Dear Elder Nielsen,
I am thinking back at this past week and I can't remember much of what happened. Monday was Memorial Day and we worked on our home and trying to get things organized. It was another busy long day.
Tuesday, I had a student from my accounting class come in and visit with me. She wanted my opinion on a few things. She had just broken up with her live in boy friend and had moved back home with her mother. Her father passed away last July of Cancer and it was his birthday the previous week, so she was really having a hard time. She said she wanted to see a counselor (psychologist) to help her get her head on straight, so I asked her if she wanted to listen to the sister missionaries as I told her some times the spirit can help us get our head on straight. She has an 18 month old daughter that was kind of fussy and making a lot a noise in my office and she did not know if she was going to make it through her next appointment with an academic adviser. So I asked her if she wanted me to take her daughter for her during her next meeting and she said yes. So took her daughter and we walked around and looked for squirrels and birds and she was great. I went back into my office and was rocking her in my chair and when her mom came back she was almost asleep. She called me the child whisperer.
Then at 5:15 pm that Mexican family came in, it was just the Dad and the other daughter who is graduating. So I helped them fill out her FAFSA, and at the end, I asked them if they would like to come over for dinner on Sunday and we could have the missionaries come over and teach them about Jesus Christ. The dad did not act real excited, but said "yes, what could that hurt". They are strong in the Catholic church and go to church every Sunday. So I was not sure how they would handle it. So Today we had Stake conference and afterward we had a flat tire on the van. So I caught a ride from Reed Smith to the college as I had left the trooper there and went back and picked up the family and took them home. We were getting the house ready and the meal ready for 5:30 when the family was suppose to come over. Mom made the Chicken mushroom dinner with mashed potatoes and watermelon. The mom and dad and their daughter (Alda, Francisco and Kiara Hernandez respectively) showed up a little after 5:30 pm. The spanish missionaries showed up at around 6 and joined us for dinner. They also had 2 twin daughters (Michelle and Kimberly) who graduate this year and they were getting their senior pictures taken. So we ate dinner and waited for their daughters to get here and then we had a discussion. It was awesome to have their family and ours together for a discussion with the missionaries. They did not give a very long discussion, they just introduced the plan of salvation and the Book of Mormon. And asked them if they could come back and teach them again. The dad said he had been commenting to his wife this past month that there is more to life than just this 80 years or 60 years that we live on this earth, as it goes by so quickly. He said he would definitely like to hear the answers to the 3 questions from the Plan of Salvation. So this next weekend all the seniors are having their parties etc, so our next discussion will be Sunday the 18th when you are home at 6 pm. One of the twins said she is friends with Hannah Barker and liked her and her family. The dad said he use to play basketball at the the Mormon church in Mexico as a teenager. A very lovely prepared family.
The dad also said what attracted us is that my most important thing is my family and his most important thing to him is his family. So that is what we have in common and what attracts us as friends.
This past week I had to drive to Reno on Thursday for our quarterly financial aid director meeting with all the directors in the state. I got back late Friday night. I had planned on doing a session in the temple, but could not fit it in to my schedule.
Saturday was a crazy day. Mom and I did the paper route early, then we worked on the house, putting things in the attic so we can work in the basement. Then we had to shower and be at a baptism for the spanish branch at 9 am. Afterwards, we went to President Curtis' house to pick up the TV and cabinet and other items. He is GBC's president moving back to Michigan so they are getting rid of everything. We had to make 2 trips and pick up the lawn mower and other items. Then we came home and ate lunch and had to be at a wedding in the spanish branch at 2. We left early and mom dropped me off at the stake center for the Priesthood leadership meeting. I had to bum a ride home with Brother Smith again as I did not have a car and then mom and I dropped the girls off at the Hatch's home so they could baby sit for them and mom and I went to the adult session of conference. We had Elder Stoddard from the quorum of the 70 as the visiting general authority. He was good and a funny guy. He served as a mission president in Chicago and had 3 missionaries from our stake in his mission. That is a small world.
After that we picked up the kids and went to Shawn McCarrey's wedding reception in the other stake building. We did not get home until after 9 pm. We were suppose to clean the church today as a family, but we did not make it happen. So we will have to go on Monday to do that and go tomorrow and fix the flat tire of he van which is at the stake center still. Things are busy and never get boring around here.
Well my boy, we love you. Keep working hard right up to the very end. Cherish every moment you have as a missionary. We have plenty of missionary work lined up for you here when you get home. We told that Mexican family that you will have to bare your testimony to them about your mission and experiences when you get home as we will translate. They are excited to hear from you and meet you. This family is awesome. I have a deep love for them already and I have only known them for 2 weeks. The charity of Christ is a very real thing. We can't wait for you to meet them.
Have a super week. We get one more letter from you. We will miss those weekly letters.
Love you,
DAD
Dearest Elder Nielsen,
I can't believe that this is your last week of email. The big girls have enjoyed getting our letters and want us to continue to write each week. I think we will keep it up, its been a great journal.
We've had a good week this past week. Monday, Memorial Day we worked again on house stuff. I think I mentioned that Dad cut an opening up in the garage ceiling, then we put the ladder up to it and climbed up to take a look. We were surprised how much space is up there... so we started to fill it. We put up bed frames that were taking up space in the basement, a rocking chair and some other stuff. Dad wanted to put up the two Nordic Tracks that have been buried in the basement, one was one that we had bought and the other was given to us by Uncle Jedd. I thought we should just get rid of both, since we haven't used them in ten+ years, but Dad insisted that we needed both. He has this vision that we are going to be both on the Nordic Tracks at the same time, side by side, sharing and bonding in our tandem exercise experience. I told him that is just not going to happen. As a compromise I said, we could keep one and get rid of the other one. I helped hoist up the first one up into the attic, but I refused to do the other one. I was sticking to my guns. Well, Dad somehow got that other Nordic Track up there all by himself. I guess he really wants it. I tell you, he is in Hoarder Heaven, with that attic!
I had a dental appt. last week to have my teeth cleaned. The hygienist is such a neat lady. Dad always has a great discussion with her (as well as you can while your teeth are getting sudsed) she does most of the talking. She mentioned how cute little Emma is (she had cleaned Erin's teeth when they were here last) . She has two kids, a 30 yr. old daughter, who is expecting her first grandchild, and a son, 27. She asked if I believed in angels and I said, "yes", so she told me this cool story about her son. When he was a new born baby he was sick; there was something wrong with him, and she wasn't sure what. He had struggled since birth, and he sounded funny when he breathed. One night he was really bad, so she took him to the emergency room, and they did all kinds of tests and bloodwork, and determined that he had pneumonia. She thought that sounded reasonable, but it didn't make total sense, since he had had those symptoms since birth. She said she and her baby were in a hospital room and she just stared at him and said to herself, "What is wrong with this kid?" Then a doctor came in the room; he was tall, dark haired and nice looking. He said he was a traveling doctor that was there visiting from San Diego (this was in Yuma, Arizona) She told him about all the tests that her baby had had, but she wasn't sure that pneumonia was all that was going on. He asked her if he had had an EKG, she said no, and that she wasn't even sure what that was. He sent up an "order" for the baby to have an EKG. When the results came back, they told her they were life-flighting her baby to another hospital in Phoenix. When they arrived there was an ambulance there to take them to the hospital, where an incubator was waiting for the baby and they took him immediately into surgery. He had something wrong with his heart and had open heart surgery, which saved him life. They told her he would have been dead in 24hrs, without the surgery. She wanted to write a 'thank you" card to the doctor, and she described him to the staff at the hospital in Yuma, and they didn't know who she was talking about. They said they don't get traveling doctors. She even tried to reached out the hospitals in San Diego and couldn't find him. The order on the EKG didn't list a doctor; but without it, things would have ended tragically. I share that because its a cool story and also so that I don't forget it over time. You have an appt. with her on thursday after you get home. We think she is ready for an invitation to hear the gospel.
Summer received a Departmental award this past week. She was chosen as the Algebra 1 student of the year. Her teacher, Mrs. Idler, said she always prepared for class, and that she helped others with their problems and that her smile would just light up the room when she came to class. Summer was pretty surprised; she said if she's the best freshman algebra student, then thats pretty sad. I think her teacher just liked her a lot. There were 2 other freshman in that category that got awards too. Kate Shumway got best Chemistry student, Outstanding Foreign language student, and a choir award, for 4 yrs All state choir.
Saturday was crazy busy with a baptism and wedding in the Spanish Branch and then stk Conference and Sean McCarrey's wedding reception following that. Oh, and we had our church cleaning ass., but since there weren't going to be any church mtgs. in our building, we figured we could get away with doing it on monday.
Whew, I am so tired writing this, we had a spanish family over for dinner and a missionary discussion. They are an awesome family. They had 3 girls, twin girls that are graduating this year and a 10yr old. Did you know a Michelle and Kimbery Hernandez in school? They kind of knew who you were.
Well, my dear boy, I have refrained in all my previous letters of telling you that we are just about giddy with excitement for you to come home. Your Dad is counting down the days, but do your best to have a wonderful, Productive week. Keep sprinting and lean for the tape! We love you sooo much! You have been an awesome missionary and we are so happy about that!
Love, Mom
Love, Mom
No comments:
Post a Comment