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

Happy Birthday yesterday to Ron - we hope you had a really happy day - we loved your phone call Annie but we feel bad that Ron has been sick and we didn't know about it!!! It's hard to imagine pneumonia in July but I guess that's the worst time to get it - we're sorry you had to suffer so long before they diagnosed it and we hope you're on the way to feeling a lot better. Your trip to Jerome sounded fun and we're sure the Woolley's reunion in Nephi was fun too. It was fun to talk to Jessie and Susanna - they're growing up too fast!!!

Claire - we loved your great letter and we are really getting excited to hear the news!!! Friday night we have Johnny permission to spend the night with a friend and about 1 a.m. his phone rang (we think it was a girl who has been chasing him) - anyway Daddy jumped up to go answer it and I sat straight up and the first thing I thought of was that you had had your baby - the person calling hung up before Daddy answered it so we were kinda' half asleep and half awake all night thinking you would call back. When we hadn't heard by about 8 we knew it wasn't you. The Doctor's banquet at the Peabody hotel sounded elegant - Bob is really blessed to get that ENT residency but you deserve it!!!

Jeannie and Rick - how did Ricky's birthday go??? I have wanted to call but since we had just talked for quite awhile I'll wait and call later. We hope you will be able to go to the 24th parade tomorrow in Salt Lake - I imagine Ricky will really enjoy parades now that he has marched in one, we're so thrilled to have those pictures to keep looking at. Rick - did you get your sprinkler system in? That is a big job but it will really be worth it when you plant your grass.

Roy - are you still there??? We haven't heard from you but we know you must be working all different hours and it is hard making the adjustment - every once in awhile just drop us a card so we'll know you're alive and well. Has it been hot in Boston? We watch the weather news every night and the heat has hit everywhere but Montana, I believe.

Johnny is doing much better - I guess it just took a new sorts car and time to recuperate from being with his Little Rock friends - Ha! He has worked really hard and most of it has been out in the hot sun so he is as brown as a bear - he feels bad though because it is peeling. Right now he is planning a back packing trip up in the Beartooth Mountains - he is hoping this will agree with Jimmy because he and another friend have been planning it for a long time and the last time they will be able to go is the first week of August. Johnny is going to take a leave of absence from his job after this next week for several months and we hope he gets so involved in school activities that he won't want to work.

We went to Red Lodge for their meetings this morning and it was really a treat!!! That is such a "quaint" little town and we have passed their building many times - they just have a small branch but they get a lot of support from the Billings Stake and they have some very well to do members there who keep things going. Their Relief Society announced their plans for a "survival trip" this Friday night - they have buckets equipped with stoves made from tuna fish cans filled with cardboard and wax and they are supposed to take dried foods and the bare necessities to live for 24 hours out on ranch - no husbands or children are allowed. The missionary work there is going really good and they have hopes of starting a larger building by next Spring - it's a beautiful little town just before you start up the Beartooth mountains and then into Yellowstone.

We have been home all week and it makes everything so much easier - I have been able to catch up on a lot of the Elders' mending as well as ours and do some deep cleaning that needed to be done. We have spent a lot of time out in the flower and vegetable gardens too and that is a job and half!!! I bottled 7 quarts of "zucchini" dill pickles - I have no idea if the will be good or not but we have so much zucchini that we had to do something. Brenda has mad some cucumber dills. Our cucumbers are coming on a little slow but when they get going we will have a million. We could make some zucchini bread but everyone in the home except Brenda is on a diet - she weighs 155 lbs. but she doesn't look it so she doesn't need to - I have lost about 5 lbs. and am down to 130 in the afternoon after dinner - my goal is 125 lbs.

One of our missionaries who has been here for a couple months decided he didn't like Montana and said he would serve someplace else but he would go home if he had to stay here - he has been a very belligerent young man - Daddy called Salt Lake and they arranged for him to go to the Houston Texas Mission so he left last Thursday. When ever a missionary leaves like this Daddy really had to do some juggling to make companionships work out so that night we had three extra come in the home for dinner. We were just sitting down when an Indian couple appeared at the door - they introduced themselves as Bro. & Sister Yellow Eyes from Ashland and said they were baptized members of the church about two months ago. Well - we invited them to stay for dinner and it was really interesting to visit with them. I never did find out what brought them to Billings but of course they were out of money and couldn't get home without help - they were spending the might at the Rescue Mission here in Billings. They were clean Indians though and that was different!!!

Two young ladies just came into the Mission Home who had served in this Mission several years ago - one is from England and lives in Orem now going to Utah Tech and she was sent on her mission by the Broadbents from Lehi - the other living in Salt Lake and works at a printing store. It makes me sad to visit with young girls like that because they would love to get married and they told me they don't even date because none asks them out - they are really cute too.

Two of our house elders have been gone for about ten days on a car tour - they have given driving tests to all the missionaries throughout the mission and checked all the cars. Elder Hansen is from Cedar City and is the vehicle coordinator and knows a lot about the mechanics of keeping cars in good condition - Elder Baker is from Southern Utah too and he went with him - he's the mission historian and recorder. They just came home and asked if they could have something to eat before dinner - they have both lost about ten pounds and look terrible.

We had a long and newsy letter from Floy McKell - she told us more in detail about Susan Bohn's accident - they called Bishop McKell right after it happened and Floy said he was in shock for a while and she had to take over. The girl who was driving was 15 and fell asleep - she was Susan's cousin. It's hard to believe Susan had so many things broken and still lived - her jaw was broken in 5 places besides both legs, her pelvis, both lungs punctured and spleen and liver damaged and her left arm broken. They said she would be in the hospital for at least three months. Keith McKell has lost his job with Reynolds after twenty-two years and they may move to Tuckerman and run their farm. We also had a long letter from Dianne Power - she sent pictures of their twin girls and they are so cute - they really do like Des Moines - she said it remained them of Little Rock!

That's all the news - we surely do love each one of you. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO and let us know how we can help you.
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