Part 1

Dear missionaries brave and true,
Difficult, hard, the work you do.
You volunteer your life to give,
To teaching truth that souls might live.

The world may laugh and mock and scorn
At this, the work, for which you’re born.
But Heaven smiles upon your face
As you spread Christ’s pure love and grace.

Names may be called, and scorn be hurled,
Rejection bounds throughout the world.
But do not let despair take hold,
For you are part of plans untold.

You will plant seeds that seem so small,
Yet in God’s time, they rise up tall.
Oft time labors bloom beyond sight,
And harvests reap into the night.

When doors are shut with undue force.
And mocking words begin to course.
I long to write each one of you
To lift you up and help you through.

Please hear my words, dear faithful friend,
A message from my heart I send.
A letter to you valiant souls
Missionaries of Christ’s true fold.

Part 2

Here’s a story to cheer you up,
About a woman, not made up.
Life taught her that the Church was wrong,
She heard it preached her whole life long.

She recollected TVs a glow,
Commercials spoke of love to know.
“Families eternal,” they would sing,
A joyful, warm, comforting thing.

Yet parents sneered, “It’s all a lie,”
They called it evil in disguise.
Doors would crash, yet grace you would show,
She was watching and felt faith grow.

From tiny seeds in childhood sown,
God’s perfect plan is softly grown.
And in her heart, a seed took root,
A feeling she could not refute.

At college, Sisters knocked one day,
Busy still, she turned them away.
The door that slammed was cold and grim,
Yet was God’s will, a gift from Him.

That day you thought your work was vain,
A heart was turned from secret pain.
That day you left without success,
A soul drew closer, nonetheless.

Conversion can take a long time.
And patience brings blessings sublime.
In her story, more years went by
Before more Elders came to try.

And this time was the golden one
To Jesus her heart finally won.
For when she saw the steadfast light,
She knew the gospel plan was right.

No longer could ignore the prompt
Was baptized in a humble font.
The Savior, you helped her acquaint.
Now wife and mother, faithful Saint.

Part 3

So, when you feel you’ve lost your way,
Remember why you serve today.
A simple smile, a patient stand,
Can be the touch of Heaven’s hand.

Lift up your head. Though hearts may ache,
Most NOs are for another’s sake.
That you endure is proof divine,
Despite rejection you will shine.

When folks turn from the Savior’s plea,
It’s not your worth they fail to see.
You walk the path the Savior trod,
A willing servant of our God.

Though doors may slam and tempers flare,
The Lord still hears your every prayer.
For even if your voice seems drowned,
Your message sticks. Truth will resound.

Unknown to you, your seeds take flight,
They’re blessing lives without your sight.
You’re working miracles untold,
The shepherds guiding to the fold.

And though you may not see it yet,
Your sacrifice, God won’t forget.
And when your mission days are through,
You’ll see what Heaven saw in you.

You’re tools of God in errand true,
Great things bloom forth from what you do.
God gave you purpose and trusts your hand,
To build His kingdom, vast and grand.

To every soul who served with might,
Remember you’re a beacon bright.
Your sacrifice, though veiled from view,
Brings home lost sheep. God works through you.

To Elders, Sisters, called in grace,
You’re cherished in each time and place.
The Lord’s message for you to hear:
Know He’s in charge. Go forth with cheer!

The post A Poem to Discouraged Missionaries appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

Lay hold upon every good thing,
A child of Christ I will be.
Lay hold upon every good thing,
As I show strong faith Lord in thee.

Lay hold upon every good thing,
When the word of the Lord I heard.
Lay hold upon every good thing,
Follow the Lord, my Good Shepherd.

Lay hold upon every good thing,
By denying things ungodly.
Lay hold upon every good thing,
Born of Christ, fruit of the good tree.

Lay hold upon every good thing,
Through tribulation, toil, and strife.
Lay hold upon every good thing,
The source? Picked from the tree of life.

Lay hold upon every good thing,
In spite of Satan’s temptation.
Lay hold upon every good thing,
That I might gain exaltation.

Lay hold upon every good thing,
As hope in Christ, I exercise.
Lay hold upon every good thing,
God’s loving hand I recognize.

Background on the Poem

I was a returned missionary in a BYU ward in Spring of 1999, and during sacrament meeting one Sunday, a speaker mentioned Moroni 7:19 which reads:

“Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.”

The phrase “lay hold upon every good thing” resonated in my mind and I immediately pulled out a note pad and pencil and began writing the poem. The words came to me relatively rapidly, and I tried to capture them as the Spirit of the Lord dictated them. From the beginning, I felt as if the poem would make a good Church hymn. However, I am not musically inclined, so perhaps someday, someone who is talented with music can make a nice hymn out of it.

The post Lay Hold Upon Every Good Thing – Poem appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

I have been asked to speak about how to reconcile any perceived conflicts between faith and reason. Spoiler alert, I believe any perceived conflicts of that nature are just that, a perception but one that ultimately is not reality. I think ultimately, in the eternal scheme of things, any apparent conflicts between faith and reason will be reconciled. I think that reconciliation will come through a greater understanding of Heavenly Father’s plan of salvation, and a truer understanding of nature of the gospel of Jesus Christ and His atonement.

If there is one thing that I hope you take away from my talk today is that it’s okay to have conflicting thoughts and feelings about your faith. You can have questions about gospel principles and practices, and even see imperfections in the church members around us, without losing faith in Jesus Christ and His gospel.

In preparing for this talk, I read dozens of church articles and thought of just as many stories and examples to address the question of how does one resolve conflicts between faith and reason. In analyzing the material I gathered, I realized my findings could be summarized in these three ways:

1. Serious Study
2. Honest Inquiry
3. Trust in Truth

Serious Study means we should delve deep into the issues that appear to conflict and take God up on His invitation to reason together. Honest Inquiry means to have an open dialogue with friends, church leaders, and your Heavenly Father about your questions and concerns. And Trust in Truth means having confidence in what you know, placing faith in God for the unknown, and believing your effort and patience will be rewarded in the end.

1. Serious Study

God Says “Let Us Reason Together.” Faith and Reason Can Coexist.

In both the Bible and modern revelation, God invites us to “reason together” with him indicating that faith and reason can coexist harmoniously. Reasoning with God is a way to deepen understanding and resolve doubts.

In D&C 45, the Lord says, “10) with him that cometh I will reason as with men in days of old, and I will show unto you my strong reasoning. 11) Wherefore, hearken ye together and let me show unto you even my wisdom.”

And in D&C 50, God says, “10) And now come, saith the Lord, by the Spirit, unto the elders of his church, and let us reason together, that ye may understand; 11) Let us reason even as a man reasoneth one with another face to face. 12) Now, when a man reasoneth he is understood of man, because he reasoneth as a man; even so will I, the Lord, reason with you that you may understand.”

Complex Issues Require In-Depth Study

In our world of sound bites and news clips, people’s attention spans tend to be much shorter than they were years ago. Deep understanding of gospel principles and historical issues are unlikely to be found in a Tik Tok video or social media meme. In fact, superficial investigations of complex issues can often lead to misunderstandings and drawing false conclusions. The English poet Alexander Pope mentioned this in one of his famous his poems that goes like this:

A little learning is a dangerous thing;
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring:
There shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
And drinking largely sobers us again. (1)

Shallow Gospel Knowledge Combined with Worldly Philosophies Leads to Confusion

Sister Sheri Dew, a former counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency, echoed that sentiment when she said, “Often the root cause of the confusion some have about the gospel comes from the combination of a steady diet of the philosophies of the world juxtaposed against a superficial understanding of the gospel. The combination is spiritually deadly.” (2)

Hugh Nibley Was A Great Example of Serious Study to Resolve Conflicts between Faith and Reason

Former BYU professor Hugh Nibley was one of the deepest thinkers and in-depth scholars of the scriptures and the restored gospel. He was a prolific author and wrote countless books and articles supporting the church and the scriptures from an archaeological, linguistic, and historical perspective. He was known as one of the greatest defenders of the faith and he was simultaneously also known as one of the greatest critics of the church. According to the LA Times obituary, Nibley was a “gadfly who defended his faith yet openly criticized what he saw as many members’ conformity and materialism.”(3)

Nibley was a great example of using serious study and in-depth knowledge of the gospel to reconcile perceived conflicts between faith and reason. He didn’t shy away from potential conflicts between faith and reason, and he was always faithful and loyal to the living prophets.

2. Honest Inquiry

Honest Questions are Part of Building Faith

In 2015, Elder Neil L. Andersen of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles said, “Addressing honest questions is an important part of building faith, and we use both our intellect and our feelings. The Lord said, “I will tell you in your mind and in your heart.” (D&C 8:2) Not all answers will come immediately, but most questions can be resolved through sincere study and seeking answers from God.”(4)

It’s Natural to Have Questions but Doubt Your Doubts Before You Doubt Your Faith

In a 2013 talk, Pres. Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the First Presidency spoke directly to members of the church who have doubts, like those who find conflicts between faith and reason. To those with doubts he said, “It’s natural to have questions—the acorn of honest inquiry has often sprouted and matured into a great oak of understanding. There are few members of the Church who, at one time or another, have not wrestled with serious or sensitive questions. One of the purposes of the Church is to nurture and cultivate the seed of faith—even in the sometimes sandy soil of doubt and uncertainty. Faith is to hope for things which are not seen but which are true.”

“Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters—my dear friends—please, first doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith. We must never allow doubt to hold us prisoner and keep us from the divine love, peace, and gifts that come through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.”(5)

God is Perfect. Church Members and Leaders are Not Perfect.

In that same talk, Pres. Uchtdorf said, “to be perfectly frank, there have been times when members or leaders in the Church have simply made mistakes. There may have been things said or done that were not in harmony with our values, principles, or doctrine. I suppose the Church would be perfect only if it were run by perfect beings. God is perfect, and His doctrine is pure. But He works through us—His imperfect children—and imperfect people make mistakes.”

Pres Uchtdorf reminded us that even the ancient prophet Moroni reminded us in the title page of the Book of Mormon that the scriptures may contain imperfections. “And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.”

We Counsel Openly and Respectfully with Each Other in the Church

Elder M. Russell Ballard, formerly of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, gave a general conference talk a few years ago called Counseling with Our Councils. In it, he said: “For the past eight and one-half years I have served as a member of a council of twelve men. We come from different backgrounds, and we bring to the Council of the Twelve Apostles a diverse assortment of experiences in the Church and in the world. In our meetings, we do not just sit around and wait for President Howard W. Hunter to tell us what to do. We counsel openly with each other, and we listen to each other with profound respect for the abilities and experiences our brethren bring to the council. We discuss a wide variety of issues, from Church administration to world events, and we do so frankly and openly. Sometimes we discuss issues for weeks before reaching a decision. We do not always agree during our discussions. But once a decision is made, we are always both united and determined.” (6)

I think those same principles of open and respectful communication apply to all levels of church councils and even to interactions between members and leaders. Honest Inquiry means to have an open and respectful dialogue with friends, church leaders, and your Heavenly Father about our questions and concerns.

Open and Direct Dialogue to Figure Out What’s Right

In a 2007 interview, President Henry B. Eyring made a similar comment about the open and direct dialogue in church councils when he first began to have meetings with general authorities. He said: “here are the prophets of God and they’re disagreeing in an openness that I had never seen in business. In business you’re careful when you’re with the bosses, you know.”

Pres. Eyring then spoke about the miracle of these strong willed and opinionated people coming together in unity. He said “Here are these very strong, very bright people all with different opinions. Suddenly the opinions began to just line up and I thought, ‘I’ve seen a miracle. I’ve seen unity come out of this wonderful open kind of exchange that I’d never seen in all my studies of government or business or anywhere else.’”

He concluded: “We can be open. We can be direct. We can talk about differences in a way that you can’t anywhere else because we’re all just looking for the truth. We’re not trying to win. We’re not trying to make our argument dominate. We just want to find what’s right.”(7)

And that honest pursuit of eternal truth leads to my final point.

3. Trust in Truth

Like Cleaning the House, What We Know will Always Trump What We Don’t Know

I often ask my kids to do a chore—clean the kitchen, tidy the living room, etc.—and as soon as they get to work on it, they gravitate to some obscure, out of place item. They will then come to me and say they don’t know where to away this obscure item. In such instances, I always tell the kids, “Don’t start the cleaning with the things that you don’t know where they go. Start with the things that you do know where they go. Tackle the harder to place items after putting the easy things in their place.” Often, by the time they put away the things they know, it becomes obvious where the harder to place, obscure items can be put.

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland shared a similar principle with relation to the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, “what we know will always trump what we do not know. And remember, in this world, everyone is to walk by faith. So be kind regarding human frailty—your own as well as that of those who serve with you in a Church led by volunteer, mortal men and women. Except in the case of His only perfect Begotten Son, imperfect people are all God has ever had to work with. That must be terribly frustrating to Him, but He deals with it. So should we. And when you see imperfection, remember that the limitation is not in the divinity of the work.” (8)

Believe Even When You Can’t See. Believe in God, Even When He Is Silent

There is a town in Germany called Cologne and it has been the home of a Jewish community for thousands of years. During the Holocaust of World War II, the Jews in this town went into hiding or were imprisoned and faced horrible persecution. In the aftermath of the war, there was a poem found, inscribed on a wall of a cellar in this town. The poem went, in part, like this:

I believe in the sun
even when it is not shining
And I believe in love,
even when there’s no one there.
And I believe in God,
even when he is silent. (9)

God is silent on some questions of faith and reason, but I still believe in Him and in His Son and in the plan of salvation. I don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that even when the sun is obscured by clouds or by the dark of night, that the sun is still there, and it will rise. I don’t know all the answers to the questions of faith and why God has allowed things to unfold the way they have here on earth. But I do know that God lives, and that His Son Jesus Christ is my Savior. I know that God called the prophet Jospeh Smith to translate the Book of Mormon and restore the Church and the Priesthood power. And I know that as we enter into sacred priesthood ordinances and fulfill our covenants, we will be supremely blessed now and in eternity.

Patient Waiting on New Information Will Often Be Rewarded with Understanding

Trusting in God means having patience and trusting in his timing. Sometimes it is a long time, years, before knowledge surfaces to establish truth. I have found many examples where God has let some apparent conflicts between faith and reason go hundreds of years before being resolved. Here’s one example.

In 1884, an author named Clark Braden criticized the mention of Laban’s sword from the Book of Mormon being made of steel. According to him, it was “a notorious fact that the Israelites knew nothing of steel for hundreds of years after” (10) the time of Nephi and Lehi. In the 1800s, the church had no answer for this critique.

By 1957, the situation hadn’t gotten any better for people of faith. In that year, another critic named Thomas O’Dea stated, “Every commentator on the Book of Mormon has pointed out the many cultural and historical anachronisms, such as the steel sword of Laban in 600 B.C.” (10)

Faithful church members still had no answer to these critics, but as often is the case, new discoveries shed light on the subject. By 1977, archeological evidence of steel in the middle east before the time of Lehi and Nephi began to come forth. In 1987, archeologists unearthed a long steel sword near Jericho dating back to the late seventh century B.C., long before the time of Lehi and Nephi.

“For a hundred years historians considered the Book of Mormon’s reference to steel (1 Nephi 4:9) as anachronistic. Today however it is apparent that blacksmiths were steeling iron hundreds of years before Nephi’s mention of it.” (11)

Elder D. Todd Christofferson, commenting on this new information about steel and the Book of Mormon, counseled members struggling with similar doubts. “Where answers are incomplete or lacking altogether, patient study and patient waiting for new information and discoveries to unfold will often be rewarded with understanding.” (1)

Time Vindicates the Book of Mormon

Matthew Roper, a Research Scholar at Brigham Young University, has documented over 200 unique accusations of anachronisms or supposed historical inaccuracies in the Book of Mormon since it was first printed in 1830. Again, these are items that, at one time, the church had no answer for, on issues ranging from weapons that were thought to be out of place, to things like plants and animals native to the Americas.

However, as Elder Christofferson said, patient wait for new information and discoveries has paid off. By the time of his research in 2019, Brother Roper found that 70% of those so-called problems with the Book of Mormon have been confirmed to actually be true, 10% are like to be true, and only 20% are still unconfirmed. (11)

Said Brother Roper “There are still issues, questions, and criticisms of the Book of Mormon which have not been verified. But new information and discoveries show that many critics have grossly underestimated the Book of Mormon. … Many things in the Book of Mormon account once considered wrong or absurd can be verified and shown to be accurate or trending toward verification in the future. Because of this, there is reason to believe that further faith, and patience, and diligent attention to the Book of Mormon will continue to be rewarded by those who are willing to invest the time and effort to do so.” (11)

Testimony Will Always Remain in the Realm of Faith

Still, there are inevitably aspects of the scriptures, church history, or doctrine which will not be explainable or understandable to the rational mind. And I believe that is intentional on God’s part. I believe that part of the purpose of this life is to learn to walk by faith.

Elder Neal A. Maxwell, formerly of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, said, “All of the Scriptures including the Book of Mormon will remain in the realm of faith. Science will not be able to prove or disprove holy writ. However, enough plausible evidence will come forth to prevent scoffers from having a field day, but not enough to remove the requirement of faith. Believers must be patient during such unfolding.” (11)

When Knowledge is Perfect, Faith is Dormant. Until then, Faith is Required.

A couple of week ago, in our family and church scripture study for Come Follow Me, we read the famous sermon of the prophet Alma about faith. He compares the word of God unto a seed and encourages us to try an experiment, plant the seed, nourish it and see how it grows into a tree of everlasting life. Then he says something interesting—he points out that if we had a perfect knowledge, we wouldn’t need faith.

Alma 32 says “33) And now, behold, because ye have tried the experiment, and planted the seed, and it swelleth and sprouteth, and beginneth to grow, ye must needs know that the seed is good. 34) And now, behold, is your knowledge perfect? Yea, your knowledge is perfect in that thing, and your faith is dormant; and this because you know, for ye know that the word hath swelled your souls, and ye also know that it hath sprouted up, that your understanding doth begin to be enlightened, and your mind doth begin to expand.”

I have experimented on the word of God and found it to be good. That is what I mean by trust in the truth you know. I certainly don’t know everything, but I know enough to know that God lives, He loves us, and He sent His Son Jesus Christ to be our Savior and Redeemer. I know the scriptures are true, that Joseph Smith was God’s prophet of the restoration, and that we have living prophets of God on the earth today.

Conflicts between faith and reason are inevitable, but as we apply these principles of serious study, honest inquiry, and trust in truth, I know resolution and reconciliation will come. Ultimately, it is Jesus Christ, through His infinite atonement, who will reconcile us unto God and bring us home to the celestial kingdom of Heaven. And I leave that testimony with you.

Sources
(1) Brigham Young University – Idaho (BYUI) Devotional Speech by Elder D. Todd Christofferson
(2) Dew, Women and the Priesthood, 158.
(3) https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2005-mar-02-me-nibley2-story.html
(4) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2015/10/faith-is-not-by-chance-but-by-choice?lang=eng
(5) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng
(6) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1994/04/counseling-with-our-councils?lang=eng
(7) https://www.arisefromthedust.com/henry-eyrings-eye-opening-experience/
(8) https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/2013/04/lord-i-believe?lang=eng
(9) https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/9812347-i-believe-in-the-sun-even-when-it-is-not
(10) https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/blog/2013/06/17/labans-sword-of-most-precious-steel-howlers-5-2
(11) https://www.fairlatterdaysaints.org/conference/august-2019/time-vindicates-the-prophet

The post How to Resolve Conflicts Between Faith and Reason appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

The following post leans on the personal side, but I thought it would bring good awareness and information about the experience of Nauvoo Performing Missions to the LDS Mission Prep audience. As you know from the podcast episode a few weeks ago, our son is in Nauvoo for the summer as a full-time performing missionary. So for our summer vacation in 2024, we loaded up into the minivan and headed to Nauvoo, Illinois to see the church historical sites, catch a few shows by the performing missionaries, and maybe see our son. Okay, we definitely planned to visit with our son, but in fairness, the performing missionaries are encouraged to interact with the audience before and after shows.

Sunset on the Mississippi

Sunset on the Mississippi is a stage show performed most evenings during the summer. Our son Abe (I mean, Elder Smith) said this show is the highlight of the day for most of the performing missionaries because it is a fun and energetic show that is enjoyable for the cast and audience members of all ages. It’s held at the outdoor theatre near the visitors’ center, and we headed there early to get good seat and to see the pre-show, performed by the Nauvoo Brass Band. The pre-show was great, and the Sunset show delivered, as promised, a very fun, high energy, and funny show with great singing and dancing. Our favorite part of the Sunset show was when one of the trumpet players, our son Abe, played a funny solo (he briefly played the Super Mario Bros theme song during an improv part, which made the day for all the performing missionaries).

Trail of Hope

After Sunset on the Mississippi, we headed over to the Trail of Hope. We had walked down the trail on our own in years past and read many of the placards with testimonies from the early Saints expressing their faith in God in the midst of being forcibly removed from their homes. But this day was the first time we did the guided tour with the dramatizations from the stage performance missionaries. This made the Trail of Hope very enjoyable, meaningful, and memorable. Abe and one of the other members of the Nauvoo Brass Band, Elder Jackman, were our tour guides. Along the path, at about a dozen points, there was a performing missionary or two, who would reenact a part from one of the diaries of a pioneer. Again, the performances were heartfelt and testimony building as they expressed the faith in Christ and His Church from these earlier converts to the faith.

Flag Ceremony from the Nauvoo Brass Band

The next morning, we went to the flag ceremony, put on by the Nauvoo Brass Band in the grassy area behind the print shop. The ceremony was short and sweet, but included several musical numbers and a few speaking parts. After the flag ceremony, the band boarded the “Band Wagon” and road off to serenade the tourists throughout town with songs of the Restoration and other hymns of faith.

Dancing in Praise of God Show

After the flag ceremony, we walked a short distance to watch a performance called Singing and Dancing in Praise of God or something like that. This was a brief show, maybe 15 minutes, put on by the stage actors and actresses. The performers explained how the pioneers entertained themselves and socialized by dancing and singing songs of praise to the Lord.

The Singing Elders and the Relief Society Theatrical Vignette

Again, I may have the name of the performance wrong, but the next musical encounter / dance vignette was called the Singing and/or Dancing Elders. (When you’re in Nauvoo, you will find a QR code on posters around town with the names and times of these performances.)  The Elders were great. One song they sang was called “Scotland the Brave”, which our son named Scotland really liked, and one was a song about Orrin Porter Rockwell. That song was fun and funny, and my brother was called out of the audience onto the stage to play the part of Rockwell. He is a big fan of Rockwell so playing that role was a dream come true. After that, we headed over to the Red Brick store where the stage actress sister missionaries put on a theatrical vignette about the organization of the Relief Society.

William Pitt Nauvoo Brass Band and Remembering Joseph Shows

By mid-afternoon, we headed over to the Nauvoo Visitors Center for two shows in the indoor air conditioning, which was a nice reprieve from the heat and humidity. First was the William Pitt Nauvoo Brass Band show, which Abe was in, of course. And then was the Remembering Joseph show that Abe was not in, but it was still good.

Homestead and Mansion House of Joseph Smith

This vacation to Nauvoo was only two days and we were primarily focused on seeing the performances of the Nauvoo Performing Missionaries, but we did try to squeeze in a tour of the newly acquired sites. We were, unfortunately, unable to fit in a tour of the Red Brick Store, but we hope to get that tour someday since that is the place where Joseph Smith first performed the temple endowment ordinance in these latter days. We were able, though, to tour the Homestead and Mansion House of Joseph Smith, and I’m glad we did. The senior missionaries did an excellent job showing us around and telling us many of the historic events that took place in those buildings.

The Band Wagon Playing at the Singing Tree

The final show we saw on our trip was the Nauvoo Brass Band playing under the Singing Tree. The band rides around town, well, the old parts of town with the many church-owned historic sites, each morning in their “Band Wagon” but they also stop at a few designated spots along the way, such as the Singing Tree.  The band helps provide ambience for the tourists by playing hymns of faith and other musical numbers from their vast repertoire of music. Our son says if they printed out the music for all the songs they have to memorize, it would be five or six inches thick, but thankfully, they have tablets with the music.

The band played a few more musical numbers under the Singing Tree and then we said our last goodbyes to Abe. After the performance, Elder Jackman let our 9 year old Scotty play on his drums and even gave him a signed set of drum sticks to take home. That made Scot’s day. Then we packed up the minivan and headed for home.

Performances We Missed: Love of the Savior Concert and the Nauvoo Pageant

Our trip placed us in Nauvoo in the middle of the week, so we missed the Love of the Savior concert, which only happens on Sundays. In that concert, the Nauvoo Performing Missionaries sing and play music celebrating our Savior, Jesus Christ, and his love for us. We also missed the Nauvoo Pageant, which is the biggest theatrical production of the summer in Nauvoo. We actually missed it on purpose because navigating large crowds is difficult with our family. We hope, someday, to be able to see both of those shows in the future.

Concluding Thoughts 

We were so glad to see Abe and all the other Nauvoo Performing Missionaries. Over the years, we have visited Nauvoo several times, but those visits focused on the historic sites and we never before attended the musical, dance, and theatrical shows. But we are very glad we did this time. We were very impressed by the talent, professionalism, and fun atmosphere created by all the performing missionaries.

These performing Elders and Sisters are set apart as full-time missionaries for the summer. They are mostly young people, in their early 20s, and like other full-time missionaries, they pay their own way, follow the rules of proselytizing missionaries, have a companion, p-days on Monday, daily scripture study, etc. We are grateful for the sacrifices these performing missionaries make to share their talents with us and make the experience of visiting Nauvoo much more enjoyable. It helped increase our knowledge of the experiences of the early Saints, and helped build our testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Church, and His latter-day work.

The post Nauvoo Performing Missionaries were the Highlight of Smith Family Vacation appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

This video and audio is episode 20 of the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep podcast recorded on Apr 28, 2024. In this episode, I interview Abe Smith who will be leaving this week on his mission to be a Nauvoo Performing Missionary, particularly, he will be playing trumpet in the Nauvoo Brass Band. He will spend the summer in historic Nauvoo, Illinois where he will be a playing his trumpet in the Nauvoo Brass Band. He will be entertaining tourists and sharing his testimony of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ through music, performances, and the spoken word.

In the interview, we cover topics such as:
• What is a Nauvoo Performing Missionary (NPM) and the types of performers they need (Brass Band, singers, dancers)
• The application process for a NPM (deadlines, auditions, etc.)
• Weekly Meetings for NPM (Jan-Apr)
• Schedules, Costs, and Program Fees
• Checklist of assignments, travel, housing arrangements, and much more

The transcript of the interview can be found below (it’s automated, so I apologize for any typos) and an audio version of the interview can be found at the bottom of this post. For other video/podcast episodes, check out the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep podcast page.

***Begin Transcript***

OK, welcome everyone to another edition of the latter Day Saint Mission Prep podcast.
My name is Jimmy Smith.
I’m your host of the podcast with me.
Today is my son, Abraham Smith.
Today, we’re going to be talking about talking to Abe about his upcoming mission.
He leads this coming week and just a couple of days to be a novel performing missionary, so he’ll be spending the summer and navu entertaining the tourists and giving his testimony through music for sure.
Maybe through word as well his testimony of the restored gospel in that historic place of Nauvoo, Illinois.
So welcome to the podcast.
Welcome, Abe.
Uh, why don’t you introduce yourselves to the audience, and then we’ll get into the the points that we want to talk about with the, with the Nauvoo performing mission, I’m sure.
Hi, I’m Abe Smith,.
Uh, I’m 19 years old.
I’ll be turning 20 and I’m about a month or so and I’m going to Texas A&M Commerce to study music education and then as he said, I’m doing the naval mission this summer.
Excellent.
Thanks, Abe.
So yeah, so we’re really excited about this.
I think Avis, too.
It’s gonna be an interesting experience.
We we’re anxious to hear about it.
So at the conclusion of the summer in August, we might do another episode and they can tell us more details about what it was like to be a performing missionary.
Did you mention what instrument you play?
Ohh, I played trumpet.
OK, so Absa mastered trumpet player.
I’m not a musician.
They inherited all their music skill from their mother, he, he and the other kids.
But uh anyway.
Yeah, that’s we have the picture of the of the trumpet behind us.
And then and Nauvoo temple.
He’s older sister Hannah is an art major in and did this artwork for us, so props to her for that.
OK.
So let me refer quickly to the agenda on my screen.
Uh, we OK?
So Abe is gonna be in the Naboo brass band, and that’s one aspect of being a Naboo performing mission missionary.
So why don’t you briefly tell the audience what is it?
What is this Navy performing missionary program?
You know at high level and then what are the different parts of it?
And then you will be in the brass band.
So why don’t you walk the audience through all of that?
Can you do that?
Yeah, of course.
So there are a few different types of missionaries and navu.
There the there’s gonna be some senior missionaries that are just regular senior missionaries.
There are tour guides who give tour guides of all the different historic buildings, and then there’s the category that I’m in, which is the performing missionaries, and that’s and the performing missionaries are made up of two parts.
The stage actually is made up of three parts.
It’s the stage performers slash actors, the technique audio electronic technicians who do all the sound work and maybe light work and other technical stuff.
And then there’s the brass band, which is based off of this historical brass banned.
But it also has a couple woodwinds too, but that’s what I meant then.
Brass band.
OK, very good.
Cool.
So you’ll also notice Abe’s growing his hair.
He doesn’t have a typical, really Short, missionary cut.
That’s actually intentional, they told him.
What back in January or February when you started doing the meetings to, like, let your hair grow out cuz and let your sideburns grow in and stuff like that and that right.
Yep, yeah, they said they want it to be full and not modern, just to be more realistic to how it was back in the 1840s or whenever.
Well, and a lot of the stuff that will, you’ll see that we tell you about a lot of it is to give the feeling that you’re actually that the tourists are actually in 1840s eighteen, 50s novu.
So you’ll be wearing kind of pioneered dear like shirt and pants and boots.
You have to.
They gave you like a list of things to buy, right?
I’m probably jumping ahead on our agenda, but so they want you to look authentic.
Dress authentic, even have authentic like 1840s hair and so forth as you play in the breast.
And I think that goes for all the performers.
Like he said, there’s other tour guides and there’s other singing and dancing performing missionaries that are there.
There’s a pageant for a couple weeks, maybe a four months, and in July there’s a pageant there.
And anyway, OK, cool.
So yeah, so you’ll be doing the brass band.
Let’s go back umm to the agenda.
OK, so you’ll be there.
You leave May 1st hit.
We’re recording this April 28th, 2024.
So you leave on Wednesday, you’re flying into Saint Louis with a bunch of other people.
And then from there you guys are taking a bus up to Nauvoo.
It’s a couple hours drive north of Saint Louis.
You’ll be there from May 1st through.
August 7th through August 7th, you and all the other messages, and it’s a full time listen in terms of like it, it’s not not the not your typical full time mission for like 2 years where you’re a missionary.
But for these over three months of the summer, it’s a full time mission in terms of your your you have schedule, you get up at 6:30, you do companionship study, you practice your instrument, you go do performances.
And in the town and for the tourists and so forth.
And anyway, it’s very it’s your whole day and week and month is all very scheduled.
So it’s it’s it’s a full time gig in that in that respect, correct.
Yeah.
Anything to add to that?
Yeah.
Well, let’s add a little bit about the schedule.
If we’re not talking about that later, no, you can talk about it now.
So if it’s schedule you actually what we’re gonna do is we’re gonna spend the first three, 3 1/2 weeks of may just rehearsing.
So we’re just rehearsing songs, and then the actors are gonna practice all their shows.
Umm, I think the within within a few days though the band will be able to get on the bandwagon and play songs in the morning.
Umm, but for the for.
Basically, the whole month of May, we’ll be rehearsing, at least for the band.
It’s like 9 hours out of the day you get an hour an hour and a half for for meal breaks.
Umm.
And then at the end of May’s, when the performances start, and that’s when we have bandwagon performances in the morning stage concerts in the afternoon, like little dancing around and stuff.
And then the evening sit down.
Concerts.
Cool.
OK, very good.
So, uh, OK, so we’ve given you a good overview for the audience of what the Navy performing missionary program is.
So let’s let’s rewind a little and talk about the process of becoming a Novo performing missionary.
What made you decide you wanted to do that?
What are the differences between this kind of mission and a full time processing mission?
We can talk about that.
I know you had to audition to be in the Naboo.
The performing missionary program, so let’s let’s go back to the beginning and start there.
What was the process like to become a Navy performing missionary?
All right.
So, uh, we our family had gone to navu back in 2019 and I heard that there was gonna be a brass band there and we weren’t able to see them, but it was something we knew about then.
And so, a year or so ago, about two years ago, actually.
And my mom was suggesting to me that I could maybe try out and do that.
This was spring 2023 and she was hoping that I could do it for last summer, but we didn’t know like the timeline then.
But we found out that the auditions actually opened in the summer before, so I’m serving this summer, summer 2024.
If you wanna audition for it, you have to audition for it the summer before, as when you start preparing stuff.
So last summer, summer 2023, I prepared a couple of audition things.
You make a video and send it to them and you post the video on YouTube.
I think it’s that and send the link to and there’s a probably a website I’ll I’ll put it in the in the in the show notes or on the web page.
So you have a link, but there’s an information somewhere online about how to apply for this.
We’ll get everybody links for that right and at least what I had to do as I had to prepare 2 exerpts and I just did two Short, attitudes.
If you do like chromatic scale and then any other various musical instruments that you had, so I just showed that I can also do jazz as well as classical and then I had to prepare a little paragraph about why I want to be in the Naboo brass band and should I talk about that.
My motivations?
Yeah.
Let let let me wrap one thing up on the the audition process.
So yeah, it it was like August of 2023 was the deadline to perform in the summer of 2024.
That’s so that I turned it in.
So I think it was due in October.
So there was a deadline in October deadline in October.
I just turned it in early so I don’t right before school.
So you were starting school in August and we just wanted to get it over with as when we did, but still it it, it was only a month or two early on October of the year prior is the deadline where you have to get your basically your audition tape sent in your YouTube link sent to the proper people so they can see you and hear you umm, but even and and so that that’s like the first step though you’ll fill out the applications say why you want to do it, right?
A little essay.
Fill out some information, send them the link of your of your performance, and then.
But that’s just the first like hurdle, right?
If they like you, they like what you say and like your video and your performance, then there’s still more tryouts.
So talk about that.
So how they explain it on the website at least was you send in an audition tape and that’s like round one auditions.
And then in usually December you’ll get callbacks.
And they’ll call you back and say if you made it to the next round or not, at least this year.
I don’t know if it’s like this every year, but at for this year, the round two auditions only applied to the stage actors and singers, so if everyone who was in the brass band right now uh found out in December, I found out in December that.
That I got in that you were in and so January like the second I think it was the 2nd Saturday of January this year we had callbacks and so the actors, all the actors came and they did call back auditions and while they were doing second round auditions, the brass band went to the primary room and we had our first rehearsal.
OK, so uh, you turned in your your application and and audition tape in fall of 2023.
In December of 2023, you got word that you were accepted and you were in the Navy performing missionary program.
Yep for you because you were a member, you’d be in the brass band.
So then in January, you were you were attending BYU and living in Provo, and everyone in that area starting January 2024, so a little earlier this year started meeting every Saturday.
You were rehearsing and learning songs and stuff and for the stage actors you said there was like one more round of auditions before they knew if they were in or not.
But then they were doing the same thing.
They were meeting every Saturday.
Or do you not know?
No, that was just the one Saturday that we did.
OK.
And then throughout this whole semester, January, February, March and even a little bit of April, we had zoom meetings like every other Sunday and those were just information meetings telling us our role, our assignments and and it placed it answer ask and answer questions and those were usually about an hour and a half to two hours long and those were on Sundays.
Yeah, Sunday in there was online meetings.
OK.
Yeah, cool.
Cool.
OK, very good.
So let’s see, where does that take us then?
You you had sent in your audition.
You were accepted and anything else you wanna say before we start talking about the the the like the technical application which we’re not going to touch on a lot, but anything else we need to know or that the audience might want to know if they were thinking about doing this umm, just make sure your application is turned in because I know when I turned it in, I I don’t think I necessarily got a confirmation that it was turned in and so just be vigilant and careful to know and being contact with people to know that your.
Stuff was turned in so that that’s a good point.
You submitted the application but you received no confirmation email.
Hopefully that was a mistake or that’s changed, but there were on the churches website about the Naboo performing missionary program.
There were phone numbers or email addresses or both, and people you were in contact with all along.
For example, I think you emailed the person running the program said hey, I play the trumpet and I wanna do it and we have some back and forth dialogue with them before they even saw your official application.
Is that right?
Yeah.
So I guess just don’t be afraid to reach out to people.
They’re super nice people.
Cook.
OK, let’s let’s look at our agenda.
Let’s see.
We talked about the application process and the tryouts and uh, you’re you’re weekly meetings.
So yeah, let’s let’s talk next about the what?
What’s the official application process like with the church look like?
Cuz it’s it’s a bit unusual.
So you wanna be expecting that?
So let’s go there next, Abe.
So when you get some December, you find out if you get callbacks or if you get into the brass band, but that is not the official call from the church.
You don’t get like a letter, just like my phone call or an email.
Umm so you will get that eventually you will get that eventually.
So starting in uh, January, February, Kenneth.
Umm, really.
As early as you can, you have to put in a senior service mission application.
Yeah.
And that’s yeah, that’s not a mistake, senior.
It it for whatever reason, the church treats this as a in terms of the application process.
As a senior service, uh mission senior Church Service mission, which is has has lost some, you know, delays and and in the in the process and it’s a bit confusing for a lot of people.
So yeah, so the application it, if you’ve seen the regular processing mission application, it looks nothing like that.
The regular processing mission has like multiple pages where you have to fill out forms documents, whereas the senior service mission application is like 2 pages and it doesn’t require any medical documents.
Or I just did it all in in one sitting.
I think umm.
They give you a number that you have to input into the their system and then it pulls up and opportunity for a senior service mission.
You click on that, fill out the application and what I found out is that no matter what you put on the application, it will send your recommendation to the ward that your records are in and that’s where we’ve run into trouble is because I was in the Provo, Provo, YSA Ward and it was so sent to my Provo.
Why I say Bishop?
But then I came home to Texas and we’ve had troubles trying to get it recommended by my texts.
Bishop.
Yeah.
And we’re still running into trouble because when he was in Provo and had submitted it, his Provo Bishop and stake president couldn’t see it and had no record of it.
And so then he comes home.
We thought it’d be here in Texas, the Texas people said they could see the application but couldn’t do anything with it.
And now it’s back with the Provo, even though he’s living here.
It’s a mess.
So we’re sitting here the Sunday before he goes to Navy on Wednesday and he still doesn’t have the official call from the church, our state president said.
Don’t worry about it.
It’ll come through.
He’s still going to get set apart as a missionary Tuesday night.
So you will meet with your mission or your.
Excuse me, your stake president.
Who will set you apart as a full time missionary?
And he’ll he’ll go to Naboo.
He has his badges already.
They sent him his missionary name tags in the mail.
And anyway, there’s just so much suggestion paperwork.
Drama.
Yeah.
So my suggestion to anyone who does this is uh, be super vigilant and super on top of talking with your Bishop, talking with the correct Bishop and stake president, because many bishops have not done this process of doing navu service missionaries.
And so there’s like different pages and so just stay in contact with them.
Yeah.
And do it early and trying to get it done.
I mean they they did his month or two ago and I did it all running for these problems, but mainly OK but.
Umm, we we we have faith in that will all work out there won’t won’t be an issue.
Hopefully we’ll have an update in a couple months when I come back.
Yeah.
When he gets back in August, we’ll hopefully we’ll say he was a full I, you know, official missionary anyway.
OK, so let’s briefly talk about the costs because they are different than a full time proselytizing mission.
And oh, and I also want to talk about the checklist and assignments that they gave you.
And then we’ll get to travel and housing as well.
But let’s start with the cost and program fees and how it’s different from a regular mission.
So as many of you probably know, missions regular full time, 2 year processing missions or uh, well, there a monthly payments and usually it’s pretty standardized for all missionaries.
And each year they they might go up, but it’s $400.00 a month or as of right now, and has been for many years.
At some point it might go up but and so, but that’s not the case for you in this mission, correct?
So it is a one time $1000 fee for the All Navy performed missions.
And so we paid that, funnily enough, through Venmo in mid April.
So the month before for before leaving.
So it’s just $1000 and whole time and then basically covers your housing and basically basically and you’re playing ohh yeah, because they’re flying him there and they’ll fly him home and housing while he’s there.
So it’s it’s probably a pretty good bargain and maybe it’s.
Subsidized elsewhere, but anyway.
But for us, for our family, for a there’s $1000 and that covers his travel there.
His his housing while he’s there and his travel home.
It does not cover food while you’re there.
So and so he’ll have to he himself or with family, we can send him money to buy groceries every week.
And so forth.
So that’s a good segue.
Let’s talk about the housing arrangements.
Uh, and and situation there.
Do you know much about that?
A tiny bit I know with, so I don’t know how regular missions are, but I think sometimes they’ll give you like mission funds.
That’s not necessarily the case in the Navy when you just have your own money and every P day we’re gonna get on a little van and drive 30 minutes.
To the nearest Walmart.
Yeah.
And P days are there. Mondays.
Yeah.
Do you know that?
OK.
So, similar to other missionaries, it’s on a Monday.
Yeah.
And then just laundry once a week, groceries once a week.
Umm.
And you’ll you’ll be assigned a companion, and you won’t.
You’ll find that out once you get there.
Who that is, and you’ll do.
You’ll do the morning routine like other missionaries in terms of get up at 6:30, do companionship study and study and stuff like that.
Yeah.
So we have a companion, I’m pretty sure it’s just the same companion for the full three months.
We also have districts.
I don’t know how that’s gonna work out, but yeah, we get you get up early.
Get up.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I imagine Sundays you’ll go to church somewhere, but you probably still do performances and stuff even on Sunday.
Yeah.
On Sundays, we have church in the morning or late morning, and then I think we have like 2 hours of like down downtime and then there is a concert every Sunday.
The love of the Savior concert and that one is indoors and yeah.
Ohh that’s nice.
So it’ll be indoors.
Some AC, so I didn’t put this on the agenda, but it just scripts me.
Uh, yeah.
As as performing this series, you’re gonna be performing out of doors most of the time, right?
So it’s gonna be hot.
It’s gonna be humid.
There’s gonna be bugs.
Be prepared.
I’m being prepared, bringing lots of sunscreen.
Lots of bugs spray.
Umm.
And also note that pretty much the whole summer you’re gonna be in long sleeves and long pants because of your costume.
And even for the rehearsals in May, they say no shorts for rehearsal in. It’s just long pants.
So get some good breathable exercise pants.
Umm.
Maybe a thin long sleeve shirt.
So, and it’s humid, it’s it’s, it’s on a river, it’s in right on the Mississippi.
Yeah, it’s.
It was as those of you who’ve done your church history, you know, it was swampland and still very humid there.
Uh, it was swampland.
When the the the early Latter Day Saints, Joseph Smith and the Saints bought it and they drained the swamp and and made a town out of it.
But anyway, OK, let’s see.
Let me look back at our agenda.
See what else we were gonna talk about.
The housing, I believe.
Umm, I’ll probably be able to give more information whenever I come back, but what I’ve been told is that there is a house for the elders and a house for the sisters and I don’t know if that’s just for the band or if that’s all the performing missionaries, but we have loads of house, little cabin or something. Umm.
OK.
Yeah. Cool.
Yeah, I’ll be anxious to learn more about that because I, you know, I’ve been to navu a time or two over the years and there’s, like, they’re all this, like, kind of red brick and and and there’s places you visit as tourists.
But I know there’s a lot of homes like that that you don’t ever go into.
And is that where the missionaries live?
I don’t know.
I was told we’re in the kind of middle of nowhere by some cows, so OK, well, we’ll find that out.
The only other thing I saw that we wanted to touch on was or that I thought would be interesting was they gave you a list like a checklist of assignments to do you wanna tell?
Ohh little bit more about that.
So once you get accepted into the as a performing missionary, it may be different in futures with different leaders, but we use a Google Classroom and that has dozens and dozens of assignments.
If you’re an actor or singer, then you will have way more segments than any of the band or technician people.
And So what I had to do, there were some a driving safety videos, some staff use technology stuff, maybe talk about phone stuff. Mm-hmm.
Uh.
Songs to learn.
So there’s a couple of songs like songs they have to sing in, like to, to sing, to learn, even if you’re for the band and technicians.
And then there’s also some they post some of the concerts just to listen to and watch and get used to the other logistical things like the past.
Uh ID for getting a plane ticket.
Couple other uh, housekeeping things like that.
OK, cool.
Very good.
And I think I I asked you about of full time processing missionaries nowadays all have to have their own phone and the church install some software on their phone so they can only access the church approved apps.
That’s not the case with you.
You will bring your own phone, but still church communication rules are probably in effect, like you could call home probably once a week.
Like other missionaries, everything is pretty much the same.
We’re going technology and most of the things in missionary handbook all applies to the novel performing missionaries, except for some obvious ones that would be apparent to our job.
Right.
But you don’t have to install anything on your phone.
You don’t have to get new SIM card I, but you can only contact people once a week.
You just use normal text saying applies rules apply where you have to be.
You know, in the open or you probably have the same rules with your companions, but they’re just because it’s only three months, they’re just they don’t want to deal with that.
And they’re just trusting.
Yeah, trusting them to deal with that and and one of the other differences is it is common for the family to go visit their performing missionary during the summer, and we’re gonna do that in June.
We rented an Airbnb, or VRBO or something, so we’re going to go to navu and stay for a few days and we’re going to see ape.
But, and that’s OK.
They do tell parents and family members not to distract the missionary.
You’re not supposed to go out to eat with them, but you can’t go to their performances and you can’t say hi to them briefly.
But their missionaries, their full time missionaries, are not supposed to distract them.
So we’ll of course try our best to keep those rules.
Umm.
Let’s see.
I was gonna say the band used to have huge folders of music cause the band has like 133 songs and then each year they just add more at that and so it used to be huge packet of music but now it’s all electronic so all the people in the brass band will have their own little tablet which has all of the music.
So do you have the tablet?
Do you need one?
No, they provide, they provide us, yeah, they provide it for us.
And so I’ve never really used their that software of like the music.
It’s becoming an increasingly common for musicians to have that OK, so just to note, cool, cool.
Let’s see.
Is there anything we miss?
Uh, the looks like we hit everything.
Anything else you can think of that that the audience might want to know before we wrap this up?
Uh, I’m sure there’s a few things we missed.
Yeah, if the if they’ve missed anything, I’ll try and post it on the website or or add additional links or or things to the web post on this topic.
Ohh temple attendance.
Ohh that’s a good thing.
Yeah.
So in previous years, the temple was always open on Monday, which is our P day.
This year is a little different.
Hopefully it’s not like this in future years, but the temple is actually closed on Mondays this year, and so for us, we’re gonna have to go at, like, we’re going to have to do like, 6:00 AM sessions on Tuesdays before the performances start.
And so hopefully in in the future it will be.
They’ll be better so that you’ll be able to go to the temple on your P days.
Yeah, because.
Uh, you don’t have to be endowed to be a Navy performing missionary.
Abe did recently receive his endowment.
So he’s anxious to go back, and typically, I mean the since the Nauvoo temple is right there once a week, the missionaries are able to go to the temple and sounds like for whatever reason.
And they’re not gonna be open on your P day anymore.
But you they’ll still make sure you have opportunities to to go to the Nov temple, so that would be really cool, right to go do a session there.
Uh, OK, very good.
Well, ohm the umm, do you mind a maybe finishing with your testimony and then we’ll wrap this up.
Is that alright?
Sure thing.
I have just testimony of the power of music and how much good music can bring the spirit.
And because music is the the international language, and you can feel of the love of the savior through music, and you know that through our example, through our actions, through smiles, we can share.
Share the Savior’s love.
Great.
Thanks Abe.
Uh, I I I’ll echo that it it this is an awesome opportunity to share the love that the Lord has for all of his children through through music and.
We’re super excited that you get to be a missionary and share the gospel in this really unique way.
And I’ll I’ll also leave you with my testimony of the Savior. Jesus lives.
He died for us.
He’s our Savior and Redeemer.
He guides us through living prophets in the church.
Today we, umm are are so blessed to be living in a time where we have the gospel restored.
So grateful that Abe has this opportunity to be a missionary and share the gospel this way, and anyway we look forward to your reports throughout the summer and at the end of the summer we’ll get a full lengthy report as well.
So until then, thank you all for watching and listening and we will see you next time on the latter day St Mission Prep podcast.
Bye.
Thank you.

The post Leaving for Nauvoo Performing Mission – Interview with Abe Smith – Episode 20 appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

This video and audio is episode 19 of the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep podcast recorded on Feb 12, 2024. In this podcast you will hear Hannah Smith talk about her transfer home at the end of her 18 month mission to Lisbon, Portugal for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We talk about the last weeks of her mission and her first week back home. We cover topics such as:
• How she approached the last week of her mission
• Saying goodbye to friends, members, and missionaries
• How to not get trunky
• Going to the mission home for her farewell interview with the mission president
• Traveling home and meeting her family at the airport
• Being released: meeting with Stake Pres
• Homecoming talk and open house
• Getting back into life with family and work
• Goals, My Plan, challenges, growth, testimony, and much more

The transcript of the interview can be found below (it’s automated, so I apologize for any typos) and an audio version can be found at the bottom of this post. For other video/podcast episodes, check out the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep podcast page.

***Begin Transcript***

0:0:22.430 –> 0:0:29.340
Smith, Jimmy
Welcome to another edition of the Latter Day St Mission Prep podcast.

0:0:29.750 –> 0:0:36.530
Smith, Jimmy
I’m here today with my daughter Hannah, who just got back from her mission to Lisbon, Portugal.

0:0:36.540 –> 0:0:39.690
Smith, Jimmy
So she’s gonna tell us all about that today.

0:0:39.900 –> 0:0:43.450
Smith, Jimmy
The topic for today’s podcast I’m calling it.

0:0:43.940 –> 0:0:46.590
Smith, Jimmy
This is my draft, I might change it when I published it.

0:0:46.600 –> 0:0:48.480
Smith, Jimmy
I’m calling it the transfer home.

0:0:48.700 –> 0:0:56.230
Smith, Jimmy
We’re we’re primarily going to talk about the last week of your mission and your first week back home after you mentioned you’ve been home.

0:0:56.240 –> 0:0:58.660
Smith, Jimmy
I think about two weeks, but we’re going to focus on that.

0:0:58.990 –> 0:1:8.340
Smith, Jimmy
Last week in the mission and the first week home after the mission, so that that that transition from being a missionary full time to being a.

0:1:10.680 –> 0:1:11.570
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, yes.

0:1:11.640 –> 0:1:14.650
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, a normal ladder?

0:1:14.700 –> 0:1:16.890
Smith, Jimmy
Non missionary, Latter day St.

0:1:17.360 –> 0:1:20.330
Smith, Jimmy
So anyway, that’s what we’re going to talk about today.

0:1:20.340 –> 0:1:21.890
Smith, Jimmy
In fact, I prepared a little agenda.

0:1:21.900 –> 0:1:22.950
Smith, Jimmy
I’m going to share briefly.

0:1:22.960 –> 0:1:25.500
Smith, Jimmy
We’ll see how how this works.

0:1:26.230 –> 0:1:30.390
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, OK, not not as smooth as I thought.

0:1:30.400 –> 0:1:31.840
Smith, Jimmy
But anyway, we’re gonna talk about.

0:1:32.770 –> 0:1:36.460
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, uh, you how’s the approach?

0:1:36.550 –> 0:1:44.120
Smith, Jimmy
The her last week in the mission field, we’ll talk about your interview with your mission president.

0:1:44.360 –> 0:1:46.190
Smith, Jimmy
I’ll talk about traveling home.

0:1:47.0 –> 0:1:50.610
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, and you’re experience is traveling home.

0:1:50.620 –> 0:1:53.280
Smith, Jimmy
They will and meeting course your family at the airport.

0:1:53.380 –> 0:1:58.520
Smith, Jimmy
We’ll talk about meeting with the state president and at the next stage we got home late one night, right.

0:1:58.760 –> 0:2:2.30
Smith, Jimmy
And your homecoming talk and open house.

0:2:2.40 –> 0:2:5.180
Smith, Jimmy
We had biting friends over and now getting back to work.

0:2:5.190 –> 0:2:12.260
Smith, Jimmy
You’ve been got a job and you’re going back to work and you have, you know, it’d be good if you could tell about your plans and so forth.

0:2:12.310 –> 0:2:14.120
Smith, Jimmy
So anyway, that’s our agenda.

0:2:14.130 –> 0:2:18.700
Smith, Jimmy
I’m going to stop sharing the screen so you know see that gene anymore.

0:2:18.710 –> 0:2:20.920
Smith, Jimmy
You can just focus on on him.

0:2:20.970 –> 0:2:24.730
Smith, Jimmy
So I guess let’s let’s jump into this first.

0:2:24.780 –> 0:2:28.20
Smith, Jimmy
Maybe Hannah do a brief intro.

0:2:28.480 –> 0:2:31.490
Smith, Jimmy
To yourself about, you know, your student.

0:2:31.500 –> 0:2:35.50
Smith, Jimmy
You went that called to Portugal and your mission said, etcetera.

0:2:35.360 –> 0:2:38.50
Smith, Jimmy
And so do that really briefly.

0:2:38.60 –> 0:2:39.540
Smith, Jimmy
And then we’ll jump into the other agenda.

0:2:40.100 –> 0:2:41.370
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, sounds good.

0:2:41.420 –> 0:2:45.40
Smith, Jimmy
So, umm, basically four.

0:2:45.90 –> 0:2:45.880
Smith, Jimmy
I was actually.

0:2:46.100 –> 0:2:58.630
Smith, Jimmy
I was studying art at the IU I say and I got called to go to Lisbon, Portugal and then mentioned, and I just spent the past.

0:3:1.0 –> 0:3:2.930
Smith, Jimmy
You could say 18 months there.

0:3:3.40 –> 0:3:5.590
Smith, Jimmy
I spent a little bit of time in California.

0:3:5.600 –> 0:3:6.870
Smith, Jimmy
Riverside as well.

0:3:7.550 –> 0:3:9.260
Smith, Jimmy
I’m waiting for my visa to go to Portugal.

0:3:10.280 –> 0:3:13.770
Smith, Jimmy
Umm but yeah, and then I know.

0:3:13.900 –> 0:3:15.400
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, so here I am.

0:3:15.410 –> 0:3:15.710
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:3:15.720 –> 0:3:23.430
Smith, Jimmy
So she did the two weeks at the home in PC and that would have been we’re recording this in February of 2024.

0:3:23.440 –> 0:3:25.710
Smith, Jimmy
So it was summer of 2022.

0:3:25.720 –> 0:3:28.930
Smith, Jimmy
You did two weeks of Homeland TC and then for Visa.

0:3:28.980 –> 0:3:29.470
Smith, Jimmy
Oh, no.

0:3:29.480 –> 0:3:48.200
Smith, Jimmy
Then she went to the Provo MTC for four weeks and had, it was hoping the visa for Portugal would arrive, but it didn’t, so she spent a transfer, which is a six week period with temporary mission in California and then finally around the 1st of October.

0:3:48.210 –> 0:3:53.930
Smith, Jimmy
I think you like that October, yeah, mid October of 2022 made it to Portugal.

0:3:54.450 –> 0:3:55.70
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:3:55.110 –> 0:3:58.60
Smith, Jimmy
So there 15 months.

0:3:58.110 –> 0:4:0.80
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, yeah.

0:4:1.60 –> 0:4:1.510
Smith, Jimmy
Cool, cool.

0:4:1.520 –> 0:4:1.810
Smith, Jimmy
Cool.

0:4:2.340 –> 0:4:2.770
Smith, Jimmy
So.

0:4:2.840 –> 0:4:3.870
Smith, Jimmy
So that’s Hannah.

0:4:4.580 –> 0:4:5.890
Smith, Jimmy
And and her mission.

0:4:6.240 –> 0:4:12.50
Smith, Jimmy
And maybe we’ll have other podcasts where we talk about more details of things that happen on her mission.

0:4:12.340 –> 0:4:17.850
Smith, Jimmy
But while it’s fresh in your mind, I wanted to ask you about that last week in the mission.

0:4:17.860 –> 0:4:18.890
Smith, Jimmy
So why don’t you tell about that?

0:4:18.900 –> 0:4:23.890
Smith, Jimmy
What were your thoughts as your mission was coming to a close and how did you approach that?

0:4:23.900 –> 0:4:25.730
Smith, Jimmy
How did you make sure you didn’t get trunky?

0:4:25.740 –> 0:4:35.850
Smith, Jimmy
You know and and lose focus had you know, how did you make sure you worked hard until the end of your mission and and and what were your thoughts is you were approaching that? Yeah.

0:4:38.120 –> 0:4:48.430
Smith, Jimmy
Well, it is a lot more than just like the last week because I feel like the last like several transfers of my mission, I was like at the end is coming.

0:4:48.540 –> 0:4:53.250
Smith, Jimmy
You have to kind of start preparing yourself, and the church gives you some resources.

0:4:53.360 –> 0:4:58.430
Smith, Jimmy
I think we’ll talk about later for kind of preparing yourself to to go home.

0:4:58.440 –> 0:5:0.870
Smith, Jimmy
And so you kind of have to start thinking about it more than a week.

0:5:0.960 –> 0:5:2.590
Smith, Jimmy
No, go ahead and mention that now.

0:5:2.600 –> 0:5:3.480
Smith, Jimmy
So what is?

0:5:3.490 –> 0:5:7.0
Smith, Jimmy
What resources do the church give you as you’re preparing to come home?

0:5:7.660 –> 0:5:11.720
Smith, Jimmy
So there is this lovely thing called my and.

0:5:11.730 –> 0:5:21.690
Smith, Jimmy
So basically, in your missionary portal it just pops up one day whenever they sign it to you, and it’s basically like a six week little course you just do.

0:5:21.880 –> 0:5:23.780
Smith, Jimmy
I just did on my phone because that’s what I had.

0:5:24.500 –> 0:5:25.300
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:5:25.480 –> 0:5:35.160
Smith, Jimmy
And it just asks you it like has some quotes, some videos, series of questions about what your plans are for going home.

0:5:35.170 –> 0:5:39.50
Smith, Jimmy
You make a lot of goals, a lot of reflecting on the things you learn throughout your mission.

0:5:39.960 –> 0:5:42.330
Smith, Jimmy
Umm so it’s I was.

0:5:42.500 –> 0:5:53.210
Smith, Jimmy
I thought it would be a lot more like specific and detailed about like the plans I would make going home, but a lot of it was just like reflecting on what things like I learned spiritually on my mission.

0:5:53.220 –> 0:5:54.350
Smith, Jimmy
What like habits again?

0:5:54.360 –> 0:6:6.680
Smith, Jimmy
What I want to continue and like plans with that which I actually think is better that they make you plan to think about that than like your logistical plans of what happens when you get home.

0:6:6.690 –> 0:6:15.680
Smith, Jimmy
Because I think the church has seen that like one of the biggest struggles with returned missionaries is that they like they, like, flounder.

0:6:15.690 –> 0:6:25.340
Smith, Jimmy
A little bits spiritually, sometimes, because the mission is very it’s just spiritual every moment, and it’s very it’s very structured.

0:6:25.350 –> 0:6:27.920
Smith, Jimmy
And so yeah, when you get home, it’s just like, wow.

0:6:27.990 –> 0:6:30.950
Smith, Jimmy
So it’s just a way for them to help you.

0:6:31.560 –> 0:6:32.310
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:6:32.430 –> 0:6:34.830
Smith, Jimmy
Kind of reflect on your mission and set goals for the future.

0:6:34.840 –> 0:6:37.450
Smith, Jimmy
They also share it with your Bishop and your state president.

0:6:37.760 –> 0:6:43.340
Smith, Jimmy
My Bishop and state president both mentioned to me that they like looked at it and they read it and they were like, that was really good or whatever.

0:6:43.840 –> 0:6:46.490
Smith, Jimmy
So yeah, yeah.

0:6:46.770 –> 0:7:8.380
Smith, Jimmy
I think you’re right in that the church is very concerned with missionaries making this transfer home because it’s it’s a it’s a transition from the structured life of a missionary where you have to get up at a certain time and have scripture study at a certain time, and then all of a sudden it’s completely unstructured because you’re at home and no ones forcing you to get up at a certain time or do Scripture study it or certain time.

0:7:8.390 –> 0:7:9.710
Smith, Jimmy
So it’s very unstructured.

0:7:9.720 –> 0:7:20.920
Smith, Jimmy
So if you have a plan, you’re more likely to keep up your good habits and and keep your your spirituality high and and I think you’re transitioning to civilian life.

0:7:21.390 –> 0:7:25.120
Smith, Jimmy
Probably the churches found, I assume much better when they have a plan.

0:7:25.450 –> 0:7:26.200
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:7:26.270 –> 0:7:27.480
Smith, Jimmy
No, I think it’s.

0:7:27.530 –> 0:7:28.570
Smith, Jimmy
I think it’s really good.

0:7:28.810 –> 0:7:34.100
Smith, Jimmy
And so they give you that like, umm, I got it like 2.

0:7:34.590 –> 0:7:36.990
Smith, Jimmy
My my like second to last transfer.

0:7:37.0 –> 0:7:38.480
Smith, Jimmy
OK, actually I think I got it.

0:7:38.490 –> 0:7:42.60
Smith, Jimmy
My third to last transfer, but I didn’t start working until my transfer.

0:7:42.110 –> 0:7:45.500
Smith, Jimmy
OK, umm and it says to finish in your last six weeks.

0:7:45.510 –> 0:7:52.510
Smith, Jimmy
I just took 12 weeks to do it because I wanted to use the last like couple weeks I had during personal study to not just work on my plan.

0:7:53.110 –> 0:7:53.570
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:7:54.230 –> 0:7:57.480
Smith, Jimmy
But anyways, the point of all this is to say that basically.

0:8:0.130 –> 0:8:4.680
Smith, Jimmy
I feel like you have to start preparing yourself, at least for me.

0:8:4.690 –> 0:8:9.540
Smith, Jimmy
I had to prepare myself mentally to go home a lot more than just like a week before, but I did.

0:8:9.990 –> 0:8:11.350
Smith, Jimmy
I didn’t want to think about it.

0:8:11.360 –> 0:8:20.480
Smith, Jimmy
I didn’t want to face it and I think that’s a lot of missionaries who are very like, you know, just if you’re trying to be consecrated dedicated, it’s going to be harder to want to think about home.

0:8:20.490 –> 0:8:35.820
Smith, Jimmy
But I remember in the very beginning of my mission, I heard all the time about missionaries just being trunky, and they’re like, and to explain, if you don’t know what trunky means, basically it means you your bags are packed, your bags are packed, the truck packed.

0:8:36.0 –> 0:8:38.10
Smith, Jimmy
You wanna go checked out of your mission?

0:8:38.420 –> 0:8:38.690
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:8:38.700 –> 0:8:41.320
Smith, Jimmy
And so a lot of there’s I think there’s different ways to be.

0:8:41.330 –> 0:8:42.380
Smith, Jimmy
Absolutely. Yeah.

0:8:42.420 –> 0:8:52.780
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, there’s like some issues are chunky and so they won’t like do the work or they won’t work as hard or they’ll take longer or some missionaries will be like more disobedient.

0:8:52.790 –> 0:8:56.930
Smith, Jimmy
Like they won’t be as like obedient to the rules because they’re, like, I’m going home so.

0:8:57.940 –> 0:9:2.540
Smith, Jimmy
But also it can just be hard because sometimes you’re just chunky like you’re just thinking about home.

0:9:2.550 –> 0:9:5.310
Smith, Jimmy
That’s all you could think about because you’re like, it’s so imminent.

0:9:5.360 –> 0:9:5.660
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:9:5.670 –> 0:9:5.850
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:9:5.860 –> 0:9:13.370
Smith, Jimmy
So anyways, at the beginning of my mission I just heard all about like everyone gets trunky at the end of their mission, they stopped working hard and they stop being obedient.

0:9:13.380 –> 0:9:16.270
Smith, Jimmy
And I was like, I never wanna be like that.

0:9:16.360 –> 0:9:17.130
Smith, Jimmy
Ever.

0:9:17.200 –> 0:9:21.320
Smith, Jimmy
So I made that promise to myself, like at the beginning of my mission.

0:9:21.330 –> 0:9:30.650
Smith, Jimmy
I was like when I get towards that end, I do not wanna be the missionary that everyone looks at and it’s like, yeah, she’s really chunky and I think I succeeded.

0:9:30.710 –> 0:9:32.880
Smith, Jimmy
Well, I don’t know because it’s hard to.

0:9:32.950 –> 0:9:33.400
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:9:33.410 –> 0:9:42.440
Smith, Jimmy
And I have a biased opinion too, probably cause I mean as parents we talk to you once a week, you know, did about an hour of a video call every week and read your letters.

0:9:42.450 –> 0:9:45.680
Smith, Jimmy
And from everything we could observe, we weren’t drunk at all.

0:9:45.690 –> 0:9:46.700
Smith, Jimmy
You worked hard till the end.

0:9:46.710 –> 0:9:48.740
Smith, Jimmy
I hope that’s that’s the case.

0:9:48.830 –> 0:9:49.400
Smith, Jimmy
So.

0:9:49.450 –> 0:9:52.640
Smith, Jimmy
So let’s talk then about that last week.

0:9:52.740 –> 0:9:53.490
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, mission.

0:9:56.580 –> 0:9:56.790
Smith, Jimmy
What?

0:9:56.860 –> 0:9:57.910
Smith, Jimmy
But what more can you tell us?

0:9:57.920 –> 0:9:58.990
Smith, Jimmy
Because, because yeah, I wanted.

0:9:59.0 –> 0:9:59.800
Smith, Jimmy
Not very specific.

0:10:0.990 –> 0:10:4.480
Smith, Jimmy
I mean it’s it’s a partial week for one right cause.

0:10:4.530 –> 0:10:10.780
Smith, Jimmy
Usually you the end of one week in the beginning of the next is generally P day, right Sunday is is.

0:10:10.790 –> 0:10:17.520
Smith, Jimmy
Is is also kind of a marker, but then Mondays, your PDA and and and then, but it’s.

0:10:17.530 –> 0:10:20.940
Smith, Jimmy
It’s kind of a short week because by Wednesday or Thursday you were.

0:10:21.120 –> 0:10:24.980
Smith, Jimmy
You’re going to the mission home to meet with the mission president, and you’re taking a flight home.

0:10:25.350 –> 0:10:25.750
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:10:26.610 –> 0:10:27.880
Smith, Jimmy
Well, I don’t know.

0:10:27.890 –> 0:10:42.230
Smith, Jimmy
Maybe it’s this is what we want to talk about, but the the last full week that I had of missionary work was obviously not my last full week as a missionary, because half of that week was, as you said, spent running around and traveling.

0:10:42.450 –> 0:10:52.780
Smith, Jimmy
But I remember in order to try and I told my companion I was like, we are gonna work so hard this last week that we have like, we’re going to set some really high goals.

0:10:53.190 –> 0:11:2.960
Smith, Jimmy
And so that like we’ll just work really hard and like we’ll feel like we finished this transfer all feel like I finished my mission well, like, go out with the bang kind of thing.

0:11:2.970 –> 0:11:8.210
Smith, Jimmy
And I always like heard about machines doing that, so we it was funny because that transfer we had had a goal.

0:11:8.220 –> 0:11:18.810
Smith, Jimmy
We wanted to baptize 3 people that transfer and that last week came and we had a baptized anyone and we were kind of sad and I was like, why on Earth did we make that goal?

0:11:18.820 –> 0:11:20.570
Smith, Jimmy
And like like we could do that.

0:11:20.580 –> 0:11:43.290
Smith, Jimmy
But so we decided we were like, well, maybe we can’t baptize 3 people this week because we don’t have a new one that’s ready yet and we don’t wanna brush them, but we like, we’re gonna put four people on baptismal date this week, which means like marking a specific day that they’ll be baptized, not only inviting four people, but having four people.

0:11:43.300 –> 0:11:45.320
Smith, Jimmy
They yes, committed to a day.

0:11:45.680 –> 0:11:54.550
Smith, Jimmy
OK, which in order to do that, if you think about it, there’s six days to the week because P day and Sundays are Sunday.

0:11:54.560 –> 0:11:55.430
Smith, Jimmy
They’re interesting.

0:11:55.470 –> 0:12:2.480
Smith, Jimmy
So basically we’re like we have like kind of five days to do this and that’s four people and we had zero and we were like ohh my goodness.

0:12:2.580 –> 0:12:15.920
Smith, Jimmy
So we made a goal to do a real baptismal invite every day, like with a date, which was like kind of scary because I was like, I don’t think I’ve ever done that in my home mission, but I was like, we are here to like, this is part of our purpose.

0:12:16.400 –> 0:12:29.60
Smith, Jimmy
Invite people we baptized, so we did it and we didn’t Mark 4, but we marked 3 baptismal dates that week and we we invited someone every day to be baptized, and we obviously didn’t want to.

0:12:29.70 –> 0:12:38.120
Smith, Jimmy
Just like do it like just doing just to do it like we were trying to follow the spirit through the motions and wanted to be a sincere, no authentic invitation.

0:12:38.870 –> 0:12:42.700
Smith, Jimmy
And I feel like the Lord just kind of like gate not not gave us.

0:12:42.710 –> 0:12:45.260
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, just like he helped us, like, make that goal.

0:12:45.270 –> 0:12:54.820
Smith, Jimmy
Like one day at the end of the day, we’re supposed to have a lesson with this lady and we had planned that we were gonna invite her to be baptized, and she didn’t answer the phone when we called her to do a video call.

0:12:54.830 –> 0:12:57.140
Smith, Jimmy
We’re like, no, and it was the end of the day.

0:12:57.150 –> 0:12:58.590
Smith, Jimmy
So it was like, well, what do we do?

0:12:58.600 –> 0:13:6.430
Smith, Jimmy
Like we haven’t invited anyone yet, and I was thinking I was like, oh, well, this lady is the aunt of another guy we’re teaching.

0:13:6.440 –> 0:13:7.730
Smith, Jimmy
We should call him.

0:13:7.780 –> 0:13:8.930
Smith, Jimmy
So we called him up.

0:13:9.680 –> 0:13:18.70
Smith, Jimmy
I spontaneously and we ended up having a nice lesson with him and we invited him to be baptized and so the Lord like kind of gave us like, it worked out really well.

0:13:18.80 –> 0:13:18.350
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:13:18.400 –> 0:13:34.70
Smith, Jimmy
And he didn’t say yes, but I was like, that is just the Lord showing that, like when we make goals and we include him in our goal and say like, ask for help to meet our goals, that like he really will help us because he doesn’t want us to fail.

0:13:34.400 –> 0:13:37.210
Smith, Jimmy
And sometimes, you know, it doesn’t plagues out exactly how we want.

0:13:37.220 –> 0:13:39.690
Smith, Jimmy
We didn’t mark for baptismal days, but we marked three.

0:13:40.50 –> 0:13:40.400
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:13:40.450 –> 0:13:47.0
Smith, Jimmy
And it was like those three people that the Lord had prepared, and because we were saying we were willing, then he was able to help us.

0:13:47.150 –> 0:13:52.220
Smith, Jimmy
So I loved that that was kind of like the way we went out, that that was my last week.

0:13:52.230 –> 0:13:53.60
Smith, Jimmy
It was really cool.

0:13:53.170 –> 0:13:56.320
Smith, Jimmy
We saw a lot of other miracles too, that I won’t go into well.

0:13:56.330 –> 0:13:58.290
Smith, Jimmy
And you didn’t know this?

0:13:58.300 –> 0:14:12.950
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t think at the time, but like my last full week of my mission in Argentina 25 years ago, I had very similar experience where we invited three families to get baptized in my last full week.

0:14:13.40 –> 0:14:15.370
Smith, Jimmy
So I reading your letters home and talking to you.

0:14:15.380 –> 0:14:18.790
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, astounded, like Hannah’s last full week.

0:14:18.880 –> 0:14:29.40
Smith, Jimmy
She had committed three people to baptismal dates and the last full week of my mission, saying we we invited and in my case we invited three families, that we were teaching to be baptized.

0:14:29.50 –> 0:14:32.510
Smith, Jimmy
I think two of the three said yes to the invitation.

0:14:32.520 –> 0:14:38.440
Smith, Jimmy
So anyway, I was just amazed at at the parallels and the parallel miracles at that.

0:14:38.500 –> 0:14:47.700
Smith, Jimmy
OK, so, so that was your last full week of work and then you have Sunday and P day and you just you have a couple days and then over there something else you were gonna share about?

0:14:47.800 –> 0:14:53.60
Smith, Jimmy
Ohh well there there were like a there were a million miracles that week, but I just saw it.

0:14:53.70 –> 0:14:56.300
Smith, Jimmy
It was really cool because I know like that’s not how everyone’s like.

0:14:56.310 –> 0:15:10.580
Smith, Jimmy
Last week is, but I just felt really grateful to see, like so many of the fruits of our laborers like coming forth that week because we had worked really hard and like we weren’t really seeing any of those like fruits or things.

0:15:10.590 –> 0:15:15.550
Smith, Jimmy
But it was really great and I’m just looking at my email to see if there’s anything else specific.

0:15:15.620 –> 0:15:19.550
Smith, Jimmy
I think that was like, well, we don’t need to end up more, but yeah, yeah.

0:15:19.620 –> 0:15:23.50
Smith, Jimmy
OK, but yeah, so my last like full day of work was like Sunday.

0:15:23.440 –> 0:15:25.930
Smith, Jimmy
And I remember I thought it would like feel different, like.

0:15:25.940 –> 0:15:38.540
Smith, Jimmy
Well, my last real cross lighting day, it just felt like a normal day and then we had P day, we had District Council P days Monday District Council was Tuesday, and then Wednesday you were traveling.

0:15:38.550 –> 0:15:39.420
Smith, Jimmy
And then mission home.

0:15:40.220 –> 0:15:41.60
Smith, Jimmy
It was insane.

0:15:42.610 –> 0:15:43.560
Smith, Jimmy
You want me to go into that or?

0:15:43.570 –> 0:15:43.820
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:15:43.830 –> 0:15:44.680
Smith, Jimmy
Well, it’s just briefly.

0:15:44.690 –> 0:15:44.880
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:15:44.890 –> 0:15:52.830
Smith, Jimmy
Talk about talk traveling to the mission home and I think you had a final interview with the Mission president and then you were off to the airport.

0:15:52.880 –> 0:15:53.450
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:15:53.510 –> 0:15:54.140
Smith, Jimmy
Something like that.

0:15:54.190 –> 0:15:57.840
Smith, Jimmy
Everyone, like every mission, does it differently, like the kind of send off.

0:15:57.850 –> 0:16:11.750
Smith, Jimmy
I think all are pretty similar, so I was in the most northern area in our mission, so I had quite a traveled down to get to Lisbon, but so we was on a train for like 8 hours or something.

0:16:11.920 –> 0:16:12.990
Smith, Jimmy
Well, that’s ridiculous.

0:16:14.730 –> 0:16:17.740
Smith, Jimmy
Several hours and hours from it was not.

0:16:17.750 –> 0:16:19.540
Smith, Jimmy
It was probably like six.

0:16:20.130 –> 0:16:21.670
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:16:21.790 –> 0:16:24.760
Smith, Jimmy
So that night we stayed with just with some other sisters.

0:16:25.820 –> 0:16:26.770
Smith, Jimmy
Thursday.

0:16:27.0 –> 0:16:45.480
Smith, Jimmy
Ohh this is another resource at the church has for Mishearings returning home Thursday morning we had a self reliance class like for us so one of the counselors in the Mission presidency and a senior couple that in art serving in our mission they gave us a self reliance class.

0:16:46.190 –> 0:16:58.250
Smith, Jimmy
Umm, so we got like a little packets and stuff and but I didn’t read it, but just kind of like it was like a big, like covering up all the churches, self reliance classes, just like condensed into one.

0:16:58.320 –> 0:17:4.90
Smith, Jimmy
So I talked about, you know, like spiritual self reliance and, like, goals with that talked about like jobs.

0:17:4.100 –> 0:17:8.430
Smith, Jimmy
We talked about marriage a little bit and like dating, I missed most of that park.

0:17:8.440 –> 0:17:13.330
Smith, Jimmy
So it’s in my interview, but I’m twenty groups, stuff like that.

0:17:13.620 –> 0:17:14.70
Smith, Jimmy
OK.

0:17:14.880 –> 0:17:15.580
Smith, Jimmy
We had lunch.

0:17:16.640 –> 0:17:19.490
Smith, Jimmy
Oh yeah, and I had my my interview with my mission president.

0:17:19.500 –> 0:17:20.550
Smith, Jimmy
And how did that go?

0:17:20.920 –> 0:17:21.770
Smith, Jimmy
It was great.

0:17:22.480 –> 0:17:23.700
Smith, Jimmy
I love my mission president.

0:17:23.710 –> 0:17:25.290
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, you had a great mission president.

0:17:25.300 –> 0:17:27.650
Smith, Jimmy
You had a really good relationship with an I felt so.

0:17:28.50 –> 0:17:28.210
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:17:28.240 –> 0:17:30.770
Smith, Jimmy
So yeah, so So what?

0:17:30.780 –> 0:17:33.700
Smith, Jimmy
What did you talk about and what were you feeling then?

0:17:34.710 –> 0:17:38.740
Smith, Jimmy
You don’t have to go into a lot of details, especially if it’s private or tender, but no.

0:17:38.950 –> 0:17:40.680
Smith, Jimmy
That’s just we.

0:17:40.730 –> 0:17:50.290
Smith, Jimmy
So we talked about where he had me try and reflect a little bit about like what were the biggest takeaways that I had, uh, things I learned like ways.

0:17:50.300 –> 0:17:51.700
Smith, Jimmy
I grew closer to the Savior.

0:17:52.750 –> 0:17:59.370
Smith, Jimmy
That was funny because I felt like I always feel like when you, like, have gained a stronger testimony.

0:17:59.380 –> 0:18:6.680
Smith, Jimmy
I always thought it would be like some like crazy thing that like made it so that you hadn’t increased testimony and love for the savior.

0:18:7.10 –> 0:18:7.930
Smith, Jimmy
But I was thinking about it.

0:18:7.940 –> 0:18:21.480
Smith, Jimmy
I was like at the end of the day, like, really what made a difference was, like my daily Scripture study and my prayers and like, taking the sacrament like it really was like those simple like things.

0:18:21.490 –> 0:18:22.100
Smith, Jimmy
Couple things.

0:18:22.110 –> 0:18:26.580
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, it wasn’t like obviously like when you get to share your testimony too.

0:18:26.590 –> 0:18:33.70
Smith, Jimmy
That’s a big thing, but I felt like those biggest moments where I like felt it most in my heart.

0:18:33.80 –> 0:18:39.250
Smith, Jimmy
Like the truthfulness of these things like was in like those private moments of like prayer and scripture study.

0:18:39.360 –> 0:18:42.270
Smith, Jimmy
So that was interesting to reflect upon.

0:18:43.20 –> 0:18:44.210
Smith, Jimmy
We talked a little bit.

0:18:44.260 –> 0:18:44.970
Smith, Jimmy
I’ll pull it up.

0:18:45.310 –> 0:18:46.640
Smith, Jimmy
Let me look at my I took some notes.

0:18:46.930 –> 0:18:51.410
Smith, Jimmy
Two, umm, we talked a bit about my goals for coming home.

0:18:51.900 –> 0:18:52.470
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:18:52.740 –> 0:18:56.90
Smith, Jimmy
And he gave some saw your my plan too, I presume.

0:18:56.180 –> 0:18:58.150
Smith, Jimmy
Ohh think so.

0:18:58.160 –> 0:19:0.660
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t know, but you talked about your goals for coming home.

0:19:0.700 –> 0:19:1.570
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah. OK.

0:19:1.890 –> 0:19:3.350
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, let me write.

0:19:3.360 –> 0:19:7.20
Smith, Jimmy
Ohh yeah, he made me a promise.

0:19:7.30 –> 0:19:17.940
Smith, Jimmy
He said if you will pray every morning in Portuguese, then you will like be like fluent enough for the rest of your life.

0:19:17.950 –> 0:19:21.40
Smith, Jimmy
And I was like, well, OK, so I’ve tried to.

0:19:21.50 –> 0:19:21.750
Smith, Jimmy
I’ve done that.

0:19:21.790 –> 0:19:22.240
Smith, Jimmy
It’s good.

0:19:22.290 –> 0:19:26.160
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, my mission president is hurting me to read the Book of Mormon.

0:19:26.170 –> 0:19:27.810
Smith, Jimmy
And Spanish, my mission language.

0:19:28.230 –> 0:19:31.390
Smith, Jimmy
Every year I’ve read it, I read it.

0:19:31.440 –> 0:19:33.490
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, I’ve rented a few times.

0:19:33.500 –> 0:19:34.190
Smith, Jimmy
That’s cool.

0:19:34.230 –> 0:19:35.920
Smith, Jimmy
My mission, but I have not done.

0:19:35.930 –> 0:19:40.490
Smith, Jimmy
Every year I’ve read the Book of Mormon holy once in prison.

0:19:40.540 –> 0:19:47.100
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, but it’s I mean, but, but that’s something in your language sounds more doable.

0:19:47.110 –> 0:19:48.690
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, keep your language up.

0:19:48.700 –> 0:19:50.190
Smith, Jimmy
So anyway, that’s great idea.

0:19:51.190 –> 0:19:52.790
Smith, Jimmy
We talked about my other goals.

0:19:52.800 –> 0:20:5.960
Smith, Jimmy
He talked about how and I thought this is interesting how serving in the church and like having callings can be a like really big source of spiritual growth because he’s like on the mission.

0:20:6.30 –> 0:20:24.70
Smith, Jimmy
Like you have this like calling of being a missionary that I’ll like through this calling and serving you like have this big amount of spiritual growth and obviously like the pace that you have can have it as a missionary and like that sometimes can’t be like you may not have that that equal pace at any other part of your life.

0:20:24.400 –> 0:20:27.410
Smith, Jimmy
Maybe I don’t know if that’s a true statement or not, but.

0:20:28.240 –> 0:20:33.200
Smith, Jimmy
And he was saying callings can help you have that same kind of spiritual growth like you have on a mission.

0:20:33.210 –> 0:20:39.240
Smith, Jimmy
So he encouraged a lot, like serving in the church, helping with the missionaries at home.

0:20:39.310 –> 0:20:40.200
Smith, Jimmy
John trying to do.

0:20:40.970 –> 0:20:45.970
Smith, Jimmy
I’m trying to like that we talked about my job.

0:20:46.10 –> 0:20:51.680
Smith, Jimmy
Like future job and school ideas, he gave me marriage advice, which was fun.

0:20:54.160 –> 0:20:56.810
Smith, Jimmy
And yeah, no, but it was really great.

0:20:56.820 –> 0:20:59.710
Smith, Jimmy
Let’s just kind of like wrap everything up like this.

0:20:59.770 –> 0:21:1.160
Smith, Jimmy
We both like cried a little bit.

0:21:1.170 –> 0:21:5.880
Smith, Jimmy
It was so sweet cause I’ve, like, loved my interviews with my mission president and I love him.

0:21:5.890 –> 0:21:9.940
Smith, Jimmy
So it was like it was kind of sad be like, oh, this is the last one.

0:21:10.30 –> 0:21:12.400
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, but it was really, really good.

0:21:13.210 –> 0:21:14.560
Smith, Jimmy
OK, very good.

0:21:14.630 –> 0:21:22.590
Smith, Jimmy
So, uh, so then you you were off to the airport at that point off to the temple at that point.

0:21:22.750 –> 0:21:23.830
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, we went to the session.

0:21:23.840 –> 0:21:31.780
Smith, Jimmy
We did a session at the temple and then we had like goodbye dinner at the mission home and this was all on Thursday on Thursday.

0:21:31.790 –> 0:21:32.820
Smith, Jimmy
OK, packed in.

0:21:33.570 –> 0:21:35.680
Smith, Jimmy
OK so and this, it was fun.

0:21:35.690 –> 0:21:37.0
Smith, Jimmy
It was like the whole day.

0:21:37.10 –> 0:21:38.960
Smith, Jimmy
It was just like me and all the other machine is going home.

0:21:38.970 –> 0:21:42.970
Smith, Jimmy
And then when we went to the mission home, like the apps and the sister apps were there.

0:21:43.270 –> 0:21:43.590
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:21:43.960 –> 0:21:45.850
Smith, Jimmy
It’s just a personals made it all the food.

0:21:45.860 –> 0:21:54.450
Smith, Jimmy
It was really good Brazilian food and we just like all chatted and we’re like reminiscing and they gave a little devotional.

0:21:54.460 –> 0:21:55.280
Smith, Jimmy
President Brussels.

0:21:55.290 –> 0:21:59.870
Smith, Jimmy
Since parcels did and we sing our mission home, it was cute.

0:22:0.690 –> 0:22:3.650
Smith, Jimmy
And we were all just, like, really sad.

0:22:4.520 –> 0:22:8.30
Smith, Jimmy
But it was like good, but yeah, lots of crime anyways.

0:22:8.40 –> 0:22:14.690
Smith, Jimmy
So that went to the hotel by the airport and we had to make sure backs were all good.

0:22:15.20 –> 0:22:19.350
Smith, Jimmy
And then, yeah, the next morning, Friday morning, we’re off to the airport.

0:22:19.560 –> 0:22:19.950
Smith, Jimmy
OK.

0:22:19.990 –> 0:22:22.590
Smith, Jimmy
So Thursday night you went to a hotel right by the airport.

0:22:22.600 –> 0:22:25.970
Smith, Jimmy
So you can get up bright and early like very early Friday morning to.

0:22:25.980 –> 0:22:30.190
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, a flight from Lisbon to New York. NY.

0:22:30.200 –> 0:22:30.650
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:22:30.660 –> 0:22:35.150
Smith, Jimmy
So we, me and the six other missionaries I was with, we.

0:22:36.680 –> 0:22:37.790
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, we had.

0:22:37.840 –> 0:22:39.190
Smith, Jimmy
We dragged all of our backs.

0:22:39.740 –> 0:22:40.950
Smith, Jimmy
It was horrible.

0:22:41.140 –> 0:22:41.840
Smith, Jimmy
Ohh my goodness.

0:22:43.260 –> 0:22:48.390
Smith, Jimmy
And the missionary knows, like, just transfers and like bags.

0:22:48.400 –> 0:22:48.710
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:22:48.720 –> 0:22:49.100
Smith, Jimmy
Horrible.

0:22:49.740 –> 0:22:53.430
Smith, Jimmy
I’m yeah, but once you like checked our bags is a lot better.

0:22:53.480 –> 0:22:55.130
Smith, Jimmy
I had a heavy duffel bag, though.

0:22:55.180 –> 0:22:56.570
Smith, Jimmy
The an elder carried for me.

0:22:56.630 –> 0:22:57.310
Smith, Jimmy
Shout out.

0:22:57.400 –> 0:22:58.250
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, awesome.

0:22:58.260 –> 0:23:0.400
Smith, Jimmy
Heavy one that it was really never a minute.

0:23:2.80 –> 0:23:7.480
Smith, Jimmy
So OK, packing is like wait like packing to go was way harder than I thought I was.

0:23:7.490 –> 0:23:9.490
Smith, Jimmy
Like I will leave everything I have.

0:23:9.500 –> 0:23:9.850
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:23:9.920 –> 0:23:13.590
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t wanna take anything home like like like, closes.

0:23:13.600 –> 0:23:16.900
Smith, Jimmy
Random like shampoo like hairbrush, like?

0:23:16.910 –> 0:23:17.790
Smith, Jimmy
Just whatever.

0:23:17.900 –> 0:23:19.430
Smith, Jimmy
But that thing you could well.

0:23:19.440 –> 0:23:19.810
Smith, Jimmy
Nope.

0:23:19.820 –> 0:23:24.890
Smith, Jimmy
Well, I thought I would, but then I was like, well, then I have to buy it all.

0:23:25.820 –> 0:23:29.230
Smith, Jimmy
So I’m not doing that, so I left a lot less than I thought I would.

0:23:29.600 –> 0:23:31.330
Smith, Jimmy
So then I saw a lot of stuff, but I left all I could.

0:23:32.710 –> 0:23:33.290
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:23:33.330 –> 0:23:46.640
Smith, Jimmy
Anyways, see how so we flew from uh Lisbon to JFK and then uh didn’t have about 5 hour later there at JFK airport in New York before.

0:23:47.410 –> 0:23:56.50
Smith, Jimmy
Well, yeah, the six, each of you 6 missions from there split off to your, you know, whether they’re going to Salt Lake or North Carolina.

0:23:56.60 –> 0:23:57.940
Smith, Jimmy
And Hannah’s case coming to Dallas.

0:23:58.320 –> 0:24:0.70
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, yeah.

0:24:0.140 –> 0:24:1.590
Smith, Jimmy
Yep, it was fun too.

0:24:1.600 –> 0:24:3.840
Smith, Jimmy
In the airport, we met a bunch of members of the church.

0:24:3.850 –> 0:24:6.110
Smith, Jimmy
We met Ohh two Brazilian members.

0:24:6.120 –> 0:24:7.910
Smith, Jimmy
We met a Portuguese member.

0:24:8.360 –> 0:24:10.210
Smith, Jimmy
It was fun and we were so excited.

0:24:10.220 –> 0:24:13.850
Smith, Jimmy
We were like we even spoke Portuguese in like 7 hours.

0:24:14.100 –> 0:24:14.990
Smith, Jimmy
We’re so excited.

0:24:15.0 –> 0:24:20.240
Smith, Jimmy
We’re like, yeah, missionaries always stick out of their pork because obviously they’re dressed.

0:24:20.250 –> 0:24:22.90
Smith, Jimmy
And their name tag and you were still.

0:24:22.100 –> 0:24:29.380
Smith, Jimmy
You haven’t been really, so you’re still full time missionaries, and you’re supposed to stay as much as possible with companion and with mission rules, right?

0:24:29.390 –> 0:24:29.960
Smith, Jimmy
Right, right.

0:24:30.730 –> 0:24:31.870
Smith, Jimmy
OK cool so.

0:24:33.870 –> 0:24:42.270
Smith, Jimmy
Anything else you want to say about that, or should we jump to you arrived in Dallas where me and your mom and siblings met you at the airport?

0:24:42.320 –> 0:24:45.150
Smith, Jimmy
I will just add like Oh my goodness.

0:24:45.160 –> 0:24:50.410
Smith, Jimmy
Like that was the most like I felt so anxious that whole entire day.

0:24:50.500 –> 0:24:53.790
Smith, Jimmy
It was just like, oh, no, it’s all coming to an end.

0:24:54.260 –> 0:25:4.10
Smith, Jimmy
Like I have to leave Portugal, I have to, like, leave all those people that I like met and, like, loved and like, it’s just like I don’t know what.

0:25:4.20 –> 0:25:4.610
Smith, Jimmy
I’ll go back.

0:25:4.620 –> 0:25:7.830
Smith, Jimmy
So that was just kind of like it’s just it was just kind of like sad.

0:25:7.840 –> 0:25:8.250
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:25:8.330 –> 0:25:14.400
Smith, Jimmy
And then it was like, once we, like got out of Portugal like, OK, I’m like that it’s there now.

0:25:16.330 –> 0:25:21.40
Smith, Jimmy
But then he was like, oh man, I’ve got, like, a whole bunch of other things to like, think about and worry about.

0:25:21.50 –> 0:25:25.320
Smith, Jimmy
And I felt like, you know, that last week to couple, you know, transfer.

0:25:25.330 –> 0:25:26.330
Smith, Jimmy
I was just trying to like.

0:25:26.390 –> 0:25:28.610
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, just what’s the word?

0:25:30.450 –> 0:25:31.360
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, like?

0:25:31.370 –> 0:25:32.260
Smith, Jimmy
Enjoy that.

0:25:32.310 –> 0:25:36.440
Smith, Jimmy
And like I don’t know the word I’m thinking, of course he’s up.

0:25:37.770 –> 0:25:39.220
Smith, Jimmy
Just like that, end of the mission.

0:25:39.230 –> 0:25:42.240
Smith, Jimmy
Like, really like worked really hard.

0:25:42.250 –> 0:25:42.430
Smith, Jimmy
Like.

0:25:42.440 –> 0:25:42.660
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:25:42.670 –> 0:25:43.870
Smith, Jimmy
Take advantage of it the most.

0:25:43.880 –> 0:25:45.30
Smith, Jimmy
Make the most there you go.

0:25:45.650 –> 0:25:48.900
Smith, Jimmy
Umm, so it was like I felt like I didn’t like think.

0:25:49.340 –> 0:25:52.940
Smith, Jimmy
I mean, I thought about home a lot, but I like.

0:25:52.990 –> 0:25:56.940
Smith, Jimmy
For me, I was just like I just put it in the back of my mind because I was just like I can’t right now.

0:25:56.950 –> 0:26:2.880
Smith, Jimmy
I can’t think about that, but then on that traveling day home, I was just like, oh, man, it’s all coming.

0:26:3.590 –> 0:26:8.700
Smith, Jimmy
So it was like, of course, like lots of excitement like happy emotions.

0:26:8.770 –> 0:26:11.870
Smith, Jimmy
But it was a lot more like, just like, Oh my goodness.

0:26:11.880 –> 0:26:13.80
Smith, Jimmy
Like scary.

0:26:13.140 –> 0:26:19.790
Smith, Jimmy
More than I’ve ever thought it would be because I was always like, I won’t be that missionary because, like, stared in like, sad to go home.

0:26:19.800 –> 0:26:25.710
Smith, Jimmy
I’ll just be fine, but then it’s like when you really dedicate yourself like to the work and the loving the people.

0:26:25.720 –> 0:26:28.530
Smith, Jimmy
It’s like it’s harder to leave than you think it would be.

0:26:28.580 –> 0:26:29.30
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:26:29.80 –> 0:26:29.370
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:26:29.380 –> 0:26:34.470
Smith, Jimmy
Well, really is they always say mixed emotions and that’s described because you love your mission.

0:26:34.480 –> 0:26:35.290
Smith, Jimmy
You love the people there.

0:26:35.300 –> 0:26:36.150
Smith, Jimmy
You don’t want to leave.

0:26:36.380 –> 0:26:37.340
Smith, Jimmy
You missed home.

0:26:37.360 –> 0:26:38.380
Smith, Jimmy
Didn’t want to stay in?

0:26:38.560 –> 0:26:40.550
Smith, Jimmy
Well, the answer like I was that was done.

0:26:40.560 –> 0:26:40.940
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:26:40.990 –> 0:26:44.150
Smith, Jimmy
And you were looking forward to seeing your family again.

0:26:44.160 –> 0:26:47.90
Smith, Jimmy
And and and moving on with your life and so forth.

0:26:47.100 –> 0:26:54.590
Smith, Jimmy
So it really is this, this probably flood of emotions as as you’ve described and it’s it’s a flood of emotion for parents as well.

0:26:54.670 –> 0:27:0.470
Smith, Jimmy
I mean I I uh, uh, your mom, my wife Heather.

0:27:0.530 –> 0:27:4.570
Smith, Jimmy
She had a countdown on her phone from like more than a month.

0:27:4.700 –> 0:27:5.950
Smith, Jimmy
It’s like this countdown.

0:27:6.400 –> 0:27:10.410
Smith, Jimmy
Penney’s Hannah will be home in 31 days and 20 days.

0:27:10.420 –> 0:27:11.590
Smith, Jimmy
She was counting down.

0:27:11.900 –> 0:27:14.490
Smith, Jimmy
She she missed you greatly as than me.

0:27:14.500 –> 0:27:16.950
Smith, Jimmy
And and and all all the family.

0:27:17.640 –> 0:27:29.150
Smith, Jimmy
So but maybe we can talk transition and talk about that now as as a family, we did like most other families of share my screen really briefly.

0:27:29.900 –> 0:27:30.180
Smith, Jimmy
Uh.

0:27:31.400 –> 0:27:35.110
Smith, Jimmy
The I have some pictures I wanted to show.

0:27:35.180 –> 0:27:36.200
Smith, Jimmy
Well, one picture.

0:27:36.210 –> 0:27:41.400
Smith, Jimmy
I’ll, I’ll show you know, like, like a lot of families do.

0:27:41.410 –> 0:27:43.110
Smith, Jimmy
We went to the airport to meet Hannah.

0:27:43.120 –> 0:27:49.30
Smith, Jimmy
We were there, you know, we thought we were there plenty early and and we were there plenty early, but we you know.

0:27:52.190 –> 0:27:53.550
Smith, Jimmy
We made these posters.

0:27:53.560 –> 0:28:0.250
Smith, Jimmy
Everybody had a poster and we were, you know, we were running around when we got to the airport, we kind of frantic because we went to where we thought you were going to be.

0:28:0.260 –> 0:28:5.750
Smith, Jimmy
And then we went to this other terminal and then we came back and we were worried we were going to miss you.

0:28:5.760 –> 0:28:13.510
Smith, Jimmy
But then we were way early because then we were still, you know, we were standing outside the door where you came out for at least 20 or 30 minutes before you finally came out.

0:28:13.550 –> 0:28:14.370
Smith, Jimmy
So it was.

0:28:14.380 –> 0:28:15.110
Smith, Jimmy
It was totally fine.

0:28:17.280 –> 0:28:27.510
Smith, Jimmy
Well, the DFW airport is huge, is one of the biggest in in the in the nation and the signage was not clear because we went to the right place to begin with.

0:28:27.520 –> 0:28:29.570
Smith, Jimmy
But then it didn’t seem like the right place.

0:28:29.580 –> 0:28:32.890
Smith, Jimmy
So we went to the other place and then we came back anyway.

0:28:32.900 –> 0:28:33.410
Smith, Jimmy
It was about.

0:28:33.420 –> 0:28:44.970
Smith, Jimmy
But anyway, we made pictures, so there’s myself and my wife and and three of our our four kids, four ABS on the phone.

0:28:45.40 –> 0:28:45.450
Smith, Jimmy
Five.

0:28:45.500 –> 0:28:47.130
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, our son’s at BYU.

0:28:47.140 –> 0:28:49.90
Smith, Jimmy
He’s there on the well.

0:28:49.100 –> 0:28:57.60
Smith, Jimmy
We so Hannah plus three of our kids that are living at home, plus our college kid A+.

0:28:57.70 –> 0:29:0.420
Smith, Jimmy
Truman was tired and didn’t want to come.

0:29:1.20 –> 0:29:5.130
Smith, Jimmy
He’s he’s he’s our son with some mental health challenges.

0:29:5.140 –> 0:29:6.280
Smith, Jimmy
So he was at home.

0:29:6.690 –> 0:29:7.720
Smith, Jimmy
Uh, very way.

0:29:7.730 –> 0:29:8.980
Smith, Jimmy
So we met Hannah Anderson.

0:29:8.990 –> 0:29:12.800
Smith, Jimmy
This was the picture, so just wanted to and you’re looking at it.

0:29:12.810 –> 0:29:14.730
Smith, Jimmy
Yes, I look exhausted.

0:29:15.250 –> 0:29:17.760
Smith, Jimmy
It’s because I had traveled for like 18 hours.

0:29:17.770 –> 0:29:18.840
Smith, Jimmy
So yes, stupid.

0:29:18.850 –> 0:29:24.660
Smith, Jimmy
Traveling all day and this was like 10:10 PM, ten or 10:30.

0:29:24.770 –> 0:29:29.620
Smith, Jimmy
Our time like 3 it’s would have been like, yeah, 3:00 AM this time.

0:29:29.630 –> 0:29:34.360
Smith, Jimmy
So like 4 no by that time.

0:29:34.370 –> 0:29:40.20
Smith, Jimmy
So so that that’s from our perspective as parents and family, you coming home?

0:29:40.30 –> 0:29:46.380
Smith, Jimmy
We waited anxiously and of course, when you walk through that gate, everybody came and gave you big hugs and so forth.

0:29:46.610 –> 0:29:51.580
Smith, Jimmy
What were your thoughts and emotions at that time bouncing.

0:29:52.120 –> 0:29:52.950
Smith, Jimmy
That’s exciting.

0:29:53.10 –> 0:29:54.910
Smith, Jimmy
OK, it was just. It was crazy.

0:29:54.920 –> 0:29:56.30
Smith, Jimmy
I was like what?

0:29:56.180 –> 0:29:57.620
Smith, Jimmy
And like feel like I never left.

0:29:58.650 –> 0:30:0.280
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t know that’s how it felt for me.

0:30:0.290 –> 0:30:1.920
Smith, Jimmy
I’m just like ohh my gosh.

0:30:1.930 –> 0:30:7.850
Smith, Jimmy
Like I’m back, it was like, wait like on that like it just it.

0:30:7.910 –> 0:30:11.640
Smith, Jimmy
It felt kind of like surreal I was, but it was.

0:30:11.650 –> 0:30:12.580
Smith, Jimmy
So I don’t know.

0:30:12.630 –> 0:30:12.960
Smith, Jimmy
It’s good.

0:30:12.970 –> 0:30:15.720
Smith, Jimmy
Just like ohh yeah.

0:30:15.760 –> 0:30:21.940
Smith, Jimmy
You guys are cute and everything is so big I think lies is so like tall and like.

0:30:21.990 –> 0:30:25.0
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, the charity devices right now, she’s probably 10.

0:30:25.10 –> 0:30:28.0
Smith, Jimmy
When you left, all the kids are sprouted up.

0:30:28.310 –> 0:30:38.870
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, but it’s interesting that you say it’s like you never left because I’ve kind of had that same feeling like, like within a day or two is like, Hanna’s back in our family, in our home.

0:30:38.880 –> 0:30:41.590
Smith, Jimmy
It’s like she never left, even though she was gone for 18 months.

0:30:42.300 –> 0:30:44.890
Smith, Jimmy
Well, it’s crazy too, because it’s like in my brain.

0:30:44.900 –> 0:30:49.790
Smith, Jimmy
I’m like, I’m just back in high school cause like I haven’t really lived at home since I like left high school.

0:30:49.840 –> 0:30:50.770
Smith, Jimmy
I liked it.

0:30:50.880 –> 0:30:51.500
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:30:51.740 –> 0:30:52.110
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:30:52.150 –> 0:30:58.370
Smith, Jimmy
So yeah, cuz you graduated high school and then soon you’re off to BYU and then you came back briefly and then off to the mission.

0:30:58.380 –> 0:31:0.210
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, but it’s good.

0:31:0.220 –> 0:31:13.740
Smith, Jimmy
I’m like, I’m like trying to spend every spare second I have like my siblings and with mom and dad and talking and just like, taking it all in because yeah, it’s precious time.

0:31:13.790 –> 0:31:14.290
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah.

0:31:14.350 –> 0:31:19.370
Smith, Jimmy
So a let’s briefly talk about you got home.

0:31:19.380 –> 0:31:22.790
Smith, Jimmy
It was late on a Friday night on Saturday.

0:31:22.800 –> 0:31:29.230
Smith, Jimmy
Let’s briefly talk about how you were released by your state president and then Sunday was your homecoming talk.

0:31:29.240 –> 0:31:31.30
Smith, Jimmy
So let’s talk about those things.

0:31:31.160 –> 0:31:33.240
Smith, Jimmy
Talk about like billion things back to back.

0:31:35.60 –> 0:31:36.140
Smith, Jimmy
So yeah, Saturday.

0:31:37.680 –> 0:31:38.50
Smith, Jimmy
Uh.

0:31:38.500 –> 0:31:40.170
Smith, Jimmy
Ohh yeah, stake president.

0:31:40.640 –> 0:31:45.490
Smith, Jimmy
So he came over to our house at, like, 1:00 o’clock in the afternoon.

0:31:45.680 –> 0:31:56.150
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, he had some meetings all morning on Saturday morning, so as soon as he was done, he came over to our house, which was a surprise to me because when I was released from my mission, I went to the stake center.

0:31:56.240 –> 0:32:2.250
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t know if if that’s if that’s just differs based on the preferences of the state president.

0:32:2.260 –> 0:32:4.150
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t know, but you know his?

0:32:4.640 –> 0:32:5.190
Smith, Jimmy
His.

0:32:5.240 –> 0:32:12.640
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, his executive secretary reached out to me a couple weeks ago before that and said, hey, he wants to come to your home to release Hannah.

0:32:12.710 –> 0:32:13.520
Smith, Jimmy
So.

0:32:13.590 –> 0:32:14.150
Smith, Jimmy
So he did that?

0:32:15.350 –> 0:32:15.910
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:32:16.300 –> 0:32:21.960
Smith, Jimmy
So yeah, I like had spent that morning still as like a set apartment share was like my tag and stuff.

0:32:22.10 –> 0:32:25.410
Smith, Jimmy
And yeah, so he came over, he met with me, like, privately.

0:32:25.420 –> 0:32:26.170
Smith, Jimmy
We talked about.

0:32:27.930 –> 0:32:33.600
Smith, Jimmy
And we talk about, we talk about you mentioned my my plan, umm and.

0:32:36.60 –> 0:32:41.310
Smith, Jimmy
Basically was like you did good and he was like sometimes or not.

0:32:41.320 –> 0:32:46.610
Smith, Jimmy
Sometimes, most of the time, it’s the best missionaries that have the hardest time coming home.

0:32:46.620 –> 0:32:55.450
Smith, Jimmy
He’s like, so if you feel like you’re having a hard time, it’s probably because you were a good missionary and you’re actually, like, obedient and dedicated and consecrated.

0:32:55.460 –> 0:33:0.440
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, this is good to know, so keep that in mind.

0:33:1.970 –> 0:33:8.580
Smith, Jimmy
But anyways, yeah, we just basically talked about that and then we met, we grow the whole family were in the room.

0:33:9.240 –> 0:33:14.210
Smith, Jimmy
Umm, it’s like interesting when you get set apart to be a missionary.

0:33:14.220 –> 0:33:22.280
Smith, Jimmy
It’s like they do it by the laying on of hands and it’s like not like very formal, but it’s like it’s more formal.

0:33:22.290 –> 0:33:24.250
Smith, Jimmy
Well, you have that formal step of the mission.

0:33:24.260 –> 0:33:28.0
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, the state president putting his hands on your head is setting your partner right there.

0:33:28.50 –> 0:33:31.260
Smith, Jimmy
But when you’re released, it’s it’s just thanks.

0:33:31.270 –> 0:33:34.980
Smith, Jimmy
There’s no setting setting on of hands and just shook my hands.

0:33:35.370 –> 0:33:36.420
Smith, Jimmy
And thank you for your service.

0:33:37.400 –> 0:33:38.970
Smith, Jimmy
So he was like, Are you ready?

0:33:38.980 –> 0:33:40.40
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, huh?

0:33:40.540 –> 0:33:45.540
Smith, Jimmy
And he just, like, stood up and shook my hand and said, yeah, like, thank you for your service.

0:33:45.550 –> 0:33:47.770
Smith, Jimmy
You are hereby like released.

0:33:47.880 –> 0:33:49.620
Smith, Jimmy
You take off your tag.

0:33:49.630 –> 0:33:56.130
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, I know he was crying and I took my tag off and it was sad.

0:33:56.140 –> 0:33:58.690
Smith, Jimmy
And then I was, like, holding it.

0:33:58.700 –> 0:34:1.930
Smith, Jimmy
And I kept like trying to put it back on and it kept going to put it back on.

0:34:2.120 –> 0:34:14.100
Smith, Jimmy
So I was like ohh no, I was like why isn’t my title like it’s just umm but it was just like, no, no, they always say like you know, it doesn’t matter if you have the tag.

0:34:14.110 –> 0:34:17.160
Smith, Jimmy
You’re not cause like it’s the name of Christ is written in your heart.

0:34:17.170 –> 0:34:18.400
Smith, Jimmy
Like it’ll stay there.

0:34:18.470 –> 0:34:24.740
Smith, Jimmy
So just kind of try and keep that in mind, but it’s still like it’s kind of like sad to take it off.

0:34:24.840 –> 0:34:30.790
Smith, Jimmy
And then at the same time I was like, OK, like this is a relief like I did it.

0:34:31.720 –> 0:34:37.390
Smith, Jimmy
And like I I had, I was talking to one of my old companions and she was like you did it.

0:34:37.400 –> 0:34:41.380
Smith, Jimmy
Like, celebrate like, look at like, look at what you did.

0:34:41.390 –> 0:34:50.560
Smith, Jimmy
You just did these like 18 months of, like, precious service for the Lord and like, that was like, hard and like you did it.

0:34:51.260 –> 0:34:53.400
Smith, Jimmy
And you lived in another country and you learned a language.

0:34:53.410 –> 0:34:57.730
Smith, Jimmy
And you’ve taught people and you love people like pat yourself on the back and not don’t.

0:34:57.740 –> 0:35:5.410
Smith, Jimmy
Just like while the when you said, you know, like it’s like now go like be excited and go like continue with your life.

0:35:5.420 –> 0:35:10.610
Smith, Jimmy
It’s like your missions not over, like you’re still you can still serve the Lord.

0:35:10.740 –> 0:35:14.170
Smith, Jimmy
So anyways, just yeah.

0:35:14.180 –> 0:35:19.380
Smith, Jimmy
So that’s that’s interesting that you put it that way because like I, I wasn’t planning to talk about this.

0:35:19.390 –> 0:35:25.810
Smith, Jimmy
But the week after Hannah came home, I had her come to my office and talked to my colleagues just at at kind of a luncheon.

0:35:25.820 –> 0:35:35.950
Smith, Jimmy
Learn just because while she was gone for 18 months, every once in a while, I would talk to my all my coworkers knew she was on a mission and I would show him pictures.

0:35:35.960 –> 0:35:39.420
Smith, Jimmy
And they would ask about House Hannah doing in Portugal says so.

0:35:39.430 –> 0:35:45.620
Smith, Jimmy
I thought I’ll just have her come talk to them, but every one of my colleagues at work and and none of them are members of the church.

0:35:45.990 –> 0:35:47.240
Smith, Jimmy
We’re so complementary.

0:35:47.250 –> 0:35:52.140
Smith, Jimmy
They’re just like, so amazed at the sacrifice that our missionaries make.

0:35:52.150 –> 0:36:9.360
Smith, Jimmy
And I think I think it’s, it’s taken for granted somewhat within the church that your missionary service, but it is a huge accomplishment to totally give up your life for 18 months or 24 months for the elders and to leave home and leave school and work and and family and friends behind.

0:36:9.370 –> 0:36:12.300
Smith, Jimmy
I mean it’s it’s it’s an amazing sacrifice.

0:36:12.370 –> 0:36:13.410
Smith, Jimmy
It’s a great experience.

0:36:14.50 –> 0:36:20.280
Smith, Jimmy
You I you grew in, in, in amazing ways both physically and spiritually.

0:36:20.810 –> 0:36:23.620
Smith, Jimmy
But it is a an amazing accomplishment.

0:36:23.670 –> 0:36:28.860
Smith, Jimmy
And as as as you know, I don’t like to use the word proud.

0:36:28.870 –> 0:36:37.870
Smith, Jimmy
So you should be proud of yourself, but you should be very pleased of yourself and of the the accomplishments of serving and faithful mission.

0:36:41.180 –> 0:36:52.10
Smith, Jimmy
So umm, let’s try and wrap this up within the next few minutes, but let’s you’ve been released on Saturday.

0:36:52.20 –> 0:36:57.160
Smith, Jimmy
On Sunday, you gave a homecoming Talk 1 won’t you just briefly talk about that and the rest of the day Sunday?

0:36:57.850 –> 0:37:1.290
Smith, Jimmy
Umm yeah, just spoke at church about.

0:37:3.180 –> 0:37:7.730
Smith, Jimmy
I tried to sum up my entire 18 months in basically 12.

0:37:8.0 –> 0:37:10.800
Smith, Jimmy
Now, I don’t feel like 15 minutes 15 minutes.

0:37:11.450 –> 0:37:12.110
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:37:12.590 –> 0:37:13.820
Smith, Jimmy
Which it was so funny.

0:37:13.830 –> 0:37:27.940
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, I could not even think about what I would possibly could say like about so much in so little time, but I ended up and I ended up writing it like the night before because I didn’t.

0:37:28.50 –> 0:37:46.550
Smith, Jimmy
I’ve tried to write it on my travel day home, but I couldn’t focus and but I mean I guess you guys don’t need to know what I spoke about, but I spoke about like the Holy Ghost and the influence of that has like on the mission and just in general and life as a member of the church and as a person.

0:37:47.200 –> 0:37:52.90
Smith, Jimmy
Umm and yeah, it was a good experience.

0:37:52.220 –> 0:37:55.390
Smith, Jimmy
I bore my testimony at the end of what you can’t worry.

0:37:55.680 –> 0:37:57.170
Smith, Jimmy
And I did cry a little bit.

0:37:57.380 –> 0:37:59.780
Smith, Jimmy
So, umm yeah.

0:37:59.840 –> 0:38:8.110
Smith, Jimmy
And then that later that day, we had a little open house and we just had some food in our house and we invited people to come say Hi to me if they wanted. Yeah.

0:38:8.120 –> 0:38:12.390
Smith, Jimmy
And yeah, most of the people from the ward pain that like, you mean yeah.

0:38:12.500 –> 0:38:24.600
Smith, Jimmy
From when I was like a use but it was good and just fun little like it was fun to see everyone again at church and we’re in a different ward now than we were when I left because their boundaries changed.

0:38:24.610 –> 0:38:28.30
Smith, Jimmy
But there were still a lot of familiar faces, so it was like, yeah.

0:38:28.850 –> 0:38:34.610
Smith, Jimmy
But yeah, so OK, so UM then.

0:38:34.890 –> 0:38:39.600
Smith, Jimmy
So then it’s it’s it’s kind of like being thrown back into life.

0:38:39.610 –> 0:38:40.950
Smith, Jimmy
You, you you got released.

0:38:40.960 –> 0:38:44.690
Smith, Jimmy
You did your homecoming talk and it’s.

0:38:44.740 –> 0:38:51.40
Smith, Jimmy
Let’s let’s briefly talk about well, well, the transition into regular civilian life.

0:38:51.50 –> 0:38:57.560
Smith, Jimmy
You applied for a job and and we don’t need to go into a lot of details and and maybe we’ll have other podcasts.

0:38:57.570 –> 0:39:8.860
Smith, Jimmy
We’ll go into more detail about life after the mission, but you’re you’re planning to go to back to BYU in the fall, and until then you’re going to work.

0:39:9.270 –> 0:39:10.320
Smith, Jimmy
Try and earn some money.

0:39:10.330 –> 0:39:11.790
Smith, Jimmy
Pay the bills, you.

0:39:13.10 –> 0:39:24.250
Smith, Jimmy
UM, you’ve you’ve been accepted being FSY counselor this summer, but until then you have two or three months, and so you’re just working.

0:39:24.850 –> 0:39:26.240
Smith, Jimmy
How’s that been going back?

0:39:26.250 –> 0:39:27.440
Smith, Jimmy
Back to work and.

0:39:28.950 –> 0:39:37.120
Smith, Jimmy
Anything else you want to say about getting that first week or two back and getting used to regular life?

0:39:37.130 –> 0:39:39.170
Smith, Jimmy
Because now you’re going to work every day.

0:39:39.180 –> 0:39:40.360
Smith, Jimmy
You’ve been home for two weeks now.

0:39:40.370 –> 0:39:43.520
Smith, Jimmy
You’re going to work and kind of back into yeah.

0:39:43.620 –> 0:39:44.490
Smith, Jimmy
Life where?

0:39:44.530 –> 0:39:45.670
Smith, Jimmy
How’s that feel?

0:39:45.680 –> 0:39:46.360
Smith, Jimmy
How’s that going?

0:39:47.430 –> 0:39:49.0
Smith, Jimmy
It feels so weird.

0:39:49.890 –> 0:39:51.100
Smith, Jimmy
It’s interesting.

0:39:53.160 –> 0:39:57.470
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, it’s just like, feels like a fish out of water.

0:39:57.960 –> 0:40:0.590
Smith, Jimmy
That’s I I don’t.

0:40:0.600 –> 0:40:1.850
Smith, Jimmy
I can’t even describe.

0:40:1.860 –> 0:40:2.890
Smith, Jimmy
It’s so interesting.

0:40:3.900 –> 0:40:9.500
Smith, Jimmy
My first week back I wasn’t working and I was just doing like checkups, appointments like Dennis and stuff.

0:40:9.570 –> 0:40:10.210
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:40:11.40 –> 0:40:17.790
Smith, Jimmy
And then I started working the week after it, which is like quick turn around, but I didn’t want too much time, just like sitting and not doing anything.

0:40:19.60 –> 0:40:31.390
Smith, Jimmy
It’s so interesting because even like working like every day it’s it feels different than like being busy as a missionary, because like, you’re busy, like, doing things.

0:40:31.500 –> 0:40:33.930
Smith, Jimmy
But it just it’s like feels so different.

0:40:33.970 –> 0:40:44.50
Smith, Jimmy
Umm it’s interesting cuz like it’s crazy like I just went through these like 18 months and I just like have so many things about it that I like.

0:40:44.60 –> 0:40:54.860
Smith, Jimmy
I’m thinking about but I can’t like put it into words and it’s not like most people I interact with like know about it or like would know how to ask me about it or like want to talk to me about it.

0:40:54.970 –> 0:41:2.930
Smith, Jimmy
So it’s hard because I’m just like, well, there’s so many things and it’s not like like most of the people around me did not just get home from my mission.

0:41:2.940 –> 0:41:21.270
Smith, Jimmy
So that’s kind of just like this is just like me and like trying to figure it out, I really should just reach out to more friends that just got home, but it’s like it’s crazy because, you know, you spent 18 months like messaging people and calling people like crazy and like, literally my will to miss message.

0:41:21.280 –> 0:41:24.480
Smith, Jimmy
Anyone is like out the window you’re talking about?

0:41:24.490 –> 0:41:33.50
Smith, Jimmy
Like investigators, friends that you’re messaging Alzheimer or the other missionaries were both just like people in general.

0:41:33.180 –> 0:41:35.110
Smith, Jimmy
Like for me, I’m kind of like introverted.

0:41:35.120 –> 0:41:46.230
Smith, Jimmy
So me reaching out to all my friends, return missionaries like probably be good to talk to them and like stroike stay caught up and like we can help each other and the transition.

0:41:46.240 –> 0:41:50.630
Smith, Jimmy
But it’s kind of just like, whoa, like it’s so much and just.

0:41:50.640 –> 0:41:54.630
Smith, Jimmy
I’m not doing great at talking to all of them, but that’s just part of the life.

0:41:54.640 –> 0:41:56.630
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, but but there is.

0:41:56.640 –> 0:42:6.620
Smith, Jimmy
You are going to the Yasa brand and our state is wysa branch and there are a couple recently returned missionaries that error Ghost image ohm.

0:42:6.990 –> 0:42:9.600
Smith, Jimmy
But yeah, basically I don’t know.

0:42:9.610 –> 0:42:11.80
Smith, Jimmy
There’s some of sum it up.

0:42:11.90 –> 0:42:12.720
Smith, Jimmy
It’s very interesting. And it’s.

0:42:14.0 –> 0:42:20.350
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, I haven’t really processed what’s happening yet, but it’s.

0:42:20.980 –> 0:42:27.650
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, it’s interesting to think about like all the way I perceived going home the way it would be.

0:42:27.820 –> 0:42:30.200
Smith, Jimmy
Just like freedom?

0:42:30.210 –> 0:42:30.990
Smith, Jimmy
Yes.

0:42:31.40 –> 0:42:32.590
Smith, Jimmy
And I’m like you’re doing it.

0:42:32.600 –> 0:42:38.650
Smith, Jimmy
And I’m like, I have so much I need to do like so, even though like, I’m not going to school right now.

0:42:38.660 –> 0:42:43.990
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, I’m not like, yeah, they’re not going to school, but it’s just like ohh wow.

0:42:44.0 –> 0:42:55.280
Smith, Jimmy
Like normal life like I was thinking today, it’s like, wow, it’s like I just wish I could do what I was doing on the mission, just like, only focus on, like Jesus Christ 24/7.

0:42:55.330 –> 0:43:0.220
Smith, Jimmy
And I didn’t realize what, like a blessing that was just to like, I don’t have to worry about myself.

0:43:0.230 –> 0:43:3.40
Smith, Jimmy
And I have to worry about my financial needs.

0:43:3.370 –> 0:43:4.200
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t have to worry.

0:43:4.210 –> 0:43:5.540
Smith, Jimmy
I don’t have to worry about these things.

0:43:5.550 –> 0:43:9.670
Smith, Jimmy
I can just like focus on this and like it was interesting on my mission.

0:43:9.680 –> 0:43:11.310
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, I would like be like ohh.

0:43:11.320 –> 0:43:16.390
Smith, Jimmy
But I need to like take care of myself like and I would think that I was getting like caught up in myself.

0:43:16.440 –> 0:43:17.610
Smith, Jimmy
I was not.

0:43:17.680 –> 0:43:22.410
Smith, Jimmy
I was just like, caught up in the fact that I thought I was caught getting caught up in myself.

0:43:22.420 –> 0:43:24.330
Smith, Jimmy
But you’re so selfless.

0:43:24.880 –> 0:43:26.470
Smith, Jimmy
And you’re so focused on Jesus Christ.

0:43:26.480 –> 0:43:32.280
Smith, Jimmy
And now I’m like, it’s kind of frustrating because I’m like I I’ve heard before.

0:43:32.290 –> 0:43:34.60
Smith, Jimmy
Missionaries like return missions get pressure.

0:43:34.70 –> 0:43:39.690
Smith, Jimmy
They can’t spend an hour in the scriptures everyday and like I’m frustrated that I like I probably could and probably find the time.

0:43:39.800 –> 0:43:41.990
Smith, Jimmy
But it’s just so different to like, I’m frustrated.

0:43:42.0 –> 0:43:46.40
Smith, Jimmy
I can’t find that solid hour to have like a solid person sitting.

0:43:46.50 –> 0:43:53.620
Smith, Jimmy
I’m like frustrated that not every conversation I have I can talk about Jesus Christ like naturally and normally in the way I would like to.

0:43:53.630 –> 0:44:0.780
Smith, Jimmy
And it’s frustrating that I have to like, think about money and I have to think about a job and I have to think about school and friendships and family.

0:44:1.70 –> 0:44:2.120
Smith, Jimmy
Which is it? Bad?

0:44:2.170 –> 0:44:9.500
Smith, Jimmy
Those aren’t bad things, but it’s just like a hard perspective shift because I it’s not that I don’t want to have to focus on those things.

0:44:9.570 –> 0:44:18.540
Smith, Jimmy
I’m just kind of like frustrated and annoyed that it’s like, why do I have to focus on those things when like, there’s this other thing that’s just like, way more important?

0:44:18.550 –> 0:44:22.160
Smith, Jimmy
And above all these things that you can’t focus all your time on.

0:44:22.230 –> 0:44:32.240
Smith, Jimmy
So then it’s like how do I integrate that into every bit of my time and how do I prioritize that in a way that I maybe didn’t before my mission?

0:44:32.720 –> 0:44:41.140
Smith, Jimmy
And like, how do I take what I learned in prioritizing him in every 2nd and still apply that now and still apply that in like everything in my life?

0:44:41.220 –> 0:44:47.330
Smith, Jimmy
Yeah, I think that’s a an amazing insight and and an important learning.

0:44:47.540 –> 0:44:53.950
Smith, Jimmy
And I I hope I’m not discouraging you by saying this, but I don’t know that it gets much better the rest of life.

0:44:53.960 –> 0:45:18.980
Smith, Jimmy
Because I mean, I still deal with that same thing because as a parent of six kids and a full time job and looking after, you know, my family and their needs and trying to take care of the house and the yard and fulfilling church callings and feeling like the call that I feel from the Lord to, like, do Mission Prep website and and stuff.

0:45:19.30 –> 0:45:28.980
Smith, Jimmy
Anyway, balancing all that but also trying to find that like you said and and hour a day to do Scripture study, that’s nearly impossible.

0:45:28.990 –> 0:45:37.210
Smith, Jimmy
So I have to do it in chunks here and there and and make use of time but but figuring out that balance in life it’s tough.

0:45:37.220 –> 0:45:38.470
Smith, Jimmy
It’s rewarding you.

0:45:38.480 –> 0:45:42.620
Smith, Jimmy
You can do it, but it is very different than it being a missionary.

0:45:42.630 –> 0:45:54.760
Smith, Jimmy
Like you said, you’re so focused on as a missionary, you don’t have to worry about earning money, or you don’t have all these distractions are left, but to the wayside or or.

0:45:54.830 –> 0:46:2.160
Smith, Jimmy
Or, you know your parents and other people handle those, so you can just focus on finding and teaching and inviting people to come unto Christ.

0:46:2.170 –> 0:46:15.540
Smith, Jimmy
And it’s it’s a wonderful time in your life to be a missionary, but now you’re transitioning to another phase and you’re going to you’ll learn how to master that as well, no doubt about it.

0:46:15.590 –> 0:46:18.100
Smith, Jimmy
But I think we better wrap up.

0:46:18.110 –> 0:46:20.180
Smith, Jimmy
Let me give you the last word, Hannah.

0:46:20.190 –> 0:46:26.390
Smith, Jimmy
Any parting comments, advice, testimony before we conclude?

0:46:27.500 –> 0:46:27.990
Smith, Jimmy
Umm.

0:46:28.30 –> 0:46:33.680
Smith, Jimmy
She umm, just you can you can think up our our topic.

0:46:33.690 –> 0:46:54.480
Smith, Jimmy
You know, being that the transfer home your your final week or weeks in the mission and your first few weeks home any any, any advice for missionaries who will be going through this soon and what what what can you you know briefly tell them to to you know, wrap this up in conclude this.

0:46:54.490 –> 0:46:55.550
Smith, Jimmy
Any any thoughts?

0:46:56.0 –> 0:46:57.440
Smith, Jimmy
I I just had a thought.

0:46:57.450 –> 0:47:11.320
Smith, Jimmy
From what I I was reading in my scription yesterday, cause I’ve been like like I said, I’ve been trying to keep up with my like Scripture study every day because I found that was such like an empowering tool in my mission.

0:47:11.330 –> 0:47:14.270
Smith, Jimmy
Like gotta keep it going after.

0:47:14.280 –> 0:47:23.260
Smith, Jimmy
So I’ve been really trying to do that and I found in my study yesterday I don’t think this doesn’t like I’m it’s gonna make sense.

0:47:23.430 –> 0:47:30.340
Smith, Jimmy
Umm, I was studying about like forgiveness and like repentance and stuff like that.

0:47:30.590 –> 0:47:37.40
Smith, Jimmy
And I read something that said that forgiveness is an act of faith and.

0:47:39.190 –> 0:47:45.900
Smith, Jimmy
What I’m thinking right now is like not only is like forgiveness and act of faith, but like.

0:47:48.250 –> 0:47:53.140
Smith, Jimmy
Everything that we do can be inactive faith in the Lord.

0:47:53.210 –> 0:48:5.740
Smith, Jimmy
I remember at the beginning of my mission and the MTC I kind of had this, like, little epiphany in my brain where I was like, whoa, me, like, just being here and like, trust, like just being here and, like, trying to be a missionary.

0:48:5.750 –> 0:48:7.740
Smith, Jimmy
That is like me waking up every day.

0:48:7.750 –> 0:48:18.270
Smith, Jimmy
That’s an act of faith like I have faith that, like God, is going to help me today and like me, just waking up, that’s like, activate me going to eat breakfast.

0:48:18.600 –> 0:48:23.210
Smith, Jimmy
That’s an act of faith because, like, I have faith that like that food will fuel me for the rest of the day.

0:48:23.220 –> 0:48:24.170
Smith, Jimmy
And the Lord will help me.

0:48:24.380 –> 0:48:39.50
Smith, Jimmy
And so I think, umm, maybe something we think about a lot is like going on a mission and takes a lot of faith, takes a lot of faith to leave your family and your home and and your friends and your studies.

0:48:39.820 –> 0:48:49.430
Smith, Jimmy
But then I think I’m just this involved and just random right now coming up, but I think like coming home takes a lot of faith too.

0:48:49.440 –> 0:49:1.870
Smith, Jimmy
It takes faith to to, like, leave, not leave those things behind, because obviously, like those things of the mission, like you keep them in your heart and they’re with you and you apply the things you learn.

0:49:2.640 –> 0:49:5.230
Smith, Jimmy
Umm, but still leaving.

0:49:5.240 –> 0:49:12.70
Smith, Jimmy
It takes a lot of of faith and I think I think we all can give ourselves a little bit more credit.

0:49:14.120 –> 0:49:25.120
Smith, Jimmy
Of the the amount of faith that we have and it because it takes, it takes faith and it takes courage to to make transitions and to do hard things.

0:49:25.130 –> 0:49:25.760
Smith, Jimmy
And so I think.

0:49:28.270 –> 0:49:34.500
Smith, Jimmy
That when you coming home you just have to keep having faith and keep focusing on Jesus Christ.

0:49:34.510 –> 0:49:42.520
Smith, Jimmy
Keep Jesus Christ the center of your studies and your life and your prayers, and just try and include him in everything.

0:49:42.530 –> 0:49:47.440
Smith, Jimmy
Cuz I’m I feel like that has been a helpful tool for me.

0:49:47.670 –> 0:49:49.60
Smith, Jimmy
Yesterday it was just funny.

0:49:49.70 –> 0:49:54.880
Smith, Jimmy
We were at church and our Bishop gave a talk and I felt like he the whole talk.

0:49:54.890 –> 0:50:0.330
Smith, Jimmy
He just only talked about Jesus and maybe he talked about other things and that was just the only thing that called my attention.

0:50:0.340 –> 0:50:1.60
Smith, Jimmy
But I was just.

0:50:1.430 –> 0:50:2.300
Smith, Jimmy
I was so impressed.

0:50:2.310 –> 0:50:3.220
Smith, Jimmy
I was like, wow.

0:50:3.230 –> 0:50:8.830
Smith, Jimmy
Like you can just like focus on Jesus Christ and it just makes you feel like so much better.

0:50:9.120 –> 0:50:15.850
Smith, Jimmy
Like obviously, everything in the gospel is like beautiful and good, but Jesus Christ, being our like Savior and Redeemer and our friend.

0:50:15.900 –> 0:50:19.560
Smith, Jimmy
Like, that’s powerful and that, like is what can fill your heart.

0:50:19.710 –> 0:50:32.510
Smith, Jimmy
And we sing a him right after that was, I stand all amazed and just made me like feel so full of love for the savior and really like feel kind of this.

0:50:32.520 –> 0:50:41.320
Smith, Jimmy
Just like peace and, like comfort that I hadn’t felt for a while, just like sitting there thinking about Jesus Christ and I.

0:50:41.550 –> 0:50:57.510
Smith, Jimmy
I’m just trying so hard to have faith in him, but I know that he has faith in me and then his faith in all of us, and that’s why he he died and suffered for us because he has faith that we all will be able to do it, and otherwise he wouldn’t wouldn’t have done what you’ve done.

0:50:57.620 –> 0:50:59.460
Smith, Jimmy
See you speak and helping us.

0:51:0.670 –> 0:51:1.450
Smith, Jimmy
Well, thank you, Hannah.

0:51:1.460 –> 0:51:2.520
Smith, Jimmy
It’s a beautiful testimony.

0:51:2.530 –> 0:51:3.240
Smith, Jimmy
Thank you.

0:51:3.310 –> 0:51:10.130
Smith, Jimmy
Thank you for joining me for this podcast video and thank you for serving a awesome mission.

0:51:10.140 –> 0:51:11.170
Smith, Jimmy
And thank everyone.

0:51:11.320 –> 0:51:14.950
Smith, Jimmy
Thank you all for watching and listening and we will see you next time.

0:51:14.960 –> 0:51:15.540
Smith, Jimmy
Bye bye.

The post The Transfer Home – Interview with Hannah Smith – Podcast Episode 19 appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

As I read Hannah’s last letter home, I was amazed at the parallels in each of our last weeks of our missions. It seems nothing short of miraculous and a clear sign of the hand of God. In my last week, my companion and I invited three families to get baptized–the only week in my mission with that many invitations. In Hannah’s last week, she and her companion invited someone to get baptized every day, and three of them said yes–the best week of her mission for baptismal invitations.

Jimmy’s Last Week with Inviting Three Families to be Baptized

Here’s what happened about 26 years ago toward the end of my mission to Rosario, Argentina.  In my second to last week in the country, we taught three families the second discussion–the only week in my mission where we taught three second discussions. Back in those days, we invited people to follow the example of Jesus Christ and get baptized near the conclusion of the second discussion, therefore we invited these three families to get baptized. According to my letters home, two of them accepted the invitation, and the other family was not quite ready to commit, but they wanted to keep taking the lessons and learning about the gospel of Jesus Christ.

The next week, I headed home to the United States, and I never found out if they followed through and got baptized (there was no social media back then, so it was a lot harder to stay in contact with people). But whether or not they got baptized, I knew I had done my part as a missionary. I had been diligent in finding people to teach, and I taught and testified with the power of God, and I had done all within my power to be in a position to give a meaningful invitation to follow Christ into the covenant waters of baptism. These families had every opportunity to feel the Spirit of God and respond to the promptings to follow Christ. After that, the choice is theirs and they have to exercise their agency. But I knew the Lord was pleased with me for working hard, opening my mouth continually (all three of those families were found by opening our mouths and talking to people in the street), teaching with power (I knew the lesson principles and scriptures as well as the best missionaries), and testifying of the truthfulness of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

Of course, working hard and being prepared are no guarantee that every week will be so successful in teaching lessons. Just a couple weeks prior to this miraculous week, I also had a record-breaking week in which we taught zero sit-down lessons. That’s right. Again, it was the only time in my mission in which I taught zero sit-down lessons in week, and it happened toward the end of my mission when I had more skills and more experience and was generally a better instrument in the hands of the Lord.

Hannah’s Last Week with Setting Dates for Three People to be Baptized

Here is Hannah’s experience, in her own words (well, minor editing for grammar):

WE HAD A WEEK OF MIRACLES. We decided to set some really high goals for ourselves for my last week (goals of faith haha) and ask the Lord for help in reaching them, and IT WORKED!!

We had a goal to give a real baptismal invitation EVERY DAY, like the whole, “Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized? We will help you prepare for baptism and we believe you can be ready on X date. Will you prepare to be baptized on that date?” AND Y’ALL LITERALLY the Lord provided!!! There were a couple days where we were getting towards the end of the day and still not had the chance and I almost thought it wouldn’t work to invite someone to be baptized, but God kept just giving us more chances and it was amazing!! And of course, not everyone said yes hahaha. But we ended up putting three people on date to be baptized!!!

I don’t think that has happened my whole mission, three people on date in one week. So now (the three people) are preparing to get baptized! Such a wonderful way to end the mission

I also have been reflecting on what I have done here and why I was transferred here for my last transfer! I had such a strong feeling when I got here that I needed to be here and the Spirit confirmed to me that I came here to meet people that I promised I would come find on my mission. I still don’t know exactly all of the reasons, but it’s clear to me that I did come here for lots of reasons!!

I feel like I came here to meet and teach a LOT of people that we have taught. This has been one of the areas where I have been able to teach the most, which is a HUGE blessing because teaching is my favorite hehe. And I’ve never had such complex people to teach who we have really worked with so much to help and those people are equally engaged in learning! It’s so satisfying. I also feel like I really was supposed to meet some of the members here!! And for sure to be with the other sister missionaries. Fogo just tudo com muito propósito.

The post Parallel Miracles in the Last Weeks of a Father’s and Daughter’s Missions appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

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The following is from my nephew, Isaac Smith, who was recently in the Mexico City MTC in preparation for his mission to Baltimore Maryland, Spanish speaking.

• 6:30AM – wake up, get ready for the day and head to breakfast (also stare at the wall for a little bit while my brain turns on)
• 7:00AM  – eat breakfast (with chocolate milk. every day)
• 7:45AM – head to personal study and study a lot. Right now I’m working through the gospels and 2nd Nephi (honestly, studying the scriptures for an hour is pretty fun. You should try it out.)
• 9:00AM – first class of the day. This one is about how to be a good missionary and teaches skills like how to ask good questions and how to better understand others. (this class is pretty cool, but I like my other one better. Don’t tell my teacher though)
• 12:00PM – Lunch. Usually pretty good, and most of the time theyhave some sort of ice cream treat too.
• 12:30 – Tienda [store or shop, in English] run. (I need snacks to fuel my studies)
• 12:45 – companion study (usually we read a chapter of Preach My Gospel together)
• 1:45 – exercise time (my district finally got sick of playing ultimate frisbee, so now we play volleyball)
• 3:00 – Language study. Most of the time, I’ll read a conference talk in Spanish. It makes me appreciate General Conference in English more.
• 4:20 – Spanish class. I like it better than the learn how to be a missionary class, but they’re both good
• 5:15 – Dinner. (I also get chocolate milk with Dinner)
• 6:00 more Spanish class. (Usually by the end of the class, I’m so tired that I only have two functioning brain cells, and one speaks Spanish, the other speaks English)
• 9:00 – head back to my room, read scriptures in Spanish, have pointless discussions with my companion and the other people in the room.
• 10:30 – lights out

That’s what my life has been like most days for the past few weeks. It’s pretty busy, and I’m exhausted every night, but it’s the good kind.

Here are some notable things from this week:

• We had a service project this week where we helped clean the comedor [cafeteria or dining room, in English], so we got to wear hairnets.
• We were gonna play another district in frisbee, but they backed out last minute.
• This Tuesday, there was a live devotional from the Provo MTC with David A Bednar. It was about how one of the most important and joyous thing about this church is the process of repentance, and how we should all learn how to properly use it.

The post Day in the Life of a Mexico City MTC Missionary appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

To further help missionaries, and my son who is leaving for college and a mission soon after that, I thought I should compile a list of ideas and links to recipes. Below you will find many of simple meal ideas and easy recipes that are in our family’s repertoire (thus many of the links go to my family recipe blog). Since these are meals my family makes a lot, I know my kids will like them and they have had practicing making them. Many of these meals are so simple they do not require recipes, but still, for many of them, you may want the recipe and you can follow the links for specific ingredients and cooking instructions.

I will likely add to this list in coming months and years, and if readers have additional ideas for meals or links to simple recipes for missionaries, please add them in the comments sections below. Thanks so much!

Pasta and Italian Dishes

• Ramen Noodles: No recipe required. Just follow the instructions on the package.
• Pasta Roni: No recipe required. Just follow the instructions on the package.
• Macaroni and Cheese: No recipe required. Just follow the instructions on the package.
• Spaghetti: Many people won’t need a recipe for this one, but if you do, here’s our one for Spaghetti with Meat Sauce.
• White / Cream Sauce, usually to put over noodles, a common meal in our family.
• If you’re feeling really adventurous, try our Alfredo Sauce recipe over noodles.
• Pizza. You can be frozen pizza to heat in the oven, just follow the package instructions. Or you can buy a pizza crust (or naan bread) and put pizza sauce, cheese, and your choices of toppings on it and cook it in the oven for a few minutes. I did that a ton during my mission to Argentina. Or, if you are feeling ambitious, try this family favorite, Bacon Ranch French Bread Pizza.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

• Chicken Quesadillas
• Pan-Grilled Chicken Tenderloins: may sound complex, but it is really quite simple.
• Chicken Roll-Ups: can be complicated, but there are also ways to simplify it.

Breakfast

• Waffles (you can put fruit on it to make it more healthy)
• Omelets
• Pancakes (put fruit on it to make it more healthy)
• German Pancakes
• French Toast
• Cold Cereal with Milk (put fruit on it to make it more healthy)
• Oatmeal: Lots of options here. You can buy instant oatmeal that cooks in the microwave. You can also buy Quaker Oats that cook on the stove in just a few minutes. In either case, just follow the package instructions. And again, you can put fruit on it for added flavor and healthiness.

Sandwiches

• Grilled Cheese: You shouldn’t need a recipe, but here’s one in case you do.
• Peanut Butter and Jelly: I hope no recipe is needed.
• Hamburgers: These can be made at home in your apartment.
• Sloppy Joes: I like Manwich brand Sloppy Joe mix where you just add ground beef. Here also is a family recipe for homemade Sloppy Joes.
• French Dip Roast Beef Sandwiches

Mexican

• Tacos
• Spanish Rice Bean Wraps / Burrito
• Chicken Quesadillas: Obviously, you can make this without chicken to keep it even simpler.

Potatoes

• Hash Browns / Country Fried Potatoes
• Oven Baked French Fries

Desserts / Treats

• No Bake Cookies. I think these are reasonably easy to make. I made them a time or two on my mission.
• Rice Crispy Treats
• Peanut Butter Corn Flake Cookies

Other

• Salad: NO specific recipe here. But you can certainly buy lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and other simple ingredients to make simple salad.
• Fried Rice: Again, this can be complicated, but there are also ways to simplify it.

The post Simple Meal Ideas and Easy Recipes for Missionaries appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.

Mission Leadership

The mission president is over a mission and has responsibility for all the missionary work and missionaries in his mission. I won’t go into his role in this post, but I have written in the past about the role of a mission president, his duties and relationship with missionaries. The mission president and his wife are both set apart as missionaries and leaders of the mission overall.

The mission president also assigns two young missionary elders to serve in a companionship as assistants to the mission president. Assistants to the President (APs) conduct companion exchanges with zone leaders, provide training in mission leadership councils and zone conferences, and may also provide counsel regarding missionary transfers or leadership assignments to the mission president.

To organize each mission, it is sub-divided further into geographic zones, districts, and proselyting areas. Each of these groupings has missionaries who serve in leadership roles, so let’s explore this organization and the mission leadership hierarchy.

Zones and Zone Leadership

Each mission is divided into zones (usually 5 to 7 of them) with about 20 to 30 missionaries per zone. In organizing zones, mission presidents usually follow stake and ward (local congregation) boundary lines. Two missionary elders are assigned to serve in a companionship as zone leaders and they are responsible for the training and welfare of all missionaries in their zone. They have an assigned teaching area and the same responsibilities of other missionaries but have the added responsibility to teach the district leaders through companion exchanges and visits to district meetings. They also interview baptismal candidates who have been taught by the district leaders and assist the mission president in teaching and training at zone conferences.

Two sisters are also assigned to serve in a companionship as sister training leaders (STLs) in the zone. They are responsible for the training and welfare of sister missionaries in the zone. They lead, train, and conduct companion exchanges with the other sister missionaries in their zone or zones.  STLs only conduct companion exchanges with sisters, and zone leaders only conduct exchanges with elders. STLs, like zone leaders, also assist the mission president and district leaders in training meetings and zone conferences.

Districts and District Leadership

A zone is divided into districts. Generally two to four proselyting areas (four to eight missionaries) within a zone form a district, and districts usually follow ward and branch boundaries. One elder is assigned to serve as a district leader and his responsibility is to lead, train, and counsel with missionaries in his district. He conducts a weekly district meeting and conducts baptismal interviews of people who other missionaries in the district have taught. He also conducts companion exchanges with other elders in his district.

Proselyting Areas, Companionships, Senior Companions, and Trainers

A proselyting or teaching area is a specific geographical area within a district that is assigned to a missionary companionship. A companionship is two missionaries who are assigned to stay together always (like the buddy system). In some cases, due to numbers and logistics, a companionship may be composed of three missionaries (I’ve even heard of four missionary companionships, but that is extremely rare).

Missionaries are to work within their teaching area and only leave for specifically approved reasons such as going to Church on Sunday, if applicable, or district meetings or zone conferences. Missionaries should rely on the Holy Spirit for inspiration on how they should conduct missionary work in their areas and should take initiative and be anxiously engaged in achieving their purpose as missionaries (invite others to come unto Christ). Each missionary companionship including APs, zone leaders, STLs, and district leaders has a proselyting area.

One missionary in each companionship is always assigned to be the senior companion. The senior comp leads the companionship by word and example in accomplishing missionary work, keeping mission rules, and following the daily schedule. If the junior companion is a brand-new missionary, the senior comp is also a trainer. A trainer should train a new missionary with love, patience, and empathy, and respect the contributions of the new missionary and treat him or her as an equal companion.

Sources:

1. https://www.thechurchnews.com/members/2022/9/30/23379823/map-of-lds-missions-see-area-by-area-breakdown
2. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/missionary-standards-for-disciples-of-jesus-christ-supplement/7-appendix?lang=eng

The post Mission Organization and Positions of Leadership for Missionaries appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep.