Fabulous Weekend!

Hola Hermana Nielsen,
 
Well we had a great week/weekend.  The Elko boys team beat Spring Creek by about 25 or something on Friday night and then beat Lowry 52-30 on Sat. to win the regional championship.  So we will go to state as the number one seed from the North and Lowry will go as #2 seed.  We play either Desert Pines or Clark, the same as last year.  This year state is in Reno so that will be better for us.  Cody did not score any points in either game, I believe 0-3 in both games, but he played well on defense.
 
Then Bob Peppin got baptized on Sat. afternoon, and mom and I went over after the game and caught the last half.  Amber's missionary buddies came in on Sat. for her homecoming talk.  She had sister Wright and her mom, sister Smoot and Sister Hudson and 3 Elders who served in her areas.  Sharon and Brian came over on Sunday with Cameron and his girl friend and DeeRay and Charlene came over on Sunday as well.  It was a big group but fun as well.  All of Amber's missionary buddies came over and hung out at our house Sat. night and 2 elders slept in our home with us.  Amber and all the sisters had a motel room and slept there.
 
Sunday morning, Amber had to report to the high council at 7 am so we went with her to that.  She has changed alot for the better.  I did not expect that much change but she answered their questions really well and deep with doctrine, and she did very well on her talk with out really preparing any thing.  She spoke for 40 minutes and the spirit was really strong.
 
Well we really need your photo and your favorite scripture, they keep buggin us every week.  Keep praying for the gift of tongues and Heavenly Father will bless you with that gift and you will be able to understand everything and say everything you want to say.
 
We love you and are happy you are on a mission.
 
Love,
 
DAD

Amber's Home!

Hola,
 
We hope everything is going well for you in Peru.  This past week was a fun one.  We were gearing up for Amber to get home.  We have had lots of car issues.  At one point, the only cars that worked were the bug and the trooper.  The suburban worked but we could not get it out of the garage and the other cars were blocking it in.  I put new batteries in the van and the camry and that got them working.  Then when it rained real hard last week, mom went through a puddle of water and it must of knocked off the serpentine belt as it was over heating and we lost the power steering.  I told brother Hiles about it and he said it sounded like a belt.  Well I looked underneath and the belt was hanging on the ground.  So I watched a few videos on youtube and I was able to replace the belt and it works fine now.  The truck had 2 dead batteries and I took them and got them charged and it works fine now.  So we are up and running with all our vehicles and they work fine now.  But I spent all my spear time last week working on cars.
 
Tuesday night Elko played spring creek in bball. The boys won by 21, but spring creek played hard and tough.  The girls lost again by about 10 points.  It was tied with 2 1/2 minutes to go in the game and Elko missed a shot and spring creek made it and then we started fouling and lost by 10.  So Spring creek was in 1st place.  Friday SC played Lowry and they girls team lost, so that put Elko girls back in 1st place. We went to  Play Lowry at Lowry on Sat.  If both teams won they would both take 1st place.  But both the girls and boys Elko teams lost on Sat.  The girls lost by 8 and the boys lost by 5.  So both Elko teams tied for 1st but Lowry girls and boys will be seated 1st in the regional tourny this weekend as they won the last head to  head game.  The boys team did not play very well.  They only had 4 points at the end of the 1st quarter.  There was a winn. ref. one of the 2 brothers that Chris had banned from referreeing his games and he made so questionable calls in the last 2 minutes all against Elko that made a big difference.  We were tied and Nate stole the ball and was going in for the layup and he called him for double dribble.  Coach Klekas got a technical foul called on him.  But it is better that we lose that game and win the next 4 to get the lose out of our system.  Elko host regionals this weekend, so it will be a totally different ball game.  We need 4 more wins and we will be state champs.
 
Cody played well against spring creek, he was 2 for 2 3 pointers and 1 for 1 2 pointers but missed his free throw 0-1.  He shot 100% from the field and 0% from free throw line for 8 points.  Against Lowry, he did not have any points, shot 3-4 times, 2 of them were over a 6'10" and he had to adjust his shot and he missed.  But he went in 4 minutes into the 1st quarter and played the entire game after that.  He was guarding Calvin Conors and did a good job.  Calvin did not score on him, he only scored when other players were guarding him.
 
And Friday, I Amber got home.  The 3 younger girls were very excited to see her.  We all were excited to see her.  She was suppose to get in at 11:25, but the plane was about 20 minutes late.  We had Kylee olsen there to take pictures.  I took the day off of work.  But she looked really good and was a very effective missionary.  I did not realize that sister missionaries change and mature as well.  She has changed from the inside out.  It was a hard day for her, she loved her mission and loved being a missionary and did not want that to end.  We came home and hung out and visited for about 4 hours and then we went over to the Olsens to watch Kylee open up her mission call.  She is going to Rochester New York mission on April 30th and will be serving in the Hill Cumorah Visiting center.  That sounds like a fun mission and I am sure she will be great.  Then we met President Lewis at 6 at the stake center for him to release Amber.  He visited with her for about 1.5 hours, that was extremelly hard for amber to be released.  He called  mom and I into his office after he met with her and he asked me to give her a father's blessing to help her with her adjustment.
 
After that, the 2nd ward was having a ward party and we went in to say hi to all of them.  When Amber walked through the gym door, there was a polynesian couple sitting in there and her eyes immediately zero in on that family.  I am sure she will love all the islanders just like I love all the south americans.
 
It was fun, we were all tired that night.  Sunday we had a good day at church.  It was the high councilman talking and it was Brother David Pulley, and He talked in Dec. when you were giving your farewell talk.. He said he must have to talk every time the Nielsen family had a missionary going or coming.  Amber will give her report next week in church.  About 8 of her missionary buddies are going to come over and stay with us for that.  I know sharon and Brian and Cameron are going to come over as well.  I believe DeeRay and Charlene want to come as well.  So it should be a great weekend.  Bob Peppin is getting baptized next Sat. at 3 pm.  And I talked to Serima Thompson from SC and she is getting baptized on March 8th.  So there is a lot of good things happening here.  Elder MIller is going home this week as well, He has served in the Elko 3rd ward for 9 months.
 
Well we love you and are happy you are on a mission.  You need to write you family more so we know what is going on with you and more of your experiences.  We hope you are learning the language better and you are getting more fluent.
 
Have a super week,
 
Love DAD 

Last Letter to HI

Hello Sister Missionaries,

Well this will be Sister A. Nielsen's last email as a missionary.  I know you are working hard and sprinting to the finish line.  You will be blessed forever for your efforts and your service.  The Lord always compensates us more for our service than we could ever pay him back.  We will always be indebted to him.  

We were glad to get Hermana Nielsen's letter last week and we know you will get the language down.  Just keep praying and he will bless you.  You will wake up one day and be able to understand everything and be able to say everything you want to say.  It is always  miracle to me how that works.  Another piece of advice that I was telling Brendon Smiths parents is to carry a little note pad with you and when ever you hear a word that you don't know what it means, write it down in the book, with its English meaning and as you have a few moments when you are waiting, (I use to do it when we were riding the bus), pull out that book and go over all you new vocabulary words.  It will help your vocab. greatly.  Do you have a spanish english dictionary to look up words?  That should have been on your list to purchase and take with you.  Also, Erin, what do you want us to do with your drivers license.  We got your new one, but we don't know how to get it to you.  Will you be driving a car down there?

Things are going well here.  Last Sunday we had a stake fast as well as a church fast for rain and snow as it has been very dry here this winter, and the farmers and ranchers are really worried about the drought.  Well these past few days, it has been raining none stop and our basement has been flooding.  Cody and I are joking about stop the prayers and fasting or we will need an ark for the basement.  Heavenly Father always answers the prayers and fasting of the saints.

We have also been having all kinds of car problems.  A week ago Sat, I had to replace the van's battery and the next day, the camry would not start, it had a dead battery.  I finally got my truck back from the shop and had it parked out in front of the house.  I was going to go to home depot on sat. and it would not start. (I assume dead battery).  So Sat, when mom is coming home from Codys bball game, the van starts making this noise and the power steering went out and you can hardly turn the car.  It is worse than manual steering.  It also has a maintenance problem showing up and it beeps constantly.  So mom and I are down to drying the 1972 bug and the 1989 trooper.  It is pretty bad when your oldest vehicles are the only vehicles that work.  

Sat. morning Cody, Brian Hirst and I went out to shoot our bows at the archery range.  And it was a muddy mess.  We had mud up half way up our calves.  But it was fun to go out there and shot. It has been a long time since we did that.

Cody's bball team played there last regular season home games this past weekend.  They won big both nights.  Their record is now 21 and 2.  14 and 0 in league.  Cody had 2 3-pointers on Friday for 6 points and 0 points on Sat.  They play Spring creek this Tuesday at Spring Creek and then they play Lowry on Sat at Lowry.  So they will be both good games.  The Elko girls team also is 71-3 overall and 13-1 in league.  So we will see how they do this week on the road against SC and Lowry.

Yesterday was our ward conference and it was good.  President Lewis said if we want a temple in Elko, then we need to live like we deserve a temple.  He wants everyone in the stake when they go to the temple to take their own names.  He does not want any of us to use the temple names and he his looking at the youth to do alot of this work.  We had the missionaries over for dinner yesterday and Cody and I went and visited 2 of our home teaching families.

Well Sister A Nielsen, we hope you have a fabulous last week.  Keep working hard and you can rest at home.  Hermana E Nielsen keep studying and praying and things will come.  Are you able to communicate with your companion yet?

On Wed. I got a called from the spanish sisters on temple square that I met when we took Whitney there, and they were teaching a guy named Al from california a discussion on the phone and wanted me to be the member present.  So I agreed and it was suppose to happen at 5:30 pm on Thurs.  But they called me on Thurs. and they could not get a hold of Al.  They said they would reschedule it.  The missionary said they were going to challenge him to get baptized and if I felt so prompted that I could do that.  I will look forward to that this week.  The church is amazing how they are so tech savvy and are up to date and so modernized.

In our bishopric meeting yesterday, the stake presidency was there with us and I was telling them how when I got home, I did not know how to get released as a missionary and so for 2 weeks I would get up and dad would make me wear a suit and tie with my name badge and then when I was going to go to BYU I called the mission president of the Independence Missouri mission and asked him how I get released and he said, "your released".  That was it???  I had been waiting for 2 weeks for that??  President Lewis made a joke and said he did not think I have ever been released.  So that was a good compliment.  That is what you can do Sister A Nielsen.  We are trying to line up a dinner next sunday with Skyler Cousineau and her boy friend raymond basanez and Skyler's younger brother  who the missionaries are teaching to come over for dinner with the sister missionaries.  So we are going to put you to work Sister A Nielsen.  We thought your fire and missionary spirit would be great for them to witness and feel.

We love you both so much and pray for your success constantly.  Have a super week.

Love DAD

Whew! Last week was a busy one

Hello Sister Missionaries,
 
Well it was good to hear from Erin to know that she made it to her first assigned area.   We thought that you might have been sent to the jungle with no internet and would have to send snail mail letters.
 
This was again a very busy week.  On Tuesday night I had to go to Spring Creek high school to talk about financial aid to all the parents and seniors who showed up.  We had about 82 people there.  So that was a good turn out, but I did not get home until about 8 or 8:30.  On Wed. I had to drive to Jackpot high school and meet with students and parents there during the day.  Then I drove back and stopped in at Wells high school for the FAFSA night.  It was fun.  At Jackpot HS there are a lot of hispanics, so I was able to use my spanish and communicate to the parents there.  I always wonder what they think in there minds to have a gringo speaking spanish, and they always tell me I speak perfectly.  It was starting to rain and snow all day and got heavier as the day went on.  When I was coming home from Wells, the rain was coming down in buckets and I was only able to go 60 mph as I was afraid a hydroplaning with all the water on the roads.
 
Thursday and Friday I was in my office working, but I had to get out all the year end documents and W-2s, etc to the IRS by Friday, so I was busy with all of that.  I was glad to have the week end as it is always nurve racking trying to meet all those deadlines.  Thrusday, night at mutual I was running around trying to get all the applications for the ward boy scout leaders and have them do their child protection training before they are allowed to get registered as a leader.  I turned all those docs in to the head scout guy on Friday and was glad to get that off my to do list.  Friday, Cody traveled to South Tahoe and Sat. they played Dayton.  The beat So Tahoe by 8 or 10 points.  Cody had 5 points 2 2-point buckets and 1 for 2 from the line.  I guess he met with Klekas and he asked him why he was playing so poorly and Cody told him he did not want to shot and get pulled out all the time, so he never looked for his shot.  I guess Klekas gave him the green light to shoot 10-15 times a game, not 20 to 30 he said.  But sat. he did not have any points, could not make any thing.  But they won 53 to 20 or something like that, so they did not need him.  They play at home this weekend, and then they will play at home for the regional tourney. 
 
Sat. I did Cody's and Erin's papers and then I spent the day replacing the car battery on the van.  It had been dead for a week or so, but I was getting the run around from les Schwab and other places.  Finally I bought one at Auto zone and it runs fine now.  Yesterday, the camry would not start, and its battery is going dead.  Worked fine on Sat, and then nothing on Sun.  But the alarm was going off all day, not real loud.  But about 11 pm it was going off, so mom and I went out to try and get it to stop, then it really went off and was extremely loud.  I am sure we woke up all of our neighbors.  It was going off loudly for about 5 minutes until I could pull the cable off of the battery terminal.  So there is another problem I need to fix when I get some time.  Mom and I also worked on the fruit room shelves on sat and got a few boards nailed to the cement.
 
Sun. was fast sunday and was really good.  We were fasting for DeeRay that he could find a job.  He has been without work since a year ago in Nov.  Sharon had called me the week before and said we were going to have a family fast, as I had suggested that a few years ago when Brian had been out of work for 20 months.  And she said he had 2 offers the very next month after the fast.  So we will see what offer DeeRay gets.  We all thought that it was just a tender mercy of the Lord to have DeeRay not working and being able to spend most of his time with mom.  And she loved every minute of it, she always commented to me how much she loved and depended on DeeRays help and companionship after Dad's passing.  So after mom passed away, we all thought that he would get a job right away, but it has been 3 months and he was starting to get a little discouraged.  Any way, I am sure that the fast will bring many blessings.
 
Erin, did we tell you that another of Whitney's friends is getting baptized.  Sierra Atoa, she worked with you at Costa Vida and is on the elko hs dance team.  Her father had called Charlie Myers and told him she was interested in the church, so Charlie and his wife went over and told them his conversion story and she said she wanted to be baptized.  She had asked Whitney many questions about the church and Whit told her it was the best decision she has ever made in her life.  She wants to get baptized when Whit is home in March for spring break.  She went to seminary 3 times last week.  Also, the wines girl on the dance team is taking the discussions with Sierra.  They are having the discussions over at the Goulding's home as she is friends with Romney and Reagan.  Cody again is taking credit as he said they are all part of his down lines, like a pyramid scheme.
 
Chelsea called yesterday and said she was just playing around on family tree and on my dad's side traced some lines all the way back to Adam.  We are also related to some Denmark king and queen from the 500's ad and to some roman emperor that banned the olympics in 282 ad or something like that.  She will have to tell you all the details.
 
Well Seattle seahawks won the super bowl yesterday big time by 38 points or something against the denver broncos.  When cody and I were driving the trooper home from church, a couple of girls pulled up next to us at a stop light.  The driver looked like she wanted something, so I told Cody to roll down his window, it looks like they need directions or something.  She was wearing a denver broncos shirt, so she asks us Denver or Seattle,  I obviously said seattle since she was wearing a denver shirt.  She said, don't you like Denver?  I said yes, but ... the light turned green so we drove off, and then came to another read light where they pull up next to us.  The girl is saying call me holding her fingers up to her ear and mouth demonstrating the phone calling action.  Cody points to me and says him?? and the girl says, no, you!!  Cody said I am only 14 years old, I don't even have a phone.  The light turns green and we drive off, and another red stop light, but this time we have a car in front of us, so we won't line up, but she stops early to talk to us.  I told her to tell her he only calls Seattle seahawk girls,  So she is still saying call me, so Cody tells them he only calls Seattle girls and she said, " that's rude,  I'm hot..." and the light turned green and we drove off into the sunset.  But Cody and I got a good laugh about that.  The thing we both noticed about the girl is that she had yellow teeth.  They were driving a truck with Arizona plates on it.  Cody said teeth are the 1st thing he looks at on a person. Any way, poor old cody is breaking more girls' hearts.
 
Cody went last night over to the Gouldings to be part of the discussion.  He said it was not as good as the discussions we had with Whit, but were good.
 
Well you two have a super week.  Hermana Nielsen, we hope you learn the language.  Pray for the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues and he will bless you with it.  Sister A Nielsen. Sprint to the finish line, Bishop gave me a letter from your mission president in our meeting yesterday which was written to our state president about your release and itinerary and it made me sad.  We are excited to see you, but sad to have you end this chapter of your life.  It brings back all my sad memories when I was leaving the people of Argentina whom I had learned to love soooo much.  We pray for both of you daily. We love you both very much.  May the Lord bless you both with all the righteous desires of your hearts.
 
Love,
 
Dad