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

My Dear Hermanita Nielsen,

What a week!   We started out Monday with the Spring Choralier Concert.  It was a really good concert.  Rogers was relaxed and in a good mood.  Cody has come a long a way in the vocal area.  Remember when he was a freshman and he barely would open his mouth up there?  Well, now he's like a choir boy with the oval shaped mouth--well, not quite, but he looks so confident up there--and show choir!  They did a throw back 70's music show and Cody was a having a party up there!  He was so cute.  Dad says he didn't get my dancing genes, because he got off count once, but he was smiling and having a good time.  You couldn't take your eyes off him--such a fun kid he is.  That was the start of the series of "the last..."  the last Choralier Concert, from here on out its kick back in Choralier class.  He took the AP Gov. test the next day and so now he's done with that.  I thought he might go to Coffee Mug for his last post concert hang out, but he came home and went to bed, because he wanted to get his sleep and be rested for the test.  (good boy)

We went to Vegas this past weekend for "the last" weekend of the baseball season.  We played Faith Lutheran in our first game.  They were the 1st seed for the South.  We played them well, we just couldn't seize opportunities, left runners on base and made some errors and you can't do that against good teams.  We lost 8-5.  Next we played Boulder City who has lost to #1 Fallon.  We had a close game with them, but fortunately won on a Garrett Schofield home run, that brought in 2 runs and won the game for us.  The fans and team were going crazy, his mom was crying, it was a fun way to win.  It was his first home run of the season, and couldn't have come at a better time.  That meant we got to play Faith Lutheran again since they had lost their 2nd game to Fallon.  F.L. hits the ball really well, and they had too many key hits against us and we held on for about the first 3 innings and then they started scoring runs that we could not answer.  We lost 11-5 ending our season.  Cody played well.  He had 2 doubles in a row in one game was solid on defense.  He was 2nd on the team for the season in batting average.  It was fun to watch him, he is an impressive athlete.  It was a bit sad for me to think that was the last time I would watch him compete as an Elko Indian.  He has been a key player in Football, basketball, and baseball in which all of his teams have competed in the post season and done well.  He's a stud.  Fallon played Faith Lutheran for the state title.  F.L. had to beat them twice to win.  The first game they killed them 16-0 (yikes)  then Fallon came back and won the final game taking the state title.  Yeah!  we were happy that a team from the north won it.  We stayed in a hotel with pool and the girls had fun with that,  especially Adelaide. The weather was really cool there that weekend and the pool was cold as well.  The hot tub was really hot, so she was hopping from one to the other the whole time.  We went to the hotel restaurant for a hamburger special--5.99 for a big burger and endless fries.  The manager came up to us during our meal and said it had been over 30 min. since our order and therefore it was going to be free!  That was a $30.00  plus meal that was on the house.

Romney gave her farewell talk yesterday and she did a great job.  She goes into the MTC this wednesday.  I'm not sure if we told you of  the latest mission calls.  Brandon Jenkins-- Scottsdale, AZ, Trevor Stone is going to Billings, Montana, and Jason Wilson is going to Ukraine.

We went fishing to Dorsey Res. on Sat. and Cody and Summer caught a fish.

Summer is going to run for a student council position, so she had to make some initial campaign posters to hang up at school.  We could have used your wonderful writing flair.  Cody helped her and they turned out cute.  She used the Napoleon Dynamite slogan, "Vote for me, and it will be summer all year long." They also made one using a picture of Olaf from Frozen that said, "I'm voting for Summer."

Well, those are the highlights of our week, hope yours was great as well.

Love you so much, Mom