Old Letters

     At a party a few days ago a friend of mine called me his pen pal. I joked back and told him that I had saved copies of the letters we had written to each other. He mentioned that he would like to have copies of the letters. I later found out that was a serious request. Our email exchanges had covered a wide range of topics some of them causing him to ponder a bit.
  I decided it would be a good idea for me to look over my file to see how many letters it contained. The first letter I had saved was written in April of 2010, nearly five years ago. The file contained 222 emails.
  It was very clear to me that I would need to review each of the emails. Some of them would be parts of longer exchanges which I had also saved. Some of them would be small and trivial things like "When is the meeting next week?"
   I had planned to take a few days and forward them to him. This plan was quickly abandoned. There were way too many letters to send in the space of a few days. I decided that I would send a few each day. As I read them I realized that he may not remember what was going on at the time the letter was written. I decided that if I needed to I would write a few remarks to give some context to the letter.
  I started to go over them. It was fun walking a little down memory lane. I came to one set of letters that made me pause. C was going through a very hard time. I had asked for some advice and some Scripture passages that I could read to C to help him. There was a long list of verses. It ranged from the Bible to the Book of Mormon to the Doctrine and Covenants. Some if it read a little like a doctor's prescription. Read 2 Nephi 2:27 and follow with Isaiah 1:18. I was touched by that letter. C and I hadn't known him for very long, yet he had taken time to write down this list.
  We had a good exchange about forgiveness. Forgiveness is something that I have struggled with all my life. I was not raised in a forgiving family. Instead of forgiving we filed the information away in our heads to be used as ammunition when needed. Grudge holding was common. Forgiving someone was like saying that they had done nothing wrong. I was struggling with this and tentatively suggested that forgiveness is really saying, I don't like what you did, but I won't let it ruin my life. He gave me some Scripture to read and suggested a book to read as well. A few years ago I bought the book completely forgetting that he had recommended it. He was right. It had helped. I still struggle sometimes but not as much as I used to. When I forwarded this email to him, I told him that.
  Not all of our emails were so serious. On one of the emails we discussed the custom of a newly married couple smashing a piece of cake into each others face at the reception. One time he was on a business trip to Florida in March. He wanted to know if I was jealous. I told him I wasn't and gave him six reasons why I was not.
  Even the subject lines are interesting. Most of them are questions. Some of them say "thank you". A lot of them just say "From Sophie" There are references to basketball, cheese, rituals, evil spirits, praying in public and saying goodbye. There is one in which I use my entire name. I must have been mad at him.
  I'm having a good time reading them over again. I had forgotten some of the discussions we had. I have learned a lot from him. I hope he's learned a little from me. I also hope that he enjoys rereading these letters as much as I have.