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Aaronic Priesthood Manual 2

Practical Preparation for a Mission

"Lesson 23: Practical Preparation for a Mission," Aaronic Priesthood Manual 2, 83

OBJECTIVE

Each young man will understand how preparing in practical skills will help him to be a more effective missionary.

PREPARATION

NOTE

A young man can do many things to prepare for a full-time mission. This lesson is meant to make the young men aware of the need to prepare, and to give them some specific suggestions for preparing. The young men will be more likely to act on the suggestions that they have thought of themselves. The lesson calls for small group discussions to generate ideas. Depending on how many young men attend, you may need to involve all of them in the discussion.

SUGGESTED LESSON DEVELOPMENT

Full-time Missionary Service Requires Preparation in Many Areas

Report

Have a recently returned missionary (or a full-time missionary working in your area) give a brief report on his everyday missionary activities. The report should not be longer than three or four minutes. It should center on the practical aspects of a missionary's life rather than on spiritual experiences.

Explain that the better prepared young men are, the more effectively they will be able to use their time as missionaries.

Chalkboard and discussion

From what the young men have heard about the practical demands of full-time missionary work, ask them to identify specific areas in which they could better prepare themselves now. Write the young men's responses on the chalkboard. Their responses might include finances, physical health, social skills, work and study habits, language skills, household skills, and grooming and cleanliness.

You may want to discuss briefly the importance of each response, using such questions as these:

Quotation

The following quotation from President Gordon B. Hinckley will help answer this question.

"Study a foreign language if you have opportunity to do so. You may never be called to a land where that language is spoken, but the study will have given you a better understanding of your own tongue or of another tongue you may be asked to acquire" (in Conference Report, Apr. 1982, p. 63; or Ensign, May 1982, p. 42).

Aaronic Priesthood Holders Should Begin Now to Prepare for Full-time Missionary Service

Group discussion

Divide the young men into small groups. Assign each group one or more of the areas listed on the chalkboard. Ask them to discuss ways that they could prepare themselves in that area to be more effective missionaries. Give each young man a piece of paper and a pencil to record the group's ideas. Appoint one member of each group to lead the discussion. Allow about ten minutes for the group discussions. Then have the leader of each group give a brief report on the suggested activities his group discussed. As time permits, have the young men discuss these suggestions. Emphasize the following areas:

Finances

Physical Health

Social Skills

Work and Study Habits

Language Skills

Household Skills

Grooming and Cleanliness

Activity

Have the young men list on the back of their paper the ways they spend their free time. Then have them answer for themselves the following questions:

You may want to ask the returned missionary what things he would do if he were starting now to prepare for his mission.

Quotation

"Young men having planned for 19 years to fill a mission will be more fruitful, more effective, and more successful when they serve and more people will come into the Church and will create more enthusiasm and there will be a chain reaction. Is there any other thing that would have a greater chain reaction and affect more interests and people?" (Spencer W. Kimball, "President Kimball Speaks Out on Being a Missionary," New Era, May 1981, p. 48).

Quotation

"The Lord's work needs the very best you are capable of providing. Now is the time to prepare for that service" (Gordon B. Hinckley, in Conference Report, Apr. 1982, p. 63; or Ensign, May 1982, p. 42).

Conclusion

Adviser presentation

Explain that a mission represents the greatest challenge that many young men will have faced. It is hard work and requires thorough preparation. But preparation for a mission is good preparation for the rest of a young man's life.

Quotation

"When our prophet-leader, President Spencer W. Kimball, says, 'Every young man on a mission,' he is looking far beyond the months spent in the mission field. Upon your return you will be a better bishop and a better stake president, a better husband, a better father, and a better whatever you will be both in this life and the one to come" (J. Thomas Fyans, in Conference Report, Apr. 1977, p. 56; or Ensign, May 1977, p. 40).

Challenge

Have the young men select from the list of suggested activities two or three that they feel they could do. Have them write these activities on the back of their paper. Challenge them to begin this week to prepare for their missions in the ways they have chosen. If you are a returned missionary, conclude with your own testimony of the importance of preparing now for a mission.

ACTIVITY

You may want to plan an activity night in which the young men could meet with the young women or with their mothers to learn and practice such practical skills as cooking, ironing, and sewing. You may wish to make it a "Missionary Preparation Olympics" and have contests in different practical areas.

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