Thailand Letter
Dearest Family, October 22, 1998 Thursday 7:50 p.m.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO TIMOTHY TOMORROW!!! I can't believe Timothy will be 8 years old but I received a picture of him today taken at the computer in their home and he looks SO grown up!!! He is a "clone" of his Dad!!! I hope you have a WONDERFUL BIRTHDAY TIMOTHY. THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING ME A PACKAGE. I was SO excited to find something in our mailbox for me - we get a lot of mail for our landlord. I LOVED the darling Halloween card and I especially loved Jesse's signature - that's a saver!!! Jesse - what a good looking horse - you look like a real Montana Cowboy. Emily - your hair is so long and beautiful and it looks more blonde than I remember. I am enjoying the "Brown Magazine" and it was fun to read an excerpt from Pres. Gee's inaugural address - about growing up in a small town in Utah high in the Rocky Mountains - made me homesick. Do you think he is going to be a good President. How was your Disney World Trip???
BOB - Thank you for your message too. I laughed when I read that you could never eat the blood sausage served to you in Colombia - that's something I can't eat either but it is a real delicacy here. I am going to enjoy watching Myrth's face when it is served to her - I have already warned her. She is having a very difficult time "enjoying" the Thai food - I started telling people she couldn't eat Thai food and it made her angry and she asked me to not tell them that. SO she has been trying to eat a little bit of it but VERY LITTLE. I REALLY do like it. Some of our neighbors came over tonight and brought us Chinese rolls filled with a sweet bean mixture - she ate half of one. I thought they were good. They also brought guava but she was worried about the water it was rinsed in. They have invited us to dinner on Monday night - we have accepted so that will be interesting. They are lovely people - the men are retired pharmacists. I'm proud of your teacher's quorum activities - practicing being missionaries to your ward members. THANK you for sending that information about Elder Tingey. It was funny - in one place it said he was 56 and in another it said he was 65. He looks 65 and is a very nice looking man - reminded me of Daddy. His wife was with him and they both spoke about the importance of families. We were on the front row - we came in late and President Goodman had them usher us to the front - I was embarrassed because we had been in the rain and I looked terrible. When Bro. Tingey came off the stand he came to me and said "Barbara Mellor, Latter Day Saint Charities - hmmmmm". I don't know if he recognized the Mellor name or not and I didn't ask him - I was anxious to leave. The apartment where I will stay doesn't have to be in Davis County - I surely don't want Ellen Mae to feel responsible for my adjustment to "human life" - Ha!!!
JEANNIE - Thank you for your letter too. I cannot believe you would run into s former missionary who just barely met Ricky in El Salvador - that's unreal!!! I KNOW Ricky is one happy young man and working hard - has he mentioned the heat? I will send him an e-mail soon. Mary Ann's Sweet Sixteen Birthday must have been a REAL BLAST with 75 friends ---- WOW!!! I know Sarah is "enjoying life"!!! How wonderful that Barji and Jessie could come for Sunday Dinner - I am SO anxious to go to Utah State with them and see how much it has changed in fifty years.
Myrth is in bed. We didn't go to school today. This is such an adjustment for both of us but we'll make it. Marc Hall told us that November would be a month to build relationships and we are having a difficult time convincing the people in charge that we must check resource center boxes before we can teach. We have 7 schools in the one District where our townhouse is and we have completed their resource center boxes - the teachers were SO pleased when we finished them. I love Darlene and Janet but they surely dropped the ball and it is hard for me to carry it for my last month here. I need to stop complaining don't I???
Somjit and Lamchuan are going to come in the morning and take us "somewhere" - I don't know where yet but they are SO sweet to want to be with two old women!!!
I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL. Grandma B