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Friday, December 9, 2011

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.

15 comments:

  1. What a great idea! I wish Dan had kept things like that from his mission, this would be awesome for our kids to look through. I love this blog! =)

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  2. What a cool idea! I'm working on scrapbooks for both my mission and my husband's mission (Spain and Brazil respectively)and this has given me a couple of new ideas. Thanks for sharing it!
    beth

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  3. What an awesome idea I hope it's okay to share it with my sister for her son whose on his mission right now in Chile.... It'll be great for him to have for his kids someday..

    Carri
    simplydonewright.blogspot.com

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  4. I like this idea. My husband's mission is in a plastic box in his closet. How cool to have it accessible to our girls, and even me. I haven't looked at any of it in 25 years. I'm putting this on my project list!

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  5. What a fantastic idea! I need to do this with my husband's mission stuff. I linked here from Sugardoodle's Facebook post. I also served in the Honduras-Teguc mission (just before it split, then I was off to the new Comayaguela mission) -- would I have known your husband? This was 1997-98. You look much younger than that but I thought I'd try! ~Hermana Clifton

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    1. My husband served in 2002-2004... so he was just a few years behind you!

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  6. Wow! This must have taken a lot of time! I need to do this for my husband. He also served in the Honduras Tegucigalpa Mission (04-06).

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    1. that's awesome, Shae! Sounds like it was a great mission to be in. My husband was 02-04. It did take a lot of time (many many lunch breaks were spent typing up the letter synopses..but so worth it!)

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  7. Hey Cher, I love how you did this. I'm thinking of working on a book for Jessie while she is gone. Do you have any suggestions on how I can put it together and work on it with her in Guatemala? Obviously, it will be a lot more girly than yours. I need to start right away as I tend to put things off because they seem so overwhelming to me. I'm thinking of printing off her e-mails and putting them in paper protectors, scrapbooking some of the pictures that I have taken before she left and continueing doing that as she sends me things. You used a regular 3-ring binder didn't you? She's been there for 2 and a half weeks now. I miss her tons!

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    1. Kris...I can't believe Jessie is on a mission...still baffles me! What a proud mom you must be! My mom did this for all my brothers, too....so she's the real genius behind this.

      My one suggestion (different than my own) is to include letters from HOME (letters you write to her). Michael asked about that when he was looking through his and his mom did not save any of those, neither did Michael apparently. So, maybe make a new section or put them in chronological order along with her letters. I think she'll appreciate being able to look back on letters of love, encouragement, and just what was happening with the family during her mission. I did use a 3 ring binder with plastic sleeves. I kept his pictures in chronological order (as best I could) and then he was able to tell me what was going on in the picture so I could write a caption. I used plastic sleeves that were made for 4x6 pictures (so it was more like a photo album). In reality, no matter how you do it, she is going to absolutely love a memory book. Keeping her letters will be really significant. Michael loved looking back through the synopses of each letter. Good luck! Only...what? 16 months to go? :)

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  8. Thanks for this great idea, It's getting filed on my "Called to Serve" pinterest board so when (praying hard) my son is called, I'll have lots of things to fill my time. Thanks for sharing.

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  9. Thank you for this perfect idea! I have wanted to organize my husbands mission paraphernalia for years, but the task has seemed overwelming. I needed a good plan to follow! Yours is simple and perfect for what I had in mind! We also just sent our oldest son on a mission last week, so I have been eager to figure something out so I can keep up in real time. I am elated!

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  10. beautiful idea, beautiful execution of it

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  11. Thank you for sharing! We just moved for the 5th time and as I unpack all the boxes, once again there are all the clear plastic totes with missionary letters, pictures, and random things that keep traveling along with us. 2017 is my year to start getting these things in order. Thanks once again for the ideas and inspiration.

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