Missionary Preparation

President Steve Albrecht gave a wonderful talk at Stake Priesthood meeting last Sunday morning.  It was fun to attend with Mike.  Poor kid, its just me and him (as far as sons go)  until he graduates.   Pres.  Albrecht just returned from Tokyo Japan as a mission president.  He was the Stake President while I was  in the singles ward bishopric.

Here is a copy of his talk he willingly sent me.  I have a lot of respect for his accomplishments.  One of the best I have heard on preparation.

ADDITIONS I WOULD MAKE:

1.  I would like to add to the "Fabulous 5" about 75% of the way down.  "Family service,  Family Church attendance, and Family REc"  So it would be the "Exciting Eight" instead of the Fabulous Five

2.  The very top missionary prep item I would make is "Develop a service oriented attitude".   Oops, I see it in his # 9.  Sorry.  This is key to developing Charity to your fellowman.

Preparing Young Men and Women for Missions

I have been asked today to talk about preparing young men for missions.  I want you to know that I love missionary work and ours is a missionary family.    All six of our children served missions and my wife served as an MTC missionary for 12 years.     During our three years serving in Japan, we worked with approximately 500 missionaries.  Serving a mission is the greatest opportunity a young man or woman can have.  A mission served well becomes a defining event in the life of the missionary.  I will always be grateful I served a mission as a young man.  My mission changed everything for me.  It changed my perspective about marriage, about family, about education, about work, about the gospel and about life.  If I had to make a choice about whether my children went to college or served a mission, I would encourage them to serve a mission.  I am convinced that missions prepare young people for life better than anything else they can do.  As a missionary, you not only serve the Lord but you learn valuable life skills.  You learn to budget, how to get along with people, leadership skills, organization skills, how to talk to and communicate with people, how to work hard, how to set and accomplish goals and many other important life skills.  Having been a dean in the BYU business school and worked with many corporate recruiters, I know these are the skills they are looking for when they hire young people.  I would strongly encourage each of you, young and old to serve.  You will love your missions.  You older members, every mission needs more senior couples.  You are an amazing blessing to a mission president.

Not all missionaries are equally prepared when they enter the mission field.  Some are better prepared, have stronger testimonies, have a stronger work ethic and are more ready to serve than other.  These kinds of missionaries enter the mission field on the run and see miracles right away.  Let me tell you about four of them.

1. Tell about Elder Beazer—baptized the first person he saw; his family joined the church.
2. Tell about Elder Kretley from Brazil—developed a new area and created a branch with 30 people attending
3. Elder Einfeldt and his companion who took a small branch from 12 active members to 35 active members in three transfers.
4. Elder Shimizu from Japan—had thirty baptismal dates when the earthquake struck; was evacuated to the Kobe mission and had 20 baptismal dates there before he came back to our mission.  The mission president of that mission wouldn’t let me bring him back to our mission after the earthquake.

In thinking about how to prepare young men and women to be well prepared missionaries, I think there are things both young people and parents need to do.  Let me share some ideas with you about both:

20 Things Young Men Can do to Prepare for Missions

1. Strive to develop a strong testimony--read the B. of M. and have sincere prayer with Heavenly Father every day.   As you get closer to going on your mission, read and study Preach My Gospel every day.  As a missionary, you will need to rely on and have personal conversations with Heavenly Father.  Learn how to do that before you come on a mission.

2. Missionaries who know how to work hard are the best missionaries.  Missionaries who have never had a job, who have never had a coach who told them to work harder or run faster or a piano teacher who told them to practice more or who have never lived away from home tend to have more difficulty on missions than others.  Hard work is the greatest attribute of a good missionary.   I loved getting missionaries who were raised on a farm, who had participated in high school athletics, or who was an accomplished musician.  I knew these missionaries would be disciplined.

3. Don't waste time playing computer or video games or watching too much television.  In my initial interview, when a missionary told me his hobby was playing video games, I knew he or she may have difficulty on his mission.

4. Keep a clean driving record.  We can't call anyone as a driving leader of the missionaries who doesn't have a clean driving record. 

5.  Don't put things on social networking sites such as Facebook that will cause conflict if people were to Google your name. Utilize technology but DO NOT abuse the technology available to you.   Being smart with Facebook will not only help you on your mission but every corporation has dedicated employees who search Facebook entries of all new potential employees.  Firms now hire for attitude (based on information found on Facebook and other places) and then train for skills. 

6.  Learn how to get along with people.   Learn how to forget and forgive and to work together with others.   Getting along with people, especially your companion is extremely important for missionaries.  Learn to control your anger.  You can’t have the spirit if you and your companion aren’t getting along.

7. Stand up for what is right with your friends and always be a great example no matter how difficult.  You will need to stand up and be different as a missionary and learning how to do that now is a great attribute. 

8. Don't get into any bad habits such as looking at inappropriate web sites, pornography, swearing, personal abuse, etc.  Missionaries who have those issues present serious problems for mission presidents because it is difficult for them to have the Spirit and you can’t convert without the Spirit.  Keep yourself clean in every respect. If you have any issues at all, resolve them completely with the Bishop or other Priesthood leader before you leave.  You’ll want to be completely clean as you enter the MTC.  Belated confessions of pre-mission problems cause tremendous heartache for both the missionary and the mission president.

9. Learn to help and serve other people.  When your parents, ward or your quorum asks for volunteers, be the first person to raise your hand.  You will learn an attitude of service that is really important for missionaries. We truly loved and appreciated those missionaries who, after we fed them a meal, came to the kitchen and helped clean up.

10. Study a foreign language and get good grades in school.  Knowing a foreign language and getting good grades doesn't necessarily mean you will go on a foreign mission but it gives the Church leaders additional options where they can send you.

11. Do all you can to develop leadership skills.  On your missionary application, every bishop ranks the missionary candidate’s leadership skills on a scale from 1 to 5.  You need to come into the mission field with the reputation, training and experience of being a leader. 

12. Develop a broad range of interests--music, sports, outdoors, etc.  The more well-rounded you are, the better you can get along with everyone, including the people you will talk to on the streets, the members, and the people you teach. You can also use these talents in your missionary work.

13. Keep yourself healthy and be involved in regular exercise.  We had a few missionaries who were always sick, or so it seemed.  They got everything.  They were the ones who didn't exercise much.  They didn't eat healthily.  Good health is really important for a missionary. 

14. Learn to have a positive attitude.  Be happy.  Everyone has rough days.  Don't get depressed.  Missionaries with depression problems represent one of the biggest issues facing mission presidents.  During our mission, we had to send several missionaries home prematurely because of depression issues.  

15. Learn to be obedient to the Lord and your parents.  Missionaries must be able to keep even the smallest rules.  True obedience and righteousness brings miracles.  Missionaries who go the first mile are missionaries.  Missionaries who go the second mile are missionaries of faith.  Missionaries who go the third mile are missionaries who see miracles. 

16. Learn to love other people.  When love becomes your motivation, everything changes and has meaning.   Learn to love the Lord and serve a mission because you love Him.  If you love the Lord, you will learn to love the people you work with.  When you love the people, you will see miracles. 

17. Graduate from seminary, become an Eagle Scout, and earn your Duty to God Award.  The discipline and skills you learn through these activities will help you be a better missionary.

18. Get used to short, groomed hair and looking clean.  Your dress should be conservative and appropriate so you don’t have to change your dress or grooming standards when you become a missionary.  Missionaries who wear inappropriate clothing or who aren’t well groomed as teenagers often have difficulty dressing  and feeling comfortable looking appropriate as missionaries.  Dress and look like the prophet and you will never go astray.

19. Use good manners.  Too many missionaries don’t know how to use good manners when eating with members and investigators.  They don’t look people in the eye when talking with them and they don’t smile enough.  Learn to speak up and be proactive when talking with people.  Missionaries must always look and act sharp.   When talking with someone on the street or at their door, who you are and how you look and represent yourself is as important, or even more important, than what you say. 

20. Learn how to keep your room and home clean.  Missionaries who are used to having messy rooms often have messy missionary apartments.  Messy apartments make it difficult to have good companionship unity and to feel the Spirit.  Dirty apartments even invite various kinds of sicknesses.  Being clean and neat is really important.

Things Parents Can Do to Help Their Children Prepare for Missions

Now let me share five things I think we as parents can do to help our children prepare for missions and, really, to be successful in life.

1. Be fathers and mothers who work hard, try to be successful in your roles and who serve Heavenly Father willingly and wherever asked.  The models of a good father and mother who have strong faith, who work hard and who show their children what is important by example is extremely important.  
2. Create the right expectations about missions, educations, church activities, etc.  In your homes, it should never be “if you go on a mission” but instead “when you go on a mission.”  It should not be “if you go to college” but “when you go to college.”  It should not be fine to “just do okay in school” but instead young people should be expected to “do their best in school.”  Expectations are extremely powerful and having the right expectations in a family is critical.  I will always remember what Pres. Joseph McKonkie said in a talk in our stake.  He said and I quote, “my father told us we could go to church willingly or unwilling but we were going to church.  That was the expectation in our home.”
3. Spend time with your children.  There is no better way to show you love and care for your children and to help them be strong in the Gospel than to spend time with them.  As my wife always says, quality time is quantity time.  The hours you spend attending their activities, playing and working with them and taking vacations together are extremely important.  It is during this time spent together that you teach your children to be ambitious and to work hard and that you help them gain testimonies.  It is this time spent together that allows you to build strong relationships with each of your children so they will want to make you happy.  
4. Use technology appropriately in your family.  While technology is a great tool, it can be easily abused and can cause tremendous problems in a family and with children.  If children spend too much time playing video games, looking at internet sites, watching television, etc. they are not only subjecting themselves to various kinds of temptations but they are also wasting valuable time when they could be developing their minds and bodies, creating relationships, learning how to work and deal with people and learning life skills.  I am a firm believer that Satan wants us to live in a virtual world and not use our bodies and five physical senses.  If he can get us to live virtually, we are doing what he has to do all the time because he will never have a body.  I would encourage you to put your computers and telephones in public places in the homes so that they are accessible and visible by everyone and where secluded use is not possible.
5. Live the gospel to the fullest.  This means following the prophet’s admonition to have weekly family home evenings, have daily family prayer, read the scriptures together, attend church every week, don’t criticize church leaders and be committed to the Gospel in every way.  I asked some parents of 9 children who I highly respect why they have such successful children who are dedicated to the gospel why they have been so successful.  Here is their response:  “It’s not over yet and we are still trying hard but I think, however, if I had to pinpoint why our kids have been successful and happy it would be consistency in the little everyday things--our fabulous five as we call them....family night, family prayer, family scripture study, family council, and family meal time.”   We also think that another thing that has helped us in our family is  that "our family" is our life, it is not something we hurry and get done or do so we can go do what we want....our family is our life.   I don't think our children have ever wondered what we love most.  This fabulous 5 represents great activities to help your children gain strong testimonies of the Gospel.  It is important to be faithful and to follow our leaders’ counsel.  

The Gospel is true but it is much more than that.  It is the plan of happiness.  There are two kinds of worship—public and private.  Public worship is attending church, doing home and visiting teaching and even attending the temple.  Private worship is the worship no one outside your family sees—family prayer, FHE, scripture study, acts of service, etc.  I am convinced it is this private worship that makes a huge difference in the lives of children and helps them gain strong testimonies and a desire to serve the Lord.

Let me close by telling you a couple of quick stories.  First, I want to tell you about a missionary who served with us in Japan.  (Tell about Sis. W. who lacked a testimony.)  In the end she got a very strong testimony but it took her more than six months to get it and in the process cost her and her companion to waste serious mission time.  I love this sister.  I fasted with her many times.  But she could have been much better prepared.

Finally, one of my greatest joys as a mission president was interviewing returning missionaries just before they went home.  Every single returning missionary I interviewed got emotional about expressing his or her love for their mission.  All of them wished they could have stayed longer.  All of them were great missionaries who loved the Lord and worked hard.  It just took more time and effort to get some of them to this point.  Every one of them would have traded places with the new missionaries who were arriving as they were leaving.  (Maybe tell about shoes.)  

Missionaries who are prepared are a great blessing to their mission president.  I could tell from reading a new missionary’s application how prepared he or she was when they entered the mission field.  Missionary work is God’s work.  As the sons of Mosiah taught in Alma 17, or Nephi and Lehi taught in Helaman or Alma and Amulek taught, missionaries are instruments in the hands of the Lord to bring salvation to his children.  We agreed in the pre-existence to be partners with God in bringing immortality and eternal life to His children.  Serving a full-time mission is the best way we can fulfill our partnership responsibility.  There is no more important work.  I pray that you young people and older people will have a desire to serve.

Bear testimony.

• Gospel is true
• Gospel is plan of happiness
• Gospel makes everyone happier and brings peace and contentment into our lives
• Joseph Smith was a prophet; Thomas Monson is a prophet
• Jesus atoned for our sins and is our Savior and mediator with the Father
• Heavenly Father loves us