April 29, 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 just finished our dinner up in our little apartment and I have about an hour before we have a fireside downstairs so I'll get a good start on my letter anyway. This fireside is held the last Sunday of every month and it's for college age members to bring any investigators or friends to the Mission Home for a special talk. There is a Bishop for the College Ward and he and his wife always come but more times than not the people who are supposed to bring the refreshments never show up so we come up with something at the last minute - last time it was just Doritos chips and kool aid. I bought a special cookbook the other day for the use of wheat and there is a chewy wheat cookie recipe in it so I may try that tonight - I am boiling the wheat now and when it's done you're supposed to put it in the blender but I will try the Cuisinart. I have no idea how they'll turn out but the Elders will eat anything!!!!

Roy made a liar out of me last week - I had just finished my letter when he called. We had such a good visit and you sound really happy with your work and everything Roy and that's just wonderful!!! He has bought a Volkswagen Jetta - the sports model! Johnny says he has cleaned a lot of them when they have come into the detailing shop where he worked last year and he loved them. Roy's other car wouldn't pass the safety inspection last year and we don't know what he finally had to do to get it licensed but we're so happy he has a new car.

Bob and Claire have bought a Toyota Camry (I think) and we're so happy about that too. We have prayed over their cars and have really worried about them driving them - each one has about 150,000 miles on it. I can just imagine the thrill of driving in a good car and knowing you won't have a lot of problems with it. That has been the greatest improvement in our lives when we started buying Toyotas - they have all been so dependable and inexpensive to operate. Our other cars have all spent so much time in garages for repair work.

We talked to Jeannie last night and they have the most exciting news - she and Rick are going to Hawaii - Rick won the trip with his company. After the last year in Utah we know they will really enjoy the warm weather. We hope to be able to care for their children. They are going from June 2 - 10 - we will be home that week because that is Johnny's graduation week and we will also receive our missionaries from the MTC and then we'll have about five going home. I will just plan really simple meals and have someone come in to help me - we have the Eastern Montana District Conference the 9th and 10th and will go to Glascow and could take them with us. It would be good for the missionaries to see us in the role of grandparents. She also told us that Rick has been made a Seventy and that's really great - since we have been on our missionary I have really grown to appreciate the Seventies - especially those who are willing to help the missionaries and go out teaching with them.

We haven't heard from the Woolleys this week - we surely hope you have been able to find the Cabbage Patch dolls! Little Russell will be two years old this Saturday - are you going to have a party for him? It doesn't seem quite fair for him to be so young and not be the baby of the family - it is best in the long run and I'm sure he'll get his share of the attention!!! Does he still have his cat? We're anxious to see him without his chicken pox and we'll dying to see what little LeeAnna looks like! We try to imagine what she and little Laura look like when we see other children that are their ages.

Last Monday I spent most of the day getting things ready for the zone leaders' conference that was held on Tuesday and Wednesday. Fourteen Elders came in Tuesday from all over the Mission and they stayed in the Home. With the ten we have living in the home we had twenty - four for dinner - we got 72 pieces of fried chicken from "Church's" (that is owned by members of the church here in Billings and they really do a nice job for us). I fixed two batches of rolls and each batch makes about six dozen and they ran out - I just couldn't believe how much they ate. We also had baked potatoes with sour cream, frozen corn from our garden last year, green salad, congealed fruit salad and strawberry shortcakes. Wednesday morning they just had cold cereal and milk. For lunch that day I made sloppy joes and I must have used at least 15 pounds of hamburger and fixed two really big buns for each one and then we had nachos and cookies and ice cream for dessert. They just ate everything in sight. It makes it kinda' hard whenever we have special things in the home because no matter how many guests we have we always have to add ten to it to feed those living in the home - they just have come to expect it. Some of them are very appreciated but others just eat and walk off. After the zone conference on Wednesday they leisurely watched a special missionary film before they left and our zone leaders from Casper got as far as Sheridan and the roads were closed and they were stuck there for three days. The funniest thing is that Sheridan is out of our Mission but we haven't go through it to get to Casper. That storm really came up fast and dumped a lot of snow!!!

Johnny is Vice - President of the Bi-Stake Seminary Council and they had planned a big over night trip to Red Lodge for their year end party - they were going to leave Friday right after school and stay until Saturday. Everyone was so excited about it and then the storm came and Red Lodge got it worse than any other place in Montana - five feet of snow! Of course they had to change their plans and they had their party at one of the Stake Centers here and they just had it on Saturday - Johnny said it went really well though. You just wouldn't believe how much he has grown in the gospel. They had asked the Mission Home to put on the program in church this morning so the missionaries all spoke and also Johnny and he gave the best talk of all - it pleases us so much that he chooses his talks based on love and compassion and is very serious about it - this morning he paid such special tribute to the missionaries living in the home an it was so cute. He loves them much more than we had thought he did.

Last Friday we left about noon to go to Butte. The Stake Relief Society President there had asked us about two months ago if we would be their guest speakers at their Spring Social. There has been so much publicity about it and everytime we have been in Butte we have seen big posters with our names on it and we have wanted to do a good Job. Well - when the storm came up we weren't sure we would even be able to get there so we left early enough on Friday to make it in time and as it turned out the roads were really good and we wouldn't have had to worry. We couldn't believe how sweet they were to us - they honored us in every way possible I know Nancy Reagan couldn't have felt any more important. Our talks weren't all that good but the Relief Society had done a fabulous job in putting on this huge extravaganza. They gave me a beautiful silk rose corsage and Daddy a silk boutonniere (sp.?) Daddy had helped the members in Dillon organize a "missionary choir" and they have really developed into a great singing group and call themselves "The Latter Day Sounds" and they performed after a really nice fashion show. Then they called us up on the stage and presented us with the cutest music box that plays "It's a Small, Small World". We were kinda' embarrassed but it was so sweet of them. Then they had a receiving line for about an hour.

It was so funny - in my talk I told about how I had grown up in a home where my mother was Stake Primary President for most of my childhood and our home was always filled with Primary teachers making teaching aids for the Primary classes and I didn't hear very much about Relief Society - told how I was from Brigham City. Well - afterwards there must have been a dozen people come up to me who were either from Brigham City or had relatives there. A really sweet young woman came up and asked me what my maiden name was and when I told her it was Forrest she said, "Well, do you know a Dee Forrest" and I said "Yes, he's my brother". She said, "I can't believe it, then you must be Hilda and Bill's daughter. I have known them all my life and I didn't know they had a daughter". Her name is Patricia Harrison Olsen - I told her that I have known her parents, Dr. & Mrs. Harrison for a long time and my mother told me they had a daughter who would be in our Mission. We had a really good visit and she asked me to tell my mother that she thought she was the most beautiful woman she had ever known and she always wanted to be like Hilda Forrest. Another lady has a son, Bro. Robinson who lives on 5th East and she is sure he must be in the same ward as my folks.

Well - we have had our fireside and I won't send you the recipe for the Chewy Wheat Cookies - they weren't anything to rave about - in fact, Daddy and Johnny said they were purely survival rations and wouldn't even eat them. Another lady brought cookies too so we really didn't need mine but quite a few of them were eaten.

Johnny is excited about the Prom. He has to go to school early in the morning to have his pictures taken for the Prom Royalty - he has a date but we don't know the girl. He is going to wear a white tuxedo with a pink ruffled shirt. I am supposed to go to Glendive with Daddy but I WILL NOT miss helping him get ready so I will probably go up on the bus later.

We surely do love each one of you and we really miss you. PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO!!
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