Feedback

I get excited

Every month I get really excited when my mom hands me the New Era. I am only 12 years old, but I love reading spiritual messages as well as other reading material. I love reading the New Era. I love the special stories in the New Era. I never really think much about some of the principles that the New Era teaches until I read about them there. I think the New Era is a neat magazine.

Deborah Bird
Sugar City, Idaho

The tip of a great iceberg

As missionaries we were especially pleased to read “The Language of the Spirit,” an account of Elder Anthony and his district in the MTC. Both of us began to feel the same nostalgic sort of feeling as we read about his first day, his teachers, the experiences in the temple, and the Tuesday night firesides—all well chronicled in our journals and more than fondly remembered often.

Fortunately, like Elder Anthony and his group, our experiences there in Provo were fantastic. Like 98 percent of the other missionaries that enter the MTC, we too were a bit apprehensive about changing our premission lifestyles to the lifestyle of the Lord’s servants. And, just as naturally, we had qualms over whether or not we would be able to meet the challenge. But we, like so many others, are indebted to the teachers and leaders at the MTC for giving us the help and confidence to succeed beyond our greatest expectations. To mention just the teachers that we had and the leaders that helped us would be unfair, because when an elder or sister leaves, he realizes that what he has experienced is just the tip of a great iceberg, that there are hundreds more men and women there helping and inspiring every missionary who passes through those glass doors underneath those flags. With so many people actively working and backing you up, it is difficult to feel unconfident for too long.

“The Language of the Spirit” also mentioned the feelings of growth and progression you feel in the work. That is so true! We have never felt greater satisfaction in our lives, because we’ve never been able to see ourselves learning so much so quickly. All it takes is a bit of willpower and the blessings literally flow—knowledge, confidence in the Lord and in self, discipline, and, as the article so aptly described, the Spirit of the Lord. It is humbling and yet exhilarating to see yourself grow and develop into a capable, confident servant of the Lord. We found ourselves looking at the gospel and our callings as missionaries like we never had before, with entirely new perspectives. Now, because of the experiences in Provo, we were able to begin to sense the great urgency of our responsibilities, to begin to realize the so minute but so necessary part we were to play in the great plan of our Father in Heaven. In short, we began to become the kind of servants of the Lord that are going to be effective in preaching the one true gospel and in changing people’s lives. Thank you so very much for giving us this one short reminiscence, a chance to once again remember those great experiences that helped make us what we are now. With the possibility of going through the experience that “The Language of the Spirit” described, no Latter-day Saint should think twice about going on a mission. Just the two months there in the MTC make a mission worthwhile—and it’s the sixteen that come after when the mission becomes priceless. Thanks again for giving everybody a peek at what we’ve been fortunate enough to experience, and for giving us a few moments to remember with gratitude the people and experiences we knew there. Please keep being the kind of magazine we came to know as youth and love as missionaries.

Elders Steve Wadsen and Robert Johnstun
Peru Lima North Mission

Newcomer

I am a newcomer to the New Era. I would like to say thank you to Mr. and Mrs. N. K. Rasmussen and Elise for a wonderful baptismal gift—a year’s subscription to the New Era. I got my first issue, January-February, on Valentine’s Day. I started to read it. I fell in love with it. I’m looking forward to the March issue. I like your feature articles the most. They help me understand the gospel and be a worthy Latter-day Saint. They also help me in the office of a priest in the Aaronic priesthood. I enjoyed the Message “Why Now? Why Me?” by Elder Vaughn J. Featherstone in the January-February 1984 issue. It helped me understand the role the missionaries have in the Church. I love my Heavenly Father, and I love the New Era. In the years to come, the New Era will be in my home. I’m 21 years old. The New Era makes me feel younger. Soon I will have been a member four months. It’s so wonderful that I have found the gospel in my life.

Steve Morrison
Sparks, Nevada

Trying as hard

I really enjoy reading the New Era. When I read about what other LDS teenagers are doing, it makes me feel good to know other kids are trying as hard as I am to do what is right. Thanks for working so hard to make the New Era.

Kate Bagley
Whiterocks, Utah

Thank you, New Era

I wanted to write and tell you that even though I’m 26, you’re still my favorite Church magazine. I’ve been a member for ten years, and during those years you’ve comforted me and been an answer to prayer innumerable times. Thank you, New Era.

No Name
Price, Utah