My heart is filled with joy and gratitude as a result of the perusal of your letter. I long to be in close and constant touch with your newly-formed national assembly—the first of your administrative activities and the herald of one of the most fruitful and stirring periods of the history of the Faith in that promising continent. I will be so glad to receive copies of the minutes of your gatherings, and urge you to keep in close touch with your sister assemblies throughout the Bahá’í world. I will assuredly pray for you and your dear and devoted collaborators from the depths of my heart. Your true brother, Shoghi. LETTER OF OCTOBER 17TH, 1934 October 17th, 1934 Dear Bahá’í Friend, I am directed by the Guardian to acknowledge the receipt of your letter dated August 31st with its most interesting enclosures, all of which he has carefully read and considered. It is with deep gratification that he follows the progress and extension of the work of your N.S.A., and he hopes and prays that through the confirmations of the Almighty it will serve to give an increasing impetus to the progress of the Faith in your land. The Guardian has read with particular interest the minutes of the meetings of your N.S.A. He hopes to receive them regularly, and thus to be in close and constant touch with your national activities. In regard to your question as to whether it is permissible to substitute the plural pronoun for the singular in prayers worded in the singular, the Guardian would strongly urge your N.S.A. to inform the friends to strictly adhere to the text of the Holy Writings, and not to deviate even a hair-breadth from what has been revealed by the Holy Pen. Besides, it should be noted that congregational prayer has been discouraged by Bahá’u’lláh, and that it is allowed only in the case of the prayer for the dead. Concerning the Healing Prayer, the Guardian wishes me to inform you that there is no special ruling for its recital. The believer is free to recite it as many times and in the way he wishes. There are also no obligatory prayers for the Fast. But there are some specific ones revealed by Bahá’u’lláh for that purpose. As to the instructions given in the little black covered Prayer Book, they are by no means complete and are only tentative. When the Book of Aqdas is published, the believers will have then full and authoritative prescriptions about the form of prayer, and other instructions and rulings of a spiritual character. With loving greetings to you and to the members of the N.S.A., Yours in His Service, H. Rabbani. [From the Guardian:] Dearly beloved co-worker: