This is for encouragement, ideas, and support for people going through a faith transition no matter where you hope to end up. This is also the place to laugh, cry, and love together.
I am traveling to England next month for a work conference, taking my wife with me and we are going to spend a few extra days. I served a mission in England and haven't been back since (over 20 years ago), so I'm doing a lot of reflecting. I've had dreams of heading back to my mission many times, trying to find that one person I missed.
I might be seeing a few people I know from my mission, maybe even an old mission companion. It's just different now that I've transitioned my faith. I don't regret my mission, my wife even asked me if I did recently. It did open up a whole new world outside of Mormonism for me. In a way, it was the start of my faith transition.
Maybe I should knock on some doors while we're there?
Why not? If the opportunity presents itself. Seems like a really fun exercise in finding out what happened with some of those folks. In my case I have fb friended a few former mission contacts and in some cases have been very surprised at their current faith statuses. The retention track record has been horrific, but even without them being involved anymore there is still a connection of having shared a profound time in life with them.
2bizE wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2017 5:41 pm
Maybe it's an opportunity to take the misses to a pub for fish and chips and beer.
Get yourself a DFMB, relish in the things you couldn`t do.
Visit an old chapel if you really feel like.
But just soak it in, because missionaries miss out on so much.
"Getting the Mormon out of the Church is easier than getting the Mormon out of the Ex-Mormon"
What a great opportunity for you and DW. Don't have any regrets when you leave. Enjoy the things you missed the first time and see the things you do miss now!
I had a chance to visit my mission area once. It was fun to see a lot of familiar people again. When I visited a couple I had become pretty good friends with, they asked me whether I was going to ask them why they had not been active lately. I actually didn't know their activity status and I thought it was funny that they thought I would bring that up. They brought me to see some of the sights I had not seen as a missionary.
When I was a missionary, we introduced two people we were teaching because it seemed to us that they'd get along due to similar ages, interests, etc. We were right, and I still see photos on Facebook from trips their families have taken together, etc. I have no idea how much they attend church these days.
I don't remember the last time I had a dream about being back on my mission. They used to be pretty frequent, and of course it was always awkward because even in those dreams I was married and had a job and didn't see how I'd be able to function as a missionary.
2bizE wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2017 5:41 pm
Maybe it's an opportunity to take the misses to a pub for fish and chips and beer.
Get yourself a DFMB, relish in the things you couldn`t do.
Visit an old chapel if you really feel like.
But just soak it in, because missionaries miss out on so much.
Thanks Meilingkie. DW wants to go to a local LDS church service on Sunday and visit the London temple, so those are both on the itinerary.
I'm definitely going to go to many places that I wasn't able to before.
Korihor wrote: ↑Tue Mar 21, 2017 3:38 pm
That sounds awesome, I'd righteously jealous in a humble way that is both happy for you and subliminally plotting how to one-up you.
Have a great time "doing" all sorts of things there you couldn't last time.
Thanks Kor, one of my wife's friends (the one I mentioned earlier) feels the same way, both happy and jealous. She said she wants to plan our trip for us, all the things to do. She's a huge UK fan.
2bizE wrote: ↑Fri Mar 17, 2017 5:41 pm
Maybe it's an opportunity to take the misses to a pub for fish and chips and beer.
What's funny is that my wife's friend in the ward told her about this one pub we have to go to in London. Can't remember the name.
My wife served her mission in London, and even as a missionary she ate in pubs constantly. It's just the restaurant culture of England, not a rebellious ward member. (I feel like such a downer now...)
I didn't serve a traditional mission, because I converted as an adult. But based on how I have felt since learning about the lies, I would be so tempted to apologize to anyone I'd converted. I have apologized to the few people I feel I tried to sway while I was TBM. I even apologized to my adult kids, one of whom actually got baptized and then wised up.
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. Silver Girl is sailing into the future. She is no longer scared.
Have fun, Deepthinker. I served in Alberta and British Columbia in Canada but I have no real interest in going back. Certainly I have lost contact with anyone in the Great White North. Going through Banff and Lake Louise might be interesting, but I have no real interest in the temple in Cardston or the new temple in Edmonton.
I just wanted to give an update on my visit to England.
In short, it was awesome! Sharing the experience of driving around the English countryside with DW was great.
I went to a ward that I served in, and come to find out that Bigfatfraud on this forum is a member of that ward. I was able to meet her and her husband! I found out information about the single lady and her daughters that I had baptized in that ward so long ago. She passed away from cancer several years ago, and her daughters are no longer attending church.
I had a lot of time to reflect and remember my mission experiences. I still don't regret them. I see them as the first steps for me to begin to change my view of the world, the first bursting of my own Mormon bubble.
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