Another Week Gone

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Here we sit to write another letter.  The weeks keep blowing by very quickly.  We had PAL practice on Monday evening.  Mom says our practices are a lot more effective without the 2 twins holding us back.

Tuesday I had to drive to Jackpot High school for FAFSA day.  We had good weather so that was good.  I always enjoy going to Jackpot as I get to use my spanish talking with the parents of the students.  That evening I had to go to Wells High school for FAFSA night. So after Jackpot, I drove back to Wells and hung out at Burger King as they had free WiFi. So I was in there for 2 hours or so doing tax returns and checking emails etc. I had to be at Wells HS at 5:30 pm and was there until about 7:30 pm. The counselors at the schools there are so appreciative of me coming and talking to the students and parents. That is one of my favorite parts of my job.  Getting out and meeting and talking to new people.  I enjoy it very much. (But I am kind of shy at times. ha ha) I got back at around 8:30 pm and was tired. 

On Wednesday we had another PAL practice.  

On Thursday, I started meeting with people to do their taxes, so tax season is officially on.  We had our 1st PAL game on Thursday and we got blown out. We played Suzie Beatty's team and they have a team made up of all the good players from Carly's age with Marina Vera and a few other good players. I thought most of the teams would be playing zone defense and had not put in a man to man offense yet, so our girls could not do much.  We turned the ball over a lot.  I was getting frustrated as I really wanted to beat them. But I will put in a man to man offense and we should get better.  One of our better players hurt herself in practice the night before so she really could not play and do much. They beat us like 40-8 or something like that.  But we will learn and get better. I hope we meet them again. Summer had 4 out of the 8 points.  Carly is playing with us and she did well as well. She is playing a lot better on our team than she did on her team her own age.  She and Summer just need more coaching and more confidence in themselves. We need to work on their ball handling skills.  They get nervous and pick up their dribble and then throw the ball away.  After our game, Summer and I went to YMYW. It was the combined activity and we watched The Other side of Heaven. I really like that movie and enjoy seeing all the Polynesians.  With Amber serving her mission in Hawaii, the Polynesians are special people to us like this Hispanics.

On Friday, Elko was playing in Fallon and in Fernley on Saturday. The Fallon girls are 27-0 this year and beat Elko girls who was in 2nd place by more than 40 points and the mercy rule was in place. Elko boys beat Fallon by 11 I think. A few of Fallon kids, 1 was their leading scorer got kicked off the team for partying.  They seem to do that a lot in Fallon. Elko beat Fernley by quite a few points.  I was watching BYU playing bball on BYUTV and they got beat. They seem to struggle this year. 

On Saturday morning I did the clock for the freshman boys and girls teams. Then we had a PAL game at 1 pm. But I was 1/2 hour late getting to the game. We played Wendover and were up by a bunch when I got there. So mom had them all under control. Perhaps mom should coach them more often. Wendover was not very good.  We beat them like 38-18 or something. Summer said she had 8 points. The game was in hand by time I got there.

Today was fast Sunday and we had good meetings. There was a couple wanting assistance from the church that came to church, the lady had been in jail for the past 3 months. So asked the missionaries if they had gospel essential planned and they said they did not, so I took them with the missionaries into a class room and I taught them the plan of salvation. They seemed to be fairly interested. I told the missionaries to jump in and add any thing they wanted to the lesson and they did not say hardly any thing at all.  Then after the meetings, I sat down with them and went over a budget with them before the bishop met with them.

We had the missionaries over for our "souper bowl sunday" meal. Mom made 3 kinds of soup with bread sticks. Denver is playing the Carolina panthers and I saw that Denver was up 13-7 at half time.

We are excited to hear how your lesson went with the 300-400 college students. We have been praying all week that their hearts would be touched and that many of them would want to know more.

Keep working hard.  I was talking to my sister Sharon last night and we were talking about the plan of salvation. She read a quote from Neal Maxwell that said basically every thing we do on this earthly life will prepare us for the more grander scale of the spirit world.  The same work is going on in the spirit world but the scale is 10 time larger and the hastening needs to happen there as well. It was interesting to think that what we are doing here, will prepare us for the next life in our work there with the spirits.

Have a super week, we love you and pray for you always. Remember to be the very best representative of Jesus Christ that you can be. Think, act, talk and teach as he would.

I sent you those freezing rain videos, hopefully you were able to see them.

Love,

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

Wow, I can't believe that another week has passed.  The time is just flying by.  We have been wondering and praying about your special assignment to speak to the college students. So, how did that go?  

This week we had our first PAL basketball games.  We have recruited Carly to play for us as well, since we were unsure if one of the girls was actually going to stay on the team.  She had been a "no-show" at practice for the last week and we weren't able to get in touch with her, and so we thought she had decided to quit.  She is back now, apparently she was hurt or something, but we are keeping Carly anyway.  She is the tiniest little girl out there, but she played hard and did well.  She is "playing up" against 7th and 8th graders, so that is good for her.  Because of Erin's wedding we postponed practice the start of our first week, so we had kind of a late start, and to make matters worse our first game was against the Beatty's team.  They have a lot of good players (too many in my opinion) and they pretty much demolished us.  8-42.  But, we will take that adversity and use it as motivation to improve.  Summer is playing with a lot more confidence this year.  Her shot is coming along too.  Our second game on Sat. we played West Wendover.  They were weak and we beat them easily.  Summer had 8 points that game and she is getting better with every game.

We doggy-sat Mel, the cocker spaniel this past week for the Smith Family.   He is a funny dog.  The first night he was perfect, the second night he was winey and wimpering when we were going to sleep, and so I had to put him down in the basement, so he didn't bother us as much.  We think he gets to sleep with their kids and he's a bit spoiled that way, because one time we let him back in the house after he had gone outside and he came racing in and ran all around crazy-like and then jumped right up on Dad's lap when he was in the recliner taking a little snooze.  It really startled him!

Today was the Super Bowl.  That probably feels like a million miles away for you.  We didn't watch it.  We are really trying to keep the Sabbath day holy-- there has been a big emphasis on that topic from the General Leadership.   Summer had to watch the National Anthem as part of her choir ass.  Lady Gaga sang it and she did a great job,  that lady can sing.  The final was 24-10 Denver Broncos over the Carolina Panthers.  We had soup for dinner, and we had the missionaries over to eat.  I made 3 different kinds of soup.  Dad had gone out on splits with them on Saturday.  Tomorrow is Chinese New Year, so I will make potstickers and the other menu items we usually do. It is the year of the monkey.

I hope you have a great week, it has been a real blessing to have you out on your mission.  We are so pleased you are doing so well.  Love you lots, Mom