January is almost pau!

Dear Elder Nielsen,

Well here we are and another week has flown by. This past week has been crazy at work as classes started today and we have been trying to get everyone paid.  Monday was a holiday, Martin Luther's day and we stayed at home and worked around the house trying to get every thing back in order from the wedding.  We returned all the item to people that mom had borrowed from the wedding.

On Tuesday, mom and I started our coaching of Summer's PAL team.  I think we will be ok, not great. We are kind of rough around the edges, but hopefully we can smooth them out and get a good team together.  We had practice on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings.  We only have 8 girls on our team and we are yet to have a practice with all 8 there.  Carly has been practicing with us.  It is hard to not have 5 on 5 in practice.  Addie gets out there and dribbles and likes to run and do the drills with the girls so that is fun to see.

On Wednesday night we had practice and then Summer and I went to the church for the Face to Face with Elder Rasband and the YW and YM general presidents.  But the church did not have WIFI.  So Summer went to Sister Whittakers house and I came home and watched in on my ipad.  It was really good.

Friday, Elko played at Dayton and on Sat. they played at South Tahoe.  Elko won big against Dayton, but struggled against So. Tahoe. Eric only had like 8 points on Friday and 13 on Sat. He is averaging 26 a game so way below his average. Cole Smith is in the starting line up now for Angelo Jones.  But they pulled out the win and are 8-0 in league going into the 2nd half.  They play Spring Creek tomorrow at Elko, so that will be interesting again.

Sat. I went in to my office and worked for about 7-8 hours.  But I am still behind.  I need to have a big week this week. It will be Denver Broncos against the Carolina Panthers in the Super Bowl in a couple weeks. I am happy that Denver beat the Patriots. We watched BYU play on Thursday night and Sat night on TV, they won Thurs. but lost to Pepperdine on Sat.  They seem to be up and down, not very consistent.

Sunday was a good day. We had good meetings at church and then mom and I went home teaching and visited with Sister Deeda Harris and the Sargeants. We had good visits with both.  Sister Harris is all alone and I think she did not want us to leave. She enjoyed our visit.

So a little missionary story for you.  When I was in Winnemucca, I was meeting with a student and I sneezed and my cracked rib hurt when I did that and she asked me what was wrong.  And I said I had cracked a rib playing bball a couple weeks ago and she asked 'church ball'?  I said no, not church ball, but I have played plenty of church ball. And I asked her what she knew about church ball.  She said that she was LDS and that the GBC lady had told her that I was LDS before she met with me.  I said that is great that you are a member.  I asked as a follow up, "Who is the stake President now in Winnemucca?"  She said, actually, I don't know I am not active in the church.  So I jumped all over that.  I said you need to be active. You need to start going back to church.  You need to start today, what a better time than the present.  I told her "We have a new year, a new month, start today". She said that she cusses like a truck driver.  So I said stop that now.  And she said I am working on it.  I have not cussed today. She also told me her dad has passed away last week and she had been thinking a lot about going back to church. He was really active in the church.  I asked her how she was handling the passing of her father and she said not very well.  So I went on to tell her about the passing of my parents and how those were some of the most spiritual days I have had.  I could feel the comforting peaceful feeling of the Holy Ghost and we were sad, but we never shed any tears.  I told her you need that H.G. in your life to comfort you and give you peace.  I promised her that if she would go back to church and keep the commandments, that she and her family would be blessed beyond comprehension.    She asked me if she had to go to all three meetings and I said no, just start our with the Sacrament meeting and work you way up.  I also told her that I wanted her to return and report.  I want to hear how her life has changed after she starts attending church and keeping the commandments. She told me her husband was not a member and that was hard.  He got hurt at work and is laid off and she is going back to school to provide for her family. Any way we had a really good visit.  That was around the 13th of January.  She called me last week and was asking me about her financial aid, and I told her I was working on it, but I hoped that she would not start cussing at me for not having it done. (nice lead in to follow up with our discussion) So I asked her how she was doing and if she had been to church.  She said no, but she had been to the store and bought church clothes and was planning on attending Sunday. (yesterday)  I had told mom about it and she asked me how long she had been inactive.  So I asked her when she called me how long has it been since you went to church.  She said she had lived in Winnemucca for 26 years and had been to church 1 in that time period.  I am really excited for her. I told her she needs to take her kids.  She said, I know, that is what my dad would always tell me.  She said her 17 year old daughter wanted to go to church with her, but her son asked what do they do there?  So she was going to check it out 1st before her son who is around 12 goes.

I will have to let you know how that turns out.  But I was thinking, coincidence?? That I was there meeting with her and the lady who works at GBC told her I was LDS.  I don't think so. Not for a minute. Heavenly Father knows when people are ready and puts people in their path to help them come back and partake of the good fruit of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I feel extremely blessed that he would use me in those situations.  You all know how I am. I don't hold back for a minute when I see an opportunity to invite someone to come unto Christ.  I love this gospel with all my heart. I love my wonderful family.  Mom and I comment often how blessed we are to have some of the most precious children on the planet.  You kids are all wonderful and we love you so much.

My dad always use to say, he had the best kids in the world.  He would say you might find some equally as good, but none better.  I feel the same way.

Well Elder Nielsen, keep fighting the good fight. Keep working hard and relying on the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Pray to have the enabling power of the atonement make you better than you are and make you a better missionary than you could possibly be without it.  The atonement is great, not only the redeeming part but the enabling part as well.

We love you and pray for you always.  Have a super week.  Also, Ruth Bott received her mission call the Buenos Aires Argentina West mission.  So we are excited about that.  I am sure it takes in part of my mission as that did not exist when I was there.

Love,

DAD

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

This month has really flown by.  There was all the build up to the wedding, then it was finally here-- and it was wonderful. Now life has pretty much settled down .  It's still been cold and we're still getting snow.  Monday, the girls didn't have school because of Martin Luther King Day.  Dad and I returned some things I had borrowed for the wedding and I went around dropping off leftover loaves of nutbread to people who had helped out.  I just about have everything back to normal.  We are still going to be busy though, because PAL basketball has started up for Summer.  Dad and I agreed to coach this year.  The twins have moved on to high school, (one of them is actually on the frosh girls basketball team! I wonder how she likes running?)  We had our first practice on tues. and we were really happy with our team.  The girls are really sweet and willing to listen and try hard.  Summer is looking pretty good.  She does really well on her lay-ups and has the best looking shot on the team. We had practice just about every night last week.  Dad is a good coach. The girls returning from last year were happy we were back.  One mom told us that no one had been able to  help her daughter to learn the correct form on a lay-up until she was on Dad's team.

Chica was up by the Johnson's house and the dog catcher was patrolling our street and she ran back to the porch, and was "guarding it" according to the officer.  We got a warning citation.  We had to get her licensed within the next 5 days, and show that to the police station, to get it settled.  In order to get the license we had to prove she was up on her rabies vaccine.  I knew she was probably due for another.  So, I made an appt, with the vet and we got her shot.  She was kind of nervous and when I held her head she tried to nip at him, as he was giving her the shot.  Of course, she wee weed all over the floor too.  But now she's legal and healthy and that's good.

Friday was also a no school day, because the teachers's had training that day.  I worked in the basement trying to organize all the Christmas decorations since I hadn't actually packed them up.  We are trying to get our house in order and get rid of stuff we don't need.  We will get that basement finished!
Life is pretty good right now, I feel overwhelmingly blessed.  All my kids are doing good things and are strong in the gospel and that feels wonderful.  I hope you were able to visit your less actives and see success with them.  Have a super week! love you, Mom