Elko County Fair time!

Elder Nielsen,

It was the first week of school and it was busy. Monday I had my class until 10 pm at night. I have about 19 students total in my class. 13 in Elko and 6 at the other centers around the state. Summer sunburned her lips in Reno last weekend, so her lips are all blistered. She must have gotten that trait from her father and will have to use sun screen when ever she is outside.

On Wednesday I had a neat little missionary experience. There was this student who is from Reno and got accepted into the nursing program so she is here all by herself. Her mom only makes about $10,000 a year, so the student is doing this all on her own. She had used all her money on Tuition and rent and did not have any money for food, so she came into our office to see if there were any places to help her with food.  Tawny, in my office was calling FISH and a few other places for her so I took her into my office to fill out a FAFSA. She is not a legal resident, so she can't get federal money, but she could qualify for state money. I invited her over for dinner that night at 6:30. And during our conversation, I asked her if she was religious. She told me she was Christian. I asked her what religion she belonged to and she said, none, just christian. So I invited her to go to church with us on Sunday, and she asked me which church. I told her the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day saints. And she told me she had met 2 ladies on Monday that had invited her to church. I asked her if they had name badges on and she said yes. She said I think it is the same church. I told her it was. She also had a friend from Reno High school that went on a mission and had invited her to church, but things never materialized. So I said come over for dinner and I will invited the YSA sister missionaries and they can teach you what we believe. She said ok. The sisters had appointments from 6-9 that night. So I said if something falls through come over. 

I did not get a hold of mom until 6 pm to tell her we had someone coming for dinner, but thankfully mom had some things she was making testing out for Amber's reception here next week. So she (Iris) came over and we had a good dinner and the sisters, then texted me and said they could be here at 7:15 pm. So I told them to come on over. And they had a quick discussion with her, and soft set her for baptism. She is the sweetest little girl. She is Mexican and her mom only talks spanish. While she was in my office we had to call her mom to get some answers to questions on the FAFSA. And I spoke to her mom in spanish. So here is the time frame. Met her at 3:30 pm, dinner at 6:30 pm and lesson at 7:15 pm and soft set for baptism. The spirit was very strong in our home that evening and the sister missionaries are amazing. The one sister was just transferred in to this area a few weeks ago and she is spanish speaking. And she is on a tennis scholarship at BYU Hawaii. And Iris loves tennis and played on Reno high schools tennis team. Do you think these are just coincidences? It is amazing how the Lord has his hand in every thing in his work. We had been praying as a family to find someone for the missionaries to teach in our home as it has been over a year ago that we had the Filipino family taught here before Cody's mission. So it has been too long.  We scheduled another discussion for Saturday at 2:30 pm. Right during Summer's soccer game as that is when she said she could do it. But as always happens with these golden investigators, we were here waiting with 4 sisters missionaries and she never showed up or responded to my text or call.

She was working 2 jobs before that and Friday night told Dos Amigos that she would have to quit due to her school schedule and she was working at the Manor and her boss told her she could work Sat and Sun for 8 hours a day. So I don't know if they switched her schedule that fast or not. But we were disappointed. She still has some paper work to follow up with at the college so I hope to see her there and find out what happened.

Summer had a soccer game out in spring creek on Friday and they won 4-2 against Jerome, ID. She played the entire game on Friday. On Saturday they played Pahrump and lost 1-0. She started and played most of the game, but got subbed out once. Then Saturday afternoon they played Spring Creek and I wanted to see that game, but came back in for the discussion that never happened. They beat SC 1-0.  She is getting lots of playing time and Erin needs to work with her to show her how to use her body and shield people. If she could learn that she would be a ton better.

BYU played Arizona and won 18-16. BYU lead the entire game and Arizona scored a touchdown with 1:30 to go in the game to go ahead 16-15. But BYU went down and a freshman kicker with his 1st college kick, kicked a 37 yard field goal with 5 seconds to go in the game and BYU won. BYU playes Utah next weekend. Taysom Hill started and Ty Detmer is the offensive coordinator. So It will be exciting to see what happens this year.

Elko beat Wooster in football on Friday night 20-13.  But Elko is still weak. Also, 2 of the top 5 teams in the nation lost on the 1st weekend, 1st time since 1972. LSU lost to Texas A&M, and Oklahoma lost to Houston. You got to love college football.

We had good meetings today at church. Our family fasted for Iris. We will see what happens. I have to go meet with a few people and set up a budget for them this afternoon before they get help from Bishop Olsen.

Keep working hard. Be the example of how a missionary should be. We love you and pray for you daily. Have a super week. Tomorrow is Labor Day so we will be working to get every thing ready for next weekend with Amber and Kevin's reception here. Kevin made it back safely all by himself from Michigan on Friday.

We love you,

DAD

Dearest Elder Nielsen,

We got through the first week of school.  I didn't think I would like the later seminary start since that's the window of time when I could go running, but I kinda like it.  I have more time to finish the paper route and since I don't have a kid at Adobe I don't have take kids to school until 7:45 am.  I really like my crossguard schedule.  I don't do the kindergarten lunch at Mountain View anymore since they have gone to All-Day Kindergarten.  So, my days are open from the morning to the afternoon, and I can do things uninterrupted--it's wonderful.  This week I will be doing stuff for the final push for Amber and Kevin's Open House this next Saturday.  I feel pretty good about everything, I think it's going to be great.  It's kind of fun to see how all my visions of what I hope it will look and feel like come to pass.  We will send pictures.  I've been trying to spiff up the yard all summer.  It's not spectacular, but the grass is really healthy.  Our peach tree(s) are loaded this year with big peaches.  Some are the size of softballs!  The limbs are so heavy that they are breaking, and we have to prop them up with 2x4s.  Erin thought it looked like the "Whomping Willow" because all the branches are splayed out.  We went to the fair yesterday and checked out the fruits that were entered into the fair and we would have taken the prize I'm sure.  The peaches that were entered were barely bigger than golf ball size.  We were too busy to get over there and enter our crop this year.  

We went to Dinner in the Park on Thursday night.  I bought 2 tickets from Jer-Bear and then the Barkers gave us their tickets since they were going to be gone taking Hannah up to BYU -I.  So, all the kiddos got to go.

Adelaide seems kind of indifferent about school.  She likes it, but its not like she has all her clothes laid  out every night. On thursday last week she actually didn't want to go.  She said she had a sore throat and then her foot hurt.  She had slept late and only had about 15min. to get herself dressed, and she wasn't doing it.  I told her she would be going in her night gown if she didn't change.  I had to physically help her get dressed and get her in the car.  Once we got to school she was fine.  After school she was happy.  She said a boy chased her at recess and another girl wants to play after school sometime.  I guess that means she has found some friends.  She is getting tall.  She said the other day, "I am getting so tall, I can reach the butter now"  (in the fridge).

I subbed a paper route for a gal yesterday.  I had never done her route before, but Sadie had and said, it was confusing.  So, I told her I would do it if she made a detailed map of where to go because I like seeing an overall map than trying to go off a list.  Well, she made a map, but none of the boxes that represented houses had an address next to them!  So, I had to figure out where I was and count houses, it took longer, because I had to keep checking where I was in reference to the corner of each street.  I wasn't even done and realized I didn't have enough of the inserts to finish.  Summer had her soccer game in SC which  was about to start, so the guy at the Free Press was nice and finished it for me.  Summer played the whole game, she runs a lot and plays hard.  The team isn't as dominate as when Erin was playing, so we'll see.  They beat Jerome 4-2 .

Ruth Garvin's sister attended our ward today (the one that talked to you about the Philippines)  She said they had house help when she served.  Ward members that were paid to do their laundry and cook for them.  I said that you hadn't mentioned anything like that.  So, do you do all that stuff for yourself?  She said that as an assistant you will be able to see the whole mission and that you will be in every apt. and will travel with the Pres. a lot.  Have fun with that!

Amber and Kevin are reunited!  She flew back to ID two weeks ago to start school and Kevin stayed to finish the internship and then drove back out west all by his lonesome wednesday and met up with AmBam in SLC for Lindsey De Angleos sealing. I,m so happy they are back ! Have a great week.  We are trying to be missionaries here too (Dad wrote all about it, so I won't)  We love you lots,

Love, Mom