Feedback

Dating tips

I was impressed by the dating tips you gave in your FYI section of the February 1989 issue. I thought the advice was excellent. However, I think it would have more widespread meaning if you had labeled the two sections something like “For the one asking” and “For the one being asked.” It is common today for girls to ask for dates. I personally believe that this trend is very healthy. I would be saddened to think that any girl or boy reading the article in your magazine may deny themselves the opportunity to participate fully in these and other dating experiences just because they think the only dating model is the one where the boy does the asking.

LaDonna Kemmerle
Salt Lake City, Utah

I needed to hear

Thank you so much for the article, “A Song of the Spirit,” in the August 1989 issue. The hymn “How Firm a Foundation” has a special meaning for me also. One day when I was really down and felt as if most of the world was against me, we sang that hymn in seminary. It was exactly what I needed to hear. And I felt that the Lord knew of my feelings and was there to help.

Jennifer Thomas
Spanish Fork, Utah

Divine importance

Thank you so much for the special missionary issue (June 1989). Today a very close friend left for the MTC. We had grown up together, and it was very hard to see him go. For the past couple of weeks I have been pondering why we must send out missionaries, and it seemed like missions were less important than friendships. The pain of saying good-bye didn’t seem worth it. I had always known that going on a mission is the only thing to do, but when it came down to my friend leaving, I wasn’t so sure. Today, after he left, I picked up the missionary issue and read the wonderful stories and articles. It was then that I realized the divine importance of missionary work, a work of a loving Heavenly Father who is gathering his children. I feel so much better about my friend and his choice. Thank you again for the June issue. It reached me when nothing else could.

Carrie Jacobs
Salt Lake City, Utah

Planting seeds

I’ve been a member of the Church now for 17 months, and it’s really changed my life. Years ago, not long after the Church video “Families Are Forever” was brought out, two men came to our home and showed it to us on the back of our kitchen door. I was about eight years old and lived at Ingleton. My parents told these men not to come back. Nine years later I joined the Church, a month later my sister Dawn joined, and in August 1988 my father and step-mum joined. It wasn’t until I was working with the missionaries that I realized those two men were Latter-day Saint missionaries.

I just want to say to the missionaries, baptizing isn’t always the important thing, but planting that very first seed is. Who knows, the ones that reject today may accept tomorrow.

Jill Chappell
Lancaster, Preston, England

Tough decision

I am a freshman at Snow College in Ephraim, Utah. I have felt discouraged as I have tried to make a decision as to what my major would be. I appreciated your article “The Discovery” by Richard Romney. As I read that article it was enlightening to me to see that it is a difficult decision for many young people to know exactly what to major in. Thank you for this article, which helped me to realize that I am not alone but one of many who is trying to discover what field I want to study.

Michelle Wilkey
Ephraim, Utah

Away from home

I just wanted to write and thank you for the wonderful articles and stories in the New Era. I have recently hit the halfway point in a one-year student exchange in Sweden. I am very thankful for the small branch in this area, the missionaries and their strong testimonies of God. To see the missionaries work in a foreign land, to see the love they give and the love they receive, makes me extremely anxious to serve a mission for the Lord.

Derik Stratton
Orebro, Sweden