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The following is excerpted from LDS Daily. To read the full article, click here. 

When I stepped off that plane at the end of those 18 months, I was excited and terrified. Here I was, now back to what should have been home, but I didn’t feel at home. I felt displaced and uncomfortable, like a fish out of water. And, much to my dismay, there was no Adjusting to Returned Missionary Life. 

There wasn’t even an R-MTC (Returned Missionary Training Center). I was just congratulated on a job well done and wished good luck with my future endeavors.

This wasn’t right, I remembered thinking. I was given so much prep to prepare me for my mission: mission prep classes, Adjusting to Missionary Life (which is seriously the best book in all of creation), the MTC, etc.

Being displaced like I was, I didn’t know where the right direction was, only that I needed to be moving on with life. But how in the world was I to start?

So, if you, like me, struggled with that transition of going home, let me share part of that fictitious Adjusting to Returned Missionary Life book that I am going to write someday.

1) Realize that it’s going to take time adjusting to returned missionary life.

You need to have time to adjust. Remember, it took time to adjust to being a missionary. It’s going to take time adjusting to returned missionary life. So go easy on yourself. Don’t expect yourself to fit into your old self, because you’re not that person anymore. Give yourself some time to settle into your own skin again.

2) Keep a schedule.

Wake up at 6:30. Exercise for 30 minutes. Shower, eat breakfast. Daily planning at 7:30. Personal study at 8. Companion study at 9. Leave the house by 10. Service from 10:30-1. Lunch with a less active from 1:30-3. Tracting between 3-5. Dinner at 5. Lesson at 6, 7, and at 8. Home by 9. Bed by 10:30.

This is an example of one day in the life of a missionary. Every second of every day is planned out. We even have time to plan the day in the plans for the day!

One of the biggest factors why it’s so hard adjusting to returned missionary life is simply the fact you don’t have your schedule planned out anymore.

To read the full article, click here.