A New Year

Elder Nielsen,

We were glad to hear you had a 'herd' of investigators show up to your party. That sounds like the Spanish Branch here.  We would always gets 50+ for our parties and the next day only about 20-30 in church.

Not much has happened since we last wrote you.  We had a mild New Years.  I had to finish some CPE on New Year's Eve and got it done around 7:30 pm. We just had a little meal, watched some New Years come in for other time zones and went to bed.  It was still extremely cold -17 doing the paper routes in the mornings.  I felt bad for mom doing it by her self so I helped her Friday and Saturday.  I was feeling better to go to New Mexico for David's blessing, but I was a little worried about the suburban and the inside of both front tires were wearing down very badly.  I noticed it before we went to Utah to see David a few weeks ago. I called Les Schwab and they were closed for New years day.  So I thought I could take it in 1st thing Sat. morning and have them look at it. They said when they took the tires off the tire rob fell apart in their hands which he said was very dangerous.  The guy said they should never come loose like that and if it would have come apart when we were on the highway it would have been very dangerous.  So we had them replace the tire rods so we would not have to worry about that.  They did not get it done until about 4 pm.  But at least hopefully it will fix that issue and we don't have to worry about it.

So we just stay home all weekend and tried to do some house cleaning and wedding preparation.  Elko played Lowry on Sat in Winnemucca and both boys and girls varsity won their games.  I think that is the 1st time the girls have beaten Lowry in 2 or 3 years. The Elko boys won by 13 points  67-54 and Eric Klekas had 37 points.  So that was a good win. Lowry and Fallon were suppose to be the tough teams this year and Fallon already has 3 losses.  I think Fernley is tougher this year. We play Spring Creek at S.C. on Tuesday.  We will see how that game goes.

Clemson beat Oklahoma and Alabama beat Michigan State, so it will be Clemson vs Alabama for the National Finals.  I was voting for the 2 teams that lost.

We now meet for church at 11 am so we should start writing out letters in the mornings on Sunday.  We hope you have a great week. We just talked to Chelsea and every thing went well with David's blessing.  He appears to be putting on the weight a little better now.  

2016 will be a great year for you as you will have the entire year to dedicate to the Lord.  What a marvelous privileged to be a special representative of the Lord.  Enjoy every second of it.  Work as hard as you can and put your entire trust in the Lord and he will bless you.  It sounds like you are already being blessed.

We love you and pray for you daily.

Love,

Dad

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

We have had a relaxing 2 week vacation, but now its time to get back to real life.  We had planned to go over to Farmington for David's blessing, but that didn't happen.  Dad had a stressful week with trying to finish CPE that was due by the end of the year, and then being sick with what we think is pneumonia. He hasn't slept well all week with all the night coughing.  Then we had the issue with the Suburban tires wearing out unevenly, that caused us some concern.  I soo wish it could have happened, but it just didn't.  We want to go out to visit little David this summer and then we will have more time as well.

It is still really cold, but I have been wearing the big, long coat of Dads when I do the papers along with the wool pants I wore hunting and I have not been cold at all except for my face.  I remember you would wear that big thing, it almost makes me sweat!  I think we are over the worst of it.

I have been baking up a storm.  We are serving apple cider and assorted nut breads, and cheeseball with crackers.  I need to make 6 loaves a day this week.  I have been wrapping them up and putting them in the freezer.  It's coming together, but I will be really busy for the next 2 weeks.  If  I see something that needs to be fixed or cleaned here at home and I think...ATW (After the Wedding).  I think it will be wonderful, but I woke up this morning at 4:30 this morning--wide awake, and my mind starts thinking of all the things I still have to do.

Well, this is going to be short since there hasn't been that many days since my last letter.  I hope you  continue to do well.  I think your feast looked great.  Aren't you glad you learned how to cook on all those sundays?

Thanks for answering my questions.  Love, Mom

PS  Hannah Blach is getting baptized, did you know her from HS/Choraliers?  Memori Barker told me that last week when we were at the library.  She works there now and so we see/talk to her every week. She really likes our family and even volunteered to make some nut breads, I gladly took her up on her offer.