This article originally appeared at LDSMissionaries.com.
Are you excited to talk to your missionary on Christmas!?? Well, you should be. So what are you going to say on your missionary phone call? What will you ask your missionary? How can you spend your time best? What can you talk about without making them too homesick?
Well here are some great questions to help you help you help your missionary to keep their mind on the mission. This might help so that you don’t just cry the whole time and make them homesick.
1. When was the last time you laughed with your companion and why? What makes you laugh in your area? How do you stay light hearted?
2. What has your mission president been doing to inspire the mission? What do you love about your mission president?
3. Tell us in person about the last miracle you witnessed…When was the last time you saw an answer to prayer?
4. What do you like about your companion? Do have fun in the work together?
5. Are there any inside jokes in your mission? What is your current mission theme right now?
6. How are your clothes holding up? How are your feet?
7. Have you found any new investigators from your past investigators in your area book?
8. What was your favorite meal from members during the mission so far?
9. Are there street vendors in your area? Do they offer good food? Do you snack during the day between lessons?
10. What has been your favorite P-day activity so far?
11. Do you do a lot of service in your area? What service projects have you done?
12. How many progressing investigators do you have right now? Any new ones since the last email?
13. How much do you work on retention in your area? Are there a lot of less active members?
14. What is your favorite smell in your area right now? Least favorite?
15. How often do you do laundry? When was the last time you washed your sheets?
16. What is music like in your ward? Does everyone sing? Does it sound good? Have you had to help with music?
17. What are some of the local sayings and interesting things people say in your area? (if they are in a foreign mission)
18. What’s the scariest thing that has happened to you so far where you have felt protected as a missionary?
19. What do most people do for work in your area or is it pretty mixed?
20. Share with us how has your testimony grown since leaving home? (In your mission language if you want). How has the atonement strengthened you as a missionary?
21. What should we do to be better missionaries at home while you are gone?
What are some other great questions that you will ask your missionary?
LoriDecember 24, 2014
As a wife of a current mission president, and mother of three former missionaries I have to say that I love all of your questions except two. I really don't think parents should be asking their children about food from street vendors unless it is to advise them not to eat it. Forty percent of street food is contaminated (statistics provided by LDS Missionary Medical) and I know in our mission the majority of the health problems we see are from missionaries who disobey the rule to not eat off the street. Also the question about the most dangerous situation the missionary has been in may be faith promoting, but also can be a bit terrifying to parents. I have two daughters who served in very dangerous countries and am glad I did not know everything that happened to them at the time it happened. Many of the letters and telephone calls we receive are from parents worried about the safety of their children--and the calls increase substantially after the missionaries talk with their parents at Christmas. The truth is the area is dangerous and although we do our best to keep the missionaries safe, there are still bad things that happen around them. All of the rest of the questions I loved though. I think it is great to have this resource for conversations so that the telephone call can be uplifting and not one that just leads to homesickness