Many missionaries begin their mission with a mask of sorts in place – they hide their previous self and build a persona of a perfect missionary that they wear for at least the first part of their mission.
Eventually they encounter hardship which causes strain on this persona. Then they have to decide to keep it up or allow it to fade. Missionaries become most effective when they drop the mask; combining their good pre-mission attributes with those of their “perfect missionary” selves.
The mask actively hinders missionary work by distancing missionaries from investigators – true conversion and friendship almost always require connecting with others.
For more detail you can check out the book. There are also comments below with stories from others who have experienced it.
If you would like to share your own experience, please leave a comment!