Imagine yourself, a returned missionary, coming home from work one day and out of the blue you get a letter in the mail. It is in a large white envelope. It is addressed to you. As you look down to see who it is from, you realize that it is signed by the prophet! Wait…what?! You start to read the letter:

Dear (You),

I have been praying about you since you returned home from your mission. As I have pondered and prayed about your new life, it has been revealed to me what your next mission in life is after your full-time mission. There is a specific assignment that the Lord wants you to accomplish. Now that you are home from your full-time mission, you are now called to….”

You will begin on___________, and will be expected to do this for the rest of your life.

The Lord has full confidence in your ability to accomplish this mission. You have developed strengths before this life that you will use to fulfill this calling.

There will be times of extreme hardship, but act in full confidence that no matter the opposition, this is your unique and personal life mission that only you can accomplish. I place my trust in you as you carry out this critical and unique role in the grand plan of happiness.

Signed,

(The Prophet)

This letter is obviously just imaginary, but how amazing would that be?! This would blow my mind. I have often dreamed of receiving a second mission call and receiving a letter like this, but receiving one that has to do with everyday life? Wow.

Then why doesn’t this happen? Why doesn’t each and every returned missionary receive a letter like this? I’ll suggest a few possible reasons for you to ponder for yourself:

  • Returned missionaries aren’t as important. God only cares about full-time missionaries while they are serving. Once they complete, they are off His radar. No need for manuals, programs or leadership for RMs.
  • Returned missionaries don’t need God’s commission and guidance. They have developed so fully and matured to such completion that they don’t need more guidance after the mission.
  • There are just too many letters to write and this would be too significant of a burden for the first presidency or the quorum of the twelve apostles to bare.

Obviously, these reasons are all bogus.

Honestly, I can’t tell you why returned missionaries don’t get a letter like this from the prophet, but I can tell you this: every returned missionary, and every person in this church, has a unique life mission that is just as important as their full-time, prophetically-assigned mission. You won’t receive a letter from a prophet of God telling you what to do, but you have a life mission that is just as significant. Once you discover this mission, everything changes. When you are sure of it for yourself, this world becomes a better place because you exist.

It can be hard to come home from the mission and be shoved into a new world with new responsibilities, commitments, social expectations, cultural norms, and a host of trials that you may never have imagined. This all becomes more difficult when you don’t know why you personally are here. When you do know, these things become like flies on an elephant’s back: the elephant keeps walking forward and brushes them off from time to time.

When you discover your unique life mission, you move forward with this kind of confidence.

I could never tell you what your personal life mission is. What I can do is share with you principles that will help you to discover your mission for yourself.

This is why I wrote Live Your Mission: 21 Power Principles to Discover Your Life Mission After Your Mission. It’s a new book to help returned missionaries discover their personal life mission after the mission and it’s the first book in a new series for RMs.

Read it. Apply the principles to your life. You are unique. There is only one of you. You are amazing! Discover your life mission now! Don’t let your mission be the best two years of your life. Make the next two years, or ten years or 50 years the best years of your life. Invest in your future now because this world will be a better place once you are living your mission.

You are worth it. You were really important to the world as a full-time missionary. Remember that you are still important to the world and the world needs you just as badly now as when you were a full-time missionary.

***To learn more about this book, go to the Indiegogo campaign by clicking here.