September 3, 2001 Farmington, Utah

Claire - thank you for the darling picture of Bob, Laura and the young woman from Italy. Michael is teaching the Father of a family in Italy - the Mother and her daughter are members and the daughter is a student at Utah State so Laura has become acquainted with her and Bob and Claire met them at the Maddox restaurant yesterday. She is a pianist and Claire says she practices seven hours a day and would like to be accepted into the Julliard School of Music - she is a beautiful young woman. I think it is SO special for them to have this experience - a real coincidence for Michael to be transferred to a city where he would meet this family. Laura is also a beautiful young woman and she loves school and is happy in Logan!!! Bob and Claire came over last night and we had such a good visit. I bought a screen door guard and the clerk at Lowes told me it would be very easy to screw into the door - HA!!!! Bob is going to come over today and put it on for me and he said he would also teach me how to use the Makita electric screw driver. I dropped into their home last Wednesday night and arrived just in time for their "family scripture study" time - I was SO impressed to find they do this every single night before going to bed - I should go to their home every night about 9 o'clock because I need it much more than they do!!! Brett is on the Davis High School Junior Varsity Ice Hockey team - he is a natural for that game - Ha!!! Roy - didn't you play indoor hockey for Hall? I remember going to some of your games and they looked terribly dangerous.

Rick and Jean - thank you SO much for the WONDERFUL drive yesterday afternoon. Mary Ann - I have missed you and it was SO good to have a little visit while we were driving. Mary Ann loves school and even though she has only been there for a week she is already meeting lots of new friends and liking her classes. Mary Ann had gone to Bear Lake with Jessie one day last week to go "tubing" on the lake and she said they had so much fun - Jessie has a friend who has a boat and even though the water was very cool they enjoyed it. Mary Ann said they kept expecting to find ice on the lake - Ha!!! Sarah had a friend with her and the six of us drove to Eden and Huntsville - I had been there before but it had probably been about thirty years ago. Boyd's parents have built a BEAUTIFUL home in Eden and we stopped to say hello but they didn't come to the door - we decided they were visiting in their back yard and couldn't hear the doorbell. Sarah had helped them move in last week and she said the home is just GORGEOUS on the inside with about a dozen bedrooms to accommodate all their grandchildren. Eden is a very beautiful place and not far away - it only takes about 40 minutes to get there. We then drove to Huntsville and what an interesting place that is - we drove by the birth place of President David O McKay and I LOVED seeing that. It isn't a museum but someone must live there because it is kept up so nicely and it has a huge yard. Then we went to the Catholic monastery and I will think about that for a long time. It was fun to hear Jeannie explain to her girls about that place and we decided we want to go there some time and visit their bakery and buy some bread or something. I admire Sarah SO much - she sets her alarm every morning for 4:30 to get to school by 5 a.m. so she can practice with her D'Ette group - THAT IS REAL COMMITMENT!!! They practice in the morning so they can come home right after school instead of practicing in the afternoon. Jeannie said Sarah and her friend, Nicole, could have slept all day yesterday if she had let them. Ricky went to Moab with some friends whose parents own a cabin there and will go back to school tomorrow.

John - thank you for your letters during the week. I LOVE to hear from you and I'm looking forward to checking on the Grandma B web site. Did you ever receive the picture I sent to you of Lela and me on that old car in Lehi? We were both in our early teens and it is a favorite of mine. When Roy and Patrice took me to Lehi we visited the old family home there and I gave the man who came to "check us out" a little money so they would send me some pictures they said they had found in the home. I haven't received them yet but I hope I do so they can be included on the web site. They would be REAL genealogy pictures!!! I'm SO glad you are doing good!!!

I was THRILLED to read the letter Ron sent to all of us from Russell. It sounds to me like he is very happy and enjoying the other missionaries serving with him. I will be anxious to hear more about the kinds of foods he is eating - you know me - FOOD IS VERY IMPORTANT!!! I laughed and laughed about his Malagasy language problems - he will pick that up very soon and he'll probably forget his English - Ha!!! It's wonderful that Russell could play a guitar with the young men they found on the street - a GREAT missionary tool. Thank you Ron for helping all of us learn about Madagascar - I know that takes a lot of time.

I wish Timothy and Jesse were here this morning to go swimming with me - I regret that I didn't spend more time with them while they were here. Emily - I also regret that I didn't hear you play your flute - Claire said you played a drum and flute duet with Brett and you are GOOD!!! You need to spend an entire Summer with me sometime. I want to hear about Joan and her husbands' adoption plans - I hope SO much that works out good for them. I know you're all anxious for Liz and her husband to have their baby and I want to hear about that too. Give Suzie my love!!!