As we approached the end of our mission at the Ghana MTC, one of our senior missionary friends asked me, “How do you feel? Is it bittersweet as you come to the end of your mission?”

For many people, when an experience comes to an end, they can have feelings of sadness and regret mixed with feelings of happiness and enjoyment. That mixture is called “bittersweet.” The term is thought to have come from the 16th century, describing a plant with a distinctive taste that is both bitter and sweet. 1

While doing counseling in prison, I met many inmates who had bittersweet feelings as they completed their time in prison and were released into the community. They were happy to be free again, but they were sad to leave close friends behind. The friendships with other inmates for most were the first healthy relationships they had developed after years of deception and self-centeredness always and only seeking to gratify their own needs and desires. In the state of Arizona, men on probation were not allowed contact with other inmates or with others who were also out of prison. The question posed to them: “Instead of being sad at the separation, what would it be like to be grateful for the time you were able to spend together and the relationships you developed? What can you take from these relationships and experiences and build on them in the next chapter of your life?”

We often have similar feelings when people move away, when schoolmates graduate, when missionary companions are transferred, or when people pass away. What can we take from these experiences and build on them as we move forward?

I would suggest we can be grateful, not bitter. We can write how they touched our lives and what we learned from those experiences. We can record the good we learned from others and we can also learn from the negative events, challenging situations, or difficult relationships. We can recognize the hand of the Lord in allowing us to have all those experiences as He has guided us to learn and grow and progress.

Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf taught that “We can choose to be grateful, no matter what.

This type of gratitude transcends whatever is happening around us. It surpasses disappointment, discouragement, and despair. It blooms just as beautifully in the icy landscape of winter as it does in the pleasant warmth of summer. When we are grateful to God in our circumstances, we can experience gentle peace in the midst of tribulation…” (General Conference, April 2014).

Is the end of our mission bittersweet? No! It is sweet! Sweet to serve a mission. Sweet to return home. Sweet to begin another chapter in our lives. I am grateful for the experiences, even those that were deeply challenging. I am grateful for the opportunity to develop so many meaningful relationships. And I am so grateful to see and to feel the hand of the Lord in our lives.

  1. Merriam-Webster.com