One of them was sent to Ireland and was sent home supposedly with pneumonia.
Another was sent home just 2 weeks out of the MTC with depression.
Another was sent home from the Cape Verde mission. Apparently they need to do tests to find out what's wrong with him.

I mean, I know you can't fake an illness, but I'm 95% sure that two of the above were completely fine. I saw one at a YSA dance a week after he was home.



Do families ever lie and say that their mish has been sent home with an illness but really they just didn't want to be there?

I don't know about these specific cases but I do know that being coerced into a situation where you don't wanna be can make you sick: Just think of the physical meltdown long exposure to stress can cause in a person. Maybe the emotional stress of feeling obliged to go on a mission was just too much and made them more vulnerable to sicknesses. Hard to say.

At least they are home now and will hopefully be able to free themselves of whatever made them sick.

I have one question: Do you think that cases like these might increase with the decrease in the missionary age?

in my day a common excuse was the bleeding ulcer

No, my son's friend came home early from a foreign mission. He'd been out for about 9 months when he came down with a cold/fever that gave him convulsions.
He is not one to fake it.
His family is in the building trade and the housing bubble burst about the time he went out. So they couldn't afford to send him back.
He didn't complain, got a job, and worked until he could afford college. He comes back in the area every few months to earn money for the next semester. He delivers pizza. He makes about 800 to 990 a month without tips. (which aren't that big in this area)

I do not see him socially stigmatized for coming home early. Maybe because his parents have held leadership positions and are good respectable people.

I'm just glad he came home early. He is sensitive and might have come down with severe depression/mental disorders had he been forced to stay out the whole time, plus if he had a psycho MP or companions.

I came home from my mission two months early because I didn't feel like I was helping people the way Christ would want me too. There was so much pressure to baptize at all cost. My first companion made me feel bad about myself too. My bishop asked if he could announce it church that it was due to a medical reason. I told him no because that wasn't why. For some reason I was surprised when he actually listened to me.

Good for you!

I dated a guy who came home from the MTC due to really bad anxiety and depression. They gave him the choice of going home or told him he could try going out to the country he was supposed to go to but that it would probably get worse when he got there. He decided to go home. I don't know how his ward treated him. But, living in Provo, it was really hard for him to find girls who would go on dates with him. They'd only go with returned missionaries. I don't know if the church caused it, but he has felt incredible guilt ever since coming home (ten years ago) and still says it's his biggest regret in his life.

My friend came home from his with depression. He's always had depression, but the mission made it worse. He's a big guy, and his mission president actually told him he was too fat and if he wanted anyone to listen to him or baptize, he'd have to lose a bunch of weight. WTF! It was his decision to leave, when he came home, they said it was due to complications from his diabetes. Really sad. Thankfully he no longer goes to church. I think his depression has actually gotten a bit better since he quit church.

I have personally known several ( and heard countless stories) of missionaries basically suffering an emotional breakdown on their mission. That should raise some red flags, but instead I think these kids are just marginalized as "wussies"

Our son completed his mission but came home suffering from depression. Adjusting to regular life didn't make it any easier.

I am aware of at least three missionaries that were given honorable releases after coming home early because they had a physical illness. One of them was not worthy to go (lied in interviews and couldn't handle the guilt any longer). The other two were emotionally abused in the process but the story was that they had a physical ailment.

It also helps when the family of the missionary is a good friend with the SP and other leaders. This sometimes leads to a different way of handling this

I had a companion who went home early because of "insomnia" and he was quite proud of the fact that he served honorably even if it wasn't the full two years. I know differently.

There was one time when we were discussing his reason to be on a mission and after levelling with me rather frankly, he added: "...and now I'm just biding my time until it's over!"

Never mind that I could hear him "moving" at night and would regularly see "stained" garments laying on the floor...it was the medical condition of "insomnia" that prevented him from remaining in the field.

Those vague medical reasons like depression, insomnia, anxiety, etc. are all too often just a symptom of the real reason behind coming home early. Wanking leads to guilt which leads to depression, so come home early. Neglecting to confess a grievous sin prior to leaving is why you're not getting any baptisms, so come clean to the MP, submit to the shaming and when you return to the field they'll be lining up to be dunked. I don't buy those wimpy excuses at all...if a missionary comes home early, there's something bigger at play.

Not saying that your companion wasn't cunched over his fist like a pubescent monkey, but, I don't think I had one pair of unstained garments on my mission or after, and I never wanked until I left the church. I had wet dreams at least a couple of times a week.

I kind of miss the dreams, but not the mess.

"I don't buy those wimpy excuses at all...if a missionary comes home early, there's something bigger at play."

And you are including depression in that, as a "wimpy excuse"? Good grief. That's just pathetically ignorant.

One of my sons came home early because he was pining for his beloved, having established a relationship before leaving. I think he "admitted" un-repented for stuff (whether it was true or not) so he could leave and get back to her. They married and are very happy. DW grieved over this, but I was entirely happy for him.

owing to pretty severe Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS).

which-has-been-the-gift-that-keeps-on-giving-ever-since-ly yrs,

S

Well, you can tell if they were "honorably" released if they still have their name tags (i think)

My TBM ex-husband had a good friend who committed suicide after he returned from his mission.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2012 02:38PM by adoylelb.

Yeah, people lie about the reasons they get sent home. I know one guy who got sent home and his family told everyone it was because of "stress" or "depression," both of which he probably did truly have because the real reason he was sent home (we found out much later) was because he was gay.

He did get a medical release, though, so he could go back to BYU without being a total social pariah. Although he only lasted about a semester there before transferring, much to his parents' disappointment. Looking back at it now, his parents probably knew about his sexual preference beforehand, and hoped his mission and/or BYU would "fix" him. Ugh.

Last I heard, he was out of the closet, but not out of the church, living a kind of weird, in-between life. He was living with his boyfriend, but still attending a church that taught him that his whole life was a big, fat pile of the worst sort of sin. Rough life!

Maybe not always, but in the case of members of my family, the ones who came home b/c of illness returned to the mission later. Recently another family member was sent home for sin and is going back after it's resolved. The poor kid's ward and extended family have been HORRID to him.

When I first joined the church, I went off to college and spent a lot of time with the local missionaries there. One of them went home after about 1-2 months in the mission field, and his companion told me he had been sick and having bad feelings. About a month later, he heard from the guy that he had been found to have a "chemical imbalance" that caused him to feel badly. I was so naive at the time that I was actually relieved to know that there had been a problem with him, not with the missionary work.

Didn't Jay Osmond's 2nd son go home only a couple of months into his mission? Reasons declared as health issues.

Being in TSCC is supposed to PREVENT and/or CURE DEPRESSION, Not Cause it!

How come so many have it backwards???

June issue of Discover Magazine
http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/07-vital-signs-paralyzed-by-faith/?searchterm=vital%20signs%20faith

dk Wrote:
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> June issue of Discover Magazine
> http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jun/07-vital-sign
> s-paralyzed-by-faith/?searchterm=vital%20signs%20f
> aith

Wow; I wonder if the GAs will allow this into their 'thinking'.

A missionary in my ward was sent home because of a hurt shoulder. He dislocated it playing basketball a few weeks before his mission, but it got better so he went out anyway. Later on it started bothering him, and he tried to go to the doctor, but the church told him they wouldn't pay for his doctor visits because it was a pre-existing injury. I told him to have his companion heal it with a priesthood blessing, but he got pissed off and said he didn't want his comp to bless it....sooo yeah. He ended up going home after six months.

I wished so hard I'd be one of the ones to get sent home because of a minor illness. Never happened though, spent two whole years. I don't doubt for a minute that many of those who are "sick" are actually just fine.