We Love You Every Week!

When my parents were called on a mission to Africa, I was concerned that my letters to them might be delayed or lost in the mail. Since I wanted to keep in touch with them each week, I devised a safety net to fill in if our regular letters didn’t arrive—a flip chart of “mini-letters” that they could take with them and enjoy throughout their mission.

First, I purchased enough five-by-seven-inch index cards so I would have one for each week of Mom and Dad’s mission. At the top of each card, I wrote the week’s dates; for example, January 7–13, 1990. With a paper punch, I made a hole one inch from the top and exactly in the center of each card so that I could insert a metal ring to hold them all together.

Since there are seventy-eight weeks in an eighteen-month mission, I decided to get my six brothers and sisters to help me write the mini-letters. I split the cards into seven piles of eleven cards, rotating the dates so that my parents would get a message from each of us once every seven weeks.

When I mailed the dated cards to my brothers and sisters, I asked them to watch for holidays, Mom and Dad’s wedding anniversary, and birthdays as they wrote. Then I told them when I needed the cards back and encouraged them to have fun creating their letters.

When I got the completed cards, I was impressed with their diversity and creativity. Some letters were inspirational quotes from prophets, favorite scriptures, or poems. Some family members had written of their own missionary experiences and given advice on being an effective missionary. Grandchildren had pasted their school pictures onto the cards, written love letters, and drawn pictures. There was art work, calligraphy, and even jokes. One sister taped a small bag of balloons to her card so Mom and Dad could give them to African children.

I put the cards in chronological order and secured them with a ring binder, and we gave the mini-letters to Mom and Dad when they went into the Missionary Training Center. Every Sunday of their mission, they flipped over a new card for their weekly note of love.—Laurie Ann Hasson, Lindon, Utah