Another Awesomish week

Sorry the computers that we use are down right now. So I am using a computer that can't send my pictures right now.

Last Monday we had the awesome opportunity to be invited to Janice and Martins for Family Home Evening (Hillerød is teaching them, part member family, Martin wants to be baptized!) It was so much fun and it made me really miss FHE back home with my family. But it felt good to be at theirs. So much similaritites that I saw. Also on Monday night, you can also guess, my bike blew up. Anybody wants to guess how happy I am with the European bikes? Had to go buy a new tire and tube the next day.

Then on Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to an open house at our church. Sister Ringheim was talking about the 5 languages of love book. Had the opportunity to talk with a few people and try to find some interest in investigating the church. We haven't heard anything yet, but a member brought a non-member and they said that they enjoyed it! (I found out that my language of love is a tie between Time with eachother and Service haha) Which isn't important right now, but it was fun to take the test in Danish. Saved a couple of copies for future reference haha =)

Wednesday I spent the morning fixing my dumb bike =P I really didn't want to do that. Then we were able to teach Brother Andersens neighbors English again!!!! Awe man I love this family. My hope is that they will start asking questions about the church. And my dream is to know that one day they will go to the temple together! I will really miss them when it comes time to leave. speaking of which..... The whole entire mission hasn't heard anything on transfers yet. We are still waiting. Next Monday is transfers so that will be interesting to see how emailing, laundry, and grocery shopping will go. I'll let you all know for sure what will happen.

We had the opportunity to do service for a neighbors friend who lives next to the coast. Their home was flooded from the previous storm and they are pretty much living in a shipping container. We helped them with the clean up and getting to know them. It was fun and we opened up new doors to have the gospel preached to them! Member and missionary work is so awesome when it is just service! haha. Had dinner that night with the Rosenkilde's and just had an awesome family time with them.

Sunday we went to Brother Jens Andersen's open house and dinner and didn't get back til 10 at night. Man it was a long day haha. It was really cool to see here in the Library that a random lady came up to us and was wondering where the Church was around here. She just moved to Birkeød and she's been a member for 10 years and it's a family!!! That was the randomist miracle for the day I would say!

We also had the opportunity to teach a woman named Susan last Friday. She is so awesome! She has already read a little from the Book of Mormon and she accepted the invitation to be baptized when she finds out it is true! It was so awesome! She has 2 sons both within the age of baptism. We have a return appointment for this Friday and she wants to come to church! This is so cool! Let you all know how that goes. But we actually got to get going. Sorry this seemed rushed haha. Missionary life haha. Hope you all have a wonderful week. And may the Lord Bless you in your missionary work!

-Elder Jantzen Richard Read

Choose to do good! Don't give up!

2 weeks in the transfer are left. Find out next week what will be happening with me. We have had the opportunity to find a new investigator this week. His name is Robert. He is an IT and has a degree in Applied mathematics. He has an interesting view of God and throws it in a science perspective. All theories that me and Elder Gifford couldn't deny or accept. Because many of them are possibilities. We almost invited him to baptism. But the time wasn't right. He was excited and said to give him a month and he will have a good portion read. And he said it was okay to come again! The Lord truly has blessed us! But he has also had me learn a few more things this past week. Things in my life that I never have expected and would feel.

I thought I would share my message that I sent to President Sederholm this week:

'' A bit of a trying week I would say. It was awesome though, we were able to teach the African family 2 times this past week. Turned out it was just a husband and wife. And to make it difficult, his culture is different. He says that when men talk about the word of God than the woman is to leave the room. And after we leave he than goes and tells her what he has learned. He has so many life changing stories. We had to get him a Book of Mormon in French because he doesn't understand the English text very well. He said last night that he was going to study and read a lot from it last night, after we left. He was so excited to read it in French. He's practically accepted the invitation to be baptized. He first wants to read the Book. We are so excited and are pretty sure we'll have a baptismal date with him in the nearby future.

But on the down side note, Finn Poulsen called us two times during our appointment with this family. Previously in the week, while on splits with Elder Pitts, Finn called us and asked us to come over ASAP. We go over and found out that he went over to a friends house the night before and they offered him a drink. He has been stressed out with his mother moving from a hospital to a plejehjem, his daughter was kicked out of a crisis center for drinking again, and his summer house was destroyed by the last storm we had. He wanted to relax a little bit. So he accepted the drink. He felt really bad and was concerned that he couldn't be a member anymore. I think he was partially drunk when we were both over there, because he didn't seem himself.

But after the appointment, we called Finn back and he told us that he doesn't want us to come over anymore and that he doesn't want to be a member anymore, because of the decisions he has made. He said that it was okay to come over real fast. Again he seemed out of character. We get there and he puts out his cigarrette, he also seemed out of character. We try to be positive with him. We testify to him about the Savior, that he doesn't need these things to be free from it all. All he needs is the Savior. We started asking him parts of the Baptismal interview questions and he still believes it all. He randomly got up and called Lone (Friend that lives across the street, me and Elder King made a baptismal date with her back in October if you can remember her.) Very wonderful lady, just got offended with the church we had in Allerød. He calls her and tells her that he asked us to leave and we wouldn't (which never happened), and that if she could come and help kick us out. He hung up the phone and we asked him if he wanted us to leave. He responded no and we could stay for a little bit longer. We again testified and he asked if we could say a prayer. He asked me to do so. We ended and asked if we could come again this week. Possibly every day. He responded that we can call him next week.

We met Lone while unlocking our bikes. I walked over and talked to her. She let me have it, saying that ''Finn isn't feeling well with what's going on in his life. I will get him to a Crisis Center and get him to stop drinking, I will get him to the Birkerød Menighed and have him get back to church, it is a wonderful church and I've been their a couple of times.'' She gave both of us a hug and was about to walk away. I responded to her Lone ''right now Finn needs a Friend, and possibly the best option is you, Lone.'' She responded Guds Fred and went inside to be with Finn. We later biked home and immediately called Bishop Nielsen and notified him. There was nothing more we could do. We later came to the realization that Lone wasn't talking about our church she was talking about the Danske Folke Kirke in Birkerød, because she has only been to our church once, not a couple of times.... So maybe she wasn't the best option.

President I am trying to take what you told me to heart. But I found out that it's hard to be happy right now. I have just witnessed everything that me and Elder King had, destroyed before my eyes. Almost everyone that we have taught and found has either moved, lost contact, or doesn't want anything to do with the church. I am sad for Finn Poulsen, I have gotten to know this man for the past 4 months. I watched this man be committed to baptism with you, baptized by Brother Jens Andersen, seen how much the Gospel has changed his life with: members, us as missionaries, guest class, his testimony growth. All these things and so much more, gone before my eyes in a week. I won't give up on him, it killed me to leave his apartment with how he was. He shook Elder Gifford's hand, he walked out. I than shook is hand and gave him a hug. I told him ''that he is my friend and Brother. I love him and he is a good man. Choose to do good Finn, Don't give up.'' He smiled and we said Vi ses.

I read the section of PMG this morning under ''A successful missionary''. I have had mixed feelings of what has happened before me. I found it interesting that it said that you will be disappointed and saddened, but you will not be disappointed with what you have done as a missionary. I feel like me, Elder Gifford, Elder Pitts, Elder King, You, Everybody that Finn has met with the Church has done our very best. But I found that we can't control his agency. He is the only one that can make that decision. It is one of the saddest things I have witnessed, this is his Salvation.

I have thought a great deal of what has happened. I have wondered ''Is it possible to leave this area better than how me and Elder King Started it? Is it possible to not have everything destroyed on what we all have built up and established in this area? Is it possible to leave now be satisfied, happy and knowing that I did my very best?'' Ironically, this morning for companionship study we read in the White Handbook pg. 59. Saying ''A leader's proselyting area should be a model for other missionaries. They can learn from it and use it as a pattern for their work.'' I kills me to see this happen to my area. I find it interesting that it doesn't say a good model, or a perfect missionary model. But I hope that this can be a model for other missionaries to learn from. The Lord has wanted me to know these feelings that I am feeling now. But my testimony, faith, hope and charity stands true and stronger than it did before I went on a mission. President, I know that through the Savior ALL things are possible, I tried to explain that to Finn. The Spirit testified to me last night that what I was saying was true. I know from the bottom of my soul that this is God's work. We will face disappointments, be upset or even sad. But in short I have learned that the Gospel is here and will bless us as we push forward having that Faith, hope, and Charity in our lives along with all the other Christ like attributes that we studied in the past two months.''

To close off, I would love to share a quote that my mom sent me last week it says "Hold fast to the perfecting promises of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Believe in miracles. I have seen so many of them come when every other indication would say that hope was lost. Hope is never lost. If those miracles do not come soon or fully or seemingly at all, remember the Savior’s own anguished example: if the bitter cup does not pass, drink it and be strong, trusting in happier days ahead."

~ Jeffery R. Holland

No doubt we will all have trying times in our lives. Whether on our missions, or as regular people, members or non members. We all will suffer. But it's through all Savior that we can do all things! Truly! Exmalation Point! The Lord loves us and wants us to learn and grow. One way or another we must never give up! Always have the faith and hope! Some blessings come soon, some come late and some don't come til heaven, but for those who embrace the Gospel of Jesus Christ... they Come. It will be alright in the end. Trust God and look for good things to come''- Elder Jeffery R. Holland (Of Course)

In 3 days it will mark a year since I submitted my paperwork to serve a mission. And I do not and will not REGRET it! this is truly the best thing I have ever done! I have learned so much in these short and fast 6 months and I know that the Lord will have me continue to learn more! I love you all. Gud ved med dig til vi ses igen!

-Love now and Forever

Ældste Jantzen Richard Read

Yes this is the original Christ statue! Awesome!

Mission President goes tracting with Elder Read

Had Zone Training on Tuesday. President came out and said that the time is now! He announced that he has been waiting for this revelation for 1 1/2! He has been waiting and wanting to know when we can be a Disciple of Christ mission. For whatever reason the Lord revealed to him that it is now. We are now that mission! Crazy. He also announced that our goals for the year. This past year we were notified that we had 52 baptisms this past year. President has announced that he wants to double that! 104 baptisms this next year. He said that we won't be able to do it like we did this past year one by one. We need to find Families! He also wants us to spend time finding new investigators. He asked what is the true desires of your hearts? As a zone we set the goal of having 2hours of finding everyday. It has been amazing of what has even happened this past week.

President has told us that after Zone training the Zone has already found 4 families! How Crazy is that!!!!!! We happened to be one of them is what is amazing! We had splits/ a blitz with the Bornholm Elders in our area, Birkerød after Zone Conference. We went to Dominoes for Lunch as a Zone! Dearly missed I would say haah! But we spent a good portion of the Day finding people. We talked with people on Buses trains and on the Streets. I don't think I have given out so many cards and Book of Mormon in my life. We have found many potential investigators that we hope we will be working with in the next couple of weeks. Wednesday Elder Gifford was with Elder Madsen. They went out knocking and found a picture of Jesus, that you can find in a Book of Mormon, in the apartment. They got so excited they knocked on the Door. And they were able to make an appointment for us to teach on Saturday!

The week was kind of long because on Thursday and Friday, all our appointments cancelled or burned on us. So we spent the whole time finding people. We had quarterly interviews with President on Saturday morning (He drove us to the Hillerød apartment because it is bigger) Did all the interviews and President went with us to contact a referral!!!! President told us that he got a referral from his mission president when he was a missionary. It just happened to be in our area. Telling him about a woman that has stayed contact with him and wants to become a member before she passes away from this life. She also has over 25,000 records of people that she wants to be done for temple work!!!!! The only thing that has held her back is her husband. But I think that President wanted to be there because he drove us to the refferal haha. We show up to the refferals home the husband answers the door and he throws up his hands and says not here. Giving us not interested look. President Sederholm did the whole entire door contact. He told him who he was and that he was here to see his wife as requested from his friend. The husband told us that his wife was sick and now is not a good time. President showed his concerns and asked to tell her. He said he would .The door shut on us and President said ''After 30 years he still doesn't seemed interested'' haha. It was fun to kind of go knocking with president haha.

Later that day we visited that African family that had the picture of Jesus in the door. We taught the husband the restoration. He wants to read the Book of Mormon! He has a small issue with baptism, because he was already baptized. Crazy story I need to voice record that! But he told us that he put that picture of Jesus on his wall so that if any one was Christian walked by his door, they would know where to knock. He told us that he was an answer to his prayers. He comes from the country in the middle of South Africa. And he and his wife just got her last December. We look forward to working with him and inviting him to a date shortly. I'll keep you posted haha. But what a wonderful week to work. The transfer is almost over ahhhhhhahahahahahhhhh! Feb. 3 is coming up really fast. Come to think of it that will be 7 months for me. Crazy! I love you all thank you for your love and support. I hope we all can rely on the Saviour in this time in our lives when the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be preached to the Elect right now! ''Let us all Press On in the Work of the Lord'' Love you all! Vi ses om lidt!

-Elder Jantzen Richard Read

GODT NYTÅR!!!! 2014!!!!!

New Years EVE! We had the opportunity to chop wood for a service activity for a member. We didn't think it would take long, but it took a good 4 hours I think. haha. We are still a little sore I think haha. We than went home showered and went back to that members house, the Ringheims! I love this family! Reminds me a lot of my family! Maybe that's because the husband is bald and has a crazy mustache beard thing haha. They have (out of the ordinary for a Danish family) 9 Children! All with funny personalities and similarities with my family! Very home and loving! We spent the night playing games, eating and just having fun! All 6 missionaries were there and Elder Peterson and Gifford where digging deep into ''Mormon Docrine'' By Bruce R. Mckonkie haha. Lots of fun! We watched the queens annual speech on Television at 6. At New Years we gave cheers and watched the family (and some of the Elders ahahah not naming names) blow off fireworks! It was awesome and cool. Brother Ringheim drove us home and we stayed over night in the Hillerød Apartment. The next morning at 9 I made my first batch of res grød and it tasted awesome. Elder Call and Ogden than used that the next day and made res alamond for district meeting. It was awesome.

It has been a good week I feel. Me and Elder Gifford have been working very hard to try to find new investigators. We recently found out that Michael Williams has somehow disappeared. We showed up to an appointment and call him at Sandholm, but we received no answer from him. We have tried calling and texting him several times this week, but it feels like he fell of the face of the Earth. We are going to try to get a hold of him, but for now we realized that we now have no one to work with. I guess this is partially my fault. We didn't focus to much on finding people this past month. Now our teaching pool is getting low to empty. Me and Elder King didn't focus on it to much last month because it was Christmas time. Elder Gifford I guess was kind of warning me about this haha.

But we focused a lot this past week on finding. And it has been positive. We have found many people already that asked us to come back. We have continued doing our cookie referrals with the members. And we have seen many people meet us and were happy that we came by. We are going to continue with that I believe. We have built up our potential pool. And I feel these 2 hours a day of finding will help out as well.

We have had the miracle of finding another family! We went out knocking in Lynge this past week. We figured it has been a while since Lynge has been worked on. We picked an area/ street. On the 2nd or 3rd house we knocked on, we found this family. The mother was the only one home. She said that she was American, so it made it easy to talk with her. We found out that she has family that lives in Arizona that is staying with a member family. She knows a little bit about the Mormons.

To make this a long time of a waited on miracle, ironically she met Elder King and Earl, and Finn Lygaard I believe. At the school where she teaches. Apparently Elder King and Earl gave some sort of presentation about the Church, and amazingly we knocked on her door! She said it was okay to come back when her husband was home. We than went on and continued to knock until the end of the long street and found another potential Family!

But on New Years we were able to meet with the American family, we talked about religion, what their beliefs were, missionaries and their lives, and about the church in general. The wife is a Methodist. We were wondering when we could do a wrap around point and teach them about our message. Finally the husband said ''Okay so what do you share with people?'' Well, we'll tell you! We began teaching some of the points of the gospel, but the Spirit led us to temples and how families can be together forever! As soon as we talked about that, the husbands facial expressions changed. They asked us good questions. At the end, when we had to catch a bus, we asked if it was okay to come back again and teach them more. The wife seemed hesitant, not sure of what her husband would say. He replied ''Yeah I am curious and want to learn more.'' It was amazing that over a couple of months the missionaries/members have had contact, and remarkably me and Elder Gifford were led to the right street in Lynge.

Quick tip for all friends and missionaries. Spend time everyday finding, than you won't be doing it all day because your teaching pool is dead haha. It has been a marvelous week. We are going to keep trying to stay in finding mode. We both feel like it super needed for this area. I have now learned that it is easier to go out contacting/finding on a daily basis, than to wait until you need work and have room in our schedule just for finding only. Lesson learned, but now is the time to find those for our area!

Well love you all and got to get going. Have a good week! love You all!

-Elder Jantzen Richard Read