Returned Missionary

I have been home from my mission for almost three weeks now. It has been a very different experience that I wasn’t expecting to go through. Though I love my family and friends back at home I really was not mentally ready to come back. Unfortunately, due to some medical complications I was honorably released as a full-time missionary early. Looking back I remember dreading the thought of being medically released before I had even entered the Missionary Training Center. Now I have gained a larger perspective on the subject. Though I still have so much more to learn I have gained some insight through this experience. I had feelings of disappointment and inadequacy for coming home early. I felt like I should have been able to serve my full 18 months. I felt weak and like I had let my Savior down. I knew that medically I needed to be home to get the help I needed but I still had thoughts in the back of my mind that if I had just had more faith then I could have been able to complete what I felt was my full mission. I know that these feelings were not from God. They were from the adversary. He was trying to get me to feel worthless. He wants us all to be miserable like he is. Because of the wonderful gift of agency we don’t have to let him to that to us! We are free to choose eternal happiness by patiently and cheerfully submitting to the will of our Loving Heavenly Father. Our Father in Heaven is perfect. He has a perfect plan for each one of our lives. Better than anything that we could even dream of creating for ourselves. He knows exactly what we need, when we need it, and who we can help along the why. His plan for us is able to satisfy all three of these needs seamlessly. All we need to do is follow the plan. We do this by molding our will to His will. The best tool we have to help with this molding is prayer. Pray is used to make our will the will of our Father, not the other way around. I know that everything that happens in our lives has a purpose. There are no such thing as coincidences. Medical conditions do not pop up randomly. They are created by divine design. Like every other hardship we experience in this life, they are not usually pretty but they are worth it. Trials are refining agents in our lives. It is through them that we can become like our Father. As we become refined and sanctified we put off the natural man and become reborn as disciples of Christ like in Mosiah 3:19. I am so grateful that my life doesn’t go according to my plan. We are all blessed to have a Father that loves us enough to give us everything that we need even though we usually aren’t very grateful for it. As we follow the perfect example of Christ we not only become happier and are blessed but we are able to show love and gratitude to God for everything that He has given and will continue to give to us. Press forward with a happy heart and trust in God and everything will go exactly as you need it to! I invite you all to make a conscious effort to reflect on how your trials are helping you become the person that Heavenly Father wants you to become. Then resolve to “press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God (2 Nephi 31:20.)” I testify that as you submit to the will of the Father you will receive eternal life and joy! God loves you and wants to help you so let him!