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! :)