Happy Thanksgiving

Elder Nielsen,

We hope you had a very happy birthday. We celebrated it here without you by having a missionary discussion in our home. This was a very fast week. Monday I taught my accounting class and got home around 10 pm. 

Tuesday was very busy. I went to work as usual. Then at 5 pm we had the 4th wards missionaries come over to teach Isabel Martinez a discussion in our home. She is another student I met at the college in Battle mountain that now lives in Elko and we have been trying to get this set up for a while now. She was the one that was going to go to church with us last Sunday but had to work. But a few minutes before 5 I texted her out address and she asked if she could bring 2 friends with her. I said of course. So we had the Elders, Isabel and her 2 or 3 year old daughter and her two friends over for dinner. One of her friends named Lizett said she knew who you were from middle school when she saw your picture in the entry. The other friend was a boy name Chris who has been attending the Living Stones church here in town. So we ate beef layered Florentine and they all loved it. Then we had a good discussion. Chris was asking most of the questions and had good things to say. We taught them about the Restoration and the BOM. Isabel said the more she hears about the church the more she believes it. So we will see. We did not set up a return appointment as our schedules are crazy for the next 2 weeks.  We will have to follow up with them when I get back in town.

We have had a flu / cold bug going around our family. Addie stayed home from school Monday and Tuesday. Carly was sick on Tuesday and Summer and mom were catching it on Wednesday. After our discussion, Carly was asleep during the discussion and I thought she was too sick to go to her bball game out in Spring Creek, but she woke up and wanted to go. So I drove her and Danielle out to their game in SC. They won and Carly had 6 points. She had a chance to make an and 1, but missed her free throw. Mom had to stay in town and go the Summer's JV bball parent meeting and pick Summer up from practice at 8:30 pm.

Wednesday, the girls got out of town at mid day. Summer still had bball from 7-8:30 pm at night. Uncle Ken was driving through to California that day, so mom did not want to go any where to miss him. Come to find out he went right through Elko and did not stop. I went out and did the newspapers at 10 pm as they came at 9 pm. I did all the route except for the upper route around Northside school. I got back at 11 pm and we went to bed. Mom was busy baking food to take to California for Thanksgiving.

Thursday morning we got up at 4 am, mom went and finished the paper route on the upper section. We got all packed and left around 6 am to go to California. We drove straight to Curtis and Betsy' home for the dinner. We got there around 12:15 pm and we were eating at 1 pm. So we were the first to arrive. Betsy or Elizabeth had decorated the table very elegantly, just like a wedding or fancy restaurant.  Rebecca Croft and her family were there and they had also invited a inactive friend who Elizabeth had met his father on an airplane. There were 21 or 22 of us there. The food was good. We did not eat breakfast that morning and they had some nuts and cheese and crackers as appetizers and I think I ate too much of those as I did not or could not eat much of the thanksgiving meal. But it was good to see all of them and Grandpa and Grandma Croft. They are still doing well, Grandpa just moves around very slowly.

We had a good time in California. We did not go out and try and hit any of the sales as it is too crazy in California. So we hung out there at their place. Friday afternoon, grandma and grandpa took us out to a Chinese buffet. It was ok, nothing too special. Grandma does not cook much any more, so that was her way of feeding us as we did not have to eat any thing again that evening. 

Saturday morning, mom and I got up early and went to the Sacramento temple. We went in and did initiatory work for some of the names I have found doing family history. I thought I had printed out some girl names for mom, but they were all males. So mom went in and did temple names. It was raining very hard in the valley all morning and a winter storm was suppose to hit Sat. afternoon and through Sunday and they were going to get 3 feet of snow over Donner Summit. I did not want to fight bad weather all the way home, so we decided to leave sat. afternoon around 1 pm and get ahead of the storm. We ended hitting it head on going over the summit. It took us over 4 hours to go over the summit. Chains or snow tires were mandatory and the speed limit was 30 mph. At one point going through the check point, it took us 49 minutes to go 1 mile. There were cars that had slid off the roads and a few wrecks. People always try to go too fast in those conditions.

We got home around 11 pm. It took us about 9 or 10 hours to get home. But I am glad we are home. The roads were good after we got into Nevada. Somebody in Reno told us he had heard that they closed the roads over the summit, so I was glad we got through. It was a very intense and slow drive over the summit and I was tired when I got home.

It was snowing here in Elko throughout the night and this morning. We had a robo call saying the we were going to have a stake fast for Landon Howe. He was riding his bike in Louisiana and got hit by a car. I guess he is in critical condition, collapsed lung, broken ribs, his brain is swelling and bleeding in 3 spots, so they had to cut open his skull to relief the pressure. They have in in an induced coma, so he can try and heal. He is on a respirator, as he can't breath on his own. When they are able to take him off the respirator, they will fly him to SLC to a hospital closer to his family. I guess the younger Howe kids are having a hard time with that.

We had a great Sabbath. Church was good. We went to tithing settlement. And the sister missionaries stopped by our house. Sister Kyle is going home this week and they wanted to say goodbye. I did not know they felt that close to our family, but I guess they like us.

I have to fly to Atlanta Georgia tomorrow morning at 5 am, so I need to get packed. I listened to the BYU vs UTah state football game last night on the way home. BYU won by 18 points or so. Taysom Hill got hurt again with about 3 minutes to go in the game. Out of the 4 times Taysom got hurt and out for the season. 3 of them were against Utah State. He got tackled out of bounds and landed on his elbow and they took him immediately to the locker room. He will have an MRI on his elbow today to see what the problem was.

We love you. We are very thankful for our family. We are thankful that you are serving a mission. Keep working hard. The time is flying by too quickly. Romney Goulding comes home in 10 days.  

We hope you have a great week.

Love,

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

How was you birthday?  Sister Bertin schemed to figure out what kind of cake you liked, to make it for your birthday.  Then she emailed me for the recipe.  She sure thinks highly of you.  She said she wishes she could clone you.  She sent me some pictures of you and the cake and it looked like it turned out right.  She was a little worried about being able to find blueberries over there, but it looks like she came through.  

We had a good week.  Monday there was a candlelight vigil at Angel Park for the victims of the plane crash.  The Chorlaliers sang some song, but Summer had practice at that time, so I told her to make sure it wasn't mandatory and if not to go to bball instead.  They wouldn't miss her at the park thing.  There has been bouquets of flowers placed in the chainlink fence to the parking lot.  It grows everyday.  

Tuesday, was a crazy busy day.  We had the missionaries for dinner and a couple of investos.  I had to have that ready by 5pm, but then at 6pm, I had to leave to take Summer to TNR, and then there was a parent mtg. for bball in the library.  At 7 pm I had to pick her up at take her to practice.  Dad took Carly to her game out in SC after the discussion.  She wasn't feeling her best, but she still had 6 points.  Adelaide stayed home from school on Mon. and Tues. with a cold and shared it with me and Carly, and Summer got in on it too by the end of the week.

We left early on Thursday for our trip to California for Thanksgiving.  It was really wonderful.  We arrived in plenty of time and were able to help Betsy with the final preparations.  She had set the most beautiful table with these  white and greyish pumpkins, greenery and lights, and candles.  It was very festive to say the least.  We had a great time.  Rebecca and her husband Ray were there with their two cute kids.  Besty had also invited some other friends of theirs.  Uncle Ken arrived too.  Yummy food, love of family and friends and a day to reflect on all the wonderful blessings of the Lord--what's better?

Dad and I were able to go to the temple on Sat. We didn't have much time, so he printed out some names and we did their initiatory work.  Neither of us had done initiatories for some time, and they had changed some things.  You no longer wear the "Shield", the white kind of robe; they just have you wear your regular temple clothes.  Dad wasn't aware of this and asked some young temple worker, "Where do I get my shield?"  He said he gave him a funny look.  When he told me the story I said, "He didn't say, 'Over there next to the swords.' "  There were a lot of turkeys and geese up there around the Sacramento Temple, and Dad was excited about that.  We will have to take you there when you get home.

We left  that afternoon to avoid a storm that was coming, but we delayed a bit too long and it bad weather going over the pass.  It took us 4 hrs to get over Donner Summit.  They had chain up check points.  We were able to pass through without any chains because we had 4 wheel drive.  Dad just went slow and was extremely careful and we made it through just fine.

It's good to be home.  We went to church today and Bro. Jenkins asked Adelaide about her name and was interested in how we came up with it.  I told him the story, and then as we were walking to the car, I told Ads, "Do you know that your name means "Noble and Kind" ?  She asked what Noble meant and I said it means to be important and respected.  She said, "Oh, I'm already important, but I gotta work on being kind."

I hope your week is great.  We love you lots and enjoy hearing about the good work you are doing,

Love, Mom