I Don't Believe in Early Release Missionaries
"Sister Mayne, you're going home on Wednesday," my mission president told me, without preamble, over the phone that my senior companion had just passed me. I finally understood in that moment what it meant to be struck dumb, to have a stupor of thought. I had no words to say. I felt suddenly hot and it wasn't from the sweltering Arizona August day. It wasn't supposed to go this way. I wasn't supposed to fail. It took a lot of time to come to terms with the fact my mission was not a failure. That I was not a failure. And though, I eventually accepted that fact it was finished, I could not stop feeling like I left it incomplete. I knew my mission "counted", and that I was able to help people come unto Christ while I served for the first 8 months of 2013. But somehow I still felt ashamed. I still felt like I only gave part of my heart, might, mind and strength. I felt like if I had done something different, I could have completed my mission, not just en