Food & Dinner Appointments - A Guide for Future Missionaries

THAT TIME I PANICKED WHEN I HAD TO BUY GROCERIES-

When I arrived in my mission (Minnesota) straight out of the MTC, all of the new missionaries went to the mission home in Bloomington and stayed our first night in the field there. The next morning we were given our area assignments and traveled to our new areas in various places around the state. After traveling for several hours, I was picked up at the meeting place by my new companion/trainer and a member of the branch where I would be serving (who was driving us). We still had another hour to drive to get back to our area. Since we were in a larger city and there was no regular grocery store in the small town where our apartment was located, they took me straight to a large grocery store. I was instructed to purchase my groceries for the week.

I remember this part very clearly. Groceries? Nobody said anything about buying groceries. I mean, of course I knew that I would need to buy my own food (and I mean really buy my own food, because although each missionary in the mission at that time had their own ATM card to access their funds, new missionaries didn't get their cards for 2 weeks). I don't believe that I was ever told to bring cash for initial expenses (they do tell you that now), but luckily I did happen to have personal cash with me.

I looked up and down the grocery store aisle like some sort of alien with amnesia...as if I'd never purchased (or seen) food before. I had no idea what to buy. I had no plan at all. I couldn't believe how much I was failing at something so simple!

Wait a minute - I had gone to college! I had successfully lived on my own for several years. I had shopped for my own groceries before, many times. AND, I wasn't even serving in foreign mission- this was the type of grocery store and the kinds of food that I was very familiar with. Still, I wandered around like a crazy person, not having any idea what to buy. My companion and the ward member were looking at me strangely. "Oh no," I thought, "I wanted to make a good impression, but they don't think I'm even capable of picking out my own food!"

I didn't realize it at the time, but I'm pretty sure that I was having a panic attack. Everything was spinning. The more I told myself to get it together, the less I succeeded in getting it together. My companion tried to help suggest things for me, but it didn't help because I couldn't seem to think straight! I finally managed to get a few groceries in my cart (I believe I bought a box of cereal, a jug of milk, a can of refried beans, and a package of tortillas) and then cringed during the whole (long) drive to our apartment. This was not the impression I had wanted to make. 

Depending on which mission you go to, you could have a different food buying experience. In some missions, all meals are included as part of the deal with your apartment. Or you may live in an apartment that is part of a family home and you may eat certain meals with them on a daily basis. In many missions, you prepare your own breakfast and lunch, and then dinners may be provided by ward members or others who volunteer to feed the missionaries in their homes. Some countries have lunch as their main meal, so you could have your meals with members at that time instead. 

Church members are asked to help feed the missionaries because it keeps the missionary's  costs down, but it also helps the members become more familiar with the missionaries (and helps missionaries to get referrals). Depending on your area, you may have dinner appointments as often as every day OR almost never. This affects you as a missionary, because the less you are being fed, the more you will have to cook/buy food for yourself. We were very excited to have a dinner appointment when we had one. It was always nice to have a meal made for us (that we didn't have to buy). Things sometimes got pretty ugly when we had to make all of our own meals every day. We'd often be running out of food or be really sick of eating the same thing 3x a day when that's all we could afford.

Missionaries get a certain amount of money for food (AND other expenses like shampoo and toilet paper) per month, and you don't get more money when you don't have many dinner appointments. So the same amount of money you would normally use to buy breakfast and lunches for the week/month in an area where you have dinner appointments every night will be the same amount of money that you will have when you transfer to a new area where they only have dinner appointments once a week. PS- Feed the missionaries in your ward at home, if you can! When you've been a missionary, you will appreciate it. Returned missionaries (RMs) are great a feeding the missionaries because we remember what it is like not to have them! :) 

The struggle is real! Here I am, posing with our kitchen cabinets (I think the only things edible in the photo are pasta noodles and peanut butter. There might be a small can of canned ham or something there, too. Most of the stuff in this cabinet are vitamins, cupcake liners, etc). This was in an area where we only had dinner appointments once a month or so, and it was getting close to our next MSF deposit (i.e., we were waiting to be able to be more groceries).

In this photo, one of my companions is posing with our before and after meals. We were running low on food and money (and dinner appointments). Someone (bless their heart) had given us a package of noodle-roni mix. We didn't have any ground beef or butter, so I couldn't really follow the directions. I made some sort of concoction with whatever I could find (including some ancient canned green beans that we found in the cabinet). It was so depressing and unappetizing, we couldn't even eat it. I think we just put it in the fridge and went to sleep without eating. The next day was our MSF day (the day we got our money to buy food, etc). It had been so long since we'd eaten anything fresh, we bought oranges and strawberries. When we came home with our groceries, we laughed about the concoction I'd made the night before and took this photo.

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO PREPARE FOR EATING AS A MISSIONARY? HERE ARE MY 3 TIPS: 

PREVENTING FIRST-AREA GROCERY STORE PANIC-
To prevent a panic (like I had!) when you first arrive in your first area, have a general plan of what you will buy if you are taken to a grocery store on your first day. This situation might not come up for you - depending on the situation, time of day, and day of the week, you might not be able to go to purchase food for several days. There may be food in the apartment for you to eat already, meals may be provided, or your companion may share with you. But just in case, have a general plan. Even if its just eating peanut butter & jelly sandwiches for the first week, at least you will have a plan for something to eat and you will have bought yourself time to come up with a better shopping list for the next week :) 

EATING THINGS YOU DON'T LIKE-
No matter where you serve a full-time mission, you are going to encounter situations where there are foods that you don't like or would prefer not to eat for other reasons (sketchy preparation, etc)....yes, even in the United States! You are probably going to have dinner appointments where you will be expected to be polite and eat whatever is offered. There are things that you can do to prepare for this situation without being rude. I have written an entire blog post on this topic - See my post "2 REALLY Important Things to START DOING right NOW if you want to SURVIVE EATING when you're an LDS MISSIONARY" by clicking here.

COOKING AS A MISSIONARY-
You probably won't be served every meal that you eat, so you will need to know how to cook a few things, at least. If you're used to convinence foods or are used to preparing a few dishes that rely heavily on ingredients that are available in your hometown (but are not available in China or Russia, or wherever you serve!), that is going to be a problem. The blog post I mentioned in the previous paragraph also has information about how to learn to cook some basics that will work for your specific mission...here is the link again to that post. 

We also have a section on this blog of missionary tested recipes (all tested and rated for difficulty and deliciousness by my future missionary daughter), including:

twice-baked potatoes (click here) 

and creamy pesto-pasta (click here) 

There is no way to know what types of foods and cooking methods will be available/reasonable for your mission until you get your mission call, but having some basic cooking skills will help you feel more confident, no matter where you serve.

Best of luck to you in your future missionary food endeavors! Crazy food stories make some of the best mission stories!