Letter #85
October 5, 2008
Dear Elder Roper,
Another week? Where is time going? Did you get to watch/hear much of conference? I’m looking
forward to the next conference in April when you and I can attend the priesthood session together. It was a long
way for Rich to drive and Derek’s brother wanted to go with him, so it was Golden and I drove to the stake
center Saturday night. Golden’s dad and brothers met us there and afterwards, they invited me over to their
home for Lasagna. Linda, Gina, Jessica, and Kelly went to Heaps for supper – the Thomas girls to Mimi’s.
Probably a funny night for the restaurant business – all women until 8:00 pm and then all men! I very much
enjoyed the priesthood session and thought about the great work you are doing. When the Provo MTC choir
sang, I felt so blessed to be part of the Lord’s church and deeply moved by our missionary program. How did
you like President Monson’s joke about the missionary who said he couldn’t learn Spanish? (As you recall, the
MTC president put the missionary in a Japanese class for a day – cured that missionary’s doubts in a hurry!) I
do think Spanish was the language of conference this time. I so enjoyed every talk.
Liz, Jared, and family visited us this past
weekend. Monday, Jared taught his dad’s Book of
Mormon religion classes. The religion department
video taped all the classes and I guess, will use them
to evaluate Jared’s application to teach at BYU
someday. I was able to attend Jared’s 11:00 am
class with Liz and he did a great job. He couldn’t
have been assigned harder chapters – yup, Isaiah!
But, I must tell you, I came away wanting probably
for the first time, to go study Isaiah – so, Jared must
have done a real bang up job! We had everyone
over for supper that evening. Gina and I were a bit
late getting home as we had to stop by Harmon’s for hamburger meat and the fix’ns. Eating outside was so nice
and it may be the last time for this year as storms moved in on Thursday.
Tuesday morning, Jared and Liz attended
Keith Lowe and Amber Jorgenson’s wedding and
then headed back to Arizona. It was a short visit for
them but we’ll have them anytime. The grandkids are
growing and Avery is scooting all over the place.
Drew still wants airplane stuff and Carley loves
Nancy Drew. Madison and Katlyn look a lot alike to
me, but have very different personalities. We’ll miss
them. I had a help session to teach that evening and
then Linda drove down to pick Gina and I up to go to
the wedding reception at the Provo Library. I had
taken the minivan into the shop to get it inspected. If
Gina could get out of here chamber rehearsal on Friday, we were going to drive to Idaho to visit Amanda. But,
as it turned out, Cory Katseanes didn’t want her to leave and the minivan wouldn’t be done until Wednesday.
($500 bill!) We barely made it to the reception and then Linda, Gina, and I went to Heaps for a light supper –
say, that’s twice this week for Linda and Gina! Linda spent much of the day helping Jessica get their old
apartment cleaned and then had young women’s that evening.
Wednesday and Thursday was spent getting Jessica and Golden moved in. Their room downstairs (the
chocolate room) looks very nice and although there is still stuff left to do, it’s very livable. I felt very badly
about not going up to visit Amanda, Jeff, and the kids. I left the dirty work to Linda to call as I was really sad,
although it really helped me out with school stuff – what a mixed bag! It’s Amelia’s birthday on Tuesday and
so I dropped by the bookstore and found so many cool things for her. Linda also bought some clothes for her
on Saturday and so now, we just have to choose what to send. I really miss them!
BYU played Utah State Friday evening because of conference. I jokingly told Golden that I was
disappointed in BYU – they only had 14 points after 3 plays. BYU went on to lead Utah State 24-0 after the 1st
quarter, but really didn’t do much else after that. In fact, BYU’s scoreless quarter stream of 11 came to an end
when Utah State scored twice in the 4th. (The polls didn’t treat BYU nicely either as they dropped to 8 and 9
this weekend.) Gina had a date that evening, so I drove to Walmart and purchase the new release of “Iron
Man”, which we stayed up late to watch – pretty good flick!
Saturday and Sunday were filled with
conference. During the break on today (Sunday),
we loaded up in Golden’s truck and drove up to
Cascade Springs. Golden tried to go up the Deer
Creek road, but it has rained for the past two days
and the road was impassable even for Golden. I
could tell his pride was hurt, but his better judgment
showed as we turned around (backed down, I mean),
and drove to Heber and from there up to the springs.
What a beautiful day – clouds, crisp temperatures,
and the leaves where still spectacular! We really
enjoyed getting out and listened to conference on the
way home.
Well, that’s about all that’s happened around
here. Thanks for telling us more about your area.
Still hot down there? We all read your letter’s
several times and enjoyed hearing about your “water
splashing” adventure. Remember to stop and take a
few pictures now and then. What would you like for
Christmas? (Can you believe it’s getting that time
again?) Actually, I’m feeling the fall sensations
right now – you know, Halloween and
Thanksgiving. We have 4 or 5 pumpkin’s in our
garden – darn things are still green though! What
holidays do you all have left? Did you get your apartment
cleaned up? Do you have warm water? A telephone?
Where do you go for internet access? I haven’t checked you
account lately – haven’t been able to get online with
AmBank this past month – I’ll do that this week. How are
your shoes, pants, and shirts holding up? What an amazing
story about your contacts, but I’m amazed you’ve been able
to keep them all this time. (We’ll make sure you get lasik
sometime.) How are your journals holding up? Still
have pages left? Do you read the scriptures in
Spanish? Is the value of the peso still inflating?
How much do you get a month? Is it enough? What
do you spend your allowance on? Is your
companion’s family members? So much to ask –
just want to know you are well and happy. We pray
for you always. I know the church is true and that
Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. Take care.
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Love, Dad
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