The Gift a Bishop Can Give That Lasts Forever

A bishop's calling is temporary. The average is about five years, though it doesn't feel average when you're in it. During that time, you will conduct hundreds of interviews, extend dozens of callings, minister through crises you never expected, and preside over a ward full of people who need more than you have.

And somewhere in the middle of all that, you will send young men and women on missions.

This is, for many bishops, the most sacred part of the calling. You've watched these kids grow up. You've interviewed them, sometimes through hard things. You've signed the recommendation. And now you're setting them apart, placing your hands on their head and pronouncing a blessing over someone who is about to walk into the hardest, best thing they've ever done.

What do you give them?

Not Another Talk

Missionaries get a lot of advice. From parents, from family, from every returned missionary in the ward who corners them after sacrament meeting. "Let me tell you what worked for me." "Make sure you study every morning." "Write your mother every week."

All good. All forgotten within six weeks.

The advice that lasts isn't spoken. It's placed in their hands. Something physical that they carry with them, that sits on their desk, that reminds them — every time they see it — of the person who gave it and the words written inside.

Why a Journal Is the Perfect Bishop's Gift

A journal does three things that no other gift can do simultaneously:

1. It communicates value. A quality leather journal says: what you're about to experience is worth recording in something built to last. Not a dollar-store notebook. Something real.
2. It creates a habit. A beautiful journal sitting on a missionary's desk is a nightly invitation. It asks to be opened. The better the journal, the stronger the pull.
3. It outlasts the calling. Long after you're released, long after the missionary comes home, that journal sits on a shelf. Decades from now, they'll open it and see your handwriting on the first page. Your words will still be ministering when you're not there to do it yourself.

What It Costs

A quality handmade leather journal costs about the same as a nice dinner out. Over a five-year calling, a bishop might send out ten, fifteen, twenty missionaries. The total cost is modest — and the impact is genuinely permanent.

Some wards build this into the budget. Others fund it through the bishop personally. Some bishops partner with the ward council or Relief Society to create a ward tradition of giving journals. All approaches work.

The Ripple Effect

Here's what I didn't expect when I started this tradition: it changed the ward, not just the missionaries.

Parents started journaling because their kids were journaling in the field. Youth saw the journals and asked about them. Returned missionaries came home with full journals and shared entries in firesides. A culture of recording developed — slowly, naturally, without a program or a manual.

It started with one journal, given to one missionary, with a handwritten note on the first page.

A Simple Template

If you're a bishop who wants to start this tradition, here is everything you need:

1. Choose a journal. Genuine leather, good paper, well-bound. Something that will survive two years.
2. On the first page, write a personal note by hand. Two to four sentences. Their name, your belief in them, and a simple instruction: write everything down.
3. Present it in the farewell interview — privately, personally.
4. Tell them: "I expect this to be full when you come home."

That's it. Five minutes of preparation. A lifetime of impact.

The calling will end. The journal won't.