34. To Jerry

A letter to my brother Jerry in Boise, Idaho, written on Monday, May 4, 1970, from Maceió, Alagoas, Brazil.

Dear Jerry,

Yesterday and today I received your letters, forwarded from Rio, that you sent April 9 and April 14, including all the conference clippings. Thanks so muchly for all that—news is slow in reaching this corner of the world.

It sounds like the “golden age” of Mormonism, so called, is an era that is passing. Notice how closely timed was the passing of President McKay with the breaking of the first storms. Each president of the Church has played a particular role, was the best man to lead the development of the kingdom in his own time. President McKay made the Church worldwide and respected. President Smith is just the man to lead us through gathering storms. This is the Lord’s work. He is at the helm and the work cannot fail. And all of us with a burning testimony, given of God, of the divinity of this latter-day work will follow the counsel of heaven-inspired apostles and prophets and not the whims and sophistries and cunning devices of men.

It is my prayer that everything is going well on the home front. It sounds like life is a joy. May the Lord’s blessings ever be with you.

22. To Jerry

A letter to my brother Jerry in Boise, Idaho, written in the mission office in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, June 30, 1969.

Dear Jerry,

“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose. A sunset, a mountain bathed in moonlight, the ocean in calm and in storm—we see these, love their beauty, hold the vision in our hearts. All that we love deeply becomes a part of us.” Thanks for that beautiful message from Helen Keller, which you sent on the occasion of your birthday. I am most appreciative.

This week also brought a letter you sent over a month ago. It is the one in which you mentioned the flower you sent to Karen for me on May 19—having heard nothing from either of you I was beginning to wonder what had happened. You also made reference to a letter that would be in the mail in a few days explaining your newfound happiness—that has never arrived. But just from your letters I can tell you are happy and I am glad for it. One of the few things that would make me even happier would be to read that you would be getting married. Anyway, I am glad to know you are busy and truly happy and dreaming the dreams of the future.

History was made in Rio de Janeiro last Thursday afternoon when the gospel was preached for the first time openly in the streets of this city. In one of the praças (public squares) we held a street meeting. Eight elders participated. One elder would tell the Book of Mormon story and the history of the Restoration in English (to attract attention) while another elder would translate into Portuguese. The rest of us would mingle in the crowds answering questions, explaining more about the Church, and trying to sell the Book of Mormon. In just over an hour we sold eleven copies of the Book of Mormon. We also had some stands up with giant posters explaining the Restoration and the coming forth of the Book of Mormon. These helped attract interest also. We were in a poor praça, but we felt it was a success. At the end we were rained out. This marks a beginning of a new era of preaching the gospel here in this nation.

Thanks for all your support and interests in every way. Know of my love and respect for you. May the blessings of heaven continue with you.

18. To Jerry

A letter to my brother Jerry in Boise, Idaho, written from the mission office in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, March 31, 1969.

Dear Jerry,

Once again I am glad to be hearing from you. I do not understand exactly why your letters have not been coming through, but I am glad to know you have been writing every week. Certainly you are always welcome to ramble to me (that is what brothers are for), but I wish sometimes you would ramble in a little more detail. Just as an example, who is Lareen?

You spent most of your last letter speaking about your problem—a moral problem as you termed it—and the complications that was creating. You said that after three days of fasting, prayer, the Lord’s help, Lareen’s help, you made the choice and the change. Would it be out of place to ask what were the choice and the change? I do not need to know of the past if you do not care to relate it (especially if repentance has been involved), but I really am interested in more information about whatever is going on.

Although you suggested I did not know what was going on, I think that I am aware of more than you ever would have realized. As a person tries to serve the Lord and tries to live by the Spirit (which you remember I spoke of often last summer), he has greater abilities given him to discern between light and darkness, between good and evil. I was aware of some problem that was not of the Lord that was blocking further progress in your life—that must have been what you were referring to. I even think I know the sort of problem it may have been, but I need not go into that here. I will rely on reticence here also.

Enough of such rambling—I guess I do a lot of rambling too. Since this conference season I will not be able to participate, please write following the sessions to give a detailed report of the proceedings. It will be July or even later before we will have the June Improvement Era with the messages from the Brethren and the Prophet. And so please fill me in on every exciting detail concerned with the conference.

Are you saving your pennies? You always used to say you would come to meet me at the end of my mission. Brazil is a super exciting place that you would like to visit. I have no idea how much it would cost (probably $600 or $800 round trip), but it is interesting to think about.

Unfortunately my time is running short today and this will have to end now. I was saddened to hear of President Eisenhower’s death. What were the details of that? Know of my prayers and love in your behalf.

16. To Jerry

A letter to my brother Jerry written from the mission home in Rio de Janeiro on Monday, December 23, 1968, with the postscript added on Wednesday, December 25.

Dear Jerry,

A year has quickly slipped by and Christmastime is already here again. I suppose its onward rush continuing, time will so quickly bring by the next two holiday seasons that my mission will be only history and I will be back reunited with loved ones—friends and family—in my beloved homeland. I guess it is but natural to feel a bit nostalgic (and homesick even) at this season of the year—and so I do. Were I kept constantly busy, which I’m not right now because of my foot, there would be no time to be homesick. But though such now is my unlucky lot, I will shortly recover.

The Johnson family is a great collection of wonderful people, and I am now blessed to share in their company this week. President Johnson is certainly a man of God. His wife is an angel, a perfect compliment to her husband, and a special mother. Their children, Daran (age 8), Jill (age 13), and Craig (age 17 next month), live here in Brazil. A married son lives in Provo.

It’s hard to know how to really say thanks to someone who is deserving of a great deal of thanks. But to you I say: thanks for your support and your love and your concern and all you mean to me. Your financial support, even as it is difficult, particularly as it is difficult, demonstrates that you are indeed a disciple of Christ. If ever things become impossible, just let me know, because I can share this with you (although I’m sure he doesn’t care to have it broadcast all over): Bob Russell has offered me his help at any time it might become necessary. He too has dedicated to the Lord his all—including his time, talents, energies, resources, and even life—to the building of the kingdom. This is why my home and my heart will be ever open to him. I wish only that you knew Bob as I have been privileged to know him.

Have you seen the November Improvement Era? I did just this week, and it is fantabulous. If you have read it, study it again. I was particularly impressed and instructed with the article wherein was asked the question, “When did you last receive a personal revelation?” Is not that what the gospel is all about? As I see it, living the commandments is only to make us worthy to receive the constant companionship of the Holy Ghost. Then we begin living the meat of the gospel as the Spirit, leading us by revelation, leads us from grace to grace and from perfection to perfection until that perfect day when we come into the Savior’s own presence. How glorious will be that day!

The dinner hour is nearly here and I must prepare now for that. My special Christmas treat has been sharing the spirit and life of the Savior’s early ministry by reading again Talmage’s Jesus the Christ. Please send me a detailed account of life in Nampa, especially of Christmas at our house, and of growth in the Nampa Fifth Ward from time to time. I need letters—oh, it makes being a missionary so much easier, especially letters uplifting and inspiring and instructing. Sometimes letters are too much like news broadcasts (I am guilty of this sometimes) and need to be a little more from the heart. Real communication is from one soul to another, by the power of the Spirit. I hope my sharing of my mission will be edifying and uplifting to you.

Remember me in your prayers, as I do all of you in mine. English is an inadequate language, and so it is hard to express in words the swellings of a deeply grateful heart. Let this be an attempt: you are the greatest brother anyone could want to ask for. Thanks for everything. May the Lord be with you and His peace be upon you.

Post–Christmas postscript: Since I didn’t quite mail this yet, I will add a few more thoughts here. Tonight is the evening of Christmas Day 1968, which is now only happy memory for all practical purposes. The day has been long and tiring and warm and rewarding. I am grateful for all that Christmas really means—for life itself, for love, for the gospel, for a wonderful family, for supporting friends, for the Savior and His life and all He has done for us.

Early this morning I was up to share Christmas with the Johnson family, having ever as much fun watching their enjoyment without receiving any gifts myself.

Later all the elders in the mission within close distance to headquarters (about eighty percent of the missionaries) were here for the festivities of the day. Sister Johnson prepared a fantastic meal, with ham and turkey and root beer and baked potatoes and Jell-o—all of which are not found elsewhere in Brazil. In the afternoon was a program, followed by community singing of carols with yours truly at the keyboard. We all had a great time, even me still hopping around on a sore foot. I guess right now mine is the most popular toe in the entire mission.

As things look now, I hope to return to Petrópolis on Monday to finally begin work again—that is, if the toes will cooperate.

Please tell Gene and Cheryl and Ray and Sheryl hello for me, wishing them all a happy new year. Tell them I will try to write them whenever a chance pops up.

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.

6. To Jerry

Excerpts from a letter I wrote in Provo, Utah, on Easter Sunday, April 14, 1968, to my older brother Jerry Cleverly. I was a freshman at Brigham Young University and had just returned from a week's visit to the Chicago area in the days immediately following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4.

Now to the late Dr. Martin Luther King. Again this came as quite a surprise to the nation. His funeral in Atlanta was the largest of any private person's in the history of the country. Even the Church sent an official representative to the services, in the person of James O. Mason (first counselor in the Atlanta Stake presidency). President Hugh B. Brown spoke for the Church, saying:

"The leaders and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints wish to express to the wife, friends, and associates of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., our profoundest sense of shock and grief. We join hands with all those who see in his death a need for recommitment to all those just principles in which we believe."

We cannot really understand his death from the view point we have here being isolated largely in the Mountain West. The first reason for such widespread reaction was because Dr. King was a leader of a significant segment of the American population. Think how you would feel were President [David O.] McKay assassinated—that is how so many of the Negroes must have felt, because Dr. King was also their spiritual leader as well as champion of their rights. The second reason for such notice was because there is in the East (I sensed it while in Chicago a great deal) a very real fear of total civil war. Had not public leaders from all levels and of all parties praised him, there may well have been much more rioting than there was. Can you sense the urgency? A very real threat of civil war. Troops surrounding the White House and Capitol were protecting the seat of government of the world's mightiest nation from its own citizens. Things are quieter now, but this may be a very bad summer. Events will occur to cause Americans who truly love their country to weep for the troubles ahead.

We were only able to participate in the priesthood session [of general conference] and the Saturday morning session (rebroadcast back there on Sunday). But from that much I sensed the urgency the Brethren feel towards the nation and its problems. The priesthood session dealt with us as a people preparing for the future, the Saturday morning session dealt entirely with the nation and was directed to America as a nation more than to the Church itself. The Brethren know full well what is happening.

President [Alvin R.] Dyer's appointment to the First Presidency was unknown to me until I read your letter. This is especially interesting when learning what his duties are. I quote from his own talk:

"And more recently, I am grateful for his [President McKay's] assignment, to give concern, and to be a 'watchman on the tower,' with regard to Missouri—a consecrated and destined land in the great latter-day work of our Heavenly Father."

Does it sound as if we are getting ready to go home? Things are happening (remember how I said I felt that after October conference?) towards the winding up scenes. Listen to President Brown in the priesthood session:

"The war which began in heaven and has been going on ever since—a war in which the immortal souls of the children of men are at stake—is about to reach a climactic point. This appeal, therefore, is in a very real sense a call to arms. The call to be prepared is sent to each of you by and from the President of the Church, the Prophet of God. It is vital and of paramount importance. The preparation must begin at the center of your hearts and extend to the end of your fingers and toes."

The prophets of God are speaking and we had best listen to what we are being told. President McKay urged unity in the October conference. This conference bespeaks of preparation. President McKay's closing words this time:

"With all my soul, I plead with members of the Church, and with people everywhere, to think more about the gospel; more about developing of the Spirit within; to devote more time to the real things in life, and less time to those which will perish."

Search the rest of the message. To those prepared this last stage of the world's history is going to be indeed glorious.

Today is Easter. . . . I would close with an Easter theme which is really the culminating point of the whole gospel. Were this not true, none of the other principles would mean much. "And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives! (D&C 76:22). May we all catch the significance and the witness of that simple statement is my fervent prayer, for we will need it soon.