The Mission Presidents Son

Name: Michael Mella 

Q:You are preparing right now to go on a mission, what made you want to serve a mission?

A: My parents got called to serve as Mission Presidents in San Jose, California, and every six weeks on Tuesdays and Wednesdays we would have transfers. On Tuesdays we would have the outgoing missionaries have dinner with our family and they would stay at the mission home, and then on Wednesday we would have the new incoming missionaries. I remembered seeing the difference between the leaving missionaries and the income missionaries. The difference was so big, the leaving missionaries were exactly what I wanted to be, and the incoming missionaries just had so much room to grow. I wanted that change for myself and I know that it was the mission that caused it.

Q: What are some ways you have prepared to go on a mission?

A: There are these things called mini mission, where you go on splits with missionaries, typically its for multiple days,and I have been on a few of those. Whenever the assistants need help with anything they would call me and I would go help teach a lesson, or plan transfers.

Q: How has coming to BYU Idaho helped you prepare for your mission?

A: I think living on my own has helped me a lot, there are a lot of life lessons that I have learned, like cooking for myself, and how to function daily without the assistance of parents.

Q: What are some of the struggles you have had preparing for a mission?

A: One thing I have struggled a lot with missionary work is trying not to dumb down the gospel, and I now see the errors in my ways. All aspects of the church I would dumb down when explaining to my friends, and the gospel shouldn't bee dumbed down, it should be said how it is because it is true.

Q: How have you see missionary work in your life?

A: My Dad is a convert, and most of Aunts and Uncles on my Dad's side aren't Mormon, and just seeing the benefits of those in my extended family who are Mormon compared to those who aren't, is huge. Success and career, family happiness, divorce, everything, it seems that the ones in my family who are living the best lives are the Mormon ones. 

Q: Whats one goal for your mission?

A: My goal is that my Mission President can put me anywhere, with any companion, and know that I will be able to get along with them, I will be able to be obedient, and I will be able to baptize. My Mission President does not need to worry about me.

Lets Be Honest About Missions: Connor Penman

Missionary: Connor Penman

Q: Where did you serve your mission?

A: I served my mission in Columbia South Carolina.

Q:When did you know you wanted to go on a mission?

A:Probably middle of my senior year of high school.

Q: What made you want to go?

A: To this day I don't really know, it seemed like a good idea at the time so I did.

Q: Who really helped you prepare to go on a mission.

A: Probably my Bishop, Bishop Esplin, my parents, and my brothers. They didn't tell me specifically how to prepare, they just told me what I encountered, which was pretty nice.

Q: What was the MTC like for you.

A: The MTC, to be completely honest I hated it, I hated it to start because it is the structure of a very intense school, but with the gospel. Which is an experience everyone needs to go through because it teaches what you need to learn to be a missionary, but the way they do it is almost military status, to where you are up a lot, you have to follow a very specific schedule,and you have to learn very quickly. It can be a negative experience if you have never done something like that before. I found it to be very difficult, and I didn't get a lot of sleep.

Q: What is your favorite experience that you have had on your mission?

A: My favorite experience was going to this guy's baptism, he was a guy we met in Columbia, which is the most ghetto are that I served in. He was for the longest time a Crack addict, and he was blind. His baptism was probably one of my favorite moments on my mission because I showed up right when they started teaching him, and I was there for most of the process of teaching him, and he eventually got baptized, and a recent convert who had gone through the same struggles he did had baptized him. It was just special to see someone who had gone through the same things he had baptize him.

Q:How did your testimony grow on your mission?

A: I would say I gained my testimony on my mission, I wouldn't say my testimony was at a zero before, I believed in the church but I didn't have any experiences that gave me a testimony before.

Q: Was it gradually or was there a certain moment when it hit you?

A:There was a moment in the MTC where I remember thinking, this isn't just a church this is the true church that I believe in. 

Q:How have you applied what you learned on your mission to life now?

A:In a very small way everything applies. As a missionary you pray a lot you study your scriptures, but more than that you have to plan,you have to learn how to talk to people, you have to learn how to basically do hard things. People look at missions as increasing your spiritual knowledge and your testimony, and that is not really true because it teaches you real life adult skills. 

"Dear Sister Green, you are hereby called to serve as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are to assign to labor in the California Anaheim Mission." I had been waiting to read these words for about four years, but the days leading up to opening my mission call felt like thousands of years. 

At the age of 14 I told myself and everyone I knew that I was going on a mission, and I will have you know it was not something I prayed about, I didn't spend weeks searching and pondering the scriptures, I just knew. It had been in my mind since President Monson made the big announcement that sisters could serve at the age of 19 instead of 21. Then maybe a week or two later as I was driving in the car with my Dad I blurted out,

"I want to go on a mission!" It kind of shocked me because it was something I was just thinking about, I hadn't even prayed about it. But as I said those words I knew that I would serve a mission, and I told everybody I knew that was my plan. 

Before the mission age changed I thought 21 was the most inconvenient age to go on a mission, I knew I would be either married, or deep into school and it wouldn't work out for me to go on a mission. But 19 was so much easier and it would be much more convenient to serve the lord. How selfish does that sound? 

I now believe that even if the mission age hadn't changed I would still have a strong desire to serve the lord. This decision has blessed my life before I have even stepped on the mission field, but my preparation hasn't always been easy. I have never been good with scripture study and it something I have been working on. My biggest struggle recently has been with the advisory, as I was putting in my papers there was times when I felt doubt, that I shouldn't go on a mission. Could I really leave my family, my favorite tv shows, and pause my studies? 

I know those are not my thoughts, I know that Satan is trying to tempt me and make me believe that it is in my best interest to stay. But in my heart I know that there are people who Heavenly Father is preparing right now, for me to teach and bring unto the gospel. 

This church has given me happiness, and I love to make others happy, it is one of the best feeling in the world. I can not wait for February 1st when I enter the MTC and I am able to fill this desire, and serve the Lord.