August 22, 1999 Farmington, Utah

CONGRATULATIONS TO BOB - I talked to Claire earlier today and she told me that Bob has been called as a counselor in their Bishopric. When I talked to him later he told me that he will be over the Young Men and the Young Women - WHAT A JOB!!! - Ha!!! I am SO proud of you Bob and I think the people in your ward are VERY lucky to have you, Claire and your family as leaders. He has been on a "campout" this week with the Young Men in their ward and they didn't get home until late last night so he is very tired today. I guess we will just cancel all our family things for Sundays from now on with both Bob and Ron in Bishoprics - THAT'S GREAT THOUGH!

WAY TO GO RUSS!!! The Woolleys sent me a clipping from the Provo Daily Herald about the football team at Timpview High School and Russell was given recognition for being a leader in offense - PLEASE LET ME KNOW WHEN I CAN COME TO ONE OF HIS GAMES. The article was interesting in that their quarterback's stepfather is Larry King and he is going to do some of the public address duties at one of their football games. I don't want to go to that game because there will be a million people there. I just want to see Russell play without him knowing I am there. I am proud of you Russell and wish you a fabulous football season. What a treat to have a football player along with a cheerleader to watch - the Woolleys are having one exciting year after another with Russell and LeeAnna.

Emily - I can just imagine how excited you are to be starting middle school on Tuesday. I want to hear all about it - will you be in a carpool with some of your friends from your neighborhood? I want to learn about your schedule - will you have special teachers for music, art, physical education, etc.? Jesse - I can just imagine how excited you are and also your parents to be going to the school where Timothy and Emily have been - I LOVE THAT SCHOOL. I know they will miss you at Trinity. Timothy - you will be able to "show Jesse the ropes" at your school. Will Jesse have friends to walk to school with as well as Timothy?

Timothy - I am very happy that you helped make an emergency kit to help out when the tornado hit in Little Rock. When everyone in a community works together it makes those natural disasters "easier to take". I'm glad the Arkansas newspapers reported how the church system worked to help those injured and misplaced because with just a few phone calls many people were put into action. I have a cute picture of Emily with Sammie - it shows Sammie's face better than any of the others - I'll send it to you. I have to laugh when I think about Roy and Patrice getting all their children into school all day and then they get a dog to train. I agree that dogs are easier to have when they are older - John & Juliannas' dogs, Tar and Moki, are much more gentle now than they were a year ago.

I went to visit the Weinerts a few minutes ago and they have exciting lives too. They have been caring for a little 8-month old baby girl with bright red hair - she is just darling. Her mother came to get her while I was there - they have had her all week - (actually I believe it was Mary Ann's job). Barji is getting ready to go back to Utah State this week and Sarah had a friend over to plan for their school to start too - Jeannie was writing a newsletter to send to Ricky and his other friends who are also serving missions. That is SO neat - several missionaries write a letter telling about their missions and then they send it to whomever is in charge that month and that person copies the letters along with pictures and sends a copy to all the missionaries. I believe there are six involved and they all went to school together. One is in Norway, one in Brazil, one in the Philippines, Ricky in El Salvador and I don't remember the other places. Jeannie showed me a picture that Ricky had sent to her and he is with an elderly native woman and he is so tall that she only comes up to his waist. He looks WONDERFUL!!!

One of the teachers with whom I worked in Thailand called me in February and asked if I would like to go to the Martin Harris Pageant in Clarkston, Utah in August. I said yes and put the date on my calendar but I almost forgot about it. Ruth came on Tuesday about three o'clock and we drove to Clarkston. I couldn't believe that I had never been there before - it is about 25 miles West of Logan and it is a beautiful little farming community. Martin Harris was one of the three witnesses of the Book of Mormon and he actually financed the first printing of it in New York. He has kind of a bad reputation because his wife forced him to ask Joseph Smith to let him take 116 pages of the manuscript and then something happened to them and Joseph Smith didn't get them back. There is a lot of interesting history written about how Martin Harris left the church but he never did deny seeing the plates. His son moved to Clarkston, Utah and when Martin was very old he came to live with him and he died there - there is a big monument at his burial site. He was later re-baptized into the church. I thoroughly enjoyed the pageant - many of the participants are from Utah State. We also had a bar-b-que dinner at their church before the pageant started. They don't charge for the pageant but you have to have tickets because the seating space is limited. Ruth stayed with me that night because it was after midnight when we got home.

I went to the temple after she left and stayed for the rest of the day - I loved it. Thursday, I drove to Pleasant Grove to attend the wedding reception of the daughter of some good friends of mine - it was held at "The Bungalow" where Bob and Claire had their reception. I wanted to avoid the traffic so I left plenty early and went to visit Lucile Webb at the resthome in Lehi - she has REALLY gone downhill in just a month. I took her a Wendy's Frosty but she didn't even want it. After the reception I went to visit with John - he was watching a video and we had a good visit. I just love my former home - I had no idea it could be made so much better. I wish they could both enjoy it now that it is all finished. The front yard is just beautiful!!!

I went to see the Woolleys after I left John but they were having a "very serious" meeting so I didn't stay. Ann told me later that the meeting was for the schools and they were discussing how to handle any violence that might occur. It was cute - Jimmy answered the door and when I went in I could see Brett but he quickly disappeared - I think he was afraid I was there to take him back to Layton. Brett and Jimmy really have fun together and that day they had been to 7-peaks.

Yesterday, Jeannie and I went to Provo again for Jared \Willardsen's fiancé's shower. It was held at the Pizza Factory and it was FUN. They had reserved one end of the restaurant - I have never been to a shower in a restaurant before but I would highly recommend it - SO EASY!!! His fiancé's name is Jessica Howard and she is really cute and perfect for him. It was mostly relatives of the Willardsens and I think Jessica was a good sport about it all. I'll tell you who was there: Ramona, Elaine, Shirley & Stephanie Pinegar, Carolyn & Gerald Perkes, Amy Braithwaite, Rosie Clark, Carol, Memory Dixon, Carol Ann and Jeannie and I. Ann had told me she would come and we kinda' waited to order for her to get there but she must have had something she couldn't get out of. Jared was there too and he was cute as he helped Jessica with the gifts. He is the only one of the Willardsen boys who isn't going to be a dentist - he is an entrepreneur. He makes videos of "high risk" things that sound like Evil Knievel to me and sells them and he is also designing and making "wild" hats that are selling fast in California. It was a fun afternoon.

I took advantage of having all the "Mellor Clan" together and tried to verify the shirt and video orders as well as the attendance for the reunion dinner. Ramona and Elaine are about the only ones who couldn't give me definite numbers. Jean and I also went to visit with John before the shower. Jeannie hadn't seen his home since it was completed and she was as impressed as I am with what they have done. Julianna has excellent taste in decorating.

I am trying to "seal" my wooden patio. The sprinklers come on once during the night and again in the morning so it keeps wet all the time. I am now trying to cover it with plastic to see if I can keep it dry enough to put the water sealing on it early in the morning and then have it dry during the day and put the plastic on it at night. I hope it works because the wood is going to be ruined if it doesn't. I talked to the groundskeeper of the condos and asked if he could re-direct them or turn them off but he said they are on a circuit that waters Margaret's and Martha's condos too and unless I wanted to hand water everything around he couldn't do anything about it. When I get this problem solved I will work on the deck at the cabin.