January 15, 2001 Farmington, Utah

I hope all of you are doing good - it's funny but I get SO homesick when I am away and even though I don't see all of you that often I know that I can talk to you if I want to. Many of my friends call their children when they are away on trips but as you know I don't do that!!! I appreciate Jeannie leaving me an e-mail message telling me they wouldn't be home until tonight - they went to St. George for the weekend and I believe we probably passed each other on the way because we left St. George Saturday morning to come home. Mary Ann stayed home to work on a school project and she came over last night for a minute to bring me Sadie because she was going to Park City with Matt and his family. Sadie is a sweet little dog - she slept on my bed and when I took her outside this morning she "did her job" and then came right back in. I hope they have a good time in St. George - it was raining while we were there but I'm sure that cleared up soon and they will be able to golf.

John has been home this weekend but I didn't get to see him - I talked to him though. I called him from Nephi because I thought maybe I could help him in his home and Ellen Mae and Mel said they would drop me off and then John could bring me home - I thought he had more things he wanted to store in my garage. He wasn't home so I just came home with them. He was anxious to get a hair cut from a girl who has been cutting his hair for a long, long time - I hope he was able to get it - he said he had very important meetings in New York this week. I have packed all his "bed things" and stored them downstairs and he wanted one of his good pillows - he said he would try to come by last night before going to the airport but he didn't get here. He said things were really HECTIC and I'm sure they are. I forgot to ask him how his tooth problem is - hope it is doing good!!! He had to stay home because someone wanted to "walk through his home" - he wants to sell it soon and I don't blame him.

I had SO much fun last night. Laura and Katie came over and we made divinity - Laura has wanted to learn how to make that and has just not had time to come over. They made two batches and they were WONDERFUL!!! I LOVE being with those two young women - THEY ARE SO POSITIVE AND UPLIFTING!!! I asked Laura how school was going and she said "I love it and I can hardly wait for the new semester to start". It was funny - I didn't know they were coming until just before I left for church and since my meetings lasted until 3:30 I couldn't prepare anything special to eat. I had made some egg salad from boiled eggs I had leftover so we had open faced sandwiches and then I cooked some of that Bear Creek chicken noodle soup that John had given me and then we had divinity and popcorn - it was fun and they didn't complain!!! We watched a "Disney Movie" and that was fun too!!!

My home teachers came over last night - I had forgotten they were coming and it is a good thing the girls were here because I would never have heard the doorbell. They are very nice men and one of them had not seen my "Nauvoo framed picture" and it was fun to show that to them - I JUST LOVE THAT and it is a good incentive for me to do more genealogy. I have my "Christmas pictures" back and they are good - I can't get over how pretty Lee Anna is. I showed them to Ellen Mae and she wanted to know who she was - I had to get my glasses to make sure it was Lee Anna. She has always been pretty but is getting more so. Could it be that I am excessively proud of my grandchildren??? I am enjoying my "Woolley" picture calendar - it's on my refrigerator so I see it every day. I hope Susanna and Steve are home safe and sound - I want to hear all about their holiday in Florida - I'm sure it is difficult to come home to our cold, snowy weather.

Patrice & Roy sent me the neatest gift - it was a "Paper Whites" plant and when I opened it I could see they had started to grow and were just barely through the plastic cover on the basket. When I came home on Saturday they were in full bloom and my whole house smells SO good - I transferred them from the basket to my tall crystal vase and they are just beautiful. When Mary Ann came over last night she showed the little crystal ball with Emily, Timothy and Jesses' pictures in it to her friend Matt. I hope your weather is much better by now - this Winter will be one you won't soon forget.

Barji - thank you SO much for your sweet letter. I am SO proud of you and Boyd for being SO happy in your situation and doing well in school. You have had a big adjustment to make and you have made it so beautifully - you make me feel quite guilty for being such a "wimp" during my first year of marriage in a strange place. Your pictures in our Christmas get together are SO good too.

When it was first broadcast they said there were 22 missionaries unaccounted for and I was SO grateful you were home from your mission - since then they have reported that all the missionaries are fine. I look at the pictures on television and I know you will be able to recognize many of them as being places where you were just over a year ago. I imagine the missionaries will be busy helping the people as they try to find places to live - I feel so bad for them.

I had a WONDERFUL time last week. We left here on Monday morning and drove to St. George where Ellen Mae had called our friends who are living there and we all met at Chuck A Rama for dinner - Malcolm and Marian Jeppsen, Phyllis and Swede Larsen, and Margaret and Rulon Gardner. I didn't know this had been planned and it was such a treat for me because I hadn't seen these friends for a long, long time. Phyllis has macular degeneration and is almost blind and I had heard about this but was thrilled to see her doing so well. After the dinner we went to visit with some of Ellen Mae and Mels' friends - they had come to Chuck A Rama but since he is on oxygen they didn't stay - Charles and Beth Dredge. Then we drove to Mesquite and spent the night - they have their rooms on special during the week and we spent $23 for our room and the breakfast the next morning is also very cheap and good. They do this to encourage people to spend time there and then gamble - WE DIDN'T GAMBLE!!!

Ellen Mae and Mel asked me to go on this trip last October and they wanted me to ask another single friend to be with me but I don't have a single friend who could be gone that long - I wanted to ask my neighbor Margaret but I wasn't sure she would enjoy it. I have been with them to Jackson Hole where we have been entertained by the "Bar J" singers and the chuckwagon dinners but I couldn't imagine it being fun to do that same thing for three days and three nights. They hadn't explained it very well - it was called "The Chuckwagon Country Singer Jamboree" and there were 8 different groups from all over the West and they were absolutely fabulous. Each night the program started with the "Sons of the Pioneers" singing Western songs and they played all kinds of instruments - violins, mandolins, banjos, saxophones, clarinets, accordions, etc. I don't believe I have ever heard such beautiful harmony - their voices are just unbelievable. They sang and had a lot of comedy in their programs for about four hours each night. They have these jamborees two or three times a year in different places - the one in September is going to be in South Dakota - I don't know if they are planning to go or not. You have to have reservations months in advance and they seat about 700 people each night and they come from all over the West. Many of the people who come have been supporting these programs for up to fifteen years and they become very good friends.

The woman they asked to be with me was just wonderful - she has been a friend of theirs all their married lives and she is a widow. She is 87 years old and she is phenomenal - she helped me far more than I helped her. She is just darling and as sharp a person as anyone I have ever been with. Her name is "Ella D. McGlinch" and lives in Kaysville.

We went into Nogales, Mexico and spent one afternoon and that was so much fun. It reminded me SO much of Thailand with all their little shops. Mel can't walk very far so he and Ellen Mae didn't go there - they stayed on the U. S. side. Ella D. and I went together and also four other friends from Kaysville - when we got back and showed Ellen Mae the things we had bought she wanted to go so I went back with her. Those of you who have been there know what I am writing about. We also drove all over Tucson and visited the University of Arizona campus - it has really changed since we lived in Phoenix 36 years ago. Lynn was asked to teach classes there and it was a much smaller place - we learned that the enrollment is between 30,000 and 40,000 now.

We left Tucson on Friday morning in a rainstorm - it had been just beautiful while we were there. We had planned to come home a different way but the weather forecast was for snow in Flagstaff so we came home the same way - they took us through "Kolob Canyon" and that was a treat. I believe it is part of Zion's National Park and very spectacular. We stopped in St. George Friday night and came home Saturday afternoon. A WONDERFUL TRIP. Ellen Mae and Mel are very, very special friends and I appreciate them SO much.

Michael - I thought about you when I was in Nogales and couldn't understand the people. I remember how hard that was in Thailand - is it getting easier for you to understand Italian? I'm sure each day you understand a little more. Laura and Katie told me that Brett spoke in church yesterday - that is a scary thing to do!!! I am betting you are speaking in your meetings a lot. I should send you some of the missionary quotes sent to me by my friends in Russia - it is fun to read them because they remind me of our time in Montana. Good missionaries make all the difference in the world for your Mission President - I KNOW YOU ARE A GOOD MISSIONARY!!!