Randy Bott: 'Don't return from your mission'

PROVO, Utah — Before one of the most sought after religion

professors at BYU stands before his lecture halls each day, he spends some

early-morning time in his office.

Alone. No calls. Few interruptions. Just silence.

"Then I turn on my computer," Randy Bott told a

crowd of several hundred returned missionaries Thursday, Nov. 19, at BYU during a lecture

titled, "Is there life after a mission?"

As a portion of tranquility tiptoes from his office, a sort

of commotion creeps in as he opens a batch of e-mails, brimming with questions

from an array of young Latter-day Saints Bott has taught during his 40 years in

church classrooms. Some messages are so despairing his 64-year-old hands

tremble at the keyboard answering.

Ironically, though, Bott says it's this daily routine of

losing himself in other people's troubles that's kept him from having much of

his own.

"I figure all mine out while I'm helping you," he

told the crowd.

Bott's overall theme of advice for newly returned

missionaries, to metaphorically not come home but to continue mission

practices — such as losing themselves in service, was a targeted strike against

the common mistake for missionaries to return their focus completely back to

themselves after they get released.

"The greatest tragedy is the missionary who tries to

return," the white-haired professor said frankly. "Don't go back (to

pre-mission life)."

He said the MTC, and ultimately one's mission, is a pre-game

warm up for life, not just a brief spiritual intermission.

"You don't go to school to get you bachelor's, master's