Comments on: A Letter to My Former Self as a Missionary http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/ A Mormon Blog Fri, 01 Jun 2012 13:16:46 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Mike Parker http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19661 Thu, 22 Feb 2007 00:43:53 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19661 Elder,

You may think your mission president is a terrifying bully, but for heaven’s sake, don’t call your parents to complain about him, because they’re only going to call your stake president, and your stake president is going to call your mission president, and then you’ll really be on the mission president’s Super-High Intensity Training list.

Oh, and shut up and try to listen to investigators’ questions before you try to answer them. You put your foot in your mouth all the time and you don’t even realize it.

In the next letter I’ll warn you about a certain girl you shouldn’t date after you get back because she’s going to scar you emotionally for years. You’ll just have to trust me on that one.

—You, 18 years from now

]]> By: Joe B. http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19662 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 22:21:04 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19662 What a wonderful idea. I’m going to write one and save it and then give it to my sons when they each enter the mission field. Thanks Kevin!

]]> By: john f. http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19663 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 19:36:12 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19663 Dear john at beginning of the mission:

What you did was right. So follow your instincts and I’ll still be able to say that 12 years after you read this, assuming that by writing you I am risking causing you to change your behavior and alter the choices you will make and the ultimate outcome of your mission. Anyway, just act like you never read this and you will be happy about your missionary experience and service in a decade.

Have fun (which I guarantee you is what happens — how can you not in East Germany?)

/s/

#############

Dear john nearing the end of the mission:

Stay focused. Do more service; make service at different charities, institutions, and projects a characteristic of daily missionary work, not just once a week.

Go ahead, read the newspapers every day, unless it makes your companion really uncomfortable in which case just stop to be considerate (which you would do anyway).

Don’t be discouraged in your final weeks; sprint all the way to the end — in 12 years when you’re writing this, you will think it was short-sighted to ease up in the last few weeks.

Keep having fun with it.

/s/

]]> By: Ann http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19672 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 15:46:50 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19672 Dear Ann,

You are making choices now that are going to limit your choices in the future. You’re not a stupid girl. For Pete’s sake, stop and THINK for a minute. Just follow the rules! They really aren’t that stringent (it’s not like you’re a Mormon missionary or something) and it’s EASIER that way. Listen to your parents. They aren’t stupid, and they want what’s best for you.

I’m not sure what you’re so angry about. Maybe you need to get more exercise, or talk to a therapist.

It’ll be OK in the end, but it doesn’t have to be as hard as you’re making it.

]]> By: A Turtle Named Mack http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19673 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 14:49:07 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19673 Mack-
Now that you’re newly married, take this advice: DON’T MAKE ANY PLANS FOR THE FUTURE! Everything you or your fine wife have planned will turn out to be wrong, few of the things you think you want will actually happen, and you’ll be eternally grateful that they didn’t. Save yourself a decade of mental, spiritual, and physical anxiety and learn to roll with things as they come. You have no idea the possibilities that lay ahead, and whatever plans you make now will only serve to limit those possibilities later. I’d tell you how things have worked out but you wouldn’t believe me, and you would run, screaming, the other direction anyway. That’s because you’re young, you’re stupid, and you’re short-sighted. Things won’t work out how you had hoped, and that’s a good thing. Relax, settle down, and enjoy what you’re doing while you’re doing it.

Oh, and don’t waste your time contemplating moving to Alaska to work in a fish processing plant so you can make some quick cash. You won’t go, because you’re not that stupid. Just relax, and don’t worry about not having any money – because you’ll never have any money.

-The Future Mack

(wow, it’s hard writing in the present tense, in the past)

]]> By: Melissa De Leon Mason http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19685 Tue, 20 Feb 2007 03:07:03 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19685 Thanks MCQ. If only our former selves would listen…

]]> By: MCQ http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19675 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 21:32:55 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19675 I love that letter Melissa!

]]> By: Melissa De Leon Mason http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19678 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 20:04:43 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19678 Dear Melissa,

It gets easier! Your family still loves you and you are not as alone as you felt right after your baptism. People in your new ward want to help you, let them in.

Pay attention to your friends. When tragedy strikes, don’t be practical. Drop everything and be there for them. Get on that airplane or you will regret it the rest of your life!

I know you feel like your life direction has totally changed. It has, but it’s a good thing. Don’t be so scared. In a few years you are going to be so happy. Despite the bad hair decisions you’re going to make.

And don’t turn that peacenik guy down when he asks you out on Halloween. It may not look like an invitation to go out (it’s hidden in a mass e-mail, after all) but it is and if you ignore it you will NEVER hear the end of it!

I’m sending you a hug.

]]> By: Bored in Vernal http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19681 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 19:13:40 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19681 Dear Sister B.,
Teach the people about the joy of the gospel instead of always focusing on the do’s and don’t's.
Give the Elders who don’t look like they have a testimony the benefit of the doubt. (You will be surprised at who grows up to be Stake President.)
And know that at the end of your mission when your SP releases you he will tell you that the Lord has accepted your sacrifice.

]]> By: j.a.t. http://bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/18/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19684 Mon, 19 Feb 2007 16:36:26 +0000 http://www.bycommonconsent.com/2007/02/a-letter-to-my-former-self-as-a-missionary/#comment-19684 Dear Me,
Don’t expect the mission prez to be a mix of yoda and an apostle. You’re gonna get a recenlty converted mafia lord and then get a male autocrat who has severe mental problems. Neither of the mission moms will go on splits with the sisters or participate in anything but homemaking in the mission home and cooking for the elders. You can’t rely on anyone at mission HQ, imature elders, or most of your sister companions, who will have major emotional/mental baggage. It’s just you kid.

That being said, your family and friends back home are one of the only support systems you have this side of the veil. Break the e-mail rules. E-mail your family AND friends back home. Call ‘em on the phone occasionally too. Break the service-hours rule and spend more time in orphanages, develop a vocational training program and fund it with your leftover monthly stipend. Study the Maltese Nights and their charity work before you leave the U.S. Lastly, be nice to yourself as well and give yourself pats on the back more frequently. Don’t wait for the eternities to start noticing the good work.

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