Recently I've seen three sets of missionaries wandering about town. All but one wore a mask. Technically the sixth "wore" a mask, just around his neck.

I was thinking how a parent would allow a child to go out into the world at this time. How dangerous it is.

It brought to mind a story I'd heard 40 years ago from my cousin.

He was on an overseas mission. With four months left he became quite ill. Doctors "paid for by his dime" couldn't tell what was wrong. Eventually it became clear as a lump developed under his skin. He wanted to get home early to have it treated.

He wrote his father who sent him a letter stating that since he only had two months left to tough it out. Adding this encouraging bit of words. "If I went over the hill in the military I would have been shot." And "what will the ward think if you come home so close to the end?"

After that my cousin never had much to do with his father who put family pride ahead of his safety.

He returned home one week early with an honorable release. Three days later he was in the hospital having a tumor removed. The family was relieved there was a tumor to justify his illness.

Two months later my cousin left home and never returned. Cutting off most communication with his family.

The family could brag about a missionary who worked through serious illness. But a father lost a son.

My son said that if we knew the places he ended up, we'd have come and gotten him.

Hard to live with that knowledge.

I think back on the places I went on my mission n think "wtf was I thinking?" I saw some crazy stuff and got mugged multiple times but luckily never had any physical harm occur. I always had a section in my letters headlined "MOM DON'T READ THIS PART!!!" where I'd tell my brothers about the craft stuff I'd seen that week.

When I was serving my mission in Thailand in 1976, there was a military coup. Coups aren’t uncommon in Thailand, but this one was somewhat serious. The shooting only lasted one day, but I woke up that morning in a constitutional democracy, and went to bed that night in a military dictatorship. The inspired folks in SLC stopped sending missionaries To Thailand for a couple of months, and didn’t send sister missionaries there for several months. Those who had already received their “inspired” calls to serve in Thailand were sent elsewhere. So....it was too dangerous to send missionaries there, but there didn’t seem to be even any consideration to bringing the missionaries who were already there home. Keep in mind, this was only a little over a year after both Saigon and Phnom Penh fell.

Over the next few months, I was sick enough to be in the hospital twice. I’m pretty certain that my parents wouldn’t have had any problems with me coming home early for medical reasons, but the subject never came up.

on a mission. He NEVER should have been on a mission. I think my mother felt he would be well taken care of and she wouldn't have to worry so much about him.

He told me some years ago that he used to pray he'd get hurt so he could go home. Most of the other missionaries were horrible to him. He is both mentally and physically disabled.

For my mother (and definitely my father), it had nothing to do with pride. But I do see it happen a lot. Kids who definitely DO NOT WANT TO GO are forced to go all for family pride.