Serving An 18 Month LDS Mission

In the LDS church, when a girl turns 21 she has the opportunity to choose to serve an 18 month, self-funded mission. I have wanted to go on a mission since I was a little girl. My parents both served a mission in Rome in the 1970's. In 2001-2002, my sister Letty served as a missionary in Hong Kong and my brother Algot in the Philippines. As soon as I turned 21 I submitted my papers. The Prophet and 12 Apostles determine through inspiration which of the more than 300 missions worldwide each missionary will be assigned. I was overjoyed when I opened my mission call and discovered that I was called to Rome, Italy! I feel immensely blessed and I feel that God has been preparing me to serve the Italian people. Each week, while I am on my mission, I will send my sister Letty an email and pictures to post on the blog. I won't see this blog till I come home, so I will be unable to directly respond to your comments until then. However, the sidebar will always have a current street address for me, and I promise I will respond to your letters! If you would rather write via email, just email your letter to my sister and she will print it out and send it me with her weekly snail mail!

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Sending Christmas Packages


To all who want to send Sister Preston a Christmas package!

First, use the address on the home page of this blog at the top left.  This section will always display her current street address in Italy. 2nd - get moving on it! Plan on 2-3 weeks for a flat-rate package to get to Italy from here, and if you can get in the mail any earlier than that, it's probably better. The cheapest way to send anything is to use a flat-rate envelope or a small flat-rate box (which can both be obtained at the post office or requested online for free delivery to your street address by USPS - you can also schedule a free pickup online at the USPS website!). The flat-rate cardboard envelope and the small flat-rate box both mail for $17-$18 to Italy, regardless of weight. The next size up mails for $47...so I'd recommend small items - :).  If you are mailing something that weighs less than 2 pds, it is cheaper to mail in your own packaging.



Specific mailing tips from Rose:

1) Two known things that never come through are shoes and medicine/vitamins.
2) Padded envelopes are cheaper.
3) My companion just received to packages from home for her birthday yesterday. They only cost 16 - 20 dollars to ship. But when they got here they were taxed € 30!! ($45 U.S.) On every package you send oversees you state or write what is inside and then how much it is worth. THE PACKAGE WORTH MUST BE MORE THAN THE COST OF SHIPPING!
 (Not sure if this is an opinion statement or a fact - but will check into it further. Just to be safe I'm declaring the envelope I'm sending as $19)
4) Write " Missionary Supplies" or "Candy" these two things are never taxed and come through fine. Never write "Gift"
5) To lower declared value you can mail used things. (e.g., wear the shirt around for a day and then it's used). 
6) Put pictures of the Virgin Mary or Baby Jesus on the package!! It sounds INSANE but for some reason packages with that stuff on them come through just fine :) I love Italy!! Also you can write "AMO Gesù Bambino" on the package and it comes through fine :)
7) Must mail package to my apartment not mission home so when it is getting close to transfers don't mail me anything. Transfers are every 6 weeks. I will be in Bari till Christmas I almost certain because President Kelly hinted at that.

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