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

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Well, we are at the end of our spring break and the girls head back to school tomorrow.  They are not too excited about it, but it won't be long until summer break.    Summer got home on Tuesday from her Choralier trip.  She slept most of the day, since they were on a bus all night. She said she had fun.  They went to the beach the first day and then to Universal Studios the next for their competition which they did well.  The girls 2nd and Gold.  The whole Choir did pretty well, I think Miss Rogers was pleased.  Sunday, they were in Disneyland.  Summer thought that Lagoon was better.  Monday, they went back to Universal for another day.  Her favorite was Harry Potter World.  She didn't buy a thing hardly.  She said everything was really expensive so she just saved her money.  Oh, Summer, she is kind of a quiet one, so getting her to tell about it, I had to ask a lot of questions.  We we going to go to the Red Lion for dinner, because Dad had more Pigskin Picker dinner coupons that he thought expired at the end of March.  When I got them out as we were preparing to go, I saw that they didn't expire until the end of May.  So, we decided to just get a pizza and we would go another time after tax season.   Summer was all buffeted-out from the trip anyway.  

Dad went to Lovelock on Wed. and we got the idea that since he was going that far West we should just go along and maybe go to California for a visit-- and then I remembered that I was the President of the Nielsen Kennel Club and that we were stuck watching dogs this week!  Next year we will have to make plans for our spring break or other dog owning vacationers will make them for us.

We started a project this week.  Carly and I began to get her and Summer's room ready for a make-over.  We went and got paint and began to prep the walls.  We filled in all the holes and gouges in the walls and there was a lot! (Erin claimed responsibility for that)  We worked on it for 2 days and got 3 out of the four walls done.  The last wall I will finish tomorrow.  It looks amazingly much better.  The walls are "icy peach"  it's actually a creamy white, and then the wall where the window is will be painted "tropical coral".  It's been fun to transform the space.

Summer had a track meet on friday.  She ran the mile and shaved off 16 seconds from the last time she ran.  Her new PR is 6:11.  She was supposed to run the 800 too, but she didn't hear the call for it.  She and Peter Neff were over by the pole vaulters and they said they didn't hear it and they both missed it (he was supposed to run it too)  She ran the first leg of the 4x400.  She did Ok, she gets a little faster each time.

General Conference was wonderful.  I loved the Sunday morning session, but they are all wonderful talks.  You may have already heard, but if not, I will spill the beans anyway-- they announced a new temple in the greater Manila area.  Would that be closer to Quezon City?  Dad watched the Priesthood Session from home on byu-tv, so I listened in and I loved Bednar's talk.  He talked about mission calls, staying worthy, and priesthood responsibilities.  One thing he said that I really liked was that missionaries are called to "the work" and not the place.  See, what you have to look forward to?

I hope you and Elder Richards have a lot of success together, it sounds like you two will make a great companionship.  Keep working hard. 

You are a wonderful son, love you so much, Mom