Episode 189 (Transcript) What About Sister Missionaries?

Episode Transcript

Many thanks to listener, Kayla Howell, for her work in transcribing this episode!

This episode can be found on any podcast app, or can be listened to here on Substack.

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SH: Hi, I'm Susan Hinckley.

CW: And I am Cynthia Winward. 

SH: And this is At Last She Said It. We are women of faith discussing complicated things. And the title of this week's episode is, ‘What About Sister Missionaries?’ Cynthia, I don't know a thing about being a sister missionary, not one single thing. So that is why we have invited a guest to help moderate this conversation.

And I say moderate because it's all of the listeners who called in to share all of their stories today. So, our guest today is Katie. Hi Katie. 

Katie: Hi! 

CW: Katie is one of our amazing people who helps us behind the scenes. If you've sent us an email, most likely Katie has read it and then passes them on to us.

So we're super grateful for that. Before we introduce Katie, how about we introduce our topic for the day? What do we mean when we say, what about sister missionaries? We've tackled this topic before, Susan. You have your amazing friend, Apple Landman, and she's a therapist. And I believe Apple works for LDS family services, counseling missionaries?

SH: Yes. 

CW: So she was our guest and in our writeup, which was episode 103, here's just a snippet of what that episode was about. We said “the decision to serve, the realities of mission life, the possibility of returning home early, and the pressure to make big life decisions soon after a mission ends can all weigh heavily on young Latter-day Saints and their families.”

And then, here's a quote from Apple; “the reality of mission life, both pre- and post-mission is hard!”  So we're just, how about we just carry that forward today because Apple had her therapist hat on for that episode. And she talked about all the complexities here, but today is extra special, because we had our listeners call in and talk about their own firsthand experiences being a missionary. So I'm really excited for that today. And right off the bat, we want to say we received more voicemails than ever, than on any other topic. So either we're getting more popular Susan, which that could be it. Or this is just a really sticky topic. 

SH: I think this says something about the topic.

CW: Yeah, probably the latter. So the way we're going to structure today is— Bless you, Katie. She divided all of the voicemails into different categories. And then we had a lot more extra extra after that didn't necessarily fit in those categories and some that did, but we want to give everyone who called in a chance to tell her story.

So we're going to have a little Friday dessert episode this week, where we just have more and more voicemails for you all to hear more experiences from missionaries. So that's the plan for today. How's that? 

SH: I think it sounds great. But what I want to know is why did we invite Katie? Tell us about yourself, Katie.

Katie: Well, after working together with both of you for years, it's great to be on the air with you guys today. This is awesome. I was a missionary. I was a missionary in the late nineties in South America. And it was a really, really positive experience for me. I mean, it was formative, and I can say, I feel like having done that, it changed my life for the better, made me a better person.

And to be clear, I really was lucky in my mission experience. My mission president was tailor-made for me. He was full of love, trust, flexibility. My mission as a whole was social, familial, everyone was very hardworking. It was just exactly the mission that I needed. And I know not everyone can say that, so I know that's a huge privilege.

So, while I do look back on my mission, my time as a missionary with incredible fond memories, the way I view the church has changed significantly since then. So, my feelings about missions are now quite complicated. On the one hand, I see how they have the potential to be very beneficial.

For me, they were. It was. 

But on the other hand, I also see the many holes in the system, and I see specific ways that the missionary program as a whole could really be improved to be a more Christ-like experience for both the missionary and those who are [00:05:00] interested in learning about the church.

So, like both of you always say it is complicated, and in this case, for me, this is certainly no exception. So I'm really happy to be with you both to have this discussion. 

SH: Well, I'm happy to have an expert on board.

Katie: Let's not get carried away. 

CW: Well, compared to myself and Susan, you are the expert today.

SH: You’re the expert in the room.