Faith, Family and Farm

22 June 1997 Dear Mother: We're into the quiet zone of summer. However, we're going to Idaho next week to visit Mary and Jeff and their girls. Then we're planning to swing back through Tremonton and pick up Melinda's oldest two daughters, Rachel and Tess, and bring them back for a visit. Janet and the boys had a yard sale in town with a friend last Friday and Saturday. They seemed to have fun and got a few dollars for their efforts. Last night the boys went to Merced to a stake dance. Charlie had a vacation from his bee job last week, so Janet has been working him and Sam pretty good here at home. Charlie won a 3 month membership at the racquet club in LB. He went in a played racquet ball with his friends last week. I hope you're doing well. Love, Robert, Janet, Charlie and Sam. PS Here's another little essay: Once, as I was watching my son's baseball game, he was playing third baseman when the batter hit a hard ground ball to him. It was the...

8 June 1997 Dear Mother, We got a new missionary in Chowchilla today. He is from Mexico. He'll be a big help to the Spanish program there. Charlie graduated last Thursday night. It was nice. The temp was in the eighties and the talks were short. A boy in the Chowchilla branch, who is 19 and graduating, wanting to go on a mission but not having any money, won a $2500 cash prize at Sober Graduation the night after his graduation. Both boys are out of school now. Charlie has a little rest before his work starts with the beekeeper. Sam is working as the grounds keeper at the dental office. Janet and I picked up Megan and Travis on our way to the temple yesterday. They told us all about their trip to NYC. They were really excited about it. A convert baptism from Dos Palos is happening this afternoon at the chapel in Los Banos. Janet and the boys have been taking him to church for the past few weeks, while the elders have been giving him the lessons. I had an assignment from the...

15 June 1997 Dear Mother,  It’s Father’s Day. We had a good program at church today. They gave the fathers a little box of See’s Candy, (two pieces) to each father. I can't eat chocolate (breaks my mouth out in canker sores), so I had to give it to Janet. Where’s the justice? She got Mother’s day…and the Father day favors.   The Hixon family were the program. It was great. By the time his family was done with their tributes, I was convinced that Bern has done a great job of fathering. They did a nice little musical number with Cheryle and Emily singing a duet and Amy playing the flute and Vern Playing the piano.  We had stake early morning priesthood and young women’s meeting this morning. They asked Meg to come down from Turlock to speak to the young women as a newlywed.  Charlie started his Bee job last week. He got stung 2 or 3 times each day. He doesn’t think it’s macho to wear long sleeves. It’s tough to be tough.  Sam interviewed for a counselor posit...

31 May 1997 Dear Mother, I finally got to go to Los Banos to church this Sunday. I felt like a stranger. I go to Chowchilla branch alot more than I do my own ward, Los Banos. That was fun. We've been gorging on fruit lately. Janet isn't keeping ahead of the peaches. And the big apricots up by the canal are ripening faster than we can eat them. I really miss having 8 or 9 kids around to help harvest the fruit. I think of Pete every time I go past my blackberry patch. He and Megan liked them the best of the kids. Megan and Travis were down last weekend and made a couple of blackberry pies...one for her and one for us. Did you know that Meg and Travis took a trip back to NYC for a week. (Back to his old mission area. As a matter of fact they stayed four nights in the mission home.) They should be getting back this weekend. We're anxious to get their report. I'm planting a big watermelon patch again this summer. I don't know why, no one is coming home at harvest...

18 May 1997 Dear Mother,                 We’re eating fruit and I love it. We’ve been picking black berries, peaches, plums, a few cherries (bad pollination this year) and loquats (four). I also picked my first little ripe tomatoes yesterday from one of my vines. I really love the fruit here in the San Joaquin valley. I’m not as positive about triple digit weather in May. I heard that it was over 100 F yesterday.                 We have a heavy crop of grapes this year.                 Charlie is done with sports. That really seems different to have him coming home after school.                 Janet and I went to Oakland to the temple yesterday.      ...

1 May 1997 Dear Mother,                 I hope you had a nice mother’s day.                 I went to our ward today for Mother's day. The bishop does the reverence interlude at the start of sacrament meeting the best I’ve ever seen. It really lends a spirit to the meeting. It was a great meeting. They were all great talks and all from a different angle.                 Then there was a little mother-daughter singing group led by Amy Hixon (an eleven year old girl). I had tears in my eyes most of the meeting.                 Megan and Travis came for Mother’s day. We all met at Cory Nielsen’s reception last night in Merced, then they came home with us and stayed til this aftern...

27 April 1997 Dear Mother,                 We just finished a big weekend. Charlie was invited to a prom in Turlock. Megan’s little sister in law, Hillary, invited him. They borrowed a tux for him, but in his rush to get there after school (it’s 50 miles away) he left the box with the cummerbund and tie at home, so when he went to get dressed, after he arrived in Turlock, he was in a tux with no tie or cummerbund. They ended up borrowing one from a girl who sang in a group which wore black bow ties and cummerbunds for their performances. So it all worked out okay. The next day was our stake youth conference which was being held up in the mountains north of Mariposa. So he stayed in Turlock Friday night then got up early enough to be in Mariposa. So he stayed in Turlock Friday night then got up early enough to be in Mariposa by 8:30 AM (60 miles away).         ...

22 March 1997 Dear Mother,                 Things are warming up pretty well here. It looks like we have a good fruit set this year on the stone fruit. The aphids are showing up on the new leaves. I sprayed yesterday for them.                 I’ve been watering our lawn and fixing the sprinklers trying to get the yard ready for Pete’s open house. Lots of work left to do.                 Janet had to go into surgery last Thursday to have a kidney stone removed that was blocking her ureter. She came home that night. Megan came down from Turlock to be with her before surgery. She is really sore and uncomfortable but mending normally and feeling better each day. We’re hoping that she’s back to normal by the time we leave for Pete’s wedding in a week and a h...

17 March 1997 Dear Mother,                 We went to Turlock Sunday to spend the day with Megan and Travis. I didn’t have a High Council assignment so it worked out well.                 Charlie and Sam got to meet some new girls. We also stayed for a musical presentation put on by the Turlock stake called "The Garden." We had a good time.                 Janet has been having trouble with a kidney stone that is stuck in the ureter for the past two weeks. She’ll probably have it removed surgically on Thursday. She’s been going through quite abit of discomfort with it.                 The stake “name extraction” program that I’m in charge of has really slowed down. Salt Lake ha...

23 Feb 1997 Dear Mother, I got a letter from your great grandson, Per, last week. He sent a photo. It was fun hearing from him. This morning we had ward conference where Bishop Edler gave a great talk. I was talking to Sister Edler and she said that Phillip, their son who's on a mission to South America, had had his bike stolen at gun point. That sounds like alittle more excitement than he may have had in mind. I think Bishop Edler is one of the greatest bishops I've ever been involved with. He exudes love, warmth, commitment and concern whenever he talks. Charlie took one of his non-member friends on the basketball team to a stake dance aweek ago. After the dance he said that he wanted to go to the Priest-Laurel activity that they announced for this week. So Charlie took him to that last night in Turlock. Then he said he wanted to go to church with him today, so we took him to ward conference. We couldn't have picked a better day to go to church. Bishop Edler...

18 Feb 1997 Dear Mother, I got a letter from Jason Jones (your great grandson) on his mission in Tennessee. It was really fun hearing from him. He said that he got the Rudger Clawson award for memorizing 250 verses of scripture and reading "Marvelous Work and a Wonder," "Articles of Faith," "New Testament" "D and C" "P of GP", Etc. That is a great accomplishment. He was really thrilled about his sisters pregnancies and his folks coming to pick him up from his mission in May. I'm a slacker. I haven't even accompanied my missionary kids to the MTC. I just send them and meet them at the airport. Things are going pretty well for us. We're trying to figure out how to best deal with Pete's upcoming marriage in April. All that travel is difficult and expensive...to say nothing of the reception expense. He wants a reception here a week later. We'll probably hold an open house here in our home. Charlie's last ba...

11 Jan 1997 Dear Mother, The big talk around this part of California these days is the flood damage that came as a result of that war, storm system a couple of weeks ago, that dumped all that warm rain and melted a big snow pack. It did a lot of damage along the rivers. Yosemite Park was hit hard. It washed out the roads out of the park and stranded 500 people in the park where the valley floor was flooded and the sewer lines broke, emptying into the Merced river. They airlifted drinking water and chemical toilets to them. The park is closed and they are saying it might be months before it opens. That park is a big tourist attraction and alot of towns,, like Mariposa, receive a lot of their income from tourists. Now, this week, the tail end of the flooding is accumulating in the valley and Tulare Lake, which is almost a dry lake bed usually is filling up and flooding acres (actually, several square miles) of prime ag land. This past week has been clear, but the fog settled in. ...

9 Feb 1997 Dear Mother, We're about back to normal after Megan's wedding. We had a fun visit with Susie and Laurie for two days after. They didn't go back until Tuesday. Megan had two friends from Ricks College come and stay with us and go to the wedding. One of them was from Oregon City, Oregon. Her name was Sandra (Sam)...I can't remember the last name. The other was from Pennsylvania. Her name was Audrey Chiopelli. She was on her way to the MTC and a mission to temple square in SLC. After Pete got back to BYU, he called and told us to get ready for another wedding. They plan to get married in Salt Lake Temple on April 4, 1997. So now we have that to look forward to. He's marrying Jessica Nelson. Her parents live in Las Vegas now, but she grew up around Ogden or somewhere in the Salt Lake valley. Charlie missed the open house for Meg's wedding in Turlock, because he was playing a basketball game against Washington Union. They got beat by about 50 poi...

84 25 Jan 1997 Dear Mom,                 Sam was asked by the coach to do score keeping. He has been going to the basketball games and doing score keeping. He gets to travel with the team to the out of twon games. It’s being fun for him.                 Yesterday I heard an infomercial on TV pushing a mega speed reading course. I was intrigued with one of his metaphors. I’ve always wanted to be able to read faster because reading at the speed I’m programmed to read at is tedious, slow and boring. But, I cant seem to take the step smooth;y into the faster lane. Anyway this guy said, when he reads he makes movies. As I think about what he said it dawned on me that the alternative was to make audio tapes. When I read the way I learned to read it’s like I hear an audio tape in my head saying the words I read as I read them.  ...

Dear Mom, Did you hear? Chowchilla was hit by a tornado yesterday. How's that for an unusual weather incident in the San Joaquin valley? It did quite abit of damage. We're having some dramatic weather in California this year. You've probably heard about the heavy rains and flooding. Some place up by Redding got 17 inches of rain in 48 hours. I'd like to see a rain storm like tht someday. I never have. But through it all Dos Palos has stayed  quiet and uneventful. Our total rainfall for the month is something like 3 or 4 inches. They have postponed the pruning of the vineyard for two Saturday because of rain. It's been so warm that the vines are starting to but before they've been pruned. We had Heidi and Carrie's farewell today at church. I thought they really gave good talks and sang a beautiful duet. Tonight they're having a fireside at our house and Carrie and Heidi are going to speak. Thy're flying back to Utah next Saturday. Heidi goes in ...

29 Dec 1996 Dear Mother, I hope you had a nice Christmas. I took Pete back to the airport last Thursday. He brought his latest love, Jessica Nilson, home for us to meet then took her back to the airport on Monday before Christmas so she could be with her family on Christmas. He seems to like her real well. She was a nice looking and pleasant girl. He left early to go to her home and visit them after Christmas. My trip taking him to the airport was a 7 and 1/2 hour experience. I could have driven to Las Vegas (where she lives) in eight hours. I don't know if I'm going to live through this airport Christmas shuttle experience. We had to do some things for Pete and drop Megan off in Turlock on the way. Then we hit heavy rain after we crossed the mountains into the bay area. The airport was jammed four lanes wide, bumper to bumper, stop and go, and I had to make two passes to get close to the curb to drop him off. On the way home it was rainging so hard and it was so dark tha...

Dear Mother: I hope spring is starting to come in Utah for you. Laurie told Janet, yesterday, that she has been hired to speak at EFY, Lawrence, KS the first and 2nd of August. I knew that she applied for the spot since they were having it in her home town. I think she's pretty excited about it. Charlie worked all during spring vacation for a bee keeper. He offered him a job for the summer, too. He's pretty happy about that. It beats chopping cotton. It is quite interesting and pays more. The Explorer age boys, under the supervision of Stuart Schofield, have a service project (merit badge also) of making a movie with Johnny Beere as the star. Do you remember Melba Beere, a widow with a mentally impaired son named Johnny who lived here in Dos Palos and went to our ward when you were here? She's  about 90 years old and he's in his fifties. You know how he's been wanting to have a play (based on the old TV show "GUNSMOKE,) for the last 26 years. They'r...

11 Nov 1996 Dear Mother, This weekend was Stake Conference. I spoke yesterday in the priesthood session on the subject of how busy church leaders can be better fathers to their children. I have some beg cottonwood trees up by the canal in my pasture. One of them had three trunks. Last spring one of the trunks split off and fell during a wind storm. Subsequently, the other two split off and fell through the summer and ending with the last one about two weeks ago. The center was hollow. The tree was about five feet in diameter. I've been anticipating having to go cut it up and fix the fence it fell on, but have been waiting until the weather cooled a little. Yesterday morning was the time I had fixed on to have Charlie help me move the pieces I had sawed up and stack them. I am not strong enough to lift some of them. Charlie had a ball game the night before and was up late and wanting to sleep in, but I had to be done by noon to get ready to go to conference. So I went up early...

3 Nov. 1996 Dear Mother, How is everything going? Last week I did a lot of traveling. We went to Stanford on Monday for a doctor's appointment. I dislike that freeway congestion enough to keep me away from the bay area traffic for long periods of time, but last week I got caught up. Then on Friday, we went to Oakland to the temple. After the temple we went to Sacramento to see Carrie and the BYU Ballroom Dance Company perform at the Civic Center. It was a spectacular show. We talked to Carrie awhile before and after. Then we drove back to DP. Janet actually drove most of the way back while I slept in the camper shell. Carrie and her group were to go on to Oakland for another performance on Saturday night. We could have gone to that and saved the trip to Sacramento, but we didn't want to get back late on Saturday night then have to get up and go to church duties. The dance team was going back to Provo Saturday night after the show, so it was just a weekender for them. ...

4 Oct 1996 Dear Mother,                 We Just got back from seeing conference on the satellite at the chapel. Yesterday, I spent 10 hours in the stake center watching conference. I didn’t leave between sessions. I just relaxed and read on the sofa in the foyer between sessions. It was great to bask in the quietude of the spirit like that. I have my kids go to all five sessions. They went out  on the breaks, however. I really think it is important for them to hear conference and feel the spirit. I have this little gimmick for getting them to pay attention. I give a “pop” Quiz at the end of the day. It’s called a “pop” quiz because I give them a two liter bottle of pop if they score above 70% I have a double purpose in this; I want to reinforce the ideas as well as get them to hear them the first time.                 I came...

27 Oct. 1996 Dear Mother, I hope you’re doing well. My persimmons are ripe. The pomegranates are too. The cotton is about 2/3 harvested. Charlie won 2 nd place in the county in the Anti-Drug Poster contest. We’re supposed to go to a banquet for it tomorrow. I don’t know if we’ll get back in time. We’re going to Palo Alto then Oakland to the temple first. Carrie’s dance group is touring in CA this week end. We’re planning to see her in Sacramento. Love, Robert, Janet, Charlie and Sam

28 Sept 1996 Dear Mother,                 How are you doing?                 The weather is a strange thing. In the early summer when the temperature first hits the 90’s it seems so hot. Then as it proceeds up to the 100’s it seems overwhelming at first, but as the days go on it gets to kind of seeming usual. Then when it goes to 110 I find myself thinking, “That wasn't much different than 100. As it cools back to the 90’s it seems like fall is here and the weather is pleasant again.                 We are really missing the watermelons. It was hot so long that the melons all ripened early and are all gone now.                 The world around Dos Palos smells like cotton defoli...

15 August 1996 Dear Mother,                 For the last two Sundays I haven’t been able to get to my computer so I’m behind on my letter writing. But it was for a good reason. We have had a wonderful family reunion. My kids with their families started coming with Heidi Jo’s return from her mission on the 31 st of July. Then Susie and Paul and kids came the next day, then Melinda and Dan and kids. Then Laurie and her baby returned with Charlie, on the airplane, on the 2nd (Charlie had been to EFY in Lawrence, KA, where Laurie lives). Her husband and the rest of her seven kids came a few days later in the van. Meantime, Mary and Jeff and kids came, then Pete came home on the 8th; then Carrie came home from her mission the next day to complete the family. It was wonderful. We had 36 people here. They were sleeping in all the beds and all over the floors and on the sofas and out in tents. Laurie and Paul an...

14 July 1996 Dear Mother and Magdalene,                 I’m glad we were able to come and see you yesterday.                 It was surely fun to go to Richfield, to the Miller reunion. I really had a good time seeing all those folks who I hadn’t seen for so long.                 I didn’t get to talk to you, Magdalene, as much as I wanted to. I wanted to ask you about your trip to the Philippines. I had to get back to SLC to catch a plane to Fresno which left at 6:20 so we left about 3:00 PM. Janet stayed in Utah to visit. I’m going back on Wednesday after work to do another EFY.                 When Uncle LaRue Miller told those stories about my grandpa Miller (Hans Peter) it re...