Merry Christmas!!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

This has been a busy crazy week. Chelsea and Brian got here on Wednesday from New Mexico, Amber and Kevin got here on Thursday afternoon and Erin and Landon got here an hour after them.  So we have had a full house. Erin and Landon have been sleeping at the Welch's and the rest have been crashing here.

On Wednesday night, BYU played Wyoming in their bowl game in San Diego. BYU was up 24 to 7 entering the 4th quarter and almost gave the game away. It was raining really hard and Wyoming came back and made it 24-21 and had the ball and was driving down the field and got to about BYU's 40-35 yard line. They were in field goal range and might have tied or won the game with 2 minutes remaining and Ky Nacua intercepted a pass and BYU won. But we should have never allowed them to get close.

It has been a lot of fun having all the kids around, but Mom said she feels like grandma Croft when we are there as all she does is cook, clean up and then prepare for the next meal.

David is a real cutie. He really likes people and goes to everyone.  On Friday, all of us and President shumway and Kate went caroling to a few of the widows in our ward. We went to sister Miranda's, Sister Sargeant's, The Sills, and Afton Ballards. It was really fun and they all enjoyed it very much. We enjoyed it very much as well as we always feel the spirit and it makes us feel good. Afterwards, we came back to our house and mom had made white hot chocolate, and it was very good.

On Friday, we got about 6-7 inches of snow. So we had a white Christmas. Kevin was helping me work on the cars and we got the bug started. We bled the clutch in the Trooper, so hopefully that will work now. Brian helped fix the door nob to the pantry door and the kitchen faucet. It has been good having all the help around here.

Last night, Christmas eve, we had Amber and Kevin, and Erin and Landon sleep on mattresses in the family room like a big slumber party. Brian and Chelsea and David were in Chelsea's old room and the 3 younger girls were in Amber's old room up stairs. We stayed up until about 11:30 pm talking and wrapping gifts. And then mom and I had to stay up until 1:30 am finishing all the final touches. We woke up about 6 am and watched Luke 2. We opened all the presents, had mom's breakfast casserole. We only had a 1 hour sacrament meeting today. We went to the 2nd ward as Landon was singing with his group that he sang with before his mission.

We came home and cleaned up the house and finished dinner. We fed 19 people today. All of us, 4 missionaries, 2 ladies from the Spanish branch that are going through hard times and Lenny. Chelsea and Brian will head home tomorrow, and we are going to try to go to SLC on Tuesday for a Nielsen family party.

It was great seeing you and talking to you. Keep working hard and being exactly obedient in all things. We know you can do great things in this new area.

Have a super day, and we hope you had a great Christmas.

Love Dad

Christmas letter 2016

Dear Everyone,

We didn't send out Christmas Cards last year, we spent the postage on wedding invitations instead!  We had a lot happen in our family the last two years, so here's an update...

Chelsea and Brian became parents to a very cute baby boy.  David is 15 months old now.  If you follow Chelsea at all on social media you get the understanding that she loves being a full time mom.  David is an active toddler and keeps them both busy.  Brian works for the D.A's office there in Farmington, NM.

Amber and Kevin got married last April and then promptly took off on a road trip/honeymoon to Detroit Michigan where Kevin had a summer internship working for Ford Motor Company.  He will graduate from BYU-I this spring.  Amber finished her degree from BYU-I  in Marriage and Family Studies and in now attending Idaho State, enrolled in the masters program for counseling.

Erin married Landon Welch last January.  They currently are in Rexburg, ID where Landon is attending BYU-I. Erin graduated from Evans Hairstyling College in September and keeps herself busy cutting hair and growing her photography business.  They are expecting a baby girl in March--Grandchild #2!

Cody is serving his mission in the Philippines, Quezon City North Mission.  He has a little less than 6 mos. left, but we don't keep track of those things.   He has learned to speak Tagalog fluently and is really enjoying his mission--except for the fact that he is sweating all day long!

Summer is a freshman at Elko High School.  She played varsity soccer and is now on the JV basketball team.  She is a member of the Choraliers, a select singing group at the high school.  She is a quiet, sweet girl with a big smile.

Carly, now a 6th grader has really come out of her shell this last year.  Was she always this funny?  She loves art and doing crafty stuff.  She had a break-out season in PAL basketball this year leading her team to a 3rd place finish.

Finally, there's Adelaide.  What would our family be without her?  She is in 1st grade and has just recently become an amazing reader.  She loves technology and going to the library each week.

Scott and I went on a little adventure to Peru.  It was intended that we would go back with Erin, since she had served her mission there.  Things didn't work out for her to go, so we went without her and she got to stay with the younger girls and take care of them.  We got to check Machu Pichu off the bucket list. 

Have a wonderful Christmas and remember that Christ and his life is the reason for the season.

                                                                     Love, The Nielsen Family

Baby, it's Cold Outside!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

I can't believe Christmas is next week. Where in the world has the time gone.  4:30 pm our time will be good for the phone call on Sunday and Monday your time.

This was another good week. The Choralier's concert was on Monday, Summer's 1st Christmas concert. It was good and I love all the songs. I could listen to them for ever. Kate Shumway is a senior now and that was her last C-mas concert and Sister Shumway was pretty emotional afterwards.

Landon Howe is doing a lot better now. I guess he is standing up now and eating solid foods. And can walk 40 steps with the help from the nurse. So it sounds like he is steady improving which is good.

We were watching the girl on Carly's PAL bball team and on Monday, and her mom called and said they needed to stay another day, so we had her until Tuesday. She is a nice girl. Very quiet and did not eat a lot.

Summer had a JV game on Monday against Wells varsity. They lost, Summer shot 2 or 3 times and missed. She is very timid and needs to play with more confidence. She wants to get rid of the ball right after she catches it. Then she played again on Wednesday against Carlin and they won, but she is still not playing with any confidence. Again I think she was 0-2 or something. She only shoots a couple times a game, but half of her shots she should not take and she should shot more when she is open. She left at half time on the game Monday to go to the choraliers concert.

Carly had PAL games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. She is really improving. These were tournament games, so she started playing very intensely. They won on Wednesday. She had probably 6 points.  In Friday and Saturday's games, the best player on their team was gone to a AAU Tournament, so Carly had to step up big time. The girl that was gone was one of their taller girls, but Carly played the entire game and was all over the court, dribbling in and around girls. She had 11 points, but they lost to an Owyhee team who had a bunch of big tall girls. She was dead tired after the game. Carly's team played again on Sat. and won and took 3rd place. But she has improved a ton on her aggressiveness and assertiveness. We took her off of Bailey's team so she could be used more and that was a great decision.

The kids had their last day of school on Friday for the year. We had our adult white elephant party for the 3rd ward on Friday night. That is always fun. On Saturday we had our ward C-mas dinner. It was good, but nothing out of the ordinary. It has been getting down to single digits here at night, so not a lot of the older members in our ward venture out on those cold nights. 

Yesterday, I worked on the van. We had a front headlight out and a rear brake light that I replaced. I also replaced the window wipers on the van. The clutch on the trooper has not been working well since I got home from Georgia, so I had to drive the truck all week. I need to work on a bunch of issues with the cars, but it is bitter cold out there.

This morning I gathered up 5 of the young men in our ward and we took the sacrament to the manor. It was good. I saw Iris, the girl the YSA sisters have been teaching in our home there, and I talked to her. It was good to see her again. We need to have another discussion with her in our home while all the kids are home.

Church was good today. We only had about 90 members show up to our ward today. We were very scarce. 

We are excited to talk to you next week. All the kids should be here, so that will be great. We are excited to have all the kids here for Christmas. This is a very special time of year. We love you and are extremely happy you are serving a mission. Keep working hard. Only 6 months left to give it all you got and sprint to the finish line.

Have a super week!! We will be on skype next Sunday around 4:30 pm our time.

Love,

Dad

Our 28th Anniversary

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Monday, I had to teach my last accounting class for the semester, so that was a big relief. Wednesday, I had to drive to Winnemucca to put on a FAFSA night at Lowry high school again as they did not get the turn out they would have hoped for the first time we went. So I got home around 9:45 pm. I left around 3:30 pm. We were suppose to have some bad weather coming in, but the roads were good.

Thursday we were suppose to have freezing rain, and Carly had a PAL game in town. They won and Carly is playing well, she just can't make her free throws. She needs mom and I to work on that with her. Summer had practice late again, so we missed mutual. They were going to go caroling for YMYW, but with the weather, they ended up going to the fund raiser bball game, the band vs the cheerleaders.

Friday, Elko played Truckee. So we were able to watch Summer play on the JV team for the 1st time. She did well. She played good defense and was getting on the floor for the loose balls etc. She took 2 shots, and missed them both, but they looked good and were close. We need to teach her to drive to the basket and be more aggressive with the ball on offense. All the Elko teams won that we watched. The mercy rule for the running clock is 35 points this year and the boys hit that, but he still had 4 out of his 5 starters in the game up by 40 with 5 minutes to go and a running clock. It is all about padding their numbers for his kids.

Elko played Sparks on Saturday. Carly had a bball game at 9 am. So we went to half of that. Summer had practice as they sparks team did not have a JV girls team. Then I had to do the books and clock for 4 games from 10 am to after 5. So it was a long day. Elko won all the games on Saturday as well. The boys won by the mercy rule again. We got invited to Bruce Fischer's 50th surprise birthday party, but I had been gone all day, and Carly and Summer were baby sitting for the Hatches. So we decided to just stay home and relax. We watched the BYU bball team beat Colorado. It was cold and raining/snowing all day long on Saturday, so we were glad to just be home.

Today at church we had the Choraliers sing in the churches (Summer's 1st time) so that is always good. Afterwards, Romney Goulding reported to the 3rd ward about her mission. She looks the same and did a good job. She is working to save up money to go to BYUI in January.

We have Carly's coaches daughter Raygon staying with up today through tomorrow. Her coach is a member of the church, a single mom with 4 girls. I told her after the game on Thursday, if she ever needed us to watch the kids, we would love to help her and her family out. It was good timing as the mom is taking one of her daughters to Reno today for a Dr's appointment tomorrow. So she asked mom if we could watch Raygon who is carly's age at the game yesterday. I believe my volunteering could have been inspired and she needed us this weekend. Carly's mom is a good bball player who played bball for Montana State. We had the sister missionaries over for dinner today, and as soon as they left, the YSA sisters stopped in to see if I had heard any thing about the college students they are teaching in our home. I had not heard much from them, but will follow up with them this week. It is finals week, so I am hoping their schedule will slow down a bit.

The choraliers concert is tomorrow night, so we are exited about that. 

Keep working hard. We love you and are very happy you are serving a mission.

Your mom and I celebrated our 28th anniversary yesterday. We did not do any thing special as we counted our Peru trip as our anniversary celebration. 

Love,

DAD

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Elder Nielsen,

I can't believe we are in December already. Where is the time going? Romney gets home from her mission on Tuesday. Landon Howe is doing a little better. They let him come out of his induced coma and I guess he recognized his parents voices and gave them a thumbs up. They are keeping him in the coma so his brain can heel. But there has been good improvements this past week.

I spent the week in Atlanta Georgia. I left Monday morning and it was snowing pretty hard here in Elko. Our airplane was about 1/2 hour late in departing as we had to de-ice every thing. And it was pretty cold here. Winter has arrived. So we had only about 10 minutes in the SLC airport to catch our next flight. So we were running to get there. On the flight from SLC to Atlanta, I sat next to an elderly lady from Nicaragua. She did not speak any English, so it was great. I was able to talk to her for most of the flight. She is a member of the church and had been living with her son who lives in Utah. She was going back to Nicaragua. I had to help her order her snacks and drinks and help her with her luggage. I noticed that the guy sitting in the seat in front of me from the back and side looked a lot like Ty Detmer. But I did not do or say any thing until we were getting off the plane and when he stood up, he had a BYU shirt on. And then I asked him, "You wouldn't happen to be Ty Detmer would you?"  He said, "I sure am". I shook his hand and told him I was a big fan of his. I would have like to have sat next to him and we could have had a long conversation. He his BYU's offensive coordinator now. I asked him what he was going to do in Atlanta, and he told me "Recruiting". I should have told him, I have a son on a mission in the Philippines you should recruit, but I didn't. He was a very nice guy and down to earth. That was fun! I also was on the plane with about 15 missionaries (Elders and sisters) going to a mission in Georgia. So of course I had to greet all of them and tell them of the good times they have in front of them.

I had my Department of Ed training all week in Atlanta. Getting up at 3 am all week and going to class by 5:30 am Elko time was a little hard to get use to. I watched BYU play Utah State in Bball on Wed. on BYUTV. BYU won, but it was a very close game. 

On Thursday night, I took the Marta train or subway system to go to the Atlanta temple. From the train station it is .8 of a mile to the temple. I had to walk along the Mt Vernon Hwy to get there. I did a session for one of my ancestors that I had research, so that was nice. I did the washing and anointing the week before in Sacramento, temple. While I was in the celestial room, I watched a gentleman go up and greet a couple that was there. It was one of the most touching and moving encounters I have ever witnessed. This guy was so loving, tender and gentle with that couple. He was so sweet to the lady and gave the husband a huge hug. I could feel his love for them just by observing this interaction. It was almost as if I was watching the savior greet that couple in the celestial room. Later in the dressing room, I heard another guy come up to that gentleman and ask, "President, are you all ready for stake conference this weekend?" And he answered, are you ever ready for stake conference. Anyway, this guy that was greeting that couple was the stake president. I have pondered on what I witnessed in the temple that night, and have determined that that is exactly how the Savior would have greeted that couple and all of us for that matter. It was a very special experience and strengthened my testimony that these brethren, our leaders are called of God and act as his representatives to their congregations. 

I flew home on Friday, and then I went to the high school and did the books for 4 games on Friday and 4 games on Saturday. Elko beat Wooster on Friday, and Reed on Thursday. They blew those teams out, it was not very close. And Elko played Reno high Friday night and it was a great game. Very close. Reno was leading most of the 1st half and Elko came back and beat them the 2nd half. Eric Klekas had 28 points. He was big in the game. Since we lost Yopps, we do not really have a big guy. Kyron played well and had a couple awesome slam dunks. He is obviously the best athlete on the court, but does not make the best decisions. 

On Saturday, Elko played Damonte Ranch. We came out flat as the Reno game took a lot of emotion out of us. We beat Damonte, but the game was closer that it should have been. Damonte was up by 2 points at half, and we ended up winning by about 15 points.

We had a good day today. It was fast Sunday and I always love fast Sundays. We had the 1st presidency Christmas devotional tonight, we watched it on byuTV.

Summer had 3 or 4 games this week on the JV. She had 4 points in one game and started in 1 game. But I did not watch them, so I can't report much more than that. She has 2 games at home this weekend. She had her soccer banquet this week and lettered in Soccer.

Have a super week. We love you and pray for you daily. Issac Perkins is playing on Damonte Ranch's varsity team and his dad was there to watch him. His dad told us to tell you hello for him and his family. He could not believe you come home next summer. Keep working hard and make sure you remember and ponder on the significance of being the Lord's representative on your mission. Enjoy every second of that time.

Love

Dad

You have that special privilege right now as a missionary to be his special representative. Remember that and always act and say what you think the Savior would say to the people you are talking to and greeting.