KK6b1g Nelson Family: 1/8/17 Snow days/ Cold days

Dear Africa,

It is cold here!!! -26 and real feel -42, earlier in the week on Dad's phone. NO school due to the New Year on Monday. School was cancelled on Thursday and Friday. It is snowing again today. It is supposed to rain tomorrow with flood warnings?!?

The sad news is that we haven't seen Hobbes since about Monday. We fear he is in the Haight's barn a little bit colder than is healthy.

Pace turned the big 16 on Monday. We had a ice cream sandwich tower with lots of flames on top. The question of the day- Do you have ice cream in Ghana? He was ordained a priest today with Porter standing in the circle. I realized this week that it is another milestone year, you will turn 20, Porter 18, Pace 16, Tad will become a Teacher, and Sadie will turn a big 12!!!

On Friday Porter and Pace helped me build 4 shoe shelves for the mudroom and coat room. Happy Mom! Grandpa gave me a bunch of woodworking equipment and, for a steal of a deal, I traded the computer recycler for a couple of pallets of old shelving to repurpose. I'll send you a picture after I sand and paint them.

Grandma Nikki got the results of her biopsy back and as posted on facebook....

Want to hear some more great news? Got the pathology report back from my thyroid operation. The part they took out is benign!!!! No cancer!!!! How about that for a miracle? If there is no cancer in that side of the thyroid, the other side must be okay too. So half a thyroid will probably last me for the rest of my life. Tender mercies continue. Love you all. Thanks for the prayers and the priesthood blessings and the promptings from the spirit.

Saturday was the best Nelson Volleyball Party yet. We were in charge of coordinating the food which entailed 6' Subway sandwiches and an amazing ice cream bar. I even made a relish tray that resembled an owl. We had some awesome volleyball games especially because Pace and Tad are SO tall. They are fun to play with. All the Thompson boys and a Weekes relative were there which made it extra, extra fun. Nichole was there from NY and she had some fun stories. Her and Brian won a you-tube contest. They made a video for it that was super hilarious. It was to get a grant for fertility help. We took the ping-pong table to the party and instead of taking it back downstairs, it has a temporary spot in the dining room. Pace won the tournament tonight. Porter stayed home sick....which is just our luck that we have been healthy all 3 weeks of break and now we are trying to go back to school.

We heard from a facebook post via his mom about Elder Peterson getting sick this week.

Please keep Elder Kevin Peterson in your prayers today and if you are fasting, please fast for him. We just got a phone call from his mission president, President Cosgrave. Kevin woke up fine this morning and by 10:00 a.m. he and his companion were out working. By noon he was home in bed with stomach pain, at 3:00 it was bad enough that he went to the mission home, President Cosgrave is a physician (tender mercy) and by 5:00 Kevin was in the hospital with an iv for fluids and antibiotics and was on morphine. He has a low grade fever, slightly elevated white blood cell count, a possible kidney infection and a very large gall stone. Depending on how he responds to treatment and further test results, he will either have emergency surgery in Kumasi at a very large teaching hospital or if they can stabilize him, control his pain, etc... they will send him home for surgery. I am praying he is able to come back to the States to have surgery here. He would be here for roughly a three week recovery time and then hopefully would be allowed to return to complete his mission in Ghana. We were able to speak with him briefly and he was in good spirits although still in some pain. President Cosgrave will call us again tomorrow to let us know what will happen.

Wow, what a change so quick. How are the missionaries in your apartment feeling? How is your companion doing? I hope better. Your pictures look great so I haven't worried about you. Nice haircut!!

I love the picture of you with the group of people and the dusty sky in the background. Who are they?

No major inspirational stories, just plugging along day by day, just being "sensible parents."

We did have two primary baptisms on Saturday. One of which was of a girl, Markessa Gasser, of a part active family. We have a baptism date set for the Marsden boys, Zac and Zaide on Jan 21st. They have been meeting with the missionaries. Zaide was one of my cub scouts last year. When I prayed for mission opportunities about 2 years ago I was put into cub scouts where half of the 12 boys were non members or inactive. At that time 5 out of the 6 ladies I visit taught or visit taught with were non-members or inactive. That was an answer to a prayer in an unexpected way.

Normally I would be really excited, but I have tried to get these families to church, but with no real success at all, so I have kind of privately discouraged the baptisms. I am not really confident that either Markessa or Zac or Zaide's baptisms will increase their attendance on Sunday, which is pretty spotty right now. Not sure what to do....try our hardest...... leave it up to the bishop and missionaries....leave it up to the Lord. I know I can't see the whole picture....feeling the weight of being Primary President. Any advice?

We called some new primary teachers and there were a couple of divine matches we realized after the fact. We have two boys with autism that can be challenging. They are twins. I felt drawn to have a new young couple in our ward fill the spot and they are great. The husband said he grew up with a guy with autism that had the same kind of things going on. They love the calling, they have the energy and have none of the baggage of knowing the history. Another situation was Sister Burgie who was in nursery, but has had three major joint replacements in the last 3 months. She needed something a little less physically demanding so we moved her up into senior primary. She was Dad's art teacher. And without realizing it we put her with another graphic designer who works out of her home. They do great together.

There are constant problems to solve in this calling. It is just a revolving door. I dream of being oblivious. It is such a peaceful life. An article's first paragraph in the Dec Ensign caught my attention, "A mission is Preparation for the Rest of Your Life" .

On your mission you learned to plan while adapting to change. You learned to talk to strangers, teach gospel lessons, bounce back from rejection, and build positive relationships. You learned to set goals, exercise discipline, be accountable, and start again after setbacks, You learned to get along with different people -- companions, members and investigators. You learned to study and pray consistently and rely on the Lord, During periods when you were uncomfortable in your role, you learned one of the greatest skills of adulthood: to be more comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Pres. Uchdorf's message this month was another golden one.

Recently, I watched a group of people practicing the art of archery. Just by watching, it became clear to me that if you really want to master the bow and arrow, it takes time and practice.

I don’t think you can develop a reputation for being an accomplished archer by shooting at an empty wall and then drawing targets around the arrows. You have to learn the art of finding the target and hitting the bull’s-eye.

Painting Targets

Shooting first and drawing the target afterward may seem a little absurd, but sometimes we ourselves mirror that very behavior in other circumstances of life.

As Church members, we sometimes have a tendency to attach ourselves to gospel programs, issues, and even doctrines that seem interesting, important, or enjoyable to us. We are tempted to draw targets around them, making us believe we are aiming at the center of the gospel.

This is easy to do.

Throughout the ages we have received excellent counsel and inspiration from prophets of God. We also receive direction and clarification from various publications, handbooks, and manuals of the Church. How easy it would be to select our favorite gospel topic, draw a bull’s-eye around it, and then make a case that we have identified the center of the gospel.

The Savior Clarifies

This is not a problem unique to our day. Anciently, religious leaders spent a great deal of time cataloging, ranking, and debating which of the hundreds of commandments was the most important.

One day a group of religious scholars attempted to draw the Savior into the controversy. They asked Him to weigh in on an issue upon which few could agree.

“Master,” they asked Him, “which is the great commandment in the law?”

We all know how Jesus answered: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

“This is the first and great commandment.

“And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

“On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”1

Please note the last sentence: “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

The Savior not only showed us the target, but He also identified the bull’s-eye.Hitting the Target

As members of the Church, we covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Jesus Christ. Implicit in that covenant is the understanding that we will strive to learn about God, love Him, increase our faith in Him, honor Him, walk in His way, and stand steadfastly as witnesses of Him.

The more we learn about God and feel His love for us, the more we realize that the infinite sacrifice of Jesus Christ is a divine gift of God. And God’s love inspires us to use the path of true repentance, which will lead to the miracle of forgiveness. This process enables us to have greater love and compassion for those around us. We will learn to see beyond labels. We will resist the temptation to accuse or judge others by their sins, shortcomings, flaws, political leanings, religious convictions, nationalities, or skin color.

We will see every one we meet as a child of our Heavenly Father—our brother or our sister.

We will reach out to others in understanding and love—even those who may not be particularly easy to love. We will mourn with those who mourn and comfort those who stand in need of comfort.2

And we will realize that there is no need for us to agonize about the correct gospel target.

The two great commandments are the target. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.3 As we accept this, all other good things will fall into place.

If our primary focus, thoughts, and efforts are centered on increasing our love for Almighty God and extending our hearts to others, we can know that we have found the right target and are aiming at the bull’s-eye—becoming true disciples of Jesus Christ.