Comings & Goings
September 2026

It’s not how long you serve.   It’s not even how you serve.  It’s that you serve.

Serving as the Office Specialists, we see a lot of the administration of the mission.  We prepare for and receive the new incoming missionaries.  We also celebrate and send off the returning missionaries.

Those are the normal cases.

But we also see instances where a missionary may need to return home earlier than expected.  Sometimes it’s a health issue (physical, mental, or both ).  Sometimes it’s a worthiness issue.  Sometimes it’s an administrative issue (like documentation, or school starting, or Christmas coming).

And then, we see missionaries that are called to the Botswana/Namibia mission but don’t get here.  Same reasons.

It’s exciting and frustrating and disappointing and interesting.  While we do know the reasons occasionally, sometimes these changes happen and we have no idea why.

President Holland gave comments on this topic in a video entitled: 

Counsel for Early Returned Missionaries

Right now, it looks like we will finish our 18 months as scheduled, the counsel he gave is still useful to us.  When we ‘signed up’, there was an option for us to select 1 year, 18 months or 2 years.  Mark thought we ought to select the 2 year option.  Lynn suggested we select the 18 month, since you can always extend.  After discussion, we elected Lynn’s choice (there’s a different lesson about that action!).  Even though we elected 18 months, the question still hangs in the background: Should we have chosen the 2 year option?

So even though we aren’t ‘early returning’ missionaries, there might be a nagging thought in the back of our minds that maybe we didn’t serve completely.

Elder Holland's counsel says Don’t Think That.

So, we shouldn't.

Incoming

As Mark prepares for the new incoming missionaries, one of the parts of that preparation is the gathering of documents.  Botswana Immigration currently requires that our young missionaries have a Passport, High School diploma (or equivalent), Birth Certificate, Police clearance and a Seminary or Institute certificate.  There are some other documents, too, but these are the Big Five (that’s a play on the animals of Africa that everyone who comes wants to see).

The problem comes when a missionary is from a country with poor documentation standards (and thus does not have a Birth Certificate), or is new to the church (or even old) and has not done Seminary nor Institute.  If they cannot obtain the documents, they must be reassigned to another mission. That can be very frustrating for all.

Mark posts pictures of the incoming missionaries for the next transfer on the transfer board, and Lynn posts them on the housing board.  We come to imagine them and know them (through their documents) and interact with them via email as they get closer and closer to arrival day.  It’s very sad when they need to be reassigned away from the mission for whatever reason.

Outgoing

Sometimes, a missionary needs to return home before their normal term is complete.  Often this is a health issue.  Sometimes unknown before they arrived, sometimes undeclared, sometimes developed on mission.  These are heartbreaking.  We have had attempted suicide, anxiety/panic attacks, brain ulcers, seizures, onset diabetes, and anger management.  We usually know about these issues.

But sometimes, it’s a worthiness issue.  Undeclared/Unresolved previous worthiness issues, or on-mission transgressions.  These we rarely know the details of.  Still as heartbreaking.

And sometimes, a missionary is returning home a little early because school starts just before they might normally return.  The Mission President may, without discussion, adjust the release date forward or backward one transfer without consultation or permission from anyone.  Not even the Financial Secretary!

Similarly, the current set of missionaries that were scheduled to return in the December transfer (which occurs on 30 December) all requested (and received) permission to return in the November transfer (18 November).  They will thus be home in time to enjoy Christmas with their families, rather than getting home a few days after the holiday.  So they are all happy.

Standards

We have also internalized the importance of exactness in keeping the Missionary Standards.  For those missionaries who have been sent home for worthiness issues, it always begins with very small omissions or less than strict obedience.  The question always asked is: Where was your companion?  One missionary was sent home early because  his companion had transgressed but this missionary had not sought assistance at the early stage that might have prevented his companions' transgression.

You are responsible to protect your companion.

This is a long newsletter, but near the end of our service, we have learned a few things.  Too bad we didn’t know them 16 months ago!

Happy Note

On a more happy note, Botswana is celebrating its 60th year of Independence.  There’s a lovely sign along the A-1 highway with an American Flag and Bots60 emblem, where the USA is recognizing the event.

The local Stake held an Independence Cultural Day celebration with Singing, Dance and Botswana Riddle/Joke competition.  We didn’t know any of the answers because all of the questions were in Setswana (the local native language).  But they were all having fun, and we celebrated with them.