Mission Farewell, Setting Apart, and Home MTC – Interview with Hannah Smith – Podcast Episode 18

This video podcast is part 3 of my interview with my daughter, Hannah Smith, a young woman who recently began her full-time missionary service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. In this episode, Hannah talks about her mission farewell sacrament meeting, her setting apart, and her two weeks of Home MTC before heading to the actual physical Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. The transcript of the interview can be found below (it’s automated, so I apologize for any typos) and an audio version can be found at the bottom of this post. For other video/podcast episodes, check out the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep podcast page.

Smith, Jimmy
Hello and welcome everyone. My name’s Jimmy Smith. I’m here with my daughter, Hannah, on another episode of the Latter Day Saint Mission Prep podcast.

Today we are talking with Hannah about her home MTC experience, so Hannah has been doing home MTC for the past two weeks and two days from now she is flying to Provo for four more weeks of MTC training. So. Welcome, Hanna. Welcome all viewers and listeners. And let’s jump in.

I guess just a brief background, if you haven’t seen part one and Part 2, this is part three, but if you haven’t seen others go back and watch the others in the first time I interviewed Hannah, I talked Sister Smith, I guess I should be calling you now. You’re officially set apart missionary. The part one we talked about the mission application process and paperwork and medical stuff and talking to your bishop and stake president and getting it all applied and sent to the church.

Part 2 we talked about. What did we talk about? Getting ready to go, going to the temple, going to the temple. I think opening my opening should call. We talked about that. Ohh like applying for a visa and a passport? Maybe mention prep class taking them that anyway. Part 2 was really good now. OK, so now here we are. Part three. We’re going to talk about primarily about home, MTC and a few other topics about maybe packing and getting ready to go and.

You know, and anything else you’re experience is getting set apart as a missionary. Your farewell talk. We can hit on all those things that have happened roughly in the last month. So in fact, one we do take it chronologically there, so. About I guess it was it 2 weeks ago today. You had your farewell talk. Yeah. So two weeks ago. Farewell talk. So we’re recording this on a Sunday in August. And so two weeks ago you had to farewell talk in Sacrament meeting and then that night set apart by the state president. Why don’t you talk about those anything that stands out?

Hannah:
Yeah, and those experiences. Ohh. No, no. Giving my talk was good. Mm-hmm. They, like, assigned me a topic to speak on, but I don’t really know if I really spoke about it. I just talked about, like. I don’t know. I talked to him a lot about. And then the willingness it takes to go on a mission and to like, just serve the Lord in general, but I don’t know. I thought that it went good. Yeah, we, me and my brother. That’s just sang you than me. We did a musical number together as well. So that was really good. Yeah. That turned out really nice.

Smith, Jimmy
Hannah plays the piano very well. Her younger brother Abe plays the trumpet and in the band and is very good as well. I had never heard a trumpet played in Sacramento. Yeah before. So I was surprised. I was surprised that you asked the Bishop because I don’t know that I would have dared to ask the Bishop if Abe could play his trumpet in sacrament meeting and he said yes, as long as it was reverent. And as long as it was a hymn. And so I thought it sounded excellent. I thought it was very reverent and very appropriate for sacrament meeting.

Hannah:

It’s fun and yeah.

Jimmy:

I was as a someone in the audience sitting there. In fact, I was very proud. Proud isn’t the right word. Pleased to see my daughter and my son up there. Made me feel like maybe I’ve done a semi good job as a parent to see Hannah giving her mission farewell talk and have Abe up there playing as well. Anyway, it was it was. It was good to see. It brought warm feelings to my heart, to quote Yoda.

So we also had an open house for you. Maybe briefly. Talk about that. That was the week after. But yeah, the week after that a lot of people would do that on the same day as the mission farewell. We didn’t have it coordinated. But the next week since you were doing home MTC for two weeks we did an open house and invited people from the ward over. Anything you want to say about that?

Hannah:

I don’t know. It was. We just had, like, a little bit of food. I just talked to some people. Yeah. Mostly just giving me like advice about when they went on a mission like Ohh do this with your companion being nice and good luck and just asking me all these questions about mission stuff. But it was really fun to talk to everyone. Yeah, it went really good.

Jimmy:

Great. OK, so the night of your mission farewell, two weeks ago, we went to the stake center and met with our state President to get you set apart as missionary. So tell us a little bit about that experience.

Hannah:
Umm well, I guess right beforehand I was trying to figure out like it’s like, OK, well, I guess when I get back home after I’m set apart like. I gotta, like, live all the missionary standards, which is a little weird. So I like deleted all my like social medias and like was texting bad all my friends. So that was like very weird sad moment. Uh, good, obviously. But just like, very weird, but especially because they’re not. They weren’t very specific to me. Like, I don’t know. What I could and couldn’t do with like phones at home, MTC, which is kind of weird, but that’s not the that’s not the main deal, but that it was a little weird.

Yeah. Anyways, we drove to the church. Our whole family went and met with. It’s just our family in the state president and we sat down. I will. Chat super short. I was crying my eyes out. I was just crying. The whole like car ride and like crying. Alright before I think just like. All the emotions like kind of finally hit me about like. I don’t know.

Just being real, it was real like this, is it? Yeah. Like there’s a lot of end of my, like, Pre-mission life of my, like, normal social. Yeah, civilian life. So I don’t know. It was definitely emotional. I was just like, am I really doing this? Oh my gosh, what am I getting myself into this like questioning like is this even right even though obviously it’s been like very exciting and it’s something I know I need to be doing. I just feel like every step of the way, I’m like, am I really supposed to be doing this?

Jimmy:

Yeah. Well, I and I think that cause we were sister, you have a little more of those emotions because you don’t have to do it. It’s a choice. (What I was trying to say is that a mission is considered a priesthood duty of the young men, but that same expectation is not there for young women.)

And I thought it was so interesting when you sat down in the chair with the say present behind you. He asked, Are you ready? And he was. He wasn’t about to lay his hands on your head and set you apart until you said yes, I’m ready.

Hannah:

And I like sat there was like, I don’t know. And I cried for a second and then he was like, OK, Are you ready now? It’s like. Yep. So you did it. The setting part was good. I wrote down like, right immediately after the stuff he had said, I wrote about it that night. But I kind of like it was all, like, jumbled in my head. But he had said, but lots of just like I really. Good things competing. Things like yeah. That mission is a good thing. Yeah, even though it’s a hard thing. So that was great.

And then, yeah. We took picture of, well, I put my name tag on. That was fun. Couldn’t figure out how to do it on straight. I’m getting better. It’s getting easier so yeah.

Jimmy:

Well they have these little magnet things now. They didn’t have those when I was a missionary.

Hannah:

There is a piece of pen. It’s like a little magnet. Yeah. So I just stick it in. Yeah. You are getting to be a price and better. Yeah.

Jimmy:

Well, I remember as we were driving away from the stake center. Like a weight coming over me, but not a heavy or burdensome weight, but like the responsibility and a blessing that we have a full time missionary in our House now. I mean in our car and in our home and you’ve been in our home for two weeks now doing home MTC. But I just like I knew as a as a parent and as a family we needed to, you know, make sure that we took care of one of the Lord’s missionaries in our home and we need to make sure it was a good environment. And so I really felt that as we were driving away.

One other thing that I should say I was impressed with you from the beginning and that that we never even really talked about. It was like you said that when you’re set a partisan missionary. But I say, President, you need to start going by the mission rules. Right. Right then and there.

And I’ve been very impressed with how obedient you have been in keeping the missing rules and learning and knowing what the mission rules are and following them. And to me again, that brings warm feelings to my heart because I know missionaries who are obedient to the mission rules are going to more likely to have the spirit of the Lord with them and are going to be more safe and successful in their missionary efforts. So that’s been really good to see.

Hannah:
Thanks.

Jimmy:
So then the next day you started a home MTC and have been doing that for the past two weeks, so yeah. Talk to us about the home MTC. What have you liked about it? What have you not liked? What’s been fun? What’s been difficult? What? What’s the schedule like? And all those thing?

Hannah:

Yeah, yeah. So my first day at Home MC was my P-day actually. So that was kind of really weird. I had like one large group meeting on zoom and I had my evening class, but besides that I had a free day and I was really sure to do yet. So I like had been given no instruction about what to do. But evening class is from 7:00 to 10:00 PM (6PM to 9PM Utah/Mountain Time). So yeah, your evening. So yeah. So every day, I guess after that Monday.

Umm, we have a 3 hour class in the morning so I had it from like 9:30 to 12:30 because I’m Texas time and then we that the first week of Home MCT  I had two weeks because I’m learning language the first week we had like an hour they called it a large group meeting with like 500 missionaries. So it’s everyone who started that same day that I did. We would all hop on the zoom and have meetings at the same time.

The first one was like Ohh welcome to the work, kind of one they had one about like mental health resources and like just learning to adjust. They had one about like learning a language like gifted tongues kind of thing. Like a teaching one anyways, so those are always fun, because gotta see, like my friends who started missing the same week I did on there. Umm, yeah. So we have. So we had three hour class, we had our one hour 2 meeting with everyone and then we had a 3 hour class in the evening. Also, so that was from like 7 to 10.

Ohh. And we also have an hour of language tutoring every day and then in between all of that. Umm was just fitting in an hour personal study. Our of language study and then a 30 minute companion study and 15 minute planning with my companion.

My companionship study was done all on zoom and stuff because my companion lives in Oklahoma. So yeah, so most yeah. Most of the missionaries in your district. And there’s like 12 or 14 and your district, we. Yeah, we have 14 in our district team. I’ll learning Portuguese will go in some to Brazil some to us some to Portugal. Yeah mostly elders are you the only two sisters or we have 10 elders, four sisters all four of the sisters are going to Portugal.

Umm for the elders to go into Portugal and then two elders are going to Orlando. Two are going to Boston and two, our Brazil Porto library. They were supposed to go to Brazil MTC, but it got changed for some reason. So now they’re our district. Just cool. But yeah, so $10 for sisters. Roll pretty spread out. I mean majority going to Portugal but. Yeah

Jimmy:

You said you’re in Texas, you’re companion is from Oklahoma, the MTC teachers who lead the discussions and so forth, all in Provo, they’re in the Provo MTC or at their homes in Utah. Yeah. And most of the missionaries are like, 50% or more are in Utah. So most of the meetings are Utah time. So I know I told Hannah that I thought it was fine if she did go to bed at 11:30 and get up at 7:30 because that’s 6:30 to 10:30 Utah time and most everybody else is on Utah time. So I thought it would be fine for her. Is that what you’ve ended up doing?

Hannah:

That’s what I. That’s what I’ve done. And my companion, I think, did. The same thing. Yeah, I think she might have done, like, 7 and 10. Yeah. Or 7 and 11. But it’s hard because, like, our class ends at 10. Yeah. And so it’s like we would only have 30 minutes to, like, yeah, get unwind and go to bed and write in your journal and all the Utah people help out. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So. And then plus, like, in the morning. I don’t know what I would have done if I had had that much time in the morning. Ohh. Excellent. Yeah. Because I do my personal study before my class and eat breakfast and get ready and stuff. Yeah. You would had an extra hour in the morning to kill before. Yeah.

So it just it made it’s made sense plus then like when I get to Utah like I’m already like adjusted to that same schedule. Yeah. So but yeah, the classes. So all of our like long classes and are like daily tutoring list just with our district.

Umm. And then like a teacher but and right now? Or I guess the past two weeks it’s been all in English. Umm except for like language tutoring, the one hour language. But yeah during the day. But uh, like the three hour classes? 2 or 3 hour classes are all in English. And so once we get to Provo and get started, everything is in Portuguese and the teachers have heavily emphasized that they will not be speaking to us at all in English. So it’s a big jump.

Jimmy:

Baptism by immersion in the Portuguese language. Yep. Yeah. So I learned Spanish at the MTC and that was, and I was there for 9 weeks. And now you’re just doing six weeks, two at home and four at the Provo MTC. So yeah, makes sense. You got it. Immerse them right away. And that is the best way to learn a language.

Hannah:

Yeah. They said it’s like, super successful. So. Yes. So I’m trying to think what else about home and you see it’s a lot of zoom, it’s gotten really tiring towards the end of. Last week we were just. We were also done. Everyone in our district. We’re just tired of zoom. Yeah, and like, ready to meet each other.

That’s another thing like something really positive about home MC like that. I’m really glad about is getting to like know my district and my companion before I meet them in person, because now I’m like super excited to meet them and I’m not just going to Provo like not knowing anybody and being like, scared and nervous. Like I know when I get there, there’s going to be a bunch of people who are like, we’re all excited to see each other.

Jimmy:

Yeah, the Provo MTC president tonight in the fireside for families said that’s what missionaries typically do. Now, as soon as they get to the MTC, they’re looking for their companions and their districts who they met originally at Home MTC and he said it’s been a great thing to see.

Hannah:

Yeah. So yeah, that is that that’s a good part of the home MTC I know the first couple of days you just had a hard like kitchen chair. And then after a couple of days were like, oh, let’s say, like your dad’s good. The fancy desk chair. This more comfortable with better back support and stuff. So we switched that. So yeah, tip for everyone out there. A good chair get a good chair you can be sitting in it a lot a long time.

Jimmy:
And you said some missionaries did it on their phone. Most had a laptop and laptop. We had probably better. Yeah. We had one elder do it on his phone every time. But.

Hannah:
Yeah, I would suggest a laptop. Yeah. Yeah, I didn’t for sure. Yeah. So I’m trying to think, what else? The first I will say the first, like, few days. We’re just super, like, weird. Because I was like, I. And I guess I called him to see in general’s weird because you don’t feel really like a missionary. Like I don’t know. I come downstairs during my break and like the kids are watching Lego Ninjago or like they’re out swimming. And I’m just like here and it’s hard. It was hard. It’s been hard for me to like. Stay motivated to like, take the time to do my language study and my personal study just cause I’m like, Oh well, I could be spending this time on with my family. And before I go, so it’s weird. ’cause. I’m like with my family, but I’m not. And like, I’m glad I’m here to do it, but it’s like, really difficult to, like, get into it. So that’s one thing I’m like looking forward to going to Provo for. It’s just to like, really immerse myself in it. Yeah, so.

Jimmy:

Talk to me a little bit about the technology you zoom for online video conferencing and there’s a chat feature in your zoom calls and you guys make use of that a lot. But you’ve also talked to me a lot about chatting within Facebook and I know you’ve done some Facebook posts like as a missionary. So yeah, just talked to me about those things. Maybe a little.

Hannah:

Yeah. So our teachers, I think the first day of classes were like, someone needs to make a Facebook Messenger group chat with everyone in it. And on so you guys can like talk to each other, I think it’s more of like a bonding thing and then anything because they, I mean they have emailed to get contact with us. So my companion made a group chat, it had our teachers in it though and we quickly realized that they probably had the chat muted and were irritated by US goofing off. So we made a separate one just for all the district and then like we have like a sister sisters group chat that I know the elders have. Your chat, who knows what goes on in there, but it’s, I don’t know. It’s been super fun just to like. I don’t know. That’s our only source of entertainment is each other. And the young elders are very entertaining. Yeah, we love them dearly.

Yeah. Yeah. So the because elders are on average a year younger than the sisters. That’s yeah. There’s only one elder in our district who did like, year college before. The rest are all like straight out of high school. Yeah. And then three out of four of the sisters did school before, and one of them just did. Like, I took a gap year. So yeah, it’s kind of funny. They’re all like college people are so old. They were like, yeah, we’re old.

Ohh sisters are, but the elders are fun. They bring good energy for sure. But yeah, so we keep in contact with Facebook Messenger. That’s super fun. And then the Facebook posts. I know something that they offer throughout the whole MC is like workshops and so my companion and I signed up for a social media like posting social media workshop. That’s good. They have all sorts of cool workshops.

Jimmy:

So MTC teachers teaching you well, what’s the appropriate thing to post on Facebook?

Hannah:

Yeah. To respond to people or. Yeah. So in one of just our regular classes, that was when we first talked about Facebook because we were just talking about technology in general. And then we went into the details of when we post what it should look like and then like we also talked about how to respond to people on Facebook. Umm yeah, I guess they they told us in your post on Facebook they the use of visual keep it brief and if you’re posting, just make sure you’re like staying in line with your missionary purpose.

So basically like if you’re going to another country, don’t make it look like you’re just traveling, like vacationing. Vacationing. Yeah. So, like, if you’re going to post a picture like relate to the gospel. And so I know a lot of missionaries will do, like little analogies. Like one of my good friends is in Scotland right now. And she visited like, a castle, and she had these, this picture in front of, like, prison bars. And she was like, sometimes Satan puts us in prisons. So yeah, so in prison does but. Yeah. Yeah. So they’re like, use visual, be brief. And they always like, want you to make an invitation or like a little like thing at the end. Yeah. So that’s super great.

And then another thing I just thought of when I was talking about the workshops was during home MTC and also regular MTC, they have you sign up for these things called helping others, which is just basically teaching practice lessons to people who are actors. So there are people at the MTC hires to pretend to not be members of the church so that we can practice teaching to them.

So my companion and I have done, I think three of them. They were all in zoom in English and they’re like 30 minute lessons. So our first two, we taught like the first lesson, which is the restoration. Then we taught plan and salvation. So a lot of what we do in our classes is just like teaching us how to do that, like how to start a lesson, like how to talk to someone and get to know them. So it’s not just awkward and you don’t just jump right into it.

And then like lots of like, how do you ask questions and like, what’s the best way to phrase this? And like teaching you that you don’t have to teach the entire lesson in one sitting, you can break it up. You want to. But those I’m always get really stressed right before them. But usually during them it’s like pretty chill. Our first one was. Super scary. She’s tough. And the lady was super intense. Bless her.

But she was intent. She like, I don’t know. we have to do these surveys after to like. Well, me and my companion will fill out like how we think it went from their perspective. Like how do we think they would have thought it went. And then we get a compare it to how they actually thought it went. We get feedback after we fill it out and it actually went a lot better than we thought it did. So that was good. And then they’ve just progressively been getting better. Our plan of salvation one I think went really awesome. So yeah, it’s really interesting to learn how to teach with two people just because I think my companion I have like, kind of different, like teaching styles like ways of explaining things and structuring things.

Yeah, but she’s ohh sorry. She’s she’s like, super spiritual. And like, I think as long as you’re both, I don’t know, in tune with the spirit. Yeah, it will be good. And I think also once we get in person, it will be a lot easier to bounce back and forth. Well, because on zoom there’s no, you can’t give each other a little queue except for like sister to Gaston. What do you have to say about that?

Jimmy:

Yeah. I was going to say when you’re in person or together, you’ll be planning lessons together and you’ll say. Why don’t you teach this principle? Then I’ll teach this principle and then it’s easier to do the handoff. Or like, like you said, when you’re not in a digital online forum and you’re like, it’s just easier to get. Yeah, these nonverbal cues.

Hannah:

OK, you take it away, sister. Yep. So. OK, cool. Yeah. And then once we get in person in Provo, it will be in person in Portuguese. And they’ll be like, I think we start with 15 minute ones and then it jumps back to 30 minutes. Well, so they do that a lot more than.

Jimmy:
When I did the MTC, I remember doing it once, maybe twice in nine years. So sounds like they’re doing that a lot more and that was least once a week. OK, that’s great.

Hannah:

So I’m good practice. Super stressful. Yeah, but very good, I think.

Jimmy:

Cool. Anything else to say about the online MTC? I also want to talk briefly about your packing your luggage. You got up in our our playroom. Your luggage spread out and you’re going to be packing that. So why don’t you talk about that, but before we move on to that and we’ll wrap up pretty quickly after that. Anything else about the home MTC experience that others might be interested to know?

Hannah:
With pretty much everything, I would definitely say though, like. It’s going to feel weird at first, but just try to embrace it and put your heart into it because it is what you make it for Home MTC. Yeah, you’re not with the people in person. Umm, I don’t know it can. It’s a lot easier to get distracted. Yeah, so it is what you make it.

How I will say I am. Usually terrible at staying focused, like over long periods of time, and I think a blessing that I’ve had is like being able to actually stay focused and engage like pretty well, especially those long classes. It’s, I mean, granted, our teachers are super awesome. But yeah, I would definitely say I’ve been blessed with and enhanced ability to focus because it’s not something I’m usually get.

Jimmy:

That must be one of the gifts of the Spirit. I don’t know that that’s listed anywhere, but there it does say in the scriptures But there are many other gifts of the spirit that aren’t listed in one of those. Maybe is to help you focus during home MTC. Yeah, certainly a blessing from the Lord.

I should say from the families perspective it it’s been good to have Hannah in the home and I’m glad. Like I said earlier that you’ve taken it upon yourself to obey the mission rules to always dress appropriately and listen to appropriate music and so forth. Because if we as parents had to say “Hannah, stopped doing XYZ,” I don’t think that would go over very well. So, I’m glad you’ve policed yourself there. I think the sign of maturity and a blessing.

From our perspective as a family, whenever you’re on breaks or out. So I out, I don’t, you know, not in your zoom online meetings. You know we’ve tried to turn off the TV or turn off worldly music and have church music or other music. We’ve tried to have a good schedule for dinner, like, we’re feeding the missionaries every night so we know Hannah’s schedule, her class ends at 5:30 so we need to have dinner between 5:30 and 6:30 or 7. And so we’ve been better as a family at planning meals and having it on time just to so everything goes smoothly with Hannah so she can come eat and then go back.

And the same with lunches. I guess you’re a little more on your own. Yeah. Leftovers or whatever.

Hannah:

It’s been really good, though. Mom, if she’s sensing I need to get out of the house because I’ve been locked up in a closet for eight days, she’ll be like, let’s go, like, get lunch or something. I’m like, thank you. Yeah. Give me out of here. Yeah. So. Yeah. Yeah. We have gone to the park a few times.

Jimmy:

Hannah is in a closet. But it’s a big closet. With a big desk. It’s where we did our last podcast. She’s not Harry Potter. No. It’s got a window. It’s got air conditioning.

Hannah:

It’s giant. I think my district thinks I’m rich because I told them I have a big closet. And this, that was sitting in the closet. Like, what, like. We live in Texas and markets crazy, but yeah, I will say though I am been really like there’s any like parents watching or I don’t know. I would just say like I’m super like grateful every time. Like you like, ask me about how it’s going and stuff. Well, like you want to talk to me about it because I mean there’s like that’s who I talk to. Yeah. And so it’s like really fun that like you get excited for me about it. And I’ve been really grateful for that well. It’s like it makes it more fun to talk about it.

Jimmy:

Yeah, well, good. I have made that effort. I go to bed really early. You know, I’m usually going to bed around 10:00 o’clock when she’s finishing. So I’ve made an extra effort to stay up a little late. So as soon as she gets out of her class, I can ask her what she’s learning and how it’s going and so forth. And have those good conversations.

Hannah:

I’ve appreciated it.

Jimmy:

Great. All right, let’s wrap this up then with a little discussion of packing and then two days from now, we’re taking you to the airport and saying goodbyes to the family for a year and a half. So talk to tell us about any final things we haven’t talked about in terms of what you’re buying, your suitcases packing and trying to fit everything you need for 18 months into, you know, two big suitcases in a small carry on.

Hannah:

Yeah. I don’t, I don’t know. It’s a lot. I haven’t actually finished packing yet. We barely started. Yeah. So I don’t know. I have. That’s kidding. Yeah. I’m anticipating we’re going to have to. Uh soliday.

Jimmy:

Yeah. I was going to say. We’re going to have to have a priority list because I don’t think everything’s going to make the cut into the suitcase because everything you bought, you and mom and I don’t know. That’s going to fit.

Hannah:

I don’t either.

Jimmy:

So, anyway, maybe after Tuesday would be better to talk to you. But I don’t think we’ll be able to do this once. Once you leave. So. But anyway, it’s, I guess, a challenge for all missionaries. I’ve seen videos out there about how to fit everything in.

Hannah:

The church. Gives you a list of things you need. Yeah, they do. So just follow that, I guess and yeah, and you know. Yeah, I will say like I know me and the other sisters, we are like how many clothes are you bringing this cause the church says to bring like 8 outfits or something. And we’re like.

About it’s because, I mean, I guess elders like getting over variety, they get ties, but they don’t really. I feel like they don’t care as much. Maybe I’m Jeff don’t like that, I don’t know. But like, I definitely have more than eight outfits and a decent amount of shoes. Well, so. But I may not walking mission. So I kind of have to get lots of good shoes.

Jimmy:

And Mom used some term I had never heard before where you like, get a bunch of different shirts and skirts that match and coordinate. What does she call that I don’t remember.

Hannah:
I didn’t know how to name no anyway, but to get to anyway, to address your point. Yeah. Getting that variety. So it’s having pants and shirts and skirt. Different combos. Yeah, I don’t know. Don’t procrastinate packing is that that’s good advice. Yeah, I’m also the hard thing is I’m packing up my non mission stuff at the same time.

Jimmy:
Anything from college packing up her room so we can because we have lots of kids and there’s enough. Another one. We talked for a while, so use her room while she’s gone. So it’s OK? Yeah. So don’t procrastinate. I think you get that suitcase packed as early as possible so you can see what’s going to fit, what’s not going to fit. So you can weigh it because there’s a certain weight like 50 pounds.

Hannah:

Yeah. And then, yeah, the airlines will charge you if it’s over that. So you don’t want to go over that. Yeah. And the church gives you these dimensions. It’s like 62 or 63 inches. And it’s in the mission portal. Yeah, where I’m guessing also heads up that stuff does go off of the mission portal. A lot of the checklists and stuff. They start just to start home MTC. Yeah. So download it before you start your PC is I feel like as long as you download the big packet, I think that’s actually just everything.

Yeah, something else. I just thought of as a. And if you’re doing a phone, like if you’re having a phone. That I know. For me, it’s been a little like different than most missionaries I know, because I already have a Samsung phone. Umm, that works for a mission. Because you have to have a Samsung going to ask be like certain Umm has certain requirements so I know a lot of missionaries just like got their mission phone and like set it up so that they’ll have it at the MTC. I still haven’t set mine up yet because I’m trying to get everything off of it but you have to get it all set-up I think.

If you don’t set it up before you get there, they make you set it up right when you get there, and that’s basically just like you do like a factory reset.

Jimmy:

So I was going to ask you factory reset totally wipes the phone. So it’s starting from clean. So if you have like in your case a bunch of pictures and text that you want to save your backing those up because you have to do that factory reset either here at home or as soon as you get to the MTC. Yeah. Because then the church they make they put some software on it so they can control. So you can use church approved apps, but nothing else.

Hannah:

Yeah. So yeah, you they have you like sign in with your missionary e-mail and down certain stuff just automatically is like downloaded once you sign in with that. And then there’s like certain apps you can download but.

Yeah. So I guess. Cool. Yeah, that’s the thing. You also have to, and I’m sure anyone who’s doing MTC will be told this, but you have to do these, like, safeguard for technology, little lesson things before you’re able to use your phone in the mission field. So you have to finish that before MTC. And I haven’t started that. But I have four weeks, so. So you’re doing the right thing. I’ll do it all on there.

Jimmy:

Yes, very good. Or tomorrow? I don’t know. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Today’s Sunday tomorrow, Monday. You would typically have class, but they give it to you off because everybody’s traveling Tuesday. You fly to. Yep, to Salt Lake and you’re staying with a friend there. And then Wednesdays the day all the missionaries go into the MTC. At your appointed time. So. Ohh, that’s it. That’s your next couple of days and any thoughts on your or better not go there. I know him. Like I’m not a I’m not as emotional person in terms of I theory and so forth. And I already shed some tears when she got set of partnership will be more tears shed when you say goodbye to mom and your brothers and sisters and you and me. Yeah. But I mean I shouldn’t say I’m not emotion. I am emotional and I’m excited for you. I know it’s going to be a great experience going on a mission. I’m not sentimental maybe. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, when some people feel the Holy Ghost, they cry when I feel the Holy Ghost, I’m happy and I’m animated, and anyway, I’m excited for you. I know you’re going to be a great missionary. I know you’re going to have a wonderful experience. It’s going to be hard. Don’t get me wrong. There will be days where it’s going to be really hard. Hard to be away from the family. Maybe you have difficult companions and just maybe difficult to, you know, keep them, stay motivated, learning the language. They’re gonna.

You’re going to have your fair share of challenges, but you’re going to persevere. The Lord will bless you and be with you. You’re going to do so much good. You’re going to plant seeds. You’re going to harvest some seeds. Hopefully. And you’re going to be doing what the Lord wants you to do. You’re going to be building his Kingdom. You’re going to be blessing people in ways that that will bless them here in this life and in and in the eternities, so that you know, in this life and in the next life, when you meet those people that you influenced on your mission, I know it’s going to be a warm embrace and they’re going to be so grateful for you sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with them. So anyway, I’m excited for you, for all those reasons.

Hannah:
Thank you. But yeah, I don’t know. That’s just. That’s a lot. Yeah, it’s been good to kind of say goodbye to people in stages. Yeah, like when I left Provo (from her freshman year at BYU), I said bye to all my like Provo people. Yeah. And then when I got set-up, like, right before I got set apart, I said bye to all my friends who don’t live in Texas, who I’ve just been keeping in touch with over text. And then there’s been some friends that are leaving for college or stuff or just. Yeah. So I’ve had to say bye to them before. Yeah.

Family’s the last goodbye. So it’s kind of crazy. I’m definitely already had some cries about it. Yeah. So, yeah, when we’re trying to come, but that’s OK.

Jimmy:

OK, very good. Well, that seems like a good place to stop. And we’ll, yeah, we’ll just, we’ll just wrap it up there. Thanks everybody for watching. I you know if possible, maybe I’ll put some updates if anyone in the in the Latter-day Saint Mission Prep audience is interested, put some updates on the website or you know somewhere about how you’re doing on your mission. And yeah, I guess that’s it. Thanks everyone. We’ll talk to you again soon. Bye bye.

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