got to teach the YW mutual this week on why we chose to serve missions and answer any questions they had about a mission. That is like my favorite thing to do. Nothing is better than talking to young women about how much I love my mission and how it’s changed my life. I hope something we said inspired them in some way!

We met a one legged ballroom dancer who has no feet this week. She totally needs an "I’m a Mormon" message about her! INSPIRATION!

God led us to be in the right places at the right time once again. Last night we were trying to visit someone who we couldn't find and in the mean time out walks a less active who we'd never met. She said her dog randomly started barking at the door so she opened it EXACTLY when we were walking by. She knew that was God putting us in her path. She opened up to us and wants to meet with us weekly to help strengthen her testimony again! It was so cool!

We met a referral for the first time this week and at first she was like, "OH NO, NOT THE MORMONS, get out!!" but after chatting she agreed to let us teach her about the Book of Mormon for 5 minutes and then the spirit took over. The spirit softened her heart BIG time and by the end of the 5 minutes she was hooked. She wants to know more! We had many other cool experiences where the spirit touched the hearts of certain individuals. I love being able to witness that time and time again.

Got all your letters this week! Thank you!!!! Tell all the cousins who are having babies congrats! I had no idea there were so many of them! That’s exciting!! To answer some of your questions, I use my little black suitcase for exchanges and stuff and it works fine! I bought Walmart glasses but they broke the day after I bought them. haha its starting to become a huge joke that every pair of glasses I touch BREAK! I give up!! I wanted that 11 month pic because I have all my month pics printed out and I keep them in the back of my journal! This week we get to take a sister to the airport. That will be weird!! Haven't been there for a while! She’s sleeping the night at our place, then we'll take her out to breakfast, and then to the port! I love doing random jobs like this :)

Well I appreciate everyone’s emails today!! It’s always so good to hear from each of you!!! I love you so much and hope you have a great week!!!! Happy Father’s Day on Sunday Daddy!!! <3

MISS YOU LOTS! <3/ Sister Holmoe!

Chipotle! SO GOOD!

Mall life...I think today we are going to Urban Outfitters ha :)

First timer in the office!

We had to wait a whole year to see each other but it was a great reunion!!!

My baby girl is all grown up :) She's still my baby girl :) She told me about so many people in Lynn haven who are doing great!!!!! A less active family we worked with FOREVER, is going to the temple next month!!!!!!!!!!!!! <3 I cried!