Rainy, rainy weekend

Hola Hermana Nielsen 

Magandang Umaga 

I think I spelled that wrong last time.  Well the time is just flowing by.  I can't believe we are almost done with May.  This week went by quickly.  I took vacation days Wed. through Friday. Summer had a softball game on Tuesday and they lost again.  They still have not won a game.  It has been raining all week.  We need the rain as we did not get hardly any snow.  Yesterday our basement was flooding as it was so wet.  On Friday, it was senior skip day and Cody and I drove to Utah to have his wisdom teeth pulled.  We left about 5:30 am.  He got them all pulled on Friday and now is chubby chubby bunny. He did not say any thing crazy but he said when he was coming out of it, a nurse was working with him and she was singing a song that was playing on the radio and he said, Oh, I like that song and I guess the two of them were singing that song.  He can't remember what the song was, but I would have liked to be in there listening to those two singing.  When the wheeled him out, he was talking alot, but did not say anything crazy.  He started to get up out of the wheel chair in their office and they said, no you can't get out, we need to take you to the car and he said, Great.  We then went to Mens Warehouse to buy some slacks for his mission.  We did a little shopping at Costco and went to Charlene's but she was not there.  Cassidy Nielsen is getting married July 30 or something.  But we came back to Elko and got home around 7 pm.  He mouth was hurting so he had to take the pain medication and that knocked him right out.  He went over to Leigh Zisler's with a bunch of seniors to play games that night.

On Sat. I worked on the basement and we just hung out and worked inside as it was raining outside.  Yesterday was a good day at church.  The Fillipino family went to church with us including the mom.  We had the Bauman family over for dinner with the missionaries.  Sister Bauman had subbed mom's paper route when we were gone and did not let us pay her any thing.  We had a Bishop's youth discussion last night as well and Cody and I went and visited 2 families for home teaching.  Today we are going to work around the house.  It is suppose to get up to 81 today.  So that will be nice.

I can't think of much more that is happening.  Have a super day and keep working hard.  It was a year ago today that we decided to go to Hawaii on the spur of the moment.

We love you, and pray for you daily.

Love Dad

3rd Place in State for Elko Baseball

Hola Hermana Nielsen, or Magandang amaga
 
This past week flew by super fast. I can't remember much what happened except that on Wednesday night we were possibly planning on leaving early and driving to Ely and staying the night with some friends and then getting up and going to Vegas Thursday morning.  But I could not get ahold of any one and the missionaries called and wanted us to have a discussion with Anna and her family that night. So we did that. We just read out of the BOM.  The missionaries gave them a BOM in Tagalog and Angel the 13 year old girl grabbed it and hugged it and said this is mine.  Her mom says she has her bag out all ready to carry it with her on Sunday.  But on Sunday, they had to baby sit and were not able to make it to church.  But the family and girls are doing very well and enjoy everything.  The mom mentioned that they have a bunch of saints in their home.  That is something we will have to address a little latter.
 
So we got up at 2:40 am and I showered and we left for Vegas.  Cody played at 10:00 am.  We played Faith Luthern and lost.  The team played well, but we had some untimely misstakes.  We lost like 8-2 or something, but left 9 runners on base.  I was not that impressed.  I thought we were just as good as they were.  Fallon beat Boulder City, and then played Faith Luthern that afternoon and beat them 4-3.  I guess it was a very close game.  So Friday morning we played Boulder city in the loser's bracket and beat them.  It was a very close game and Garrett Schoffield hit a walk off 2 run home run in the bottom of the 7th inning.  It was great and very exciting.  So we then had to play Faith Luthern in the loser's bracket to see who would be playing Fallon in the state championship game.  And they beat us 9-4 or something. So we took 3rd place in state. Cody played really well on Friday in the 2 games, he hit 2 doubles off the fence and got another hit, scored at least 2 runs that I can remember.  They all did well, but we have to capitalize on the opportunities when they present themselves.  But it was a good run, now we are focusing on getting Cody ready for his mission. 
 
We went to Costco after the game and filled up on samples and bought a pizza and got Cody another pair of glasses as he is not suppose to wear contacts over there in Phillipines.  We did not get home until about 1 am Sat morning.  I was very tired.  Thursday, we went to this restaurant where we were staying for dinner and we all had a 1/2 lb hamburger with unlimited fries.  We thought the little girls would love that. We were waiting a while for our meal when the manager came out and said it was taking longer than 1/2 hour to serve our meal, so she would pick up the tab for us.  So we got that meal free.  It was great.  We also went swimming and sat in the hot tub.  The pool was cool and the wind was blowing alot, so we spent most of the time in the hot tub.  The girls loved it.  Addy said she wants to go back to that place again.
 
We had a good day yesterday.  Romney had her farewell and she leaves Wed. for the MTC.  We went fishing with the entire family on Sat. and Cody and Summer both caught fish.  It was cold and raining, so I took a bunch of my old tax files and the girls burned them and it kept us warm.  They were more interested in the fire than fishing. Last night for family home evening we watch the District 2 and there was an Elder Bott in the film.  Any relation to Hermana Bott?
 
Sat. we were pulling the van out from the curb, and I was wondering if I was going to clear the car's bumper in front of me and I asked Cody, " Am I clear Cody?"  And Addelaide, sitting in the very back seat of the van, says, "yah, Dad you are clear".  It made me and Cody laugh.  The back seat 5 year old driver from the very back seat, helping me with directions.  She is a caracter, and is getting big.
 
Well less than 1 month left, keep working hard and being obedient and the Lord will bless you.  We love you and are happy you are a missionary.
 
Love
 
Dad

Mothers' Day

Hermana Nielsen,
 
It was great talking to you yesterday, even though it was very difficult to communicate.  Be sure and tell Hermana Giler that it was not her English that we could not understand, but it was the delay in hearing it.  She is doing very well in English.  We could hardly communicate in English ourselves.  You looked great.  We only have about 5 more of these emails addressed to Hermana Nielsen.  Next it is Elder Nielsen.  We are having a lot of fun learning Tagalog.  I think I enjoy it more than Cody.  He is still focusing on school work, so it is hard for him to dedicate a lot of time.
 
Well, what did we do last week.  It alls seems to be a blur these days.  I know Summer had a couple of softball games and she is doing well for her 2nd year playing.  I think she is probably in the top 3 players on her team.  They still have not won any games, but they are coming close.
 
The big news is we went to Dayton on Friday morning.  Cody played at 11:30 am and we were there until almost dark, around 7:30 to 8:00 pm.  We stayed in a hotel in Carson City.  Then we were at the ball fields on Sat. from 9 until almost 5 or 6.  2 games on Friday and 3 on Sat.  We beat South Tahoe on Friday in the 1st game, with a walk off home run by Kyle Whitted in the bottom of the 7th. We won 6-5.  Then we played Fallon and the game was late starting and it was 5-5 in the end of the 5th inning and it was getting dark and they got us out and a guy hit a home run on their team and they called the game due to darkness, we lost 6-5.  On Sat. we played South tahoe again and beat them pretty handedly, then we had to play fallon again and beat them 2 to win regionals.  We won the 1st game and they beat us the 2nd.  But we spent almost 10 hours each day at the fields.  Our players were tired and made some costly errors.  It is hard to stay mentally focused that long of period.  But we are still going to State down in Vegas next weekend.  So that will be fun.  Cody hit a home run in one of the games, so did Benton and Jacob and Kyle Whitted had 2 home runs.
 
The Filippino family including the mom came to church with us yesterday so that was good.  They had a discussion with them while we were in Dayton with Bishop Bryce.
 
Sister Simons had a baby boy last week.  Nathan Nielsen, your cousin is engaged, so that is good.  Everything is going well.  We are just trying to wrap up the school year and all the senior events.  The Choralier concert is tonight.  Cody's last one, and I think he is happy about that.  He has enjoyed it, but it is a lot of time. You will have to tell Sister Bott, that Cody should take Ruth out on a date before he leaves.  I know he and Jacob want to go to Lagoon.
 
Well, have a super week.  WE love you and and so happy you are serving a mission.  We love having our kids serving missions.  Keep working hard.
 
Love
 
Dad
 

Mom's a Year older and wiser

Querida Hermana Nielsen,

Well how was this week.  Our week was good.  Monday I had to teach my accounting class.  That should be the last time for this semester.  On Tuesday, Cody had his baseball banquet.  Cody got the team academic award and MVP for offensive player of the year for the team, 1 of 3.  So that was good.  They have had a good year.  They had to forfeit one of their wins against Truckee and one of their pitchers pitched too many innings.  Other wise they would be tied for 1st place with Fallon in the league.  But Fallon would win the tie breaker, so it did not matter much.

Summer had a softball game on Monday and Wed. and Friday.  Her team still has not won any games.  But they have been close in a lot.  She has been pitching and does pretty well.  On  Friday she played catcher and left field.  She does pretty well for not having much experience.

On Friday, Cody played a double hitter against Dayton and they won both games by the 10 run rule.  Cody went 3 for 5 or 4 for 6 in those games at the plate.  On Sat. he went 3 for 4 and Elko won 10 to 0 on senior day.  There are 5 seniors on the Elko baseball team.  They announced that both Jacob and Cody were going on their missions after they graduate to their respective countries.  So that was good.  On Sat. after the game, I came home and mowed the lawn and tried to clean up the house and get ready for mom's birthday on Sunday.  

Sunday was good, mom picked up the 4 Filipinos kids and took them to church, then they 3 younger ones spent the day here playing until about 6 pm.  The mom was working again.  We were suppose to have another discussion with them on Friday and on Sat. but both appointments fell through.  Typical life as a missionary.

Mom turned the big 49 yesterday.  We all helped out and made dinner and dessert.  We had the missionaries over and the little Filipino family girls for dinner.

We look forward to talking to you next week on Sunday for Mother's day.  Mom gets two Sundays in a row to be treated like a queen.  You will have to let us know what time you want to skype with us on Sunday.  We love you and look forward to our skype visit.  Keep working hard and sprint to the finish line.

Cody and the team go to Dayton, NV this Friday and Sat. for Regionals.  We play South Tahoe at 11:30 am on Friday.  We have to win 2 games to go to vegas the following week for state.  We can't believe Cody's high school sports career is coming to an end.  We enjoy all our our kids and their sporting and musical events.

Have a super week.  We love you.  I am studying Tagalog with Cody.  We down loaded an app and we are learning a bunch of phrases and we do pretty well on the tests.  It is a fun language to learn.  Some similarities to spanish, but not too much.

Love,

DAD