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!