A Letter to a Helaman Son

The Helaman Sons Letters, Vol I, No 4 – September 4, 2000

[I first met Craig and his best buddy in the Gardens one night.  Craig was sporting long hair tied up in a ponytail.  Of the two, Craig looked less likely as a candidate for becoming a Youth Guide than did his friend, but I never judged any of them by appearances.  I invited both of them to our next Sunday Night Training Meeting, and to my surprise they both came, and Craig’s ponytail was gone.  I noticed that Craig in particular was enthralled with what was happening and before long he was leaning forward with his chin resting on his folded arms on the pew in front of him, his eyes and mouth wide open, and he was drinking everything in as though he was a man dying of thirst.  His friend quickly left on his mission and Craig became a Guide.  He worked 12-hour days at a full time job putting away everything he earned for his mission.  During December, after a 12-hour day, he would hurriedly change clothes and drive from a neighboring town to the Gardens and work non-stop four more hours until the Christmas lights were turned off.  He received over 50 referrals that Christmas!]

January 16, 1990

Craig:

On the way back from lunch today, as I walked toward the office from the parking garage, I was impressed again at how special my new young friend Craig is to the Lord.  I don’t get “goose bumps” when the Spirit moves me; I usually just  “leak” a little around the eyes.  I just wanted you to know that you are special, and I wanted you to know some other things, so I decided to put them down on paper.

Oh, you’re special to your parents and to those of us who love and work with you.  But, really, as I get a view from the higher peaks of the Program, I know that even though each participant is special, each has a different destiny.  And you are destined for greatness, conditioned, of course, on your faithfulness.

I often wonder at what the Lord has in store for the young men who are drawn to the Program and become its finest examples of workers in the His kingdom.  I am old enough and with a little wisdom and experience I know that you have a long, long road to travel in both the temporal and Church worlds before you reach His goals for you.

Until today, the one I have been most sure will make it is David.  I know that about David because of his steadfastness.  Other words that come to mind to describe him are constancy, faithfulness, unwavering, firm, staunch, and unfailing.  I bring him up a lot lately because we are so fortunate to have had him as an example and a friend.  If you wanted to model your life after someone who you knew was in tune with what the Lord wanted him to do, and he did it as closely as he could, you could pick David every time.

That doesn’t mean that David always did everything right.  He’s as human as we are.  But you knew that David’s heart was ALWAYS where it was supposed to be.

The feeling I am getting now is that your destiny is as great as David’s.  You may have trouble believing that, but I can assure you the Spirit has witnessed to me, today, that what I have felt is true.  Accept my humble witness that if you follow the path you are on right now, you will be eternally blessed and the Lord will be able to use you to accomplish great things in His name.

I may not have told you that when I was investigating the Church and prayed to have a confirmation that the things I was learning were true, the still small voice came clearly into my mind and I actually heard the words, “Yes, my son, it is as you have said.”  So, having started my Church membership with such a remarkable manifestation, I have not been as surprised as probably I should have been at later examples of how much the Lord loves me . . . enough to give me special blessings.

I mention this because every once in awhile I get a glimpse of glory that trails those in the program for which I have a responsibility.  It is brilliant and clear.  The best way I can explain what it means is that out of all the young men in the world at this time, the Lord is touching some of your lives in a special way through your participation in the Youth Guides.  We as your leaders are not puffed up in pride at what a good job we are doing in teaching you, or in providing such a great program for you.  That isn’t it at all.  The Lord is running this show, and I bear witness of what the Spirit tells me.

I am leading up to talking about your first visit to the temple to receive your own endowments.  It is a turning point in your life, when you leave behind the things you knew as a young adult and move into the adult world of knowledge and covenant making.  It is serious and not done lightly, but as one who regularly attends the temple, I wanted to give you a feeling for what blessings you may be able to receive in time.

I guess I want you to know that, hopefully, there will come a time when going to the temple will be as easy and as comfortable to you as slipping on an old and favorite slipper would be.  The House of the Lord becomes a house you know well because you go there often.

This familiarity comes with regular, steady attendance, and to get regular, steady attendance you need to commit to it and never waiver.  Another reason I believe David is so special is that he committed to me in writing to attend the temple every week the rest of his life!  That is a tremendous commitment and I know that so far he has kept it.  And I mention it now because I am going to request it of you.  I wanted to ask each of the Guides as they left to commit in the same way, but I don’t think they all have it in them and I don’t want to put any burden on them that might cause them to feel bad if they missed a goal.

However, you’re different.  So, I am going to ask you to make the same commitment.  That would mean every week until you go on your mission and each week the rest of your life when you get back.  It also means you have to live in a town where there is a temple the rest of your life.  There are only 43 of those right now!  So, I am building in one condition.  If you commit and later when you get back you find it impossible to go in any one week, all you have to do is contact me or one of the others who have made the commitment with us and we will go for you.  Simple, huh.  What do you do if you eventually have to go to school or live in a town where there is no temple?  We’ll go for you, until you can go for yourself.  That’s how important I think it is.  I want you to ask your Heavenly Father if this commitment is right for you to make and be governed by His answer, as will I.

The whole idea behind making a commitment to regular temple attendance is that something special happens to those of us who attend the temple regularly.  By regularly, I mean weekly.  It’s kind of like, if you had a district that met only once a month, or if you could only partake of the Sacrament once a month, or … you get my meaning.  The blessings come from steadfastness.

I personally receive more revelation and inspiration than I can remember and take home with me in many of my visits to the temple.  In fact, I had to ask the Lord to help me by not giving me so much revelation and inspiration but making what He did give me more complete and easier to remember.  Sometimes, still, the ideas just flow and flow.  And the hardest thing is that you can’t take a pen and pad with you in a session.  You have to remember and write it down later.

Once, many years ago, I was in a session with 154 of the members of our ward (which in itself is a miracle) and when the session was over the veil parted briefly and I saw standing near the altar a figure which I thought might be a representative of the Savior, who appeared briefly as though to say, “Well done!”

More recently, in April 1988, I was in the 1:30 session and gradually, over a minute or two; I noticed a feeling of warmth and great love wash over me.  It seemed to come from behind me, so I turned a little and looked to see where this feeling might be coming from.  As it had before, the veil parted and my mother, who had passed away almost a year before on May 17, 1987, appeared before me, standing in the aisle just to my side and with a gentle sweep of her hand over my head from above one ear to above the other, seemed to sweep away the all the problems and cares of that day.  She then walked away down the aisle and disappeared and the veil closed.  It seemed so natural for her to be there.  She was in perfect form, dressed all in white, seemed to be engaged in the work of the temple on the other side, and did not speak to me, only smiled.  She really didn’t have to speak.  It felt so natural for her as a dedicated temple worker in life to be engaged in the work after her death.

One year later to the day, I was in another session and didn’t see her but I heard in my mind the words, “I love you, my son,” and felt her presence just behind me.

Since then, I feel I have been promised in some way that my mother can be with me in every session I attend at the temple.  I believe that she is a regular worker on the other side and as such will have the authority and a reason to work the sessions I attend.  That is a marvelously neat feeling and a strength to me.

Since I have been going with the Guides to get their endowments I have had many truly special moments in the temple.  Don [an Asst. Director like me] leaned over to me when we were in a session with eight of the Guides (Doug, David, Marlin, Ben, Jeff, Brent, Richard, and reed) and said there was something happening.  He meant something real special.  He didn’t notice that I had been weeping for quite some time.  I leaned over to him later and said, “The Warriors are here.”

The Spirit bore witness that each of our Guides, at some time during their sojourn with the Program, either just before or just after they receive their endowments, have assigned to them a Warrior of old to be a companion during their mission for their own spirit.  But what the Spirit bore record of was how happy these Ancient Warriors were to be together (eight of them) in the temple associating with the valiant spirits of the Guides who were there.  I also had the definite impression that the Ancient Warriors were in awe at the spirits of the Guides.  Why wouldn’t they be?  The spirits who are occupying the bodies these days were saved to the latter-days because of their strength in the pre-existence.

I want you to know and understand, and I bear solemn testimony to this fact, that each of you Guides in the Program are the bravest of the brave, the best of the best, saved for the greatest of all battles, the battle of the latter-days.  Make that knowledge a part of your very being and act as though it were the truest of truths, because it is.

You have resources and strength you know not of and so do your friends.  You have the right because of your previous valiant behavior to command Satan to depart from any place where you are.  And you have the task to bless others’ lives as no one before you could have.  You are the future apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ.  You are the future prophets, seers, and revelators, saved to lead and guide us in the last days.  You’re also young and learning.  There is no better place to learn than in the temple.  That is why I ask you to commit to the kind of attendance level expected to the choicest of our Father’s children.

There was also a very poignant moment of sadness in that same session with the Ancient and Modern Warriors.  I didn’t know what it was then, but since then the Spirit has borne witness that by the time you reach your full potential I will not be here.  Hopefully, I will be working on the other side.  So, if I have a chance to influence you, it may be the only chance I have will be right now.

Besides praying about the commitment and if the answer is yes put it in writing of some kind, I want you to consider several other things that will help you be remembered as awesome as you are:

1. Consider your wonderful mother and father and think of ways you may bless their lives during the two years you are away.  Perhaps you have several friends in the ward you could ask to do something special for them on a regular basis while you are gone.  You might want to arrange with your Elders’ Q. President to have a beautiful rose delivered to your mother personally on her birthday with a note from you written now.  You get the drift.  Special things that you can do before you leave that will bless their lives.  I once invited my wife to go to the temple on her birthday and arranged secretly for a dozen or more of her friends to just “happen” to be on the same session!  It was special for all of us.

2. Do something special for those who are your assistants and leaders in the Presidency.  You haven’t had much time to be with them, but I am sure a small token (a thank you note, a little get together just for them and their dates, you know) of your love and appreciation will help to build a bond of friendship that will last the eternities.  That way they will remember not only your awesomeness, but also that you had style as well.  Be aware of and remember the little guy.

3. Take another look at your priorities . . . and a look at the time before you go.  Remember, Guides are fun, but families are forever.

And now, I leave with you my personal witness that the Church we belong to is the organization that will take the saving Gospel to all the world.  Joseph Smith was and still is a prophet of God.  We have a modern day prophet, Ezra Taft Benson.  Jesus is the Christ, our Redeemer, and one day every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that He is.

May you be blessed as you enter the temple this week with a never-ending hunger for righteousness.

This first visit to the temple will be a busy one.  Get lots of rest Wednesday night, if you can.  When you get into the room for the session, do whatever you have to in order to be in a seat where you can see your mother’s and grandmothers’ faces clearly.  You may even request to move to a seat where that would be possible.  I can assure you that when all is said and done, the joy you will see in their faces will last the eternities.

And now, remember . . .

            “The battle is real.  Iniquity abounds, but righteousness will prevail.

            We are Warriors of Light, Defenders of Truth.  We must conquer the

            Enemy of all righteousness that our souls may rest in the Kingdom of God.”

So . . .

            “Stand for what is right

            We’re the Warriors of Light

            Defending truth and honor in our lives.

            “The truth we will believe

            We will fight for victory

            Conquer the enemy with all our might

            Stand for the right.

                        Love, your eternal brother, Bro. P.

Our next post is an appeal to a bishop in our area to send some of his youth to the program.  Within the letter are powerful testimonies born by several of the Youth Guides, along with my plea for him to send more just like the ones who are leaving.

Bro. P.