Spring Break

Querido Elder Nielsen,

We had a wonderful conference weekend.  We tried to listen to all 5 sessions, but our internet kept dropping the signal and it was hard to listen to the 1st 2 sessions on Saturday. But my favorite talks that I can remember were Elder Nielsons in the Priesthood session. He talked more about the 2 little girls who he spoke about last conference that died after his open heart surgery.  He said it has haunted him for over 60 years, and the parents of those 2 girls held it against him and the church. He had tried to get in touch with the family several times over the years but to no avail. Then last May, the 2 girls came to him and spoke to him during the night. They said, "Brother Nielson, we have not been sealed to our parents or to any one else. Can you help us?" So after that, he started trying to reach the parents, the mom had already died and the father 88 years old was living with their youngest son. He went to visit them and he said he literally knelt down in front of the father and begged him to do what they needed to do to get worthy of the temple and he would seal their family together. Both the father and son had not taken out their endowments before but both agreed to work on it. They worked with their priesthood leaders and a few months later they were in the temple and a couple of months ago he was able to seal their family together. He could not save them physically, but he saved them spiritually.  Great talk and story.

I also liked Elder Hollands, he never disappoints, he concluded the conference today. I enjoyed Elder Hales on the Holy Ghost, really they were all great.  It was a wonderful weekend full of the spirit.

The kids had spring break this week, but it was snowing constantly from Monday through Wednesday. Carly said, this is spring break, this is winter break. We only got 6.5 inches, but spring creek got 19-21 inches of snow. And the mountains got dumped on, so that will be good for the lakes and rivers. Friday it warmed up to 56 and yesterday it was mid 60's so the snow is gone and we have had some wonderful spring days.

I worked all week, but took 1/2 day off  on Friday and we went and watched elko play Lowry. We won 10-0. Yocum is 3-0 and has an ERA of 0. We hit the ball well too. Wall, Whitted are both batting over 600, Benton and RJ are over 500 and Baum is over 400. So we are hitting to ball, and our pitching has been good. I think the paper said in our league games we have 55 runs to our oppenents' 5 runs. We swept Lowry, on Sat. we won 7-6 and 13-0.  Spring Creek beat Fallon 2 out of 3 in Fallon, so it looks like Elko and Spring Creek are going to be the teams to beat in our league. Whitted and Benton both have 3 home runs on the year.

The final 4 games were yesterday, but not on our TV, so I did not see any of them. But it is Villanova vs North Carolina in the final tomorrow.  Villanova beat Oklahoma by 55 points. 99-44 or something like that.

We washed the truck and got it ready for Amber and Kevin. They are going to take it back to Michigan and haul a u-haul behind with their belongings. I tried to fix the refrigerator, but I think we need a new part. It has been over 3 weeks that we have not had a fridge.

Amber gets married this week, and I head to Alaska on Saturday morning. I am working on taxes and trying to get them all done as well.

Keep working hard. Be humble and rely on the the Lord and his spirit to direct you actions. Be exactly obedient in all things and you will be blessed. We love you and pray for you always.

Have a super week.

Love,

Dad

I am not sure if I gave you all an update on that lady from Winnemucca who had not been to church in 26 years. I talked to her about a month ago and she said she had been to church 5 or 6 times. The relief society sisters had come over and the bishopric had tried to give her a calling. She said she is not ready for a calling yet, but she is doing well. The missionaries have tried to meet with her, but she said she was too busy. So when I talked to her a month ago, I told her to 'seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all other things will be added unto her." Basically if she would do what God would have her do, she would be blessed in all other aspects of her life. So she should meet with the missionaries and she and her family would be blessed. She told me she knows she met me for a reason and that when ever she talks with me she feels a lot of peace.

So that is the follow up. It always pays to open your mouth and make invitations. Like Amber says, the success is in the invitation.  I will kept following up with her every few months. She also said, she is working on her cussing and that even her family has noticed a difference. She also said she has only attended sacrament meeting, but we will work on the other two blocks. 

Also, I wanted to let you know that Brandon Jenkins was also made a Zone Leader a few weeks ago and they had to white wash an area. I don't think he was a district leader before that either. So that sounds very similar to what you did. I think he said, he is the zone leader and his companion is the district leader. He is now serving in a very affluent ward, with millionaires in it. He went from serving in the oldest Navajo ward in the world to one that is very affluent. He said in his old ward he was on splits with one of the high priests, and that guy told him his patriarchal blessing said that he is a direct descendant from the 2000 stripling warriors. That is pretty cool, no?

Just in case I did not give you an update before.

Love

DAD

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Well, this is our last day of Spring Break.  It has been a nice break from everything.  I kind of think the girls were a little bored, because we hung out at lot a home, but that was my kind of "break",  because I get a little tired of running around, having to always be going places in the car.  The first few days it was stormy and cold--kind of your typical spring break weather for Elko.  Remember when the folks from home sent pictures to you Choraliers in Florida last year of all the snow we got?  REPEAT!  Wednesday was the strangest day; we had a bunch of snow overnight--about 4-5 inches, it looked like Jan. all over again that morning, but then it stopped and the sun came out and it warmed up in the 50's and it all melted before the day was over.  Water was gushing down the gutter.  It was almost like someone turned on the faucet, because about 2 pm our raingutters had gallons of water coming down of the roof, and then it just stopped because all the snow had melted and run off.  The rest of the week was pretty nice, still a bit cool, 60's, but sunny.  We even went to one of Elko's baseball games against Lowry on Friday.  We beat the snot out of them!  (is that missionary-mom appropriate to say?)  It only took 6 innings to cream them 10-0.  Brendan Yocum pitched the whole game and did very well.  Maybe Lowry is just weak this year, they haven't really challenged Elko in anything since Connors left.  Elko boys looked good, they hit well, and everyone just looks bigger and stronger.  Alec Wall is now catching, I always thought he was really good and felt bad when he had to defer to Benton when he got well enough to take over last year.  Benton is playing first base--easier on the knees.  It was kind of a fun thing to do on a spring day.

Summer and I had a Pride and Prejudice marathon this past week.  We would watch one of the videos from the 6hr long series each day.  Adelaide even watched one day.  She had Madalyn Beck over to play on friday, that's a little girl in her class, her Dad got baptized a couple of years ago and then they moved to 2nd ward.  She looooves Addie, so we(mostly me) worked on cleaning her room, all day wednesday and then they had a super fun time playing in their and messing it up again.  Other fun things we did last week... Carly wants me to mention that she made a treasure hunt up for Addie and then the treasure was a bag of chips.:)  We went to the library too and Adelaide checked out 26 books!  the limit was 20, so we used Summer's card as well.  I think she thinks the limit is however many you can fit in the bag.  Then when we got home she did a cute thing; she took the books and from the bag and put them all over on the couches in the living room, then wrote letters on note paper and taped them to the cushions like she was cataloging the books; she was playing library!  She loves books and going to the library is the highlight of her week.

Since we were in Weiser last week for Easter the girls wanted to pretend like it was Easter today, so we had a little egg hunt outside and I made an Easter dinner with the orange rolls etc.  Summer actually made the rolls.  We enjoyed conference a lot.  I liked Elder Ballard's talk about family councils, and Elder Holland never disappoints.  Oh, and Phyllis, Cela, and Nate dropped in on their way back to Utah yesterday.  They had gone out to Gram's and Gramps for Spring Break and got all their teeth worked on.  She brought us a bunch of oranges and cumquats from CA.

Well, next week when I write to you Amber will be a married woman!  We leave thurs. to head for Rexburg, so I will give you the report next email.  Have super duper week, I am so happy you are doing what you are doing :) love you, Mom