Coincidentally, I got the following email this week.  Anne Hutchinson is a friend of Sherm and Cheryl Smith with whom we served our mission in Vanuatu.  I think that I gave the Smiths a copy of My Heart Is Brim with Joy, the book I wrote about our experiences in Vanuatu.  Cheryl shared the book with Anne, who was so taken with it, and who was so complimentary, that I must have shared another of my books with her.  I'd forgotten.

"Hi Brother Kerns!

"I'm Cheryl and Sherm's friend who enjoys your writing so much. I loved giving copies of 'My Heart is Brim With Joy' to friends and family at Christmas.

"I just wanted to let you know that I just finished reading 'Random Writings' and am so grateful to have read it (and will read it again!) I've been including it as part of my morning devotional reading (Book of Mormon and conference talk study), savoring an article a day.

"I've highlighted and marked so many passages that I love in the book; so much food for thought, and so much uplift from your words.

"'Misquotes and mishaps' is SO funny.

"Your musings about the specifics of scriptural happenings are so deeply interesting (unnamed, behind the scenes heroes; How did Mulek get there?!  Between the Lines—Samuel--FASCINATING to ponder.)

"Grandma's 'conversations' (I have an Aunt currently suffering from severe Alzheimer's—how I can relate).

"'Subsequent Vistas' and the impact of perspective on views; how Church activity can sharpen all the senses.

"'Pruning the Vineyard' p 224—very relevant to me as a wayward child has just left our home.

"'Young Lions'--how Jesus quotes the prophets (who were speaking his own words)--he had their words 'memorized'; reminded me how I've encouraged my children to memorize, not read, their talks in church...

"'Personality Defects': Nabal and Abigail! Churlishness! Helps me understand an individual in my life better, and my role with him, and Pres. Uchtdorf's points about pride and the 'thinking' behind it.

"How the only cards you carry are the ones that do YOU a favor.

"'Because of their mothers': the last few years I've been noticing how many general authorities seem to have been reared by single mothers or have had non-member/inactive fathers. It was so cool to see how you grouped them and discussed them! I was thinking that a whole book should be written about this. In the church sometimes we feel so badly when our families are not shaping up to be what we had hoped (my friend and I have a saying: 'We are 4-year seminary graduates, we earned our Young Womanhood Awards...and we did not expect this!') and yet out of those 'dysfunctional families' came important church leaders in our times. Hope may not be lost for our children in less-functional families...

"'The foolish moose!' With a picture to prove it! INCREDIBLE.

"'Musings on LIGHT.'

"OK I will stop quoting your words to you. Thank you for your words!

"There’s no question, YOU ARE A WRITER!! in fact, some of the essays about 'why I write' and how you write schedule wise, could be so helpful at a creative writing workshop or college level creative writing class.

"Well, I wish I were a member of your wonderful family and therefore a regular recipient of your writings. How excellent it would be to even meet any of the family! :And if there’s ever an extra book around, I would devour it.

"Thanks for all the good you do in the world!"

Anne Hutchinson