I remember reading a church news article about Ty and Gifford getting their jerseys retired. A few weeks later a sister in the zone I was in was going home and her parents came to pick her up. I see her dad and I'm like man that guy looks familiar. Then it clicked, that's Gifford Nielsen. I ran back to my apartment and got him to sign that church news article. His daughter was an awesome missionary and we got along great. I'm upset that she never said who her dad was.

A few days later I was at the mission office for some meetings and Gifford was there. He gave us a quick pep talk and said "go out there and preach the gospel like mad dogs." I chuckled at that since it was a very football like thing to say.