After serving his mission in the St. George, Utah mission, Tucker Arend, a freshman from California majoring in business management, said BYU–Hawaii would benefit from club tailored to returned missionaries to network, grow spiritually, and help others serve missions.
A personal goal for Arend is to help fulfill David O. McKay’s vision for this school to be a missionary factory. As president of the club, Arend said he feels there is a need for an RM club at this school. On his mission, he saw how helpful it was for returned missionaries to have resources to help them succeed professionally, spiritually and socially.
The next goal he see is to utilize the RM club to help prospective missionaries prepare to serve. Arend had the opportunity to help his younger brother prepare to serve a mission and said, “It helped him immensely, and equally helped me, as it reminded me of all the experiences that changed my life on my mission.”
Currently a full time missionary in Auckland, New Zealand, Dalvin Keil a sophomore from Samoa said, and environment with a temple, students who are active in church and live by church standards are important for helping return missionaries.
“There are missionaries who come home and go straight to school, and it can be stressful … It’s a very different environment, and it’s important to have that kind of club to help [with the adjustment.]” Keil will return to BYUH in January 2020 as an information technology major.
The treasurer for the RM club, Kody Finley, a freshman from California majoring in business management said, “Sometimes after the mission you can kind of forget about it, you set goals […] but it’s easy to forget those goals, living here on campus we have a lot of RM’s so it helps people stay accountable.”
Arend served most of his mission on college campuses. According to him, those colleges (Dixie State, Southern Utah University, and Snow College) had programs oriented specifically towards return missionaries.
Upon coming to BYUH, Arend said he wanted to meet people his age and looked for programs for RM’s, however he did not find any, he said this inspired him to start the Return Missionary Club.
Arend called this semester a learning process with the ins and outs of running a club. He said although it has been hard, he wants to keep the club going for those return missionaries who want to continue to help the gospel grow.
Finley said the RM club is designed to “bring return missionaries together, to do service, network, have fun, and continue discipleship after the mission.”
One event recently held by the club was a game night at the Hub, where they were all able to meet and get to know each other better. Finley said, “If all you do is school and work, it’s pretty hard, and it’s pretty boring too. When we do fun things as a club it makes things a lot better.”
According to Aredn, the RM club offers opportunities for returned missionaries to “socialize, learn and serve with similar-minded return missionaries.” The club recently had a workshop run by Career Services to teach them how to build their resumes. Specifically, they learned how to add the skills gained on a mission to a resume in a professional way.
Finley said the club wants to take part in the service projects held by the school as a way to help the community, they also want to do work for senior citizens in the Laie, Hauula, and Kahuku communities.
One major club goal is to get the club more firmly established in the coming semesters. Arend said the lack of an established organized club, with a set schedule was a major challenge this semester. To counteract this he plans on having bi-weekly seminars with guest speakers who cover various topics tailored for returned missionaries.