................Sister Lauren Holmoe..... .......Tallahassee, Florida Mission....: Week 67

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMA!!!!! Woot Woot!!! I love you SO much!!! I'm so grateful your birthday fell on a P-day so I had the chance to wish you a happy day right on your special day!! Hope you have a wonderful time!

This week has been wonderful! HUGE miracle that happened. On the first day being with Sister S we were looking through our area book (which is HUUUUUGE) and decided to flip through the former investigators teaching records (there are like 100). We both felt really drawn to this girl named Victoria so we called her and to our surprise she agreed to meet with us again! So we began teaching her again and boy was she elect! I can't remember if I had told you about her or not. Anyways we had to pass her off to the campus sisters because of her age so they have been teaching her ever since then. I have also had the chance to teach her here and there on exchanges which has been great. On Wednesday night we were talking to her a little bit about temples and she had a few concerns but we didn't have much time to address them right at that moment BUT THEN, two days later she called the sisters and said her answer came and she was ready to be baptized as soon as possible. Needless to say she was baptized on Sunday evening! :) It was so exciting!!!! I love Victoria and it was a beautiful baptism. I'd never seen her so happy before. Her Mormon friend from South Florida drove up all day Saturday to be able to make it on Sunday. It was awesome!!

We also had some great lessons this week with our investigators. Rosemarie is on FIRE! Teaching her the Plan of Salvation was like giving a little kid candy. She loved every piece of it. She has such a desire to be sealed in the temple one day. We are hoping to set a firm BCD with her this week! The Wilkersons are still on fire as well. We had a fun lesson with them and then celebrated a few birthdays. The ward mission leader brought donuts for us all! The boys are in the primary program on Sunday and the girls are starting to work on Personal Progress! It’s great to see how close their family is getting. Another investigator is slowly cutting down on her smoking which is great. This past week I've been taking time in my personal study to study in the church's Addiction Recovery Program book. I've been reading it with our investigator in mind, as well as others with similar addictions, and it is AMAZING. Wow. Talk about learning how to access the Atonement in your life!!!

Miss Georgia, who we are teaching, is a hoot! I love her! She asked us for 8 copies of the Book of Mormon for her to pass out to her friends and family! She has also asked us to teach her Bible study this week. I've never taught a southern Baptist bible study before so this could be interesting!!! Oh the experiences you get from serving in the South......haha! I'm becoming quite the southerner if I do say so myself :) I suddenly am choosing to order FISH over STEAK at restaurants!?!? I rarely flinch if I see a cockroach or other bug in our apartment! It cools down to 75 degrees in the mornings and I'm COLD!? Craziness y’all!

Zone training went great! We usually get about 30 minutes for teaching. We were asked to teach on companionship relations as well as goal setting. I think it went very well! MLC is this Wednesday so I am very excited!!

A new Mormon message came out this week called, "You Never Know"! I insist y’all watch it!!!! Especially Mom and Shannon (being the current Moms of the fam). It is awesome and shows how sometimes we can go all day, stressing, trying to cross off our To-Do list, and then finish our day in complete disappointment thinking nothing great happened....BUT it shows all the wonderful things behind scenes that came from the day! I loved it because that’s how a mission is sometimes. You work so so hard all day and can come home at the end of the night and either think "wow nothing great happened" or you can reflect and have the faith that many tiny miracles could have happened that we weren't even aware of! PERSPECTIVE!!

SHOUT OUT TO SHANNON FOR FINISHING THE BOM!!!!! That thank you note made my day!!!! I was beyond happy to read and hear how your experience was. THANK YOU for taking that challenge :) I love you!!!!

Mom, you never told me you were going to Orlando!!! Lucky dog!!! haha!! That will be awesome! I've heard SO many great things about Orlando since being here! Hey do you think there is any chance when we are in Miami that we will be able to go to the Ft. Lauderdale temple!? I'd love to see it in person!!!

Well I love y’all so much! HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK!!!! <3/ Sister Holmoe

All the sisters in our Zone at Zone Training