Tomorrow is May

Hello Elder Nielsen,

It was another busy week. Monday I had my class to teach. Tuesday I took my lunch and went and watched Elko play Spring Creek again. It was a close game until the 6th inning and Elko changed pitchers and the wheels came off the bus. We ended up losing 12-8 but it was 12-4 there for a while.

Wednesday, I went up to Owyhee with 4 other people from the college to present the regents scholar award to a girl attending GBC from the reservation. Her name was Shiara Holmes. She was a sweetie. The most grateful and humble girl I think I have ever met. She would get emotional and tear up any time any one would say something nice about her. She was an amazing young lady. She should be a member of the church. And she is very pretty. She looks like an indian princess. I think she is dating Joe Thomas. Come to find out I had worked with her grand mother when I use to go up and audit the indian reservation. And Her father recognized me. He had coached against me when I was coaching the Elko freshman team. So I felt like I knew the family already. They know Jacob Conklin and her father is 2nd cousins to Joey Navaro.

Thursday I had to go to a President's scholarship award ceremony and to young mens, which I got there late due to the GBC deal.

Friday, our GBC president is retiring and Tawny, mom and I went over to the president's house and look at all their furnishings. They are moving back to Michigan and are selling all their belongings. So we bought a bed, and some book cases and a few things for a song and dance. I went and watched Elko play Fernley and Elko lost by 1 run in 8 innings. Elko made some costly errors that cost them the game. The wind was blowing and it was freezing cold. It has been cold and raining all week here.

Saturday, I had signed mom, Carly and I up to go on a field trip out to Ruby valley to watch the Sage hens strut around on their lek. We got up at 3 am and did our paper route and had to be out to the BLM at 4:45 am. We let Addie sleep over at the simons as you had to be at least 12 years old. Summer had a track meet in Winnemucca and ran the open 400. So we started early and got out to the BLM and took a nice tour bus out to Ruby Valley. We got out there and it was 28 degrees in the morning when we left. But we got out and looked around and there were no sage hens to be seen. They said that was the first time they have every been skunked. They think a coyote of Eagle was in the area and the birds did not come out. But we now know the area, so we will have to go out and check it out ourselves. They said they were watching it last weekend and 15 roosters were there doing their dances. So we took the bus back in to Lamoille, and the FFA kids had made us breakfast and they had a few people talk to us about the sage hens and sage brush. We got a free t-shirt and ended up back home by noon.

We spent most of the afternoon going over to President Curtis' house to pick up the items we purchased from them. Today was a beautiful day here. "Its a good day for a coon hunt". We had good meetings, came home and prepared a meal and we had the Sister missionaries over for dinner. These two sisters are very sweet. They look very similar. Long dark hair and dark skin. The one being from the Philippines and the other from the Marshall islands. I took the sacrament over to the shut-ins after church. This evening mom and I went and did some home teaching. We are still tired from yesterday's short night.

We hope you have a great week. Keep working hard and give it all you got. We love you and pray for you daily. That hope things are working out for you with the 3-some. We were thinking that transfers are this week, so you will probably get a new companion this week.  Utah Jazz beat the clippers in the series and now face the Warriors, which will be a tough match.

Make sure to try and accomplish all that the Lord wanted you to accomplish there in the Philippines. We hope you can survive the heat.

Love,

Dad

Adelaide can ride a bike!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

Well I made it through another busy tax season. I feel as though there is a huge monkey off my back and I can think about something other than taxes. I had a pretty good tax season. I only extended about 8 returns and one of those is mine. That is the least that I have extended in many years. Usually I extend about 15-20 returns.

Monday I took the day off and finished up all the returns that I had received information to do. I was scheduled to take both Monday and Tuesday off, as the dead line was Tuesday and those are usually crazy days. But I had everything under control and was able to go to work on Tuesday.

Tuesday and Wednesday were normal days. It rained a lot on Tuesday. Wednesday, I took my lunch hour and went and watched Elko play Spring Creek in baseball. Elko won 5-4. It was a good close game. SC was leading most of the game. Elko's player playing in left field did a Cody Nielsen trick. Sheldon Wilkerson hit a deep shot to left and he was running back watching the ball and tripped and fell on the upward slop and the ball about hit him in the head as he was falling down. When he was running back, I kept thinking to myself, you need to be careful and sprint back to a spot and try and locate and catch the ball. But he dropped it and Sheldon got a triple. Sheldon is walking on to UNR to play football. The win puts Elko in 2nd place behind Dayton. 

Thursday after work I took Carly and Summer to the Church and we met up with a Lady (Cammie) and her 4 daughters to practice bball. I guess they go up a couple times a week and have a girl Carly's age. Cammie played college ball in Montana. We need to get them in the gym as much as we can to improve their skills. We just stayed there until mutual started.

Friday, I went to work and we just hung out at home Friday evening. Summer left for Carson City on Friday for a varsity track meet on Saturday. She ran the open 400 and the 400 in a medley relay. Saturday morning, mom and I got up and did the paper route. Mom went to the clean up Elko day with the cub scouts. I stayed home and filed tax paperwork all day. Mom got us all free tickets for the lunch. So we went to the city park for a BBQ. Sat. evening we had a fund raiser for the girls camp. Mom helped Carly make that cheese cake we had last week and it was auctioned off and it went for $70. I offered a tax return preparation for either this year or next, and two couple were bidding it up to $150 and I said I would do them both for $150. So the Nielsen clan raised $370 out of the $800 they raised that evening. It is all for a good cause. 

Today we had great meetings at church. Good speakers in Sacrament meeting. Brother Welch and brother Bates spoke to us on Family history. During the 3rd hour, the young men and young women took care of primary so all the women could go to relief society. I, of course went into nursery and had a ball with them. It was fun. We had left over soup for dinner and mom and I are going to go home teaching this evening. It has been a delightful Sabbath today.

I showed Sister Balbuena your picture of your district from the MTC and her trainer was in your group as well as her 2nd trainer. But she knew 4 of the sisters in your district. What a small world! She said you wrote her back which was neat for her. She said her trainer told her that you helped her a lot with her Tagalog as she was Polynesian and spoke a different language. 

We hope you have a great week. Keep working hard and finish strongly. It is sprint to the finish line now. Dig deep and hit it hard to the end. We love you and pray for your daily. 

Love,

Dad

Emma's Blessing

Hello Elder Nielsen,

How was your week? We had another busy week. I was in Seattle Washington and got home around 10 pm on Tuesday. I did not go out and see any thing there. When I was not in classes, I was in my room trying to finish up tax returns. I did meet a couple of people that worked at the hotel who were from the Philippines, and of course I had to tell them that their arm pits stink which is a great ice breaker. I had a lady come into the financial aid office a few weeks ago from the Philippines, she understood Tagalog but spoke sebu. The little sister in our ward from the Philippines is a convert since 2011, so that is great that she is on her mission. She said she wrote you an email as 2 of her friends are serving in the Quezon City North mission. She was not sure she had the correct email address.

I went to work on Wednesday to try and get caught up from being out of the office a few days. I took Thursday off and worked on Taxes all day long. I am making good progress, but still have a lot to do. I went to mutual Thursday night. They called mom to be a den mother in addition to the nursery calling. On Friday, I had meetings at work, so I went to work.  Erin, Landon and Emma got here on Wednesday. Little Emma is a little tank. I think all she does is eats and sleeps. But she is a cute little thing. I can't see any Nielsen traits in her. We think she has a Croft nose and looks more like the Welch's side.

Summer had a JV track meet on Friday and ran the mile. She took 5th place at 6:21, but it was cold and snowy that day. She was suppose to go with the varsity to a meet at Boise State, but she told him she wanted to see her sister and niece.  I guess Benton walked on to Boise State's football team. He played in their spring game on the 2nd string defense at middle linebacker. He thought he did ok, not too terrible, but the coaches seem to like him. I guess coach Gilligan used his brother's contacts to set all that up.

Saturday, we got up early and did the paper route. I had to be at a clients house at 6:30 am to do their taxes and then be at the church for a priest laurel activity at the church with the missionaries. We then went to the Elko Federal Credit Union annual meeting. Addie and Carly won $25 each and that was it. But we got free orange juice and donuts. Afterwards I had a training at the stake center for young men leaders and scout leaders. Our speaker worked at the Provo MTC for 4 years and was talking about how scouting prepares young men for missions. He said he interviewed 17 return mission presidents and asked them what traits make the best missionaries. They all said these four items:

1. They know how to work hard

2. They made obedience a personal quest

3. They are good communicators and look people in the eyes

4. They have a testimony of the BOM and the gospel.

They also wished that all missionaries would have 1 significant away from home experience before their missions, learned work ethic, and had leadership opportunities. 

You will have to ask your mission president what his opinions are about those subjects.

After the meeting I came home and worked on taxes for a few hours until 5 pm and then Carly, summer and I went back to a fireside by that same guy, Brad Harris and he talked more about preparing for missions etc. It was good. Came home, worked on more taxes and mom worked on making Emma her blessing dress out of scraps from hers and Erin's wedding dresses. 

Today was Easter Sunday, our early morning meetings were canceled. But we went to our church for all 3 meetings, they were good. Then we came home and went to the 2nd ward's sacrament meeting where Emma was blessed. Landon did a great job and it was a great service. When Emma fussed a little, I got to take her out. All you have to do is give her a bottle and she is completely content and goes to sleep. Kind of like her mama, eats and sleeps.

We are watching a young couple's 2 kids (the Wheeler's) now as they teach missionary prep. The 2nd ward is as small as the elko 3rd ward. The NBA playoffs have started Utah is in it, first time in 5 years. They beat the Clippers with a shot at the buzzer. I applied for our tags. I put you in for deer, antelope, Desert bighorn and California bighorn, So we will see what happens. Elko's baseball team is 10-4 when I last checked and tied for 1st with Spring Creek.

Have a great week. We love you and pray for you daily. I will be extremely happen when the 18th is passed and I am finished with taxes for a while. Keep working hard and be a great example of what a missionary should be all the way to the finish.

Love,

Dad

More of the Same

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Another week in the books. As I look back, I can't remember much that happened. I have had a really bad sore throat all week, and Carly was sick on Wednesday, so she and I stayed home from work and school. Addie has missed a few days as she says she doesn't feel well either. We need to get better before Emma comes to visit us. On Tuesday night my throat hurt so badly that I could not sleep. I had a little nap before 11 pm, but when I went to bed, I was up from 11 to 4 am, not able to sleep.

We got a new missionary in our ward this week and she is from the Philippines. I have not met her yet and don't know where she is from. Someone told us she served in the Philippines before she came to the states waiting for a visa.  I have been working on taxes all week trying to get them all out and done. On Saturday morning I got up a 3 am to get showered and ready to catch my flight to Seattle, WA for a WASFAA conference. We got to SLC and it was raining real hard in SLC, but our flight was suppose to leave at 9:46 and we did not end up leaving SLC until 3 pm. They said there were bad storms in Atlanta with tornadoes and that messed up all the flights for 2-3 days. We were waiting for a flight crew to come in from Vegas and they were delayed. Any way, I sat in the airport and figured out all our hunting tag apps. I just put the 2 girls in for deer. With Summer in sports it is hard to find a free weekend to hunt. So I used it to my advantage. I had not applied for yours yet as I will do that online.

We got to Seattle and to our hotel about 6-7 pm. I had to figure out the closest church and figure the bus routes to get there.  So this morning I woke up early and walked to the bus station around 7 and caught a bus and it took me to about .5 mile from the church and then I walked the rest of the way. But it was good. I got there about 50 minutes before it started. A little old Spanish speaking lady was there in the chapel so she and I had a good conversation in Spanish for 50 minutes. She said she joined the church in 2009 but did not understand much as it was all in English. She was asking me what the conference was all about, so I played her a couple talks in Spanish on my ipad.  But it was a good ward and had a great bishop and a great spirit there. A gentlemen in the high priest group gave me a ride back to my hotel in his Jaguar.

I can't think of much else to say. Summer went to Boise on Sat. for a varsity track meet. They gave her a varsity uniform now, so I guess that means she is on varsity.

We hope you enjoyed conference. I have re-listened to a couple sessions this week and it was great the 2nd time as well. Keep working hard and we hope you turn that area around and have a lot of success.  I met a family here in my hotel from Guatemala and was  talking to them about Braden Nielsen serving in the mountains. 

On Monday, Gonzaga last to North Carolina by about 6 points. Gonzaga was up by 1 with 2 minutes to go and ended up losing. The sister missionaries came over to say goodbye so we missed the last minute or so. But it was ok, we will miss Sister Martinez from Puerto Rico. She is a real sweet heart.

We love you and pray for you daily. I will be happy to get through this last week of taxes. There are still about 8 clients who have not gave me their tax info. yet. I told the missionaries here in Seattle that you were trying to find 35 new investigators a week, and the one elder said, he did not know if he had found 35 new investigators in his entire mission. So be grateful that you are serving in an area where the people are humble and willing to listen.

Have a great week.

Dad

Springtime, Conference and Final Four

Dear Elder Nielsen,

We just finished watching General Conference. It was awesome as usual. Great speakers and great topics. 3 or 4 or them talked on the holy ghost.  But I really liked Elder Rasband's, Holland's, Bednar's, Uchtdorf's in Priesthood session, the guy from Korea, and Argentina, the sister on Sunday morning session. I really liked all of them. They all were great.

We had a good week. The girls were out of school for spring break and we were watching the Simon's dog and the Smith's dog. Mom is calling herself the President of the Kennel club. They were not too bad, but it still is extra work and Chica gets tired of dog sitting the others.

On Wednesday, I had to drive to Lovelock to talked about financial aid to students and parents. We had a good turn out about 30 people. That evening, I drove back to Winnemucca to stay the night. On Thursday morning, I was thinking about leaving at 3 am to make it back to basketball, but it was raining and blowing really hard. After I ate breakfast and was checking out of my room, it was snowing and blowing like crazy. The water was coming through the window in my hotel room. I filled up with gas and I could not see a thing. I got on the highway and started home, but the roads had about 1.5 inches of slush on them and the wind was blowing and snowing so badly, I had to roll down my windows to see out. So I got off the highway at the end of town in Winnemucca and thought I would go to the Winnemucca campus and hang out and work there until the storm passed by. By time I got to the campus, the power was out. So all I could do was sit in a room next to a window and read the paper. I did not end up leaving until about noon. The power was out in Battle Mountain as well. But I thought that by the afternoon the storm would have passed by.  There were 2 or 3 wrecks on the Hwy 80 during the morning. By time I ended up coming over Emigrant pass, the roads were fine and I was able to get home safely.

Summer had a track meet in Elko on Friday. She ran the mile and her time was 6:11 which 16 seconds better than her previous personal record. Now she needs to break the 6 minute mile. She missed the 800 as she said she did not hear it. Then she ran the 4 x 400 and was the lead off runner.

I have been working on taxes and trying to get them all out. I leave for a business trip next Saturday and want to have most of them done by then.

In the final four, Gonzaga beat So. Carolina 77-74 and North Carolina beat Oregon 77-76. So it will be two number 1 seeds in the final Gonzaga vs No. Carolina tomorrow. Elko has been doing pretty well in baseball. They have a really young team, but they are in 1st place with a record of 7-4. No team is really dominating the league this year. Alec Wall has 2 home runs. We have not watched any of their games yet, but want to watch one when tax season is over. The U Conn women's team got beat by Southern Miss. in the semi finals. 1st loss in 111 games.

It was kind of cold and snowy this week here, but Mom's flowers are blooming in the front yard. We are ready for spring.

Keep working hard. We hope you enjoy this next area with your new companion. Do every thing you can to have great success in the next few months. Elder Peterson's mom forwarded a letter from Elder Peterson and it was great and gave you some great compliments. Just don't inhale it as President Uchtdorf taught in the Priesthood session.

We love you and are very happy you are serving the Lord on this assignment. Work faithfully to the end.

Love,

Dad