Former mission leaders shared practical advice at the Post-Mission Transition event on Thursday, Sept. 17 to returned missionaries in the Wilkinson Student Center by inviting them to “practice” their faith.
At the event hosted by the BYU Women’s Services & Resources, Barrie and Julie McKay, former mission leaders of the Missouri St. Louis mission, presented a plan of actionable items that could help missionaries transition better to post-mission life.
“We've given it a simple acronym and it’s PRACTICE,” Barrie McKay said.
They laid out the acronym as follows: pray often, read the scriptures daily (especially the Book of Mormon), attend church in your assigned ward, attend the temple, change through Christ, endure to the end and do everything in the name of Jesus Christ.
“It's hard. It's a challenge. But these are the things that help you practice,” Julie McKay taught.
They tied their message back to Christ, noting him as the source for strength when returned missionaries need help changing.
“Change is possible because of the Savior. If we didn't have the Savior, we couldn't change. He wants us to change. He wants to help us change,” Barrie McKay said.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints provides missionaries with a program called MyPlan in their final transfers of the mission to help set goals for life post-mission. However, plans don’t always go according to plan.
“Well, I think I neglected my morning prayers. I got to get back on that,” Joshua Gates said, who attended the event and returned from his mission in Albania nine months ago.
“I'm a returned missionary, and so I feel like a lot of missionaries come home and they're a little bit like, my gosh, I'm so stressed…." Claire Lowry, an event specialist with BYU Women's Resources and Services, said. "Just being able to come here and kind of have a similar format where they're listening for mission presidents and filling the spirit… and to see other missionaries alongside you and be like, oh, I'm not the only one that's learning how to do life after the mission.”
Lowry hopes that students will take advantage of all the resources that are available at BYU. She encourages students to utilize the many resources available to them, including those like this event for returned missionaries.