Your first day in the
mission will probably be overwhelming. There is much
to do, much to learn, and many things that demand your time and
attention. Your
first reaction may be to throw up your hands in total frustration.
The Lord gave
some very good advice to the young Prophet Joseph Smith, who must
have been
having similar feelings: "Do not run faster or labor more than you
have strength
and means" (D&C 10:4). This is good advice for missionaries
too. There will be
people to contact, members to strengthen, talks to prepare,
scriptures
to memorize,
lessons to master long after you have completed your mission.
Don't try to master
everything
at once. Take it one step at a time. You will
discover soon enough that there is a necessary sequence for you
to accomplish
your goals. If you must learn a foreign language, you will become
painfully aware
that the language is a huge barrier. In frustration you may ask,
"How am I to
teach if I can't even speak the language?" Obviously much of your
personal and
companion study time should be devoted to language study.
Learning
a language
requires relying upon the Lord so that we can become proficient
enough to teach
the gospel effectively.
As you begin your
mission,
you will need to balance lesson preparation and
language study. Even if you were able to speak the language
perfectly,
if you don't
have anything to teach, you'll have problems. The lessons provide
the most concise
presentation of the gospel that is available.
In the MTC you got a
good
start at learning the first couple of discussions.
You need to practice all the discussions constantly. The initial
reaction of new
missionaries is to spend their entire study time on the language.
That will not bear
the fruits you want as a missionary. The Spirit comes more readily
when you are
studying the gospel than when you are studying the language.
After the language and
the discussions become less like obstacles and more like tools
of the missionary trade, you will want to broaden your
focus to include
scripture study. But you need to continue to study the language
and the discussions.
Once the scriptures start to become sweet to you, the natural
tendency
is to forget
everything else and focus on the scriptures. A miracle has taken
place. That which
you may have resisted before your mission--really getting involved
in scripture
study--becomes almost your top priority. Resist the temptation to
focus entirely
on the scriptures.
Near the midpoint of
your mission, you will discover that you are now thinking
in the foreign language--probably even dreaming in it. Expressing
yourself fluently
is rather easy. The discussions have become so familiar that you
may have even
been accused of giving the discussions in your sleep. At this
point
it would be easy
to sit back and take it a little slower. Some missionaries start
to "slump" in their
intensity, study and focus. However, the truly great missionaries
seize the
opportunity to continue to broaden their focus. They continue to
study the language,
lessons, and scriptures, but in addition they are now developing
Christlike
characteristics, studying conference addresses, and studying the
gospel by topics. Discussions with these missionaries are
thrilling experiences. Mere
reference to
a scripture, a quote, or a gospel topic elicits excitement and
marvelous
insights. It was always an edifying experience to be
invited to participate
in a district study
session with the missionaries. Every- one came prepared, and we
had wonderful sharing sessions; learning together, we were all
edified. Those
who were not as
well prepared as they could have been always regretted having
taken
the easy
way out.
Not until the very end
of your mission should you begin to make plans for
after your mission. Most major universities or Church schools
require
that you
submit applications months in advance. Find out when the deadlines
are and spend
a single P day taking care of the details, then get back to
focusing
on your mission.
If you have trouble with admissions to school, contact your
mission
president for
the fastest, least distracting way to eliminate the problem. Those
missionaries
who talk endlessly about school, jobs, girls or guys, recreation,
family, and friends
lose the focus of their mission and end up wasting countless
hours.
Many
missionaries were sorely disappointed when they reached the end
of their
missions and discovered they had cheated themselves of the
soul-satisfying
experience of looking back without regret on their service to the
Lord.
From the Book:
SERVE WITH HONOR, by Randy Bott, 1995
Randy Bott is a former mission president (Fresno,
Calif.)
and teaches missionary
preparation classes at BYU.