I am a convert to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the only member of the Church on my side of the family. Interestingly, I recently found out that for decades my mother has been approaching LDS Missionaries (whenever she happens to see them around town or in the grocery store) and talking to them. I was a little shocked when I heard this - I really had no idea that she would do such a thing and she had never mentioned it at all until recently. She said that whenever she sees missionaries, she always tells them that her daughter and family are members of the Church and that I served a mission. More recently, she has also started adding that her oldest granddaughter (my daughter) is preparing to serve a mission soon.
She then told me (to my astonishment) that she always tells the missionaries that she knows that they are far from family and home, so she wants to make sure they have everything that they need and then asks if there is anything she can do to help them. I think she noticed that I was surprised that she had been doing this all these years. She told me that she is only doing what she would want someone else to do for me or her granddaughter. She said she hoped that if she offered to help local missionaries in their time of need, someone else would do the same for us.
When I finally recovered from my initial shock that my mom was telling me this, I asked her if any of the missionaries have ever said that they need something. She replied that they never have, but that they always seem appreciative of the offer and are polite, so she will keep asking. Now, I should mentioned that my mother works in a grocery store, so she sees missionaries shopping there frequently (since there are quite few sets of missionaries in the area). I can't even imagine how many times these conversations must have happened over the past 25 years. I had no clue. Isn't my mom a cool person?
If you have a missionary that you care about currently serving far away, whether it's a relative or friend, you probably think about them a lot and maybe even worry about how they are and what they are doing (or eating/not eating). I made sure that my mom understood that missionaries bring what they need, have apartments provided, have a food allowance and have dinner appointments with people in the area where they serve - plus, they can always contact the Mission President if there is some sort of need or problem. "I know," she said, "but I just want to offer help if I can. There might be something they need. It doesn't hurt to ask."
This blog post is titled, "Do Unto Others as You Would Have Them Do Unto You(r Missionary)." When your special missionary is in the Czech Republic or Peru or Ireland, you might not be able to do much to help them out on a day to day basis, because you aren't physically there. You can pray, you can write letters/emails, you can send packages (when practical), but you can't be THERE. But there is something you can do - you can help the local missionaries who are serving where you live! And I get the feeling that my mom is right - if we serve others, maybe others will step up and serve our loved ones when we aren't physically there to do so.
So what can we do to help the local missionaries where we live? I've got 5 ideas for you - REFERRALS, DINNER APPOINTMENTS, SAY HELLO, HONK & WAVE, AND BONUS GROCERIES
#1- REFERRALS - Hands down, this is the thing that missionaries need most. No matter what mission they are serving in, this is what they want and need. Introduce them to your friends and neighbors. Invite your friends to meet with them. Help the missionaries find people to teach. I've read many letters home from missionaries who have said, "please give referrals to the local missionaries." Why would they say that? They know what missionaries everywhere need people to teach so that they can do what they were called to do. You probably can't help your missionary find people to teach in Australia or India or Brazil when you live in Oklahoma (unless you have relatives there or something!). But if you live in Oklahoma, you can help the Oklahoma missionaries find people to teach in Oklahoma! If you want people in Zimbabwe to give your missionary referrals in Zimbabwe, then give your local missionaries referrals! (Do unto others...)
#2- SIGN UP FOR DINNER APPOINTMENTS - As we talk about in our Mission-prep blog posts "Food and Dinner Appointments - a Guide for LDS Missionaries" and "2 REALLY important Things to Start Doing Now if you Want to SURVIVE EATING as an LDS Missionary" it is expected that ward/branch members help to provide at least some of the dinner meals to their local missionaries, whenever possible. This helps to cut down on the missionary expenses. In some areas, missionaries have a dinner appointment every day. In other areas, they may have few or none. Find out about signing up to provide dinner for the local missionaries in your ward/branch and help out if you can. It's very much appreciated.
#3- SAY HELLO WHEN YOU SEE MISSIONARIES - I always say hello when I see missionaries anywhere (even if I don't know them). This might seem a little strange, but when I was a missionary I remember that SO MANY people were rude, unkind, or angry when they saw us...so if we saw someone that we knew or if anyone was randomly nice to us, it made a difference to me. So say hello. If there is opportunity to talk, introduce yourself. Often when I see a pair of missionaries that I don't know, I say hello and they have a hint of panic in their expressions as they try to figure out who I am. They seem to wonder if they should know me from their current ward, or if I am a previous investigator or something, etc. So, I try to say right away, "I'm Sister Rogers from _________ ward" or something like that and that puts them at ease.
#4- HONK AND WAVE - Again, this might seem a little strange, but when I see missionaries walking down the street or waiting to cross at an intersection, I honk and wave. The reason I do this is the same as what I mentioned above in #3- When a pair of missionaries walk or bike down the road, they are very recognizable to most people who see them. And that often draws negative attention and people sometimes yell rude things or scream profanities at missionaries as they drive by. After a while, a missionary might start to feel like the entire world must hate them. I know I felt like that sometimes. When I was a missionary, if someone we knew (or didn't know) drove by and honked, waved, and/or smiled, it would literally make my day so much better.
#5- BONUS GROCERIES - If appropriate and reasonable for you to do, you might also consider donating a few extra groceries to supplement what the missionaries have to eat in their apartment. As a missionary, I always ate (though sometimes if I didn't plan well, I didn't eat well), but regardless of how much food I already had, I was always happy if someone gave us a bag of groceries because we were on a very limited budget. If you are going to buy a few things to give to your local missionaries, I would recommend giving things that are easy to prepare (or require zero prep) and that do not require additional ingredients. For example, if you give a missionary boxes of "hamburger helper" mix, I'm sure that they will appreciate it, but they might not have the other ingredients (like ground beef, milk, and butter) available.
Recently my daughter has been working with some great full-time missionary Elders in the area who have been teaching several of her single adult friends. She sees the missionary dinner calendar and knows that YSA Elders don't get as many dinner appointments as other missionaries in the area might. We've had them over for dinner in our home. But she felt recently that maybe there was something else we could do. Partly because she is thankful to them for teaching her friends, but also
partly because she has reason to suspect that they might be eating a lot of ramen noodles these days.
She asked me if we could get them a bag of "bonus" food as a special treat. We talked about what kinds of foods would be best. We decided that things cold cereal, granola bars, and spaghetti-o's would be a good idea. So we picked up those items (and a few other things) at the store and texted the missionaries that "Our family has a few bags of things for you. Stop by whenever you are in the neighborhood to pick them up" (they have a car). I should stress that this wasn't a major expense and we don't do this regularly, but we carefully thought about what might be convenient and easy for them, but it ended up being 1 bag each (doubles of everything) and only cost about $20.00.
I took a photo of what we got so that you could get an idea of the type of thing that we bought:
Cereal
Applesauce
Granola bars
Salsa
Tortilla chips
Spaghetti-os
Microwave popcorn
As you can see, there is nothing major, nothing that requires any special steps or other ingredients (except maybe milk for the cereal).
I hope this post has given you some ideas on how you can help the local missionaries. And I hope that you and your missionary (wherever they are serving) will be blessed by your thoughtfulness and service.
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