What I Wish I'd Known Before My Mission

What I Wish I’d Known Before my Mission, by John Byetheway is an excellent book for a teenager preparing for their mission. It does a great job of giving an overview of situations and problems you might face in preparing and embarking on a two year mission with the LDS church. Its focus is on being Christ-like in every situation and on losing yourself in service. It helps you to focus on the important things that a mission entails and to forget the unimportant things. It is best summed up by the following quote, “If called to serve is just a catchy slogan or a nice song lyric, it isn’t worth much. It’s got to be real. You must develop a real love for people.” The book is not full of hard hitting doctrine that will blow your mind; instead it is the basics that will help you to be more effective in preaching the gospel. It does a very good job of focusing on the essentials and keeping it simple. As John often does, he works in many comedic moments and comments in the book…