Guessing Game: Where Will I Be Serving?

After I received my mission call I needed to tell Preston where I would be serving.

Of course I wasn't going to just TELL him! Where's the fun in that?

And since he's living in the Philippines, which is about.. 7000 miles away

I had no need to worry if he was going to find out from someone else. 

For weeks after I got my call, he had no idea where or when I would be going and boy did I torture him with it. I decided to send him a little guessing game in his birthday package

(which I will be posting about soon)

I sent him eight different clues that gradually got more specific and the very last clue

was a copy of my mission call.

For my first few clues I decided to make them really vague,

 for example the type of weather that's typical in your area.

The next clues I did were a little more specific, like any geographical things or something a country is known for.

After those I made them more mission specific.

The last two clues are my very favorite ones. I wrote my name out in Spanish (or whatever language you'll be speaking) and the last one was the country's flag (or state's). I highly doubt he'll ever be able to guess the specific mission but he better at least be able to guess the country!!

I finished it all off with putting all the clues and my folded up mission call in an envelope, along with a few pictures from the day I opened it!

This was so much fun to make and he told me he loved trying to figure out where I was serving! So instead of just telling him, make him work a little for it :)

Happy Waiting!!

Read When Letters

So I decided to jump on the band wagon and make the 

Read When Letters

Word of warning: This is VERY time consuming!

Make sure you start early so you can finish it before you send off your next package.

It was really hard for me to come up with enough ideas at first but after long hours of searching I found a post someone did about them and listed off like thirty different ideas! It was such a blessing, let me tell you. Or else Preston would've only gotten four letters. 

And that's just sad.

I ended up with 

nineteen

different letters.

 But after getting all my topics I decided that having just a single letter in there would be boring. And I came up with the idea to fill each envelope with all kinds of little things. Such as:

Pictures

Quotes

Scriptures

Funny Sayings

Love Sayings

Yeah I know it doesn't sound that much more exciting. But I promise it ended up way cute! Seriously. Anyway since I had to write nineteen different letters I decided to only make them a page each and I knew there was going to be lots of different things for him to look at and read. Then of course I decorated each envelope! That was like the best part! Haha just kidding but really.

Here are the different topics I used:

You Need a Kiss

You Need a Laugh

You Need a Hug

You Need a Smile

You Need a Little Encouragement

You Need To Hear From Me

You Are Feeling Homesick

You Are Missing Me

You Are Having Language Trouble

You Are Having Companion Trouble

You Are Stressed

You Are Feeling Unsuccessful

You Have Been Out 6 Months

You Have Been Out 1 Year

You Have Been Out 18 Months

You Are Coming Home

I Leave For My Mission

You Need a Few Memories

You Need To Know How Much I Love You

Here's a few examples of what I put inside each envelope...

You Need To Know How Much I Love You

You Need a Laugh

You Need a Few Memories

You Need a Little Encouragement

You Need a Hug

After I finished each one I tied them all together with a cute bow :)

This whole project was so much fun! It took me quite a while.. a couple weeks but totally worth all the hard work. I hope this post gives you ladies ideas for your Read When Letters :)

Happy Waiting!

UPDATE: I'm no longer posting on this blog since I'm not waiting for a missionary anymore and am now married! But I have a new blog called Lexi Rachelle where I post twice a week about life, beauty, DIY's and more! I'd love for you to check it out :)

All My Heart

Wow has it really been a month since I last blogged?? 

It has been so crazy since I got my mission call! I haven't had as much free time with everything 

I need to do to prepare. 

But don't you worry I'm still here waiting for Preston :)

There has been SO much that happened in the last month!

I'm going to have to do multiple posts just to cover it all!

But today was extra special because 

I GOT A LETTER!

Seriously. I live for these moments. 

Do you know what else I got? 

HIS NAME TAG!

I asked him for one a couple months ago and I finally have it!

I know it's silly to love something like a name tag.. but I don't care. I'll scream from the rooftops about how much I love this little thing. 

At the end of his letter he wrote a little bit of the lyrics from the song

All My Heart by Sleeping With Sirens

It's so perfect.

Did you know its been 178 days since me and Preston were living our lives in Orem?

And its been 134 days since he left for his two year mission?

Guess what.

I still love him more than anything.

For all you people that said I couldn't do it or I wouldn't make it one month..

4 months holding strong and I'm not faltering in the slightest.

Birthday Pictures

This is Preston's first birthday away from home

so I wanted to make sure it was a special one.

I'm sure it was an amazing and depressing day all at once.

There's not much I can do when I'm in a different country and we can't call

each other, but I knew there was one thing that would make him smile.

Pictures.

Duh! Like come on, that's common sense. 

Pictures mean the world to missionaries since they get a little glimpse of what

you're up to. I wanted him to know I was thinking about him on his special day and that I love him more than anything. So I got all dressed up and headed off to take some birthday pictures :)

One thing that is a must is CREATIVITY.

Make this as fun as possible, you can definitely tell in a picture whether you're enjoying yourself or not.

My favorite thing to use is signs. 

It's like combining a letter and a picture in one.

I decided to use cardboard for my signs.

I like the way it looks small town. But that's just me! 

I've seen pictures done with chalkboards, printed words, cut out letters/numbers,

just about anything you can think of!!

What I wanted was something similar to a postcard, so it required 

four different signs.

four different pictures.

Here's the individual pictures...

After I picked the ones I liked best I put them in a collage 

so it was all on one picture...

Of course I wanted to send a couple extra pictures..

I love this boy more than anything. 

Happy birthday Preston!

3 Months

Today Preston's been out for 3 months!

I can't believe its been this long already.

It feels like yesterday he left

Then I blinked and it's 3 months later!

 I had a "Roommate Get Together" 

 Went to Lagoon with my family :)

 Taught this little princess the beauty of lipstick

 Was able to go with my best friend to do baptisms for her first time.

Most amazing experience.

 My mom had a little too much fun taking pictures.. 

She pulled over to the side of the road just because she thought this 

tractor was cool.

 I received my mission call :)

Off to Mexico I go!

 My brother had his 27th birthday :)

 I turned 19 :)

Became OBSESSED with this show.

I was very depressed they cancelled it...

But on the bright side they're making a movie!!!

3 MONTHS DOWN.

21 MORE TO GO.

Called To Serve

Dear Sister Sycamore:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the...

Today I received the most important news for the next 18 months of my life.

MY CALL CAME!!!!

It was exciting and terrifying all at once!

Unfortunately I had to wait until my dad got home from work to open it up 

so that meant 6:30.

PM.

It was torturous!!!! I had to wait 6 hours.

SIX!!!!

I literally just sat at my kitchen counter staring at it.

Not the whole time of course but a great deal of it.

I was so nervous, I had butterflies the entire day.

I wouldn't even let my mom talk about it because it would make me even more nervous!

FINALLY

my dad came home and the whole family was ready to go!

You can't tell in the pictures but my hands were shaking! 

But after I read where I was going a calmness washed over me and I knew that's where I'm supposed to be.

México Ciudad Obregón Mission

I report to the Provo MTC

December 18, 2013

I'll preach the gospel in the

Spanish language.

Opening My Mission Call from Lexi Sycamore on Vimeo.

Yes I know I butchered the name... Guess I better work on my Spanish! :)

I couldn't be more thrilled with where I'm going!

I absolutely cannot wait to teach the people in Mexico.

They already hold such a special place in my heart even though I haven't met them yet.

MEXICO HERE I COME!