Blessed and Protected Once Again

     Hola Hermana Nielsen,

 
So, did Hermana Bott get transferred?  We are sorry to see you two serparated.  We feel the love you two have for each other and we love her for that.  Hopefully you two can stay in contact after the mission.  This was a busy crazy week. I had my accounting class on Monday night, then we had PAL bball practice Tuesday, Wed. and Thursday.  Young men and women on Thursday night and traveled to Reno on Friday.  We we did not have a free evening all week.  Cody took the ACT test at Reed high school on Sat. so we had to drive down to get him to the test and to the game on Saturday in Truckee, CA.
 
I worked 1/2 day on Friday and we planned on leaving around 1 pm.  I went out to start putting things in the suburban and the doors would not unlock.  We had a dead battery.  So I thought I do not want to be fighting a dead battery all weekend, so I had mom go buy a new one and we will check the old one when we get back.  But, the Battery is in a very difficult place to get to.  So it took me about 2 hours to get the old one out and the new one in.  So we left at 3 pm instead of 1 and we missed all the girls game which we were trying to make to watch.  There was a big storm moving in, mom said on the news they called it the Pineapple express, I guess it was coming it from Hawaii.  But the wind was blowing head on really hard the entire way to Reno.  I guess they cancelled a few of the other bball games in Reno due to weather and wind.  But we made it there just in time for the boys games.  We played Sparks and we won by 30 to 40, I can't remember.  They only had 16 points, I know that.  Cody did not have any points and only shot 2 or 3 3-pointers.  We took Cody back to our hotel to stay with us as he thought he could get a better rest as the other teammates stay up late.  We brought a cot and he slept on the cot.  We stayed at the Baymont Inn where we had stayed before.  The motel is not much, but the have a could continental breakfast.  Biscuits and gravy, yogurt, bagels, cereal, eggs, sausages, etc.  Cody and I got up at 5:45 to shower and eat breatfast and I took him to the ACT test at 7:30 am.  It was a beautiful sunny morning, 58 degrees.  We have been have some record warm temperatures.  It got up to 64 degrees a couple of times last week. 
 
Then I went back the the hotel and we watched TV until we checked out of the Hotel and went to Costco.  We went to pick Cody up at noon and he said he was frustrated as he could not finish any of the sections.  He felt like he could have done really well if he had more time.  He was studying hard for that test for 2 weeks.  We were going to go to Cabelas after on our way up to Truckee for the game.  I thought we could take some side streets in Reno and they would be safer than the highway as the roads were wet from the rain.  We were on McCarren Blvd where the speed limit is 50 mph, and we were going straight through an intersection about 2 lights away from the highway to head to cabelas and a guy coming the opposite way turned left right into us.  We had the green light, so I don't know what he was doing, but he was not stopping.  I tried to swerve to the right and accelerate to avoid him and he smashed in to the back rear side on the passenger's side.  I thought we might have cleared it and them boom.  He hit us so hard I thought it was going to roll the suburban, so I was trying to turn and keep the car on all 4 wheels.  I finally got control of the car and stopped it on the side of the road.  I looked back in my rear view and side mirror and all I could see were parts and pieces of cars all over the road.  My first thought was oh no, we will never get Cody to his game now.  So I got out of the car and saw the guys cars who hit us and it was smashed to pieces, (Totaled).  I was expecting our back rear side to be smashed into pieces as well and I looked and there were a few dents and scrathes on the rear side of our car and the tire was leaking air as it had bolts and part of his front grill stuck in our tire.  We check on the guy, he was an elderly guy from California and I asked him if he was ok, and he said no.  He was not moving.  The police and fire trucks, and ambulance came and they thing he had a broken arm and jaw.  They took him in the ambulance to the hospital and had to tow his car.  We had 2 women witnesses that said I had the green light and he ran the red light.  So that was good.  We were there for 2 hours filing out reports, etc.  I thought while we are doing that, Cody can put on the spear tire so we can make it to his game.  But we could not figure out how to get the spare tire off from under the suburban.  We don't have a manual.  And right on the corner of the accident was  Big O Tire, so we drove in there and they put the spare on and charged us $6 and we were on our way.  Every thing appeared to be moving ok, we don't know if there is any kind of frame or other damage underneath that we can't see.  But the whole thing was a miracle.  The guy missed hitting Carlys door by 2 inches.  If he would have t-boned us on her side, she might night have survived.  But we were all perfect.  No scratches, bruises, neck injuries, nothing.  The parmedics made us all sign waivers that we were ok, and no one was hurt.  I told them we had 6 in the car, and they were wondering if they were all ours.  I said of course.  The police asked me for my cell number and I told him I did not have one, and he could not believe it.  They must of thought we were a bunch of hicks from Elko.  Any way, we made it to Truckee, just in time for Cody to do the chant before the game and he started and had 5 points, missed 0-3 from the free throw line.  We won 40-11.  So only 27 points were scored against them all weekend.  I believe they are 22-2 now. 
 
We play Spring Creek and Lowry at home this week.  The will be the end of the regular season and then we have regionals and state.  Cody is counting down the number of practices he has left.  He only has 12 practices left.  He does not like the practices as Klekas is always in a bad mode and runs them alot.
 
After TRuckee, we drove over the hill to Grandma and Grandpa Crofts.  It was mostly raining very hard all the way over.  We had a good short visit with them. We went to all 3 hours of church there and had dinner after church and came back to Elko at 3 pm.  IT was raining extremely hard, coming down in buckets.  We were a little nervous driving over the pass, but then after 170 miles, the rain stopped and we made it back to Elko at about 9 pm.  The suburban drove just fine back.  I will take it in and have them check it today.
 
Well Have a great week and work hard and be obedient.  We love you and pray for you daily.  A little over 4 months left, we can't believe it.  Happy Valentines Day on Saturday from all of us.
 
Love Dad

Dearest Hermanita Nielsen,
We had quite an eventful weekend.  First we took the girls out of school about noon on Fri. so we could go over and watch Cody play against Sparks.  Dad goes to pull the Suburban out of the garage and it won't start--dead battery!  So, I go get a new battery and he puts it in, and we get on the road about 3pm.  We arrive just after the girls' game ends, which they won.

The boys won pretty easily--no surprise, I don't think Cody had any points.  we kind of struggled a bit offensively.   After the game we took Cody back to the hotel with us, because he was scheduled to take the ACT at Reed HS the next morning at 8am.  He slept on a cot that night.  The next day Dad took him to the test.  He  studied a lot and he just hoped he could get a 25, and that should be good enough to get him into BYU-Provo. Dad came back and we all went to Costco and then we went and picked Cody up.   It was on the way back to the freeway where we had our excitement for the day.  We were on McCarran, one of the main surface streets and we were just about  a half mile to where we would enter the freeway and as we were going through an intersection, I could see this little car starting to turn left into the intersection,  Dad saw him too and he tried to kind of swerve away from him, and I kind of thought we had squeaked by , but then I feel this "bang" and it is his car hitting the back of our Suburban.  That made us kind of go sideways and so we were fish tailing to the left and then to the right, until Dad could get things under control.  Which he did spledidly.  That was some good driving on his part to control the car, we could have rolled.  We pull over and it appears that he hit into the tire area of the Suburban and that it took most of the impact, because there were pieces of his bumper and a bolt from his car stuck in our tire.  It was hissing and losing air.  But, if you noticed from the pics the rest of the car just has some deep scratches and scrapes where is car kind of glanced off.  His car mildly exploded on impact.  No flames, just parts flying everywhere.  He sat there kind of stunned for about a min.  I really don't think he saw us.  He didn't try and brake or avoid us before we collided.  He was an older guy, around late 70's or early 80's.  His son came to the seen and after they took him to the hospital, he came up to our car and asked if everyone was alright.  We were fine.  (I had to sign a waiver with the EMT to say we refused medical treatment.)  He was kind of emotional, and said they had been talking of taking his keys away.  He said they thought he had broken arm and a broken jaw.  We were so blesssed!  Right around the corner was a Big O tire store and they were able to change the tire and put out spare on.  We were able to drive away from the scene, and got Cody to his game, just as they were walking in to do their pregame huddle.  Klekas said he was cussing us, wondering where we were --Nielsen standard time or something like that.

The game went fine.  There were more Elko fans than Truckee fans.  It felt like a PAL game, no band, only 6 cheerleaders, really low key.  Our kids are really lucky to have such a great atmosphere to play in with so much support and the best pep band I have yet to hear.  We Mercy ruled them in the 3rd quarter, so everyone on the bench played.  Cody had 5 points, but missed 3 three throws when he was fouled  after shooting a 3 pointer.

We then went to Grams house and had a good time there, short stay, but fun.  She had fallen just 2 days before that, so we weren't sure if we would go-- that and there was a storm, but it only produced rain over Donner Summit.  She was sore and her right arm was banged up and she couldn't really lift it, but it was not broken.  I'm glad we went.

I hope you have a very wonderful week and a Happy Valentines Day, we love you so much, and love your letters and everything you are doing. 

Love, Mom