Perfectionistic Mormon Missionary Sent Home Early From Brazil - Debora Meireles Ling | Ep. 2128
Mormon Stories Podcast
Dr. John Dehlin
4.5 • 5.7K Ratings
🗓️ 23 March 2026
⏱️ 196 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Today, Debora Meireles Ling joins John and Margi to share her journey growing up in a deeply orthodox LDS family in Brazil, where Mormonism shaped nearly every part of her life. As a teenager, Debora felt intense pressure to live the gospel perfectly and struggled with perfectionism as she tried to meet the expectations placed on faithful members.
Debora was called to serve a mission in the São Paulo South Mission, but the experience quickly became overwhelming. After experiencing severe anxiety and panic attacks, she was sent home early—a devastating event she initially interpreted as a punishment from God. She reflects on the emotional toll of mission culture and the challenges missionaries can face when mental health struggles arise.
After returning home, Debora worked to rebuild her life while remaining deeply committed to her faith. She eventually married a fellow returned missionary, and together they tried to build the kind of life they had always been taught to pursue within the Church. Over time, however, new questions and experiences began to challenge some of the assumptions she had carried for most of her life.
This conversation explores perfectionism, missionary culture, mental health, and more.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, everyone, and welcome to another edition of Mormon Stories podcast. |
| 0:03.0 | I'm your host, John DeLyn. It's February 12, 26. And today we are interviewing Deborah Mareles Ling. Hey, Deborah, how's it going? Good. Thank you for having me. It's so great to have you. I'm excited to be here. Yeah, we're excited to have you. I'm here with Margie. Hey, Margie. Hello. |
| 0:22.2 | And Deborah's story is just so interesting for us on so many levels. What we're trying to do |
| 0:28.5 | Mormon stories is have great storytellers telling great stories. We think you're really going to enjoy |
| 0:33.9 | Deborah as a storyteller. She was born and raised to a super devout Mormon family |
| 0:38.8 | in Brazil, served a mission for the church, and then ended up coming to the United States |
| 0:45.9 | and marrying someone from her mission and then raising her family here in Utah. And it's a fantastic story of a devout Mormon upbringing |
| 0:58.6 | and then along the way having the faith be challenged a little bit. |
| 1:04.8 | But Deborah, welcome to Mormon Stories podcast. |
| 1:08.0 | Thank you. |
| 1:09.0 | Anything you want to say by way of introduction, maybe what part of Brazil you're from |
| 1:15.0 | or an intention or anything like that? |
| 1:18.5 | Well, I'm from a little city in Sao Paulo called Hibernant-Pretto. |
| 1:23.5 | That's where I was raised. |
| 1:25.6 | And I think my intention in coming, |
| 1:34.5 | I think a lot happens when you're deconstructing and it can be quite a lonely feeling. |
| 1:37.5 | And when people speak out about their experiences |
| 1:42.6 | and they talk about it openly. It was something that when I |
| 1:47.8 | needed it, it really helped me. So I hope that I can do the same for somebody. And I also, |
| 1:54.3 | you know, just maybe a little selfish of me, but I think it can be also very therapeutic for me |
| 1:59.3 | to talk to somebody about my story |
| 2:02.9 | from beginning to end. |
... |
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