Mormon Channel: Returning Early from a Mission

Many young men and young women who are called to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints expect to come back home with “honor.” They are called to serve for a period of 18 to 24 months, and serving that amount of time is part of their success. But some will return home earlier than expected.

As part of its “His Grace” series, the Mormon Channel recently released a video about Jake Green, who had returned home early from his mission. Despite the struggles he faced, Green shares his story of receiving the Lord’s help in allowing him to continue to progress despite an early return.

“If we can just answer ‘yes’… ‘Yes, I’ll let You in, yes I’ll let my Savior in’ we can be lifted to such unimaginable heights,” Green said.

Adjusting to a life post-mission, full-time or not, is never an easy task for returned missionaries. The challenges may be physical, emotional, mental or spiritual, but they are all struggles.

In the LDS Face to Face event with Elder Jeffrey R. Holland this past March, he answered a young man’s question about returning home early from a mission.

Elder Holland stated,

“I want you to take the dignity and the strength and the faith that came from your four months and cherish that forever. I don’t want you to apologize for coming home. When someone asks you if you have served a mission, you say yes. You do not need to follow that up with, ‘But it was only four months.’ Just forget that part, and say yes you served a mission, and be proud of the time that you spent…. Do not think you are inadequate or a failure. Please consider yourself a returned missionary who served and was faithful and will continue to serve and continue to be a great Latter-day Saint.”

Returned missionaries cannot do it alone, and here are tips on how we can approach and support them through their trying times.