November 12, 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 Monday morning - we didn't get home from Wyoming until about 10:30 last night and it was too late to write my letter. We left Friday afternoon and drove to Casper - they have just completed their 1.5 million dollar stake center there and had invited us to attend their open house Saturday morning. That building is just absolutely gorgeous - it is in a new sub-division of lovely homes and the open house was just wonderful with displays of all the auxiliaries and delicious food served but you just wouldn't believe the WIND in Casper. It was almost impossible to walk form the car to the building and it was bitter cold. It really brings back memories of our three years in Laramie except that Laramie is really a prettier town than Casper. We had a District Meeting with our missionaries at two o'clock and after our meeting they invited us to have the left over food from the open house and of course we all enjoyed that - they had ham, turkey, bread sticks, and all kinds of vegetables & dips and fruit and then hot cider. We attended their evening meeting of their Stake Conference on Saturday night and Bro. Tyler Woolley, their Regional Representative, was the General Authority. Their Stake Conference yesterday was really good and Daddy spoke and did a great job - they had 1,300 in attendance! After the conference we drove to Riverton where we had another District Meeting with our missionaries there and then we drove home - Daddy won't let me drive after dark because of so many animals on the road so he was really tired!!!

Claire - we loved your letter - you are so sweet to tell us about the children's activities. Your letters help us to realize we really do have a "little Laura". We laughed about Michael getting sick from eating too much his Halloween candy - we never did put restrictions on our children but they do it themselves pretty soon. We're glad that Michael has a little boy to play with - that's so important! Are the sisters in your Relief Society there as crafty as they were in Little Rock - you're so smart to be the homemaking leader!!! The Stake Mission President's wife in Casper is very crafty and she had a show while we were there this weekend I bought some little Christmas mice to go with some other dolls I have bought from her. I hope you'll tell us about some of the things you made to show.

Ricky - we really were thrilled to have your letter when we came home last night. We can tell you did it all by yourself and that makes us so happy! We are saving all the letters & pictures we receive from all of you and will put them in our "Mission Scrapbook" so when you get old enough to go on your mission you will be able to see the things you sent to us while we were on our missions. You are such a big boy to do such a good job in writing Jeannie - we loved talking to you the other night and we felt bad you had to make two calls - (while we were waiting for Ricky to come to the phone we became disconnected and they hurried and called us back). We hope your morning sickness will be soon over (Jeannie told us she has told all of you that she is expecting a baby next May and will go into the hospital during the Thanksgiving holidays to have the baby "sewn in"). We worry about you and wish we could be of some help but we just know things are going to be okay and we're so proud of you!

Johnny - we just needed to talk to you last night and we're so glad we were here when you called (he called right after we walked in the door). We can really understand your situation in the dorm and we are so proud that you have realized you need a more ideal study situation in order to get the grades you want and it's great that you are spending so much time in the library (As I told Johnny last night, we will always remember how Bob & Roy used to spend most of their Thanksgiving & Christmas vacations in the libraries in Little Rock studying) - so many of the kids in the dorms aren't that concerned with good grades. We hope you will be able to sell your contract for the dorm and move into the apartment and we also hope so much that you will be able to come here for Thanksgiving - it is really going to be hard for me to prepare a big Thanksgiving dinner without any family here!!! We heard on the news this morning that BYU's football team is so close to number one in the nation - that's super!!! Missionaries all over the mission are constantly asking about you - they think of you as their little brother! You will like the office staff now - Elder LeCheminant is going out in the field - he is really a sweet young man but the secretary's job has been over his head and has created a lot of stress for him. We have Elder Stastny from Anchorage, Alaska as secretary now and he is really sharing. The others are the same I think, Elders Taylor & James as assistants, Elder Crum as Financial Sec., Elder Morris as Car Czar, and Elder Gardiner as Historian-Recorder.

Annie - Johnny keeps us posted about your family and says you are all doing really good. What will you make this year for your big family Thanksgiving in Jerome? We remember the year you made all the pumpkin pies and then some of your children sat on them during the trip!!!

Roy - we have wonderful what your reaction (and also Bobs) have been to the implant of the baboon heart in Baby Fae. We think it is certainly a great alternative to what would have happened without either that or a human heart transplant but it has really caused a lot of controversy in the medical profession, I'm sure. They had some really good pictures of her on television this morning and it's just wonderful to see her progressing - it's almost frightening when we think of the great advances that are being made constantly in medical fields and it's exciting to us for you to be right in the middle of it.

We talked to Grandmother & Grandpa Forrest last Monday on their 65th Wedding Anniversary and they are doing fine - Grandmother is still very week but isn't in any pain and that's so good and Grandpa is still his exuberant self and says he feels good!!! The wife of one of our missionary couples called Daddy early this morning to get permission to go to Minnesota for the birthday party of her mother who will be 85 - Daddy couldn't give it to her and said he would just leave it up to her - she wants to be gone all week! He called Salt Lake and they confirmed that he had given her the right answer - they never say "no, you can't do this or that" - they just say, "you know the principles by which the mission is run, you need to make your own decision". It is different with the couples than it is with us - they are very definite about the things we can and can't do!!!

Last week was our busy week and things went really well - by the time we leave here we will really have everything under control and we will never tell the new Mission President and his wife that it will take them three years - Ha! Actually we hope to be able to have most of the problems all worked out so it will be much easier for them. We received twelve new missionaries from the MTC on Wednesday - eleven elders and one Lady Missionary - there are at least two in the group who could be assistants really soon - we are so thrilled with the kinds of missionaries they are sending us now. The Lady Missionary is from Dallas and is just a doll. We received one Elder who is deaf (he can read your lips) and he was a riot - he is a transfer from the California mission sent to us to help out in our deaf program and he is thoroughly convinced he will be able to convert everyone in the deaf school up in Great Falls - really a super young man. I fixed him his dinner because he came in a little later than the others and he looked at it and then said, "Is this on the menu for tonight" - I never could figure out what he meant but we got along fine. I had made four huge pans of lasagna and then we just had green salad, French bread and banana splits - they all loved it!

Thursday we had nice Elders who had completed their missions come for dinner, and then to spend the night before leaving Friday morning. We really had a big dinner and Daddy helped me - we had brisket, potato casserole, corn, peas, carrot sticks, hot rolls, fruit salad and pumpkin pie - I felt bad because we ran out of meat - we had made gravy and bar-b-cue sauce to go with it and they ate and ate and ate - we fixed half a pound per person and they tell you to count on a quarter pound with other foods but next time we will have a pound per person. We served about twenty-two each night with the house elders. One of the Elders going home had invited his family to come pick him up and didn't get permission from Daddy and we were pretty upset about that - they came into the home about one o'clock Friday afternoon to pick up their son and we were trying to get ready to leave and get all the laundry done and the house cleans and it was hard to be nice to them (but we were)!

Tomorrow is Bob's birthday - you'll be thirty, won't you? You probably won't even be able to take any time off for birthday cake but we hope you w8ill have a really happy day!!!! Dorothy Woods wrote and asked me if you were going to specialize in plastic surgery - I had told her you were going to give me a face life - here will be all kinds of rumors going around!

We had the most baptisms in October that we have had all year - we had 74. That isn't nearly as many as we should have but we are slowly catching up to where we were last year - we have done consistently better since April - the missionaries are all working so hard to reach our goal. Would you believe they are sending that Elder back who had to go home with colitis?

We wee so thrilled with the elections and we hope you were too - that's really something for Pres. Reagan to win in forty-nine states - we haven't kept up with the other offices but we hope "your man" won (or woman)!!! 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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