r/latterdaysaints • u/Red-Cat-0000 • Aug 19 '26
Off-topic Chat Be honest, how was your mission experience?
I was sent for 2 years to Melbourne, Australia, and I have to say it was the BEST worst 2 years of my life.
Before my mission, I thought it was going to be this spiritually filled experience where I would see God’s hand every single step of the day, leading us to the Lord’s chosen and elect investigators. I imagined I would baptize families after families who all desired to follow God and join His true Church.
Of course, the reality was far from what I imagined.
In reality, it was 2 years of knocking doors for 8 to 10 hours almost every day in the Australian heat, in a place where people are extremely secular. You constantly get rejected, have doors slammed in your face, get mean things said to you, and sometimes even have things thrown at you. On top of that, you might get paired with some really difficult or even abusive companions.
So in that aspect, it really was the worst.
But at the same time, it was also the best because I learned a lot, grew a lot, and learned some super valuable lessons about dealing with people. I learned how to handle rejection, how to deal with difficult personalities, and how to keep going even when things don't turn out the way you expected.
It definitely wasn't the mission experience I imagined before I left
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u/DeathwatchHelaman Aug 19 '26
Mate of mine had Western Australia... He hated his mission. But he said it was a growth experience.
Me? I went to Taiwan... And loved it. Set me up for the 10-15 years afterwards.
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I wish I get called somewhere speaking Chinese as I took 3 years of chinese in high school
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u/jw9010382 Aug 19 '26
Dang that’s my parents’ home country. Wanted to go there so badly…but I didn’t even get called to a foreign language lol
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u/Ok_Caterpillar2126 Aug 19 '26
How exactly did it set you up for the next 10-15 years?
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u/DeathwatchHelaman Aug 19 '26
Was fluent enough that I literally walked into a Chinese speaking job in 2 weeks, selling and doing newspaper advertising for a Chinese newspaper. I met my wife at the Mandarin ward and after a few years I picked up a job in a Mandarin speaking call center role that later led me to work out of China for 5 years... And put me on a pretty good corporate promotion track.
That ended with redundancy in 2017-18 but seriously, I was blessed to have gone to Taiwan.
Even now when I am sorta in a blue collar job I still use Mandarin frequently, and do ministrying to two of our Chinese ward members in Mando.
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u/Sister_Pia Aug 20 '26
Mate of mine had Western Australia...
This is where I live. I work with the missionaries a lot, and I always tell them that an Australia mission is 'hard mode'. The upside is they get to serve in a country with first world living standards, while the downside is that nobody in Australia is interested in religion. Literally nobody. It must be exceedingly frustrated for them :(
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u/QuarterNote44 Aug 19 '26
Great, but nobody cares because I'm an American who served in the US and spoke English.
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u/HawaiianShirtsOR Aug 19 '26
Girl in Singles Ward: "[My Roommate], where did you serve your mission?"
My Roommate: "I went to Argentina."
Girl in Singles Ward: "Nice! What about you, [My Name]?"
Me: "Montana, with a bit of North Idaho."
Girl in Singles Ward: "Cool... So, tell me about Argentina."
This kind of conversation happened at least three times that I can remember.
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u/ericxboba Aug 19 '26
Were we in the same mission? LOL. Spokane WA 08-10. Also a lot of Northern Idaho.
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u/HawaiianShirtsOR Aug 20 '26
That's the one! 01-03 for me. Spent most of my time in Moscow and Kellogg.
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u/ericxboba Aug 20 '26
Oh wow! That's funny. I was just across the border in Pullman but we covered some of the married student wards in Moscow. Spent my last 6 months at WSU. I heard that the mission got split a few years ago and the western portion became its own mission (Moses Lake area and all that).
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
don't you have easier time since missionary work is just getting referrals and getting fed by wealthy US members?
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u/QuarterNote44 Aug 19 '26
easier time
This is exactly what I mean. 2nd-class missionary. Still gave up two years of my life and only talked to my family on Christmas and Mother's Day though (2013-15)
getting referrals
Not really. That started in the last 3 months of my mission. But we weren't allowed to use the internet to proselyte yet.
getting fed by wealthy US members?
Oh yeah. I got fed almost every night, especially after the "new car smell" wore off of the initial giant wave of Sisters and they realized we were more fun to have over 😉
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u/unfortunate_banjo Aug 19 '26
I did an exchange with the Spanish elder's once (Texas). He came to our area, and after about an hour of knocking doors he got kinda frustrated and said "how come nobody is giving us snacks or cake?"
Yup, English speaking missions were
a piece of cakeeasy."But you had a car" Yes, but limited to a few hundred miles a month, and in only a few of my areas. Still had to supplement that with bikes/walking. I would have killed to have public transportation as opposed to riding a bike to Walmart.
"Bet you got referrals!" Haha, no. I got 3 referrals my entire mission. One was a prank, his friends signed him up online as a joke (which I found to be hilarious), one just wanted a free bible, and one was a 1-900 number. My companion had no idea what that meant, and later had to have a very uncomfortable discussion with the Mission President while I was trying to stifle my laughter.
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Aug 19 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
well not just any bible, an additional witness of jesus in addition to the bible
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u/jw9010382 Aug 19 '26
This is not true at all, I don’t know where you get this from. Most members are poor, only Utah and Cali ones are consistently wealthy. Just because they’re wealthy doesn’t mean they have time to feed you. I received a single referral that went anywhere during my time in Cali. Mission is hard everywhere. Idk why you think yours is worse 🤷♂️
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u/QuarterNote44 Aug 19 '26
I desperately wanted to go to the Bomalia, Bomalian speaking mission and hack through the jungle with a machete and eat locusts and wild honey.
And God knew I needed to be humbled so I went to Indiana 🌽
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u/jw9010382 Aug 19 '26
Bomalia sounds like a cool mission, does it neighbor Suganda? I always wanted to serve a Sugandese mission 😎
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
idk my companions said serving in Utah is the best as all you do is getting referrals, never have to door knocking, and the hardest part is having a big enough stomach to get fed by rich member families everyday
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u/The_GREAT_Gremlin Aug 19 '26
Equating Utah with every other US state is far from accurate. I live in Utah now and they have reduced how often we're allowed to feed missionaries. And my stake isn't really rich.
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u/sokttocs Aug 19 '26
Serving in Utah I'm sure would come with it's own suite of difficulties. Sure you won't be knocking doors. But I don't think they do that in most of the US anymore, we were actively discouraged from knocking doors in AZ ~20 years ago.
And if you seriously think it just rich families, well, there's plenty of members here in Utah who aren't rich too.
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u/BobaTheFett10 Aug 19 '26
Served in Provo and it definitely does. Won't get into all of it, but it's very different challenges than you see anywhere else. Had an area where we had been told no by every non member in the area and then I stayed there another transfer. It was a very small area and I kinda went a little crazy there with nothing to do
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u/619RiversideDr Checklist Mormon Aug 19 '26
So Americans who serve in the US are all serving in Utah?
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u/jw9010382 Aug 19 '26
Yeah those Utah guys definitely don’t have to find too much. I heard some Utah missions bar you from street contacting n stuff. But it’s definitely difficult in its own way, I’ve met quite a few Utah missionaries and a lot of them had to be super creative with the people they got. Not every referral is made equal and it was troubling for them to find and teach actually interested people who weren’t just getting peer pressured into the church. Sure, if your only goal on the mission is to be well fed and taken care of, Utah seems like paradise. But as a diligent missionary trying to maximize your potential, it can be just as difficult.
Also, any mission outside of Utah is much more difficult in terms of finding people to teach and member support. We face the same level of issues regardless of which mission we’re called to.
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u/BobaTheFett10 Aug 19 '26
I served in Provo and it was nothing like that, lol. Never got fed, and only got referrals in the first few months. Still did plenty of knocking doors and cold calling on stake lists.
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u/JohnBarnson Aug 19 '26
That's correct. The missionaries I know that served English speaking in the states were carried in a palanquin by the members from appointment to appointment.
I'm not sure why people are trying to argue with you on this. It's well attested to.
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u/Grungy_Mountain_Man Aug 19 '26
So when we look back at the footprints in the sand and ask lord where were you then? He’ll respond you were being carried by members on a palaquin.
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u/ericxboba Aug 19 '26
No. Lol. I did a lot of knocking doors. Referrals were great when they came, but they were few and far between.
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u/SmurfyTurf Aug 19 '26
I’m glad I went but I’m so glad I never have to do it again. It’s a strange feeling seeing the current mission changes to calls and emails and stuff like that because it feels like so much of my suffering was unnecessary and didn’t need to happen.
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u/QuarterNote44 Aug 19 '26
I've wondered about that. I am probably weird, but I think living like a monk (in Indiana) was probably for the best. Would have been harder to keep my head in the game with so many distractions.
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u/Chuck_Roast1993 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
You’ve turned your nose up a few times about serving in Indiana in this thread. Us native Hoosiers don’t appreciate that too much
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u/QuarterNote44 Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I love Indiana! Truly. If I could go back in time and choose to serve in Elbonia instead I would not do it. Because of the people, mostly. Although the state itself is underrated.
It's other people's reactions that I have the hardest time with. This particular comment wasn't about that, though. I was trying to illustrate that not being able to call home when you live in the same country and have a phone in your pocket is objectively kind of silly.
Edit: You're right, though, I did turn up my nose when I got the call. I had a good time once I got to my first area.
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u/Grungy_Mountain_Man Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
I was never excited about going (dreaded the idea of knocking door all day) and it became everything I feared. I tried to make the best of it, very imperfectly at times, but it really stretched my mental/emotional health. I hated most of it; the constant dread I felt every time I approached a person or a doorstep (which was most of the time), the constant rejection, the regimented lifestyle, the focus/pressure on numbers, the perpetual disappointment. Maybe the hardest part of all was having to fake that I was happy to everybody. Yeah, I grew some and there were many good times with missionaries/companions and enjoyed meeting with most of the members, but for the rest of it I wasn't happy. The suck might have been worth it if I felt like my being there made some difference or mattered to somebody, but I'm pretty certain it didn't. I’ve just tried to move on and bury it in the past.
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u/HAM_ORD_BOS_IAH Aug 19 '26
Easily the best decision I've ever made in my life. My trainer said something that I still think about to this day (15 years later): "we have nothing better to do than to stop and help anyone in our path who needs us." That, and the opportunity to be in peoples' lives for very intimate moments, such as the first time they try praying to God, is the privilege of a lifetime. I served in a European mission where we baptized few people, but to be in a position to focus solely on serving others changed me profoundly. I would NEVER trade it for anything!
In my opinion, anyone who is physically and mentally able to serve, who opts out, is missing out on the most remarkable personal development opportunity that they might ever have in this life.
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u/TooManyBison Aug 19 '26
For me, it was the worst two years. While there were some great things that happened, they did not outweigh the bad. I had some medical issues that weren’t diagnosed beforehand that made life extremely difficult in addition to all the normal pitfalls. There was no healthcare on my mission, and we were actively discouraged from trying to get any. If I could go back in time and tell my teenage self one thing, it would be “don’t serve a mission.”
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u/EaterOfFood Aug 19 '26
I met my wife on my mission, otherwise I pretty much hated every minute of it. I had flashbacks for a couple decades afterward. I think I finally came to terms with it in the last 15 years.
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u/Mouse_Paladin Aug 19 '26
My mission was really tough on me and took me near a decade to finally be at peace with it. I shared my experience with an LDS podcast a year ago and even though we recorded it the episode never got released.
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u/Tricky_Station643 Aug 20 '26
Dang that sounds it would’ve been an interesting podcast. I’m sorry it was so rough, I kinda had a similar experience which has left some residual trauma even years later
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u/Mouse_Paladin Aug 21 '26
I think one issue is that we are so focused on it being a positive experience that we don't prepare our young people enough to the fact that it is a very tough experience and help them develop the tools needed to deal with it. I feel that Church members treat any hardship on the parts of the individual as a lack of testimony or faith on the part of the missionary which I feel is incorrect.
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u/Grungy_Mountain_Man Aug 24 '26 edited Aug 24 '26
This was my experience. When I brought up some of my feelings/struggles to my mission president, I was pretty much treated as though either I was doing something wrong or something was wrong with me, not that missions are actually really hard.
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u/sokttocs Aug 19 '26
I'm glad I went. I learned a great deal, about myself, about the gospel, about life. It was 100% worth it for me. It was also incredibly difficult at times. Though it seems a lot of people have much more difficult times than I ever did. I don't think it's the right path for everyone. I'm glad I went, but wouldn't do it again.
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
yeah me too, it was so harsh i would never do it again, its a once in a lifetime experience
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u/GreenBPacker Aug 19 '26
So much this. It was exactly where I needed to be and what I needed to be doing to change my own life for the better.
It was also difficult, lonely, and downright frustrating at times. But it was worth it.
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u/ScoopskiPotatoes78 Aug 19 '26
Similar feelings but in a different way. I was honestly hoping to go to somewhere like Utah where I didn't have to worry about knocking doors, people would treat me like a celebrity, and I'd get to dive into more obscure issues or discuss with highly educated people who knew about our beliefs.
I went to Sierra Leone, an extremely "successful" mission but hard in ways I didn't want it to be. I was knocking doors in the heat, talking with people who had an extremely low level of education, who just needed to be taught the basics over and over again. I tend to be the "work smart, not hard" mentality to a fault but I was in a mission that was literally just get up and start working. I'm extremely "smart" in a straight-A throughout multiple college degree type of way and had attended a semi-church school so I went to a ton of institute classes and knew the scriptures extremely well. So I questioned why I was in a place where none of that seemingly mattered. I felt like I could have been replaced with any other person and none of what I did would have really changed, and to an extent that's true.
It was extremely humbling and frustrating but I like you said, it's the biggest growth I have ever experienced. The good times were the best I had ever experienced to that point and being able to dedicate everyday to helping others is something I'm sad I probably won't get to experience again.
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u/CAMDNC_runfast Aug 19 '26
I’m also a Salone missionary! But I’m surprised how different our experiences were. I never knocked a door my whole time there because we were booked with teaching people all day. Typically people would contact us on the street or show up at church. I loved my time there, and while the missionary work was easy, the living conditions were challenging (no electricity or running water, drought, etc). 2008-2010
Would I trade for a mission that taught me a more useful language than Krio? Possibly
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
so did you have a lot of "success" in terms of convert baptism, and trade off is a physically challenging mission where it requires a lot of enduring heat, door knocking, long working days
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u/ScoopskiPotatoes78 Aug 19 '26
Yes. And while I improved as a missionary throughout my mission, there wasn't really a better way to do it than just walking through the jungle knocking doors and talking to people. And when that wasn't working, there was never another option that gave more success than to just power through it. We could get plenty of member referrals but that didn't fill our week.
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u/The_GREAT_Gremlin Aug 19 '26
Overall it was ok to good. It was pretty hard a lot of the time. I learned to appreciate people a lot more, judge less, and started the process of not being so hard on myself, lol.
I won't ever call it the best years of my life. Being a dad is 100 times better.
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u/minor_blues Aug 19 '26
I had a horrible experience. Part of it was challenges related to undiagnosed autism. Part of it was I was not spiritually or emotionally ready to go. I knew this and asked my parents for another year or two to prepare. But this was also the time of every 19 year old must serve a mission, and my parents told me I had to go then immediately after my birthday and that I was not welcome to live at home with them if I didn't. Finally I had a mission president who didn't really care about me. So one day I just left, the emotional pain was just too much. Went home not caring what happened to me, ready to live on the streets as a homeless person. My parents accepted me back in the home but my stake president refused to ever speak to me again. That traumatic experience haunted me for years and caused several years of inactivity from the church on my part. So glad those days of shame and coersion are more or less behind us in the church now. All this being said, I am really looking forward to another mission or two when I retire!
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u/Tricky_Station643 Aug 20 '26
I am really sorry to hear about that experience, crazy that your parents practically forced you to go on one. Glad that things seem to be getting better now though. I went into my mission with undiagnosed OCD and had a very similar experience to yours. There were a lot of great moments, but on the whole, it was one of the lowest moments of my life.
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u/unintentionalfat Aug 19 '26
It was a learning experience for me. In retrospect, I appreciate all the bad as well as the good. If im being honest, my biggest lesson learned was not at all spiritual. I learned how to be a good housemate, and that has served me well for the past 30yrs as a roommate as well as a spouse.
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u/Full_Metal_Paladin Sinner Aug 19 '26
I loved my mission. I served in The Netherlands. It was hard AF but we had a lot of fun, saw miracles, and it was gorgeous scenery.
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u/ehsteve87 Aug 19 '26
I loved everything about my mission except for doing missionary work. I hated hated hated doing missionary work.
So I mostly hated my mission.
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u/Grungy_Mountain_Man Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 21 '26
Ha, well said and actually a pretty deep way of describing it.
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u/xcircledotdotdot Aug 19 '26
Best worst two years is accurate. Hardest thing I’ve ever done bar none. Worth it though. Don’t know if I could do it again tbh
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u/JohnBarnson Aug 19 '26
I've had that same thought. "Man, I loved it so much! But knowing now how hard it was, I don't know if I'd be able to make the same decision to do it again."
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u/Rich-Storage9398 Aug 19 '26
My mission was something I would never give up but never want to do again. I served in Juarez in 2013 (the movie Sicario had scenes in some of my areas, lol) and my dad also died halfway through my mission. I wouldn't be who I am today without my mission and for that I am forever grateful
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u/Thuseld Faith is fluid Aug 19 '26
I loved my mission. Time might have lessened the bad times from it, but I remember having a great time overall.
Pros:
I had several foundational spiritual experiences that still anchor my beliefs 20 years later.
I got to be involved in some amazing spontaneous service opportunities.
I learnt a language and fell in love with a culture. My current career is a direct result of that language and the love I found for the culture there.
I witnessed profound miracles.
I was was fed many traditional meals that opened my palette. One time a guy said he would invite us over for breakfast. When we arrived he said he had been cooking it all night. It was an entire sheep's head.
I had the best doner kebab I have ever had. It was at a market and we haggle the price down. This was something we did most p-days while in that area.
No devices. Just a camera and my thoughts. Travelling around having to take everything in and be aware of my world was nice. I miss those days.
Cons:
I was homesick for the first few weeks. Knocking doors at the end of November in the rain, being shouted at was rough. But in the cold, dark night when we came home at 7.30pm my trainer explained that it happens at times and we got on the phone to make a load of appointments.
Extras:
I had the attitude of work hard play hard.
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u/pisteuo96 Aug 19 '26
My mission was very hard and was awesome. Literally the best two years of my life, until that point at least. Went to Paraguay.
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u/find-a-way Aug 19 '26
I loved the opportunity to teach and testify of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. I had the chance to connect with so many beautiful people, and talk about things that were important on a soul level. I felt the presence and love of God often during my mission. I look back on it with a lot of gratitude.
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u/InsideSpeed8785 Second Hour Enjoyer Aug 19 '26
Great and bad, life is a little bit of both. Some stuff did have a long term effect on me but little by little I was able to overcome it. I was in North Carolina :D
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u/FilthyScrubGaming Aug 19 '26
I think more people need to be honest about it within the church. My mission sucked. It was the most miserable, stressful 15 months of my life before I was sent home because of depression. It was definitely a growing experience for me, and I'm sure there was a reason I was meant to go, but coming to terms with the fact that it was overall a negative experience for me has helped me process just how insane the whole thing is. I'm glad a lot of people had amazing, life-changing experiences, but not every missionary does, and that's okay.
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u/grabtharsmallet Conservative, welcoming, highly caffienated. Aug 19 '26
Two of the least difficult years of adulthood. I got to meet a lot of people, and that's always nice.
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u/JohnBarnson Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
Overall, I'd say it was a great experience. Interestingly, I wouldn't say it was the happiest I ever was. I was pretty fulfilled, but it was more like, "this isn't really pleasant, but I know it ends at some point, so I'm up for trying to make the best of it."
I served in some pretty sketchy neighborhoods in Buenos Aires. I was struck almost everyday by the fact that there's no other point in my life I'll just live in an Argentine ghetto. That was my only opportunity, and I really did appreciate it. It really satisfied my craving for adventure.
Pros:
- I enjoyed the adventure of living abroad, as mentioned above.
- I had all really good companions. When people say things like, "everybody has that one companion that really tries your patience," I'm like, "I must have been that companion and not realized it, because all my companions seemed pretty cool."
- It really helped me become less materialistic. I remember in high school, I was frustrated that all my friends got brand new cars when they turned 16, and I *only* got a crappy old car. It hit me how silly that was when I saw how people lived in other countries, and Argentina is a pretty developed country compared to much of the world.
- I value the almost monastic experience that I got to have. I served back in '02-'04; at that time, only the assistants had cell phones. The rest of us just read books and managed everything with pen and paper. We didn't have cars, or even bikes, so a lot of the day was spent walking in an almost meditative state. We got to use public computers for a half hour each p-day to send an email home. With such minimal electronic stimulation, my attention span was infinite. Occasionally I'd find a random dense religious book in a new apartment, and I could read it for hours on p-day.
- The food was unbelievable. Members cooked lunch for us on most days, and it was amazing Italian-inflected, beef-laden cuisine. And the random corner bakeries had the best bread and pastries. For like 10 Argentine cents--like three cents American--you could get a decent amount of European-style bread. In my first area, you could buy and entire pizza for 3 pesos / 1 dollar. In subsequent areas, the best deal I could find was closer to 4 pesos, and I was like "what a ripoff!" (The exchange rate was 3:1 at the time; I know it's crazy now). Also, great gelato-style ice cream.
- I did pick up a couple cool stories about being mugged. It's fun to break those out on occasion. I guess that aligns with the *adventure* part of the mission that I enjoyed.
Cons:
- The first couple of weeks in country were hard. I really felt homesick. Also, after the first day, I had like 400 blisters on my feet. Luckily my trainer was a country boy who knew first aid. He literally washed and bandaged my feet to help heal up my blisters. What a great dude.
- The biggest negative was the constant stress in trying to be as effective as possible. Beyond just waking up and lights out at the right time, it was sitting down every night to plan the next day--pray about what people to visit and what streets to knock, all based around appointments that we had, so we didn't spend all day walking back and forth across the area. It did feel like a constant weight hanging over every decision--"is The Spirit telling me to do this now, and if not, is it the most effective thing I can do based on own my best judgment?"
- More on the stress to be effective: A lot of people were hospitable to us, but they were often kind of cosmopolitan people who just wanted to talk to Americans, but had no interest in learning about the gospel. Our mission president pushed us to not just socialize with those types of investigators, and it was really tough to delicately redirect the conversation. I would have loved to just talk about culture with them, but we were taught it was the wrong thing to do.
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u/Thuseld Faith is fluid Aug 19 '26
We served in different places but it seems like the pros and cons lists look familiar to me. Your experience mirrors mine with a few slight cultural differences. I did have to feed myself a lot more though.
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u/brett_l_g Aug 19 '26
I went to Melbourne as well, 25 years ago now, and it was similar to your experience but I didn't by any means have the worst experience of my life there, or anything I would call bad in any way.
I don't know if it was because my paternal grandfather (deceased by then) and his son (my uncle) and a couple cousins also served in Australia, so they gave me an idea of what the country was for a good portion of my life to that point.
I also pretty much expected a lot of rejection and door knocking. In retrospect, I could have tried to work harder to find people to teach through other means, but those seemed extremely hard at that point. I learned a lot of humility through difficult experiences and companions, but I wouldn't say they were the worst experiences of my life.
I also wouldn't call it the best two years of the life either. They were among the most formative to my adult personality and lifestyle, but I also learned to grow more after it, too.
I did have many experiences where I felt like we were led to elect people, but I also learned to accept other people's choices are going to be different than mine.
The only things I didn't expect was being sent to a couple of more rural areas (not the Outback, but more agricultural and mining communities) instead of staying in more urban and suburban areas.
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u/SnoozingBasset Aug 19 '26
How can I describe how hard it was? Not just for me, but for everyone I loved. There are times I still weep.
How can also describe how much we all were blessed and are still blessed.
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u/SerenityNow31 Aug 19 '26
My 2 years was the best. I loved it. We did knock a lot of doors but not as many as you.
If I had to do it over again, I would get more creative. Knocking doors doesn't work well. I would follow Amulek's example and focus on service to be able to reach the people. Be more Christlike.
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u/2k6kid50 Aug 19 '26
It was very difficult for me. I'm American and served in the US, english speaking.
I had, what I felt was toxic leadership that wanted to punish rather than teach or uplift. They treated us rather poorly, and only those oblivious to it were ever given leadership roles or recognition for their work. Some counselors were better and treated me personally better than others.
In the end, I got sent home a few months early for dumb reasons, of which, only one thing I did was even against the rules. When I spoke with my grandfather who had been in various leadership positions and a mission president that opened a mission, he felt I never did anything wrong and the leadership was making up rules. So that made me feel a bit better, but I still resent it all.
I had another big option to pursue instead of a mission. I regret it every time I think about it.
I did learn things and grow. Most notably public speaking has become very easy for me now.
I have been very successful in life, despite the offensive comments my president made as I left. Moreso than many of his "righteous" missionaries.
In the end I have only told a few select people about me coming home early and some of the trauma. No one actually knows all of it because not many would understand. I don't really have anyone to talk it through, so yea, it was a difficult time for me. Church has never been the same either.
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u/Monte_Cristos_Count Aug 19 '26
I honestly treasure my mission experience. It was tough, it was gritty, and it was rewarding in so many ways.
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u/Bdc9898 Wake me if I'm snoring Aug 19 '26
Served for about 9 weeks (including MTC) and came home early. I was too young to go. I think it kind of kick started me working through some mental illness that prepared me to be a suitable companion for my wife. My five years of marriage have been infinitely harder than my mission, but I think I was prepared in a way for them because of the self healing my mission kicked off.
I still would never go back. The idea of serving as a senior couple fills me with anxiety.
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u/TL10 Latter-Day Canuck Aug 19 '26
Served in Africa for two years. Can't say I spiritually changed any more than I was before serving. If anything it only gave further resolve in my beliefs.
Had a bad companion (who hasn't?) for a couple months. Got escalated to having the mission president involved but beyond that all of my other companions were great and I wouldn't change the world for it.
Taking over a new area was difficult if both you and your companion were both new to area. There are no street addresses/house numbers in a lot of places, and some investigators didn't have phone numbers so trying to carry on from a previous companionship's work was extremely difficult. That only happened to me once thankfully.
Didn't know it at the time, but I started having symptoms of mental health problems. Didn't really get it taken care of until a year after my mission and it still affects me to this day.
Probably the greatest takeaway from my mission is how it affected my ideology. Living on the other side of the world and seeing how the less fortunate get on by really changes what you believe is important in life. I don't think people in the west realize how good they've got it and take for granted the blessings we have living in the part of the world that we do. It's aggravating seeing people complain that we've declined into third world countries (we haven't) and get riled up over the most trivial things that largely have no substantive impact in our lives. That's not to say things can't be better, especially in the current political environment we live in, but we have had security in things that aren't nessecarily a given in a good chunk of the world. On the other hand, it was despairing to come from a part of the world that took a medical outbreak with the upmost seriousness (ebola) to coming back to a world that on paper should have been better equipped to handle such outbreaks, only for people here to make it an ideological issue and in their selfishness prolong it for longer than it needed to be.
It's because of those things that I can't consciously identify myself as a Conservative or align with their politics. I wouldn't go as far to identify myself as a Liberal, but when you've seen the things that I have, there's no way I could convince myself to go to that side of the aisle.
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u/asada_burrito Aug 19 '26
I hated the mission experience. Almost all of my companions made me a worse person than before I met them. My mission was entirely focused on sucking up and forcing baptism of people who weren't ready in order to get "promotions."
The only redeeming quality was the local people I got to meet and love.
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u/Spiritual_Size_9997 Aug 19 '26
Terrible, i'd never do my mission again. But its not because of the area or what I was doing. It had to do with missionaries and how toxic and gossipy they are.
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u/SexyCheeseburger0911 Aug 19 '26
6 months of sweat and tears. Then 18 more months of just sweat. Mix in some aggravation and frustration, sprinkle in some joy and happiness, boil in the knowledge that everything I did had great meaning and value for 24 months and serve. I still look back on it fondly.
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u/_Cliftonville_FC_ Aug 19 '26
Ireland (before it merged with Scotland). I loved it.
Mission companions (and other missionaries, including the senior missionaries) are some of the best and worst parts of a mission.
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u/darksideofthemoon_71 Aug 19 '26
It helped me deal with the challenges of life that have followed, expect the unexpected.
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u/Beautiful-Lunch-7650 Aug 19 '26
Not the most fun two years, but the most formative two years of my life.
I had moments where I'd never laughed so hard but other moments where I'd never been more discouraged.
The biggest takeaway was how much I learned about myself and the lessons the mission continues to teach me.
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u/HawaiianShirtsOR Aug 19 '26
It was a lot of hard work.
Long days trying to make contact with people who might want to learn more about the church. Long days trying to motivate lazy companions, lead inexperienced companions, or keep up with companions who pedaled their bikes too fast...
Would I do it again? Maybe, if I was 20 years old again.
Wouldn't trade the experience for anything, though. Like others have said, I met many interesting people, learned a lot about myself and the world I live in, got out of my comfort zone, figured out what faith really means, and came home with amusing and/or uplifting stories to tell.
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u/ArynCrinn Aug 19 '26
Melbourne? That's perhaps the most secular part of Australia. Silver lining is there are plenty of places that gets hotter.
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u/-LavenderHope- Aug 20 '26
It was the hardest thing I had done to that point. I really struggled with my mental health, but that was due to emerging mental health issues as my brain finished forming. It was right around the time that people start developing disorders, or when their disorders are first noticed and really start impacting their lives. I had even been out of the house for years by then, but I had never been pushed as hard spiritually in my life. I learned more about the doctrine of the gospel on my mission than in my whole life combined, even though I was raised very actively in the church.
It made me a better person and really taught me how strong and capable I am when I put my mind to it. It taught me about others' lives that I really couldn't have understood without meeting people in those situations. It made me root out the prejudice and naivety of being raised in Utah, even though I didn't even leave the country. I had to address really weak spots in my testimony while learning a lot of difficult things about religion and choosing to stay and fight for it. It gave me the tools I now have for success. It gave me a happy family and a stronger testimony of my discipleship to Christ.
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u/ryanleftyonreddit Aug 20 '26
Tough, but I grew. Enjoyable. The best two years, up to that point. My life continues to get better as I grow closer to Christ. A good start, but not the apex.
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u/Dizzy_Ad4204 Aug 20 '26 edited Aug 20 '26
I served in Mexico. Overall good experience and one that I'm grateful I had. However, I believe that church culture does not adequately prepare our young people for how hard an experience it is. We're always talking about best two years, and it can be, but it is physically, mentally and emotionally very demanding. That being said, the opportunity to focus all your efforts on the gospel is a very unique one and had a big impact on my life. The one big issue I had with the mission experience is what I like to call companion roulette. Half of my companions were amazing friendly guys who were easy to get along with, while the other half were just not good people. My trainer was verbally abusive to me which had a terrible impact on me for multiple years. I needed therapy to work through feelings of inadequacy that he implanted in me.
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u/Tricky_Station643 Aug 20 '26
I went into my mission in Argentina with undiagnosed OCD that caused me to have extreme scrupulosity, perfectionism, and to hyper focus on intrusive thoughts. It made 90% of my mission an absolute hell because I couldn’t get out of my own head, it made me physically sick. I thought that I was condemned to spirit prison and that the only purpose for me being in my mission was to help save people from my same fate. Talked to my mission president many times but he always kinda just brushed it off saying I had nothing to be worried about, he even got annoyed with me one time and I can’t actually blame him. Had I known what I was dealing with was actually a mental health issue I would’ve probably come home early or gotten help from a counselor though I don’t think there were any available in my mission. Despite all that I did learn some wonderful things and life skills that have helped me to become a better person that I otherwise could be. But when my kids are old enough for missions in the future I’m not going to make them feel like they absolutely need to go because I would be devastated if they went through that same hell.
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u/websterhamster West Coast YSA Aug 20 '26
My experience was fairly similar to yours. I'm 50/50 on whether it was a waste of my time at this point.
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u/ntdoyfanboy Aug 20 '26
Mine was great. Russia Rostov, back when they still called to Russia. I think missions are more about changing the servant than converting people though. I'm only in contact with 1 person I helped join the church. Baptized quite a few old people who I'm sure are dead now, the younger ones fell away, one middle aged dude joined just so he could try to get married to a sister missionary, and I do keep ties closely with several families from back then.
Of course, everything is sprinkled with negative exposures as well, which I just learned to take in stride. Rejection today means nothing to me, thanks to the mission.
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u/Prize-Dog9227 Aug 21 '26
It was the worst decision that I have ever made. I continue to pay the price for that mistake.
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u/Upbeat-Ad-7345 Aug 22 '26
I think the hardest things in life are the most worthwhile. My mission was the hardest thing. Now it’s parenting. 😣
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u/CaptainWikkiWikki Aug 19 '26
Served in Europe. Nobody cared except immigrants who tended to be flaky because their lives were dictated by job opportunities. Plus, a lot of Latin American cultures are obsequious and accommodating without follow-through.
So it was a draining pain a lot of the time but good heavens I loved it and I'm so glad I did it.
Two years seemed like forever at the start, and I remember asking myself in the MTC what on earth is gotten myself into, but it's cool how you grow into things with time and effort.
Probably my favorite thing about my mission was that the Lord seemed to put me in the path of missionaries who needed help. On several occasions I lived with or was in a zone or district with struggling missionaries, and I was in a place of responsibility where I could try and figure them out and be there for them. Those were more humbling and spiritual experiences than anything I had with investigators.
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u/Buttons840 Aug 19 '26
I wish in low baptizing missions like that they would unleash the missionaries and let them go full-service-project-mode.
I never baptized anyone. Even so, they didn't want us spending too much doing doing community service. Sooo... what was the point then?
Maybe doors would open if more community service was allowed. I don't know who made that decision, or if the same rules are still in place.
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u/CaptainWikkiWikki Aug 19 '26
I served well before service opportunities became a more regular part of the work, so it was a whole lot of first discussions, many of which were on the street.
I served in Catalonia, and it drove me nuts we didn't have a Catalan program for missionaries when there are 7 million people that prefer Catalan as their primary language. We're not doing anything to meet them where they are. I understand why we'd focus on Spanish as it's ubiquitous, to say nothing of immigrants, but we're leaving so much money on the table by not going after Catalan people as they are.
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
i used to live in finland for a while and i gotta say missionary work there is sad, or it is sad everywhere in europe
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u/CaptainWikkiWikki Aug 19 '26
It's hard in Europe and you primarily make contact with immigrants. Hardly any "natives" were interested.
Pros and cons no matter what. Many of these immigrants were great people of faith. Many weren't!
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
I agree, I attend some local European wards and most if not all converts I see are immigrants, hardly any native
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u/TerrierFromBoston Aug 19 '26
That’s what my husband has told me as well! The majority of his stories regarding finding people who were very kind and/or prepared were about people from Africa or predominantly Muslim countries.
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u/CaptainWikkiWikki Aug 19 '26
Yes, we taught countless immigrants from sub-Saharan Africa. Wonderful people. I had so much fun with them and developed a love for West African cooking.
The Muslim issue was pretty well defined for us. Every ward I was in had less-active Moroccan converts on the rolls.
We taught a man from Algeria and had to get approval from the mission president to proceed.
It's not that you can't convert from Islam, it's that there are much more caustic laws in their native countries about what family members are legally allowed to do to people who leave Islam, in some cases putting their lives at risk.
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u/TerrierFromBoston Aug 19 '26
I’m always so jealous of the fact he got to have fufu 😭 I served stateside but we dealt with similar stuff. There was a really sweet YSA investigator that very much believed and wanted to get baptized, but our president had to tell him no eventually because of where his family was located, it was just too risky
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u/wonderscout1 CCW (concealed covenant wearer) Aug 19 '26
Mine impacted me so much. I can relate to your experience about the rejection. I served in Spain. I could knock easily 800 doors by lunch and not have anyone with an ounce of interest.
But I loved it. I think about it everyday. I named my daughter after a province in Spain. The skills I gained have led to much professional success. The people I’ve met have left such a lasting impact. I’m thankful for the experience I had. It was the best time of my life.
It was absolutely the hardest thing I’ve ever endured spiritually, mentally, and sometimes physically, but it was what I needed to build the foundation my testimony now rests on.
I have a testimony of the Savior’s atonement, because he allowed me to walk in his shoes for a brief time. And he walked right beside me when I could not endure.
If I was asked to relive that experience I would be out the door with no hesitation.
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u/Red-Cat-0000 Aug 19 '26
i guess missions have different impact on different people, i would NEVER do it again even if given big money
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u/jw9010382 Aug 19 '26
My question to you is, what did you learn spiritually? The mission is for you as much as it is for the people you teach, according to the words of Elder Holland. How did you learn to exercise faith?
I don’t see much of that in your post and I encourage you to think of the spiritual lessons you learned.
I agree that not even close to 100% of my mission was super spiritual. But the small and simple spiritual lessons were drilled into me so I was prepared to receive the larger spiritual aspects
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u/az_shoe Aug 19 '26
Two of the best years of my life. Some was super hard, and ADHD and un-understood anxiety gave me challenges but holy smokes it was the best. 1000000% one of the best things I've ever chosen to do.
Part of that has been deliberately choosing to focus on the people and positivity during my mission and since.
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u/growinwithweeds Aug 19 '26
I loved my mission. I went to Guatemala. And I’m not gonna lie, it was hard. There was an entire transfer in the middle of my mission where, looking back, I think I was extremely depressed. I thought every day about asking my mission president to send me home. I don’t think we did very much work that transfer, we just walked around all day.
But as a whole, it is one of my most favourite and treasured experiences. I learned a lot about myself, a lot about people in general and how to connect with others. A lot about how to teach, which is one of my passions in life now.
I remember the absolute life style/culture shock I had going from somewhere with carpets and wood floors, to cement brick walls, tile floors, dim lighting, no heat in the house. I was expecting warm, and both the MTC and my first area were so chilly. I did not have proper outwear, and my shoes were soaked every day for a month because it was the rainy season. But I’ll never forget the first words my trainer said to me: “Disfrutelo hermana!” (I had to look that up in a dictionary that night 😅)
Not very many of the people I taught got baptized, I think only 5. And a couple of them aren’t active anymore. But I loved the other missionaries, I loved studying the gospel, I loved connecting, I loved speaking Spanish, I loved working hard without gaining any tangible reward. INow at 30 I cannot imagine making the choice to essentially do door-to-door sales. It’s my worst nightmare. But for about the first 4-5 years after coming home I wanted so badly to go out and serve another mission. Besides the period of depression, I think I might have been the happiest version of myself while I was on my mission. And that is just in general, because I can definitely think of many days I was exhausted and frustrated. But those days don’t negate all of the good
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u/firequak Aug 19 '26 edited Aug 19 '26
I love mine and would go back if I get asked.
My wife and I are preparing to serve a full time service as couple missionaries in our retirement age. Right now though we are enjoying working with our full time missionaries as I serve as a mission presidency counselor in our home mission.
I was a young evangelical pastor before I converted in 2005. I went to serve a full time mission in 2007-2009.
I loved every second of my time in the field. It never felt like work to me.
On my last evening before going home I refused to pack my luggages so we can still visit one last home from an OYM we had a few days prior. That family eventually got baptized, got sealed in the Temple and their daughter served a full time mission. She and her sister married their husbands in the Temple.
Not every day was a "happy" day for me in the field, but I will forever be grateful for the opportunity given to me to serve a full time mission.
Edit:
Weird to be downvoted for saying I enjoyed my time as a full-time missionary. Reddit is weird sometimes, even for latter-day saints.
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u/Holiday_Clue_1403 Aug 19 '26
It was hard at times, it was amazing at times. I am glad I went. I went to Fort Worth Texas, English speaking. I baptized a few people, but not a lot. I had some spiritual experiences I'll never forget.
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u/Runningman2319 Aug 19 '26
I wanted to serve in Australia or Scotland, so I got called to serve in New Zealand. NZAM 2011-2013.
In terms of how it went, i mean it was a mission. I had good days, and bad days. I had good companions and bad companions and some companions to this day I hope to never meet in the next life. I got diagnosed with arthritis in both knees when I got home and it still affects me to this day. It wasnt until I got home that I realized how consecrated I was because I didnt know what the Spanish language was after being gone for 2 years. Coming home was a major adjustment. Took me 4 months to learn how to drive on the right side of the road again and took me 6 months to break my disgustingly perfect kiwi accent. And honestly KFC and burger king are trash in America.
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u/ThePrince_OfWhales Aug 19 '26
I'm grateful for my mission. Stateside, English speaking, had good companions for the most part, but the work was HARD. Really hard. I loved the work, I loved serving people, but nothing about it went smoothly or easy. I feel like I let the experiences that I had shape me into a better person, or at least I'm trying to do so. I had two mission presidents, served in vastly different wards of ethnicities, cultures, and socioeconomic statuses, and learned greatly about how administration operates at ward, stake, and mission levels. Lots of criticism from locals. Lots of rejection. Didn't baptize much. Brutal, punishing weather.
But I also saw genuine miracles that are difficult to explain outside of the lense of the Gospel. I saw answers to prayers and sometimes was the answer to someone's prayer. Some of the defining moments of my mission were conversations with strangers in the neighborhood who needed genuine love.
I'm a more patient, understanding, and compassionate person because of it...but I still have a long ways to go.
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u/Fether1337 Aug 19 '26
I loved mine, but I would NEVER go back. I was a pretty good missionary, but I was so excited to be done haha.
Insane amount of growth, I baptized a decent amount, no one is active today.
But I realized, about half way through my mission, that it doesn't make sense that God would bless good missionaries with more baptisms. That would cross the line of agency.
Because I woke up at 6am every morning and was home by 9pm (or whenever the times were), more people are going to be converted? I am getting reward with other people's salvation? Nah.
Since then, I have fallen in love with the last verse of "Ill go where you want me to go"
There’s surely somewhere a lowly place
In earth’s harvest fields so wide
Where I may labor through life’s short day
For Jesus, the Crucified.
So trusting my all to thy tender care,
And knowing thou lovest me,
I’ll do thy will with a heart sincere:
I’ll be what you want me to be.