Missionary experience

Hola Hermana Nielsen,
 
We think there must be transfers this week as I believe that is what Hermana Bott said in her email.  We had a good week.  It rained alot on Wed thru Sat.  But we need the moisture so that is good.  Elko played Spring Creek on Tuesday and won 5-2 or something like that. So we swept the series with spring creek.  I had my blood work done on Tuesday to test for cholesterol, etc. so I was fasting that day.

 

Mom told you about the good discussion we had in our home.  I think Cody really liked it as well as he can relate to what it will be like for him in 2 months.  The Filippino people are very humble and very sweet like the south americans.  The mom was getting emotional as she feels guilty that she is not doing enough to raise her kids with religion in their lives.  We basically soft set them for baptism on June 6th.  The mom said she would do that and her kids will follow her example.  But the spirit was there and we had 3 Elders teaching.  1 was a zone leader.  The mom prayed in Tagolog and she was very emotional in her prayer as well.  We did not understand much, but it was cool to hear.

 

As mom said, yesterday, was a very full and busy day.  I started with my bishophric meeting at 6 am and was busy all day until about 8:30.  Cody and I took the sacrement to the shut ins and we went home teaching.  Cody had missionary prep, then we had the bishops youth discussion in our home.  And we watched 2 episodes of the district for FHE.  Cody is suppose to watch all those episodes before he goes into the MTC.

 

We love you and hope you have a great week.  Keep working hard.  We know you will finish strongly.

 Love

 Dad

Just another week

Hola Hermana Nielsen
 
So how was this week.  Our week was good. I spent Sunday through Tuesday night in San Diego.  It was nice but I have another cold, so the flight was miserable with the pressure in my head.  We did not see any thing outside the hotel in san diego.  I got home about 10:15 pm Tuesday.
 
I took wednesday off to work on taxes and finish up all my extensions.  I extended 22 returns this year.  Cody played Fernley on Friday and Sat.  They asked me if I would announce the rest of their home games.  So now I am the "voice" of the Elko Indians baseball team.  Elko won all 3 games.  Friday's game was really close, we won by 1 point, Cody had 1 of 3 hits for Elko. He stole home to make the winning run and then he caught a ball in left field and threw the guy out at 2nd for a double play ball to end the game.  On Sat. he only had 1 hit in the 2 games.  I think he struck out 5 times over the weekend, so that is not good.  But we won handedly in both games on saturday.
 
We had the annual EFCU deal on sat. but only the 3 younger kids won $25. each.  That is still good. We just hung out at home and watched BYU mens volleyball team play on Friday and SAt night.  They beat the number 1 team in nation Hawaii both nights.
 
Brother Welch and Sabrina and Whitney all spoke yesterday in our Sacretmeeting and the 2 girls sang a song. It was all very good.
 
Well we love you and hope you have a great week.  Less than 2 months keep sprinting to the finish line.  Cody is having us all learn a work of the day in Togalog.  So that is fun.
 
Havae a great week.
 
Dad

Cody got his call!

Hola Hermanita Nielsen,

We had a good week.  Last Sunday, Chelsea told us she and Brian were expecting a baby, and Thursday Cody and Jacob received their mission calls.  Cody called me at work before lunch and said that Jacob had his call and he was going to come pick me up for lunch and we were going to Jacob's house to watch him open his call.  The kids were out of school at noon on Wed. and Thurs. for parent teachers conference, so Summer came to my office as she wanted to see Jacob open his call.  There was a good group there, with Marcus and LA Jones as the only non-members.  He opened and read his call "called to labor in the Adriatic North mission"  We all looked at each other and said, where is that?  We thought it was in Russia or someplace, but it was in Albania, across the Adriatic sea from Italy and above Greece.  He will be speaking Albanian.  Nobody clapped or cheered as we did not know where he was going.  After we found out, we were all really excited for Jacob.  It is a small country, 11,100 square miles, probably smaller than Elko County.  He was pretty excited.  Cody was afraid that he would get called some stateside boring place after Jacob went to some exotic country. 

Cody and the baseball team were going to practice on Thursday and leave for Truckee at 4 pm to go play baseball.  So we were watching the mail very closely.  Around 3:40 pm, the younger girls said the mail truck is coming down the road.  They watched and went and got the mail as soon as it was put in the box.  In the mail was cody's call.  We called Jacob and Cody was batting at the time and then he called us back and told us to meet him at the school gym before he got on the bus. So we all got ready and went to the school, but then he said, they were not leaving until 4:45 pm, so he said, lets go to the house and open it there.  So we did that.  Amber was coming home from BYUI but she was still a couple hours away.  So we had someone call Chelsea and some one face time Amber so they could be part of it.  We had Romney, Olivia, Sophia and Landry Goulding there, Jacob Conklin and his parents, Jason Wilson, Brandon Jenkins, the Welch girl, Whitney Bilboa and the Carroll girl.  I think that was it.  I asked Cody if whit was coming and he said she wanted to, so I said, you better text her.  She and Aubrey were out jogging and she said, how much time do we have and I said 5 minutes, so they were sprinting to get to our house.  I thought that was kind of cute.  Well he opened it up and got called to the Quezon City North mission in the Philippines and reports to the MTC in the PHilippines on July 3rd.  Jacob goes to provo on July 28th.  So you and Cody only have 17 days together.  We are planning on you giving your homecoming on June 28th, with Brendon Smith and and Cody giving his farewell all on the 28th of June.  So he opened his call, gave hugs to everyone and booked it back to the school to catch the bus.  We are all very excited.  He will love the Philippines and the people.

They won all 3 games in Truckess, 2 on Friday and 1 on Saturday.  Cody struck out 3 times, but went 4 for 9 for the weekend.  So that was good.  Then Cody caught a ride home with the Conklins to make it to prom.  He got home about 6:30 pm.  He went with Rebecca Eardley. They had them and Reagan Goulding and the Nelson boy from the 4th ward, Leiah Zisler and her SC date and the Welch girl and her SC date.  We went to the senior walk but missed them.  After the dance they went to Leiah house and played minute to win it games.  He said he had a blast. One of the funnest dates he ever had.

The trooper would not start, could not turn the key in the ignition, so sat. morning Dwaine Hiles and I were trying to get that fixed.  We drilled out the ignition, so now it starts with a screw driver.  We are getting the van fixed as well.  The bug still does not start, and some guy stopped and wanted to fix amber's camry from her wreck.  I paid him $700 but it still does not look that great.  They did not paint it or any thing.  Amber went back to school. Sat. I was up until 12:30 am working on taxes and had to get up at 4:15 am to catch a flight to San Diego, CA for a conference.  So I am now in San Diego.  I caught a cold and could not sleep well last night either.  I was up coughing all night.  I need to get some sleep.  

We took Adelaide to the DR. last week, she has an ear infection and a bad cold.  I will be glad to have tax season done. I took a couple days off last week and worked on taxes.

We love you and are excited about you on a mission and cody to serve in 2.5 months.  Work hard, only a few months left.  Sprint to that finish line.  Mom and I are extremely grateful for the wonderful children we have been blessed with.  Have a wonderful week.

Love, Dad

Easter, conference and a baby bunny

Feliz Pascua!
 
Hola, como esta?  How was your easter?  I loved conference, it was great.  Elder Holland never ceases to amaze me.  He is always soooo passionate and so powerful.  I thought they were all great.  The Priesthood session was great as well. I did not like the 5 people opposing the vote for the 1st presidency and 12 apostles.  I thought the brethren handled it very well.  David Beck my cousin was released as General Young men's president.  President Obama was in SLC on Thursday and President MOnson did not go see him as he was preserving his strength for the conference.  He must not be doing as well as he use to be.
 
It was spring break for the kids this past week and mom had them signed up for swimming lessons.  Summer was not too thrilled being the oldest tallest student.  Cody got home from his SAN FRANCISCO trip.  He said they had a good time, but did not win any of the competitions.  Then Cody went to Fallon on Friday and Sat. for baseball.  Fallon is really good in baseball and they beat Elko 2 out of 3 games.  The first was 9-0.  Then on Sat. we beat them in 9 innings which took 4.5 hours to play.  Then the 3rd game we lost in the bottom of the 7th inning.  We were up by 2 runs and they scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 7th to win.  Cody said they got clutch hits at the right times.
 
He got back at about 11:30 pm.  We watched conference all day Sat. and Sunday.  Chelsea skyped us Sunday morning and said that she is expecting a baby.  So that is great news.  Hernold's wife is due any day now.  Well I have a lot to get done with taxes in the next 10 days.
 
I sent Marlene Espinel and Rolando Cubillo the new church easter video "He Lives" and Marlene posted it to her facebook account for all her friends to see.  So that is a good way to spread the word.
 
We are excited for spring to be here and find out where Cody is going on his mission.  Perhaps this week or next he will find out.
 
Have a super week and work hard.  Less than 2 transfers left, give it all you have.  You can rest when you are home. We love you and pray for you daily.
 
Love
 
Dad