I Hope They Call Me on a Mission

Missionary work has been a big focus in our home the last few years.  When we lived in Columbus a few years back, both my hubby and I were ward missionaries, then when we moved, my hubby became the ward mission leader.  We have been working with investigators and going to the Gospel Principles class for YEARS!  I have had to help my hubby do missionary activities for the youth, and have learned so much.

 This activity is so fun!  It is the second time I have done it, and this time it was on a much smaller scale than the first time...but I will share both!  The first one I will share was with my smaller group of girls at my house, the second was a big Mother/Daughter activity we had with all the girls in the church gym.

 First off, as far as supplies go, this is what I gathered:

-a world map 
-mission calls for girls
-missionary tags (here)
-missionary gear (Book of Mormon, pass-a-long cards, Preach My Gospel, scrapbooks from mission, mission plaques)
-flags from around the world (I ordered some plastic ones for cheap from Oriental Trading here...you'd be surprised how often you can use them)  
-Cute missionary printables to have around for decor...I found mine here.
-treats...optional
-have camera handy
-I arranged with the Sister missionaries in our ward to come to the activity.  

 We started off by talking about missionaries and what they do. We went through the missionaries' daily schedule.  Then I let the sister missionaries take over and have them tell the girls what made them decide to go on a mission, how and when they started to prepare for their missions, and things the girls can do now to be missionaries.  The girls asked lots of questions after that, and I think they loved having them come.

 Then, I gave each girl their mission call.  It just so happened that each 2 girls were called to the same mission, and those girls were to sit together for the rest of the activity.  We took pictures of each girl pointing at where their mission was on the map and I will give them their picture at the next activity. 

After that, we talked about how the gospel is a treasure and how lucky we are to have it.  I then told them there are those we know that haven't found the treasure yet, and we need to share ours with them. I sent them on a treasure hunt around my house and at the end they found their treat for the day.  

 We ran out of time, but I had planned on having the girls write down their testimonies to send with the missionaries or send to those serving from our ward.  Time goes so fast sometimes!

For the bigger mother/daughter activity we did some things the same.  As the girls and moms came in, I had a word scramble ready for them of different countries missionaries may be called to.  When everyone was settled, we went over answers and gave out mission calls.  I arranged it so the mission calls of the girls and their moms matched up so they could be companions.  We then had some finger foods from different countries (many conveniently found at Costco...egg rolls, taquitos, cream puffs, cheeses, meats, crackers, etc)  

The sister missionaries then spoke about the same things I listed in the shorter activity.

Then came the games.  1. We had a relay race where we gathered some skirts, shirts, and large shoes that may pass as missionary (for the girls and the moms).  The girls in one line, moms in the other.  They had to dress in the missionary gear, run to the other end of the gym, knock on the door, run back, remove the clothes and the team to have everyone go through the line first wins.

2. Lost sock relay:  Missionaries have to do their own laundry...no moms to do it!  So we had two lines for this as well.  Moms and daughters each had to match and fold socks and throw it into a laundry basket, first team done wins.  

3. Sew on a button:  again, no mom to mend your laundry.  This one wasn't really a game, just teaching the girls how to do it.

4. We had a station where the girls made necklaces.  We drilled a hole into the bottlecap, put a chain through, and attached the ends.  We cute out circles on maps of cities (the size of a bottlecap)  we glued the map piece inside the bottlecap and put a clear marble stone over top (using a product like E-600 to glue in place.) Girls loved these!  Wish I had a pic.  

5. I brought 2 wiggle (or plasma) cars.  Moms and daughters had to race to the end of the gym and back on the wiggle car (because missionaries have to ride bikes everywhere ;).

As far as decor goes, I had a big chalkboard as they came in that welcomed them to the ward's MTC.  The tables had blue tableclothes as well as maps spread out all over.  Then I had some vases filled with different countries flags.  I had the printables mentioned above in frames all around the gym.  Kept it fairly simple.