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

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Adelaide went to its great to be eight. (she just typed that herself)  She said the closing prayer for it and is looking forward to getting baptized.

Today in church, Susie Harris and I reported on our missionaries.  I shared a few stories about your experiences-- typhoons, your inspired calling to AP, surprise birthday parties and "wrong turns".  It's not a hard subject.  I had a good time going back over your old emails and reading stuff to share.  I laughed when I came across the "singing in the rain" pics.  It went well.  The other thing that happened today is that I got released.  The whole RS presidency did.  We had been in there together for 3 plus years.  It was time.  They also reorganized the primary.  Angela Mills was called as the new RS president and Elise Frandsen is now the new primary pres.  I haven't got a new calling yet, so I'll keep you informed.

Another exciting thing that happened this week is that it was announced that the Pres. Shumway and Sis. Shumway were called to be a mission president and companion.  They leave in June for Guatemala.  He will step down from his job at General Moly and they will serve for 3 years. Kate will graduate and go to college somewhere.  They didn't waste anytime calling them; just as soon as they were available--Bam! here's your call!  That doesn't really come as a surprise.  We all new that was destined for them.

We had basketball games with Spring Creek this past week.  Summer's JV team lost by 9.  She had two sweet, swishing jumpers for 4 points.  She plays really good defense too.  Both boys and girls varsity won quite easily.  The SC girls aren't any better than last year.  The boys traveled to LV this past weekend to play in some tourney against the teams from down there.  They did really well.  They played Coral Academy on fri. and beat them by 11 points.  That team usually averages 90 points a game, and they were held to 56 points.  I guess (according to Jer-Bear) that the Southern teams aren't accustomed to Elko's stiffling defense.  The next night they played Cheyenne HS, and they had beaten Desert Pines earlier this season, so that was anticipated to be a big game.  It wasn't all that dramatic, the boys played well and beat Cheyenne by 24.  With Clark moving up to  the 4A, that might open up some possibilities for us.

We are still having cold weather and more snow than we have had in many years.  There is a lot of snow in the mountains.  Some of the ski resorts in Tahoe have so much that it has actually made it difficult for them to run the lifts.  Some reports are 20 ft. of snow in some places!  We had a bad storm here on Wed. morning when I was doing the paper route.  It was windy and snowing (almost white-out conditions) The power was knocked out and there was lightning.  I have never seen it lightning during a snowstorm-- you can't see the bolts or hear the thunder at all; the whole sky just lights up for a few seconds like it's day time. Weird. All the houses were dark and the street lights were out.  It was kind of wild; I felt like I was out in the wilderness, fighting for survival.  At least I had trusty, loyal Chica with me.  Sorry, to say there were a few soggy papers delivered that morning-- it was unavoidable.

Dad's done it again.  He met with a student this week and felt impressed to invite her to church and to listen to the missionaries.  She accepted and she went with us today, stayed for dinner, and then the YSA sisters taught a powerful Restoration lesson.  She is very sweet and is no doubt prepared to be taught the gospel.  We are trying to be a "Preach My Gospel" family.  Have a wonderful week, love you lots, Mom

PS  I liked the pics of the zoo and those beautiful birds.(Parrots, Macaws, and Love Birds)  We saw those on our trip to the jungle when we were in Peru.  It made me a little nervous to see them perched on all those white shirts though!