13. To Jerry

A letter to my older brother Jerry written from the Language Training Mission in Provo, Utah, on Saturday, October 19, 1968. Jerry, who was thirty years old at the time, lived in Boise and, along with Gene and Cheryl, was one of the principal financial supporters of my mission.

Dear Jerry,

Only three months ago today was my nineteenth birthday. How clearly I remember that day. But what is remarkable is the continued growth I have experienced since then. The mantle of a great responsibility has been placed upon my shoulders. Ten years ago this very month you experienced a similar thing and know of what I speak.

The vastness of the Lord’s work in South America is overwhelming: The stone Daniel saw is now filling the whole earth. The longer I live the more firmly I am convinced that the Savior’s return is drawing closer and closer. So many signs have been given, including the gospel being preached in all the world. The elect are being gathered because the sheep know the voice of their Shepherd (and of His authorized servants) and are responding. We are all so blessed to be able to live in this part of this dispensation, a dispensation in which things are being revealed that have never before been revealed since the earth’s beginning. Time is growing so short. Even now we are instructed not to take more than three weeks with an investigator. This week we were told that a time would come when six discussions would take too long and the elders could only stand on the streets to declare their message and bear their testimony. Yes, time is short.

This week in leadership meeting Steven Covey, assistant to President Wilkinson and formerly Irish Mission president, addressed us. His hour with us was a truly great experience. At the beginning of every leadership meeting the missionaries sing the opening hymn in their respective languages, meaning six languages all at once. That really sounds interesting.

Next Thursday or Friday we are moving out of Allen Hall into a hotel somewhere in Provo. The address will be the same though. It will probably mean more money but that depends upon where we move. I am going to pay all expenses here in just one check before leaving at Christmastime. Those bits of extra money I have, or assume I have, will really help.

Continue your wonderful letters. I really appreciate them. Thanks. Obrigado.

Tomorrow morning I have one of the 2½-minute talks in Sunday School in Portuguese. The other night I finally was called on to give a closing prayer in front of the whole zone, also in Portuguese.

Grow closer to the Lord, Jerry, and He will direct your paths to your own best good. I can testify personally of that. I think most Church members don’t really understand it, but if we expect to be in the celestial kingdom hereafter we must be charting a course here and now that leads toward perfection and becoming worthy to see the Savior and, through faith and repentance and His divine grace, becoming completely free of the sins of the world. The day of this life is the time to prepare to meet God, teaches the Book of Mormon. This life, not the next.

I thank you for all you have given me and mean to me. If only I can partly repay the debt. May God bless you.