Help For Sisters

This is where I'll put all my posts about preparing for the mission.  These are mostly for Sisters, though there might be some stuff the Elders could use. :)

June 19, 2013
Getting into Good Habits
     So we all know about the dreaded "early to bed, early to rise" mission schedule.  I know as teenagers/young adults going to sleep at 10:30 seems like such a drag and waking up at 6:30 sounds like torture.  Believe me, when I was at school I often went to sleep after 2:00 a.m. and woke up after 10:00.  A mission is hard enough without considering sleep loss into the equation.  The MTC itself is a rigorous and exhausting experience.  Do yourself a favor and get yourself into a schedule now.

     So what is the missionary schedule?  Well the basics (or at least what I'll focus on right now) are the wake-up, bedtime, and study sessions.

     Wake up.  Right now if you can would be a good time to get into the habit of waking up early.  I know, I know, it's hard at first, but it helps it really does.  Set your alarm, just do it.  Set two or three if you need to.  Here are some ways to make it easier.  First, do something.  If you just drag yourself out of bed and sit there, it's not going to work out.  Right now my dad and I go to the gym at 6:30.  This is nice because that's the next thing on the schedule, is a work out.  Me and my dad work out for an hour, so a little different, but we can't live the schedule perfectly can we?  It's nice to get the blood flowing and wake up.  I don't go really intense, just walking stretching and a little bit of aerobics.  I also use that time to listen to conference talks and Portuguese lessons.  The other thing that helps is knowing your Circadian Rhythm.  Sometimes when we wake up we're so exhausted that we can't get out of bed.  To help with this, I use this little trick.  When you hit the 12 hour mark of when you want to wake up, stop eating.  In other words, don't eat after 6:30 at night.  When your body has food to digest it slows down.  If you give your body enough time to process the food you'll wake up energized and ready.  Last of all, when I wake up tired I think about the Savior.  I know, the whole What Would Jesus Do thing is very cliche.  So I think more What Would Jesus Think of Me?  I feel that if He saw me being selfish enough to sleep when I should get up He'd be disappointed.  That thought makes me cringe and I immediately jump out of bed.

     Bedtime.  Don't mess about, go to sleep.  It's that simple.  Turn off the lights and sleep.  I also have some helpful tips for this too.  Firstly, yawn and stretch.  In the half hour before you go to sleep, close your eyes, yawn and stretch your arms.  Do this four times, spread throughout this half hour.  This gets your body expecting sleep.  You won't have as many problems with falling and staying asleep.  Start now to get your body to associate different things with sleep.  Don't do anything in your bed except sleep.  If you shower at night, make sure it's somewhat close to when you go to bed.  Make it an enjoyable routine.

     Study sessions.  I don't know about you, but reading the scriptures for more than a half hour is really hard for me.  It's going to be difficult to read by myself for an entire hour, and then another hour with my companion.  I'm still working on this, but trying to find something fantastic in your scriptures, or a very VERY specific goal always helps.  The specific goal that I have (and have had for a couple years now) is to have something marked, annotated, or something written in the margins of every single page in the Book of Mormon.  Every verse was chosen specifically for our day, so I should be able to find something on each page.  If I start to get lost in the words I slow down and find something to mark.  As for companion study, my mom is an excellent help.  She is a seminary teacher and loves to talk about the gospel.  We can easily have a conversation for and hour about the Atonement.  If you can find someone to study with, do it!

     Other habits you might want to kick, or get into.  Sarcasm.  Get rid of it as soon as you can.  Sarcasm drives away the Spirit.  I am horrid at this.  I love to be snarky, to crack a joke at something, to make people laugh.  Yes, it's all well and good in normal life, don't worry, but on your mission it's different.  It's easy to drive the Spirit (and therefore investigators) away with a badly placed snarky comment.  I've asked my family to help me be a bit less....that way.  Anyway, moving on.  Other habits.  Technology.  Try and leave it a lone as much as you can, same goes for music.  The less input you have from these sources the better you will feel the Spirit.  I'm not saying become Amish or anything, I am after all typing this up right now (while watching Dr. Who) but if you regulate yourself it will help you feel the Spirit, as
well as discipline yourself.  Think about it, are you going to care what happened on Facebook today six months from now when you're wandering the streets of Rome with your companion?  Probably not, and if you do, you'll probably hear about it in a letter.

     Let's see, unless I'm forgetting something that's all I have to say for now.  Sorry about the double post today but I felt this needed to be said.


June 19, 2013
Getting Started

     As anyone with a mission call, past or present, or their parents or friends know, there is a LOT to do when you're getting reading to go on a mission.  I see a lot of girls absolutely freaking out because of all the things, and any little thing going wrong throws them into a panic.  I am definitely one of these girls sometimes.  I'm not an expert by any means but I'm going to try and explain or simplify some of the more common questions I see.  We'll assume that the future missionary reading this has already received their call.

     There is a lot of stuff to do so sometimes getting started is daunting.  I was lucky enough to have some awesome, super organized parents and friends who helped me out.  The first thing you need to do of course is send that acceptance letter!  It's in the back of your packet that came with your call.  You need to write it and send it back as soon as possible!  Otherwise it is VERY easy to forget, and if the Brethren don't know you want to go, you'll lose your opportunity!

     Next is to get some info about your mission!  Usually within the first month or so you'll get a letter from your Mission President.  This is mine, from all the way down in Brazil!  I have heard that some South American missions do not do this and in any case waiting weeks and weeks?  No need to sit around until it shows up, let's think of some other ways you can learn all you want about your mission.  I luckily had a good friend who served in my mission, so he told me a lot of what I could expect.  Friends or family are the best source of information.  Sometimes though, you don't know anyone who served there.  You can also find blogs about missions.  Usually though, this is a sister thing, so not too helpful for you elders.  There is an excellent site though that has information from hundreds of thousands of RMs from missions all over the world.  Click here to take a look!  Just find your mission and you can find all sorts of information.  My mission has a website that I have found very helpful.  I also researched everything from common jobs to weather.

     After you've learned everything you want to, it's really time to get to it!  If you haven't already, start reading the Book of Mormon again, this is part of your Pre MTC training and is a major part of what you will be teaching people.  I started on New Year's Day, a whole month before I even turned in my papers.  I only have two weeks before I leave and I still haven't finished.  It is a big project, so keep up on it and don't slip.

     Speaking of Pre MTC training, that is another important thing to do!  In your packet is information about the Missionary Portal.  If you haven't already, log in and do the Pre MTC training. It takes a few hours so do a little each day or do like I did and just go absolutely mission crazy and do it in a single day!  The Missionary Portal also has all kind of cool stuff, like the weather in your mission and a cool countdown that tells you how many days you have left!  Also, it has a list of the immunizations you need.  Try not to stress too much about those.  I got mine done in the course of one week.  I did not however, manage to find a flu shot.  Right now they aren't in season.  If your report date is in late September or later, you'll probably be able to find one before you go, but the rest of us are kind of stuck in regards to that.  Just a reminder for those who will need to take the series of oral typhoid pills.  Put up something to remind you!!  I forgot several times so they weren't exactly on the days they were supposed to.  I think I'll be all right but if I die from typhoid, that's why.

     Next, wardrobe!  Hopefully you already have some clothes already.  Elders this is probably more important for the Sisters.  You guys are lucky, you just have to find some good looking, sturdy suits, shoes, and ties.  Sisters?  Well let's see.  Earlier this week I posted a packing list, and there should be a page on this blog where I posted it.  Right now though I'm going to focus on just a few things.

A collage of my mix-and-matchable outfits!

     Skirts.  Sisters, decide right now what sort of wardrobe you want.  To maximize your outfit count you need to get shirts that match with most of your skirts.  I went the route of plain shirts and patterned skirts.  You can go the reverse, or if you are a master of fashion, a little of both.  Once you make up your mind, it's time to go through your closet and find things you can bring.  I know a lot of girls wonder about maxi skirts and high-low skirts. My personal opinion is this. No on both. The dress and grooming standards say "Do not wear floor-length skirts," I have heard different things about maxi skirts being allowed in certain missions and that certain mission presidents allow them.  However, me personally, I'm not going to search and strain and justify to wear them.  I'm just going to  go by the general standards.  Same thing for the high-low skirts.  I see them as a bit faddish, which is also a no-no.  I don't want to have to worry about them either, since I know some people will judge.  Also I'm a bit of a clutz and I'd probably end up stepping on it and essentially "pantsing" myself.  Just keep it simple, get something nice, mix-and-matchable, and comfortable.

     Shirts.  Like I said, I went plain.  I have several button up shirts of all sorts of different colors.  Red, black, yellow, green, blue, etc.  Simple, great.  Depending on your mission, you'll want varying lengths of sleeves.  I get all four seasons in all their extremes, so I got all short or three quarter length sleeves, more short sleeves though.  For the cold months I brought a few cardigans and coats.

     Dresses.  I'm only bringing, one, and that's a maybe.  They are a bit more limiting than skirts and shirts.  If you can find some good ones, go for it!

A couple of pairs of shoes that I got.

     Shoes.  Oh my gosh shoes!  Depending on your mission, you'll get different types of shoes, but no matter what they MUST be comfortable.  I strongly discourage heels over two inches.  Believe me I am devastated.  I used to wear 6 inch heels with my jeans to class every day (I'm short and I like crazy shoes).  For my mission, I need really good walking shoes.  It is a walking mission, no bikes or cars.  Also really rainy, so waterproof.  I stayed to black leather flats, with one pair of boots.  I was also instructed to get gel insoles.  You might not have to, but I advise this, they are very helpful.

     Other stuff.  Watches and jewelry.  Don't go crazy, but don't be afraid to be pretty!

     Moving on, I might post about wardrobe a bit more later.  For now then, let's continue.  Make sure you get your temple recommend quick, even if you don't plan to go for a while.  It's a personal choice when you go through and get endowed but I can say that the more you can go, the better.  You don't necessarily get the chance to go very often when you're in the field.  My mission doesn't have a temple, and my hometown's closest temple is almost three hours away, so I went through the first time only a month after I got my call.  I go to BYU and with the temple a two minute drive away I was able to go as much as I wanted.

     Unless I'm forgetting something really important, that's all the major stuff.  Just relax and don't stress.  As long as you do something every day and keep on top of it, you'll be "ready" in time.  I don't feel like anyone is ever as ready as they'd like to be but we can get close.  Good luck with your many to do lists!