Newly Written Letters

These three are written again because of the pouch regulations and this is the letter that was taken from their hand written letters and typed up.

August 7, 2011

Dear Elder Kevin/Tyler/Keith

                I know you don’t know me at all, but I thought I would write to you to let you know I am thankful for the work you have done or are going to do while on your mission.   It is a noble and honorable work to do willing with the love and dedication of your heart.  Keep a strong heart and always be pushing forward, for the Lord will be able to help you through anything.  He knows you for who you are and is very proud of the choices you have made, thus far.

                I shall start off with a short introduction of myself, so that you are not writing to a complete stranger.  I am called Chelsea Bastian, I live in Lehi, Utah, and I am 17 years of age.  I am a member of the church and I plan to be going on a mission when I hit that age. I have just recently moved to Lehi, so I don’t feel like I belong here.  I love writing missionaries, because that is when I feel like I am myself and I don’t have to worry about judging faces, eyes, and thoughts.  Missionary work is a big delight in my life.  I love to extend my hand of love and support to all of those that I can, so if you know of any missionary that needs a pick me up, I will be glad to write them.

                It is nice to know that we have strong and noble young men that are willing to give up two years of their life to the Lord.  Thank you for all your hard work and devotion to the wonderful work of the Lord.  You are doing plenty of marvelous things.

JJJRandom Quote- In times of trials, the best thing to do is Smile! JJJ

I would love to hear back from you to learn more about you, your mission, and anything you would like to share with me about the gospel.

From,

Your Earthly Stranger and your Heavenly Sister,

Chelsea Bastian

Hitting a Small Road Block

Writing these missionaries on a weekly basis has helped me stay closer to the Lord, in a strange way.  I don't know how to explain it, but I feel like myself and closer to God when I write missionaries.  Which is the reason that I have started to write these wonderful and noble guys and girls.

Recently I have recieved three of the letters that I sent out, back.  Because there is a rule that it can't be in an envelope, no stamps, pictures, cards, or currency.  It also has to be on a plain white paper, which in turns makes me have to type everything that I write to them.  I hate typing out letters, because to me it feels like they don't mean as much.

I have a feeling that if I don't type these letters out and send them, then Satan has won a little bit of this battle.  My focus is to help support the missionaries and these letters are doing just that.  Satan doesn't want these letters to go out, but that is not going to stop me!  I am set and ready for the battle that is going to come to me.  This is not going to be easy to keep up on all these letters, but I will be doing everything in my power to keep it going!

Here are instructions on how to send mail through the Missionary Pouch
Instructions for making a three-fold letter:
• Lay the blank side of the single-sheet letter facing down with the writing facing you.
• Fold the top of the letter about one-third of the way down, and crease.
• Fold the bottom of the letter to the top of the first fold, and crease.
• Use two pieces of tape or two sticker tabs on the top to secure it, not more than one inch from each side, but do not seal the ends.
• Do not include any other item in the letter such as printed pictures, currency or medication, etc.
• In the top left corner, write the return address.
• Affix a stamp in the top right corner
• In the middle of the sheet, write:
Missionary's name
MTC or Mission name
P.O. Box 30150
Salt Lake City, Ut 84130-0150

Replies

Through this last week, I was able to receive a couple replies from missionaries that I have already written.  It was an exciting thing to come home to.  I got a reply from Jarinn, Alex, and Gubeli.  Those three I had written purposefully.  The fourth one is a guy named Sean, he had gotten my letter from the random letters I sent out to the MTC.

Jarinn is my cousin, so I already knew that he would write me back.  His letter was amazing.  It amazes me with how much missionaries are able to write.  Jarinn even drew me a beautiful picture of himself to keep a smile on my face.  I love this boy and I miss him like crazy! But he won't know that I miss him, because I don't want to be a distraction to the wonderful work he is doing.

Alex was one of the first missionaries I wrote randomly.  His reply was short, but it has helped with preparing myself.  Although it's going to take me a little bit longer to write him back, for he gave me something to read.  It was a talk by Elder Bednar, 'Becoming a Missionary.'  Before I can write him back I need to read it so that there can be a little bit of a conversation about it.

Gubeli was one of the nineteen missionaries that started this whole Missionary Writer thing.  He wrote back, thanking for all the letters that he had received.  I am hoping that the more, him and I write the more interesting and helpful his letters will turn out to be.

Sean, his letter was definitely the longest letter of them all and probably my favorite letter of all time, (so far), his letter was welcoming and very helpful.  He is still in the MTC, but that just means that I will be able to write for his whole mission and be able to learn as he learns.  This is going to be an amazing experience.  He has told me that I am more than welcome to continue to write him, which I'm hoping is going to last for the two full years.


I do not know if I will be able to write the random missionary this week, because I have already written back four missionaries.  I will definitely do a random missionary next week, if I don't have any replies by then.

Weekly Missionary - Turns into Five Missionaries

So last week I made a promise to myself to write a missionary a week, just so I can keep up with getting my voice and hand of support out to all the missionaries of the world.  As I was randomly choosing which missionary I should write, I came across a couple other missionaries that I felt I should write.  So in turn my Daily Missionary, became Five Missionaries.  Which in turn I am completely out with ((:

Keith was the first chosen, then came Kevin, Tyler, Daniel, and Braden.  They were all random names searched up and the name or the picture that popped out the most in my mind was the one I decided to write.

Only one person really knows about me writing random missionaries and he thinks it is a grand idea.  I am hoping that more people will hear about me and will be kind enough to get me names and addresses of those people that are in need of a helping hand.

Recently, I have been putting on every letter, asking the missionary to let me know if there are any missionaries that they know of that are in need of a letter.  I am hoping that I will be able to get some that way too.  I really hope that these missionaries are going to feel the love, support and gratitude that I am sending them through these letters.

Random Letters to Random Missionaries

I sent out the seven letters that I have recently wrote to some missionaries.  Three of them I know personally and the other four are some people that I found on a missionary site.  I am a little nervous about what they will think when they get a random letter from someone they don't know, but I am hoping that they are welcoming to the letter.  Hoping they will reply too.


The most recent update is the fact that I talked to my cousin Carrie about letters to missionaries because she works in the MTC.  She told me that most of them appreciate it and that if I wanted to, I am willing to write little letters and just send them to the MTC and address them to the mailroom for her to hand out to random missionaries.

This way I'm not just picking and choosing different missionaries.  I will truly be getting random letters from random missionaries.  This is going to be amazing.  Although, I will be typing these letters because they are going to say the exact same thing.  After that, if they reply to the letter, they will all be hand written letters because I feel that hand written gives it more importance.

Below is the letter that I will be sending out to them.



Dear Elder/Sister of the Royal Army of God


     I am Chelsea Bastian, I live in Lehi, Utah and I am of 17 years of age.  I know you don't know me at all, never heard of me before, but I would like to let you know that I am grateful for the choice you have made. There is a lot of respect and gratitude in my heart for the noble choice you have made by becoming a missionary.


 I am writing to let you know that I am thankful for the wonderful and glorious work that you have decided to do.  You have chosen to be in the Royal Army of God and that is something to be proud of.  Stand tall and strong, for the power of Satan shall be trying to take you down.
     It is wonderful to know that we have strong and powerful young men and young women that are willing to give up two years of their life for the Lord.  Thank you for spreading the Light of Christ to the dark areas of the world today.

     Random Quote- In times of Trials, the best thing to do is Smile :)

     
     I would love to hear back from you, I am preparing myself for a mission and would like to have some advice or different ways to better myself.  

From,

Your Earthly Stranger and your Heavenly Sister,

Chelsea Bastian

Update - 14 Elder Letters and 12 Sister Letters being sent to the Provo MTC August 7, 2011

Writing a Few More

I was writing my cousin and two of my good friends that are out on missions at this very moment.  Seeing as I haven't written them in a while and I had some free time to write them.  After I had finished those three letters, I felt like I wanted to write more missionaries.  I love the calm feeling I get when I am writing someone that I know is living the gospel fully and truthfully.

I remember a site that was for missionaries to stay connected with their family, (missionsite.net) I went on there and I searched a few names.  My favorite names were the first names to pop into my head.  Alex and William were the first two I searched up.  Picking the first picture that stood out to me.  I hoping that they are okay with receiving a letter from a girl that they don't know.

Next I decided to search up my last name, Bastian, to see if there was anyone out in the field that could be related to me in the long run.  That is how I found Chase.

Three down, but there was still one more name that I needed to search up.  I couldn't get the name out of my head, Sarah.  I searched the name and looked at the different pictures that popped up.  It took a few minutes before I decided what picture to choose.

Ending the day with seven missionaries written.
Travis, Jarinn, Kaeden, Alex, William, Chase, and Sarah.
Bringing my total of missionaries wrote to... 26

I am still willing to write any missionary that is out in the field, to help them feel loved and supported while out in this crazy world

Starting Out

The idea of becoming a Missionary Writer started out at Girls Camp of 2011.  There was about two hours of free time for each day that we were up at camp.  They had plenty of crafts to do, a pamper area, and then a missionary stand.  At first the thought of writing a missionary I didn't know, didn't sound like a good idea.  I thought it would be a little weird writing someone that I didn't know at all.

Till I thought about it a little bit more...

Those missionaries, nineteen in my stake, gave up two years of their lives for the Lord and the least I can do is write them a letter to thank them for the work they are doing.  By writing them a letter, you are helping the work of the Lord be spread.  Without those missionaries out in the field, preaching the word of God to the world, the gospel wouldn't be able to spread.

So the next time we had the free time, I sat at the missionary station and I wrote every single missionary that was in my stake. It took a while to write all nineteen missionaries, my wrist was sore by the end of it, but it was well worth it.

Now I do not know if they are going to respond to my letters or not, but it would be an amazing experience to be able to get to know these missionaries and learn about what they are doing on their mission.  I am looking forward to the missionaries I will continue to write in the future and the letters that I get in return.