Happy Chinese New Year!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

I am glad we do not do the ground hog deal in this area as we still have about 1-1.5 feet of snow on the ground. We could not find the ground hogs hole to see if it sees his shadow. It has been very cold again this week. This morning it was -3 at about 6:30 am.

This week was busy but not as crazy as last week. Classes started at the college. My Accounting class starts tomorrow night. On Tuesday, Elko played Spring Creek in SC. We got the kids out of school early and headed over the hill at 2:30 pm. Summer played at 3 pm. She did pretty good. She had 4 points and played quite a bit of time. Her coach likes her defense. She always hustles back and does not seem to get tired like the rest of the girls. Summer's team lost to SC by about 13 points. The starters gave SC about a 7-8 point lead at the beginning of the game and at the start of the 2nd half. The girls coming off the bench played them equally, but could not cut into their lead. All the other Elko teams won. The boy won by about 20 points, Eric had 28 points. Elko girls won too by about 13 points. They were kind of boring games. We got home around 10 pm.

Thursday, I went to Young Men's we did not have any teachers show up, so I watched the BYU girls bball team on BYUTV. I had to meet with a lady needing church assistance and set her up on a budget, and then I had to wait as the Bishop met with her so he would not be alone with one of the opposite sex. I did not get home until after 9 pm.

Summer left early Friday to travel to Truckee and Sparks over the weekend. Summer's team beat Truckee and Sparks did not have a JVs girl team. Both boys and girls varsity teams won both days. Cole had 5 3's on Saturdays game. They went a box and 1 on Eric, so someone else had to step up.

We were trying to take the van to the mechanic to see if they can fix it. We had to use the truck to bull the van out of the ice block it was stuck in, but then the serpentine belt came off and it was bitter cold, so the battery died. When we would put it in drive or reverse, it was making load noises and did not sound good. So I had brother Hiles come over and he said to charge the battery overnight and then put the belt back on and we could drive it to the mechanic's place. It was stuck in front of our driveway. But we had to put bricks in front of all the tires as it rolls frontwards and backwards when in park. I was worried it would roll down the street and take some thing out. 

We got up and did the paper route early on Sat. It was bitter cold. I went and got a serpentine belt tool and mom and I worked on it for 2 hours trying to get the belt on. We had to take off the front wheel to get to the belt, but every thing was frozen on the car. We finally got every thing in place except we needed to get the belt about 1 inch higher to get it in place as the belt was frozen and not very pliable. Brother Hiles showed up and in 5 minutes helped us get the it over the top. So we drove it to the shop. It needs a new CV boot on the front passenger side wheel. The shop will look at it and let us know what it will take to fix it.

The rest of the day on Sat. I worked on year end reports for tax clients and W-2s, W-3s etc.

Cecilia was suppose to go to church with us again today, but she texted me at the last minute and said she had some family things come up and could not make it. I had to give a talk on "Ordinances and Covenants" so I prepared for that all morning. Brother Madsen called late Thursday night and asked me to speak. I also had to sub a primary class today. So it was a busy morning.  Brother Smith talked with me, as the high councilman who was suppose to talk never showed up. So he was shooting from the hip. He shared the letter you wrote to in in December with us and said he really appreciated our ward family. He really appreciated your letter and you encouraging Cole to serve a mission. He always has enjoyed your friendship. Those were fun times home teaching the Smiths and other families we home taught. I was telling mom this evening, that I love going home teaching. I always end up feeling blessed and edified every time we go. It is a wonderful thing how the Lord blesses you for doing what he asks us to do.

Then we celebrated the Chinese new year and we all spent about 4-5 hours in the kitchen cooking all of mom's Chinese dishes. We had the 3rd ward sisters and the spanish Elders over for dinner. 

Mom and I went home teaching, and I went with Brother Simons to give Florence Lane a blessing. She had fallen and hurt herself the night before.

Well that is all for now. We were suppose to have missionary discussion today in our home with Cecilia, but it never materialized. There is always next week. I saw and talked with Landon Howe today at church, he seems to be doing very well. He still has to wear a helmet, but he recognized me and is walking and looking normal.

Keep working hard, we love you and are happy you are serving a mission. Be the example to all the other missionaries.

Have a great week.

Dad

snow, Snow AND MORE SNOW!

Hola Elder Nielsen,

I had an extremely busy and stressful week. Classes start tomorrow at the college and all the students want their money, but I have to deal with all the problem students and students that require professional judgement etc. I did not make it home one day for lunch this past week and worked late almost every night until 7 to 8 pm. I also found out that my accounting 202 class is going to happen this semester and I was hoping and planning on not having enough students for the class to go. But I have 11 students and they told me Thursday, it was a go. So I have been scrambling around trying to get every thing ready for that class. I have not taught Acc 202 from this new book we are using so I had to basically start from scratch.

Monday was Martin Luther King day and we all had the day off. I worked around the house trying to get things ready for my busy tax season. I have a bunch of things I need to get done by the end of the month. W-2s, W-3's, year end reporting, etc. In past years I had until the end of February to get all that information to the IRS, but this year they moved the due date up to the end of January. So this next week is going to be a killer for me as well.

We also have continued to receive a bunch more snow. On Friday we got another 8 inches. It has been crazy this year with the snow. And our vehicles are not working too well. The van is parked and can't be driven until we get it fixed. It does not drive well and it rolls backwards in park if it is on any kind of incline. The Trooper, that thing is a disaster in snow. Summer and I were coming home from the basketball game late Friday night and on that hill by the Presbyterian church to our house, there was about six inches of snow on the road and I was in 1st gear, with no gas and not turning the steering wheel and started down the hill and I was doing 360's, I'm not sure what was going on, but it was a good thing no other cars were coming up the hill at that time or there were no cars parked on the side of the road or we would have taken them all out. We were not going fast, but had absolutely no control over where we were going. I think the only wheel that spins on that thing is the back passenger side wheel and it causes me to do 360's to the left. That is the 2nd time this winter it has done that. Then mom has been driving the Suburban these past few weeks and on Saturday, when we were coming home from the bball game, I went to back it up and it sounded funny and I had a hard time backing up and then the "Service 4-wheel drive" light came on. So I am not sure if the 4 wheel drive is working or not. So we need to park it until we get it looked at. So we are left to the truck and bug. The truck has been leaking oil and with it so bitter cold, I have not been using it. So we will have to see if it even starts. Any way we will be glad when all this snow and winter ends. We have about 4-5 feet of snow around out drive way and sidewalks.

We are suppose to get another 8 inches tonight and snow until Tuesday and then it turns bitter cold again, so this snow will never melt.

Elko played Dayton on Friday and South Tahoe on Saturday. Elko swept all the games. Summer did ok, played good defense, but still over thinks every thing instead of just playing. I think that comes with experience though, so she should get there. She has the ability, she needs to just develop her confidence and dribbling ability.  South Tahoe boys came into this weekend undefeated and lost to spring creek in OT and Elko beat them by about 15-20. I guess in Spring Creek a few of the best players fouled out and that is how SC won. But is was a very close game in Elko until about mid way through the  3rd quarter. Elko opened it up. Eric had about 33 points. South Tahoe has this kid who recently moved in who is a Junior and he is 6'5" 235 lbs and is being recruited to play football for Nebraska, Michigan and Duke. But he wants to play basketball. He has good hops and very athletic. He had about 30 points himself. He had a couple huge dunks and was knocking down 3 pointers etc. Kyrin Allen was guarding him and did a good job, but the other kid was a lot bigger. So. Tahoe has a good team this year and we will be very lucky if we beat them next time at their place as I remember you always saying the refs were not too good when you played up there. If every thing stays the same and they beat us there, they would win the league. We play Spring Creek this Tuesday. We hope to find a vehicle that will make it over the hill.

We had good meetings today. Cecilia was out of town in Sparks today, but said she wants to come to church with us again next Sunday. So we are excited about that. 

Have a great week. I will be happy when I make it through this month. I have a lot to do before the end of the month. Keep working hard, we love you and are happy you are serving the Lord as a Missionary. It sounds like your district is doing well. How many lessons did you and your comp teach last week.

I wish we could send you some of this cold and snow. You would love it since you are sweating all the time.

It looks like Atlanta will be in the super bowl playing the winner of the steelers an the Patriots.

Have a super week.

Love

Dad

Hello everyone,

I just wanted to share another cool missionary experience I had this morning. So there is this lady (Amy) that has worked with me in the financial aid office for over 11 years. She just came up to me and asked me which church I attended. I followed her question with "which church or which building?" as I thought it was obvious to everyone which church I belong to. She said "which building?" So I told her I attend church in the building over by Home Depot. She was not aware of that building.

She then followed up that she and her husband have been talking a lot about it, and they wanted to go attend one of the Mormon churches as we are "all so happy." She said, there has to be something to that religion. Her husband work with President Lewis at Barrick and has for years and she has worked with me for years and they want to find out why we are all so happy all the time. She lives in Ryndon, so she would be in the East stake, Meadow Valley ward, but I told her to let me know when they want to attend and we would attend with them. I also said, I am sure there are missionaries who would love to come to their house and teach them about what we believe as well. She said her husband works this next weekend, so it would probably be the following Sunday.

Pretty neat experience! I hesitate to make religious invitations to those I work with as I do not want to create a " hostile environment", but when they bring it up, that is all the better.

Just wanted to share with everyone while it was fresh in my mind. You never know who is watching and what kind of influence you have on the others around you.

Have a super week. We love you all.

Dad

Missionary Mom report today

Dear Elder Nielsen,

We had another great week, capped off with a missionary discussion in our home with a student I met on Tuesday. I had a student visit me for the first time in my office on Tuesday. We were talking about her financial aid, etc. She was originally from Mexico, so I started talking to her in Spanish and she asked me where I learned my Spanish. (Always a great lead-in for a gospel discussion) I told her I had served a mission for my church in Argentina 33 years ago. Then I felt prompted to follow up with that comment and I asked her if she had every seen those guys with white shirts and ties and name badges around town. She then told me that she had seen them and was familiar with them. She was from Sacramento, California and had moved to Elko 4 years ago. In high school, her best friend was LDS and she would attend church with her quite often, but that was over 6 years ago. I guess she had met the missionaries here in Elko a couple of years ago, but she was never home when they stopped by her place and they gave up on her. I asked her what religion she was and she was raised Catholic. I asked her if she was interested in religion and she said she could never give religion or any thing else for that matter 100%. She said she would always make excuses for every thing.  So I asked her if she would like to come to church with us this Sunday and she said "YES".

She said her friend from Sacramento had just called her 2 days earlier and she had wanted to go on a mission, but could not due to her depression. She was hoping to be able to go this year. But the student, named Cecilia Villasenor, said to me that she had been thinking that she should probably go back to church ever since she talked to her friend. So, do you think it is any coincidence that a student who is thinking about going to church shows up in my office???  The Lord knows us all and his hand is in every thing we do.  Any way, I asked her if she wanted to meet us at church or come to our house and go with us to church. She said she would feel more comfortable coming to our house and going in with someone she knew. So I told her to be at our house at 8:45 am and we could go together. Well I did not hear any thing from her the rest of the week and was wondering if she would show up. At 8:45 am exactly our door bell rang and it was her. She went to church with us and it was great. Then after church she came over to our house for dinner. She loved that and the YSA sisters came over at 4 pm today and taught her a very powerful lesson on the restoration. IT WAS AWESOME. At the end they invited her to pray and it was that 1st time prayer, very heart felt, sincere and simply. IT was great. I love those 1st time prayers and she did awesome.  The missionaries asked her how she felt and she said she had felt a lot of love all that day and it was hard to explain. She said it was neat how a family she had never met before took her into our home and life and loved her.  We are sure that love is the love of our Father in Heaven and the  spirit. But she said she felt it all day today with us.

We love having these missionaries experiences. The sisters taught very well and the spirit was very strong. She said she would read the B.O.M. and when she knew it was true she would be baptized. A true miracle! Heavenly Father knows his children and knows when they are ready to hear and accept his message. Just like you letter last week, there are no "wrong turns". I love missionary work and love the spirit you feel as you share the gospel of Jesus Christ with his children. I'm ready to go back out and serve another mission with mom.

Elko played Spring Creek and beat them badly. There program has been struggling as of late. Summer played well in her game. She came in at about the 4 minute mark in the 1st quarter and played the rest of the first half. We still need to work on her ball handling skills so she gets more comfortable and confident with the ball.

On Wednesday, I had to drive to Winnemucca. I waited for the storm that mom told you about to blow over and the roads were ok for the most part. They were slushy and a van rolled over a couple of times right before I got there, outside of Winnemucca. I passed all the police and ambulances going the opposite way.  Then I had to go to battle mountain and meet with students there and do a financial aid night at B.M. high school. When I was coming home Thursday night the highway was horrible over emigrant pass. The road was covered in snow, so I could not see where the lanes were. The wind was blowing and snowing so you could not see any thing. I was going about 30 mph and was very relieved to get home safely. On Friday at work, I started sneezing and was sneezing all day long. I caught a bad cold and on Saturday, I was freezing and sneezing all day long. I took lots of cold medication and felt a lot better today to go to church with Cecilia.

I forgot to tell you earlier, but I won twice the Elko Daily Free press pigskin pickers. I had won a couple of weeks ago and they called me last week and told me I had won the College bowl games pickers. So mom and I now have 4 tickets to the red lion buffet. I wish I would have been more consistent in my playing as I missed about 5 weeks. The overall winner won $250. I would have been right there had I not missed any weeks.

We love you and are happy you are serving the Lord as a missionary. I am kind of envious that you get to do that full time. What a wonder period and time in your life to invite people to come unto Christ and live his gospel. Keep working hard, You only have 5 months left. It will be gone before you know it. Enjoy every minute you have being a missionary. Amber will tell you that as she did not want to be released as a missionary.

Have a super week.

Love,

DAD

Snowy and Cold!

Elder Nielsen,

This past week has been very cold. -16 some days and with the wind it feels like -30. I don't know what the highs were, but they were very low. One place in Utah was -54. I feel so badly for the homeless in temperatures like these. We go out to do the paper route and we are only out there for an hour, but they have no way to escape the cold.

On Monday we all had it off as it was the day we celebrated the new year. There were 3 or 4 football games on. We just worked around the house here.

Tuesday, we were suppose to play Lowry here, but they did not come due to the weather. They postponed those games until Thursday. I was suppose to go to Pahrump on Wednesday, but with all the weather reports and winter warnings, I decided to stay home, besides I wanted to watch the bball games against Lowry. We were without power for a couple hours on Wed. and for about 3 hours on Thursday. I am not sure what happened, but it is hard to work without power. We did end up playing Lowry on Thursday. Summer did a lot better in her game. She was playing with more confidence and went 1-3 from the field. She hustles well and plays good defense. Elko JV girls lost by about 20. The Lowry team, made free throws and were a good team. Elko's girl varsity team lost to Lowry by about 20 as well. Elko boys varsity killed Lowry by 30+ points. They were almost in the mercy rule by the 2nd quarter.

On Friday, the Elko teams traveled to Fallon and on Sat. to Fernley. The boys beat Fallon Badly. I believe Eric had 28 against Lowry and 29 against Fallon. But the boys lost to Fernley on Sat 42-39. We were up by 4 points with 2 minutes to go and were in our 16 stall game, and Alex Klekas turned the ball over twice. Fernley tied it up, and got the ball back with 16 seconds and Alex fouled a guy shooting a 3-pointer and he made all 3 free throws. That is the 1st time Fernley has ever beaten Elko in bball. And that is the first league game Elko has lost in 42 games. The last time was when Lowry beat us in Winnemucca right after Amber got home off her mission. The Elko girls lost to Fallon and beat Fernley. Summer's team lost both games and she did not have any points. We need to work on her playing more confidently.

Saturday, it was suppose to be snowing and then we were suppose to get freezing rain. It snow a little, but it was still very cold, -2. We worked on house projects and did not got any where on Sat, except for mom went to Camron Steflic's wife's bridal shower in the afternoon.

Today was our fast and testimony meeting, and I had to teach the sunbeams. I had 2 little girls and that was like a circus. I had 1 girl escaping and I was trying to chase 1 and not let the other one out. They were busy girls and would not sit still for a second. I think nursery is easier as they have toys to occupy them. I had nothing to keep their attention and a lesson was not happening. They were cute though. I finally had to try my magic tricks to keep them from running out the door and keep them in the room.

Tonight we go to Adelaide's 8 is great, activity at the stake center. I can't believe she will be baptized this year. We saw Landon Howe in church today. He is walking and seems to be doing better, but has to wear a helmet on his head and they will need to staple his skull back together when all the swelling goes down.

I was reading an church news from a month ago and reading a testimony from Elder Cook. And in that testimony, he said, "I know the Savior's voice. I know the Savior's face." I have been pondering that a lot this past week, and I know that they in reality know the Savior better than we could imagine. They are his special witnesses to the world. You are his representative and witness to the people in the Philippines. Marc Suyematsu always asks me about you and how you are doing. He always says that he really like you a lot that you were a good kid. Tim Meo, Baum, Wes warrick, and colt jorgensen were all at the bball game on Thursday.

We hope you have a great week. We love you and are happy you are serving the Lord as his missionary. Keep working hard.

Love,

Dad

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2017!!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

We hope you had a wonderful New Year!! We hope you are enjoying your new area with your new companion. We expect great things from you in this new area. Be exactly obedient and seek the Lord's help and we know you and your companion can do it.

We had another wonderful week with all the kids home. Chelsea and Brian left Monday afternoon to head back to New Mexico. We had planned on going to the Star with everyone for lunch that day, but the Star was closed. So they got on the road without any lunch. I felt badly about that.

On Monday or Tuesday, Kevin helped me fix the Suburban's power outlets in the front. I had two computers plugged into an adapter and it must have burned them out. So we got them replaced and they work great now. I still have to work on the van's brakes and perhaps the shocks or struts. There always seems to be something to fix on these old vehicles.

I worked on your room and got the insulation partially up in your room. I thought I could at least finish the ceilings as they will not be damaged through water in the basement.

Kevin and Amber left on Wednesday. Erin and Landon left today to head back. We have been extremely cold this past week. I believe it was -12 on Monday and -6 on Tuesday. We were suppose to go to Utah for a family party on Tuesday, but it was soooo cold, that I do not like to travel. If we every broke down, we would freeze to death. Erin did not want to travel, so we decided to stay at home and enjoy time with the kids while they were still here. I went back to work on Wednesday and worked through Friday.

We did not do too much, but we enjoyed each others company. On Friday night our family went to the Holiday Inn Express here in town to stay. The Simon's had a free nights stay at the Holiday Inn and the Best Western that expired at the end of the year, and they gave them to us to use for watching their dog. I loved the decor at the Holiday Inn, it has an outdoor rustic decor with moose horn chandeliers, etc. We did not get there until about 9 pm, Uncle Ken was coming through and we wanted to wait to see if he would use it. But he wanted to keep on going. We basically just slept there. Mom and I got up at 6 and came home to do the paper route and then we went back to pick up the kids and eat breakfast. They had a good continental breakfast.

On Saturday, we went and spent the night at the best western. They had a pool and the kids wanted to swim. We got there about 5:30 pm. We went swimming, but there were 3 young guys in the Jacuzzi who had each consumed at least 3 bottles of beer each. So the girls did not feel too comfortable. We went swimming but the water was cool. If you were swimming you would be warm, but I wanted to sit in the Jacuzzi and watch the bowl game. We only spent about 45 minutes in the pool, but Addie did not want to leave. She loved it there and we had to drag her out.

Clemson beat Ohio State and Alabama beat Washington, so those two teams will be playing for the National Championship. Summer had practice each day this week for 2-3 hours. They will play Lowry on Tuesday in Elko, so we are excited for that.

We did not do any thing for the New Years eve party. We just stayed in our room and watched TV and fell asleep by 9:30 pm. HAPPY NEW YEAR any way right?

We ate at the continental breakfast at the hotel and showered there. Then we came home and got ready for church. Our meetings start at 9 am now. So we really like that. We had good meetings and came home and ate left overs from all the meals mom had made during the week. It was quick and easy.

Lavell Edwards the retired BYU football coach died this past week at 86 years old. He was a great coach and even a greater person. He was also the one who invented the passing game as a way the team could win, not running the ball like all the other schools did.

We look forward to getting our life back to normal and getting back on schedule.  Work as hard as you can and give the Lord every thing you have. Enjoy these next few months. We love you and are happy you are serving as a missionary. Keep up the wonderful work you are doing.

2017 will be a great year for all of us.

Love,

Dad