hermanas {part 1}

I know so many sweet sweet girls that already have their calls or are putting in their papers to serve a mission  and I am absolutely so so so EXCITED for them.  I wouldn't change those eighteen months of my life for anything and because I absolutely loved my mission and will take up any chance I can get to gush about my mission I'll take it.  This post is dedicated to the things I wish I knew before I left.

• Read and KNOW Preach My Gospel!! Every mission is a Preach my Gospel mission and you will be such a wonderful missionary if you are already, at least familiar with the book!   If you are worried about not knowing your scriptures or the lessons I would suggest looking up the scriptures in the boxes under each section of a lesson.  Those made all the difference for me, I tabbed my scriptures and by the end I was so grateful that when I needed a scripture on the three kingdoms of glory I could know exactly where it was. 
• The month or so leading up to when you leave I would suggest starting to live the mission life... integrate more spiritual music into your ipod, try and get to bed earlier and wake up earlier.  Especially for those of you coming from apartments with cute roommates that gab (ha this is totally me) ten thirty seems incredibly early.  Make time in this last month before you leave to visit friends and family.
• Depending where you serve I would say some clothing must haves are cardigans and scarfs.  You can dress up any skirt with a cute cardi and a floral scarf!  And currently sisters and can wear pretty much anything.  It kind of ages me but when I got my call we still had to wear skirts that were plain colors mid calf or longer... do you know how hard those are to find?!  But thankfully all you beautiful sisters can wear patterns galore and the cutest skirts.  
• If you serve where it is cold I would invest in warm cute coats.  I served in Western New York and for a big chunk of my mission all I did was wear a coat.  It was too cold to really worry about what was worn underneath.  So I was grateful to have a cute coat! 
• SHOES: hmmm...  I wish someone told me that it was okay to bring a lot of cute flats... Some of the shoes I ended up wearing the most were flats from H&M (cheap and cute) and some a sister gave me from Target.  We definitely did our tracking but for the most part we didn't need heavy clunky scary looking shoes.



here I am with her at the Hill Cumorah Pageant
Love you Hermana Garcia

• CONFESSION!! I had some pretty stylish companions especially my baby!! She is from San Diego and seriously a babe! I trained her my last two transfers (well she came trained...) and I was so frumpy by the end that she was definitely  a princess to my plain jane style.  She knew how to be modest and cute with bright blue skirts, cute belts, my favorite flats from FOREVER21, and cute cute scarfs.  Anyways I learned a lot about style from her. Love that sister!!