Nadine Champlin also panicked.

She kept trying to call her daughter, but the call wouldn't go through.

Champlin had given her mother the wrong city code.

Oops.

"I was heartbroken; no one knows what it's like," remembers Nadine Champlin, who also had the experience of another daughter, Amy, on a mission in Salt Lake City in 1995 and 1996.

Nadine Champlin agrees that mothers aren't satisfied that everything is all right until they hear their child's voice.

However, Lori Champlin managed to hide the fact for a year that she wasn't doing well with a leg infection.

Nadine Champlin remembers, "She would never tell me; she knew I would worry."

Lori Champlin says missionaries such as herself mature quite a bit from their missions experience.

"When you go on a mission, it's 'Let me spread my wings and do my thing,"' she remembers. "But when you hear the voices in those phone calls, you understand the special meaning of family.

"The person's voice becomes much more precious."

Debbie Rowley has had the experience of two sons on missions — Jonathan in Arkansas and Matthew currently in North Dakota — and she's OK with the twice-a-year phone calls.

Of her family, she says, "None of us are, 'We can't stand it.' We know if he doesn't call us, he's happy. He's serving the Lord; he's feeling good about what he is doing."

But, Debbie Rowley says, nothing beats the actual call.