April 12, 1981
Little Rock, Ark.

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

Well - our long "worried about" week-end is over and it turned out to be a really wonderful experience. We went to the airport Friday night and picked up Bro. Eskridge and Bro. Mark E. Peterson - they came home and we visited over a dish of ice cream and that Bro. Peterson just has to be the sweetest man I have ever been around. We just loved having them with us and it was really special for John. I have been places where he has been before and he always has seemed rather austere and hard to talk to but he isn't that way at all. They all spent Saturday at the Stake Center interviewing all the Priesthood leaders - the Stake Relief Society prepared a delicious dinner for Saturday night and I went over for that and all the meetings that night. This morning they put Bob McChesney in as Stake President, George Wing in as First Counselor and Jim Griffin as Second Counselor - Charles Beyers was put in a Senior Member of the High Council and given the responsibility of Young Men's President and other things such as missionary work - I felt kinda' bed for Charles and Cissy but they were really sweet about it. Daddy gave some wonderful talks and he feels really good about everything - we have always said that it doesn't mean anything to anyone else except us and that's just the way life is and we're happy to have had the great blessings that have come from such a great calling.

We thought about little Jessie yesterday - she was one year old and we remember taking off a year ago after this same conference to go welcome her. Thursday will be your birthday Jeannie - one of these years we'll have to have a big double birthday party in April for Jeannie and Jessie and in October for Roy and Susanna. We surely hope your birthdays were special.

Bob and Claire came over after conference and had dinner with us - they have taken ultra sound pictures of their baby and seem to think it will be born in June instead of July. The Ezells will be here this week-end and Claire is busy getting their home in order for them - Bob has done some re-wiring so they can turn their bathroom light on just inside the door instead of by the overhead light by the sink. Bob starts his rotation schedule on May 15th and he will have to quit his job because he won't be able to adjust his hours to fit his working hours - he is excited about going into the hospitals - he has had a long vacation and is ready to get back in school.

We're going to try to get our things all in order here during the next month - we need to clean out our garage and also closets and things and have a garage sale - our garage looks like a junkyard now. Sandy and Gene Jones want us to buy one of their lots on "the hill" in Provo and if we decide to do that we will make definite plans to move and build - otherwise, we will spend most of the summer in Utah and come back here for school in the Fall. John has said that he doesn't want to spend the Summer in Utah and then come back here for school - he wants to be here for the activities of Scouts and other things if he is going to school here. You would think we could make up our minds but so far, we can't decide definitely one way or the other. We have jumped the first big hurdle now and I think the rest will be easy.

Daddy and John want to go to Alabama this next week-end and stay with the Smiths. We have Good Friday off school and it would be a good time to go - I really don't want to go but would love for them to.

That's all the news - we surely do love each one of you and hope everything is going really great - be really careful in everything you do!!!!
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