Feb 23, 1986

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

I'm writing my letter on Sunday afternoon for a change and since I just wrote to you on Tuesday this probably won't be a very long letter!!!

Johnny - we loved your letter as usual and were thrilled to receive your picture - you look wonderful!!!! Roy and Daddy were commenting on your haircut and decided that you weren't paying the $16 you had paid while you were in college - Ha! You said there were half the missionaries at the activity you had and that was 125 - are there 250 missionaries in your mission??? It sounded like you really had a lot of fun - you mentioned that you knew the Mission President and his wife would be happy when the activity was over - I'll bet they really enjoyed every minute of it!!! We really loved the activities with all the missionaries - I'll have to admit I used to get really tired of sitting through hours and hours of zone conference but we looked forward to the fun things with them. We're so thrilled to have you tell us about the house where you live and all about the lady who cooks for you - you are really fun to cook for and I know you are remembering to express appreciation for the things that are done for you - that is so important!!! You are so smart to use your time to study and not goof off - we'll find the book, "The Great Apostasy", and send it to you. We are so glad that you finally got your Christmas package - the hairbrush was the only useful thing in the whole package - Ha! Next year we'll send smaller packages and send them airmail. I read something somewhere about an MTC in Santiago - is there really one? We can't tell you what it means to us for you to be enjoying your mission as much as your letter sound - we're so proud of you!!!!

Claire - we laughed and laughed at your letter where you said you had taken the children to the doctor and he thought Michael's name was Brett and as you discussed things with him he misunderstood and thought you were still nursing Michael - that would be quite a shock for a Doctor, although I'm sure they find unusual things like that all the time. Brett - weighing 13 pounds - wow!!! I can still remember that Ann weighed 18 pounds when she was a year old (we were always so worried about her weight and hers is the only one I remember) - I'll bet he is really doing well and we can hardly wait to see him. Laura and Michael will really be a lot of help to you in a few months - it's fun to see how much help Ann & Jeans' older children are even though they're not very old. You mentioned that your friend's husband has just lost his job - there surely is a lot of job unrest in the country - we se a lot of it here in Utah with Thiokol and also Geneva. I guess they have laid off 200 Thiokol workers and put the rest of them on a four day week - that has been a sad thing for Brigham City.

Roy - we feel so bad about all the rotten weather we had while you were here - it was really a thrill for us to have you come and wish we could have found something that would have interested you so you wouldn't have left early. We can put ourselves in your places though and don't blame you for leaving. I just got sick all over when I heard about the avalanche at Alta. (Roy & Bill had two full days to ski after their meetings were over and they left the house about 8 o'clock Wednesday morning to go to Snowbird & Alta - they came back home about noon, saying it was too wet for good skiing and they changed their plans tickets to go back home that afternoon even though they had to pay a big price. We took them to the airport and on the way coming home we turned on the radio and heard they had had an avalanche at Alta burying a skier who was not from Utah. Later we heard he was from Wenham, Mass. and I would have absolutely had a heart attack if they had been on the slopes.) They didn't find his body for two hours and even though they revised him, he died later that night. The avalanche was on Sugar Loaf in the exact place where they had been skiing the afternoon before. Utah had all kinds of flooding too last week and also mud slides and avalanches that covered roads - one in the Bridal Veil Falls area up Provo Canyon and many, many homes and farms in the Ogden canyon area and Heber area were flooded. We think it has been bad here but I guess it has been nothing compared to the flooding in California!!! Roy & Bill enjoyed their meetings though and we really enjoyed them - it's always a special treat for us to get to meet the friends you all work with. We would have tried to coax Roy into staying until his scheduled flight out on Friday but we could see Bill was most anxious to get home and we didn't blame him. We talked to Roy on Friday evening and he said they got home about midnight. Roy really helped us with this computer and we have had so much fun with it - we changed the style of the type and also the format so it wouldn't justify the margin at the right - as I type my letter I can see that some of the letters are missing from the words because of the margin being changed - I'll work on this but will just let it go on this letter. I spent yesterday afternoon typing up the missionaries' addresses for our reunion and it worked so neat - so much easier than with our old typewriter. By the way, we gave that and the old white gas stove from the kitchen to the Deseret Industries - they finally came Wednesday evening, Roy!

Jean & Ricks' little Sarah has been sick - they thought it was her ears but it wasn't - I just talked to Rick and he said it must have been the flu but she was doing much better now. She is so tiny - I didn't realize how tiny she was until we cared for her last weekend - she's plenty healthy but tiny babies always scare me. They're all doing fine - when I called, Rick and Ricky were out riding on the motorcycle and I know how Ricky loves that. When they were with us, Daddy would take Ricky on the "four-wheeler" and he just didn't want to stop.

Annie and I went to the BYU production of "Joseph And His Coat of Many Colors" on Wednesday night. We had thought Roy & Bill would enjoy our tickets but when they left we decided to go - we didn't realize it was a musical until we got there - it was absolutely fabulous - it was a satire on the Biblical story and I'll have to admit that I'm surprised BYU would be able to do it but it was very well done with fantastic talent. Annie got tickets for Daddy & Ron to go the next night and she went with them so I twisted her arm to let me sit with the children - they were so good and I loved it but the next morning we called them for something and discovered that little Russell had awakened just covered with "bumps" - I was sure he was allergic to me but they determined it was the medicine he was taking for an ear infection (it had sulfur in it.) The doctor told them it would last for about three days and it is really miserable for him because they itch so bad - he is so cute and such a joy to be with!!!

Daddy and I went to Brigham City on Friday - we stopped in Salt Lake for an appointment with a man from Prudential - Bache - he is helping us with an investment that is tax-free - we really need some tax breaks!!! Mother and Daddy (Forrest) were elected King & Queen of the Sweethearts for Valentines Day at the Resthome and their picture were in the paper - we took them for a ride and I stopped and bought a newspaper and a frame and put it in their room for them - it is a darling picture of them and they are so proud!!! Did I tell you that I had written to Dee and listed the things I wanted out of the house (things we had given to the folks over the years that they no longer wanted or enjoyed) - actually there were very few that I wanted back but I really wanted them. When I went to see him about them I found they had them all boxed up and ready for me - I was so pleased that he took it this way. Grandmother & Grandpa Forrest are really doing well physically so that's an indication they are being well cared for.

Ellen Mae & Mel came by to see us for a little while yesterday and we had such a good visit. They were excited because they were going to be chaperones for their High School drill team on a trip to California and they leave sometime today. Well - after they left we discovered Ellen Mae had left her purse. We hurried and got in the car and tried to chase them because we knew they would need it before going to California. We went clear to Murray without finding them so we came back home and in about an hour, here they came back - they had driven clear to Bountiful before discovering she had left it. I was so glad to find that other people do things like this - I have even stopped taking my purse many places because I am always forgetting it. They are such fun friends but we don't think they are ever going to retire - Mel is the same age as Daddy and Ellen Mae and I are the same age - she says two more years of teaching school will give her a much better retirement but I really think she just enjoys teaching and that's great!!!

Daddy has finished painting his four-wheeler trailer - he had to paint the metal part with a rust prevention paint and then he painted it black - he painted the wooden part a slate grey and he has enough paint left over to paint the front porch. He is also working on our camping trailer - he has the back part of it all torn out and will replace the wood on the outside and also the paneling on the inside - it's good he has enough projects to keep him busy. One of our friends in the ward (the Wanlasses) gave us some raspberry bushes so he planted those also. I don't know when we're going to go to California - it seems to me there are too many things coming up but we might just go for a few days anyway.

Two of our former Lady Missionaries, Sisters Thomas & Irey, just called and want to come over tonight just to visit - we always enjoy having them come over and these two haven't been over for awhile. We are really flattered that they still keep in touch with us.

We surely do love each one of you - we are so proud of our wonderful family and hope you will be CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO - LET US KNOW HOW WE CAN HELP YOU!!!! It is going to be interesting to have this printed now and see how many goofs I have made on the margins - BE PATIENT!!!
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