Thoughts on Preparing for a Mission

Lyndsie Loo,

First I LOVE you and I’m super happy for you!!!!  I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to give you some mission tips.... I’m going to give them to you every week until you leave… A few here and a few there.  These are things that I wish I would have known before the mission. :)

1. Forget everything that you’ve heard about missions.  Missionaries.  Elders.  Sisters. Everything.  The mission is a 100% individual experience and absolutely different for everyone. 

2. You need to prepare well.  Spiritually, emotionally, and physically (as in the things that you need, your suitcase, etc.  The tips I have for you include all areas and I will specify before each tip. Ha. Ha. I like to organize things.... )  Today, I’m going to write about the spiritual preparation:

3. Read the Book of Mormon everyday for at least 15 minutes.  Love it, cherish it, understand it.

4. Pray sincerely (kneeling) every morning and every night. 

5. Take time to be still and feel the spirit.  Pay attention to what you feel.  Write it down in a journal.

5. Go to church every week.

6. Repent daily.  If there’s anything that you need to talk to your bishop about, do it.  And if not, repent in your prayers.  You don’t have to be perfect. You just have to try your best and realize that we are imperfect and need the help of God.  I have to repent and acknowledge my weaknesses everyday before walking out the door, so that I know I’m trying my best and relying on the Savior to make up the rest. 

7. Try your best to understand how you are using the gospel in you life right now, how it is blessing you, how it feels, how it guides you, and it’s basic principles so that you can clearly explain these things to the people that you meet and your investigators.  You don’t have to have a perfect knowledge of everything; just start paying attention to how having the gospel in your life feels and blesses you. 

That is all for now, Lyndsie, my dear!!  I hope I don’t seem too trite; I just want you to know the things that I wish I would have known and done before the mission.  

I LOVE YOU SOOOOOOO MUCH and I want you to be a good missionary and have the best mission experience EVER!!! 

LOVE YOU!!!  MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

-Hermana Hermansen

Lyndsie!

You will LOVE the mission soooo much!!  I just know it. :)  You don’t need to worry about anything.  It’s going to be hard, but as long as you are obedient you will be Oh So Happy!!!! :)  Today, I just have some quotes that my mom has sent me, that perhaps you have already heard, but they are super great and have helped me a lot!! :)

“Many young women are serving missions.  Many are preparing to serve. Not because they aren’t married yet or have anything better to do, but because they have a desire to serve and are therefore called to the work.  The reason so many are going is because in the next generation, Heavenly Father will be sending His priesthood army to the earth and wants to send them to mothers who have been properly trained and taught in the gospel. What better training can a young woman have than a mission?”

                                                                                              -President Gordon B. Hinckley

“In the young women personal progress book, you will find these words: “You are a beloved daughter of Heavenly Father, prepared to come to earth at this particular time for a sacred and glorious purpose.” My dear young sisters, you need to know that you will experience your own adversity.  None is exempt. You will suffer, be tempted, and make mistakes. You will learn for yourself what every heroine has learned: through overcoming challenges come growth and strength.  It is your reaction to adversity, not the adversity itself, that determines how your life’s story will develop.  Sisters, we love you. We pray for you.  Be strong and of good courage. You are truly royal spirit daughters of Almighty God. You are princesses, destined to become Queens. Your own wondrous story has already begun. Your “once upon a time” is now.”
                                                                                                -President Dieter F. Uchtdorf

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

                                                                                                            -Marianne Williamson

“Whenever we feel lost, or insane, or afraid, all we have to do is ask for His help. The help might not come in the form we expected, or even thought we desired, but it will come, and we will recognize it by how we feel. In spite of everything, we will feel at peace.”

                                                                                                           -Marianne Williamson

“Success means we go to sleep at night knowing that our talents and abilities were used in a way that served others.”

                                                                                                            -Marianne Williamson

“We can always choose to perceive things differently. We can focus on what’s wrong in our life, or we can focus on what’s right.”

                                                                                                           -Marianne Williamson

Well, hope these help!!! I love you soooooo much!! Hope you have a great week preparing for the mission!! You will do great!  Enjoy your family these last days and prepare well!!!

LOVE YOU!!!

-Hermana SarAwe :)

P.S.  If you have the chance to watch the long Joseph Smith video from 2005, that would be helpful before you go, if you haven’t already seen it.  If you don’t have time, don’t worry because you might see it in the MTC. :)