lds missions

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Juan Camargo helps Hernan Saldana in the Marriott School of Business's Ballard Center for Economic Self-Reliance. (Holly Ferguson)

From left: Carlos Velasquez, Pearla Velasquez, Malia Johnson and Lorena Velasquez. Johnson was thrilled as a missionary to meet a family her father had taught and baptized years earlier in Molina, Paraguay. Her father had lost contact with them and was able to get in touch again because of her missionary service. (Malia Johnson)

After unpacking bags and spending a couple weeks home, it’s not uncommon to hear a returned missionary say longingly, “I just wish I could go back.” Former South Sau Paulo mission president Stephen Richardson and his wife Marianna Richardson taught a class during BYU'S Education week on Tuesday, August 16 to help young single adults transition into post-mission life.

Zayne Callahan answers messages from online investigators at the Provo MTC Referral Center. Callahan, who was born with spina bifida, served two years at the referral center. (Zayne Callahan)

BYU is used to men coming and going on missions. Professors, landlords and girlfriends all watch them leave. Coaches are used to these young men giving up their scholarships and handing in their uniforms for two years to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But for a young woman desiring to serve a mission, the experience is a little different. A mission for women is not an obligation.