Tuesday, April 8, 2008

7. From Gene and Cheryl

Excerpts from a letter I received from my brother and sister-in-law, Gene and Cheryl Cleverly, sometime in May or June 1968, just a couple months before receiving my mission call to Brazil. Gene was stationed with the Army in Germany but was writing, without my having solicited it, to offer financial help for my mission. He had met Cheryl Jones in Vernal, Utah, near the end of his own mission in the Western States Mission, and had married her about a month after his release.

Gene: Cheryl and I have decided to help you when you are on your mission. We should be able to give you at least $25 a month. We have enough now for Cheryl and Kimberley to come home. So let us know when you get your call and we send you the money.

Cheryl: We really do want to help you as much as we can. A mission is a wonderful thing. . . . We want you to understand that some months it may be a little hard but we have already planned to take yours out first along with the tithing. . . . When we first get home we won't have a car or job or house or anything and it will probably be tough for a while, but we know that hard times only serve to make us stronger. Dean, we have been so blessed. I really should say I have been the one to be blessed so much. I've got Gene and Kimberley now. I've only been a member of the Church two and a half years, but these have been so full and meaningful to me.

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