Basketball ups and Downs

Hello Elder Nielsen,

We are excited to hear how Elder Bednar's visit to your mission went. We had a good week. Monday was President's day so we all had the day off. I worked on taxes most of the day. Met with 2 clients and tried to finish up other tax returns. There still never seems to be enough time in the day. We went to the church Monday night for our family home evening activity and worked with Summer and Carly on their dribbling and shooting for basketball.

I don't remember much about Tuesday, Wednesday

I am not sure how that earlier message got sent, but here is the continuation. Thursday, we had Mutual and most of the young men and women were gone to Las Vegas for the state tourney. The band and cheerleaders and players were all gone. So that left the Beehives and deacons and a few others. 

We had thought about driving down to Vegas to watch elko play, but it is a long way and the cost involved without any kids down there, we decided not to go. It was a good thing we didn't as Elko laid another egg. We played Cheyenne from Vegas who we beat earlier in the year by 20 points. And we came out flat. We were down 10-2 at one point. We battled back and played evenly with them in the 2nd and third quarters and then lost it in the 4th. We were only down by 3 or 4 points with a couple minutes remaining and missed some 3's. I guess at the start of the game we missed some close layups and that hurt us. Eric had 17 points, 5 3's and we lost by 6 points. They made a layup at the buzzer, so it was closer than that as we had to foul them. Everyone said all the seniors were laying on the floor crying. That bothers me as you got to lay it all on the floor during the game, not after the game.

So the season is over. I don't expect them to ever win a state championship as long is Klekas is the coach. It is too much about his own kids and not the team.

On Saturday I worked on taxes in the morning. We went to a baptism in the spanish branch. An eight year old Sabastian Ramirez who was born into the branch when I was branch President. Then we went to the Simons house for a birthday party and pizza. BYU was playing Gonzaga, who is the number 1 team in the nation and were 29-0 in Spokane, Washington. It was senior night for Gonzaga. Mom and I planned on watching the game on BYUTV at 10 pm at night on the rebroadcast. We turned it on at the Simons and watch the first 5 minutes live and BYU was down 18-2. I thought this is getting ugly in a hurry. So we came home and I was not too thrilled to watch BYU get beat badly, but we were watching the SLC news and they news said BYU was coming back. So we stayed up and watched it and it was great. BYU ended up winning by 8 points. It was a lot closer than that as they were fouling and BYU made 4 free throw in a row. But that was a great game. Mica had 29 points and Haws made about 4 big time 3's in a row to get us back into the game from way down town. It was a fun game.

Today we had our ward conference and it was good. Most of the stake leaders were there instructing us. We had BYC after our meetings. But it was a good day. None of the people I am working with in the missionary work were able to make it to church. But I keep inviting them every week. Mom and I tried to go out home teaching, but all of our families were either sick, or not at home.

I guess Vivian Neff got home from her mission this past week. Summer saw her, but the rest of us have not seen her yet.

We hope you have a great week. Keep working hard. We love you.  I was listening to some conference talks this week and studying D&C 138 and realized that the Savior's mission or missionary experience was only 3 years only a year longer than your missionary time. You have 2 years to try and do you your very best and to accomplish everything the Lord wanted you to accomplish in the Philippines. So do your very best and don't leave any rocks un-turned. Find all those inactives and investigators that you were sent there to find.

Have a super week.

DAD

Welcome to the World Baby Emma!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

 This past week was a very busy one. With mom up in Rexburg helping Erin, I was here in Elko taking care of the kids. On Monday, I had my class and did not get home until after 10 pm. Then it takes me a while to wind down and I did not get to bed until after 11 pm. Erin had baby Emma Jean on Monday around 8:15 pm Elko time, but I was in class and did not find out about it until after my class.

Tuesday I got up at 4:15 am to do the paper route before I went to bball, but the papers were not here yet. So I tried to go back and sleep for a while, but I was not able to sleep. The papers finally got here about 4:45 am but it takes me over an hour to do it, so I was not able to go to bball that morning. I have to take Summer to seminary by 6:15 am and then shower and pick up the Filipino kids and take them and addie and drop them off at northside, by 8 and then I would take Carly and Danielle and drop them off at flagview around 8:15 am. It interrupted my morning trading. Then I would not take my lunch until about 3 pm so I would go pick up addie, then Summer at the high school then Carly and Danielle at 3:20 pm. My entire day was interrupted with chasing kids to and from School. On Wednesday, they have early out, but they get out at different times by about 1.5 hours. So that afternoon was shot as well.

The regional tournaments were held this past weekend. Elko was the host of the 1A schools, so I had to do the clock for 2 and a half games at Adobe middle school. Eureka and Wells were playing. Clancy Talbot and his dad were there watching Makayla. I talked with them a little, but not much. Then we had young mens and young women, so I had to come home and pick up the 3 younger girls and take them to the church. All of the young men except for the 2 deacons were gone to winnemucca for the girls varsity game. Elko girls played South Tahoe on Thursday and won. But then Elko girls played Winnemucca on Friday and got beat 55-40. Lowry was hitting 3's all night and made a lot of them. Lowry had 6 3's in the first half. So the girls are done. The boys played Fallon on Friday night (they had a bye the 1st round) and won by about 18-20 points. Fallon had upset Spring Creek boys on Thursday night. 

On Saturday, Elko boys beat Fernley by about 18-20 points again, and Fernley had upset So. Tahoe the #2 seed on Friday. So both Elko and Fernley will go to state in Las Vegas next week. Eric had about 23-28 points in each game. The Fallon girls beat Lowry in the regional championship game 50-15 or something crazy like that. The Fallon girls are awesome. Elko boys plays Cheyanne, a team they beat by 20 points in Vegas in January, but Cheyanne had beaten Desert Pines twice during the year, but Desert Pines beat them by 30 points in the So. regional final. So we will see what happens next week.

I had to do the books for the 1A regional finals game for the girls and boys on Saturday. They were fun games. The owyhee girls and boys were both in the finals, and the Elko gym was packed. I think all of Owyhee was there at the games. Mom got home on Sat. around 7:30 pm. It was suppose to rain again here for the next 5 days so we are under flood watch again.

Today at church, after sacrament meeting, they asked all the men and young men to meet in a room. And they asked us all to go home and change our clothes and go help a company Rincon with all the flood damage on the South side of town by southside school. So I came home and went over there and spent 5 hours hauling out clothing, and everything in the basement of 3 different houses and throwing everything in big dumpsters to take to the dump. Then we had to tear down all the dry wall and insulation to the studs as every thing was wet and mildew was setting in. Some of those home flooded clear up to the top stair all the way to the ceiling in the basement so we had to tear out all the sheet rock including the ceiling. It was pretty devastating all the water they got down there. In many places the sewage had backed up so every thing was contaminated. We had to wear gloves, masks, googles and boots to work down there. The stake president asked us to all go down and every ward in Elko was down there helping. My crew cleaned out 3 homes, but there are sill over 100 homes that have damage. And 90% of the volunteers were LDS. One little Mexican lady was hauling sand bags away from her house, so obviously I wanted to go over there and help and talk to her. So Dwaine Hiles and Randy Jenkins and I were over there helping her with her sand bags, but I was talking to her the entire time in spanish. After we had finished helping her, about 1/2 hour later, she came over to me at the next house where were working and brought 2 big bags of tomales she had made. She was a very sweet lady. I told mom, I would like to go back later this week with our family and take her some cookies or something and help her with the other sand bags around her house. We left them there as I told her it was suppose to rain more this week.  It could be a great missionary experience. And those bags of sand are heavy.

It felt like all I did was chasing kids to and from activities all week. 

We love you and hope you have a great week. Keep working hard and being the best missionary you possibly can be. Rely on the Lord and his spirit and then go work as hard as you can.

Love,

Dad

Elko County is Flooding

Dear Elder Nielsen,

Another week is in the books. They never seem to slow down. Monday was a normal day. Tuesday, we left work and school at noon and drove to Winnemucca to watch the teams play. Summer's team lost and she did ok. She had about 3-4 turnovers on passes, etc. No points. But the entire team has about 50 turnovers a games. Some how we need to teach them to settle down and see things through. Any team that presses them, they don't do so well. The Girls varsity lost by around 18 and the boys team won by about 30 points. Lowry has only won about 4 games this year. They did pretty good shutting down Eric. He did not have any 3-pointers the entire game. But he was in there until the last couple minutes casting up 3's but to no avail. Alex had a really good game. Kyron Allen has checked out. He does not do any thing. Has like 6 points, and only a few rebounds. Yopps came back this weekend after an torn ACL in football. He played in Dayton and fouled out within 2.5 minutes.

Summer's team and both varsity teams won both games this weekend against Dayton on Friday and So. Tahoe on Sat. I was predicting that the boys would get beat in So. Tahoe with the referees, but Elko ended up winning by 4 points. It was close though. I think there will be very close games this week in Lowry for the regionals. A few breaks here or there can be the difference in the game.

As mom said, we are getting flooded all over Elko county. It is amazing. I have never seen any thing like this. But the highway from Oasis to Montello has been completely washed out in 3 places. Asphalt and all are gone. One place shows about 10 to 15 yards of the road gone and a 10 foot deep hole. It is crazy. I don't know where all the water is coming from, but it rained real hard here for about 1.5 days and with the temperature in the 50's, all the snow in town is about gone and the mountains are losing their snow pack quickly. It is that way all over in Idaho and Utah as well. That little rest area on the left on the way to Jack Pot just outside of town is completely under water like a lake.

You know how those mountain dirt roads get. I am sure half of the dirt roads around the county are not passable. People who have lived here for 40 years have never seen any thing like this.

On Saturday, Mom and I did the entire paper route as I am going to be doing it this week. Mom left for Utah this afternoon on her way to Rexburg tomorrow. I worked on taxes most of the day on Saturday, then we got a robo call telling us that they needed help on the south side evacuating people and getting them to shelters. we went down there, but I did not drive in the streets that were rivers of water, and I guess we missed them. They were all down in the streets that looked like rivers helping people sand bag their homes.

We went to a family history thing at the convention center Sat. afternoon. It was good, we really did not do much. I talked to Logan Patten's parents and he is in France on his mission and they are really having a hard time with all the Muslims. I guess the Muslims are beating up all the missionaries as they don't like Christians from america. And the missionaries go around with white shirts and ties with Jesus Christ on their name badges. I guess the first few months on his mission he was just terrified.

There was also this couple there with their both wanting to know if we wanted a free book and some other things. The wife was talking very quietly and I had this ugly feeling come over me. They asked me if I wanted a book, and at first I thought no, but then after that ugly feeling, I said yes and I will throw it away. The one book he gave me was how to study the scriptures. I glanced through it and one chapter said, we should listen to the scriptures and presidents of the church, but not to the apostles or other general authorities. Now I know why I got the ugly feeling, but it really bothered me that they were there with their both at an LDS sponsored family history event. Opposition in all things right. I am glad I felt the feeling and trashed his literature, but how many other members might not understand that this guy is a fruit case.

Another interesting fact. Last night I was talking to my sister Sharon, and she was asking how you were doing. I was explaining to her that you had been transferred out of the office and sent to an area which was struggling and to a companion that was struggling etc. I said, in fact he is from So. Jordan. She said, really, what is his name? I said Elder Petersen, and she said, David Petersen? I said I don't know his first name. She said, does he play the piano well. I said I don't have a clue, but I have some pictures that you have sent. So I sent her the pictures and sure enough it was Elder Petersen from Sharon and Brian Dunn's ward in So. Jordan. In fact, Brian is their home teacher. She told us all the story about his parents and family etc. Brian had heard that he had been struggling on his mission as well. But hopefully Elder Nielsen has turned that all around. Sharon was going to talk to his mom today in church and tell her he is serving with her nephew. I don't think that that is by coincidence. The Lord is looking after Elder Petersen and this is one of the ways for him to bless his life.  Interesting, no??

I had another missionary experience this week. I had a student come in my office that I have helped various times over the past year and a half. Come to find out, she is Cecilia's (the girl that went to church with us and had the missionary lesson in our home a few weeks ago) sister in law. She is married to Cecilia's brother. So I invited her to come to church with us and she said she goes to church 1 or 2 a year and prays when she needs something. I explained to her that Heavenly Father in not going to be quick to answer her prayers if she only goes to him in times of need. We finished our business and at the end I felt impressed to tell her that she needed to go to church for her 6 year old son. I told her that he is being raised without any belief in God as he hardly ever has attended church and that he would not even know how to pray to God if he needed help. I also told her that the lady in the office across the hall was not active in our church and then when her son was 15 or 16 she came to me and wanted to know how to get her son active in the church. I told her when your child is 15 or 16, his mind is made up and most teenagers don't want any thing to do with religion. Now that son is 24 or 25 and still has not religion in his life. I told the lady that now is the time you need to be going to church, not only for you, but more importantly for your son. She stopped and said you are right. I told her to ponder on that for a few days and come back and see me and perhaps they could go to church with us. So we will see, what impact that statement had on that mother.

Today we had a really good sacrament meeting. We had Ivy Miller as the youth speaker who did wonderful and a couple from Ghana in our ward talk. They all did great. We had the couple from Ghana over to our home for dinner this afternoon. They are a sweet couple.

Mom and I both got new callings today. I was called as President of the Young Men for the Elko 3rd ward and Mom was called as nursery leader.  I told her I was jealous of her calling, so I spent the 1st hour with her in the nursery. I love the nursery. After church, I was talking to one of the nursery girls names Ruby Wheeler and asked her if she wanted to come over to our house with my 3 daughters. I said, you would love it at my house. Any way, Sister Wheeler told me I must have been inspired to say that as she and her husband teach the missionary prep class and the couple who normally watches their 2 kids has invited the Spanish branch over to their house every Sunday for games. So I told her we would love to watch their kids for them. Their little boy James who was born prematurely and almost did not make it about 15 months ago, loved me and he cried when they tried to take him home this evening. That is the first time I have ever held him, but we developed a little bond in that 1.5 hours that we watched them.

Well we will see how this week goes without mom in the home. I don't know how I am going to be able to do everything, running the kids around here and there, teaching my class tomorrow night, working and doing the paper route every morning. 

All the teachers are gone on a band trip so I got Ryle Madsen to take the sacrament to the shut-ins. We went to Sister Ballard's house and she was asking how you were doing. She is amazing. She will be 94 in a few months and still has a very sharp mind. I love visiting those elderly people. 

Have a super week. Keep working hard, and be a great example to Elder Petersen. I am sure your President was inspired on that calling, and there is not a better missionary in field to get him going and enjoying every moment of his mission. I love this gospel and I love sharing it with everyone I meet. The lady from my office who is suppose to come to church with us today, lives in Ryndon and had not been able to make it to work these past few days. So we will have to try again another Sunday.

We love you and are very pleased that you are serving the Lord as his special witness to the people in the Philippines.

Love,

Dad

We're finally starting to thaw out

Dear Elder Nielsen,

The ground hog saw his shadow so I guess we will be having 6 more weeks of winter.  This past week was a very quick week. Monday I had my class, so that is always a long day. Tuesday I had to go to Jackpot and Wells high schools to talk to students and parents about the FAFSA. I got home around 8:30 pm. I finished up all the year end taxes that were due, so that was a big relief.

Wednesday was a normal day. Thursday, we had YM and YW combined activity. We had a few Mexican dancers come in and dance for us and share their talents. BYU played Gonzaga in Provo that night. Gonzaga is the number 1 team in the nation and the only unbeaten team left. It was on ESPN, but rebroadcast on BYUTV at 11 pm our time. So mom and I stayed up and watched that game. It was a good game. Gonzaga is the real deal. They were up by as much as 19 points and BYU cut the lead to 6 with about 3 minutes to go and had some chances but had a few turn overs and ended up losing by 10 points. Nick Emery was sick with the flu that day and only played limited minutes. He is their 2nd leading scorer and it would have helped tremendously having him out on the court. TJ Haws had 29 points and had an excellent game. But we went to bed at 1:30 am and got up at 4:30 am as it was super Friday. I was dead tired all day on Friday.

Friday Elko played Fallon in Elko. We went to all their games. Summer did not play as much. She still needs to get the feel of the game and not panic and see the court. She had 2 points, went 2 for 2 at the line. They were being full court pressed and Elko had 50+ turnovers. But she is getting better. The JV girls lost by about 15-20 points. The girls varsity got crushed by Fallon. Fallon has 3 awesome players, two Polynesians girls who are sophomores who are great. Their other players are good as well, so they are very deep. Fallon hit about 10 3's in the first half and we were down by 25 points at half. The Elko varsity boys won by about 24 points. Eric and Alex Klekas had 51 of Elko's 67 points. It was kind of a dead game, no emotion from the boys or the crowd that night.

Saturday was senior day and we played Fernley who beat us earlier in the year. I did the books for all four games. Elko's JV girls lost by about 11 points, Summer started that game as Chef wanted more defense. She played ok, had some good defense but missed 2 shots. So she did not have any points. The Varsity girls coach was talking to me about summer after the games and wants her to go to a lot of camps and get better. She said she saw some really good natural things in her and they are looking for a replacement of Alicia Marin next year.She asked me if Summer liked basketball and wanted to work and improve her game. I told her I love basketball and am vary passionate about the sport. I told her if she wanted any help to let me know and she asked me if I was interested in coaching and I told her I was, but not if it is an all year deal like the boys program. So she might be enlisting my talents.

Both the varsity girls and boys won Saturday, but both games were really close. Eric had 33 points on Sat. and basically carried Elko, he was making Jimmer shots out their. But fernley is very much improved on both the girls and the boys. The boys have 5 guys that can shot the 3 ball well. Fernley made 10 3's in that game. That school is doing good things to improve their programs, and Elko needs to watch out for them.

Kyrin Allen committed this past week to go play football for Montana Western, with Baum and Jund from Spring Creek. But mentally he has already checked out. He only had 6 points on Saturday and did not play well at all.

Mom and I went out to eat at the Red Lion Buffet last night on the tickets I won from the pigskin pickers. The meal cost $19 each, so that was a pretty good deal. We will have to go again before the end of February. But we were not too impressed with their buffet. Mom likes Golden Corral a lot better. Cowboy poetry was this week, so there were a lot of people there at the Red Lion.

We had a good fast Sunday today. Good meetings and then we came home and had our soups for Super Bowl Sunday. Atlanta is playing New England. Atlanta was up 14-0 when I last checked. The YSA sisters wanted Cecilia to go to the YSA branch, so one of the girls from the branch invited her, but she did not end up going. I think she likes going with us and spending time with our family. Perhaps she was spending time with her family on Super bowl sunday. But we will keep working with her. The lady from my office and her husband said they were watching the football game today, but next week they plan on going to church with us.

Not much else happening. Tax season is picking up in full force. It sounds like Erin will be induced on the 13 of February, so mom will be going up their to help her. That means I have the dog, the paper route and all the home chores here for a while. It should be interesting.

Have a super week. Keep working hard. Mom said Jason Wilson is up at BYUI and has been hanging out with Romney Goulding. We got our van back and it cost us about $750. It was not the transmission, but the axle in front was completely worn out and had to be replaced, with the brakes and a few other things. But mom is back driving the van, so she is happy. It was 46 degrees today and felt wonderful. We are ready for the snow to melt and for things to warm up around here.

We love you and pray for you daily. Tim Meo and the Yocum's dad were asking how you were doing at the games. Enjoy every moment you have as a missionary.

Love,

DAD