CHAPTER FOUR

The Adventures of a Missionary Girlfriend

CHAPTER FOUR: Letters.

OK, I know that if you are reading this, you probably have already had pleeeennnntyyyy of experience writing letters. But, maybe you've been having a hard time writing letters, because you've run out of ideas or things to say in them. Here are a few ideas of things to talk about in  your letters to your missionary.

For me, the key to letters is to keep them upbeat. Happy letters = happy missionary. I can tell you right now that no missionary wants to hear about how miserable you are back at home without him. You don't want them to feel bad about going! You should want them to be as happy as possible. I've also found that if you always write your missionary happy things, then they'll be more eager to write you back. Also, I wouldn't bring up things that happened before he left that weren't very happy. That is a big no-no. All in all, just make sure that your letters are happy and that'll help a lot.

Idea #1
Picture Letters: "Picture Letters" are letters that are oriented around pictures. If there's one thing that I've learned it's that Missionaries LOVE to get pictures. Drawn pictures, or pictures of you, both are so much fun. My missionary has even asked me specifically for more pictures. They're always a good thing to include in letters as often as possible. I just download pictures I want to send him onto my computer and print them out right then and there and they're easy and cheap to send. For example, you could get a few printouts of pictures of you, or of things you've done recently, for your missionary, and you could also draw him a few pictures to go with it, and maybe even a picture of Christ or something spiritual. On the back of the pictures of you, you could write little phrases like "This face misses you so much!" or even something simple like "I love you." I'm sure your missionary would love to receive any and all pictures from you that he can! On the back of the drawn pictures, you could just write why you drew him that or what you were thinking of when you drew it. Also fun.

Idea #2
Comic Book: Recently, I wrote my missionary boyfriend a comic book. I know what you all must be thinking, "That is really super lame. How on earth would you even be able to write a comic book? That's not an easy letter idea!" But hear me out. You don't even have to be an amazing artist for this one. I just drew simple little people and wrote a comic book for him. The plot went something like this: 1. My missionary was finally home and we celebrated. 2. An evil do-er kidnapped the character that portrayed me 3. My elder turned into a super hero. 4. He found and saved me. 5. And we lived happily ever after. SUPER easy. And a lot of fun. My comic book was no more than 4 or 5 pages.

Here's a picture of what my simple little people looked like:

Idea #3: Spiritual Letters: One thing that I know my missionary loves is to hear about any and all spiritual experiences that I have. Don't be afraid to send him something spiritual, I'm sure he would love to hear it! Last Christmas, before my boyfriend left, he requested that I would write him out my full testimony and that was all that he wanted for Christmas. To have a written copy of my testimony. That was a huge reminder to me about what a keeper he is. Type out your testimony for him. Share times that you've felt the spirit with him or times that you thought about him in church. I'm sure he'd love a spiritual letter just as much as a regular one. 

Idea #4: Rainbow Letters: I know that this sounds incredibly lame, but I actually think that they're a lot of fun. I think our missionaries deserve a little color once in a while! All that I did for my rainbow letter was I wrote everything in bright colors. In the letter, starting from the color red, I wrote him an entire letter, and switched off colors every paragraph according to the pattern of a rainbow (Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet.) and that was super cute. I also wrote him "I love you" As many times as I could fit onto a piece of paper in rainbow colors. I thought that was a lot of fun, and it spices things up a bit. 

Here's a picture of my rainbow "I love you"s:

Idea #5: Memories Letters: Remind him of some of your favorite memories the two of you had together. It could be going to prom, going on a really fun date together, or even just a plain old time where you just cuddled and watched movies. Just tell him what you remember of things like that. You could tell him what you remember about the day the two of you first kissed, when you first told each other that you loved each other, anything like that, really. It's always fun to ponder on good memories like that, and it always reminds  me of why I love him so much and why waiting for him is so worth it.

Idea #6: Questions Letters: Ask him questions about his mission. How often he speaks a different language, if there have been any funny things that have happened, what his companion(s')'s name(s) is(are), if he's met any interesting people so far, if he's happy, how his home ward is, if he's had any experiences where  he felt the spirit profoundly, etc... I think that this is really nice, and it lets him know that you care about his mission and what he's doing, and it also helps you to have more things to write about if the writing process has slowed due to not knowing what to write about. (And trust me, those days will come!) Just keep in touch with him and keep the process going. 

Idea #7: Activities Update: Let him know what you've been doing that week or month. Tell him about school, about your friends, about what you've been up to, about what you're learning in Church, about your family, about his family, about any of those things. Let him know how you're doing. But make sure you do it without making him feel super homesick. You don't want that. 

Idea #8: Lovey-Dovey Letters: Let him know how much he means to you. Write him the (positive) feelings you have for him. Let him know why you think he's worth the wait. But don't whine about how much you miss him, you don't want to make him feel bad about going, do you? If you just write him a simple letter about how much you love or care about him, then this will give him something to read whenever he misses you and wants to feel your comfort. 

And that is the end of this blog post! I hope that these ideas will help you to write more letters to your missionary and to stay in touch with him. Again, pick and choose what letter themes you send, you don't absolutely have to do every single thing I've said, these are just little ideas for if you're stuck on writing him and you don't quite know what to write next. Thanks for reading!     

CHAPTER THREE: Crafts, crafts, crafts.

Well, fellow bloggers, I have made another craft (surprise, surprise.) and I thought I would just share with you all how I made it. I've seen other things like this before, the idea isn't 100% mine, but I just thought  I would make a little step-by-step guide on how to make it. But first, a picture on what exactly is being made.

And I know that in the picture, my coloring job looks verrrrrry sub-par, but I promise it actually looks way good in person!

Materials Needed 
Paper
Black Marker (I prefer to use a Sharpie Pen.)
Pencil
Colored Pencils/Markers/Crayons
Clear Mailing Tape
Scissors or Exact-o Knife (Either one works fine.)

Step One: 
Print out a map of the United States of America that has the states outlined, preferably blank (no labels of the states.) If you are making one for a missionary who is out of the country, then print out one of the United States and one of his country. The print-outs should look something like this:

Step Two:
Place a piece of paper over the outline of the country, and trace the outline of the country and your state that you are from. If your missionary is serving in the United States, outline your state and his as well. If your missionary is from another country, outline the continent he is in as well as the country he is in. Once everything is outlined, put a heart over your hometown and the town that your missionary is currently living in.

It should look like this: 

Step Three:
After you have traced the outline of the country/continent and the state/country that you and your boyfriend are both currently living in, draw a dotted-line from your hometown to your missionary's current hometown with a pencil, and then trace over that with a pen. (I do this so that I can change the design of the dotted line until I find the desired look.) I add loops and hearts and cute things like that to make it look more crafty.

It should look something like this:

Step Four:
After you have drawn a dotted line from the country/continent and the state/country that you and your boyfriend are both currently living in, it's time to color it. This step is optional, though I think it adds a little more oomph to the craft. You can choose whichever colors you would like, I chose blue, red, and orange because orange and blue are my boyfriend's favorite color, and I like how red and blue look together. But that's just me. I leave the hearts blank, but you can feel free to fill them in with another color.

They should look something like this:

Step Five: If your hometown and your elder's hometown are in the same country, cut out the country. If not, and your craft looks more like the first picture above, do not cut them out. Leave them as they are. In fact, if your boyfriend lives outside of the country, at this point, your craft is finished (unless you'd like to "Poor Girl Laminate" it. If your boyfriend is serving within the country, cut it out around the perimeter.

It should look something like this: 

Step Six:

Now is your chance to write any extra things on your little project. As in signing your name or writing a cute quote. I wrote "Always together, never apart. Maybe in distance, but never in heart." on the back of mine. If you do not feel the need to "laminate" your project, then you can feel free to end it here. But as for myself, I like to have my projects have a laminated look and feel to them. 

Step Seven:

It's the moment we've all been waiting for, Poor Girl Laminating time! Take your project, and on the back side (the side that is either blank or has words written on it) and place a piece of clear mailing tape, sticky side down, onto the paper. If needed, place another piece of the tape under that one and so on until the entire side of this paper is covered.

At this point, it should look something like this: 

Now for the next side. Do the same steps that you took on the side with the writing, on the side with the colored country outline. 

Now, it should look something like this:

Step Eight: 

Cut off all excess tape around the edges of the cutout. Now it has that laminated look and feel that I like so much. 

In the end, it should look like this:

If your project was the other, it should look like this in the end: 

Thank you for reading! I hope that the instructions were easy to understand and that you were able to make a cute little project! Comment any questions or suggestions you might have. Thanks again!

CHAPTER TWO

The Adventures of a Missionary Girlfriend

CHAPTER TWO: The beginning of letters and crafts.

No, I have not had that much experience with sending crafts and letters to my missionary considering that he's been gone four(ish) months, but so far I have had a little fun with crafting and making cute little things to send to him! On this blog I'm going to post the crafts I've made and will make and how to make them. Here's the first one and how to make it.

CRAFT NUMBER ONE: SEND-ABLE KISS.

This craft was a whole lot of fun to make, and I think that he's going to really enjoy it when he receives it in the mail. I sent this to my missionary for our 1 year "Kiss-A-Versary" and I think it's a cute idea for any missionary girlfriend to make. It was crazy easy to make, so here are some instructions on how to make your own send-able smooch.

Materials Needed:
One sheet of card-stock paper
Clear Mailing Tape
Lip Gloss or Lip Stick
Scissors
Pen/Pencil/Marker

Step One:
Apply lip gloss or lip stick, and kiss the piece of card-stock paper until you get a kiss that you think looks the best. I like to use lip gloss, but that's just me.

Step Two:
Cut out the kiss that you thought looked the best with scissors.

Step Three:
Get out the mailing tape and cut off a strip of the tape that is a little bit longer than the card that has the kiss on it.

Step Four:
With the card kiss-side up, place a piece of the clear mailing tape sticky side down on top of it, covering the entire card. If needed, two pieces of mailing tape can be used. This adds a laminated looking effect to the card, and also keeps the lipstick from getting smudged in the mail. I call it "Poor Girl Laminating."

Step Five:
Before you put mailing tape on the other side of the card, this is your chance to write a little note on the back or sign the card. You could write something like "Send-able Kiss from me to you." or something cute and cheesy like that.

Step Six:
Flip the card around and place another strip of mailing tape sticky-side down on that side of the card, like you did on the first side. So you will have it like this: Mailing tape, card, mailing tape; with the sticky sides of the tape sticking to the card. It's alright if one strip tape sticks to the other, in fact that might help with the cutting process.

Step Seven
Cut off all excess tape. Now your kiss is ready to mail!

Like I said, this craft is ridiculously easy to make, and I think that it's a lot of fun and I'm sure that your missionary is bound to love it! I hope that these instructions were easy to read and understand, thank you for reading and I'd be happy to answer any questions you have! Thanks for reading!

CHAPTER ONE

The Adventures of a Missionary Girlfriend

CHAPTER ONE: Before the Mission

I am about 4 months into having my missionary on his mission and I've seen a lot of posts on Instagram and Pinterest of girls who have blogs for their boyfriends who are on missions so I decided that this could be a fun experience just to make a little blog to share my experiences and ideas of things to send to missionaries, and hey, who knows, maybe my elder will read it when he comes home! I have been having so much fun thinking of ideas of letters and different pictures and crafts to send my Elder, and can I just say, it has been such a great experience so far. It has been very hard so far, but I know that he's where he needs to be, and that's all that really matters!

Before I begin this blog, here's a little background information:
My missionary and I had been dating for almost a year before he left on his mission, and can I just say, that was the best year of my life. We met in High School through theater. I was in a drama competition and he saw me performing one of my pieces, and he told me later that in that moment he knew then that I was something else. That same year, our school was doing the musical Grease and the director had asked my missionary to be an Assistant Director for her, which, he accepted. Our director then asked him to find another student to be an assistant director with him, and I was the first name that came to his mind. We became the best of friends assistant-directing that show together. Throughout the rest of the year, we spent a lot of time together, and during a One Act competition, he held my hand for the first time and we really hit it off from there. At the end of the school year, during the traditional Act One Club Banquet, I looked over at him and he looked at me and I just remember that in that moment I knew how much I cared about him. In the May of 2012 he told me that he cared about me and we've been officially dating ever since. I know he's the one for me, and when you know it's right, nothing else matters. Distance and waiting doesn't mean a thing to two hearts in love. And I know that my mish is worth the wait.

But anyway, enough of that mushy-mush stuff for now. Now a little about my elder's mission. My elder is in New York as of right now, he's waiting on a visa to go to Argentina, which, will be very cool! But for now, he is happy in New York, but I think he's ready to use his Spanish skills on some of the good people of Argentina!

I hope you enjoy this blog and the ideas and crafts and experiences that I'll accumulate throughout his mission. Here goes nothing!

(My missionary and I before he left.)