Semana Tres

Once again from  Mamaroneck, New York, it is Elder Neilson, 

P-days seem to be coming quicker and quicker, time is just flying by. The MTC is still going great. I think my Spanish is progressing pretty well and I’m getting more comfortable teaching lessons. During a one on one lesson with one of my teachers she had me teach the entire first lesson, in under five minutes, all in Spanish. I was intimidated by the task but was able to do it and she said I did great! I’m not sure if she would say I did bad though, whatever the case I’m still proud of myself. When you have that little time you really have to stay on track and can’t go on any tangents. If you do, you run out of time and only teach a third of what you wanted to. 

On Tuesday for dinner my family went to a hotpot place in Brooklyn. It was a chain that they had in Taiwan so Tustin was the expert. It was a cool experience, my lack of finesse with chopsticks was on full display. However I still had a great time.

For Pday proper my siblings and I want to Playland, the local amusement park. It felt a bit smaller than I remembered it but it was still great. The bumper cars were my favorite. This was the first time I have been on any in a long time, and they were much more fun then I remembered. 

The devotional this week was by Elder and Sister Uchtdorf. One point they touched on was working through hard times on the mission. The advice they gave was to focus on the gospel. We teach people that it is what brings peace and can bless their lives. I feel we sometimes forget that it can bring those things into our lives as well. I know that it has for me. 

Catch you next week, 

Elder Neilson

Two weeks Down

Back at you from Mamaroneck NY- it is Elder Neilson.

 This week has been pretty chill. I have finally settled into the groove of home MTC and the days are flying past. If you were hoping for an exciting story I’m sorry to disappoint this week, but nothing super interesting has happened. It's just class ALL day, every day. 

For P-day though we did get to do something fun and that was to go to the Bronx Zoo. I haven’t been for a couple of years so it was great to go and see the animals again, most likely for the last time in two years. 

This week as I have been reading “Preach My Gospel” and other missionary materials, I have read quite a bit about repentance. The one thing that has struck me is how it IS the plan. It is not the back up plan for us. God is not relying on us never making mistakes. He knows we will, and has provided us a way to move on and become better. For me it just shows the limitless love he has for each one of us as his children. 

Catch you next time, Elder Neilson 

Just some pictures from the Bronx zoo. Including me with my favorite animal, the tree kangaroo.

First Week of Home MTC

 Coming at you from the Mamaroneck MTC - it’s Elder Neilson. 

The first week of home MTC has gone great. Getting up at 6:30 has been hard but I will get used to it. My district is a great group of guys. We only have Elders which we all thought was interesting but I don’t think that many Hermanas (sisters) entered the Mexico MTC on our date, so there were destined to be some districts with only elders. My companion, Elder Nicholls, is super cool. Quite a few of the elders in my district are from the East coast which has surprised me, as I sometimes feel with church related things everyone is from the intermountain west and west coast. The first week has been mostly the basics of Spanish and our purpose as missionaries. All of my prior experience with learning Spanish came from school so when we started classes and our teachers were doing 50% Spanish and 50% English it took some getting used to and now they are about 90% Spanish and 10% English! I understand most of it so things seem to be going well. 

During our afternoon classes on Tuesday we had a time slot called “help others,” and my district was told to go to the meeting with no other instruction. It turned out we were supposed to have prepared a lesson to share and do it completely in Spanish. With this revelation Elder Nicholls and I whipped up a very short lesson on the atonement that we were able to give. It all turned out ok but we were stressing for a little bit. We may not have given the best lesson but it was a good experience with quick lesson prep and rolling with the punches.

Our Tuesday night devotional focused mostly on our missionary purpose, found in “preach my gospel”. The one thought that came to me during it was that our purpose starts with “invite”. Baptism and the rest of that comes after. I don’t have to worry about getting or not getting baptisms as long as I share the gospel and invite others to come unto Christ. I’m doing what I need to do. 

Elder Neilson

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  Zoom meetings
  
  
  
  First P-day to the Maritime Aquarium