My Return From the Florida Tampa Mission
by Tracy Watson
In my former life, I worked as an employee for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We learned that return missionaries experience exponentially more stress and difficulties returning home than when they leave on a mission. Part of this difficulty rests in coming from a life that has structure, an incredible support system, deep friendships and meaningful purpose to … well, pretty much a blank slate.
I remember well when I returned from my mission in central Florida. I wasn’t coming back from some third world country, but I did return to rural Idaho. A few months before returning home, a few missionaries and I, on a whim, applied to BYU.
Much to my surprise I was accepted (but accepted on academic warning due to my high school grades).
I’d never planned on college before my mission, but my mission changed this perspective. It introduced possibilities I’d never imagined.
I wanted to go to BYU, but I had no money. My family barely had the means to live from week to week, so leaning on them to help me get on with life was out of the question.
No job, no one to lean on for help. I returned home two days before Thanksgiving, so I had no time to figure out how to get there.
My mission taught me how faith and hard work can bring miracles. I went to work, and by the first of January, I was in Provo ready to start my college experience.
How everything came together for me is a story for another … blog, but needless to say—it was a stressful and frantic December.
For me, the opportunities came. For many returned missionaries, particularly those returning to countries that are economically unstable, to families who are not members of the Church, or to homes in rural areas, the opportunities are beyond reach. Unless …