December 2, 1984 Billings, Montana

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

We just got home from Stevensville, Montana and it's a little after nine so I won't get my letter finished but maybe I can get a good start anyway - when I leave it to do on Monday morning it seems like it takes most of the day!!

Tomorrow is Annie's Birthday - we hope you have a wonderful day! It doesn't seem possible that we could have a child 36 years old but we're surely proud of you - that is really young but we still think of you as our "little girl"!!! We hope you find your package of scissors among the Christmas presents - we forgot to write Happy Birthday on it - I showed Susanna my scissors when she was here and asked her if that would be a good present for you and she said it would - we hope you need them - you're hard to buy for!!!

Jeannie - we're thrilled that your surgery is over and everything went so good. She went into the hospital on Tuesday morning and we talked to Rick and he said she would be home on Thursday so we called Thursday night and she was out doing her visiting teaching - we couldn't believe it! She said she had to stay right down and really quiet all day Wednesday because the surgery causes her to go into labor but by Thursday everything had calmed down and she was fine.

We just talked to Johnny and he's doing fine. We had asked him to take some measurements for us in the Lehi house - we have wondered if the washer and dryer would fit up against the door in the pantry so they would face the other door going into the kitchen (we would just plan to not use that outside door) - anyway he had measured and said they would fit okay. We have been making all kinds of mental plans and it's frustrating to just have to guess about things like that.

We haven't heard from Bob & Roy this week - we know you are both really busy and we can just imagine how busy Claire is getting ready for Christmas and showing everyone in the Relief Society how to make things. We were relieved to hear from Jeannie that her Bishop has released her from the Presidency in her ward - Relief Society can be such a big, big job!!!

When - the big news this week for us is that they have extended the service for the missionaries from eighteen months to two years. Daddy received a call from George P. Lee on Friday and we'll have to admit we weren't really surprised - we have heard rumors about this for a long time. He has to interview each missionary and get a commitment from them before December 15th and before they can decide they have to call their parents. It has really set the mission in a turmoil but it will surely help the missionary efforts. I have said before that the two years (2 and a half) that we have been here will go down in history as the most difficult time in the church for the missionary program - we have them for about seventeen months and it takes most of them almost a year to learn how to be missionaries and then their last month isn't very productive so we really don't have long for them to be as good as they used to be. In our mission where there is such a large geographic area we really have to depend on outstanding zone leaders to keep the missionaries doing the tings they're supposed to do and it's really hard to build leadership in such a short time. Anyway - we are thrilled about it except that we will hate to have Johnny gone for that long - he seems really happy about it though. We have eleven missionaries scheduled to go home next week and they are really in a dilemma because they told Daddy that anyone can stay who isn't already on an airplane on his way home - it kinda' puts them on the spot because there is a lot of pressure from friends & members for them to stay - Daddy is trying to hard to not put any pressure on them - in fact, he will be sick if "some" of them decide to stay - Ha!

One of Johnny's high school friends was baptized last Thursday. It was so neat - they called us and invited us to his baptism and then asked us to speak. Johnny took a group of his friends to Missoula the first year we were here for a basketball championship tournament and before they left Daddy took each one of them in his office for an interview - this young man was one of them and he said the other night he would never forgot that. His folks and one of his sisters came to the baptism and they had a big cake to serve after so it was really special.

The Stevensville conference was good - we left here Saturday morning at 5 a.m. to go to Missoula so we could have our missionary zone conference there that afternoon and then go to Stevensville for their evening session. Well, it snowed and was so cold that the roads were really slippery and we didn't get to Stevensville until it was almost over. That is probably the most beautiful part of our whole mission - we could really love to live in that area and they have a beautiful new stake center. Brother Flake is their new Regional Representative and he is so much better than the former one - he and his wife have eight children and three of them were born while he was Mission President in the Independence, Missouri mission - they are both really young and he is Institute Director at the University of Montana in Missoula.

Well - it's too late to type anymore so I'll finish this in the morning!!!

It's a beautiful morning here but it's cold - we have quite a bit of snow and it is so pretty against this Big Sky Country. Daddy and I walk two miles each night and we have a route just north of the mission home where there are those gorgeous homes - they are decorated for Christmas now and it's really a scene that is hard to describe - the cold, brisk and "healthy" air makes us feel so much better too - we hope to find a route that desirable to walk when we get back to Utah. The Elders are up vacuuming their dorm and office - they are doing a good job!

Last week was unusual for us - we were home all week until Saturday morning. There was an "Education Night" here in the East Stake on Friday night where five of the church educational directors came to present seminars - Daddy and I went and really enjoyed it. I went to the one on Family Relations and it was presented by the Institute Director in Powell, Wyoming and he told about an accident their family was in August this year - their sixteen year old daughter was driving and the sun got in her eyes and when she pulled the visor down something behind it flew out the window and they all turned to see what it was and she lost control of the car and they really were all seriously hurt. It's funny how such simple things can cause accidents!!!

I fussed with cleaning most of last week - I changed the sheer draperies in some of the bedrooms - I had ruined one set of sheers when I tried to hand wash them when I heard that Sharon Dunn was coming to visit. I took them to the dry cleaners to see if they could re-size them and get the wrinkles out but they couldn't so I put them in our bedroom and put ours in the General Authority's room - you don't even notice the wrinkles now so that was a good move and much better than replacing them. We have to fill out a lot of forms to be sent in to Salt Lake about the house now because they went to pass this information on to the new Mission President and these are the statistics for this house: 7600 square feet, 23 rooms and 8 baths. This doesn't say anything about the huge grounds. My heart goes out to the new people because it is just over-whelming but we won't tell them that. I also took the two stoves in the kitchen apart and really cleaned them. Johnny - we finished making your jerky and it is so funny - that buck is not contained in two gallon jars but is really good. We have to put the meat on racks to dry and of course it drips on the oven even though we have aluminum foil on the bottom so there was good reason for me to clean. They look so nice now and I almost hate to have the Elders cooking in there - we have a griddle and it has to be cleaned a special way so I taught them all how to do it - they really think I am a scrooge!!!

We have sent your Christmas presents and we know we sent them early - we have to do things when we can. Please don't send us expensive gifts - what we would really like is a Christmas letter and of course we love pictures!!! We're so happy that Johnny will be with us for Christmas and we don't like to think he will miss the next two Christmases with us - we wish we were closer to all of you so we could get together for dinner or something.

I don't have any more news. We're excited about the new artificial heart patient - it just seems unreal what the medical profession is doing. I want them to start work on an artificial brain - that's what I am going to need. I find myself going to the pantry or somewhere else in the house a million times a day and forgetting what I went there for. It will be good to not have so many things on our minds - this next week is going to be our busy one with new missionaries coming in and others going home and to top it off they called a special Mission President's Seminar in Denver on Friday so Daddy will be leaving Thursday right when we have a houseful of missionaries and he won't be here to lean on - ugh!! They usually have these seminars in January or February but I guess because of this new change they wanted to get them all together for special instruction.

We love each one of you so very much and we're really proud of you - PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO * Let us know how we can help you.

Return to Home Page