I was the first one of my siblings to serve a mission. I am the second oldest of six, and my youngest brother is 10 years younger than me. I left to college when I was 19. At that point my brothers were 9, 12, and 15. And let's be honest, even in high school, I was so caught up in my own life that I didn’t really foster a relationship with my younger siblings, other than family dinner – thank goodness for family dinner!
A couple years later, I left on a mission, and I wanted to write to them, but I realized I didn’t know them well enough to know what to say. On my mission, we still did the handwritten letters – snail mail letters with stamps and envelopes and the whole deal. About half way through my mission, we were able to start emailing.
The pressure was on. How do I keep in contact with my younger brothers, and make it fun, and make it interesting enough for them to write a letter back! If you ever have had a pen pal, you know the long wait for a response that may never come.
I tried to connect on the one thing I knew we all had in common - movie quotes! I know, not super missionary-like, but it was something that actually strengthened our relationship while I was gone. I wrote each of them a movie quote, and mailed them all separately. On the same piece of paper, they would guess the movie, and write a movie quote for me, then mail it back.
It worked so great for all three of my brothers. It was almost a competition to see which one of them could get the most movie quotes before I came home, so I was in constant contact with them for most of my mission.
In our wonderful world of immediate communication, snail mail might be a fun way to keep in touch in a special way. Email would work too. Movie quotes might not be the right topic for you, but our printable this week has many other ideas that can build your relationship and keep communication flowing.
We've got some great suggestions to keep siblings connected to their missionaries! Check them out here!
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What moms need to prepare before their missionary leaves Lds missionary preparation What to do before my sons mission How to prepare for an lds mission Sister missionary preparation connecting with siblings Missionary communication What to say to missionaries How to communicate with younger siblings of missionaries
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