145 days left

hey momma, this week has been a rough one. lots of stress. as a distict leader i have to have a coordination meeting with the bishop and tell him all the numbers and trying to keep all the numbers is super hard. haha espesially when the bishop and the ward mission leader are men who work with numbers and i....well, i don't. :) haha and then on top of that i got in an accident (don't worry, im fine and so is every one else that was involved) and have to fill out all this paper work for that and then have the money to fax that to our vehicle coordinator as soon as possible all while still finding people to teach and going to dinners with the members. haha i guess i have a taste of what it would be like a little to be an assistant to the president. :) prolly not even. haha but busy week and not busy week. staying home somtimes and filling out paper work and then going out to have an amazing lesson with some of our youth.

 

so needless to say i have been sitting on pins and needles. i don't have much else to write. :( sorry. and i don't have my camera with me. so no pictures today.

 

 "do or show them a talent in order to eat our dinner. :) haha so i am thinking of telling them about the video on youtube of me dancing at disneyland. hopfully i can pass with that".  so...what did you do for your talent?  Could you not show them in person some dancing??? 

haha no hwayyyy!!!! i wouldn't show anyone my real dancing. you just look silly dancing by yourself and as missionaries you're not allowed to dance. so i just had to boogy in my nose. ;) hahahahaha no but i just told them about me dancing at disney land and they watched it and they were like "i will not look at you the same now!" haha in a good way i guess. but anyway yeah.

Best thing that happened to you this week?  worst?  

best thing that happened to me this week was that we got all the paperwork done and sent/given to the bishop for that ward coordination. haha the thing is is that it will happen every month. so i guess i have to get used to it. haha worst was getting in that accident and not being able to get milk until a few days later. :( haha

 

well thats it for now. talk to ya next week!

 

love

 

Elder Jens Smith

151 days left

hey. this week's been good. it went by super fast again. i don't know if i like that. i have been thinking about it and how i only have a couple months left and how if i keep thinking about it like i am it's going to be so super slow. but i know that if i immerse myself in the Lords work then it will fly by and i won't even notice the time. 

so yeah haha elder aiasao started teaching us the Haka and then he says...ok elder smith, you ready to lead it? and i was like heck no!! so he convinced me to do it any way. haha totally reminded me of dancing and how you are always remembering choreography. man i miss that. :) we are going over to a families house today where we have to do or show them a talent in order to eat our dinner. :) haha so i am thinking of telling them about the video on youtube of me dancing at disneyland. hopfully i can pass with that.

 

anyway the work is going well. i am back in a ward and is super weird to have old people to teach and eat at their houses. haha not super excited to be in a singles ward when i go back. :) haha maybe it will be different. we are teaching a man from the congo and he is going to be baptized on march 9th. he is doing really well. we are also having a lot of partmembers to work with cause it is a family ward and not a YSA ward/branch. :) haha anyways thats  about it for me. heres your answers to your questions.

i love you all and can't wait till next week! oh and yeah i have heard of the poem that steven read. i have it in my binder. it is a great one to look at for the Atonement. also the book called believing Christ.

 

love

 

Elder Jens Smith

 

We were wondering why in doing a haka...why your companion is in the background and you're the leader?  You look so tall.  You did it sooo good.  Want to elaborate a bit more?  

yeah so like i said elder aiasao started with it and then later told me that i was leading it. so the young mens pres. is Polynesian  and he said that we should teach the haka to the young men and then they could perform it at the stake young men and women talent show in davenport. so we did so and then we had lava lava's made for us and then yes i did get your package and you gave me that red tie which went perfect with the lava lava. i wore red cause i was the leader. so perfect timing!!! and i did wear it on valentines day. :)

 

Tell me a funny story.  

ok so elder aiasao and i were talking to the sisters about taking some investigators to a valentine dance and one sister said " well we all know missionaries aren't allowed to dance" and then elder aiasao says "oh man but i wanted to get my boogy on!" silence and then she says..."well you can just boogy in your nose!" LOLOLOLOLOL it was super funny! i had not laughed that hard in months!!!!! it was so good to laugh like that. we have laughed like that a couple times now. so good. :) and then we were talking and then the topic of dancing came up again and then the sister said, yeah just stick your finger up there and boogey in your nose." :) super funny!

Christian can't hold babies...can you? why or why not?  

nope. its in our white handbook and it says to not hold babies for legal reasons and for safety reasons. the book is made mainly for the safety of the missionarys and because of some things that have happened to missionaries in the past that they don't want to have happen in the future. so its pretty smart for that reason.

any package yet?  

yep i got your package! i loved it! 

How are you feeling?  sick lately?   

no not sick lately. just super sore. we had an awesome pday yesterday where we went to this pizza store. bought 2 five square foot pizzas, played some hard core basketball and then some vollyball! i am so sore! i have never been this sore before. its prolly cause of me playing every morning in iowa city and then getting transfered and not playing for 2 weeks straight.  

Scary stories? 

mmmm nope. i don't think i have any scary stories that i have had on the mish.

day 153 Special Treat (thanks Judy!!!)

A little treat from Judy where Jensen is...He's in the front.  So grateful for our little "in" with Judy.  I love this!!  These are the young men (I wonder if any of her boys are participating?) and missionaries participating in the talent show in the Rock Island Ward.  

159 days left Transfer Week

hey momma, since i don't have any mail (proof of address) for my new address i don't have a library card so i only have a limited amount of time! i loved the posts 

Jens transferred to the quad cities in Iowa/Illinois for probably his final transfer of his mission. Davenport, Moline, Bettendorf, Rock Island (& Milan). Just happened to land in the ward of Brian Smith's (dad's) cousin Judy Gardner Henderson. Small world!  (posted by Brian on fb)

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• Danielle Jolene Smith, Randall Mildenhall, Rebecca Russell and 18 otherslike this.
• 

  Heather Davies Awesomeness!!!

  20 hours ago via mobile · Like
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  Melissa Holden Wow! Hard to believe he will soon return home! 

  20 hours ago via mobile · Like
• 

  April Cline Morgan We miss Elder Smith in Iowa City! He's a good elder!

  20 hours ago · Like
• 

  Malena Kay We look forward to seeing him at Stake Conference!

  19 hours ago · Like
• 

  Thomas Copeland We just got a text from Judy about this.. Evelyn was very pleased. 

  19 hours ago · Like
• 

  Sheryl Mildenhall Mills That is too cool!!

and yeah she came right up to me and was hi im your cousin or something like hi your dad is my cousin. brian and i was like shocked that she said that and then she said that evelyn was her mom. hahaha super weird! any ways just know that i love you and am in good hands. i will answer your questions but thats it. sorry. :(

So...since we know you transferred...we're guessing you're in milan?  what's your companion's name?  Are you with Elder Keller? thought he might be over there too?  Where's he from? How long's he been out?  

nope im not with elder keller. i don't know where he is but i am in moline. the east side of it. and my companions name is elder niko aiasao pronounced i-a-sao and he is a big huge 300 pound samoan! hahaha and he is awesome!!!!! haha i love him already! first a gilbertiese and now a samoan. he is from san fransisco. huge 49ers fan and he has been out for just under a year. like he hits a year on the 15th.

What was your reaction to being in another state? same mission different state...weird huh?  

yeah it was weird. super windy here.   

we've already been researching your area...it seems to be so beautiful...do you have another school area?  

nope. just a family ward. :)

Where/when was your scariest moment on your mission? (it's ok...you won't scare me)  

mmmm....let me think on that and i'll get back to you next week eh?

love you mucho! until next time. 

love 

Elder Jens Smith

166 days left

hey this week has been a slow one again. haha i feel like it's the same every week now. it's terrible but elders hinmans headaches are really slowing down the work. we have to stay home for a good while now and the doctors told him to lock himself in a room without light and just sit there till his headaches go away and he still says that they aren't going away. so i don't know what to do. 

we found out that we are both transferring out of iowa city and president Jergensen is putting sisters there. prolly for the best because of all the scantily clad women walking around in the summer and stuff like that. anyway so yeah we are both getting out of here. im excited to stay district leader and transfer. i have no idea where im going to go though. people always say where do you think you could go and i just reply, i have no idea. somewhere in iowa. :) haha no but i don't have any clues as to where im going. 

i have been working on my basketball skills each morning and i do have to say they have improved mucho since the time i played with friends and things like that. im excited. :) haha

not much else to report on. sorry. i definitely will next week though! i love you all. 

love

Elder Jens Smith

what is the best thing this week?  

best thing this week is that we are able to clean our apartment super clean while elder hinman sleeps and gets rid of his head aches. 

when was the last time you got to play soccer?  

last time i got to play soccer was prolly a week and a half ago. i wanna play more. we most likely will either tomorrow or wednesday morning. 

Did you work during the superbowl?  Did you go to someone's house to watch it?  Was it hard to find appointments during the superbowl?    

so we didn't really do anything for the superbowl. everyone knew about it. but no asked us to come over, or to have dinner with them to watch it. but the nice thing was is that we were able to have dinner with the 2nd ward elders and their members who they had dinner with. it was super good. and i got to watch myself dance. practically everyone knows i dance. word gets around when there's a ballroom dancer here on a mission and so they ask me and i say yeah i am a national champion and then they say "are you famous?" and then i say no im just on youtube and they ask if they can watch it and every time i just laugh at how fat i am now compared to then. :) hahahahaha

Tell me your jacket size?  

mmm no idea. but its the pants that i need mainly. there are a lot of stores out here with suits that i can get for very cheap. so if you could just put money on and i can fit them myself and not have to worry about if they don't fit. but yeah we can get a not so good one now and then when i get home get a better one. 

How fat are you now?  (ty's question)   

hahahaha not too fat. im sittin at about 195 area. i have stayed in that area for the last 7 1/2 months. so ty be ready to go running with me when i get home!!!! 

How are you taking to being a leader.  Do you feel like you're becoming a complete leader? 

i love it. i love the pressure cause it keeps me on my toes and keeps me focused on what i have to do and keeps making me want and do better!