I am not sure that I actually mailed this letter, but I wanted to have it in one of my memory places.
24 Jan 2025
Dear Dad,
This year I have started rereading the Book of Mormon on my own and have gotten to the eighth chapter of 1 Nephi. I read about Lehi at the tree of life, seeing his family and how they didn’t know where to go. His immediate response was to beckon them to come and join him.
I was reminded of a poem that Lauren wrote about our house being a light on a hill. One of the houses that we had purchased and later put up for sale always had the lights on at night when someone was coming to visit with a real estate agent. When we returned after the real estate agent had gone the house still had all the lights on.
We always jokingly said that we had a house on a hill. An image of the DC Temple came to my mind.
Lauren wrote a poem for Brent’s birthday that year. In her poem, she likened that light to her Dad: being visible and welcoming to everyone who was around us to come and be safe in the Gospel; but especially our family.
I am so grateful that you were looking out for us all the time that we were growing up and constantly inviting us to come and partake of the love of Christ.
Thank you so very much for your constant and continual vigilance. I am so very grateful that you did not humiliate or yell at us when we did things wrong. As I have learned about other families, I have realized how precious our experience was.
Both you and mom provided a quiet, Christ-centered refuge from everything that we had to face during our days away from home.
As my own family grew, the most important thing for us was to have the influence of the Holy Ghost in our home. That was the reason for the rules that we all agreed on and the consequences that resulted from our actions.
I am so glad that you gave me the opportunity to experience what it meant to be calm and consistent at home.
I love you and mom so very much. Thank you for your joint leadership in our family.
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