Hello, welcome to Latter-day Saint MissionCast. This podcast is hosted by Nick Galieti. I have hosted this podcast for over two years. It’s time I made an introduction episode to explain what this podcast is, and what to expect as you go back and listen to past episodes.

My hope in starting this podcast was to provide a resource for prospective missionaries, even missionaries in the field, as well as for those that come home and want to transition from full-time service to being a member-missionary. I have served a full time mission in Louisiana; and, about 6 years after coming home from full-time service, I completed a service mission for what was then called LDS Family Services. Missionary service holds a special place in my heart and if you are listening to this, I hope that means you do too.

Latter-day Saint MissionCast was my effort to bring materials that I wish I had on my mission but to a worldwide audience. Come Follow Me and Preach My Gospel are tremendous and inspired resources, but they are guides—they are not the completed text of all gospel knowledge. They are starting points by which we can all discover more. This podcast hopes to give additional help and insights in that same effort.

There are foundational episodes of the Latter-day Saint MissionCast that work as a good starting point in navigating our catalog of content. Please start by listening to our Basic Doctrines Series. These 10 episodes start with my interview entitled What is Doctrine? What is Policy and Practice? With Mike Goodman. Listening to these episodes first will help in understanding how the gospel teachings fit together, and perhaps the best ways to approach all the rest of the subjects and discussions that take place in other episodes. Ironically these are the last episodes we have produced…please forgive me for that :) Once you have listened to these 10 episodes feel free to listen to any episode that you feel you want to listen to in any order. I hope our catalog of episodes will be something that is studied, shared, and will help missionaries for generations to come.

We have episodes with people who have made missionary-minded films all the way to gospel scholars who share their wisdom and experience in gospel learning and teaching. We also have episodes about the lived experiences of those who have served missions, interviews with comedians on how to use humor in teaching the gospel, and even therapists who share great insights on how to navigate some of the mental health aspects that can arise in the course of missionary ministering. 

We have episodes that help you laugh, help you feel inspired in the many ways that missionary work can be accomplished. There are episodes that will help you to think deeper about gospel principles—but will also ...

Preparing to serve a mission doesn't start in the MTC. Missionaries and their parents have an increasing need to prepare missionaries while they are young. With a new book, Preparing Tomorrow's Missionaries Today, parents have a new tool to help them to overcome this challenge.

Preparing Tomorrow's Missionaries Today is presented by Robert Cornilles and Taylor Halverson. This book is a powerful guide to both the missionary preparing to leave, but even more so the parents of that missionary. There is much to know that can help someone that is preparing to serve. These ideas will make them a more effective, but also more confident and fulfilling missionary. In this episode, we join with Robert and Taylor to discuss this book, how it came to be, and ways in which this text can be a great addition to your personal library.

“The ultimate missionary training center is in our homes,” declared Elder David A. Bednar in his 2019 address, “Prepared to Receive Every Needful Thing.” Member missionaries—parents, children, youth, and leaders—of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recognize that in order to play their part in gathering Israel, home-centered preparation is vital.Preparing Tomorrow’s Missionaries Today is a practical, intuitive, and fun approach to become a courageous member missionary now, and for some, a more successful full-time missionary soon. In other words, a most effective disciple of Jesus Christ at home and abroad.This book addresses a dilemma all who want to be faithful member missionaries face, especially those preparing to serve full-time: “How do I share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others in a comfortable and natural way?” In traditional, Church-supported missionary training centers, those who have been called to serve are generously and ably taught what to say. Within these pages we assist home-centered missionary training centers by teaching the reader how to say it. Following the instructions within Preach My Gospel and modern-day prophets’ teachings, in this volume tomorrow’s legion of missionaries will learn valuable communication skills using friendly methods honed from the authors’ years of experience. This is their contribution to making homes more effective missionary training centers—a supportive tool for those who want to confidently proclaim beloved truths near and far."

Taylor Halverson was a previous guest on the podcast in two different episodes:

https://www.ldsmissioncast.com/2018/03/01/teach-gospel-using-metaphors-analogies-taylor-halverson-episode-5-lds-missioncast/

https://www.ldsmissioncast.com/2018/03/08/talking-is-not-teaching/

The basic doctrines of the Church of Jesus Christ are the foundation of a testimony of the Restored Gospel. This is the final episode in our Basic Doctrines Series on the doctrine of Commandments. Commandments are considered a doctrine because they are eternal, and their importance has been taught from before the foundations of the world. Commandments are also the criteria for our eternal salvation and judgement.

Our guest for the this episode is religious educator, Scott Sorensen. Scott is the co-host of the popular web series, Real Talk: Come Follow Me. Scott is also the author of Come Follow Me Through the Book of Mormon. Scott discusses the foundational necessity of Commandments, but he also goes into why we have commandments, and how we should keep them. Have you thoughts about commandments as a relational principle, not strictly a to-do list of behaviors? Scott talks about how we can see commandments the same way.

From the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, here is what is taught about Commandments:

Commandments

Commandments are the laws and requirements that God gives to mankind. We manifest our love for Him by keeping His commandments (see John 14:15). Keeping the commandments will bring blessings from the Lord (see D&C 82:10).

The two most basic commandments are “love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. … And … love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:36–39).

The Ten Commandments are a vital part of the gospel and are eternal principles that are necessary for our exaltation (see Exodus 20:3–17). The Lord revealed them to Moses in ancient times, and He has restated them in latter-day revelations.

Other commandments include praying daily (see 

The Book of Mormon is considered by many to be THE teaching and study tool of missionary work. This book has come forth in our day by the gift and power of God, through the Prophet Joseph Smith, to bring to the world a knowledge of Jesus Christ as the Savior of the world. As important as the Book of Mormon is to the Latter-day Missionary effort, it is not always the center of our study, or our teaching efforts.

There is a new study app out called Scripture Plus (Scripture +). It is a free app that combines the scripture text with convenient study helps, resources, and media content that will help to supplement your scripture study like no other app. It is available for Apple, Android, and Amazon Kindle.

Screenshots of Scripture+ app

Jasmin Gimenez-Rappleye from Book of Mormon Central - Episode Guest

Our guest on this episode is Jasmin Gimenez-Rappleye. Jasmin is the Web Architect and Content Manager for Book of Mormon Central. She administrates all the web properties of Book of Mormon Central and provides computer support for our users. She also serves as their chief Graphic Designer and the Peer Review Coordinator for the publication of KnoWhys. She enjoys creating new ways to visualize the Book of Mormon, and enjoys managing Book of Mormon's volunteers.

Jasmin graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2015 with a Bachelor's degree in Ancient Near Eastern Studies. At Book of Mormon Central, she gets to combine her passion for religion in antiquity with her visual and technical skills. She enjoys creating new ways for users to digitally interact with the study of the scriptures.

Book of Mormon Central also has some quality podcast content that features Latter-day Saint MissionCast host, Nick Galieti. Check it out here.

Early Return Missionaries or ERM's encounter a unique set of challenges. Cultural traditions influence expectations on missionary service. Many worry about how their church family will receive them. Parents, and the early return missionary themselves, go through a mourning period upon return. These factors and many more all contribute to a complex and sometimes volatile set of circumstances.

Our guest on this episode, Kristen Reber, is host of the Early Homecoming Podcast, as well as author of the book Early Homecoming: A Resource for Early-Returned Missionaries, Their Church Leaders, and Family. Kristen is an Early Return Missionary. She shares stories from her own experience as an ERM. These stories and thorough research about this phenomenon help her readers and listeners to find peace and joy in missionary service, regardless of how long that term of service..

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland offered some counsel to Early Return Missionaries:

Kristen Reber also appeared on the Latter-day Lives Podcast to hear Kristen's full story. Listen to that episode here:

The Latter-day Saint MissionCast Podcast has had other episodes to discuss the reacculturation of missionaries when they come home, as well as the stories of other Early Return Missionaries. If you are a parent of a child who is deciding about coming home before their anticipated time, or if you are a missionary struggling with that decision, or have come home and are looking for resources, please send us an email, contact Kristen Reber, but most importantly, reach out to your priesthood and mission leaders for resources and direction.

The basic doctrine of Marriage and Family is central to the Plan of Salvation and is the fruit of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. All Covenants support the family unit. Prophets and Revelation have spoken and testified of the importance of the Family since the beginning of life on Earth. The crowning blessings of the Temple and the fullness of the gospel on this Earth are realized through the Temple Marriage Covenant between husband and wife.

Yet we live in a fallen world where the family is under attack and where the eternal truths about Marriage and Family are under tremendous social pressure to alter this sacred definition. This scenario can make teaching the doctrine of the Eternal Family particularly challenging.

In this episode of the Latter-day Saint MissionCast we interview W. Justin Dyer who has written on this subject, and who teaches at BYU. We discuss the basic doctrine of the family, as well as address some of the misunderstood parts of the pre-existence, and some folk doctrines that we should avoid mingling with teaching people of the Gospel.

Here is the text of the Marriage and Family Doctrine on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Website.

8. Marriage and Family

Marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God, and the family is central to His plan of salvation and to our happiness. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The sacred powers of procreation are to be employed only between a man and a woman, lawfully wedded as husband and wife. Parents are to multiply and replenish the earth, rear their children in love and righteousness, and provide for the physical and spiritual needs of their children.

Husband and wife have a solemn responsibility to love and care for each other. Fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and provide the necessities of life. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners.

The divine plan of happiness enables family relationships to continue beyond the grave. The earth was created and the gospel was revealed so that families could be formed, sealed, and exalted eternally. (Adapted from “The Family: A Proclamation to the World,” Ensign, Nov. 2010, 129; see also LDS.org/topics/family-proclamation.)

Related references: Genesis 2:24; Psalm 127:3; Malachi 4:5–6; 

This is a combination-type episode of the podcast. In one part we will have a sort of "part 2" to our episode on the Basic Doctrine on Prophets and Revelation. Stephanie Dibb Sorensen is a teacher of The Living Prophets at BYU and has some additional insights to share on that subject.

Next we will also address Stephanie's new workbook, Learn Of Me, which is a great tool for missionaries. This workbook helps support the effort to keep the challenge of President Russell M. Nelson to study Jesus Christ from the Topic Guide.

This workbook is a great tool for those preparing to serve a mission, or while they are on their mission, to learn more of the Savior whom they represent. Stephanie Sorensen shares some insights from her own experience with this challenge, as well as some extra tips on how to use this workbook to increase your love and understanding of the Savior.

Learn of Me, is available in many Latter-day Saint retail outlets, or through Deseret Book.

Next in our Basic Doctrines Series of episodes is the doctrines of Ordinances and Covenants. This episode discusses the difference between saving ordinances and non-saving ordinances. We also discuss the role of covenants in our daily lives, as well as during missionary service.

Stephanie Dibb Sorensen is an adjunct professor of The Living Prophets course at BYU. She is the author of a couple of books, Covenant Motherhood, and Learn of Me (which we will talk more about in our next episode of the Latter-day Saint MissionCast podcast). She was also a contributing writer for A Mother's Prayer: Inspiring True Stories to Warm the Heart, and D&C 4: A lifetime of Study in Discipleship.

Here is the text from the Basic Doctrines website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints:

7. Ordinances and Covenants

Ordinances

In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, an ordinance is a sacred, formal act that has spiritual meaning. Each ordinance was designed by God to teach spiritual truths. The ordinances of salvation are performed by the authority of the priesthood and under the direction of those who hold priesthood keys. Some ordinances are essential to exaltation and are called saving ordinances.

The first saving ordinance of the gospel is baptism by immersion in water by one having authority. Baptism is necessary for an individual to become a member of the Church and to enter the celestial kingdom (see John 3:5).

The word baptism comes from a Greek word meaning to dip or immerse. Immersion is symbolic of the death of a person’s sinful life and his or her rebirth into a spiritual life, dedicated to the service of God and His children. It is also symbolic of death and resurrection.

After a person is baptized, one or more Melchizedek Priesthood holders lay their hands on the person’s head and confirm him or her a member of the Church. As part of this ordinance, called confirmation, the person is given the gift of the Holy Ghost.

The gift of the Holy Ghost is different from the influence of the Holy Ghost. Before baptism, a person can feel the influence of the Holy Ghost from time to time and through that influence can receive a testimony of the truth (see Moroni 10:4–5). After receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, a person has the right to His constant companionship if he or she keeps the commandments.

Other saving ordinances include ordination to the Melchizedek Priesthood (for men), the temple endowment, and the marriage sealing (see D&C 131:1–4). All saving ordinances of the priesthood are accompanied by covenants. In the temple, these saving ordinances can also be performed vicariously for the dead.

Early on in life, Jennifer Roach was raised in a broadly Evangelical Christian setting. Being taught the Bible early on, Jennifer has had a love for sacred scripture. Her inquisitive nature and her spiritual passion took her to Divinity School, where she earned a Masters Degree in Divinity. Through her studies, she became interested in the Anglican faith where she became an ordained Anglican Minister.

Through interactions with a Latter-day Saint reporter that was covering a story to which Jennifer was involved earlier in life, Jennifer would ask questions about the faith she was taught was evil and should be avoided. Her inquisitive nature brought her to ask several questions over email, and to begin a study of the Pearl of Great Price and Book of Mormon.

One day as she was driving to work, she stopped and saw some Sister Missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, walking the side of the road. She felt impressed to stop and connect with them. She took a selfie with the Sisters and sent it to her reporter friend, Garth Stapley, to show that she was actually going to talk with the missionaries.

This is the selfie she took with the Sister Missionaries - to prove to her friend Garth that she was actually going to talk to the missionaries. Sister Murdock and Sister Porter.

Later that week, Jennifer would receive another visit from some Elder's at her home...in a different mission area.

Over the next 9 months Jennifer would go through some amazing experiences, address a number of questions both at Church and with the Missionaries, before being baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Listen to this episode of the Latter-day Saint MissionCast to hear the full story.

This episode is the first time that Jennifer has told this story to the general public in a podcast. If you want to follow her blog and connect with Jennifer, visit her blog myconvertlife.com

A foundational claim of the Restored Church of Jesus Christ is that of divine authority and origination. Priesthood, or as it has been commonly defined as "the power and authority of God" is viewed by many outside of the Church of Jesus Christ differently than those who profess membership. For that matter, over the years since the Church was established by Joseph Smith, some have spoken of the doctrine of the Priesthood in different ways.

The variety in which many speak of Priesthood can lead to confusion about what it is, why it is, as well as why the claims of The Church of Jesus Christ are in fact unique and unmatched in any faith in the world. These are bold claims and ones that missionaries must make with care and understanding in order for these principles to be understood properly, and to be taught with the confirming power of the Holy Ghost.

Our interview with author and scholar Jonathan Stapley reviews the history of Priesthood and Priesthood Keys as spoken of in the Restore Church of Jesus Christ since the time of Joseph Smith to the present. This also addresses some of the vexing issues surrounding a misunderstanding of the role of women in the priesthood. Jonathan is the author of The Power of Godliness: Mormon Liturgy and Cosmology. More on Jonathan can be found by visiting his website here.

The following is what is presented on the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints about the doctrine of Priesthood and Priesthood Keys:

Priesthood and Priesthood Keys

The priesthood is the eternal power and authority of God. Through the priesthood, God created and governs the heavens and the earth. Through this power He redeems and exalts His children, bringing to pass “the immortality and eternal life of man” (Moses 1:39).

God gives priesthood authority to worthy male members of the Church so they can act in His name for the salvation of His children. The keys of the priesthood are the rights of presidency, or the power given to man by God to govern and direct the kingdom of God on the earth (see Matthew 16:15–19). Through these keys, priesthood holders can be authorized to preach the gospel and administer the ordinances of salvation. All who serve in the Church are called under the direction of one who holds priesthood keys. Thus, they are entitled to the power needed to serve and fulfill the responsibilities of their callings.

Related reference: D&C 121:36, 41–42

Aaronic Priesthood

The Aaronic Priesthood is often called the preparatory priesthood. The offices of the Aaronic Priesthood are deacon, teacher, priest, and bishop. In the Church today, worthy male members may receive the Aaronic Priesthood beginning at age 12. (Note: Policy has update this to be beginning in the year they turn 12).

The Aaronic Priesthood “holds the keys of the ministering of angels, and of the gospel of repentance, and of baptism” (