Art's son, Brody, loved the Church, but he was concerned about serving a full-time mission. He was nervous about his natural shyness. "I wasn't a big talker," he explains. And up to that time, he "wasn't super motivated to study the gospel." He prayed every day, but his worries persisted.
His family was supportive. His father recalls: "We reminded him how important his mission would be, not only for his own growth but also for those he would meet and teach." Just the same, Brody remained nervous. That's when the letters arrived.
They were an answer to Brody's prayer. Reading them was like being able to sit down and visit with his own father years ago when he was the same missionary age. It was a profound experience. "The first letter talks about him struggling, like me," Brody explains.
The second letter was written when his father got his call. "That's the one that was crucial for me," Brody says, "to see how excited he was. There was a great change."
In the third letter, Brody's father talks about his first area and his struggles learning how to teach the gospel. Brody learned another lesson: "The harder you work for something, the more rewarding it's going to be. His decision was hard for him. The letter shows he's glad he went."
Brody's parents saw how amazing the letters were. Brother Hansen realized that at the time he wrote them, he thought he was writing to his friend. But, as it turns out, he was really writing to his own son who would experience similar feelings and doubts 30 years down the road. "As an adult, I hadn't been able to share those feelings in the same way," his father says. "Brody needed to read about those feelings in writing from a 19-year-old's perspective."
What about Brody's concern about his shyness and his gospel knowledge? The Lord helped him with those too. "At the Missionary Training Center, my teachers and my branch president reassured me that overcoming shyness and gaining gospel knowledge were things I could work on," he recalls.
When Brody spoke in sacrament meeting before leaving on his mission, he says it was the first time he teared up at church. "My parents were pretty excited to hear me talk that much."