The following is from an issue dated May 15, 1990:
Dear Brother Parker and the Tour Guide Program:
UNSA NA (What’s up?) I got your letter with the stuff in it two weeks ago, but with the routine around here I haven’t had a chance to write back. Sorry.
It is also kind of crazy here with Good Friday and all.
I don’t know if you know this about this mission, but they don’t really speak English here. They speak one of the 111 dialects in the Philippines, Visagram (sp?).
It has been a trial to learn the language but I have gotten a lot of help from everyone. I think the Lord really helps missionaries in language wherever they go. As a matter of fact he helps them in every way.
I am really growing in love for my mission here. It is kind of like serving on Gilligan’s Island. There are plenty of trials here like in all missions, but it is great because they are personally made for me to help me grow.
My testimony has grown that every mission is custom made for each missionary. I’m seeing more and more that God is in everything and I think that is so great. He made the world individually for each of us and it is only for us to decide if we will be true no matter what.
I glory in my Heavenly Father and His great power and love; and in Jesus Christ who loved us so much that he made the path possible for us to return to our Father in Heaven; and the Holy Ghost who whispers and tells us of these things.
I need nothing more in my God; He is always the same. I see that it is I who needs to further change and better serve.
My soul has often cried as it does now that I may be one whose life points to the light of Christ. That my life may be able to show who I come in contact with, that there is a God and He is a Great and Loving God, that all may be desirous to come unto Him.
I pray that I will be able to live the feelings of my soul that I be not a hypocrite.
The more I have learned and tried to follow God the more I see how great He is. I can remember times in the Program and other times, when I have seen the effect of His hand. It was then our souls cried, “My God how great thou art!” I really feel sorry for anyone who hasn’t come to see how great He is.
I love each of you in the Program and I pray each of us, after our missions (lives) will feel as Alma did in Alma 17:2-3. The power is in each of us to do it.
Brother Parker, if you could, would you send a copy of the last missionary newsletter with David’s testimony in it? It has special meaning to me. I lost my copy during a transfer. I didn’t mean to write all these things, but I felt to do so.
Love, John
Dear Brother Parker –
I cry every time I read the Program’s GUIDElines. I miss it terribly. I remember when I first entered into the meetings and how much love and how strong the spirit was felt that night. It was truly an experience no one who knows what it is like will ever forget. I think back to all those tours, all the Sunday night “tear jerkers” when the leaders would speak to the Guides and everyone else and how our hearts were filled with the love and peace of the Spirit of God. I never realized how much I learned until I got out in the field. If there is anything I could tell the Guides to remember, it is to learn as much as possible while they are there. Some of the most important lessons I learned while being in the Guide Program was about “Charity” and “Love for all of Heavenly Father’s children.” If we do not learn these while we are young we cannot survive in the real world. I want to congratulate Brent, Leslie, and the newly called missionaries and wish the rest of the Program the best of life. For when we are in the service of our fellow man we are only in the service of our God.
Here’s some update on my mission life and experiences so far. I got transferred to San Diego from Italy Milan for some medical reasons and I love it here in Southern California. I met my new companion and found out that I was called to be a District Leader, but I still needed to memorize 119 scriptures before I could be considered a Senior Companion. Well, I have 15 more to go. My first two weeks here I had four baptisms and committed five more. The work is going wonderful. I’ve been transferred after a month Imperial Beach that is five minutes from Tijuana, Mexico. So, there are a lot of Mexicans here. I love it anyways. My new area covers Imperial Beach, Chula Vista, Otay Mesa and least of all Coronado Island. We are in a car cause we cover so much area; and it’s a long walk to Coronado Island. We’ve committed four more to be baptized by the 20th of May.
As you see the work is going super. Well, this is about it. I want to let the Guide Program know how much I love and miss them and they are in my prayers always, especially the missionaries in the field. The work is true so please keep the work coming to San Diego. I love my mission as the rest of the missionaries do. Please keep me informed of your successes. I love you, Bro. Parker and Bro. Bowden and the rest very much. Please keep writing!
P.S. Tell everyone to write and when they do please include the “R” in my name because there are three of us in this mission! Thanx!
Love, Mike
Dear Brother Parker and the Guides,
I am really very grateful for the newsletter that was sent to me. I got it on a day that I really needed it. I was feeling quite down and depressed and that was the boost I needed to get back into the work with enthusiasm. It brought back a flood of memories that I hadn’t thought about in a long time, of the most cherished days of my young life. I guess the reason I felt it such a privilege was the I never really felt a real part of the Program because I never completed the requirements to be a Guide (time played a part in that) and it was a real honor to be associated with such a noble program. I still wish I could have played a bigger role in it and I always felt like I was supposed to, but I did really gain from it. I took from their idea of what my mission could be like and what I wanted it to be. It set for me some ideals that have been invaluable. Without it I wouldn’t have had the same desires to serve as I have. It is easy to see the potential for leadership all the Guides have and the tremendous amount of leadership training that is going on there and the fulfilling of Don’s visions of the fruits of the program.
My mission so far has been the biggest trial I could ever have imagined and has thus caused the most growth. My biggest obstacles so far have been my companions (4 of 10—I have served in 5 areas all in my first year—I can’t believe it has been that long) and my own self-discipline. The latter I have licked and has really become a great strength but to keep my humble the Lord keeps me on my toes by changing them so often. Apparently the way I learn best is by bad example and seeing the fruits of them and not wanting that to happen to me (that played a big role in my childhood by the bad example of a relative and how it hurt his family) because I have had my share of it here. At times I feel more of a babysitter. But there are many, many good times. I thought I would share one with you.
In my first area I had the wonderful opportunity to teach a small family and they were fatherless and have two very immature 10 and 14 year old girls and as I sat teaching the second discussion, second principle, which is Atonement for sin, my companion had just utterly lost them with atonement for death, the first principle. So I stopped and just told them who Christ was and what He did and why He was sent. I can tell you all of those things anytime as matters of fact, but this time it was much different. I can hardly remember everything I said but I know it was just very plain and simple and spiritual—the most spiritual teaching experience I have had. I know that it wasn’t me speaking. I am too confusing and complicated. All of us that day truly understood at least a part of the Savior’s role and we were happy and glad to be together. It couldn’t have happened any other way and it was only because of the daughters’ desire to learn and their humility that the simple truth could be proclaimed with such power—our Brother suffered greatly to bring us happiness and eternal life. That day the family accepted the invitation to follow Christ into the waters of baptism.
I was able to teach another lady though with quite a different result. I had the chance to serve in Hannibal, Missouri, the boyhood home of Mark Twain and we found and taught a first discussion to a lady who had a small family and was living with a man, struggling to survive. We had a hard time meeting with them and the few times we did we mainly resolved concerns and finally about the fourth time we were able to emphasize the need to pray and to invite her to kneel and each of us pray and ask the Lord for truth. She had told us earlier that she felt the Lord didn’t pay attention to her because a few years earlier she had really devoted herself to religion and had never received any kind of spiritual experience. Well, my companion and I both prayed first and we could tell that she was really feeling the Spirit as were we but she didn’t want to admit it and then it was her turn and she merely thanked the Lord for her family and then asked for guidance and she began to cry and amid her sobs she closed her prayer and said to us “Why am I crying? I am not a crier.” As the Lord humbled her heart we explained the Spirit of the Lord to her and showed her that was what she was feeling and we invited her to be baptized and she accepted. Unfortunately, she didn’t follow up on her feelings and took no action or effort to pursue the direction the Lord had given her and she started avoiding us and eventually out of shame told us not to come back and that was one of the saddest most depressing nights of my mission. And it was so close to one of the happiest and most uplifting I have ever experienced. It is so devastating to see people reject the light and knowledge a loving Father in Heaven has given us through a living prophet who leads the true church of Jesus Christ today.
The Book of Mormon is such a wonderful gift if only the whole earth would accept it and read and see how beautiful eternal life could be. I know it is all true. The Spirit has blessed my life in too many ways not to. I hope things are going as well for you as they are for me.
Love, Aaron
P.S. The suggestions you made in GUIDElines about attending the temple every week for the rest of my life—making that commitment—I think I am going to take you up on that. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to go through with you before my mission though I went through quite often. Maybe we can when I get back. I think I miss that more than anything but my family.
Dear Brother Parker,
Thank you so much for the letter! I was starting to wonder if you had received a new job in Antarctica or something! The GUIDElines was awesome this month! Work here in the Chicago Mission is going awesome! Our mission had over 100 baptisms this last month! I believe we ended up with 113! That is a record for the mission since it started! Our Zone had 22 baptisms total! My companionship hasn’t been blessed with a baptism yet but we are working hard. Boy I hope the Guides realize what an awesome program they have. I don’t know if I did at the time because—it’s like you get all of the spiritual blessings and benefits of doing missionary work but you only get a portion of the trials and hardships of a full time mission. Don’t get me wrong, Bro. Parker, I am loving my mission, but it is one of the hardest, yet most rewarding; most tiring, yet so exuberating; most disappointing, yet ecstatic times of my life. Did ya follow that one?
We had a guy set for baptism on this past Sunday but he wasn’t ready to make the required commitments—so he tubed us. We are working on him though—so hopefully in a couple of weeks!
How are you doing, Bro. Parker? You’re not letting this little employment thing get in the way of your happiness are you? (Just kidding!) You’re always in my prayers!
What I was talking about when I said to keep a sense of humor was kind of like that. I have realized that nothing in this world is worth making life miserable and unhappy! This area really kinda got to me at first. All of the drugs, alcohol, and crime just kind of wears on you. But then I got to thinking one night while picking the glass our of my shoes that I could be here for four or five months and that is a long time to be miserable! So, now I just have to laugh at the things that would ordinarily get someone down! I am so happy that the Program is rolling again. Bro. Parker—could you stress one thing to the Guides? TEACH WITH THE SPIRIT. Like President Benson says, “The Spirit is the only thing that matters.” It is so true and so obvious out here in the field. There is a physical difference in the way a discussion goes if my companion and I specifically ask Heavenly Father to bless us with the Spirit and to bless the candidate with the Spirit before we go into a home or if we just go right on in. Challenge the Guides to pray in their hearts during a tour for Heavenly Father to bless them with the Spirit and to bless their tour with the Spirit. Get specific. If you just asked them their names and found out that they were John and Kathy, pray to Heavenly Father and ask Him to bless John and Kathy that they will feel the Spirit. And HE WILL do it! D&C 82:10 says that He has to! And the guys will find out soon enough that the Spirit is the only thing that matters in the field.
Well, I have babbled enough! I miss you a lot also! And you are killing me with the new stuff in the temple. I can’t wait to go through again! You know what I was wondering. I don’t know if they changed the actual endowment or just the process but it they ever changed the actual endowment would the work for the dead that has already been done still be good? Just wondering!
Take care of yourself and don’t soak of all of that AZ sunshine! I love and miss you a lot!
Your eternal bro—Craig
P.S. Tell Katie P. that a guy by the name of Reese is my Zone Leader (they are cousins). He is an awesome guy! We have a lot of fun on P-Day.
P.P.S. I know you probably already have the pictures of all of the Yes in front of the map but here is one of David and I. Love Ya—Craig
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