John Bytheway - Suit Up

With gratitude to Newel K. Brown
Your song I Hope They Call Me on a Mission
has inspired generations.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Suit up! : hasten your preparation / John Bytheway, Laurel Christensen, John Hilton III, Jennifer Brinkerhoff Platt, Hank Smith, Anthony Sweat, Brad Wilcox.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN 978-1-60907-515-6 (paperbound)

1. Mormon missionariesTraining of. 2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsMissions. 3. Mormon ChurchMissions. I. Smith, Hank, 1980 Lords marvelous work. II. Bytheway, John, 1962 Give it everything youve got. III. Platt, Jennifer Brinkerhoff, 1971 Ill be what you want me to be. IV. Wilcox, Brad. Thrusting in our sickle. V. Sweat, Anthony. Essential credentials. VI. Christensen, Laurel. Im trying to be like Jesus. VII. Hilton, John, III. Ask and ye shall receive.

BX8661.S85 2013

266'.9332dc232013003127

Printed in the United States of America

R. R. Donnelley, Crawfordsville, IN

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Introduction

God is hastening His work, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said, directing his remarks to the young men and women of the Church in a press conference following the October 2012 general conference announcement lowering the age of missionary service. And He needs more and more willing and worthy missionaries to spread the light and the truth and the hope and the salvation of the gospel of Jesus Christ to an often dark and fearful world.... This isnt about you. It is about the sweet and pure message you are being asked to bear.

Well all remember where we were when we heard President Thomas S. Monson announce the age change for full-time missionaries: young men able to serve at eighteen and young women able to serve at nineteen. Facebook and other social media sites immediately lit up with comments of enthusiasm from young people just like you. We knew immediately we wanted to do something to help you get prepared for your part in the hastening work. This book is that something.

Relive the moment of the historic announcement.

Missionary Age Changes

For eInk devices please copy this link into your browser of choice: http://bit.ly/16wWwWd

Elder Holland said it plainly: The Lord needs more missionaries and He needs better prepared missionaries.

Simply put, He needs you.

Each of the authors of this book have had the privilege of sharing the gospel and we have all had different missionary experiences. Some of us thought our missions were hard. Some of us thought our missions were perfect. Six of us served full-time missions and one of us filled out mission papers, but in the end was prompted to seek other ways to serve. But for all of us, sharing the gospel is an important part of who we are now.

Do you have a vision of what missionary work is and how your mission will play out? This book is intended to help you get ready before you go as well as help you get ready for all you will encounter as you embark on the unique adventure that awaits you. Your mission will be one of the hardestand easiestthings you will ever do, and thats partially what makes it so unique.

Elder Bruce C. Hafen expressed the unique adventure this way:

It is not uncommon for missionaries... to encounter [a] gap between the real and the ideal, perhaps because new missionaries generally make more idealistic commitments than they have ever before taken upon themselves. And yet, in spite of their most valiant efforts, they may find themselves more than once fighting back the tears of disappointment when the promised fruits of a positive mental attitude somehow elude them.... If we are not willing to grapple with the frustration that comes from honestly and bravely facing the uncertainties we encounter, we may never develop the kind of spiritual maturity that is necessary for our ultimate preparations.

Your preparation for your mission is just part of the ultimate preparation for the rest of your life. There has never been a more exciting time to be aliveand there has never been a more exciting time to be a missionary. We are thrilled for you and all that lies ahead for you. All of us (and your parents and your leaders and members around the world) are praying for you. We want you to know you are not alone. Your fears and concerns are normal. And your excitement and energy are needed in an often dark and fearful world.

If you were planning to participate in an athletic event, you would definitely want to be wearing the right clothes. You would suit up as part of your preparation to participate. Similarly, if youre planning to serve a mission, preparation is a prerequisite for participation. This book is all about helping you suit up spiritually to become better prepared for the unique missionary adventure that awaits youthat marvelous field-already-to-harvest adventure! Each chapter in this book is based on a verse from Doctrine and Covenants 4one of the most powerful revelations related to missionary work. At the end of each chapter you will find Hasten Your Preparation! and Suit Up! action items. These suggestions invite you to study additional scriptures and apply the truths discussed in each chapter. We encourage you to implement these invitations and promise you that you will be blessed by the Lord with additional insights and experiences that will help you in your missionary preparation.

At the end of each chapter is a link that will take you to a website where you can watch a video of that chapters author discussing it with future missionaries like you. See what these young people are saying or doing as they prepare, and how the authors answer their questions.

Are you ready?

Do you want to be?

Then suit up!

Notes

Jeffrey R. Holland, in Heather Whittle Wrigley, Church Leaders Share More Information on Missionary Age Requirement Change, Church News and Events [blog]; available at https://www
.lds.org/church/news/church-leaders-share-more-information
-on-missionary-age-requirement-change?lang=eng; accessed
10 January 2013.

See Thomas S. Monson, Welcome to Conference, Ensign, November 2012, 45.

Bruce C. Hafen, Love Is Not Blind, devotional address, Brigham Young University, 9 January 1979; available at http://speeches
.byu.edu/?act=viewitem&id=651; accessed 10 January 2013.

Chapter One

The Lords Marvelous Work

Now behold, a marvelous work is about to come forth among the children of men.Doctrine and Covenants 4:1

Hank Smith

Many of my childhood memories involve washing a car. Saturday mornings were spent washing every car within one hundred yards of our house. My dad would often invite the neighbors to pull their car into our driveway for a free car wash and most of the time we washed each car three times! You think thats bad? It gets worse. If all of the cars within sight were clean, we would often take out everything that was stored in the garage and then put it all back in again. Apparently that made it look better. After the garage had been thoroughly reorganized, we went to the backyard, where we moved dirt from one side to the other. In my elementary schoolaged brain, I couldnt figure out why we spent so much time working when we could be doing fun things like playing video games. Most days we worked until we were too tired to have any fun at all. For a long time, I thought my dad was crazy. In my immature mind, I was being raised by a lunatic who was addicted to manual labor.