August 16, 1999 Farmington, Utah

This has been a "way busy" week for me but a fun one!!! I went to get my Thai friends on Monday morning - they came in from Rexburg, Idaho and I met them at the Bountiful, Davis Art Center. I couldn't believe all the luggage they brought - a lot of it was their musical instruments. They play those big drums and the long wooden pipe instruments. I was supposed to take three but when I got there one of the women with whom I had worked in Bangkok asked if she could come stay with me too so I ended up with four - THEY WERE DELIGHTFUL AND I REALLY ENJOYED THEM!!!

Monday was a free day and I had lots of things planned for them but all they wanted to do was to shop. I tried to get them to let me take them to Antelope Island late in the afternoon but they didn't understand what it was and they wanted to go to WalMart - we had already spent four hours in D.I. They came here from Idaho completely worn out. I could tell they were tired and so was I so I decided to take them to dinner somewhere in the Layton Mall area. WELL - they bought over $100 worth of chocolate candy - every kind of Hershey chocolate they could find. I knew that if I left that in the car on such a hot day it would all melt so I decided to just take them to Wendy's and they all ordered "spicy chicken".

They all bought phone cards at K-Mart and that was SO funny. The cards said "40 minutes" and they paid about $8.00 for them. After we ate they decided to make their phone calls - they were VERY upset when they were cut off after about a couple minutes so I called the information number on their cards and found out that international calls are only for one or two minutes. They wanted to call their host families in Idaho so I let them call them and they talked for a long, long time. One of them went to sleep on the sofa in the den so I decided we should all go to bed - it was about 10 p.m. At 10:30 p.m., Lek, their director, called me and wanted to talk to each one of them so we were all awakened again. They were all SO comfortable here in my condo and BOB I appreciate so very much your fixing the shower so it would turn completely off - that would have been a problem. Bob called the "Moen" company and they told him how to fix it until they could send us some parts to repair it permanently - IT WORKS JUST GREAT!!!

Tuesday - I had to get them to the Art Center by 9 a.m. because they were dancing at three elementary schools in Davis County. Then I picked them up at 3 p.m. and they came here for dinner. When I went to get them they asked me if I would take two more young men with me and go to J.C. Penneys so two of the young women sat in the "lift back" part of my car and we went to the mall - they were looking for some cameras and they didn't have them at Penneys so I took them to Sam's Club and also WalMart but they thought they were all too expensive. It was fun to be involved in this because I got to see all the dancers from nine different countries in their costumes. I then took them back to the Art Center by 5:30 p.m. because they were going to West Valley City to perform at a big park there. I was supposed to pick them up after that about 9 p.m. but they didn't come until after 11 p.m. - I went to sleep in my car waiting for them.

Wednesday was a free day and I wanted so much for them to go to Temple Square. Whenever anyone goes to Bangkok the first place they are taken is "Wat Phrakaeo" which is the big temple area SO I explained as best I could that our temple square would be like that. As I was leaving I decided to take them by Jeannies' home because I knew that would be the only time they could see her. When we got there Mary Ann and Sarah were practicing their violins and it was fun to visit for just a minute - Barji was at work. I told Jeannie we were going to have a picnic at Temple Square and she called out to us, "It's a gorgeous day for a picnic". I made sandwiches which they didn't like and some other things and then we met Helen and she brought cut up fruit which they loved!!!

We were to meet Helen at noon at the "Seagull Monument" so we waited for a few minutes and ate our lunch until she came. I looked up at the sky to the West and it was very dark so I said, "Let's go to the visitor's center" so we can get back to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to see "Legacy" before it starts to rain - we had tickets for the 1:30 showing. We finished our lunch and went to the visitor's center and there was an Asian young lady missionary giving a tour - she didn't speak Thai but we knew they would relate more to an Asian than to an American. They directed us to sit at a bench waiting for her. We had just barely sat down when we heard this loud crash and the windows right in back of us just blew out right in front of our eyes. The building shook and the missionaries said, "Would you like to go downstairs where it is safer?" We went down there but right soon they announced for everyone to evacuate the building - we wanted so much for them to see the Christus so we hurried to go upstairs but they had already blocked that off because the windows on that floor had blown out too.

At that point we didn't know it was a tornado so we casually walked over to see Legacy - it was very quiet but there were trees uprooted and limbs scattered all over temple square - it was "eery". By the time we got there, they had cancelled Legacy and they wanted everyone out of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. We hadn't quite finished our lunch so we went to that little area in back of the church office building and sat on some benches there and it was fun to watch the brides and grooms having their pictures taken amidst all the branches that were thrown everywhere. Then we decided to go over to ZCMI and do a little shopping - WELL - by the time we got there they had closed most of the stores and they were announcing for people to please leave the ZCMI Center. We still didn't know it had been a tornado - I thought it was one of those micro burst winds that we have occasionally in Utah.

We decided to come home - I had parked in the ZCMI parking lot so we got in the car intending to go North and get home in about 30 minutes at the most. WELL - they wouldn't let me go North until I had gone East for about 5 miles and when I headed North I just couldn't believe what I saw - roofs were off homes and huge trees were uprooted. The police force was in a frenzy and they didn't know what to do with all the traffic. After about an hour of driving all over the avenues in Salt Lake I ended up exactly where I had started from. I'm kinda' glad I did that though because I got to see the damage about 30 minutes after it had happened. I practically had to go to Provo to get on I-215 and it took me three hours to get home. I was completely frustrated and quite frightened and all four of the Thai women slept while I was driving - Ha!!! It wasn't until we were safe and on I-215 that I turned on the radio and found out that it had been a tornado!!! PATRICE - thank you very much for your "phone call of concern". When Jeannie found out about the tornado she called Bob and Ann because she knew right where we were going so they called me too - I appreciate that very much. I have had many phone calls - Dorothy and Dan called. All the other Thai dancers have asked me to take them to Salt Lake for the tornado - they just didn't understand.

They had a big "street dance" at the Art Center that started at 7 p.m. that night and the Thais were very excited about that and they had a good time. I picked them up again at 10:00 p.m. I had to make fried rice for thirty people for the teacher's dinner at Janet Asper's home on Thursday night and one of the Thais staying with me said she would make it for me. Well, when we came home on Wednesday night she announced that they had to be back at the Art Center by 9:30 a.m. and she wouldn't be able to help me. I took them there and then hurried home and started to cook. The dinner turned out WONDERFUL and my fried rice wasn't too bad. I believe there were about 10 of the volunteer teachers who came and then the 14 Thai performers - they just LOVED the corn that is in season now - they eat field corn in Bangkok.

We all went to the Art Center for the opening ceremonies and that was SO special - all nine countries paraded around the park in costume. We all stayed and watched the performances until about 11 p.m. and then Janet followed me to my condo and the Thai young women packed up their things and we took them to her place. I just loved having them here but I was very happy when they said they would go stay with her - I didn't have any problems except that they didn't want to go to bed and one morning at 2:30 I got up and asked them to please go to bed so they did. The time change makes it so hard for them.

Margaret invited me to go to the "Dionne Warwick" concert in Park City on Saturday and then stay at her condo there that night. THAT WAS WONDERFUL. It was held on the "mountain" in Deer Valley and we got there about 5:30 so we had good seats but I know there must have been about 2,000 people there and they all brought blankets and chairs and ice chests filled with all different kinds of food. Margaret has a friend who cooks for her and her family quite often and she had her prepare a "Baron of beef", some pasta salad and even fruit, cake and chocolate fondue. She also brought some of that sparkling non alcoholic drink. I made potato salad and brownies. IT WAS SO FUN AND SOMETHING I HAVE NEVER DONE BEFORE!!! Her condo is out of this world and it was beautiful in Park City - we came home last night about 6 p.m.

John is VERY involved with his t-shirt assignment and Bob is VERY involved with all the other preparations for the Roy D. Mellor Reunion that will be in a couple weeks. Annie has called a lot of the relatives to remind them and so far we have heard from everyone except the Crawfords. It

Happy Anniversary to Jeannie and Rick - they celebrated in Sun Valley. I had a phone call from Carol this morning inviting me to a shower for Jared and his fiancé that will be held this next Saturday at "The Pizza Place" in Orem and she wanted me to invite Ann, Jean and Claire too so let me know if you can go to it - it's at 3 p.m. They are going to be married in Hawaii.

I forgot to tell you that I went to the airport this morning to "send" my Thai friends back to Bangkok. I am SO glad I went - they appreciated it very, very much. They are unbelievably sweet. They had LOTS of problems with all their luggage. The Thai airlines didn't charge them for their musical instruments but the American airlines wanted $1,200.00. They didn't have that kind of money so when I left at 11:15 (their plane was to leave at 11:40) they were still negotiating because they said they could buy the instruments in Thailand for $400.00. I believe they will send the instruments by boat and that is sad because they won't get there for about three months and someone is going to have to pack them REALLY good!!!