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

Dearest Hermanita Nielsen,

Well, Cody is now an official graduate.  It was a little windy and cloud covered in the earlier part of the day, but, by dusk it was perfect weather.  Ian Pattini gave the EHS class president speech, and that was really good, humorous and down to earth.  Then Valedictorian Amelia Lamp spoke and her speech was a bit self- aggrandizing.  It wasn't nearly as fun as the other, although she tried to be funny.  She is going to Harvard in the Fall-- the first Elko graduate to go there, so that is quite and accomplishment.

Tuesday we went to the Triple "E" banquet.  Cody was chosen as a recipient, along with Rose Harris, Becca Eardley, Landon Howe, Trevor Stone, Jason Wilson, Raegan Goulding and others.  I saved the program so you can see it.  (when you get home) ... oops, that just kind of slipped out.  That is quite an accomplishment and I think he was very deserving.  It says its for students in appreciation for their outstanding contributions to Elko High School.

Cody was out till 4am! on grad night.  He went to the Sr. Grad party at the college.  He won $75.00 cash, which was good.  He really wanted the GoPro camera, but didn't get it.  The party went until 2am or so and then he hung around "talking to people, he probably won't see much of anymore."  That's the sad part about graduating, is you won't see those people you like, but don't necessarily hang out with.

Saturday, Cody hit the grad party circuit.  Dad and I went to Jacob Conklin's and Tim Meo's  and we were done.  We had stk conf. that night too.  The next day after the Sunday Stk conf. mtg. (Cody gave the closing prayer)  He was ordained an Elder and received the Melchizedek priesthood.  Jacob had just received his ordination so he was able to be a participant in the circle when Dad ordained Cody. Pretty Cool.

Our freezer went out in the garage and so we were transferring meat and cleaning it out, and that lead to moving the other freezer out and cleaning behind it.  It was pretty gross, we hadn't seen things that had fallen behind there since Mantha was alive.  Cody has been painting the walls with left over paint from the house and it is looking really good out there.  Dad is getting ready to build shelves out there, so that will be great.

This week is the Elko boys basketball team is starting their off season work  and it is such a relief to not have to be involved in that.  Last year the whole month of June Cody was practicing or traveling with basketball stuff.  He feels soooooo free.  He is so ready to be moving forward with this next step in his life.

We went to Lisa Sandall's wedding bbq last night.  Kind of odd that they had something on a sunday night, but it was very casual and nice.  She married a fellow that is in the Marines and is very nice.

Well, that is about it.  We suppose we will send one more letter next week and then......... HUGS, HUGS, HUGS!

Have  a wonderful week, I'm sure it will be bitter-sweet.  You have been a wonderful missionary and I am so glad you will have this experience to reflect and strengthen you the rest of your life.

I love you my dear Hermana!  Mom