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!
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