Today, there are a wide variety of missionary experiences and timelines—and each is just as valuable to the Lord.
Several years ago, the Church introduced service missions for young missionaries who want to serve but are unable to do so full time due to a range of physical or mental health challenges. When this program was very new, I was serving in a stake presidency. I remember our stake president telling me that a full-time proselyting missionary from our stake was being transferred to a service mission. I recall responding, almost instinctively, “That’s too bad!”
He responded with complete confidence that this transfer was wonderful and would be a huge blessing for that missionary and their family. His gentle correction felt exactly right to me, and I realized I still had some preconceived ideas to unlearn about what a successful mission should look like.
A few years later, my understanding of missionary service evolved in a very personal way.
A Shift in My Perspective
While my wife and I were serving our mission in Recife, Brazil, one of our daughters finished her senior year of high school there. She was the only American among the students in the school from sixth to 12th grade.
Leaving everything behind during her last year of high school was difficult, but she never complained. She handled the change with remarkable maturity. Her senior year was challenging, and there were times when we saw tears in her eyes, but she was so strong! She went out for days at a time with our sister missionaries as she prepared for her own mission.
Soon after graduation, she received her mission call. To our delight, she was called to serve in the Philippines.
My wife was born and raised in Seattle, Washington, by an American father and a Filipina mother. She never learned her mother’s language, but she always felt a special connection to her roots and relatives in the Philippines.
Our daughter adores her Filipina grandmother, so you can imagine the excitement in our home when she received her call. That excitement continued through her experience at the Missionary Training Center. But when she got to the field, everything changed.
For the first time in her life, she began experiencing depression. It was confusing and painful for her. She had dreamed about serving a mission and had prepared for it for years.
She couldn’t understand why she felt so sad doing something she had wanted so deeply.
A Wiser Voice
After about six months, my wife and I called my parents while driving to visit missionaries in a distant area of our mission. My mother and father had previously served as mission leaders themselves. When my mom asked how our daughter was doing, I told her honestly, “She’s not doing well.”
We explained that despite giving it time, her mental health seemed to be getting worse rather than better.
My mother responded immediately: “Davis, you need to bring her home.”
I told her that our daughter knew returning home was an option and that we would support her completely if she chose it. My mom replied gently but firmly:
“Davis, she may not be in the emotional state to make that decision on her own. You may need to help her make it.”
My mom was right. An older and wiser voice helped us see the situation more clearly.
The Healing Connection
We contacted our daughter and her mission president and began the process of getting her home. She returned home thin and emotionally fragile.
Within a few days, my mother-in-law came to visit. I will never forget the moment they first saw each other.
My daughter bowed slightly, took her grandmother’s hand, and gently pressed it against her forehead. My wife and I were surprised for a moment, but our eyes filled with tears as we realized what she had just done.
It was a traditional Filipino gesture of respect called mano po. For the first time, we saw our daughter honoring her grandmother in her own language and culture.
For the rest of the afternoon, we heard them giggling and laughing together in Tagalog as they discovered a new bond through language and cultural understanding. My mother-in-law had never been able to communicate with her children or grandchildren in her native language until now.
A New Testimony of Service
Despite having already spent over a year with us in Brazil and six months in the Philippines, our daughter wanted to complete the final year of her mission. She spent the next year as a service missionary, serving in the Recife temple, working with our sister missionaries, and helping in our mission office and around our home as we cared for our missionaries.
It was an absolute gift to have her back with us and to watch her grow spiritually at our sides. With time, she slowly healed emotionally. We are so proud of her and her willingness to serve.
I gained a testimony of service missions through witnessing our daughter’s experience. This testimony was reaffirmed through caring for service missionaries in Recife, as well as those who served in our mission for a time before returning home to complete their missions as service missionaries. We love all of them and feel so privileged to have been their mission leaders.
For many missionaries, the mission becomes one of the great highlights of their lives. For others, the experience is more complicated. Some carry memories or wounds they are still working through. Some return home early because of mental or physical health challenges or circumstances that others cannot see.
Regardless of how their mission unfolded, their willingness to serve is worthy of admiration. God knows their sacrifice, and He honors their desire to serve Him.
Practical guidance for young adults
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