"Hi Everyone, Wow! We just had the week that Mission Presidents only have nightmares about. Right in the midst of several conferences on the Western Slope that we were really looking forward to, we had two runaway missionaries. An Elder in Denver took off on foot with his luggage. I am not sure where he thought he was going to go without any transportation or money but he was gone for a few hours. Someone spotted him in the park and called the nearest missionaries who tried to talk to him. He would not talk to them and just told them to go away. Next thing we knew, he disappeared again without the luggage, he just left it in the park. They finally found him in the nearest church, Praying! After much persuasion, our Assistants were able to talk him into going back to his apartment and they stayed with him all night. His companion was with some other Elders all night. We were 4 and a half hours away in Grand Junction. What a helpless feeling that was! We were so relieved around 11:30 that night that he was safe.
The next morning, we were preparing to go to a conference for some of our Sister Missionaries when that same Elder called us and said that he was going home. He was adamant about it. All of this was so shocking because this Elder is one of our best missionaries. He has been very obedient and diligent and effective. He has also changed the lives of all of his companions. We need this Elder to stay and of course, the Lord needs him to stay.
That same morning, one of our Sister Leader Trainers, who was supposed to be in charge of the conference was so sick that I had to take her to and urgent care center. We were there for 5 1/2 hours. While we were there, Blake called me to tell me that one of our Sister Missionaries had run away and left a note for her companions (she was in a threesome) saying that she loved them but it was time for her to leave. She only took her purse and small bag with a notebook with her. I felt like he had just kicked me in the stomach. She was serving in a very small town where everyone knows each other and everyone was looking for her including the police. We were just sick inside. We hurried and ate and prayed and called her mother to tell her (that was the hardest phone call ever) and then we ended up leaving right after the conference and driving to Denver to talk to our run away Elder that night. After the Sister had been missing for about nine hours, they found her. As soon as I heard, I just started crying with relief.
One of the biggest problems that we have in the mission is the mental health of our missionaries. Missions are stressful and if there are any tendencies for mental illness, it will come out in the mission field. And when they are suffering, we suffer with them. We love them! Winter scares me because I know that it is only going to get worse as the days get darker. We are keeping the LDS Family services busy and we are so grateful that we have their services here.
I received a phone call from one of our new sisters and the minute she started talking to me, she started crying. My heart broke immediately. It really is just like when one of your own children is hurting over something. I asked her what was wrong and she said that she was feeling so homesick and sad and had a terrible stomach ache every day and that even though she had gone to college for two years before her mission and been away from home, she had never felt like this before. I told her that when President Murdock got home, we would call her and he would give her a blessing.
After we ate dinner, we called her and she and her companion came over. We talked with them and Blake shared with her the letter that I sent you, {redacted}. She loved the letter. I talked with her companion and then she received a priesthood blessing. She seemed much happier when they left. We saw her again yesterday and she was 100% better. She is so cute and she will be such a great asset to this mission. Her companion is fantastic too. We love them so much. We love all of our missionaries so much.
The third Elder had recently started on an antidepressant that had the rare side effect of causing deeper depression and suicidal thoughts. We had him come over to our house immediately. I happen to have the Dr.'s cell phone number and texted him on Sunday night to ask if I could call him. He was kind enough to respond and he was able to squeeze him in on Monday morning. Blake took the Elders to the Airport while I took the other Elder to the Dr. He switched his medicine up completely and now we are fervently praying that the bad one will hurry and get out of his system and the good one will start working soon. In the mean time he has been living with us.
We went home and fixed dinner and then a couple of our Sisters came over after their church ended. They had called on Saturday and one of them had just had a panic attack and they were both so stressed out. We talked with them for over an hour and gave one of them MOQ which is a series of question determining depression and anxiety. Blake gave her a blessing and then we fed them and then they left. They had not been gone longer than 30 minutes when they called and felt like the other Sister needed to talk to us in more depth. We told them to come back.
We then talked to the other Sister, gave her the MOQ and Blake gave her a blessing. While they were still there, some Elders dropped by to talk to us about one of their new investigators who claims to be responsible for the deaths of 8 people. He did not clarify that. They said that he was a referral from a member and they taught him in the member's home. They said that he seemed very sincere and had a great desire to know truth. We just told them to always teach him with the member and to follow the spirit. By this time, it was 9 o'clock. I called one more Sister to give her the MOQ. That was the 4th one that day. The darker and colder it gets, the more our missionaries struggle with depression. It worries me greatly. Many of them never had problems before now. Missions are stressful! And missions are wonderful. We love being here and we love being able to share this great message with the people here in Colorado. We know that we are so blessed by this wonderful opportunity. We love our missionaries and we love all of you and appreciate all of the prayers that are said on our behalf. Until next week….we love you!"
I do not understand why there is so much mental illness. It just plagues too many of our missionaries and then it affects all of their companions too. Every time my phone rings, I almost dread answering for fear that it is another missionary with stress, anxiety, or depression and so many times it manifests itself in physical illnesses. I know that we are not the only mission that is seeing this and way too many kids are having to go home. I would have never guessed that we would be dealing with this to this extent
I picked up Blake at the house and we went to visit some Elders at their home. One of these Elders has been suffering from depression his whole mission (he has been out a year) and most of his teenage years. He has been telling us that he just wants to go home for about a month now. We finally got him talked into going to a doctor to get some medication but he has this great worry about side affects. He did start on some medication on wednesday night and said that it made him very irritable the next day. He took it again on Thursday night and again he felt very irritable all the next day. I called the Dr and told him about the irritability and he said that would be extremely rare but not impossible so he change the meds. When I called the Elder to tell him that we were changing the medication, he refused to even pick it up from the pharmacy and said that he just wants to go home. That is why we went to see him. After much pleading and expressing to him how much we love him and begging him to try this new medicine, we finally talked him into thinking and praying about coming to live at the mission home for the rest of the transfer and giving the medicine a chance to work. Blake then gave him a blessing and we went home."
*note, the source is an anonymous posting from another board, but by a poster with a track record of accurate postings from blogs.
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
I gotta give props to how this woman is handling all this. Much better than I expected to be honest and it is touching to see how much she cares for these kids.
*note, the source is an anonymous posting from another board, but by a poster with a track record of accurate postings from blogs.
wonder why the person on RFM just didn't link directly to coloradodenversouthmission.blogspot.com from whence the posting came. It is originally from September 2013.
MrStakhanovite wrote:I gotta give props to how this woman is handling all this. Much better than I expected to be honest and it is touching to see how much she cares for these kids.
Whilst not disagreeing with you, the fact that she is sharing this type of delicate personal information in the general public domain is a tad insensitive.
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
I was just digging in to the clean up when Blake called me and said that he needed to come home to tell me about something bad that happened over the weekend. I immediately felt sick to my stomach. Ten minutes later, he walked in the door. Apparently some of our Elders took a mission car from Denver over to Grand Junction over the weekend and met up with a few other Elders in the West and went to a party at the college. One of them felt so guilty that he called and confessed. The original report was worse than what really happened and we were afraid that some or all of these Elders might have to go home. After talking with each of them individually and calling our IFR we determined that we wanted to keep all of them here. We love them and we want to help them become the best that they can be not only on their missions but for the rest of their lives and throughout Eternity. They were all really humbled and I am pretty sure that I have never seen Blake that mad before. We were really starting to think that we were making headway with the obedience factor. I really think we are for most of the mission but there is a group that has felt that they are above the rules. I think they know that they are are at the end of the rope on mercy and this is their last chance.
Wednesday nght was spent interviewing and talking with the disobedient Elders and arranging for some emergency transfers. That is always discouraging one day after regualr transfers. Thursday was more disciplining in the morning and sadly one of our sweet Elders went home because of issues with anxiety and depression.
After we had just had this major disciplinary problem with some of our Elders, it is good to talk to some of the others and hear that they have some of the same problems or even worse. Of course the best part of the seminar is the instruction we received from Elder Nelson and his wife and Elders Christensen, Martino, and Gadoy. We are so blessed to have such wonderful leaders who are there for us. This conference focused a lot on stregthening and converting our own missionaries. We also talked a lot about some of the issues we face as a society today like same sex marriage. Elder Nelson said that as soon as sin is universally legalized, it will become illegal to preach the word of God.
The Elder that switched medicine last week just could not stand to be here a day longer. He really just needs to go home and get concentrated help and we just cannot do that here. He was pretty happy to be going home even though I know that his parents are devastated.
Contrary to popular belief in the church, missions truly are not for everyone. They are wonderful for most but when young men and women suffer from depression and anxiety, missions just emphasize everything and there is no outlet.
That said, with the Book of Mormon, we are not dealing with a civilization with no written record. What we are dealing with is a written record with no civilization. (Runtu, Feb 2015)
MrStakhanovite wrote:I gotta give props to how this woman is handling all this. Much better than I expected to be honest and it is touching to see how much she cares for these kids.
The system may be a mess, but there's no question that most of the people involved love the missionaries and do their best to care for them.
Is this the same mission with the sister that filled the baptismal font with Old Spice for her stinky investigator? If I recall correctly, that sister was in Denver, but Spanish-speaking.
Trimble, you ignorant sack of rhinoceros puss. The only thing more obvious than your lack of education is the foul stench that surrounds you.
Maybe the situation would get better if they send younger boys and girls on missions. (Unveiled sarcasm)
a.k.a. Pokatatorjoined Oct 26, 2006 and permanently banned from MAD Nov 6, 2006
"Stop being such a damned coward and use your real name to own your position."
"That's what he gets for posting in his own name."
2 different threads same day 2 hours apart Yohoo Bat 12/1/2015
I do not understand why there is so much mental illness. It just plagues too many of our missionaries and then it affects all of their companions too. Every time my phone rings, I almost dread answering for fear that it is another missionary with stress, anxiety, or depression and so many times it manifests itself in physical illnesses. I know that we are not the only mission that is seeing this and way too many kids are having to go home. I would have never guessed that we would be dealing with this to this extent
When does homesickness become a mental illness worthy of medication? How common is the practice of medicating the symptoms? Who decides....?
While I can tell the writer cares about the missionaries, and I am glad to see that she recognizes that missions are not for everyone, there is something unsettling about this to me.
For one, the public nature of it is insensitive. Missionaries have access to the internet and are probably aware of this blog and it seems to me that sharing this type of information could lead to gossip among the missionaries.
Also, while she says that missions are not for everyone, she talks about the great pains to keep the people on a mission even when it is clear they don't want to be there. Perhaps she came to the realization that missions are not for everyone after these experiences, but it just seemed like the mission experience was causing these missionaries a lot of distress and yet great effort was put in keeping them on the mission.
I think it is over broad to label anyone who struggles on a mission as mentally ill. This places all the blame on the missionary, when I think there are aspects of mission life that can greatly influence the negative experience some missionaries have. The missionaries are isolated from their families and have virtually very little meaningful communication with them. They are isolated geographically. They have a very small living allowance that barely covers necessary expenses. They are given virtually no choice in dress and grooming standards. They are given no choice in who the live with. And this goes on for 2 years! It's not just that missionaries who struggle are mentally ill (though some certainly are). The mission environment plays a huge role in the experience the missionaries have. It would have been nice to see her acknowledge that there were changes in the environment that could be made to help people who struggle being there.