9.

WRITING LETTERS AND EMAILS 

TO HEAVENLY FATHER AND JESUS

We read in the scriptures that we should pray always, that we should have unbroken communion with our Heavenly Father. How can we do this?  We pray in our meetings for the SPIRIT to be with us.  Shouldn't we pray that we will be with Spirit during each day and night?  How can we teach our children to pray?  Yes we can teach them to kneel by their beds before bedtime and say their prayers and do the same when they wake up, but it is so easy to get routine and just words.  In addition to their prayers, I propose that giving them a special journal book in which they can hand write or write emails on the computer and past them in the book, is an excellent way to help them have 'conversations' with Father in Heaven. 

Eventually they can learn that they can be in conversation during much of the day (If we have learned it and teach them the beauty of that divine companionship.) 

It is said that Abraham was a friend of God, and we too can be a friend of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and our Father in Heaven IF we communicate frequently as a friend would do.  We all have good friends that we text or email often, why not write to our Heavenly Father and to Jesus?

It will help them to talk over their life with Father or Jesus and then when we have our prayer time it won't be so formal, but can be loving and sincere and informal.  Then our children should learn that it is so important to just say quiet for a few minutes after we have had our conversation with Father so that he can download his suggestions into our mind, and we can retreive them as we ask for help in our daily life.  We should often take our children to beautiful places in nature where they can experience the peace and beauty of nature and can have a short time to be alone and pray even as young Joseph Smith did.  Our prayers need not always be in our room by our beds.

My last three daughters have all written letters to Heavenly Father and Jesus and I have felt joy in reading some of them.  I treasure prayers that my husband recorded also.  

I have been writing letters to Heavenly Father and Jesus for years.  It just seems so natural to write to loved ones, why not expand our circle of loved ones and write to Father or Jesus?  Here is a letter I wrote in 1999 to Jesus about a Remembrance Supper I was preparing.

December 12, 1999

Dear Jesus:

This Sabbath day I plan to invite my family to come to a dinner to remember you.  I have asked them to each bring a letter which they can read to us for our edification.  For four hours this morning I was preparing the living room for the dinner.  It is very lovely.  I put various copies of art work, which artists have done of you.

1. The original painting I painted of that moment when you asked Peter, “Who do you say that I am?”  and Peter gave his testimony, “Thou art the son of the living God.”  
2. I put up the photo of the painting I did for the Stake President of Honolulu West Stake and which hangs in the Stake Center.  It was a copy Harry Anderson’s painting of you in Gethsemane.
3. Then I have a photo of the Christus that Thorvaldsen of Denmark sculpted.  It is so magnificent.  (later I bought a copy of the Christus which in now in our living room in a special place) 
4. I put up a copy of the painting Harry Anderson did of you ordaining the apostles.  I never liked the background of a curtain in the background, so I painted over it and painted the Sea of Gallilee in the background since I was sure you were all up on a hill by the Gallilee when you had the ordination ceremony.
5. On top of our two living room small tables I put the two closet doors which serve as our larger table.  I covered those with two white tablecloths.
6. I set out the six gold chargers that I had.  I wish I could buy six more.
7. I set the table with the dishes J sent me which I call the royal dishes because they are gold and maroon.  
8. I used the topaz and green goblets and put one crystal goblets at each plate.
9. Oh, I forgot to say that under each plate is the angel placemates turned upside down to reveal a star studded ‘universe’!  It looks so nice.  
10. Also I set up the nativity scene so the little grandchildren can have a ‘hands on experience with all the figures and in that way get to know who you are:  Joseph and Mary and you when a baby, the wise men and the shepherds and the angel and the animals.

I don’t really have the words to express my gratitude to you for all you have given us!  I am just so grateful for my life and these experiences of joy and adversity that I have had.  What a Wonderful Life!  I’ve been here for almost 68 years come January, that is about twice what you were here on earth.  When I realize that in about three years of your ministry you did so much good that it has influenced the earth and the Universe ever since, then I feel I have not done as well as I wish I had.  Of course, I realize that seven children and 15 grandchildren and their companions have yet to bear all the fruit of my beginning efforts on this earth.  I pray that they will always be faithful and live worthy to inherit Eternal Life.

In closing I want to tell you how wonderful it is to have your Spirit with me daily- to have you walking where I walk and driving where I drive, being where ever I go, helping me go through my days and nights of family responsibilities.  You enhance my life with insightful glimpses into eternity and creative ideas which fill me with joy. Even this lovely tradition of having Remembrance Suppers, came from you.  It is so wonderful to give my family a chance to concentrate on you and remember your life on this earth and what you have done for us, and who you are in this Universe.  Christmas has your ‘name’, but it is so filled with the festivities of gift giving and Santa that there is usually only a minimum of time given to thinking of you.  I wanted to give you a special day, so that is what we are doing this day.

Be with us as we have this time to Remember you.  You told us that when two or more have gathered in your name that you would be there, and, of course, I know you are with each of us individually also, but how nice to know you can be with US.  

Thank you for everything you have done for me and for my family.

Love always and forever,  Truele'