Pass anonymous function result to parent function?

geocodeZipcode.js

/*
 * Takes a zipcode in string format
 * Sends it to Google Maps API
 * Returns an object containing latitude & longitude
 */

function geocodeZipcode(zip)
{
    var geocodeOptions =
    {
        'address': zip
    }

    // instiate the google map geocoder class
    var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();

    // places the results into a function
    geocoder.geocode(geocodeOptions, function(results, status) {

        // validate response and return location or error
        if (status != google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK)
        {
            // something wasn't okay, send error message
            return status; // exit early
        }

        var location = results[0].geometry.location;

        // build json object
        var latlong =
        {
            'latitude': location.lat(),
            'longitude': location.lng()
        }

        return latlong;
    });
    
    // return ?? 
    // how to pass the return statements from the anonymous function as the geocodeZipcode function's return??
}

So apparently the answer here is this thing called 'callbacks'. This is some mystical javascripty thingy that I don't understand yet. But somehow this works:

function callingFunction()
{
  geocodeZipcode(zip, function(results){
       console.log(results);
    });
}

function geocodeZipcode(zip, callback)
{
    var geocodeOptions =
    {
        'address': zip
    }

    // instiate the google map geocoder class
    var geocoder = new google.maps.Geocoder();

    // places the results into a function
    geocoder.geocode(geocodeOptions, function(results, status) {

        // validate response and return location or error
        if (status != google.maps.GeocoderStatus.OK)
        {
            // something wasn't okay, send error message
            callback(status); // exit early
        }

        var location = results[0].geometry.location;

        // build json object
        var latlong =
        {
            'latitude': location.lat(),
            'longitude': location.lng()
        }

        // callbacks are some unknown return-y thing that apparently work
        callback(latlong);
    });
}