Week 65

"Ohhhh ohhh ohhhh ohhhhh" F-L-O-R-I-D-A S-T-A-T-E whoo! Y’all.....going to the FSU game was so great!! Holy cow, what a memory! It was a great night.  We went with Brother Barabash and part of the Wilkerson clan! We all got Firehouse subs beforehand and then headed to the stadium.  It was a rainy night to begin with but that just added to the excitement!  We had such a blast.  I couldn't stop smiling the WHOLE time! Never felt so at home :)  It was a sold out game for their home opener and they played awesome!  It was a blast doing their "War Chant"/ Tomahawk chop! My arm was sore afterwards from all the times of doing it!  I will admit the FSU fans had a WEAK WAVE compared to BYU fans!! I was like, if only they could see Lavell Edwards stadium do the wave! We also had some great missionary opportunities there! God put us right in the middle of tons of cool families!  Lots of seeds were planted!  Man, I'll never forget that night!!! SO happy to hear about the big win for the cougs and the bulldogs! All my teams are winning!

The rest of the week was great as well!  We had a recent convert move into our ward from Atlanta, GA.  She is Chinese and so cute! She was just baptized a few months ago so we'll finish teaching her the new member lessons.  On Monday night we had a little family home evening with her and another member.  We also helped her unpack some of her things.  I was in charge of hanging up her clothes.  This girl has style!!! But unfortunately like 90% of her clothes are immodest so she was asking me what she could and could not wear haha.  Then we all ate watermelon with chopsticks.  I love her!

One night we went out to eat at a place called "Hopkins Eatery" (a member gave us gift cards).  After we ate Sister S had to use the restroom and it was a one stall so I was just waiting outside the door which was near the back kitchen.  Apparently the worker thought that we had left because he just started BASHING us as sister missionaries.  He was saying such crude, mean things!  I was appalled! Then he came around the corner and saw me standing there and you could tell he just felt SOOO embarrassed!  So I smiled, pulled out our pass along cards, and told him if he had any questions about our church he was welcome to look online at our websites :)  His face was bright red!! haha I was just blown away but killed him with kindness! :) Gotta love those classic moments you experience as a missionary :)

There was a baptism for a child of record last night at our building and Violet and her daughter were able to come which was AWESOME!  They really loved it and it was good to sit down and talk with her for a while.  She has just had SO much on her plate recently but we are still in contact with her and we hopefully will be teaching her Wednesday night.  We are also having the 4th ward annual Southern Spread on Saturday (free b-bque potluck/talent show) and she's planning on bringing the kids to that as well.  

Before I break the news don't worry...Shirley is still going strong as ever BUT, she has changed her BCD to October 25th.  Which is cutting it PRETTY CLOSE to when I go home BUT her reasoning is legit and after praying about it, I feel at peace :) We've had some great lessons with her recently and her testimony is growing stronger and stronger every day.  It’s getting pretty crazy as the time is winding down because there is SO much that I want to happen before I leave but I just have to work my hardest, respect others agency, and trust in God's timing :) Which by the way, I absolutely LOVED the card you sent this week Mom! It was so cute! And the family picture is already hanging on my wall.  What a great picture!!

We had the TCC blitz this week and miracles happened!!! We made tons of contacts, got to teach the Restoration, met a former investigator, and even found out the Student Body President is MORMON! So grateful for what an awesome day it turned out to be.

Some more good news was that we had some less actives come to church on Sunday which totally surprised us!!! Also, my dear Emma brought her son to cub scouts on Wednesday night.  Even just seeing her in the building made my day! That’s probably it to report on this week but great things are continuing to happen here.  I love y’all so much and hearing that y’all scheduled the beach house for sure is so exciting!! I can't wait for us all to be here in this land I've grown to love so much!! I've become quite the city driver if I do say so myself ;) I may have to drive on our vacation ;)

Have a wonderful week!!!!! I love you all so much! <3/ Sister Lauren Holmoe

Check out how HUGE this spider is! We were tracting in some neighborhood and they were EVERYWHERE! gross! 

Me and my girl Sister Stratton :)

 Occasionally the campus sisters wear these shirts with pants......lets just say.......it made me a lot more grateful to be a sister rather than an elder!!! It was SO HOT!!

 I took a pic with Shirley so y'all could have a face to a name :) The little girl is her grand daughter who she was babysitting!

Pre-game meal!  Saving this ticket forever! First noles game.

Rainy day in Tallahassee :) Didn't stop the tailgaters though!!

The crew! #unconquered

We're #1 :) Well technically #2 cause no one beats the cougs!

The rain made it SO HUMID in that stadium!!! I felt your pain Erik!!

SISTER HOLMOE <3 The people in front of us took a picture and we were in the background so they asked us what hashtags we had for our church! It was was awesome to see them post #mormons #lds

 CTR cookies at the baptism! CRAZY story....remember Marcus Smith's mom giving me CTR rings to pass out on my mission? Well I had forgotten about them and then something reminded me so I put two in my bag the morning of this baptism and then Violet and her daughter LOVED the idea of CTR and the cookies so I gave them the two rings!! How perfect!?!