Mission Life Hacks

The first thing I did once I had my mission call was email all the missionaries I know and talk to all the wonderful returned missionaries in my life. I asked for any advice, tips, lists, just about anything and everything they could give me. Of course, each missionary had their own experiences and fun tid bits to share, but they all pretty much focused on the same three things:

1) Love the people
2) Love your companion
3) Be obedient

You will see those sprinkled throughout the small bits I took from each of their emails (shared below), but if you only you were there for the face to face conversations. These three things permeated through them all and each of one of the returned missionaries radiated love and gratitude for their personal experiences on their mission. I hope to one day feel the same way all these missionaries feel.

Only 19 more days!

xoxo,
Lyds

"Advice in the MTC (missionary training center): organize your Book of Mormon in a way that you can teach the lessons. I will send photos next week of how I did mine through lessons and it really helps! Start reading Preach My Gospel and memorize on the last pages of each chapter the checklist of the most important points of each lesson! It will really help you if you know lesson 1, the restoration! Be paciente, be diligente, be obediente, and see the milagros!!! " -Hermana Kinard

"1. Learn English as best as you can before you leave, don't worry about Spanish, the gift of tongues works, but the best you are at your core language the easier learning a second will be

2. Forget English when you get into the field. When you arrive you will no longer be American, you want the people to think you are as native as possible before you leave your mission, you only have a limited time, and when you leave it is much harder than you think, especially if you pour your heart and soul into becoming native. It was harder leaving the Marshall Islands than I ever thought possible, and I was only there for a year.

3. "Go and Do" as well as let the Spirit direct, there is nothing a Mission President or the Lord loves more than a missionary who is willing to go and do in all instances with the faith that it will work out and works hard. I've seen it and know its true!" -Elder Tonini

"Words of wisdom.. there's lots of people here who don't follow that commandment so awkward. Haha just joking. I'd say its been easiest to just send out the email every week myself? My momma is a busy momma and I love her, so I've just taken care of it. Its really not too bad. I just start a new email chain every transfer so that if people want me to add them, they can get the past 6 weeks at least. And I have people email me all the time wanting me to add them. It works out great :)" -Jessica Seamen

"Top 3 words of wisdom... how about sentences?;) LOVE..the people, your ward, the work, your comp(and it'll be hard sometimes). second..don't worry. worry is fear and fear is the opposite of faith. trust God, trust he has a plan, and trust that he guides the work. theres a lot of things to worry about on a mission, but just do your best, that's all the Lord asks. third..ENJOY. the mission is so fun, exciting, and every day is an adventure. look at the bright side when things are hard and savor the moments that are sweet."  -Sister Perry 

"Top 3 words: TRUST THE LORD. All anyone needs to be a successful missionary is a humble, prayerful

heart and complete trust in the Lord." -Sister Wallis 

"Be humble, be ready to learn, study the Atonement every day, and just be happy!"  -Elder Dahl

"I think one of the biggest things I've learned is how important it is to BE YOURSELF. The Lord called YOU, and prepared people that only YOU can touch and are just for YOU. So don't fall into the cookie-cutter robot type missionary. Of course, you have to be dignified and be obedient, and can't do everything that you would do if you weren't a missionary, but don't loose your personality in this work. Just have fun! Love your studies! Seriously the morning schedule is the best part of he day. I LOVE my studies and I wish I had that love for the scriptures and studies before my mission. Seriously, you receive so much revelation and learn so much.LOVE the people. Love everyone. Love the Lord, love your companion, love the ward, love the people and love the area. Just love your

mission! Once you have that charity towards everyone, it makes your mission so much greater and you'll have so much joy. But seriously t's so important to love your companion. The Lord will give you companions for a specific reason. Living and being with someone 24/7 is hard, especially when they're so different from you. But if you're

unified as a companionship, it makes all the difference. I've had a couple hard companions but as I look back I realized how much I needed them at that specific time. I knew the Lord knew me and knew what I needed. The work goes more smooth and life is just greater as you love you companion and are unified. Okay so some random advice: Post it notes will be your best friend. Take pictures of your friends and family because it's so nice to have when you feel a little sad and homesick. Also have people write you letters of encouragement and such

before you leave so you can have them from the very beginning.my mom did this for me and it helps me so much when I'm having a rough day." -Sister Sandy

"1.Start studying spanish now!!!!! more than ever all the work you put in now will help. 2. you need to start the Book of Mormon over again and have your mission in mind, it will calm your fears. 3. Get yourself mentally ready. it will kick your butt but will shape you into the woman you need to become!" -Elder Leavitt

"My advice... Be Worthy! If there is anything take care of it before the mission. I have seen too many people leave the mission for not being worthy when they got here. Take care of everything. Knowing Preach My Gospel top to bottom isn't super important you don't even have to know the bom top to bottom but the most important thing is being worthy because if youre worthy you can have the spirit with you!" -Hermana Sinks

"My top 3 words of advice are things that you're already good at. Smile. Positivity. Work. You got this sista!" -Elder Black

"OKAY, words of wisdom for someone serving or about to serve a mission: Be obedient, love the people, and you will be just fine. I know, super simple but so true." -Hermana Iverson

"If I were to give you any words of advice, it would be love the people. The mission can get stressful at times

because of pressure from leaders to find people to teach and to baptize, and sometimes the pressure makes you forget that really you're there to serve and to love the people.  Just really try to serve and love the people of Paraguay like Christ would." -Elder Rich

"My biggest advice would be to Love the People. Leave everything behind and just focus on loving the people when you put on that name tag. It's so worth it. There is so much joy in being out on the mission. Second, being a successful missionary isn't about the numbers, or how much the missionary knows, or anything like that. A successful missionary is obedient, does everything they can with faith that the Lord will keep his promises and do the rest, and loves the people! Third, be confident!! No one can do this work on their own, none of us is good enough for that. But you've been called as a missionary, so you are exactly who the Lord needs, in your mission, the whole time you are there. Sometimes missionaries get down about how they aren't good enough or smart enough or whatever. Don't do that!! You are exactly who the Lord needs to talk to the people you will talk to, and to serve where you will serve. Trust in the Lord and be confident!!" -Sister Day

"1) Just have fun and dont worry. It is the hardest thing to do, but honestly the Lord takes care of EVERYTHING on your mission. The language will come. Your family will be fine no matter what and ultimately you are going to grow so much! Ive changed so much on my mission and now Im out here learing Chinese. hahahah Im the whitest person ever out here speaking chinese. If I can do it anyone can! 2) Don't compare yourself to other missionaries: The lord has you assigned to your specific reason... But in addition to that you are assigned to have a different mission than everyone else. You will have different experiences, different trials, but all of them are the Lord shaping you to be a better person. For example, in Taiwan Taipei Mission some people baptize a lot... some baptize barely any. Its just the Lord wanting to teach different people different things. 3) Be yourself: Just because you are a missionary doesn't mean you have to change who you are. Yes you might have to because more worthy on some aspects, BUT the Lord called you to your specific mission because you are the one needed there. YOUR PERSONALITY. Not some other missionary personality. Be yourself homies :)"  -Elder Reintjes

"Advice: 1.  Learn the 5 missionary lessons of Preach my Gospel (chapter 3)  Get to know the main points of each lesson. 2.  Love EVERYONE.  If you dont love the people, you cant help them.  This will be easy for you.

3.  Study the scriptures EVERYDAY.  Satan works very hard on pre missionaries.  You need the spiritual sheild that the scriptures give." -Elder Stevenson

"Be diligent! Be Consecrated give all you can to the lord. Fear God more than man. Remember your purpose and don't fear to follow it! But most importantly: love. Love the people with all your heart. love your companion and the culture and the work and the savior,  love every single minute! This is the best time of your life so live it up! It goes by so fast! There is just nothing better :)" -Hermana Cragun

"It's going to be hard. Really hard. You will cry happy tears and sad tears. Your heart will break and pieces will be given to everyone you talk to. You will feel a love you didn't know existed, for the woman you see crossing the street, the man walking alone with his head down, and the child who smiles at you like you are an angel. Vale la pena.All of it. Every seed you plant, every convert in white, every person you have to drop. It's all worth it. It'll be the hardest and best and scariest and most wonderful time of your life.Never, never, never give up." -Hermana Underly 

"3 words of wisdom? Be like Him." -Elder Haskell

"Okay 3 tidbits of wisdom: 1. Learn to love the people. Pray for charity, patience, and eyes to see. Throughout your mission, you'll more than likely meet drug addicts, gangsters, and just downright unsavory people. However, if you're filled with charity, you'll have the courage and desire to sift through the tares. 2. Read the Book of Mormon DAILY. At the beginning of my mission, I focused my studies on the Bible, trying to connect the doctrines in there with restored truths. But when I began to incorporate the Book of Mormon into my studies, not only did my studies of the Bible improve, but also my studies of conference talks, and other Church produced materials.

3. Explore Church doctrine. We have a tendency to regard the quad to be the ultimate authority on Church doctrine, but what sets us apart from other Churches in the world is our understanding of continuing revelation. Scripture continues to flow through the living prophets and Apostles in this dispensation, as well as personally into our own life. Tools such as Preach My Gospel, The Ensign, and Missionary Library heighten our understanding of this continuing revelation." -Elder Vergara 

"You have two names on your name tag, represent them both." -Elder Callahan

"If you don't have crazy adventures, it's because you're not putting yourself out there enough or having enough fun. Everyone seems to forget that a mission isn't supposed to be some dreary torturous death march for 2 years, but a joyful (yet partly stressfull) sacrifice we are making to our Lord. Whenever I feel down on myself, my favorite thing to think is, "My
testimony has the chance to change someone's life for ETERNITY!" And then I think, "what am I willing to do that?" And it's as simple as "ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING!" When in doubt, just testify. When you feel tired or sick, you'll feel better if you do missionary work. The Lord takes care of his servants. SO LET HIM take care of the servants that actually SERVE. Therefore, the best cure to a tired and depressed missionary is to get him/her
serving and doing the fun things of missionary work, like testifying and teaching and changing lives."-Elder Grossman

"Overall though, just don´t stress too much (impossible, lolz) and get excited to head over here! The mission is a SUPER unique experience and you will learn a freaking lot. Even if it is pretty dang hard sometimes (cause of comps, the weather, your own weaknesses, etc.) But in terms of preparation, just spend time with your family and friends and keep doing the basics (prayer, scripture study, etc). AND watch all of the movies you want to see before you leave haha. But seriously, don´t stress out too much about mission prep. Because it´s not just these few months that will prepare you for Paraguay and the mission - it´s been YOUR WHOLE LIFE that´s prepared you to serve. And that includes even before this life #premortalexistence" -Hermana Ross

"Just do the right thing and focus on the work!!! But make good friends with the other missionaries too. I have met my best friends in the world out here. I'm so grateful for that." -Sister Zitting

P.S. If you read through all of this and have advice please leave a comment! I would love to read it all.