I think it’s a wide-known fact that when LDS missionaries come home from over a year of serving the transition between mission and home life can be somewhat jarring. It’s interesting to think there is an MTC to condition these young men and women to go into the mission field, but there’s no training for them to be able to readjust to home life.

As a recently engaged woman, I know how antsy I was about my engagement. I asked my now-fiance` for two weeks, and eventually planned on flash mobbing him with a proposal. I figured maybe this would give him the courage to ask me later.  However, the difference between my fiance` and the young man in the video is that he has been back from his mission for almost three years – and beat me to the punch.

If you are waiting for a missionary, give them some time to breathe when they get home. Even if you keep in contact over mail throughout their mission, a letter is not the same as spending quality time with that person. Can you imagine if this young lady flash mobbed her missionary and he said no? She would have been crushed, feeling like the last two years of her life were a waste. My fiance`was so nervous about coming home from his mission he threw up when he thought about adjusting to home life. I can’t imagine what he would have been like if he came home to an immediate proposal.

This is why I think a missionary’s focus should be primarily on their mission. I don’t have anything against waiting for a missionary. In fact, there’s a concrete way for missionary’s to know if their significant other will wait for them. Go to the temple grounds, say a prayer, and walk around the temple seven times clockwise. Afterwards, if the statue of Moroni turns and gives you the thumbs up, they’ll wait for you.

I like to think of it this way: If you truly believe you will marry your missionary, you will be sealed in the house of the Lord for time and all eternity. The people that will be touched spiritually by your missionary only get him or her for 24 or 18 months, and then they’re gone. Especially in foreign missions, chances are your missionary will never see those people again, and you get them forever.

Obviously this isn’t true in all cases, and waiting for a missionary can be a growing and loving experience –  but give your missionary some time to readjust before asking the big question, because you might find out that they’re not the person you want to spend eternity with. And as my parents always told me, forever is a VERY long time to spend with the wrong person, but it’s not long enough to spend it with the right one.