Planning a Party, Planning a Baptism:
All in a Day’s Work for Missionaries
By Cynthia J. Rieben

Missionaries in the Czech Republic must do everything from speak at a moment’s notice, help run a branch, organize a regional activity complete with information about public transportation and more. Where do 19-year olds learn how to do this? There isn’t time in the Missionary Training Center, that’s for sure.

“Okay, that group, you go with Elder Glecher for the three-legged race. You guys, you go with Elder Smith over to that bench for the watermelon-eating contests, and the rest of you, come with me. We’ll do the water balloon toss. Elder Parrish will blow the whistle when it’s time to rotate.”

Sounds organized doesn’t it? A 20-year old Elder Simmons and his equally young companions are in charge of an activity involving members from four branches from several different cities and a dozen other missionaries, along with their investigators and friends.

Here are the tasks that went into the successful execution of this picnic that took place September 2002 in the prosperous Moravian town of Zlin, Czech Republic. The missionaries had to meet with their supervising branch president, arrange a playing field in their town, get planning going far enough in advance so that announcements could be made repeatedly in the branches, send out directions and train or bus schedules, prepare a hand-drawn map showing how to reach the picnic area, figure out a reasonable agenda for the day that would appeal to Czechs and not just 19-year old boys from Las Vegas, Nevada, gather up any necessary equipment for games, provide for trash disposal, guesstimate the amount of food and drink necessary based on projected attendance, make assignments to their branches via the local missionaries, and then pray for good weather.

Where do 19-year olds learn how to do this?

There isn’t time in the Missionary Training Center, that’s for sure.

If you are preparing for a mission, or preparing someone else for a mission, you’ll be interested in what follows. Missionaries in the Brno District of the Czech Republic, Prague Mission recently shared a list of things they suddenly found themselves doing once they arrived in the mission field. Most apply to both sisters and elders. These are things that you as a typical full-time missionary need to do:

Talk at a moment’s notice. In a small branch, your turn comes up frequently in sacrament meeting, and if you are lucky, you’ll have a lot of opportunities to speak at baptisms.
Know how to study. You won’t have your mother standing over you each morning when you and your companion are expected to study the language, study the discussions, memorize scriptures; you will have the Holy Spirit there, though, and that’s even better.
Care for the child of an investigator so she can attend the Gospel Essentials discussions undisturbed. If you know how to change diapers, you won’t get a wet lap.
Prepare stuffing and bake a turkey, banana bread, brownies, or pumpkin pie from fresh pumpkin. You’ll be contributing to branch Christmas dinners. Besides, having a little homemade treat in hand on other occasions has proven to be a very effective way to endear you to an investigator or inactive member. This advice comes from the elders who contacted their moms for instructions about the turkey and pumpkin pie
Understand how presidencies in the church work so that if you suddenly find yourself the second counselor in a branch presidency, you’ll be able to assist by explaining the practical applications of the church handbook, helping organize the Primary and setting people apart, and otherwise, well, counseling. Your Branch President has been a member exactly one year and one month.
Call on the Holy Spirit for help. You’ll need help immediately, so it’s best if you’ve learned HOW to get it before you come on your mission, but if you haven’t, you’ll have a major immersion lesson right off the bat in the MTC.
Give priesthood blessings, a sacred, awesome opportunity. Pay attention now to those priesthood lessons when you are a teacher and priest; when it comes time, don’t worry about what to say. The words won’t be yours; they’ll be the Lord’s. Someone in great physical or emotional stress will say, “Can you help me?” and you need to be prepared to say without hesitation, “Would you like us to give you a blessing?”
Lead the singing. You may be the ONLY one in the branch who can do this when the regular chorister is sick, misses her bus or has to go to her parents’ village for a visit. The branch president should not have to conduct the meeting AND lead the singing.
Sing church hymns with your companions as part of your regular sidewalk presentation in your town. It doesn’t matter if you say, “but I don’t sing” because . . . you will. But it will be a little easier if you were a good sport when your ward choir director asked you to help her out by singing with the tenors.
Knock on doors. It won’t seem so scary if you’ve sold Christmas wreaths door to door for scout trips, canvassed your neighborhood for money for school band uniforms, visited neighbors to drum up lawn-mowing business in the summer or gone on splits with the missionaries in your ward.
Teach English language classes. Everyone in foreign language missions wants to learn English, and you’ll discover that teaching conversation classes is an excellent way to develop rapport with potential investigators and help them feel the Spirit. The mission president will provide you with excellent materials, but if you’ve taught Family Home Evening lessons, priesthood quorum lessons, led a class in your school’s Senior Switch Day, or taught a boy scout patrol an important skill, you will be more comfortable in front of your eager learners.
Prepare publicity for branch or mission events, like free English language classes or multi-branch picnics. If you have had journalism, marketing or computer graphics in high school or college, it might come in handy.
Look directly into the eyes of the person to whom you are speaking and keep your eyes right there. On warm Saturday mornings, teenage girls in Victoria’s Secret underwear or heavy- set men wearing Speedo swimsuits have greeted tracting missionaries at the door. That’s when eye control comes in handy as you launch into your door approach.
Make arrangements with the administrators of a local elementary school to use their indoor swimming pool for baptisms. If you’ve arranged for rental equipment for your youth conference, talked with the manager of a local lumber supply store to get materials for your Eagle project, phoned businesses to get advertising in your school newspaper or contacted a recreation center to use the volleyball courts for a church tournament, this won’t seem so daunting.
Be willing to walk up to total strangers and strike up a conversation. I first wrote, “be able” but then I realized that if you are willing, the Lord will make you able. And don’t worry; they give you a chance to practice this in the MTC.
Know where to find key scriptures that show what we believe. At least know the location and order of books in the Old, New Testament, Book of Mormon and Pearl of Great Price. Seminary comes in handy here. If you can’t find the books in an English quad, it will be a lot harder to find them in your Czech scriptures. By the way, you could wait and hope that you learn to love the scriptures on your mission, but in the meantime you’ll be wasting valuable time: yours, your companion’s and the people who are praying for your message.
Be worthy to come. President of the mission, R. Richard Chidester, gave this final note. “I can think of no endeavor more important to a young man who is willing and able than to plan for, live for and prepare for a mission. In order to have the privilege of serving, those who desire to serve must recognize the need to guard and maintain their personal purity as a vital part of their preparation.”

Parents, bishops and young men and young women leaders might ask themselves: “How well am I helping to prepare my young men and women? Do I hand them every activity perfectly orchestrated and provisioned or do I bring them more and more as their age, experience and talents allow into the planning and leading of these activities? For example, from an early age have they learned how to give a talk, teach a lesson or conduct a simple Family Home Evening?

I cannot fathom now why ANY family converted to the gospel would be negligent in conducting Family Home Evenings, but since there are such families, let me suggest that Family Home Evening time is perfect missionary-training time. It is one of the many formal and informal opportunities parents have for discussing cleanliness in thoughts and in actions as well as many other values we hold dear. So if you have aspirations for your youth, get those Family Home Evenings going.

What about youth who come from homes where gospel instruction isn’t a regular part of their family life? Have these youth had as much opportunity to hone some of these skills, to discuss and apply the Standards for Youth? Ward and stake young women and youth priesthood leaders should know their youth well enough to know who would benefit from informal mentoring and activities that help them learn how to plan and conduct activities. Inspired callings into quorum and Young Women class presidencies can give these youth successful experiences with serving and leading.

As for the Zlin, Czech Republic, picnic that September afternoon, there were watermelon -covered moustaches, bruised ankles and shines, and soaked shirts, good-natured laughter, plenty of sandwich fixings, enough soda to cool everyone down, bags for the trash, handshakes and hugs and for new and old friends, and best of all, plenty of sunshine. Everyone went home happy, including the missionaries.