going to california

Hello Sister Nielsen,
 
How was you week?  Were you able to attend the world wide training session yesterday?  We ( Con, Cody, Erin and Me) went to it and I thought it was great.  I loved all the video segments, the conversion story and the teaching we received.  That will be wierd to have missionaries on facebook, etc.  I better learn how to use it.
 
We had typical week.  Not too much of any excitement.  Cody went to Boise, ID thurs thru sat for a bball tourney.  I believe they went 6 and 1.  The team they lost to was the Idaho State 5A runner up last year.  So it appears they are doing well.  Klekas bothers me, the way he acts.  I guess in 1 of their games for warm ups, Cody did not touch the half court mark, and Klekas did not play him the entire 1st half and 1/2 through the 2nd half.  Then he started yelling at him on the bench, saying that he does not respect him as a coach, etc.  Did someone not tell him you have to earn respect???  Any way, that ticked me off, here we are paying lots of money for these 'team camps' and then he does not play him for not touching the half court line.   Some times I feel like just telling Cody to bag basketball and concentrate on the other sports.
 
I was listening to a general conference from April 2004 last week and came across this story and really like it.  It has to do with Sister missionaries, so I thought you would like it.  The talk is from D. Todd Christopherson.  It is about members coming converted to the gospel, entitled "When thou art converted".
 

In 1992 two sister missionaries in Zagreb, Croatia, were returning to their apartment one evening. Their last teaching appointment had been some distance away, and it was getting dark. Several men on the trolley made crude comments and became rather menacing. Feeling threatened, the sisters got off the trolley at the next stop just as the doors closed so no one could follow them. Having avoided that problem, they realized they were in a place unknown to either of them. As they turned to look for help, they saw a woman. The missionaries explained that they were lost and asked the woman if she could direct them. She knew where they could find another trolley to take them home and invited them to follow her. On the way they had to pass a bar with patrons sitting along the sidewalk in the gathering darkness. These men also appeared threatening. Nevertheless, the two young women had the distinct impression that the men could not see them. They walked by, apparently invisible to those who might have had a mind to harm them. When the sisters and their guide reached the stop, the trolley they needed was just arriving. They turned to thank the woman, but she was nowhere to be seen. ¹⁸

These missionaries were furnished a guide and other blessings to protect them physically. As you become converted, you will have comparable protections to keep you from temptation and deliver you from evil. ¹⁹ Sometimes evil will not find you. Sometimes you will be protected when evil is made invisible to you. Even when you must confront it directly, you will do so with faith, not fear.

 
We had the 2 new sister missionaries over for dinner yesterday.  They are really nice.  Yesterday was a crazy busy day.  I had missionary correlation meeting at 8:30 am, church at 11:00 and the leadership meeting at 3:00, the sister missionaries over for dinner at 5:00 and then an Eagle court of honor for Brendan Smith at 7:00, and FHE at 8:30.
 
Cody left for scout camp this morning.  So I was smoking jerky late last night and early this morning.  He will be gone all week, comes home friday night and leave for a bball camp to Gonzaga, Sat. morning.  We are going to Cal, for Sarah Croft's wedding reception this weekend.  So we will not see him for a week and a half.
 
Erin starts a new job tonight at Costa Vida?? A mexican fast food joint new in town.  So she will not go to Cal with us either.
 
I drew an elk depredation tag and a deer tag this year, and Cody got a deer tag.  My elk tag is in the Ruby Mtns so I need to start scouting, it opens Aug. 1st.
 
Well have a super duper week.  We love you and pray for you daily.  It will be interesting to see how the new president runs things.
 
Love Dad

ALhoa,

Well hello sister Nielsen,

We had a good week.  It felt like a short week.  I took days off work Monday thru Wed. as mom went to girls camp.  She got back Thurs. morning around 11:00 am.  Things went well here with me and the kids.  Erin was watching the Welches' dog for 3 days while they were in Utah dropping Landon off at the MTC.  He was a little yappy mutt in my opinion.  The kids kept saying he was an inside dog, but I did not like him inside as he would scratch the doors and I thought he would wee wee on things since he wasn't use to our surroundings.  So Monday night we had him outside and he was barking alot and bothering Chica.  I wasn't happy she said yes we would watch him.  We have watch 2 dogs in the past and they were both disasters.  The brown dog got in out house and chewed up the blinds, tore up the carpet by the back door etc.  In LA we watched Phillip White's dog for him and he tore up the carpet in our apartment trying to get out.  But when the dog was barking, I would tell Erin, go out there and shut up that dumb dog.  I said it a few times. I thought he was going to bother the neighbors.  So finally Adalaide said, I will go take care of him.  She went out side and we heard her say, "Hey dumb dog, ......"  We all had a good laugh at that.

Cody had basketball camp here in Elko Monday thru wed. from 9 to 6 pm.  Cody said all they did was conditioning most of the time.  He could barely walk when he would get home.  I was mad that we had to pay $160 for the camp and then all they did was conditioning. Camp is suppose to be fun and play games and get better at your skills, not conditioning.  Nate Klekas missed Wed. camp as he was too tired.  If that was any of the other players, Klekas would have had a fit.  Then Cody went to University of Utah for the team camps Thurs. thru Sat.  They did really well.  They beat alot of the Utah schools.  Thurs, the won 2 games and then lost to Desert Pines from Las Vegas who won the 3A state championship this year.  But they lost by a shot at the buzzer.  Friday, they beat East or West from Utah and then lost to Davis high school in double over time and sudden death.  But Cody said they had some bad calls by the refs.  Sat. they beat Payson, Roy and Springville, UT teams and then lost to Twin Falls, ID.  Davis high school was the 5A state runner up this year.  They lost to Lone Peak who was the number 1 team in the nation.

Sat.  I worked on taxes and then we went to Leonard Howes reception sat. night. Mom planted the garden on Sat.  And we all washed the cars.

Sunday, today I had a good Fathers day.  Mom gave me a pop corn maker and 2 camp hot dog cookers.  I ran into President Shumway today with the missionaries from our ward and he said he had heard I was called as a ward missionary.  I said yes that is great.  He then said to the 2 Elders, referring to me, "This is a modern day Ammon here".  I thought that is a pretty good compliment coming from President Shumway.  I will have to prove him right and really work hard to help the missionary efforts here in the 3rd ward.  We also got 2 new sister missionaries in our ward this week.  So now we have a set of Elders and Sisters.  That will be fun.

Tomorrow I have to drive to Reno for meetings all day long and then drive back tomorrow night, so I will not have time to write tomorrow.

Well I hope you have a great week.  We love you and are happy you are serving a mission.  We are planning on having a family wisdom tooth removal party soon.  What was the name of your Dentist how pulled your wisdom teeth?  We want to plan it so that mom, Cody and Erin all get their wisdom teeth removed at the same time.

We love you and pray for your success daily.  We hope you companion is feeling better an you have time to get out and work as hard as you would like.

Have a super week.

Love DAD

Hooray for Summer!

Well I am glad that all the senior graduation events are over.  It has been a busy non-stop last 3 weeks.  This week Erin received the triple E award on Tuesday night. I don't think we had anything going on Wed.  On Thursday, Summer had a soccer game, her last and she scored a goal.  But their team lost 3-2.  After wards, we went over to Sierra Dumas' graduation party.  Got home late. On Friday night it was the graduation event, so we did not get home until 9:30 pm.  Then Erin had that senior party thing at GBC.  She won $65.00 and a computer lap pillow.  We were hoping for a lap top, but that did not happen.

Then on Sat. Carly had a soccer game at 9 and we went to 3 or 4 graduation parties.  Erin and Kylee Olson had a little one together, but not too many people showed up.  Then we went to Morgan Canepa's.  They had great food.  Catered by Machis and Biltokis.  Stuffed pasta shells, tri tip and the brown rice with shrimp and meat cut up.  We were trying to pace ourselves, but we should have ate alot there, as the rest only had finger food.  Afterwards, we went to Maddie Esplins grad party.

So we are partied out.  On Sunday, Cameron steflik had a grad / mission area gathering at his house and we went to that.  Amy was there with her husband, and the rest of their kids.  Connie also got invited over to a hispanic girl on her soccer team on sunday for her birthday.  So we went to that, thought it would be a good missionary tool if there were lots of spanish speaking.  But it was quite small as well.  

Sat. night, me Cody, Summer, Carly, Adelaide and Clancy went fishing out to Dorsey as it was free fishing day.  It was one of the best days of fishing we have ever had out there.  We caught one on our first cast and they were nice size fish, bigger than what we normally catch there.  We were there for about 2.5 hours and caught 19 fish.  It was non-stop action.  They all want to go back again.  So now we are frying fish every day to try to eat them all.

On Sunday after church Donna white got invited over for dinner to her neighbors parents house, it was Lynn Malhberg's, my boss.  Her neighbor girl plays on our soccer team and she really wanted Carly to go.  So we let her go, thinking it might be a good missionary opportunity.  Another little hispanic girl on the soccer team, they stopped by to watch Summers game after practice, and I visited with the mom in spanish the entire time.  Her mom just died on Mexico, she was only 45 years old, so I thought it might be a good time to introduce the plan of salvation.  I told her we would have to have Her and her family over for dinner.  I invited them to the spanish branch and she said that Fatima Burton had already invited her 6 months earlier, but she had been dealing with her mom in Mexico.  So we are constantly planting seeds.

Well, mom is off to girls camp this week.  She leaves tomorrow and I took a few days off to watch the kids.

Any way, we hope all is going well.  That you are able to work as hard as you desire.  May the Lord bless you for your service and obedience.  We love you.

Love DAD

Happy, happy birthday, daughter dear!

Hello Sister Nielsen,
 
Well first ofall I would like to wish you a happy birthday tomorrow.  I hope you have a great day.  We had a good fun week with Chelsea last week.  We had something going on every night so it was busy.  Monday night after we got home  from Utah the Cubillos showed up from Chile.  I believe I told you about that last week.
 
Tuesday we had the senior solos.  Chelsea played for Erin and she did really well.  Especially as she could not breathe as she had a sinus infection.  But she did not get to the Dr until Wednesday.  She is still coughing and congested even though she has been on antibiotics.
 
We talked to one of the senior girls (the Andreaossi girl) on Sat. and she said, Erin did really well, I did not know she could sing like that.  Wednesday, Summer had a 4-H activity in the park for the family with rubber ducks.  We ate sub sandwiches which was nice.  It was worth it for us to feed the entire family.
 
Thursday, we had the senior awards ceremony and I had to give out all the scholarships from Great Basin College.  Erin got a $500 scholarship from GBC for 1 semester or $1000 for 2 semesters.  With that and her Millenium scholarship and my huge discount on tuition she will make good money and not have to pay anything for tuition and books.  She should be getting alot of $$s back.  She also got the Marine award or something with looks at Athletics, Academics and musical abilities, but there was not money attached to that.
 
Then she got word that she was voted for the 3-Es award.  I'm not sure what it is, but voted on by staff, students and faculty.  We will go to that ceremony tomorrow night.  Her picture was in the paper for 1 of 9 students who lettered in 3 sports this past year.  Cody should have been in there as well, if he had not hurt his knee in football.  That would have been neat having 2 kids out of 10 from the same family.
 
Friday night, Summer had a soccer game in Spring Creek and Cody had his baseball end of year banquet.  He ended up 3 for 3 on varsity with 4 RBIs and 1000% batting average and 2000% slugging percentage.  So that is good.  He is really enjoying the weight set and putting on alot of muscle.  He benched 235lbs last week in PE.
 
Adelaide is just as crazy as ever.  She goes around singing all the time.  Some of those senior solos were hard on the ears and Summer said, Adelaide can do better than that.
 
Sat. Carly had a soccer game and we won 14 -1 and then mom and I went to the Catholic church for George Lostras funeral.  Aly and David Lostra's dad.  Did you know them?  I had worked with the mom alot with her's and her kids FAFSA and she came in and invited me specifically to the funeral.  Afterwards everyone at the funeral went to Biltokis for lunch.  It was really good and a good way to start our fast.  Mercedes Macpherson from the library, that was her brother who died.  So I told mom it was a good thing for us to be there.  I think we were helping them in their sorrows and planting alot of seeds.  Mercedes, and her family are an awesome family and they would make great members of the Lord's church.
 
Yesterday, the Bishop asked to meet with me and they called me to be a ward missionary.   I believe I have been a ward missionary or ward mission leader for 15 years.  Bishop said I was an example to everyone and they needed my help.  So we are a missionary family.  I told mom, I would do the missionary work whether I was called or not.  It is something that just comes naturally.
 
Then yesterday, we cooked a pork roast in the smoker and had the missionaries over for dinner. It turned out really good.  Vladamir and Carolina Mejia was visiting in church yesterday from Peru.  It was good to see them, but I worry about Carolina as on facebook, all the pictures of her, she is not wearing her garments.  They were suppose to come visit us last night, but never did.  I wanted to talk to them about that and try to re ignite the flame.  Vladamir is still doing really well. Benjamin turned 3 yesterday and he still does not talk.  Carolina said her parents sent their greeting and said that they have never met such kind and loving people.  She said they would never forget us.
 
Any way, that is this past week in a nut shell.  We love you and hope you have a great successful week and a super duper birthday tomorrow.  The big 22.  That is one of my favorite numbers you know.
 
Love Dad