7 Ways to Prepare for a Mission

So, I didn't think this would happen, but I'm almost done with my papers and I'm going on a mission!

Preparing for a mission can be pretty tough. Here are 7 ways I've come up with to prepare for a mission*:

1. Study Preach My Gospel: the number 1 thing I've heard missionaries say they wish they had done before their mission was read and study Preach My Gospel more. Also, they do NOT teach Preach My Gospel at the MTC. You are expected to know it before you go in.
2. Study The Book of Mormon. The Book of Mormon is so essential to your message as a missionary that you should know it forwards and backwards before you go out to serve.
3. Study Jesus the Christ, True to the Faith, Our Heritage, and Our Search for Happiness. These are the only books you can bring on your mission other than your scriptures, Preach My Gospel, and your journals. Some of these you may not have even heard of, so you should find out what is so incredibly about them that you can bring them with you on your mission.
4. Keep a journal and start exercising. Getting into the habit now will make it easier for when you go on your mission.
5. Study other Gospel related books by prophets and apostles, past and present, and other church leaders. You can't take these books on your mission, so read now!
6. Don't wait until you enter the MTC to share the gospel. Be a Missionary now. President David O. McKay said "Every Member a Missionary." Here is a message from President Utchdorf on how we can be missionaries now: 
7. Pray night and day. Try to incorporate prayer into your thoughts. Think of Tevye from Fiddler on the Roof. He goes around just talking to God. We don't have speak aloud, we can just direct all our thoughts to God. It's not like He can't hear them, and becoming spiritually minded will change our behaviour and strengthen our testimonies.

*One of my professors at BYU told a story of how one of the professors, who was not LDS, was always getting really low ratings on the student ratings when it came to "spirituality" and was lamenting to my professor about it. She asked "How can I get better ratings for spirituality?" His answer? "Just put everything in seven steps." She did, and her spirituality ratings went up.

101 Ways to Tell if You Are Living in Utah and Not From Utah

If you are not from Utah, you know Utah is a weird place. Where else do you see real estate ads like this?

Utah Ad

Outside of Utah, this would be an ad for a hospital ward.

My roommate and I compiled this list after I came home from a frustrating grocery store trip. Utah, why don’t you sell Prusciutto??? She and I are from the East Coast, so some of these may only apply to East Coast Mormons living in Utah.

You Know You Aren't From Utah When...

1. You are disgusted by the size of the deli at the grocery store.
2. You have never seen so many blond people before in your life.  
3. Any drive longer than an hour is unbearable.
4. You cry into your pillow each night for the lack of trees.
5. Macy’s is a department store…not a grocery store.
6. You think DI means District Investigator.

   

   DI: District Investigator

7. You have never heard of Downeast Basics, Mikarose, or any other brand at the BYU Bookstore.

   

   Does not exist outside of Utah...

8. You laugh every time someone uses the word “flip.”
9. You can’t get over how the mountains are the tallest things here.
   
10. You just want people to say “mountain,” and not “moun’ain.”
11. You are extremely disturbed by how nice everyone is. It really is freaky.
12. You are surprised every time you hear someone make a Book of Mormon reference.

    

    ???

13. You are more surprised when people actually get it.
14. You almost ask people what their religious beliefs are.
15.  You start explaining General Conference to people before you realize they already know what it is.
16. You don’t realize at first that when people say someone was “stoned,” they mean that people threw rocks at them until they died.
17. Your high school health class was very different from everyone else’s.
18. You are shocked at how everyone gets married so young.
19. You are even more scared that it could happen to you.
20. You ask “What for?” when people apologize after they swear.
21. Suddenly a family of 6 is a small family.
22.  You get really excited when you meet another Mormon, but then suddenly you are like “Wait a minute…”
23. No one back home knows who Imagine Dragons are.
24. You start telling someone about music and they ask you, “Is it clean?”
25. You have never heard so many scriptural pick-up lines in your life.
26. You have never heard so many pick-up lines in your life.
27. You are amazed people actually use pick-up lines.
28. You are more amazed that people think they work.
29. You are stunned if they actually do.
30. You’ve been to Starbucks more times than all of the Mormons in Utah, combined.
31. You are unsettled by the lack of coffee shops.
32. You pass a junkie restaurant and the cigarette smell reminds you of home.
33. You tell people where you’re from and they are always stunned and say, “Wow, that’s far.”
34. What Utah people call rivers you call spilling a glass of water on the table.

    

    If the highway is wider than the river, it is not a river.
    This is not a river.

35. Your friends could count the number of black people in their high school.
36. Your friends are all white, but speak 60+ languages, and that's as diverse as it gets.
37. A “pre-mi” is not always a baby.
38. You have a heart attack when you turn on the radio on a Sunday and hear EFY music.
39. The woman on the radio mentions the prophet, and you die.
40. The woman on the radio closes the traffic report with "In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." (Link here: http://www.dooce.com/audio/fm100.mp3) No one would understand that back home.
41. You can never understand how the streets work.
42. Why are there never street names!?
43. You are shocked by billboards with scriptural or Mormon references.
44.  Driving is hazardous considering how shocked and confused you get.
45. People accidently use sexual innuendos and you get it, and no one else does, and it’s just really awkward for you.
46. People accidently use drug references, and you laugh, but everyone is just super confused and you feel awkward.
47. You are amazed how innocent people are.
48. People deny how innocent they are. You just laugh.
49. You had no idea that there was a missionary mall and you have a hard time believing that anyone goes there.
50. People think Salt Lake is a city, and you’re just like no, no it’s not.
51. You are terrified by the snow and think it might eat you.
52. You are the only one of your friends who sprains their ankle because of the snow.
53. You don’t understand how people drive in the snow.
54. You have never heard of a MAV before in your entire life.
55. You can’t believe that MAVs exist, and laugh every time you see one.
56. It is disturbing when people aren’t rude to you.
57. You think, “DON’T GO WITH THEM!” when nice people giving directions say, “I’ll just take you there.”
58. You have never climbed such a high mountain before in your life.
59. Your Utah friends don’t think the Appalachian Mountains are mountains.
60. Even the Graffiti is Mormon.
    
61.  People think Las Vegas is “close” to Salt Lake City.
62. You have a bad taste in your mouth from reading #61.
63.  People think that Victoria’s Secret is a den of iniquity instead of a place to buy bras.
64. When people talk about doing shots, they are talking about caffeinated soda.
65. They take it as seriously as if it were real shots.
66. You hear people talk about their past caffeine addiction, and laugh instead of sympathise  Then they get really offended and you try to feel bad but can’t.
67. You know more swear words than anyone else you know.
68. People think you’re a celebrity when you tell them you’re in the background of one the “I’m a Mormon” ads, and that’s pretty weird.
69. You don’t understand when people don’t get your own cultural references.
70. All of your uncles and aunts are older than you, your siblings, and your cousins. You are alone in this.
71. Family reunions back home consist of maybe 30 people, and it’s a big family. You are alone in this too.
72. You were the designated driver in high school.
73. People think you know Utah geography. You don't. 
74. Your picture of Jesus hangs above your sports team poster and everyone makes an apostles joke.

    

    This is actually hanging in our apartment. Insert apostles joke here:

75. People call the train “the metro.” You laugh. It’s not a metro. There are no escalators.
76. You are amazed that there are actually stores that sell modest wedding and prom dresses. You kind of want to go in one even though you are not engaged and out of high school.
77. When you go with a group to do baptisms, you find it strange that no one gets double suited.
78.  Conference is a holiday weekend, and that’s pretty funny.
79. People get offended by your clean language. This is the same language you got made fun of for using back in high school. 
80. People actually went to their high school’s homecoming and prom, and, unlike you, didn’t stand in the hallway the whole time.
81. You learn that a date doesn’t mean you’re dating. This is very liberating for you.
82. You also become aware than you suddenly can’t hang out one-on-one with a member of the opposite sex without it being considered a date. This is very frustrating to you.
83. You find out that “The Holy War” is between BYU and the U of U, not Israel and Pakistan.
84. You really don’t care about The Holy War.
85. You are the only one has eaten food with alcohol (i.e. rum, vodka) flavoring, and even though the alcohol cooked/burned out, people still think you’ve broken the word of wisdom.
86. This is the only place that you see ads to help you overcome not your smoking addiction, but your porn addiction.
87. You somehow aren’t surprised when you find out that Utah has the highest gap in wages between men and women.
88. To ask someone out in Utah, a person would stick a hundred plastic forks in their front yard. Back home, this would be considered vandalism.
89.  People think “Italian Bread” is same as the white bread you get at Subway. You are offended by this.
90. You don’t understand why there are so many Polynesians here.
91.  For once in your life, when you tell someone you’re Mormon, they know what that is/don’t ask how many wives your dad has.
92. Watching a Disney movie becomes a make-out session. This is very odd to you.
93. You can’t understand how girls out here complain about not finding modest clothes at the store, because where you’re from, you actually can’t find any modest clothes. Seriously, Utah girls, where are you shopping?
94. It’s strange to live around so many Republicans.
95. You have never heard of a NCMO before in your life.
96. You can always tell when someone is from Utah. People from Utah can’t understand this.
97. You roll your eyes when people talk about how there are so many nonmembers in Utah. These are the same people who went to seminary during school hours and not at 5 in the morning.
98. Most of your friends’ parents are still married. That’s weird.
99.  Out here, people go out and volunteer in the community because they want to, not because their parole officer told them to. That’s pretty strange to you, and those are the kind of people you would instinctually avoid.
100. You find out that to “heart attack” someone is not an attempted murder.
101. You will find this list funny, but your Utah friends will not find this list funny. Instead, they will be really confused.

Pass this on to your friends and feel free to leave suggestions in the comments section!

Tiffany Cookies

These are, without doubt, the most amazing Gluten Free Cookies in the WORLD!

I am not celiac. I love flour and I buy at least 12.5 lb bags of it, and I go through it! My amazing bread recipe is to come in a later post, but for now just know that I love gluten.

However, I have reason to make things gluten free. Not so much for health reasons, although I've heard that it's better to live gluten free because, even if you are not gluten intolerant, gluten is not the easiest thing for your stomach to digest.

Anywho, the real reason why I wanted to make gluten-free AMAZINGNESS is because of my sister. My sister Tiffany is serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints right now and is one of the first ever 19 year-old sister missionaries in church history! And she has celiac disease.

I wanted to send her a gluten free care package, but I found that they were EXPENSIVE and, as a poor college student, I looked for a nice alternative.

So I searched the interweb and I found a recipe for gluten free chocolate chocolate chip cookies and the picture looked pretty good, so I thought I'd give it a try.

They were okay. Flat. Crunchy. Bottoms burnt, but at least they tasted good. Still, I was not satisfied, and I got an idea.

If you haven't been on Pinterest, then you maybe have missed the new craze with putting pudding mix in cookies. (Secret: the same thing works with things like pumpkin bread, but you should reduce the amount of sugar you put in normally.) Well, I had the idea to put in chocolate pudding mix. It's gluten free.

The results are below.

Don't they look amazing? I think so.

This is how it's done.

Ingredients

Batter gets really thick!

YOU MUST USE PARCHMENT PAPER! Anything else, and the bottoms will burn.

Amazing GF Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Tiffany Cookies:

What you'll need...

2 Cups of Powdered Sugar

1/3 heaping Cup of Unsweetened Cocoa Powder (I love dark chocolate, so I used ultra dark Hersheys)

1 5.85 oz Chocolate Instant Pudding Mix. (The larger size you can buy at the store.)

2 tbs of Butter, melted (Use butter instead of margarine, it is so much healthier than margarine)

4 Egg whites

1/4 tsp of Salt

1 tsp of Vanilla Extract

2 cups of Chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

Cookie Sheet

Parchment Paper (YOU MUST USE PARCHMENT PAPER OR THE RECIPE WILL FAIL!)


1. Preheat the Oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a cookie sheet with Parchment paper. You really do have to use parchment paper. Anything else, and the bottoms will burn and this recipe will turn out horrible. Or, as my New Jersey relatives would say, harrrible.

2. Mix the powdered sugar, cocoa powder, salt, and pudding mix in a large bowl. Add in melted butter,  egg whites, and vanilla. Batter will be THICK!

3. Add chocolate chips. Spoon out blobs about two tablespoons thick onto the parchment paper, make it about 2 inches apart.

4. Place in preheated oven and bake for 10-15 minutes. Do not overcook.

It's amazing! Please share this recipe with all your GF friends, family, and neighbours. I know it's so hard to find amazing GF cookies so please share this with everyone.

Feel free to comment with any questions or anything. Thanks!!

About Me

Hello World. My name is Julie. I'm originally from Washington DC but now I'm a freshmen in college and living FAR away from my home. Frequent this blog for crazy stories, awesome recipes, and survival tips on living awesome on a budget. I am also Mormon and I love it. You can learn more about my beliefs at Mormon.org.

I'm a business major and I am one of the rare few girls out there more adept at videography than photography. I love chocolate, candy, and eating healthy. I only drink skim milk and I have never had ramen noodles in my college experience, but I still live frugally.

I love Estonia, Captain America, the Washington Capitals, and Harry Styles. I also have never seen Star Wars.

My college experience has been amazing so far, and I'm so happy to share it with you. Be prepared for crazy engagement stories (not my engagements!), mysterious moos, amazing and cheap recipes, crazy roommate stories, and everything else under the sun!

This is a picture of me from last night when I got a box in the mail. Yes, I went out in public with this outfit on. That is my roommate's foot coming out of the box.