The following is from an issue dated May 15, 1990:
Well, I sat by Eric’s Dad who sat beside him in Room 4 at the temple last night (May 3) as he received his endowment. You remember how smiley he is…well it was just good to look at his joy. I think the word the Guides use that surprised me more than anything else when I first heard them say it was “Sweet.” They’d say, “Boy that was sweet!” You see, I come from an era when they would have been immediately labeled as just a little different. But, when you look at Eric in the temple, Sweet is the word that comes to your mind. Each of you has such different personalities. You just know he would never hurt anyone. So gentle. But full of life. I was overjoyed.
Right behind us were two guys from David’s ward. Next to them were the Duffer and Jeff, with big smiles. The room, which is the biggest in the temple, holds 150+ and was completely full. Aaron was in the last possible seat in the back row! So, there were four Guides and an Ammonite (Darren).
I had written Eric, like I do all of you, and told him I felt his Warrior would arrive during his endowment. I enjoy sitting there and trying to envision what the spirits on the other side are doing. I felt strongly that both my parents were there for this session. I have been feeling pretty bad because I have not felt my mother in many of the sessions I have attended recently. I have gone 11 times now since the change. Anyway, the temple is much more heavily attended and it is hard to enter a session and find a seat you want. I like to sit on the side, because I feel my mother can more easily reach me there; she can stop for a few seconds during her work and be close to me. Did I tell you that I felt impressed one day as I sat on the aisle seat to turn my left hand over so that she could hold it? I can’t report that I really felt anything, but I know that she did.
Anyway, I felt the spirits of the Guides’ Warriors there last night. I don’t know whether I told you also that I believe they are all in instant communication with each other throughout the world, wherever you are. I think that Marlin’s Warrior can instantly communicate with your Warrior and David’s and all of them. I believe the war is so great that they are often in touch so that they can support each of you. I don’t know whether it is doctrine, but I can report that the impressions have been so great that I believe they are true. It feels grrrr8! to go with spiritual impressions because invariably when I have been deeply impressed it turns out to have been right in line with the doctrine and teachings of leaders in the Church.
I say this every letter, and I hope it doesn’t make you pause too long, but I really missed you guys during the first part of the session last night. I wept a little, not like when the Spirit bears powerful witness to me, but just feeling a little sad that you’re off for a couple of years. Then, toward the middle and end of the session I felt better and better and by the time we were headed up the stairs to the Terrestrial Room and Celestial Room I was soaring in spirit again!
Back to the temple. I ended up next to Jeff and the Duffer (of course with the new film and new actors in the new film, we can no longer call the Duffer the Preacher Man, because it is that different) in the Terrestrial Room. Jeff has been so solemn and concerned since he became really the driving force behind the Presidency.
Jeff says two more times and he will be able to go through perfectly, he thinks. Great fun! They won’t let anyone who hasn’t passed off as a Veil Worker in the past three weeks work at the veil. When you are passed off, they stamp your recommend with a red A.V.S. for Authorized Veil Worker.
They don’t have the lecture after the live endowment session anymore so the new endowees are the first to be taken to the veil. That means, with the exception of Dallin, when we see them they are already in the Celestial Room. I don’t know whether I like that as much as watching them enter all smiles and everything.
Eric’s parents are old and dear friends of about 14 years now. We moved into Mesa and into the 8th Ward when we were converts of about a year or so. Our 15th Anniversary of our baptism is coming up on May 31st!!! Can you believe it? Our temple anniversary is July 13th, and it will be 14 years. Can you imagine waiting from May 31st until July 13th before going to the temple? My temple attendance hasn’t always been what it is now. I used to work in the office of the temple 20 hours a week and I would go weeks without doing a session! I’m anxious now to become an Ordinance Worker.
Back to last night. We stood around and hugged and talked in the Celestial Room with all the Guides and parents and grandparents. It was fun. Then I went downstairs and who should be turning the corner ahead of me but President A. I sidled up to him and said you now I am always pushing for something more for the Guides. What are the chances we could all get together and do baptisms for the dead? He shook his head and said they are scheduled a year in advance! So, I said, how about you and the Matron coming and talking to us about the temple? He said that could be arranged. So, that is what we will do.
We want to have a Chapel Session for all the Guides, parents and parents of you Guides who are on your missions. I have scheduled it for Thursday evening the 24th of May for a 7 p.m. Chapel Session and then go on the 7:30 session. I hope we can get a good group. Elder and Sister Kimball can’t go, but I believe this policy will change when the new mission president arrives. At least that is what the Kimballs have on their minds. They think the adult missionaries should be able to go to the temple at least once a week while they are working so close to the temple. I think they are going to get their wish!
Afterwards we went over to Eric’s grandparents’ home, which is across the street form the east side of the temple on Hobson and had cookies and root beer floats. It was fun.
Even though I still don’t have a permanent job, I believe the Lord is in charge of what kind of work I do. I have felt that way for many years now. You cannot believe the varied jobs I have had…school bus driver, custodian, gas pumper and janitor at a riverside resort, dishwasher/bus boy, grocery clerk, railroad clerk, clerk for the Governor’s Office of Economic Planning and Development, clerk for Maricopa County, Credit Analyst for Dun and Bradstreet, warranty clerk for Lou Grubb Chevrolet before it was Lou Grubb Chevrolet, Midnight Stocker for Low Cost Discount Mart, University Library Archivist, Slurry Plant Clerk, on the Navajo reservation, Exec. Secy to the President of a real estate syndication, Exec Secy to the Director of a national association of real estate appraisers, Secy to the Director of the Special Education Dept. of the Maricopa County Accommodation Schools, Legal Secretary, Legal Word Processor, Curriculum Aide for the VoTech High School, word processing consultant for an OB/GYN, Exec Secy to the VP OEM for a computer firm, Exec Secy to the biggest crook east or west of the Mississippi (I’ll tell you about that one some time…the FBI finally caught him!), Exec Asst. to the Chairman/CEO of a manufacturing company, and I had 17 different jobs while with the railroad during my ten year tenure with them. You are probably too young to remember a TV program called the Naked City. They used to open with “In this city there are 8 million stories (one for each of the 8 million inhabitants of New York City at that time – 1950’s) and tonight you are going to hear one of them.” That is the way I feel sometimes. There are a million jobs out there and I think I am on my way to finding out about each one of them!
So, when I speak from experience, few people I know have been in as many environments as I have. That is also why I insist that you guys seriously, seriously consider your education and vocational pursuits. If you are going to be of great service in the Church then you must be able to support your family and also do great Church work. Can you imagine your bishop not being able to keep gainfully employed? Or a stake president who is an Executive Secretary? That is one of the reasons I have taken this Guide Directorship so seriously. I believe it may be the one and only time the Lord will allow me to work in what might be considered a bishopric. I am now 45, much past the age of most bishops and even stake presidents or counselors. What the Lord has in store for me I don’t know, but I am doing this assignment to the best of my ability and with all the energy of heart, body, mind, and soul I possess. I write you as a friend and hope to have you as a friend eternally, but I also write you because I am trying to magnify my calling as an Asst. Director for the Program. What that means, I have one of the first opportunities in the history of man to decide! How exciting for each of you to be involved in a Program that will change your lives forever. Not because there are that many really different opportunities for you, but because of the way we think about the Guide Program. We think of it as being unique, of changing lives, and then we do those things that will assure it. I expect each of you to contribute what you learn on your missions, and I fully expect to teach what you have told me to the Guides at every opportunity. They are getting sick and tired of me telling them how “hard” missionary work is. They know it can be a joy, but I just got a letter from Brent yesterday and he said the first little while he was out was very hard.
You and David said be sure we do whatever it takes to help the Guides have miracles in the Program. It happened again this Monday. You can imagine how dead it has been since the Christmas Lights and then when the Easter Pageant was over, whoa! No one came to the Gardens. All last week, the last week of the month, we had set a very conservative goal of six more referrals. Monday, none. Tuesday, none. Wednesday, none. Thursday, none. Friday, none. Saturday, none. Sunday…I slipped a note to Jeff who was conducting the SNTM which read as follows:
“Jeff: David said we need to have the youth involved in miracles. We have Monday – one last day in the month – to reach the new goal of the Program. You guys got together and set the goal of the Program. Now it is time to make it happen. We know we have enough faith to get 21 referrals in one day – couldn’t we do six? Some of you are gone in about a month. Some of you will go in the trunk in two weeks. This may be your last chance to be involved in another Guide Miracle for the Lord. President Kimball said, “Do it!” I echo his words.” Signed Bro. Parker
So, Jeff got up and during his 22-minute talk he mentioned the goal and that we would have to do it. Then Brother Vega got up and said, “Do we make a commitment, or do we sort of make a commitment? It can’t be both.” He then committed them to do whatever it took to get the referrals.
Well, come Monday night and I had to work at home (it seems I miss most of the miracles!) doing a 30-page research paper for an ASU student. About 10 O’clock Eric called and said, “We did it Brother Parker!” He is the Zone Leader for Monday-Friday Zone. Anyway, by 9:05 they only had one referral, but there were three tours still going on. When it was all said and done he said there were SEVEN referrals! One more than we needed, much like before, because the Lord loves us and wants to tell us…have faith.
Now, seven doesn’t seem like a great deal. But you can remember when Christmas was over and it was dead in the Gardens. D E A D. It turns out that after the SNTM one of the Ammonite sisters went to the store with her sister and there happened to be some non-member friends there and she invited them down and there were three referrals in that group. Paul gave that tour. Troy and Tiffini got another two and I don’t know who got the rest, but I am sure we will hear the story at our next meeting a week from Sunday. We are considering having a Mother’s Day testimony meeting.
May 19th we are having a Sunrise Testimony meeting in the Gardens organized by Troy and featuring the Kimballs. They want to do something for the Guides. They are continually amazed. The SEVEN referrals almost blew their minds. They tell the Sisters inside continually that they need to have the faith of the Guides. When you think of it, getting referrals in a darkened garden where you can’t even see the flowers is really something.
Bro. Bowden called today and said he is thinking about changing the Tour to do away with going around toward the entrance to the temple. The Guides are taking 30 or more minutes to do a tour these days and the other BIG NEWS is that the Visitors’ Center has begun not giving away copies of the Book of Mormon. They are asking that the people let the missionaries bring them a copy. We are going to that program in about two weeks, as soon as we rewrite the Tour a little and get everyone trained. Right now we are giving away that little folded brochure on the Book of Mormon.
I will do my best to teach the Guides what you said about teaching with the Spirit. Thank you for writing that. It is exactly what I fervently hope each of you will write about. It is wisdom that the Guides really do need.
You don’t have to worry at all about the endowment. I imagine you may have heard about Paul Harvey’s comments or maybe your folks sent you a copy of the front page of the Arizona Republic that talked about the changes in the endowment. Of course, I am expressly asked by the First Presidency not to discuss anything about it. I will say a few things, though, in answer to some of your concerns. In accordance with modern revelation and being led by prophets, seers and revelators, the Church will continue to change throughout our lifetimes. When something needs to be changed, the Lord lets his prophets know, and in the case of the endowment, when they have sufficiently studied it out and spent many hours in the upper rooms of the Salt Lake Temple, then they change it and get on with life. I can assure you that I am sitting here weeping right now with the beauty and wondrousness of the new film. I couldn’t be happier or have a stronger, continuing testimony that the Lord is in direct control of the Church. He is an unchanging God and loves us more than you can imagine at this time. Any change made you can rest assured will not effect any of the work that has already been done. Although enemies of the Church will play this up for all it is worth, don’t worry. If you get to go through the Chicago Temple before you come home, I know I will be able to hear your “Yahoo! The Church is True!” from there. All of the temples now have what I consider Dolby speakers, so you can imagine the amount of improvement in the sound. You also know that the Church is a major force in the production of videos and movies and has an excellent relationship with the best of studios at BYU and elsewhere. Whatever the Church does is done in an excellent manner sparing no expense when it comes to temples. I said I have been 11 times since the change and I can tell you that it is so awesome that I have been so involved that it was only last night that revelation and inspiration again became a part of my temple experience.
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