June 9, 2002 Farmington, Utah

The big news for this week is MICHAEL IS COMING HOME!!! We're SO proud of you Michael for serving such a successful and happy mission and now we're all ready to welcome you home and hear your report. You have been SO good to write and I feel as though I have learned alot about Italy as well as about some of your missionary contacts and baptisms - I want to hear more about your friend, Allessandro. Your family will greet you at the airport and since the church authorities have asked the people going to meet their missionaries to limit the numbers, I will not be there but your Mom said it would be okay to go to your home just to say "hello" later so I will come to give you a hug about 10 p.m. I know you could do without that but I couldn't!!!

Bob and Brett came over yesterday to "jump start" the 4-wheeler and we talked about Michael coming home and they're excited. Margaret's family came over and got their things from my garage so I have "uncovered" the 4-wheeler and other things that have been hidden for three years - they had forgotten their things were even here until Jeannie reminded them after Bob threatened to take them to D.I. - Ha!!! It kinda' reminded me of when Janie Bass found a good sale on meat at the grocery store she would buy alot and since they didn't have a freezer she would put it all in ours and then she would forget it - we still had some when we moved from Little Rock about five years after she had died. I'll try to find the things I need to get the 4-wheeler registered and licensed and maybe if there is time while the Roy Mellors are here their children will enjoy riding it at the farm.

I am going to go to Park City with Margaret in a little while and I told her I would have to be home to greet Michael so we are coming home on Thursday. It's really quite cold here today, in the 50's, so I'm sure it will be cool up there too. It is always fun to go there and just "goof off" with friends. We are having a very different Spring/Summer weatherwise - HOT one week and COLD the next.

John - thanks for your phone call - it was good to talk to you on your birthday. I haven't talked to you for a long time - I know I am on the computer alot when you have tried to call. I listen to all the New York news and the latest is that people living there are going to buy pills or something to help with any nuclear attacks!!! WOW - are we ever living in a different world from when I grew up - I don't even like to think of what to expect next. I wish you could be home for Lake Powell, the reunion and other things.

Weinerts - I'm SO happy to learn that Ricky's health is good and his doctors will help him stay that way. I'm sorry you have had such a challenging time with "cars". The car Sarah was driving became incapacitated as she and Barji were coming home from Provo a couple weeks ago and then last week Jeannie took some young women from their ward to Temple Square and someone backed into their Celsus (is that right?) and just drove off. Things like that come in "spurts". Jeannie gave a baby shower a couple weeks ago for a young Taiwanese woman in their ward who had a little baby boy. This lady was in the temple yesterday with her husband and I hadn't realized how small those Oriental people are - they are a darling couple and SO sweet!!!

I haven't heard from the Woolleys this week - I believe Annie will be through teaching soon and then she will have time to "catch up" and get ready for a very busy and exciting Summer - Lake Powell, first grandchild, etc., etc. When I think about my daughters and daughters in law and their busy lives it makes me grateful I am as old as I am - I couldn't keep up their paces now.

I'm thrilled the Roy Mellors are coming to go to Lake Powell and be with me for a little while. I am available to help you in any way I can so let me know - my home is your home!!!

I had a fun week last week - I really keep busier than I like but then that is better than the alternative. I worked in the temple one day to "pay back" for the substitute who helped me. Another day a couple in the ward took me to "Maddox" for lunch - their food is just delicious but I always eat too much and my favorite is chicken fried steak - high in calories!!! I also spent alot of time going through some of Lynn's "prized possessions" in the garage - rusty nails, electrical wiring, glues, glues and more glues, etc., etc. I didn't dare throw anything away so I put it all in a big plastic box for anyone to go through who wants to - I did throw away alot of the glues since they were all hard.

I think Mark Pinegar has done a good job with the Mellor Reunion and I hope SO much that it is successful. I must call him by Friday, the 14th, to let him know who from our family will attend. I would like to go and I hope some of you will go with me.

Everyone in Utah and most of the nation have been heartsickened by the news of the kidnapping in Salt Lake of a 14 year old young woman. The area where she lived is close to where Ida Smith (the Smith grocery food family) lives and I am familiar with that nice neighborhood. My first thought was of my two beautiful granddaughters who are also 14 years old and my other beautiful grand

daughters and I pray constantly that you will all be extra, extra careful and remember the counsel of the police officer who was interviewed concerning this - if anything like this should ever happen to you, SCREAM BLOODY MURDER!!! I hope SO much that there will be news soon that they have found her alive. The people in Utah have surely supported the Smart family and there have been so many volunteers they have covered all area where she lived and the surrounding canyons and they have also had pilots of helicopters volunteering their services, trained dogs and horses besides humans. It is just UNBELIEVABLE!!!

Russell - I LOVED your last letter and couldn't help but think you are experiencing REAL missionary life. I know you won't ever take that rejection personally but it still hurts doesn't it? I remember one time when a group of men came into the Mission Home in Billings to talk to Lynn because they felt it was their "DUTY" to warn him about the Mormon Church - he handled them much like the way you handled your "Friends". You're doing a GREAT job>