Why I have this book: Someone in a FB group recommended it (her friend wrote it), so I bought it on Kindle.
I was a little surprised at how this book ended. The FB group is for women who are questioning or have left the LDS Church, so I assumed the author's experience of her mission would be leading her down a similar path.
Granted, the first part of her mission was pretty awful. Her companions were horrible to her. She calls it emotional abuse as she looks back on it, and I agree. I have a son who was emotionally abused early in his mission, as well. I know it's not uncommon in foreign missions. Her mission improved, and it appears she ended up feeling pretty happy about her time serving as a missionary.
The epilogue suggests she had lasting trauma from the emotional abuse she suffered, but didn't really indicate how it has impacted her relationship with the Church.
I feel like that's a lot of spoilers, but I do think anyone preparing to serve a mission would do well to read this book to get a more realistic view of what a mission is like. Returning missionaries tend to report on the "best two years" (or eighteen months) of their lives, setting up future missionaries to believe their struggles on the mission are unique and that something must be wrong with them.
I gave this book four stars on Goodreads.
Clean.
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