I met with my cousin a couple weeks ago, and she was unusually somber. She had just gotten back from an overseas mission a week before, and she turned to me and said, “I don’t know what to do. I don’t want to be here. I want to go back. They said it would get better, but it isn’t getting better, it’s getting worse. I feel like I am on a small break and then I will go back home to my mission.”
I never had my act together enough to go on a mission when I was a young man. Now that I am older, I look forward to going on a mission with my wife in about 20-25 years. But the reality is that I just have no clue about the feelings my cousin shared with me. Can those of you who went on missions sympathize and/or explain?
It’s worth pointing out that I have spoken to many missionaries, and they have expressed similar feelings. It seems that the ones who served farthest from home are the ones who have the most problems adjusting when they get back. Elder Groberg’s experience of completely getting swallowed in his work (as portrayed in “The Other Side of Heaven”) seems to be a good look at this phenomenon. When I was in Brazil, missionaries usually didn’t want to go home, but it appears that many in Miami feel more ready to return.
So, perhaps it’s just culture shock. But methinks it’s a lot more than that. It seems people are truly happiest when they are serving the Lord. They feel the most complete and most in tune with their universal purpose.
What do y’all think?