Hermana Nielsen,
Hola, como estas? How is everything going? I hope that every day you are learning the language better and speaking and understanding more. How are you studying the language? Do you have a text book in Spanish for grammar? Well we had a good week here. On Wed. evening Amber and I went out with the Zone leaders now serving in our ward. They had a couple of appointments but they no one was home. So we went to visit a focus family. Amber did not think that the Elders addressed the needs of the family very well. She says she likes to ask more questions than what the zone leaders did. On Thursday, I worked late in my office on taxes trying to get a lot done before we left for Reno for the State bball tourny.
We wanted to leave around 8:30 am for Reno, but I had a tax client come over that morning and we ended up leaving around 11:00 am. Spring Creek girls lost to Boulder City in the 1st game of state. Lowry boys lost to Clark from Vegas by 15 to 18 points. The Lowry girls beat Desert Pines girls on Friday. And Elko boys beat Desert Pines boys by 18 points. Desert Pines won the state championship last year. The boys played very well and were pumped up. Brandon had 18 points, 4 3-pointers and Nathan had 21 points. Cody did not have any points, he took one shot and got it blocked. He played good defense, but had 4 fouls. So he did not play too much. They called every thing on him.
We stayed at the same place we stayed 2 years ago, the Baymont Inn, as they have a good continental breakfast. And with our family, that is worth a lot. Amber and the 3 younger girls went with us as well. On Sat. Elko played Clark for boys and Lowry played Boulder City on the girls side for the state championship. The Lowry girls won their game. But Elko boys could not make a basket to save their lives. We were 3 for 32 from three point range. We were down 12 to 1 in the 1st quarter and only had 25 points for the entire game. Elko got beat 43 to 25. Clark averages 62 plus points a game. I would have thought that if we would have held them to 43 points, we would have won, but not when you can't make any baskets. Brandon had 1 point, Marshall had 1, Cody made a big 3 pointer in the 3rd quarter to cut the lead to 11, and we had some momentum and then Clark went down and knocked down a 3 of their own and shot down our momentum. Cody took two other shots later in the game, but missed. I told mom, they needed to feed the ball to him after he made the first one and let him get in a rhythm. But they had a good year and Clark was an excellent team. But there is more to life than state championships. Cody played very well. They had a very quick guard who he was guarding, and Marshall picked up 2 early fouls so he didn't play much the 1st half. It was all good and we got home around 9:30 pm sat. night.
Sunday morning, the BYU Ambassadors were here and put on a fireside for the parents and youth of both stakes. It was incredible. They all could sing very well and the spirit was very strong. All BYU groups are incredible about bringing the spirit to what ever they do.
At church yesterday, we had 2 more members of the Elko high school dance team there. Vicki Correa and some other little girl that worked with you on your shift at Costa Vida. I can't remember her name. Sierra Atoa asked me to speak on the holy ghost at her baptism on March 15. So that will be good. She told me after the game on sat. that she is thinking about serving a mission as well. You were prophetic about what you said to Whitney how she would be the 1st of many to join the church. Lenny Escabar got home from his mission last week as well.
Well, I hope you are doing well. Please send the photo and your favorite scripture this week so we can get your plaque ordered. Keep working and praying and do every thing on your end and the Lord will bless you with all your righteous desires. We love you and pray for you daily,
Love
DAD
My Dearest Hermana Nielsen,
Well, poop! I think I'm running about a week behind in my emails to you. You being hours ahead of us, is a lot more challenging for me than Amber's timezone being hours behind. I must write on Sunday, if you are ever going to get a current email.
The state basketball tournament was Fri. and Sat. We left on Fri., late morning and were able to hear some of the boys Lowry game as we were passing through Winnemucca territory. They were playing Clark--the team from Vegas that we barely lost to last year at state. They were losing, and eventually did lose, but I guess they got within 6 at some point, but couldn't turn it around. We got there, checked into our hotel, then went over to Lawler events center and was able to catch Lowry girls playing Boulder City, whom they beat. Spring Creek girls lost to Desert Pines earlier in the day. Our boys played Desert Pines that evening and we came out firing. Klekas had printed off a newspaper article from the Las Vegas Sun that basically said Desert Pines and Clark would likely see each other again in the State Finals, and didn't even mention the two teams from the North. They were totally overlooking us, and he wanted to motivate the boys to make an impression. Well, they did. Brandon made three 3 pointers in a row, Brian Pearson was making 3's, blocking shots and everyone was playing well. Except for Cody-- he kept getting called for fouls, most of which were bad calls, so he didn't score. He has become the appointed bruiser player, but he loves the contact. We beat them convincingly, by 20 I think. That night back at the hotel, Dad took the little girls and they went and sat in the hot tub. They all really liked that.
The next morning we went over to watch Lowry girls beat Desert Pines for the state championship. Our girls beat them by 20 the first time! Dad told some of the team members that were there that it should have been them. But we lost to SC twice and SC lost to Lowry 3 times, so I guess they were the better team. They really improved the 2nd half of the season. The boys game followed and we came out flat-- not able to score anything. They had 10 pts before we were finally able to make a free throw and get on the scoreboard. It was like that throughout the whole game. We took shots and missed each time. They were really tall, fast and black; one white guy, a good little shooting guard. It was hard for our guys to get inside. The final score was 25-42. Our defense was incredible though. That team hadn't been held to that low a score all year. Cody played a lot and was awesome. He hung with those guys and even took a charge. He made a 3 pointer in the 3rd quarter and we were all hoping that spark would help ignite our offence, but they answered right back. It was hard to lose because we never got going. We took 20 3pt attempts and only converted on 3--just an off night shooting, too bad. Nathan only had 9 pts. Brandon and Marshall only 1 each. NEXT YEAR!!!!!! There was a lot of Elko Fans there. Adriana Shertz walked past us and did a total double take-- she thought Amber was you.
We went to Sheels and Summer got some softball cleats, then McDonalds for a dollar menu blitz and headed for home. We missed the performance by the BYU Young Ambassadors at the convention center. They are basically a very talented show choir.
They did a morningside at the stk. center the next day and Cody and Dad and I all went to that and it was excellent.
That was our week. We had the Elders/zone leaders in our ward for dinner on Sun. along with the Simons as a Thank you for watching Chica. Amber was showing them some training materials from her mission and she had a weekly planning sheet from her mission and they wanted to see it. They were very impressed, it was full front and nearly all the back.
Funny Addie story: We were getting ready for scrips and Adelaide was running around and Cody said to her "Addie you have big calves like Mom", and she snapped right back in her sassy voice and said, "Oh, yeah, well you have stinky pathos like Mom!" I guess she put us both in our place.
I hope you are doing great, your town sounds really humble. We fasted that you would get the language down and be able to communicate.
I love you my darling Erina,
Mom
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