Conference Weekend

Hello Elder Nielsen,

Another week in the books.  When I look back on this past week, nothing compares to general conference.  I love general conference weekend.  I love hearing from our prophets and apostles and other leaders of the church.  It always inspires me to be better than I am and improve myself each and every day.  I can't remember much that happened this past week.

Monday I had my accounting class and that always makes for a long day when I am gone 8 am to 10 pm.  I worked late each night trying to get taxes done and other things at work.  It cooled off again and this weekend it has been raining off and on. Summer's deer hunt starts tomorrow, but I do not know when we will get out and hunt.  We got Cassidy Nielsen's and Timothy Campbell's wedding invitations. Cassidy will get married Thursday in SLC temple and Tim will get married on Sat. in the Payson, UT temple.  I am not sure what we will do on either of those, if we will make it or not.  We would like to, but it is always hard with the kids in school, dog and paper route.

On Friday, BYU played University of Connecticut in Provo and BYU won 30-13.  It was kind of ugly.  BYU dominated but could not put it in the end zone.  They had 3 turn overs.  At one point in the game, BYU had 80+ plays to UConn's 30+ plays and the score was tied 13 to 13.  We finally pulled it out in the end.  The game was on ESPN2, but I stayed up and watched it rebroadcast on BYU TV from 11 pm to 2 am.  I was pretty tired on Sat. morning to get up and do the papers.  Elko lost to Fallon on Friday night 23-3 or something like that.  It sounded like Fallon dominated that game as well.  

Saturday morning, we went out to Spring Creek to watch Summer's final track meet. She took 3rd in the mile, she is still favoring a pulled thigh muscle or something, so she is not up to her peak performance.  She long jumped 10'1/4".  I think that is better than her score before.

Then we came home and listened to conference and I worked on taxes all day Saturday and watched college football in between sessions.  At least 4 teams in the top 10 got beat.  Ole Miss #3 in the country got beat by Florida. Notre Dame #6 or got beat by Clemson. UCLA #7 got beat by Arizona State. Georgia, #8 got beat by Alabama.  So lots of upsets.  Utah is ranked #7 in the country now this week.  They had a buy last week.

General Conference was awesome.  I loved all the talks.  President Monson only talked in Priesthood and at the end of Sunday mornings session.  During his talk this morning, he seemed like he was barely able to finish his talk.  He started leaning on the podium for support and at the end of his talk, the microphone was above his face.  When he started he was towering over the mic.  We got 3 new apostles.  I figured one would be Elder Rasband, as I really like him and it was.  The others were Elder Stevensen who was the presiding Bishop and the other is Elder Renlund from the 70.  Renlund was a heart and transplant surgeon.  I really enjoyed those testimonies of the 3 newly called apostles.  After their witness, I told mom, we would not skip a beat, they are men of God and very inspired.  I always like Holland and he talked on mothers. Elder Nelson's was really good and I really like Elder Bednar's talk which ended the conference.  I always have so much to improve on and conference always inspires me to be better.  I also like Devin Durrants talk.  He played basketball for BYU in the 1980's.  But he said to save money every week and see what happens and also to memorize/ponderize a scripture every week. So I thought that we could all do that as a family.  So what I am thinking is that we could all take turns picking a scripture for a week. And we all ponderize it and comment on it in the next letter.  What do you all think.  Then we can share each others thoughts.  I really like that idea to be thinking of a scripture each week to let virtue garnish our thoughts unceasingly.

I will start this week, and we can go from oldest to youngest.  So mom can choose a scripture next week etc.  That way if there is a scripture you would like to study for a week, we can do it as a family.  What do you all think?? Good idea or not? He said he would like us to do it for 6 weeks and then for 10 years.  I think our family and spiritual growth  would be tremendous.  

So my scripture for this week for all of us to ponderize this: 

D&C 121:45

"Let thy bowels also be full of charity towards all men, and to the household of faith, and let virtue garnish thy thoughts unceasingly; then shall thy confidence wax strong in the presence of God; and the doctrine of the priesthood shall distil upon thy soul as the dews from heaven."

We had the missionaries over for dinner after the last session.  We invited the mission president and his wife, the Halls, Lois Gurr as well to join us for dinner as we had pork loin for dinner, but they all had eaten or had other plans.  The missionaries had been talking to President Shumway in the past few weeks and he said they need to get over to the Nielsen's house as they will help you with the missionary work.  Both mom and I felt bad last week as the missionaries got up to bare their testimonies and we both thought to ourselves that we do not really know these new missionaries as we had not had them in our home.  So mom signed them up for today.  We need to take care of the missionaries.

We hope you have a great week Elder Nielsen.  It sounds like you are doing well. Keep working hard.  Every thing you do is all worth it. Invite every one you see to come unto Christ.  Be exactly obedient. Remember that you have been called to the Philippines for a divine purpose.  I like what was said in conference today.  It is not about you, it is about the Lords work and what he wants done with the people of that country.  Be his very best servant and you will be blessed forever. We love you and pray for you always.  We are excited to see what type of missionary you can be molded into by the hands of the Savior himself.  The Lord lives!  This is his church! We must do every thing in our power to help bring his message to all people.

Have a super week!!  The weeks will continue to get better and better as you continue to lose yourself in his work.  He loves you and is pleased with you being his representative.  What a special time in your life.  Take advantage of every minute.

Love,

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

 Well, it has been a typical week here.  Carly started PAL practice on Mon. night.  We missed the draft, so she was placed on a team and no surprise Suzy Beatty picked her up and put her on her team again.  She likes her team mates and so she's happy.  The Leyvas (Nathan and his wife, Jackie) were there coaching a team as well.  She is a 5th grade teacher like Suzy and so I'm sure they were kindly coerced into taking a team.  He asked how you were doing, so I told him how great things were going and some of your latest experiences--like eating with your hands (that's so like you to be native)  Dad said he always liked you.  

We've had colds this week.  I wasn't sure at first if it was allergies or if I was catching something, then by the time I figured it was a head cold Adelaide and Carly were getting sick too.  I knew Ads was coming down with something when she took a mid morning nap.  We have gone through 2 boxes of tissues in 5 days.

Elko lost to Fallon on Friday night 23-3.  Sam Brown broadcasts all the football games now as well.  He does a great job.  Rogers really lost out with that little tiff with Klekas-- She was "too busy" to do it anyway ;)

We went to Summer's last track meet out at SCH and she ran the mile, she said she wasn't hurting anymore, but she got 3rd place.  Her times got slower with each meet ????

We enjoyed Conference Weekend,  it was so uplifting.  You will enjoy conference more than any other time you have watched it. I loved Holland's talk and Elder Nelson was great too.  Pres. Monson seemed really exhausted, but he still gave a powerful talk.  We had the Elders over for dinner after today's last session.  We hadn't had missionaries over for quite a few weeks, so it was nice.  They are both kind of quiet.  One is tall and from Florida, and the other is short and from Dominican Republic.  They ate a lot of food, and seemed to enjoy the meal very much.

We had some exciting news this past weekend, but I will let your sister fill you in on that, we are quite happy.

This is short, i can't think of much else to say, except I love you my dear boy and hope you have a wonderful week.

  Love, Mom

PS  be sure and tell us  your favorite scripture for your plaque and have you eaten star fruit yet?