Recommendations on how to help prepare young people who have received a full-time mission call

After several heart-breaking experiences, where young men faltered in their preparation and integrity in the days leading up to their departure as full-time missionaries, I asked the bishoprics and priesthood executive committees to consider implementing the following steps for all young people with mission calls:

January 1, 2013

Dear Brethren,

As we anticipate a growing number of full-time missionaries being called from our stake, both young men and women, please follow these guidelines for helping them become more prepared before their departure:

·   Meet with newly called full-time missionaries and their parents to review the guidelines and expectations in this document (share this document with them). Remind them that “Preach My Gospel” and the new Youth Curriculum offer a wealth of online support material for teaching in the home.

·   Extend a ward calling (such as ward missionary) to young people, even if it is for only a month or two. Extend ward callings to all young people as soon as they graduate from high school, even if it is only for three months in the summer.

·   Ensure all young men, as they enter the elders quorum, are called or continue to serve as a home teacher and are assigned to a companion, who will strive to make their home teaching resemble a full-time missionary experience. Teach Relief Society leaders to assign and train young women as visiting teachers as soon as they leave the Young Women’s program.

·   Encourage all youth (17 and older) considering a mission to attend the Missionary Preparation class conducted at the Gresham Institute each Tuesday at 7:00 pm.

·   Arrange with the Ward Mission Leader for prospective or newly called missionaries to assist and accompany as often as possible the full-time missionaries in making visits, teaching lessons, locating less-actives, etc. Consider “calling” them to serve “mini-missions.” (Contact mission office for details.)

·   As soon as young people have a mission call, urge them to receive their endowments as soon as possible. Assign the parents, if they’re endowed and active, to teach the Temple Preparation course to their missionary son or daughter before their temple interviews. Provide parents with a copy of the teacher’s manual for the Temple Preparation course and encourage the young person to read the booklet, “Preparing to Enter the Holy Temple.”

·   Once endowed, consider submitting a recommendation for the newly called missionary to serve in the temple, such as veil worker or volunteer.