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Auld lang syne

I recognized at a glance the cover of the May issue of the New Era as being Halawa Valley. I served in the Japanese Mission on Molokai in 1940 and 1941 and was near Kanunakakai when Pearl Harbor was bombed that fateful Sunday morning. It is refreshing to know that beautiful Halawa Valley must be the only untouched portion of the Hawaiian Islands.

Al Fenn

“Goodbye to the Castles”

I want to thank you for the story “Goodbye to the Castles.” I went through the same kind of experience this boy went through, and the article showed me how lucky I was to have my parents together when I was very young. The New Era is a real help and guide in my life.

Name Withheld

Go west, young man

Though we have to wait a long time for the mailman to deliver our New Era, it’s always worth the wait. The June issue was the greatest! I couldn’t read it fast enough. It’s all true, and more. The article on “The Missionary Home: A Five-day Transition” brought back fond memories. Thank you for giving the sister missionaries the recognition they truly deserve. I enjoyed the New Era so much that it really didn’t bother me to see our mission listed as the Southwest Asia Mission instead of the Southeast Asia Mission.

Elder Robert Lawless
Southeast Asia Mission

A breath of fresh life

The New Era isn’t just a breath of fresh air; it’s a breath of fresh life. The missionary issue was really great. It helped me to understand what a missionary feels, and it also helped me understand the feelings of my friends who are planning to go on missions. I use the New Era in my Sunday School, MIA, and seminary classes. I never get tired of it.

Susan Ann John
Salt Lake City, Utah

Believe it or not

The story “Every Member Can Do It” was great. It’s hard to believe some of these things are true, and yet I know they are, because I know it can be done.

Beth Phillips
Bahama, North Carolina

My 2,000

I loved it! I truly did! Your missionary issue was just the thing to make me realize how important every single member is. Imagine—one per 2,000! I didn’t know it was so high, but I figure I’m going to get started soon on my 2,000. I just finished planning the conversion of my employer. Method? Planted notes of scripture and testimony. I hope she’s responsive, but with a message like ours, who can help being responsive?

Karen McManama
Salt Lake City, Utah

“Missionary Metamorphosis”

I especially enjoyed the article “Missionary Metamorphosis” by Elder Butler who was here when I first arrived. I have just been assigned to probably the most primitive area in the Samoa Mission. That article really hit home. Our grass hut is no more than 50 yards from the crashing breakers of the seashore.

Elder David Smith
Samoa Mission

Discoveries

The June missionary issue was fantastic! I read it from cover to cover. I particularly enjoyed reading the experiences of A. Hamer Reiser in “I Discovered the Reality of the Priesthood.” I felt I was also making that discovery as I read his experience of how the priesthood can work by faith. I also enjoyed the account of Nelson Butler in “Missionary Metamorphosis.” It gave me a wider understanding of things missionaries go through and blessings they receive through enduring and pressing on with faith in the Lord and themselves. Thank you so much.

Betsy Davis
Salt Lake City, Utah

We can!

Thanks for the great missionary issue, especially for the article “Every Member Can Do It!” We can! We can! How can anyone keep his mouth shut after reading that article?

Mary Lou Cullinan
St. Louis, Missouri

Laughing, crying, dreaming

We read the missionary issue of the New Era today in our joint study, as usual, but as we read the spirit changed. It was not just another magazine. We found ourselves laughing, remembering, and even shedding tears as memories of our own mission flooded back. The issue didn’t just talk about missionaries; it captured our feelings, our hopes, our dreams. We have nothing but gratitude for such a beautiful expression of what is in our hearts.

Elder Gilette and Elder Thompson
New Mexico-Arizona Mission

More hopeful psychology

It was with great delight and excitement that I read and reread “Toward a Theory of Human Agency” in the July New Era! I would like to encourage Brother Bergin in his efforts to convince his colleagues to adopt his approach. His concept releases man from psychology’s depressing tendency to view him as a helpless pawn of heredity and environmental factors and reemphasizes the hopeful view of man as being able to determine his own course of life. To me as a psychology major, struggling to make psychological concepts mesh with what the gospel teaches about the nature of man, Brother Bergin’s concept can make psychology capable of a far greater healing power.

Judith Pickett
Pasadena, California

Between bumps

We often take the New Era to read on bus trips. It’s a great way to talk about the Church, because people are always impressed and want to know who makes such a magazine.

Elder David C. Hatch
Uruguay-Paraguay Mission

Kangaroo repellent

My companion and I have always had the New Era around, but all we ever did was roll it up and use it to beat off all the kangaroos while tracting—till one day I started reading one. It was GREAT! Since that day we’ve enjoyed each issue, and they’ve proved to be a great proselyting tool in the hands of our investigators.

Elder Rick Burgoyne
Elder Kenneth Short
Australia West Mission

Yum

The New Era is like strawberry shortcake. When you get to the end you wish there was more.

Beccie Ludwig
Sacramento, California

T-e-l-e-p-h-o-n-y

The picture on page 37 [August] is very good. But please tell Brian Kelly how to spell “telephony.” It is not “electricity”; the installer is working on telephone lines.

M. J. Ward
Service Center Foreman
General Telephone Company of California
Indio, California

Amen

A friend is someone who makes you happy, somebody who helps you to progress. A true friend is an influence for good in your life. I have found that by giving the New Era as a gift I can be a better friend.

David Watson
Salt Lake City, Utah

Spooky cover

I am writing to express a little dismay at the cover photo on the August 1973 issue of your magazine. What menacing, foreboding presence this multiple-exposure composition has! We see three young boys with grim if not tearful and frightened faces, running helter-skelter across an undefined space looming with vast indistinct planet- and moon-like orbs. What are they running from? What threatens them? Within the cover the subjects treated are not at all grim; instead we read of batik dying, contest winners in various literary and fine arts fields, of purity of heart—all uplifting and happy subjects. How then to reconcile that brooding, awful (awe-full) cover with the contents? Make no mistake; the photographer is obviously talented and the work represented on the cover is excellent as far as craftsmanship and art are concerned. I am objecting more to its mood, which I feel to be out of place on such a fine publication as the New Era.

Albert Lewis
Oakland, California

Uh … thanks

I would like to commend you for the professional appearance of the magazine. I’m proud to be seen reading it. And the content is genuinely improving with every issue. Although some places still slip rather badly, like the fiction and poetry in the February issue, which couldn’t be said to be up to much of anyone’s artistic standards, some really well-done pieces make the entire magazine worthwhile, like “Hold Hands with God” or the Rembrandt article. Your photography shows some excellent and often creative work.

Elder Orson Scott Card
Brazil North Central Mission