Psalms 144:15 - December 26, 2016

15 Happy is that people, that is in such a case: yea, happy is that people, whose God is the Lord.

Everyone,

This has been a fun Christmas here in Denmark. Spending it here in Randers has been great because we are with members who we have really come to know and love.

We had Zone Conference in Århus this week. The Grinch came the night before and took 2/3 of all of the packages from the mission van. That was really sad. The stake president came to speak to all of us, and he found out about it. He then got pens for all of the Elders and the Sisters got ornaments. Even without all of the gifts it was still Christmas for us. We had some wonderful trainings about the coming year, and Sister O'Bryant showed us The Nativity. We watched "Finding Dory" before we all traveled home.

Merry Christmas 2016

Merry Christmas with our whole family together!

We had a WONDERFUL phone call with Ben on Christmas Day! He Skyped from a member's home. It was so good to visit with him and see him! He just glowed through the screen!

Ben loved seeing Nico's hair! We've kept it long to show Ben Nico's baby curls.

He said they have had a wonderful Christmas season despite the dark and cold. But the days are getting longer now! He told us about the nativities and Christmas cookies they took to members.

Nico recognized Ben!

Sadly enough, he told us that all of the mission Christmas packages were in a van at their Christmas zone conference. During the night before the conference, the van was broken into and 1/3 of the packages were stolen. One of the two packets we sent to Ben was stolen, so he only received half of his homemade nativity. He missed out on the ties, socks, and some other fun things we sent. Still, "Christmas doesn't come from the store. Christmas means a little bit more!" Ben was still in good spirits.

Isaiah 60:19 - December 19, 2016

19 The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but theLord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

Everyone,

We are almost done losing sunlight here in Denmark. Today we talked about how we only have two more days, and then the days will get longer. This may seem like a strange conversation to have for two missionaries, but when you haven't seen the sun in like 4 days than it makes perfect sense. We have had thick clouds and fog which have blocked out the sun. There is still light, but you don't see where it is coming from.

Brian met with us last week. We went over "The Living Christ" with him. The spirit was there, and it was a great reminder for us as well. Then he brought up some concerns about the word of wisdom. He has a mormon friend from Utah who drinks when he come to conferences here in Europe. This is now a big roadblock with his progress. We are working on helping him gain a testimony in his heart of the gospel.  -- For all of the kids who are reading this. Don't compromise your standards because others are doing it too! Your example could really affect someone!

District meeting was great. We had it at the Larsens' apartment in Århus. There were only six of us because the other four missionaries were in the missionary choir. We discussed ideas about working through the holiday season.

D&C 88:89 - December 12, 2016

89 For after your testimony cometh the testimony of earthquakes, that shall cause groanings in the midst of her, and men shall fall upon the ground and shall not be able to stand.

Sun at noon

Everyone, 

Well, we got a transfer text and call this week. Turns out we are both staying here in Randers for Christmas! The branch is happy about that as well. It took us both by suprise for a minute, but we are fine with what has happened.

This week I got some type of bug, so I had to stay inside for a day. You think up lots of creative things to do when you are sick sometimes. We had about 25 keys in our apartment, so we checked them on some of the doors. We found that one of the keys unlocks everything in the back of our apartment. We also studied and planned for the coming weeks and transfer.

Elder and Sister Larsen came to Randers and did a UV activity. They had a great lesson on God's creations and the 13 articles of faith. For the activity we did a guessing game using Christmas items.

Job 37:9 - December 5, 2016

Elder Preece and I on splits

9 Out of the south cometh the whirlwind: and cold out of the north.

Omar and us

Everyone, 

This email is coming a little later than usual. We went to the Randers Regnskov about lunch time today. It is an indoor rainforest zoo. We got to see lots of animals from Africa, Asia, and South America. This experience made us feel grateful that the tempeture only gets to about 32 degress Celcius about once a year here. One thing that is worth noting is how un-American it was. Several of the animals aren't in cages. The whole room is where they live. You can walk along the paths, and the monkeys will be next to you on the handrail. The birds and turtles are free as well to go where they want.

My advent candle

Splits was with Århus last week. I had a great time with Elder Preece, and we had lots of success talking to everyone about #OplysVerden. It was fun to be with the district, and spend time working with them.