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

Dearest Hernana Nielsen,

How are things?  Is it winter there now?  Do they even have  winter?  We are in full summer swing, and its hot!

Our dear little Summer Rae had a doctors appt. last mon.  to get her booster shots to enter 7th grade.  They did her height and weight, and she is 5' 2" and she weighs 106 lbs. That is in the 70th percentile for both;  Still in the normal range, but she is taller than most girls her age. 

On tues we went to Spoon Me to use a gift card from doing perfect service on the paper route.  We had $1 off coupons and it was double punch tuesday, Score!  Emily (Elwood) Polish was working.  We hoped that Whitney would be there, but she didn't go in until that evening.  

Cody got home from the Gonzaga/Eastern Washington team bball camp on wed. night  He said they won all but one game and won both tournaments.  He was really tired.

On thursday for Mutual Dad and Cody went over to Bishop Bryces's house and installed their kitchen cabinets.  I'm not sure if we told you, but their dishwasher leaked and flooded their whole kitchen during the night.  Their boys were in the basement and went upstairs to tell their parents that it was "raining in their room".  They had to pull out all the flooring and  the bottom cabinets, so they had to replace all the cabinets so they would match.  Sister Bryce took the boys and baby and went to AZ to stay with her mom while the remodel was taking place and she hadn't been feeling well (She is pregnant again) and went to the ER in AZ and she had pulmonary embolism in her lung (blood clot).  80% of people who get those die.  They were able to give her meds that dissolved it.  She is going to stay there until the baby is born in Dec.  So the bishop will be a lone man  quite a bit.  We had him for dinner last night.

We had kind of a quiet 4th of July.  Cody got invited to go to Ruby Valley for a group date with Vivian, Romney and Tyler Gowens.  They went horseback riding, canoeing in their muddy pond which turned into a mud fight (you would have loved that), had a BBQ with the all the Neff peoples climbed up on the grain siledge (the big thing that holds the grain), star gazed, and just had a good time.  Weeeee.... went to Home Depot to buy a new microwave, ate fried chicken and then went to the High Tech center and watched the fireworks at the fairgrounds.  Good Fun.

We got a call from Grandma and JP around noon and they were at the hospital with Grandpa Croft.  He had broken his leg that morning installing a chainlink fence.  Jp and Curt were helping him and they were stretching the chain link and it broke free of the thing they were pulling it with and it sprung back and knocked him over and he broke his leg.  Its up high  by the hip joint on his femur.  He had surgery that night to insert a screw between the two bones and the surgeon broke off two drill bits while drilling into his bone.  He was surprised that a man of  nearly 87 (bday is in Aug) had such hard bones.  They said his muscles looked really strong too.  I hope he will be able to fully recover, when someone that age falls it usually is devastating to their quality of life.  But he's a strong guy, so I am hopeful.  He was given a blessing and we fasted for him yesterday as well. 

Well thats all my news, Dad has been watching the World Cup when he can.  Did I tell you we dropped our cable?  waste of time watching TV anyway and the price kept going up.  He said the Running of the Bulls started today--Ariba!

Amber spent last week at EFY in Provo training-(shadowing another counselor to learn her duties)  She starts her own session this week at an area program in Orem.  I guess she is already breaking some hearts.

Love you girl, Mom

PS  We watched an interview with David Archuletta last night on a program called "Face to Face" on LDS. org.  The General YM (cousin Beck) and YW president interviewed him for an hour, asking questions youth had sent to their I-pads.  He sang also, and it was really good, he talked about his mission a lot and how much that experience meant to him.  At the beginning, to introduce the show they had a young woman and man there.  The girl was Cammie from your area program at SLCC.  Cody recognized her and said they had been each other's C.O.W.