Cruisin' through March

Hola Elder Nielsen,

Another week in the books. On Monday evening after work I went over to Gabriela and Jaun Marquez house to prepare their taxes for them and Gabi's mother. Tuesday we had PAL practice. On Wednesday, I went to Elko high school to interview members of the junior class for the pretend job interviews. On Wednesday evening we had PAL practice. On Thursday, I had the compensation and benefits committee meeting which I am the chair of that committee. So I had to get an agenda prepared and items to go over. I am always glad when that is over. Thursday for Young men, we fixed flags for the boys scouts to do their flags with on the holidays. A lot of them we replaced the wires on them with plastic tie cords. Friday at work, I had our Nevada system financial aid directors meeting all day. Friday evening, we did not go any where as that was the only day of the week, I could relax and stay at home.

On Saturday, mom and I did the paper route and then we went to Summers volleyball games. After her games we went with the Hiles and the Wilkenson's to clean the church. The girls wanted to shoot the basketball afterwards. Then we came home and I worked on taxes all afternoon. 

Sunday we went to church, we had the missionaries over for dinner. Then I went to talk to a non-member about budgeting who is wanting assistance from the Bishop, but his roommate said he was asleep and sick. Mom and I went home teaching to the Sargeants and the Christiansens. I love visiting with the families we have to visit. They are great people. They all ask how Cody is doing, and we tell them, great.

Today was the selection Sunday to see who is going dancing for March Madness. I don't think BYU will make it this year as they did not win their league or the Tournament and did not have any big wins against big teams.

Summer and I have been working on family history trying to find her 5 names to take on trek. I got an email this week that said there was a name on my line that needs temple work and I looked her up and I think there are a great many more related to her that need temple work done. So it was a mini gold mine for family history work. We have not had time today to go in an do more research.

I just checked and the number 1 seeds are Kansas, Oregon, North Carolina, and Virginia.  Utah utes are a 3 seed and Weber state made it in as a 15 seed. So we will see what happens. This is one of my favorite times of the year -- March Madness.

Also, I was talking to someone about the elko baseball team and the suspensions, and I guess Colt Jorgenson was one that got caught drinking that night as well, but he got caught again the 2nd time, so he his not allowed to play high school sports any more. So that is a huge loss. Elko played that tourny in Reno and they lost 2 games and tied McQueen 4-4. So we will see how this year goes.

Any way, not a whole lot more to report. We love you and are pleased that you are a missionary.  Take time to think and reflect on how special this time period is, when you are the Lord's special representative. Enjoy every second as the time passes by too quickly. Have a super week. I believe the PAL tournament starts this week, so we will see how that goes.

Keep working hard and being exactly obedient it every regard. The Lord will bless you for your faithfulness.

Love

DAD

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

I don't know where last week went, the weeks are just blowing by!  Do you feel that way?  You seemed happy to be staying with your comp. in this same area.  You mentioned that the hottest part of the year is in April, so is it starting to get super hot?  Do you think you are getting climatized to it?  From your pictures it doesn't look like your weight has changed at all.  Do you spend all day walking?  

OK this week...  pretty usual stuff, we had PAL practice on tues and wed.  I sure do like this group of girls, they have really good attitudes, which is good because we don't have a lot in the skills department, but we are getting  better!  We are done with the regular season and are just waiting for the tournament schedule to be put out.  We should start games this week.

Ruth Garvin was called as seminary teacher two weeks ago and so she asked me if I wanted to take her cross guarding spot at Adobe in the mornings.  I said , "yes", since I have to take Summer there anyway its not a big deal.  We leave about 30 min. sooner than we did before, so now, Summer isn't streaking in before the tardy bell anymore. Its extra money so thats good.  Ruth would wave at nearly every car that passed, she must know a lot of people or she was just overly friendly.  I do not wave at every car, that is just me.  I am not that outgoing.  I actually have been using that time in the mornings when I am just standing there to "ponderize" scriptures and other stuff.  The past 2 weeks I have memorized all the US presidents in order, maybe that's kind of random, but I wanted to do it.

Saturday, Summer had her last volleyball game day, then we cleaned the church , then Dad came home and worked on taxes and I did some work in the yard and vacuumed out the van.  It was sooo dirty!  I hadn't vacuumed it all winter, and there was a lot of dirt and grit in there from all the snow boots and stuff.

Our fridge pooped out last Sunday.  I went to get the milk out for breakfast and the light wouldn't work, and it wasn't humming.  When that happened before, we defrosted it and then when we plugged it back in it started working again.  So, all this week it has been out of commission.  Its been a little challenging, but we have been emptying out all the food, and eating stuff before it goes bad.  We hope its a minor problem, and that we won't have to replace it, its not that old. 

Our ward is really shrinking.We had 91 people in church today.  Some families were gone, but in general our ward has more people that move out than people moving in.  I went  Home Teaching with Dad tonight to visit the Christiansens and the Sargeants.  Cade said the Choraliers were leaving Wed. for their Hawaii trip.

Well, have a great week.  Be nice to your companion, help make his last weeks in the mission the best!  We had the missionaries for dinner tonight and the one said he was considered an "assassin", meaning he had "killed" at least 3 companions.  Crazy mission lingo!  Love you my boy, Mom