I was called to serve for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Washington Kennewick Mission. Each monday during our preparation day for the week we took time to share in our emails home the experiences that were shaping us into the men and women God would have us be. So much was learned from those we taught as they repented and changed their lives to more fully involve the Savior in them.
The task of taking these experiences from my mind to the keyboard was at times difficult, however for the majority it was spiritually enriching. Taking time to slow down and remember the details of events allowed those memories and events of the week to be resurrected within my mind.
As family and friends sifted through the journey of my week, I hope they could feel the power and witness I felt both in the moment and in writing the email. I believe that when we take time to express our day to day experiences through literature, we gain the ability to see that experience through eyes we didn’t know we possessed.
I loved the Magic Tree house Series!!
ReplyDeleteAnd I agree whole heartedly about those mission emails home. They almost become a sort of a journal. We actually collected those emails and combined them in a blog for friends and family to read. Missionary emails of special and sacred experiences are important and not only benefit those who read them, but they seem to bring a level of growth to the writer as well.
I sure became a better writer as I struggled to get down in writing the thoughts and feelings that can so often only be fully felt by living the experience yourself.
All the books you listed bring me back to my Elementary and Jr High days! My mom used to have to force my to turn my lights out to go to bed sometimes when I was reading Harry Potter.
ReplyDeleteI loved letters to home and letters from home as well. They became my detailed journal entry because I am one of many words and many details that journal writing took pages and pages each day. I have been home almost a year and I still have about 7 months of my mission to finish in my journal. I think I must have included too many of my spiritual thoughts, because it soon came to be a family joke that "Hailey emailed, we'd better put our church clothes on to read it." Missionary eyes!
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