59: What I Wish I Had Taught My Missionary Before They Left

Sending a missionary out is exciting, but there are always things we realize after they leave that we wish we had covered. In this episode, I’m sharing what I missed and what I got right before sending my missionaries into the field—so you can prepare yours just a little better.

From cooking basics (trust me, pasta isn’t as foolproof as you’d think!) to packing food for long days, to the importance of reading scriptures out loud, I’m giving you all the small but essential things that will make your missionary’s transition smoother. Plus, I’ll share a few game-changing tips—like sending them with familiar spices and teaching them how to repair their suit pants (because somehow, they always split at the thighs).

And most importantly, I want you to know: Whatever you feel as you send them off—excitement, anxiety, overwhelm—it’s all valid. You’re not alone in this journey.

Resources & Takeaways:
✔️ Teach your missionary how to cook staple foods: pasta, rice, eggs, and meat.
✔️ Show them how to pack food for long days outside the apartment.
✔️ Practice basic sewing—because pants will rip!
✔️ Send them with familiar spices to make food taste like home.
✔️ Have them read scriptures out loud to strengthen confidence and pronunciation.
✔️ Write handwritten letters—they mean more than you think.

If this episode resonated with you, share it with a fellow missionary mom! And tag me—I’d love to hear how you’re preparing your missionary.

💛 You’ve got this, and you’re not alone. See you next week!

#LDSMissionaryMoms #MissionPrep #SupportingOurMissionaries

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Transcript

0:30

Hello everybody. And welcome to the podcast. So in my community, people have started opening. There's all the seniors in high school that have started opening up their mission calls. So the first one was this week and I was just reflecting on how quick time passes. Although when my first son went on his mission, it didn't feel like it was passing fast at all. It actually felt. So slow. And I was pretty sure it was slower than pregnancy. So but very exciting time for all these new and upcoming missionaries. And because of that, I thought that I would do. A episode about things that I wish I would have done before I sent my missionary out. There's some things that I missed. There's some things I did and I did very well, but there's some, there are a few things that I definitely missed and I've had multiple conversations with my current missionaries and they have told me. Some of the pain points that they've had. So I wanted to share those with you today especially if you have a new missionary going out so that you have A little wisdom maybe from a mom who missed a few things. So let's just jump into it so my youngest and fourth missionary left in October and Two weeks after he got into Zimbabwe. He called me And he told me about a few things that he wished that we would have spent some more time on. Now, bear in mind, this was a very independent. He took care of himself quite well. He's been doing his laundry since he was in second grade, probably even earlier because he was the youngest. Like he loved to help me. So he knew how to do laundry and he knew a lot of basic things and I watched him cook. Quite a bit. And so I felt very confident in his cooking skills. So I did not supplement those. Well, he tried cooking pasta and it turned into a huge mess. And anyway, it congealed in the pot and, but that's all they had. So him and his companion just ate this big congealed pot of pasta, which for mission stories is kind of funny. However, it was definitely a miss on my part. I could have taught him how to make pasta. And we talked about what he did know how to cook and what he didn't. And one of the things that he said is, he said, Mom, I know how to cook a lot of breakfast foods. But I don't know how to cook a lot of other things and he didn't know how to pack food to take with him because they would be gone. He they walk about 10 miles a day, but they don't come home for lunch. So he needed options for packing like a lunch. And he did that because he worked on a farm, so he always packed his lunch, but he didn't have the same things available. So we brainstormed and came up with some ideas while we were on the phone, which if you're, if your missionary goes to a foreign country, you may have to do. But helping them just be aware of like what fruit travels well. Apples always travel well. If they have small containers of applesauce or You know, mandarin oranges, just whatever they have, and their offerings will be totally different. He's found that there's roadside stands of mangoes, so he buys a lot of mangoes. So, in order for him to be able to eat the mango, he has to have a knife with him. So, just basic things like that, we just kind of brainstorm together. But, a couple of very helpful things that they need to know how to cook, no matter what, no matter what country, teach them how to cook pasta. So that they don't congeal it and end up eating something that's really gross. Teach them how to make rice. I never taught him how to make rice. I was so flabbergasted. I was like, I didn't? I swear you've cooked rice. And he's like, no, I've never, I've watched you, but I've never cooked it. So if you, if you have a missionary out and you didn't and he's fresh out or she's fresh out and he me and my son on a pee day. On the phone over messenger, I taught him how to make rice and it was actually a really fun, really fun phone call. So if your missionary has a dish that you make that isn't too complex, that they can get the ingredients for something close, that is a really great phone call and have them gather the ingredients knowing that the next week you're going to show them how to cook something. So if they're already out, do that teach them how to cook eggs. And teach them how to cook meat, like a variety of different meats, ground meat, sausage whole meat, how to look for different cuts of meat, what they, where they come from off of the animal, what's safe, one of the things that I told my son in Zimbabwe was, if you go to a member's house and you eat, make sure you pick the smallest blast. It's just thinnest pieces of meat. That way, you know, they've been cooked all the way through, but for them to know how to cook, you know, how to do that. The other thing that would be really great is if you went to like a DI or a savers or, you know, secondhand store, whatever you have close to you, buy a few different types of Pots and pans because not all pots and pans are the same and they're going to be subject to whatever is in their apartment and they're not going to cook the same way. That they do on yours. I use a lot of cast iron. I promise none of my missionaries have had cast iron available to them So they knew how to cook on cast iron and they knew how to clean it But they didn't know how to cook and clean on aluminum. And so they burned a lot of food So making sure that you get them a few different things to try So that you can teach them how to cook on a few different things and they're going to drag their feet They're like I don't need to know this. I promise They do. They do. I always recommend you make it into a game like you're going to do a 30 day challenge once a week, you know, prior to them leaving, you're going to do a cooking night with them. And you're going to teach them something and they're going to do it themselves. And they're going to know how to start the washer and the dryer. My, one of my boys is in the States so he has washer and dryers. One of my boys is in, you know, like I mentioned, he's out of the country. Some of the areas have washers, some don't. So I bought him a hand washing. It looks kind of like a plunger. You can find YouTube videos on how to use them because obviously I've never hand washed. Like that and it's actually a really fun family night where everybody gets to try it and you do just a little bit like one shirt and You do you do it? They get to do it that way when they get there. Not Everything is shocking. Not everything is going to bring their nervous system out of Alignment you'll have some very basic things already My son that served in Argentina, he did his laundry in a bucket. Those are all skills I never taught them. They learned on the mission, but you can do some preemptive work and help them so that it is a little bit easier transition for them. YouTube is such a brilliant resource for those kind of things. Those are kind of the things that I Recommend, like very, very basic. Every country is gonna have pasta and rice and eggs. So if they know how to cook those things, you know that they're not gonna go without, they're not gonna starve. They're gonna learn a lot of things from companions along the way what's available locally, and they'll be able to learn how to adapt. And that's amazing and very fun and exciting. And so making sure that you talk about it in a way that is exciting and fun and not, and it's not. You know, something they're going to dread or it's going to be drudgery in some way. Tell them to be very curious and open. Another thing is just teaching them some, some basic sewing, how to sew a seam. How, I don't know why my boys, the thighs on there. Pants on their suit pants, they split out on the sides and so I actually used an old pair of one of my prior missionaries and I had my current ones, I showed them how to stitch that so that they knew how to do it correctly and then, you know, same thing if you don't have an old pair, just go get one from a second hand store or find a pair that you guys are getting ready to get rid of and just unpick it. And, and teach them how to sew it back up and then how to hem because they'll walk on the bottom of their, their pant legs sometimes and they come on hemmed. So how do you do a hem? Those are just really basic things. If you don't know how to do it, it's okay. YouTube. Again, YouTube. I sent all my boys with a basic sewing kit. The sewing kit that I sent with them has the colors of the pants that they have. So that any of their pants, they can do some really basic repairs. I also taught them how to do a patch. So if they get a hole rubbed into something that they, you know, they can't throw away, then they can patch it. So just some super basic things. The other thing all of my missionaries that I've sent foreign, I send them with Tide pens because inevitably they'll be at a member's house or they'll be, you know, eating something when they're out of their apartment and they'll spill on their white shirt. And so I gave them all like eight tide pens and that lasts their whole mission and they just have to have one in their bag. They can hurry and take care of the spot right there, but you can't send them with a tide pen and not show them how to use it because they don't know. So make sure you show them, you know, like. The, the uses of it and how, and just do it a few times with them so that they have it. One other thing I did, and this is just a confession of me as a mother my youngest two boys, they never read the Book of Mormon out loud. They had, they had been reading on their own, but I had never had them read it out loud. And both of them mentioned that they wish that they had read it out loud with me to help them with their pronunciation. Because then, you know, when they're reading it in their head, they can either skim over a word that they don't know how to pronounce or they mispronounce it and they start to form kind of a neural pathway in their brain about what they think it should. Sound like but it doesn't actually and so they both have read the Book of Mormon out loud on their mission and So it's not just for testimony building. It's also just to help them when they're teaching. They're studying their pronunciation and it's going to expand their vocabulary. So I just wanted to give a little plug for that. I think that sometimes we get told, you know, read your scripture, say your prayers, go to church, all those things so many times that it's, we get kind of annoyed. And so then we, we stopped reiterating it and. So I just wanted to share that there's many benefits for it beyond just the testimony part, which is obviously very important. And then the last thing for I probably should have mentioned this earlier, food is send your kids with spices from home. If you have certain spices that you cook with that are very familiar to them that you use for different dishes even just like this is the spice I use normally when I make chicken, then send that with them so that they have something that's familiar whatever you, so I use carne asada. Spice for chicken quite often. I just recently made a package to send to my son in Missouri because he said, Mom, my chicken is so disgusting. It's just got rice and salt and it has no flavor and I don't know what to buy. And so I just mailed him a little package with some spices. This is, and I use a Greek seasoning for pork. So I just included all the spices. that I use at home. And so that is something that you can send with them. If I have a way of doing that to Zimbabwe, I will be because I did not send that with my son either, but I hadn't, and I hadn't really considered it because my son that was in Argentina back in 2016 to 18, he asked me for spices and he ended up learning how to cook with some of the local spices, but he was like, the best thing is when you end up with a companion that's brought spices with them. So make sure that you consider some of those things that are just. You know, normal things that you cook with that you normally don't think about and send those with them. And then any other little comforts from home, if you have any other little traditions or books or magazines or anything that is kind of fun for them. I have sent all of my boys additional journals they've run out. And I, you would, the one thing I don't send is I don't send a lot of goodies and I figure that they'll get used to whatever the culture that they're at and whatever they have and that has held true for most of my life. My missionaries. I also, I know a lot of moms will send gifts for like Christmas, open this at Christmas. I, I didn't do that. For a number of reasons, but one of them is because when they had local companions, it always got a little bit awkward. So if you do do that, just make sure that you're being cognizant of the, it. The other companion and what they're maybe going through and, you know, they may not have a Christmas gift. And so, and that's one of the things that my son in Zimbabwe has mentioned is that everybody thinks that, you know, he has everything and that he's rich. It's from America. And, and of course that's, that's, you know, what it feels like from a lot of other countries about, you know, the United States. It doesn't necessarily hold true, but I, I try really hard to be very conscious of the culture that he's in and the companions that he may be serving with. So if I do include something or I send something, I always try to include enough for the other companion and, but my favorite thing to do is just write them some handwritten notes so that they have something directly from. Me and there is something about seeing your mom's handwriting. I know I've received a few letters from some of my boys when they've been on missions and their handwriting just being able to see that has been a comfort to me and also to them and it creates more of a connection. So that is what I had to share with you today. I am so excited for anybody that's sending out new missionaries and hopefully this was helpful. And if it is, please tag me and please share it and let me know how it's going for you. All right, you guys, I love missionary moms. You guys have a soft spot in my heart and I know not all moms struggle. Not all moms think that missions are hard, but there are some of us that do. And so those, those of you that have had some of those feelings, I just want you to know that you're not alone and that your feelings are valid and all of them are okay. All right. I will see you next week. Bye bye now.