Magandang Umaga! First Letter to the Philippines!

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Well here we go again with the weekly letters.  A 2 week break was not enough.  Things have been going well.  We suffered through the hot spell and this past week we have been getting lots of thunder storms that drop rain and blow through.  How are you holding up to the heat in the Phillipines?  You are 15 hours ahead of us, so it is Friday morning there.  I better get this written so you can get my email.

 

How do you like the MTC? How many missionaries are there.  Romney is in the Spain MTC now and she said there are only 27 missionaries in that MTC. 

 

We have been cleaning the house.  I really like that shelf in the garage you helped me build.  It is all full of stuff now, so I will have to build another.  I talked to Klekas and he said the team did pretty well this summer.  There record was not that great but they were in every game.  He said Eric and Kyron played really well. Kyron had an ally up dunk in traffic that was impressive.  Klekas said they played Bingham in Saint George and only lost by 8 points.  I wonder if Bingham had all their players.  He also said Benton went to a few college football combines this summer and he said Hawaii has offered him a full ride scholarship to play football there.  I was curious how this health issue affected him.

 

Not much else has happened. We can't get Erin off the ipod and computer.  She spends all day on them.  She needs to find a job.

 

I hope every thing is going well. Just remember to pray hard and work hard in the MTC and learn all you can and the language will come.

 

We love you and are happy we have another missionary out.  Jacob's farewell speach is on the 19th of July so we will have to remember to attend that.

 

May the Lord bless you in everything.  Remember obedience to the key to being a successful missionary.

 Love

 Dad

Dear Elder Nielsen,

Where do I start?  First, with my slew of questions:  How was the flight over?  You said your connecting flights went "wonderfully",  fill us in a little bit.  How are things in the MTC?  Who is your companion?  What do you do for PE?  How is the food?  Is your Tagolog coming along?

Things here are what you would imagine.  Of course the day you left is when your retainer arrived in the mail.  The mail even came strangely early that day, like at 11 am and I was thinking, 'He's probably even still in Salt Lake right now.".  I can send it to you, I have the address for the MTC, do things make it there very successfully?

I kept myself busy the rest of the day you left, by cleaning more in your room.  It was a pretty quiet day; Summer was back up at Girls' Camp, and everyone was just kind of hanging out.

Thursday, Erin and I went over to the Bryces' house to help them clean their home before moving.  We were there for about 2 hrs and then the YM came in and loaded the moving truck.  They took off the next morning.  Bishop Bryce is coming back this weekend for probably the last time--he'll be released, and we will get a new Bishop.  ??????

Friday, I went up and picked up girls at camp with the big truck, (they asked a few of us)   I ended up only bringing Summer and Ruth Eardley home.  I snooped around for our sleeping bag, but didn't see it. :(   She had a good time and enjoyed your letter.

Did you do anything to celebrate the 4th of July?  Ours started out kind of funny.  I got up and went to open the door to bring in the papers, and guess who greeted me on the front step?  Chica!  She practically had her nose on the door when I opened it.  It reminded me of a "Barney Fife" moment.  If Barney was a dog, he and Chica would be one in the same-- all bluff and blunder!   We were going to have Sis. Purcell and her comp. over, but her comp. wasn't feeling well, so they didn't make it. (She goes home this week)  We enjoyed an all American dinner ourselves--Sloppy Joes, chips, fruit, and cake. Then when it got dark we went over to the parking lot West of the football field and watched the fireworks--they didn't disappoint.  We played the radio that accompanied it with patriotic music.  We decided that that really added to the performance.  We let Chica sleep inside that night, since the people in Spud's old house were shooting off stuff till late.

Our Sunday felt a little different without you (I'm not complaining though) The Simons blessed their baby and invited us over for an Open House after church.  Then later that day, we had the Elders over for dinner.  It was Elder Escobar's last Sunday in the field.  He was still focused on his mission and talked about the coming week, like he was going to be here.  He was such a good missionary, always upbeat and working hard.  We may see him this week, he said his Dad was driving over to pick him up and they would be driving back to UT.  The Filipino Family didn't go to church last Sunday, Anna was working and no one answered the door when we went to pick them up.  It would have been a great way to end his mission, if they could have been baptized, but they need more time and fellowship.

Well, we are so happy you are on your mission,  I must be honest and say it seems a bit more quiet without you here, but we will adapt.  Have a wonderful week, I am looking forward to hearing how everything is going, Love you tons, Mom