Back on the Mission Dream

[Linked]

I have had a recurring dream that I go back on a mission since I returned home a decade and a half ago. They start with me needing/deciding to go on a mission again to proselyte for one reason or another, then somewhere in there I realize that I don't want to be there and I wake up out of sorts. They are unpleasant.

I had the dream again, but this time my reason for going back did not include proselyting. I was just going back to be in Japan, no pressure to preach, with a full understanding that I don't believe it anymore. I went to an apartment building, met with my companions who were totally cool with me not preaching, and just enjoyed my time there. It was more like college than the mission. I woke up refreshed and happy, a nice twist.

Anyone else have the recurring missionary dream?

[wtfluff]

Anyone else have the recurring missionary dream?

Not very often, and personally, I would call it a nightmare.

I've only had it a few times, but even back when I was a believer, I would refer to it like you do: unpleasant.

[Fifi de la Vergne]

Funny you posted this today -- I have had that dream often over the years since my mission, usually during times of stress or anxiety. I haven't had it much since I left the church, but I woke up from it yesterday with my heart pounding because in my dream I had misplaced my passport and they weren't going to let me back in the States. I was going to have to stay and keep being a missionary until it could get sorted.

[deacon blues]

I have missionary dreams but they’re rare. I had a significant one about seven years ago, after my shelf broke. I went in for an interview and I told my mission president, “I don’t believe in all this stuff anymore.” I figured my conscious knowledge of truth finally seeped down into my subconscious, and manifested itself in a dream.

[Red Ryder]

I've had a few where I find myself walking around in a T-Shirt knocking on doors and everyone opens the door with a funny look and asks why I have a drastic tan line around my neck? Then I wake up feeling like someone was trying to strangle me.

I've also had one where I endlessly ride a bike around an unfamiliar town. I wake up exhausted, disoriented, and can't go back to sleep for a few hours.

I have sleep issues that don't help either.

[Stig]

Yep. Pretty sure I'm keeping a tally in my dreams on the number of times I've been called to the same mission.

[Sheamus Moore]

I have that 'nightmare' from time to time too. In mine I have the sense that I have already served multiple missions - as well as, "Hey, I'm married now. WTH!" But she's not included.

[Stig]

I have that 'nightmare' from time to time too. In mine I have the sense that I have already served multiple missions - as well as, "Hey, I'm married now. WTH!" But she's not included.

Exactly. I also keep wondering how a mid-forties apostate got assigned to work with a bunch of young missionaries, as if I was just one of them.

[Phil Lurkerman]

I have that 'nightmare' from time to time too. In mine I have the sense that I have already served multiple missions - as well as, "Hey, I'm married now. WTH!" But she's not included.

Pretty much this. Getting less frequent but i'm closing in on 50. I always wake up relieved and pissed off at the same time.

[dareka]

Anyone else have the recurring missionary dream?

I still do, occasionally. I also served in Japan. When I do have the dreams I'm back with a young missionary as a companion, but I know that I'm married and too old to be on a mission like that. It's strange. I've been fortunate to be able to visit Japan for work several times (it's way more fun as a real person) but still, when I dream about it, I'm a missionary.

[slavereeno]

ditto

[mooseman]

Ive had them several times-where the call was extended and i keep asking if i can go home yet?
Or im called to a second, sometimes third mission because the church needs it and "itll be good for (me)" .
They arent necessarily bad or unpleasant, just stressful because at some point i start worrying about my son and whos watching him.

[alas]

Symptom of post traumatic stress, just so y'all know.

My DH still has them occasionally, at 69. They don't seem to distress him as much any more.

But now that he is retired, he has nightmares about being back at work. Just before and part of why he retired, his job got really distressing, the kind of situation where you get a job done, but meanwhile they change the rules and send it back for a do over and just as you finish the do over, they change again, meanwhile it has to clear 16 or so levels of signatures, who each let it sit on their desk for six weeks, then sign it without even reading it, meanwhile some dope up the line of command changes the rules again. After feeling like he was accomplishing nothing for a few years except to attempt to wade through piles of paperwork, he decided enough. So now that he is retired, he has frequent nightmares about being back, only now he is behind and doesn't understand what they are even working on, and his worst boss ever is the guy in charge.

[RS Teacher]

I used to have that nightmare frequently in the years following my mission. I would wake up feeling panicked and terrified, but then almost immediately filled with relief when I would realize I never had to go on a mission again. Wow! I hated my mission.