Dearest Family, May 22, 1998

Yesterday was such a fun, fun day and I am just now getting time to write about it. I want to send a special THANKS to the Weinerts, Michael and Claire BUT I will start with a special message to John & Julianna.

I had to teach at the Ministry of University Affairs last night and when I got home the computer was being used and we have been at our District Office all day today so I couldn't write before now.

My Bishop, Bishop Patch, came to Thailand late on Wednesday night and the man who works for him here called to invite me to breakfast with him on Sunday morning. He stayed at the Marriott Hotel that is close by me and he was only going to be here one day. I was SO excited to see him so my companion, Helen, and I walked to the Marriott at 7 a.m. and he was waiting for us in the lobby. He started out our conversation by saying, “Barbara, I hate to tell you this but your yard looks a lot better than when you lived there.” And then he proceeded to tell me such nice things about JOHN & JULIANNA and the good job they are doing in the church - he surely does think a lot of both of you - I told him you weren't too great at writing - Ha!!!

WEINERTS - How wonderful for you to send me some Mrs. Cavanaugh's candy for Mother's Day!!! I have it hidden in my bedroom so I won't have to share it. Thank you most of all for your sweet, sweet letter Jeannie!!! I have read it many times and I have that wonderful newspaper picture of Ricky on my wall - RICKY - WHAT AN ACHIEVEMENT (He only missed taking 1st place in the District Tennis Tournament by one point). He took 1st place in the region and 2nd place in the state. BARJI - CONGRATULATIONS FOR BEING CHOSEN AS A MEMBER OF THE UTAH STATE SUNBURST DANCING TEAM - A $1,500.00 scholarship to apply to your tuition - I think that is fabulous. I can hardly wait to go to some of the programs in Logan - that will bring back a flood of memories. I LOVED all your photos too - I have decided that of all my grandchildren, Mary Ann has changed the most since I have been gone - she is SO pretty with her braces off!!! I would have liked to have heard Rick's Mother's Day Talk.

MICHAEL - I AM PROUD OF YOU FOR HAVING YOUR SHOTS!!! That was such good news for me and I shouted all over our apartment - Ha!!! I just think that is a smart thing to do - when I see people with terrible handicaps that could have been prevented with the proper immunizations I just get sick all over. My neighbor and former Stake President in Orem is crippled and has terrible health because he got polio when he was young - the vaccine for that may not have been available at the time he was ready for it so it wasn't neglect on his part. We have SO many medical helps now and we are so very foolish to not take advantage of them. You and I will both have a better time when you visit Thailand now!!!

When I got to the Marriott yesterday morning, Bishop Patch told me that the Youth in our Orem Stake are planning a service project for their Youth Conference. It is a project of making English books for the Bangkok Elementary Schools. He wanted to make a video of me thanking them. WELL - you know how much I love things like that!!! We have a couple in our teaching group from that Stake too so I suggested that he call them to see if they could meet us. As it turned out Beverly and Doug Jenkins' daughter-in-law is in charge of this service project and they are teachers here also so he called them. They live a long, long ways away but they arranged to come SO we all met again at the Marriott at noon. In the meantime, Helen and I used their video camera and we went to a Thai elementary school and took pictures of the students, their teachers and anything else we thought they might be interested in. I will probably never get to see the video but I know how my hair looked so I don't want to see it. I had about one hour's notice to get ready and my hair is in the in-between stage of cutting, permanenting and coloring so it is a mess!!!

Poor Bishop Patch - he had to feed us breakfast and lunch and the buffets at the Marriott are “OUT OF THIS WORLD”. We felt very guilty so we asked the waiter how much they cost and he told us 450 bahts a person. I guess that isn't too bad and I have heard that Bishop Patch just got a big promotion with NuSkin and now he is right next to the CEO. Ann - did I hear that Blake Roney stepped down?

I am SO sorry that my e-mail messages have been returned to you. We have the “virginia” address taken off now so it shouldn't cause you anymore problems.

The BYU Dance team was scheduled to travel to Indonesia for performances. They have had so many problems there that they had to cancel and reschedule and they have been in Bangkok for over a week. The members of the church provided housing for them for awhile but it got so long that they arranged motel places for them. They are putting on a dance program here Saturday night (tomorrow) at the International School of Bangkok and we have been asked to invite as many people as we can - they hope to fill up all the 500 seats. It will be fun to see them and I have about 10 people who are going. We have two teachers who are going to take us. They are also giving a Fireside program at the church here on Sunday and we are to take food - I have to take a dozen sandwiches. I'll tell you how it all turns out. People here are so used to the Thai dancing that this will be a real change.

Mary Ann playing her violin for wedding receptions - that's GREAT. I would have liked to see her in the play - I loved the picture. Sarah is going to be super busy with all her activities. Did Elder Hales come for the Fireside? Virginia called to tell me he had gone in the hospital for heart surgery last week - I guess they had to keep him in the ICU longer than usual but I think he is better by now.

Mel Manning has been so good to send me the scores of the Jazz basketball games but I had a message from Ellen Mae last night telling me that Mel has had a scare with “compulsive shaking”. He was scheduled for hip surgery the first of June but they may have to postpone it because of this problem. He said he had had a hard time getting medical help - finally got a Dr. Butler with the Tanner Clinic to help him. He is PaPa's age so he is 78 - that's pretty old!!!

I had a long, long letter from Ramona and also Carol Ann. I guess I had the wrong information about Shirley because she is still in that home on Canyon Drive - they would like to buy it but the price is $400,000 and they think that is too high. Ramona told me that she was back with Grandma Pinegar - Ramona gets things mixed up like I do. Aunt Carol will be celebrating her 80th birthday soon - she seems so young to me - she is a real Jazz fan. Jill is still having problems - keeps falling and breaking bones. They don't ever mention Stephanie's death.

This letter is getting much too long but I have one more thing I want to tell you. When we visited the school yesterday to take the video shots they brought a little boy to us who has 11 fingers. He has an extra finger growing on his thumb. I asked why they didn't have it surgically removed and they said, “He likes it that way”. I think it is sad and could cause some real problems if it gets snagged on some playground equipment and torn off - he is about 6 years old.

THANK YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH FOR YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS TO ME - I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH - PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL. Grandma B