Don't Give In!

     The daily life of a missionary isn't the easiest thing in the world-- back home, I was used to taking a midday siesta whenever I was tired.  Alas, it is no more so.  When I first started, I would crash at around 2-ish PM-- luckily, getting up early was never hard for me.  Now, it's better, but it's still awfully difficult.  You're outside working your butt off knocking on peoples' doors, visiting businesses, or just driving.  Because of which, I did pack on some pounds.  Sometimes, the mission can make you really depressed because of what suddenly have and also because of what you don't have.  It can make you really frustrated because of the people that mock you and neglect the words that come out of your lips.  Now why would anyone want to spend 2 years of their lives doing something that would cause such difficulty in their lives?  Why have I done so myself?

     A lot of kids that come on missions are kind of forced into it by their parents, but then you get the occasional "woah I had the biggest, deepest conversion story in the world that made me come out here asap" person.  I'm not judging-- I love meeting those kinds of people, because they really do have neat experiences!  However, there have been very many struggles being a missionary and a newbie with the gospel doctrine.

     Since joining the church and going on this mission, there are a lot of things I have considered.  Why the heck am I preaching something I scarcely know?  There's a social stigma (mostly in Utah) that if you leave your mission prematurely just because you don't want to serve anymore or you flub up and get the boot, you're life is pretty much ruined-- no chance for marriage, no chance for a higher education, and being shunned by the people in your local church (ward).  For me, probably from living in the East Coast, I didn't have any of that-- one of my mentors from the priesthood quorum back home told me that if I did come home, that everyone would understand; I was a convert relatively new to the gospel and that if my faith was tested to its limit, coming back home would be okay.

     I told this to my very first companion in the mission and boy was he surprised!  Being from the heartland of Mormonism (Salt Lake City), he told me that you were pretty much hopeless if you came back home prematurely or didn't go on a mission at all.

     Mulling the thought out a bit, I felt very fortunate to have this button-- a button that I can just press and I can come back home and lead a normal life back where I was with the friends I was with-- maybe a bit changed; but, there's a lot of things that are stopping me from going back home before my 2 years.  As difficult as it is, it has given me so much to live for.  It's given me so much more than the couple hundred dollars spent a month to keep me here.  The language is just a small part of it!

     Summed up, here's the pro's and con's of the mission is for a missionary.  However, it isn't all-encompassing as there are a LOT more pro's that aren't even mentioned:

Pros	Cons
Learning a new language	Costs money
Meeting awesome people	Homesickness
Changing a lot of lives	Two years (4%) of life is gone
Growing in maturity	No worldly entertainment
Increasing self-reliance	Only see parents twice a year
Knowledgeable in the Bible	Uncomfortable weight gain/loss
Trying new and different things	No dating
Better study skills	Your companion's little habits
Better social skills
An increased appreciation of service
Faith in God
Better at money management
Learning to deal with others
Better coping skills
Fights laziness
Increased general spirituality
Seeing loved ones afterward is so much more rewarding
Ultimate college/life prep

     So for those of you [missionaries] struggling to find purpose on why you're out here, look at all the good that you're doing-- for others and for yourself.  Even if you already have all of these skills under your belt, you'd be surprised with what you have yet to learn!  Just being out here is a blessing.

     I, too questioned why I was out here.  I almost started not believing in any of the stuff that Mormons believed in but little by little, as I learned more of the fundamentals, it came to me-- this stuff is really important.  There are a TON of people who aren't even aware that these answers are true let alone existent!  So as a missionary, it is our duty to bring to light the truths we have to share with others-- so that they're informed to make the decision whether to follow it or not.  Every single missionary, no matter their behavior-- delinquentesque or otherwise-- are doing a good job.  If not, they will do a good job.  To the rest, here them out.  They each have a story to tell.