Invite your local missionaries to dinner NOW to PREPARE for your Latter-day Saint mission LATER - a guide for future LDS missionaries and their parents

Our daughter Kendall attends a local YSA branch and last Sunday she noticed that the missionary
dinner calendar was looking a little sparse, so she signed up to feed the missionaries in our home.
Since this was her idea, she insisted that she wanted to do the chores and plan, purchase, and prepare (and clean up after) the whole meal (which was fine with me!)

She found out the day before that she would have to work (unexpectedly) the day of the dinner appointment, so she went shopping for everything she needed the night before. The day of the dinner, I made sure that the house was presentable while she was at work (because I know the missionaries probably wouldn't be offended by Spider-Man toddler underwear hanging from the ceiling fan, but I would be mortified!). When she got home, she prepared the meal.

All day, I kept thinking about all the little things that needed to be done and issues that needed to be addressed (just the usual things when you have dinner guests, like making sure that there are clean towels in the guest bathroom and making sure that we have enough chairs for everyone). We've had the missionaries over for dinner many times, so it's not a big deal to me and I could have taken care of all of these details myself, but then I thought to myself - Self, if you let Kendall take care of these details herself, she will gain a better appreciation for what is involved in providing a meal for the missionaries...

So instead of doing everything for her, I pointed out some issues that she might want to address. Such as, we had loaned a chair to the Relief Society for an activity and our folding chairs were still at Grandma's house from Christmas, so we were already short on chairs (plus Kendall had invited a friend to dinner as well, so I knew we were now 3 chairs short), so she should think about if we have enough chairs and what she could do if there weren't enough. Kendall arranged to pick up the extra chairs from a nearby relative and it was no problem, but she likely wouldn't have thought of it ahead of time if I hadn't mentioned it).

When she went to set the table, she had to decide between our regular dishes and paper plates. She decided that paper wasn't "nice" enough (which made me laugh, because I often use paper plates when we have the missionaries over). She decided to go with a third option - a fancy set of dishes that had recently been passed down to me. I pointed out that she would probably need to wipe them down and wash them because they might be dusty.

There were a lot of other little things that came up (like who to seat next to who, whether to use napkins or paper towels, whether to pour the water or have it in a pitcher - or both, what kind of utensils to use to serve, how small to cut the tomatoes, whether to use separate dishes for dessert (yes), etc. Nothing major, just the kind of things you think about when you're having dinner guests in a little bit more than casual setting.

I think that this experience has given Kendall a better understanding of what is involved in providing a meal for the full-time missionaries. In our family, we put a lot more effort into dinner when the missionaries are coming (because we are otherwise VERY casual), so it does take some time and thought, as well as effort.

Kendall with the salads she made 

I think this is valuable information for a future missionary to understand. As a full-time LDS missionary, you will probably (hopefully!) go to the homes of church members for dinner many times. While polite manners are always appropriate, having an appreciation for the work and care that goes into providing a meal to the missionaries can help you have a better attitude of gratitude. Most people that I know try very hard to serve something nice or special, and it is given with love. For some people, they will scrimp and save to provide a nicer meal for the missionaries than they would normally serve their own family. With that in mind, you can gain a better appreciation of the sacrifice and effort of the families who are serving you dinner - whether poor or wealthy. No matter what the financial situation of the family, they are making an effort to help and serve you.

So if you are a future missionary or you are a parent of a future missionary, consider inviting your local full-time missionaries over for dinner as part of your missionary preparations. Of course it will be great just to be around the missionaries, but if you are a future missionary who can do so, consider planning, purchasing, prepping, preparing, and cleaning up after a dinner appointment yourself so that you get a better appreciate of the time and effort involved. Even if a future missionary isn't comfortable with being responsible for the whole thing, they can be involved in some aspect of planning and meal preparation to help them get a better appreciation for what is involved in serving guests.

Missionaries have some rules about who they can appropriately visit a home with (even for a dinner appointment). This is for their safety and also so that there is no misunderstanding with the neighbors or the people they are visiting (who might misconstrue 2 Elders visiting 2 single women as a double date, for example). Check with your ward mission leader or the full-time missionaries to find out what is appropriate. They can often suggest ways to make the group dynamic appropriate for their standards (such as if you are a single woman, you could invite some friends from your singles branch over for dinner so that the number of non-missionaries outnumbers the missionaries)

Kendall and some of her siblings, a friend, and the full-time missionaries (not pictured:
John & I, and other siblings)

Best of luck to you!