Welcome to Latter-day Missionary, a weekly podcast that gives you a raw, unscripted look at what it's really like to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Every week, Sister Hannah Cheney will jump on a call with her dad, Edgar, to share stories about the people she's meeting, the lessons she's learning, and the everyday reality of missionary life. Whether you're preparing to serve, have already served, or are simply curious about the 84,000+ missionaries serving around the world, we are so glad you are here. In this episode, Edgar shares a collection of tips he gathered from returned missionaries, family friends, former bishops, and even one very thoughtful sibling. Now that she's actually out there, she reacts to each piece of advice in real time, sharing which ones she needed most and which ones she's already living. In this episode, we dive into: Find a Personal Mission Goal: A returned missionary friend shares how she set a goal to see people the way Christ sees them and why leading with love changed everything about her mission experience.Exercise Is Spiritual: Why one missionary started waking up early just to exercise and how the very first day she did it, she felt the Spirit more than she had in weeks.Have Fun and Relax: The danger of taking on too much responsibility and why the best missionary companionships are often the ones that laugh the most.Focus on Influence, Not Results: A powerful reminder that a 15-second conversation on the street can matter just as much as 15 weeks of teaching and that conversion often happens long after missionaries move on.Keep a Clean Apartment: The simplest tip in the bunch, and maybe the most underrated - the Spirit is easier to feel when your apartment is clean.Take Care of Your Basics: Eat well, exercise, and get enough sleep.Don't Compare Yourself: Why the mission field is one of the easiest places to fall into comparison and why God called you specifically, with your skills and your personality, not someone else's.Take It One Day at a Time: When 18 months feels impossible, remember: you don't have to do all of it today. You just have to do tomorrow.Focus on Your Own Conversion: The one soul you are absolutely responsible for on your mission is your own — and when that's your focus, everything else tends to fall into place.Never Get Bored with the Basics: What Kobe Bryant and missionary work have in common, and why daily prayer, scripture study, and simple obedience are what produce lasting spiritual power.Lose Yourself in the Work: A message from a former bishop on consecrating not just your time, but your whole self and finding that when you stop holding back, God fills in the rest.A Note from Peter: Hannah's brother closes the episode with a letter that just might be the sweetest thing we've aired yet.The episode closes with Alma 37:6 — a reminder that great things are brought to pass by small and simple means, consistently practiced over time. If you're preparing to serve, currently serving, or just need a reminder that showing up every day matters, this episode is for you. Tune in next week for our next episode!
