Hola Mi Querida Hermana Nielsen

Estoy contento que ya estas latina.  Cuando empieza pensar en espanol, ya esta mejorando en el idioma.  When I look back at the week, I can't remember much significant happening.  The missionaries were suppose to teach a discussion in our home on Tuesday and we were all ready when we got the call that the people had canceled.  Then we were suppose to have another appointment on Friday, but that message never got communicated to the family, so I went with the missionaries over to the home of the Beck family, the husband got baptized a little over a month ago and we had a lesson with them.  They are doing really well.  We continue to do more food orders and help people out as the Bishop and Relief society president were gone.  Bishop got back some time this week and I told him I could not belief how much time was spent on welfare items. 
 
We did finish all the shelving in the fruit room and got that painted.  So we can organize everything now and get my office area cleaned out.  On Thursday at mutual, we were going over all of Cody's scout information to see what he needs to finish up his eagle.  He looks like now he is only missing his camping merit badge, but he thought he already had that, so we are looking for his sash now.
 
It was a hot week.  We are still subbing the paper routes and friday we had to do the 5 routes plus 600-700 finders, so we were running around like crazy, with both the back doors open to the van and throwing papers everywhere.  Cody said this is like throwing snow balls but you don't get in trouble for it.  We had a good time.  We are developing quite the system.  Mom driving and cody and I throwing out the back side doors of the van.  She was just driving down the middle of the street and we were having a good time.  I only put one paper on top of a guys house.  Not too bad.
 
Well we are rapping up the summer months.  Summer turns the big 12 this Thursday and gets to go to mutual.
 
On Sunday, we had Whitney and Jacob over for dinner and then I helped Whitney get logged in to family search and helped her try to find some of her family members.  I thought that would be great for her to be able to find her own family names and do their temple work for them when she is at BYUI. I could not duplicate my efforts while she was here, but as soon as she left, I was finding her great grandparents on her dad's side.  I had a bunch of names and birthdates.  We need to find out what part of Spain they came from and research that part.
 
Amber left Pennsylvania and went to Palmayra New York this weekend.  They saw the sacred grove and Niagra Falls.
 
We love you and are happy you are doing great.  Keep working and studying hard and the Lord will bless you for your obedience.  Have a super week.
 
Love
 
Dad

Angel Lake Fishing Derby

 Hola Hermana Nielsen,

 
Como le va?  Espero que todo ande bien con usted.  Estoy hablandole en usted porque me dijo que no entiende tu.
 
I hope you had a great week.  This past week went by really fast.  I have had a few big projects at work I have been working on lately.  Also last week, our president received an email from the chancellor of the Nevada system of Higher Education saying that they were going to speed things up with the shared services option for financial aid.  They have been talking about consolidating the financial aid departments for Truckee Meadows, Western Nevada Community College and GBC for the past 6-8 months.  But the Director of Financial Aid at Western could see the writing on the wall and he started interviewing and found a job in Florida. So with his departure, they are thinking this is a great time to do all the consolidating of duties and want to have it done by next Feb. 2015.  So we will see if I still have a job after Feb. 2015.  They said they are going to decide where to have this centralized office, but we all assume that they are planning on having that office in Reno since they are more centralized.  Also, they are using the Director of Fin Aid from TMCC as their expert advisor.  My boss tells us not to worry, but she really has no control over the issue.  The chancellor will make all the decisions. 
 
Bishop Bryce has been down in Arizona with his family the past few weeks, and Sister Harris has been in Utah most of the summer, so mom and I have been doing alot of food orders and welfare items for the needed members of our ward.  I did not realize how much time the Bishop spends on these type of items.  It seems like every other day we are needing to do another food order or cut a check for someone.  Both Bishop and Sister Harris get back today, so I will be happy to turn things back over to them.
 
At the fishing derby, we were doing our normal thing.  It was kind of crowded and the water level was higher, so there were limited spots to fish and this one family let us squeeze in next to them.  And we were the only ones catching any fish.  Adelaide caught 2, Summer 1 and Carly 1.  But we did not see any one else catch any fish.  Others did, but they must have been on the other side of the lake.  The one dad who let us squeeze in, said to us after we caught our 4th fish, you guys aren't going to be allowed to fish here any more.  So I started feeling guilty and I said, I will tell you what, the next fish we catch, we will let one of your kids reel it in.  They could cast lots to see who went first.  Well I caught another fish and their older daughter about 10 or 11 reeled it in.  It was just a normal size fish. Then the their little 5 year old boy wanted to catch a fish, so I told him he could have the next one I caught.  So about 5 minutes before we had to go up to lunch, I caught another fish and the 5 year old reeled it in and it was a big one.  He was happy, and won the biggest fish competition for his age group and I am sure it was the biggest one overall.  He won a fishing pole and I went over to look at his pole and he came up to give me a hug and then hesitated and his mom said, it is okay, you can give him a hug.  So he gave me a big hug and I told him not to let his mom use his new pole as she had broken 3 of them during the competition.  They were happy. 
 
We had gotten up at 4 am to do the papers and have time to leave to the derby.  When we got home, I cooked up all of ours and Cody's fish and then it was time to go the the church Pioneer Day celebration.  We did not get home until 9:30 pm.   I was exhausted. 
 
Yesterday was a good day.  They had a world wide church invitation to have 50,000 people do indexing from 5 yesterday to 5  today.  But when I went online at 5, all the batches were taken and the system was down.  I went on about 9 pm and indexed a obituary from Pennsylvania.  So I got my quota.  Also I spent some time looking up Whitney's family on ancentry.com.  I am trying to help her find her family members and teach her so she can do that and do their baptisms and confirmations in the temple up at Rexburg.  I think she would really enjoy that and catch the spirit of Elijah.  But I was able to find her mom and dad's marriage license in 1994 and I found her great grandfather on her dads side and all his family on a census back in the 1930's.  She is coming over tonight and I hope to get her started and get her logged in to family search.  We could already have 4 generations on her dad's side.  I did not look for her mom's side yet.
 
We love you, and pray for your success.  We hope you have a super week.
 
Love
 
Dad

Summertime is rolling along

Hermana Nielsen,
 
Well I am glad to see that you are paying attention.  How did someone steal your wallet out of your purse when it is on your lap.  It is a good thing he had remorse and gave it back.  I never carried a wallet or anything.  All I carried was enough pesos to get me through the day on buses and other things I might need to buy.  Don't carry anything with you that you don't need.
 
Well another week has past by.  The time is flying by fast, so enjoy it and work as hard as you can every day.  We got an email from AJ, in the MTC and he is doing well.  He said learning Korean is the hardest thing he has ever done, but he learned alot in that 1st week.  Tyler Gowans had his farewell yesterday and goes into the MTC this Wed.  The Pulley girl got her mission call to north or south carolina and I don't know when she goes in.
 
I have been watching the World cup in soccer and Argentina lost to Germany 1-0 yesterday in over time for the championship.  I was not able to watch the game, but I saw the highlights and Argentina had a couple of golden opportunities and did not take advantage of them.  Germany's one goal was incredible.  The Netherlands took 3rd and Brazil 4th.  I have also been watching the annual running of the bulls.  The bulls took out a few people, but nothing too serious this year.
 
Summer and Carly have been going to Indar practice.  And Ramon said that summer needs to play with them and she is tough.  And he told her to tell you and "she is going to kick you butt in soccer when you get home".  I'm not sure what that means.  But they enjoy it and it gets them out of the house.
 
Cody went to scout camp out at Lee from Monday til Thursday and he said they had a good time. It was only 6 boys from out ward, but he got to fish at South fork and they hiked up Lamoille to those lakes up there.  He caught about 4 fish and was the only one catching anything.  Cody, Vivian, Tyler and romney went fishing this morning as it was tyler's last hurray before the MTC.
 
We are having car problems.  The only car that we can drive is the Trooper.  The bug will not start when the weather heats up and the van will not idle.  We could use the suburban or the truck but choose not to.
 
We have been working on the shelves in the fruit room and got them painted and we are almost all done.  So that will be good to get the food storage organized and out of my office area.
 
Well we love you and are grateful you are serving a mission.  Amber is loving EFY, but she says it is a lot of work.  One girl from her group wrote her a sweet letter telling her that the thing she liked the most about EFY was seeing amber's smile and feeling her spirit and hearing about her mission.  I am sure she is a great influence on those kids.
 
Keep working hard and studying the language.  Adelaide yesterday at dinner was saying "A quien le toca?"  To see who gets to pray.  She might be speaking spanish by time you get home.  Grandpa croft is still in an assisted living place trying to heal and get his strength back to go home.  He is anxious to get home.
 
Have a super week!! We love you and pray for you daily.  What kind of names from our family history do you need.  A fan chart or pedigree chart or what?
 
Love DAD

Happy July!

This felt like a short week.  It probably was as we had the 4th of July on Friday and the long weekend.  We did not do anything special.  We stayed at home and worked around the house. On Saturday, I grilled some hotdogs and we went to the Basque parade.  It was short and sweet.  I have been trying to watch alot of the world cup soccer games.  4 Teams are left: Argentina, Germany, Brazil, and the Netherlands.
 
The usa lost in the round of 16 teams.  Those guys play pretty physical and it reminded me of how you played.  On Sunday, we had Bishop Bryce over for dinner and I grilled some meat on the BBQ.  It is starting to get really hot here.  Last night after FHE, the back of my head was just soaked with sweat.
 
I am sure mom will tell you, but on the 4th, Grandpa Croft was out helping the boys install a chain link fence and part of the fence pulled off when they were stretching it and hit grandpa and knocked him over and he broke his hip or leg bone where it attaches to his hip.  So he went through surgery on Sat. and will be in an assisted living place for a week.  He turns 87 next month.
 
Mom and I went to visit teach Stacie Gardner last Sunday and she was not there, so we talked to her husband.  I asked him how long it had been since he attended church and he said a long time.  I think it might be close to 10 years.  Well I invited them back to church and said that we missed them and loved them.  He said we would need to talk to his wife as he was ready to come back, but would not attend alone.  Any way, in out PEC meeting sunday morning, I told the group that we should add them to our focus family list, and we talked about them for 1/2 hour.  Some thought that they would not progress, etc.  Well, yesterday, guess who showed up to church.  Chris Gardner.  Stacie was not with him, but that is a start.  I was really happy to see him.
 
Cody is off to scout camp this morning, so it will just be mom and I and the 3 younger girls.  Sharon called me on Sat. and said that Cassidy is coming home last saturday night due to medical reasons.  She has been having stomach problems and they can't figure out what is the problem.  She was suppose to go to Mexico this week, but they thought they better find out what the matter with her was.  So she will receive an honorable release, and if she goes back, she will have to put in her papers all over again and receive a different call, which I thought was interesting.  AJ went into the mtc last week.  Cody, Romney, and Tyler gowans went out to vivians ranch on the 4th and road horses and played around on the ranch all day.  He thinks he is quite the horseman now.  I told him his horses were just too old to buck.
 
Any way, we love you and pray for you daily.  We hope you are having lots of success and have the language down now and can be an effective missionary.  The bueaty of the mission, is that when we invite others to come unto Christ, we ourselves draw nearer unto him as well.  It is that reverse blessing that Hevenly Father always seems to bless us with.  We think we are helping others and he turns and blesses us in return.
 
Have a super week.
 
Love
DAD