October 29, 1979
Little Rock, Ark.

Dearest Ron, Ann & Susanna, Rick, Jean & Ricky and Roy,

Well - our big conference is over and to show you how tired I was I didn't write my letter last night - I don't remember ever being more exhausted. I'm sure I am getting older and can't do the things I used to without getting tired more easily. Daddy has the full responsibility of conference and I just have to worry about the house and the food and he doesn't get half as tired as I do. I believe I told you that Cissy Beyers and I decided to put on a dinner for the High Council and their wives and our Patriarch and Sister James and Pres. & Sister Jones (Mission Pres.) for the Saturday night session of conference - there were fifty all together with Bro. Packer. Well - Charles Beyers boss died in Salt Lake and he and Cissy left on Tuesday and didn't get back until about an hour before the dinner so you know who had to do it. It was really hard - it would have been comparatively easy having it here at home but to have to take all that food and the cooking utensils and all over to the Stake house was really something - we had fifty chicken breasts - Daddy got those already - and fixed a chicken and broccoli casserole and the hot fruit casserole in France's cookbook and hot rolls and a pumpkin cake dessert and then we had relish trays of carrot sticks and celery and olives. I left the house at noon on Saturday and got home about 11 p.m. Daddy picked Bro. Packer up at the airport about noon so he was gone all day too and Johnny was on his own to get ready for Cotillion. Boyd called on me to speak at the Saturday night session and I was completely unprepared - I felt sure he would call on me because of our friendship so I had prepared a little talk on the importance of having good friends but I thought it would be on Sunday - he called me out of the audience and when I got to the stand he said "Take five minutes and tell how the Relief Society and the Welfare programs are correlated" - I really wish I could have fainted but I couldn't so I had to say something. It was really fun having him here - he told the conference of our friendship and told them all about my family in Brigham City and how we had been in the "same crowd" all during High School and he told them about Lela and Bob dying - he was very complimentary and nice. We had a wonderful time reminiscing (sp.?) about old friends and he was very impressed with the work Daddy was doing in the Stake. He showed us a family picture they had just had taken - he and Donna (she was a friend from Brigham City also) and they have 7 boys (five have gone on Missions and one is a senior in High School now and then they have a 10 year old) and 3 girls - 10 children in all and fifteen grand children - really a beautiful family. They had three children get married this year. It was funny - Daddy had the Lincoln all shined up and ready to use and on the way home from the Saturday night session the lights started going out and they just barely made it ho9me before they did go out so we had to use the little car - he didn't seem to mind though. After conference yesterday Bob and Claire came over and had dinner with us - they had been in charge of the Junior Sunday School and they were really worn out and I felt bad because after our dinner he asked if we would take him to the Mission Home so they were left with all the dishes. His plane left at five so we came home for a little while and then went to the church for a little farewell party for the Munks - when we got home from that Johnny wanted to play rook so we played a few games of that and then we all crashed!!!! It seems so funny because this is something I have wanted for the sixteen years we have been here and I have the strange feeling that we have accomplished what we came for. His talks were very good but they weren't any better than Daddy were. Roy - he was Mission President in the New England States a few years ago before he was made an Apostle and he is very familiar with Brown University and was very impressed that you were in Med. School there - we have a mutual friend who lives in Salt Lake and her husband is one of the University of Utah officials and her son went to Brown - I don't know her married name but she was from Brigham City and her name was Grettle Shaw. (This probably doesn't mean anything to you but it does to me).

Enough about conference. We were so happy to receive your letter this week Roy and also to talk to you on your birthday - I can't believe your cooking - "Eggplant Parmesan, chicken breasts with rice and orange sauce, carrots with honey"!!!!. That is really fabulous to learn how to cook that way. It will be wonderful to have you come home and cook for us - I'll bet you're gaining a little weight. Your school work sounds so hard - I talked to Jim Griffin for a little while at conference and he told me he had passed the State Board Exams so the pressure was off - I asked him if he thought it had been worth State it and he said he was sure it was but there were times when he wondered. He and Marlen have four cute little children and they surely are happy to be back in Arkansas - she is going to be in the Stake Primary President and he's Elder's Quorum President in Hot Springs - Daddy says he wished he had fourteen Elder's Quorum Presidents like Jim Griffin in Hot Springs and Jim Brown in Little Rock. Did you watch the Razorback game on Saturday - they got beat by Houston and it about killed everyone in Arkansas - we didn't get to watch it. We're glad you had a Happy Birthday - we thought about you all day.

Jennie - it was so fun to talk to you yesterday - we are really anxious to get out to see you and Rick but especially that little Ricky - every baby I look at I try to envision what he looks like - his pictures are so adorable.

Annie - it was fun to talk to you this morning - Daddy and I had just watched the "Today" show where they had showed how approximately 20,000 babies had been affected buy drinking a "Soy" formula and how they had lost so much weight - it said that it didn't contain chloride which is essential for growth and it showed pictures of them measuring the babies' beads (I didn't even know they did that until you told us they did that with Susanna). Anyway - Daddy assured me that Mother's milk contained chloride (salt) so I stopped worrying. We said how strange it was that parents worry about their own children but it isn't quite so hard because you're right with them but when you have grandchildren who are 1500 miles away the worry is worse. We know you have the right instinct for caring for Susanna and she'll gain what she needs.

Speaking of gaining weight - both Bob and Claire look like they have been in a prisoner of War Concentration Camp - I know they have lost weight and there isn't anything I can do about it.

Roy - Bro. Packer made us cancel our Temple Trip during the Thanksgiving Holidays. Daddy and I were a little bit relieved because the pressure was on for us to go on the bust and that would have meant that we would have had to leave Johnny here and Bob and Claire couldn't have gone with us and we probably would have had a hard time making connections to see you. So - we'll be home for Thanksgivings.

A week ago on Saturday night the Bass' home was broken into again. It was really a very strange thing. John Robert had been over here Saturday morning and visited with me for a long time and invited him to stay and have a sandwich but he said he was invited to a "pre-game" party and they would have food there - so he left their house about non. He didn't get home until about 1 o'clock in the morning and found that someone had stolen all of Jannie's silverware and his stereo and a tape recorder and some other little things but they couldn't find any using of "breaking in" - there was a window open but the shrubs under it still had the cobwebs on them and no sign of disturbance. They had gone through the drawers and found a checkbook of Roy's. Monday morning some lady tried to cash a check for $150 and the bank wouldn't cash it because Roy had notified them but they got her pictures they wouldn't develop the film for several days because of a bank technicality and so we don't know Roy knew her or not - Roy came here from Louisiana immediately. They sorts felt that it might be a friend of one of their children's (particularly Donald) who might have had a key - isn't that weird??? Incidentally - Donald has stopped going with that girlfriend he had that no one really liked and is going with a sophomore female med. Student.

I haven't been a very good neighbor lately - we have been so darn busy. Dorothy's folks were here last week - they are so sweet - they have both been very ill but are better now. The Mayhans house still hasn't sold - really the Real Estate business is bad right now - homes are not selling as fast as they did for awhile and there isn't as much building going on - it is definitely a "buyer's market". The Hipps and Barbees are doing fine - when I drove into the driveway the other day Ralph and Martine Funk were out on the lawn working on this house for two months - mostly Daddy has been working. They finished putting the carpet down on Friday - I just love everything but they didn't do very good job of the carpet and Daddy is going to make them come back and fix it. There was just one man doing it and he did it in between working on other houses and it is hard for one man. The den carpet job is the worst - it wasn't quite wide enough and they didn't think we wanted a seam in it so they just put it down leaving a little gap - it isn't that noticeable but a seam in it so they just put it down leaving a little gap - it isn't that noticeable but we want it right. I'm running out of paper - I taught first grade and kindergarten last week - two days and I could have taught all week - I loved it. We love you all so much.
Return to Home Page