The Returned Missionary

The Returned Missionary The Foreign Legion of the Church sends back to headquarters one thou- sand soldiers annually. This, of course, is an approximate number. They have been marching in the ranks, so to speak, facing their problems under chosen leadership whose sole duty it was to direct them. Suddenly these soldiers, commonly known as mission- aries, find themselves at home, face to face with difficulties of which they have never dreamed and which they must meet and overcome single-handed. One stake president recently ex- pressed it thus: "They have been liv- ing in the clouds, and all at once they are dropped to the cold, hard earth." Nearly all of them go back to school or marry very shortly after their re- turn. Either situation demands a com- plete change in their mode of life from a financial point of view. Their whole thought has been concentrated on the Gospel. Nearly all their read- ing has been along that line, and they have talked of little else. They have not been permitted to mingle with young people of opposite sex in a so- cial way, as was their habit at home. Many of them have developed from boyhood to manhood in a foreign country, away from American institu- tions. Therefore, an economic, a spiritual, a social, and, one might say, a political adjustment of their lives must be made. They must find employment in com- petition with young men of similar age whose thoughts all the while have been on the business of making money. After a life of intense spiritual activ- ity, a life of prayer, of humility, of preaching, they must adapt themselves to comparative religious ease. They must learn afresh to associate with young people of their own age, which is, perhaps, the least difficult of the adjustments which are necessary; and those who have been abroad must re- new their acquaintance with real American life. Practically one hundred per cent of these missionaries come home deter- mined to do right, but this determina- tion when met by the insidious influ- ences which abound everywhere, not the least of which is inactivity, too often melts away. These men and the problems which confront them repre- sent a condition and not a theory. They are passing through a dangerous transition period, scarcely less critical than the youth who is just entering the pubescent stage. In neither case is the young man, without wise counsel, fully capable of analyzing his own feelings. Even from those whose de- votion to the truth is unquestioned, one often hears the statement, made with an earnestness that leaves no doubt of its sincerity: "I wish I were back in the mission field." Sacred history furnishes abundant evidence that, from the very beginning, it was necessary for a people to be con- stantly admonished, or it deserted the path of righteousness. The Lord un- derstands this tendency in his children, as do also his chosen servants; hence the perfect organization which, when properly directed, cares for every spir- itual and temporal need of Church members. Local officers are watchfully guarding their flocks, and the general authorities are traveling constantly, exhorting the Latter-day Saints to cling fast to the "iron rod." One of the fundamental differences between this Church and other re- ligious bodies is that the former, where