Dearest Family, March 8, 1998

It is a Monday morning here and Helen and I are finished with our teaching in the schools - it is kinda' weird!!! I hurried so I could be the first one at the computer this morning and I was SO THRILLED to have your letter and pictures Bob BUT I couldn't access them!!! I just want to cry but I tried everything I knew how to do and I kept getting this message on the screen “There is not enough memory to complete this task. Close some programs or free some space on your hard disk and then try again”. I trashed everything I had on the computer and so did my roommates but I still kept getting this message SO I trashed them. I was SO excited because those condos sound like something I would be interested in. THANK YOU JUST MILLIONS BOB!!! I know that Helen and Janet have put their journals on a disk on the computer and Helen types for hours - could that be the problem? I have never understood the difference between the hard disk and the other parts of the computer. We have had untold problems with the e-mail this week - we did get an apologetic letter from the company this morning so everyone is having problems and they expect this to be corrected this week. I hurried and wrote that letter to you last night but I couldn't get it sent.

MICHAEL - You will absolutely LOVE Bangkok and the shots are a “piece of cake”. I didn't have one minutes problem with the shots - I believe my arm hurt for about an hour after one of them but it was very, very mild. There are a MILLION things to do here - you won't be here long enough to do everything you want to do. I walk by the Marriott at least three times a week and I could spend hours just looking at what the vendors are selling - ALL KINDS OF THINGS!!! I know you are not as interested in shopping as I am but you will be interested in the ways things are done here. I don't believe your parents will allow you to go very far away alone but when they can go with you there are things to see that you will NEVER have the opportunity to see again - the pictures you see in books about Thailand are VERY REAL - the scenery is exactly like the pictures.

CLAIRE, ANN & JEAN AND ANYONE ELSE WHO IS PLANNING TO COME AND WHO LIKES TO READ: Helen's daughters are coming and they have been reading a novel about Thailand to get the feel of it and this is the title: “Rice in Silver Bowls” by Alice Ekert-Rotholz. I haven't read it but it comes highly recommended.

Janet's two sisters and a brother-in-law arrived yesterday and they are having a ball. They are staying at the Marriott. They own five Hallmark Stores in the California area and they brought Thank You Notes for Janet's roommates - along with some other Utah things - they have made me VERY homesick - Ha!!! They are going on the trip to Phuket with us.

Bob - I love hearing about your President Bott. The Bott family members in Brigham City were good “salt of the earth” type of people - Lorenzo Bott was the Patriarch of that family and my folks called him Ren. Some of them lived kind of at the bottom of the mountains just north from my folks - they were very hard workers - what kind of work does Pres. Bott do?

Julianna - I loved hearing about the little first grade boy in your class who was crying because his “bangs” were bothering him. It is SO true that the smallest things in the world are monumental to little children - especially when it has something to do with personal appearance.

Bob - I don't believe I would be interested in the home that Ellen Mae found. I have better luck with “new” things - Ha!!! The hardest thing in the world for me in my situation is to have to depend on others for help. I am very interested in the condos you have found in Centerville - the price sounds right and even though the monthly cost of maintenance is quite high ($90) that would surely eliminate a lot of worries. I would like to consider the 3 bedroom ones. Are they East of the freeway? My roommates here are worried about my moving away from my friends in Orem but I will have to make a change sometime and now is the perfect time to do it and Orem isn't that far away. JOHN ARE YOU AND JULIANNA INTERESTED IN BUYING MY OREM HOME??? I will need to know that before I do anything and you haven't committed yourselves one way or the other.

Ann - I am NOT interested in the $300,000 condos in Provo. I REALLY don't want to be in that situation - the people who could afford that type of condo could very easily be the “jet set” type and that wouldn't make me happy. They certainly will have a spectacular view (the Ridge Athletic Club has been sold for condominiums). I am SO excited to have you come and it doesn't matter to me who comes - you and Jean, or you and Jessie, Susanna, Lee Anna, Jean, Barji, Mary Ann and Sarah - or whoever. Helen's two daughters are coming in April and she is arranging for some of our teachers to take them places. I don't want to do that unless you want me to - I know those teachers and we would spend most of our time trying to make them understand what we wanted to do and I want you “all to myself” - Ha!!! Is Lee Anna trying out for cheerleading for Timpview? I can't believe she is that old!!! I hope you have fun in California - I know this will be hard on Jessie even though she doesn't think it will - this has been her life for a long, long time!!! Where is “The Old Farm” in Logan - I want to hear all about the apartment Barji and Jessie are looking into. I can't believe Russell will be driving in May - my grandchildren are growing up much too fast!!! Ryan going to Brazil - will he be in the Jackson's mission? I'm thrilled for him and his family. Jimmy is your stabilizer - like his Dad!!! You will have to find something else to do if you just have to do your student teaching job, take care of Ron's business matters at his office, be Young Women President and stay active in the P.T.A. - Ha!!! When do you and Jessie go on the trip that I was scheduled to go with you on?

Claire - thank you SO much for your letter too. Your tennis camp sounded like such a lot of fun and Martha is just perfect for you to be with - I hope your leg is better. I think Bob is a fabulous Father too - and you are a fabulous Mother!!! I think it is WONDERFUL that Bob would have a “sleep over” for the children - in my estimation that is the “VERY ULTIMATE” test!!!

I have rattled on and on - I can't remember who wrote what to me. I usually answer letters a little better but this has been such a funny week. I can't believe all the things I am doing - the adults I teach are SO fun and their pronunciation is improving from one lesson to the next and they are SO appreciative - they are actually saying “v” now instead of the “w” they have used all their lives. I believe I told you that when we first came we were told there were many “wise principals” - they meant “vice principals”. THIS IS FUN!!!

We left by train on Saturday morning and went to Ayutthaya where we started a new workshop with adult teachers - we expected about 15 and we had 22 sign up for the 10 week workshop. It is being held in the nicest school we have been in - it is a private school with 4,000 students. They are SO good to us - they had a nice lunch for us and then goodies all afternoon. We left there at 5 p.m. by train and went to Lopburi where Bro. Nurack's niece met us. She took us to dinner and shopping and then to his home where we spent the night. She is a beautiful young Thai woman and she was SO very nice to us. Sunday morning we went to visit some inactive members - they have just opened the first pump service station in Lopburi and we think Nurack is financing it. Nurack has installed an air conditioner in our bedroom and he and Winada (his wife) are absolutely wonderful to us. Helen got upset because he had a business partner from Bangkok come to meet him at church and they took us to a hotel where we waited for the train. I didn't mind one bit but Helen is the MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD and she let him know that her time was more important than to sit in a hotel room (and it was air conditioned and lovely) and she should be visiting some non-members or going back to Bangkok. I was VERY embarrassed but they like Helen and admire her for her “business like ways”. Nurack took us to the train station and got us on an “express air conditioned train” and we got home in two hours - it cost us 260 bahts as opposed to 38 bahts for an ordinary train but Helen was happy. Helen has many health problems and it shows up when she gets upset. She has some kind of muscle disease and she can't sleep on a hard bed - she packs pillows and then stacks all the comforters she can find in Nurack's bedroom so she has softness. She also has terrible sinus infections. They gave us an ice cold “Pepsi” on the train and I was THRILLED and she said she couldn't drink it because it made her heart race - BUT SHE DID DRINK IT!!! I am learning SO much and I can't tell you how very grateful I am for a stable personality and contentment in my life - I don't get upset easily and I don't have to be “the star” in our teaching. I think of how Ann describes herself, “I am just a plodder”. Helen just turned 65 and I can work circles around her. I am ten years older than the other two roommates and I can work circles around them too - Ha!!!

Now I have let off my steam and I feel better - Ha!!! Patrice - I appreciate your reading “between the lines” and sending me a great big hug!!!

They are trying to find another apartment for two of the sisters so Vicky can move out of our apartment. I hope I can remember all the things that have happened since those two “new” sisters appeared on the scene. I really don't want to remember the unpleasant but I could write a book.

Jeannie - I want to hear all about Boyd's sister's wedding reception.

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL. Grandma B

Dearest Family, March 8, 1998

This will be just be a quick letter to tell ANN AND JULIANNA - I GOT MY PILLS!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH JULIANNA FOR SENDING THEM AND FOR YOUR SWEET NOTE AND THANK YOU SO MUCH ANN FOR ORDERING THEM.!!! I REALLY do appreciate that because I don't believe I have missed any days (maybe one or two when I have forgotten to take them with me to Lopburi). Thank you too for sending the Ensign - they had brought the apartment one from the Mission Office so I took the copy you sent to Lopburi for Bro. Nurack and he was thrilled - he reads English and understands it pretty well too.

We just got home from Lopburi and Helen is waiting to use the computer so I will write a long letter tomorrow. BOB - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR LETTER TOO!!! This computer thing has been such a drain - we have only been able to get onto the e-mail line three times in the last five days and then for just a short time. They have told us that Internet Thailand was making a lot of changes so hopefully it is corrected now. I absolutely feel lost when I don't hear from you!!!

I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL. Grandma BXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO