What Are You Doing To Prepare?

For some reason I have been asked this question a lot lately. I received my mission call back on December 5^th ( I remember it well) and don’t leave until April 3^rd. I must admit that when I first received my call I was frustrating about where the date fell that I was leaving. I had told my stake president that if I was called to serve in April I would like to leave at the end of the month so I could go another semester at BYU. However, my stake president told me something that I have thought about a lot since getting my call. He talked to me about how there are two facets of being prepared to serve a mission. The first is being worthy and the second is being willing. Within the idea of being willing is not only being willing to go wherever but also being willing to go whenever the Lord needs you to go. It reminded me that I needed to use the time the Lord had given me to prepare to do just that, prepare.

So that’s what I am focusing my post on today. What am I doing to prepare to be a better missionary when I leave two months from now? I have actually come to be very grateful for the time that I have been blessed with to get ready. There are three things that are missionary related (so aside from spending time with family and babysitting to pay off student loans) that I want to address in this particular post. If you are also getting ready to serve and have other suggestions that I am not doing that you are I would love to hear it! Now on to what I’m doing.

First, I am reading Preach my Gospel every day. Right when Christmas Break started I established a schedule for reading to make sure I would finish the whole thing before I leave on my mission. I have been studying a little bit of every day and trying to do a chapter a week. I am just finishing chapter 13 this week and will start studying the discussions. Along with reading the chapters I do the scripture studies and write down talks to read from the quotes in the chapters. I love that I have so much time to really study the manual that I will be using my entire mission. I am trying to become really familiar with the chapters so that when I start studying them in Spanish I won’t be completely lost. I think my favorite chapter to read right now is the one on finding people. I am just so excited to get out and do it. To find my Father in Heaven’s lost sheep; to feed His wandering lambs. It is why I am serving a mission and I am excited to go out and finally do it every hour of every day.

Second, I am studying the scriptures as much as I can. I just finished the Book of Mormon two weeks ago and even though it feels kind of strange I am following the prompting to reread the New Testament. I took the first half of New Testament at BYU last semester and it made me realize (kudos to my professor) that I do not know the New Testament like I should. I do love it though. I can’t wait to come home after my mission I really start my classes focused on that, especially my Greek classes. I have tons of stuff to look forward to and I know that God will be with me every step of the way. It is weird not studying the Book of Mormon as part of my personal scripture study in the morning and the evening. I justify by reasoning that when I study Preach My Gospel I always study the Book of Mormon and ponder scriptures from it. I know its important to understand and be familiar with both. After all the Book of Mormon is a major key in the converting process but most people that I will teach in Panama (who have a Roman Catholic background) will be drawing all their knowledge from the New and Old Testament.

Third, go on splits with the missionaries if you can. I know that its hard for some people. I am currently in a position that I cannot go on splits with sisters because there are no sisters to go on splits with. If you are in the same position as I am might I suggest something else. I talk on Skype every week with another sister that is going o Panama two weeks before me. We have decided that we are going to go through chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel together like we would if we were a companionship. We are even coming up with imaginary investigators so we have someone to tailor lessons to. I think it’s really important that we get used to teaching people, not teaching concepts. I also think it is a really good thing that we are becoming familiar with not only doing things our way and we have the chance to listen to how we would each approach a certain teaching situation.

Those are a few of the many things that I am doing to prepare and I hope this gave you guys some ideas and I you have any suggestions please let me know. I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve a mission and to serve God’s children in Panama. I am so grateful for the time God is giving me to do this; to draw closer to Him and to learn from His Son what it means to be a good missionary. May God bless you all now and until you read again.