LDS Mission Book

My husband served a mission in Honduras. The pictures and letters and mission memorabilia had been scattered amidst our various moves over the years after his mission. But, I began gathering it all in hopes to create a mission book. Not scrapbook....just book. It comes off more masculine that way. :)

I spent months sorting through his letters, trying to make sense of the order (for non-dated letters home), digitizing pictures, linking what he said in his letters to the pictures he took, etc. In short, it was A LOT of work. But well worth it.

It's such fun to look back at old pictures of my dad on his mission and hear the few stories he remembers. As such, I want my children to have the same experience.

And, so....here it is.

The Mission Book.

(...that Mission emblem? Came off his old Mission shirt that he threw out....and I redeemed.)

As you open the book, his mission call letter is on top, the program from his sacrament meeting farewell, and then tabs for each area of the mission... starting with the MTC.

Under each tab/area, his letters home are in sleeves. I wrote a synopsis for each letter (because who really sits down to read every word of every letter?). I just summarized the most important parts of each letter so the viewer can flip through quickly while still catching a glimpse of his mission.

I also included letters from the mission president (for example, calling him to be zone leader, or whatever else he was called to).

I organized all the photos by the area he was in and placed them in sleeves in that tabbed section. Pictures or photographed events that were talked about in specific letters were placed in sleeves next to that letter.

At the very end, I included Honduras stamps torn off envelopes that were sent home. This would be a good place to include pictures of souvenirs from the mission or larger items that he'll want to remember in association with his mission. Over the years, they may get lost, ruined, thrown away, etc....but they can always remain here as a memory!

Also, years after his mission, they announced a temple in his area... the first. That's a pretty big announcement that I'm confident he played a role in. I included the temple announcement and picture which I obtained from LDS.org.

I learned a lot about M while working on this and I hafta say---I'm pretty proud of my missionary.