Introduction

Suggestion for priesthood leaders: Review this introduction with the returning missionary.

Read:Congratulations on fulfilling your call to serve the Lord as a missionary. Your accomplishment is exceptional. During your mission, you were deeply engaged in teaching the doctrine of Christ, inviting souls to come unto Christ, and asking investigators to exercise great faith.

Discuss:What examples did you see on your mission of people acting in faith and trusting God? What can these examples teach you about trusting God and acting in faith as it relates to a job, education, and marriage?

Read:The Lord is leading “a great and marvelous work” (D&C 6:1), and this work requires your service. Elder M. Russell Ballard emphasized this with the following clarion call: “What we need now is the greatest generation of young adults in the history of the Church. We need your whole heart and soul” (“The Greatest Generation of Young Adults,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2015, 68). While you might think that your days as a missionary are over, this is not so.

The Lord has provided His plan of happiness for you. He will bless you as you embrace it fully. He has blessed you with special gifts and talents that will allow you to become everything He desires for you. You can fulfill your mission here on earth if you are diligent in seeking to understand and obey His will for you. This booklet will help you discover and accomplish your mission as a disciple of Jesus Christ. It will also help you become spiritually and temporally self-reliant.

The Savior has promised to help you with every needful thing in your life if you have faith and obey His word. To His disciples He said, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” He then asked, “And why take ye thought for raiment? … Your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things” (Matthew 6:24, 28, 32). He then marked the way forward for us, saying, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:33).

Discuss:How is your life’s mission a part of God’s plan of happiness?

Watch:Watch the video titled “The Greatest Generation of Young Adults” at srs.lds.org/mcm. (No video? Read the following.)

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland: “The call is to come back, to stay true, to love God, and to lend a hand. I include in that call to fixed faithfulness every returned missionary. … ‘Your Father in Heaven expects your loyalty and your love at every stage of your life.’

“To all within the sound of my voice, the voice of Christ comes ringing down through the halls of time, asking each one of us while there is time, ‘Do you love me?’ And for every one of us, I answer with my honor and my soul, ‘Yea, Lord, we do love thee.’ And having set our ‘hand to the plough,’ we will never look back until this work is finished and love of God and neighbor rules the world” (“The First Great Commandment,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2012, 85).

Discuss:What does having a “fixed faithfulness” mean to you?

Read:The scriptures teach us that we should pray “with all the energy of heart” that we may become “like him,” our Savior (Moroni 7:48). Truly, the Lord expects us to further His work by becoming like Him and by helping others to do the same. As a returned missionary, you should make this your goal. An essential foundation in achieving this goal is being able to stand on your own, both temporally and spiritually—in other words, being self-reliant. God has commanded that we become self-reliant.

To be self-reliant is to willingly own your life—to be responsible and accountable for developing your skills and providing for yourself while also continually serving others. We achieve this through exercising faith and trust in the Savior and His Atonement, obeying His commandments, and bettering ourselves and others. When we become spiritually and temporally self-reliant, we are better able to serve others and help the Lord fulfill His work to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man.

Ponder:What can I do now to be more spiritually and temporally self-reliant?

Commit:

If you participated in My Plan on your mission, review your plan again. Review the worksheet at the back of this manual, then read the quote by Elder Richard G. Scott (on the right). What is the Spirit prompting you to do? Write down those impressions, and commit to act upon them.
Share what you learned today with another returned missionary, young single adult, or a member of your family.
Please complete the online survey located at srs.lds.org/mcm.