From the time I got my mission call, my life has been a flurry of mission prep. Growing up, my mom would remind me regularly that "if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear." I heard this before tests, interviews, and church talks, but its importance really hit me when I got my mission call. I realized that this is crunch time to learn all I can about the Gospel and prepare myself spiritually to teach others. I have been working hard to do everything I can so that I am well prepared for my mission.
Up until this past week I had been reading two chapters of the Book of Mormon everyday since I have been asked to read the entire book at least once from the time I got my call to the time I leave. This last week I decided that since I will be serving many people who are Catholic and greatly value the Bible, I should prolly freshen up a little on my knowledge of the New Testament before I leave. So instead of reading two chapters per day, I started reading three or more so that I can read at least parts of the New Testament before my mission. It has been an amazing experience to read the Book of Mormon over again with the eyes of someone who is preparing to teach others about it.
I have attended the temple as often as I could, and am hoping to attend once a week from now until I leave. This will be a little tricky since I live an hour and a half away, but going to the temple is always worth the sacrifice.
On my online missionary portal, I have a To Do list of items that need to be completed before I leave. I am 70% done with them. A few days ago I finished watching the last episode of The District--missionary training videos that track the progress of real missionaries and their investigators. Watching those episodes and learning more about the realities of missionary work has been such a great experience, and has made me so much more excited to go on my mission. They helped me to understand what missionary work is actually like, and the kinds of things I can do to be more prepared. And it didn't hurt that episodes 4-6 took place in San Diego, which is where I'm from. :)
Through the preparation process, I have realized that I have been preparing to serve a mission for my entire life--even though I didn't know that I was going to serve, Heavenly Father did, and he put opportunities in my way that would help me prepare to teach the people of Peru. For example, as I already mentioned, I attended a mission prep class taught by Jack Christiansen when I was in 9th grade. Although I wasn't planning to serve a mission at the time, I learned so many valuable things that will help me to be a better missionary. I took Spanish all through Junior High and High School, which will be a huge benefit to me when I get out in the mission field. When I first got to BYU, even before I knew that I would be serving a mission, I made it a goal to take advantage of all the opportunities that I had there. I attended every fireside, talk, meeting, and activity that I could. All of those things that I participated in helped me to prepare spiritually for my mission. It's crazy to me how well Heavenly Father knows me and how to prepare me for what is coming in my life. All of the experiences that I have had up until this point have brought me to the place where I am today: preparing to teach the people of Peru.
Even though I will never feel that I am completely ready, I know that the more I prepare, the more effective I will be as a missionary. And though I am still a little nervous to go to a foreign country where they speak another language and have different beliefs, I know that if I am prepared, I have no need to fear.
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