Busy week for Søster Millika E. Holbrook. Christmas Skype call, Christmas Letter from Elder Stevenson, Tivoli, lunch date with family and zone conference.

This week a lot of things happened for Søster Holbrook, she has been busy with zone conference, lunch date with Mormor, Morfar and Uncle Bjørn,Tivoli round 2, Skype call with us, Christmas Letter from Elder Stevenson and Christmas fun.

 Tivoli Gardens round 2 with Søster Nelson's Danish family.

 WOW.. Seeing the Sisters in pants are so different.

 They look happy and ready for the ride.

What beauty!!

 Zone training so much fun and great things to learn.

 Love from Home ;o)

 Half of the missionaries in Denmark.

Email from Søster Holbrook this week:

Dear Family and Friends,

THANK YOU SO MUCH for everyone that sent me a letter for Christmas! That was easily the best gift ever!!! I wish I had time to write all of you back, but just know that it was MUCH appreciated and I love you all!

Some highlights from this week: zone conference,talking with the family, eating at familien Loftus, stopping by members with a Christmas message, singing in sacrament meeting (yes, I did sing. ...the things I do for missionary work....haha), eating a freak ton of good food, but I think my favorite part was having one of our investigators come to church and then saying that he has noticed that reading and praying has made a difference in his life :) I love being a missionary. I love seeing the atonement change people's lives. I love the Savior!!!!

I hope everyone has had a great Christmas! thanks again for all of the support!

Søster Holbrook 

 Lunch date.

Søster Nelson, Søster Holbrook, Bjørn and Mormor.

 Christmas Letter from Elder and Sister Stevenson. They joy of having GA's in your ward.

 Not just fun all the time, there is time for hard work too !

 Not sure what to say here!! Plain old fun I guess!!

 Søster Holbrook as a little Nisse (Elf). She is so cute.

Our "GOLD". So fun to talk to Søster Holbrook on Skype on Christmas Day.

We are so grateful for Søster Holbrook's example to us. We had a wonderful time talking to her on Skype and it feels like she is in a great spot and she is at "home". We love her and we miss her, but she is where she is suppose to be right now!! HAPPY Holidays!!

New Week and the first real week with Sister Nelson

So it is a new week and Søster Millika E. Holbrook is having a great time with her new companion Søster Nelson. They are working hard and serving the Lord in an awesome way.

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas. Look at what is on her bike.... CHRISTMAS LIGHTS.. VERY clever :o)

 I am guessing that Søster Millika E. Holbrook learned to make the Danish paper star for the Christmas tree. That is pretty neat!

Here is the count down candle burning good ;o)

Email from Søster Millika E. Holbrook this week.

Hey everyone!

MERRY CHRISTMAS! I have to say, the Christmas season is pretty SWEET as a missionary! I am looking forward to celebrating Christmas and bringing the light of the Savior to my fellow Danes!

M is progressing smoothly!!! He came to our branch jule brunch and julegudstjeneste and loved it!!! He says that he thinks that praying and reading has made a difference in his life and happily will continue to learn. We FINALLY have another appointment with S!!!!!!!!!! He has been SO hard to get a hold of because he just been dodging us. I can't remember if I've told you all this already, but we gave him something to study to address his last concern (he said himself "I have no problem with baptism if you can just give me an explanation for the book of Abraham"), and he read it and now has no other doctrinal questions or concerns so he knows what is coming next! And he is afraid. He knows, that we know, that he knows it is all true. And he knows we are going to put him on dåbsdato. Anyway, I am super pumped to meet with him! stay tuned!

Please read Matthew 8:9

Thanks for the support!

Sister Holbrook

 You have to know a thing about Søster Millika E. Holbrook/ She LOVES ducks and here she is showing it. I think it is one of her VERY favorite animals and she has always love to go and "feed the ducks"

And of course a lunch date with Mormor and Morfar is not bad either! They got to meet Søster Nelson and what a treat that was ;o).

A great week for Søster Millika E. Holbrook and we are counting down till the 25th when we get to see her wonderful face and feel her spirit !! It will be the BEST Christmas present of the year.

Transfer week is always hard. Søster Millika E. Holbrook is staying on Amager.

Yes... It was that week for Søster Millika E. Holbrook and I think that is one of the hardest times for a missionary. You are either getting a new companion or moving away from an area where you love the people and the place. So a VERY hard thing for a missionary but what does hard things do for us ;o)... They make us grow closer to the Lord and better people if we allow them to teach us !!

 This week Søster Millika E. Holbrook had a helper while they were knocking on doors and contacting people and it was her BFF Emilie. What a sweet treat that was. Friends FOREVER!!

AND of course they had to have ICE-CREAM ;o)

I just LOVE this Sister missionary!!

Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Søster Ludlow. One last lunch "date" together with Mormor and Morfar. These to girls just loved being companions and will miss each other a lot!

Tivoli is so BEAUTIFUL at Christmas time. Hard to believe we were there as a family just one year ago celebrating McKay return from his mission in Denmark :o)

We LOVE these two SWEET "girls".

Main train station in Copenhagen. Saying Good Bye to Søster Ludlow was super hard for Søster Millika E. Holbrook ;o(

Email from Søster Millika E. Holbrook this week :

Dear Friends and fFmily,

First of all, how is it going with #lighttheworld?? did you guys check the video out?? Well, hopefully you did because it is sweet.

This week has been  a roller coaster. ....literally. Sister Ludlow and I went to Tivoli (an amusement park) and it was SWEET! It was her first time seeing it with all the lights and which made it just that much better. We also hung out with EMILIE and ended up getting a big "Come back" while randomly knocking on some doors with her! What is better than spending time with Emilie and doing some good missionary work?? Beats me.

Anyway, transfers were this week. Sister Ludlow got the boot. President actually told us, "The original plan was to keep you two together for another two transfers, but the Lord needed Sister Ludlow elsewhere." She is an amazing missionary and will bless the people in Roskilde! 

I obviously got a new companion, and her name is Sister Nelson. She has family from Denmark too!!! So it is safe to say we are going to be SPOILED at Christmas time. Tak family. Also, her danish is amazing so it will be a really really good thing for me as we speak danish all day.

Saying goodbye to Sister Ludlow was really really hard, but I love Sister Nelson already. She is so adorably quirky and I love it. I am looking forward to the transfer with her!

Had some great lessons this week! M is progressing well.

Ether 15:15.   "I can fight all day and conquer not. Or I could fight all day and conquer all. It is your choice." Just a nice reminder I tell myself occasionally when I'm feeling particularly prideful and want to do something my way.

Thanks for everything!

Søster Holbrook

Søster Nelson and Søster Holbrook and OF COURSE ice-cream :o)

Another great week in Denmark. We look forward to seeing our sweet Søster Holbrook's face in a few short days!! Having a missionary is a blessing and we feel it strongly in our lives.

Christmas time on Amager looks AWESOME!

Another Great week for Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Søster Ludlow. Together they are a great companionship and of course they are hoping for one more time together .... Since this next week will be transfer week. Only time will tell.

It is Christmas time on Amager and it looks like LOTS of fun :o) Here Sister Ludlow and Søster Millika E. Holbrook trying to be cute and festive. ...  And I think they did it.

It is lots of fun. we LOVE Søster Ludlow!

Email of the week from Søster Millika E. Holbrook:

Hey friends!

 This week I am running low on time too, so there won't be too much detail in these stories. sorry.

As promised, here is the fast version of last week's story: we were late starting our next contacting block. We went anyway and ended up bumping into someone who had been walking and thinking about God and His plan for her. If we had not showed up at that precise moment we may never have met her, especially because she lives in Germany and was only here for the weekend! She cried and was so grateful to met us! happily accepted a Book of Mormon and will find the missionaries in Germany!

We left a dinner appointment with a member and immediately bumped into someone we had contacted before, but hadn't been able to get her number because her bus came and she ran to catch it before we could! So this time we got her information and will visit her later this week. She is probably the second person we've ever run into again because there are just SO many people on Amager! So it was bizarre!!

We felt like we should knock in a very specific area (well we had a general suburban area picked out and then when we got there we felt very specifically that we should go and knock on specific section in this little neighborhood) and we ended up walking into a guy named J, who invited us into his house (he was on his way back from grocery shopping when we stopped him) accepted a Book of Mormon, and he invited us back!

I know you guys are missing about a 1,000 details, but I just want to testify that miracles do happen! I don't know how God works out every detail so finely, but He does. He somehow sends people to us or us to people in incredible ways! He counts our steps, and He directs us for good! I have learned that when you are on the Lord's errand, there are absolutely no coincidences! How lucky are we to have an all knowing and all powerful being directing our lives? I guess blessed is the more correct way to put it, and wow! am I blessed!!!

I wish I had more time, but this will have to do. Everyone should check out the Christmas video for this year and then ACTUALLY DO the Christmas calendar. We've done it/are doing it as missionaries and love it. As you do, I have no doubt that you will see the miracles that we do as missionaries!!!

Søster Holbrook

 We helped a member clean up a handball stadium and got to watch the last few minutes of the game! it felt weird doing "normal" things. But I do have to admit that handball is pretty sweet!

 Søster Ludlow and I missed our bus on a day that we were running late. It bummed us out, but we just bought some freshly roasted almonds while we waited 20 minutes for the next one so I guess it all works out in the end.

 I am thinking this must be their district or for sure a good looking group of missionaries ;o)

 LOVE this! It reminds me of Søster Millika E. Holbrook and Elder Grant. She is serving with the "white" babies and he is serving with the "black" babies. 

 Looking good I want some pretty please ;o)

I am thinking this is at the mission office but if not some good missionaries and really CUTE sisters!!

These ladies are just too fun. So enjoy Monday's and seeing all their fun photos.

So it has been another GREAT week for these two sweet sisters. This next week will be bitter sweet for them but it is ALL in the Lord's hands. He is real and He is good.

Another great week on Amager for Søster Millika E. Holbrook.

So it has been another week for Søster Millika E. Holbrook on Amager and she LOVES it there.  She loves her companion Søster Ludlow and they have been teaching some great lessons and people this week too. They are a strong pair of missionaries for the Lord and they LOVE Him .

Søster Holbrook  and Søster Ludlowwhat a great pair.

 They got a good deal on hamburger meat I guess. Maybe they are having taco's !!

 

Email from Søster Millika E. Holbrook this week was SHORT:

"EXCITING NEWS!

Just kidding guys. I don't actually have time to write anything this week. We did have a SUPER cool story while contacting this week though! But you'll have to wait until next week to hear it.

Enjoy the pictures!"

You can see I was NOT kidding that is ALL we got as a shared email :o) No Hello or goodbye just that. But hey she is working hard and that is really what matters and soon we will get to see her on Christmas Day :o)

Awesome looking group of people!! 

They had there 2 week lunch date with Mormor and Morfar this week and of course that is always fun. Søster Holbrook shared the message from the church for December "Light the World" which is such a wonderful message.

Two LIGHTS in the world. How we love these to missionaries.

it is a special time to share a good meal together. Søster Holbrook will miss that when she gets transferred maybe away for them.

 Biking Sister missionaries. They are getting a lot of time outside and that is great for them.

Yet an order wonderful week for Søster Holbrook in Denmark. They are having transfers in the next few weeks and that is always a little hard because these to care so much for each other. BUT... They have learned so much by being together and I am sure they will see each other if they do get split up soon. 

It is getting really cold in little Denmark but Søster Millika E. Holbrook is handling it great!

So the winter and the clod weather is getting more and more in Denmark but Søster Millika E. Holbrook is handling. She is a tough little cookie that one and we are so proud of her! Søster Ludlow and her worked hard this week and they felt the Lord's love and help in the work. The gospel is AWESOME!!

AND of course they had to have ice-cream again this week even though it is getting cold. There is ALWAYS room for ice-cream :o)

 BEAUTIFUL DENMARK.

 BEAUTIFUL Sister missionaries ;o)

Here is Søster Millika E. Holbrook email for the week: 

Hey everyone!

This last week has been a good one. Sister Ludlow and I have been just getting work done! We talk to everyone we can and the Lord has blessed us with success because of it! We handed out three book of mormons in one contacting session! WOOT! . I love being a missionary. I love Sister Ludlow. She is an incredible human and I'm so grateful for all the things she's taught me.

We taught a lesson with M this week AND he attended all three hours of church! He set up another appointment for Saturday and told us he will come to church next week as well. He told one of our investigators "I'm going to give it a shot." And he told us that he has been hesitant to tell people he is meeting with us because he doesn't want any negative thoughts from anyone and he doesn't want anyone to convince him not to meet with us. WOW. He is an incredible human and he is one of the people "Preach My Gospel" talks about. He is ready for the Atonement, he just didn't know where to find it. We had another investigator come to church as well, her name is S. The best part? Because she held her commitment to come to church, she is officially a new progressing investigator!!! She looks forward to meeting with us again. We also found a new investigator from Argentina this week. His name is P. We have met with him twice and we are excited to see where things go. The Faroe Islands family is still progressing too and they absolutely adore us! That is always a plus.

Basically the Lord is the best and He steers the work. I'm just blessed that I get to be a part of it! Good things are coming and have come to Amager. ...And all of Denmark actually. NOT the lowest baptizing country in the world anymore. God is Good. :)

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving!!!! This week I am especially grateful that I (like many from the Book of Mormon) can happily say that "I walk in the ways of my Father." I'm grateful for a family that has been a wonderful example of righteous living. Our parents give us roots and roots become our wings and boy, am I grateful for my parents and the wings they have given me. I've never needed them more.

Thanks for support!
Søster Holbrook 

 Healthier Danish Pizza.. They put everything on the pizza over there even corn.. A little different than here in the US ;o)

 I think these 2 ladies are having a LOT of fun serving together and that warms a Momma's heart!

 Here they are drinking MY FAVORITE kind of Fanta... How I wish I could get them here in the US !! Also this is the 6 month mark for Søster Ludlow they are burning a pair of her nylons :)

You just gotta LOVE Søster Ludlow. She has been an AWESOME trainer for Søster Millika E. Holbrook and it has made the first few months great for her in Denmark.

The joy of having a missionary out is sharing their up and down weeks. I so grateful for the chance we have have yet another missionary serve in Denmark what a blessing it is. The Lord is true and He is real :o)

 

First Snow, Lunch date with Mormor and Morfar and of course ICE-CREAM :)

Søster Millika E. Holbrook enjoyed the first snow this week in Denmark. You need to understand it does not snow very often in Denmark. It is cold but not much of the white stuff and it for sure do not stay or stick long.

 

Email from Millika E. Holbrook this week:

 Hey everyone!

I am doing really well. I love Sister Ludlow. I love Amager. I love being a missionary. What more can I say?

Is it possible that missionary work can be hastening but going slower than ever? We have found some good potentials the past couple of weeks, and some of those have already become solid investigators! We have also handed out more Book of Mormons than ever!!! But the last two weeks have been tough for setting appointments with our current investigators because many were/are out of town, sick, or didn't respond. Sister Ludlow and I have a lot of things in the works, but it's just going very slow on an individual level. Luckily this is the start of a new week! So yeah. The work is hastening, but it doesn't always feel that way.

Recently I have been pondering how having the influence of the Savior in my life has changed who I am. Honestly, it scares me to think of who I would be if I didn't know about our Savior on a personal level. YIKES!! Luckily I'm super blessed to have had the opportunity to grow up in a home where cultivating that relationship was important. The Savior's influence has made me the happy and (hopefully) good person that I am! I was reading in 3 Nephi 12:13 (Matthew 5:13, D&C 101:39-40, 103:9-10) and came across a scripture that really explained my heart's ponderings. I had a seminary teacher tell us once that "You lose your Savor, when you lose the Savior". In my case, when I don't focus on strengthening my relationship with the Savior, I begin to lose the good things about myself. I  lose my flavor. Anyway I hope those ramblings made sense.

Thanks for the support! 
Søster Holbrook

 Two SWEET Sister missionaries.

Sweet Millika E. Holbrook. How we LOVE her.... She is a gem!

 Hard to see but they are standing with a classic in their hands-- ABBA is just that a classic.

AND of course there is ice-cream this week too.... It is so good in Denmark.. RICH and CREAMY!

 Lunch date with Mormor and Morfar is ALWAYS fun and the food is pretty dang good too.

Søster Ludlow and Søster Holbrook so cute together.

So another wonderful week in Denmark for Søster Holbrook and she is growing and learning so much. As she said in her email sometimes the progress does not go as fast as you like but it is hard to really explain how much joy the Savior can bring in your life if you first have to get to know Him. He is REAL and He is true ;o)