April 22, 1984 Billings, Montana

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

This has been a beautiful Easter Day in Montana and we hope you have had a beautiful day wherever you are. Daddy and I have talked about our different family Easters and most of them have been quite cold so we are loving the warm weather - I'm sure it has been in the high 70's today. We just heard on the news that Denver has had more snow today - ugh!!! We have heard from each one of you this week except for you Roy - it helps us so much to know you're all happy and doing good and we hope you are too Roy!!! We would have loved to see all the children all dressed up for Easter - I believe Ann got her girls' Easter dresses in California and also some for Barji & Mary Ann - we hope you have taken pictures and will send us some. Little Laura and LeeAnna are too young for the Easter Parade but I'll bet Ricky, Russell & Michael were all dressed up. We bought Johnny a new pair of shorts but they are too small - he bought him a new bathing suit so I guess that was his Easter outfit - would you believe they have been wearing shorts and bathing suits here for the past two weeks or more????

We just came home from Great Falls - they had their Stake Conference and Elder Loren Dunn was their authority - he gave a wonderful talk at the meeting last night and he gave a good one this morning and Daddy did also. We had planned to go to the Stake Conference in Casper this weekend and our Lady Missionaries there had organized a "Zone Easter Dinner" with us and all the missionaries but our missionaries up in Great Falls decided to have a "party" this passed week so Daddy to go up and settle things down - one of them has been sent home!!!

I don't remember a week like this last one has been for a long, long time. We had our District Meeting with all our Great Falls missionaries a week ago yesterday and they all were dedicated and committed and then the following Thursday things just fell apart up there. We really should have gone up on Friday but I had promised the East Billings Stake that I would present a workshop on "Dining Etiquette" for their Young Women's Conference Friday night - they had asked me a month ago and I didn't feel like I could back out at the last minute so Daddy stayed and helped me with that. We took the china, silver and crystal from the Mission Home and had the florist make up a beautiful centerpiece and we set up a demonstration on how to set a formal table. We made three trips to the Stake Center and it was really a lot of work and I won't do that again - as Daddy says, I could spend half my time doing things like that and that really isn't missionary work. Anyway, we left early Saturday morning to go to Great Falls and Daddy had interviews with these missionaries all afternoon. He met with Elder Dunn for a few minutes last night and the first thing Elder Dunn said was, "Well, President, you should have taken care of that immediately" - - - course, we're four hours away and he did have the zone leaders there with them. Sometimes you can't win for losing!!! They tell us they want us to visit with the missionaries once a month if possible and then we have things go wrong five days after we have been with them - oh well!!!!

We went to Missoula last Monday afternoon so we could be there for a meeting on Tuesday morning at 9 o'clock - then we drove to Kalispell for another meeting that afternoon. All the missionaries are doing good (I think ??) and it is fun to be with them. After our meeting in Kalispell we drove to Butte and we went a different way - we went down by Swan Lake and it was simply gorgeous drive - we got to see the heart of Montana's farmland and it was a real treat. I wouldn't like to live on some of these ranches but they're beautiful to look at. We stayed in Butte Tuesday night and had a meeting there at 9 Wednesday morning and then drove to Helena for another meeting - after this meeting the Stake Mission Leader there had tacos for us and they were so good. Then we went to Bozeman for another meeting and the sisters there had prepared a delicious dinner for us - cabbage rolls, corn, salad, wheat rolls & cake - we enjoy these meals but not nearly as much as our missionaries do!!!

While we were in Bozeman Daddy had a few problems with some of the missionaries and we were so tired when we got back in Billings about 9:30 Wednesday night and as we walked in, here were two Elders from another zone. They were having companionship problems so they decided to drive into the Mission Home. Daddy visited with them for a couple hours and then we got them settled in to spend the night. Then one of the fathers of one of our missionaries called Daddy and told him off because he had put his son down from a zone leader to a trainer - it was really late and Daddy had a hard time keeping his "cool". This is some job!!!!

Thursday we left early to drive to Miles City for our last District Meeting. We have two missionary couples who are in this District and they are really something. The one couple is from Mesa and Daddy is sending them home next month - they have done nothing but complain! Daddy has had some problems with the other couple because they think people have to be absolutely "perfect" before they can be baptized and the Indians they are working with have a long way to go as it is. They were nice to us to our faces and then when we got home there was a letter for Daddy from one of the General Authorities - this couples had written to him and intimated that Daddy would allow people to be baptized before they were ready. The General Authority was really nice in his letter and said he was just turning it over to Daddy. The problem is so minor and they are really blowing it up. Anyway as Daddy says, something good is going to happen after all this. When I was talking to Ann a week or so ago I told her we would really be happy to get back to the spiritual part of the Gospel instead of management - someone has to do this though and we're willing to take our turn. We are having so many beautiful and really spiritual experience that I shouldn't complain - when you're working with 140 nineteen year old young men and women you just have to expect problems. I laugh at Daddy - he gets so frustrated and loses his cool and then he feels bad and it too nice - it's really hard for him to be mean and sometimes I guess that's necessary.

GUESS WHO HAS BEEN NOMINATED FOR PROM KING???? You're right - Johnny came home last Thursday with a beautiful carnation and said he was one of six in the running. I believe the Prom is the first week in May and he has promised us he will go to it - so far he hasn't been too interested in the social part of school and we have been kinda' happy about that. He went "Ling" fishing the other night - they do this at night - and he got home about 4:30 in the morning and he was soaking wet. His friend caught a really big one but Johnny didn't get any. He is really a good kid and he's getting excited about graduating from Seminary and then High School and leaving for college - that's really going to be hard on us. I worry about leaving him without any food cooked so I fixed a big pot roast with vegetables one time when we left last week and another time I fixed a big pot of chicken and noodles - tonight I fed them to the dog. He just doesn't like things like that so I'm going to quit worrying and just let him "fare for himself". The house Elders are doing a great job with their cooking and cleaning up and we all like the new arrangement a million times better. They're probably not eating as well as they did but it won't hurt them for 18 months!!!

I took your advice Bob and Roy and took Daddy to the doctor. It was really funny and I wish you could have been there. This doctor is one Daddy had been to for his upper respiratory infection. Daddy just was so tired all the time and he has never been like this - he usually just bounces right back. Well - I went into the "Little Room" with him and when the doctor came in, Daddy said, "I don't know if you remember me or not but I was here a couple weeks ago for a respiratory infection and you put me on steroids and some medicine". The doctor looked at him and said, "No, I don't remember you!" Then he put a thermometer in his mouth and did not say another word. I got mad and told him that he wasn't much better and I wanted a blood test and other tests run to see if there was something seriously wrong. He didn't even answer me - just filled out a form and handed it to the nurse and walked out. He went upstairs to have his blood taken and then we waited for two hours and finally I had to come home so I left him there and came home to wait for him to call me to come get him. As it turned out the blood test didn't reveal anything obviously wrong so Daddy decided to not call me but to walk home and it is at least five miles. We both laughed when he got home and we are more convinced than ever that doctors won't really do anything unless you are obviously near death's door. He feels a million times better now and is walking two miles each morning and another two miles in the evening when he can. Really he went to the doctor a week ago and I believe it was the medicine that was making him so tired. We are proud of the profession you are in and we know we will need doctors sometime in our lives but right now we are going to practice preventive medicine and hope we will stay healthy until we can get settled in Utah and find a good internist to get started with.

I have so many things to do in the next two weeks that I can't believe it - I won't tell you about them because if I do there won't be any need to write my letter for the next two Sundays. We have to go to a funeral in the morning - Daddy is going to be a pallbearer for a man who has meant so much to us since being in Billings. He took care of the corn field in back of the mission home and did so much for everybody - he had open heart surgery and that worked but he had too many other things wrong with him and he passed away last Friday.

We love each one of you so very much - PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO - Let us know how we can help you!


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