Mom and Dad's respective feats

If you are reading this, and you haven't read about Nelsie's Farewell, make sure to do so, because that is epic. However, two important things happened this weekend.

MOM: Mom had a BYU women's chorus concert. She did wonderfully in her shimmery black dress, and she did the Elijah Rock choreography better than anyone else.

DAD: Dad ran in the Rex Lee run this Saturday. This is his fourth 5k, and it was his best yet. Nels, Maggie, and BJ all ran with him. Great warmups, Dad!

Nelsie's Farewell

Breaking News:
Nels' mission call has been changed. President Newman called to inform Nels that Mongolia is not granting visas to American missionaries. So he is now assigned to NEW HAMPSHIRE! Although it's not as exotic as Mongolia, we know that there are people there who need the gospel just as much, and Nels is very, very happy to be going there. We are proud of how well he has accepted the change and decided to serve the Lord wherever he is called.

Nels spoke in church today, and he spoke about how to prepare to preach the gospel. He shared three important aspects of the preparation process: study the gospel, live the gospel, love the gospel. He did a wonderful job speaking. After church, about 8 thousand of his friends came to our house to wish him well and to eat the food that mom and friends had prepared (Mom spent all Saturday getting everything ready with her trusty friends Asia Dutson and Connie Ericksen).





We are so happy that Nels is such a good young man, and that he got his new suit and sweater yesterday so he could look super sharp in front of everyone.
(We are also proud to announce that we were on time for the farewell and even had time to throw together a nice musical number, but this isn't about us. It's about Nels. Even so, please be aware of those facts).











We'd also like to spotlight the significant others who came to support Nels.

Heather . . .



Chris . . .





Kyle . . .



. . And Kristin



Oh. And Let's not forget TALON.



We also played some board games this afternoon, including Ticket To Ride and St. Petersburg.



In short, we just couldn't be happier for Nels, and we couldn't love him more. He enters the MTC this Wednesday, on March 17, and he's taking my luggage. Look out, you East coast vacationers. Proselytizing is about to get a kick in the pants, and that kick in the pants has a name: Wilford Nels Hansen III.

Dinner and the Huff

For those of you not familiar with Payson High School's annual musical competition "The Huff," You may think that I am alluding to some sort of feud that happened after dinner tonight. I am alluding to no such thing. They are two separate events.

Let's start with dinner tonight.

Amelie and Cody came by last night to bid Nels farewell. Mom made a scrumptious dinner, and the kiddos are still adorable.

Observe:





Thanks to BJ for staying for the pictures. It was a difficult thing, but he did it for the greater goood.

Here are pictures from the Huff competition. Rachel entered in 4 categories: Piano solo, bassoon solo, vocal solo, and vocal duet. We are so proud of our baby sister, who has too many talents to be contained in one category. Oh, and FYI, she just finished a bassoon scholarship audition at Utah State. What a musical genius. Get your autographs now, because you might not get another chance.

San Diego! More reasons to love it!

Dear Family,

We regret to inform you that we had the time of our lives in San Diego over Valentine's weekend. We means Dad, Mom, Maggie, and Melanie. The highlight of the trip was watching Chris be commissioned as a second lieutenant in the Marines. We are so proud of him, and it was easy to see that his family was, too! Janelle Melear (Chris' mom) told us that this was the only time that both Chris and his dad would be in uniform together, and the sight was smashing.

The photographer was gracious enough to take a few shots for us.





Melanie got to help Chris' family pin his lieutenant bars on his shoulders. I'm sure there's a more technical term to describe this process, but to me, it was pinning bars.







The ceremony took place outside of the Dr. Seuss library (seriously, named after San Diego native Ted Geisel. I spy with my little eye . . . Dr. Seuss' leg in a picture)The Melears had a luncheon at California Pizza Kitchen, and we felt really lucky to be a part of eveything.





Chris goes to begin officer training in Virginia this October.








Cheers, Chris and Melanie!