Have you or someone close to you served a mission or plan to serve one?

The answer to this rhetorical question is most likely yes! And like most people you probably had lots of questions about your mission that were not answered in your missionary call packet. We have good news for you!

With the recent launching of an inspired app Lifey, sharing and learning about any mission in the world is now easier than ever before.

Lifey was founded by a man named Alex Balinski. He first began a YouTube channel named “Prepare to Serve” in 2012. Balinski individually interviewed hundreds of returned missionaries about their experiences to provide information for pre-MTC missionaries a space to learn more about how to best prepare for their individual missions.

The YouTube channel has been used exactly as he has wanted, totaling more than 100 million minutes of watch time. While thousands of people have been affected by the channel, Balinski wanted to reach an even broader audience resulting in the inception of the idea for the Lifey app.

Right now the Lifey app primarily centers around Latter-day Saint missions but will one day have a myriad of topics for your viewing pleasure.

The Lifey app is an informational video sharing platform. Anyone can submit short clips via their mobile device for the public to view. The initial topic as mentioned previously has been missions. In just a few months since the Lifey app launched, more than 500 people have shared their stories and insights, in more than 5,000 videos. Balinski hopes the Lifey app will eventually publish more than 100,000 mission-related videos from thousands of returned missionaries.

Topics included in these experiences are things such as culture tips, inspirational stories, crazy foods, language tips, preparation day ideas, and packing advice. Someone preparing to serve a mission may find this a very useful resource when looking for advice for their mission because it is custom tailored to their mission.

The vision for the Lifey app is whether you are serving in Alabama, Russia, or Singapore, you will find helpful information that will help you better prepare to serve the Lord.

For those who are interested in contributing videos about their mission, here’s a video tutorial:

You can download the Lifey app on Apple iOSor Android, for free.

*Guest post by Griffin Cook, a BYU student intern for Lifey.