No School Today

Hello Hermana Nielsen,
 
How was your week?  We are happy you finally got your debit card.  Hopefully it will work for you.  We had a busy week.  We started PAL basketball practice on Monday night.  We need alot of time to improve and get an offense and defense in place.  Monday was the national championship football game and Ohio State beat the Oregon ducks.
 
On Tuesday, I started coming down with a cold or flu bug and my entire body ached all day.  We drove over to Winnemucca to watch the big games on Tuesday night and when we got out of the car, I was freezing, my teeth were rattling, and I could not stop shaking.  It was wierd, but my head hurt and was cold the entire game.  The girls team lost by 3 or 4 points, Lowry started out really hot and Elko never recovered from the big lead at the beginning of the game.  It was a good game.  Elko battled back and we had our open looks at the basket at the end to tie it, but we could not hit the shots.  The Elko boys team won 60 - 30.  Cody had 8 points, no 3's.  But we blew them out from the very beginning.  Then on Thursday, the Elko boys team traveled to Las Vegas.  They beat Liberty on Friday by 20+ points and beat Chapparal on Sat. by 20+ points.  Cody scored 4 points on Friday and 0 points on Sat.  They got back about midnight last night.  So now their record is like 18-2 or something like that.  Cody and the fab 5 seniors went to the early morning rotory club to visit with them.  Their picture was in the paper the next day.  We were going to go to Vegas, but Summer had a geography B on Friday so she did not want to miss that.  But I went over and watched her and she got out in the 1st round.
 
School starts Tuesday, and I am teaching my accounting class again, so I have to get that all online.  On Wednesday, I had to drive down to Eureka to do a FAFSA night down there.  I was still a little sick, but feeling better than on Tuesday.  I got back about 9:30 pm.  I have been on the road alot and I am kind of worn out.  Tomorrow is Martin Luther King day, so it will be good to rest a bit.
 
The sister missionaries are getting transferred out of our ward.  We are going to have to share missionaries with another ward.  25 missionaries are going home this month, and only 9 missionaries are coming out this month.
 
We love you very much and are glad you are on a mission.  Mom and I were talking on the way home from Winnemucca about having missionaries in the field and the $400 / month.  Mom said, that some how that $400 comes back and I got thinking that before Amber left on her mission, we had to pay out about $8,000 on Amber's shoulder for medical expenses, and the next year Cody had his knee surgury which cost us about $6,000.  But ever since we have had missionaries out, we have not had any medical expenses.  That is a huge savings compared to what we spent before we had a missionary out.  The Lord will always bless us for our efforts and sacrifices.
 
Have a super week.  Today is your 13th month mark.  Continue to work as hard as you can and enjoy minute of this special time.  This is the greatest time of your life.  Tell Hermana Bott hello for us and that we love her too.  Mom found your ipod down in the basement in a sock box.  So that is a big relief.
 
Have a great day,
 
Dad

Dearest Hermanita Nielsen,

We don't have school today because of the Martin Luther King holiday. This week is finals for Cody and then they have friday off too, because the teacher's have their training day.  It should be a pretty easy week, ...for me! Cody is hanging on to straight A's right now, so if he can do well on his finals, he should have a 4.0 this semester.  He studies a lot, but made the comment,"If I had studied like this all 4 years, I could have a 4.0 gpa".  Duh, I try to tell ya, but I'm glad he is figuring it out, that grades are what you put into the effort.

We went over to Winnemucca on Tues. to play Lowry.  It was as expected very crowded and loud.  We had to smoosh in, to find a seat.  Last year when we played them on their court, Amber had just gotten home from her mission and we had to sit up on their stage by the band.  They didn't have a band this year.  Elko girls were losing when we got there midway through the 1st quarter.  We battled, but never overcame that deficit.  We lost by 5.  But only making 11/26 freethrows is what really did it for them.  The boys beat Lowry pretty handily.  We were expecting this to be our most competitive league game, since they were undefeated as well, but it was a blow out.  I think we won by 30.  The boys team went to Vegas over the 3 day weekend to play in a tournament down there to get some good competition, but it wasn't much, we still beat Liberty, by 20ish and Chaparrel by 30ish.  They seem to be improving though and that is the goal.  I   wanted to go, but it just didn't work out, we had things to do here.  I wanted to tackle my pile of laundry and get all the socks sorted, and I was down in the basement where the little girls had been sleeping this past winter and I noticed some socks in a little box and thought there may be some "matches" in there to my stray socks upstairs and low and behold there was your I-Pod, that has been missing for 2 months.  I didn't mention that to you because I didn't want you to worry, but we have been praying to find it all this time.  I think Addie was the last one in possession of it.  Well, we did a "Stop, drop and pray", right there to thank Heavenly Father for bring the I-pod back.

Dad and I will be coaching Summer's PAL team.  We had a practice last week at Mountain View school's gym and we took Carly and Adelaide.  It was such a "Deja vue" moment for me, because Addie was running around there doing the little rock wall climbing things, and then climbing on top of the tumbling mats that were stacked 6 ft. tall in corner.  It reminded me of YOU when I was coaching Chelsea and Amber in Volleyball, and you (and probably Cody) were climbing and laying on top off those mats and all sorts of other crazy things.  She reminds me of you everyday.

I am so glad you got your card and can buy "lots of cool stuff" now.  I put $100.00 in your checking as your Christmas, so that's for you.  I love you my darling, you have blessed our lives so much. I love your testimony.   Love, Mom

PS  I gave out a #HeistheGift pass along card to a lady who had given me some hand warmer one morning when I was cross guarding.  I see her everyday and we casually talk and greet each other.  The next day I gave her the card and said, "Yesterday you gave me something to warm my hands, well I have something for you to warm your heart". --kind of cheesy, but I thought it was a good line.  She thanked me and when she saw the words "Mormon.org on it she told me her son had joined the Mormon Church, but that she was happy with her faith.  ...You never know :)