New Chicago Mission President Fenn, Sister Fenn and New Companion

                                        President and Sister Fenn, Jantzen and Elder Wilcock
                                      Sister Fenn is the daughter of Elder Bruce R. McKonkie

Friend Thomas at the MTC

 

I had lunch and dinner with Elder Day every day we were together at the MTC

1st Email from Chicago...Chicago Pizza the bomb!

  Well I made it half way to Denmark! I am not stationed in Pontiac. Life is going great! My companion is Elder Wilcock. He his 19 years old and he's been in the Mission for 5 Months. He is an amazing Trainer. He is a hard worker. We are the only Missionaries in the Whole City of Pontiac and our Mission District Boundry. Crazy.
Just found out that my Mission President wife, Sister Fenn, is the Daughter of Elder Bruce R. McConkie. Wish I would have talked to here. That was a cool thing to find out. We arrived at the airport at 11:30 went to the Mission office for orientation. (They told us that if anyone sends me packages, mail it to the Mission office. Packages will get stolen if you mail it straight to me.) As my mom on the Address. I don't have it on me.
Well after orientation we went to the mission home. President Fenn interviewed all the new missionaries while they finished orientation. Than we had Chicago Pizza. Ah it was so good. One pizza had a cirlcuar piece of sasuage right on top of the Pizza! it was amazing! Very good and awesome pizza. Don't think I will have a Hot Dog out here. There is really nothing in this small town. A little Depressing. Next day we recieved our companions. They got up and told us where we would be serving and other info. Elder Wilcock got up pointed on the map and said that he would be having his companion teach the law of Chasity that night to an out of wed lock couple. I was freaking out because I never taught it in English before!!!! He later told me he would be putting more into it.
We had a member take us to KFC, which I was alright with. It beats the MTC food haha. Than we went over together and taught the lesson. The lesson was great! We were blunt and bold. The investigator, Anthony really was happy we taught it that way. We were going to teach the Word of Wisdom but we followed the spirit and talked about temples. Very awesome and powerful lesson. All I did was really testify but it was awesome.
It's been really hard work here. I'm grateful to have Elder Wilcock. He really wants to do as much work as he can. His previous companion didn't care much. He says that he has knocked on more doors this past week than he ever did with his previous companion.
We have another investigator who has some mental issues. So it's slow for him to grasp on to things. We are working hard with him. His name is James. And we're praying for him as much as possible.
We have found alot of potential investigators this past week. We will actually be teaching Rodolfo tomorrow. He has broken English. He speaks practically Spanish. We're hoping we can bring the spirit in that lesson to have him desire us to come back with a translator.
Well I'm running low on time. We email in a library which allows us to email for a certain amount of time. Alot of miracles have happened here on this mission already. I love the people here and I enjoy this work! I'm so grateful to serve here. Even though there is no Danish people here I know I have been blessed. I am becoming a better teacher since I've been hear. I love this work even more. My problem right now is that I can't pray in English. The only time I can do it is when I am with investigators. Hard to explain. I tried it with Elder Wilcock and my prayer felt like the first time I prayed in Danish.... Meaningless. I've lost the meaning and can only feel the spirit with praying in Danish. A sign from the Lord that I need to keep my Danish up. ( I only get 1 hour a day haha) Thank you everyone for your love and support! I know that the Lord blesses everyone for keeping our faith and working hard. Love you all! See you next week!

Elder Jantzen Richard Read

Good luck to All the Danish Elders where ever you are serving!!!!!!
Thank you brother Pullan and Williamson for teaching me I love you brothern and am grateful for you

1st Handwritten Letter from Chicago!

Dear Family,

   Ok busy life so far and it's only the first day. My P-days are monday so you won't hear from me until then. My address is:

508 East Madison Street Apt. C
Pontiac, IL 61764

Mom,
    Please don't mail me any packages to this address!!! If you do it will get stolen and I won't get any of the treats! You can mail packages to the mission office at:

Illinois Chicago West Mission
1319 Butterfield Rd. Suite 522
Downers Grove, IL 60515-5621

    I will not recieve packages until I am near the office, which on Google maps you might be able to tell. I'm far from it like 60 miles or so.

    I have to make this short. I have an AMAZING companion/trainer!!! I told our Mission President...Pres. Fenn, that I have come to work! (He asked me if your mother were here, what would she say about you) I figured that the best answer was that I am a really hard worker. His response to that was, well, I have got someone for you... he'll work your tail off!!!

    My companion is Elder Wilcock. He lived in Idaho. He was home schooled and wants to go into Construction Management. HE LOVES TO RUN! HE LOVES TO WORK! He has only been out in the mission field for 5 months and just turned 19. I love him to death! The downfall is we have to do language study every day for an hour... for my Danish. He has to help me, even tho he is English speaking, but he seems fine with it.

    I get 36$ a week. Since we are VISA waiters they put the money on Elder Wilcock's card and he will pull out the money weekly and give it to me, so that's the money system.

   Ok, I've got to go. I have many stories to tell you on Mon. The Spirit is SO STRONG! I have felt it teaching all ready! This city has only had 1 baptism. It just opened up like 2 months ago. Elder Wilcock did the last baptism this past week. We want to accomplish miracles here! I know it is only through the Lord that we can do this! There is a lot of work to do here! I love you all and miss you!
                                     Jeg Elsker Jeres,

                             AEldste Jantzen Richard Read

P.S. Mom please get this word out to my friends on facebook, email or blog. I want them to know how I am doing.

On Airplane headed to Chicago

                       Thanks to Kerry Day who conicidently was on the same flight and got this pic!

No VISA... Jantzen headed to Chicago to convert Micheal Jordan!

Ok not much of an update. We just have been waiting to recieve our visa's. Speaking of which we have recieved them. We have been confirmed, as of today, our Visa's have not come in. We have been re-assigned to The Illinois Chicago mission. I will leave for the Travel office, at the MTC, at 2:30 AM!!! not to happy about that. But I'm pretty excited. I may know someone out there. hopefully I can find them and preach the gospel to them! My flight leaves at 6:00 am. and we'll have a lay over in Minneapolis MN than we arrive in chicago at 11:30. So if I don't recieve my plans by Saturday I will for sure be going there. So excited thank you to everyone. You all have made an impact on my life! You all have made this decision to serve so much easier. Love all of you! I'll let you know my address when it comes.

jeg elsker dig!

-Elder Jantzen Richard Read

No Visa... testimony in Danish... funny story

Hello Everyone,

Ok to start off, I'm going to straighten the rumors. Me as well as 7 other Danish Missionaries, of the total 14, did not recieve our Visa's. They are going to put our names into re-assignment, and keep us here another week. If our Visa's come in by this Friday than we are going to Denmark!!! If not, they are going to re-assign us to somewhere in the States. If our visa's came in next week, we would have to stay the whole entire 6 weeks and than be trasnfered to Denmark. We are hoping that they come in by Friday. So we are a little bummed out. Upsides, the Provo Temple re-opened yesterday and I can go today! I'm so excited. Probably the last time I will have it English for the next 2 years, I've missed the temple so much. Another upside is that I will be able to see Elder Thomas Day and Elder Corey Cregar come in tomorrow. Sorry I won't be able to host for you, me and Kyle will come looking for you and we'll have to get a picture before I leave.

Um not much happened this week. We started packing last Tuesday and un-packed on Friday. We had in-field orentation on Thurday. Everybody made it seem like it was the coolest expierence at the MTC. It was a cool expeirence but it was a long day. I'd rather fly to Sacramento again personally. It was a long day of what to expect for the Mission. The main idea was that we were not going out on our Mission's to "plant seeds", and that we are going to harvest. awesome time but a long day.

So this weeks email is going to be short. All we have done here was wait for our Visa it feels like. Haha I'm gong to email you again on Friday to give you an update. So I'll close up with my Testimony-

Min Vindesbyrd,

Jeg ved at Joseph Smith var profet. Jeg ved han så vores Himmleske Fader og hans Søn Jesus Kristus. Jeg ved Thomas S. Monson er vores profet i dag. Jeg ved ikke hvorfor min visa er ikke her. eller hvorfor jeg måske få kaldt til USA i 6 uge. Jeg ved alle menneskke er Guds børn. Jeg ved alle af os kam til Jorden til har lykkeden, lærer og vokser. Jeg ved at vi alle kan live med Gud og vores familie igen i næste liv for alle evigt livgt. Jeg ved Guds Præstedømme myndighed har været geneprotte i Jorden. Og det er findt i Jesu Kristi Kirke Af Sidste Dages Hellige. Jeg Ved Jeg har være kaldt fra profet af Gud. Jeg er vidner af Helligånden i min liv. Helligånden har vidner til mig af Guds elker for alle menneskker i Jorden og denne er Kirken sandt af Gud. Jeg elker mig Frelser, Jesus Kristus. Jeg ved og jeg kan vidner at han gjørdet smerte i Gethsemane. Jeg ved hans Forsoning var for os, så vi kan gå til liv med Gud igen. Jed ved alt kan være rense fra vores synd med komme til Jesus Kristus or for Hans Forsoning. Jeg Elsker Min Familie og for alle min vene. I Jesu Kristi navn, Amen.

Jeg Elsker Jeres!!!!!!!!!!

Ældste Jantzen Richard Read

P.S.

I forgot to mention my funny story. We were out walking by the front gate of the MTC, as a class, when all of a sudden we here sirens. We thought actual exsistance from the outside world!!! Than a fire truck and an ambulance drove into the MTC. We thought this was serious. After the ambulance passed us very fastly we noticed a silver mustang from Papa Johns was speeding behind them. Our first thought was so that's how they compete with fast delivery. It was so funny so see. Than on top of that after the cars passed us speedily, a mother came running in (with her giant purse) and telling the security guard "that's my son". She came out of no where!! Than we all thought that all of the missionaries mother that are in the MTC, have mothers waiting right outside the gate incase anything happens. It was so funny to see this mother's reaction. Love you mom!

-Elder Jantzen Richard Read

              Jantzen and his friend Kyle Hughes who is currently at the MTC at the Provo Temple

 

              Jantzen's dad wasn't recieving any letters... the rest of us were, so he sent 5 individual  letters reminding him to write his dad. :) He finally sent 5 letters back to his dad, in response.

                       We sent Jantzen these teeth to remind him to brush after eating all the candy we sent him... glad he took a picture... crazy kid!

 

 

Week 5...YOU CAN BREAK THE MOLD!

Hello Friends and Family,

This week has gone by fast! Next week is when we leave, hopefully Monday! We had a good week, we have one of our "investigators/ teacher" commit to baptism. We're still working on our other investigator. Hopefully we can get him to commit before this Saturday. We're almost done with having class. I'm a little nervous, I want to learn more Danishk, but I'm ready to get out of here. Wheither I'm in the States or in Denmark, I'm ready to go serve. Icelandic Missionaries will be flying over with us (We fly for over 20 hours, they fly for over 24 hours) not excited for that. For all those that don't know right now as of last week there was a report of only 8 out of the 14 Danish Missonaries have their VISA's. We're hoping and praying that the rest will come in. They won't tell us until Friday who has whose visas. If we here on Friday than that might be that we got transferred for another 6 weeks. I have my travel plans to fly to Denmark but I'm not sure if I have my Visa. No matter what happens, I'm still serving the Lord.

Ok cool things that happened this week. Sunday we had a devotional. The main speaker was Jenny Oaks Baker. I didn't make the connection with the Oaks part. She is the Daughter of Elder Dalin H. Oaks. She has a Bachelors or Masters, I can't remember, in music. She talked on Spiritual Gifts and shared hers. She played the Violin, it was beautiful music, she has been playing since she was 4 years old!. Her kids also played, ages were from 4-10 I believe. They played amazingly. I was hoping Elder Oaks would pop on in, never happened. None the less it was an amazing devotional.

Last spirtual thought. Last Saturday I recieved a letter from Grandma and Grandpa Read. It was such a joy to get a letter from them. I love my Grandparents! So our teacher hadgiven us 4 questions that missionaries had a hard time answering the field. He had to substitute the Icelandic Missionaries for an hour, so he asked us to answer them. He left the room and our District Leader Elder Ockey asked if we wanted to each take a question, and give a investigator lesson, to another group of companions. We researched for 10 minutes on our question. Me and Elder Durrant's question was "Why are families so important?". We had to of course teach in Danish. I searched in Preach My Gospel, found an couple of scriptures and thought that this would be an easy lesson. I was wrong....

After researching I asked Elder Durrant what he found, he replied something about familes being together forever. I asked him what do you have to back it up. He replied "I can't think of anything." So we begin teaching and during this time one Elder, Elder Carmack, claimed that he loved his family and had a good relationship with them. So far so good. Elder Warner claimed that he sometimes loved his family and he doesn't have a good relationship with them. It started to go down hill from here. After hearing this Elder Durrant said this is your lesson. Luckly I took a deep breath and calmed down, and I knew that it was up to me to answer this question. I was stumped for a couple of minutes, than I had an impresion, I remembered my grandparents. A thought came to my mind. I told of my Grandfather's Story. Background that I told them, all that my father has known about his grandfather, whenever my dad would ask my grandfather about his father. My Grandfather would only reply that he was a drunk. (He passed away around the time my father was born). I told that Elder of how my Grandfather could have very well made the decision to follow in his fathers foot steps. My Grandpa Read, made the decsion to change and figured out he didn't want that same life style. He "broke the mold" as my father puts it. Because of my Grandfather I am here on my mission with my Testimony of Jesus Christ and His Gospel. I shared with them the scripture in the Book of Mormon Alma 37:35 I believe. I asked that Elder "How do we learn wisdom in our youth?" He didn't respond. I told him we learn it from our Parents. Becuase they taught us. Just like they taught him how to Drive, to read, and learn. I asked him about his future family, If he would want them to be happy. He responded yes. I told them that eventually you will have to give them that wisdom and he could have a great family. A good family. I told him he could change like my grandfather changed. He could also fix his relationship with his current family. I testified and closed.

Such a powerful story. I am so gratefull of my heritage and the family that I have grown up in. I cannot deny the spirit I felt when telling that story. Family history is so important in this work. I am grateful for my Grandpa Read for making that change. He has blesed so many people in my family. I have no doubt that if he didn't have make that change, I would not be the person that I am today. I know that my life would be messed up. Because of my Grandpa Read we have had 3 of my cousins serve missions as well as 2 are out right now. (Counting Me) He has had 5 sons who have served missions before us. And because of him, my family will be able to enjoy this gospel. This is my testimony that I know this work is true. I'm grateful for my family and that I can be together forever with them. I know this work in the mission is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and it testifies of the Plan of Salvation and our Savior Jesus Christ. I know that we all can be together with our familles forever. It can help us become closer to our families. I love each and everyone of you. Hopefully to hear from me again in Denmark!

Elder Jantzen Richard Read