January 10, 1982 Little Rock, Ark.

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

Wow!!! Is it ever cold - the temperature gauge above the kitchen sink says it is 9( on the back porch but the weather man says it is 5( and it really feels that cold too - we started to have snow flurries while we were in church but they didn't amount to anything - if we have any moisture while it is this cold we will be snowed in for a month. We have never seen it this cold in Little Rock - they say the chill factor in the northern part of the state is 45( below. We know you have had a lot of cold and snow in Utah lately and we were surprised to talk to you last night Roy and hear that your weather isn't too bad -they very seldom mention Rhode Island but we include you with the New England states and we thought you would a lot of bad weather this past week. I really love this kind of weather because it means we stay pretty close to home - we were telling because we could go ice skating or sledding or skiing but here we just stay inside unless we get enough snow for sledding!!!

Daddy taught every day last week - he was in chemistry at Central and really loved that - he was also at Forest Heights in Science. He likes the chemistry classes because he says you usually get the smarter ones and they're fun to teach. I taught two days at Williams in 2nd grade and then the reading teacher at Western Hills had her baby so I will be there until she comes back - probably for six weeks. I really love to teach reading - I have a reading aide and she is a good friend of mine and we have eight classes of then students per class. The principal is Margie Puckett who used to teach 2nd grade at Brady - her son, Greg, was a friend of Roy's way back then. Greg graduated from Vanderbilt two years ago and is an account executive with Coca Cola Company Roy - he isn't married and lives in the Watergate apartments on Cantrell.

They had a special Seminary program last night at the State Center in Jacksonville - it was Honor Thy Father and Mother Night and they served dinner and has a program - we really enjoyed it - it was so cute - each ward was supposed to put on a little skit or something and our ward wasn't prepared so they sang with the Little Rock 2nd Ward and they started to sing "I Am a Child of God" and got the giggles and we thought they would never get through it. We took all of John's stereo equipment out there to see if the speakers would be loud enough for the Gold & Green Ball and they will be plenty loud - Jim Lewis who is in charge of the dance didn't think they would be but they were so loud last night they asked him to turn them lower. He really loves doing that sort of thing - in fact, his bedroom is just about always filled with his friends listening to the records of taped. We saw Donna Anderson? There last night - she gas remarried and was with her new husband and their daughter Shelley - Shelley is the only one active now and she is cute but not nearly as pretty as I thought she would be. Stephanie has two children and is divorced and little Bradley is 12 and won't go to church. Donna is very hard - her hair is dark and I would never have known her. Lori Wiggins was in the skit for the north Little Rock Ward - she is really grown up and she is pretty - Pete and Nell were there and they are just the same - Pete looks very, very cold - he is 81. Lori will be going to BYU either next year or the next - that will be hard on Nell.

Claire is going to New York this afternoon - she is really on the go a lot but seems to thrive on it - she'll be home on Friday. Bob and Michael get along so well and never seem to have any problems - Michael rolls all over now so they can't leave him alone very long - it won't be long until he will be crawling. His little baby sitter is a jewel.

We had our Relief Society Work Meeting last Tuesday night - I was on the refreshment committee and so was Bev Culwell and since she is diabetic she wanted to serve cookies without sugar in them - she gave me two recipes to make and I doubted the raisins (thanks to the Weinerts) and the nuts and they were delicious. I made that apple cider drink and that is sweet so the not so sweet cookies went well with it. We had a film on how to prevent crime and it was excellent and then we made nylon hose "pigs" to put on our refrigerators to encourage us to not eat so much. You would not believe all the crime we have had in Little Rock the past week or so - a policeman was killed, a woman murdered when she let a man come in to use the telephone, a friend of John's was awakened with a man standing by her bed with a knife in his hand (in Briarwood) - it will get worse too because of the economy among the poor.

I don't have any more news so I won't start a new page - we love you all so very much and hope you all get through the Winter without a lot of illness - please be really careful on the icy roads and let us know if we can help you in any way.
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