reasons. Don't these kids get a physical before they leave? I have to think this is a way to save face for all concerned including tscc. Good for the kid if he said no more. Family made a big deal of a welcome home.

Yeah well so much for inspiration to call this kid to a mission.
What a crock of crap. And yet, no one ever questions.

In my experience, mission releases for "health reasons" are rarely genuine health problems. Young people find themselves on missions, realize that it is not what they expected, that they have no "testimony", and want out in the worst way. Concocting some vague physical malady just serious enough to let them go home "honorably" and thus avoiding the disgrace of quitting the mission is the goal. Sometimes they can actually convince even themselves that they are physically unable to go on. Sometimes they may not be able to go on, but the reason is seldom attributable to a purely physical problem. It is also common that, as soon as the mission experience is behind them, they go on to lead physically active lives without recurrence of the mission health problems.

working 60 days after a mission farewell. I asked what was going on? "Hypoglycemia". I bought it and life went on.

Nailed it. It's simply a way of saving face for most of them.

True. I have never known one person who came home from their mission for health reasons who had any continual problems. Most had miraculous cures within weeks of coming home. However, I'm starting to think that many of them develop true psychosomatic illnesses from the stress and pressure of the stupidass mission. And in Utah you have all these doctors who specialize in diagnosing returning missionaries. Especially chiropractors. They know that the parents so desperately need to have something to tell the ward and all their friends. So someone else will recommend a "good doctor" who is great at diagnosing things that other doctors miss.

These doctors will find a "real" reason why mishie was having so much trouble. Usually unusual migraines, spine alignment problems, etc. And for the mere price of $2,000, they will fix them up as good as new. Parents will fork out whatever it takes to be able to say the mishie is under a doctor's care and they are working out the problems. Then voila! They're cured. But they've moved on enough in their lives that no one pressures them to go back to the mission even though godalmighty blessed them with wonderful health again. I saw it so many times in Utah. Such a great gig these doctors have. In a way, I'm glad that there's an out like that for kids who just want to be home and move on. But I hate to see people move in and prey on parents who are vulnerable.

Headaches, migraines, diabetes, appendicitis, surgeries to be done at home, and a bunch of other health issues that I have known about over the years. One went home to get married. They went out a variety of different times, and places and most stayed home, A couple went to a different area and completed their mission.
Some I've heard of recently, young girls that have problems. Most I knew about many years ago.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/21/2014 01:03AM by SusieQ#1.

... And they can talk and reference going on a mission in social and church settings the rest of their life. Just steer clear of mentioning the time frame and no one's the wiser whether it was two years or two months. (Source... A relative who did/does just this ... Never made it out of the MTC, but references his mission as if he served the whole two years using strategically vague phrases that are technically true, but don't reveal 'the rest of the story.')

Then there's the one who stole drugs from companions and members medicine cabinets. Many lies were told.

Sent home in shame. Parents having mental break downs. Never mind they knew he had a major problem with drugs, and stealing drugs from members before he went on a mission.

Nobody wants to talk about those kids. They are the ones who need the most help. Their parents are just as sick if not worse. There isn't much hope.

Then there are the kids who are labeled as sex addicts because they saw porn online a few times. Probably did the BIG M every day. Confessed, humiliated, sent on missions. Came home, married right away.....whew! problem solved.

Mormonism is a stew thats on the burner 24/7 and cooking up mental illness, mislabeled perversions, depression, hopelessness, and other mental torture for anyone who is stewing in the kettle. It's a stew of mental torture, illness, and sickness. It's called the one true church that's all about families being together forever.
I hope there is a God. If there is, why isn't he coming down on Mormonism like stink on a dead rat? God, what are you waiting for?

The comments above about not knowing of anyone who actually came home early for a valid health reason is bullshit and highly judgmental when you don't know the facts.

Many who post here acquired very nasty infectious diseases while living in squalid conditions. It happened to me and I came home with a serious illness in the last several months of my mission that took several months to get back to any kind of normal activity, and years to get over some of the effects.

I don't doubt many kids who are barely 18 and never lived away from home and were forced by their families and peer pressure are coming home because of stress, depression and anxiety; but unless you have walked in their shoes don't be so quick to judge.

So true. My husband got a nasty parasitic infestation shortly after arriving in Central America. He felt sick all the time and the only way he could maintain any energy at all was to live on soda and candy bars - he could get some sugar into his system before the parasites got it.

He lost 60 pounds in just a few months. His companion begged him to either write to his parents about it or tell the MP. DH wouldn't do it. He was "burning with the spirit" and determined to serve a perfect mission.

His comp managed to take a picture of DH in the suit he has worn when he first arrived in the mission field. Having lost 60 lbs, he now looked like a scarecrow in that suit. The comp also snuck a letter out to DH's parents (Mom was a nurse, and a Jack-mo at that.) That picture was in the letter.

Of course the MP had no idea what was going on at first, but my dear future MIL kept after him like a nest of hornets. DH was eventually sent to a hospital in the capitol city and had to stay there for nearly a month, getting IV's of some stuff that would kill the giardias. This medicine made him very, very ill.

He had to be reintroduced slowly to a normal diet and had to stay on pills that would keep the giardias and other cooties out of his system for the rest of his time there.

But if it hadn't been for the comp's caring and courage, MIL wouldn't have known. And she - WELL - she had a personality like a jack-hammer when it came to her kids, and she ripped the MP a new one (or two, or three) until he provided the care necessary for her son to get well.

Poor, brainwashed DH believed that the illness was just Satan, trying to give him grief, and he was determined to power through on faith alone. Makes me so angry, what they do to these kids.

SO I guess by serving this way they can "have their cake and eat it to" kinda of logic? They can brag that they served a mission just as long nobody asks for how long!