Eighteen Months, Sister Missionaries in the Latter Days

Eighteen Months gathers twenty-one candid, well-crafted essays by Latter-day Saint women who served full-time missions from Brazil to Russia to Temple Square. Ranging from spiritual breakthroughs and dramatic conversions to loneliness, danger, illness, and early return, these narratives capture the individuality behind the nametag. Edited by returned sister missionary Melissa Baird Carpenter, the collection speaks to prospective missionaries weighing the decision to serve, to returned missionaries revisiting their own experiences, and to families curious about what sister missionary life is truly like.

• Twenty-one real sister missionaries, twenty-one very different missions—from a Brazilian slum to Russia's frozen streets to a heroin addict in Germany.
• Honest about the hard parts: robbery at gunpoint, eating disorders, being sent home early, converts who relapse—not a sanitized missionary book.
• Written by unusually gifted writers (BYU writing fellows, professors, published authors), so these read like literary essays, not clichéd faith-promoting rumors.
• Perfect for the young woman weighing 'should I go?'—these women wrestled with the same decision and share how the answer came.

Perfect for a young Latter-day Saint woman prayerfully deciding whether to serve a full-time mission, or a returned sister missionary wanting to see her experience reflected.