May Day

Hola Hermana Nielsen,
 
Como estas?  Como anda el trabajo?  Espero que bien.
 
How are you doing?  We were glad to hear that you are now in the game.  I don't like watching my kids sitting the bench either.  It has rained alot here this past week.  Cody was suppose to play Spring Creek on Tuesday, but it got rained out.  So they will play them tomorrow.  His baseball team travel to play Fernley on Friday and Saturday, but Friday's game got rained out as well.  They did play the 2 games on Sat. and lost the 1st one 11-10 and won the 2nd 17-0.  They were ahead 9-2 in the top of the 6th and they switched out their starting pitcher and the other team came back to beat them.  Fernley score 5 or 6 runs in the bottom of the 7th to win.  I told Cody, that was a coaching loss.  They should have left the started in.  They did that against Truckee here last week and gave up 11 runs.  I hope he has learned his lesson now.  They will make up Friday's game today in Winnemucca.  So mom and I are going to try to go over and watch that game.
 
I had my blood work done last week as well.  They say my Cholesterol is still high.  I have not been as good this year at taking my medicine as I should have.  I am sure that if I take it more consistently that it will go down again.  But every thing else looks good.  They said I actually lost 9 lbs from last year to this year.
 
I have been busy trying to get out the tax returns for a client that we  are 3 years behind schedule.  I worked for about 6 hours in my office on sat. but I still have a lot to do.  They want them by today so he can refinance his house mortgage.  Sat. morning I did Cody's paper route for him and then I had Bishophric training from the Stake Presidency for 2 hours.  So that chewed up my morning work time.  On Sat. evening, we went to Mary Hiles wedding reception.  It was at Michael Hiles house and was good.  I saw Tori's sister there and told her you were serving with one of her roommates.
 
Friday night we had a ward activity put on by the young womens.  They were trying to raise money for girls camp, so they auctioned off a bunch of things.  I did not buy any thing as I did not want any more junk around the house.
 
Church was good yesterday.  Kiley Olsen had her farewell as she goes into the mtc this wed.  There were a ton of visitors from her family and all the youth and parents who know her.  We were suppose to have Sierra over for her new member discussions, yesterday, but she texted Cody and canceled on us.  She was not in church again.  I think something is going on with her and it worries me.  I need to talk to her one on one.  She has not been to church in over a month.  And will not return any one's texts if it is about church.  We also had a bishops youth activity last night in the Simons home and that was fun.  We played church trivia and minute to win it.
 
Well that is about all for now.  Cody has 5 more baseball games left until regionals.  They are tied for 1st place right now in the north.
 
We hope you have a fantastic week and you are getting better on spanish every day.  We love you and pray for you daily.
 
There was a guy visiting the spanish branch yesterday from Uruguay and in talking with him, I served with his wife on my mission in Argentina.  We served in the same mission in the same time period, but I could not remember who she was.  That was kind of neat though.
 
Have a great week.
 
Love Dad

Happy Easter

Hermana Nielsen,

Feliz pascua.  We hope you had a great easter with lots of investigators.  We had a good busy week here.  I got back from Reno Tuesday night around 7 pm.  I made it through another tax season.  With all the activities of the kids, the tax seasons seem to get harder and harder trying to find time to get them all done.  I believe I extended about 25 returns. 

Cody's baseball team played Truckee on Friday and Saturday.  Truckee's coach had died just 10 days earlier and was only 45 years old.  But Friday's game, we had it in the bag with a comfortable lead and Elko took out their starting pitcher in the top of the 5th inning.  And our relief pitchers could not throw strikes.  They walked a bunch of batters and we went through 4 pitchers in 1 inning.  Truckee scored 11 runs and we were behind by 8 points, but luckily we were able to get them all back and won by 1 run.  Cody played center field but they had some one else batting for him.  On Sat. he played both games and he was able to bat and went 3 for 3 with 2 sacrifices and I don't remember how many RBIs he had but at least 3 or 4.  So he did a lot better.  I think it is just a confidence thing with him.  So now Elko is in 1st place in their league.

Summer had a softball game and that was the 1st time I had seen her play.  She did REALLY well.  She hit the ball every time, one was to deep right field.  She is a little timid on the bases and does not know how to slide, but she did very well.  She played short stop and threw a couple runners out.  I think she is the 3rd best player on her team and that is really good considering that she has never played before.  He team won as well.

Then we came home and went to the church as a family to clean the church.  We got done about 10:30 pm.  It was another busy saturday from 5 am to 10:30 pm.  I had done all the papers that morning as mom was subbing 3 routes for some other guy on court street and it took her almost 3 hours to do. So I did both of our routes and let Cody rest for his games.

Sunday was a good day.  We had high counsel sunday and brother barker and Jacob Lewis spoke and the new sister missionary they were all very good talks.  Mom made a good easter dinner and we were suppose to have someone over but we asked a bunch of people and every one had other plans, so we ate alone.  Cody and I went and visited 2 of our families.  

Sierra Atoa, I think is struggling a little.  All her non-member friends are turning against her and she has not been to church in 2 weeks.  I am a little worried about her.  The missionaries asked us to have a new member discussion in our home and I texted her to find out when and she never returned my text.  I hope the LDS youth can step up and gather around her.  I guess this all started at prom and all her friends were bagging on her, so she ended up going home at 11 pm.   Another sheep we will have to try and rescue.

Well we love you and are glad you are serving a mission.  How will you be able to communicate with us on mothers day in a few weeks.  I was hoping you would still be with Hermana Galo so I could talk to her in spanish.  Have a super week.

Love DAD

Prom Weekend & Tax Day

Hola Hermana Nielsen,

Como fue tu semana?  Espero que bien.  I am writing you from Reno today.  I drove down yesterday and I am attending a WASFAA conference here until Tuesday.  I got a later start than I wanted and was only able to go to the 4th ward yesterday to partake of  the sacrament.  The conference started at 1 yesterday and I got here about 1:30 pm.  On my way here, I saw a dead beaver on the highway and it looked somewhat fresh, so I had to find a place to turn around and go back and check it.  I was thinking a beaver pelt would be a great addition to our hide collection.  But when I got to it, it was stinking really bad, so I had to leave it there.  That took about 15 minutes extra. 

Well I will be glad when tomorrow is over and I have extended or finished all my tax returns.  I took Friday and Monday off from work to work on taxes.  Cody's baseball team played Fallon on Friday and Sat. for 3 games and beat them all 3 games.  Fallon is a good team and in 2nd place in league, so that was a good sweep for them.  Cody played all 3 games, but is really struggling at the plate.  He went 0-6 or 7 and struck out every time.  He is thinking about it too much and trying too hard to get a hit.  He just needs to relax and have fun and hit the ball. He says he kills the ball in practice, but it is a mental thing now.  He did really well in center field.  He covers a lot a ground and made 2 diving catches.  So his defense is great and his offense struggles.  Jacob conklin did really well at the plate.  He hit a home run, 2 or 3 doubles and had about 7 runs batted in.  Elko also played Spring Creek on Tuesday and lost 1-0.  I guess there were only 2 hits for each team.  We looked dead in that game, no emotion.

On Thursday, mom, Summer and I went to hear a guy talk at the convention center who survived the nazi prison camps.  He was 6 years old and one of the guards took him home with him and he was this guys slave for 7 years.  4 years after the war had ended, he was found by the us army.  But he said, he biggest regret is not having a family or any one that loved him.  He told the kids, that if you ever say I hate my mom and dad or something like that, he said, give your family to me as I never had one growing up.  It was kind of sad.  He said to this day, he does not sleep well at a night and his bed covers are all in knots when he wakes up in the morning.  

Then Sat. night was prom night and Cody took Cassie Gibbons and she looked gorgeous.  He dad said that this was the most expensive prom ever.  Their entire family came up from Fresno CA to bring Cassie for the date.  And her dad said, only for Cody would they have done this. They are really nice people and we just love their family.  Her dad also said, he wished he had a son that was your age as well.  I think they had a lot of fun.  They got home at 3 am.  There were 5 couples in their group.  But cody and cassie made a handsome couple.  They really looked good together.  I told mom, if we could pick out the inlaws for our son, we would pick the Gibbons family.  They are great people.

Well that is about all I can remember for the week.  I got to get more taxes done.  We love you and pray for you daily.  We hope you spanish is getting better every day.  But you really need to study the grammar as well to learn all the basic foundation.  "Have a super week, study hard, learn a lot and choice the right, and return with honor."

Love DAD

General Conference Weekend

Hola Hermana Nielsen,

Were you able to watch and understand general conference?  We really enjoyed all the sessions.  My day yesterday was crazy.  We got home from the Gouldings around 10:30 pm and then we had to wait for Cody to get home from Vivians place at 11 pm to have scriptures.  So we went to bed really late and had to get up early to finish everything we needed to do.  Summer was doing her hunters safety sat., but had not finished her workbooks.  She was planning on getting up at 4:30 am to finish her books, but slept in.  We all got up and 6 am.  Mom and cody did their paper route and I helped Summer with her books.  Then Cody and I had to meet the guy at the archery range to return the targets that we had made for the archery club for Cody's eagle project.  Then Cody had to be at the baseball field at 8 and Summers class started at 8.  So we ran home and picked up summer and took Cody to the field and Summer to the class.  The guy said, he was suppose to send Summer home as her books were not complete, but said if she could finish it during lunch she would be ok.  So I stayed with summer and was trying to get her to work on her books every time there was a delay in the class, etc.  Codys baseball team played sparks on friday and a double hitter on saturday.  They won on sat. by 10 runs but cody only played defense the last couple of innings and did not bat.  On sat. in the 1st game he was the designated hitter and walked the 1st time up, struck out, and grounded out to 3rd.  Then in the 2nd game he played center field and they had some body as the designated hitter for him.  He has no confidence in his hitting even after we got him contacts.  His excuse last week was he could not see the ball, but he got contacts on wed. so that is not an excuse any more.  Elko won both games by big.  But I was trying to go back and forth between cody's games and summer's hunters safety to make sure she got every thing done.  I had not showered or eaten any thing all day nor had I even brushed my teeth that day.  Summer got done about 4:40 pm and she passed so she can hunt in the fall.  But we came home and I had to shower and get to the Priesthood session.  We were about 15 minutes late for that.

After Priesthood, I came home and ate and it was about 8 pm and I was tired and ready for bed.  I had not spent any time at home and I needed to have a big day with taxes to finish everything.

This week was kind of crazy.  I worked the 1st 2 days of the week and then Wed. Cody got home from Florida early wed. morning and Cody Amber and I drove over to SLC.  Cody had an eye appointment at Costco, and then an orthodontist appointment as his inside retained had pulled away from his teeth, and then Amber and Cody had their teeth cleaned at the dentist office where you and mom got your wisdom teeth pulled.  So we were driving around the town like crazy trying to get everything done.  We went back to Costco and went to Jedd and Jana's to work on their taxes and came back to Elko.  It was a long day.  It snowed again here that day and the girls were out on spring break and built a snowman like in the movie Frozen.  The kids really like all the songs from that movie, and Adelaide goes around singing those songs all day long.

I took Thurs. and Friday off from work to get some taxes done.  I got a lot done but never enough.  I still feel swamped.  Friday night the Gouldings invited us over for Scarlet's birthday party.  They had pizza and chips.  The simons and Bryces were there with AJ and a few of the youth from our stake for the older girls.  It was fun to sit around and visit.  Friday was  super Friday so I was up at 4 am ready for trading and by time we left at 10:30 pm I was dead tired.

Conference was really good what I could hear.  I was listening to it on the radio at Codys game and at summers hunter safety.  I missed a few talks on Sat. and will have to go back and listen to them again.  I think I liked Elder Oaks in Priesthood about the women and priesthood and Elder Bednars about the 4x4 truck the best.  There were about 500 women protesting and trying to get into the priesthood session on Sat.  Thinking that they should get the priesthood.  Satan is still working hard inside and outside the church.

So did you feel that 8.2 earthquake off the coast of Northern Chile on Monday.  There were tsunami warnings for the next 14 hours all along Peru, Hawaii and other places where the waves might hit.  This one hit in the evening so you should not have been asleep.  

Did you realize that we were related to that Elder Watkins who spoke Sunday about Robert C Harris.  He is our great great grandfather on mom's side of the family.  So we must be related to Elder Watkins as well.

We cooked an old turkey from mom and dads freezer today and had the sisters and elders over for dinner.  Sister Meservey went to Reno and Sister Purcell got a new sister from the MTC.  Mom says she looks like the girl in Harry Potter movie.  Things are going well here.  Cody and Amber both went to general conference.  Amber went over on Friday with Lenny for her missionary reunion and then went to the Sat. morning session.  And Cody left today with AJ, Vivian, Meagan, Romney  and Jacob for this afternoon's session and they will bring Amber home.  Sister Purcell got tickets from her dad in Hawaii as he is in the stake presidency.  She got them for Sierra, but I guess she went to the Sunday morning session.

We love you and pray for you safety and hope you are able to speak and understand all the Spanish   We love your companion, she seems like a great lady and we would love to meet her.  I like her missionary family.  During the sessions today they did a report on David Archuleta and his mission in Chile.  They showed him singing at the beginning of every charla and he said it really helped bring the spirit to their lessons.  Amber said she would be his investigator any day of the week.  He looked really good and is still so humble and has that great voice even in Spanish.

Amber will have to send you pictures.  Cody asked Cassie Gibbons to prom and she said yes, so he is taking her to prom next weekend.  He has not really thought about it that much as all they thought about was Florida.  I guess the show choir took 1st place in their competitions in Florida and the other singing groups took 2nd.

Well I hope you have a super week.  

Love you,

Dad