5 THINGS I WISH I WOULD’VE KNOWN BEFORE MY MISSION.

I have heard so many times that you cannot change your past but what you can do is choose what to learn from that experience. Today that is precisely what I want to share with you. Something you need to know about me is that my faith is the most important thing to me. Before going on a mission, I had some expectations about being a missionary, but the Lord had other high expectations. I served as a missionary in the Colombia Bogota South Mission from 2018 to 2019. Honestly, my mission wasn’t what I expected, it was BETTER. Here are some of the things that I would have liked to know before my mission.

1. You don’t have to be perfect. When we are called to serve as missionaries we can feel the weight of that responsibility on our shoulders. Still, nobody is asking you for perfection during your missionary service. The mission is a time to learn and change, to become more like Christ, so don’t be afraid to make mistakes.

2. Obedience is necessary but love is more important. The day before I left for the mission, I had some of my friends who were already served a mission giving me pieces of advice. I am not going to lie or exaggerate but I heard “Be obedient” many times I knew that I had to be obedient so that advice didn’t have much sense to me. But as the time passed by I knew what they referred to. In my mission “perfect obedience” was really important, if you did not follow the white handbook rules or your mission rules you were a bad missionary. When you are totally obsessed to be perfectly obedient you don’t leave room for your or your companion’s mistakes. Don’t forget that part of being a missionary is to love those around you. Don’t get me wrong; I am not saying that you need to be disobedient in order to love. Remember that you are a representative of Jesus Christ, He loved people and obeyed the Heavenly Father’s commandments at the same time.

3. Being a missionary is physically and mentally exhausting. Missionary work is WORK so it will be exhausting in every way. You can even experiment with all the emotions possible in just one day. Sometimes as missionaries, we feel tired, lonely, disappointed or we might miss our family. But trust me that the mission is the place where you can be happy and experiment with true joy. I know that sounds crazy but it’s a wonderful experience.

4. Don’t Compare Yourself with others. You are unique because you have talents and skills and aspects that make you unique please, don’t compare yourself with others. When I say don’t compare this applies to every aspect of your life as a missionary, don’t measure your value and success by comparing your results with someone else’s results. The Lord has blessed you with a heart and mind that can cause an impact in the life of those who you teach so, don’t forget your value and the potential that you have to accomplish this work.

5. Going on a mission is one of the best decisions I have ever made. This can sound overexaggerating because I’m only 24 and I still have a life to make good decisions. But until now I can say for sure that is one of the best decisions I have ever made. There will never be a better time to “forget yourself and serve others”. If someone asks me if I would serve a mission again, I would definitely do it without a doubt.