November 3, 1985 Lehi, Utah

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

We are so happy to be back home and feel more in touch with all of you - there is something uneasy about being so far away and "out of pocket" for that long! Daddy is always talking about traveling again and I just love being home - I just never get bored and always have more things to do than I can get done. I don't know if any of you have kept up with the weather they had in Alabama right after we left but it was really bad they had a hurricane that did a lot of damage in Louisiana and the rains the accompanied it really flooded Pensacola, Florida which is about twenty miles from Gulf Shores where the Smiths live. Chris & Wayne called us the other night and said it was still raining and they had had some ceiling damage and their canal in back of their home was high but no serious damage. Chris mother was much better so they had gone back to their home. Our weather here is my very favorite - it's cool and crisp with beautiful blue skies and so invigorating - 'course I know this won't last and I will be complaining about snow and slush and dreary days but the last four months have been wonderful!!!

Sunday is kinda' the wrong time to write my letter because I believe we will be receiving Johnny's letter on Monday. The mail doesn't leave Lehi until in the afternoon on Monday anyway so I will leave space at the bottom of my letter and give a little report on Johnny's letter on Monday. The mail doesn't leave Lehi until in the afternoon on Monday anyway so I will leave space at the bottom of my letter and give a little report on Johnny if we get a letter tomorrow. Everyone is constantly asking about you Johnny - Elder Madsen dropped by last Tuesday morning (he had been to the airport to see one of his friends off who was going to serve his mission in Peru) and he was anxious to know how you were doing. Elder Baker came by last evening and asked about you - it was so funny - he called to ask directions on how to get here and talked to me and then he said, "Don't tell President I'm coming - I want to surprise him" - well, in just a few minutes here he came with the biggest "rig" I have ever seen. He works in big equipment for his Uncle and had been doing some work in Salt Lake and stopped here on his way back to Provo - he left the big tractor in our vacant lot and is coming back next week and said he would dig up the lot in back of our house to get it ready so Daddy can plant our garden there next Summer Our missionaries are full of surprises!!!

Speaking of missionaries - I forgot to tell you what happened to us in El Paso on our way home. I had written a letter to Johnny but I had run out of stamps and we kinda' wanted to find the downtown anyway to check in with Merrill Lynch so we thought we would find the Post Office in the same area and could kill two birds with one stone. Well - we couldn't find the downtown even after stopping to get directions from several people. We finally spotted some missionaries standing on a street corner so we stopped to see if they could tell us. As it turned out they were having problems 2ith their bicycles and needed help, SO they padlocked their bicycles to the park bench and got in our car with us and directed us to the Post Office and Merrill Lynch and we ended up taking them all over El Paso to get where they needed to go. Because of so much traffic we didn't go to the Post Office but instead I left the letter with them and they promised they would mail it - it you didn't get it Johnny they didn't mail it!!! They were so excited because their Mission President had given them permission to go to the BYU-El Paso game that weekend that was being played there (I'm sure they were disappointed when BYU lost!) We didn't ever go to Merrill Lynch either!

It has been so neat to talk to both Bob & Roy this week. Bob called yesterday morning and he was on a Watts line so we didn't have the hurry really fast. It was funny - I told you all that Daddy had sprained his ankle while Elk hunting (I just found out that he got it caught under the wheel of a four-wheeler) and by the time we got to Memphis it was really swollen so Bob took him in a and had it x-rayed and then gave him an "ankle girdle" to wear. Anyway, it is much better but just about two minutes before Bob called yesterday Daddy had just about sliced the end of his finger off by hitting it against a sharp piece of tin with a hammer. Bob talked to me first and asked about Daddy's ankle and I said it was fine but now he had just about lost his finger. I would understand if Bob & Roy don't practice out close by us - we could end up being their full time "no pay" patients. We're so happy you and Claire had such a great time in Memphis - you needed that!!!

Roy - we're so excited for you & Patrice to come for Thanksgiving and also for you and some of your friends to come in February - that will be just wonderful!!! I keep wishing we had a nicer home for you to come to but this is surely comfortable and we can have just as much fun here! I forgot to tell all of you about Patrice's "pottery wheel" - I believe that is what it is called. Down I their apartment basement she has this neat thing she made in High School and she turns it with her feet to shape her pottery molds - I have never known anyone who could do this and it is so interesting and she has made some beautiful things - also some beautiful paintings for their walls. I'm also impressed with Roy for getting the wheel from her home in Connecticut to Boston - it is solid cement!!! I promise you I won't plan any of your time while you're here with the exception of all day Thanksgiving - Ann & Jean & I are planning for the dinner to take ALL DAY!!! Ann also got tickets for you and Daddy & I to go see the Ramses exhibit at BYU on Monday the 25th at 7 p.m. and that will be wonderful!!!

I was really fun to stop in to see the Weinerts one night last week on our way home and we couldn't have stopped in at a more inopportune time but they were so sweet to us and insisted we have a bowl of delicious homemade soup. The previous week they had found themselves in a precarious situation - they had two homes and three cars to make payments on. They had been trying to sell one of their cars and rent their rental home and this all happened right at the time we arrived and then little Sarah who had been so sick had diarrhea and also Rick's home teaching companion came for Rick to go teaching with him. I get dizzy just thinking about all the confusion in those few minutes but they are so calm and soft spoken!!! By the way Rick - you took the best picture that has ever been taken of Daddy when we were at the airport with Johnny. I'll have copies made and send to all of you. Johnny, I sent some to you and I hope you get them - I was in a hurry! I talked to Jeannie yesterday and she said the doctors seem to think that maybe little Sarah may have had a bad case of roseola (sp.?) instead of a more serious problems that would have to be corrected with surgery. The soft spot in her head became enlarged one day and Jeannie rushed her to the doctor and they took her to the emergency room and kept her in the hospital for several days taking tests. She is getting better fast now!

We so loved having the Woolley family drop in for a few minutes last night (Ron wasn't with them - he had gone to the BYU-Wyoming game which BYU won by a huge margin). We had just come from the grocery store where we had run into one of our friends who moved to Utah to be closer to their grandchildren (he was a dentist in Phoenix and went to work as a dentist for the training school in American Fork) - anyway, he had one of his grand daughters with him and I was feeling sorry for myself because we don't "get" our grandchildren that often. We all played outside for a little while and then came in and they played in the "loft" - Daddy & I talked this morning about how we must get some play equipment for them so they will want to come. We were so impressed with Susanna's excitement over having to give talk in her Primary this morning - she was relating a story in the Book of Mormon that well when I was her age. LeeAnna and Ann had come over on Halloween morning to bring us a cookie they had made and decorated (Ann made them for Russell's school class - Jeannie had done the same for one of her children's room).

Daddy had just about finished the rest of the fence and it is going to look so nice it really will look much better. It's funny - on our trip we had visited our lovely home in Little Rock & Phoenix and we talked all the way home about how we really needed to find a nicer home to live in. well - a man stopped and talked to Daddy the other day and said he would like to buy this home or one of our lots next to us. He brought his wife by to see it and I couldn't even be nice to them - this place really has a hold on us and I know our move to something nicer will come about naturally. One things we know is that we won't sell our lot while we are still living here. we have people stop by all the time and tell us what a darling home we have and how pleased they are that we are "fixing" it up - we had lots of goblins stop for treats on Halloween so I guess it isn't haunted anymore. Ha!!!

Wow - I haven't left much room to report on Johnny. If I don't write anymore it will mean we didn't get a letter from him. We love you all so very much + PLEASE BE CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO - Let us know how we can help you.
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