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Fantastic friends

I would like to thank Bishop Vaughn J. Featherstone for the article “Purity of Heart” in the August issue. It really helped me understand how much harder I must work to keep a pure heart. I would like to thank Judy Kay Welch for “The Winner.” It was a beautiful and deeply touching story. Our fantastic friends gave my sister and me a two-year subscription to the New Era when we were baptized four months ago. We always get so excited when the mailman delivers it each month. We love this beautiful church and our prophet very much. Mormons are very special and beautiful people.

Debbie Cowden
Santa Rosa, California

¡Hola!

We thought other youth would be interested in hearing about the Barranquilla Branch, northernmost branch of the Church in South America. We are on the Carribean coast of Colombia, where the palm trees wave to the cool afternoon breezes and beautiful sunset. The beauty of Barranquilla, matched by a hot, humid climate, is the setting of Colombia’s newest branch. The branch, being only three months old, and having a membership of twenty-six, is already showing signs of a prosperous future.

As we teach people about the Book of Mormon it is not uncommon to hear stories of a great white god named Bochica, who at one time visited the land of Colombia. What a testimony builder! The New Era is a great spiritual help to us here as it is 791 kilometers to the next nearest branch. Keep up the good work.

Elder Craig Hill, Elder Larry Cheesman, Elder Danny Wichman, Elder Scott Jackson,
Barranquilla, Colombia

Lines from Lina

Our daughter Mary Ellen Edmunds is a health missionary in the Philippines. Recently she found this bit of verse on her desk. It is expressive of the response of these good people to the program.

“I love you for the happiness you bring to us each day.

I love you for the kindness of your thoughtful way.

I love you for the patience when I do something wrong.

I love you for the gentle way you cheer me when I’m sad.

I love you for the faith and strength that you have given me.

I love you for your love for me.

But most of all I love you just because you’re you, sister!

Heavenly Father really loves me so I know something important about love!”

Lina Vegara

P. K. Edmunds, M.D.
Provo, Utah

A tale of two campuses

The University of California does not have a campus at Long Beach or Fullerton. There are campuses of the California State University at both Fullerton and Long Beach, however. The University of California and the California State University systems are separate and distinct in purpose, philosophy, and administration. This error in your article “Institutes of Religion” appearing in the October 1973 issue detracted from an otherwise interesting article.

David W. Alston
San Diego, California

A Mormon intelligentsia

I would like to commend you for two fine articles in the July New Era. I am referring to Avraham Gileadi’s “A New Life” and Allen E. Bergin’s “Toward a Theory of Human Agency.” Such articles increase our awareness of the place we as young Latter-day Saints hold in our complex world and of our awesome responsibilities. Because of latter-day scriptures and the words of our prophets we hold keys of knowledge in all areas of life superior to anything men have to offer. Such articles also contribute to the development of a powerful and humane intelligentsia and are at the spearhead of a divine movement that can help to save mankind from its predicaments.

Elder Pierre B. Blair
Ohio-West Virginia Mission

A life belt

Thank you for the New Era. You have no idea how happy I am to read it. I have only met one young person, other than the elders, who is a Mormon. Consequently, at times I feel cast adrift, a person trying to live a good life all alone, one person surrounded by so much sin. The New Era gives me a life belt, a sure knowledge that there are many young people like me—each trying to progress in the gospel. It gives me the extra inner strength that I need to go on.

Pamella Marriott
Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia

Just two?

I need to buy two copies of the New Era, one to put on my walls and to file for talks, and one to read and share with others.

Jill Marie Rasmussen

Reruns

Other than letters from home and friends we don’t get to read uplifting literature very often. The New Era is a spiritual uplift every time we receive it, and each issue is reread many times before the next one comes.

Elders Little, Morrison, Toranto, Erickson, Bledsoe, and Pontius
Japan East Mission

Dress standards

I have been greatly strengthened by the New Era whilst serving as a district leader of young women in the MIA. For some time we have been confronted with the problem that dress standards seem to stir up among the women in the Church. Imagine my elation when I received the July 1973 issue the morning of our leadership meeting. The two fashion articles therein, “Fashion Is You” and “Mr. Blackwell Interview,” once again reminded us to be conscious of our standards of dress, femininity, and loveliness as women in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Betty V. Ryan
Norwood, Tasmania, Australia

On tour

Reading about the LDS clown with the Greatest Show on Earth prompted me to write about my experience with a touring show. I am a British Saint of five-years membership. I was working on costumes for an ice show when contacted to join a show called “Disney on Parade” as wardrobe mistress. They were at that time in Milano, Italy. The show was experimental, the first European tour of Disney, and the cast was European. My bishop gave me a list of all the wards and branches of the Church and wished me luck.

Off I went to Italy to the Milano Hilton and eight months of being the only member of the Church in a company of 80. Touring with heavy wardrobe containers, training a local wardrobe staff, not speaking their language, visiting a new country every two weeks, packing and unpacking, and getting into and out of sports stadiums has been quite a challenge. I’ve learned about people from all over the world. In the company we have Dutch, German, Swedish, Australian, Danish, South American, Austrian, North American, French, Swiss, English, and South African cast members and workers. I’ve learned to respect their different ways of life. The backstage crew have pulled my leg about being LDS but respect me enough not to swear near me. I’ve had to approach people carefully about the gospel in order not to appear to be a religious fanatic or seem to be ramming religion down their throats. I’ve used example more than preaching. Theater people can be a wild bunch at parties and on days off, so I’ve had to pick my social ties carefully. Sometimes it is lonely, but I always think of my Lord and am greatly comforted.

I’ve found reading scriptures and studying to be quite difficult because of the pace we live at, but if I haven’t learned much of the scriptures, I’ve seen the Saints building the Church and learned a lot from them. Since I’ve been in South America a friend and I have been able to stay with a member family, and what a choice family they are. Their example helped my friend to accept the gospel. She was baptized two days ago in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

I know that my way of life as a member of the Church is choice, that our teachings are uncomplicated, and that this truly is Christ’s church.

Miss S. J. Bennina
Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, England

Hi

I wanted to say “hi” to all of the LDS youth of the world, and this seems the nicest way of doing it. Thank you for our new era of better reading.

Barbara Morgan
Adelaide Stake, South Australia