Happy Mother's Day

Hello Elder  Nielsen,

We are having a wonderful Mother's Day today. I got up early and made mom breakfast, Torta de Papa, = potato cake. With eggs, potatoes, bacon, cheese, onions, etc. Mom liked it and gave some to the kids and they wanted me to make it for them. So I had to make them a batch as well. Addie said, this is really good, I want this in my lunch. But I spent about 2.5 hours in the kitchen. After church, mom had thawed out one of grandpa Nielsen's old chickens, so I made fried chicken, potatoes and gravy, green peas, and spinach salad. The chicken was great, but the gravy was not as good as mom's. It lacked some flavor. Addie said, this is really good, maybe you should cook every day. I said, "Not so fast girl".  But it was fun serving mom. Then we cleaned up and did the dishes and mom did not have to lift a finger today.  Mom said, so this is what Sunday's feel like for you. Again, not so fast Trigger.

This week, went by quickly. On Monday, I taught my last class for the semester. We went right up until 10 pm as they were all getting ready for the final exam.  Monday afternoon, mom and I went over to hear Summer sing with the Choraliers. We sat by the Shumways and had a nice visit with them. 

Thursday for mutual we were going to do indexing but ended up looking up relative finder. All the boys had a good time seeing who they were related to.

Friday, I took the day off to work in the basement. But mom and I ended up cleaning and going through old boxes. We were busy all day, but did not make much progress on the basement. Friday evening we went to a spanish branch cinco de mayo celebrations combined with the 2nd ward. It was really good. They had a live band and the Young Mexican dancers performing live for us. We had about 200-250 people. It was really nice and fun. I enjoy visiting and talking with all those spanish speaking people.

On Saturday, we got up at 4 am, did the paper route. Then Carly and I had to be at the church at 7 am. We went to the Bountiful temple. It was a great experience. Carly got to be baptized and confirmed for the 3 ladies that she found all by herself.  They have changed a lot of things in the baptistery. Now if you are confirming you do not need to be dressed in white. But I did not know that and I had my white clothing on. One of the gentlemen working at the temple asked me if I was going to do baptisms and I said, I don't think so. And he said so why are you dressed in white. I said I thought I  had to. Any way, I thought, (well I'm in white and had about 11 more male names that I had found to do), are there any youth that want to be baptized, and they were all done, so Brother Mason Simons said I will baptize you for them. So I went in and was baptized and confirmed for all of those names. That is the 1st time I have every done that. Being raised in Nebraska, I never had that opportunity as a youth. After my mission, I always did the baptizing and confirming. So it was a fun special day. We went to Chuck o Rama afterwards. Then we came home. Got back about 6:30 pm.  I was pretty tired from driving and getting up early. They asked me to take the suburban and I only ended up taking the 2 Bauman boys and their mom. We had about 15 youth from our ward and 5 adults and 2 youth from the Spanish ward with 3 of their leaders.

Elko ended up taking 3 in league in baseball, so they did not get a bye game. They played South Tahoe and beat them 3-1, and then they played Dayton and beat them. So they ended up playing Spring Creek, and SC beat them by 1 and Elko went down and beat Fallon in the loser's bracket. They then had to beat SC 2 for the regional champ. They beat them the first game by two and ended up losing the final by 1 point. But both SC and Elko will go to state. So that is good. But all the games were really close. Elko had to play 5 games and SC only played 3.

Summer went to the regionals for track as an alternate, but the 4x400 relay took 4 and will not be going to state. So she left Thursday after school and got home late Saturday night. But she said Krenka told her she will earn her varsity letter in track as freshman. So that is 2 varsity letters for her as a freshman, which is great. 

Well we look forward to talking to you today. It should be any time now. We love you and pray for your success. Keep sprinting to the finish line.

We love you,

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Mother's Day has become one of my favorite holidays, because I get to talk to my missionary!  We are sure looking forward to it, I hope our connection is good.  Today, Dad made me breakfast, but the girls served it to me.  He made torta de papa.  

 It had pototoes, bacon, onions, eggs and cheese.  It was really good.  There was toast and OJ too.  Now, he's making dinner.  He's cooking fried chicken,("Mama makes the best fried chicken" 🎶)--what movie?  He's trying to get Summer and Carly to help out, but they aren't sure what to do.  All the Moms got a chocolate bar, and a booklet by Elder Uchtdorf.

We've had a good week.  Monday, Summer and the Choraliers performed and were judged at the Choir Festival.  The girls choir received a 98 out of 100.  We sat by the Shumways.  Kate is their last Choralier.  Ms. Rogers has been talking about retiring in 2020, so since the Shumways will still be on their mission and this is their last girl in the program, Sis. Shumway has collected  24 Choralier t-shirts and she has sewn them together to make a quilt for Ms. Rogers.  They  will present it to her tomorrow at the Spring Concert.

I had Cub Scouts on Tues.  Our theme for the month is "Grin and Bear it".  It culminates with a carnival for Pack mtg.  We were supposed to make trophies out of tin cans and spray paint them gold and then present them at the pack mtg. to the adult that helped out the boys with their carnival activity, but that sounded a little out of my abilities and since Mother's Day was coming up I had them make cards.  We attempted to make flowers out of the long twisty balloons.  I watched a youtube video on how to do it, but it was kind of a fail.  The balloons I got from Walmart seemed kind of cheap and you couldn't even blow them up with your mouth, we had to use the ball pump.  Then they would pop if you twisted them too much.  They still thought it was fun though.  I came home with a headache from all the stress of it.  The boys are fine, they are great kids.  It's just that I am the only Bear Leader, so really I have two callings, because I am also the assistant Bear Leader (to myself).  I really am just learning how scouts works.  The Wolf leader is from the Spanish Branch and doesn't speak much English, the Cubmaster is a black brother from Ghana, so he was never a boy scout.  We are all very motivated to do the program, but it is really the blind leading the blind.

On Friday the Spanish Branch had a Cinco de Mayo party even though is was after the fact.  It was huge!  They had to move it to the stk. center when they realized how many people were planning to attend.  They set up 26 round tables and 10  long serving tables.  They had a live mariachi band, Mexican dancers and a Pinata for the kids.  Those Latinos know how to party!  They invited the 2nd ward as well.  There were over 200 people there.

Summer went to Carson for the Regional track meet.  She was an alternate for the 4x400 relay.  She got to be a cheerleader really, since her skills weren't needed.  The team came in 4th and they only took the 3 top place getters to go  state next week, so she is off the hook.  I think she is relieved.

Yesterday, Carly and Dad went to the Bountiful Temple with the youth for a temple trip.  Carly found some names on her very own and was able to take those names to the temple.

Grandpa Croft had to be taken to the ER on friday night.  He has been going through a Black Salve treatment on his face, for a spot they found on the side of his temple.  It was going well and the scab that  had formed was starting to pull away, but the salve penetrated down into one of his arteries and he started to bleed.  Curtis stopped by on his way home from work and was able to control it, but then it started again so they called 911 and the guys from the fire department came over and took him to the hospital.  They stitched up the artery, but he was really weak from loss of blood, so they kept him overnight.  Mom said the Doctors were not very supportive of her alternative medical treatments.  He's home now and recovering and Grandma thinks the scab will come off real soon, and he will be cancer free.  

I am sure happy to be your Mama.  I am really grateful that we have a close relationship, you have always been there to help me with stuff when I needed and "man" and Dad wasn't around.  It's probably distracting as the weeks are counting down, but do your best to stay focused and give it all your best effort. 

 Love you lots,  Mom