Mission Preparation
Prepare for Your Mission
Practical guides for future missionaries covering preparation, mission papers, mission calls, packing, the MTC, farewell talks and getting ready to leave. Written to be useful on their own, and to point you at the official instructions wherever those are the ones that count.
Part of Missionary Resources, alongside the free countdown tools and the guides written for families following a mission.
Start here
LDS Mission Preparation Checklist: Everything to Do Before You Leave
A practical LDS mission preparation checklist covering spiritual preparation, the missionary recommendation, life skills, money, packing, your farewell and the last week at home.
Read the checklistGetting Started
Before there is a date, a call, or anything to pack.
- 17 min read
LDS Mission Preparation Checklist: Everything to Do Before You Leave
The whole runway in one place — from the year before you submit a recommendation to the morning you leave for the MTC.
Read the guide - 10 min read
How to Prepare for an LDS Mission
Less a list, more the advice: the habits, skills and expectations that make the first three months in the field easier.
Read the guide - 12 min read
LDS Missionary Age Requirements: Current 2026 Rules
The current age ranges for every kind of missionary service — young men, young women, service missionaries and seniors — with the handbook section each one comes from.
Read the guide - 13 min read
How Much Does an LDS Mission Cost?
There is no single worldwide price. How the contribution is actually set, what the mission covers once you are there, and a planner for your own savings target.
Read the guide
Mission Papers & Call
The recommendation process, the wait, and the day the call arrives.
- 9 min read
LDS Mission Papers: The Process, Timeline and What to Expect
There is no stack of papers any more. Here is what the recommendation really involves, and the timing rules that decide when it can be submitted.
Read the guide - 6 min read
The LDS Mission Call Process: From Papers to Your Call
Who decides where you go, how long the wait usually runs, and what actually arrives when the call comes.
Read the guide - 10 min read
What to Do After Receiving Your Mission Call
The call answers where and when. This is the order to do everything that follows, starting with the parts that have deadlines.
Read the guide - 6 min read
Mission Call Opening Ideas
From a kitchen table with three people to a room full of them — how to open a call in a way you will actually want to rewatch.
Read the guide
Packing & Clothing
What to buy, what to leave, and what your mission decides for you.
- 11 min read
LDS Missionary Packing List
Everything worth packing, in the order you should buy it, and the things most missionaries wish they had left at home.
Read the guide - 7 min read
MTC Packing List
A packing list for the MTC specifically — including which bag each thing should be in on travel day.
Read the guide - 5 min read
What to Bring to the MTC
The quick answer first, then the detail: what you actually need on arrival day and what can stay in the suitcase.
Read the guide
Before You Leave
Your talk, your last weeks at home, and getting the family ready.
Mission Tools
Free, no account, and useful from the day the call arrives.
LDS Mission Directory
Find the mission you have been called to and see where it is based, what the local time and climate are, and which guides matter next.
Find your missionMissionary Countdown Calculator
Once you have a reporting date and an expected return date, work out days served, days remaining, percentage complete and the halfway date.
Use the free calculatorPrintable Countdown Map
Generate a printable mission countdown map with one numbered square for each mission day. Choose a supported country or state, use the exact mission dates, and download it free as a PDF or high-resolution PNG.
Create a countdown map
Once the mission begins
The moment you have a mission, a reporting date and an expected return date, the people at home have something to follow. There are separate guides written for them — on keeping track of a missionary’s mission, on sharing updates without anyone becoming the family switchboard, and on countdowns that survive the whole eighteen or twenty-four months.
Missionary Tracker itself is the app version of that: one private profile holding the countdown, the serving area and the updates, shared with family by join code.
Always follow current Church, Missionary Portal and mission-specific instructions over third-party preparation advice.
Set up your mission before you leave
Add your mission, your reporting date and your expected return date, then share the join code with your family so the countdown is running before you are.
Free to download on iPhone and Android.