Grateful to Have Been a Missionary

I definitely agree. My mission was an incredibly positive experience. It was tough, but it taught me that even though people all look the same on the surface, people are much more complex when you talk to them long term. I think that skill really has helped me to deal with church members whom I find irritating at first. Although a few are really no better when you peel back the layers. Jesus said love everyone, but he never said you have to like them all!

It also was an experience that gave me great skills that have been useful to me my whole life. I truly believe my mission skills have yielded higher pay, job promotions, and just the ability to stand out and be confident among my peers.

I am definitely not a member of the “best two years club” and I have very mixed feelings about the whole experience. I’m glad that you all see it at a positive experience in your lives. I don’t necessarily see it as very positive (although it wasn’t all negative), but I do admittedly look at it differently from my current perspective. Part of my faith crisis or transition has been that I felt as though I wasted many years of service to an organization which isn’t what I believe it says it is and is/was unappreciative of that which I – and countless others – give/gave. This would include the mission experience, of course. My mission was in a foreign country with a high standard of living where the church is very well established, literally everyone we met knew at least something about the church (although what they knew was not always accurate), and conversions/baptisms were rare. I won’t say I didn’t learn things that were of value to me later in life and I won’t say that people shouldn’t serve. But I don’t find myself envying those who do serve and I would not jump at the chance again.

I agree, OON, that being a missionary is harder than anyone who hasn’t done it can imagine. I think part of that has to do with the rigidity of the system itself. Hard work in and of itself is not bad, but even God took a day off during the week. I’m not saying that missionaries should work 9-5 and have weekends off, but I do think a little more down time would make the whole thing a lot less stressful. I did read an article a few months back about the church recognizing that missionaries are stressed and implementing a program post mission for returned missionaries that are struggling. Likewise, I have known some missionaries who have returned early because they couldn’t deal with it – one young lady in our own ward. I think the church could do a few things to make the experience more positive for everyone. Chief among these are the previously mentioned increase in down time and more importantly a real missionary prep where potential missionaries can get real, honest teaching about what it’s really like in the field. My own son is struggling with a very difficult companion right now. Granted I am sure my son is not the easiest guy to live with 24/7, this guy apparently has an explosive temper and is resistant to any kind of critical input, constructive or not (mostly in regard to keeping rules like getting up and out on time, etc.). We all had “bad” or “difficult” companions and we all had bad experiences with the good. It’s pretty taboo to talk about it (especially to prospective missionaries), and even if we do it usually not in depth or explicit enough. I think we could do better at preparing missionaries in this way.

The phrase “best two years” comes up quite often in reference to missions. I’ve given that phrase some thought over the last few years. As some of you know I’m currently a WML so I’ve been in contact with many missionaries. I don’t want to sound like a broken record or cliché but occasionally I will tell them to make sure that their mission isn’t the best two years of their lives. Rather I tell them to make the most recent two years of their lives be the best two years of your life. Personally I think it’s depressing to feel like the best years of my life are far behind me. Maybe my phraseology isn’t well thought out, but I’d rather find ways in which the two most recent years of my life were my best two years… and this is coming from someone that could very easily make the claim that events from about a year ago made it the absolute worst year of my life. Nevertheless in them I try to find the things to convert them in being my best years.

Ok, I dissected the phrase a bit too much and looked past the spirit of it. Back on topic:

Yes, I look back on my mission as having had an extremely positive impact on my life. I would not change the decision to serve a mission and despite where I am now I do not regret the decision. I hold serving a mission as being a vital decision in my life. Despite all the battles fought with family that didn’t want me to go, despite the physical and emotional stress of the mission, despite having lost faith, after the strong winds, earthquakes, and fires a still small voice that helps me recognize the positive influence all of those experiences had in my life. I’d do it again… and while I’m on that subject.

Long ago when I first got married I told my DW that I’d serve a mission with her. Obviously that would represent a tremendous strain for me now but I would still be willing to go on a service mission, that’s the kind of mission we’re aiming for now.

Good point DJ about even god needing a day of rest. P-day is not a day of rest… it’s a busy day to squeeze in everything you simply don’t have the time for because you’re too busy during the week to get it done. Plus a great portion of p-day is spent in preparing to do more work. That was one of the things that bummed me out on my mission. Two years without so much as a sniff of a vacation. Work, work, work, work, work. I think my kid on the mission developed the shining.

I know many in both camps. I didn’t go because I knew it would be pretty final, both the mission and military style which are very similar where I grew up scared me. This style gets me in deep depression and manufactures low self-esteem for someone like me who absorbs all energy around him, good or bad. Having said that, I relate a lot to missionaries with a passion to share just in a more open and free context. As well as and more importantly that in my youth and even now I treasure the multitude of cultural experiences and perspectives and interaction and friendships and knowledge and truth that arose from those experiences. I would encourage anyone with a compatible personality to have one, mission or other.

But the mission is a good time for that experience.

I served back when the church was true, or it seemed so at the time. I never much cared to be on a mission. I struggled with what I perceived as silly rules. I thought of myself as an adult and we were treated like children. The one thing I did learn was how to study. Which served me well later in school.

It is not something I totally regret, but sometimes I wonder if my life would have been different had I never gone.

I absolutely loved my mission. I’m half Brazilian and was lucky enough to serve in Recife, Brazil. I’ve recently connected with someone of the people I baptized on Facebook. It’s been incredibly fulfilling to hear how the Gospel has changed their lives, and I’m humbled to have played a small part in it.

A LOT has changed. In fact there are online missionaries now who serve a full two years doing nothing but writing blogs and teaching discussions via Skype. From what I hear they have been quite successful.

My mission was generally positive. I was blessed with a VERY good mission president who engineered companionships and situations for my individual growth. He was a good example of a kind leader who leads with love and not a fist.

I also had some of the most powerful spiritual experiences of my life as a missionary — which I still cannot explain in the face of the things I experienced as a later adult.

At the same time, my Stake President’s attitude toward funding the mission, and his very hard-fisted approach to my own situation, while character building, is still a cause of concern for me about the nature of the church.

Would I erase it if I could? I don’t know. I don’t know what lies does the other path I would have taken.

I am not concerned if my son serves one, however. It was very hard, and part of me sees it as salesmanship for the church. It’s also a cultural feather in the cap if you go, and a source of shame if you don’t. I don’t like that aspect of it.

So, I guess I have mixed feelings.