Hi, I know of a few young girls returning from their missions early, I'm not sure why, no real explanation is given? Female missions are usually 18 months, right? Well I just see them come back, and they are still very Mormony and devout even after their return, and they weren't sick or anything. Nothing drastic happened, so I'm curious to know if any one has an idea why?

Yeah I've known people who've come home early and nobody says anything about why. I think it's good to keep the details private due to the personal nature of it, no need to feed the mormon gossip machine. Although mystery is the best fertilizer for gossip.

It could be anything from mental illness (which includes hating the mission..) to violations of mormon chastity law prior to (or during?) the mission. Probably one of those two.

They were offended or wanted to sin.

Or they discovered selling a defective product no one wanted was a soul-corroding travesty.

Or they received a proposal of marriage from a worthy priesthood holder back home?

Aren't the women suppose to wait for her RM to complete a full mission...but if the GUY is at home and the girl is still on her mission, he "can't wait" and therefor, the women are coming home early for the RM??

Another...double standard?

Think about the differences between male and female teens/students in relation to hygeine and cleanliness. Women are less likely to put up with the cr@ppy lifestyle without raising a fuss.

X

They threatened to send my cousin's daughter home early over an allergic reaction and a 2-week migraine (which was left untreated that long). I think they have more missionaries than they know what to do with and send them home at the first excuse if the kids are willing to leave or want to. Unless you are a runaway missionary in Colorado with our favorite MP's wife...

vh65 Wrote:
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> Unless you are a runaway missionary in
> Colorado with our favorite MP's wife...

What did I miss?!!!

I think allowing everyone to skip on home is going to bite them in the @ss later on when the number of missionaries starts dropping. Too many people will know others who have gone home.

There as always been more pressure for young men to go, and there's more pressure for the men to stay, as they don't really care about the sisters.

Consider this: some things are none of your damn business.

Ask yourself why you need to know?

Wow dogzilla - that's unusually harsh for you and completely misses the point. We talk about stuff like this on this board all the time. If sister missionaries are suffering from the mission policies, having to adjust to missionary life, the way they are treated by the priesthood, early onset depression (as opposed to regular, post-temple marriage Mormon depression) or in any way being crushed under the abuses of Mormonism that is kind of what we are here to talk about. What is wrong with Mormonism, how it hurts people and how we can warn them. If someone were to post stats on why sister missionaries come home early, I would want to know what the reasons are because my niece is going back and forth on the idea of serving a mission. Those stats might discourage her from going. That's why I would NEED to know, personally. I'm sure others could give similar reasons.

Maybe their boyfriends have already returned home and the females want to date them again? Just a wild guess...

My theory is that most of these new missionaries are just too young and ill-prepared for missions. I think a lot of LDS youth lack real maturity and social skills. It is overwhelming when you have been raised very sheltered and then face "the world" and see that people are not like you.

I see Dogzilla's point too.

It is natural to be curious.

But there are some personal things about others lives that do not directly concern you and you do not need to know in those situations.

There is never going to be a one size fits all answer to reach people in Mormonism. These are individuals with individual needs and dynamics.

What worked for me to "wake up" is not going to be the exact same thing for the next person.

The best way to find out what happened to an individual is to ask right from the source.


RMM

Just had a letter read in SM from a sister mish who went home after maybe 4 months. I thought she had been transferred until the letter was read to inform us that she had to leave because of severe depression, anxiety, and panic attacks. Btw, this is a ward in the Denver South Mission, hmmm

So they announced over the pulpit that this sister was having mental issues. Nice. That's stigma is going to really help her recover.

A lady in the 'hood was at the house visiting with my TBM wife. I'm guessing she has a daughter on a mission who is coming home early - I say guessing because I had no idea the daughter was even old enough to go and since I don't go to church I'm out of the loop and it's kind of an unwritten rule that I'm not allowed to know about anything church related and this is now a huge run on sentence and I'm not sure how to break out of it help!.

I heard the nice lady say: "Yes I'm going to put up yellow balloons even if she is coming home early!" She seemed very indignant and put out. I assume some busybody in the Ward was giving her a bad time for celebrating the return of her daughter even though - gasp and clasp pearls -she was coming home early! I wanted to hug the lady and cheer her on. Yes! Please welcome your child home! Now realize how petty, manipulative and vindictive your TBM neighbors are. Connect the dots and realize it's the church that causes all of this BS!

In the mid 1950's, the U S Air Force was honorably discharging a large number of new recruits for unsuitability reasons. In most cases the individuals were too immature to readily adapt to the military lifestyle.

An extensive military study of the problem found that younger-aged recruits were much more likely to be discharged early. The discharge rate for eighteen year old's was almost 25%! The study further confirmed that the older the recruits were at induction the more likely they would serve out their full tour of duty.

Perhaps the Mormon leadership (or god) should have become aware of this information prior to receipt of the recent "revelation" on same.

^^This^^

I think it would be such a harsh transition going from being a High School Senior, to an enforced partnership with a total stranger, having to shop, cook and clean, and be a full time door to door sales person with a craptastic product.

The church wants every "worthy" young man to serve a mission, as well as any young women who wish to. But that doesn't mean that all who go are mature enough, prepared enough, or suitable in other ways. That would explain why so many are returning home early.

So it seems that the real problem is that church leaders aren't screening these kids properly to determine if they should even go out in the first place. It costs the church and the kids' families thousands of dollars just to get them through the MTC and into their mission area. Seems like it would be a lot more cost-efficient, and less embarrassing for all concerned, if the leaders simply pre-screened the kids before letting them get that far.

On the other hand, maybe church leaders are doing this intentionally. They lowered the missionary age to 18, and they are boasting about sending out a lot more missionaries etc. Maybe the leaders think it's good PR to boast about the increased numbers, and they don't care how many of them come home early.

Whatever the case, with all these stories we're hearing of early returnees, you'd think that the whole culture of serving a mission could soon turn into a joke amongst large segments of today's Mormon teens. Their thinking might turn into, "Oh, I don't want to go on a mission, but my parents are making me, so I'll go out and stay 3 or 4 months, and then come home on a medical release, and they won't bother me about it anymore."

Ironically, they are screening the current crop of mishies much more closely than they did before they "raised the bar". Maybe the "reformed sinners" they used to allow on missions had fewer mental health issues.

.....then why are so many more returning early? Maybe the kids have had the idea of going on a mission drilled into their heads for their entire lives, and when they go, their mental/emotional issues don't manifest until they've been out a few weeks or months, and they realize they aren't cut out for it.

When called in August of 1960, I was in the first group of nineteen year olds. Prior to this no teenagers were called. I was personally interviewed for over a half hour on separate occasions by two GA's - Bruce R, McConkie and S. Dilworth Young. They wanted to be sure that we were mature enough to serve. Good luck getting by Bruce R.'s "grilling" if you weren't ready!

Some leaders privately expressed their concerns about teenagers being called. However, since we had been out of high school for at least a year and most had completed a year or more of college (usually away from home) it worked out. I don't recall any missionary leaving before serving their full two years.

.....and I was made a senior companion 4 months in---not because I was particularly mature, but because I had the discussions memorized. And I knew of 7 or 8 who went home early, 4 of them personally. One of them had a relationship with a woman, one didn't like Australia and transferred to a stateside mission, one had bad knees and couldn't walk well, and one (a girl) missed her boyfriend and went home after about 3 months.

At what point in the constant stream of "mental health issues" does somebody say something about the mental health being statistically significantly poorer among missionaries than among the general population.

Did you serve a mission? Are you male or female? Do you know what the word anecdotal means?

Hee Hee! Why so touchy Jacob?

I'm just hoping that with so many coming home early, it will no longer be expected that everyone should go, or that coming home early loses it's stigma.

A relative's daughter came home early back around Xmas. She'd been out about six months. Nothing was said about it ... They just posted some pictures on FB that were obviously Utah instead of her mission area and the posts with pix of her as a missionary just stopped. Then some folks from her mission area (stateside and borderline Morridor) posted about hoping to see her again soon and her response, along with the subsequenly announced engagement made me think she'd just found her future husband on her six month mission (fellow missionary or local member, I'm not sure?).

"Mission" accomplished! Why stay out longer?