047: Jacob shares his story of returning home early for physical health reasons, dealing with judgement, and ceasing his habit of seeking validation from others.

Early Homecoming: Insights from Missionaries who Returned Early

Jacob started his mission journey long before he even got his mission call. Overweight and insecure, Jacob decided to make some changes. He got into body-building and realized it was a way from him to grow and push himself. He decided to apply this new mentality to all areas of his life, including spirituality, and eventually decided to serve a mission.
However, as soon as he arrived in his mission, he began experiencing breathing problems, possibly due to the recurrence of a childhood illness, and then later had a hard time swallowing. He managed to stay for seven months, but finally needed to go home. He stated that he believes that if he'd been able to take care of his physical health more, especially through more exercise, these illnesses would not have bothered him as much, or perhaps not have occurred at all. His health improved dramatically once he resumed his workout routine.
Jacob was lucky to have a lot of support from those around him, although he did also deal with some judgement which really bothered him for awhile. Ultimately though, Jacob learned to stop seeking validation from others and to love and accept himself as he is, to set goals for himself, and to understand more fully his divine potential.