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

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Last week was kind of a different week.  We had Parent/Teacher Conf., Friday was Nevada Day, so that was a holiday from school, but it just felt super busy, like I was chasing all week.  Summer had her last soccer game of the season on Tues. against Spring Creek.  Their chances for going to the play-offs were over, but it was the senior's last game in uniform and it was against SC, so I was hoping it would be a good game, "Play for pride", kind of a thing.  We lost 0-3 on our own field.  Summer had an OK game, she had won shot on goal, that was kind of far out, so by the time it got there, it was kind of easy to pick up.

There just isn't a lot of talent on the team.  The best players are young, and they will get better with experience.  Plus, and it's a big plus,  our goalie situation was unfortunate, with Lauren Drake getting hurt a couple of weeks ago.  She had surgery a week or so ago on her hand.  She dislocated her thumb during one of the games.  The replacement goalkeeper just couldn't do the job very well.  Poor girl, she surely felt the pressure.  So, Summer had kind of a free week, since basketball try-outs aren't for another 2 weeks.  She went to open gym last week.

Carly is playing PAL right now, she and her (twin) friend Danielle, the Filipino are on the same team.  She is doing pretty well.  She is one of the better players on her team.  She had a game on Sat. and she had the chance to be the hero of the game.  they were down 14-15, with less than a minute to play and she gets a breakaway fast break to the hoop and she goes in and is fouled on her lay-up.  So, she gets two free throws and the first one she is a little off to the right, and the second one she goes too far left and misses the rim. We lost.  She said they never even practice free throws at practice (Dad and I always did, when we coached)  I told her what I always say, "Losses always come down to free throws".

Adelaide had a good report at her teacher conference.  She is doing well, right on track.  She gets along well, and behaves, etc.  Carly's teachers-- she's in a pod, said she is very cute and fashionable and her artisticness never goes unnoticed.  She struggles a bit with Math, but overall she has A's and B's.  One of her teachers, Mrs. Stuehling, remembered you, and Dad shared some of your experiences with her.

We also had a funeral this week for Bro. Sargeant.  He passed away last Sunday morning.  He had been raking leaves the day before and just over did it and was having trouble during the night, so Sis. Sargeant called the ambulance and he died before they got there.  She had left the room to get dressed for when the EMT's would arrive and by the time she went back into the bedroom he was gone.  She said a feeling of peace just filled the room.  He had most likely had a heart attack.  They had his funeral on Thursday.   Sister Sargeant and all 10 of his children spoke.  It lasted almost 3 hours!  Dad said Uncle Daryl would have been having a fit, since the handbook says the max for a funeral should be an hour and a half.  He was always a "Follow the handbook" bishop.  It was a nice tribute to a great man.  I helped with the Luncheon, and by the time I was done it was 6pm.  It had been an all day affair.  Elder Loertcher came with his wife. That was good to see him.

We went to the Parade on Sat. morning.  Ads was being kind of weird about going and picking up the candy.  She wouldn't go get it, so it was up to me if we were going to get any sweets out of this parade.  I had to go head to head with the little kiddos and not look like a candymonger.  Later, she said her tummy hurt and she didn't feel like eating candy. (that's why there's a tomorrow!)

Dad and Summer went out hunting on Sat. morning.  She had only shot does on all her previous hunts, so this time around she really wanted to shoot a buck.  Well, she got one-- a 3x3.  Not really big, but legit.  Dad will have to tell you the whole story. We had a trunk or treat activity at the church last night and then we ate chili and that was fun.  That was our week!

Oh, and we had the Spanish Branch missionaries over for dinner.  We had soup since it is kind of a rainy, blustery day today.

I hope you had a good week last week, and that all your missionaries are getting along.  You get along pretty easily don't you, with everybody?  You most definitely get that from me   I hope you have a great week.  Is this the typhoon season right now?  Stay safe,

 love you, Mom

PS Joe Nielsen is getting married Nov. 11th to Shannon (you may know who that is)