A Letter to My Future Children (when I was 20)

I have been going through an old journal from when I was almost 21, and had already received my mission call. For some reason, in the middle of all the mission-prep stuff I was involved in, I wrote this letter to my future children. I thought it was pretty good for a 20-year-old. I thought I'd share it here.

My Dear Children,

I don't know who you are, or when I will get to meet you, but I know that you are up in the Spirit World, anxiously awaiting your opportunity to experience earth life. I wonder if you are watching me, silently whispering your hopes for me and your dreams. Am I everything you want your mother to be? Perhaps not. By the time I am your mother, perhaps then I will be. I hope to be. That is partly why I've chosen to follow God's plan for me in serving a mission. The experiences and spiritual lessons and growth I gain from my 18-month service will help me to become a good mother.

I want to be the kind of mother you can talk to; take your troubles and worries to. I want to be wise and kind. I want to teach you of your noble heritage as spirit children of God.

If I could speak to you now, and give you advice about life on earth, I would tell you to hold fast to the truth. Listen to those whom God has chosen to teach you, and above all, be obedient to God. Surround yourselves with things that are good and clean, pure and uplifting. I would counsel you to choose carefully those things you allow to influence you. Remember that clean thoughts are the beginning of a clean life.

Satan is very real, my children. He will test and try you. He will not try so hard to influence you when you are strong and your testimonies firm. Rather, he will wait until you slacken up a little, when you decide that you don't have to try so hard to obey. That is when he will tempt you, for if he can get you to disobey just once, he has a passageway to your soul.

In earth life you will find that there is a constant conflict between the body (which I will help create for you) and your spirit, which is the literal offspring of God. You will find that the world teaches you that it is more important to perfect your body than to refine and build upon your character, or spirit. Though we are counseled to clothe our bodies in cleanliness, and always be neat and orderly in our appearance, we must not place that above our spiritual progression. Both are important, and in this life we are commanded to overcome the "natural man." That is to say, control and make a servant to you those natural urgings and appetites our earthly bodies have. Part of the reason we fast once a month is to let our bodies be aware that they are in subjection to our spirits.

There are two ways a person can attract other people. One is the way you are physically, the other is the way you are spiritually. Though you can attract someone to your physical beauty, if there is nothing more than physical attraction, the relationship will dwindle, and ultimately perish.

The things of the spirit, on the other hand, are eternal in nature. If you can increase your spirit, and develop a high, righteous and noble character, one that is worthy of a child of God, then you will find that as you reach out in love and service to your fellow earthlings, others on similar spiritual planes will be attracted to you, and want to be near you and want to be like you. This attraction is of a higher order than that of mere physical attraction, for the relationships established under a familiarity of spirits will endure all that is physical and temporal, and will last throughout eternity.

Love,
Your future mother