LDS Family Services responds to priesthood leader requests for consultation, evaluation, and treatment in three basic areas of missionary experience. Our services include support for:
Prospective Missionaries
Our trained staff regularly meet with individuals to help determine social and emotional readiness to serve full-time missions. This is accomplished by request of the local Priesthood Leader. Our primary role is to provide professional input about a missionary candidate’s mental, social and emotional health so Priesthood Leaders can make informed decisions about potential missionary service. Services offered may include:
- Priesthood Leader consultation
- Prospective Missionary evaluation
- Short-term professional counseling
To locate an LDS Family Services staff member who is available to assist Church Leaders and members in your area, click here.
Speaking to future missionaries, Elder L. Tom Perry explained: “Missionary service is emotionally demanding. Your support system is going to be withdrawn from you as you leave home and go out into the world. … There will be days of rejection and disappointment. Learn now about your emotional limits, and learn how to control your emotions under the circumstances you will face as a missionary” (“Raising the Bar,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2007, 48).
Resources for physical and emotional missionary preparation
- Jeffrey R. Holland, We are All Enlisted, October 2011 general conference
- "Physical and Emotional Preparation," Missionary Preparation Student Manual
- Robert K. Wagstaff, "Preparing Emotionally for Missionary Service," Ensign March 2011
In-field Missionaries
Sometimes missionaries find it difficult to adjust to the social and emotional strains of missionary work. LDS Family Services or a designated resource may be available for brief assistance at the request of the mission president.
For leaders attempting to locate LDS Family Services in your area, click here.
Parents and family members can be a wonderful and productive link between the Missionary, and his sense of happiness and satisfaction in the work. “Parents can support their missionaries by praying for them daily, communicating by letter or e-mail once a week, and only speaking to them as outlined in the mission rules.” (Robert K. Wagstaff, “Preparing Emotionally for Missionary Service,” Ensign, March 2011).
Early-Return Missionaries
Some missionaries are released early due to emotional concerns. This is a sensitive time and requires both family and priesthood support. Professional assessment and treatment is often needed and is available through LDS Family Services, by request of the local priesthood leader.
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland said: “To those of you who have served or are now serving, we thank you for the good you have done and for the lives you have touched. Bless you! We also recognize that there are some who have hoped all their lives to serve missions, but for health reasons or other impediments beyond their control, they cannot do so. We publicly and proudly salute this group. We know of your desires, and we applaud your devotion. You have our love and our admiration. You are 'on the team' and you always will be, even as you are honorably excused from full-time service” (“We Are All Enlisted,” Liahona and Ensign, Nov. 2011).
To locate an LDS Family Services staff member in your area, click here.