Missionary Week!

Our ward did an awesome, and very challenging activity for our youth. We had a Missionary Week. The kids got their 'mission calls' on Sunday during church. The packet told them they would be serving for the duration of 1 week in the Idaho Falls area. It also had the mission rules, and agenda for the week.They reported to the MTC on Sunday evening, which was a kickoff fireside explaining what was expected of them throughout the week.

Here we are with our two missionaries.

The daily schedule they had to follow looked like this:
6:30am- Get up, pray, get ready
7:00am- Personal study
7:20am- Breakfast
7:45am- Companion study (which was family scripture study)
8:00am- Proselyting (be an example at school, practice, work, etc..)
9:00pm- Return home, plan for the next day, write in journal, prepare for bed, pray.
10:30pm- Lights out

They also had some tough rules to follow for the week:
Follow schedule
Avoid all forms of worldly entertainment:
TV, movies, i-pods, cell phones (except to call parents, and to report to your zone leader each night), Internet (except for school purposes), music (unless it's church music), books and magazines (except for school purposes).
Write a letter to parents on p-day.

As if that wasn't torture enough, they were also given a special task each day:
Monday- Teach the first lesson in Preach My Gospel to your family for FHE.
Tuesday- The kids were given companions for the night. They were picked up from the church at 6:00 by 'investigators', who were families from our ward. The families fed them dinner, and then the missionaries had to teach them the lesson they had practiced with their families the night before. This ended up being a really great experience for the kids and the families who helped out.
Wednesday- Good deed day (do as many good deeds as you can throughout the day).
Thursday- Dress the part. They had to dress like a missionary all day.
Friday- Give out a Book of Mormon (if appropriate), or set a goal to give one out by the end of the year.
Saturday- This was their p-day. They had a big service project in the morning, and then they had to do their own laundry, cook their own meals, and clean their rooms.

They were released on Saturday, and then on Sunday we held a special testimony meeting so the youth could share their experiences.

I was VERY proud of my kids (and all the other kids who participated). Most kids were NOT happy about the activity at all. We were asking them to give up a lot! But the ones who did it had really good experiences.

Sawyer's experience: Sawyer grumbled a lot about the activity at first. It's tough for a 16 year old boy to give up electronics for a week! Parents were not supposed to make their kids do this. It was to be left up to them. The Bishop said they were old enough to decide on their own, and they would get out of it what they put into it. On Tuesday night Sawyer and Mason were paired up as companions. They went to the Hopla's house, and had a really good experience. That was a highlight of the week for him. We were told he is going to make a great 'real' missionary. He also brought three nonmember foreign exchange students to church with him on Sunday. Three very cute girls I might add! They all had a great time, and made him look pretty studly :)! He learned a lot, and ended up being glad he took the challenge.

Bailey's experience: Bailey was totally up for the challenge right from the start. She went all out! The hardest thing for her was giving up her books. She loves to read, and it was hard to limit herself to just church materials. She stuck it out though. She gained a testimony of prayer. She really wanted to give her Book of Mormon out. She prayed every night that an opportunity would come up, and sure enough, one did! On Thursday, a girl at her bus stop asked her why she was wearing a dress. She explained about missionary week. That sparked a whole conversation, and that's who she gave her Book of Mormon to the next day. Bailey loves a challenge, so she took this one and ran with it. I think that since she put so much into it, she really got a lot out of it. Now she wants to serve a real mission :)!
Sawyer and Bailey both did a great job, and when it was all said and done, they were glad they did it! I'm grateful they have such awesome and inspired leaders.