February 12, 1984 Billings, Montana

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

We have had the most beautiful day today - Daddy and I just came home from Cody a little while ago and the drive was so pretty. We left Billings yesterday afternoon and went to Hardin for an open house for the new addition to their chapel - Hardin is East of Billings and the logical thing to do would have been to come back to Billings and go to Cody from here. We decided to not do that - instead we went further East and then over the Big Horn Mountain range to Cody and it was just gorgeous - snow mobilers every where you looked and the "Big Sky" didn't have one cloud in it - we were kinda' late in getting to Cody but still made it for their 7:00 meeting. Bro. Wirthlin was their General Authority Conference visitor and he didn't get out of Salt Lake in time to make the connection in Denver so he didn't get there for any of their meetings yesterday - he finally got in Cody about 9:30 last night and had spent five hours in the Denver airport. Those of you who remember the Vern Thompson family in Little Rock will be interested in this - we had heard they lived in Ranchester, Wyo. so when we went through there yesterday we stopped to call them. They came and directed us to their home and we had a fun visit (Jeannie, Mary Thompson was your MIA teacher who put her hand down in a toilet to retrieve your cheerleading megaphone necklace while you were on a camping trip and she asked about you). Their daughter Della lives in Pennsylvania and has five children. Their son Mike was a student of my brother Don in Murray and he died of cancer a few years ago and his wife has remarried and they are living temporarily with Mary & Vern until he can find a job in Ranchester - I think that is really neat. We have some choice Arkansas friends - today after the conference we went to dinner at the home of Fairlee & Bob Stewart who used to live in Morrilton, Arkansas - they called last week to invite us when they heard we were coming for the conference.

Claire - you are so good to write and we love your letters!!! We would so love to see your home and your mirrored wall (Claire & Bob were unhappy with the wallpaper on one wall so they took it off only to find more wall paper underneath it and they couldn't get it off so they have put those mirror tiles over it). We really love the wall in the Mission Home that the Elders did that to one week when we were gone. It will make your room look larger. It sounds like you are really planting and that is wonderful. I can just see Bob working with Michael in the garage - I'll bet they are really good pals!! Laura has a tooth - can't believe she's old enough - she'll be a young lady before we get to see her!!!

Jeannie - we loved your phone calls but we are really sorry to hear that Rick's Mom isn't doing very well (Dorothy Weinert had to go back in the hospital because of another intestinal blockage). Every day we count our blessings and at the top of the list is our good health!!! We surely hope she won't suffer too long - does she realize how ill she really is?? I wish we could do something to help Rick through this.

Susanna - thank you for you sweet letter thanking us for the Hutterite slippers - it is really a thrill to receive a letter you have written by yourself.

Roy - you sounded excited about your trip - we hope you really have a wonderful time!

Last week was a busy one. We received ten new missionaries on Wednesday - they are here for dinner and lunch and to spend the night so that's always a hassle. We are really happy about the ones who came in this time - they all seem like really committed missionaries. One of them is a really good friend of Matt Millers (Daddy's sister, Elaine's, son) - Matt is serve in Uruguay.

Thursday was transfer day and they were in and out of the house all day long - I made forty dozen cookies again and they ate every single one of them - they just take them by the handfuls - I made oatmeal and molasses and they liked them both equally. Sometimes I think we could put hay out for them and they would eat it but we tried graham crackers with frosting one time and they didn't go for them. Some of them came in with the flu and I hope it doesn't go through the Mission Home.

We had a new missionary couple come in last Tuesday - Bro. & Sister Andreason from California. They stayed with us for dinner and to spend the night and then left early Wed. morning to go to Busby. It's hard to believe "anyone" would spend the next eighteen months in Busby, Montana. It is the most God forsaken place in all of Montana - they have a trailer to live in that's owned by the church but it isn't very nice. They are lovely people.

Our Elder Pottberg came back to see us - what a character!!!! He's driving trucks now and he came into the Mission Home dirty and starving to death. Daddy was hoping he would get his act together but he hasn't done so yet.

Do you remember about the young couple Daddy "GQ'd" in the toy store before Christmas? She is from Thailand and he is from Laos and they have had all the lessons now and want to be baptized on the 24th. Daddy and I went over the other night and Daddy gave them one of the lessons - it is really a thrill to see them accept the gospel and understand it. They are just darling - Daddy helped buy them some food and now they want to pay it back. They both work about twelve hours a day in the laundry. They brought her mother over from Thailand and she has caused so much trouble they were getting ready to send her back but now I think they have straightened things out with her so she's going to stay.

We have had a fireside in the home tonight - some of the lady missionaries are teaching a young girl so they invited a lot of people to come. Brenda made some peanut butter cookies and I made some punch - Daddy and I spoke and she seems really interested in being baptized. This home is just buzzing with activity every single minute.

That's all the news!!! We surely do love each one of you and hope you'll let us know how we can help you - we really miss our family. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO!!!!

P.S. The plan now is for Johnny to fly to Salt Lake this coming
Friday evening. He'll probably do some skiing on Saturday and then come back Sunday. He is behind in his school work and doesn't want to miss any more school. It was so funny - they called Daddy from the transportation department last week and said they had driven the car from Provo to Salt Lake and something else went wrong with it so it wasn't quite ready. You should have heard Daddy - he told them his first trip in it would be to take Loren Dunn on a 2,000 mile trip touring the Mission and it had better be in first class condition. We just can't believe the problems in American made cars - it's either that or the church gets second class American made cars!!!!

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