4 Things I Have Learned as an Early Returned Missionary

Since returning home early from my mission, there have been some lessons that I’ve learned. This is basically a look inside the head of a prematurely returned missionary. These are lessons I had never dreamed I would need to learn, but I felt I would share them because I know I’m not the only one who has ever returned home early from a mission and I’m not the last who will return home early. So here are 4 things that I have learned since returning home early from my mission.

1. YOU CAN FOCUS ON YOURSELF. In fact, especially if you have returned home early for an illness or for mental health problems, you NEED to give yourself a little time for yourself and make sure that you’re doing ok. Seriously, DO THINGS THAT MAKE YOU HAPPY! Coming home early from a mission is NOT easy. All the plans that you had for yourself, they change in one instant. One day you were out there in the service of our Father in Heaven, the next you’re sitting in the back of your parents car thinking, how did I end up here so early? You’re gonna wanna be sad. All the time. 24/7. But please don’t drown yourself in sadness. God did not design us to be sad, He designed us to have JOY! He wants us to be strong and learn from this experience. So keep picking yourself up everyday. Go get your favorite food and some ice cream! Hug your mom! Go to the temple! Allow yourself to continue to feel the spirit. Just do whatever makes you happy and ALLOW YOURSELF to be Happy. Stay close to the Lord and He will lead you through these moments. Feel His hand guide you and help you to know what to do next. TAKE YOUR TIME. Don’t rush yourself. Go and get the help you need and take it slow. Just try and understand what God’s will is for you. Also always keep smiling! Never ever forget to smile. I know. It’s so hard to smile. But even if it’s the biggest fake smile, always try to smile. It will help so much! Then at one point you’ll realize that it’s a real smile again :)
2. YOU NEED TO SURROUND YOURSELF WITH GOOD PEOPLE! First off- Keep in contact with those that you met on your mission! Whether it’s your companions-other missionaries- converts- members. Trust me. They all want to hear from you. They love you so much! Don’t forget the love you have for them, I promise you that they have not forgotten you and all you did to help them. Also spend time with your family. Just let your mom hug you for as long as she wants- because not only will it help you- but it’ll help you too. Your family is feeling this just as much as you are. Trust me. Always be open with them and tell them how you feel. They will be a very big support for you through this whole thing, so don’t forget to love them and accept their help. They will love you unconditionally. Other people that will help you so much through this is your friends! The people that you surround yourself with and choose to be apart of your life are so important to who you are and how you feel. Also let your friends help you through this process. You’ll want to do it all by yourself, but you can’t. You need the Lord’s help and the help of those that surround you. Just surround yourself with those that lift you up and don’t be afraid to get back out there and do stuff with them! You don’t have to stay inside all bundled up remembering that you came home early from your mission, remember that God created us to have JOY so get out there with your friends and enjoy yourself :) You’re allowed to. I promise. 
3. PLEASE KEEP YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH OUR FATHER IN HEAVEN AND WITH JESUS CHRIST. Honestly these two people will help you the most through this process than anyone. They will give you peace. Christ’s atonement can also you help you through this trial. They believe in you and want the best for you. Keep praying. Keep reading the Scriptures. Keep attending the temple. Keep being a missionary!! Share your testimony- whether it be going out with the missionaries or bringing the spirit into your own home- you can ALWAYS be a missionary. Accept the church callings that come your way. Always stay involved in your relationship with Christ. 
4. The last lesson. Is for those who know someone who came home early. The number one thing, that no matter why they came home, LOVE THEM. This person needs to feel of your love. Because if they don’t feel it- it’ll be that much harder to be home. It’s an extremely difficult decision to come home early from a mission. They WILL have a million stories and feelings to share with you. Just let them share them. Let them talk about their silly companions and also how they’re feeling. Support them in what they want to do next. Share your testimony and love to them. The #1 thing that they need right now. Is a REAL friend. Just be there for them and let them know that you’re there. It’s like in a song from the Broadway Show “Hamilton”, “They are going through the unimaginable”. It’s hard to know what to do. But really just love and support them and you will do more for them then you expect. 

Coming home early is not an easy task. I know that it’s so hard, for the missionary, for those they left in the field, and for those who await them at home. 

I know that sometimes we don’t understand the plans of  God. We don’t understand why we came home. But he wants us to be strong and keep following His will. He loves us so much and will help us through all the things we have to go through. I am grateful for all I learned on my mission and all that i’m learning as I have returned home. 

Following His Will

Dear Friends. 

As many of you know, I am home from my wonderful experience serving as a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. These past 8 months have been the most life-changing and most beautiful experiences that i have ever had. I had to rely on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ more than I ever had before. I feel as though people out there may need to hear a little about what happened to me on my mission because it’s not something that normally happens. I want to share my story, so that others might be able to learn a little about what I learned.

Its a little long so sorry about that haha. 

My Companion and I were walking down a street that we had walked down many times before. We had just come from teaching a very interesting lesson and we were joking and talking while walking to our other investigators house. As we were walking, I thought I had seen a man walk into a house behind us so I thought nothing of it. But within three seconds he had my neck in the crook of his arm and he started shouting “SHUT UP!” I couldn’t breathe. I have never seen such a scared look on my companions face. The man reached down and tried to grab at my legs and carry me away. But I was firm. When he realized that he would not be successful in carrying me away, He then started to ask my companion for her money and saying that if she didn’t give him her money then he would cut me with the knife that he had (i never saw a knife but he kept talking about this knife that he had) My companion said that she had almost no money on her and he said well just give me all you have. She handed over her wallet and he started   to rummage through it to find the money (I really don’t know why, he had her whole wallet but he only wanted the money i guess) My next move, was probably not a super smart move, but there were whisperings that reminded me that my companion had ALL of the pictures from her mission on USB’s in her wallet, so i needed to grab the wallet from him, hand him the money, and then give my companion the wallet back. So I did just that! And he took the money and I threw my companion back her wallet. He then said that he was going to check us and pat us down to see if we had anything else. He tightened his grip around my neck, tighter and tighter, as he started to grab at my backpack and “search it”. I know that his intentions were not to search my backpack because his hands quickly wandered from my backpack to other parts of my body. As that started I thought to myself “No way is this happening right now.” But I couldn’t get myself out of his grip because he kept pulling it tighter. How I got out. I really don’t remember but a miracle happened and I was released from his grip about 30 seconds after he started to search me. That’s when me and my booked it from the guy. I didn’t even turn around to see his face. 

We then called the Zone Leaders- who we shared the area with- and we were immediately taken to safety by them. 

Y’all this experience. Was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me and in the moment, I really didn’t think I would have been set free and gotten through that experience, but i did because we have a loving Father in Heaven. 

I wanted to share this with y’all because I wanted y’all to know that our Father in Heaven loves us and he will protect us through all the storms that we face. When we were with the Zone Leaders immediately after this happened I was really shocked. I felt as though I couldn’t handle this.

They read us Doctrine and Covenants 122. I would urge y’all to go and read this chapter. “all these things shall give thee experience and shall be for thy good”. I knew in that moment, that all would be well. I accepted it as Gods plan for me. The months that followed were just as hard. The after effects  from this experience were not a joyous ride. I became sick and I lost my ability to sleep and I started to over work myself, which was not healthy. I had had to rely on the strength of Christ from his atonement to carry me through to do the things I needed to do. I just didn’t want to leave the mission without doing all that I could. But I know that God helped me do all that I needed to do in my mission.It  had also become not good for my health to stay out there in Peru. It was time for me to go home. I now know that there are things that I have to do here, I have a mission back here in the states. 

I loved my mission more than anything and if it was my will, I’d be there still if we’re being honest. But it is not my will. It is the will of the Father. I am going to do all I can to continue to do the things he asks me to do “I will go and do” Just like Nephi. 

Thank you everyone for your support, love, and prayers. 

I am improving now and doing all that I need to do! 

Keep on praying, Keep on working, and keep on doing all the Lord asks of you❤️

Thanks for reading this haha I know it’s long but I learned a lot. 

Love y’all

Chao ❤️

Haley Howe ❤️

¨I wanna be a missionary like you'' :_)

HEY YALL 
I don't have a ton to say this week but HEAVENLY FATHER HAS A PLAN. Always listen to the promptings of the Spirit. He will never lead you to do something wrong.
We went to the baptism of the cutest little girl this week in the ward next to us and she wants to be a missionary so bad!! Its so cute!!
I just want yall to know that even when we don't know the reasons, everything has a purpose and Heavenly Father teaches us alot through Trials.

I love you all!!
Have a good week
Hermana Howe <3


FOTOS!!
1-DIVISIONES!! Our sister leaders are the BOMB. They were killer sports and slept on the hard floor of our room :)
2-When the Elders tell you to look at the text they just sent you and that's how you found out that the prophet died. (Featuring our SUPER COOL PHONE its so high tech lol)

FELIZ AÑO NUEVO :)

Happy New Year Y'all!!
I hope you all had an awesome blast partying your way into 2018! Because I know the peruvians did (Fireworks for 2 hours at night--STRAIGHT way fun)
They also wear a TON of yellow for the new year because yellow is the color of prosperity. very interesting.

So this week we set A TON of goals as a companionship to just keep being the best missionaries we can be! and we have seen alot of the fruits of those goals this week! We hope to keep seeing many miracles and all that other good stuff!

I wanted to share one thing that our mission president had us to at the last Zone Conference that I thought was a cool way to set goals for the new year.
DEJAR-CONTINUAR-EMPEZAR 
        or in English
STOP- CONTINUE- START

He had us list out all the stuff we need to stop doing, all the stuff we need to keep doing and all the stuff we have to START doing. It really helped us to organize our goals and understand how we can improve. 

It was a really good week! I'm really trying everyday to improve and help these people the best I can.
I love y'all and I hope you have a good week this week and an awesome start to the new year

Until we meet again next P-day 
Hermana Howe <3

FOTOS
Here is a little Mashup of fotos from the past few weeks.
Ya got me sacrificing me companion to who knows but it was fun to take the foto. Us at the Zone Conference with the cool hats the mission president and his wife gave us for Christmas. Ya got us fist bumping because we´re basically Shawn and Gus from psych. Then you got a cute foto of us pretending to teach a family of cactus because these are the things you do when you're a missionary and you realized you haven't taken any pictures from the week haha. I love y'all

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!

Hey y'all!! 
I hope you have all had a Merry Christmas!! Its been a good week. We had like a million Christmas activities this week. Well just two but they were SO FUN!!!!! We tried to do an awesome thing with floating lanterns to LIGHT THE WORLD and we spent forever making the lanterns and WE WERE SO PUMPED. We had a mini concert with the stake and it was a blast! I sang O Holy Night with Elder Ujifusa. Ill try and get yall the video of that because it was WAY GOOD. Cant lie to you. Its good stuff. And then after that we tried out the lanterns and they all caught on fire and it didn't work and we all got super sad. But it was still good. 
We then had another ward activity and we did a talent show. IT WAS SO COOL!! They did some awesome traditional dances and the nativity! It was super fun. 

Christmas was really good. We just kind of chilled today and talked to the family:)

I love yall so much. 
Im grateful that I can be out here in the work of the Lord. I love to be out here in the work of the Lord :)

Have a great Christmas I love you all

Until next P-day 
Hermana Howe <3