Who's counting?

Querida Hermanaita nielsen,
 
Well, here it is.  1:00 pm in the afternoon, and I didn't have time to write you until now.  I have written every week, so I did not want to let the last week of you mission slip by without it.  I don't know if you will read it or not, but perhaps next Monday you can.
 
I spent Monday through Thursday morning in Las Vegas for training.  I am always grateful to get back to good ol Elko after spending a few days in las vegas.
 
On Friday morning, I was complaining to mom about something stinking and I was blaming it on the dog.  Then when I went out into the garage, we could smell it stronger and I thought it was Cody's badger hide.  Come to find out it was one of our freezers that had died on us and so, we started transferring meat into the fridge and other freezer as quickly as we could.  We are not sure how long it had been out, but the meat was completely defrosted.  That stressed me out big time.  We have worked too hard and long hunting and cutting up meat to let all of that go bad.  So I went to work and mom worked on it.  I had a meeting all day and after my meeting I went home and started working on the meat situation.
 
Saturday morning we continued and we got everything into 1 freezer and the freezer in the fridge except for 2 large turkeys, so we will be cooking them up this week.  We cleaned the garage by the freezer from top to bottom and it looks great now.  We were painting it and cody was continuing the painting job today.
 
Well we are sad to see you wonderful mission come to an end.  I can relive my mission through my kids and I loved my mission very much.  It is a bitter sweet time.  We are happy to see you, but don't want the missionary thing to stop.  We are grateful that Cody will be filling that void very soon.  You have made a wonderful missionary and we are extremely grateful for you years of service to our Lord.  Mom and I have talked alot about the missions and we feel that there is not way someone can give up there life and dedicate it to the Lord and not come back a different person.  We love you and pray for you daily.  Your life will never be the same.  The blessing you receive from this missionary service will come back to you 100 fold.  The Lord is a great pay-master and we will always be in debt to him.
 
We will see you next week.  We love you sooooo much.
 
Love
 
Dad

School year is winding down

Hola Hermanita Nielsen,

I can't believe we are in June already.  Where did May go?  This past week, went by quickly again.  With all of Cody's Senior activities, the weeks are flying by too quickly.  Monday was a holiday and we just stayed around the house and I worked in the basement.  There is still alot to do. Tuesday was the senior solos.  Cody did a dance with Rebecca Eardly.  It was one of the best performances of the night.  Becca turned Cody into a real dancer.  They did very well.  It was like a slow ballet classical dance, but he did well.  He did not sing, but it was probably better with his mouth all swollen from his teeth.  

On Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday we had discussions in our home with the Filipino family the shoemans.  The 14 year girl is asking for more time.  Their date is the 13th of June and she feels that they are not ready yet.  So on Sat. night, the discussion was all about the missionaries asking the same questions over and over about the baptism.  I was not too impressed.  I do not think the family has taken time to really read and pray about it and find out the truthfulness for themselves.  But the missionaries don't see that.  I think it is a little too quick as well.  They are very busy and have not put forth the effort to really know.

The entire family with 2 of their grandkids went to church with us on Sunday and they all came over for dinner afterwards.  There were 6 of them.  Summer had a softball game on Friday and they lost but the had a make up game yesterday and Summer did not play and they beat Carlin, their 1st win and now the season is over.

On Thursday, Elko HS had their seniors awards night and I had to give out the GBC scholarships.  Cody got the millenium and some other athlectic scholarship from the US army.  That did not get over until 9:30 pm. 

We had our fast sunday yesterday as our stake conference is next week.  Did you hear that L. Tom Perry for the 12 passed away on Sat. He was suppose to speak to all the bishops and stake presidents in Nevada on Sat. and passed away from cancer.  He was 92.  He was in the temple with the brethren on Tuesday and died on Sat. I will miss him.  And Elder Scott is not very good either.  He does not attend any of their meetings.

On Saturday, we worked around the house and cleaned up some things.  I worked on taxes.  Cody had S-day on Friday and sat.  Last night Cody had his seminary graduation.  He was 1 of 5 from the west stake that graduated with honors all 4 years.  3 of those 5 were from the 3rd ward, Rose Harris, Reagan Goulding, and Cody.  The other 2 were Landon Howe and Trevor Stone.  I was surprized there were not more with honors.

We finished watching the District for family home evening last night.  I love those episodes.  It makes me want to be out there preaching and being a missionary again.

Well one more week of school for the kids.  Keep working hard and enjoy every second of this special time in your life when you are a special representative of the Lord.  Do not take it for granted.  We love you and pray for you daily.  I have to go to LAs Vegas today for meetings.  I will be back on Wed.

Have a super week.

Love

Dad