Merry Christmas!!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

This has been a busy crazy week. Chelsea and Brian got here on Wednesday from New Mexico, Amber and Kevin got here on Thursday afternoon and Erin and Landon got here an hour after them.  So we have had a full house. Erin and Landon have been sleeping at the Welch's and the rest have been crashing here.

On Wednesday night, BYU played Wyoming in their bowl game in San Diego. BYU was up 24 to 7 entering the 4th quarter and almost gave the game away. It was raining really hard and Wyoming came back and made it 24-21 and had the ball and was driving down the field and got to about BYU's 40-35 yard line. They were in field goal range and might have tied or won the game with 2 minutes remaining and Ky Nacua intercepted a pass and BYU won. But we should have never allowed them to get close.

It has been a lot of fun having all the kids around, but Mom said she feels like grandma Croft when we are there as all she does is cook, clean up and then prepare for the next meal.

David is a real cutie. He really likes people and goes to everyone.  On Friday, all of us and President shumway and Kate went caroling to a few of the widows in our ward. We went to sister Miranda's, Sister Sargeant's, The Sills, and Afton Ballards. It was really fun and they all enjoyed it very much. We enjoyed it very much as well as we always feel the spirit and it makes us feel good. Afterwards, we came back to our house and mom had made white hot chocolate, and it was very good.

On Friday, we got about 6-7 inches of snow. So we had a white Christmas. Kevin was helping me work on the cars and we got the bug started. We bled the clutch in the Trooper, so hopefully that will work now. Brian helped fix the door nob to the pantry door and the kitchen faucet. It has been good having all the help around here.

Last night, Christmas eve, we had Amber and Kevin, and Erin and Landon sleep on mattresses in the family room like a big slumber party. Brian and Chelsea and David were in Chelsea's old room and the 3 younger girls were in Amber's old room up stairs. We stayed up until about 11:30 pm talking and wrapping gifts. And then mom and I had to stay up until 1:30 am finishing all the final touches. We woke up about 6 am and watched Luke 2. We opened all the presents, had mom's breakfast casserole. We only had a 1 hour sacrament meeting today. We went to the 2nd ward as Landon was singing with his group that he sang with before his mission.

We came home and cleaned up the house and finished dinner. We fed 19 people today. All of us, 4 missionaries, 2 ladies from the Spanish branch that are going through hard times and Lenny. Chelsea and Brian will head home tomorrow, and we are going to try to go to SLC on Tuesday for a Nielsen family party.

It was great seeing you and talking to you. Keep working hard and being exactly obedient in all things. We know you can do great things in this new area.

Have a super day, and we hope you had a great Christmas.

Love Dad

Christmas letter 2016

Dear Everyone,

We didn't send out Christmas Cards last year, we spent the postage on wedding invitations instead!  We had a lot happen in our family the last two years, so here's an update...

Chelsea and Brian became parents to a very cute baby boy.  David is 15 months old now.  If you follow Chelsea at all on social media you get the understanding that she loves being a full time mom.  David is an active toddler and keeps them both busy.  Brian works for the D.A's office there in Farmington, NM.

Amber and Kevin got married last April and then promptly took off on a road trip/honeymoon to Detroit Michigan where Kevin had a summer internship working for Ford Motor Company.  He will graduate from BYU-I this spring.  Amber finished her degree from BYU-I  in Marriage and Family Studies and in now attending Idaho State, enrolled in the masters program for counseling.

Erin married Landon Welch last January.  They currently are in Rexburg, ID where Landon is attending BYU-I. Erin graduated from Evans Hairstyling College in September and keeps herself busy cutting hair and growing her photography business.  They are expecting a baby girl in March--Grandchild #2!

Cody is serving his mission in the Philippines, Quezon City North Mission.  He has a little less than 6 mos. left, but we don't keep track of those things.   He has learned to speak Tagalog fluently and is really enjoying his mission--except for the fact that he is sweating all day long!

Summer is a freshman at Elko High School.  She played varsity soccer and is now on the JV basketball team.  She is a member of the Choraliers, a select singing group at the high school.  She is a quiet, sweet girl with a big smile.

Carly, now a 6th grader has really come out of her shell this last year.  Was she always this funny?  She loves art and doing crafty stuff.  She had a break-out season in PAL basketball this year leading her team to a 3rd place finish.

Finally, there's Adelaide.  What would our family be without her?  She is in 1st grade and has just recently become an amazing reader.  She loves technology and going to the library each week.

Scott and I went on a little adventure to Peru.  It was intended that we would go back with Erin, since she had served her mission there.  Things didn't work out for her to go, so we went without her and she got to stay with the younger girls and take care of them.  We got to check Machu Pichu off the bucket list. 

Have a wonderful Christmas and remember that Christ and his life is the reason for the season.

                                                                     Love, The Nielsen Family

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

I can't believe Christmas is next week. Where in the world has the time gone.  4:30 pm our time will be good for the phone call on Sunday and Monday your time.

This was another good week. The Choralier's concert was on Monday, Summer's 1st Christmas concert. It was good and I love all the songs. I could listen to them for ever. Kate Shumway is a senior now and that was her last C-mas concert and Sister Shumway was pretty emotional afterwards.

Landon Howe is doing a lot better now. I guess he is standing up now and eating solid foods. And can walk 40 steps with the help from the nurse. So it sounds like he is steady improving which is good.

We were watching the girl on Carly's PAL bball team and on Monday, and her mom called and said they needed to stay another day, so we had her until Tuesday. She is a nice girl. Very quiet and did not eat a lot.

Summer had a JV game on Monday against Wells varsity. They lost, Summer shot 2 or 3 times and missed. She is very timid and needs to play with more confidence. She wants to get rid of the ball right after she catches it. Then she played again on Wednesday against Carlin and they won, but she is still not playing with any confidence. Again I think she was 0-2 or something. She only shoots a couple times a game, but half of her shots she should not take and she should shot more when she is open. She left at half time on the game Monday to go to the choraliers concert.

Carly had PAL games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. She is really improving. These were tournament games, so she started playing very intensely. They won on Wednesday. She had probably 6 points.  In Friday and Saturday's games, the best player on their team was gone to a AAU Tournament, so Carly had to step up big time. The girl that was gone was one of their taller girls, but Carly played the entire game and was all over the court, dribbling in and around girls. She had 11 points, but they lost to an Owyhee team who had a bunch of big tall girls. She was dead tired after the game. Carly's team played again on Sat. and won and took 3rd place. But she has improved a ton on her aggressiveness and assertiveness. We took her off of Bailey's team so she could be used more and that was a great decision.

The kids had their last day of school on Friday for the year. We had our adult white elephant party for the 3rd ward on Friday night. That is always fun. On Saturday we had our ward C-mas dinner. It was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. It has been getting down to single digits here at night, so not a lot of the older members in our ward venture out on those cold nights. 

Yesterday, I worked on the van. We had a front headlight out and a rear brake light that I replaced. I also replaced the window wipers on the van. The clutch on the trooper has not been working well since I got home from Georgia, so I had to drive the truck all week. I need to work on a bunch of issues with the cars, but it is bitter cold out there.

This morning I gathered up 5 of the young men in our ward and we took the sacrament to the manor. It was good. I saw Iris, the girl the YSA sisters have been teaching in our home there, and I talked to her. It was good to see her again. We need to have another discussion with her in our home while all the kids are home.

Church was good today. We only had about 90 members show up to our ward today. We were very scarce. 

We are excited to talk to you next week. All the kids should be here, so that will be great. We are excited to have all the kids here for Christmas. This is a very special time of year. We love you and are extremely happy you are serving a mission. Keep working hard. Only 6 months left to give it all you got and sprint to the finish line.

Have a super week!! We will be on skype next Sunday around 4:30 pm our time.

Love,

Dad

Our 28th Anniversary

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Monday, I had to teach my last accounting class for the semester, so that was a big relief. Wednesday, I had to drive to Winnemucca to put on a FAFSA night at Lowry high school again as they did not get the turn out they would have hoped for the first time we went. So I got home around 9:45 pm. I left around 3:30 pm. We were suppose to have some bad weather coming in, but the roads were good.

Thursday we were suppose to have freezing rain, and Carly had a PAL game in town. They won and Carly is playing well, she just can't make her free throws. She needs mom and I to work on that with her. Summer had practice late again, so we missed mutual. They were going to go caroling for YMYW, but with the weather, they ended up going to the fund raiser bball game, the band vs the cheerleaders.

Friday, Elko played Truckee. So we were able to watch Summer play on the JV team for the 1st time. She did well. She played good defense and was getting on the floor for the loose balls etc. She took 2 shots, and missed them both, but they looked good and were close. We need to teach her to drive to the basket and be more aggressive with the ball on offense. All the Elko teams won that we watched. The mercy rule for the running clock is 35 points this year and the boys hit that, but he still had 4 out of his 5 starters in the game up by 40 with 5 minutes to go and a running clock. It is all about padding their numbers for his kids.

Elko played Sparks on Saturday. Carly had a bball game at 9 am. So we went to half of that. Summer had practice as they sparks team did not have a JV girls team. Then I had to do the books and clock for 4 games from 10 am to after 5. So it was a long day. Elko won all the games on Saturday as well. The boys won by the mercy rule again. We got invited to Bruce Fischer's 50th surprise birthday party, but I had been gone all day, and Carly and Summer were baby sitting for the Hatches. So we decided to just stay home and relax. We watched the BYU bball team beat Colorado. It was cold and raining/snowing all day long on Saturday, so we were glad to just be home.

Today at church we had the Choraliers sing in the churches (Summer's 1st time) so that is always good. Afterwards, Romney Goulding reported to the 3rd ward about her mission. She looks the same and did a good job. She is working to save up money to go to BYUI in January.

We have Carly's coaches daughter Raygon staying with up today through tomorrow. Her coach is a member of the church, a single mom with 4 girls. I told her after the game on Thursday, if she ever needed us to watch the kids, we would love to help her and her family out. It was good timing as the mom is taking one of her daughters to Reno today for a Dr's appointment tomorrow. So she asked mom if we could watch Raygon who is carly's age at the game yesterday. I believe my volunteering could have been inspired and she needed us this weekend. Carly's mom is a good bball player who played bball for Montana State. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner today, and as soon as they left, the YSA sisters stopped in to see if I had heard any thing about the college students they are teaching in our home. I had not heard much from them, but will follow up with them this week. It is finals week, so I am hoping their schedule will slow down a bit.

The choraliers concert is tomorrow night, so we are exited about that. 

Keep working hard. We love you and are very happy you are serving a mission.

Your mom and I celebrated our 28th anniversary yesterday. We did not do any thing special as we counted our Peru trip as our anniversary celebration. 

Love,

DAD

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Elder Nielsen,

I can't believe we are in December already. Where is the time going? Romney gets home from her mission on Tuesday. Landon Howe is doing a little better. They let him come out of his induced coma and I guess he recognized his parents voices and gave them a thumbs up. They are keeping him in the coma so his brain can heel. But there has been good improvements this past week.

I spent the week in Atlanta Georgia. I left Monday morning and it was snowing pretty hard here in Elko. Our airplane was about 1/2 hour late in departing as we had to de-ice every thing. And it was pretty cold here. Winter has arrived. So we had only about 10 minutes in the SLC airport to catch our next flight. So we were running to get there. On the flight from SLC to Atlanta, I sat next to an elderly lady from Nicaragua. She did not speak any English, so it was great. I was able to talk to her for most of the flight. She is a member of the church and had been living with her son who lives in Utah. She was going back to Nicaragua. I had to help her order her snacks and drinks and help her with her luggage. I noticed that the guy sitting in the seat in front of me from the back and side looked a lot like Ty Detmer. But I did not do or say any thing until we were getting off the plane and when he stood up, he had a BYU shirt on. And then I asked him, "You wouldn't happen to be Ty Detmer would you?"  He said, "I sure am". I shook his hand and told him I was a big fan of his. I would have like to have sat next to him and we could have had a long conversation. He his BYU's offensive coordinator now. I asked him what he was going to do in Atlanta, and he told me "Recruiting". I should have told him, I have a son on a mission in the Philippines you should recruit, but I didn't. He was a very nice guy and down to earth. That was fun! I also was on the plane with about 15 missionaries (Elders and sisters) going to a mission in Georgia. So of course I had to greet all of them and tell them of the good times they have in front of them.

I had my Department of Ed training all week in Atlanta. Getting up at 3 am all week and going to class by 5:30 am Elko time was a little hard to get use to. I watched BYU play Utah State in Bball on Wed. on BYUTV. BYU won, but it was a very close game. 

On Thursday night, I took the Marta train or subway system to go to the Atlanta temple. From the train station it is .8 of a mile to the temple. I had to walk along the Mt Vernon Hwy to get there. I did a session for one of my ancestors that I had research, so that was nice. I did the washing and anointing the week before in Sacramento, temple. While I was in the celestial room, I watched a gentleman go up and greet a couple that was there. It was one of the most touching and moving encounters I have ever witnessed. This guy was so loving, tender and gentle with that couple. He was so sweet to the lady and gave the husband a huge hug. I could feel his love for them just by observing this interaction. It was almost as if I was watching the savior greet that couple in the celestial room. Later in the dressing room, I heard another guy come up to that gentleman and ask, "President, are you all ready for stake conference this weekend?" And he answered, are you ever ready for stake conference. Anyway, this guy that was greeting that couple was the stake president. I have pondered on what I witnessed in the temple that night, and have determined that that is exactly how the Savior would have greeted that couple and all of us for that matter. It was a very special experience and strengthened my testimony that these brethren, our leaders are called of God and act as his representatives to their congregations. 

I flew home on Friday, and then I went to the high school and did the books for 4 games on Friday and 4 games on Saturday. Elko beat Wooster on Friday, and Reed on Thursday. They blew those teams out, it was not very close. And Elko played Reno high Friday night and it was a great game. Very close. Reno was leading most of the 1st half and Elko came back and beat them the 2nd half. Eric Klekas had 28 points. He was big in the game. Since we lost Yopps, we do not really have a big guy. Kyron played well and had a couple awesome slam dunks. He is obviously the best athlete on the court, but does not make the best decisions. 

On Saturday, Elko played Damonte Ranch. We came out flat as the Reno game took a lot of emotion out of us. We beat Damonte, but the game was closer that it should have been. Damonte was up by 2 points at half, and we ended up winning by about 15 points.

We had a good day today. It was fast Sunday and I always love fast Sundays. We had the 1st presidency Christmas devotional tonight, we watched it on byuTV.

Summer had 3 or 4 games this week on the JV. She had 4 points in one game and started in 1 game. But I did not watch them, so I can't report much more than that. She has 2 games at home this weekend. She had her soccer banquet this week and lettered in Soccer.

Have a super week. We love you and pray for you daily. Issac Perkins is playing on Damonte Ranch's varsity team and his dad was there to watch him. His dad told us to tell you hello for him and his family. He could not believe you come home next summer. Keep working hard and make sure you remember and ponder on the significance of being the Lord's representative on your mission. Enjoy every second of that time.

Love

Dad

You have that special privilege right now as a missionary to be his special representative. Remember that and always act and say what you think the Savior would say to the people you are talking to and greeting.

Happy Thanksgiving

Elder Nielsen,

We hope you had a very happy birthday. We celebrated it here without you by having a missionary discussion in our home. This was a very fast week. Monday I taught my accounting class and got home around 10 pm. 

Tuesday was very busy. I went to work as usual. Then at 5 pm we had the 4th wards missionaries come over to teach Isabel Martinez a discussion in our home. She is another student I met at the college in Battle mountain that now lives in Elko and we have been trying to get this set up for a while now. She was the one that was going to go to church with us last Sunday but had to work. But a few minutes before 5 I texted her out address and she asked if she could bring 2 friends with her. I said of course. So we had the Elders, Isabel and her 2 or 3 year old daughter and her two friends over for dinner. One of her friends named Lizett said she knew who you were from middle school when she saw your picture in the entry. The other friend was a boy name Chris who has been attending the Living Stones church here in town. So we ate beef layered Florentine and they all loved it. Then we had a good discussion. Chris was asking most of the questions and had good things to say. We taught them about the Restoration and the BOM. Isabel said the more she hears about the church the more she believes it. So we will see. We did not set up a return appointment as our schedules are crazy for the next 2 weeks.  We will have to follow up with them when I get back in town.

We have had a flu / cold bug going around our family. Addie stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday. Carly was sick on Tuesday and Summer and mom were catching it on Wednesday. After our discussion, Carly was asleep during the discussion and I thought she was too sick to go to her bball game out in Spring Creek, but she woke up and wanted to go. So I drove her and Danielle out to their game in SC. They won and Carly had 6 points. She had a chance to make an and 1, but missed her free throw. Mom had to stay in town and go the Summer's JV bball parent meeting and pick Summer up from practice at 8:30 pm.

Wednesday, the girls got out of town at mid day. Summer still had bball from 7-8:30 pm at night. Uncle Ken was driving through to California that day, so mom did not want to go any where to miss him. Come to find out he went right through Elko and did not stop. I went out and did the newspapers at 10 pm as they came at 9 pm. I did all the route except for the upper route around Northside school. I got back at 11 pm and we went to bed. Mom was busy baking food to take to California for Thanksgiving.

Thursday morning we got up at 4 am, mom went and finished the paper route on the upper section. We got all packed and left around 6 am to go to California. We drove straight to Curtis and Betsy' home for the dinner. We got there around 12:15 pm and we were eating at 1 pm. So we were the first to arrive. Betsy or Elizabeth had decorated the table very elegantly, just like a wedding or fancy restaurant.  Rebecca Croft and her family were there and they had also invited a inactive friend who Elizabeth had met his father on an airplane. There were 21 or 22 of us there. The food was good. We did not eat breakfast that morning and they had some nuts and cheese and crackers as appetizers and I think I ate too much of those as I did not or could not eat much of the thanksgiving meal. But it was good to see all of them and Grandpa and Grandma Croft. They are still doing well, Grandpa just moves around very slowly.

We had a good time in California. We did not go out and try and hit any of the sales as it is too crazy in California. So we hung out there at their place. Friday afternoon, grandma and grandpa took us out to a Chinese buffet. It was ok, nothing too special. Grandma does not cook much any more, so that was her way of feeding us as we did not have to eat any thing again that evening. 

Saturday morning, mom and I got up early and went to the Sacramento temple. We went in and did initiatory work for some of the names I have found doing family history. I thought I had printed out some girl names for mom, but they were all males. So mom went in and did temple names. It was raining very hard in the valley all morning and a winter storm was suppose to hit Sat. afternoon and through Sunday and they were going to get 3 feet of snow over Donner Summit. I did not want to fight bad weather all the way home, so we decided to leave sat. afternoon around 1 pm and get ahead of the storm. We ended hitting it head on going over the summit. It took us over 4 hours to go over the summit. Chains or snow tires were mandatory and the speed limit was 30 mph. At one point going through the check point, it took us 49 minutes to go 1 mile. There were cars that had slid off the roads and a few wrecks. People always try to go too fast in those conditions.

We got home around 11 pm. It took us about 9 or 10 hours to get home. But I am glad we are home. The roads were good after we got into Nevada. Somebody in Reno told us he had heard that they closed the roads over the summit, so I was glad we got through. It was a very intense and slow drive over the summit and I was tired when I got home.

It was snowing here in Elko throughout the night and this morning. We had a robo call saying the we were going to have a stake fast for Landon Howe. He was riding his bike in Louisiana and got hit by a car. I guess he is in critical condition, collapsed lung, broken ribs, his brain is swelling and bleeding in 3 spots, so they had to cut open his skull to relief the pressure. They have in in an induced coma, so he can try and heal. He is on a respirator, as he can't breath on his own. When they are able to take him off the respirator, they will fly him to SLC to a hospital closer to his family. I guess the younger Howe kids are having a hard time with that.

We had a great Sabbath. Church was good. We went to tithing settlement. And the sister missionaries stopped by our house. Sister Kyle is going home this week and they wanted to say goodbye. I did not know they felt that close to our family, but I guess they like us.

I have to fly to Atlanta Georgia tomorrow morning at 5 am, so I need to get packed. I listened to the BYU vs UTah state football game last night on the way home. BYU won by 18 points or so. Taysom Hill got hurt again with about 3 minutes to go in the game. Out of the 4 times Taysom got hurt and out for the season. 3 of them were against Utah State. He got tackled out of bounds and landed on his elbow and they took him immediately to the locker room. He will have an MRI on his elbow today to see what the problem was.

We love you. We are very thankful for our family. We are thankful that you are serving a mission. Keep working hard. The time is flying by too quickly. Romney Goulding comes home in 10 days.  

We hope you have a great week.

Love,

Dad

Happy Birthday on Tuesday

Hello Elder Nielsen,

First things first. We hope you have a great birthday on Tuesday. The big 20, you are getting old. I can't believe that little 5 year old boy who use to follow me around in the mountains in now 20 years old. We love you and are happy you are part of our family.

Spring Creek lost to Desert Pines yesterday 39-6. That is all I know as I looked it up on the internet. BYU beat UMass 56-9 or something like that yesterday. I watched part of the 1st half yesterday, but UMass is not very good this year. The BYU basketball team is 3-0 and off to a good start. They have the 3 from Lone Peak back from their missions, Haws, Mika, and Emry. They are all playing very well. It could be a good year for them.

Summer made the JV basketball team. She is happy about that and so are we. Chief Nutting is her coach and he does a great job teaching the fundamentals. Also, Summer asked about Thanksgiving weekend and he said Family comes first, then school, then basketball. So we like that as well. We are going to go to California to visit Con's parents. Grandpa is 89 and we don't know how many more chances we will have to visit him. Hopefully we have good weather.

Wednesday we had the sister missionaries over for dinner. Our warm weather has left and it is starting to get cold. We had not turned on our furnace yet and the sisters, 1 from southern Utah and the other from Puerto Rico were freezing in our home. 

Thursday, we had the harvest festival the the YM/YW put on at the church. It was basically a dud. We only have 4 families show up that were not part of YMYW. So we ate lots of donuts and candy. Our ward is hurting as far as activity goes. We only get about 100 people to church on Sundays.

Friday night I was working late grading homework for my class and mom called about 7:30 pm and said an airplane had crashed in the barrick parking lot next to us and she could see the flames from our kitchen window. So I came home, she wanted to go look at it, but when I got home, there was a ton of traffic on our road. And they had blocked off the road over in front of the Post Office. They had also blocked off Mountain City Hwy, so I think all the lookers and people trying to get past the freeway were trying to find another road North. When mom went to go pick up Summer from bball practice at Adobe, it was a parking lot in front of our house and she could not even back out of our drive way. It took her 1/2 hour to get to Adobe by way of 5th street. I did not go over as Addie and Carly were scared. I guess after it crashed, there was a big explosion and that shook our house and it started a bunch of parked vehicles in the lot on fire as well. Also, one of the pickups there had ammunition in it, and bullets were going off as well. So I did not think it was safe to go over, but Mom went over to Lois' to see it. Saturday morning as I was doing the paper route, I could see the results of the plane and it was right next to the fence across from # 17 in the brown apartments. It looked like the pilot tried to take it down where the least amount of damage would be done. It was a medical plane taking a guy with heart problems to Utah. All 4 people aboard were killed. Tiffany Urresti 29 years old from Elko was a nurse was killed. Mom coached her sister in PAL volleyball Jamie. I think she is Amber's age. But it was less than 200 yards from our place. Lots of excitement in Elko. The crash got national exposure.

Erin just told us that John Carpenter died yesterday. Nick Meo had called me last week and told me he was not doing too well. He was a big part of Elko.

Saturday, mom and I were going around trying to get our yard winterized. Mom was trying to put on the C-mas lights as it might be out last nice day before winter. I washed the truck and 4-wheeler to get all the mud off from out hunting trip. We could not get the rotor tiller going so I had to use a shovel and turn over all the dirt in the garden. Carly had a pal bball game. Her team lost by 2 points. She played well, and her team was depending on her a lot, but she missed a few wide open shots. They were close but she could not get them to go down.

Today, We were suppose to have a girl from college over for a missionary discussion that I met in Battle Mtn. She lives in Elko now. She was going to go to church with us and we were going to have the Elders from the 4th ward come teach her, but she had to work. So we rescheduled for Tuesday. We will have them all over for dinner and then a discussion afterwards. So that will be good.

Addie was not feeling well today and threw up a couple times this morning. So I went to church with the 4th ward to take the sacrament and went to ward council. Then I came home and stayed with her. I rocked her and she slept for most of the time. She is sleeping again now, so she is not feeling well as she never sleeps that much.

Mom and I are going to go home teaching tonight.

We hope you have a great week. Keep working hard and being exactly obedient in all things. Have a great day on your birthday. Make it the best by teaching the gospel.

We love you,

DAD 

Veteran's Day/ Joe's Wedding

Dear Elder Nielsen,

We had stake conference this weekend and it was great. President Eardley was released as Patriarch which he has been serving in that position for 43 years. John Elwood was released as 1st counselor in the Stake presidency and was called as our new stake Patriarch.  Val Esplin was the 2nd counselor and now he is the 1st counselor and David Pulley has been called as the 2nd counselor in the stake presidency. So those are all great men.

A little story from our mission president President Chestnut which he shared with us. He said recently they had all the new missionaries assigned to their trainers and a day before the transfers, he received a call from the church saying they were going to send him another missionary.  He said he replied that is great, send him to us in 6 weeks at the next transfer. However, they told him he had already served part of his mission and was coming out again, so he told them to send the new missionary to them now.  I guess the APs got an email from the church saying they were going to send a new missionary to their mission. So they called the President and said what are we going to to with him. The president told the APs to let him think about it for a while and he would get back to them.  After 2 hours, he called the APs and told them to assign the new missionary to two zone leaders serving in the Reno area. The zone leaders could be in a 3-some and train this new missionary. Well on the day of the arrival and assignment of all the new missionaries, everyone new of their assignments except for the zone leaders and the new missionary. One of the zone leaders asked the mission president if the new missionary they were going to be training was named Elder Anderson? The mission president told him yes and the zone leader just wept. The president did not understand why and did not ask. After they had assigned all the new missionaries to their trainers (except for Elder Anderson) and they had exited the chapel and got their picture taken to send to their parents, the president announced who would be Elder Anderson's trainers. When Elder Anderson heard the name of his trainers, he went back and hugged one of the zone leaders and cried for at least 5 minutes. The zone leader's name started with an L and I can't remember it, so I will call him Elder L. I guess the mission president was now very curious now and the other missionaries who had left the chapel were now coming back in to the chapel to see what was going on.  Elder Anderson opened up his suit coat and pulled out a missionary name badge with Elder L's name on it. They came to find out that Elder L was Elder Anderson's trainer 17.5 months earlier and  Elder Anderson served for 2 weeks and had to go home to clear up a few things.  Elder L gave him his name badge and said, I want you to use this as your motivation to come back and finish your mission and give it back to me. Elder Anderson had been carrying Elder L's name badge with him for 17.5 months.

Another interesting thing about that story is that Elder L had extended for 6 weeks his mission or he would have been on his way home.  President Chestnut testified that the Lord knows who we are, and he is in charge of his children.  I thought that was a great story. 

President Eardley talked and he said he asks the youth if they know what patriarch means? He said it means chief father. So when we receive our patriarchal blessing we are receiving a blessing from our chief father or our father in heaven as if directly from him. I found that interesting and personalizes our patriarchal blessing a little more. All the meetings were 

great.

On Friday, it was veterans day so I was off work and the kids were out of school, so we got up at 3 am and drove to Utah to Joe Nielsen's wedding. He married a girl named Shannon in the SLC temple. We had to be there by 9 am utah time and we made it by 8:30.  The sealer did a great job. It was simple but very powerful. After pictures, we went to see the new museum and walked around temple square. Then we ate lunch at the Joseph smith memorial building on the 10th floor over looking the temple. It was nice. We had time to kill and no place to go, so afterwards, we got a tour of the conference center. We went to costco and then to the reception in Draper. It was all nice. We were very tired. Summer had to be back for bball tryouts at 9 am in Elko on Saturday.

Sharon and Brian were heading to Boise for their granddaughters baptism but gave us the code to their house and we went there Friday night and crashed. Got up at 3 am again to head back to Elko. 

We worked around the house on Saturday. Mom cut my hair.  BYU played So utah University and won 37 to 7 or something like that, so they are going to the poinsettia bowl in San Diego. They are 6-4 now. Spring Creek was playing Chaparral at home in the state semis.  And I had not watched them all year so I drove out to watch them play. I got their at half time and SC was up 14-0. But SC dominated and beat them 36-7. The 1st drive of the 2nd half, Chaparral drove down the field and was 1st and goal at the 5 yard line and they threw a interception and SC ran it back to the 50. That was a heart breaker instead of being 14-7, SC scored and now it was 21-0. They did not put up much of an effort after that. Desert Pines was up over So Tahoe 42-7 at half. So I am sure it will be SC vs Desert Pines in the final.

I went to the priesthood leadership meeting in the afternoon and then the adult session in the evening.

Tuesday we had the elections, and Trump pulled out a huge upset and beat Hilary Clinton, which we were glad. We don't like trump that much but he was the lesser of too evils. There has been a lot of protest and rioting across the country as he is a loose cannon. 

Not too much else to report. We have been having beautiful weather still for the middle of November.

Wednesday, I had to go to the church and go over a financial budget with a lady who was baptized at 11 and not been back to church since she was about 17 years old.  She was down and out. Her husband and beaten her up broke her collar bone and cleaned out her bank accounts and left. She was left not able to work, no money and had to pay rent, and other bills and did not know where to turn and the sister missionaries appeared in her area. She is seeking help from the church. She has been on Meth and other drugs, struggles with the word of wisdom etc. As I was visiting with her I told her to compare her life now vs what it was like when she was attending church. I am sure it is night and day. I also told her that I was glad she was here in the church, but more than financial assistance, she needs help from the Savior. She needs his atonement in her life to heal her wounds.   I could feel the Saviors love for her as I visited with her. It was a special experience, I felt a ton of love for this lady. I noticed she was at stake conference today with the sisters. It is amazing how the atonement changes lives.

Your cousin Braiden Nielsen is doing very well in Guatemala. He went to the MTC in Guatamala for 6 weeks and studied spanish, and his 1st day in the field when he got off the bus, they told him he was going to have to learn some indian language that they speak in the mountains. They could not remember what it was called. But only 10,000 people speak that language in the world. So he will spend his entire mission in that area. They don't know how to say Elder Nielsen, so they call him "White wolf" since he is white and has blue eyes. Perhaps Kevin knows what language he would be speaking.

Keep working hard. The gospel is true! Give the Lord every thing you have. You are in the 2nd half (game time) and it is when you need to step up and be the best you can be. Before you know it you will be back home. The time is flying fast. But make sure you stop and realize how important your calling is and who you represent.  Don't take it for granted. Be the best representative of Him that you can be.  Teach with His spirit and follow the spirit is all that you do. We love that talk from conference about the Inca trail since we have been there. Follow his spirit. Learn from your president and apply what you learn to your life.

We love you and are so happy you are serving the Lord. Have a great week.

Love

Dad

The Month of Gratitude

Elder Nielsen,

Another fast week. We had something going on every night except for Friday & Saturday. Monday was Halloween, so when I got home from work I changed my clothes and took Carly and Adelaide and the 2 little Filipino girls (carly's friend) out trick or treating. We hit all of our block on Dotta and then we did the loop around where the Simons live. They got tons of candy. Addie had her pumpkin full of candy so I had brought a plastic bag and dumped her candy into it, so she could get more. It was a pleasant evening so lots of kids were out running around trick or treating. Summer and Mom stayed home to give out candy.

Tuesday I had Elko high schools FAFSA night. So I had to go help parents and students fill out their FAFSAs. We had a pretty good turn out and filled up one of the computer rooms in the high tech center.

Wednesday, I took off work at noon and to take my lunch and come home and work on cutting up the Summers buck. It is freezing during the nights below 32 degrees but gets up to 65 during the days. We have been having beautiful weather for the 1st week in November. Then at 3 pm I had to drive to Winnemucca to do a FAFSA night at Lowry high school. But we only had 4 or 5 people show up. I did not get back to Elko until around 9:30 pm. It was game 7 of the world series so I was listening to it on the radio. It went into extra innings and the Cubs beat the Cleveland Indians to win the world series. The last time the cubs won it was 108 years ago. So I was happy for the cubs. They were down 3 games to 1 and came back and won it.

On Thursday, the BYU vocal point group was here so we went to their concert. They are 9 men that sing and they are very good. We did not get home until after 9 pm again.

On Friday, mom and I went and voted. This election between Hilary Clinton vs Donald Trump has been ugly and we do not like either candidate. I think we are voting against the one vs voting for someone. It is pretty sad that those 2 are the best we could do for president. We will find out on Tuesday who won.

Spring Creek played Fallon in football in SC and they won 38-8. That Jon Jund is their quarterback and I guess he is the real deal. I have not seen him play this year, but SC seems to be very solid this year.

Saturday, I spent all day cutting up the deer, except for a few hours during the middle of the day. We went to a ladies' baptism in the Elko spanish branch. It was very nice. She is in her 60's and I guess all her kids said they would disown her if she got baptized. But she did it any way. Afterwards, mom and I went by Donna White's house. She is selling her house and had a few tax questions for me. It was a very nice visit. She is going to move to Utah to be closer to family.

BYU beat Cincinnati 20-3 in football.

Sunday was fast sunday. We had good meetings. Adelaide lost her tooth today after church. We went over to the Halls house after church and they emptied out all their candy dishes and gave them to kids.

A funny story about Addie. Yesterday she was eating her breakfast and out of the blue, she said, "We can pray any where. On the play ground at school we can just close our eyes and fold our arms and pray all the time." But then she said, do we have to knell down? I said, no, we can say a prayer any time, just by closing our eyes and saying a pray. I told her President Monson prays all the time, when he is fishing, etc. I thought that was funny, right out of the blue with that comment.

That is about it. We hope you have a great week. We love you and pray for you daily. Keep working hard.

Love 

DAD and Addie (she wanted me to tell you about her tooth)

End of October

Hello Elder Nielsen,

Another busy week in the books. It seems like the weeks keep blowing by very quickly.  I have been cutting up the deer I got every day in my spare time. Monday I had my class and I'm that day starts early and ends after 10 pm. I was trying to get caught back up at work after being gone for 2 weeks.

Tuesday, Summer had her last soccer game. They played Spring Creek and Elko lost 3-0. So she is done now with soccer, not going to playoffs. Their team is just really week. No offense of skilled players. Kind of sad.

The world series is going on now. The chicago cubs are playing the Cleveland Indians. Cleveland is up 3-1. But teams have not been in the world series for almost 70-100 years or something. So It will be good for either team. Brother Perry Sargeant passed away last Saturday morning. He had gone out and was raking leaves all day on Friday and had overdone it I guess and had a heart attack Sat. morning during the early mornings. He was 87 years old and a good old bird. They had his funeral on Thursday, so I went to that. But they had all their kids speak and 2 or 3 others. So the funeral lasted 3 hours. Every kid went on and on. Darhl  would have had a fit. The church handbook says a funeral should not last longer than 1.5 hours and the talks should be gospel messages. Which most of them were not, just remembering their dad. So that was 1/2 of my day gone.

On Wednesday, I had to go to West Wendover high school to meet with students. I was there from 11 to 4. That was a long day also. We went to Carly parent teachers conference on Thursday. All her teachers love her and she is doing fine. Ms. Stuehling remembered you Cody were in the Philippines and asked about you. Carly had 3 PAL basketball games last week. They won the 1st game and Carly had 6 points. They lost the 2nd game by 4 points and 3 game by 1 point and Carly had a chance win it or tie it at the line and missed both free throws. But I guess she said they have not worked on their free throws this year. Last year we worked on them and she would have made them. 

Thursday, Elko played Fallon in football at home in the 1st playoff game and lost 21-0. Kyron Allen is out with a hand surgery and they basically have no skilled players at all. I went and watched the 1st Qtr and it was the same old plays. They are not big enough to try and run power football. They need misdirection plays etc. I was kind of disgusted with the same old plays. They need to mix it up a little. They had Cooper Jones out in the flat trying to guard the Fallon players. Do you know him? He is about 4'8" and could not guard a fly. It seems like all the programs at Elko are week and struggling. No real good athletes.

Friday, was Nevada day and the kids were out of school and I had the day off. We went to the parade in the morning and I cut up the deer all day long. It was raining pretty hard all day long. It has been raining today all day long as well.

Saturday, I looked at Summers deer tag and it ends on Nov. 2nd, so we had to go out and go deer hunting on Saturday. So we got up at 4 am and headed out to that area in area 7 where we went last year. It is in the mountains to the west of where she got her doe with you that 1st year. But since it had been raining hard the previous day, the dirt roads were a muddy mess. We were sliding all over out of control. It reminded me of my ram hunt after the rain. I did not want to go down any hills as I was not sure I could make it back up with the mud. I have the 4 wheeler in the back of the truck, but I could not get the tail gate open for the last few weeks. But I pulled over and we were going to walk in about 3 miles. I tried the tail gate and it opened. A tender mercy. So we were able to take the 4 wheeler into our hunting spots. But again we were kicking up mud all over us. The gun was all muddy and everything else. We saw probably 50 antelope, they were all over. in big herds. We saw 1 elk about 2 miles away, I did not put my spotting scope on it, but it was all alone, so it was probably a bull. We went to the mountain where she got the doe last year and their was a buck with her. We glassed all morning and saw 3 or 4 different groups of deer with 4-5 deer in each group. One group on the very top of the mountain had a 2 point buck in it. The others I could not see a buck, but I am sure there was one close by as the rut will be starting here soon. So I asked Summer which group she wanted to pursue and she said the one with the buck in it. So we had to hike down a mountain and straight up another to get to the top. They were feeding when we were glassing them and fed out of sight behind a mountain. So we decided to hike up to where we last saw them and see if they were still feeding or went over the top. When we got up there, I was glassing and I could see 2 does bedded down in the sage brush, but I could not see the buck. So we backed out and came up the other side on top of the mountain to see if we could bet a better vantage point. We had to crawl on our hands and knees as there was no vegetation on top. We kept glassing and I finally found the buck bedded down behind some sage brush. So we inched our way closer so Summer could get a shot at him laying down when he stood up. But when she was laying down to shoot she could not see him through the grass on top. So we kept inching closer. I ranged it and it was about 260-270 yards. We finally got her in position and used my pack as a rest as she was shooting in the pron position.  She could not see the buck so I had to find him in the spotting scope so she knew where he was.

The doe was in the open, so I had her practice finding the doe and act like she was shooting her with the cross hairs on her. We had to wait there for a couple hours until the buck finally stood up as he was behind the sage brush. I am glad we had those few hours to find him and have her practice the aiming and shooting. He finally stood up around noon and started to feed. She shot and knocked him down. She was using the 7mm. I am glad as it was a pretty far shot and the scope is better to see through. He got back up and ran down hill and closer to us and laid back down. I ranged him at 247 yards. She gut shot him on the first shoot. We were shooting across the canyon at him. But he was looking around and not acting like he was hit too hard. So I said, you are going to have to put another one in him. So she found him in the scope, my gun has been shooting to the right as I noticed when I was shooting my buck, so I told her to aim at the front of him as he was facing to our left.  She shot again and he jump up and tried to walk but was falling back wards like those animals in cabelas big game hunter. He fell over backwards and was done. She hit him right through the live on the 2nd shot. So she pasted him twice hard. Not too back for a youngster.  He ended up being a little 3x3, so she got the buck with more points that I did. She was really happy as she really wanted to kill a buck this year. And that probably would have been our only day to hunt. It is really  hard to hunt with kids in H.S. sports.

So we gutted him there and and basically I had to drag him down hill and side hill for about a mile and a half to get down to the road where the 4 wheeler could get in to get it. It was not too bad. We ended up getting home around 3:30 in the afternoon. I skinned him and then we had the trunk or treat activity at the church that evening.

Today, I had to speak in the Spanish Branch on missionary work. One of my favorite topics. I spoke for about 35 minutes trying to motivate the members to help find people for the missionaries. Afterwards I had a teacher quorum presidency meeting and then we had the spanish Elders over for dinner. 

A very busy day and week!  We hope you have a good week. Work hard and be obedient and be an example to all the other missionaries. Your cousin Joe Nielsen is getting married in the SLC temple on Nov. 11th. That is veterans day, so we will probably go to that.

We love you.

Love DAD

Back on American Soil

Hola Elder Nielsen,

How is everything? We are glad to be back in the USA. We loved the trip and enjoyed what we saw. I especially loved using my Spanish and meeting all the wonderful people. We truly made friends for life with a lot of people on our trip. We have email addresses and Facebook accounts of many people we met on our trip. I am pretty sure we talked about the gospel every day to people we met. In one little store, there were these 2 older ladies working who were sisters, and we got into a gospel discussion and I told them all about the book of Mormon and many of our beliefs. We had many people tell us that we made their day and they were so happy we went in to their stores and talked to them. We went in to this one silver store and we told them we had 7 kids and were Mormons and there were about 7-10 people gathering around us and listening to our story and our beliefs. It was soooo cool. It reminded me of my mission and I talked to everyone I saw. They were all impressed and told me how well I spoke Spanish and wanted to know how I learned to speak so well. So I told them I was a missionary in Argentina 33 years ago and that our daughter had served a mission in Peru recently and that is why we were there. They would all ask me, what kind of mission or what would you do on a mission. So I told them we preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. They wanted to know what was the difference between our church and the Catholic church, so I would explain the B.O.M., etc. It was awesome. I felt like a missionary again. I can't wait until mom and I can go serve a mission again. I think the people loved how happy we were and wanted to know more about us.

After 1.5 days I got over the jungle revenge and my system was some what normal. Machu Pichu was absolutely amazing in every regard. But I had no clue that there were Inca ruins all over that part of the country. As mom said, we stopped and visited at least 10-15 other ruin sites that had there temples, etc. What gets me, is they built these places in the tops of the mountains. Not in the lower levels. In some places we were at 15,000 feet elevation and the altitude affected many people. They made us drink coco tea to help us not get sick. Mom and I did really well and did not get sick. I just received a notice from our friends from Antofagasta Chile and she said she was sick due to altitude and had to go down to lower elevations. But I believe that they built them up there as that was sacred ground as no one had walked up in those areas. But the stones they used to build these weighed over 72 tons and they were carved and shaped to fit together like legos and were earthquake proof. The craftsmanship was amazing. you could not get a piece a knife or paper between the rocks they were that tight. It was amazing. Every thing was amazing. 

Lake Titicaca was a huge lake that took us 5 hours to drive across. And it is at 13,000 feet elevation. The people that live on those reed islands (called Los Uros) are fascinating as well. We went in the house built out of reeds of a 21 year old girl named Ana and her boyfriend. She says that her and her boyfriend live together for 6 months to 2 years before they get married. Since the don't like divorce, this is a way for them to see if they are compatible before marriage. If they have a child during that time, they have to get married. Her boyfriend was a fisherman. She referred to him as her husband, but they were not married yet.

We left on Tuesday to morning to fly from Juliaca Peru to Lima. We got in to lima around 4 pm and had some extra time. Out flight back to the states was at 1 am the next day. We thought about going to the Lima temple, but they told us it was at least 2 hours each way and it would cost us over $100 in taxi fees, but you can't trust the taxis in Lima. So we just hung out at the airport. Then we had an all night flight to Atlanta. Mom watched movies the entire time and I tried to sleep, but it was difficult. We got to Atlanta around 8:30 am. Flew to SLC and got there around 1 pm. DeeRay picked us up from the airport and took us to Sharon's to get our Suburban. We hit Costco and filled up with gas and drove home. We got to Elko around 6:40 pm. A day and a half of traveling to get home. Then I took the next day off to go hunting with Hernold. So I went to bed at 11 and had to get up at 3 am to meet Hernold. We went in to that area before Krenka Creek and climbed a high mountain and glassed all morning. We saw about 40 deer, 4-6 bucks and only 1 good buck. A nice heavy horned 3 by 4 we think. But we were glassing it from 3 miles away. He was rutting and doing the lip curl. We tried to bed them down, but they disappeared over the mountain and we could not see where they went. So we hiked up there and got in position for them to come out in the evening, but we waited and waited and they never came out. I was so tired, only getting about 4 hours of sleep in 3 days. 

Hernold came in to Elko and spent the night here and we got up at 3:50 am to do it all over again. We decided to go to the same area to see if we could get that buck. We got into position and at 1st light we found this 2x3 buck about 800 yards away with a few does. Hernold could see him in the spotting scope, but I could barely see him in my scope. I thought I would take a pop and see what happens. I put the crosshairs about 3-4 feet above his back and shot and it seemed to take forever for the bullet to get there and Hernold said, you got him. He just stood there and did not move very much. The other deer ran off. We thought I have gut shot him. He laid down and we thought we would give him an hour to stiffen up of bleed to death. After an hour, he got up and started up hill. So I shot about 5-6 times but could not hit him. Come to find out I had hit him in the front knee on one of the shots. He laid down again and I told Hernold, I have to get closer as I was just guessing on the range. So Hernold stayed and watched him with the spotting scope and I hiked down a big canyon and up on the other side and he was giving me arm signals to where I needed to go. I got up there about 15 yards away and he took off down hill in the thick quakies, I shot but just to throw lead his way. He ran down hill and laid down again. Hernold directed me to him and the same thing happened, got about 15 yards away and he took off again, but i did not shot as I could not get a bead on him. So Hernold came over and helped me track him with the blood trail. He can see blood like Chelsea. I still can't see it that well. We tracked him down and I finished him off. But it took us 3 hours to drag him down hill in all that quaken aspen brush. I was beat up. We got him to the road and Hernold went to get the truck and I skinned him in the shade. 

We got back to town around 1 pm. And I caught the last half of Summer's soccer game. They lost to fallon 3-1 and are out of the playoffs. They play spring creek on Tuesday and they are done. 

Spring Creek played Elko in football on Friday night and killed Elko 34-0. SC is undefeated and won the league. We play (host) Fallon this week for the 1st round of the playoffs.

Have a super week. WE love you and pray for you daily. Enjoy every second you have serving as a missionary. It is great!!

Love,

DAD