What Makes a Great Missionary Email

Your weekly email is more than an update — it's how the people who love you get to experience your mission alongside you. Here's how to make it count.

Every week, dozens of people open your email hoping to feel a little closer to you. They want to know: What is it really like for you right now? What are you seeing, feeling, learning? Who are the people in your life? How is your faith growing?

The best missionary emails answer those questions. They don't just report what happened — they bring the reader into the experience. And the good news is that this is a skill anyone can develop.

Pday scores your emails across three dimensions to help you grow as a writer. Here's what each one means and how to improve.

The Three Dimensions #

Spirit Testimony & Spiritual Growth

This is about sharing how your faith is growing. The people reading your email want to hear your testimony — not a Sunday School answer, but what you're actually experiencing spiritually. What scriptures are hitting differently now? What have you learned about prayer that you didn't know six months ago? Where have you seen the Lord's hand this week?

The key is specificity and honesty. "The Spirit was so strong" is a start, but it doesn't help your reader feel what you felt. What happened? Where were you? What changed inside you?

Generic "The Spirit was really strong this week. I love being a missionary and I know this church is true."

Specific "We were teaching Maria about the Plan of Salvation and when we got to the part about families being together forever, she started crying. I realized I was crying too. I've taught that lesson maybe fifty times, but sitting in her living room with the pictures of her mom on the wall, I understood it in a way I never had before."

Don't be afraid to be real. If you had a hard week, it's okay to say so. You don't have to pretend everything is perfect. Sharing that you're struggling AND how your faith is carrying you through is some of the most powerful testimony you can bear. The people reading your email have hard weeks too — they want to know how the gospel helps in the middle of real life, not just on the good days.

People Relationships & Connection

Your mission is built on people — the ones you teach, the ones you serve with, the members who feed you, your companion. The readers of your email want to meet them. They want to care about the same people you care about.

Use names. When you write "we taught a family this week," your reader has nothing to hold onto. When you write "we taught the Ramirez family," suddenly they're real. Next week when you mention the Ramirez family again, your reader is already invested.

Generic "We had some good lessons this week and met with a few investigators. Our ward mission leader is really helpful."

Specific "Brother Thompson — the ward mission leader who looks exactly like a lumberjack and brings us homemade jerky every Sunday — came with us to teach Diego this week. Diego has been nervous about coming to church, but Brother Thompson told him about his own first Sunday twenty years ago, and you could see Diego relax."

Over time, the people in your emails become characters in the story of your mission. Your family will ask about them. They'll pray for them. That connection is a gift you can give through your writing.

Story Vivid Experience & Imagery

This is about painting a picture. Your readers have never been where you are. They don't know what your apartment looks like, what the streets smell like after rain, what the food tastes like, or what it sounds like when your neighborhood wakes up in the morning. You are their eyes and ears.

The goal isn't to write a novel — it's to slow down on one or two moments from your week and describe them well enough that the reader can picture themselves there.

Generic "We did a lot of service this week and had a good zone conference. Also went to the market on P-day."

Specific "We spent Saturday morning helping Sister Oliveira clear her yard after the storm. The whole street was covered in broken branches and red mud. Her neighbor came out with a machete and started chopping branches alongside us without saying a word. By noon we were all sitting on her porch drinking guaraná out of plastic cups, covered in mud, laughing about nothing."

Pick your best moment from the week and give it room to breathe. Describe the setting, the people, what happened, and why it mattered to you. One well-told story is worth ten bullet points.

Practical Tips #

Start with a moment, not a summary

Instead of opening with "This week was good," try opening with a specific scene: "There's a dog on our street that waits for us every morning..." or "Elder Johnson and I got completely lost on Tuesday and ended up at..." You'll hook your reader immediately and the rest of the email will flow from there.

Write to one person

It's hard to write a good email to "everyone." Pick one person — your mom, your best friend, your little sibling — and write as if you're talking to them. The email will feel more natural and personal, even though lots of people will read it.

Share what you're learning, not just what you're doing

Activities are the skeleton of your email, but insights are the soul. "We taught three lessons" is an activity. "I'm learning that people can feel when you actually care about them versus when you're just trying to hit a number" is an insight. Both can go in the same email — but the insight is what people will remember.

It's okay to be honest about hard things

You don't need to share every struggle in a broadcast email — some things are better saved for a personal call or a letter to your parents. But acknowledging that not every day is easy, and sharing how you're working through it, makes your email real. Your readers aren't expecting perfection. They're expecting you.

End with testimony

You don't need a formal testimony every week, but closing with something you believe — even one sentence — ties the whole email together. It reminds your reader (and you) why you're out there.

Rate Your Last Email #

How Pday Scores Your Emails #

Pday Pro includes an email score that evaluates each weekly email across the three dimensions above: Spirit (up to 40 points), People (up to 30 points), and Story (up to 30 points). The total adds up to 100.

Along with the score, you'll get a personalized tip — a short paragraph that highlights a specific area to focus on next week. Not a generic suggestion, but advice connected to what was actually in the email.

The score isn't a grade. It's a coaching tool — a gentle nudge to help your missionary develop the habit of sharing meaningful, vivid, heartfelt updates. Over time, most missionaries naturally improve just by being aware of what makes a great email.

• 85–100 — Master Correspondent. Exceptional. The reader feels like they were there.
• 70–84 — Seasoned Writer. Strong across all three dimensions with real depth.
• 55–69 — Finding Their Voice. Good content in some areas, room to grow in others.
• 40–54 — Getting Started. The basics are there. More detail and reflection will help.
• 0–39 — Room to Grow. A short or surface-level email. That's okay — every writer starts somewhere.

The most important thing isn't the number. It's the habit of sitting down each week and really thinking about what you want the people at home to know — and then writing it in a way that lets them experience it with you.

Frequently Asked Questions #