Dearest Family,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MARY ANN ON THURSDAY - WOW -
THIS IS THE BIG TWO ZERO!!! I hope you have a WONDERFUL day on Thursday and
maybe go have a hamburger with David or something. It's thrilling for me to
see the two of you together - you have so many things to decide and
accomplish during the next couple months and I love to hear about your
plans.
Jessie - Thank you SO much for your very, very
nice card from San Diego. It pleases me SO much to learn that some members
of my family actually read my weekly news letters - Ha!!! I think about you
SO often and I keep thinking you will be dropping in to spend the night -
that was such a happy time for me when you lived in Logan and would come see
me over a weekend and I hope you will do that again sometime. I'm glad you
like San Diego, your school, your ward and all your new friends - I
personally think you are very brave to be doing what you are doing. It
takes ALOT of courage to leave the safety of your home, your family, old
friends and familiar places and I'm very proud of you. I hope you are
coming home for Thanksgiving and will come see me!!!
John - Thank you SO much for all your help at
the Montana Billings Mission Reunion on Friday night. That was such a bonus
for me and I appreciate it very, very much - it was so funny, as I greeted
some of the missionaries when they came into the church they asked me "Is
Johnny here"? Most of the ones who came lived in the home with him and they
were good pals!!! David Taylor organized the reunion and he did an
excellent job - his wife is also a GREAT help. They reserved their ward
building and since they knew there would be some little children they had
some videos in the nursery and that was a big help. They had tables set up
in their Relief Society room with floral decorations on them for people to
sit for refreshments and then tables where we put many mission albums and
scrap books and they had two slide projectors set up in the cultural hall
for the mission slides. I was SO impressed and pleased with the
missionaries who came - four of them flew up from Arizona just for that
night and one missionary brought his wife and four little children from
Enterprise, Utah which is five hours away and then they had to rent a motel
in Provo to spend the night. We had a missionary whose father died while he
was on his mission and I have worried about him for the last fifteen years -
he was from Hawaii and I felt so bad for him because he decided to stay on
his mission and not go home for his funeral. He came and he is such an
outstanding young man - married to a beautiful Hawaiian woman and has two
children and he doesn't live very far from me. All in all it was such a
fantastic experience for me and John was the "frosting on the cake". He
served the ice cream and then cleaned up after it was all over and took all
my "stuff" to my car - THANK YOU, THANK YOU JOHN!!!
This has been such a WONDERFUL day for me. It
was our church General Conference and most of my Utah family came for dinner
and to watch the afternoon session - we REALLY missed John, Laura and Bren,
the Roy Mellors and Russell. Ann, Ron, Jimmy, Lee Anna, Susanna, Steve and
Baby Jackson came from Provo; Jean, Rick, Ricky, Sarah, Mary Ann & David,
and Barji & Boyd and Baby Preston came from Logan & Farmington; Bob,
Claire, Laura, Brett and Katie came from Logan and Layton. We sat in my
television room to watch the conference and we were all "bunched up
together" and there was a spirit with us that is hard to describe - it
reminded me of what the Celestial Kingdom will be like only with ALL my
family together and I'm "counting on it"!!! I LOVED the conference as usual
- it seemed to me that the speakers emphasized family unity more this time.
President Hinckley is such an outstanding leader. Can you imagine having to
have a ticket to attend in the conference center where they can seat 20,000
people? Ron received two tickets for the Saturday afternoon session so he
and Ann were able to watch it in person - SPECIAL!
Annie is running an "exciting" campaign for her
school board office and it was fun to hear her tell about some experiences
she is having with her opponent. She says she will NEVER do anything like
this again - I'm SO proud of you Ann for participating in the community
affairs where you live. We all enjoyed her "Will's Pit Stop Story" - I
could never descibe it the way she told it but it is a perfect example of
what politics is all about and I guess it will never change. We're all
pulling for you Annie!!! The election will be on November 5 and I know she
will be happy when it is over.
The "babies" stole the show today and I hope my
pictures turn out. Two little babies so close in age and they are simply
darling - WHAT A TREAT for me to have them here today. It is so much fun to
see Susanna & Steve and Barji & Boyd in their roles as parents - they
couldn't have more beautiful babies!!! Boyd is looking for a warmer place
to live during the Winter so he can practice his golf more and Steve is
interviewing for a good position with an investment company in Phoenix - I
personally don't want them to move away from Utah but Arizona would be a
perfect place for both families - we LOVED it when we lived there. It is
difficult for me to think of Ann & Jean as Grandmothers and Ron & Rick as
Grandfathers but it is very natural when I am with them.
It was good to be with Ricky - I am SO proud of
him. He is enjoying his school at Logan and working hard. Jeannie came
over to visit tonight and she told me how independent he is. Laura is doing
the same and she gets prettier every day. I missed having Michael come over
- he had brought some friends home from school so they didn't come over.
Sarah was late in coming over because she was catching up on her homework -
she's so fun to have because she likes my Thai carrot salad - Ha!!! Lee
Anna says she likes BYU - she is SO pretty too and fun to be with. Katie,
Brett and Jimmy like to "do their thing" and didn't stick around for very
long - BUT THAT' S OKAY!!!
I have had a fun week - David came over one
afternoon to visit with me about the reunion. I went to Provo one day to
get the ice cream for the reunion - I like to get their 3 gallon containers
but now I have LOTS of ice cream left over!!! It is hard to know what to do
because I knew there would be lots of children - if I had it to do over
again I would have bought less ice cream and some meat and sandwich trays -
OH WELL!!! I drove around our property in Lehi and you wouldn't believe all
the building going on - it makes me sad when I think of all the farm land
going into homes!!!
I am going to Murray in the morning to be with
my brother Don so his wife can go on a little vacation for a couple days.
She surely does need to get away and I'm happy to help but Don doesn't much
want a "baby sitter" and I guess I don't blame him. I think he is doing
good but he can't be alone for very long.
That's all the news - I LOVE EACH ONE OF YOU SO
VERY, VERY MUCH. PLEASE BE SO VERY, VERY CAREFUL IN EVERYTHING YOU DO.
Grandma B XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO