4 days left

JENSEN'S HOMECOMING WILL BE JULY 28 @ 9AM 

570 WEST 1402 SOUTH PROVO

welp, i guess this is it...i don't think this day would have ever come! haha it just kept getting put off and now finally it's here sneaking it's way down into my brain! i honestly wish i could stay here because the area is really starting to grow and flourish with investigators and the members are just so dang awesome!!!  i will defenitley be coming back here when i go back and visit iowa. i also know that i need to get on with my life and i am super excited to come back to all the friends who aren't on missions...and who aren't yet married and hang out and play soccer and dance...i miss dancing so much. i have to be honest. i have been wanting to dance for some time now. everyone and their dog knows that i dance...not that i played soccer in college but that i am a national champion. some how they know that. and it has spread like wild fire in the ward here!!!! 

anyways this week will be dedicated to packing and taking lots of pictures. they want you to take these next few days and pack. make sure that you get every thing taken care of and stuff like that and it doesn't help that we are both getting shipped out of ankeny. super lame. elder berthold was only here for 6 weeks! he is super bummed too. 

i love you all and as i sign off for my final email i just want to say thanks for tuning in on the spirit filled emails from my missionary experiences!!!!

love

Elder Jensen Andrew Smith

i forgot to ask last time...did you do anything to celebrate the 4th of july?  

we just went to a families for dinner and then went home. we had to be in by 10 but the fireworks didn't start until ten or ten thirty. lame but oh well. 

favorite food this week?  

mmmm...prolly huhot!!

any last words of advice to future missionaries? 

learn from chapter 3 in Preach My Gospel!!!!!!!!!!!! memorize the order in each lesson and read and study from each lesson and then also go to chapter 6 and study that whole chapter!!!!  

What are some of your plans being your last week?   

take lots of pictures and pack...haha pretty lame. 

11 days left

Well we have been fairly busy this last week. lots of reevaluating the less active we want to work on getting to church and stuff...we don't have very many investigators who are progressing but we are working on getting more for the next elder to come in and have something to work with when i leave so i don't squeeze the area dry of investigators. we are also trying to use the members a lot more since the work of salvation was broadcast throughout the church. i hope that we can as a family be reading and studying Preach My Gospel and the Scriptures. man so i heard that they are having a temple run on the 24th from the city center temple to the Provo temple. 5 k run. kinda like a fun run. i think that would be super fun to do so if you could look that up for me so i can do it that would be super awesome and anyone who wants to run...this is for ANYONE... not just my familia who wants to join totally should!!! 

so i don't have much time left but i only have one more p-day left next monday and then i'll be coming home that thursday! (friday actually) i can't believe that i come home that soon! we are going to the temple tomorrow and will spend all day there and will be sleeping over at the AP's house with elder herrin and then will come home wednesday morning. 

i love you all and can't wait!!!! 

love

Elder Jens Smith

questions

what are you going to do for pday?  

well we just got done playing soccer with some boys and it was awesome!!! i miss it sooooooo much!!! i can't wait!!! 

Favorite thing this past week?  

this past week...was zone conference. so awesome and i got a girls number from a member in ames that she wanted me to contact when i got home...funny. haha 

What did/do you love about your new president?  

...they have my name...    :) haha no i do like them cause he is very bold and straight to the point and he has just started running with the same pace that president Jergensen was running at with the mission. 

How did your last "testimony" meeting with the mission president go?   

it went well. just a simple short powerful testimony is what is needed. i will have my "final" interview the thursday night of the 18th. 

18 days left

haha yeah this week was good. lots of visiting members. it takes a while to have everyone on board with what the missionaries are wanting to do. as well as visiting them and having a time work for us to go visit with them and give them a message. 

well i do have to say that i have been having dreams about playing soccer and i can tell you that i am so excited to come back a get back into shape. i know i only have 18 days left but i can't let it get to me and frankly it hasn't been a big problem on my mind. prolly cause it hasn't hit me yet that i go home in just a few short weeks. can't believe it. anyway...

i can't believe that brandon will be with the LA Clippers!!! thats sick!!!! 

actually i have met mark. he was there with sheryl at my setting apart. i got to meet him then but only briefly cause of the confusion of going on a mission and the mind set i was in at that time. haha i apologize for that and hope i can be some what of a better nephew when i get home. ;) haha but are they staying in our house while i'll be there? cause if so i can always sleep outside while they are there. build my self a cake or somesing. or a fire and sleep on a cot in a tent in the patio. that'd be sweet. :) 

well thats about it for me! i love you so much!

love 

Elder Smith

questions:

did you get to watch the worldwide missionary conference? last sunday? june 22?  

yeah i did. they required all the missionaries in the world or they said that it was really important that we be there. so we watched it and it was awesome!!! the way we are moving right along with the world in using our resources and using them for good in the world unlike the world using them for filth and terrible things but i am happy that the bretheren are able to relate to the youth today because that is truly where our future lies right now. that is why the age for missionaries have been lowered and the hastening/sped up process of the work of salvation. i know what was said there was inspired and was pondered and thought out very carefully. 

best thing this week?  

best thing this week was probably being able to pray for our mission president and getting the same feeling i got when i usually prayed for our mission president and i know that we will just take off running!!! im so excited for our zone conference tomorrow. i will be giving my going home testimony tomorrow as well. 

pday stuff today? 

we will be playing soccer again!!!!!! WOOHOO it'll be with some 13 year olds but still it's soccer! they play for the nation wide team the rush. i think we used to play them back home as well. 

how is your new president?  president jensen?  did you kinda smile at that?  

haha i did when you commented on it. silly momma. :) haha we haven't met him yet. we will tomorrow. 

25 days left

hey, this week was ok. we had a young lady who is friends with some members in the laurals group and they invited her to learn and so we had a first lesson and it was the most spiritual lesson of my mission. it was amazing! we were all crying and laughing too and it was just awesome!! and then we had the second lesson which  she learned about how God loves us and how He has shown that love through the Plan of Salvation! haha it was just as powerful and spiritual! so we fasted for her and her parents yesterday, that her parents will be accepting and that she will have confidence in telling her parents. so we are getting ready to break our fast and eat right before the work of salvation we get a text from one of the girls that invited her saying that she wants to hold off on the lessons for now. she now knows who God is and is very thankful for us in helping her to see that but she doesn't see religion in her life in the future. 

can i just say.............AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SATAN IS GARBAGE!!!!!!!!!!!!  

thats me venting to you. :`(  

Well people still have their agency.

Thats about it for me here! 

well i love you so much!!!

love, 

Elder Smith

questions:

how is that 14 yo boy?  Progressing?  

no not anymore. he had to go to school and he lives there. i don't know the details. thats just what he said. 

you mentioned in your last letter that you prayed to find someone or have someone find you...don't you always pray for that?  

yeah but this time it just seemed like we had been saying it and so we said it with some meaning and he found us. 

do you know who your new mission president will be?   

yeah his name is President and Sister Jensen. they will be here on friday! crazy!

are you trying to get to the temple one last time?   

no i can't since im more than three hours away. i will go with the group that i came out with and the sisters who will be going home and that will be on the 9th of july. so i can just wait. :)

what're you doing for pday today?   

well prolly nothing really. we just had a huge rain storm hit us as we were here in the library. it shut down the library for a few mins. kinda scary watching the rain try and break through the windows and get in here. 

have you noticed any tender mercies lately?  I love those.  I have had sooo many but I forget about them. I should write them down.  

well a tender mercy could be that young lady and us teaching her and feeling the spirit so strongly. ha but we'll just keep it at that. :) another one is that we were able to send out a mass text saying hey it's the missionaries, could we come by some time and share a message with you. and a lot of people responded! so we have lots of appointments this week. 

32 days left

wow so many crazy things happening!!!! your in hawaii, robbie's going on a mission, christian with some poopies, amanda fordham is having a baby, becca got in an accident. all so fast!!! can't wait to see what happens when i get home!!! haha no its good but yeah i miss soccer so much! and dancing!

well this week has just flown by!!! seems like just yesterday we were getting the car last sunday and now we gave it back yesterday!!! so crazy how fast time flies when you know you have a dead line. anyways...we did a lot better this week! well at least the Lord did. :) so i think it was tuesday that we went out and worked and before we prayed that we can find those who are prepared and that those who are prepared will be able to find us and so we go out to the car and this 14 year old boy runs up to us and starts talking about how he used to be taught by the missionaries and how he liked going to church and listening to what the elders had to say. so that was totally a tender mercy from the Lord. next was that we were totally lied to by this guy. haha so there is a less active girl who is 19 and started working at subway and we found her a couple weeks ago and so we started talking to her and how she came to find the church and stuff...and then we got on the subject of how there are no coincedences in this life and that God has his hand in everyones lives and so she totally believes that but she is just this 19 year old girl who is hooked with this non member guy who has 4 kids and is 32. so we tried to visit her fiance and he totally lied to us. straight up, he said that he was a roommate that was living with these people and i was like in my mind, thats such a lie first because he had to thing about his name that he was going to tell us and second we went back to subway where this less active was working at and asked her to show us a picture of her fiance and it was totally him. haha pretty funny though. :) 

well thats about it for me!!! love you so much

love 

Elder SMith

questions:

how do you like your companion?  do you miss elder blackburn?...do you know where he ended up?   what's great about elder berthold? 

i love elder berthold! haha it is sooo awesome being with him!! haha i totally know he got put with me to help me stay on track and help me finish strong to the end. :) yeah elder blackburn and elder berthold are on the complete opposite sides of the spectrum. elder blackburn is very quite and shy and elder berthold is very loud and out going and loves to talk so it's great!!! haha super fun. elder blackburn went to fort dodge!!!! :)

anything you'd like from hawaii?   

anything you can get me!!!! 

38 days left service adventure

haha we were just helping a non member and a member build a deck and a ramp to the deck cause the non member is getting older so he wanted to make it easier on themselves and we had to dig some huge holes and a funny story that i'll tell on monday .... this little girl had on a mask and walked right into one of the holes!!!! lol soooo super funny! so i was watching her walk and she was looking at us and she kept walking and then lifted her foot and it didn't touch the ground but went right into the hole so her whole body went into the hole which is about 4 feet tall and so i was like OH CRAP!!!!! so i rush to her and i see her laughing and so i pull her out and we start kinda poking fun about her falling into the hole so i got in there so that she would after i did so her parents could take pics of her and remember her falling into a hole. she is 6 years old so that gives you about how tall she is. pretty funny. :) thats the story to the pic.

(Every week they get "mormon.org" time in addition to their emailing time)  Elder Smith quickly sent this to me.  This is their service helping someone build a ramp/deck for 7 hours.  He said he got sunburned .

39 days left

this week for us was super hectic at the end of it cause we again had mini missionaries and they came the day the new elder came to ankeny. also that day, (thursday) we were able to help a less active guy take care of his yard and do some other service for him and his wife who isn't a member. they have two sons one is 5 and one is 7 i think. the 7 year old has low functioning autism and is such a fun kid. he is very sweet and their 5 year old is just a rambunctious 5 year old. he wanted to show us every movie that he had made on his dads iphone and is was way fun to be there. they made us some burgers and had some chips and just talked about the church and it wasn't really in a threatening way! so awesome we were able to do that. we are going to try to get a lesson with the two of them at the church tomorrow.

so the mini missionaries were way cool! we saw and met them thursday night, got them fridaymorning and took off from there! our meal coordinator was just on fire with setting up meals for every set of elders with their mini missionaries. soooo fun! i wish they did that sort of thing for us in utah. they think that utah is chalk full of converted mormons who know all about missions and things like that but let me tell you i am living experience that it is not always true. :) haha i think ty would like to do that as well. it would be good for him too. the guys that we got were way cool and so they all thought that we were nerds so as we got to know each other and started teaching they finally started warming up to us and realized that it's a wee bit harder than they would have thought it would have been. this was their first time going on a mini mission so it was cool to be their first impression on this called to serve program thing.

so with this scottish boy...he doesn't have a place like at all? like he is homeless? im a bit confused as to why you didn't just say that he should stay there! maybe we could adopt him!!! haha no i don't know the situation but  it would be kinda funny. kinda like the blind side but without the pro football part.

i got my trunky papers on friday!!!!! haha thats just my travel itenerary which is sooo super weird.

any ways thats about it for me.

well thats it for me here!!! i love you all and can't wait to hear back from you guys!!!

love

Elder smith

questions:

new companion's name..where from...how long out?  

my new comps name is elder Berthold. he is from kaysville Utah and he has been out for about 19 months now. he will get home when elder smith the younger gets home in october. he's a pretty awesome elder!!! really excited for the work. which makes me even more excited about it! 

did you go around and say bye to all the members for elder blackburn?  

sorta, he wasn't really that attached to a lot of the families but we did say goodbye to some families that he wanted to say goodbye to . wrote some thank you cards for them and we went to their houses and talked to them and took pics and said goodbye. 

how long does President Jorgensen have left on his mission?   

the Jergensens have i think only a couple weeks now. i think he goes home at the end of june so i'll have only like 2 weeks with the new mission president. kinda weird.