Taking off the tag for the last time..

That moment when your stake president says, “You are now released, you can take off your tag” is probably the hardest thing a return missionary has to hear. You would think that after spending a year and a half to two years away from your family and friends you would be excited to finally hear those words! It’s actually the opposite. Something that all missionaries would agree with is that people that you serve and get to know as a missionary, really become your friends and family. I missed my family! A lot! Don’t get me wrong.. Missionaries just live in a world, that when they return home, no one knows about. The funny, scary, sad, happy, and spiritual experiences that happened to us each day can’t be fully expressed. If it was the Philippines, Ecuador, Texas, or Idaho; the places we served will always have a special place in our hearts. The thing that we now need to learn is how take the tag off and become the children of God in society that we need to be. Adjusting is no easy experience; I still feel like a missionary walking in the midst of college students. Something that my mission president always told me was that the best days of our lives happen after the mission. That was always something that was hard for me to believe. I mean, the mission was the best! That is why I wanted to dedicate this blog to that adjusting missionary out there. If you’re anything like me, this task is a little daunting and nothing close to easy. The fact of the matter is that serving a mission was the best thing to help our lives and we can apply every single thing that we learned and experienced into our everyday lives as “normal” people. We’ll go through this journey of a 21 year old returned missionary adjusting through college life.