What Is an Early Returned Missionary?

An early returned missionary is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who comes home before finishing their assigned mission service period. Early returned missionaries come home for many reasons, including physical illness, mental health issues, family emergencies, spiritual crises, or personal situations that make continuing service impossible or unsafe. No matter the reason, the experience of coming home early as a missionary can be one of the most difficult transitions a young adult can face and is far more common than most families realize.

Every year, thousands of missionaries come home early, and yet it remains one of the least discussed transitions in Latter-day Saint culture. Missionaries who are returning home early are one of the most underserved populations in the church.

Returned Missionaries and Early Returned Missionaries: What's the Difference?

A returned missionary is any member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who has completed a period of full-time missionary service. Most serve for 18 to 24 months before being released and returning home. The transition home after a full-time mission is significant for any returned missionary, and many find the adjustment to regular life more difficult than they expected.

An early returned missionary, sometimes called an ERM, is a returned missionary who came home before completing their assigned service period. While all returned missionaries navigate a transition home, early returned missionaries face a much more complicated version of that experience. This is because they often carry feelings of shame, loss, and uncertainty about their identity and future that most full-time returned missionaries do not face to the same degree.

Both groups need support. At Returning Stronger, we specialize in working with early returned missionaries and their families, however we also work with and understand the issues that returned missionaries face with their transition home. It is very common for returned missionaries, regardless of how long they served, to find the transition home confusing and difficult and coaching can support in this process.

A Quick Note About the Words We Use

I want to take a moment and address the term "early returned missionary." The Church's own guidance for leaders asks families, friends, and ward members to simply call these young people returned missionaries, and to leave off the "early returned" or "early released" label, because the label itself can add to the stigma (Counseling Resources, Missionaries Who Return Home Early). I agree with this and work hard to help these missionaries to recognize that length of time does not dictate the success or value of their mission service.

So why do we use this term on our website and social media? Honestly, because it's what people recognize and type into searches when they are struggling and looking for support. We use the words people actually search for so families like yours can find us. But I want to be clear about where we stand. A missionary who came home early is a returned missionary and their service mattered and is accepted by God.

How Common Is an Early Return?

Research from the Next Mormons Survey, conducted by religious scholar Jana Riess and published by Religion News Service, found that among Millennial Latter-day Saints who served missions, as many as one-third came home before completing their assigned service: 35% of women and 29% of men. It is important to note here that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has disputed the specific figures cited in this study, noting that their internal data show lower numbers; however, those figures have not been publicly released.

What is not in dispute is that early returns are increasing and that mental and physical health appear to be the primary drivers. A study by Utah Valley University associate professor Kristine Doty-Yells (Doty et al., Issues in Religion and Psychotherapy, 2015), which surveyed 348 early returned missionaries, found that 36% came home for mental health reasons and 34% for physical health. This suggests that nearly three-quarters returned for health-related reasons, not issues related to worthiness. Only 12% came home due to an unresolved transgression.

These numbers matter even more right now. In November 2025 the Church lowered the age for young women to serve from 19 to 18, and by September 2026 there were more than 90,000 missionaries serving, including more than 30,000 sister missionaries, the largest group of sisters in Church history (Deseret News, 2026). This is wonderful news. However, more young people in the field also means more who will come home early, and the Next Mormons data above found sisters coming home early at a slightly higher rate than elders. A lot of families who never pictured this happening to them are going to face it in the next few years. I would rather they know what they could be walking into ahead of time than be caught off guard the way we were.

The data suggests that coming home early is common, the reasons are rarely what people assume, and the reception missionaries receive when they arrive home is of utmost importance.

Why Missionaries Come Home Early

There is no single profile of an early returned missionary. Some come home because of a health condition that originated or worsened in the field. Some struggle with anxiety, depression, or other challenges that became unmanageable away from home. Some face crises of faith. Others return due to family emergencies or personal safety concerns. Some are asked to come home by mission leadership for a variety of reasons.

What they all have in common is that they came home carrying a burden that many around them don't understand because they haven't been through it. And because of this, they return home to a community that often doesn't know what to say.

When researchers actually asked early returned missionaries why they came home, here is roughly how it broke down (Doty et al., 2015; Religion News Service, 2018):

1. Mental health, 36%
2. Physical health, 34%
3. An unresolved transgression from before the mission, 12%
4. Breaking mission rules, 11%

The rest came home for other reasons, like a family emergency or a personal decision. Put another way, less than a quarter came home for anything having to do with worthiness, which is close to the opposite of what many people may assume. The same research team found that most of these missionaries were well prepared, willing, and worthy to serve before they ever left (KSL, 2013).

One more number from that research stood out to me. Only 39% said they had any input in the decision to come home (The Daily Universe). For a lot of these young people the decision was made for them, sometimes in just a few days, and they get off the plane still trying to make sense of something they didn't want. I have found that a lot of the anger and confusion I see stems from exactly this, and it does help to name and validate that.

I go into each of these reasons in more depth in Why Do Missionaries Come Home Early?

What the Research Says About Shame and Stigma

I mentioned the 73% number above, and I come back to it a lot because it surprises people. But it isn't the only finding from that research that should get our attention. The same study found (Doty et al., 2015; Doty-Yells, 2017; The Daily Universe):

1. 46% didn't feel like they were "true" returned missionaries.
2. 40% felt pressured to go back out into the mission field.
3. About a third went through a period of inactivity after coming home, and about a third of that group never came back to church.
4. Half said they weren't as active in the Church as they had been before their missions.
5. About a third said their own friends and family were indifferent or unkind when they got home.

A newer BYU study published this year found the same pattern, with early return tied to noticeably lower church activity afterward (Hancock et al., 2026). When researchers sat down with early returned missionaries one on one, a lot of the same stories kept coming up. Ward members who didn't know what to say, so they said nothing. A leader who asked what they did wrong. No homecoming talk, so the whole ward could do the math (Doty-Yells, 2017).

What I have found in my own work is that the shame usually doesn't come from one big moment. It builds slowly. An awkward question at church, then a friend who stops texting, then a calling that never gets extended. None of those things are meant to hurt anyone. But when nobody says anything, the missionary often fills in the silence with a negative interpretation that is not flattering about them.

That's why I believe the way a ward and a family respond matters as much as anything the missionary does on their own. Most of the hurt I see could be avoided if the people around them simply knew what to say.

What the Return Home Is Like

I remember when my own daughter returned early from her mission. We were concerned for her well-being and grateful to get her home where we could assess her needs and provide her the support that she required. However, it was also a time of great uncertainty and concern. Despite being a professional in mental health for many years, I often felt like I didn't know what to say or do to help her in this process. That feeling of helplessness is shared by many families I have worked with.

For many early returned missionaries, the weeks and months after coming home are among the hardest of their lives. They often experience a profound sense of loss and struggle to find their identity and purpose. Many of their friends are still out serving. Ward members ask questions. Family members feel confused, not knowing whether to push them to return to service or give them space and accept that their return is permanent. The missionary themselves may not know what to say or who they are outside of the mission context.

Parents and families often feel equally lost. They prepared their child for a mission. They didn't prepare for this.

Loss, Grief, and Identity

Something I wish more people understood is that coming home early is a real loss, and it often looks a lot like grief. The Church's guidance for leaders recognizes this. It describes missionaries who come home early feeling like they failed or are unworthy, judging themselves harshly, and even going through stages of grief (Counseling Resources).

What are they grieving? In my experience it's usually several things at once:

1. The mission they pictured, including the companions, the people they were teaching, and the baptisms they hoped to see.
2. The homecoming they imagined, with the whole family at the airport and a talk in sacrament meeting.
3. The plan for the next few years, which was often built around getting home at a certain time.
4. Their sense of who they are.

That last one is usually the hardest. For years, a lot of these young people built their whole identity around becoming a missionary. Then all of a sudden they're home, the name tag is gone, and they don't know who they are without it. A 2019 study out of Utah State University looked at exactly this, early returned missionaries trying to figure out who they are while feeling judged by people at church and sometimes in their own families (Ferrell, 2019).

As a therapist I've worked with grief for a long time. Feeling and expressing grief doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It is an important way to express that you lost something that mattered to you. This kind of grief usually lessens with time, honest conversations, and people who stay close and care. But if the low mood hangs on for weeks, if you stop sleeping or eating, if you're pulling away from everyone, or if you have any thoughts of hurting yourself, please reach out to a doctor or a licensed therapist. If you're in crisis, call or text 988 right now.

The Research Also Shows Real Growth

Here is the part of the research that gives me the most hope. A 2026 BYU study interviewed 17 early returned missionaries who stayed active in the Church, and it focused on areas where the stigma of coming home early tends to be the strongest (Hancock et al., 2026). Six themes showed up for most of them:

1. Their sense of identity changed and grew.
2. They looked toward the future with optimism.
3. They came to terms with what happened, both in how they thought about it and how they felt about it.
4. Their religious conviction got stronger.
5. They had more empathy for other people.
6. They saw things differently than they had before.

Kristine Doty-Yells found something similar in her interviews. Most of the young men she talked with said they wouldn't change how their missions ended because of what it taught them. She described them as choosing to be "refined by their experience rather than defined by it" (Doty-Yells, 2017). I have watched that happen with my own daughter and with many of the young people I've worked with. It usually takes time and some good people around them, but I have seen it more often than not.

How an Early Return Affects the Whole Family

When a missionary comes home early, in a way the whole family comes home with them. A study of 199 parents of early returned missionaries found that parents struggled with the early return process itself, with how little communication they often got from the mission president, with feeling unsupported by some leaders and ward members, and with their own adjustment (Doty-Yells et al., 2017).

The researchers looked at this partly through something called ambiguous loss, an idea from family therapist Pauline Boss. Ambiguous loss is when you lose something without a clear ending or any recognized way to grieve it. That fits this experience really well. Your child is home and safe, and you're grateful for that. But the mission, the plan, and the picture you had in your mind are gone, and nobody brings a meal or sends a card for that kind of loss. A lot of the parents I work with feel guilty for even feeling sad about it.

Kristine Doty-Yells, whose research is behind most of what we know about early returns, is also the mother of two sons who came home early. She has written about how, the second time it happened, she felt like her competence as a mother was being called into question (Doty-Yells, 2017).

If you have felt something similar, please read this. The Church's guidance tells leaders to help parents understand that their child's early return doesn't mean they did something wrong as parents, and that they don't need to blame themselves or anyone else (Counseling Resources). It also encourages families to focus on their missionary's healing instead of on how things look to other people.

A few things I have found that help families:

1. Talk about it as a family, including with younger brothers and sisters who may be preparing for missions of their own and have questions they're afraid to ask.
2. Get on the same page as parents. It's really common for one parent to want to push and the other to want to wait. Work that out between the two of you, away from your missionary.
3. Let your missionary tell their story when they're ready, and in their own words.
4. Take care of yourself too. It's hard to be steady for your child when you're running on empty.

What Early Returned Missionaries and Their Families Need to Know

Coming home early is not the end of the story. For many early returned missionaries, it becomes one of the most defining chapters of their lives, not because of what happened while they were out in the field, but because of what they choose to do next.

The transition home can be challenging, but it is manageable. What makes the difference is different for every missionary. Some serve successfully as service missionaries and find a lot of worth and value in that. Others feel unfulfilled in that process and the differences between the service mission and full-time proselytizing missionary work just further compound their feelings of failure and inadequacy. It is important to really try to treat each individual as a unique person with feelings and needs and not impose what we think they should do or feel. Don't try to pretend everything is okay or back to normal. And don't feel the need to rush back into regular life. Some missionaries need time to heal and reflect, while others need to stay busy. What they all have in common is this: they need not face it alone.

Early returned missionaries need to know that what they accomplished was enough and that God accepts their service and is pleased with their efforts. The late Jeffrey R. Holland, then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, spoke directly to missionaries in a video released in March 2016. He spoke about early returned missionaries, that they should trust in their ability to serve as long as they could and be proud of the time that they spent.

I know firsthand what many of these missionaries feel and go through and my heart goes out to them. Watching my own daughter struggle with feelings of inadequacy and failure when I knew that she had given it her all, was truly heart-wrenching. Our early returned missionaries need our love, compassion, empathy and validation.

Should You Go Back? Returning to Service

This is one of the first questions families ask me, and sometimes it gets asked the first night the missionary is home. I understand why. Going back can feel like the way to make everything right again. But again, returning to the research here, 40% of the early returned missionaries in the UVU study said they felt pressured to go back out.

The Church's guidance is really clear on this. Healing comes first. Decisions about going back should come later, after the missionary has fully recovered from whatever brought them home, and family and leaders should not pressure them (Counseling Resources).

When someone is ready to think about it, the Church describes three main paths (Returning to Service):

1. Going back to a full-time proselyting mission. This is called reinstatement. The stake president sends the Missionary Department a letter requesting it, the missionary writes a letter about their own feelings about going back, and if they came home for a medical or mental health reason, their treating professional writes a letter about their condition, treatment, and ability to handle the demands of a mission. If they've been home longer than a year, updated medical and dental forms are needed too.
2. A service mission. Service missions offer different kinds of service for different lengths of time (Service Missionary).
3. Other ways to serve. Where a service mission isn't available or isn't the right fit, the Church mentions callings like ward missionary or temple worker, or a local volunteer opportunity.

The Church also points out something I think families need to hear. Health often gets better at home partly because the stress of the mission is gone, and the demands of a mission can make the same problems worse again. Kristine Doty-Yells has shared that both of her sons went back out after coming home early, and both came home early a second time (Doty-Yells, 2017). I'm not saying going back is a bad idea. For some missionaries it is exactly the right thing. I'm just saying the decision deserves real time and consideration.

If you're trying to decide, here are some questions I'd encourage you to think through:

1. Why do I want to go back? Is it for me and for the Lord, or is it to fix how other people see me?
2. Has the thing that brought me home been stable for a while, and how would I handle it under the stress of a mission?
3. What do my doctor, my counselor, and my stake president think?
4. If it came back while I was in the field, what would I do, and do I have concrete tools to manage it?
5. Have I prayed about it, and do I feel peace either way?

And whatever you decide, the service you already gave counts. Not going back doesn't make you any less of a returned missionary.

Finding the Right Kind of Support

Most early returned missionaries need more than one kind of help, and it can be confusing to know who to go to for what. Here is how I would think about it:

1. Your bishop or stake president, for spiritual support and access to Church resources. They can also request free counseling through Family Services, up to six sessions for missionaries who come home early (Family Services, Missionary Services).
2. A medical doctor, especially if you came home for a physical health reason that still needs care.
3. A licensed therapist, if you're dealing with depression, anxiety, OCD or scrupulosity, trauma, or anything that has been severe, long-lasting, or getting in the way of daily life. If your missionary came home for mental health reasons, this is usually the first call to make.
4. A mentor, someone who has been where you are. The Church's guidance actually suggests helping early returned missionaries find a mentor and says it could be another returned missionary with a similar experience who found hope through the Savior (Counseling Resources). It's a big part of why peer mentoring is part of what we offer.
5. A coach, for when you're ready to start moving forward and want help with goals, direction, and accountability.

Since I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I want to be clear about one thing. Returning Stronger is a coaching practice, not therapy, and when I work with someone through Returning Stronger, I do it as a coach. Coaching can be a really good fit when someone is feeling discouraged or anxious because of what they're going through right now. But if the struggle is long-standing, severe, or clinical, a licensed therapist is the right place to start, and coaching can come alongside that care.

How Coaching Supports the Transition Home

Life coaching is not therapy. It is a forward-focused partnership designed to help someone get clear on where they want to go and build a concrete plan to get there. For early returned missionaries, coaching provides structure, accountability, and someone in their corner who genuinely understands the unique landscape of coming home early. Coaching provides a safe space for them to talk through their concerns, worries, doubts and fears and come out of this process with a clear path forward.

At Returning Stronger, we work with returned missionaries and their families to move from uncertainty to direction. We help navigate the process from that first difficult week at home to a life where they can thrive. Sessions are virtual, private, and available nationwide.

I built Returning Stronger because through the experience of navigating the early return with my daughter, we came to realize just how many other wonderful young men and women and their families were struggling the same way as we were. I wanted to make sure that these individuals know that they aren't alone. There is a place for them and we want their voices to be heard.

A Note to Parents

If your son or daughter just came home early, the most important thing you can do right now is lead with love and resist the urge to fix things quickly or push for the outcome you perceive as best. Give your child room to mend. Let them know their worth is not measured by the length of their service. And take care of yourself too. Parent coaching exists for exactly this reason, because you are carrying something heavy, and you deserve support as well.

For practical guidance on how to show up for your missionary during this time, read our full guide: Six Tips for Supporting Your Early Returned Missionary.

Resources for Returned Missionaries and Their Families

These are the resources I point families to most often.

From the Church

• Missionaries Who Return Home Early, the Church's guidance for leaders and families
• Returning to Service, the Church's options for missionaries who want to serve again
• Family Services, Missionary Services, including free counseling sessions requested through your bishop or stake president
• Supporting Returned Missionaries Who Come Home Early, Church young adult article, July 2019
• Returning Home Early from My Mission, a sister missionary's story, Ensign, December 2015
• Elder Holland's counsel to missionaries who came home early, video, March 2016

Research

• Return with Trauma: Understanding the Experiences of Early Returned Missionaries, Doty et al., 2015
• Stopping the Stigma: Lessons from Early Returned Missionaries, Doty-Yells, 2017
• The Experience of Parents of Early-Returned Missionaries, Doty-Yells et al., 2017
• Developmental Themes Associated with Religious Activity After Early Return from a Latter-day Saint Mission, Hancock et al., 2026
• BYU Belonging: Resources for Early Returned Missionaries

More From Returning Stronger

You can also hear real early returned missionaries and their parents tell their own stories and share advice on our podcast, Returning Stronger Stories, on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.