Cody is the big 17! and Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello Sister Nielsen,

It sounds like last week was a great week for you two.  21 discussions and 6 with dates.  That is awesome.  Keep working hard and being obedient and you will continue to be blessed these next few months.

Erin only has 3 more Sundays with us until she leaves.  That has really snuck up on us.  This past week was uneventful.  Cody had his last day of try outs for bball on Monday and he made the varsity team.  On Thursday we had his football banquet.  He made the Daily Free Press all Elko county team and was also named to the 2nd team all north region.  So that is good, but we expect 1st team all state next year.  The banquet was long.

He also turned the big 17 on Friday and we did not give him any gifts.  He will pick out some hunting boots later.  Grandma Croft gave him in his box, a couple books, one that she gave him before and a toy lazer gun which is for 5 year old kids I think.  Poor boy does not get much respect around here.

Sat. I stayed home and cleaned all the guns and got things organized at home.

Sun. Meetings, church, home teaching.  Erin spoke in the YSA branch, so I went there after our sacret meeting to hear her. Whitney also gave her 1st talk yesterday in Sacret meeting.  She read it to us, and she did a good job.  We gained some new light on her side of her conversion.  She will send us her talk and I will share with everyone.  Cody and I did our home teaching and did not get back until 8:30 pm.  It was a long good day.

We are still deciding where we are going to spend thanksgiving, in Utah or here in Elko.  Erin wants to go to Utah, but cody has practice on friday, so it would be a short visit.

We love you and pray for your success daily.  In 22 days we will have 2 missionaries out to write.  Well keep up the good work.  Have a super week!!!

Love

Dad

Grandma's funeral

Sister Nielsen,
 
Every thing went well with mom's funeral.  It was really nice.  We did not have a big turn out there as it was mostly family and local friends.  The luncheon afterwards was good as well.  It was great to see all my relatives.  Funerals are more like family reunions now the older we get.  Mom and Dad would have been pleased.  We drove up to Malad, ID to bury her next to dad.  I will forward the pictures my cousin sent us of the graveside.
 
This week as been different for us.  Tuesday was really hard on me as we were staying at mom's house, without her being there.  They had gathered all of our family pictures that we had given to her and it was very sad.  Reality was starting to sink in.  The family gatherings on Sunday nights might not ever happen again or at least would not be the same without mom and dad there as our nucleus.  We were taking home alot of the old food storage that is 20 years old as they were just throwing everything away.  The crackers are a little stale, but I figured our family would eat it if we do not get sick.
 
At work, things are a little tough these days.  We have to cut our budget by $1 million dollars, so that will equate to 15 - 20 positions.  The NSHE chancellor also hired a consultant from Colorado to come around and talk to a few of our institutions to see what jobs could be consolidated or done by a central processing unit.  Financial aid was part of the offices that she thought could be consolidated.  She is thinking about creating a center that would process the financial aid for Western nevada CC, Truckee meadows and GBC.  So who knows what is going on around here.  The employee morale is not very high when they start talking about job cuts, and consolidating operations, etc.  So all this not so good news on the job front and with mom's death, this has been a tough week.
 
Erin goes into the MTC in Lima, 1 month from today.  That is exciting news.  Cody got the week off from basketball and they had their first day of tryouts on Sat. and the other day tonight.  He said he was not in very good basketball shape after football.  Lowry lost to Faith Lutheran, so Faith Lutheran will be playing Fallon for the state championship this weekend in football.
 
Summer had 2 bball games last week, and she is starting to get the hang of things.  She is being more aggressive and figuring it out.  Before, she was too worried about running down to her spot on the court and pass the girl dribbling the ball.  She shot a couple of 3 pointers on sat. but missed them.  At least she was close.  We still need to work on her shooting form.
 
Addie and Carly are still as cute as ever and growing up quickly. 
 
I can't think of too much else.  I still have to write up those stories from stake conference and send them.  We got released from nursery yesterday.  It was a sad day.  Mom did not come in, but I went in to transition the other teachers.  I had 6 out of the 10 kids clinging to me.  I am going to miss them all.
 
Well have a super week, we love you and pray for you daily.
 
Love
 
Dad

Grandma Nielsen passed away

Dear  Sister Nielsen,
 
Well, as you have probably already noticed from the headings of the other emails I forwarded to you, that Grandma Nielsen passed away Wednesday evening Nov. 6th after dinner.  Darhl detailed in his email the entire account, so I will not go into further detail here, except for the fact that we are very happy that she went peacefully and quickly, vs lingering on in much pain as Dad did.  Darhl and DeeRay both had given her separate blessings a couple weeks ago that said in those blessings that she would prepare mentally, spiritually and physically when it was time for her to pass on to the other side.  One of them also said that Dad would determine when it was time for her to go back home, as we all know dad has little if no patience.  He wanted her now!!  It was a shock as she was doing so well, but we are all happy she went quickly and peacefully.  When Charlene told me the news, my first words were 'wonderful'.  When I told Cody, his response was can you imagine the renunion that is going on on the other side with grandpa and with her sisters.
 
Carly's response was, now Grandma is not a widow any more as she is with grandpa.  What great faith.  We are here in Utah right now, the viewing was last night and the funeral is today.  So I am preparing my talk now. 
 
Cody's team lost in the state quarter finals in football.  We had beaten Lowry earlier in the year, but they came out so prepared for us, it was not even funny.  They had us scouted extremely well, and shut us down.  Cody played well, and his knuckles on his hands were all swollen, etc.  They ran back the opening kick off, so we were down 7-0 in the first 10 seconds of the game.  At half, it was 7-0.  In the 2nd half, our offense turned the ball over 3 times and it seemed like out defense played the entire game and just got warn out and probably lost a little hope in the process and gave up so easy touchdowns.
 
Sat. and Sun were stake conference.  The new stake presidency is President Lewis from 4th ward, Elwood 1st coun. and val esplin 2nd counselor.  Mom did really well in her talk on Sat night.  Our family chior did ok, but it was a little weak as we only practiced 2 times.  I will have to write you later about some of the things they told us, the Elder Gay from the 70's.
 
I better run, if I get more time this afternoon, I will write you more, but we need to go up to Malad to bury mom today as well.  Erin is going to try to receive her endowments tomorrow, but we do not have it scheduled yet, so we will see.
 
We love you and pray for you daily.
 
Love Dad

Happy November

Another week gone and we are sitting at the computer trying to remember what has happened this past week.  Halloween, trick or treaters, etc.
 
I taught my accounting class on Monday night which went long.  I only have two classes left to teach, so I am trying to cover as much as possible before the next test.  On Tuesday, Cody and I went out hunting.  My tag expired on Monday, so Cody decided he was going to take a doe, if we could not find a buck.  It snowed most of the night and it was pretty slick going up Krenka Creek again.  The clouds were low and we could not see much at a distance.  We hiked 3/4 of the way up the mtn. and we saw a herd of about 30-40 deer.  There were no big bucks in the group that we could see, so he picked out a doe and shot.  He hit it and it started running down hill like crazy.  We followed her tracks and she took us all the way down to the trail and he finished her off.  But we still had about 2 miles to drag her to the truck.  He had to be back to school by 1:00 pm so he could practice football and play on Friday night.  So we drug her out whole and hurried home.  He made it to school on time, but we were both exhausted.    I ended up taking the day off so I could take care of it.  The elko girls soccer team was suppose to play spring creek that afternoon, so mom and I and the girls went to the game, but it was postponed as the field was too wet.
 
Wed. we had the trunk or treat at the church.  Mom made chile and we took the girls to that.  It was pretty cold, co the chile inside the church was nice.  We had alot of people show up.  Afterwards, mom and the girls went to a cancer fund raising event where the cheerleaders were playing the dance team in bball.  Cody was coaching the dance team. and then they had a dance that they did at half time.  I guess everyone had a good time and tons of people showed up to the event.
 
Thurs. was Halloween.  Adelaide really had fun and like it alot.  She told mom, trick or treating is really fun.  But after our block, she was tired and said I want to go home.
 
Friday, Elko played Spring Creek in football.  Elko won 43 - 8.  So Elko, Fallon and Lowry all tied for 1st, but with the point system, we took 2nd and will host a 1st round game this week against Lowry.
 
Sat. I spent most of the day cutting up the deer.  Sunday was really busy.  Meetings, church, choir practice, etc.  We had 4 missionaries over for dinner and another family of 6 over who are moving to California.  We got everything ready and I had to leave for a missionary meeting with President Shumway.  He is going out with a bang.  He is not waisting any time.  It was a great meeting.  All meetings with President Shumway are great.  He said missionary work was the biggest thing on his mind the entire 9.5 years more so than any thing else.  He worried more about that than any thing else.  After the meeting everyone was still there, but they left soon after I got there.  So I missed all the excitement at home.
 
Then we did out stake choir practice as a family.  We moved our clocks back yesterday, so that will take some time adjusting to the new schedule.
 
On Wed. night when we got home from trunk or treat, we had a message on our phone from the missionary couple that you served with on the big island that just went home.  They said they were traveling through Elko to pick up their car.  We were sorry we missed them.  Mom called them back and left a message and then the wife called mom back and talked for about 15 minutes.  They said you were a great missionary.
 
Mom also got an email from Ardis Jensen who said they met up with you over there and that you hardly recognized them.  Bishop Esplin and his wife spent 10 days on Hawaii island??, and ran into some sister missionaries who knew you.  It is neat meeting people who know you and have worked with you as a missionary.
 
We love you and are so greatful you are on a mission.  Erin leaves in less than a month and 1/2.  She wants to keep her temple recommend with President shumway before he gets out.  So she is trying to get that done this week.  Whitney went to the temple again on Sat. and she was asked to speak in sacretmeeting in 2 weeks.  That is great.  All saturday night sessions now at stake conference are going to be about missionary work, which came down from the 1st presidency.  The hastening of the work.
 
Have a super week.  We love you and pray for you daily.
 
Love
Dad