Cheese Galore

Elder Nielsen,

This past week was kind of a blur.  It flew by.  I had my class on Monday night and I am trying to get every thing caught up before finals week this week. I am still way behind.  I also had a ton of things to get done at work, being gone last week to Vegas and this week I am heading to Pahrump, so I have a lot to get done before that.

Carly had her Pal basketball playoff games on Wednesday, Friday and Sat. They won the 1st 2 games big and lost in the finals on Saturday to the Marin's team who had beaten them previously in league play.  Carly did not get to play very much only about a few minutes each half as they were going with their best players trying to win.

On Saturday, Summer had her last Adobe games where they play the boys and other girls team as well as the faculty for like 1/2 each.  She made points in each game and did pretty well.  But we were there from 8:30 to 11:00 am then we went to Carly's game until 1:00 pm.  I had to go over to the Cornelius' to help them sign up for health insurance.  I got home and Summer had to go to the snow flake festival to sing so I dropped her off and went to my office to finish some grading. I picked up Summer and we went to the ward Christmas party.  Mom and Sister Harris were cooking 20-25 lb roast beef.  Mom had cooked hers for 6 hours but when we took it to the church, it looked like it was done on the outside, but it was bloody rare on the inside.  The harris' had cooked 2 of those, one was done and the one they cooked for 8 hours was still raw. 

Somehow I got roped into helping in the Kitchen and I was trying to make the potatoes and gravy in 5 gallon pots.  The dinner started at 6, but we did not have the food ready until about 6:45. Sister Harris had forgotten the salad dressings and had to run home and get them.  We were cutting off slices of the raw roast and putting them in the microwave to cook.  Then we helped clean up afterward and we were the last to get home around 9:30 pm. Mom had been there since about 2:30 setting up etc.  So it was a long day.  Mom and I fell asleep after scriptures and did not wake up until 1 am to go to bed.

I guess last week, while I was in Vegas there was a big rig going up mountain city highway loaded with 5 lb bricks of mozzarella cheese and some how got in an accident and rolled the truck.  Someone put out on facebook that there was free cheese up there and everyone was going up there and loading up their trucks.  So we got about 4 bricks of 5 lb cheese.  We have been having lots of cheese and crackers and have already downed 2 bricks. I guess Bishop asked Mason Simons to take his truck up there and get more and while he was up there a police officer showed up and took everyones ID's and said this was not theirs to take and they had to unload everything they had in their trucks before he would give them back their ID's.  I guess Mason was pretty scared as that could look very bad, Elko Justice of the peace arrested for stealing cheese.  He said luckily, the guy did not recognize him.

On Friday night, the simons girl had a birthday and invited our family over for dinner.  I could not get the hood of the tropper open to jiggle the battery cable as it was so cold and frozen and I was sqeezing the lever and it would not open. I was trying for 30 minutes and finally called mom to come get me and when I went out and tried again I got it open so I could drive home.  I had to speak at a stake family history conference at the church, so I did not go to the Simons. I read that story about that temple worker and his visions that I got from my mom.

Last week while I was in Vegas, I did not do much but attend training sessions.  I did not leave the hotel until Thursday night to go to Costco for dinner (1.50 hot dog and drink).  When I got home on Friday I had to do the clock for the Elko game against Reno.  It was the red lion tournament.  Elko went 3-0.  We beat Reno and Damonte on Friday and Sat. and East on Thursday.  Eric Klekas as mom said was shooting the ball well. He had 25, 34 and 37 points in those games.  But the entire team was shooting pretty well. Baum played well as well as Kyron Allen.  The team was suppose to travel to Truckee and sparks this past weekend, but those games got canceled due to a snow storm that was hitting Truckee.  We got a few dustings of snow, but the all melted during the day.  It was a lot nicer this week than the week we were hunting elk.

I am happy to hear you are doing well. Keep working hard and relying on the Lord for his direction and you will be blessed. I guess we will be skyping on Christmas day for you and Christmas eve for us. I am not sure how the arrangements will be made as I believe you are 14 or 15 hours ahead of us. The gospel is true and we need to invite everyone to come unto Christ.  Especially during this special time of year.  We love you and pray for you always.  Have a super week.

Love

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

I am a pretty busy Mama right now, with Christmas and a wedding coming on soon.  I have scaled back my decorating and baking this year.  I haven't put lights on the house because there has been snow up there and everything that I put up has to come down right after New Years and I go into full wedding mode.  I don't even think there will be cheeseballs to give the neighbors this year, because my mixer is not working right.  I need to get it fixed because I am going to need it to make food for the reception.  I may just give the neighbors a big brick of cheese instead, because we have loads of cheese going around Elko right now.  The Bishop just brought over a case, containing 8 bricks.  Last week there was a semi-truck that rolled over up by Adobe Summit on Mnt. City Hyw.  It was full of mozzarella cheese, and I guess there was cheese just scattered all over the wreck site.  It was broadcast on Facebook and there were scavengers up there loading up trucks with cases of this cheese.  So, we have lots of cheese in our fridge.

Erin had her birthday last week, she said it was good, but kind of low-key.  Our anniversary was on Thursday--27 years!  it was kind of low-key too.  Carly had a basketball game on Tues. and she scored a bucket.  She doesn't play very many minutes, so for her to score 2pts in such a short amount of min. is pretty good.  She played on Sat. in the championship game, but again she didn't get many minutes.  Her team lost by about 8 pts.  

We had our ward Christmas party that night.  We had a Grinch theme, so we had roast beast (beef).  I had to cook one big 20 pound roast.  I cooked it for 6hrs in the oven , but I probably had it on too low a temp.  because when we cut it open it was very red inside.  So, we put it in the church oven and cooked it throughout the rest of the party, and sure enough after 2 more hours it was done, but by then it was time to clean up, and everyone had eaten, so we took home a big side of beef and had it for dinner tonight!  

The Choraliers sang in church today, it was wonderful as always.  It was weird not having a kid up there, but next year Summer will fill in the gap.  I said to her,"next year that will be you up there"  kind of a strange thought.

It has been a cold, grey, drizzly day today.  The snow we had has melted. but it still remains cold.

Keep up the good work you are doing, it sounds like you are really helping change that area for the better.

Love, Mom