An Investigator Comes to Church

Davs!

Hello everyone! It's been a good week. There's been a lot of things to happen, so it's been good. This week, there was a baptism in the ward! WOOHOO! It was not however from my area, but we were able to be there for it, so that was great! It was for a 22 year old guy who had been attending the single adult activities for about a year. Small and simple means, right? We also have a new mission president! Præsident Buxton. President O'Bryant had to go home for some surgery, but he will be back in about 3 weeks. I hope everything goes well because we want him back! President Buxton is great, but I'm sure he wants President O'Bryant back too haha! 

Anyways, this week, we had a Zone Conference about Member-missionary work. We decided to put the emphasis on working with members because we seriously are struggling doing it any other way. It's been incredibly tough recently. So now, we're trying to involve the members and spark interest in the ward! We hope this goes well. We know it's what the church of Denmark needs and what the missionaries need, so we know it can only go well. We've already seen positive results, so it's going to be good! We also had a blitz splits in the Sister's new area, and that means 10 missionaries are going to their area to try and find people to teach. Overall, it went well. We taught 7 lessons, and found 3 new investigators for them, so that was a success!

We had some good news this week too! Some guy we contacted on the street a few weeks ago came to church with us yesterday - and had a great time!! He was pretty pleased with the church and gladly took a Book of Mormon. All it took for him to come was an invitation over the phone. Pretty simple! It goes to show you what little things make people jump the most. Think about it, a finger print scanner on the iPhone made people go wild! A small, simple invitation opened someone's eyes to the concept of eternal marriage. Even greater! 

This week, I found a good scripture that goes along with that. In D&C 123:12-15. It says. "12 For there are many yet on the earth among all sects, parties, and denominations, who are blinded by the subtle craftiness of men, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, and who are only kept from the truth because they know not where to find it—13 Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven—14 These should then be attended to with great earnestness. 15 Let no man count them as small things; for there is much which lieth in futurity, pertaining to the saints, which depends upon these things." There's so much confusion out there between religions. There's war between religions. It's affecting our friends, it might even be affecting one of you. The responsibility that each and every one of us has is to bring the light we have out of the darkness. Don't hide that light. Bring it unto your friends, family. Whoever it may be. These seemingly small things that make us tick daily aren't even existent in some of our friends' lives. That can and will bring them out of that darkness which may seem to hold them bound. A lot lies in all of our futures - we all have the same potential, but it's your and my choice of whether we allow our brothers and sisters to reach that potential. Let this be your goal! :) 

Welp, I love you all! Thanks for being a huge support. By the way, no one is counting, but less than 200 days! WOOP!

MKH, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

PS: Oh yeah, there was a gay pride parade this week. I got some pics. That's just a part of pride week. I'm glad I didn't get a picture of the parade. :P I guess this was the biggest pride parade in world history. 

Transfer to Bornholm

Hello!

This should be my last transfer of my mission as I'm heading off to an island called Bornholm. It's just below Sweden and right above Poland. It's about 4 hours from Copenhagen and it requires a 2 hour ferry ride to get over there. I'm not there yet, but my ferry leaves tonight at 6.30, so I'll be off as soon as that happens! Bornholm isn't very populated - the largest city in Rønne and the population is around 12,000 people. The church is a branch which is lead by a senior couple. I will also be serving as the second counselor to him, and my companion will be the first. It should be really interesting! I've heard it's a beautiful island and in order to get there, I have to go through Sweden, so I get to see another country! Woohoo! :) I'm excited.

This week was pretty difficult saying goodbye to some of the investigators and less active members that I've grown to be good friends with, but I'm sure their growth will continue! It'll be hard to say good bye to Elder Fairbanks! He and I were really good friends and got along pretty well. My new companion is Elder Teynor, from Salt Lake City, Utah. He seems like a good guy and I feel we'll get along pretty well. It'll be a fun transfer out there! I'm happy for this change and I think I'll learn a lot from being out there. It should be fun! 

I don't have a lot of time, but remember to do those small and simple things daily, putting on the armour of God. :D

I love and miss you all tons! Ill send pictures next week of the place! :)

MKH, 

Æ Taylor Howes

Lucky Charms and Soccer

Hey!

It's been a good week. It was packed with a lot of stuff. The highlight was the F.C. København soccer/football game. We all know it's not football. It was still good though. I realized that soccer games are RIDICULOUSLY short. 90 minutes? That goes by quick. Anyways, the game was good. They played another Danish team, Odense. It was tied 0-0 until the 82nd minute, then there was a penalty kick which gave FCK a goal, then they got another goal shortly after. It was intense! The stadium was pretty cool too. I didn't think it'd be that big! It is where the national team plays, so it was a good stadium.

Anyways, this week I was on splits with Elder Koch. He's actually a missionary who comes originally from Randers, DK, so he was my assistant branch mission leader over in Randers, then he was my companion for a day! It was pretty fun. He's visa waiting to go to Zimbabwe on his mission. The poor guy still hasn't been to the MTC, so he literally has no clue what he's doing, but he's holding up really well! I was also on splits with the assistants this week. That was also alright. They're a couple of cool guys!

What else! OH! I found a store this week in Copenhagen that sells LUCKY CHARMS! They were 11 bucks, but I had to get em. Then, I found Nutter Butters, got those, Hello Panda cookies, got those and JIF Peanut Butter. Got that too. That's the first store I have seen my whole mission sell American stuff like that. I did not think I would come across that marshmallow cereal again. That made my week magically delicious.

There was a story I found in the scriptures that I felt inspired to share with the district during district meeting. I get calls from some of the missionaries and they tell me that they can't do anything and they're having a rough time,,,etc, I've felt the same way. Some of us struggle to teach 3 lessons a week, and they're right here in the capital city. We don't understand why it's so hard, but we just keep on pushing anyways. In the Book of Moses, in the Pearl of Great Price, there's a story about Enoch that's really good. You can read it from verse 27-34. I'm only gonna paste 31-34. It says, "31 And when Enoch had heard these words, he bowed himself to the earth, before the Lord, and spake before the Lord, saying: Why is it that I have found favor in thy sight, and am but a lad, and all the people hate me; for I am slow of speech; wherefore am I thy servant? 32 And the Lord said unto Enoch: Go forth and do as I have commanded thee, and no man shall pierce thee. Open thy mouth, and it shall be filled, and I will give thee utterance, for all flesh is in my hands, and I will do as seemeth me good. 33 Say unto this people: Choose ye this day, to serve the Lord God who made you. 34 Behold my Spirit is upon you, wherefore all thy words will I justify; and the mountains shall flee before you, and the rivers shall turn from their course; and thou shalt abide in me, and I in you; therefore walk with me." A little background - Enoch was called by God to preach to some wicked people who rejected anything that had to do with God. It's quite interesting. God doesn't always call his most capable servants, but the one's who can develop capabilities. He promises that if we do what He asks, then He will walk with us. He didn't command him to baptize, but do that which seemeth God good. We don't really know God's purpose of having us struggle to find people, but he only asked us to do what he wants, and that's what we're doing. He's been with us every step of the way and there's no doubt that if you all do what He asks of you all to do right now, that He will be with you too. That's a promise he will always keep!

Anyways, here's some pics and have a good one!

Love,

Æ Taylor Howes

Happy September!

Hello!

Well, it's been a better week! The weather held up pretty well and we managed to find some more investigators, so that was good. It's been perfect weather.... But, the winter is coming and we can sense it.. so we're enjoying it while it lasts... 

Anyways, this week, on Wednesday, we were invited to a Wednesday night activity in preparation for a ward Helping Hands project. So I guess the project has something to do with working in a nursing home where there are people with Dementia and Alzheimer's, so I guess it was a little training on how we can work with these people and what we can do if they have some sort of symptomatic problem. I don't know, I'm assuming it won't be bad haha. Anyways, then I got sick on Thursday with a nasty cold, so we had to stay inside to get rid of my fever, then we were back at it on Friday! We went over to Amager after district meeting and helping the Amager elders find some investigators because they were sitting pretty dry...We taught a few lessons and managed to find 2 or 3 new investigators for them in just a couple hours, so that was definitely successful! On Tuesday, we found a new African investigator and an investigator couple. So we're getting stuff moving, and we're going to push forward this week, so we're looking forward to some more success..

We've seen a lot of progress in the missionary efforts in the ward as well. There are 8 missionaries in the ward so I think we're helping to build the ward the best we can. We've been working with the bishop a lot more and his ideas/plans have been working well, so hopefully we can get some more members reactivated and involved in missionary work. 

Anyways, I'll leave ya with a picture and scripture (rhymes). It's Helaman 5:12."12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Make sure that your foundation is always centered upon Christ, because we all fall, and when you do fall, you don't want the storms and whirlwinds to carry you out into sea. The Savior is always there to help you putty up the cracks in your foundation. Rely on Him. 

I love you all! Have a good week! Oh! Expect pictures from a Football Club København game this next week! :)

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

Back to Work!

Hey Everyone!

Well, I'm finally back to work! It's rough but awesome jumping back into things. I haven't been so exhausted in my life! But, we had some good things happen this week. Because we were out all week the week before, we had almost nothing planned this week but to find. So that's what we decided to do. As usual, we had some pretty good conversations and got a couple potential investigators, and one new investigator, so it went pretty well. We just have to find someone who actually wants to make an effort to progress towards baptism. I sadly have not seen that in quite awhile, so hopefully we can find someone this week or the near future, but it's coming along! 

This week, I was able to celebrate my birthday! I spent it with a member and I had some other members give me some gifts, including a Denmark Olympic shirt! I got a pic of it, I'll attach it into the email. Elder Fairbanks has been a really good companion. We've been getting along really well and we've had a lot of fun out knocking doors. OH! STORY!

This week, we were knocking doors, and we knocked on this door of a house. It was my companion's turn to take the lead, so he says his thing, then the 80 year old man with a walker screams, "GET OUT!" Then my companion starts running away, then I play it cool and chill there and ask him what's wrong. I tend to do this because I'm truly curious as to why people hate me when they've never talked to me before. Anyways, he then ditches his walker, approaches me, curses at me and tells me to get out again. I'm just sitting there asking what's wrong. He says, "This is my property, and I asked you to leave." Then he an 80 year old man slugs me in the shoulder with all his might and I just took a step back and took an inch closer to him and said, "Well, you have a nice day." It didn't hurt obviously. It may sound like I tried to provoke him, but trust me, I didn't haha he was just really mad. My mission president kinda taught us not to run away at that moment either, so I had fun and did what I'm asked! It made for a good story. 

Well, anyways, that's my week. :) Keep holding to the iron rod and I can't wait to talk next week! I love and miss you all!

MKH, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

Happy birthday to Taylor!

Good day!

My birthday luckily fell on a P-day! Although, I can't really party too hard because I'm still on the recovery climb. At least I got to email though, right?

Well, this week really wasn't eventful at all. I wasn't allowed to proselyte or do much of anything but sleep, eat and take walks to the grocery store. So we had the Restoration videos on repeat inside the apartment. What a joy! I'm supposed to be able to work tomorrow, so that's where I'm going to start. Hopefully I can get a full day in, but we'll see. I'll try my hardest anyways! In the meantime, the ward has really taken care of me and done their best to help me out. I've been treated pretty well, so I can't complain too much.

However, when one sits around, they really miss missionary work. I couldn't even believe how much I wanted to get out and do something. I think this little break gave me an idea of how I want to do the last quarter of my mission. It's probably what I needed to see, which is why it all happened, but I'm glad it's over with. :)

Other than that, that's my week. Really fun, I know! I hope you all have a good week and thanks for all the birthday wishes! I love and miss you all tons! :)

MKH, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

Appendicitis

Hey!

Well, I'm sure you all know that I was in the hospital for a few days. I'm glad to be out now! After all that surgery, my appendix is out and it only goes uphill from here. One of the office elders said to me as I was walking slower than Grandpa Joe out of the hospital, "One small step for man, one giant step for mankind." So I guess that's been my motto through all this. Just putting one foot in front of the other! But I tell you what, it was an adventure. 

Thanks to all of your thoughts and prayers. That was definitely what got me through the rough times at the hospital. My mission president was a real trooper though. I learned a lot about that man and he really helped me out a lot during that ordeal. I've got a lot of people helping me here, so I've been taken care of really well and will continue to be taken care of. I'm doing well and I might still be down this Monday when I email again! I hope I get to celebrate my birthday the right way.!

Thanks for you love, care and support! :) 

Love, 

Æ. Taylor Howes