4 Days Until Skyping!

Hey! 

I wish you all a Merry Christmas! It feels like last Christmas was just yesterday! But the concept of time on a mission is pretty skewed..maybe some of you feel differently, but I love Christmas! This week has been pretty Christmasy! On Monday we had some snow, but it didn't last very long. Then on Wednesday, our district came to Randers and we sang some Christmas Carols on the townsquare, to investigators and some members. It was pretty fun. I was a little skeptical to sing Christmas songs with 5 dudes in front of whoever would walk by on the most crowded corner of town, but it wound up alright. I wasn't too thrilled to start, but afterwards, it worked pretty well. We got some potentials from it, so it was pretty successful! We did that same thing in Skive the next day, and it worked pretty well again. So that has been semi effective and fun! :) 

On Friday, we were in Århus for Zone Conference, and we had all the missionaries from Jylland and Fyn with us so we could share Christmas together. That was pretty fun! We ate a Christmas dinner for lunch and had some risalamande dessert with that! After, we saw everyone's baby pictures and old family pictures. It was pretty funny. I'm glad mine weren't have as embarrassing as some! Thanks mom and dad! :) Right after that, a return missionary who's Danish showed up as Santa Claus and handed out all the packages our parents and whoever else sent to us! Then, the best part of all, we watched the movie Inside Out! SUPER funny movie haha and super cute. I enjoyed it, and it was good to see a movie as a missionary haha. Well, not good, but you get what I mean. 

We haven't had much time to do too much work in our area, but we had a few investigator lessons and there's not much new with that unfortunately, but the progress is going forward slowly but surely. :) We're still working hard and doing all we can! Hopefully we can have a Christmas miracle this week! I believe it! :) 

Anyways, remember to think of the true meaning of Christmas! I saw an interesting scripture this week. It's in Matthew, 27:46. It says, "46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?." Sometimes, we really do feel like God has forsaken us. Jesus even felt that way. But it was much worse for him. Jesus suffere

d everything. HE even felt like God forsaked (forsook?) him. Him being perfect. It's a good reminder that the Lord knows everything that we go through. And knows exactly how He can help us. Always remember that and be sure to thank him for his sacrifice. It wasn't easy! 

I hope you all have a great week! Jeg ønsker jer alle sammen en glædelig jul og et godt nytår! 

I love you all! 

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS: In other news, I FINALLY got my visa! I'm now legal! 

11 Days until Skyping!

Hello!!

I'm getting all ready for Christmas, I don't know about you all! It's been starting to feel like Christmas season! Only like 11 Days til Christmas aka 11 days to Skype home! I'm pretty excited. It only happens 2 times a year!!

Anyways, this week has been packed. We've been pretty busy! On Tuesday, the Relief Society had a Christmas party and they asked us to wash their dishes, so we said yes, and they promised us some food in return. That was good! Then on Thursday into Friday, we had splits with the Zone Leaders. That was pretty fun. We got some good work done. Our power also went out on Thursday because our chandelier had a short... So we were with some electricians for a good part of the day as the fixed our power... Luckily it was free! :) But that wasn't too fun! Then on Saturday, we had the Branch Christmas party! That was pretty fun and had some good Christmas food too. It was nice to get to know the branch a little bit better too!

We met with some investigators this week to but not too much progress with them.. One progressing investigator is moving to a tiny island in Denmark called Samsø.. Where there are no missionaries nor church buildings... But, that's alright! We'll see if we can't have missionaries sail on a ferry to teach her! But, no new news... We're hoping for some change in our investigators this week. We think it can happen. This week we won't be in Randers too much. We'll be out of it from Thursday - Saturday, but we have a Christmas party with our mission on Friday, so that should be fun! :) I'm really excited. I love coming together with other missionaries.

Anyways, it's been a pretty good week. Hopefully we can get more work going here in Randers! We've been working our tail off but not many people wanna talk! But we're pressing forward anyways! There's a scripture I wanna share though. It's in Mosiah 24: 9-16.

It says, " 9 For Amulon knew Alma, that he had been one of the king’s priests, and that it was he that believed the words of Abinadi and was driven out before the king, and therefore he was wroth with him; for he was subject to king Laman, yet he exercised authority over them, and put tasks upon them, and put task-masters over them.10 And it came to pass that so great were their afflictions that they began to cry mightily to God.11 And Amulon commanded them that they should stop their cries; and he put guards over them to watch them, that whosoever should be found calling upon God should be put to death. 12 And Alma and his people did not raise their voices to the Lord their God, but did pour out their hearts to him; and he did know the thoughts of their hearts.13 And it came to pass that the voice of the Lord came to them in their afflictions, saying: Lift up your heads and be of good comfort, for I know of the covenant which ye have made unto me; and I will covenant with my people and deliver them out of bondage.14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. 15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.16 And it came to pass that so great was their faith and their patience that the voice of the Lord came unto them again, saying: Be of good comfort, for on the morrow I will deliver you out of bondage."

It's quite long, but its worth reading. I had an experience yesterday that makes know this is true. Contacting last night was not a walk in the park. Let's just say the people weren't the nicest last night. I didn't get discouraged, but of course I was like, "What the heck?" We had about 10 minutes left before we had to go in for the night and I just prayed in my head that we'd find someone who'd be interested after this brutal day and for the Lord to help me get my spirits up again. I remember walking down the road and seeing a girl smoking and I felt inclined to talk to her, but we took a different road the eventually turns into that road. We eventually got to that road she was on so I turned up the hill and saw her still standing there. Turns up, she was interested and got her number. I could have just went inside, but I knew as soon as I saw her she'd wanna talk. And she did! As long as we're patient, endure and rely on the Lord, he'll free us from our bondage. So do it! :) It works!

Anyways, I love you all! Thanks for all your support! I appreciate it a ton!

Have a great week,
Love,
Taylor

PS: That's Risalamande! Good stuff. The white stuff in the bowl. We got the left overs from the Christmas Party! The other picture is Hobro. Beautiful city!

GOD JUL!

Happy December! 

I hope everyone had a great November and I hope everyone enjoys this month! The most wonderful time of the year! 

It's been a pretty good week. The winds been blowing and it's been raining everyday all day, but what's new? At least it's not snowing! 

I don't really know what new happened this week! The mission has been focusing a bit on Family History finding, but the world has been focusing on "A Savior is Born." So, that's primarily what we've been focusing on! I really like that website. You all should check that out though. I could spend days on it....but don't worry, I wont.. There's like tons of videos and .gifs and stuff. It's really sweet and social media share friendly. You all should check it out! We've been doing quite a bit of knocking and contacting this week to show people this video. Not too many people want to see a two or three minute video though... Whatever! It'd be much easier with iPads too, but we're not so lucky...go figure. But, it really has been going well! 

Two of our friends we meet with will come to church this week! They're also going to the Ward's Christmas parties! That'll be pretty exciting. We found one of our investigator's dad's knocking on some doors and had a pretty interesting story! This guy said the reason why he's such a religious born again is because he prayed at religious men would come talk to him and the mormon missionaries knocked on his door that same day. That was like 40 years ago, but loves our church because it began his religous journey. He said he's been praying for his daughter that she'd find a religion..... little does he know that we've been meeting with her for the past month! So that's pretty miraculous! We'll tell them that we've been meeting with their dad/daughter soon enough... We'll let that sit for now...

Anyways, since were weeks shy from Christmas, I thought I'd share a good ole Christmas scripture. It's Alma 7:10-14. It says, "10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God. 11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people. 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities. 13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me." I really like this because it helps us remember what the Savior did for us so that we could be free from sin, relieved of sickness and helped in our struggles. He made it possible so we could return and live with our Heavenly Father again. We need to remember that and just say a prayer of thanks. It wasn't an easy task, but it shows us the undescribable love both God and Jesus Christ had for us. Let's cherish this gift! It's the best gift ever! And we can use it our whole lives!! :)

Anyways, I love you all! I hope you all have a good week! :) 

Med Kærlig Hilsen, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

Christmas Video

Elder Howes recommends this new Christmas video to get into the "chillaxing Christmas spirit!"

Here it is in English: 

Og her er det på dansk:

Enjoy! :)

30.11.2015

Helloooo!

It's the last day before the last month of the year! And 25 days until Christmas and like 100 until I hit my one year mark! WOAHH! 

This weeks been pretty good. I usally give kinda a run down with how this weeks weather has been, so it's been pretty mild (relatively) but it hasn't been too bad! Yesterday, however, rained on the parade, but it was pretty cool. We had insane wind yesterday! So bad that the Stake cancelled an activity to keep people safe! However the missionaries still had to work... Anyways, the wind was throwing things all over the place, including me (more like pushing because no one/nothing can knock this guy over ;)) and we had slushy rain that smacked our faces at like 50mph and it felt like pebbles flying at full speed. It hurt pretty bad. But that I think was the only time I have actually felt cold in Denmark. It was pretty painfully cold, windy and wet. 

Anyways, the work this week has been great. We had a Blitz Splits here in Randers, where 4 other missionaries come to help us find people all day, on Tuesday and Wednesday, then on Thursday, it was Thanksgiving! We had a Zone Conference with all of the missionaries on Jylland and Fyn and we ate our thanksgiving dinner, then had a talent show, and finished it off with an AMERICAN football Turkey Bowl. It was awesome and it wasn't even raining! But it was muddy and cold still... It was fun. We stayed the night with the Zone Leaders in Århus and that was pretty fun! Then we did some service for an old lady on Friday, then on Saturday we did a whole bunch of door knocking and on Sunday, I had to give a talk..so did Elder Hager! Didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but we did what we could haha. They turned out pretty good. They were on, "How can we bless the world?" 

We did have a new investigator this week and she's pretty positive, and we also have another who's come to church for the second time! She really loves the church too! We're having success with them and we're really happy for that! :) It's going pretty strong here in Randers...Finally!! 

The church came out with a fine new Christmas video! You can find it on Christmas.Mormon.org, and in Danish on Jul.Mormon.org! It's a pretty good video! Don't hold youself back from watching it...it's actually good and a good reminder of what the Savior has done for us! So go watch it and get into that chillaxing Christmas spirit! 

Anyways, it's been going pretty good recently! I love it here! I hope you all have a jolly week and get into that Christmas spirit! I love you all!  

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

23.11.2015

Hello!!

Sorry I didn't get to you all last week. That was totally my bad. I don't ever watch the clock on the computer.. It's a computer with a timer... I know right. But it's been a pretty good past few weeks! Yesterday we saw some snow....already! I'm prepared for a brutal winter, but I'll be alright! :) 

Last week, we had someone in church for the first time that I've been here in Randers. That hurts to say... I've been here forever, but we finally had somebody come and she said that it was positively surprisingly good! She has plans to come in the future, but couldn't make it yesterday and I don't think she'll make it next week either, but she has been progressing and continues to meet with us! The branch really likes her! So that's really good! We also made several appointments with some potentials for this week, so we're excited to meet with some new people! 

We also have Thanksgiving this week!!! The Danes don't celebrate it of course, but the missionaries do! We have a good ole Turkey Bowl coming up and everything! We're pretty stoked for it, but it should be pretty cold and wet. It'll still be fun though! We're excited for Thursday! It wont be the same as it is back home, but it's about as close as I'll get in Denmark! 

Let's see...what else.. OH! I already set my appointment up to Skype on Christmas! Only one more month until then!! :) I'm excited! 

I found a good scripture this week! It's in Mosiah 5! It's verse 2. It says, "And they all cried with one voice, saying: Yea, we believe all the words which thou hast spoken unto us; and also, we know of their surety and truth, because of the Spirit of the Lord Omnipotent, which has wrought a mighty change in us, or in our hearts, that we have no more disposition to do evil, but to do good continually." This talks about King Benjamin's address! Because of the words he spoke and the testimony he bore, they found a change in their hearts after they repented of their iniquities. And they afterwards abound themselves in good works! This is exactly how our repentance should be. We should always have that desire to do good continually, especially has we come into this Christmas season! :) 

Anyways, I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

MKH,

Ældste Taylor Howes 

Contacts freezing to my eye

This week Taylor didn't have enough time to email, but he did send us 2 pictures and I'll include a short blurb of what he wrote in my personal email. 

"But I had a really good week! We FINALLY had an investigator in church!!! She's 21 and a super nice girl! I was here for like 11 weeks and not one week did we have an investigator in church so it was good to finally find someone to come to church - and actually love it and beg us to have her boyfriend come too. It was awesome! It was a pretty good week and had like 3 miracles this week too! It was CRAZY but it was right when I needed it because I was on verge to becoming lazier. But not anymore! :) So it's going tons better here now that there's at least someone! The weather has been crap but that's alright. Yesterday my contacts froze to my eye. That was a weird feeling! But it's going good! :) But I know I kinda stopped keeping track of the time I've been out... Because like I got a ton of time and I've been out quite a good chunk of time too so that's cool! But basically halfway done because time is zooming by!"

2 Nephi 33:10-13

Hello!

It's been a pretty good week! We spent a lot of time on splits with the missionaries in Silkeborg and Skive. On Wednesday, Silkeborg was with us and on Thursday, all the missionaries in our district went to Skive and helped them find investigators. It went pretty well and it was awesome to be together for a day or so. We had a lot of fun! 

The weather hasn't been too bad! It's been pretty windy and brisk, but I haven't shivered quite yet! :) It gets dark pretty early though!! 

On Saturday, I was pretty sick with a bad cold and Sister O'Bryant made us stay inside. We still went out for a lesson, but she doesn't know that! :) So keep that on the down low haha. 

We had 5 investigator lessons this week, 3 with a new investigator we found named Kevin! He's a good guy and wants to be baptized, but we had those 3 lessons and I guess he wanted to stop taking lessons for whatever reason. He's friends with a family who are members of the church, so hopefully they'll be there to push him through it. Our other investigators are doing okay, they just don't want to commit themselves to anything. We've only been promising them blessing but they don't want to do anything to receive those blessings and the comfort that comes from the gospel. Hopefully they can come through soon! :)

I've got a spiritual thought this week! I've been focusing on Elder Bednar's talk about a prophet's last words or last testimony in General Conference. I read Nephi's last testimony and he testifies of the Book of Mormon. It's in 2 Nephi 33: 10-13. It says, " 10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good. 11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness. 12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day. 13 And now, my beloved brethren, all those who are of the house of Israel, and all ye ends of the earth, I speak unto you as the voice of one crying from the dust: Farewell until that great day shall come." He says if we believe in Christ, we will receive a testimony that the Book of Mormon is his words. It's pretty straightforward and I can't exactly expound upon it anymore than Nephi already stated, but those are inspired words! :) Even better, it's true! :)

I hope you all have a great week! I saw an IB school this week in Viborg! I'll attach a pic of the sign! I love you all! 

MKH,

Ældste Taylor Howes

Happy November!!!

Hey!

It's November! Where did all of the time go?? It's almost Christmas and it'll be almost time to Skype home! That's weird! :) But I'm stoked for the Christmas season! (Yeah yeah it's not even Thanksgiving yet, but I'm ready!)

This week, not too much happened. We got burned on a ton of appointments and that was a bummer. I don't know whats going on with our investigators but it's confusing me! We had the Zone Leaders down here on Thursday and we just contacted around the city all day and got a bunch of potential investigators and referrals. We still have some potentials we need to follow up with, but our potentials are keeping us busy so that's pretty good. I hope a few of them will shift into investigators. That'd be nice! :) We did a bunch of service this week too... We helped a random guy move out from the 6th floor of a building into the second floor of a different building. That was a workout... I was pretty sore. Washing machines are heavy! We also did some painting and cleaning for people this week, so that was pretty fun too. It was a pretty good week though!

We tried getting Elder Hager a bike from a place on the other side of Randers this week. We get there and see the that place relocated and opened the next day.. So that was a big ole waste of time. But we used our lunch hour at McDonalds so we made ourselves happy after the unfortunality(I think that's a word).

We had Halloween this week. I wish we went knocking, but the Danes don't really celebrate Halloween. Some do, some don't... It's weird! But we celebrated by wearing orange ties! :)

Anyways, this week I found a good scripture! It's in 2 Nephi 26: 23-25. It says, "23 For behold, my beloved brethren, I say unto you that the Lord God worketh not in darkness. 24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. 25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price." I like this because it says the Lord will never forsake us. He's not the author of darkness. He won't let us fail. He doesn't restrict us from happiness. He does, however, reach out his arm and tell us that he will give us all that he has. All he asks is that we come unto Him. I've felt sometimes that I've been forsaken. I ask myself, "Why does this happen to me?" Instead of doing that, reach out to the Savior. You'll see the difference, I promise. 😁

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! Stay warm and enjoy the season! :)

Med Kærlig Hilsen,

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS. That's our pathetic Halloween pic and a beautiful cemetary! :)

Christus Statue!

Goddag!!!! 

Hey! Another P-day! This week was pretty good! I spent Monday through Wednesday in Copenhagen! I really LOVE Copenhagen. It's so fun there. It's so beautiful and stuff. I loved it. I got a picture with THE Kristus statue. That a lot of people have in their homes. I'll attach a picture of that and the church it's in! :) 

On Wednesday, I received my trainee and next companion for 12 weeks! His name is Ældste Hager! He's pretty awesome. He's from St. George, Utah and was a swimmer, lifeguard and played water polo. So he really likes water like me! He's a fun guy. We're getting along pretty well! He's got okay Danish for a trainee. It'll come though. We've been doing a lot of finding since he has been here. It's been going pretty well! He and I found 1 new investigator this week, so that was good! We're pretty happy about that! :) 

Other than that, well, not too much really happened. It's already Daylight Earnings or whatever so we got 9 hours of sleep on Sunday! I was super happy about that. But I'm not too happy about darkness at 4:30pm..... I'll get used to it though!! 

This week, I read a little bit more in 1 Nephi 17 and really focused on soaking up that chapter. It's gotta be one of my favorite chapters in the Book of Mormon. Nephi was commanded to build a ship, but he'd never built one before. He was to build it after the way God would show him. Of course, Laman and Lamuel made fun of him and tried killing him. Yeah, not any fun. Anyways, in verse 50-51, it reads, "50 And I said unto them: If God had 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. 51 And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship?" It was a good one to read, especially  because of it's truthfullness. The Lord commands us to do a bunch of things, like follow the Word of Wisdom, serve a mission, etc. We may not know how it could be possible, but He will prepare a way. This could also be related to our trials and struggles. He always prepares the way for us and instructs us if we are humble enough to listen to him and follow his counsel. It takes some humbling, trust me, but He will ALWAYS help us if we just do what he asks. I promise that! I've seen it! 

Anyways, I love you all and miss each and every one of you! :) 

Love, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

                                                      Christus Statue in Copenhagen

                                          Elder Howes and his new companion Elder Hager!

#CheckIt

Hello!

It's been a pretty good week. It's been getting pretty cold but it's been weird. The thick humidity makes the cold undescribable. It's like hot but freezing. It doesn't make sense! It hasn't been too bad though! This week was my last week with Elder NIelsen. He got transferred to an Island beneath Sweden called Bornholm. He's pretty excited. It's kinda rare to go there. It's been a great 7 weeks with him though. We did a TON of work and just tore the area up. Hopefully my next companion and I will continue to do so!

We had a Zone Training on Thursday and I found out that I'll be training a brand new missionary! I'm pretty excited. It's going to be fun! It's weird to be on the other side of the wall. I know exactly what my next companion will be going through, but I'll be able to help which is good! On Thursday we also had a zone activity. We kinda just screwed around. We had a ping pong tournament, grilled, and carved pumpkins and stuff. We just had a good time and screwed around. We had interviews with the mission president on Thursday so we did that to pass the time!

On Saturday, we were down in Silkeborg for splits. It was pretty fun. We basically hopped from appointment to appointment.

We've been having little success but we finally found someone who is truly interested and wants to change. His name is Henrik and he's had a pretty hard life and wants to stop drinking, smoking, etc and we didn't even tell him it was a commandment. He's pretty positive and willing to meet multiple times within the week. He's our best investigator and we should be inviting him to baptism next week. We'll see how that goes but he really wants to know the church is actually true. He's met with tons of churches but nothing stuck out to him more than our church. So I'm pretty excited and happy for him!

In the meantime...we had 8 eating appointments. It was awesome but I fluctuated between 8 pounds this week... It was great!

This week, I felt like I should start the Book of Mormon again and stop reading the Doctrine and Covenants. D&C was good, but I just wasn't pulling much from it for me. So, I read in 1 Nephi 3. I'm not going to paste the scripture in here because what I found was within the whole chapter but I invite you all to read that chapter. It talks about how Nephi and his brothers were sent by their father Lehi to go and get the important plates from Laban. They went the first time, but that was to no avail. They went back again with a ton of pricey possessions. Those were stolen and the attempt didn't work. They were almost killed on both tries. Nephi's brothers chickened out to go back but Nephi stepped up in his large stature and said ''I'm going back.'' So he did. He found Laban drunk, grabbed his clothes, went into the treasury, got the plates and ended up saving Laban's guard and invited him to come along on the trip so he wouldn't be destroyed in Jerusalem. He ended up going with Nephi. I thought about that and realized that everything usually takes one or more try in order to accomplish. It was a good lesson to me because life is all about trial and error. Whether if it's with sin or anything that needs to get done, we fail multiple times, but that gets us closer to accomplishing. We learn from the mistakes and try to do better the next time. Eventually we make it there even if it's hard. But when you look back on your accomplishment, you realize that your much stronger and better than you were before. That's the purpose of our lives. To keep progressing! I hope you all read that chapter and learn something too. :)

I love you all and I hope you have a good week!!

Med Kærlig Hilsen,

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS: #CheckIt

12.10.2015

Hejsa! 

I hope it's been a good week for everyone! This week was alright for me! There's a few highlights that I'll talk about later! Anyways, first things first, it's COLD. It feels like Thanksgiving outside. No fun! But I'm staying warm so that's good! 

This week we were burned on several appointments that had good potential so that was a bummer. We'll see if we can't set those back up again! We found a couple new investigators this week so that was a positive, but no one is really progressing which is unfortunate! But with time, it'll come. I'm not too worried about it. It's been pretty difficult lately considering we haven't seen much progress in the span of 6 weeks. We've been working our tails off but just nothing has been coming through. But, it was never meant to be easy! :) We're doing well though!

This week, our district came to Randers to contact people and try and help us out. It didn't really work out but that's besides the fact, but that night, we got some peppers called the Naga peppers. I don't really know what that is but I knew it was really hot because it had a warning label on it. Anyways, we made that into a challenge, which was whoever can eat the pepper wins the challenge. Well, I didn't want to do it, nor did I want to be labeled as a chicken, so I did it. It was hot. Others, well, they didn't hold it down so well and were squirming all through the night. It was pretty funny but I will NEVER do that again. 

Just Saturday night, I was in the hospital. My companion ate it going full speed on his bike and landed on his wrist wrong. HIs wrist wasn't bending the right ways and couldn't move his fingers so we decided it was best to take him to the hospital. We were there about 4 hours or so. Turns out he fractured his Radius or something like that. HIs bike needs work too. It was a pretty violent crash! 

Weirdly enough, on our walk back from the hospital, I had a spiritual experience. It was late and pretty dark so we wanted to get home ASAP. We took a path through the woods to the hospital, but on the way back, we went into the woods and couldn't see a thing. We considered turning around and taking a different way but we remembered that we have a flash light app on our phone so we used that and were able to make it through back to the streetlights again. After we made it through, I remembered a scripture that went around the lines of a forest. It's 1 Nephi 17:13. "13 And I will also be your light in the wilderness; and I will prepare the way before you, if it so be that ye shall keep my commandments; wherefore, inasmuch as ye shall keep my commandments ye shall be led towards the promised land; and ye shall know that it is by me that ye are led." It made me think that when we are in hard times of trial, in a dark place in our life, whatever it may be, God will always be our light. He only asks that we do what he asks us to do. It's pretty simple. He wants to give us his blessings but will only do it when we ask for them and do what he asks to receive them. It was a weird spiritual experience and it occurred at a weird time, but it was something I needed to hear and it was something that can be applied in all aspects of my life. And everyone else's too. Anyways I really liked it, I hope you all do too!

I love you all and I hope you all have great weeks! 

Med Kærlig Hilsen, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS: Sorry I have no pics...I'll do better next week!

10.05.2015

Hey!

We've now entered a new month! I'm stoked for Halloween! Do you think I can get away saying trick or treat sometime?? Haha I've scheduled knocking on the 31st already! :)

Anyways, it's been a pretty good week. On Monday and Tuesday we were in Skive and Viborg helping out the Elders in that area. It went pretty well! I got a good picture out of it to say the least! A couple actually. 

This week we have been working with some less active members and we have spent a good amount of time knocking and contacting. We have found some good potentials from it! We had a good amount of lessons with some people we found! We have found another new investigator we will be working with here soon! This was probably our most sucessful week even with our time shortages due to being in Skive and watching General Conference. We were really happy to see the progress coming in our area! We have been relying a lot more on the spirit and prayer when we work! It's really shown a lot of success! 

General Conference was great by the way. It was sad to see President Monson struggling on the pulpit, but he gave a really strong testimony at the end. If any of you all didn't watch any of the sessions or only Sundays, I strongly reccomend watching the other sessions, at least from our apostles. They were very uplifting and I got several things out of them. I know you all can too! My favorites personally were Jeffrey R. Holland's, Robert D. Hales's and Russell M. Nelson's! I learned a lot from those and the spirit touched me the most during those talks. 

Anyways, it's going much better here in Randers. Starting to get a little cold, but the work is just getting hotter!! I hope you all have a great week and are staying above water over in the South! :) 

I love and miss you all! 

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS. A missionary did that graffiti of Mormon.org 6 months ago! Don't worry, it's not illegal. :)

Starting over with Family History

Goddag!

It's been a pretty good week. Some pretty exciting things are happening in Den Danske Mission! We had a Zone Conference on Wednesday and we will be putting a majority of our missionary focus on Family History. In President O'Bryant's words, "Why should we be doing the same thing we have been doing for the past 200 years? Everyone hears the same thing over and over!" Pretty wise statement actually. That's one of the biggest changes happening to the mission, along with other smaller things. I'm pretty excited for the change. What we have been doing has resulted in little success, and even if those people we give our Geneology services too don't accept the gospel, we will still be helping them, so that's the most important part. 

This week, however, we found 2 new investigators! Our hard work is finally paying off. But I have to say, it's hard work and it's been wearing me out! But if I'm not worn out, I'm not doing it right! I'm really happy to see the area growing a little bit more. It should grow exponentially if we incorporate Family History, but I know absolutely nothing about it right now so I can't use it. ): 

We've been doing a bunch of less-active work this week, along with a bunch of finding. It's been going pretty well. It's kinda fun to get in touch with people who haven't seen the church in a while. They're pretty happy to see us (For the most part)! I enjoy it though. 

I'm really excited for General Conference. Not one, not two, but THREE new apostles of the Lord will be called at one time! That will be awesome! I'm excited to hear about it! I don't know how much I can watch of conference live, but I'll get to see it this week though! It might be crammed into Saturday, Sunday and Monday! Too bad I can't watch it in pajamas though! ):

That's about all that's happened this week. It's going forward here, and I'm excited for the changes! I liked a scripture this week in Doctine and Convenants. In Section 75:10-12, it says, "10 Calling on the name of the Lord for the Comforter, which shall teach them all things that are expedient for them—11 Praying always that they faint not; and inasmuch as they do this, I will be with them even unto the end. 12 Behold, this is the will of the Lord your God concerning you. Even so. Amen." Sometimes we think we can do everything on our own. Aquire knowledge, get through school, trials in life, whatever, you name it! But we can't.. We have a gift and that's prayer! God wants to hear from us and wants to bless us. He wants to know we are humble enough to receive the blessings we need. I hope all of you will rely on our Father in heaven because He's done miracles for my hard times in Denmark. I know He can do the same for you all if you call upon his name! 

I hope you all have a great week! I love and miss you all tons! 

MKH!

Ældste Taylor Howes

OH! On Friday I hit my 6 month on my mission mark! That means I burnt a tie! Yay! 

21.09.2015

Hej med jer!

I hope everyone has had good weeks!! My week went pretty well. We had stake conference this week so we travelled a lot this week! Especially the past couple days. We almost spent as much time in other areas this week than we did our own!

We had splits on Wednesday in a good town called Silkeborg. It's really pretty and it seems like the work is going pretty well with them. We had four missionaries in Silkeborg and we all had a good time together.

On Thursday, I had to see the dentist.. A filling came out unfortunately! They didn't even numb me when they were drilling. That's no fun! But it's all fixed now and my tooth is back to working order! :)

We spent a lot of time finding this week and ended up finding 3 potentials within an hour, so that was really good! We were happy with that! We also found another potential earlier within the week and she was really positive! We don't have any investigators at the moment, but that will change before I even know it! But the work is going forward here in Randers and we're seeing the fruits of our labors!

It was interesting to hear a talk from a member of the area seventies who attended stake conference. He emphasized a lot about keeping the Sabbath Day holy. I guess the General Authorities are trying to send a world wide message, sort of like how they did with the Proclamation to the Family. So that's interesting! I really like that a lot!

This week I read a little bit out of the Bible and found a good scripture in Luke 12:29-32. It says, "29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. 30 For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things.31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. 32 Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom." I like this because it's a reminder that we should always be focused on fullfilling what God wants us to do. We shouldn't seek after the worldly things and focus on that. We shouldn't focus on what we need because the Lord knows we need them. If we always focus on God and we're always relying on him, he will give us what we need and bless us with even more! :)

Anyways, I love you all! I hope you have a great week!

MKH,
Ældste Taylor Howes

Prayers Answered

Hej kære alle sammen! {Hello dear all}

I hope all is going well with everyone!! It's been a pretty good week. The weather is getting colder and rainier...The winter won't be pleasant here! I'm gonna miss North Carolina winters! But we managed to work our tails off this week and come down with a solid amount of potential investigators, so that was good! I'll share a story about one! 

So we were out walking around to contact people. The weather was kinda bad, not raining but it was a little dreary. We were just wandering to see where we would be taken. We weren't really choosing anything but we were just going where we would end up going. Then we took this random road and I see this older woman at the bottom of the hill. I felt like she would talk to us and like I knew her. As soon as she got to where we were, she got off her bike and said, "Do you all speak Danish (in Danish)," and we responded, "Of Course!" So she said, "I'm Protestant. Do we believe in the same God?" I said, "Yes!" and she said, "Do you all believe that Jesus Christ was Ressurrected?" And again, I said yes. Then she asked, "What's different then?" I just said, "Well, we believe we have a prophet today who leads and guides our church and receives revelation for our world - exactly the same purpose as the prophets you know in the Bible. We also believe that we have that same church Jesus Christ established when he was on the Earth. With the same authority he had, which was distributed to his apostles to create his church. We know that that same church that Jesus Christ established has been restored to the Earth." She said, "I was talking to some of your friends when I was on vacation in Belgium. They came up and spoke to me and started talking about religion. It was a great talk and they gave me a German Book of Mormon, but I can't read that. Do you all have one in Danish?" I said, "Yeah, here you go!" And I gave her one. She said she would love to talk about this because she believes it's true. Then we traded information and she left. It all seemed so unreal. I remember praying the night before and asking who was the head of the work in Randers because nothing good was happening here. I just pleaded something would happen. Then, just hours later, this happened. And I recognized the surreality and miracle before it was even in my proximity. I have no doubt it was an answered prayer! It was miraculous! Anyways we're excited to see where that goes!! 

We spent about 6-7 hours a day this week knocking and finding! Then went alright! We got some good potentials! We will see where that goes! On Saturday, we biked about 20 kilometers to a town called Langå. It was so far and took about an hour to get there and back. It was quite the adventure and super hard but we did it!! 

This week should be pretty fun though. We have stake conference this week on Saturday and Sunday so that'll be pretty fun! There's not a stake center in this stake nor a building able to facilitate everyone, so it'll be in a big theatre. So that'll be unique! Haha I'm pretty excited! 

Anyways! Miracles happen, even in Denmark! Regardless of whether or not she's positive, it was still a miracle to me. It's been the basis of all other success here! I'm excited to see what else happens! 

I hope you all have a great week! I love you all and miss you all!!! 

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS: One of those is just the town at night. I thought it was sweet. The other is a creepy old church! Sweet looking though!

6 month mark!

Hello and happy September!

Today is the mark where I have 1 year and 6 months left! Yay! 1/4 way through! So that's pretty awesome! I'm not counting just yet of course! I still have my whole mission left pretty much! Anyways Randers is going pretty well, the weather is a different story!! It rained literally everyday except yesterday! So it's been a pretty brutal transition! 

This area doesn't have too much going on right now but we have been working on getting this place running. The best investigator avoided the missionaries two weeks ago, so now he's dropped, so we're starting from scratch! It's my second time starting from scratch so that means knocking on doors like there's no tomorrow! So that's what we've been doing. We've knocked about 4 hours or more a day everyday this week and came down with 3 potentials! So we've got a little bit going, but it's still moving forward. We will see where it goes! 

We spent a little bit of time trying to get Elder Nielsen a bike! He hasn't had one for the past 12 weeks so we got him one this week. He got it half off the original price, but the only problem was that there was a reason....The gear wire was completely loose. So now we gotta take that back and get a new one. It wasn't so fun but it's funny when we look back on it....at least for me :)

After district meeting, we went to a kebab place here and I tried the Stor Kebab. It's the biggest kebab in Denmark. Almost impossible to eat. But I slammed the thing and I ate the whole thing! I felt pretty sick afterwards but at least I can say that I did it. I didn't get a picture - maybe next time :)

Let's see, what else.. I'll leave this week with a scripture again. It's in Ether 12:27.  It says: 

And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

So I like that because we are all weak...Life isn't easy for any of us. We were given weaknesses so we can become stronger. All we need is that desire and faith that we can become strong. I deal with my weaknesses everyday. Haha and it's never fun and I hate my weaknesses because that means I have struggles! No fun! But I promise if we realize our weaknesses and we rely on our Father in Heaven to help us, and we do all we can do become stronger, we will become stronger. I've seen it and it truly is a miracle every time. I know you all will notice them as miracles too. :)

I love you all and miss you! Have a great week!

MKH,

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS- That's FC Randers, the Soccer team here! and the other is the street I live on, I live in the apartments along the street! Pretty sweet!