Jimmy
Hello. My name is Jimmy Smith. I am a member of the Mormon Church, and a returned missionary. I served my in the Rosario Argentina Mission from 1995 to 1997. I now work for the LDS Church and am the Web Analytics Product Manager all Church Web sites. In my career prior to landing at the Church, I was a Marketing Analyst for FedEx in Memphis, TN and prior to that I was a Software Engineer for Motorola in Fort Lauderdale, FL. My educational background is a BS in Electronics Engineering Technology from BYU in 2001, and a Marketing MBA from Arizona State University in 2005. I am married to the lovely and gracious Heather, and we have three children, Hannah, Abraham and Maxwell. I am very grateful that my full-time employment is working for the Church and striving to hasten the work of the Lord by making Church Web sites better. About the Mormon Missionary Preparation Web Site I make no claim to be an expert in the area of sharing the gospel or preparing missionaries for the work they will do. But I have felt impressed by the Spirit to start this Web site. The site is geared toward future missionaries and is designed to help them prepare physically and spiritually. I want the site to be informative, uplifting and interactive. If you have any questions or comments about the site, please use the contact form to get in touch with me. I particularly hope the young men and women preparing to go on missions will use this contact form to ask me questions.
Posts by Jimmy
Overcoming Pornography
July 28, 2010 - 9:32 am
Tags: overcoming pornography, pornography addiction
Posted in How to Prepare for a Mission | 1 comment
Pornography addiction is one of the greatest plagues of this generation of future missionaries. For any young person who has fallen prey to this evil device, overcoming pornography is something they will have to do prior to becoming worthy to serve a mission. In the text below and video above are some quotes from recent [...]
Boy Scouts Prepares Young Men for Missions
July 26, 2010 - 9:45 am
Tags: boy scouts of america, scouting program, self reliance
Posted in How to Prepare for a Mission | No comments
The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with over four million youth members. Since its founding in 1910, more than 110 million Americans have been members of the BSA. The goal of the BSA is to train youth in responsible citizenship, character development, and [...]
The Book of Mormon’s Role in Missionary Work
July 18, 2010 - 8:06 pm
Tags: book of mormon, mtc
Posted in How to Become an Effective Missionary | 2 comments
Last year, I wrote about the power of the Book of Mormon and how it can be used to answer investigators questions. The Book of Mormon plays an important role in missionary work because when people read it with a sincere heart, the Spirit will testify to their hearts that it is true (see Moroni [...]
A Mission Prepares You for Temple Marriage
June 26, 2010 - 6:04 pm
Tags: blessings, covenants, eternal companion, mission companion, temple marriage
Posted in Blessings of Missionary Work | No comments
Last year, when I wrote about Mission Companions, I mentioned that learning to get along with your mission companion is excellent practice for learning to get along with your eternal companion, your wife. Today I’d like to elaborate more on how a mission prepares you for temple marriage.
The Importance of Temple Marriage
Those who are [...]
Lesson on What is the Priesthood
June 15, 2010 - 1:28 pm
Posted in How to Prepare for a Mission | No comments
My calling in my ward is an assistant scout master with the 11-year-old Scouts. As the boys turn twelve, they move on to do their Scouting with the 12-year-old deacons, and they are ordained to the priesthood. I recently realized that I was with these boys for an hour a week in the year prior [...]
What is the Priesthood?
June 9, 2010 - 1:01 pm
Posted in How to Prepare for a Mission | 1 comment
When I was a student at Brigham Young University, I took a class on the Doctrine and Covenants with a professor named Dennis Wright. It was one of the more difficult religion classes I ever took, but it was also probably one in which I learned more than most. I remember studying some sections on [...]
I Will Go Where You Want Me to Go
May 30, 2010 - 8:04 pm
Posted in Missionary Work | No comments
One of my favorite missionary hymns was written by a good woman, who was not a Latter-day Saint, who’s words express the faithful commitment of followers of Christ in all ages: I’ll Go Where You Want Me to Go.
It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy sea,
It may not be at the [...]
Mission Call Letter
May 19, 2010 - 9:40 pm
Posted in How to Prepare for a Mission | 2 comments
An important step in the LDS Mission Call Process, and one that is the focus of much anticipation for the future missionary as well as family and friends, is receiving the mission call letter. After you’ve fill out your mission papers and submitted the application, it is a very anxious few weeks that you have [...]
Leadership Part 2: Captain Moroni
May 4, 2010 - 9:30 pm
Posted in How to Become an Effective Missionary | No comments
This is the second in a series of three articles on leadership. In the first article on leadership (see Leadership Part 1: Jesus, the Perfect Leader), I quoted President Kimball saying that the scriptures contain many examples of effective leaders that we should study. In that spirit, I’d like to share with you the following [...]
