Nelson Family Newsletter 2013

 

NELSON FAMILY NEWSLETTER 2013

 

Bill/Rick & Christine. We hope this letter finds you well. We have had a great year (busy!),

much of it on the road traveling to see missionaries, friends and  family (8 children and 27 grandchildren). We have attended the marriages of a number of our missionaries. It is always pure joy to be with them. We will have all the family home for Christmas—45 around the Christmas tree. We are really excited. Bill/Rick loves retired life. We are teaching the Missionary Preparation class in our Church and loving it. It makes us feel connected.

                                                  Children

Ryan & Sarah (Navy Blue T-shirts). Live in Salt Lake with their four kids (ages 4 to 11). The family has had a great year. Sarah ran the Boston Marathon. She finished before the bombs went off. She is still trying to get Ryan to take his car to a real carwash instead of leaving it out in rain storms for free washes. Ryan did break down, however, and bought her a new car.

Tommy (age 6). Decided to try out Todd’s epi-pen (Todd is allergic to bee stings) by giving himself a shot in the stomach (what better place??). Todd told Ryan and Sarah that that would be impossible because he would have had to unlock the trigger, etc. etc. A little voice from Ryan’s lap quietly replied—”I did that.”

Brooke & Dan (Red T-shirts). Live in Minnesota with their five kids, ages 3 to 15. Kids keep them running, especially Elli who is busy year-round  playing soccer. Dan still works for 3-M and Brooke hasgained an increased love of carpools. Their move to the suburbs has been great for the kids, but Brooke and Dan still miss their St. Paul city-living experience.

Sammy (age 4). Brooke’s repeated admonitions to Sammy… “Sammy—you have to quit doing that, PERIOD! Sammy finally replied, “Mom, quit saying period. You make me feel like a sentence.”

Erin & Sverre (Light blue T-shirts). Live in Denver with their six kids, (ages 4 months to 12 years). A big year for Erin and Sverre. Within 2½ weeks (a) one broken jaw and countless stitches (Tait—8 years), (b) three days later another visit to the emergency room--a slash in the forehead from running into the piano (Jane-4 years), (c) the birth of a 9 pound, 14 ounce baby boy, Max (lucky Erin was induced early). Grandma was called out to help babysit. Will (2 years) continues to call her “Grandpa” because he can’t pronounce “Grandma,” and (d) to top it off, Abby (12 years) had to call her parents and remind them that it was their anniversary. Both had forgotten.

Kristen & Mick (Grey T-shirts). Live in Bountiful, Utah with their 5 children (ages 2 to 13). Mick and Kristen were able to run the Boston Marathon together this year. Kristen earned it. Mick won a contest for a free entry into the marathon 3 weeks before the race. They (along with Sarah) finished just 10 minutes before the bombs went off. We went along to support them. We were headed toward the finish line and had fortunately just turned a corner out of harms way when we heard the explosions—a day we won’t forget. 

        Liesel (age 2). Perhaps our bravest granddaughter. At one year old went off a five story waterslide in her mother’s arms (Kristen didn’t have anyone to leave her with). She never made a peep—Liesel that is.

Todd & Rachel (Turquoise T-shirts). Live in Salt Lake with their two kids (ages 4 and 6). Their third child, Lizzie, passed away last year.  Their most exciting news is that they are expecting a baby girl in February! Rachel and Lauren have the same due date. They have been living with us for about a year, but recently bought a home in Salt Lake.

        Drewby (as in Drew, age 4). Had a confrontation with one of his little friends. He was relaying his frustration to his mother…“I am just going to dig a grave, put him in it, and send him to Heaven.”

        Audrey. “Kindergarten is boring. All we do is sit there and learn.”

Lauren & Mike (Brown T Shirts). Still living in San Diego. Mike works in commercial banking and Lauren is still involved with an organization that provides humanitarian care to villagers in Guatemala. The big news is that they are expecting a baby girl in February!! Liam (2 years) is still as cute as ever. Although he is just learning to talk, he knows how to access pictures, videos, and games on Lauren’s I-phone. He is also very much into trucks. He sat looking out the window for over an hour at a giant moving van across the street. Lauren took him over to see it.He slowly walked around the van, bent over, and kissed every wheel on the truck.

Jeff & Rachel (Green T shirts). Proud parents of new baby, Miles, who began crawling at 6½ months! They are living in Los Angeles. Jeff is finishing his MBA at UCLA. Rachel’s big accomplishment was that she ran the St. George marathon and finished (without realizing it) one half hour faster than the year before. She qualified for the Boston!

Scott & Mandy (Blue T-shirts). Big news for them is they had their second baby—Owen. Annie, almost 2,is their first. They are living in Houston. Scott got a job at Ernst and Young, the same company Bill/Rick worked for when he and Christine were first married . Mandy tutors a few students each week—in math,

chemistry and physics!?

     AUTO UPDATE

Awesome Auto Experience #1.  On their way back home from Utah, Erin and Sverre’s van died. The tow truck arrived, loaded the entire van (children and luggage included) on the back (is that legal??), and headed home to Colorado. Three hours and $700 later they arrived safe and sound. Sverre didn’t think the experience was all that much fun. However, the kids thought it was AWESOME!

Awesome Auto Experience #2. Erin, “sneaking” down to the local service station for gas on her mustard yellow Vespa, loaded with her three little kids, helmets and all, was stopped by a policeman who insisted, gas or no gas, she return home immediately. She did. She drove the scooter and the three kids rode home in the back of the police car. The kids (again) thought it was AWESOME! So did Erin--no ticket.

Freeway Fire. On their way to Red Fish Lake (see photo) for the annual family vacation, one of the axle hubs on the boat trailer of the Nelson’s 20 year old ski boat (the barge) caught fire, complete with billowing smoke and leaping flames. Christine, thinking incredibly quickly, put the fire out by squirting it with the family’s vacation supply of water bottles. Incredibly, due to the help of some very kind people, they were able to get the trailer towed to a repair shop, get it fixed, and only be three hours late to Red Fish Lake. On a Saturday! It confirmed our faith in the goodness of people.

Mexico Mishap.  Todd and Rachel got a call the night before they were to leave for Mexico from the owner of the vacation condo. Bad News/Good News. A bus had run into the condo. According to the owner, the outside didn’t look too good, but the inside was great! How is it that the Nelsons were so lucky to be in a condo that got hit by a bus!??!

 

Fender Bender. One fender bender—brand new family Durango. Kristen punched it when the light turned green. The car in front of her didn’t. The other car’s trailer hitch drilled a hole right through the Durango’s license plate, grill, and radiator ($3,000 later). Not surprisingly, the other car emerged unscathed.

We want to thank you all for your on-going love and support. Someone asked Rachel how she was doing. She said fine,  because she could feel the strength of everybody’s prayers. Cute Drewby prays every night that “Lizzie can feel our heart.” We can certainly feel your hearts.

We are especially grateful for Jesus Christ and His Atonement. We know that He will always be by our side. He is our only true hope and will sustain us though all our difficulties.

We love you all.

The Nelsons

News from New York

News from New York. President Nelson and I were in Houston Texas last week for the blessing of our new grandson--son of Scott, our son, and his wife Mandy (Scott and Mandy lived in New Jersey for six months when we were in NY--some of you may remember them). Afterwards, we went to a family dinner. Elder Gifford Nielsen of the Seventy, a friend of Mandy’s family, "happened" to drop by. He had just returned from New York. He had gone there to reorganize the Queens Stake Presidency. President Glass from the Astoria Ward was sustained as the new stake president, replacing President Duffy. President DeLeon and President Erazo (from Richmond Hill) were his counselors. Elder Nielsen said that there was standing room only, both the chapel and the cultural hall. He said that the missionary spirit was really strong—everybody could feel it.

The scriptures say that in the last day the gospel will fill the whole earth. The "whole earth" can also be found in Queens--there are over 120+ languages in Queens alone. The gospel will be carried to all people as well as people carried to the gospel. All of this happened in part 

because of your great work and dedication. Thank you! We love you. 

Missionary Reunion Update

Sister Bassett and Joseph Olson's Sealing - Manti Temple

St. George Marathon

 

 

October 2013                  MISSIONARY REUNION

 

It was wonderful to see all of you at our NYNYSM Missionary Reunion. There was a great turnout--bigger than we expected. Some of the members even in came in from New York . Elder Membayar, his wife, who served a mission on Temple Square , and baby daughter were here from Mongolia .

 

Update. We called President Calderwood for an update that we could pass along to you. He reported that the NYNYSM mission was now up to 268 missionaries—almost 100 more than we had when we left, 90 of them sisters!

In General Conference it was reported that there are now over 80,000 missionaries in the field.

 

Pilot Program. Our mission has also been designated for the Church’s pilot program—an updated approach to finding investigators. In a month or so, each companionship will be given an i-phone and an i-pad. They are encouraged to use Facebook and Blogs, texting, etc. to reach friends, family, etc – with gospel messages. An hour or so of each day will be dedicated to finding new people to teach using the new tools. Missionaries can teach using this new technology in any part of the world—it’s not only confined to mission boundaries. Another of the Church’s purposes is to train missionaries to use these same tools to continue finding and teaching people after they get home. They want our communications to be more meaningful and far-reaching. They want us to be more open in sharing our feelings about the gospel. You are never released from your calling as a missionary. In the future, we would also like to go on a couples mission.

 

President and Sister Nelson. Many asked what we were doing. We are currently teaching the Stake Missionary Preparation Class, mostly made up of high school “men” and 19-year-old young women. We love the calling. It helps us feel connected to missionary work. We also have been in and out of town a lot—mostly attending missionary sealings and visiting grandchildren. It was a “wild” weekend.  Friday morning we were in Manti , Utah for Sister Bassett and Joseph Olson’s sealing. Afterwards, we drove home for our reunion in Salt Lake , and then the next morning left at 5:30 for St. George to see the marathon. We got just in time to see three of our “children”—our daughter, her husband and our daughter-in-law--cross the finish line. Earlier this year, we even made it to Brazil for Elder Cascardi’s wedding. We now have a greater understanding of the phrase, “party like a Brazilian.” The civil ceremony started at 10:00 at night (to be legal, you have to have a civil ceremony before a temple sealing), the dinner started at midnight and the band played until 4 or 5 in the morning (we left “early” and we got home at 3:00 am). Brazil is a wonderful country. San Paulo is huge. The church is very strong there.

 

Again, it was great seeing everybody. We’ll see you in April—same time, same place (your friends are always welcome). Remember, please keep reading the Book of Mormon. We love you.

 

President and Sister Nelson

 

NOTES on REVOLUTIONARY WAR

 President Nelson and I thought we would start a Blog (nysm-nelson.blogspot.com) and post some occasional thoughts or information. This post was patriotically inspired by the fact our family has 11 birthdays in July and mine  (Sis. Nelson) is on July 4th. I have been reading a series of books  (Prelude to Glory by Carter) on the Revolutionary War. Maybe if I had been more of an historian (I am not), the information wouldn’t have surprised me as much as it did.

REVOLUTIONARY WAR

Miracle. The main thing was the miracle it was that we even won the Revolutionary war. The British were the most powerful and wealthiest army in the world. The Continental Army was made up of a random, rag-tag group of Colonists who just wanted to be free.

Soldiers. Many of the men who volunteered as soldiers entered the army assuming that the war would only  last a few months. They didn’t even bother to take any winter clothes with them. The war lasted for eight years (1775-1783). Not only were thousands lost in battle, but thousands died of disease, starvation or frozen to death especially during the winter at Valley Forge where the temperatures dropped below zero. Only one in three soldiers had shoes (Wikipedia). During their nightly two-hour guard duty, they would stand on a felt hat to keep their feet from sticking to the ground. Over 2,500 died at Valley Forge without once even engaging in battle. Many were buried in a mass grave and their families never knew what had become of them.

British. The British were incredulous that they had lost the war to such a “lowly class” of people--farmers, merchants, blacksmiths, etc. Almost immediately after their surrender at Yorktown, the British were lined up, ushered into the boats that would take them back to England. Many were sobbing as they marched to their ships.

Money. The Congress didn’t have any power under the Articles of Federation to tax—thus they had no way of raising money for maintaining an army. The money they did have—that they printed was worthless. Much of the war effort had to be financed by donations from wealthy men, but it wasn’t enough.

Depression/Collapse.  Congress couldn’t pay the soldiers for their services. After the war they returned home broke. They weren’t able to pay their mortgage, their bills, or support their families. In spite of their service in the Continental Army, many were thrown into debtors’ prison--they never received the promised re-numeration from the government. The country was in a deep depression. Their sacrifices for liberty had apparently been for nothing. The country was in chaos and on the verge of collapse.

Constitution. The last effort to save the country from dissolution was the drafting of a new Constitution to replace the Articles  of Confederation, forming a new government.  In Philadelphia, after months of working in the sweltering summer heat, Congress finally ratified it—by 1 vote!! (out of the clear blue a congressman changed his mind at the last minute). Copies of the new document were then sent out to the Thirteen Colonies to be ratified.

Ratification. There was great opposition to ratifying the Constitution. There had never been anything like this form of government in the history of the world—the people had nothing to compare it to. They couldn’t understand how common people working with the educated rich could together govern a country. They feared that it would turn into a similar situation that they had in Europe—isolated groups of people fighting other isolated groups of people and the aristocrats ending up with all the power. Because of the on-going uncertainly, even some of our greatest patriots opposed it. However, the Constitution was eventually ratified, but only after much struggle, infighting, and sacrifice.

I never realized the extent that the hand of the Lord played in America’s fight for liberty. The whole thing was literally an absolute miracle. From a logical standpoint, America should have never won the Revolutionary War.

                 SEMINAR FOR NEW MISSION PRESIDENTS

                                            (Marriot Center, June 23, 2013--Church News)

Dear Missionaries;

We thought you would be interested in some of the changes that are taking place in missions throughout the world as a result of the age changes for missionaries. Many of you may have already read the article.

A talk by Elder David F. Evans at the Mission Presidents’ Seminar contained the following update:

*70,274  - Number of missionaries serving, far surpassing all prior levels.

*85,000  - Number projected to reach later this year

*58  - New missions created

*30% - Less time spent at missionary training centers (MTC). “It was found that missionaries who spent 30 percent less time were just as proficient as those who stayed longer.”

*Sister Training Leader – There will be “the creation of a new leadership calling…the ‘sister training leader,’ who is called to help the mission president train and care for other sister missionaries. Sister training leaders participate in the newly created mission leadership council, which takes the place of the former zone leader council and which includes the wife of the mission president.”

*Internet – “Beginning in certain designated missions in North America, missionaries will begin including the Internet as a tool to find those who are interested in the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.” Some examples are:

            Mormon.org

            lds.org

            Facebook

            chat     

            text messaging 

            video conferencing such as Skype

*Church buildings – “Missionaries will be authorized to use Church buildings where there is already filtered Wi-Fi network for missionary purposes; proselyte on the Internet daily for approximately one hour during less-productive times, usually in the morning; establish a mission Facebook account, etc. At all times, missionaries will monitor each other’s work and “follow the principles of basic missionary safety.”

“We tested online proselyting with almost 3,000 missionaries in 30 different missions. We have found that proper guidelines and instruction, missionaries can and do work and proselyte effectively and safely online.”

Investigators. In another talk by Elder L. Tom Perry, he pointed that as well as working with investigators, missionaries will be focused on members, pointing out that “they are all a part of the work of salvation:” new converts, less-active members, active members (strengthening them) along with family history and temple activity. With the focus on strengthening everybody, missionaries should have very little down time--they will be too busy.

We thought that you would be interested in these updates. Keep up your missionary work. Remember, the Lord has never released you from that calling.

Love, President & Sister Nelson