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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

My Dear Elder Nielsen,

We are back home in Elko now.  We had a really great week in Farmington with Chelsea Brian and little David.  He is such a little mover and a shaker.  The first day he was still kind of clingy with Chelsea but then he warmed up to us a bit more. I let Chelsea plan the whole week of what we did.   I said I wanted to go on a hike and to something historical and eat native food.  That was my only input.  Monday we went to this river walk that runs along side the San Juan River that runs right down through the middle of Farmington.  That was fun.  We tried to find some geocaches in that area, but we were unsuccessful.  Do you know what geocaching is?  Chelsea is really into it.  You use an App that tells you through your smartphone's GPS where the coordinates are to where another person has hid a small container that has a logbook inside that you record your name or initials to indicate that you found it.  It was kind of hard, or maybe we just stunk at it.  We only found 3 out of 6 that we searched for.  That night were went to FHE at a lady in Chelsea's ward home.  There were two other families there.  We had a lesson and then played different games in small groups.  I played "Sorry" and got beat by a 7 yr. old. 

Tuesday we went to the Aztec Ruins in the town of Aztec.  They aren't the "Aztecs" that made these stone structures that's just the town they were in. They were Hopi, Pueblo, Ute, Indian Peoples that built them.  It was pretty neat and really hot.  

So, afterwards we went to A&W for something cool to drink, but we ended up having a hotdog too, because they had a special that day.  After Brian got home from work that night we went to a frisbee golf course and played a few rounds, we didn't really know what we were doing, but it was fun.

Wednesday we went we went to a Childrens' Interactive Science Museum.  It was very cool.  Dad liked the display that recorded your reaction  time (anything that is competitve!)  
That afternoon we went to the lake that is near the edge of town.  It is a really pretty lake and has a buoyed off area that is just for swimming and has a floating trampoline kind of  island and another thing that was a floating slide.  Addie wanted to go out to the slide, but it was out a little ways and you had to swim to it.  I had swam with her on my back last summer at Gram's pool, so I put her on my back and starting swimming the 10yds to the slide.  Ads is quite a bit heavier than last year and combined with the wind blowing the water toward shore, it was kind of a challenge and I was relieved when we made it. I thought she was going to sink us both!  I was kind of nervous to head back, so this big Native lady said she would carry her on her back to the shallower water.  I think she was surprised that "Anchor Addie" was so heavy, because her head was barely above the water, but we all made it back.  It was good to have our feet on the bottom again.  We went to Fuddruckers for dinner.  I had never been to one of those, so it was a new experience.

It was a really wonderful trip.  David is a really busy little guy, but so much fun and Chelsea is really loving motherhood.  We got back and everything was OK with the house and Chica, so that was good.   

I hope you have a wonderful week.  We are praying for you and Elder "Poly-pino"  that you will work well together.  I know your President has great faith in your abilities to get along with people, and still not be a push-over. I hope you have a great week.  Yo mama loves you,  Mom