Arizona Tempe Mission

You do need a jacket or coat because you'll adjust to the summer heat and the winter will be cold. If they're allowing camelbacks at your time, buy one. It will make your mission so much easier. I didn't buy one beforehand and ended up having to buy one later when I moved to a biking area. Super handy.

It's no secret that Arizona is hot, and it's extremely hot, and so my best packing advice is to pack a lot of short-sleeved white blouses. And that way, I mean, everyone's sweaty, white hides the sweat well, and you can just rotate through them. And as far as like meetings go, Arizona, like the Tempe mission requires you to wear cardigans to meetings, so make sure that you just pack one to go, because you don't always want to bike over in a cardigan when it's 115 degrees outside. And I got some awesome sandals from Zulily that were leather, and so you just have to make sure they cover your toes and heels, and you're fine to wear sandals.

Bring a jacket. Most people think it's just going to be hot, which it is hot most of the year, but during the winter, especially at night when you're biking, it can get cold. So I'd bring like a windbreaker, maybe some gloves to keep you warm when you're biking at night.

It does get cold. You become acclimatized and I was still biking in December and I was biking since June and so at 60 degrees I was freezing. I wore gloves and tights and cardigans and I only had one jacket. It was a rain jacket and I would pull the hood up over my ears and put my helmet on top and you look goofy but you're freezing and people make fun of you but when you think about it it was 115 degrees and now it's 60 degrees or some mornings we'd wake up and go running and there was frost on the cars or on the grass and so you do get cold and it might not be snowing cold but it's definitely cold compared to what you're used to. So take a jacket, have cardigans, get tights, whatever you need.

I would recommend to pack less rather than more. Definitely as a missionary, you're moving around a lot, you're always repacking and unpacking your stuff. And you're going to pick up a lot of stuff as well, like when you're on your mission, like even clothes, people leave their clothes in the mission or when you have companions go home.