Every worthy, able young man should prepare to serve a mission. Such service is a priesthood duty—an obligation the Lord expects of us who have been given so very much.
. . .Sisters, while you do not have the same priesthood responsibility as do the young men to serve as full-time missionaries, you also make a valuable contribution as missionaries, and we welcome your service.
. . . 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.
We tried to focus on those two objectives last evening. We had a panel discussion featuring Joyce, Cindy, and Connie, who discussed ideas on how they helped their children to prepare to serve missions. Many of the sisters who attended also gave suggestions and ideas.
The other thing we focused on was how to prepare ourselves (as mature sisters) to serve missions. Georgia Mills told about some of her experiences, including how the Lord paved the way for her to go to Fiji and how he helped her know how to teach when she got there. She encouraged us all to prepare to serve, and bore testimony that the Lord has people who need your particular set of talents and abilities that you will bring.
I bore a second witness to the things that she said and talked about some of the missionary opportunities that are out there.
Here is where you can go to find out about full-time missionary service. Please watch some of the videos that are available. Here is a list of all the opportunities available right now. These change monthly, so you might want to bookmark this page.
There are also wonderful church-service missionary opportunities. Go to this page to see the overview. Here are some wonderful and inspiring videos. Here are only a few of the needs for service that you can do while still living at home.
If you'd like to start serving now, there are SO MANY needs and opportunities to serve. Check out this page and follow the links. It's exciting!
If you'd like to print out a pledge card for your small children, here it is:
We encouraged everyone to get a copy of Preach My Gospel and use it for Family Home Evenings. Alicia has her 16-year old Jessie teach a lesson from it once a month. It's available from Church Distribution stores or you can get it online.
There are many, many other resources to help us prepare ourselves and our youth for missions. Ask the Lord to guide you to them.
Don't forget that the Prophet said, "Now, some of you may be shy by nature or consider yourselves inadequate to respond affirmatively to a calling. Remember that this work is not yours and mine alone. It is the Lord’s work, and when we are on the Lord’s errand, we are entitled to the Lord’s help. Remember that whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies." As Georgia testified, the Lord will not just send you out to the middle of nowhere and say, "Thanks for going. Good luck! You're on your own!" He is waiting and eager to help us when we ask Him.
If you have comments or suggestions or resources, please share them with us.
