What does the “R” in “RM” stand
for? I’ve heard many variations on what RM does mean or should mean. One
professor I had said that instead of “returned missionary” it should mean “released
missionary,” explaining that after a missionary goes home they should not
return to their old ways. A mission, when done right, should be a great growing
experience for a young man. However, there are many missionaries who go home
and find themselves among their same friends and end up sinking back into old
habits and immaturities. In this way, my professor meant that an RM should
retain the lessons and growth he/she learned in the mission field in his/her
life. While, I agree with that, I also heard another great explanation of what
RM should mean.
Last month (July) I had the
opportunity and the great blessing to go visit Toronto and to go to church in
both wards in which I had served in Brampton, Ontario: Creditview and Heart
Lake. I got to share this great experience and amazing road trip with my best
friend, Garrett, after finally reuniting with him after two years. While we
were at the Heart Lake ward, we had the opportunity to talk to a man named
Felix. I’d never met Felix while I served in Heart Lake (he had been
less-active at the time) but I had heard about him from Casey, my future
roommate who had been in my MTC district and had served in Heart Lake about a
year after I left.
Garrett and I spoke to Felix for
a while. He is a man of such great faith and insight. He mentioned to me and
Garrett his thoughts on being a returned missionary (though I can’t remember if
he served a mission or not). Though having only been back in the church for a
relatively short time, Felix had taken to being a member missionary and that’s
where his idea of what it means to be an RM comes from. He mentioned to me and
Garrett that being a returned missionary is far different from being a retired
missionary. Though having “returned” from serving full-time, an RM (returned
missionary) by definition is still a missionary.
I really like Felix’s definition
of an RM. Just because I have returned from my mission (twice now), I am still
a missionary, a returned missionary. As cliché as it sounds, it is so true that
missionary work does not end when the name tag comes off. In fact, when I was
getting ready to come home from Calgary, my friend Eric wrote to me and said that
now, having returned home, is when the real missionary work begins, which is what
my mission trained me for.
As if the point Felix made wasn’t
clear enough, I started noticing by the end of my vacation how many
missionaries I seemed to run into. The first night I was in Grand Rapids with
Garrett’s family, we had dinner with the companionship of elders in their ward.
While in Brampton, we saw four different companionships of elders (the
Credtview elders, the Heart Lake elders, the Spanish elders, and the Brampton
ward elders). After visiting Brampton, we went to visit Palmyra (we got to see
my family and some old friends and Garrett LOVED the church history sites), so
of course we saw a good number of sister missionaries at the visitors centers
and historical sites. However, while in Palmyra, we also managed to run into a
companionship of elders while we were at the dollar store getting batteries. After
getting back from our road trip, during my last full day in Grand Rapids, we
had a visit from the sister missionaries in their ward. As if I hadn’t had
enough run-ins with missionaries during my trip, I guess I still wasn’t quite
getting the message that Heavenly Father was trying to get me to learn.
It wasn’t until I was at the
Dallas/Fort Worth airport that the lesson finally hit home. While waiting for
my connecting flight in Dallas, I ran into a group of missionaries returning to
Utah from Italy. I took the opportunity to chat with several of them (there were
at least six of them, elders and sisters, in total). I called Garrett from the
airport and told him about running into the missionaries at the airport and he
pointed out to me the lesson, that maybe it was a hint from Heavenly Father
that I wasn’t done with missionary work.
Arriving in Salt Lake City,
waiting for my ride, I got to witness those missionaries, returning from Italy,
reunite with their families. After nearly two years away from Toronto, it was
therapeutic to go back and visit and see that it wasn’t a waste of my time,
even though it was only three months. I even felt like a missionary again while
I was there and so did Garrett (I even had to remind Garrett at one point that
I wasn’t his companion, when I had to run back to the Sunday School room in
Heart Lake to retrieve my scriptures and I found Garrett following me). After
such an amazing vacation, I cannot imagine a better ending to it than seeing
those missionaries reunite with their families again. To those elders and
sisters (if somehow they happen to chance upon this) remember that you’re not
done:
You’re a returned missionary, not
a retired missionary.
(I guess you could basically say Garrett was my last companion in Toronto :D)
