Happy Birthday Rob

Dear Rob,

I hope you got the letter from Mom with $ to go get your favorite lemon pie. I thought I would review some of our thoughts 40 years ago as we recieved our first born son. We had been married for a year and a half before we got the conception thing to work. Apparently washing your cloths together was a misleading information. Elaine started out at 98 # and ended up at delivery at almost 150#. In those days the father was not allowed in the room during examination or delivery. I felt like telling the Doctor " Look I know how this happened and the end results why do I have to miss the best part". Anyway that was just the way it was in those days. As most babies you were not much to look at in the first few hours but that changed real soon and we were among the proudest of new parents at BYU. During the first week we took you out with us for a treat and I was feeding you little spoonfuls of ice cream which you took to right off.

Skipping 20 years ,and seven years after having our last child we got our suprise Ashley. No one told us you didn't have children after 44. Elaine told me the news on April Fools Day. How fortunate as grandparents in our sixties to still have a teenager in the house. Well that changes tomorrow. As her delivery approached it became apparent that she would be born on your birthday. I called your mission president to have him tell you and he said " I think you had better call and tell him yourself ". After not being able to concieve a child in the beginning to timing one to the day 20 years apart I think we showed real improvement.

Best Wishes on Your Birthday.

Love ,

Dad

Sweet Ellsworth to the rescue

Tonight after Elaine and I had left for the temple we could not remember if Berlin was asleep in the basement and we knew tha Leisel was at work. I tried to call Leisel but got no answer. The only person I could think of to call then was Ellsworth.

I asked him to go over and see if he could hear a baby crying in the basement but not to try to go down in the basement as there is no handrail.

He could not hear anything but not satisfied he decided he had to go down and look. The only way he could get down the stairs has to sit down on his seat and slide down, step by step. I'm not sure how he got back up. Anyway, he did not find Berlin as Leisel had her.

Regional Conference

Today we had one of those regional conferences broadcast from SLC. Pres. Packer was the concluding speaker. There are many stories of people meeting Pres. Parker in an airport or other places when he was less than warm and friendly. His remarks today were full of humor, stories from his past, and as warm as a beloved grandfather speaking to his children. He counseled us not to live in fear in these troubled times but to pay our tithing and follow the gospel principles.

He briefly talk about Satan coming to earth with is angels. He said that Satan's angels use the same wavelengths in communicating to us as Heavenly Father's angels do and so we must be very careful that we are not deceived by them. That is all he said on the matter. I drew my own conclusions that if any of our inspirations are going against known doctrine or the brethren then we must know it is not of God.

I found very little difference in the inspiration of a televised conference than if we where being taught from our own pulpits.

Love Dad