Again this evening I was pleasantly surprised with the arrival of your letter for February 1st. That is the best mail service I have ever had since being overseas. I suppose we will be in for a spell going without mail for awhile. That is certainly wonderful mail service. I certainly feel badly about not receiving your letter of January 17th , that must have been the letter where you told me about receiving my letter telling you to go ahead and send money to my father, for I have never received any other letter from you and mentioning it outside the one which I received yesterday when you told me to send the money out here if I wanted to. Darling, your letters are such a blessing to me in every way. I will certainly be glad and thankful when we can be together again and talk as we used to do. It was always such a blessed privilege to pray with you in each other’s arms.
Well, Beloved, this has been a very busy day. I spent a part of the morning calling on men in the hospital and then came back to be with the men in the field for awhile. After dinner, I studied on my sermon for this Sunday. After I did that I read the book entitled, “The Larger Evangelism” by John R. Mott. It is certainly a wonderful book. It isn’t very long and I am going to send it to you soon, for I know you will enjoy reading it. Dr. Mott is surely a wonderful Christian man. I would like to have the privilege of meeting him someday. We certainly need more men like him.
Immediately following supper we had an officer’s meeting which lasted for almost an hour. As soon as that was over, I came back to my tent and wrote a letter to my father and one to Betty Weiskopf. I am going to send her letter to you, for I am sure you will enjoy reading it. I’m certainly thankful to God for such a wonderful young peoples group. Wasn’t that nice of them to offer to give me $5 a month for our work out here? I wrote and told them to take the five dollars each month and mail The Pocket Bible Handbook to us, that is one of the finest things you can give men who are really interested in Bible study. And I find that book is one of the best source books also. Don’t you think that it is the best thing, Dear? I love you so, Darling. Every time I think about you I find that I love you more. In my letter to my father I let him know how much you think of him, I know that will cheer him a lot. The two letters that I have received from him since he had the trip show more joy than I have seen him express since I can remember, we shall continue to pray for him, Dear.
Well, I am going to answer some more of your questions now. I am catching up with your letters now, it won’t be long until I am up on your letters. That was a nice letter from the Sparks family, thank you for sending the news on to me. They were always so good to me and I could not help but love them. They certainly have three fine sons. Their kind are few and far between. I was rather surprised to hear that Edwin was flying now. Yes, if Dr. Stiansen teaches his Cults class next year it would be well to take it, for I am sure you would enjoy it. Anything under him is good, you can be assured of that. I’m sure you will see why I always liked his teaching so well. The men in the Army have their idea about Elliot becoming a General but there is little they can say or do. There are many men who are so far his superior that it makes you feel badly, one I have in mind right now will be lucky to become a first lieutenant. He should have been one a long time ago, but they buck it back every time saying there is no place for him at that rank. There will be many a good man come out of this Army lucky to have risen one rank, but thank God some of these men who now go around with such a high and mighty air will be asking privates and corporals for jobs when they become civilians. Darling, you see a little bit of everything in the Army. You know the old saying, “Some people grow with the responsibility, others just swell.” My heart goes out to a many of the enlisted men.
When you see Vernon Ritter again be sure to give him my best wishes. He was one of my best friends while I was going to Northern. Thank him for praying for our work out here, I assure you, as well as all our friends, it does help us over some of the rough spots. The program which the Middlers gave sounded very good.
Dear, it is good to know that you got yourself a new pair of galoshes. And I am happy that you got the new dresses. You know it is perfectly alright with me, as I have told you many times before, I want you to have all your needs supplied. Please do not go on without the things you need. I think it was sweet the way you drew pictures of them and the little pieces of material gave me a fairly good idea what they look like. Be sure to have your picture taken in them so I will see how grand you look, Dear. Whenever I can get an extra moment I always look at your pictures, for they do help.
You asked me in one of your letters who furnishes the music for our services. Donald McClintock, my assistant, plays the field organ at the Sunday morning service which is held out in the open. A the Sunday evening service, we use the chapel I told you about before. In the chapel they have an old broken down piano, but it is just a little bit better than nothing. We are supposed to have a day a week off unless there is an emergency of some kind. But as yet, I haven’t had the opportunity to do so. Perhaps I will try to take a day off this next month some time.
What you and Mom said about Dr. Wilson is quite true. I shall pray for them. I do hope to be a real minister and servant of the Lord. If there are things in my life which ought to be removed please let me know Dear, for I do want to be the kind of husband you can love unreservedly because my life tells for Christ. Darling, you will remember that I told you how fine North Shore was under Dr. Virgin until just the last year or two. You will remember that I also told you that it doesn’t seem like the same church as when I was working with young people.
Darling, it is very late and I am tired so I will close for tonight. God bless you and all things, my Dear. Give the folks my love.