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

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

With the arrival of February came a bit warmer temperatures.  Thank Goodness!  Everyone was getting quite tired of the sub-zero temps and all the ice.  We have had a pretty constant flow of water running down our gutter this week as things are starting to thaw.  The month of January was pretty brutal for paper delivery people and crossing guards (that's me)

We got the van back this week.  I can't remember if I told  you about all the car issues of the past 4 weeks.  The van wouldn't stay in park and the all-wheel drive wasn't working right, so that got parked in the street  with the wheels turned into the curb, so it wouldn't roll.  I started driving the Suburban-- did that for about 2 weeks, then the "Service 4 wheel Drive" icon came up on the dash, so we thought we'd better not drive in until we could figure that out.  Then I became a truck driving Mama.  Yep, I was driving the car-pool in the big ol' diesel.  That was kind of fun.  We called a repair shop about looking at the van, but first we had to get it there.  Dad tried to drive it, but it wouldn't budge from the now frozen ice block from which it was entombed.  We had to tie a rope to the front and pull it out with the truck.   We were able to do that, but then we realized that the serpentine belt had come off.   It stayed there blocking our driveway until the next day when Dad could go borrow the tool from Checker Auto that you use to put the belt back on.  It was last Sat. morning and the temp is 5 degrees and we are trying to put this belt on (it is not fun working with steel tools in such cold weather)  It was not going real well, and I just said a silent prayer that Brother Hiles would come over and help us.  Dad told me to go inside and call him, which I did, but no one answered, so I went back outside and guess who was already there?  da dada  da!  Bro. Hiles!  It only took about 5 min. for the two of them to get the belt on (Bro. Hiles knows some tricks)  We were able to then drive it to the repair shop.   I got pretty comfortable diving the truck, until last week when it was sooo cold that is wouldn't start (we forgot to plug it in)  I didn't have much choice, but to pull out the Burb again-- but luckily the "service..." icon had gone off.  Now, I've got my old van back.  It's getting pretty old, but I hope to use it for a few more years, it really  has been a good car.  It needed  a new front axel and we also got the brakes replaced.  We were glad it wasn't the transmission, or we probably would have had to get a new car.  $736.00 is a lot cheaper than a replacement.

Summer had her last home game of the season this past weekend.  It was Senior night also.  They had yet another loss to Fallon and Ferley, but she's improved.  Turnovers are what plague her team.  They must have 20-30 turnovers a game.  They get killed on the press.  The boys avenged their loss to Fernley.  It was a tight game though, until the last quarter. We won by 10 pts. The Fernley fans were quite contemptuous--they were loud and razzing the refs the whole time.

Erin will have her baby induced on Feb.13,  I will go up there and help her for that week and then Grandma Suzanne will take over for the following week.  It will be an exciting thing!  another grandbaby.

I enjoyed your pictures from last week.  Those lizards reminded of the ones from the movie  "Holes".

 Keep working hard, we love you and are very proud of you!

 Love, Mom