The Miracles Continue... for Søster Holbrook in Denmark

Søster Holbrook really is walking in her daddy's footsteps. This week she met a member that her Daddy taught and baptized MANY years ago while he served in Denmark.

Søster Whitlock, Søster Holbrook and Søster Jonesin the Tivoli Garden with Halloween Theme.

 These sister missionaries are AMAZING. They work hard and they "play" Hard. You just gotta love them!

Halloween in Tivoli with fellow missionaries. So much FUN!

Hey Everyone! 

We had another great week here in Rødovre!  For P-day we went to a super hyggeligt amusement park called Tivoli. It was a BLAST and I didn't even get motion sick once. (tak Dramamine). We had two successful splits this week (one was with Sister Whitlock. It was GREAT being her companion for a day. She is a super awesome missionary and human and I love her lots) and three district meeting trainings on "Teach When You Find." We learned a lot from the trainings and have already seen it affect our work. Some other miracles and tender mercies include: More free food from a member (I am currently broke), Two great lessons with our investigator D (he is a Jehovah witness but is doubting in his faith. Missionaries knocked on his door shortly after he began to doubt. He has committed to keep the Word of Wisdom and says that he really likes the Book of Mormon so far!), and I met a man in my ward that my Daddy taught and baptized!!!! He is strong in the faith and is married to the member that introduced him to the church, and two of his children have served missions! It has been SO cool to serve in the same areas of my dad and see how his righteous efforts as a missionary have blessed the lives of so many people. 

Keep on Keeping on!

Søster Holbrook  

 Daddy Holbrook taught and Baptized this young man and now Søster Holbrookhad a chance to visit with him. What a treat.

Look how young they both were MANY years ago. What a treasure that our kids have served in the same mission as their Daddy.

We are blessed to have Søster Holbrook serving a mission and even more blessed that it is in Denmark. We are grateful for the gospel in our lives and what it is teaching us. THAT we can be an eternal family ;o)

My Dad always told me I had a face for radio.....

Yes, it is true that Daddy Holbrook talk about a face for radio, but it was NOT Søster Holbrook's face but his own face ;o) 

Søster Holbrook and Søster Jones on radio, this is just too AWESOME :o)


 

 Being on the radio!!

 Miranda ❤ she treated us to burgers like the good American she is!

 Movie night with sister  Jones.

 Sister Jones and I :)

 Where my bike was when it DIDN'T get stolen!

Email from Søster Holbrook:

Hey Everyone!

CRAZY week this week! Last week I talked a lot about miracles. I wrote about how Elder Ballard gave us an apostolic blessing and told us that there are miracles waiting for us in Europe and that God needs us to believe in them. well. MIRACLES HAPPENED THIS WEEK. Søster Jones and I began praying for miracles and every single day something incredible happened.

The biggest miracle was that we were on THE danish national radio station. It has over 2 MILLION listeners and the guy that interviewed us is FAMOUS over here. How did we get this opportunity? Well. It all started on P-day. We had about 40 minutes left of our p-day and were headed to the mission office to look up a quick talk and upload pictures. We had been out in Copenhagen most of the day and were looking forward to relaxing for a couple of minutes. The bike ride takes about 10 minutes so you can see that time was of the essence. We are speedily making our way to the office when the bike lane turns into the right turn lane for cars. Despite our haste, we get cut off by this big van and in my hurried state I may or may not have just popped up onto the sidewalk to bike around (which actually is not legal here... oops.). I am on the sidewalk, and just turn the corner. Sister Jones was less inclined to do the illegal (actually she just wasn't quick enough) so she got delayed. About three seconds later she pops on the curb and follows my lead. When I see that she is following me, I start pedaling when I am stopped by a lady. We stop and she explains to us that she is from this radio station right across the street and she is inviting people up to take a tour of the building. I began to tell her "well. We are missionaries from our church and this is our free day and we only have 30 more minutes...." but she interrupts me and says "that is awesome! you can talk all about that on the Radio." turns out she didn't want to give us a tour but to actually speak on the Radio about who we are and what we do! It is this special segment that they do where they literally take people off the streets to come and tell about themselves. well. We DEFINITELY had time for that!!!! So we go on up and then answer a whole bunch of questions about who we are and what we do and why we do it and what do we like about Denmark... and basically just show all the danish people that we are regular NON-BRAINWASHED people. So many members and investigators have texted saying that they had heard it and that we did a great job! We were able to testify of small truths like "Jesus brings us joy" and was an incredible missionary experience. God does answer our prayers and is performing miracles! 

Some other miracles include: 

Knocking a random street on splits and a man having a book with a paper on it that said "for the Mormons." He had been waiting for missionaries from a long time ago to come and pick it up! 

Accidentally leaving my keys TWICE in my bike lock (once at the busiest station in Denmark) and my bike NOT getting stolen. Seriously. That is a miracle over here.

Contacting for 3 hours with little success. Saying a prayer "Heavenly Father. We want to be out here. Please help us know that we are in the right place at the right time." within ONE minute of the prayer, the VERY next two people we talked to were sisters that Sister Jones had contacted while on splits 2 transfers ago in a different area. They remembered Sister Jones and were so happy to see us!

Going to the church to teach a lesson and seeing Vanessa (an old family friend) that lives on Bornholm (a small island that is a 6 HOUR ferry ride away). 

We "dropped" someone because we didn't think she was sincere and then the next day she called us to tell us that she actually does want to come to church with us in the near future.

R and his daughter and his wife ALL came to church this Sunday! Ryan is a really cool investigator that we have that seems to know everything about the church and doesn't believe in God at all. But he can't help but continue to be curious and try to understand why are so different. His soul is searching for something, and he just can't quite make the leap to having faith in something yet. Progress is slow, but we feel like he is someone that will be a member one day. His wife is very atheist and thinks R is crazy for meeting with missionaries. In the beginning she would leave the room, but now when we teach she will stay and offer comments every now and then. So the fact that SHE came to church is INCREDIBLE.

God is performing miracles. I feel so blessed to be here.

Keep on keeping on!

Søster Holbrook 

Vanessa from Bornholm - She is Momma Holbrook's great friend's daughter.

Here is the link to the Radio podcast. Our interview starts around 27 minutes

https://www.radio24syv.dk/programmer/fedeabes-fyraften/19600584/domkirkens-bananform-mormonernes-fridag-og

It has been a wonderful week for Søster Holbrook being on the radio, talking to lots of people and learning so much this week also. Grateful for the things she has learned this week and happy she is serving in Denmark.

"You are never more happy than you are grateful" - Elder Sabin. Elder Ballard, Elder Clayton and Elder Sabin were in Denmark for a short visit.

It has been a hard week for all of us. Lulu our sweet dog passed away a few days ago and we all miss her like crazy. But we do KNOW that we will see her again one day and that helps us all a lot.

 Søster Holbrook is testifying on the Book of Mormon and it's truth. 

 Teaching at the Zone Cnference.

The Zone Søster Holbrook is in. What a great looking group of missionaries.

Hey Everyone!

My heart is filled with gratitude this week. As many of you know my dog died last week. Many of you also know that I love my dog more than most other things and "Nothing makes me trunky except for my dog and Cafe Rio." I was devastated when I first got the news, and of course I turned to the Lord for comfort and strength. A missionary on The District once said, "To know God is to struggle." I know this to be true. My testimony of the Atonement of Jesus Christ has been strengthened this week as I have felt Him heal me. I have felt the Savior's love and peace in high voltage, and am so grateful that I was blessed with the opportunity to experience more fully His Atonement in my life. 

We went on splits with Sister Lanham and Sister Peterson (our baby and grandbaby) this week and we saw some pretty cool miracles. Sister Peterson is grate at recognizing "What does God want me to learn from this" and we had a great discussion about this. I told her about my dog and about how "I have learned that Christ's Atonement covers even this pain", but I also told her that "I know that there is something else God wants me to learn from this. I am just not sure what yet." Less than two hours later we knocked into a man that had also lost HIS dog the SAME week. He wasn't ready to accept the gospel, but we could see his countenance change from saddened to peaceful when we testified of the Plan of Salvation and Jesus Christ. The lesson I learned is that God prepares people to comfort others that stand in need.

This week has been great! We had zone conference and Sister Jones and I gave a training on repentance and commitments. We have had so many appointments that we often go "bike contacting" in between lessons. Meaning we stop people as we bike to each appointment. It is surprisingly effective because people are so surprised that you are stopping on your bike that they will actually stop and listen! We also had lunch with Mormor and Morfar and Uncle Bjørn. It was AWESOME seeing family again. Sunday I gave a talk in church and spoke on the gift of the Holy Ghost. There was also a member that gave us (and the other two sets of missionaries on our ward) a whole bunch of frozen meat because he and his wife are going to America for several months. It is actually kind of questionable because he straight up dumpster dives (missionaries have actually caught him in the act) in grocery store garbage cans for all the meat that has "expired but still doesn't smell bad." We ate some pork from this stash last night and it actually tasted great! We figured that if he has been doing this for 50 years, we will probably be okay too. Sunday night we heard Elder Ballard, Elder Sabin and Elder Clayton speak to us in a European broadcast. 

Elder Ballard spoke on miracles. He shared an incredible story about how he and another church worker once traveled to Ethiopia during a drought. They met with the single member living in all of Ethiopia and held their own little sacrament meeting. During the meeting Elder Ballard felt as if he should bless the land. He blessed the land that it would rain and the people would be saved. Later that night, Elder Ballard offered another prayer and said in essence "Heavenly Father, I felt really inspired to say that. I have faith that you can make it happen. Please let it be so." It rained EVERY single day they were there. He then told us that it had nothing to do with "little elder Ballard" and everything to do with being faithful enough to believe in miracles. He gave us an apostolic blessing and told us that there are miracles waiting for us in Europe and that God needs us to believe in them. He also said that missionaries are struggling to keep the faith alive in the countries and are praying for miracles to happen, but that it is not enough anymore. He told them that they need to be the ones to pray for these miracles as well. All I can say is amen to what Sister Baird said in her email: "He is a God of miracles. Let us participate in His miracles."

I love the work. I love my Savior. I have felt so close to Him this week. I am grateful for the Gospel and I am so incredibly happy to be about his great work.

Keep on keeping on.

Søster Holbrook

 

 

 These are called "Flying Rats" per Søster Holbrook's Great Grandma's saying. They are all over Denmark and really is a pest!

Visiting a great member and getting spoiled. THANKS for being so AWESOME and loving the missionaries.

 

 Lunch date with  Mormor, Morfar and Uncle Bjørn. What a nice time and a treat for these two sisters.

 

Another week has passed and Søster Holbrook is doing WONDERFUL. She is serving hard and loving the mission life. They had some great visits from some of the leadership in the church so they were taught well as always.

First week in Rødovre and Copenhagen round 2 is on its way.

She is off running again in a new area and she is already loving it there. What a blessing it has been for her to have transfers go so easy, She is amazing!

 Four beautiful Sister missionaries.

 Søster Jones, Søster Lanham and Søster Holbrook. Two trainers with their 'Baby" in the middle :o)

 Søster Holbrook's desk in her new apartment. SO SWEET!!

Email from Søster Holbrook this week:

Hey Everyone!

Rødovre is pretty awesome! Copenhagen is beautiful and there are still trees. Not quite as much as Vejle, but I will take whatever I can get! 

This week we took some of the brand new sisters out to go contacting and that was inspiring! They all have the "Greenie Fire" so it was incredible to see them hit the ground running!

We have met with lots of investigators this week! We had two on date and put a third one on date this week. We also had MLC which is always so inspiring and uplifting. The ward is huge and Miranda Bradshaw (my best friend from Amager) is now in this ward. So it is safe to say I am pretty glad to be over here.

Søster Jones and I have been doing one "Awkward OYM/contact (Open your mouth)" a day to challenge us to talk to EVERYONE. Earlier this week we stopped a man while he was biking. Today Søster Jones dared me to knock on a guy that was sitting in a parked car who was clearly working. We did and he accepted a Mormons Bog and a return appointment!!! God is blessing us for our efforts.

I loved General Conference.  I especially liked Elder Rasband's talk about "Divine Design." Like him, I know that God is in the details. He is infinitely aware of all of our finite details.

Keep on keeping on! 

Søster Holbrook

 Miranda Bradshaw and Søster Holbrook

 

 Beautiful Denmark in the Fall.

 Sister missionary fun ;o)

Strøget in Copenhagen. Having ice-cream is always great in Denmark no matter what the weather is like.

We are so blessed to have Søster Holbrook in Denmark. She is touching peoples hearts and teaching them about the divine gift of the gospel.

Copenhagen Round 2!

Søster Holbrook is moving to Copenhagen, more exact she is going to serve in Rødovre. She is again serving in an area that her Daddy served in or close to his city. He served the first 4 months in Glosrtup and that is just around the corner of where she is now going, How awesome is that. She is walking in her Daddy's footsteps :o)

Saying "goodbye" to Søster Baird for the second time but friends forever!

 Danish Pastry is the BEST.

 

 Denmark is beautiful.

Classic Vejle picture

Email from Søster Holbrook


Hey Everyone!

This has been an incredible week. To start off, I got transferred back to Copenhagen! I am serving in a part called Rødovre and am back in my first district. It is great to be back in Copenhagen. It reminds me of my days back in training, and I can't believe that is has already been over one year since I started in my first area Amager! Time does fly that is for sure.

As you all can see I have attached a lot of pictures from all the crazy adventures this week! They only catch a small glimpse of the adventures I experience everyday, and the happiness I feel. I am glad I can still share them with you all though. Descriptions will be in the email to follow.

Thanks for the support!

Søster Holbrook

 

 Being a missionary is hard but at times also super fun.

 

 Sisters in the Lord.

 Trainer and trainee.

 Last dinner in Vejle it has been GRAND!!

So she is off to new adventures in Copenhagen and she is ready to rock it there too. We are so grateful for her service to the Lord and to the people in Denmark.