Dearest Family, April 5, 1998

EMILY - THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR SWEET CARD!!! That was very thoughtful of you to send me a picture of the outfit you bought with your Christmas money for your American Girl Doll - I LOVE IT!!! It makes me very happy to hear that you are enjoying your dolls SO much. I remember how much my girls loved to play with their dolls and I think that makes little girls GREAT MOTHERS!!! I am anxious to hear about your trip to Gulf Shores - did you take your doll?

BOB - THANK YOU FOR YOUR LETTER TODAY!!! I don't want you to send the talks that are given at Conference time - we can get them on the computer if and when we can get to the computer - there are so many people using it that I wouldn't have time to read them anyway and everyone would “fuss” if I printed them. I don't think anything is going to change very much this conference but if it does I hope you will let me know. They had some copies of the Church News at church this morning and there is a cute picture of Twila and Cliff Van Winkle teaching here in Bangkok. I am with them a lot and they are darling people - he was a character at the MTC and said he didn't know a verb from a noun (his wife is a professional teacher) and he has probably been the most effective teacher.

RON - THANK YOU FOR YOUR MESSAGE TOO!!! I have changed Ann's e-mail address so if she doesn't get a copy of this letter then I have done it wrong - I am SO glad she is getting so competent on the computer that she can have her own address.

We had our Teacher's Seminar today and I missed most of it. Our neighbor over in the Village, Yod, entered the Monkhood (or whatever it is called) and he invited some of us to come to his ordination. It was very, very different. His Father has been married three times - all his wives were there - Yod's mother was his first wife and she is the same age as his last wife. His entire family was there - grandmothers, grandfathers, sisters, brothers, cousins, aunts, uncles etc., etc. - the ceremony itself wasn't very long and afterwards they served a Chinese dinner. We had soup with shark's fin in it and bird eggs - it was very good. We were late for the seminar but that didn't matter.

You sound SO busy - all of you!!!

Thursday was a special day for me. That was the sixth anniversary of Daddy's death and all my roommates were gone for the day. Helen was with her family and Janet and Darlene are being entertained by their schools - they went to the zoo that day I believe. It would have been a lonely day but my sweet friend from Saimai called to see if she could come spend the day with me. We went to lunch and just talked and looked at pictures that I'm putting in my album. In the afternoon I had a phone call from a Thai woman who is a good friend of one of my friends in Orem - this friend, Virginia Lewis, lived here about 30 years ago and Suparin was Rulon Lewis' secretary. She came about 3 p.m. and stayed until 6 and we had so much fun - she is teaching English at the Irrigation College here.

Yesterday was a very funny day - I spent the day cooking for two friends who said they would come to dinner at 6 p.m. Finally, at 10 p.m. they called to say they couldn't find my apartment. I had made a lot of spaghetti and it turned out good because Helen and her family came home hungry from Ayutthaya. These friends, Lek and Anan, are coming tonight and I will feed them leftovers.

We had a terrific rainstorm yesterday - it rained all day!!! It is SO funny because Helen has planned this trip for her family and she didn't want them to come during the rainy season. They wanted to see the monkeys in Lopburi but they didn't see even one - they don't come out when it rains.

I surely hope you are all doing good and I hope you have fun being together for conference - I wish I could be there with you!!!

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