GBC's financial aid dept is being audited by the Federal Dept. of Education

Hello Elder Nielsen,

On Tuesday I received a call that I have been dreading for the past year and a half. I got a call from the Federal Department of Education saying  they will be at GBC the week of June 20th for 12 hours a day.  This is the 1st time GBC has ever been audited by the feds. The college of Southern Nevada in Vegas got audited about 3 years ago and were fined $4 million dollars. So I am hoping we don't have any fines for non-compliance with the federal regulations and that I still have a job after all this is said and done. I don't think the administration at GBC are taking it as seriously as they should. This is a huge deal, and there are 1000's of regulations that they require us to be adhering to to receive federal aid. I have not slept well since I got that call. We are suppose to have policies and procedures for all our processes and other federal requirements and I have been talking about writing them for the past few years as I had this feeling that we would be audited. Any way, I have been working 12 hour days writing policies and procedures this past week. I was suppose to have the day off on Friday and I worked 10 hours and about 4-5 on Saturday. The week they are going to be here was the week we were planning on going to visit Chelsea and Brian. So cancel that trip!

I guess the scripture is true, if ye are prepared ye shall not fear. Well I am not prepared. There is not a lot we can do at this point, but get our policies written and try to check every thing to see if we find the mistakes. But at this point, it is what it is and we can't change too much before they are here. They have a list a mile long that they want us to send them by this Friday and the rest should be waiting for them when they get here on the 20th.

Summer had her concert at Adobe on Monday. She was suppose to be there at 5:30 and we got her there 5 minutes late, and Ms Rogers, made some comment about people are up for a rude awakening when they get to choraliers.  I know Chelsea knows how she feels when she is waiting for us to take her to these events. She was ready and waiting for me to get home from work.

On Thursday night I took the teachers and priests up north 5th street to shoot 22's and the shot gun. A few of them had never shot before that day. But by the time we got up there we only had about 1/2 hour to shoot.

Kyle Whitted was named the MVP in the North and him and Benton made 1st team all state and 1st team all north.  Their number were in the top 3 for almost every category. I think Yocum, RJ, and Baum made 1st team all North.

Well it is Memorial Day weekend and I sure wish I could enjoy it, but with this audit over my head, that is all I can think about. I will be working tomorrow as well. Erin and Landon drove down on Friday. So it was good to have them here. They will go back tomorrow. We skyped with Chelsea and Brian today and David sure is a cute little guy and very active.

We got a call from President Esplin this morning wondering if we wanted to go on Trek to help with the food committee. I would love to, but with the audit, I am pretty sure I can't. So mom might go by herself and I will stay home and do the paper route and take care of Chica. If they had asked us last Sunday, I would have said yes for sure. We both love that and would love to go.

The Warriors and Oklahoma are tied 3-3 in western finals. I think Cavaliers and Toronto are close to being tied as well for the Eastern, but we have not watched 1 game as they are all on ESPN or TNT or TBS.

Well we are excited to here where you will end up with this transfer. We love you and are so happy you are serving a mission. Keep working hard and enjoy every minute to have as His special representative. The Gospel is true. It is all worth it. Invite everyone you see to come unto Christ, I am sure there are many out there waiting. We had Kayla Carpenter come over Friday night to visit Erin and She was here until after midnight. But it was a great visit. I did not realize what a hard life she has had since the 6th grade. Her mom is in and out of jail, doing drugs, etc. Her dad has the twins trying to keep them with the necessities of life. She looked really good and being in Westpoint, she has matured a great deal and really has had time to focus and think about life. We felt like she is very prime to receive the gospel in her life. We fasted for her today. Hopefully she can see our example and the example of the Stetlers, who she is really close to and want to have that kind of family life. Erin was going through the relative search today in church and we found out that Elder Stevenson the new apostle is like our 4th cousin from my mom's side. Kind of interesting, no??

Have a super week. We pray for you always.

Love,

DAD

Another Week in the Books

Hello Elder Nielsen,

Another good fast week. I can't remember much that happened. I had to fly to Las Vegas on Thursday for a meeting on Friday. I got back Friday night at 9:45 pm. The wind was blowing like crazy, so the flights were a little interesting as we were bobbing and weaving around in the air. The passengers actually started clapping when we were able to land safely.

Elko baseball went to State on Thursday. They played Sierra Vista and they won 2-0. They scored their 2 runs in the 1st inning and never scored again. Yocum pitched a complete game and gave up 5 hits and only walked like 2 batters. Then we played Boulder City the next morning. And Elko was winning 4-3 heading into the bottom of the 6th inning and they gave up 3 runs (gave up a 2 or 3 run home run) and we ended up losing 6-4. Yocum and Whitted each hit home runs, but the wind was blowing really hard, so I am sure that help. Fallon was also leading Boulder city in the bottom of the 6th or 7th and then gave up 6 or 7 runs. So Elko had to turn around and play Sierra Vista again and they beat us 8-2 or 7-2. I think the wind was taken out of our sails after losing the 1st game. Had we gone on and won, it would have been very different. I read yesterday that Boulder city beat sierra vista 4-3 for the state championship. Kyron Allen won the high jump again at 6'8" and the Elko boys took 2nd in state behind Desert Pines.

On Saturday, we worked around the house. Our garage storage shelves are starting to pull down from the sheet rock on the left side of the shelves. I don't think we hit any studs as I am not sure there are any in that area. So I was working on that trying to get some chains to hook the bottom of it to and chain it to a stud on the ceiling. I did not get it done as I only bought the parts at about 9:30 sat. evening. So another project to work on.

We had a good Sunday, Summer and I and Sharon were finding names for Summer to do baptisms for after the trek. We found a couple, but are trying to get all the info. we need to get them added. Sharon runs circles around us, and half the time we are not sure where she is looking, but she is very good at that. We got more rain this past week, so that is good.

Keep working hard. We love telling everyone about our missionary. That sounded like a great week, 33 new investigators and 9 investigators in church. How big is that big family you found where the mom had read to Mosiah in 2 days. That sounds like she is very interested and will be a great investigator. Chelsea had a great missionary experience this past week, and we are anxious to find out how that went. I will let her tell you all about it. We love you and are happy that you are serving a mission. In Priesthood meeting this morning, they asked if any one had any missionary experiences and I shared Chelsea's with them. I also shared this quote from Elder Bednar from his May 2008 conference talk that goes along with her experience.

He said "I testify that prayer becomes meaningful as we ask in faith and act. I invite all of us to pray in faith about our divinely given mandate to proclaim the gospel. As we do so, I promise doors will open and we will be blessed to recognize and act upon the opportunities that will be provided." Chelsea's experience was an exact answer to that promise from Elder Bednar.

Perhaps you can share her story and the quote from Bednar with the members in the Philippines to help them find people for you to teach. 

Have a super week. Be the example of how a faithful missionary and representative of Christ should be.

We love you,

Dad

"Take us out to the ballgame"

Hello Elder Nielsen,

It was great to see and talk to you last week. I didn't realize, but it looked like your missionary name badge is in English. Is that correct? This week was full of baseball games. On Monday morning at 9 am I had to go announce the senior day for the baseball team. They have 10 seniors on the team who will graduate. Baum, Bejerano, Wickersham, Yocum, Whitted, Dick, Warrick, Sohn, Aldridge, Smiley. I am not sure what they would have done if Harris and Jorgensen had not got kicked off. They played Truckee in a double hitter that was made up from when they were rained out. Elko won both games. Bryson Kelly, Devin Kelly's little brother who is a freshman and they moved up from the JV team for this game pitched the 2nd game and got a shut out. I was very impressed with him. He had good control and a good curve ball etc. I think he only gave up 6 hits all game. But Elko went in to the Regional Tournament as the number 3 seed. It was Spring Creek 1, Fernley 2, Elko 3, Fallon 4, Dayton 5 and South Tahoe 6.

We had hot weather this week, it was in the 80's. So I think summer is here. On Thursday, I took the day off work and went with Summer's class on a field trip to the California trail center. I thought we would be learning about the california trail, etc, but it was all outside and talking about the plants, etc. One lady there obviously did not know hardly any thing about the outdoors and animals, etc. You could definitely tell she was a city person and a tree hugger. She was trying to teach the kids, and we were all thinking she was a nut. It was not as fun and I had hoped, but it was nice to spend the day with Summer and her classmates.

After I got back, the regional baseball tournament was being played out in Spring Creek. Elko played a morning game and beat South Tahoe 12-2. I think the Kelly kid pitched a couple of innings and even got a hit. Then we played Fernley in the afternoon. I went out to that game. Fernley beat us 4-3 with a walk off hit in the bottom of the 7th inning.  So we had to win the next 3 games coming out of the losers bracket to go to state. Spring Creek beat Fallon in their 1st game. 

On Friday morning Elko played Dayton at 8 am, so I waited for mom to get done crossing the kids and we went out to the game. It was a very close game the entire game. And Dayton went ahead 3-2 heading into the bottom of the 7th inning. Elko's season was on the line. There was 1 out I believe and we had 2 guys on base and Benton was up to bat. He was ahead in the count 3-0 and they gave him a fast ball and he hit a walk off home run and Elko won 5-3. That was pretty scary for the Elko fans, they thought they were going to be eliminated by Dayton who they had beaten earlier in the year 3 games by a combined score of 51-3. Then we had to play Spring Creek in the afternoon. We beat them 7-1. And Fallon beat Fernley Friday afternoon by about the same score. So heading into Sat. morning, all 4 remaining teams had 1 loss. We played Spring Creek again at 8 am. So mom, Summer and I went out to the games. We beat Spring Creek again 6-2. All the boys on the team were crying with happiness after the game including Coach Gilligan to be able to go to state. Colt Jorgensen was very emotional as well. So Spring Creek was eliminated, and Fallon beat Fernley in the Sat morning game. So the number 1 and 2 teams were not going to state. Fallon on Friday night looked like the team from last year's state championship team. They were hitting the ball all over the park. Elko played Fallon Sat. afternoon in the Regional championship game and Elko won 7-6 with Nick Smiley hitting a walk off single with the bases loaded in the bottom of the 7th inning. Elko was leading most of the game and it was 6-3 going into the 7th inning and Fallon hit a 3 run homerun off of Whitted to tie the game 6-6. So it was another close game. But Elko will go to Reno next week as the number 1 team from the North.

During one of the non Elko games, mom and I were sitting by a couple from Fallon who were very nice. We talked to them the entire game about hunting, religion, etc. They were Nazareens. I told mom they were make great members of the church. If they draw a tag in the Rubies, they took my number and will give me a call and I will have to have more discussions about religion and invite them to be taught by the missionaries. I really enjoy going to these games and visiting with the fans from the other schools.

I believe it is Boulder City and Spring Valley are the 2 teams from the south going to state. We play Spring Valley. Next year we will not know hardly any of the players as all the ones who played with you will be graduated.

Thursday night for YMYW, we had the fire department come in and teach the kids going on trek first aid. I learned a few things, so it was good.

I am grateful for Sunday's so we can rest from out labors and activities. It will be great to spend the Sabbath day rejuvenating our spirits. We love you and are happy you are serving the Lord. Keep working hard and relying on the spirit to guide your thoughts and actions. He will let you know every thing you should say and do. Reagan Goulding went into the Mexico MTC this week. I think I told you before, but the Williams Kid from Fallon graduated early so he could go on his mission, but had to have shoulder surgery before he could go. I think he should be leaving soon.

This is the Lord's church and you are HIS special representative. Enjoy every minute.

Love

DAD

Mother's Day

Dear Elder Nielsen,

Today is Mother's Day and I love this day. I am happy we can celebrate this very important day to all the mother's and future mothers. Reagan Goulding had her home coming today  and she did a great job. She is going to Concepcion Chile and goes in this week. Leah Zisler was there in church today for Reagan's farewell. She is home from school for the summer.

It rained a lot again this week here. Elko played Spring Creek again this week, and I went out to watch it. Elko lost 9-8 with spring creek hitting a walk off single to win the game in the bottom of the 7^th. So Spring Creek will win the league and since Elko had to forfeit those 1^st 3 games, they are in 3^rd place right now. They have their senior day tomorrow with a double hitter against Truckee and I will announce that game. Regionals is here in Spring Creek this year. It seems like Elko is not playing or hitting the ball as well as they were at the 1^st part of the season.

Yesterday we had the cinco de mayo parade and Mandy Simons asked me if I would drive their truck and the girls were in the back of the truck throwing out candy and mom and Mandy were handing out stickers. Afterwards we went to the home and garden show and signed up for free drawings.

In the afternoon, I took off the lawn mower blade and sharpened it for mom and cleaned up the lawn mower. Mom had been wanting that done for a while and they would have charged her $17 to do it. Summer and I mowed the lawn and it works great. Thanks to youtube again for the instructions.

BYU mens volleyball team was playing Ohio State for the National Championship and BYU was #1 in the nation and BYU got beat 0-3 games. Then the BYU Rugby team was undefeated and playing California for the national championship and they got beat as well. So not a good day for BYU.

I had the day off on Friday and ended up working at work until 2:30 pm. So I will take some time off tomorrow.

Creighton Cooper got his mission call to Hermosilio Mexico, but does not go in until October I believe.

Mom celebrated her 50^th birthday on Tuesday. She and I went to lunch at Sergio’s on Wed. We did not do much, mom was supposed to have a relief society meeting that night, so we did not have any thing planned. She ended up staying home. Summer helped her make a pumpkin pie and we ate that for mother’s day today.

Well we look forward to talking to you and seeing you today. We love you. Elizabeth Grow is in Brandon Jenkins zone. So that is kind of cool. Keep working hard and being exactly obedient in all things. Have a super week.

Love,

DAD

Happy May Day

Hola Elder Nielsen,

This past week was another good week. It rained a lot and was cold again. Elko's baseball team was suppose to play Spring Creek on Tuesday, but it got rained out. They did play on Wednesday and Spring Creek beat Elko 13-8.  Elko was leading 5-1 heading into the bottom of the 5th inning and S.C. scored 11 runs that inning. Elko played in Fernley over the weekend and lost 1st game on Friday. But they won the 2 games on Sat. 5-0 and 4-3. Regionals in is S.C. this year, so I would like to go watch those games. I heard that Elko will have to forfeit the 1st 3 games of league as they had those players playing who were suspended and the rules say you have to miss 2 weeks of league games not practice games.

Yesterday, on Saturday, mom and I took 5 members of the Lopez family to the Twin Falls temple to do baptism. I think there were 16 of us total (2 Mata kids, Gabriela, the Lopez girl, president Hirst, and Bro. & sister Mendez and Bro. Anderson) including the leadership that went. 3 of the Lopez kids are members, but only 1 is old enough to do baptisms. The mom is not a member but they have been attending the Spanish branch for over a year. She and her other kids just walked around the temple grounds and took pictures. Elko 5th ward was there ahead of us, and we did not know that before hand. We left at 10 am and did not get back to Elko until around 9 pm. After the temple we drove over and looked at the snake river and scenic area and there were about 6 guys there jumping off the bridge and parachuting down to the ground. A few of them would dive off head 1st and free fall for about 5 seconds before they would pull their chutes. They were making me nervous. We went to eat at Golden Corral afterwards. That reminded me of mom and dad as they would always take us to those places. The 3rd ward was having a family dance/activity at the church so we stopped in to pick up the 3 younger girls. I guess they had a dance competition and Carly and Adelaide took 2nd place. They said they were doing moves like on Dancing with the Stars.

Today was fast Sunday and we had good meetings and then had the missionaries over for dinner.  They are only teaching 2 English speaking people and 2 Spanish speaking people, so we need to do a better job of finding people for them to teach. They come to dinner and they are never in a hurry to leave. We have to basically kick them out the door. I am sure that would get old if you were not teaching anyone. So mom and I are going to work harder to find someone for them to teach. It has been too long since they taught someone in our home.

Well, I can't think of much else to say. We love you and pray for you daily. Keep working hard. We are happy you are getting the language down and feel more comfortable. I had a student in my office this past week, and I asked her what nationality she was and she said asian. I said what kind of asain, she said Filipino,  and that she understood it, but did not speak it so well. So I had to use my tagalog "Mabaho un kili kili mo". She laughed and said I said it perfectly.  She moved her from Reno and attended Damonte Ranch high school.

Give the Lord every thing you have. Focus on the work, be exactly obedient and he will bless you. We look forward to talking to you next week. Mom turns the big 50 on Tuesday. We are getting old.

Love,

Dad