Well, I’ve been home for almost two months! Time flies here
just like it does in the mission field. Adjusting to so-called “normal life” is
hard and awkward, but can be so great! I have gathered 5 tips from my short experience as an RM and from advice from other RMs. SOOO without further
ado…
Your first weeks home may be hectic but do WHATEVER IT TAKES to accomplish these 3 things. JUST DO IT! As a missionary your entire morning is dedicated to the Lord so it’s hard to forget to pray and to read scriptures, at home it’s harder. Make time, set goals, wake up at a decent time and go to 3 hours of church!
2. Talk to people. This was the key in the mission field so why not now?
From the grocery store to the singles ward to your parents' house, TALK! And who knows, maybe it’ll lead to a gospel conversation. Gospel conversation=missionary work!! This has been the biggest key to my day to day happiness.
3. I
love to see the……..TEMPLE ATTENDANCE, I’m going there every week…
This one is easy to cut out, but you have been deprived of the temple so go and go often.
“And I, Nephi, did go into the mount oft, and I did pray oft unto the Lord; wherefore the Lord showed unto me great things.” -1 Ne 18:3
4. Okay,
okay don’t hate. Keep an agenda, set weekly and daily
goals, and accomplish them!
The biggest breakdowns I would have when I initially came home were when I knelt down to pray at night realizing that I didn’t have much or anything to bring to the Lord. I couldn’t review my work with Him because I didn’t feel that I had done anything. Setting goals and accomplishing them helps a lot!
“I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don’t set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential. When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in this life.” (Elder M. Russel Ballard, Preach My Gospel, 146)
5.
Write in your
journal!
Guilty. After coming home I didn’t touch my journal and wasn’t planning on it. But I was struggling and I met with one of my old companions and she suggested I write all my feelings and realizations down in my journal. I did and it was amazing! It was healing and became a source of revelation. If possible do it errrday!
“I haven’t written for a few days, because I wanted first of all to think about my diary. It’s an odd idea for someone like me to keep a diary; not only because I have never done so before, but because it seems to me that neither I—nor for that matter anyone else—will be interested in the unbosomings of a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl. Still, what does that matter? I want to write, but more than that, I want to bring out all kinds of things that lie buried deep in my heart” (Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl [1952], 2).
OBVIOUSLY, there are many more ideas to ease the adjustment period. There are surely more steps to come but I know that these steps help! Good luck!
-Chelsea
P.S. Read this talk! The Returned Missionary
What things have helped you or friends to adapt your surroundings to you? Have these tips worked for you? Let us know in the comments!
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