Letter to a Bishop

The Helaman Sons Letters Issue No. 4 – A Letter to a Bishop

February 11, 1990

Dear Bishop:

The Arizona Temple Visitors’ Center Youth Guides are unique in the Church.  We Directors are honored and humbled to be a part of helping to train your youth before they go on their missions.  What we are doing is working and we would like your youth to be a part of it.  Please allow me to share with you quotes from letters I have received just before the young men leave.

“I need to take a minute tonight and thank you for a number of things.  The first is the gift you gave to me before I went into the temple.  I am not talking about the apron, although that is very important to me and I appreciate it.  I am talking about the gift of your example of the importance of temple worship.  It has always been very evident to me that you have a great love for the House of the Lord, and that it is also a great source of power for you.  I know that you make a point of attending the temple at least once a week.  As I now am beginning to tap that great source of spiritual power, I realize some of the reasons why the temple is so important to you.  I want you to know that I love the temple more than I could ever express.  It makes me feel so close to my Father and my Redeemer, Jesus Christ.  It fills me with a desire to do all in my power to please them, and never do anything that would cause me to be unapproved in their eyes.  I also recognize that the endowment also teaches a wealth of spiritual knowledge.  I feel so humble when I am there, because I know there is so much for me to learn.  I commit to you that I will follow in your footsteps and attend the temple each week throughout my life.”

From another –

“. . . I can’t really express to you how much you helped me establish a true and undying love for the House of the Lord.  In the few short weeks that I have been able to go through the temple, I have developed an incredible testimony of the work and power that goes on there.  And as the inscription above the entrance to the Celestial Room reads, “THE GLORY OF GOD IS INTELLIGENCE,” I know that the temple and the scriptures are the highest form of gaining that intelligence.  I committed . . . to myself that I would never do anything that would jeopardize or hinder my spiritual ability to go to the temple and enjoy the blessings there.

“. . . I kind of wish I could stay and see the work and watch the Program grow; but my greatest desire at this time is to be out in the mission field doing the work of our Heavenly Father 24 hours a day.  I know that there is a position of truth that is strong, powerful, and also steady.  I also know that I have been called to stand and face the storm that is blowing in the world today.  It has been told to us by holy prophets of God that it is our solemn duty as members of the Church to stand and declare the truth.  Let those winds blow, and be serene, composed, and steady in the doing of it.  We know that this is a chosen generation; that has been said by the apostles and prophets of these latter-days.  But who are we anyway?  Are we the ones who were born to be immune from the persecution or from any penalties that come in conjunction with living and preaching the gospel?  Somehow, I have the feeling that it is quite the contrary.

“. . . I would just like to take a minute and share my testimony with you.  I know that God lives.  I am as sure of that as I am in my own existence.  I know that He sent His only begotten Son, our elder brother, Jesus Christ to this mortal state to atone for our sins, enabling us to return to His open, loving arms.  I know that if we but follow the example He set that we will be able to kneel at the foot of God the Father and hear those glorious words, ‘Well done thou good and faithful servant,’ and He then embracing us and declaring, ‘enter thou into the joy of the Lord.’  I have an eternal picture in my mind of what this will be like because I have already had a small taste of what it will be like when I went through the temple to receive my endowments.  After passing through the veil, and coming to the Celestial Room, I just couldn’t help but think, ‘this is what it is going to be like – my dearest friends and family welcoming me back home with open arms.’  I am so grateful, and owe so much to the Guide Program.  The blessings it has brought into my life and my family are just amazing.”

My heart aches and leaps for joy at the same time to be sending this kind of missionary out.  The exciting thing is that all of them go with the same burning testimony of temple worship and missionary work.  They will be able to bear powerful testimony to what they really believe because of the effects of the things they learn in the Guides have had on them.

We only have two youth from your stake now.  We don’t have room for all the youth in the Valley, but we sure could use a few more good ones like these two.

I share the above quotes because they are very special to me.  I know each young man I have quoted would gladly share them with you, if asked.  These young men are going to be leaders some day and I have tried to teach them that the bishop who leads his flock to the temple regularly, will see miraculous results in the level of spirituality and accomplishment in his ward.  I urge you to evaluate the Program for its strengths and carefully taking into account distance, see if as you interview your 18 year olds there might be some who need us.  We surely do need them.

Your Brother in the Priesthood,

Brother Parker

Our next post will talk about a setting apart and a farewell, the Temple Workers’ Fireside, and the Mountain of the Lord’s House, as we get into recapping the first issue of the GUIDElines.