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

Dearest Sister and Hermana Nielsen,

Well, I am so glad to hear from you Hermana N. !  I don't like going a whole week without getting a letter.  It's good to know you are settled into your new area.  Your apt. looked pretty sparse, and you are right-- your Hondurian companion looks darling.  We couldn't find Rala on a map, so nxt time you write, hopefully you will have more time and can  tell us more about your area, and what you are eating there.

Your Spanish is bound to progress at a rapid rate now,  its all you've got for communication.  You will be speaking fluently in the next few weeks, I am sure. :)

I had a killer busy week--everything hit a once.  Wednesday, was Addie's preschool day and it was my turn to be the teacher.  We learned about "teeth".  It was fun.  One of the moms works for a dentist, so she hooked me with free kids' toothbrushes and sample toothpaste to send them home with.  We played "dentist" and I pretended I was the dentist and and was inspecting their teeth (with metal spoons as my instruments)  I reclined them back in the chair and told them to open wide.  Then they got to have samples as their prize.  They thought that was a lot of fun.  As soon as they all left, I had to zip up to Mnt. View school and cross guard the lunch time.  Then I went straight over to the stk. center and helped with a luncheon for the missionaries in the Elko, SC, and Ely zones.  The mission pres. was here to do training and interviews.  I got to talk to Elder Sanft.  He said he extended a month so now he will go home in Apr.  After they had put away all the tables, the missionaries had us all come out of the kitchen so they could sing us a Thank You.  They sang Called to Serve (of course), but they sang a 3rd verse that was specifically written about the Reno NV mission.  Then Pres. Hermansen had us each introduce ourselves and tell if we had served a mission or had family members serving and where.  I got to say I had two daughters serving missions! I got some whoops and Chee ho's.

On Thursday I hosted Book Club.  Chinese New Year was the next day, and we read a book about a Chinese Ballet dancer in communist China.  So, I thought it only natural that we should have Chinese food.  So, I had planned on making a bunch of our favorite Chinese dishes, but I didn't have time to make potstickers and crab wontons or eggrolls.  I just had hot and sour soup, Chinese chicken salad and almond-apricot cake.  It was enough and they didn't know what they had missed.  Our family was happy, because it meant they got to have all that stuff I didn't serve  for dinner.

I have been cleaning and rearranging the room where Erin slept.  Cody thought he was moving in, but I put all  three little girls in the double bed and are in the process of moving all their stuff in there, so  the Aloha girl has a place to call her own.  (you will be back in the lamby room,  the lambies are soon to be taken down)  I moved Erin's bed in front of the window so they could get around the side of the bed to make it.  I vacuumed all under there and discovered colonies of prehistoric dust bunnies !

Time is flying by.  Do your very best and finish strong my girl!  I love you both,  Mom