July 10, 1983 Billings, Montana

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

We came home late last night after spending two days in Casper, Wyo. and we were so tired and when Daddy brought the mail upstairs we were so thrilled to have a letter from Claire and also one from Rick - that was really special and we appreciate you so much. We're happy to hear that Bob and Claire are settled in their new home and little Michael sounds so cute - Johnny loved to hear about it - he says he is a darling little boy! It is wonderful that you will be able to eat your meals at the hospital Bob - your hours will be so irregular and that will really help Claire. Your neighborhood sounds great and you will make friends fast when you start attending your church activities - we're so relieved to have you all moved and settled before the baby comes!!! Rick - we have kinda' expected to see you drive into the Mission Home - I'll never forget when you did that about a year ago - we'd love to have you anytime!!!

Ron and Annie - did you have a happy anniversary??? We hope so - we were in Miles City that day for a zone conference (last Thursday, July 7th) and we thought about you. With sending birthday cards to 130 missionaries and writing letters their parents something is going to give and I guess it's better that it be anniversaries than birthdays. This must be your 6th since Susanna will be five in October - is that right?

Roy - I thought about you the other morning when I was listening to the news and they told about two people who have died within a week of each other in the same hospital and they were suspecting the "gas" being used by the anesthesiologist. Johnny says I worry about the dumbest things and I can hear you agreeing with him. We surely hope everything is going good for you - did you ever get your car so it would pass the "clean air inspection" or something like that? Boston must be quite particular - probably because it's so crowded - we hope everything turned out okay for you.

Little Ricky will be four years old on Saturday - we wish we could take him to Lagoon and let him ride on all the rides. Daddy and I were talking about him the other day and it seems like he should be older than that - it seems like a hundred years ago since we had him in Little Rock with us for his first birthday and Daddy used to squirt the hose right on him outside to get him cooled off. That was such a fun time for us - you were waiting for little Barji to be born and now you even have little Mary Ann and we don't have idea one about what she looks like. I hope Susanna and Ricky will be together for his birthday - are they still as close friends as they used to be - that was one of the joys of my life to see how much they loved each other. Do Jessie and Barji play well together? You can tell I am so homesick for our grandchildren - one of the ladies at church this morning said she would bring her little girl over to the Mission Home for me to play with because I love to hold her whenever I see her.

I guess the big news for this week is Johnny's new car!!!!! The car dealer and Daddy finally came to a compromise and we bought a 1983 white Toyota Celica Sports Car - it is just beautiful and Johnny is in heaven - the only thing is, the first thing he did was to buy a radar detector so he could go faster than the speed limit on the highway. The highways up here are so good and they are so long that it worries me because the car goes so fast without your even knowing it. The dealer would give us $5,100 for the Corolla but he said the book value on it was $6,200 so we're going to try to sell it ourselves - Johnny is going to get it all cleaned and shined up - it's really just like new. Johnny is getting excited about driving it to Utah the first of August - Jimmy Willardsen is going to come here around July 30th and stay for a few days and then they're going to drive to Utah through Yellowstone Park - doesn't that sound fun? Jimmy is in the Mormon Miracle Pageant again this year. When the car dealer was talking to us about the car he said, "If I had a son who didn't smoke or drink and was willing to work as hard as this young man I would buy him the moon'" - course we know he wanted to make the sale but we had to agree with him - Johnny really does deserve it!!!

Last week was a busy one! We had the Central Zone conference here in Billings last Tuesday and invited the Cody Visitor's Center missionaries (couples) to come for dinner. Elder & Sister Behling and Elder and Sister Knight direct the center and they are really special people - we enjoyed having them. Wednesday we went to Hardin for the Custer Zone Conference and it was a special one because one of our couples was going home - the Hardin Relief Society prepared such a lovely dinner for us - burritos and cake. Bro. & Sister Terry from Cedar City, Utah came to the conference with their little Volkswagen packed to the brim they had it packed on top so high that it was as high as it was long and they had their two granddaughters with them who had come from Salt Lake. It was about 5 p.m. when they left Hardin and the wind was blowing so hard and I really worried they would be blown off the road. It was also really "hot" and they didn't even have air conditioning - I tried to get them to come spend the night in the Mission Home but they wanted to make it to Cody so they could get home the next day. Our car was in the garage for an overhaul so we were in the big Mission Van and I really felt silly as we passed them on the highway - two of us in that big van and the four of them in that little Toyota and packed to the brim. They were really "Servants of the Lord" while they served in Ashland - Ann and Bob, do you remember the day we went by to see them in their trailer and Bro. Terry was repairing the floor in the church trailer - Ashland is where that Catholic School is that you bought Susanna those exquisite hair clips, Ann.

Thursday we went to Miles City for the Lewis and Clark Zone Conference - the Relief Society prepared a dinner for us there also - enchiladas and watermelon. One of our Elders there has really turned around on his mission and he is so appreciative of everything Daddy has done for him - he had made us each gifts - mine is a beautiful pin made out of native stone and Daddy's is a tie tack of native stone. His Father was operated on the next day for his heart - he had a quadruple bypass and Elder Ritchie kept us informed about his progress - they live in Illinois. This is the Elder who can put a "whole" Big Mac in his mouth at once!!!! The story is told about a member who owns a restaurant who invited him to come eat all he wanted - after dinner he said he could still eat some shrimp so they brought him some and he ended up eating eighty-two shrimp AFTER DINNER. Needless to say, he is very overweight!

Friday we went to Casper and then came home last night. The people in Casper are always so nice to us - they served us a meat loaf dinner after the conference. The people in the different areas didn't do this when we first came but they are now and we appreciate it so much - it really helps the missionaries who have to buy gas to travel to the conferences and then can have a nice meal for $1 - we always each put in that much. The fan belt to our air conditioner in the car broke just after we had passed Buffalo, Wyoming - we decided to keep going because it was after 5 and we were afraid we wouldn't be able to get it fixed in Buffalo anyway - we drove about 125 miles without air conditioning and it was uncomfortable. I can hear you all laughing because you probably don't have air conditioning in your cars and it's almost unbearable in Memphis without it - I won't expect any sympathy!!!

We have a trailer in Lodge grass for a missionary couple and the couple that just left about a month ago to go to their home in Mt. Pleasant, Utah left things in their refrigerator for the Elders to go get. Well - we stopped to check on it when we went through there on our way to Casper on Friday and we noticed the drapes were moving - we investigated and found the cooler fan was on and had probably been going for at least a month. We got the keys and went in and Daddy unhooked it some way and turned off the electricity so we had to clean out the refrigerator - we couldn't wait to do it Friday so we left the door open so it would thaw out and then stopped in last night and cleaned it out. The missionary couple coming from Brigham City in a few weeks will be sent there - I worry about it because it is definitely an Indian Town and it will be hard for them. The trailer is right next to the church and they watch after that too - the church has hired a custodian who comes twice a week to look after it but in the Summer time that isn't quite often enough.

Daddy and John have to go to a Stake Priesthood meeting tonight at 5 and we don't usually have dinner until 5:30 so I'm going down to finish preparing it so they can eat early. Brenda has the meet all cooked and the vegetables ready to be cooked. Our garden is absolutely wonderful - we have a million squash, zucchini, crookneck etc., lettuce of all kinds, radishes, broccoli, cucumbers and our peas will soon be ready. I hope you will forgive my complaining in my last letter - if I don't complain I "bottle it up" and that's worse. There are just too many things to do - especially in the Summer.

We surely do love each one of you - we love to tell other people about our family because we are so proud of you - PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO - let us know if we can help you in any way!
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