50 years agoA far-reaching project originating with the Presiding Bishopric designed to interest those who were then known as adult members of the Aaronic Priesthood was conducted under the supervision of Bishop Thorpe B. Isaacson.
The project called for a personal letter from the Presiding Bishopric to be mailed to each of the 50,000 adult members of the Aaronic Priesthood. It was a friendly letter to pass between brethren who were members of the Church and whose common interest in family and future ran parallel.
"It is apparent," said the Presiding Bishopric, "that beneficial aspects of the project cannot be fully realized until the adult members of the Aaronic Priesthood are made to feel welcome in Church society and that their welfare, happiness and salvation are of paramount importance to each of us and particularly to the Lord.
"These brethren," continued the Presiding Bishopric, "must be helped over the first barrier in renewing their activity in the Priesthood and associating themselves with Church members. They should be assisted in ridding themselves of their inferiority complexes. This will be accomplished in part, by extending the hand of fellowship and love to them."
Quote from the past
"In attempting to develop a life of prayer, one becomes conscious of the fact that he is two persons, and this is true of all of us. There is our outside self, the person who is seen and watched by others, who lives and speaks and acts in public, the person we reveal to others with varying degrees of frankness or affection. And there is that other self - the inner self, which is ever partly hidden even from our closest friends, and which we, ourselves, but dimly apprehend.
"It is this self, our better self, that the Master sees and values. To Him the door of this Interior Castle is always open. He sees the real person." - Elder Hugh B. Brown, then a member of the BYU faculty, from a radio address on the Church Hour.
