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SALT LAKE CITY — Thanks to a new app, you will no longer have any excuse not to write your missionary.

MissionaryGram allows you to take and send a single photo with a short message directly to a myldsmail.com account. Nate Jackson, the app’s creator, said he reached into his past for inspiration.

“I remember being a missionary, and certain companions I had would say, 'Oh, my brother doesn't email me,' and I was like, 'That's ridiculous,” Jackson said. “Email is the easiest thing on earth.”

He said when he was a missionary, he had no time for excuses why people didn’t write him. Now, however, he has cousins he hasn’t written even once. Jackson realized there had to be a quicker way to reach out to friends and family.

“Missionaries love getting pictures, and people have the pictures right on their phone,” Jackson said.

Since their busy schedules make it so missionaries have limited time to write and read long emails, a picture really is worth a thousand words. All you do is download the app, add your missionary's contact info, and send them a photo.

“I thought anyone using Instagram, like college students, would use it,” Jackson said. “But any tech-savvy mom would also be thrown in the mix.”

Now that email is ubiquitous in the mission field and so many people have smartphones, the connectivity of loved ones has made an app like MissionaryGram possible.

“It makes it that much easier to quickly share photos with your missionary — to say hey, we're thinking of you, you're doing great,” Jackson said.

The app has a little reminder to keep pictures and messages aligned with the goals of your missionary.

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