PREPARING FOR A MISSION  --  QUOTES:
 
      "I would like to pose one or two points for your consideration, particularly to you young brethren. First, will going on a full-time mission have an adverse effect on a future athletic career? When I started coaching at BYU in 1962, there was a prevailing attitude that missions and football did not mix. As a result, very few players went on missions and returned to play the game, the feeling being that a young man could not go into the mission field, preach love for two years and return with the desire to play a physical contact sport such as football. Many felt there would be a loss of coordination, specific techniques, and the strength and the conditioning necessary to perform at a high level of competency required for major college athletics. This attitude prevailed until our beloved prophet, President Kimball, proclaimed that every man of missionary age should prepare himself for a mission. As a result of this proclamation, many more of our athletes started going on missions. It has been our experience that if a young man decides to go on a mission, he cannot only play well when he returns, he will often play better."

—LaVell Edwards, BYU Head Football Coach, Prepare for a Mission, General Conference, October 1984

        "If they put off going upon missions until they can go without making sacrifices, the time will never come when they will be prepared to respond to missionary calls."

Joseph W. McMurrin,  CR  4/02:5

        "The Lord is always looking for men in whom he can place his full confidence, who can represent him in the mission field, and men who can be trusted in every way and who are prepared to help build his kingdom."

N. Eldon Tanner,  CR 4/75:115, "Success is Gauged by Self-Mastery"

        "I am confident that the time will never come when we shall not need vigorous men and women of faith to go into the world as missionaries."

Gordon B. Hinckley,  CR 4/59:120

"Every LDS male who is worthy and able should fill a mission."

Spencer W. Kimball,  CR 4/74:126, "Planning for a Full and Abundant Life"

Elder Bryan Richards, Quorum of  70, Oct. 1998 Conference:

        "The greatest army of missionaries ever assembled in the history of the world is serving today.  Don't miss being a part of that great army.  [You] young men, trusted and proven before [you] came to earth, are not ordinary young men.  [You] are choice spirits that have been held in reserve to come forth in this day."

 President Spencer W. Kimball has said:

        "I'm asking that we start earlier and train our missionaries better in every branch and every ward in the world. . . . Young people will understand that it is a great privilege to go on a mission and that they must be physically well, mentally well, spiritually well, and that the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance. I am asking for missionaries who have been carefully indoctrinated and trained through the family and the organizations of the Church, and who come to the mission with a great desire. I am asking. . . that we train prospective missionaries much better, much earlier, much longer, so that each anticipates his [or her] mission with great joy."

("When the World Will Be Converted," Ensign, October 1974, pp. 7-8.)
Quoted in Joe J. Christensen's book:  Making Your Home a Missionary Training Center

President Howard W. Hunter:

             "Let us prepare every missionary to go to the temple worthily, and make that experience an even greater highlight than receiving the mission call."
             "The things that we must do and not do to be worthy of a temple recommend are the things that ensure that we will be happy as individuals and as families.
             "Let us truly be a temple-attending and temple-loving people...We should not go only for our kindred dead, but also for the personal blessings of temple worship, for the sanctity and the safety that are within those hallowed and consecrated walls.  As we attend the temple, we learn more richly and deeply the purpose of life and the significance of the atoning sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Let us make the temple, together with temple worship and temple covenants and temple marriage, our ultimate earthly goal and the supreme mortal experience."

                                                                                Ensign, Feb. 1995, p. 5        

        “I have been looking at these little boys along the front row and thinking of when they will be missionaries.  It will not take very many years before they are out preaching the gospel, and that will be wonderful.  Boys, be good!  Do what is right at all times.  Do not let anything at any time get in the way of your going on a mission.  You will bless your own life, you will bless the home from which you go, and you will bless all who listen to your message as missionaries.  So be good.  Choose the right at all times, and the Lord will bless you and magnify you and use you to accomplish His purposes”
President Gordon B. Hinckley (fireside, Recife, Brazil, 15 Nov. 1996).