Missionary Preparation/Raising the Bar

As a mother of five sons the subject of missionary preparation is both close to my heart and overwhelming. I feel a huge responsibility to prepare them to be ready and willing to serve our Father in Heaven. I will work with all my might to help my sons to gain and strengthen their testimonies. I will teach them the needed physical skills. I follow the admonition from Elder Ballard and work to teach them the value of being valiant, having courage, having strength, being active, and being true.

1.But once you reach those minimum standards, shouldn’t you try to keep raising the bar? I ask you the same question I asked my son many years ago: “If you don’t raise the bar, how will you ever know your potential?” My challenge to you is to recognize that a minimum standard exists—and you must reach it to serve as a full-time missionary—but don’t stop there. The greatest generation of missionaries will not reach its full potential unless it keeps raising the bar. Elder L. Tom Perry “Raising the Bar” November 2007

2.Please recognize that while your teaching as a missionary may be persuasive, only the Spirit converts. Preach My Gospel gives a good description of what missionary work is all about. It states, “As an authorized representative of Jesus Christ, you can teach people with power and authority that ‘redemption cometh in and through the Holy Messiah,’ and that no one ‘can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah’ (2 Nephi 2:6, 8)” ([2004], 2). Elder L. Tom Perry “Raising the Bar” November 2007

3.Listen to those words, my young brethren: valiant, courage, strength, active, true. We don’t need spiritually weak and semicommitted young men. We don’t need you to just fill a position; we need your whole heart and soul. We need vibrant, thinking, passionate missionaries who know how to listen to and respond to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit. This isn’t a time for spiritual weaklings. We cannot send you on a mission to be reactivated, reformed, or to receive a testimony. We just don’t have time for that. We need you to be filled with “faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God” (D&C 4:5). M. Russel Ballard “The Greatest Generation of Missionaries” October 2002

4.We expect you to have an understanding and a solid testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We expect you to work hard. We expect you to be covenant makers and covenant keepers. We expect you to be missionaries to match our glorious message.

Now these are high standards. We understand that, but we do not apologize for them. They reflect the Lord’s standards for you to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood, to enter the temple, to serve as missionaries, and to be righteous husbands and fathers. There’s nothing new in them, nothing you haven’t heard before. But tonight we call upon you, our young brethren of the Aaronic Priesthood, to rise up, to measure up, and to be fully prepared to serve the Lord. M. Russel Ballard “The Greatest Generation of Missionaries” October 2002

5.Consequently, if we are “raising the bar” for your sons to serve as missionaries, that means we are also “raising the bar” for you. If we expect more of them, that means we expect more of you and your wife as well. Remember, Helaman’s 2,000 stripling warriors were faithful because “they had been taught to keep the commandments of God and to walk uprightly before him” (Alma 53:21)—and that instruction came in their homes. M. Russel Ballard “The Greatest Generation of Missionaries” October 2002

6.Young people need to commit themselves early in life to the idea of a mission. That way, when they get older and begin to face some of the world’s temptations, those temptations will be less likely to penetrate their hearts or minds. They will resist the temptations because they are focused on becoming a servant of the Lord. M. Russell Ballard “How to Prepare to be a Good Missionary” March 2007

7.What I tell new missionaries is that they need to lock into their minds that the 18 or 24 months they are on their missions are not theirs. That time is the Lord’s. They are going to devote their skills and talents full-time to help build His kingdom. When missionaries think that way, they don’t have trouble following the mission rules. They don’t resist the counsel of the mission president, the guidelines in Preach My Gospel, and the counsel of the General Authorities. They embrace that counsel because they don’t want to waste one minute of the Lord’s time. M. Russell Ballard “How to Prepare to be a Good Missionary” March 2007

8.But, no matter how much an individual or family may sacrifice for a mission or anything else, unless missionaries choose obedience, consecrating all of their time, talents, and resources in the service of the Lord while they are in the mission field, they cannot fully realize all the great blessings the Lord has in store for them. But it will be much more effective if they learn to be obedient before they go to the mission field. Robert D. Hales “The Aaronic Priesthood: Return With Honor” April 1990

9.If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your hear. . .And returned missionaries, find your old missionary tag. Don’t wear it, but put it where you can see it. The Lord needs you now more than ever to be an instrument in His hands. Neil L. Anderson “It's a Miracle” April 2013

10.Young men, you have no time to waste. You can’t wait to get serious about preparing until you are 17 or 18. Aaronic Priesthood quorums can help their members understand the oath and covenant of the priesthood and get ready for ordination as elders, they can help them understand and prepare for the ordinances of the temple, and they can help them get ready for successful missions. Melchizedek Priesthood quorums and the Relief Society can help parents prepare missionaries who know the Book of Mormon and who will go into the field fully committed. D. Todd Christofferson “Brethren, We Have a Work to Do” October 2012