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Elder Nelson - Happy Thanksgiving!

Dear Family,

Mission News
We are warming up for the Christmas deluge of packages for the missionaries. On Monday we received about 35 packages and around a hundred letters for the missionaries. The other couples in the mission said, “You ain’t seen nothin’ yet!”

A couple of wards asked for the names of missionaries that that don’t get much mail from home. We
have one sister from the Philippines whose parents can barely afford to send a letter once a quarter.
We have one elder that was disowned by his family and gets nothing from home. There are about 8 or
so missionaries that don’t get much support from home. These wards are going to help these
missionaries with a little Christmas spirit.

I re-wrote two letters for the mission president. He liked them, and he just had a couple of small
changes. We are now emailing the forms and instructions to the new missionaries instead of mailing
paper. Man, we are high tech now! I was going to do a mission website, so the missionaries could
complete these forms online, but the handbook says wards, stakes and missions are not supposed to
have websites. So, we are settling for email.

On Wednesday the Office Elders, (Elder Sawyer and Elder Merkley) and I helped a friend (we don’t call them investigators any more) move. This fellow had his vocal cords disabled by smoking. The way he talks to place a device on his throat that vibrates his throat. He talks after a fashion by controlling the
flow rate of the air going through his throat and shaping his month and lips.

Fun Stuff
Tuesday evening Mom and I were in a musical video shoot. The Air Force Band is putting creating a
musical video and they needed some singers and actors. We volunteered. The shoot was at the
National Cathedral – huge European-like Cathedral in Washington DC.



The song we sang is “One Voice”. We sang with the Air Force. Here is the US Navy version.  Our musical video will be released on December 1. The last time the Air Force Band did this they had 3.5M views on Youtube. I doubt this one will be so popular.

There were about 200-250 people who were the “ordinary people” uniting with “One Voice”. We had
about 15 takes on the video. It was fun to be with people who volunteered to be part of this. It was
kind of exciting to be “on stage” with a director telling us what to do and where to go. This is the first
and most likely the last time I will be in a musical video.

Thanksgiving Day we went on a walk in the “woods”. About 30 yards from our apartment we can go on a two mile walk in the woods behind apartments. One funny thing that they do on this trail is to put
funny little things. People pick them up and move them around.




At 2:00 we met with 3 other Senior Couple Missionaries for Thanksgiving dinner and then played UNO
with a bunch of new rules that made that game more dynamic. We also played “Catch Phrase”. Silly
games, but we had fun. We had 6 pies for desert. I shouldn’t have had 3 pieces, but they were soooo
good.

WES
Good news: This is a terrific month for sales and profitability. The very best I can remember.
Bad news: My partner infringed on a software copy right and WES is being sued for more money that
we are going to make this month.
Easy come, easy go.

Family News
Kent and Chelsea traveled to Hesperia to spend Thanksgiving with Derek and Family and Jessica’s family, the Ferrato family. Chelsea said the Ferrato’s we kind and welcoming hosts – she felt right at home.  Keri and family were in Logan. Lance and family were sick with the stomach flew – at least the 3 youngest girls.

Derek and Jessica bought a house in Florida. They kind of accidentally met Camille and had a nice short
visit.

Love,
Dad

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