The BIG 20. Happy Birthday

Hola Hermana Nielsen,
 
The majority of last week was spent in Atlanta, Georgia.  I had to be at the airport at 5 am to catch my flight.  In the SLC airport, going to Atlanta were about 60 missionaries on my flight.  40 of them were going to different missions in Argentina.  That was fun talking to all of them and telling them how much they were going to love Argentina and the people of Argentina.
 
In SLC, they were over booked on the flight and asked for volunteers to get bumped to a later flight.  So for $600 in flight dollars, I accepted to invitation to get bumped.  But that meant spending about 7 hours in the SLC airport.  And when I caught the later flight, they put my in first class.  So I had the big seats, and they gave me a meal and we got to watch movies for free and as much snacks and drinks as we wanted.  It was great.  I took the subway from the airport to the Hotel and got to my hotel about 11:30 pm Altanta time.  So I was tired all week.  The 3 hour time change got to me.  I would have to get up at 2:30 am Elko time and would not get to sleep until later on as I was not on schedule for the new time.
 
On Wed. I caught a subway up north to the Atlanta temple.  I looked on a map on how to get there by walking about 1 mile or so from the subway.  But when I came out of the subway, it was dark, so I did not know which way was west or north etc.  So I asked a few people which way was west, and they did not have a clue.  Finally, I found a couple out running with their dog and asked them, and they looked on their GPS on their phone and pointed which direction I had to walk.  I got to the temple about 7:30pm and the last session was at 8.  We only had 3 men and 2 women in our session.  That is one of the smallest sessions I have ever been in.  But time I walked back to the subway and got back to my hotel it was 11:30 pm again.  Not good when I had to be in classes all day for training.  I was sleeping through alot of the classes.
 
I got back to Elko, on Friday, ate dinner and went to the high school to keep score.  I did 2 games on Friday night and 3 on Sat.  Elko beat Carson City on Friday.  That was a good game. Carsen was suppose to be one of the best teams in 4A in the North.  We won by 8 I believe.  Cody played okay, didn't do any thing spectacular.  Elko beat Damonte Ranch on Sat. by about 20.  Cody had 2 points I believe.  He played with more aggression on Sat.  I guess Elko beat WEst on Thursday night.  So they will start the session 3-0.
 
Brian Hirst came home off his mission on Sat. night for medical reasons.  I guess he was struggling a bit with some health issues.
 
Summer had 2 bball games on Sat.  She played in the 1st game and we missed that, we went to the 2nd game and they lost to Spring Creek and she did not play at all.
 
Well, we hope you have a great bday.  We love you and are happy we had that little girl join our family 20 years ago.  Keep working hard, the time is passing too quickly.
 
Love,
 
Dad

Dearest Hermanita Nielsen,

Well, I hope you have a fun birthday planned.  We will be thinking about you and wish you a very wonderful day.  This was kind of the kick off week for the Christmas Season.  It started off with the Festival of trees.  I went with the girls and we listened to the Choraliers do their performance there, and looked at all the beautifully decorated trees.  There were a few "Frozen" themed trees that were really fun.  The RS Christmas Dinner was this past week too, and since I don't have a committee it was pretty much me doing the bulk of it. We had ham, baked potatoes, colonial green beans, and homemade rolls that the Activity Girls made during their activity the day before.  I made 6 icecream cake roll cakes, but we didn't need  only half of them.  My whole day was spent preparing food, but everyone loved it, so it was worth it.

The Creche Exhibit also started this week.  Can  you believe this is the 10th anniversary of the Creche?  We took the usual nativities up there.  Have you seen any cool ones made there in Peru?  You should get each (you and I) one of us one.  Thursday was also the start of the Red Lion Boys' Basketball Tourney.  The boys beat West, Carson City and Damante 

Ranch pretty handedly.  Nate Klekas was high scorer on all games and Eric Klekas is getting some good minutes too.
Robert Saenz made the team this year after getting cut last year, and he is a good shooter and will help us out a lot.  Cody played OK, he still needs to get more involved offensively, but he does a lot of stuff that doesn't really get noticed.

Cody finally answered Kyra Smith, who asked him to Sadies.  He used the deer legs (chopped off at the knees) that Summer shot, to take her on a little treasure hunt.  He made up some clues that said something like "this is the first leg of your journey."  she was really great about it.  He thinks he will have a good time with her.  

Well, I hope you have a super great day.  As far as money goes, Dad was wondering if we could send a check to your companion's family and they could put it in her account and then she could get it to you.  He is just cheap you know and thinks it costs to wire money, which it does, but I wonder how much, and if its not that much it would be worth it, until you get your permanent card.  What do you think?

Love ya birthday girl,

Mom