April 4, 1982 Little Rock, Ark.
Dearest Ron, Ann, Susanna & Jessie, Rick, Jean, Ricky & Barbara Jean and Roy,
Well - we have arrived home safe and sound - we left Lehi about 7:15 Saturday morning (8:15 Little Rock Time) and drove straight through and got here about 1:00 this afternoon (Sunday). We didn't have any problems - we came back a different route after all these years - we came through Vail and Denver, Colo. and then came on to Kansas City, Kansas and then turned South and the ride to Little Rock was just gorgeous - all the wild dogwood trees are in bloom and it was really a sight. John was over having dinner with Bob and Claire so we called them all came over and we visited for a little while - little Michael has been sick this week with the diarrhea and we could tell he has lost a little weight - he is just about to walk!!!
Johnny is really taking our move like a Trojan and that makes it so much easier. We must have had at least ten letters from friends who have heard about it and it was fun reading them - Marian and Malcolm Jeppsen, Marietta Call, Lynn Purintun who used to tend you girls when we lived in Laramie, Donald Woolley who used to be our Regional Representative and something weird has happened - we received a letter from a man (Tom Christensen) who is in the Missionary Department expressing his happiness that Daddy was going to be his son's mission president in Ecuador - it is weird because when we went to our first orientation meeting in Salt Lake they gave us a packet of things for the Ecuador Mission and we had to exchange it - we wouldn't have thought anything about it if we hadn't received this other letter but now we are thinking we might have been assigned to Ecuador at first - Wow!!! are we ever glad we got changed. Our Bishop's daughter has just married a man who lives in Ecuador and he said the nicest thing about that area is when you get to come to the States. We are really thrilled about our assignment to Billings and now that we know where we are going it is so much easier to make plans and everything - Daddy has been checking the mission boundaries again and they are huge - all of Montana and most of Wyoming - he will be traveling a lot!!!! Yellowstone Park, from Fishing Bridge North is in our mission and Glacier National Park is also in Montana - that sounds cold. We will be contacting the Mission President that is there now sometime this week and we are hoping the housekeeper and cook who is with them will stay but we have our doubts so that will be our big job right at first to find some one who will be good. We had a nice letter from Judy Forrest too!!!!
We loved being in Utah this week and it was so good to see the Weinerts and part of the Woolleys - we're really sorry we didn't get to see you Ron - we surely hope the trial turned out in your favor and that you will be close to home for a while I feel bad that we didn't get all together for an evening - there just wasn't time but we will for sure do it in June. We were happy to hear that Ron and Roy and Patrice spent some time together - it's really a small world when part of our family gets together in Boston, some of us in Utah, John in Colorado and Bob and Claire in Little Rock - I wonder if we will always be this scattered - I hope not!!!!
Johnny had a wonderful time on his skiing trip in Colorado - one of the girls in the group broke her leg and had to be flown home and Chris Karnes got a bad cut on his face from being hit in the face with a ski but luckily Johnny wasn't hurt. He said it snowed so much one of the days that they couldn't ski. Red Lodge, Montana is supposed to be a good skiing place and it's only 60 miles from Billings so all his friends want to come and go skiing with him next year. It was fun watching the skiers on the slopes at Vail - there were a million of them.
That's all the news and I must shampoo my hair and get ready for school tomorrow so I'll close for now - we love you all so very much - PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO - let us know if we can do anything to help you.
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