Last transfer?

Merry Christmas!

I got lucky and was moved right before Christmas, so I'm a little rushed. After 5 hours of traveling, I've finally made it from Fredericia. I was definitely sad to leave Bornholm, but the branch got me some Christmas presents so I had a couple early Christmases. It wasn't too bad! The worst part was leaving the 24 pack of Sprite I got ridiculously cheap that I hadn't drunk completely! I guess it's my Christmas present to the other missionaries. 

Anyhew, my companion is Elder McBride from my MTC group. He's a cool guy. I'll likely only be with him for 5 weeks until the end of this transfer, so I have one more companion left after him. We assume at least. My last week on Bornholm was pretty good. We met with the last of the investigators and switched them over to the new companion, so that was good. I think the Bornholm elders are gonna do a good job. 

Lastly, it's the week of Christmas. I hope you all have a good Christmas and you think of the Savior and what he means to you! That's what it's all about. I love you all! 

MERRY CHRISTMAS! 🎄🎊🎁

Love, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

The good ole church building in Rønne! (Bornholm) 

Zone Leader

Hey!

Well, what a week it has been! On Monday, I got a call from President and it looks like I'm headed off to Fredericia to be Zone Leader. He mentioned he had to break the promise of me staying here on Bornholm until the end of my mission, so that was sad. I guess I'm already fired from being a counselor in the Branch Presidency! 

Anyways, this week we had our Branch Christmas party and that went really well! We had 9 non-members and 11 members show up (aside from us). So it was a total success! The people who came had a GREAT time. We danced around the Christmas tree, ate traditional Danish Christmas food and played a present exchange game. It's hard to explain. Anyways, I had to be the jolly ole Saint Nick. Darn it. It's all said and done now! But, that was REALLY good! :)

What else....oh, we took a trip into Copenhagen for the Missionary Music group type deal, so I came back the next day with a temporary companion. If you didn't catch it, Elder Teynor is in the music group! I'll be here an extra week (it's the first week of a new transfer) so right before Christmas, I'll finally be in Fredericia. :P 

I was also at a baptism this week! Some 18 year old girl that I contacted on a train in Hillerød got baptized this Friday. I wasn't at all involved in her teaching, but I at least was involved in finding her, so it's good to see that at least one seed I've planted has turned to something :). It was a great baptism. Oh, except the font was having a hard time filling so we did the bucket fill method. That took some time, but all in all, she was baptized! :)

I gave a spontaneous talk this Sunday as well. I forgot I had a talk so I planned that an hour before church. Found out I can actually give a 20 minute talk with a very blank outline! Woohoo! 

Anyways, I hope you all are still working on the Christmas Initiative! Today is the 12th, so it's "Jesus taught others, so can you." Check out https://www.mormon.org/christmas/in-25-ways-over-25-days/jesus-taught-others. Jesus Christ was only one person and He changed the world. You are only one as well, and it only takes one person to change the world! #LightTheWorld folks! 

I love and miss you all tons! In other news, my release date is confirmed: March 7th 2017. Less than 3 months! Oh yeah, and we had a mini Christmas with the Hall's and I got more pics this week! Here ya go! 

MKH, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

Advent Calender Candle

Christmas Presents from the Halls!

Sweet View

The bane of my existence....BornholmerFærgen

My last letter from the mission!

​

Happy December!

Hey! 

Yay! We've finally made it to December! Let the Christmas festivities begin! I'm pretty pumped for Christmas. It was a good time last year. It was also a hard time, but it's always fun celebrating Christmas regardless. Plus, I get to Skype home for the last time! :) 

Anyways, it's been an interesting week! We have a branch Christmas party this coming Thursday, so we made a little bit of preparations for that this past week. We made some sugar cookies and delivered them to a lot of our investigators. On the bright side, the unexpected amount of 13 investigators said yes and are set on coming, on the down side, we only have like 12 members going to this party and I don't think our church building can handle that amount. So we're going to be playing tetris figuring out how we should put the tables, Christmas tree and have room to walk around. It should be interesting. Wish us luck. We're expecting a good turn out, but next weeks letter will be really awkward if none of them show up.....we have faith though! :)

What else...we had a few first lessons with some investigators this week. Those went really well and are genuinely interested. I think this island is undergoing a harvest right now, so we're hoping that one of these investigators come through. Work really is work! 

Anyways, this week, I read a story about the Church in Europe during WWII. I was kinda curious to see what would happen if the world really was under attack again and how the Church would react. I don't think the world is anywhere close to having WWIII, but I was curious about WWII and what happened. Anyways, the story can be found here. 

https://www.lds.org/manual/church-history-in-the-fulness-of-times-student-manual/chapter-forty-the-saints-during-world-war-ii?lang=eng

It was really interesting to see how the Lord's hand was over the war, the Church, and the missionaries. I don't really know how to sum it all up, but if you're interested, read it. It's pretty cool. We really are lucky to have latter-day revelation and inspired Church leaders, both generally and locally. It definitely strengthened and solidified my testimony of prophets, apostles and local church leaders. They truly are inspired men and women. We can always be comforted that the Lord has His hand over us and the Church will never be under attack - as well as the members if we are heeding to the Lord's servants and God's commandments. Pretty inspiring story!

Anyways, I did manage to take a picture this week....I'll attach it!

I love and miss you all tons!!! Can't wait for Christmas!

MKH, 

Æ Taylor Howes

Call me farmer Taylor...🌯🌽🌾

​

#OplysVerden

Hey!

It's been a crazy, unusual, but really good week! The weather finally got extremely cold and windy, but that's alright! What doesn't kill ya, makes you stronger. Anyways...

On Monday, we had a first lesson with a mother and a teenage daughter. That went really well! We had met the mother once before and taught her a little about the Plan of Salvation and we returned to teach the whole Plan. She said she'd read and pray about the Book of Mormon, so we'll see where that gets them! :) 

Tuesday and Wednesday were also good days, except the part where we had to wake up at 5am both days. We had to catch a ferry from Rønne to Sweden at 6:30am on Tuesday, but it was okay because it gave us time to check out Malmö, Sweden. We walked around the Emporia mall for a couple hours because we had nothing to do. We eventually made our way into Denmark again for a Zone Training about the Church's Christmas Initiative, #LightTheWorld. It's gonna be HUGE! I'll talk more about that later. :P At about 11am on Wednesday, our ferry got back to Bornholm, so we luckily had a regular day! 

The district leader and his companion came on splits Wednesday night to work on Thursday. We did some knocking out on the other side of the island, so that was good. Later that day, we had Thanksgiving! WOOHOO! There is a half American family in the branch, so they invited us all over for Thanksgiving. It was great! I can't wait for an actual Thanksgiving that includes family! :) 

Lastly, I'd invite you all to visit mormon.org and check out the Church's Christmas initiative. It's not only a video or a campaign, but it will literally light the world. Jesus spake in John 8:12, "I am the light of the world," and likewise in Matthew 5:12, but with a small, but big change, "Ye are the light of the world." Jesus Christ is our example. We are to raise His light, not for ourselves, but for others, like He served. Everyday in Decemeber, there is a different service theme along with ways to serve, allowing us to be that light and touch the lives of others. Those that choose to serve during the December advent will receive the Savior's promise, "he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." This promise is valid for everyone - not just Mormons. We will feel the Savior's love, receive His guidance, and touch the lives of God's children. After all, "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God (Mosiah 2:17)." This Christmas, let's #LightTheWorld and show the world and ourselves how Jesus Christ has blessed and continues to bless our lives today. 

OH, 99 days to go. Yes, I'm starting to count now....I won't lie! :) They say time goes slower when you start counting. Good! I can cherish it more! ;)

I love and miss you all tons! Only a few days til Christmas!

Love, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

The temple in København & Emporia mall in Sweden!

​

21.11.2016

God taksigelsesdag, kære familie og venner!

Well, this week was AWESOME! The sun is shining today! It hasn't even rained on us much. I like the way this winter is going! Not as dry as North Carolina...not even close, but at least I'm not walking around in water-logged shoes! 

Anyways, we were able to find 3 new investigators this week and they all seem to be pretty positive. One of our potential investigators that we found about 3 weeks ago became a new investigator when we showed up to his house Tuesday morning. He is currently a Methodist who can't find the right church on Bornholm. He had 2 friends over when we came and we actually had a good, down to earth gospel discussion with them. Soon, they had to leave, but it gave us time to speak with the investigator. Later, another friend called and said he was coming over. Turns out, that friend was a previous investigator, has been to church, and after our visit, he invited us over to his house. The investigator we visited has 4 children and is married. He is very believing and reads many religious works, so we're hoping he won't have any problem reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. He seems very inclined to learn about the church. 

Another investigator is a Satanist, and we have a few obstacles with working with him, but we'll tackle those issues later down the road. He's 18. You can tell that he's lived a hard life, but was considering giving up smoking and drinking for the church. Another investigator whom we had a lesson with on the doorstep was previously Catholic and was also interesting in learning about the Plan of Salvation. We'll meet with her on Thursday. Lastly, another family who will be new investigators today. There are two kids, a girl who's 17, a boy who's 19 and a mother who is divorced. We haven't been able to meet with the mother because she's never home, but we made an appointment with the kids, and they said they'd have their mother home. That sounds great! We're hoping for success today! I feel really good about them.

All in all, things are going really really well on Bornholm! I love this area! It's a lot of fun. Even though it's cold, secluded and there's not many people, somehow the Lord has been leading us to those who are interested! 

This week, we're going to Copenhagen again! That means another trip through Sweden! I'm pretty excited for that. It's always a beautiful drive and Sweden is a cool place. It's weird how different it is with it being literally 10 minutes away over a bridge. I'll be sure to take pictures this time. I've failed pretty bad the last couple trips, but I promise I will this time haha! 

Anyways, I love and miss you all! I hope you have a good thanksgiving!! Eat tons of turkey for me!

MKH, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

14.11.2016

Hey!

Another week down.. This past week, the mission office gave me a call and told me that they have bought my plane tickets home! So, that's a sign that I'm getting closer. It's crazy how fast time goes... Anyways...

This week, the weather has actually been pretty dry! It snowed here and there, but that's 10 times better than rain. They called Bornholm the "Sunshine Island," so luckily we've had quite a bit of sunshine. It's sunny today at least! I think the winter here will be much better than how it was in Randers, just because we break freezing point a lot easier and the sun shines more often...so I'm more dry! The problem isn't the temperature, but the wetness.

Anyways, we were able to get in contact with some of our previous potential investigators and we've finally got most of those narrowed down to positive potential investigators. It's tough to find them all home, especially when they won't make a scheduled appointment, nor give us their phone number. So we work by written cards jammed into their door frame. It works better than you would think! So we schedule appointments on the card, show up and hope that they are home! So, that's what we're working with. We actually started doing some finding in smaller towns called Svaneke and Nexø. We found a Satanist who is interested (I'm kinda scared in all honesty for him) and a lady that wants baptized. We had an incredible first lesson with her and she asked herself to be baptized. After explaining that the material can't be learned in one day, we tried scheduling a new appointment. She isn't free until 2017....well, we pushed her, but she insisted. So, we at least start off the new year well. We'll keep regular contact with her though. All in all, we're scratching at the surface, but the surface is made of granite, so it's coming little by little. It'll surely come though! :)


This week, I thought I'd share an interesting scripture. In 1 Nephi 15: 6-11. It's right after Lehi shared his dream about the tree of life. Laman and Lemuel were of course complaining and bickering about what the dream meant. Lehi's dreams prophesied that Laman and Lemuels seed will perish, so it makes sense, anyways, Nephi was tired of all that arguing and complaining, and now we read from Nephi's words, "6 And it came to pass that after I had received strength I spake unto my brethren, desiring to know of them the cause of their disputations. 7 And they said: Behold, we cannot understand the words which our father hath spoken concerning the natural branches of the olive tree, and also concerning the Gentiles. 8 And I said unto them: Have ye inquired of the Lord? 9 And they said unto me: We have not; for the Lord maketh no such thing known unto us.10 Behold, I said unto them: How is it that ye do not keep the commandments of the Lord? How is it that ye will perish, because of the hardness of your hearts? 11 Do ye not remember the things which the Lord hath said?—If ye will not harden your hearts, and ask me in faith, believing that ye shall receive, with diligence in keeping my commandments, surely these things shall be made known unto you." It's interesting that Nephi's first question to their response wasn't, "Why don't you think God can make that known unto you," but it was, "why aren't you keeping the commandments?" Keeping the commandments and living the gospel is a way we show our faith unto God, which allows us to be humble enough to receive the spirit of the Lord. We don't receive an answer just by asking in faith...we have to ask in faith, believing we will receive it AND abide by the commandments, allowing the spirit to be with us. After the spirit is with is, then will we receive the answers and guidance we're looking for. We have to take the step forward in faith and allow God to lift us up, carrying us to the next step.

I love and miss you all!

Love,

Æ. Taylor Howes

Happy November!

Hey!

It's been a pretty good week. Today is the first day of the season that it has snowed....so it's started early...that's not a good sign, but I'll be able to push through the winter without any problem. Easy!

A lot of things happened this week. First, we had a Halloween Family Home Evening in the branch last Monday, so we all dressed up, ate sloppy joes, dessert, played some games and had a spiritual thought. For those of you wondering why I was a dog - well, that wasn't the plan. You can't really find Halloween costumes in Denmark because it's not a recognized holiday, so after I emailed last week, I scrambled around town to the very few shops that are here. H&M is always a reliable option, but of course, you can't find costumes there, but I did find orange socks with pumpkin faces on them, so I bought those, and a Halloween colored plaid shirt. I was just going to come as a Halloween themed looking person, but I figured I've got to do more. I ran into the dollar tree and found dog ears and a tail.. Perfect. That's a little bit more. So, that was my costume. Kinda mix-matchy, but whatever. Better than nothing! It was a good turnout nonetheless.

We also moved this week! Yahoo!!! We got a super nice apartment. So we spent a couple days moving the senior couple in and out as well as us. It was also Elder Teynor's birthday on Friday, so we ended up celebrating that at YSA/Institute. The day before, the senior couple took us to a sit down restaurant, so that was nice of them. Good food too! It was also Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday...we didn't get to go back to Copenhagen, but it was live-streamed into our church building. It was pretty cool. I thought the Stake Presidency did an incredible job. They talked about the necessity of member-missionary work and the Book of Mormon. The new temple president and his wife bore their testimonies and gave talks as well, so that was cool. The new temple president used to be the Europe Area President or something high up in the Seventy. His name is President Olson. He's from Sweden. I was also mentioned a couple times in different sessions by the Stake President in an example of working with the missionaries. That was pretty cool! Needless to say, it was a pretty good Stake Conference.

I haven't left a scripture in some time now, but I found a really cool one in the Bible! It's in 2 Timothy 3:15-17. It says, "And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works." It pretty much explains itself. It tells us exactly why scriptures are important. We've known about the scriptures since we were born and we've been told that we have them for our benefit. Scriptures lead us to salvation and teach us how to develop faith in Christ. Notice that the scripture doesn't say that we receive salvation alone by faith in Christ, but it says it teaches us how to become more righteous, more perfect, more correct - it teaches us to become "furnished unto good works." Furnishing takes time, like furnishing a house. It comes one step at a time. This is the Paul's testimony of the scriptures. Let it become yours!

I love you all, have a great week! Here are some pics of Elder Johnson's visit to Denmark, Rønne, Halloween and the new apartment!

Æ. Taylor Howes

Happy Halloween!

God Halloween! (Happy Halloween...easy, right?)

Welps, it's been a week! I've spent this week all over the place, so I'll give some sort of a run down if I can remember everything.

Let's see! On Tuesday, we went over to Copenhagen for our Zone Conference. Elder Paul Johnson, of the European Area Presidency and First Quorum of the Seventy came to tour the mission. He is an incredible teacher! I guess he used to serve as the leader of the CES system at some point, so he's got to be good! He taught us how to be better teachers. He didn't tell us anything we didn't know before, but he taught it in a much simpler and more different perspective. It was really good. I got popcorned up to the pulpit as President O'Bryant gave his training. He wanted me to give a 2 minute talk about the fall in Denmark. Uhhhh.... yeah well, I had no clue what I was doing so I just rattled off anything running through my mind... Then he told me to stop, then had the zone evaluate it (I got wrecked) and then I tried again. That time, I did better! So, I have officially given a talk in front of a General Authority and it was a bad talk! Got that one off my bucket list. At least President knew I was one that could take the heat and not shrink under pressure. I sat back down and I was pretty much tired after that. That took all the energy out of me. Well worth it though! 

In our drive through Sweden, I finally saw a real grocery store! It's called Willy's! Basically the size of a Lowe's Foods or idk, an American average sized grocery store! First time in two yearsI've seen that. It was a great sight. Apparently all the grocery stores in Denmark are just tiny, because that's the grocery store standard in Sweden. We also ate at Pizza Hut. I've never been to one of those in the states, but those are also not found in Denmark, so we ate there too. Oh, at the grocery store the soda is about half the price of what it is in Denmark, same with the candy, so I got a Mountain Dew, a Fanta and a Reese's Fast Break (also not found in Denmark). So the trip was well worth it! We also took a stroll through IKEA too, so that was fun. 

Oh, in other news, our hot water got infected by something, so they shut that off for our apartment complex area, so we had to take showers at the church. If you've ever thought about showering in the church building's cleaning closet, then you know what I did. I have been doing that for 3 days now. Glorious! 

Anyways, we have a new investigator that's recently gone through a divorce and has two young kids. He's read a little in the Book of Mormon and he considers it scripture comparable to the Bible! So progress has been made there. We have quite a few potential investigators to work with, but nothing really too set and stone.....something has to pull through soon. It'll be harder to work in the dark now that the time has changed over to Daylight whatever. So the sun sets around 4:45pm and Danes finish their days when the sun goes down, so it'll be a challenge finding people who want to give us their time in the dark, but it's all a part of the experience! The area is in great shape and we have a lot to work with, so the time after the sun sets is a perfect time to stop by those who were already found!

I unfortunately only took one picture. I really need to do better with the camera... But, I'll send pictures from the mission's blog as soon as they're put up. I'll take more pics, I promise haha! 

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

Love, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

Act on Your Promptings

Hey!

It's been a pretty good week. Not too much incredible happened, but the weather has been a little bit better. It's never fun to be out bundled up in a ton of clothes and then get rained on. But the rain has held itself off of us, so it's been good! :)

Where do I start... Hmm. JW's! The Jehovah's Witnesses were actually very nice. We had two appointments with them. There was no bashing, but just sharing of different principles and doctrines. We stumped them a few times with scriptures out of the Bible where it clearly states Jesus is Jehovah, not God, and they're going to take time to study the Hebraic root or whatever they do, but we're hoping we open their minds a little bit to some more truth. We think it's going forward nonetheless!

We're still in the process of finding. We're getting a lot of potentials, but just the ones that say, "Yeah maybe some other time." So it's a tedious task to weed through and prioritize who we should go by, but at least we're getting something, right? We had to drop the investigator going through the ARP program, so that was a shame. He started mocking the message a little bit and wasn't willing to do anything yet. We left a clear choice, were loving and bold, yet he chose to say no. Can't do anything about that. He still wants to meet, but he doesn't want to talk about God. Sorry pal!

This week, I'll be going back to Copenhagen! Yay, tour through Sweden and a boat ride. It should be another adventure. It's always fun! The mission is hearing from Paul V. Johnson from the First Quorom of the Seventy. So that'll be really fun to hear!

Oh, in other news, the lady down stairs from us died, so the senior couple will be moving into that apartment, and we will be moving into theirs, so we're getting an even nicer apartment! WOOHOO! :) Tender mercies. As a death wish, the lady gave a pet bird to the senior couple, so they were stuck with a random bird in their apartment for a week until they could get rid of it. Pretty funny haha!

I read a scripture this morning. I love the story where Nephi and his brothers retrieve the plates from Laban. There's many key principles to learn from in that story, like faith, boldness, bravery, you name it, but one thing I learned was to confirm feelings of the Spirit. If you're familiar with the story (if not, get to it), then you'll read the Nephi was prompted by the Spirit to kill Laban. At first, he doubted. He thought, "I'd never kill anyone!" (Paraphrased ;) 1 Nephi 4:10). Then the prompting came again. He debated the reasoning behind it, then finally, we see that the Spirit says unto him, "Slay him, for the Lord hath delivered him into thy hands. Behold the Lord slayeth the wicked to bring forth his righteous purposes. It is better that one man should perish than that a nation should dwindle and perish in unbelief" (1 Nephi 4:12-13). Sometimes we receive a normal prompting or a prompting that puts us on our back because we don't understand it. Just like Nephi, we are required to discern all of our promptings to confirm that they are from the Lord. I think we'd all be more inclined to act upon our promptings if we do take the time to confirm them. :)

I love you all! Sorry I still have no pictures....I'll get some this week. I tried this week but my camera was dead.. But I'll talk to ya next week!

Love,

Ældste Taylor Howes

Impromptu Talk and Slippers

Hey!

It's been a pretty good week. We saw the temperature drop down to 5 degrees....5 degrees Celsius. Which is 41 degrees Fahrenheit. Still pretty cold, especially with bone-chilling wind coming across the ocean. But we're holding up like stone walls!

First, we ran into some Jehovah's Witnesses this past week while stopping by a non-responsive investigator. They contacted us by saying we were diligent. Thanks! Then later they wanted to set up an appointment for Tuesday. We'll see how that goes. We're ready! They're good people, but it's no fun when people try to tell me what I believe in. It'll be fun though.

Anyways, we found two new investigators this week. Both a mother and father. They're genuinely interested in the message, so we'll be going to their house tonight to see if they kept their commitments. Hopefully something comes out of that. Another investigator we have been working with has been going through the Addiction Recovery Program. The man says he's weighed down by his smoking habits and is having a hard time finding God. We prayed about it and thought the perfect solution to that was the Church's ARP program. We started it with him this past week and set some goals on how he will trust in God more. He also wrote down some genuine responses to those questions in the booklet. He's coming along well. He's progressed quite a bit since our first discussion. Slow but sure progress has been made! Other than that, some of our potentials and investigators have been absolute burninators. We're trying to think of ways to solve that problem..

In other news, I got my voting ballot! Woohoo!

Lastly, well, I gave a talk this week on dispensations. It was a 20 minute talk (I know, right?) and I learned a lot of things both preparing and giving the talk. If we look back to Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses and Jesus Christ, those principles taught throughout the world at that time, still apply today in one way shape or form. Learning about the times of apostasy gives you an idea how the world would be without prophets or clear guidance. It sounds terrible! We're lucky to have a prophet today, only because there was one confused, 14 year old boy who was humble enough to ask God a sincere question. Now we have everything we need and we know that there will never be a time of apostasy again. That's how much God loves us! :)

I gotta pic with the senior couple. They got us some slippers! I'll send a pic haha! They're called "hyggesko" in Danish.

Anyways, I love you all! Have a good week!

Æ. Taylor Howes

I'm the one on the bottom!

Winter is Coming

Hey!

I don't have a ton of time because I have to go get my haircut and I spent too much time trying to register myself to vote, so that means I'm short on time haha!

I've had a good week this week though. We found one new investigator and found a lot of potential investigators. We gave out 5 Books of Mormon this week, so that's really good! It's gotta be a high for a while! We also had an investigator in church, and a different investigator come to YSA on Friday, so things are going pretty well here so far! 

We broke out our scarves, gloves, winter jackets and everything this week to keep us warm. Hopefully this winter isn't so bad. But the weather hasn't been too bad. It's been pretty drizzly and stuff, but not drenching. We've had 30 mph winds but we can tolerate that alright. I drove for the first time in a while this week too haha. Woah it's been a long time. I didn't wreck though haha But it was good to get back behind the wheel for sure! :) today, I'm not doing anything adventurous as it's raining out there haha. But my week was good! 149 days to go! Woo hoo! They'll be buying my flight home in a little bit :)

In other weird news, I led sacrament for the first time ever this week. That was actually pretty fun! It was an experience for sure!!

Anyways, sorry this is short. I didn't do any adventuring this week, so no pictures :(

I love you, have a good week!

Æ. Taylor Howes

Bornholm!

Hey!

What a week it has been! I've been in a couple countries, a couple boats and a few islands. It's been great! I'll try to rattle it all off...it's a lot to take it.

On Monday, we drove from Copenhagen, into Sweden, through a big city called Malmö, then about an hour to a city called Ystad. I found a Subway sandwich place there! Sweden seems a bit more Americanized than Denmark, but the countries are about the same. I decided to buy a shirt while I was there too to document my visit. We then took an 1.5 hour ferry ride from Ystad to Rønne, Bornholm. We then drove from there too our apartment. We live right next to a senior couple, so that's really nice!

Throughout the week, we were able to find 5 new investigators and teach a total of 12 lessons this week, so that was really good! We went pretty hard while knocking and it ended up working out. These investigators all seem pretty positive, so that's super good! We hope to commit one or two of them to baptism this week, so we hope it works out. The branch here has a total of 24 members, 18 of which are active. The church building is way smaller than our house, but it does the job! At church, I was able to be sustained and set apart as second counselor in the branch presidency. That was a weird, but cool experience. I think there will be a lot for me to learn and it'll be good. I'm looking forward to it. It'll be weird leading sacrament and counting tithing/fast offerings were odd, but it'll be a fun calling!

Then, today, we went with the senior couple over to an island called Christiansø, which also includes Frederiksø. It was about an hour ferry ride over there....on a tiny boat. We all about lost our lunch on that thing. It was not a fun ride, but we survived! The island was BEAUTIFUL and super rocky and adventurous. I'll send pictures. It was cool. Like nothing I have ever seen. It kinda felt like I was in Jerusalem for some odd reason, but that's just because there were a bunch of walls, no cars or roads and weird plants I haven't really seen. It was cool! I'll attach some pics.

In other news, I'll be going back to Copenhagen this week for a zone training, so I'll almost kinda do a repeat of this week next week, but this time we'll be stopping in Malmö, Sweden instead to tour. It'll be fun! It'll be a fun trip.

Anyways, with respect to General Conference this week, I invite everyone to think about your weaknesses, maybe where you lack in your testimonies, you pick, but that big thing you struggle most with, and write down a question or two about it, and when the general authorities speak this week, wait for your answer to be given! I promise it will be!

I love you all! :)

Æ. Taylor Howes

These are some pictures from Christiansø and Frederiksø. Beautiful huh? :)

Mother's Day

Welp, long time no talk! It hasn't even been 24 hours since I last talked to my family! It's always a blast to skype! Not to hang up though! This week has been fun though! It's been about 80 degrees here believe it or not! It's been great but wearing church clothes in that heat is not! I'm happy the rain has stayed away and the sun has been shining! Makes Denmark more beautiful and me happier! :)

This week was great though! We were on splits with the Zone Leaders in Slagelse and that's always fun. We did service for their Bishop, and midway through, one of the sisters got a big ole thorn stabbed into her wrist and that led us to the hospital! That made for a fun adventure. I was then on splits later in the week with my 3rd companion, Elder Nielsen who I served with in Randers. He's in my district and we had a pretty good time reminiscing on times in Randers! We worked pretty hard that day and knocked a ton of doors....brings back those memories from our least favorite transfer! Then, on Saturday we played soccer with some people from our ward, part-member families and less-actives. That was pretty fun. I've actually been getting fairly okay at soccer! I'm learning from Europeans!! ;)  Then of course on Mother's Day I got to skype after church!!! Therefore***, I've had a pretty good week!! :)

In relation to missionary work, it's been actually pretty good! We came up with ideas on how we can make finding better because the district/zone was struggling with it, so the zone leaders came up with a bright idea of short, powerful "elevator" speeches. It's been pretty great actually. It's been a pretty hard change because it gets us out of other routines and our comfort zones, but I got over that and it's been working REALLY well. We've taught a few street/door lessons and found a few potential investigators. We've also invited a few people to baptism and they're of course not really ready, but they know the expectation and are willing to find out for themselves. As a whole, the area is coming out of it's pit and into a new life. It's been slow here still, but the progress is becoming more rapid.

I finally took some pics this week! :)

I hope you all have a good week! I hope Mother's day was good for all you mommas! 

​:)

Med Kærlig Hilsen, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

P-Day at a Viking Ship Museum

Welp!

The transfer news is out. I'm getting a new companion...a completely new companion! I'm training again! This transfers gonna be a blast! I'm pretty excited! Apparently I didn't do it right the first time so I get another shot at it! (JK) I'm stoked. Elder Olson gets put up in Frederikshavn, which is the northernmost part of Denmark on Jylland. He's pretty excited. He's ready to leave this area after being here 6 months. It was a great transfer with him. We got along really well!

This week was a blast too. We found 2 new investigators that are pretty open to meet with us! That's a huge positive. That's our first new investigators this whole transfer! So the area is on the right path still and moving forward. A lot has been happening here, so that's good! We're still finding a ton, but also starting to teach a little bit more! All in all, I can't complain. Any progress is better than none, so I'm happy regardless. I think having a trainee will bring a lot of success to the area. Even though they think they don't do much, they bring energy and that's all that an area needs. 

This week I found an interesting scripture. It's in Jacob 4, which overall is an incredible chapter, but it says, "3 Now in this thing we do rejoice; and we labor diligently to engraven these words upon plates, hoping that our beloved brethren and our children will receive them with thankful hearts, and look upon them that they may learn with joy and not with sorrow, neither with contempt, concerning their first parents. 4 For, for this intent have we written these things, that they may know that we knew of Christ, and we had a hope of his glory many hundred years before his coming; and not only we ourselves had a hope of his glory, but also all the holy prophets which were before us." This is what our forefathers wanted before Christ even came. All they want is for us to know of His glory. His glory before He came and even now, after He came. They wrote all of these records just for us - only so we know how to find peace, joy and eternal life. It's quite incredible. Nobody today thinks about doing something for their children 800+ years from now. That amount of charity is beyond comprehension but I sure am grateful for what they did for me personally! :)

For P-day this week, we went to a Viking ship museum. That was kinda cool. I got pics of some viking ships found from year 800 or something crazy like that. And then in another pic, there's a village there. Then lastly, we caught a cool sunset. The sky was vibrant pink! Anyways, it was a good week! I look forward to talking next week! I love you all and have a great week! Take it easy!

Med Kærlig Hilsen, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

23.05.2016

Hey!

I hope everyone had a good week. Mine was quite stressful. But hey we won't talk about that but I'm training again for my second time. My trainee is Elder Smith from Huntington Beach, California. He's a pretty cool guy and we get along pretty well. He's fearless so it makes training easy! This week was pretty interesting though. The weather is still working on getting warmer, but it can't make up it's mind. So it's been an awkward in the middle temperature, but it's been nice. 

This week however, I was on splits with my old companion Elder Allred because he moved back to my district. So we had a pretty good time on splits. We found a bunch of potentials together like old times. The dynamic duo! But it was good! We also taught some door lessons, but they didn't result to anything. At least we gave the opportunity for them! 

I'll attach some pictures from the trainer/trainee meeting. It was pretty fun! I like those meetings. I'm lucky I got to go twice! :) 

I'm sorry I don't really have much to say this week. This week was just hectic and scrambled because trains were shut down in time for transfers and yeah. Needless to say, Denmark missionaries were running around like chickens with their heads chopped off this week. 

I do have a scripture that is pretty short, sweet, to the point and all encompassing. Jacob 6:12. "O be wise; what can I say more?" These were Jacob's powerful words to his people. Make good decisions, don't put yourselves into trouble. It's easy to do, so be wise! :)  Just do what the Lord asks us to do and you'll find that as your doing it, you've made a wise decision. :)

Anyways, I love you all! You all are awesome and thanks for the support! I really do appreciate it and I miss you all! :)

MKH, 

Æ. Taylor Howes

We get nothing out of a good idea unless that idea becomes a product. Do it.

Hey!

The sun has still been shining in Denmark and it rained for the first time in a week or so last night, so I've been dry, warm and happy! It's good to see that summer has begun, and I've been getting a pretty solid tan too... :) But, overall, it's been a good week!

This week, we had a Zone Conference up in my first area, Hillerød/Allerød, so it was weird to be back a year later. The Zone Conference had a really interesting theme - teaching investigators about life's purpose with relation to Adam and Eve. In short, we're all offspring of God, and just like loving earthly parents, we have the same potential as them and our parents want us to become like them and/or better than them so we can achieve the same things that they did, God gives us the same potential so that we can become like Him, even as a God. God loves us and wants to give us everything He has. Therefore, our purpose is to learn and grow to fulfill our potential and become like God. Adam and Eve made it possible to learn and grow so that it's possible to become like unto God. Quite interesting. I wish you all were there, but all in all, I learned a lot and was intrigued the whole time. That doesn't happen very often for me! Right after, we all came together and played football and soccer, so that was fun! 

My trainee though is awesome! He's a hardworker and fearless. He'll do whatever I ask him to do with a willing heart, the right desire and without holding back. It's like I'm not even training him in all honesty. He knows exactly what to do! 

In church this week, we had 186 attending in Sacrament meeting! That was the most I have both seen and heard of on my mission. I know that doesn't sound like too much, but trust me, every seat was filled, both in the chapel and on the stand, then the overflow was in use on a different floor. So it wound up being a good Sunday. We also had a linger longer or whatever those are called afterwards where we all ate! :) 

Well, I tend to leave a scripture every week, so I'll keep on with it! There's a verse in Mosiah 4. It's number 10. It says, "...if you believe all these things see that ye do them." Often times, we believe in some things and we know exactly why we believe in them, but we fail to actually do the important part - actually doing it. God gave us commandments and what not for our benefit. We shouild know why it's important, believe and it and most importantly follow it, because that's the only way we're going to receive all the blessings God wants to shower upon us. We get nothing out of a good idea unless that idea becomes a product. The same concept applies. Do it. 

Welp, I got some pics this week fortunately! Yay! But I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the good weather if the weather is good over there too! :) 

MKH, 

Ældste Taylor Howes

In a town called Kalundborg. It's in the Zone Leaders area. And then the church there. It's the only Cathedral in the world with 5 spires.

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.