Brenda

First let me say that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is the actual and proper name for our church.  Our church is often referred to as the LDS Church, or the Mormon Church.  This series of posts was at the request of some of my friends on Facebook.  You can read more about that here–on my Landing Page or introduction for the Write 31 Days Challenge.

Once a week, missionaries get a day off from their labors as missionaries.  This is called P-Day or Preparation Day. This isn’t a 24 hour period though.  It’s more like 8 hours.  During this time they write home (or email these days), do laundry, shop for food and necessities, and sight-see or play.  It is amazing how much a missionary can cram into those free hours. 

I thought it would be fun to share some pictures from some of my favorite P-days in Spain.

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First let me say that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is the actual and proper name for our church.  Our church is often referred to as the LDS Church, or the Mormon Church.  This series of posts was at the request of some of my friends on Facebook.  You can read more about that here–on my Landing Page or introduction for the Write 31 Days Challenge.

One of the hardest things you will ever do as a missionary is tracting or knocking on doors.  Not everyone is happy to see you and quite frankly, many people are very rude and sometimes even mean.  But when you don’t have people to teach or serve, you get to go tracting.  Every missionary will have this experience, and honestly, it really doesn’t get any easier the more you do it.  I hated it.  Most missionaries do.  Of course there is is the occasional crazy missionary that loves to go tracting and see how many doors can slam in their face each day.  It’s like a game to them.  I think they are crazy.  But maybe that is just me.

It is much more effective as a missionary to use member referrals.  These are people that members of the church have referred to the missionaries to teach or contact.  Many of these are in the homes of the members, so the awkwardness of meeting the missionaries is gone. 

If you have LDS missionaries knock on your door, please be kind.  They are young men or young women who have left home to share the message of the gospel.  Think of how you would feel if these were your own kids and how you would want them to be treated.  You can politely decline to hear a message, though you might be surprised at how much of what we believe is the same.  And if you are super nice, offer them a glass of water.  Many missionaries walk or bike several miles each day.  The simple offer of a glass of water is such a blessing!  (Or hot cocoa if it’s super cold to help them warm up.)

Here is a fun video of some missionaries tracting.  It’s a parody of Adele’s song, Hello.  It always makes me laugh and remember what it was like when I was tracting on my own mission.

First let me say that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is the actual and proper name for our church.  Our church is often referred to as the LDS Church, or the Mormon Church.  This series of posts was at the request of some of my friends on Facebook.  You can read more about that here–on my Landing Page or introduction for the Write 31 Days Challenge.

Missionaries are very busy.  They work from sun up to sun down.  Some of that time is spent for studying, some for proselyting, and some for service.  In the Preach My Gospel manual, there is a general schedule provided for the missionaries.  Each mission will be just a little different from this schedule as needed for the area.  But the general gist is the same. Missionaries are busy.

Here is the basic schedule from the Preach My Gospel manual:

Missionary Daily Schedule^*

In consultation with the Presidency of the Seventy or the Area Presidency, your mission president may modify this schedule to meet local circumstances.

To get an idea of what that really looks like, here is a video about the day in the life of a missionary.

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First let me say that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is the actual and proper name for our church.  Our church is often referred to as the LDS Church, or the Mormon Church.  This series of posts was at the request of some of my friends on Facebook.  You can read more about that here–on my Landing Page or introduction for the Write 31 Days Challenge.

Couple missionaries or Senior missionaries are husband and wife teams that have decided to volunteer to serve as missionaries.  They don’t have all of the same rules that Elders and Sisters have to keep.  They have a little more flexibility.  They can even choose where they will serve their missions and how long and what they will do.  They can choose from a variety of service missions or proselyting missions. 

President Thomas S. Monson  said: “To the mature brothers and sisters of the Church, I remind you that the Lord needs many, many more of you to serve as full-time missionaries. If you are not yet at the season of life to serve a couples mission, I urge you to prepare now for the day when, as your circumstances allow, you and your spouse might do so. There are few times in your lives when you will enjoy the sweet spirit and satisfaction that come from giving full-time service together in the work of the Master.”

Here is a very short video about serving a couples mission.

I hope to someday go on a Couples Mission with my husband, Gary.  We could have so much fun together.  And just think of the videos we could create now that there is YouTube.  I could make up for all the ones I never got to make years ago.  My poor hubby…

Now, to prove to you that it isn’t only the Elders and Sisters that have fun making music videos, I found a really fun one of this Senior Missionary.  His wife chose to remain behind the camera and let him take the spotlight.  Enjoy!

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First let me say that I belong to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. That is the actual and proper name for our church.  Our church is often referred to as the LDS Church, or the Mormon Church.  This series of posts was at the request of some of my friends on Facebook.  You can read more about that here–on my Landing Page or introduction for the Write 31 Days Challenge.

Sisters are the girl missionaries.  Many young women feel the call to serve a mission and they volunteer for a period of 18 months.  The sisters can begin serving a mission at the age of 19.  There is no upper age limit, but to be a sister missionary, you must be single.

President Thomas S. Monson said: “We affirm that missionary work is a priesthood duty—and we encourage all young men who are worthy and who are physically able and mentally capable to respond to the call to serve. Many young women also serve, but they are not under the same mandate to serve as are the young men. We assure the young sisters of the Church, however, that they make a valuable contribution as missionaries, and we welcome their service.” (Thomas S. Monson, “Welcome to Conference,” Liahona, November 2012, 4).

Sister missionaries also have a lot of fun amidst the seriousness of missionary work.  If YouTube had been around back when I had served my mission, there would be several videos of me with a couple of my companions singing parody songs.  We had so much fun making them.  We even made a cassette tape of our greatest hits for our mission president one time.  He loved them.  I found this video of some sister missionaries lip syncing the children’s Primary song, We’ll Bring The World His Truth, aka…Army of Helaman.  They reminded me of what the videos we never got to make would be like back in the day. The Sister behind the wheel could have been me in how much she puts into it.  Not kidding.