This poem was written by James Russel Smith on April 11, 1999. Inspiration for the poem came from Moroni Chapter 7, and particularly Moroni 7:19. 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 […] The post Lay Hold Upon Every Good Thing – Poem appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep ..read more

Note from the author: I was asked to give a sacrament meeting talk in 2024 on the subject of “If there is a conflict between reason and faith, how is it resolved?” I thought the research and insights I came up with would be of interest to the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep audience, so I’m […] The post How to Resolve Conflicts Between Faith and Reason appeared first on Latter-day Saint Mission Prep ..read more

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 ..read more

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 • T ..read more

My daughter, Hannah, recently returned home after completing her mission in Portugal. I encouraged her to work hard right up until the end, and I shared with her some miracles that happened in the last full week of my mission in Argentina. Hannah, of course, gave her all, teaching and testifying until the end, and she similarly, saw the hand of the Lord in miraculous ways. 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 invi ..read more

mexico-city-mtc-1 mexico-city-mtc-3 mexico-city-mtc-2 mexico-city-mtc-5 mexico-city-mtc-4 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 pret ..read more

The official standards or rules for missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints encourages them to follow general guidelines for nutritious eating. It encourages missionaries to “eat balanced meals that include vegetables, fruits, grains, healthy fats, and protein” and to “limit junk food, carbonated drinks, processed foods, and restaurant fast food.” Therefore, future missionaries should learn in their early years how to follow recipes and make simple meals that they will be able to prepare and eat during their mission. This is one of the life skills that I point out in my ..read more

A mission, in the context we will discuss today, is the geographical administrative area to which missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are assigned. As of September 2022, there were 411 missions of the Church.[1] Most missions are named after the location of the mission headquarters and the nomenclature is usually in the Country City format. For example, I went to the Argentina Rosario Mission, and my daughter is in the Portugal Lisbon Mission. The Church had 62,544 missionaries at the end of 2022, so if you do the math, that’s roughly 150 missionaries per mission. M ..read more

Summary: How should a missionary respond when an investigator asks if there is progression between kingdoms of glory? Short answer: We don’t know. The Church has no official position on the subject. As a missionary, remain neutral but remind them to be prayerful, search the scriptures, and the Spirit of God will lead them to all truth.  Missionary Lesson 2: The Plan of Salvation Missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have five lessons that they teach to new members of the faith before they are baptized. These lessons contain the basic principles of the restored g ..read more

Summary: The following is the approach my family has taken to photo and video storage for our missionary in 2022. I’m not saying this is the best approach, there are clearly many ways to do the management of these digital image and video files, and ours is just one approach. If you have other suggestions for how you have handled photo file storage for yourself or your missionary, please leave a comment below.  When I served my mission, in Argentina from 1995 to 1997, missionaries had film cameras, which came with a lot of time and cost constraints that missionaries today do not face. I w ..read more