October 28, 1984 Billings, Montana

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

It's a beautiful Sunday morning here and we are going to the Billings Stake Conference in a few minutes - I have a free hour this morning because of Standard Time and it's a real treat!!! Bro. Dean Larsen from the First Quorum of Seventies is here as their General Authority and he brought his wife - he went to the Saturday night meeting last night and it was good! They spent the first part of their married life in Lovell, Wyoming so they have a lot of friends here - he asked Daddy to be prepared to speak today and since he didn't say anything to me that means I won't be called on and I can relax!

Roy - we were so thrilled to receive your wonderful letter and we are so excited about your new computer (Roy has bought a Macintosh Computer made by Apple)!!! We loved the part in your letter that says, "Now I have no excuses for not writing" and we'll hold you to that! Daddy and I are really looking forward to learning more about computers and getting one in the future - I would love to have one to put my addresses and recipes on and I understand they are great for genealogy too. Johnny says that in his computer class it would help if he had his own and I guess a lot of the students do. Your weather sounds so beautiful - when we listen to the weather news we get the idea it is colder there than you say it is - we're anxious to come see you and see your country. It's great that Patrice likes her new job - she deserves a happier place to work.

Susanna - we loved your letter too - those beautiful stickers you put on the envelope made it look so pretty. If I were your teacher and could grade your writing and coloring (did you cut out the picture by yourself) I would give you a great big smiling face. Johnny said he went over to see you on your birthday and you helped him so much while he watched your family while your Mother went to her class - he said, "Boy, that Susanna is a mature little girl". We are so happy you like school.

Claire - we loved your letter too - Bob must really be busy and we worry about his health! You both must realize, and I'm sure you do, that all this preparation for a career will be of no worth if you lose your health in the process. I remember when Daddy was under so much pressure when he was in school and he had ulcers so bad - I guess it was worth it but at the time it was so hard and it took him many years to get straightened out - I hope you will be smarter than we were. Laura & Michael sound so cute and Michael is really old enough to not have to take a nap - it is such a treat to have evening to yourself and I prefer that to having them take a short nap. The Messiah is beautiful and we're proud that you are going to sing in it - they are going to put that on in Missoula this year and we have already promised we would arrange to go to it - this has been a tradition for the church there but they didn't do it last year and I guess all the townspeople missed it so much they will start it again.

Johnny - you are just wonderful to write and we love your letters - -our schedule sounds good - what are "Executive Lectures"? We know you will enjoy the weight lifting and the physical science sounds interesting - how much more calculus will you have to take? I took an Economics course one time and thought it was really hard but it's a good thing to learn. Let us know if we can help you get registered - you're smart to get it done soon so you won't run into problems like you did last time. It's Robert Agaard who is at school - not Darin - maybe that's why you haven't been able to find him. We would so love to have you come home for Thanksgiving but maybe it will be better to stay there and study and get ready for your finals - Elder Taylor said he went skiing during that weekend and had a lot more fun than if he had gone home. We know you will make the right decision - when I found out that we have to go to Glasgow for their conference the Saturday after Thanksgiving I realized I was asking a lot to have you come home. We hope you can get the Lincoln working good!!!

Jeannie - we hope you are feeling good and everything's okay. Our lady missionaries serving in Lovell say that Linda Morrison's baby is just darling and they are so thrilled with her - hopefully we'll get down to see her before long - we missed their Stake Conference because we were in Helena. What are the children going to be for Halloween - that is such a fun holiday now!

Well - we just got home from the Billings Stake Conference - actually we just got home from having dinner at the Stake President's home (President Peterson). Johnny, his two darling daughters helped prepare the dinner and they served it and it was just wonderful - they said to tell you "hello"! We really appreciated being invited there for dinner and it was so nice to be with a family again - they had their family, their parents and us and it was so good! They are about ready to move into their new home. They're going to Provo for Thanksgiving to have dinner with their two older daughters who are going to school there.

The Stake Conference was really good and as usual, Daddy gave the best talk. Bro. Larsen and his wife both spoke about families and that was good but after the meeting we had a special time missionaries than Daddy and Elder Dunn have given them. We wonder sometimes about the Seventies who are General Authorities - you get different programs from each one of them and they contradict each other. We have decided to just "do our thing" and not worry about them!!!

We had a fun week this week. We went to Glendive on Tuesday for our Zone Conference there and it was good to meet with our new missionary couple there, Elder & Sister Crane. Wednesday we did some cleaning around the home and laundry. Thursday we left the house about 4:30 in the morning and drove about eighty miles to go deer hunting - there is a man who is a member of the church who has 13 sections of ground (I believe Daddy said there are 650 acres in an acre) and it is the same place we went with Johnny last year. There was a field just filled with deer and Daddy shot a big doe - he had a license and I had one that we had told the missionaries we would use to get them some venison. Well, after he shot that deer we went all over and would you believe we didn't even see one more. We came home and got here about noon and Daddy and the Elders skinned it and put it out in the shed. The Elders were so happy about it they asked if he would get one more if they went to get a license - so we left the house about the same time on Friday and he shot a buck, and then two does. The one doe wasn't killed and ran off so he shot another one - well, when we were walking around we found the injured doe and he had to kill it to put it out of its misery. He had had the missionaries ride up to the place because we had tagged the first deer with my license and needed their license in case we were stopped. Then we ended up with three deer and two licenses so we had to leave one up there and we came back here and got another license and the missionaries went back up to get it. So now we have four deer for them. Daddy and I took all the meat off the bones on Friday afternoon and we were both so tired we were almost sick - the missionaries really do appreciate it though and they made us the cutest card and went to Baskin & Robbins and bought an ice cream cake for us. We will have about 175 pounds of ground venison for them and the deer eat the same food the cattle do so the meat is really good. We would probably have a hard time justifying this before the missionary committee but it really helps the Elders.

We have a missionary in the home now who is going to have foot surgery tomorrow - he is a Hawaiian and was born with six toes on each foot (he tells us that is a sign of royalty in the Hawaiian ancestry). He has already had the sixth toe removed but because his other toe grew so long it is rubbing on some cartilage or something and really bothers him when he walks. We had another missionary who had colitis and I thought he would have to come into the home where I would have to prepare him a special diet for six weeks but his doctor insisted that he be sent home to recuperate and I was relieved.

It has been fun to have some time this week to get caught up on some correspondence - we haven't heard from a lot of our Little Rock friends for awhile because I have owed everyone a letter. I wrote to Margo Lucas so I should be hearing some news soon even though they have moved to Fort Worth.

I have decided to let my hair go its natural color and I am really surprised how grey I am - it has been about two months since I have put color on it so you probably wouldn't recognize me. We have a Lady missionary serving in Billings who is a beautician - she and her companion came over yesterday to practice a song so I asked her to give me a little trim. She did a really good job and I still have a lot of permanent left - I have loved the permanent you gave me Annie! By the way - we surely hope your knee is better - that must be really hard with your busy family!

We have a fireside to go to in a few minutes - Patriarch Chevalier from Great Falls is going to show his archeology slides that support the Book of Mormon - it will be at one of the colleges here. We love each one of you so very much - PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO - Let us know how we can help you!!!
Return to Home Page