When Missionaries Go Home Early

I've been trying to clean out my draft folder and the next up is a post on the new Sister Training Leaders and the first ever California San Fernando Mission Leadership Council (which was awesome btw).  But I feel the need to jump the queue as it were, and talk a bit about missionaries that go home early.

First, the decision to send a missionary home is not made by the Mission President.  It is made the Missionary Department after recommendation from the Mission President, the home Stake President and a General Authority.  The General Authority ultimately makes the call.  More about that later on.

So why do some missionaries go home early?

1:  Health

This one is pretty self-explanatory and easy to understand.  You break your leg and need surgery?  Off you go, and depending on how long you have left will determine if you are coming back or released.  Going home is still a bit of a shock and surprise, but everyone understands why.  Most people accept health problems as a valid reason and move on to more interesting gossip. Even if you broke it doing something stupid/against the rules, everyone at home has done something stupid and will generally give you a pass. 

2: Mental Health

This one is tougher than plain physical health.  It is tougher on the missionary in the mission and tougher facing everyone at home.  Because mental health is not something we can see on an X-ray, we are more likely to dismiss it as not real.  Just pick up your bed and walk and quit complaining.  I have been surprised how many people still think anti-depressants or anti-anxiety medications are an indication of lack of faith.  Just have faith and you'll be fine.  Did you tell the broken leg example to have faith instead of surgery?  Why not?  Leaving aside the chicken and egg debate, the fact is that for whatever reason, something needs to change.  It may mean medication in-field, going home to get stable, or a release.

Parents, bishops and stake presidents, if your missionary has had issues before the mission, the mission will make them worse.  Being a missionary is a stressful thing. Add to that the fact that we also take away all your stress-relief coping mechanisms.  No favorite music, books, movies, websites, facebook, texting,  chatting or hanging-out.  We require you to be with someone you don't know and may not even like 24/7, except for the bathroom.  If you are struggling before the mission, get help before you go.  I don't know why some feel that getting help is a sign of weakness or worthiness.  It is neither.  It is a sign of pride to insist on doing everything yourself.  If you can get coping skills and if necessary, medication, before you go, it will be a much easier transition.

Sometimes even with these resources before and during the mission, it is not enough and they go home early.  And it is hard to go home early.  It is hard to go to church and have people ask what you are doing here (because they don't see any crutches like broken-leg Elder).   Please read Elder Alexander Morrison's (of the Seventy) article or visit lds.org (topic mental health). (Is it obvious those are hyperlinks? Just click on them and you'll open a new tab.)

Let's support each other, try and remember that just because you can't see it, it is still real.  Be grateful it is not the trial you are called to bear.

3:  In-field Transgression/Severe Disobedience

Of all the missionaries I have seen go home early, this is the most rare.  Occasionally there will be a missionary who ditches his/her companion and gets into moral trouble.  These situations do occur and if the companion is aware and does nothing, the companion can also be sent home.  It is that serious. 

The first question the general authorities always ask in in-field cases is, "where was the companion." 

From there it depends on the seriousness of the problem and may require an in-field disciplinary council.  The mission president will co-ordinate with the home stake president for going forward at home.  Again, the decision of stay/go is not up to the mission president. 

4:  Pre-field Transgression/Belated Confession

This is hard.  This is when a missionary goes home to take care of an issue that should have been taken care of with  his/her bishop before coming on a mission.

For whatever reason, the missionary did not disclose certain things and now he/she knows it needs to be.  Sometimes they feel that they can just work it out by working hard and "being good."  Sometimes they did not understand the seriousness of the sin until they started studying and teaching the commandments to others. 

Funny thing about being a missionary.  If you work hard to do what you are supposed to be doing, you will feel the Spirit.  If there is something you need to take care of, the Spirit will pierce your soul and you will, like Alma, be racked, even with the pains of a damned soul.  Damned is Alma's description and it is a good description.  You can't go on how you are and you are stuck in the hell of knowing you need to do something but that something is so awful to contemplate, that like Alma, you want to "become extinct both body and soul."  (see Alma 36:15-18)

At the beginning they think they can handle it.  The closer they get to the Spirit, the more they know they can't.  And again, like Alma, it doesn't stop until they cry out "O Jesus, thou Son of God, have mercy on me." 

And then, in one of the supreme acts of courage a young man or woman can do, they pick up the phone and say, "President, can I meet with you?"

I cannot stress enough what an act of courage this is.  Because they know it will change everything.  Something that pre-mission would have been noticed by very few, now feels like it is being shouted from the rooftops.  Not only does your mission president know, your stake president knows, and "Salt Lake" knows, and your companion/zone/mission may not know the details but they know you are leaving. 

Even worse, you now come home and now your whole home ward "knows."   

I think this category is the main reason that the decision of stay or go is not left to the mission president.  Because the mission president would keep them here. But often when it is serious enough to go home for a season, other people were involved and they also know that the missionary needs to repent.  If they think that it must not have been a "big deal" then their understanding of repentance is jeopardized--and could have eternal consequences.

The mission president  knows that going home will take tremendous strength and courage.  He knows that repentance is real.  That the atonement is real.  That this is a GOOD THING.  That Jesus, the Son of God died for this son or daughter and He will have mercy.  The mission president also knows that some families are just beginning to learn this, and this is a hard lesson to learn when it is your child, instead of Mosiah's. Christ cannot help us until we take that first step and call out to him.

So if you know someone who came home for health help them get healthy, whether physical or mental. Rejoice with them for the service that they gave and the lessons that they learned. 

If you know someone who came home for other reasons, rejoice with them.  Because they are living the gospel at the most basic and divine level.  They have bared their souls before the Lord and have declared a willingness to do anything to know God. This refiner's fire is white hot and public. It's heat is enough to burn away the dross of the missionary and his/her family if they have the courage.  But it will take courage.  The courage to not be ashamed of the past, to not be ashamed of the present, the courage to say through action and words, "we believe that through the Atonement of  Christ we may be saved."  I find it discouraging (interesting word, dis-courage-ing) that life-long members have more trouble with this than new members.  Perhaps, because new members know how the atonement has changed them forever while life-long members have this mistaken idea that repentance is only for when you are "bad" and if you have to repent you are doing it wrong.  Repentance means you are doing it right.  That you are doing whatever it takes.  No matter what.

Please rejoice with your early missionaries.  Show them that you understand that the atonement is real, no one is perfect and with Christ, all things are possible and all pains (even the pains of going home early) are swallowed up in him. 

After a season, send them back to us.  We love them.  We need them.  The people of this mission need them.  Their companions need them.  The Lord needs them. 


And a courageous, repentant missionary is powerful.  Just ask Alma and the Sons of Mosiah.