January 16, 1983 Billings, Montana

Dearest Roy, Bob, Claire & Michael, Rick, Jean, Ricky, Barbara Jean & Mary Ann and Ron, Ann, Susanna, Jessie & Russell,

It's good to be able to write my letter again - you probably don't ever read all of it but it makes me feel as if I have had a little visit with you. It's also good to be with Johnny on a weekend again - life in the Super 8 Motels gets to me after we week or so!!!!

We got home about midnight last Monday and Tuesday was the beginning of our Couples' Conference - we had 37 for dinner Tuesday night. Brenda had done a wonderful job of getting everything ready - she even had two big table brought in from the church along with the chairs. We were able to seat everyone in the living room and it was so nice - she had fixed five brisket roasts, four big potato casseroles, creamed frozen corn, celery with pimiento cheese and then custard and fruitcake for dessert. I had made up the menu and had all the things here for her to fix but Tuesday morning I decided we needed a fruit salad for some kind - I hurried can called Ann to tell me how to fix that cottage cheese and Jell-O salad that's really easy. When I called her she said she had a better one so she gave me the recipe for that and I five times the recipe and all I had left was about a cupful - I'll type it on a separate piece of paper and send it to you - it's really delicious. We also had baked rolls - Brenda does a great job with rolls, biscuits and corn bread. The couples really enjoy coming to the Mission Home and they are so special we really enjoy doing things for them - Daddy gave them each a leather calendar and told them to circle each day they have a baptism. The places they live on the Indian Reservations leave much to be desired and we really admire them. The conference was Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning.

Daddy went to Independence, Missouri on Thursday morning for the Mission President's Seminar with Elder Dunn and the other four Mission Presidents in our Region and the Regional Representatives. He said Elder Dunn was really complimentary about our making our baptismal goal and the way the Mission is going - he got home Friday night. Daddy said the Mission Home in Independence is really beautiful and huge - The Mission President and his wife live there all alone (Pres. and Sister Barker from Salt Lake) and the only time they have the missionaries in for meals is when they first come into the mission field. Each mission is different and we love ours but each day I can see why they changed it so the Mission President has a private home. We are really lucky if we have five hours a night that we can sleep. The thermostat is in our apartment and the missionaries get up at 5:30 to do their exercising so they start whistling to wake us up to turn up the heat and they never settle down before midnight. This has certainly been the best kind of arrangement for Johnny though - he says his prayers with them each night and he knows the scriptures just about as well as they do!

We have had three missionaries in the home for the past ten days who have had problems of one kind or another out in the field. One missionary from California who came out about four months ago has been in and out of the hospital a dozen times or more and there isn't anything physically the matter with him - he is a paramedic and diagnosis all kind of illnesses and goes into the hospital. Daddy stopped that so then he started misusing the telephone - making many long distance phone calls - finally his companion called and said he had been on the phone to his girl friend in Florida every night for the week before. Daddy brought him into the home and he got the bill one day last week and so far it is $1,200.00 and there are six days that aren't on that bill. Daddy had just paid one for $173.00 so he called his Bishop - his folks don't have that kind of money so they are trying to sell some property in Utah to pay his bills and have him come home - in the meantime Daddy sent him to Colstrip to work with the missionaries there rather than keep him in the home. Another missionary is being sent by the students at Snow College and he refuses to live the rules or do any of the work and he and his companion got into a fight - he is a convert to the church and has only been a member less than a year and is from New York and knows absolutely nothing about work. He has been sitting around the mission home all week and yesterday while Daddy was home he made him go out and rake up the leaves and do some yard work - he worked for about an hour and then came in and took a nap - he is going to Salt Lake tomorrow for psychiatric counseling. The other missionary is a sister from New Zealand who has hurt her back - Daddy would like to send her home but it would require an air ambulance fare and that is out of the question so she will stay until she gets better. I got her some knitting needles and cotton yarn and she is making dish cloths for the mission home. These are challenges!!!! The boy from Ephraim must weigh 300 lbs. and eats like a horse.

Roy - we are really loving the Arkansas Gazette - he subscribed for us to receive the Sunday paper and we get it on Wednesday - I can't tell you how wonderful it has been to read about so many things we have been interested in - Governor Clinton is going to try to intervene on behalf of the black people and he will have a real job on his hands with the way things are now. It was so fun to see the pictures of the debutantes and read about them - Montana is really different in so many ways but particularly in the social status of people. We will really look forward to Wednesday from now on - thanks so much!

Annie - thanks so much for the wonderful pictures taken on Christmas Eve at Ramona and Winston's Christmas party. That is surely a great tradition for their grandchildren and we're so happy you are invited and will go to become better acquainted with your relatives. We loved the picture of you and Jeannie with Russell and Mary Ann - it's hard for us to even imagine how fast they're growing. It was so neat to talk to you this morning and we are really thrilled about your piano - you will love that and it won't be long until Susanna will want to take lessons and I will be so happy to see how you can get her to practice - Ha! When I told her this morning that she will soon be able to learn how to play it she said, "But, I already know how".

Jeannie - we are really thrilled you are in your new home - that must really be quite a challenge to move in and have Rick have to go to New Jersey for two weeks. I have worried about you being in without drapes or anything on your windows but then I have to remind my self that Farmington isn't like Little Rock. It will be so much fun for you to get your yard in and I'll bet you will have flowers and vegetables this Summer - we're proud of you!!!! You will also be able to protect your fruits now - were you able to leave to save many of the cherry and peach trees (did you have peach trees, I can't remember?)

Bob and Claire - we haven't heard from you for awhile. We opened your missionary letter Bob because we wanted to see what other mission presidents do. You really had a very special mission president in Pres. Richards to keep up with you the way he has - I can't see us corresponding with our missionaries six or seven years from now - I would like to think we will but I seriously doubt it. Evidently the Richards have just built a new home - they used to be neighbors to our friends Marian and Malcolm Jeppson. We heard form Margie Little field and also Chris that Kandi Henderson had a little baby boy and we are so thrilled for them - who is taking care of Michael now? I wish we could help you.

Johnny played for a church dance Friday night - that is such a hassle to take all his equipment and he does it for peanuts (not even gas money). We finally got our new Van and that really helps him in getting it to the church. The Van is bright red but is really nice on the inside - we had ordered a brown one to match our car - oh well, we shouldn't be upset about the color of it. Daddy and I went to a ward we hadn't been to in Billings this morning and the Bishop came up to us and said he wished we lived in his ward - not for Daddy and I but for Johnny - everyone just loves Johnny. He went to a Seminary Convention yesterday and Blaine Jorgenson (sp.?) was the speaker - he is the author of "Charlie's Monument" and other books like that - John was really impressed.

We have been so thrilled to hear from many of our friends during the holidays - their letters took awhile to catch up with us because of our move but they have been so faithful - the Danleys (Opal and Dick), the Hancocks (Ina and Burt formerly from Arkansas), Angelo Marinelli, Thelma and Luther Jones (Celeste just got a divorce), Joanne and Dave Doxey etc. Bob and Claire, you remember Lucille Webb in Lehi (she came to your open house Ann and Jean), well - she wrote the sweetest note and sent a check for $5 to buy a "little treat" - we're going to buy some Books of Mormon for the missionaries to distribute. She is really special to me and I was talking to one of our couples who is in charge of the Cody Visitor's Center who grew up with Lucille and he said she is 73 years old - hard to believe. He also said he has never heard her say an unkind word about anyone.

Daddy brought me a "Denver Post" from his trip and in reading it I saw an article written by the Pres. of the Southern Baptist Convention who said the Mormons were "non-Christmas" - I can see why they have changed the missionary discussions so that the first one deals primarily in how Jesus Christ is the foundation of our religion - I want to write him a letter but I won't - we love each one of you so very much and really miss you - please let us know how we can help you and PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO!!!!

P.S. I forgot to tell you that Daddy went fishing with Johnny yesterday and they caught four huge rainbow trout. Our weather has been absolutely gorgeous - bright blue sunny skies and the temperature in the 50's. Some people will tell us this is unusual and others will tell us it is normal for some years and we could have already had our Winter - we will have to wait and see.

Also - let me tell you a cute table decoration in the Winter months when flowers are so expensive. We got some grapefruits and some fruit flavored and fruit shaped gum drops and with toothpicks stuck them all over the grapefruit - the sister who has a back problem made some for us for our couple conference and they were so colorful and pretty and then we could eat them when the dinner was over.

I also forgot to tell you that one of our Mission Staff Elders just about cut his thumb off last Saturday - they were moving a tiller out in the field in back and he put his thumb through some hole on the connection pulling it in back of the truck and it got stuck and he pulled it out and the top half of his thumb stayed in his glove. His companion rushed him to the hospital and they sewed it back on - I had just driven in (Daddy was in Missouri) so I told the assistants to use our car to go to the hospital with him and they drove to the hospital too fast and got a ticket. I understand there is a Mormon Judge in Billings so they may not have to pay too much. There is never a dull moment.

Last night while I was waiting for Daddy and Johnny to come home form fishing I answered two phone calls - one was from a missionary in Sydney who had just backed his truck into the side of a parked car by their apartment and the other one was from a missionary who had just slid off the road and smashed in the fender on the driver's side up in Kalispell!!!!!! Needless to say, Daddy didn't sleep very well last night.

---THAT'S ALL---




Ann's fruit Salad

1 large can crushed pineapple stirred into 1 small box of pistachio instant pudding

Let this stand for a few minutes and then fold in 1 large box Cool Whip (not the giant size).

Freeze for a couple hours - it won't freeze hard in that amount of time but will be chilled and delicious.

Don't mix up the pudding as directed on the package - just use the contents as they come from the package.

Ann said that for Christmas she used some maraschino cherries drained and cut up in it to make it red and green and also added some pecans - I'll bet that would be good.
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