January 6, 2002 Farmington, Utah

I just finished watching the family website - thank you SO much John for getting that up-to-date!!! I check it almost every day and it was good for John to send us all a message saying he had up-dated it today. I was surprised to find two parts of my letter from last week on it - I had typed the first one and then lost it so I started again - evidently it wasn't permanently lost. I have lots to learn about the computer. I LOVE to see the pictures - I have some to send but I'm wondering if the ones I send are the wrong size - let me know how I can do it differently so you can put them on easier.

Roy - THANK YOU SO MUCH for your New Year's Day phone call. I was SO thrilled that you would think about calling me and I appreciate it very, very much. TIMOTHY AND JESSE - Thank you SO much for your WONDERFUL letters - I have put them on your little bulletin boards on the wall going downstairs. I LOVE TO GET LETTERS FROM MY GRANDCHILDREN. I have talked to both Dorothy and Chris this past week and they tell me your weather is just beautiful in Little Rock - cold but pretty. I'll bet you are all back to your jobs and school and I'll also bet you are happy to have a schedule again.

I forgot to mention something about our cruise trip that I want in my journal. The security at the airport is very, very strict and Susanna forgot to take a little pocket knife out of her carry-on bag and they found it. Steve asked if he could have it and try to hide it outside so he could get it when they came back from our trip and they gave it back to him. He buried it in some dirt outside the airport and Ann wrote and told me he found it again - I think that is very enterprising and most people would have just let the guards keep it - good for you Steve!!!

I am watching "Sixty Minutes" on television and they have a special on about the Durham, North Carolina diet place where people go to lose many, many pounds. A young man they just interviewed weighs 604 pounds and he has lost 84 pounds in a month - I think how wonderful it would be if I could lose half that much and it shouldn't be too hard - Ha!!! I just came home from having dinner with the Weinerts and Jeannie's food was just fabulous - ham, funeral potatoes, rolls with peach jam, spinach salad and buttermilk pie. I just about told them I couldn't come have dinner with them and I probably would have done except that I wanted to see Ricky and Mary Ann before they went back to school. I'm going to be very serious about this from now on - Margaret called me yesterday and said she had bought me a pizza at the sourdough pizza place in Bountiful - I convinced her that I was NOT going to eat it so that's a start!!! I LOVE food and people LOVE to see me eat but I must be smart and lose weight!!!

Annie - thank you SO much for the pictures you took on the cruise. I will send you copies of the ones I took - I'll scan the best ones and send to John for the web site. I think the ones I took turned out good. Claire is the photographer in the family - I can't believe the pictures she thinks about taking. I didn't even think about taking pictures of the background from the ship and they are SO good. I'm SO glad you have student teachers at Davis High - hope I get to see LOTS of you this Semester.

Claire - thank you SO much for the pictures of Bob helping Katie with her science project. I am anxious to hear what her project is. I think it is WONDERFUL for the Fathers in my family to help their children with all kinds of projects. The pictures show that Bob is very serious about what they are doing.

Congratulations to Jeannie - she has been called to be the Young Women's President in their ward. That is such an honor and it is also a very time consuming job. It will be SO good for her to be able to work with Sarah in her auxiliary - I have always thought that parents should serve where their children are if they can.

I keep hoping we will have a recent letter from Russell - I'm SO happy his family has been able to talk to him though. I don't know why but I keep thinking of Fanning Island and comparing it to Madagascar - it is much, much smaller but quite remote and they don't even have electricity. Michael - you are surely experiencing just about everything they have in Italy and I'm SO glad you have been transferred to a more L.D.S. responsive town.

I continue to hear from my Thailand friends. Lamchuan writes that she is going to come see me again this Spring and she plans to bring Somjit with her - it will be more fun if they both come. I also hear from former Montana Billings Mission missionaries who plan to come see me during the Olympics. I think it's neat they keep up with me.