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! 

Transfer #1-Randers, Sjaelland,Denmark

Hello! :) 

I have been taken out of the promised land of Sjælland Denmark and into Jylland! No fun! I've never been over here so I can't speak yet! There's a little rivalry between missionaries here who love Jylland and those who love Sjælland. I love Sjælland but Jylland isn't so bad yet! So I have moved from Hillerød and about 4 hours west to Randers! It was a terrible train ride because it was so full. but to say the least, I made it! :)

It was hard to leave Hillerød and all the people I made relationships with, but I knew it was my time to go! I learned all that I needed to and I was ready to move onto something else. So I'm excited for what's in store here in Randers! I haven't seen so much of Randers, but from what I see, it's typical Denmark and really old! But it's pretty I would say. It's in the middle of nowhere and the city was built on a hill! So I should be losing some serious weight biking over here! I need it though! 

I hear they have a large branch that could be turning into a ward here, so church should be okay! It won't be too boring and hopefully I won't have to give too many talks here! :) I got away with zero in Hillerød, lets see if I can do it here! :) 

The weather this week has been pretty good! It rained a couple times! But it's been alright! This week FLEW by. We had mini mission and we got to show a couple young men in the Copenhagen stake a little bit about missionary work. It was pretty fun and I think they had a great time! :) 

Anyways, I don't have much to say because I just got into the area, but I will say that I'm ready to work here! :) It won't be easy but it'll be fun! I'll probably be here until January 11th, 2016! That's a LONG time! But I loved the time in Hillerød and I can't wait to get to know the area here! 

My new companion is Elder Nielsen! He comes from Virginia and has been in Denmark 6 weeks less than me, so I'm follow-up training him! That'll be fun! All the Danish is relying on me....UH OH! :) I think it'll be okay though!

I don't have any pictures! I'm sorry! I'll get some up this week! Anyways, I love you all and hope you have a fantastic week! :) 

Med Kærlig Hilsen, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

Hej med jer! 

It's been a pretty good week! I can't complain too much! The only thing I can complain about is that we didn't get iPad or Facebook approval from the Mission Conference that we had! I guess the European Union has some restrictions on the Area Book function of the iPad for missionaries, so it's on hold for parts of Europe. Dang it! That's okay! We heard a bunch of good words from the Elder Dyches from the Seventy who spoke to us, so that was good!

Let's see, so on Tuesday, we met with Aram, who has a baptismal date for 19.09.2015, so we're really happy about that! We taught him some commandments and is way excited to continue to learn more about the gospel. He's super excited for his baptismal date. He tells us every time in his bad English that he's super thankful and excited for it! So we're really happy to hear that every single time! 

On Wednesday, we had our Mission Conference and we heard from our Mission President and his wife, Elder Dyches and his wife, and President Barenskov, our Stake President. We got a lot of inspiring ideas and words from their talks, and it was centered mostly on being loving and charitable. It had some other ideas and topics that were important, but that stuck out to me the most! :)

This coming week, we have something called mini mission! Which is where we receive a young man or two from the stake we are in and we get to show him how missionary work is, so it'll inspire them to serve a mission! It sounds pretty fun! I hope we can make it a good experience for him to say the least! That's for Friday and Saturday! We are stoked for it!

I got some pretty sweet pictures this week too! So I'll show those off at the end! 

My message this week comes from Ether 12:4. It says, "4 Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being led to glorify God." Some people wonder why bad things always happen in our world and where God has been during wars, contentions and so forth. Luckily, God gave us the fullness of the gospel, that if we have act upon the teachings and doctrines of the gospel (good works), then our world will become a better place. That's why it's so important we have missionaries around the world. We want to bring unto others peace, happiness and salvation, that way, one by one, the world will be a bit better of a place if we continue to act upon the teachings of the gospel. I've seen what it's done for me, and I know what it can do to the world if the act upon what God teaches us to do. That's my message and I know it's true! :) 

Anyways, I love you all! I miss you all and everyone of you all are awesome! :) 

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

No deportation for this Elder!

Hello!

I had a great week this week! Weather has been pretty good! Perfect temperatures and only a day or two of rain! Not too bad! It'll probably end soon though...Danish summers don't last too long! It's starting to get darker every night, so winter must be creeping in! I still have yet to see what Denmark looks like at night. Weird, right?

The best of all news is that I won't have to get deported from Denmark! It would have been a good story to tell though! I still don't have my visa, but the government allowed me to stay!

Anyways, this week wasn't too extraordinary. It was pretty slow unfortunately. This week, kids started school again and their parents had to go back to work after their annual 3 week vacation period. So the Danes weren't too thrilled to be busy again nor meet with missionaries, so it was pretty difficult this week, but it's completely understandable! We had a few lessons this week, with Mykel and Aram, and they went pretty well! Aram is continuing to progress and absolutely loves the church. Mykel is progressing as well, his prayers are always so strong and powerful, just because of how sincere he is. It teaches a lesson to me every single time!

Let's seeeee.... Oh! We had a zone training on Tuesday! That was pretty good. It's always fun to see a bunch of missionaries together. Putting all of the missionaries together turns into a Nursery! Haha it's a good thing that we only work in twos!! :)

We had the chance to make some birthday cake this week! Thanks mom! First cake that I've made turned out pretty well actually! It didn't even last 24 hours haha!

I took some more pictures this week. I'll attach a couple for you all!

This week we have our Mission Conference and our Area 70 will be coming to speak to us! We're really excited for that! It should be a good week too, we have a lot of appointments set up and we should find success in those! So I'm looking forward to this week, especially coming off such a slow one!

Anyways, I hope you all have a great week! I hear summer is ending down there, so that's a bummer, but enjoy the last few days of it! I love you all!

Med Kærlig Hilsen,

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS: One of those is the Hillerød train station. It looked better in person! :)

Happy Birthday Taylor!

Hello!

This week was pretty great! We had to get rid of the tripanionship on Wednesday, so that was a bummer because it was great! Now it's just Elder Halversen and me! But that's even better because it's ordained of God :)! (to preach two by two)

Not too much new happened this week! But the weather has been great and beautiful! Thank you all for the birthday wishes too! :) I really appreciated them!

This week, however, we were able to set a baptismal date with Aram, our investigator WHO is a refugee from Iran! It's set for the 19th of September, so we look forward to that! He's a great guy and making tons of Progress! He's pretty excited too!

We had the opportunity to go on a Copenhagen tour on Saturday. It was given to us by an investigator that we have! We spent most of the day doing that and we were extremely fortunate what we got to see! We got a boat tour, saw tons of sites and went atop the highest Building in Copenhagen! So I got a Picture of that as well. I'll attach a couple pics from that. We also got to see the World famous, Little Mermaid statue. It's Little too... So I enjoyed my birthday in Copenhagen! That was awesome! :)

We also have two more investigators, Pernille and Mykel. We got Mykel to pray for the first time in a few decades or so and it was a truly special experience. He said a fantastic prayer and the spirit was incredibly strong too. He noticed it as well! 

 

I wish I had more to say, but this week can't exactly be summed up into words. I wish I could! I wish you could all see what happens in this country as missionaries. It's something special and something I really love to see. I love this country and the people here. They're way different from Americans, but they're great. I love them!

Anyways, I'll share something really quick that I like. It's in 3rd Nephi 12: 44-45, "44 But behold I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father who is in heaven; for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good." I like this because God gives Blessings to those who are both good and evil, as he makes the sun rise to them. He truly loves them, and will continue to bless them. We should also follow that example because we don't know what these people are going through. But all we can do is serve them, be kind to them and pray for them. You will develop a love for them, and maybe even they will do the same likewise. The Lord counsels us to do that because there is wisdom in it and we will receive Blessings if we do it ourselves!

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

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS. That's the Little Mermaid Statue...Sheild your eyes though!

Elder Howes and his new companion Elder Halversen

The Little Mermaid

Elder Howes' new companion Elder Halversen

"It's been a horrible day, I need a McFlurry."

Hej!

Sorry about last week! That was brutal! Such a busy day last Monday! I received a new companion and we had no time for anything yesterday! It was brutal! Anyways, this week has gone better! Working in a tripanionship is nowhere near as effective as a 2 man companionship!! That'll come to an end on Wednesday though! 

Elder Halversen, my new companion, is awesome! He's hilarious and likes to have a good time! We're both pretty dedicated which makes it 40 times better! Anyways, this tripanionship has been a real adventure this week! I'll just share some stories. It all happened on Saturday. So, that day, we spent our evening up in Helsingør, which is about 40 minutes away. Just before catching the train up there, Elder Halversen punctured his tire on some glass and he got a flat. So we spent 15 or so minutes patching that hole, then we hustled to make the train. We arrived in Helsingør and walked our bikes out of the station, then Elder Willardson takes two pedals and hops off and was like, "I gotta flat!" So we were like, "HOLY COW!!" So then we spent the NeXT 30 minutes or so repairing that hole, and then we get on our bikes to do some Work in that area. We had an appointment with a lady whos husband just passed away, then afterwards, we took off for the train station in order to make it back in time. The path we were on has those curb-like speedbumps and I set the example of hitting those jumps and catching some serious air. I hit like 4 of them and Elder Halversen hit 1 or 2. So Elder Willardson is like, "Imma give it a try." He hits the jump, chain pops off and comes down completely awkward and pancakes the pavement! It was soooo funny. I felt really bad but I still died laughing. So he tore a huge hole in his pants and destroyed his White shirt with blood. We were right NeXT to a McDonalds so Elder Willardson says, "It's been a horrible day, I need a McFlurry. So we enjoyed that and biked to the station. We had to hit a later train because of his fall, so it worked out well. So that day was just a complete adventure. 

Anyways, getting more relative to missionary work, we had a lesson with Heidi and Tommy and they committed to follow the Word of Wisdom, and were really dedicated to doing it. Tommy pulled Heidi along and told her that it was something they needed to do. So that was a pretty special experience. We have another new investigator from Iran, Aram. He's a refugee and lives in a Red Cross Camp so that's a Little unfortunate, but he's grateful to be out of Iran. We taught him the Restoration and has been to church for the past couple of weeks. The only hold-back with him is the fact that he doesn't speak Danish, not very good English and we don't have a Book of Mormon in his native tongue, Kurdish. So right now he has a Persian, English and Danish Book of Mormon just so he can get the best understanding possible from the scriptures. It'll be a slow moving process but he's interested in joining the church. We just have to search for an appropriate date where his understanding and comprehension is satisfactory enough to know the principles of the gospel and understand the Blessings from it. So the work is still pushing forward here!!

Saturday is my birthday and I have an investigator family giving me and my companion a tour of Copenhagen! So that'll be fun! A family in the Ward somehow found out it was my birthday on Saturday and invited all of the missionaries in the Ward over on Friday for some dinner and birthday cake! So I'm really happy and excited about that! Should be a good enough birthday! 

One thing I'm struggling with is Paper Towns. The poster almost makes me sick when I see it! I won't see it of course, but it makes me cringe!!! Anyways.....

On August 19th, we have a Mission Conference! We have a member of the 70 coming to speak to our mission, and rumour has it that we're getting iPads and approved to Facebook! It hasn't quite been said, but it's been hinted at. So we have got our hopes up! Hopefully they don't let us down! Everywhere in Europe has iPads except Scandinavia, so we're thinking it's now our turn! I hope! :)

So that's been all the information I believe this week! I'll leave you with little åndelig tanke! I've been hearing a lot of people here saying, "Why should I believe in God if there's wars, people fighting, people hating gays, people not accepting differences, people hating...etc." I came across this scripture that answers this perfectly. In all honesty, sometimes I would think, "Why would God let all of this happen?" Anyways, it's in 3 Nephi 11:29-30. It says, "(29) For verily, verily I say unto you, he that hath the spirit of contention is not of me, but is of the devil, who is the father of contention, and he stirreth up the hearts of men to contend with anger, one with another. (30) Behold, this is not my doctrine, to stir up the hearts of men with anger, one against another; but this is my doctrine, that such things should be done away." God isn't just letting these things happen. The devil, or Satan is letting all of this happen. God blessed us with the fullness of the gospel so all of those can be done away with. It's just the matter of finding the gospel and living it. If we did that, the world would be a better place because Satan wouldn't have a strong hold on God's people. I thought I would share that because I know I'm not the only one who pondered upon these questions and I know I'm not the only one who had no idea how to answer it. But, now it's clear to me, and I hope it's clear to you all as well! 

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

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

PS: The Picture of me in regular clothes is me standing in front of the Øresund (Ore Sound??) and Sweden is on the other side! The other Picture is me leaving Elder Brady in Copenhagen!  

Elder Brady and Elder Howes on their last day together