Feedback

Them against us

The last page I read in the February 1988 issue was Feedback, and the last letter said “It seems like all the articles and stories in the New Era are about men.” This astonished me. Here’s a fan letter from a 53-year-old female who has been reading first “The Era of Youth” and then the New Era as long as there have been such helps for LDS youth, and I have never been offended or felt ignored or left out.

I looked over the February issue again, knowing the articles and stories were planned months in advance and were not arranged to placate the complaint in Feedback, and I could see no such bias.

I have served as Young Women president in three different wards over a period of 30 years, and with loving concern I would beg our young women to avoid divisive “them-against-us” feelings, whether it be female vs. male, minority vs. dominant racial group, minority vs. dominant religious group, youth vs. parent, or youth vs. leader or teacher situations. We can all find ways in which we were given “second-class” treatment if we look long enough, count the number of words, the size of the pictures, etc.

Christ came to bring us together with love, and as his disciples we should look for our common needs as human beings and realize that we can learn as much (or more) about being Christlike from an article about or by President Hunter as we can from one about or by Sister Kapp, and she would be the first to counsel you in this way.

LaJuan H. Anderson
Pocatello, Idaho

A great reader

I am really a great reader of the New Era. Many of my friends read the New Era too, and we think that it is one of the greatest magazines. The articles, Mormonads, and pictures are really an inspiration to us. This magazine is liked so much that I have seen people that don’t have teenage daughters or sons reading it. Keep up the great work and keep adding happiness and inspiration to our lives.

Ja Niece Price
Big Piney, Wyoming

Too juvenile?

Please tell that Brother Larsen in Pasadena that the New Era isn’t too juvenile for anybody. The stories are the greatest! I feel they are the best when I’m in tune or when they answer my questions. They also help me to have a good gospel influence in my life. Also, anything written by the First Presidency is something to read and remember and learn from. I’m a college sophomore at the University of California Santa Cruz, and I never feel I’ve outgrown the New Era because I’m still subject to my parents, still going through trials, still dealing with choices, and still learning from the New Era. Thanks so much!

Carolyn Schneider
Santa Cruz, California

Talking issue

We must take issue with Charles Larsen, who wrote in to say that he and his teenagers find the New Era “too juvenile and unbelievable.” Our family has subscribed to your beautiful magazine almost from the first issue. We have always found something in it to help with what we needed at the time—thought-provoking motivating articles, spiritual messages, great stories, and fun things like Mormonisms and FYI. Never has any issue talked down to my teens or myself. We know grandparents who love the New Era. Keep up the great work!

Sharon F. Gould
Logan, Utah

WOW!

Thank you a thousand times over for the March 1988 issue on service. About three months ago I was assigned a service project for a bi-stake youth conference, and I stewed and fretted over my assignment for days. Why me? What could I possibly do to make this a success and yet fun and rewarding for these 14–18-year-olds? And with so many youth, it just had to go over well.

Days later my son Cleon received his New Era, and I went through it as I always do. WOW!—an answer to my prayers. Our youth conference is over now, and I had to sit down and thank you and the New Haven Connecticut Stake that shared this idea.

Our service project was a big hit, and the youth learned a lesson also in missionary work, because they now realize that everyone doesn’t open their doors with welcoming smiles and eagerness to all that knock on them. Now I know why, evermore, I appreciate and enjoy getting the New Era each month.

Linda Peck
Winston Ward Young Women President
Roseburg, Oregon Stake

Supportive

Thank you for printing a supportive magazine for Latter-day Saint teens. It’s helped in my life. I have all the Mormonads I’ve ever been able to find hanging in my room. Thank you for the encouragement the New Era gives to me and many people in the Church and out.

Jori Nichol
Salt Lake City, Utah

Frogs and princes

It’s time to praise the Mormonads again. The one in the September issue really impressed me, and I had to get a copy to send to my husband. You see, my husband is in the state prison right now, and is surrounded constantly by “frogs who don’t know they are princes!” My husband always thought that he himself was a frog. That’s mainly how he came to be where he is. He is coming to realize that he and all of us are princes to our Heavenly Father. I hope we will all think of each other as royalty and also treat ourselves as such. Thank you for the inspirational thoughts.

Name Withheld