For a while what I once considered my crowning achievement turned into a work of shame and dishonor. But as its commonly said, time heals wounds.

I've come to terms with the harmful labor known as the mission. I have mixed feelings about it.

On one hand, I feel bad for misleading people to the world of hurt known as Mormonism.

But on the other hand, I've learned to put things in perspective by acknowledging that I was a young man who was misinformed and did his best with what he thought was the right thing to do at that period of his life. I give myself credit for my sincerity and hard work.

How about you?

I was fortunate enough to go to a developed overseas area learn a language and have decent accomodations and it had it's good points related to that.

However, other than the foreign experience and language it was a waste of time and worst of all it basically derailed my career plans at the time from which I never really recovered since as an RM I was playing catch-up plus trying to find a wife and more. Eventually once I got settled and finished college and started to look at getting back on track with my original (military related) plans I kept running into age limits where I was anywhere from six month to a couple years too old so the original career plan never even took hold. Even now, 20+ years later I recently learned of a good career opportunity for a 'lateral transfer' but again, the limit for some requirements for this opportunity is now 45 and I'm just a tad beyond that AGAIN. The mission and subsequent delays in getting through college while working and more basically put me on a life/career timeline of someone five years or so younger than me, which due to the nature of both my actual job and wished for job(s) has had repercusions ever since.

I can echo your thoughts on our mission experiences. I served in the Philippines from 86-88 and got married shortly after my return home. I married the first woman who would give me the time of day (after all...if you both believe in mormonisim it should work out) and I divorced her 14 years later after 13 years of misery.

I feel that my mission experience:

derailed my education
put me years behind my peers
is something i'm ashamed of
was a total waste of time
set me up for failure for the next two decades

It's been a long way back from that. It is shameful that the morg is asking young men and women to promote the church when all of the time they know it's a lie.

I once thought of my mission as a great thing and now I think it was one of the worst things I could have done.

Do not feel bad about what you did on a mission if at the time you really believed it all. I just feel bad for all people who wasted two yrs. of your life, put college on hold, lived by being told what you had to do, returned to be told "Get married", and spoke to vulnerable people who would believe almost any promise when they felt so sad about their own life. The best you can do now is be honest if anyone asks you about missions. Be truthful. Some people on here have even gone back to where they served to tell the people they converted what they found out about the LDS faith and that makes them feel better.

Well, I've learned a new language during my mission and because of it eventually afte I came back I've found a great place to work where I constantly meet new interesting people and where I'm able to use the three languages that I know. So that's my main good thing from it.
As for the rest, well I'm not sure. I want to go through my old stuff and decide what I will keep and what I'll throw away and I'm sure that will tell me what I feel about it all. But I wont have time for that until later.
What I know is if one of my nieces or nephews that are still tbms want to go, I'm not sure I'd like that. I'd rather they go help out in a exchange project where they can go help build a school in South America or something like that.
But it will be their choice not mine...

I was fortunate to go to Italy not too long after it was opened for missionary work. It was a sweet time, still back when American kids could backpack and hitchhike around Europe on a dime a day. It was a large mission in that we had about 180 missionaries, but they were spread from one end of Italy to the other and across the border into Italian-speaking Switzerland (Ticino). We seldom saw the mission president, who wasn't a bad guy. We baptized a lot because at the time the church was a novelty. I was happy to leave the mission, but sad to leave Italy. Years later I got a good government job because of my Italian language, and went back to Rome and lived there for four years before being transfered to Germany.

My mission was rather unique. When I arrived my mission pres had just been made a GA and he was best buddies with the regional rep so he kind of did things his own way. We were allowed to see any movie we wanted, listen to any music we wanted, and we did not use the standard discussions, we kind of wrote out own. We did not knock doors like other missions either but we did do plenty it was our approach that was different.

I had a lot of fun on my mission. I saw more movies than at any time before or since and the theaters were amazing with big comfortable chairs that rocked, marble entrances, and more like a high end Grammy Award theater. This when the entire country was in total poverty and struggling. The theaters had been built by the communist government prior to being overthrown and they were made for the commy leaders so they were super nice.

I even got to go to the beach at an international resort for my one year new year celebration to see the fireworks. We went with an American family that was there for business and spent the day on the beach then saw the fireworks that night.

Over all my mission was like a two year vacation for me. I baptized about 60 people, who I am happy to say are all out of the church now. I learned a new language and I grew up tons, but I got so far behind in schooling that like other posters on here I never caught up. I got parasites, had typhoid fever, almost died from food poisoning, and to this day, 34 years later still have stomach problems from all that crap.

So my view now is that it was a big waste of time overall. I did have fun and have a lot of fond memories, but what a waste of time and it screwed up my career path for the rest of my life. If anyone asks me today what I think about a young man going on a mission I tell them DON'T DO IT!!!!! I tell them to look at the many morgbot boys who did not go like Steve Young and Donny Osmond and try to apply their reasons for not going to them selves because in 20 years you will be glad you didn't go.

A two-year cultural endowment ceremony where I played the role of Satan with my robes of "white shirt, tie, and black tag"...

Mine was in Mexico, so Satan was treated to a lot of sunshine, good food, lovely tanned women with hot bodies, and plenty of good music playing on every street corner.