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Start reading—now!

Thank you so much for your precious New Era. I had been feeling very self-righteous and critical toward the Church lately. In my self-pitying foolishness, I had decided that the Church was no longer important to me, and I had decided to stop going altogether. But my friend Gus Travis had given me some New Eras and other materials to read.

I had decided to take a nap, but the thought disturbing my peace was “Pick up a New Era and start reading—NOW!” So I did what the Spirit told me and began reading the article “Ducks Are Different” from the October 1983 issue. It has straightened out my perspective, and now I have a reason to bear my testimony, which had been slipping lately. Thank heaven for the New Era!

Karen Gautieau
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada

Where’s George?

I’m near 80. I have been reading the stories published in the New Era, the Ensign, the Improvement Era, the Young Women’s Home Journal, and the Relief Society Magazine since childhood. I still read them. I like the stories. I get a big kick out of them.

Ever since I first learned to read, I’ve been intrigued with good stories, particularly those printed in the Church publications. Choice stories and good books have always been among my greatest joys and sources of growth. The LDS church has always been on the positive side of things, encouraging everyone to progress and to do better.

My grandfather and my father took the monthly issues of the magazines mentioned, saved them, tied them with string into bundles or volumes, and placed them on shelves of handmade bookcases, where they were when I started to read the select stories in them.

Family members often asked, “Where is George?” Someone would reply, “Oh, he’s somewhere with his head buried in a Church magazine or a good book. Maybe he’s out behind one of the header-boxes stacked around the header on the ground near the barn.”

I was thrilled with the Improvement Era. Riding a big horse, bareback, as a youth I went alone from our ward on the Era drive and sold over 100 percent of our subscription quota.

Please tell Jack Weyland, Alma Yates, and Jeniveve Wahlquist that we enjoy and appreciate their stories. Tell them to stay with it and never give it up!

George S. Mortensen
Idaho Falls, Idaho

Salute

Thank you so much for continuing to print such powerful messages in such concise articles. I recently joined the military as a veterinary officer. My stack of veterinary journals and Church magazines from the past six months finally caught up with me, and you know which ones I put on top to be eagerly devoured first.

Even those of us in the “older” ranks of the military have to endure some trying situations, and it’s great to be able to refresh my spirit each day with something from the New Era. Thanks for putting the spirit back into my salutes!

1LT Karen L. Andrews
Veterinary Services
Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota

A better person

I want to tell you how I enjoy reading the New Era and how much it helps me to become a better person. I look forward every month to receiving this great magazine so I can read the interesting articles in it. Thanks a lot for publishing such a great magazine.

Renee Holloway
Bonifay, Florida

The “olive leaf”

Thank you for printing “The Meadow” in the April 1985 New Era. The color photos and words from the Lord’s “olive leaf” (D&C 88) were precisely fitting. This helps us to realize that the words of section 88 are the most beautiful, profound, and meaningful words ever written in any language. How appropriate that the Prophet Joseph Smith used a metaphor from nature as a special name for this revelation: “I send you the ‘olive leaf’ which we have plucked from the Tree of Paradise, the Lord’s message of peace to us” (History of the Church, 1:316).

Lamont M. Jensen
Salt Lake City, Utah

Angry with at

As the mother of New Era and Friend readers, I like to read the magazines too so that I’m on the same wavelength as you and them!

I have enormously enjoyed reading the March 1985 New Era. I feel disturbed though at a use of English which I consider incorrect. The phrase “angry at” in “Pockets Full of Rocks” really disturbs me. Is it standard American English usage? It is definitely not South African English usage. We would say “angry with.”

Having said that, I have enjoyed reading the Era of Youth and the New Era since I was a teenager. These magazines have helped make me what I am, and I’m delighted that our children also enjoy having them read to them or reading them themselves. I look forward to the rest of my life associated with you!

Judy Bray
Parkhurst, South Africa

Editor’s Note: According to usage experts Wilson Follett (Modern American Usage, p. 257) and Theodore M. Bernstein (The Careful Writer, p. 44), angry can take both with and at. Webster’s Third International Dictionary gives examples of both prepositions being used with angry.

Just my kind of thing

I have been a member of the Church since I was 13. I am now 25. I have always read the New Era and found it just my kind of thing. Please keep up the good work.

Thirza Ann Finlinson
Thetford, Norfolk, England