Speaking from personal experience, one LDS sister missionary shares the six things that helped her the most when she returned home from her mission early as well as the five things she wishes other people knew.
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Dad was out of town on a business trip, so the only one to greet me when I limped off the plane from my mission was my mother. She held me and we cried.
I took as many medical tests as possible, but the doctors could not find the problem. Taking off my missionary tag nine months early was the hardest thing I have ever done. I felt like a failure for not finishing my mission. . . .
When I came home, I found that people didn’t quite know how to treat me. Here are some tips I wish people had known:
Help them stay busy. It’s difficult to adjust from the order and activity of a mission to the downtime and new choices at home. Help them find productive, fun, and wholesome things to do.
Let them receive their own revelation. Whether or not missionaries choose to go back into the mission field is between them and Heavenly Father. Encourage them to seek heavenly counsel and trust them to receive their own answers.