Sum Sum is the Big 14 today

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Here I am trying to remember what happened this past week. Not much is coming to my mind. But we have been extremely hot. All days around 100 degrees and it is not cooling off in the evening. So the house is only getting down to around 70 degrees at night and it gets up to around 90 in the day in here. So we are all perishing of the heat. 

Monday was a normal day. I finished making Erin and Landon their jerky. We had the missionaries over for dinner on Monday night. We also had Landon over for dinner on Wednesday. He is here for the week shadowing people in Elko and Erin is in Idaho. On Tuesday I had my temple recommend interview with the stake presidency and there were some guys playing bball in the gym. So I stopped in to see what the level of play was like. Ozzie Moreno and Robert Seanz were there and another friend of theirs I recognized from high school, but he did not play ball. Bishop Bates was there and the rest were all native Americans or Hispanics. So it was run and gun like at the Indian Colony. 

Thursday we had young men and young women. We were shooting potato guns. Summer has been having early morning conditioning at the high school for soccer and they preseason soccer in the afternoons from 4-6:30 pm. So she has been busy.

On Saturday, on the paper route, I saw a garage sell and they had some power tools and a 10 person tent. So mom and I went back there and bought the tent for $13. It is a worn pretty good and has a few issues, but it is big and will be great for the family hunting trips with all the sons in law and kids. We set it up last night to make sure it had all the pieces and it did not have instructions. But we got it up and we slept in it last night with Chica. It was really nice. It will be good for our family reunions. I also picked up an electric circular saw and miter saw and a saws all for $75. So I was working in the basement yesterday trying to finish off the framing to the door to my office down stairs to make sure they all worked. We also bought a electric spray painter to paint the rooms in the basement and the blinds but I have not tried that out to see if they worked. The 2 ladies putting on the garage sell were McKenna Cripps' mother and Cassie Alberro.

Today was Summer's birthday. She is the big 14 years old. Next year she will be getting her learners permit. We went to a baptism in the spanish branch yesterday and they had a big feast afterwards. And they had a lot of extra food, so we ended up bringing some home. We also saw Dale and Cindy Johnson and Mathew Johnson at the stake center. Matt just got home 2 weeks ago from peru, and Dale and Cindy got home a month ago from Ethiopia. They were speaking in the 4th ward this morning, so we went to hear them speak. It was great. Dale said he had a friend serving a couple mission in Africa and he sent him a message on facebook asking him if they liked it as he and Cindy were thinking about serving a mission went Matt left on his. His friend responded back and said that they loved it and if they had ever considered Africa. Dale said he wrote back and said he would love africa but did not ask his wife. The mission president was on the phone with Dale within 15 minutes extending a call to serve in Africa. Dale said, he would love that but that he wanted to go where the Lord wants them to go. And the Mission President said, the Lord wants you to go to africa. So he told them when they fill out their paper work, to mention that they and the mission president had had that conversation, and they got called to Africa and served their entire time in Ethiopia.  But they loved it and they received countless confirmations from the spirit that that is where the Lord wanted them to serve.

He also said the last day on the mission, a bell boy was helping them with their baggage and asked them these 2 questions. Did to do what you came here to do? And did you have fun?  Dale said those 2 questions were weighing heavily on his mind that morning and he thought the little boy was 1 of the 3 Nephites.  So remember that Elder Nielsen. Are you accomplishing the work you were sent there to do?  Always remember that and answer that question every day. Did I do what the Lord wanted me to do today. Every one of us can ask ourselves that very same question every day. Did I do today what the Lord wanted me to do and accomplish today?

We had a good dinner. Summer opened her presents and then we watched family videos when she was little. All you kids were so little 12-14 years ago. Time passes us by too quickly. We need to make the most out of each and every day.

Have a super week. Work hard and represent to Lord to the fullest. We love you and pray for you every day. I leave for Pahrump tomorrow and will be there the week. It was 114 degrees down there last week.

Love 

Dad

Pioneer Day!

Hello Elder Nielsen,

How was your week. We again had a quick week. I can't think of much that happened. Landon was coming to Elko this weekend, so I made him and Erin 6 lbs of Antelope whole muscle meat. He will be here all this week shadowing some people in the medical field this week. So we will see how much is left when he picks it up.

On Wednesday, Mom, Summer, Adelaide and I caught a cold. The girls had it earlier on in the week. But mom and I had it hit us this Wed. But my nose was running constantly for almost 2 days. I would tilt my head down and my nose would start dripping. On Thursday, I went home from work and told them I was going to stay home. It was too embarrassing trying to work with students with my nose dripping. It has now settled in my chest and I have a cough. Mom and the girls seem to be getting better.

Kylie Olsen got married on Friday and had their reception on Sat. They had gone through a ton of decorations to set it up and I am thinking only about 60-80 people showed up. Mom and the girls were there helping out and when I showed up about 30 minutes after it started there were only about 6 cars in the parking lot. I thought, they must all be parking on the other side, but when I went in, hardly any one was there.  In my opinion, that was too much work for such a small turn out. 

They had a lot of extra food and we had a linger longer after church. They served fruit and cupcakes and cookies. Mom and I went home teaching this evening. We had a good Sabbath day. I had not been sleeping well with this cold and I took a very need 1.5 hour nap of rapid eye movement. It felt great.

We hope you have a great week.  I was studying a talk from Elder Holland in 1997 this morning given to missionaries about keeping covenants. He said this, "So I say to you as I say to myself-- if we really want to succeed in our callings, if we want to have access to every help and every advantage and every blessing from the Father, if we want to have the door of heaven thrown open to us that we might receive the powers of godliness, we must keep our covenants!" He also said this, "It is when an entire mission is united by the strength of every missionary's integrity, every missionary's personal covenant keeping, that we move mountains. When there is such unity and power, and endowment from heaven, coming to every individual in the mission, nothing can 'stop the work from progressing.' It is in this way that the 'truth of God will go forth boldly, nobly, and independent.'"

I thought that was neat. Last week, I guess the part about us going to the Angel Lake Fishing Derby got deleted, but I guess you figured that out.

Have a super week, keep working hard and be the missionary that Heavenly Father would like you to be. We love you and pray for you daily. Mom and I think we have the best kids in the world. Mom told me tonight that Sister Bauman was having a very hard time last night at Kylie's reception, as that is what she wanted for her daughter Shawna (a temple marriage), but instead she was going out drinking and partying last night and not making good decisions. It was so tough on her, she had to leave.

We pray that all our kids will keep the covenants and commandments, so the doors of heaven will be thrown open and we can receive all the blessing that H.F. has for us. It is a pretty simple concept. Be obedient and you will be blessed beyond measure and the Lord God is obligated to bless us D&C 82:10. Disobedience brings the consequences for our decisions.

Love.

Dad

Back Home Now

Dear Elder Nielsen,

We had a wonderful week in New Mexico with Chelsea, Brian and David. We went and did a river walk and did some geocaching (although we could not find any) with Chelsea and David. They have some paved trails around a nice river that flows through their town. We went back so David could take a nap and watched Back to the Future 1, the girls had never seen that movie. Brian came home from work and brought so Lotsofburger's for dinner. They are south western hamburgers with hot green chiles on them. They were good. That evening we got invited over to a member's condo in their ward for FHE. They had invited another 3 families over as well and we had a good lesson and played games afterwards. They were all nice people and we had an enjoyable time.

Tuesday we went to the Aztec ruins which were about 40 miles out. They were really cool. It was ruins from the native americans that lived there in about 1000 ad and were discovered and unburried in the mid 1900's. They were really cool and had a lot religious buildings, like temples that they have reconstructed, but I kept trying to figure out how they tie back to the BOM people and lamanites that remained after Moroni. We drove by the Farmington Lake, but the kids wanted to come back the next day so they would have more time to swim. We had to get home for David. After the ruins, we went out to lunch at A&W which was fun. That evening after Brian got home, we had hot dogs for dinner and then we went and played frisbee golf at the local college there. It was out in the juniper trees and Chelsea and Brian had never been there before, so we did not know what we were doing as far as where to start and end. So we just jumped on a hole and threw to the next hole we could see. We only did 4 or 5 holes. 

Wednesday, we went to a kids science museum where they have lots a things for kids to explore and discover like sound waves, magnetism, etc. It was fun.  In the afternoon, we came home and watched Back to the Future 2 and 3. When Brian got off work, we went to eat dinner at Fudruckers. That is where you get a burger and put all the topping you want on it. I made mine, with lettuce, tomatoes, pickles, jalapenos, etc about 4 inches high. It was good! 

Thursday, we went to their public library just across the street from Chelsea's place and it was a very big nice library. Then we hit the road to drive back to South Jordan around noon.  It was hard and sad to leave them. David is a handsome, active little boy. He was feeling a lot better after the 1st few days. On Wednesday, after we had to keep making plan changes around David's schedule, Adelaide asked us, "Why is every thing always about David?" She is a nut. The trip is about 650 miles from elko to farmington and takes about 10.5 hours. We got back to So. Jordan around 6 pm Utah time and went to Dillard's to exchange so dresses mom had bought for Erin's wedding. The store there was going out of business so it was all marked down about 90% off. Most of the things were already picked through, but I got a work shirt and each of the little girls got something for them.

We went to Sharon and Brian's home that evening and they fed us dinner. I had to drop off Jedd and Jana's taxes and so they came over and we ended up visiting for 2 hours or so. By time they left it was 10:30 pm at night, so we stayed and sharon's that night and headed back to Elko the next morning. I wanted to come back Thursday night so we could do the paper route and pick up Chica. We had kind of dumped them on people before we left, and I felt kind of bad and wanted to get home quickly. I was planning on working Friday, but by time I got home, I was tired and decided to just rest for the day.

We did a few things around the house, but every thing was good here at home. Saturday morning, mom and I got up at 7:30 am. We took Chica with us and she did great. She only growled at smokey the bear and a couple people in float tubes and chest waiters as she did not know what they were. But the fishing was horrible. We did not even have 1 bite the entire day, nor did we catch any fish. We only saw about 10-15 fish caught total. That is the 1st time we have ever been skunked there. But it was a nice day and a lot cooler up mountain. When we got home, we washed the suburban and I changed the oil on the trooper.

We were bushed at the end of the day and week. It has been a long, busy, tiring week. But it was a good one.

We had a good day at church today. We are excited to hear how your 1st week went with your new companion. Remember when you are counseling with him that you ask to questions, how we can be more obedient, successful, etc and get his buy in and feed back and you just listen. But when he makes his suggestions and opinions, if they are correct, you can agree and then he has ownership on those ideas to be carried out.

We love you and pray for you everyday. Keep working hard. You are over the summit and on the down hill side now. Enjoy every minute of it.

Have a super week.

Love,

Dad

Farmington, New Mexico

Dear Elder Nielsen

We had another good week. Monday was the 4th of July, so we just stayed and home and worked. We redid the blinds for the bay window. We repainted and restrung all the blinds in the middle section. We also made some home made ice cream. It never did harden up, but it was still good. We went over to the  college to watch the fireworks. They were good as always. But it was a very pleasant evening.

Tuesday I went to work after being gone for 3 days. On Wednesday, I had Jeff Zuag come over, the guy I do their taxes for in exchange for taxidermy. But he knows a lot about fixing bugs. So he came over and we pulled the engine out of the bug and put in a new clutch pad which had broken. But we got it all put back together and the bug will not start again. It seems to be the same problem we had before. So now we need to figure out why it is not starting. But we worked on it for 1/2 of a day. I also worked Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday morning, we showed Sadie Goulding the paper route so she could do it when we were gone. Then we were suppose to drop Chica off at the Smith's, house, but they were not going to be home for most of the time, so I did not feel comfortable leaving her alone. So we had been watching the Simon's dog all week and the Mieren's came and picked up their dog, and we asked them if they would watch Chica until the Simons got home Sunday night, and then the Simons would watch Chica. So we ended up leaving to Utah 1.5 hours later than we wanted. to leave. We went over to Utah up to Huntsville Utah for a Moon cousin reunion. It was beautiful up there. And we had a great time up there. The cousins are funny and crazy. But we had a fun time visiting and talking about family history, etc.

Afterwards, we went back and stayed with Sharon and Brian in their home. Then we got up at about 3:45 am  Elko time and drove down to Chelsea and Brian's. We got here before church, and went to church with them. They have a really good ward. Little David was sick on Friday night and had a seizure due to his high temperature, and that freaked Chelsea out and they took him to the emergency room and was there until 3 am.

We are glad to be here. We will be here until about Thursday or Friday. We know it is transfer day this week, so we will be hearing from you a little latter. But keep working hard and being exactly obedient in every thing. We love you and are happy you are serving the Lord. Serve him your very best.

Love you,

Dad

Happy 4th of July

Hola Elder Nielsen,

So how are you holding up with the heat. It has been very hot here the past 10 days getting up into the high 90's. So I have been thinking of you a lot. But we do not have the humidity.

Funny story about Adelaide before I forget. Today I was a sub. Teacher for her primary class, and she came up to me and ask, "So Dad, what are we going to talk about today?" And before I could answer her, she said, "So, what are the answers?" She was trying to get prepped before the class so she could know all the answers. Carly and Summer both said, "Adelaide, that is cheating". I had a good laugh over that.

So this week, I have been kicking back and trying to recover from the audit.  Summer was at girls camp all week and came home Friday. I took Thursday and Friday off of work and Mom and I fixed and repainted the Middle bay window blinds. It was a lot of work, but they practically look brand new. I ordered about $100 worth of parts to fix up many of our blinds, and we are going to repaint all of them.  Jerry Harris has asked me if I will go down to the church and help him with his shot in basketball. So 2 nights last week, I met him at the church and worked with him on his form. He is eager to improve, but I am not sure I can spend every night down there with him.

On Saturday, we went to the 4th of July parade and the girls cleaned up on the candy. I got a call at 6:30 am Saturday morning from Ramon Zugazaga asking if Summer would sing the National Anthem for the opening of the Basque festival. She was still asleep, but I told him I would ask and get back to him. I thought there is no way Summer would do that. There would be lots of people there for that event. So I was thinking, that perhaps I could help him out and find someone else that would be willing. I thought about the Welch girls, the little esplin girl, Burk Madsen, etc. But to my surprise, Summer said she would do it. So we worked on it a few times, she had a hard time hitting all those high notes. But we went over to the Basque place and she sung and did quite well. She struggled with one high note, but other than that she did just fine. Ramon was very appreciative for her doing that and pulled out $100 bill from his wallet and gave it to her. He said it was from the basque club, but I guarantee you it was his own money. He also gave each of us a free Churiso, so Summer paid for our lunch as well. Ramon gave Summer a big hug afterwards.

So Sum Sum is now a paid professional singer. Watch out Natalie Ai Kamauu. A famous singer from amber's mission.

Today we had the Elders from our ward and the Sister Missionaries over the YSA branch over for dinner. It was great having sister missionaries in our home again. They were very cute, out going and bubbling with energy. They told us as they were leaving, "You have a great spirit here in your home". That is something Mom and I want to always have in our home. We want people to feel spirit while they are in our home.

That is very sad to here about your companion losing his dad. Tell him our family fasted for him and his family that they might be comforted. 

Summer got home from girls camp and had a good time. Mom had Chelsea, Amber, and Erin write the letters from home to Summer and they were all very adorable and precious. Mom and I decided that we have the best family in the world. We have great kids.

This next Saturday, we are planning on going to the Moon cousin reunion and then we are going to drive down to New Mexico to visit Chelsea and Brian. I am trying to make about 9 pounds of jerky for them, but we will see how much is left by time we get down there. The kids still eat it like hot cakes.

Keep working hard. You have hit you 1 year mark and this next year will be very exciting and interesting. The language should be good and you can now concentrate on teaching with the spirit and following the prompting of the spirit. Remember, that it is the spirit that soften's hearts, that changes attitudes and behavior, and it is the spirit that converts and bares witness of the Savior and Heavenly Father. Having the spirit with you and teaching by the spirit is the most important thing for you as a missionary.

We look forward to this next year being very successful. Keep working hard and give him every second you have and every last bit of energy. This past year has just flown by way too quickly.  It is hard to imagine that we were up in Idaho a little more than a year ago.

We love you, and pray for your success every day. May the Lord pour down his blessing upon you and your companion.

Love,

Dad