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

HOLA! From Cusco Peru

Hello elder nielsen,
I am trying to write this letter on moms iPod and it is hard to type. We just read the letter from your mission president about the typhoon and we hope and pray that you are safe.

We have already been to the amazon jungle and rain forest. It was very hot And humid and it rained every day. When it rains it comes down in buckets. But we kept thinking this must be how Cody feels in the Philippines. We saw crocodiles parrots, macaws, trianchulas, etc. nothing that great. The monkeys were really cool. The guides went out and called them in and the came in like crazy jumping from tree to tree. There were 3 dominate males that came in so that was a little intense to watch them . We had to be careful.

We are in cusco now and head to machipuchu  today. The day we got here, I had the revenge from the jungle. Every 20 minutes all night long I had to use the bathroom. The diarea had hit me with a vengence. I did not eat anything all day long yesterday or dinner the night before. So there is nothing left in my system. I ate breakfast this morning as I was getting weak. So we will see how it goes. It was a good thing they had public rest rooms on our tour yesterday or it could have been ugly. I think 1 bano will have to be condemned after I used it.

I have loved talking to everyone in Spanish . It is great. But I must have a magnet on my forhead as when all these people see that I am a tourist and speak Spanish they almost maul me. Sometimes we have 3 and 4 people at the same time trying to sell us something. I wish we could help them all but we can't .

We love you and pray for you daily. Keep working hard and be safe.

Love

Dad from Peru   

Bound for Peruuuuu!

Hola Elder Nielsen,
What a crazy week. I have been running around like a crazy person this past week trying to finish up all the tax returns I need to get done and booking our flights in Peru and booking our tour guide, etc. We decided to go with a guy for our tour guide who is a member of the church. We have been talking through Skype almost every day and he reminds me of Rolando Cubillo. He acts like he has known me my entire life and that I am one of his long lost friends. I can't wait to meet him and his wife in Cusco. We will be there for 10 days and we will visit the Amazon jungle, machu pichu, and lake Titicaca. It should be fun, but I can't wait until it is over and back on American soil. These kind of trips stress me out too much. I've been waking up at 2:30 am and worrying about all I have to do and not being able to go back to sleep.

Byu beat Michigan State in football yesterday 31-14 in Michigan. Yesterday was crazy. We got up and did the papers at 5am. I had to mail a few taxes and try to finish up the remaining taxes before we had to drive to Twin Falls to pick up Erin. We put her on the bus and we picked her up in Twin. They got they early and she had to wait 40 minutes before we got there. We hit Costco, filled up with gas and headed back to Elko. We listened to the byu game on the radio.

Elko beat Lowry on Friday 33-6 or some thing like that on Friday and for the battle of the unbeatens, Spring Creek beat Truckee 63-34 or something.

Summer had soccer games in North Tahoe on Friday and Incline on Sat. They lost 3-0 to North Tahoe and beat Incline 3-2 on Saturday. I guess Summer said she got a dead leg on Friday and did not play in the Saturday game.

Sunday today was a crazy busy day. I had to get up and finish grading all my homework for the accounting class I'm teaching, then we had church and afterwards we had the YSA sisters come over and teach Sierra a lesson in our home. It was a different lesson and she is soo emotionally shattered and has had such hard times, she cried during most of it and we had to stop the lesson early as she said she could not continue. But it was at least a step in the right direction. The sisters did a great job handling the very difficult situation. The one sister, Sister Daniels goes home on Oct. 19th and we will not get to see her again. She and mom went and played tennis this past week in the morning. She is on a scholarship to play tennis at BYU Hawaii. We had another appointment scheduled this past Wednesday for Sierra and Sierra did not show up.Then we had to go to women's in excellence for Carly and Summer and now we are home. It is 8 pm and we have to have scriptures, FHE, and mom and I have not even packed yet. We have to get up at 2 am and leave by 3am to get to the airport on time. I am not sure how we will write next week, in most of the areas, we do not have wifi or the internet.

That is pretty much it. I have been working long hours and getting home at 9:30 pm. I will be glad when it is all over.

Have a super week. Keep working hard and learning all you can. We love you and are happy you are serving the Lord at this time in your life. Be a great example to the others and rely on the spirit for all you do.

Love

Dad

October Already?!

Elder Nielsen,

Here we are in October already. I can't believe it. Carly had her birthday on Monday and now she is 12 years old. I can't believe that either. I had my class on Monday so I didn't get home until 10 pm. We had ice cream and cake when I got home.

We had Iris over for another discussion in our home on Wednesday at 2:00 pm. We all thought it went very well. She is a very sweet sincere girl. They tried to get her a firm baptismal date of Nov. 5th, but she said she would have to pray about it. Also When she closed the discussion in prayer, she was very sweet and asked Heavenly Father to be patient with her in her search for the truth. Later that afternoon, Summer had a soccer game here against Lowry and they lost 2-3. But Summer had one of the goals. She cleaned up a shot that bounced off of someone or something. But it was tied 2 to 2 and Lowry got a goal in the last 3 minutes of the game. Their main Goalie, Lauren Drake hurt her thumb and is out 10-12 weeks. So they had a sophomore girl in there who is not very good. 2 of their goals came as she dropped the ball once and they kicked it in. And the other one in the last few minutes of the game she did not get in front of it and it skipped right past her into the goal. But Summer did not start in that game as she said she did not play well in South Tahoe over the weekend.

Carly went to her first young women's on Thursday. On Friday Summer played soccer at Spring creek. And they ended up tying that game 2-2. She started but did not play much in the 1st half. They are now on the last half of the season. Friday was homecoming so Summer, mom and I went to the football game. Elko beat Fallon 30-24 in triple overtime. It was 12 to 12 at the end of regulation. Kyron Allen ran back a kickoff with about 2 minutes left in the game to tie it. Fallon has lost 3 games this year, so they are not like the state champions from last year. It was a fun game in OT. BYU beat Toledo in a come from behind game. I did not see it or hear much about it.

Saturday, we just worked on projects around the house so we could listen to conference. It was great as always. We liked most of them. Nelson's on joy was good and Oaks on missionary work was good as well. Sunday afternoon season every talk was great. President Monson only talked for about 5 minutes on the word of wisdom in the Priesthood session and 5 minutes on Sunday morning on the plan of salvation.

We were suppose to have Sierra another college student I have been working with over for dinner and a discussion with the YSA sisters again. She never showed up, so we went to look for her and found her and we rescheduled for Wed. at noon. She has an eating disorder so I told her she needed help from the spirit to overcome that issue. We will try again. I have a Spanish family we are working with and 4 other students I am working with in missionary work. It could become a full time job.

We are still trying to work out all the details for the Peru trip. I also have 4 tax returns I need to get out this week before we leave. I have so much to do, I am starting to stress out a bit. I woke up at 3 am this morning worrying about getting everything done and could not go back to sleep.

Have a great week. Enjoy conference next weekend. We love you and are happy you are serving a mission. Keep working hard and give it all you have. Be an example to all the other missionaries and invite everyone you see.

Love,

Dad