A BYU club has organized a service activity to reach out and give words of encouragement to fellow nurses who are now in the mission field.
Many young members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have put their education on hold in order to serve the Lord and share the gospel. The college of Nursing is no exception. Thirty-five students have now joined the tens of thousands of missionaries around the world.
Serving those who serve is one of the many things that the BYU Student Nurses’ Association has practiced as part of the College of Nursing. BYU SNA (Student Nurses’ Association) is a club open for nursing students, and its purpose is helping students to make the best of their education and help them through their program.
Writing letters to missionaries who were in the nursing program is this month’s BYU SNA’s (Student Nurses’ Association) service activity. This activity is open to everyone. The only requirement is dropping off the letter at the polka-dotted box in the Nursing Learning Center at the Kimball Tower, room 130.
The head of this activity is Sammy Webber, the services director of the club. She had seen this activity done before, but after realizing so many people within her program were going on missions, she thought that this would be a perfect time to repeat the activity. Being a returned missionary from the Cusco, Peru, she knows how much letters mean to missionaries.
“It’s never a bad idea to write the missionaries,” Webber said.
Aubin Palmer, a nursing student, wrote all 35 missionaries. Although she did not know all of them, she and her husband wrote them in hopes the missionaries would feel their support. Palmer is also a returned missionary from Columbus, Ohio.
“I served a mission, I know what it’s like to be in their shoes. My husband wrote me while I was on mine,” Palmer said. “He is great at writing supportive letters to missionaries. It was fun to write them together.”
BYU SNA president Marilee Strong oversaw the project. Strong wrote a letter of encouragement to one of her classmates and friends who just went on a mission.
“I think it’s a wonderful idea. It’s a great way to connect with some of our old friends and get in touch with them,” Strong said.
