The top of the hill

Aloha Sister Nielsen,

Well this week you will hit the top of the hill and be working on the downhill side for the rest of your mission.  If you think the 1st half went by quickly, wait and see the how fast the 2nd half will blow by.  Again it is all down hill and at times it will feel like you are running down that back side of the mountain.

I hope you and your companion had a great week.  We finally got over the flu bug that was going around our family and everyone enjoyed its benefits except for Erin and Carly.  Cody's baseball team had their last games of the regular season this last weekend against Spring Creek and Elko blew them away in the 3 game series.  The 10 run mercy rule was in effect in 2 out of the 3 games.  Cody did not play in any of them.  But that is okay.  But if they are not going to use him on the varsity, they should let him stay down and play at the JV level.  So this weekend, Cody's team will host the 1st round of the regional playoffs against Spring Creek again.  The elko varsity baseball team went undefeated in league play this year and they are 25 and 3 overall this year.  If Elko wins this weekend, they go to Winnemucca for the next round of regionals.   If they win that, they go to Vegas for state.

Erin was in Boise, ID this past weekend for another track meet.  I believe her 4x200 and 4x400 relay teams both took 6th place.  I believe that was pretty good as it was a big meet.  She was happy with the results.

It is starting to warm up here this past week.  We got into the low 70's on friday and sat.  I got a little sunburned on my face and neck from soccer and baseball games.  Both Summer and Carly's teams had soccer games out in Spring Creek on Sat and they both won.

We had an area authority and a member of the quorum of 70's come to Elko to speak to the youth and leaders on Sat and Sun.  They had a meeting for seniors and prospective missionaries and they told them not to serve a mission because it is the "in" thing to do right now.  It you want to serve a mission, do it for the right reasons.  I guess they have had a lot of people wanting to serve missions as it is the new trend and in thing to do, but are not spiritually of mentally prepared.  I thought that was interesting.  He also said about the Lord's work and glory to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of men.  He said, Christ through his atonement has already brought about everyone's immortality (everyone will become immortal... die and resurrection) and the only thing left of that mission statement is the eternal life of men.  Which is where we come in.  I thought that was interesting as I had not thought of if that way before.

Well other than that, we had a normal week.  We are getting our lives back to normal after tax season.  I still have about 25 more tax returns to get out.  Tonight is the last day that I meet with my accounting class, so that will be good too.

I am not sure if we told you before, but Rachael Campbell and her husband are moving to Alaska.  He took a job over there, and I believe she will go over after she finishes her teaching this semester.  Rachael told us we will have to go visit them and go hunting and fishing with them over there.  That would be fun, if we could do that.

Adelaide has another dentist appointment today.  She did very well last time and just had the laughing gas and fell right to sleep.  So I hope she does it again today.  She had to have a crown as the one cavity was down to the nerve.

I hope you have a great week.  We are very thankful to have a missionary in the field.  We appreciate your letters.  We love you and pray for you daily.

Love,

Dad

My Dear Sis. Nielsen,

How are things?  So you and Sis. Hudson are going to hang around together for awhile more.

Our week has been pretty normal.  I don't know if I informed you or not, but Grandma's tumor came out/off however is best to describe it.  She e-mailed pictures of the whole ordeal as things progressed using  the salve.  It was pretty nasty looking and painful, but after 33 days the thing moved to the epidermis and then came off kind of like pulling a big scab off.  The tissue underneath was raw and fleshy and will have to heal over.  She is kind of wiped out by the process, but is so relieved.  It's kind of miraculous.  The picture of the tumor is about the size of her hand (as she's holding it flat on her hand.)  If you want to see them I can forward them to you since you are kind of into medical stuff, but I'll warn you they are kind of gross and it's obvious what body part you are looking at, even though she covers up the nipple.  Grandma is funny, she is sure happy she did things this way, instead of chemo and having surgery.  She really feels the American Cancer Society has now interest in finding a cure for cancer because that would put them out of business.  The money is made in treating cancer.  How  is your shoulder?  Has anything changed with it?  Maybe we should have "salved it".

Carly's class is making a class book that they will send off to publisher and have it printed and bound.  I ordered a copy.  The theme is monsters, and Carly drew a really cute girly monster.  Her teacher chose it for the cover of the book.  Other kids in her class went to her for help with their monsters so she said she actually drew a few more.  She is such a cute girl, she reminds me of you!  Saturday, she had a soccer game (she gets really excited about those) and she wears your old #78 jersey (Summer wears Chelsea's old #84).

It's like watching the two of you out there again.

The high school did "Beauty and the Beast" for their musical this year.  Erin went and so did Summer as part of her 4-h group.  They said it was really good.  Kiley Olsen was Cogsworth and Trevor Garvin was Lumiere.  Erin said you know Kiley Marshall and she was the wardrobe and Hannah Wright was Belle.

I talked to Bishop Esplin yesterday and he said little Levi is sure wonderful.  Ruthe spent the whole week with Kayla and took care of the baby the whole time, ever getting up with him.

We had a family home evening last night where we read the "dating" section of For the Strength of Youth.  Dad went over what the 1st pres. says about steady dating.  It was mostly for Cody, but everyone can benefit from what they say.  We aren't having really having a bad time with Cody.  He rarely goes on dates with Whitney, but when he goes out with groups, she is always his date in the group.  We really like her, we think she is a great girl, we just don't want her to be "the" girlfriend.  If they were just good friends and hung out, it wouldn't be such a concern.  She thinks we don't like her.  Its just that she's dealing with our precious little boy.

I can't believe school is almost over. You've made me LOVE Mondays, Love you tons,   Mom