What I Wish I'd Know Before My Mission

by John Bytheway

Book Overview

In a fresh, helpful, and sometimes humorous way, John Bytheway offers guidelines on how to make the missionary experience worthwhile. Part One discusses what life should be like between high school... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573452076
• ISBN13: 9781573452076
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Bookcraft
• Length: 122 Pages
• Weight: 2.55 lbs.

Customer Reviews

A great book for YM/YW

John Bytheway is such a blessing to the Saints. He always tackles the subjects that become very serious in an adolescent's life. This book was written with the dutiful young prospective missionary who's mind is pretty much already made up that they have been foreordained to serve the lord. I am a convert at the end of my mission eligibility age however I still found it useful. This book is packed full of quotes from Prophets & scriptures that relate to staying the course before and during your mission. It is a quick read. I am planning on passing this book on to one of the Young Men in my ward.

A Valuable Book (But here's a strong caution.)

As an ex-missionary (as was my wife), I love the practical tone and style of this book, and I consider it exceptionally helpful in very many ways. I certainly wish I'd had it before I was called (by David O. McKay). On the other hand, the book contains a major flaw, and it is made more serious in that John states that it is his #1 most important piece of advice. Here it is: "A testimony comes with the bearing of it." Because my Ph.D. combines linguistics and psychology, I'm prepared to tell you that John's advice on that point, while generically valid, is specifically unfortunate when applied to the LDS gospel. That's because even clearly false ideas can become believable if they are repeated often enough. Repetition does bring conviction, that it, but repetition of lots of erroneous things can bring conviction. That's simply related to how the brain works in constructing conceptual reality, and explains how it is that otherwise intelligent Arabs can be convinced that exploding themselves is the right thing to do. Moreover, in the LDS context, when other missionaries (and members in general) hear a missionary bearing his/her testimony, those other missionaries don't know whether the missionary sincerely means it, or whether he/she is merely bearing his/her testimony in order to practice saying it enough times that he/she will begin to believe it. I think this is a poisonous thing to teach, although I of course admit that it does indeed work. But my point is that it works for anyone of any belief system, no matter how false that belief system might be, merely because of the power of repetition. Is that really what we want to have in our heads?

Preparing for a mission can still be fun, according to John.

"I don't know about you, but I don't get a whole lot of mail from the prophet. But one day, he sent me a letter--a letter I'd been waiting for all my life. I'd heard lessons about it, and sung songs about it, and on this day, it came. It came to pass! It will happen to you too," (Bytheway, pp. 15). In "What I Wish I'd Known Before My Mission", John Bytheway explains that preparing for a LDS Mission doesn't have to be boring and dreadful. In fact, he simply states that it can be FUN! John tells you what to do with your spare time, girlfriends & boyfriends, thoughts, emotions, discipline, finances, etc. Many examples are given, in his humorous style that he is known for, from the author's experience before and during his mission. He gives prospective missionaries a relaxed look on how to get ready for the next two years of their life