Aloha!

Hola Sister Nielsen,

We are so happy and impressed with you and Sister Wright and the job you two are doing in the mission field.  November was a great month for you two.  You two accounted for 6 of the 18 baptisms in your zone.  How many missionaries are in your zone?  Have you had an interview with your mission President lately?  I wonder what he thinks about you two.  You guys are great together as companions.  But next week will be transfer week, and they usually do not allow a companionship to be together longer than 3 months.  But  there are always new adventures over the horizon.

I believe mom told you about Cody and his bball team.  They looked great on Thursday night against Spanish Springs and on Sat. against Douglas high school.  Douglas was suppose to be the number 1 team in the Northern part of the state.  They went to the state simis last year representing the north.  They have a 6'7'' guy who had offers to play at Stanford and other colleges but decided on playing at Harvard.  But Elko's defense was great and held him to 17 points.  Cody played Fri. and Sat. but did not have any points.  He got off his crutches on Wed. and played on Friday.  He said his legs felt like jello.  He was only going about 70 - 80 %.  But he did okay.  You could tell he was a little timid with his knee, which is the way he should have been.

Erin's team won Thurs. and Fri. and lost Sat.  She was high scorer on thurs. with 11points.  She had 5 on Friday and 2 on Sat.  She said they played horribly on Sat.  They both play at home this Friday and Sat. for league games.  So that will be fun.  I am doing the clock and books for both of their games.  But it is fun to watch these young kids do so well.

Yesterday, when Adelaide was waking up, I said we have to hurry so we can go to church.  And Adelaide said, 'I love going to church'.  Which is a good thing.  She will go into Sunbeams at the first of the year.

My mom is doing well.  DeeRay and Sharon and Darhl and Charlene are taking care of you well and spend a lot of time over there, cleaning the yard, house and going through every thing in the basement.  DeeRay asked her the other day, "Mom, how long are you going to live?' as we are trying to figure out all her finances.  And she responded, 'Until I die'.  Well put, I guess we will all live until we die.

Today is our 24th anniversary.  I can't believe is was 24 years ago that your mom and I got married.  That is 1/2 of my life time.  We are ready for another 50 years of marriage.

I have not had a chance to do any C-mas shopping this year.  I think we will do the Chelsea thing and not receive any gifts this year.  It makes it a lot easier.  Not much else is happening here.

Well, I can't think of any thing new.  We are so grateful you are serving a mission and representing the Savior so well.  Keep up the great work.  We love you.

Dad

Dear Sis. Nielsen,

     I'm glad you got to go to the temple.  Congrats on reaching your high water mark.  You and Sis. Wright are doing  great together.  We love hearing about your successful weeks.

     Well, Erin had a good birthday I think.  She was in Reno for a bball tourney so she spent most of the day there.  She got to take the ACT on her bday too.-- at Sparks High school.  She is having fun trying out her new camera.  We're planning on taking our family Christmas picture with it.

     Well, Cody was back in action this past weekend on the bball court.  It was the annual Red Lion Tournament and although he didn't start, he played hard.  But you could tell he wasn't in game shape yet.  He got tired pretty fast.  He didn't like playing with the big brace on his  knee, he kept hitting it with his other leg when he ran.  One time he came running down the court and he went sprawilng on the ground because he clipped the brace-- but he got up really fast!  He didn't score, but he played good defense.  He said it felt ok, but he was playing pretty conservative.  He'll get there,  it will just take some time.  The team did really well though, they won all 3 teams that they played.   They beat Douglas from Carson City by  about 15 pt.  They were the #1 team in the North.  No one thought we'd beat them, but we did. Our boys are really good, and they're only sophomores.

     Well. Dad and I will celebrate our 24 th anniversary tomorrow.  We wanted  to go see the movie "Lincoln", but we didn't get around to it on Sat.  I think the last movie I saw was "Cars 2".

     I can't believe Christmas is in 2 wks.  I never feel ready.  I didn't put all the lights on the house like last year, but it's ok,  I  did put some around the porch area.  Do they do anything different to celebrate there?

     Rebecca, your cousin had her baby, I think it was on the  Dec. 4th. It was a girl and they named her Charlotte.  then Sarah got engaged last week too.  She's marrying a guy from Australia that she met at BYU.

     Summer's PAL team didn't win enough games to qualify for the tournament, but they did win their last 3 games.  Summer even took a charge-- inadvertidly.

    Adelaide was just waking up today and Dad told her it was church day, and to get up and get ready.  She said" I love church", just so sincere and sweet.

     As far as the cell phone goes, it's been great to have it.  Yes, I am getting used to texting and have added a few contacts.  Cody and Erin like the option of texting me, so its been helpful.

Have a great week, I love you so much!

Mom