December 26, 1974 A Letter to President Kimball

Dear President Kimball,

Our family completed our Christmas day by reading your address "Home--The Place to Save Society". With grateful hearts we sensed that our family life is to a measurable degree in harmony with your message.

Today, as I sit in our study writing this letter there is a portrait of you adjacent to the Savior which smiles back at me and stamps the fire of gratitude in my soul because you are who you are. The events, trials, and afflictions of your life indicate to me how you have been nurtured, tempered, and refined by the Lord to lead His children in these turbulent times.

How can I, personally, ever thank you for having lived your life and made choices in the pre-existence and in moral life--that not provided the strength for you to bear the keys of the kingdom that worthy families may find eternal life.

I know that you spend inordinate hours of service to others but it occurs to me that there is a need for expression of the love and awesome esteem others feel for you.

Although we have never met, I feel a love of deep spiritual dimension for you. As you are a prophet to the world and the church, I seek through your teachings, as a living oracle, and by searching the scriptures, to be a prophet to my family. My every thought and desire is to raise up a righteous family to the Lord.

As you indicate a 38 percent incidence of single parents in a UT community and state that many of our children become orphans in one way or another", my heart mourns because when I was teaching seminary I came to believe that only perhaps ten percent of our youth were being taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their homes. Moreover, today more than ever before, there must be a strong father in the home as a teacher, for the children to know--to feel--and receive the true living water.

I was reared (as a gospel orphan) in a latter-day Saint home and born of goodly, honorable parents,. Because my father presented a strong image as a dedicated physical; and even though my beloved mother lived gospel principles, I mistakenly allowed medicine to assume a temporary top priority in my life.

Fifteen years ago a series of catastrophes began in our lives to last for a six year period. After a series of deaths in our family, we were given the choice to rear and be guardians to seven children. I feel that my wife and I were preserved in order that the Lord might send us to His school. In August when all the family but to reunited, there were seventeen people involved. My visionary eyes tell me that in another ten years we would be possibly a family of fifty. At present, one son has completed a mission; one is now on a mission, and two others have been committed to missions since the ages of fourteen and nine. This experience has taught me that there is a great deal of difference between a physical and a spiritual person as a parent.

Dear President Kimball, i testify that this miracle could never have happened had it not been for Family Home Evening and Family Prayer because these children came from an inactive church background.

Having known to some degree the worldliness of men's honors, I am grateful for the opportunity to have made the decisions that now place me in a position where I esteem my Heavenly parents, the Savior, and seek often them diligently to discern that which in this world may be embraced as a guide to celestial life.

With all my heart and soul, I sustain you as the Living Prophet and look to you for nourishment. I consider it one of the great blessings of my life to have sojourned this earth for a time with you and hope that my humble worlds will convey how you are constantly in my life and the warmth, love, strength, humility and charity that you convey to one such as me.

May God bless you in your immense responsibilities and touch your heart that you may know the sincerity of these words and thoughts.

Sincerely,

Brother Kirk J. Anderson

P.S. This letter requires no answer. It originated only because of the need in my heart for expression of my feelings for and about you on a personal basis--

December 22, 1974

As we listened to one of the finest Christmas programs I have ever heard, I wrote down the feelings of my heart. It is, in essence, a prayer of gratitude.

As we prepare for Christmas this year, my heart is full because my life is filled with so much love. I have so much love for our Father in Heaven and for the Savior who loves us all so deeply to have given us such great gifts.

I feel a measure of the gift of charity--to love and be loved by others with the spirit that makes my soul rejoice with gratitude. I have received many letters of gratitude from previous seminary students who are now on missions. I have also received letters of love from my true friends. These are they who have been touched by the Spirit and feel the true Spirit of Christmas. The men of the world that I work with in my profession and other pursuits are honorable men but do not extend this same feeling.

Therefore, I can never "give" enough or express adequate gratitude to the Savior for the gift he has given me that my heart might be at peace; that by following HIS exemplary life I may live forever in His presence, to pursue His work, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of my fellow men. I pray, dear God, to direct my life that I may share this joy with everyone that will receive it.

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As the chairman of our scout committee I was pleased to give the Eagle scout charge to Howard Gessel tonight. He is the son of close friends of ours in the ward. In composing my thoughts I came across some statements I wanted to keep and remember.

Nature gives man 2 ends--one to sit on and one to think with--one man's success depends on the one he uses most.

Quality isn't accidental--it is always the result of intelligent effort.

You are what you do
Not what you want to do
Not what you hope to do
Not what you think you do
But what you do do.

Jan 26, 1974

We are returning home today – Norma and I have had a wonderful time – a marvelous rest. Our spirits and souls particularly have been regenerated. When we pray we are able to feel spiritually attune and close to God and we find ourselves lost in the more refined sphere of spiritual gratitude for the marvelous joys in our lives. What a contrast to those times when we are under the “pressure” of our temporal lives. I would pray that everyone – especially the honest in heart – might “pause” frequently in their lives to meditate and reflect prayerfully about the important things in life.

Yesterday, we went to the Polynesian Cultural Center which is owned by the Church to provide a means by which all the Polynesian people might make enough money to go to the Church school and then return home to be an example to their own people. The center point of course is the Hawaiian temple. We went to the information center and heard the presentation about the origin of the Polynesian people and the importance of the Book of Mormon and the Bible in their lives. As the young Polynesian student guided us around and bore his testimony to us I knew we were on hallowed ground and that there was a great – truly – a great out-pouring of the Spirit. It seems hard to believe but there were a number of people who did not even start to grasp the significance of the Gospel message. Surely, only the “honest in heart” can recognize the voice of the Shepherd.

The Polynesian people are beautiful. They have a simplicity and freshness that sets them apart from the reckless “pace of the world”. Apostle Matthew Cowley told the Polynesians “I want to tell you native people that you will never be great trying to be great white people. You will be great only by trying to be great natives. You have a delicacy of soul which the white man does not possess.” Surely our individual greatness lies in being ourselves.