Comment

The Temple Issue

The Ensign is a great help in the classroom. We’ve just completed a lesson on temples for my 22 (yes, 22) eight- and nine-year-olds, and they thoroughly enjoyed using the August issue for their references. What a fantastic teaching tool, not only for people who are newly converted and those who’ve been members all their lives, but for those who we need to fellowship.

Carol Anastasi
Anaheim, California

Reference was made in the “Monument to Spirituality” article that the Washington Temple district included all of the United States east of the Mississippi River. But it also includes the St. Louis Missouri Stake, of which I am a member. Our stake encompasses areas both east and west of the Mississippi River. We live west of the river and felt very honored to contribute to the Washington Temple.

Mrs. Frances Gadberry
Florissant, Missouri

I was baptized in the Susquehanna River in 1969, outside of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and have been watching the progress of the Washington Temple with great interest since then. In 1969, I attended an M-Man and Gleaner conference on the temple site and after that, I visited Washington often, seeing the foundations poured, seeing the walls begin to rise. I cannot describe the spiritual feeling that came over me as I opened the front cover of the August Ensign and saw the “six fluted facets” in the completion of a dream for the Saints back east. Sometimes our spirits get low, but when there is a spiritual boost such as the special temple issue, we feel that inner warmth of the Spirit within us, and it helps us to rededicate ourselves and work harder.

Elder Andrew Schnebly
Tonga Mission

As recent missionaries at the Old Carthage Jail Visitors Center, we appreciate Wendell J. Ashton’s article “Where ‘Hello’ Is More Than a Greeting” in the August 1974 Ensign.

However, we are disappointed that the photo on page 83 is incorrectly identified as the Old Carthage Jail. Rather, it is the ten-year-old Visitors Center. The old jail, a sturdy 134-year-old structure, is located beyond the Visitors Center and is obscured by it in the photo.

Henry H. and Dorothea K. Rampton
Corvallis, Oregon

Scandinavian Highlights

On page 48 of the July 1974 issue, under the date of 1841, you report Christian Christensen as the first Scandinavian to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood. I believe this should be Christian Christiansen. He is the brother of Niels Christian Christiansen, who is Elder ElRay L. Christiansen’s grandfather.

Joseph E. Olsen
St. George, Utah

On Family Alienation

I am writing about an interesting article in the August issue of Scientific American. The article by Urie Bronfenbrenner (pp. 53–61) is an analysis of alienation in the United States.

The important factor is its endorsement of the family as the key to healthy persons and societies. Speaking of the effect of outside influences on the family and, in turn, upon children, the article says, “When those circumstances and the way of life they generate undermine relationships of trust and emotional security between family members, when they make it difficult for parents to care for, educate, and enjoy their children, when there is no support or recognition from the outside world for one’s role as a parent, and when time spent with one’s family means frustration of career, personal fulfillment, and peace of mind, then the development of the child is adversely affected.”

It is a great analysis of how important the family is in fulfilling our needs as individuals and as members of society.

Preston Peterson
Logan, Utah

Ensign Helps in Foreign Country

Being here in a French-speaking area, we have many difficulties in learning about the Church, and it’s really wonderful receiving the Ensign each month. What I miss in Church because of my poor understanding of French, I learn from the Ensign. I especially love the conference reports which give so much help for our everyday lives. Thanks from a grateful member of one year.

Audrey Taylor
Vaud, Switzerland

First Missionaries to Finland

In “Highlights of the Church in Scandinavia” (July Ensign, p. 49), you state: “1875—Two local elders are assigned to work in Finland from Stockholm Conference, John E. Sundstrom, president, and I. J. Sundstrom, assistant.”

The diary of my grandfather, Carl August Sundstrom, translated from the old Swedish (the original is in my possession), states that he and his brother, Johan Isak Sundstrom, were sent to open the mission in Finland in 1875. Could a correction be made?

Joseph W. Holden
LaVerkin, Utah

You are right. The historical record of the Stockholm Conference, Scandinavian Mission (1867–83), found in the Church Archives, indicates that on October 2, 1875, during a conference in Stockholm, it was agreed that “Elder C. A. Sundstrom be called to Finland, and President I. J. Sundstrom be ordained an Elder and called to Finland to assist his brother.” A later entry indicates that the second-named missionary was actually Johan Isak Sundstrom. These were apparently the first missionaries to labor in Finland on a continuing basis.