PROVO — Sending cookies and letters to a loved one serving an LDS mission has a new technological twist: You don't have to lick an envelope or turn on the oven.
Chalk it up to the information age and a handful of LDS Internet services based in Utah County and aimed at making letter-writing and package-sending easier.
The sites www.DearElder.com, www.MissionaryWorld.com and www.MTCCookies.com make it possible to communicate with missionaries without leaving the computer.
Dave Bateman and Benjamin Zimmer started DearElder.com in November 2000.
Bateman and Zimmer had been frustrated with the length of time it took letters to reach them while serving LDS missions in Honduras.
So, they started the site to speed the process along.
Users type a letter on the Web site.
Once the letter enters Bateman's system, it is printed, put in an envelope and distributed through the U.S. Postal Service or the "pouch" system of the LDS Church, a mail system to help speed the flow of mail to missionaries in regions with unreliable mail service.
The service has about 25,000 users and processes about 4,000 letters a week. "We grew pretty fast from word of mouth," Bateman said.
Workers at DearElder.com hand-deliver letters in the pouch mail system to the pouch office in Salt Lake, avoiding postage costs and allowing free service to these missions.
Users pay 37 cents to send a letter to United States missions and 80 cents for foreign missions but don't pay for printing costs or for the envelopes.
"We still pay overhead, but we ask people to pay the price of the stamp," Bateman said. "They all put us in the hole because we don't charge anything."
Site developers at MissionaryWorld.com instruct visitors on how to create a quick, free Web site. Letters, information and photographs about a missionary can be posted on the site, making communication easier.
The site, founded by Che Oliver in 1999, has 2,500 missionary Web sites and 40,000 subscribers.
When the LDS Church decided in January to allow missionaries to communicate with their families by e-mail under approved mission guidelines, the site started offering missionaries an e-mail account to send and receive e-mails.
Since July 1, the site has expanded to include a letter delivery service as well. "It will be a pretty nice option for families that are supporting missionaries," Oliver said.
Approximately 20 percent of DearElder users are from Utah, 70 percent from outside of Utah in the United States and 10 percent from outside the United States.
MissionaryWorld has similar statistics. Approximately 90 percent of visitors to the site are from across the country.
Traffic from New Zealand, Canada and Australia tops the list of more than 100 countries making up the other 10 percent. Out of the 40,000 subscribers to the site, 15,000 are from Utah.
Both sites provide a list of links to other LDS-oriented Web sites and services, feature a missionary Web site of the month and rely on sponsorships and donations to function.
About a month ago DearElder.com expanded its services to include cookie care packages.
The care packages, which range in price from $17.99 to $29.99, help pay some of the costs of printing the letters, Bateman said.
Lisa Oliver started MTC Cookies.com in 1996 after trying unsuccessfully to send cookies to her now-husband while he served a mission in Los Angeles.
She finally located a company willing to send cookies for $60, only to discover the next week that the company had not sent the chocolate chip cookies she requested.
Instead, he received a batch of coffee cookies — a definite no-no for an LDS missionary.
"We were the first ones to start the care package thing," said Lisa Oliver, who is married to Che Oliver.
While MTC Cookies offers a wide range of treats including warm cookies, cinnamon rolls, chips and salsa, a bread basket and ice cream, ranging in price from $19 to $39.95, the most popular items are the cookies.
Lisa Oliver fills hundreds of orders each week, about half going to the Missionary Training Center at Brigham Young University and half going to missions across the world. On "Free Cookie Friday," Oliver's site offers one free cookie to missionaries in the MTC. She delivers between 150 and 200 of those free cookies each week.
E-MAIL: cbuys@desnews.com