Missionary Memories

If any of you have LDS missionaries in the field or going soon, this post is for you. When my son, Grant, left on his mission to Fukuoka Japan 20 months ago, I told him I would keep up on all of his letters/pictures/movies/etc. That's easier said than done!

For about the first 2-3 months, I printed off every email we sent to him and every email he sent to us. I put them in page protectors and into a 3-ring binders, in chronological order. This wasn't really a hard thing to do, but unfortunately I'm now WAY behind. And I've already filled one binder. If you keep up on it, it's a great gift for when your missionary comes home - they'll be able to sit down and read about their mission, in their own words, from beginning to end. I do recommend this, but keep up!

Actually, the main thing I want to tell you about in this post is this great website that I found to make a webpage for Elder Herron. I tried several (including Dear Elder), but none of them worked for me - mostly because of restrictions on uploading pictures. The one I finally decided to use is www.missionsite.net. This is a great site - very easy to use. They'll let you put up to 500 pictures on your website. Grant is a picture taker - big time. I don't load every single picture on his website, but I think I'm up over 300! It's so fun to go back through all the pictures and see how he has changed and see all of the companions and people he has come in contact with over his time there.

The other things you can do on the website are:
1. Upload letters - each letter shows the date, the place he is serving at the time, and his current companion.
2. Show special events - I use this whenever Grant gets transferred, gets a new companion, gets a special assignment, or baptizes someone.
3. There is a message board that anyone can use to leave messages.
4. You can also add links to this website.
5. The home page looks great and includes a picture of your missionary, his/her favorite scripture, a weather report from the place they are serving in, a list of the latest news - the latest 3 events you've posted, the missionary's home address and mission home address, his/her current area, the name of the latest letter and picture you've posted. And it keeps track of when your missionary will be home - Grant comes home in 119 days! Although, sometimes I wonder if it's accurate. The very bottom thing on the homepage is where they keep track of how many visitors you've had to the website, although it counts every single time something changes on the website - whenever anyone, including you, looks at something, or adds something. Currently, Grant has had over 36,000 visitors - something I really doubt!

The very coolest thing about this website, is that they'll burn everything onto a CD for you at the end of the mission! So, check it out. It's not hard, but feel free to email me if you need help - nafari01@yahoo.com. Remember to start at the beginning of the mission. It's much easier that way - update the website every week with a new letter or pics that you have received.

Check out these Elders' websites for ideas (one is Grant's and the other two are his good friends): www.missionsite.net/eldergrantherron, www.missionsite.net/elderskyelarsen, www.missionsite.net/elderspear.

To get to their main webpage and start your website, go to www.missionsite.net. On their homepage, there is a way to look for other missionaries' sites, and they pick one each month to highlight on their homepage.

Good luck! Happy mission memories.