Translados especial

 It's me once again,

Transfers were Tuesday and I got my new companion Elder Huerta. He is from Utah but his parents are both Mexican and he lived in Tijuana for a few years so he has fluent spanish and english. We started the missionary grind and were getting into the groove. Then the assistants called midday friday. They said due to health reasons a missionary was going home and I was going to be transferred to his area. Elder Huerta would join a companionship in our district and cover our area of Constitución and their two areas. The transfer would also be happening Saturday morning so we only had that night to pack. We were not expecting that so for the rest of the day I told him all I could about Constitución and our investigators. 

We got everything packed and Saturday morning  after a fiasco with Ubers (it took about 2 hours to get an Uber) we got to the offices for our special transfers. My new area is Milpa Alta, newly combined with the area of San Pablo. They are the two biggest areas in the entire mission. Combined it is a fourth of the total mission area. My new companion is Elder Mangus. He is from Montana. We met once before when we got our green cards my first transfer. He is super chill. This is his third transfer in Milpa Alta so he can show me the ropes. 

Milpa Alta and San Paulo are a collection of small towns in the mountains south of Mexico City. There are a lot of street dogs here. Additionally it's up at about 8,000 feet and all we do is go up and down hills. It has been a bit of a struggle but I'll get used to it. It's more or less a complete 180 from where I was on Constitución.  

Saturday night we got to go to the Milpa Alta Ward's Christmas party. It was great we helped set up and I got to meet a lot of the members, one of them was even a missionary in the old New York New York North Mission! He served in the Westchester 2nd ward. Crazy to meet someone who served in my home mission. Sunday was my first full day in Milpa Alta and it was packed. As we are over the Milpa Alta ward and the San Pablo branch it is two of everything Sunday, two sacrament meetings and two classes. The San Pablo Branch meets second and after Sunday school they had a Christmas linger longer. The food was all super good with the best Ponche I have had yet. Ponche is a traditional Mexican Christmas drink, hot fruit punch with prices of fruit in it. Super good. 

Monday we met with the Zone (I'm now in Zone Villa Coapa) to do some sports and practice our musical number for Zone Conference, which is Tuesday. It was funny because when I showed up everyone had no idea why I was there and we had to explain what happened. 

Anyway, TLDR, new comp and surprise transfer, I'm up in the mountains now and have the biggest area in the mission. Also I'm going to eat a lot of Nopales (cactus).

I'm out, 

Elder Neilson 

Picture: 

- Me and Elder Huerta

- milpa Alta at night 

- me and Elder Mangus

Transfers & Exchanges

 I hope everyone is doing well

Elder Vega is leaving. I mentioned in my last email that transfers are this week and that is the news. He has been in Constitución for four transfers so it's about time. He is also going to be training. He is only 9 months out, and will be training his 4th missionary! We go to the offices tomorrow, Tuesday, I will get my new companion for my third transfer here in Constitución, and Elder Vega will get his new trainee and go to their new area.

On Wednesday this past week we also had exchanges with our district again. When the district has only 2 companionships it's easy. However President Lyman changed how we do exchanges. We used to do it where one companionship would go to the area of the leaders and you would spend half the day with one missionary then the other half of the day with the other missionary. We have stopped doing that and now do exchanges like everyone else where u ou swap companions for 24 hours. For this exchange I got to go to Meyehualco and work with Elder Sánchez. Had a great time, even though all our lessons fell through. We got to take the Cable Bus there and back (public transport gondola) . It was fantastic, bird eye view of the city. I have wanted to since I got to Constitución and finally did. Got to check it off my bucket list. 

Saturday the youth of the ward had a Christmas activity. They did some skits. The young men did a missionary lesson for thiers. Elder Vega and I were dying because of how accurate it was.

This P-day the Zone had a get together in the morning to play sports and say goodby to those leaving, but only the APs, Zone Leaders, and us showed up. We played a few games of soccer and joked about how no one showed up. 

Elder Neilson

Pictures:

- Elder Sánchez and I

- View from the Cable Bus

- The Young Men's skit 

- funny lighting during a mission Zoom call

Machetes

 Weeks really do fly by on the mission.

This week was business as usual. Taught a lot of lessons and found new people to teach. Like last week we worked quite a bit with inactive members. We found a family, where the kids aren't baptized but are really interested in the church. We have a good feeling about them. The only sad part is that transfers are on the 14th so it is very possible I won't be in Constitución to teach them. That is the mission goes sometimes.

The big event this week was the Stake's "Light the World" service project. We all meet at the Buena Vista chapel (ward in our stake) at 9:00am. Vega and I got there a little late as we had some trouble with transportation, we originally took the wrong pesero. Once we found the right one it all worked out. At the activity were hundreds of people, from the stake. The entire Mexico City Southeast Mission  came, ~100 missionaries, it put the 14 that came from our zone to shame. For the service project we cleaned up a park in the Buena Vista ward. It was up on one of the volcanic hills, which gave a great view of the city. They had us clean up the trash and beautify the greenery. It was a great project. To get to and from the park they had us ride in truck beds even though that is explicitly stated against in the missionary handbook. When in Mexico! Also I did get to use a machete which was one of the highlights. 

A short one like last week,

Elder Neilson

Pictures:

- The Zone at the Service project 

- My group for the project (I have the Machete) 

- Going to the park in a truck 

- Returning form the park in a truck

- Me with a view of the city

- A sign, on a members apartment we had lunch with, which says no preachers