Small and Simple Things—We’ve Got Mail

 This may seem like a strange thing to mention in this blog, but I thought I might highlight something interesting from a section of the Church magazines that probably doesn’t get a lot of attention. In this month’s “We’ve Got Mail,” the letters-to-the-editor section of the New Era, there are a couple of comments that made me think.

The first one is from a missionary serving in the West African nation of Sierra Leone. He tells of how a simple, short feature in the New Era helped him and his companion bring a less-active member back to church. In this feature, called “My Favorite Scripture,” a teen simply gives a scripture reference and explains in one or two sentences why he or she likes that scripture. Somehow, a scripture verse and a few words sent to the New Era by a 17-year-old girl from California gave a missionary in Sierra Leone the inspiration needed to help someone feel the Spirit and decide to return to church. I suppose this is another example of small and simple means that bring great things to pass. To me, it’s just remarkable to consider.

The second comment is also about small and simple things, I guess. It is from a young man named Spencer, who explains that he used to read only “The Extra Smile” (the comic strips and jokes in the New Era) but that he eventually started flipping through the New Era and reading the other articles too. This is just a guess, but I would say that this young man’s experience is fairly common. I would also hazard to say that there are grownups in the Church (and at Church headquarters) who dislike seeing such frivolous stuff in a Church magazine for young people, who need to be developing a testimony of the gospel to shore themselves up against the temptations and challenges they will face in the world. Well, to them I would say, look at Spencer’s experience, and then multiply it by several thousand.

Has any small and simple thing in the Church magazines affected your life or the life of someone you know in some way? Please share it with me or, better yet, with the Church magazines.