One of the things that Mason mentioned he would miss the most while serving his mission is the farewells and homecomings of all of his friends. In an effort to help him feel like he's not missing out, and to help him know the joy of discovering that his friends are "still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and [that] they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God" (Alma 17:2) we record these talks and send them to him.
My husband has a tiny, hand held digital recorder that he takes to church to record the talk. You can find them just about everywhere. We found ours at Walmart for about $50. We asked the Bishop if it was ok to record in Sacrament Meeting. His response: As long as you record only the talks and musical numbers (which we only do if the missionary's family is involved in the number) and do not record any prayers or the sacrament service itself, he said it was totally fine. After church we upload it to the computer and burn the talk to a CD. We always make two copies - one for Mason and one to take to the missionary's parents so they have a record of the talk. It's not the best quality simply because we are usually in the Cultural Hall and you can hear every crayon and Cheerio that happens to be dropped on the floor - amplified...x10. It does the job though and Mason is always thrilled to receive his copy and "know that his friends are "still his brethren in the Lord." I love modern technology, don't you?
Great! And so you know all those with iPhones, there is a digital recorder built in so you can skip the wal-mart step!
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