As many of you know, I served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for 18 months in the Boise, Idaho area. With the recent change in age requirement for missionaries, I know a lot of people - especially future sister missionaries - who are preparing for their own full-time missions. I am thrilled to see an increased enthusiasm for missionary work! As so many people around me have been preparing for missionary service, I have been asked what are some of the most important pieces of advice I have for new missionaries. As I have reflected on my own experiences, these are the most important lessons I have learned from my mission. Remember that although this post is directed toward future missionaries, the principles remain the same and you can apply them to your own life, whatever part of life you may be in.
First off, you have to learn to love people. Really, genuinely love them. As a missionary you focus a lot on teaching people about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and sometimes you can get caught up in going through the motions. Just moving from one lesson to the next, as if you're checking boxes. Unless you take the time to get to know them on a personal and spiritual level. But people don't really care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Not only does it help bring success and deep satisfaction to the work that you do every day, but when you really love someone - especially those who are difficult to love - then you are discovering how to be truly Christlike.
1. Love Everyone
2. Dedicate Yourself
Secondly, you have to let go of everything else and dedicate yourself to the Lord. When I went to Idaho knowing that I would be gone for 18 months, I thought that was all the sacrifice I needed to give. I was giving up my old, familiar life for a year and half, with very little contact with anyone or anything I knew and loved - wasn't that enough? It was during my mission that I realized that the Lord was asking me for something more. My heart. Doctrine and Covenants teaches us to serve God with our "heart, might, mind, and strength". Of course I loved God, and I was certainly giving up a lot and working hard every day to try to bring people closer to God, but my heart wasn't always in it. I still clung to my own thoughts and desires and often longed for all the things that I missed. To give God your heart, you have to learn to let go of everything you left behind. It's difficult, but when you are solely focused on the service that you are giving, then the Lord can really take control and use you for His intended purposes.
3. Don't Compare Yourself With Others
This might be the most important lesson to me personally. It's a natural human tendency to look at those around you, but being a natural introvert with anxiety, many aspects of being a missionary were extremely hard for me. Way out of my comfort zone. And I would look around at other missionaries who loved the work and were naturally out-going, and wonder why I couldn't be like them. If I loved the Lord, shouldn't I love being in His service? Shouldn't missionary work come as easily to me as it seemed to come to so many others? And I would get feeling like I was doing something wrong, or that I wasn't good enough. That my mission, my service, my trials, and my sacrifice, that none of it was good enough. Additionally, there were many times on my mission when I knew I could've been doing better than I was. My mission wasn't perfect by any means - there were times that I could've been more obedient or that I could have done something better than I gave the effort for. But sometimes I just didn't. The thing I had to learn for myself was that I WAS enough. My struggles and trials were different from those around me. My sacrifices were a lot for me personally, and that was all the Lord was asking for. He didn't want me to give in all the same ways as one missionary or another. My mission, exactly how it was, was enough for Him. My mission, mistakes included, were acceptable to the Lord, and He was pleased with my work and my sacrifice. Why? Because He knows me personally, and He loves me.
4. Have Fun
Missions are hard. No matter who you are, you will struggle. There are all kinds of reasons why your mission will be hard for you. You will face rejection, illness, difficult companions, homesickness, etc., etc. And the Lord intends it to be this way in part to help you grow as you face adversity. But your mission should also be FUN. God doesn't want you to suffer and be miserable for a year and a half or two years. He wants you to love it too. Yeah, sometimes it's going to suck. But sometimes it should be a blast! Don't get so caught up in trying to work so hard every second of every day that you don't ever let yourself unwind or have fun while you're hard at work. If your mission isn't fun, you're not doing it right. ☺
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