June 23, 1985 Billings, Montana

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

We just came home from Great Falls where we performed our last official duty - it really is a funny feeling but I'm sure we'll recover. They had a four stake regional conference there - two Great Falls Stakes, Bozeman and Helena Stakes. They had it in a huge building on the state fair grounds and there were over 3,000 people there. Elder Marvin Ashton from the Quorum of the Twelve and Elder Eunzio Busche from the Quorum of Seventies were the General Authorities. Daddy spoke and gave a prayer at the priesthood meetings yesterday and then he spoke again today and I gave the closing prayer - it was scary!!!! It was a wonderful conference and there were prayers for rain (Montana is really having a bad drought that threatens their wheat crops) and it rained on us on the way home and is still raining! Elder Ashton is such a wonderful, sweet man - Kinda reminds us of Mark E. Petersen when he visited in our home in Little Rock - this is the first time we have been with Elder Ashton.


We left early yesterday morning to drive to Helena where we had our last zone conference and then we went on the Great Falls. We have a attended 126 zone conference during the last three years plus all the district meetings - I remember so well the first ones we had and I thought I would never endure to the end but we did! After the conference yesterday the missionaries presented us with the most plaque - it has a picture of the Mission Home at the to and then on a black metal is engraved "To President Jesse L. and Barbara J. Mellor for your unconditional love and service to al the missionaries in the Montana Billings Mission - 1982 to 1985" and then on a gold metal plate are the names of all the missionaries who have served under Daddy (there are 426 names). We will really cherish it. they also had an original song dedicated to us and Sister Pierson sang a solo of it with all the Elders in on the chorus - it was really an emotional meeting. The missionaries all seem like angels to us now - even those who have given Daddy such a lot of trouble. We wanted Johnny to go with us but he wanted to stay here and weed gardens and pack - he said he didn't fully realize that he would be all alone in this big house until it hit him last night!!!

Jeanne - we received those darling, darling picture of the baby and the kids - we have tried to duplicate them but as you can see our duplicator isn't working too well! We love to look at the expressions on the faces of Ricky, Barji & Mary Ann as they are holding little Sarah - you can tell they are mighty proud of her. Have they mourned over the loss of their bunny rabbit (it died from eating grass that had been sprayed with weed killer).

Annie - we loved your letter and also talking to you. We're sorry that Grandma Agnes passed away but isn't it beautiful that she didn't have to suffer (Agnes is Russell's mother and she passed away in her sleep while in a resthome in Jerome). She was such a sweet person and I know it must have been hard on the family. Johnny is so-O-O excited about going to Lake Powell with you - I don't know what a "wind surfer" is but it sounds fun. I wish I didn't worry so much about water sports.

Claire - we loved your letter too and loved to hear about Steve's wedding - it was great that your whole family could be together - it would have been wonderful if Bob & the children could have one too. I can just imagine how thrilled you were to see them again after being away for that long. We hope Michael has a Happy Birthday - we will probably get home on Barji's birthday so we can help her celebrate - I wish be could be with Michael too!

Roy - we hope you're having a great vacation. We had a letter from Chris & Wayne Smith and they want us to go to Nova Scotia with them probably next year so we're anxious to hear from you what kind of a place it is and when the best time to go there is. Johnny brought home typewritten pages of reactions to his kind of wound that his anestesiologist had given him and it made us doubly happy you suggested that treatment for him.

Johnny received a letter from his Mission President welcoming him to the Chile Mission and also with some instructions on things he will need to know. It is so neat for us to have this experience with Johnny because we can see first hand how much these letters mean to the new missionaries - Daddy has sent out so many of them. Johnny is really studying the scriptures and trying get prepared. Daddy has received the "improved discussions" now and it will help Johnny to become a little acquainted with them - he is gong to have to concentrate on learning the language once he gets into the MTC. He has been a big help around the house and it is wonderful to have him here with us - it makes this huge house seem more like a home!

We went to Miles City, Montana last Tuesday for our zone conference there. Our missionaries who are serving on the Reservation in Wolfpoint came to that and brought us more gifts a beautiful wall hanging one of the sisters had made and a soap holder another had made and a little safety pin headdress another had made. Another Elder gave us a photograph of a painting (mural) he has done in one of the church building in Wyoming. We are going to have to have a museum a display everything!!!

Thursday we drove to Cody to meet our new missionary couple who has just come to serve in the Cody Visitor's Center. They are from California and are really sweet people - they'll be here for one year - the other couple serving there will go home in September.

The Kunzlers called one night last week. It is really funny to talk to them - their biggest concerns are the color of the carpet and bedspreads and if we have the right size pans in the kitchen. They will change just as we did after they have been here for awhile. They are going to be here about noon next Saturday and the East Billings Stake Relief Society will put on a luncheon for us here in the home - then Daddy and I will visit with them and teach them all we can about the mission and home for a couple hours and then we are going to leave. The Billings Stake Relief Society will put on the open house for them that night. Have I told you all this before??? They're a little concerned that we are not going to spend enough time with them and we will spend as much time as they want us to but we don't want to wait until they get their children settled and everything before we start our orientation with them.

We don't know how far we'll get before we stop for the night - we're just going to "play it by ear". We feel that we are going to be so relieved and relaxed that we will want to drive for quite aways before we stop. We plan to stop in Brigham City sometime Sunday and see the folks there and then drive to Jean & Ricks and then on to Lehi. Ann & Ron have offered us their home for the week they are gone to Lake Powell so we are going to take them up on it - that way we'll be able to thoroughly clean the Lehi house before we have to really move in.

This will probably be my last letter for awhile like this. We'll write short letters to Bob, Claire & Roy until we uncover the typewriter in Lehi. When I think of all our things there I get a little sick to my stomach - we don't know where we're going to put everything. Our plans are to rent a storage space to store a lot of furniture, etc. until we decide what to do with it. We have been looking at phones and we had definitely decided on a cordless one until the clerks talked us out of it - they didn't think our "only" phone should be a cordless one. We thought we could buy one here and have it ready to install instead of having to shop around for one there. Besides that, there isn't a tax here - Ha!

They are having a big going away party for us here on Friday night - I say big - they have planned it for the Stake Park and it's for both Stakes but we will be surprised if very many people come. We have had a lot of people call us and say they are going out of town so they have called to say goodbye. Everyone has really been sweet to us here and I'm sure we'll miss feeling so important - it will be good for us!!!

I can't think of any more news. We have most of the really deep cleaning done so we'll spend most of next week packing - we'll probably end up helping the Elders clean the office. Our closets and drawers are still full of clothes so we still have a lot to do. The movers are coming Friday so we have to have it ready before then.

We surely do love each one of you and can hardly wait to see you. It will be fun to be with our Utah family this Summer and then after Johnny leaves the first of October we want to go see Bob, Claire & Roy - I still can't believe we have never seen little Laura - we feel like we know her because Claire keeps us informed about the things she has learned to do and we have appreciated that so much.

Please be careful in everything you do - Let us know how we can help you!
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