Some Thoughts on Preparing a Child for A Mission

I am just starting the process of sending my seven children out on missions.  But here are some ideas that I have gathered and have tried to implement over the years that might be helpful to others working towards the same goal.

1. Build a Testimony

Hold your family scripture and prayers.  Make sure they know the importance of reading scriptures and saying prayers on their own.  Keep them clean and worthy to serve a mission.  But also let them make decisions.  Don’t force.  Give gentle reminders or use consequences when necessary.

2. Teach them to teach others

The best way to do this is to give them opportunities to teach in your own home.  Have them give family home evening lessons, Come Follow Me lessons or devotional messages.  

3. Serve Others With Your Family

When you go ministering, bring your child with you.  But more importantly look for neighbors and those in your community who need a helping hand.  Shovel snow.  Blow leaves.  When our boys were little we brought dinner to an elderly neighbor in their little red wagon.  And don’t just serve members of your own faith community.  Reach out to everyone around you.

4. Don’t Focus on Worldly Stuff

There are so many things in this world that are just not important.  Fun but not important.  If sports or cars or clothing or popularity are very important to your child then it will be hard to leave these things behind for a mission.  My children know that one of my favorite scriptures is: “A man’s life consisteth not of the abundance of that which he possesseth.”  I quote it often.

5. Work is the Key

President Ezra Taft Benson said that “one of of the greatest secrets of missionary work is work.” Incentivize them to wake up early. Have family work projects that you do together and jobs just for them.  Have them do work that prepares them to clean, to do laundry and to make meals.  We have made different job charts over the years to accomplish this. Teach them to finish a job and to do it well.  Check their jobs and call them back if they aren’t done properly.  Doing hard things at home prepares them for real world work.

6. Teach them to Get Along With Others

This does not mean teaching them to be popular.  Popularity often causes you to sacrifice the most important things on the altar.  Rather, teach them good manners and kindness.  Help them find jobs and volunteer work where they are around others.  Teach them to be a good friend. 

7. Have Them Earn Money for their Own Mission

We prayed about this and found creative ways for our kids to earn money – selling bread or cookies door to door or shoveling snow and mowing lawns.  Encourage them to find a full time job in the summer and other work as needed.  I wish I would have found my boys really social jobs where they had to talk to a lot of people. After they work help them to pay tithing and to put money in a savings account for a mission.

8. Learn About Other Cultures With Them

Have them take a language. Travel. Study the countries of your ancestors. Eat weird foreign food. Look at maps and google maps. Appreciate this awesome earth that you live on. But don’t forget to prepare them to also receive a normal, stateside mission call. Teach them that the most important part of a mission is bringing souls everywhere to Christ.