LDS Missionary Moms
Sending a missionary out can be a harrowing experience for mothers. From the emotions of getting them ready to drop them off at the MTC or the airport without a phone. This podcast is dedicated to supporting the moms so they can support their missionaries when they receive disturbing emails from their missionaries, are homesick, are trying to navigate learning a foreign language, and so much more.
We will be diving into the real issues MOMS face, providing some relief that you are not alone.
LDS Missionary Moms
Bonus: A Grace Filled Mother's Day
Happy Mother’s Day, my sweet friends. Today, I’m doing something I’ve never done before—sharing a bonus episode just for you.
Mother’s Day has sometimes felt more tender than joyful if you're anything like me. Maybe you’ve heard that loud, critical voice in your head reminding you of every misstep, every moment you weren’t enough. But what if today, we rebelled against that voice? What if we chose grace instead of shame?
Join me for a few deep breaths and a heartfelt reminder: you are enough, exactly as you are, right now. You don’t have to run faster than you have strength. You don’t have to earn your worthiness. And you don’t have to be perfect to be the perfect mom for your children.
In this episode, I share my own tender Mother’s Day memories with my missionaries—including a surprise bouquet all the way from Zimbabwe—and why this year, I’m inviting you to make Mother’s Day about you. Celebrate the unseen moments, the silent prayers, the way you keep showing up even when it’s hard.
Take a moment today to breathe, place your hand over your heart, and say out loud, “I am enough.” Because you are. You always have been.
Happy, peaceful, grace-filled Mother’s Day.
P.S. If you have a quiet moment today, write down how you’re feeling and a few ways you’re learning to extend grace to yourself. That’s the kind of tradition worth starting.
Share your missionary stories where you agree to allow me to share them:
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Hello and welcome to the podcast. I just wanna wish all of you a happy Mother's Day. This is a bonus episode, which I've never done before, and I thought it would be especially important on this day because if you're anything like me, sometimes the voice in your head that's the loudest is the cruelest and the meanest, and. I spent many, many mother's days feeling guilty and not enough, and crying and wishing they would cancel it. And maybe that's not your experience, but that definitely was mine. And I, in recent years have figured out that the voice in my head isn't always true, and I'm just willing to show up and question it and not believe it. And so let's start today just a little bit differently. So. Wherever you are, if it's safe to do so, I just invite you to close your eyes for a moment, take a long, slow breath in, and then gently let it go. And I just want you to feel your body, how your shoulders dropped. How the, the tension in your jaw starts to soften. Maybe scan your scalp and see if you can soften that a little bit. And if a tear is already threatening to fall, that's okay. This is a safe space for that. Mother's Day is beautiful and it can be tender and sometimes it's really heavy because as moms we don't carry. Just our children, we also carry their struggles, their disappointments, their hurts, and if we're really honest, we also carry our own regret what we wish we'd have done, we remember the sharp words. We fi we wish we hadn't spoken the moments that we were too tired to listen the times we were present, but not really present. And isn't it fascinating how quickly our brains can collect all the evidence against us as if the weight of it could somehow make us better? But today I wanna offer you something radically different. Something that feels a little like rebellion against the critical voice. What if you decided right now that you are done using shame as a tool for self-improvement? What if today I. You choose grace. So not as like some lofty ideal, but just as a practice, kind of a moment to moment choice to place your hand over your heart and say, I'm learning, I'm human, and this is perfectly okay. So let's lean into this scripture in Miah 4 27 where King Benjamin says. And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And I would just insert that a woman should run faster than she has strength. So my, my sweet, sweet friends, my, my listeners, my audience, all mothers everywhere. If it's not required. If it's not required for us to run faster than we have strength, do you think that that also goes for mothers? Heavenly father isn't asking for perfection today. He's just asking for you, for your willing, open, imperfect, beautiful heart. And he had it planned this way. And so if today feels heavy. If the phone doesn't ring with the call that you're hoping for from some of your children, and you do get the phone call from your missionary, take a breath. You're not behind and you're not broken. You're living, breathing. Miracle of a woman who has loved, tried, stumbled, and kept loving anyway, and that is holy work. So. Really listen to me here. Your kids do not need a perfect mother. They just need a mother who loves them as and is learning to love herself, and that is the greatest gift that we could ever offer them. So I want you to, I want to invite you to try something with me today at some point. Maybe right after this episode, find a quiet spot. Put your hand over your heart and say out loud. And really just say it. I'm Enough. Not today, not when I get thing, not someday. Not when I get all things figured out, not when I'm perfect, but today, right now as I am. And I want you to ask yourself, what would it look, look like to offer myself a little more kindness today? And what would it feel like to mother myself the way I've mothered everyone else? I. And extend grace the way I have it to other people. And remember, your nervous system doesn't need another plan to fix everything. It needs gentleness, stillness, and it needs you to stop running faster than you have strength and simply be, and maybe just maybe this is the year to let Mother's Day be just for you. Not just about celebrating by others, but about celebrating yourself. Celebrate the moments that no one saw. The midnight tears, the silent prayers, the deep breathing you did before opening the door to a hard conversation. The endless rides, the small lunches that you packed. The hugs. Given even when you felt empty. And I, I believe the savior stands with open arms saying, well done, thou good and faithful servant. So on this Mother's Day, let's make a new kind of tradition, one where we pause, one, where we breathe, one where we offer ourselves the grace. We've been so generous to give everyone else. Because you, my friends, are doing the sacred work of mothering and you're doing it beautifully and you're doing it messy, and all of that is okay. So from my mama heart to yours, I wish I could reach out and hug you, but I wish you a happy, peaceful, grace-filled Mother's Day. And I just want to share a few little tidbits just about the mother's days that I have had with my. My missionaries. So my oldest missionary that I've spoken about quite a bit on this podcast, he served in 2016 to 2018, and this was before you got a call every week. And so the main phone calls that we got was Christmas and Mother's Day, and I remember him coming on the. A Messenger video and I was already crying and he laughed and he said, mom, you can't be crying already. And it was such a tender time because I. I only gotta talk to him four times his entire mission. And so I was like, those were like sacred moments for me. And I, I didn't even wanna share, like, he, he had about 20 minutes and I didn't, I didn't really wanna share him. I wanted to hog the whole time, but I, but I definitely, you know, did share a little. So I cherish those memories. Now my, my boys that are currently out serving this is I have one son that's coming home this summer, and so he's winding down his mission, so I know that I will speak with him on Mother's Day, and I, I'm grateful for that opportunity. And then I have my youngest son, which I don't know what it is about the baby. I think it's because we've wrapped up our time as mothering. That makes it so special. But this will be my first Mother's Day phone call from him, and he's the one that's serving in Zimbabwe. And at the time that I recorded this, I had received a text from. A girl that I don't know, and she just said, Hey, I dropped some flowers off at your house for Mother's Day from Elder Evans, and I automatically made the assumption that it was from my elder that was serving in the United States and I wasn't home at the time. And so when I got home and saw the flowers sitting there and there was a card. My sweet missionary, I don't know how he did it, had written me a handwritten card and sent me flowers from Zimbabwe. And I was, I mean, I, I was instantly in, in tears. And his card was so funny. He said one thing that he said was, you think you're so funny, mom. And it made me laugh. And he said, you're the happiest person I know and the perfect mom for me. And. Like I felt that extension of grace from him, not just from myself, but from him allowing the messiness that I had that, you know, he still acknowledged I. That I was a good mom for him. And so I just want you to be aware that your brain is gonna want to compare. It's going to want to be mean to you, and you don't have to allow it. Just because your brain comes up with it doesn't make it true. So be willing to question those thoughts if they come up. And this is what I have for you today. I love Mother's Day now. I love mothers and the effort that they put in, and I especially love my audience and all of you that have reached out and sent kind words and mention things that have helped you along your path. And if you have time to sit down and write some of the feelings that you have and how you feel about your missionary being out and the phone call you received, and maybe write down some extensions of grace that you've been able to give yourself. Alright you guys, I hope you have a happy, peace filled grace filled Mother's Day and I will see you at our regular time next week. Bye-bye.