Mission Week

I was in charge of planning an activity for the Young Women a few weeks ago. The idea was that each of the girls would be called on missions. I hoped it would be a great experience for the Young Women. Many of them had a great experience, but I was shocked by the how great the week was for me. We followed missionary rules as closely as we could. We all abstained from TV, social media, and radio. Each girl was given a companion and it ended up being a great bonding experience for the companionship. We went to bed at 10pm and woke up at 6:30am. I took notes during each day to record my feelings.

Day 1 (Thursday)
Did you know it's still dark at 6:30am? I am not a morning person.
Today, we played outside at a time we usually would have stayed in (right after lunch).

It was 30 minutes before naptime and I didn't realize it. I was still happy and didn't want Alex to "go away" for two hours.
Sam got home from work, I left 50 minutes later. I took Edison with me. Sam took Alex to his meeting. We both got home at 9:45. Fed Edison, changed Alex. Goodnight to the boys, goodnight to each other.

Sam scratched my back until I fell asleep at 11:30. That's a good man.


Day 2 (Friday)
It was a good morning with Edison. Visiting teaching lesson prepared, bed made, dressed, laundry started all before Alex woke up.
Groceries, library, visiting teaching, car filled with gas, bank, shopping for new shoes for Alex. Do missionaries take naps?
Went out rollerblading with the boys in the stroller.
Fell asleep on the couch so Sam could watch TV.


Day 3 (Saturday)
We went to the temple. It was nice to be there together.

Went out to dinner for my birthday. How do you avoid music and TV in restaurants?
Up at 6am, ready for bed at 9:30.


Day 4 (Sunday)
Up at 7:30. Edison had a bad night.
I feel so alone. I thought that a week without blogging would make me feel whole, but instead I feel like no one understands me or cares about me. Sam walks in the door and says, "Where's Alex?!" He doesn't even come see me. He doesn't care.
Trying to stay off Facebook and blogs. It is almost paralyzing on the computer. It is so hard to avoid.

Today was such a hard day. It was a day of down-time without being able to do my regular down-time activities.


Day 5 (Monday)
Birthday. Who planned this mission week?! (Me) So inconvenient.

Also, the week of the World Series. Crazy.

Sam left town. Now what am I supposed to do?

Day 6 (Tuesday)
It felt like a really long day. Glad I had an excuse to make myself get in bed early instead of saying I had to do other things before the boys woke up.


Day 7 (Wednesday)
  I read the scriptures first thing in the morning, and then wished I hadn’t because I wanted to read them again later. We are reading the Book of Mormon in 100 days (about five pages a day) but I wanted to read more.

Many Young Women mentioned that they were so bored this week that they started doing Personal Progress. I love that when they eliminated the clutter, it made space for what they previously couldn't fit in. They have also expressed interest in making this a yearly tradition.

During this week I felt so much closer to the Spirit and my Heavenly Father. I was kinder to Sam, Alex, and Edison. I wanted to play with my kids instead of finding something to distract them so I could do something else. I also found that I was able to do more things on my to-do list and felt more fulfilled at the end of the day. When I turned off the noise, I could hear the whisperings of the Spirit.

For mutual, we had mission reports and we each wrote a family member a letter. Then we tried some food from each other the missions. There were five missions total.

Russia Novosibirsk Mission - borsch.

 Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission - Mongolian pastry.

Mexico Guadalajara Mission - jalapenos.

Pennsylvania Philadelphia Mission - soft pretzels.

 Tokyo Japan Mission - sushi.

At the end of the activity, we had all the girls go into the hallway and close their eyes. When they came back into the room, all the lights were off. One person was standing still while holding up a light and whispering nice things. All the other leaders were walking around the room yelling things like, "Come over here! There are boys/cool clothes/dancing/drugs." It was really awesome to see the girls jump away from the bad things. If only everything were so easy to discern the good from the bad. But the Spirit can help them discern. I am looking forward to next year already!