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Son finished his mission and is on his way home today, right now. I’m following him on flightaware.com. I’m so excited I can’t stand it. If anybody else asks me or tells me didn’t that time go fast? I’m going to step on their foot. Not really but I am so tired of hearing that cliche. I know their looking for a canned response to verify my faith. For me it was 6 months too long but the best answer I will be able to muster up is “it was about right”. I’m wondering what to expect from an RM for the first couple weeks and beyond. I guess it will never be the same as before. In the past I could be a little more honest with my young man than with the rest of the family but this is currently my most difficult time with my FC and the church while DW and son are going to be on an all time high. I’m kind of anxious. Don’t have any experience with a return missionary. What can I do to help with his transition? How about my transition? I guess I’ll just take it a day at a time. Thanks for all the support here for the past few years. I’ve learned a lot about my FC and it has brought some peace to not be hiding under a rock all the time.
No words of advice but hugs for your happiness. I hope you will teach us as you learn. Enjoy. Congratulations. Bringing her home from the airport was almost as thrilling as bringing her infant self home from the hospital. My only advice is to treasure the moments. There have been some difficult talks in the year ours has been home, but we keep our balance “one day at a time.” I’m really happy for you!
Let us know how the reunion goes for your family! So exciting!
I envy you. I still have a few months to go. But I will say that I have been able to be more open and honest with him than any other family member, and I hope that holds true when he returns. We are actually having a great discussion about doubt right now, and he is looking forward to coming home and reading Crucible of Doubt. Boy, didn’t the time go by sloooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow? :angel: I mentioned this in the other tread… prepare for a fixation on all things mission. It’s understandable, what else is there to talk about after years of separation where the mission was all one person did and all the other person doesn’t know about.
Kipper wrote:I know their looking for a canned response to verify my faith.
Maybe not. Most of the time when I hear how long someone has been away or that they are coming home my response is
😯 It’s been two years already!!!😯 If I keep saying that I’m really going to put my foot in it one of these days.I’m happy for you. Congrats.
:thumbup: From my point of view it actually has gone by rather quickly. But, as I said in the other thread, the last few months have seemed to slow down significantly and I have really started to miss him more so of late. MY TBM wife will play into the into the “didn’t it fly by?” stuff enough for both of us, I’ll likely stand there silently as usual. In her absence I am likely to disavow that I thought it went quickly – but I also view it as them asking for it. As people here know, I can be pretty blunt and forthright sometimes. :problem: :lolno: Such is also the case in person.And I’ll be tracking on Flightaware, too. I’m such a geek sometimes.
:ugeek: DarkJedi wrote:And I’ll be tracking on Flightaware, too. I’m such a geek sometimes.
:ugeek: I’ve used it to calm anxieties… then when people arrived at their destination safe and sound I stuck around the site a little while longer to track random flights.
That’s great, kipper! It will be an exciting reunion. As far as this goes:
Kipper wrote:I’m wondering what to expect from an RM for the first couple weeks and beyond. I guess it will never be the same as before. In the past I could be a little more honest with my young man than with the rest of the family but this is currently my most difficult time with my FC and the church while DW and son are going to be on an all time high. I’m kind of anxious. Don’t have any experience with a return missionary. What can I do to help with his transition?
I’m sure the transition that each missionary goes through is very different. I served my mission in an area where people are very serious and don’t smile often. In high school, I was voted the Class Clown. But by the time I came back from my mission, I was a changed person after being around all those killjoys! It took some time to re-Americanize myself and get back to my old self. What really snapped me back into reality was once I started dating again. Something about rushing hormones must balance a person out!
😆 Your son will feel out of place for a few days/weeks/months, but he’ll start to settle back into the real world again.
DarkJedi wrote:From my point of view it actually has gone by rather quickly. But, as I said in the other thread, the last few months have seemed to slow down significantly and I have really started to miss him more so of late. MY TBM wife will play into the into the “didn’t it fly by?” stuff enough for both of us, I’ll likely stand there silently as usual. In her absence I am likely to disavow that I thought it went quickly – but I also view it as them asking for it. As people here know, I can be pretty blunt and forthright sometimes.
:problem: :lolno: Such is also the case in person.And I’ll be tracking on Flightaware, too. I’m such a geek sometimes.
:ugeek: Hope you enjoy the reunion as much as I did today. I’m sure you will.
Kipper: I am always so envious of missionary returns. When I think of a reunion with a missionary, I think of what it would be like to see my kids again. It literally takes my breath away.
Enjoy every minute! Hug him hard. Repeat as needed.
amateurparent wrote:Kipper:
I am always so envious of missionary returns. When I think of a reunion with a missionary, I think of what it would be like to see my kids again. It literally takes my breath away.
Enjoy every minute! Hug him hard. Repeat as needed.
Thanks. Lots of his friends are over now. It’s great to hear his laugh.
Quote:It’s great to hear his laugh.
I’m smiling and I don’t even know his laugh. Mazel tov.
I have a missionary son that is returning in a mere few days. We get him and then head off for a family vacation. I have had quite a few email chats with him about being ready to come home and trusting that the best part of his life is still in front of him. He is saying the words that he agrees. When I returned home (nowhere near the Mormon corridor) it was VERY hard. Not that I was so much in missionary mode and didn’t want it to stop. I found my mission hard – just knocking on doors day after day and most days not even teaching a discussion or having more than a 1 minute conversation with non-members. It just seemed a bit of a waste of time. I would rather have dug ditches to help someone than endlessly knock on doors that nobody wanted to hear. My issue when I came home is all my friends and the kids my age were gone. My stake had no singles ward and a rather lame young adult program. I went to a good local college. Looking back now I realize I was mildly depressed for years. I really fear something like this for my RM’s and I really push them to get back to school (at the Y or BYU-I).
My completely un-solicited advice: Take a return missionary out and get him/her doing social things asap.
Find out what is the norm for the local 21 year olds and make sure he/she has those experiences — current movies, water parks, local beach, lakes .. Whatever is the norm.
RMs who do not immediately build common experiences with the local community are left with nothing to talk about. They become that person whose every sentence starts with, “Well, when I was on my mission …” Because they have nothing else to discuss.
I was 17 when we moved back to the U.S. I found very quickly that I needed to find common experiences in order to relate to my local NorCal peers. A little hustling to get myself up the speed .. and it worked. It was also a lot of fun.
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