California Fun

Hola Elder Nielsen,

How was your week. Ours was good. Mom and the girls took the camry and left for California Monday morning. I stayed home and worked and took care of Chica and the paper route for the week. It was a pretty tough week. The Olympics are on, so I stay up late until 11 pm watching that and then I get up at 3:45 am to do the paper route and get to basketball at 5:30 am. 

The paper route takes about 1 1/2 hours to do by oneself.  At 4 am, it is very dark and I was out there with the flashlight and mom's list trying to figure out the houses. I was about 1/2 hour late for bball. The I came home and showered and took Chica over to the Simons house and I had to be in Winnemucca at 9:30 am to meet with students. I was about 15 minutes late for that too. My 1st appointment was the lady that was a member of the church and hadn't been to church in 27 years that I met in January. We took care of her financial aid, and only had about 7 minutes to visit about life before my 2nd appointment arrived. But she said she had been going to church for about 3-4 months but had stopped the past 3-4 weeks. She said the Relief Society Pres. has never said a word to her and that she really didn't care for her ward that much. I told her to not worry about the ward, this was her salvation that she needed to work on, and it was between her and the Lord and no one else. She said she had a hard time since the church always talks about families and her husband is not a member and against the church and her 2 kids did not want to attend, so it was difficult for her to hear that and have no family support. It kind of sounded like Whitney's reasoning for not attending church. It must be another arsenal that Satan is using in these last days. She also did not like the new missionaries, that they were too pushy, etc. She said she still has not read the Book of Mormon yet. So I gave her another challenge/assignment. I told her to read the B.O.M. for 15 - 30 minutes every day 1st thing in the morning and see how her days go, compared to the days when she did not read it. And to pray about it with an open mind. She said she would and would report back. It was a good visit, but I would have liked more time to visit about the gospel with her and answer her questions.

I went to lunch and when I came back, there was this 2 foot gold statue of the angel Moroni (replica from temples) on my desk with a note. She said in the note " Thank you for being such a source of comfort to me. I know you were sent to me because God knew I needed you. This was my Dad's and I want you to have it. Thanks Shelley"  The lady in the Winnemucca office  said when she went in there, she was just bawling as she was writing that note. I thought that was a very sweet experience and note. I think that is one of my gifts to meet with people and and encourage them to come unto Christ and live the commandments. It seems like he uses me a lot in that category.

So I spent Tuesday and Wed. in Winnemucca and came back to Elko and pick up Chica around 6 pm. And I had to get up at 3:45 am to do the papers again. 

Mom and the girls got home safely on Friday from California and Summer had soccer tryouts on Sat. They are only going to have a varsity team not a JV team.

I just saw that you sent a letter. I will send this and tell you the rest later.

Love 

DAD

Elder Nielsen,

I hurry and sent that last letter and gave the computer to mom for her to write her letter and I got on the other lap top to finish my letter. Any way, mom and the girls got home from California around 1:30 pm Friday. Summer had a physical exam with the Dr. so she could try out on Saturday. They only had 29 girls try out and the coach said they needed 32 to field a JV and varsity team. So they will not have a JV team. I think that is crazy as that is the feeding ground for the future varsity team. And if the keep 20 girls, half of them will not see any playing time. I told Summer, to do her best and what ever is best for her will happen and not to worry about it. I do think that they would keep Summer based on Erin's reputation since Erin was such a strong player on varsity for 4 years. We will see.

It was good to have mom and the girls home again. Michael Phelps won like 6 more gold medals and a silver medal in swimming again this year. That makes 23 gold medals for him over his career, the most ever by an individual. We enjoy watching the olympics. In Winnemucca, I had 4 channels on the olympics, so I watched archery, ping pong, etc. It was great. I enjoy the men's and women's volleyball. 

Saturday, we worked around the house and watched the olympics. I was tired all day. We worked on sanding and painting more blinds in the kitchen. Sat. evening we went to Cody McCarrey and Amy Grubaugh's wedding reception. We only made it for the last 1/2 hour as we were waiting for Summer to finish her soccer tryouts. It was nice.

Sunday, Grandma Croft called and said they were having a family meeting about the Tuddenham farm and wanted us to fast. So mom and I fasted for that. They were trying to decided what to do with all that. Summer had her Seminary meeting for all students and parents tonight and we just got home from that. School is starting later this year for all grades except seniors so she will start at 6:45 am. School starts at 7:45 am. We have been watching the Simon's dog the past 2 days. They get back tomorrow.

I also made 2 invitations this past week for people to be taught by the missionaries in our home. One accepted and the other really did not say yes or no. The one that accepted would be attending the YSA branch and has had a lot of difficulties in her life. Her family has basically disowned her. I have talked to her before about the gospel and she was very resistant. She is very religious, but I think she has been told lots of things that are not true about out church. But she has met the sister missionaries for the YSA branch and likes them. They are 2 sisters that are full of the spirit. So we will have to make arrangements. She did not have any money to buy food, so I invited her over for dinner with the missionaries and a discussion afterward and she said yes. We just need to figure out a time. The other person was a student who I had met with a couple times before and she called me in late July saying that her dad had been diagnosed with cancer and only had 2 months to live. I told her family comes first in my book and that I would do the same thing.. drop her classes and spend more time with her father. Well after I talked to her, I saw her dad's obituary in the newspaper that he had passed away. She said he died the day she talked to me on the phone 2 weeks after his diagnosis. But I noticed his funeral was in the East stake building. So I asked her if she was a member and she said no, but her dad was. I asked her if she thought she would ever see her dad again and she said she did not know, that that was a hard question.

I bore her my witness about the plan of salvation and asked if she would like to hear more from the missionaries. She really did not say yes or no, but I left it open for her to contact me if she was interested. She is actually taking my accounting class this semester so I will follow up with her again in class. Time will tell. But I made the invitation and did my part. Not a bad week for missionary work here on the home front.

Also we were watching BYU TV this morning and there was a very interesting video that they showed. They were talking to people who lived in the Netherlands and in Germany after WWII.  I guess people in both countries were starving from lack of food. Germany had destroyed most of the Netherlands and the Dutch people did not like the Germans at all. Leaders of the church told the Dutch people that if they kept the commandments that they would be blessed. Kind of like the same challenge they gave the members of the church in Southern Utah when all their crops were dying from lack of rain. So the Dutch people planted all these potatoes to help them from their starvation knowing that if they kept the commandments they would be blessed. The people in germany were only eating 2 slices of bread per day. One guy said they would toast the bread and put a piece in their mouth and let it sit there until their mouth would hurt to try to take away their hunger pains. Another lady said her mother asked her what she wanted for her birthday and she replied, I only want to have one day in my life where I am not hungry. Can you imagine?? When it came time to harvest the potatoes in the Netherlands, the leaders of the church asked the Dutch members if they would send all they potatoes to germany as the members there were in worst shape than they were. The members could not believe what was being asked of them. The germans had bombed them and destroyed all their crops and now you want us to give all our potatoes to the Germans. It took a lot of convincing and the Dutch members repenting of their hatred, but they did it. They sent like 70 tons of potatoes where each member German family got 100 lbs of potatoes. It was an amazing show, but they dutch people were blessed tremendously because of that. A testimony building story.

We love you, the gospel is true.

Love,

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

We went to the Seminary Fireside tonight for Summer, and that is why we are late getting our emails out.  She will have Sister Shumway for her teacher.  The other teachers are Randy and Paula Jenkins for the Sophomores, Ruth Garvin is the Juniors teacher and of course Sis. Sandall is still teaching the Seniors.  They have a new emphasis for the scriptures.  They don't call them scripture mastery anymore they are "Doctrinal scriptures".  The kids are going to be taught how to use the scriptures they are learning apply to their lives and how they can use the scriptures to answer questions people ask them about doctrine.  

I took the girls to California this past week.  We left monday and got there around 3pm and they promptly hopped in the pool.  We took the Camry to save on gas and it ran well and we had no problems with car or driver  Gram and Gramps are doing well, they are just getting old.  Grandpa uses a cane to walk and he does OK except he just moves really slooowww.  It takes him a while to cross parking lots and to get from point A to point B.  He is still really sharp in his mind... still telling jokes -- the same ones and hasn't lost his sense of humor.  Grams is slowing down too, she gets tired easily and them gets mad at herself because she doesn't accomplish all the things she wants to do  and make for us.  Grandma still buys lots of treats and snacks.  Carly said she loves going to Grams house because there is always 5 different kinds of ice cream/popsicles to choose from.  The candy jar was full when we got there as well.  We didn't do too much except swim and watch the Rio Olympics  ( the girls were kind of disappointed they didn't get to watch as many movies as they had picked out).  Adelaide improved alot in the pool.  My goal was for her to go off the diving board without the lifejacket.  We didn't quite accomplish that, but she did jump off with the jacket on... without any hesitation.  She got to where she could swim the whole length of the shallow end with out any flotation.  She was diving for toys and jumping in around the stairs.  She loved the water.

Jp and Kimiko are the same, it is a good thing for gram and gramps  have them around.

We left on Friday morning because we had to get back for Summer's sports physical that was scheduled for 2:30.  She had tryouts on Sat. morning and afternoon.  They didn't have enough girls going out to field a Varsity and a JV team. so they are not going to have a JV team.  We will find out tomorrow whether Summer makes it or not.  We are bummed that they are doing that.  It will make it hard for Summer.  Even if she does make the team, she probable won't play that much.  Not the best situation.

Sorry, to hear your investos are having trouble with those cigs!  Such an awful habit to break.  We will pray for them.  I liked hearing about all the street food that you liked, that was interesting.   Keep doing your best, YOU are the best and we love you so much, have a great week.

love, Mom