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!

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!!!