We had a great week.  Nothing special, just business as usual.  On two different days I got to drive a brand new car  (Equinox) from the dealer to the mission office.  I always thought missionaries drove old, beat-up, used cars. Not so.  They get brand new cars and within 6 months they turn them into old, beat-up, used cars.  Well, not all of them do that.   Anyway, we are getting quite a few new cars and turning in some cars to be sold.  It's a very organized process.  Who knew there were so many amazing things going on to run a mission.

The weak after transfers I gets lots of phone calls for cleaning supplies.  It's pretty cute.  There are certain missionaries that really love a clean apartment, so whenever they move they call me and order more supplies, and maybe a blender.  Many missionaries like protein shakes for breakfast.  And they are really good with a banana.  Bananas are sooooo cheap here.

I've been trying to get a new apartment in Pittsburg, Kansas.   I needed someone to look at it Friday.  We haven't been up in that part of the mission so we drove up there, about 1 1/2 hours.  It was a nice drive, nice to get out of the office.  We had lunch with 4 cute missionaries, looked at the apartment, then came home.  We visited a family in Anderson on our way home.  We can't ever stay very long because of the 6 cats.

Saturday we had lunch with the Mission Leadership Council.  Elder Robbins has been here for 3 days, so the missionary leaders have been getting lots of training and we got to join them for lunch.  In the afternoon we went on a beautiful walk.

Missionaries that go home early

I want to say something about missionaries who go home early for various reasons.

* Medical Reasons:  Probably 1/4 of our missionaries have a form of mental illness.  That includes depression and anxiety.  We work with them.  We have professionals work with them.  If it reaches the point that they are harming themselves, or plan to, it's time to go home.  Many of them are really good missionaries and they want so badly to serve, but they just can't.  They are loved. They go home honorably.

* Making bad decisions:  I think I've been guilty of judging this process from home.  Let me tell you how it works here.  The decision to send a missionary home goes through the mission president, the area authority, the mission committee, and his/her stake president, all with the missionary's welfare in mind.  The decision is not made lightly.  Certain sins would automatically get you sent home with no chance to come back.   However, for say a technology violation, a missionary gets multiple chances to change, until it finally escalates into behavior that just can't allow a person to be an effective missionary.  It usually starts small, and gets big!  There are scams aimed at missionaries and we have had a missionary fall for one.  He can no longer serve because the infraction is serious and his family will be involved in a mess.  From here, no matter how serious the sin, they are shown lots of love from the missionaries, office staff, and mission president and his wife.   The mission president councils with them a lot and always has a little goodbye meeting with them.   If their mistakes allow, they are encouraged to come back..  And sometimes they do.  They do not have an honorable release.

*Missionaries who just don't want to be here: They come with an attitude. Some catch the vision and become great missionaries.  Some just don't and they go home.  They are treated with love.

* Missionaries who can't take care of themselves: They've never made a meal, they've never done the wash, they've never cleaned a toilet, they've never changed a tire, and worst of all they've never had to make a decision about what to do with their time. They just can't survive.  They are unable and/or unwilling to try.  They never make the transition into being a missionary and they are miserable.  They make the decision that they just want to go home.  Again, they are treated with great love here.

*** What I would hope is that in every situation, these missionaries would be treated with love at home too, in their ward, and in their community.  Treating them with disdain does not help them in any way. Love turns them toward repentance (if that's needed) and toward Jesus Christ.  We have taken missionaries to the airport from all of the above categories.  We always hug them and tell them we love them.   They have all been loved from here.  We also feel compelled to warn them that people in their home wards will judge them and assume the very worst about them. We encourage them to be strong and to remember that true friends don't judge true friends. Unfortunately the biggest challenge any missionary faces who goes home early for any reason is the poor treatment by those who should love them.