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

A majority of missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, at the writing of this article in 2022, will use a smartphone on their mission. When you receive your mission call, the Missionary Portal, pictured in the gallery above, will provide you with all the information you need about acquiring, setting up, and using a phone during your mission. This article summarizes Church policy and procedures for missionary smartphones based on 2022 information, and even includes many screen shots from when my missionary daughter set up her phone at the start of her mission. P ..read more

If you are soon to be filling out your mission papers for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you may have wondered what information will be needed to fill out the full-time missionary application. Well, my family is presently (2022), going through the process for the second time in as many years and I have taken screen shots of the Missionary Online Recommendation System (aka MORS, mission papers, or online application form) to help you know what to expect. As the Church tells you when you first login, be prepared for it to take a while–it will probably take a couple of days or e ..read more

The Google Sheets file linked to in the button below is designed to help you track major milestone dates in your mission application and preparation to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You can input your own personal availability date into the file and then see our recommendation for when to do things to help you stay on schedule to leave on your mission on the timeline you are hoping for. View/Download File to Track Dates for Mission Application and Service Preparation The major events tracked in the file are application milestones such meeting with t ..read more