How to Share Missionary Letters With Family (Without Forwarding Every Week)

The weekly forwarding problem

In a lot of families, one person becomes the hub. The weekly letter arrives, and then they forward it to grandparents, copy it into the family group chat, text a photo to an aunt, and try to remember who asked to be added last month.

It works, mostly. But someone always gets missed. A new person wants to catch up and there's no easy way to send them six months of letters. And the letters end up scattered across inboxes, chats, and phones, with no single place where the whole story lives.

The good news: there are simpler ways to share, and you can pick the one that fits your family.

Common options, honestly compared

Group text or family chat

• Pros: Everyone already uses it; instant; easy to reply.
• Cons: Long letters are hard to read in a chat, photos get buried, and people who join later can't easily scroll back to the beginning.

Email list

• Pros: Familiar, and the letter reads well in an inbox.
• Cons: Someone has to keep the list up to date and forward every week. Letters end up spread across everyone's inboxes.

Shared photo album

• Pros: Great for pictures, easy to browse.
• Cons: Not made for long letters, so the words and the photos end up in different places.

Public social media post

• Pros: Reaches lots of people at once.
• Cons: Privacy. Weekly letters can include names, locations, and personal moments that are better shared with people you know. If you post publicly, think carefully about what's included.

Private journal

• Pros: Letters and photos together, in order, readable by only the people you approve, and kept after the mission.
• Cons: Followers need to create a free account to read.

What to look for

Whatever method you choose, these questions help:

• Is it private? Can you control who reads the letters?
• Does everyone read in order? The story makes more sense week by week.
• Can late joiners scroll back? A friend who finds out halfway through should be able to start at week one.
• Are photos kept with the letters? The pictures are half the fun.
• Will anything be lost after the mission? The mission email account doesn't last forever (more below).

How a private journal works

A Follow My Mission journal is one private place for every letter. Here's the idea:

• Letters come in by email. Letters forwarded in become journal entries, along with their photos and videos.
• Followers read the journal. Approved followers read for free; each just needs a free account. Instead of mailing copies out, everyone comes to one place to read.
• No cap on family. You can have unlimited followers, as long as they're approved.
• Photos stay with the words. Photos and videos attached to emails are saved, and Google Photos shared albums are accepted.

Want the full picture? See how it works.

Share every letter in one private place — start your journal.

Let someone help

Missionaries are busy, and they shouldn't have to manage a website. A parent or delegate has the same access as the missionary, so Mom, Dad, or a trusted sibling can set things up, approve followers, and keep everything running.

Started late? Add past letters

Didn't start at the beginning? That's fine. You can backfill the journal by forwarding past emails, and there's no maximum number. You can forward them one at a time or put several letters in one forwarded message, and attached .eml files are read. This works whether the mission is still in progress or already finished.

Details are in the FAQ.

Keep them after the mission

Sharing is half the job; keeping is the other half. The church removes the missionary Google account about 60 days after the missionary returns, and weekly emails kept only there can be lost. Journals stay forever, so the letters your family read each week are still there years from now.

Learn more in what happens to missionary email after the mission.

And if you'd like something to hold someday, there's an optional photo book built from the journal.

Share every letter in one private place — start your journal.