Seeing as I have started this blog as a way to help me prepare for my 18 month mission in Ukraine, I might as well outline what it is that must actually be done to ensure that I am prepared when the time comes for me to report.
What DO you have to do to prepare for you mission, any ways??
WELL, that is a very big question. Let me try to answer it with all of my mighty wisdom and knowledge. .....*cough*
First comes the decision to serve. Maybe you are a convert to the Church and you desire to help someone in the same way that you were helped, or perhaps you have had a life-changing experience with the Atonement and feel a strong conviction to share it with others. Perhaps you were prompted through a phrase in your Patriarchal Blessing or your heard a talk that stirred some emotions deep inside and you began to feel that serving a mission was the right thing for you to do. Not everyone will serve a mission, but if you have been prompted to serve or look into the process, then don't hesitate to do so. The blessings I have received since I started preparing have been immense, and I haven't even been set apart yet! It's amazing.
Eventually you will begin the process of completing your mission papers. This generally begins with you expressing your desire to serve to your Bishop or Branch President, after which he will be able to allow you access to the online Missionary Portal. This is a portion of the lds.org website which is only accessible to missionaries. There is a section on the website where you can access your mission papers, which are really just a collection of forms that must be filled out entirely before you submit. Some of these forms will need to be printed as you will need to take them to your doctor or dentist and have them filled out, while others, such as the Personal Information form, can be filled out strictly on the computer. As you strive to complete each form, an icon telling each form's status will appear beside it: hasn't been started, in the process of completing, completed. When you have completed all of your forms you click the button at the bottom of the page to submit your papers to your Bishop or Branch President. You then schedule an appointment with your Bishop/BP, in which he will review your mission papers and if he sees that all is in order, he will submit your paperwork to your Stake President. You then schedule an appointment to meet with your Stake Pres and he will give you advice for preparing for your mission (mine gave me specific counsel regarding self-image and what scriptures to read and so on), and will ask you about how you are preparing physically, mentally and emotionally, as well as spiritually for your mission. If you are worthy to serve, he will submit your papers to Salt Lake City within a few days of your meeting.
Your paperwork will arrive in Salt Lake City, be reviewed, and your call will be assigned. Depending on where you live, your call could arrive within a week of being assigned, or, if you're like me and you live in Canada (or any where "International"), your call could arrive as late as 3 weeks after being assigned, or later. My call arrived a day or so after we expected it to arrive, because it was around Christmastime and New Year's, so the post was quite the busy business. However, it still came within about 3 weeks and when it did, I opened it with my family around me. (How you decide to open your call is totally up to you, by the way - you might decide to open it alone, or with many people around you. Just remember that your call is a sacred thing, and should be treated as such. Get excited!)
When you receive your call letter, you will also receive a booklet with specific instructions regarding the next steps in your mission preparation. Some of these steps will be specific to your own mission, but some are also universal. For example, you will be asked to log onto the Missionary Portal (missionary.lds.org) to track your preparation progress. On the Portal there will be instructions specific to you. You will be asked to read the White Handbook (which contains all of the general missionary rules and guidelines), watch 6 specific episodes of The District, create a Mormon.org account, and so on. You will also be required to complete your immunizations (don't worry - you receive this information when you receive your call), and YOU WILL NEED TO WRITE YOUR ACCEPTANCE LETTER ASAP. You will be asked to write it online so feel free to do that. As long as you act quickly and promptly upon receiving your call, you shouldn't have anything to worry about.
All of this is very fine and dandy.
But it is also very 'check-list-y' and 'to-do-ish.' What you're not seeing is the spiritual side of things.
I'm going to be totally blunt here. PREPARING FOR A MISSION IS NOT EASY.
If you find that it is easy, then you are probably doing something wrong. Or, as they say, "Wait for it." I don't say this to instill any sort of fear in you, or to scare you away from the idea of serving a mission. No, rather, I say this as a sort of clarification. Before I received my call, I would get excited about a friend's mission call, hearing about other people's mission stories, and learning of the progress of those who I cared about who were in the field. However, now that I have been through the mission paper application process, and have had my call for about 2 months, when I witness a mission call opening, the experience has so much more meaning for me. And honestly, it's because even though I may not know exactly what my fellow future missionaries have faced in order to make it to the point where they are opening a mission call, I can take a good guess. Because all of us who are preparing have been or will be there to some extent. Our trials are definitely personalised, but to think that you're alone in them is believing exactly what Satan would have you believe. And it's wrong. You. are. never. alone. EVER.
(to be continued)
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