September 9, 1983 Billings, Montana

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

It's Friday night and I'm going to write part of my letter tonight because we are leaving early in the morning to go to Glasgow and we won't be back until late Sunday night!!!

Last Sunday night after dinner, Johnny and I went to Hardin (that's a little town about 50 miles East of Billings) to get the pig Daddy had ordered for our Honor's Banquet. He ordered a 100 lb. Pig and it turned out to be 140 lb. Dressed so it was really big. The Elders had dug the pit and Daddy had kept the fire in it all day on Sunday and while we were in Hardin it really rained so he had a hard time keeping it covered. He had put rocks in the fire and they were really hot - he put them inside the pig - then he put crushed pineapple in it - then he wrapped it in aluminum foil - then burlap - then newspaper that had been soaked in water - then a kind of plastic that wouldn't burn - then chicken wire and he made handles out of more wire and hooked it into the chicken wire so he could lift the pig out of the pit when it was cooked. Daddy and Johnny got it all ready and put it in the pit and then covered it with corn stalks and dirt. It is so funny - everyone is so "gung-ho" about doing things like this but when it comes to the actual work they all have teaching appointments or fire-sides they have to go to and "you know who" really does it!!! In the middle of getting the pig ready we had a phone call from the airport - we were expecting an Elder who was being transferred to our mission from Haiti and the House Elder who was supposed pick him up had forgotten about him and he was there waiting so Johnny hurried to get him Then one of Johnny friend who was leaving for Rick's College came by to tell him goodbye. It was really a hectic night and we didn't get to bed until about midnight.

Monday morning we had fourteen Elders come in who were the "Top Combines" in baptisms for a day of fun. They played Volleyball and Football out on the lawn most of the day and we had chips and dips and fruit and punch for them to eat. Brenda and I spent the day fixing the food for the dinner - we had "roast pig", sweet and sour sauce, potato casseroles, baked beans, green beans, rolls, watermelon boats filled with melon, cantaloupe, bananas, grapes and peaches - for dessert we had ice cream sundaes and brownies. We also had the Stake Presidencies and their wives and the mission leaders. We really had a wonderful day. I'm sending you a copy of the program and the older couple in the picture is really remarkable - she is the one who fell and broke her hip and her shoulder and Daddy made arrangements for them to go home - they refused to go home and said, "they had come to fulfill a mission for the Lord and they were going to do it". They have really had great success and we are so proud of them Their names are "Terry" and they labor on the Indian Reservation in the wind River area down by Lander - they stayed with us until Wednesday so they could attend the zone conference here. The Elders all spent and night here and left the next day. I washed sheets until I was blue in the face and we were all really tired from fixing all the food and everything involved but we felt it was very worthwhile - the missionaries left all fired up and ready to work harder!

Tuesday we had zone conference for the Central Zone - the two missionary couples who work in the Cody Visitor's Center come her for that conference and we invited them to stay for dinner. Brenda's normal day off is Monday and since that was the day of the banquet we told her to take Tuesday off - I made sloppy joe stuff before I went to the conference and then we just had left over casserole and things from the banquet. We really enjoy the Cody couples and we had a fun evening together.

Wednesday we left early to go to Hardin for the Custer Zone Conference - the Wrights who have just come into the Mission from Brigham City were to that conference and it was fun to see them again. They are really special people and have taken their assignment in Lodgegrass very well - I think I would have turned around and gone back home. She said "I am going to be successful because I am going to learn patience and understanding" and that is what it takes when you work with the Indians. Sister terry (the lady who broke her hip) is a cousin to Sister Wright so they had fun visiting - they haven't seen each other for a long time. Bro. and Sister Jack Robins who have been laboring in Dunmore are going home and that was their last conference so it was sad - he is 68 and she is 62 and they just cried because they don't want to go home - they have really learned to love the Lamanite people - their home is in Santa Clara, Utah and we're getting a new couple from there.

Chris Jordin called me last Saturday and gave me some news you might be interested in. Carla Culwell Pearce had a little baby girl - they are going to move to California in just a few weeks - it will really hurt Beverly because she has practically raised those children. Rick Cobb and his wife are both in law school in California. Susan Bohn has been released from the hospital and is being cared for by Suzy and Otto - people who have seen her say she is really a pitiful looking young woman and she was so attractive. Accidents are exactly what the billboards around here say they are "heartbreaking"!!!

I'll finish this when we get home Sunday night. Johnny plays his first home football game tomorrow night and we are going to miss it. He has gone to the other High School's football game tonight - he is really involved and we are so happy!!! He has been studying a lot this week too - he says calculus is going to be ROUGH!!! He really likes his Seminary teacher and goes every morning at six - ugh!!!!

7:30 p.m. Sunday. We just came home from Glasgow - we really had a wonderful District Conference as well as a missionary zone conference. We left here yesterday morning about 5:30 and got to Glasgow about 11:00 and the zone conference started at 12:00 the missionaries are all "up" and it was fun to be with them. We have two couples in that zone and one couple had come in while we were at the Mission President's Seminar so we hadn't met them - they are super people and very talented. Sister Booth is an accomplished organist and Bro. Booth has a beautiful singing voice - they are from Centerville, Utah and they are appalled at what they found in Wolfpoint. They are very desirous of helping the Lamanite people and especially the youth so they will be great. They didn't have a musical number for the District Conference today so he volunteered to sing a solo and it was really beautiful. Pres. Theuson their District Conference and his wife are so much nicer to us than they were when we first moved here - we think they thought Daddy was going to release him and now they are more at ease with us. Pres. Theuuson (sp.?) has been really sick with some kind of a pancreas disorder and he spent most of last year in the University of Utah hospital and he is much better now - he is the J.C.Penney manager up there and they have the loveliest family - eight children, five boys and three girls. Their boys have all been married in the temple and their daughters are still at home. They prepared the most delicious dinner for us after our zone conference yesterday and then again today they had lunch after their District Conference. When we go to District Conference like that it reminds us so much of the way it was when we first moved to Little Rock - very few youth so it's hard to plan activities for them. We admire the families so much that stay close to the church.

Well - Johnny's football team got beat again last night - I guess it was kinda' sad because Senior High was ahead right up to the last and then they were beaten by one point. Johnny thinks his collar bone is broken again but Daddy and I think he is just going to have to get used to getting "banged up" a little - he has a hard time straightening up tonight and he says it is really sore - he said the team physician examined him last night and didn't their it was broken. I don't dare say too much because when it was broken the last time I thought he was just "putting on" until it got so bad we finally took him in for x-rays - do you remember that, Jeannie and Rick - it was at Christmas time and you were with us in Little Rock?

We can really feel that Fall is in the air -we are looking forward to having the produce in our garden all finished. We will never plant that large a garden here again - I went out Thursday morning and picked another bushel of tomatoes and there are that many to pick again tomorrow. We have zillions of squash and cucumbers too - in fact, we are just letting them go to waste. Brenda won't fix them unless we pick them and get them all ready - it take her all morning to clean enough chard for one meal so that has wasted too. I finally insisted that she make zucchini bread so she did last week and the Elders just can't get enough of it I know she will be happy when the garden is frozen over.

This next week is the week for our Primary General Visitors - we will be with them most of the week and then we got to Miles City (rather Glendive) for their District Conference and I have to speak at the Mother-Daughter meeting. Daddy is in charge of all these District conference and has to speak for over an hour and I have to give a little fifteen minute talk and it puts me in a tizzy for a month. Needless to say, we will be happy for this next week to be over.

We really love our family and miss you so much - we hope you are all doing just great and that you're happy!!! Please let us know how we can help you and BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO!!!!!!
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