I was asked recently by a friend, McKann, for whatever thoughts I had for a missionary that is returning home, so I wrote out a short little blip on the subject and thought it fits well here. Really, I believe a lot of this applies to any time we are developing into a new stage of life. That means it's applicable all the time. Every new day is a new chance to live a new life. So here it is,
"My best advice is probably a cliche but meant a lot to me when a member said it to me just before I went home: "If you ever come back here and call your mission your best two years, you need to get your life back in order". Seriously life only gets better... you don't plateau after your mission unless you start losing the "spiritual center" that you've found.
"It doesn't mean I've always felt as spiritual now as I did on my mission at all. You will feel different. Just know it's because you're not bearing your testimony every waking hour of the day.
"They only way I've found to keep myself on a spiritual high is just to live in a prayer. Logically: if prayer is defined as an alignment between child and Father, then I try to live my life in a constant alignment process; a repentance process I guess. And if the foundation of your life is leading a better life tomorrow, how can tomorrow not be better than today?
"So just set goals and create key indicators for "vital behaviors"; things that you know will help you get over the things that before your mission were hindering you from being where you're at now. Hold yourself accountable to your fulfillment of these vital behaviors often.
"Those are the things that have kept me sane from the mission anyways! :) The best compliment I've received since I got home was when I attended a mission farewell of someone I knew in the mission. A member I haven' seen in a full two years, after remembering I was "Elder Chandler", asked me if I was just on exchanges and why I wasn't wearing my tag anymore. After I told them I had been home for 4 months, they told me "I never would have guessed - you still have that missionary look about you". It doesn't get any better than that!"
