I'm only 2 days late

 ¿Que Onda?

Thursday isn't normally pday but I will get to that in a bit. 

This week has been great. The last 5 days have been especially noteworthy.

Saturday: We were supposed to have Kaori's baptism but due to some scheduling mishaps and a lack of water here in the Chapel we had to postpone to an unspecified date. It was a letdown but I'm sure in the next few weeks I will be able to report on her making this covenant with the Lord. 

Sunday: Besides playing the piano again in church (I think I'm the unofficial ward pianist at this point) we went to the stake center for a Youth activity on missionary work. It was the introductory meeting for the activity this Saturday where the youth will be "called" on a mission to a ward in the stake and will visit people. I'm not entirely sure what will happen but I will give you all a report next week. We were there to sing in the choir made up of RMs and the full time missionaries. After that we booked it back to Tlaltenco to teach a lesson in one of the further parts of the area. We arrived late as no buses wanted to pick us up but the lesson was worth it. We were able to teach a great lesson about repentance. It was the best lesson I have had in a bit and a great way to end the day.

Monday: This was an adventure, we got to leave the mission for the day as Elder Sanchez had a medical consultation. To get there we got to take the metro, a first for me, and it is awesome. It runs on tires which gives it a totally different feel than NYC. It really made me wish that the Metro Line here was working*. It would make getting places so much easier. (*Sadly part of it collapsed last year so the city is working on reinforcing the entire line)

Tuesday: As I have almost hit a year in Mexico it was time to renew my green card, so in lieu of Pday I had Immogration. We had to show up at the Mission office at 11:00 am, then the group of us getting green cards were off to the immogration office. One hour waiting outside and then waiting inside while they process the paperwork, then the waiting to have your picture and fingerprints taken, then you wait  to get the physical card. It's what you would think. However most of the waiting is in the beginning, and it really isn't that bad. One of the great things I realized is that in contrast to my first time through this time I understood everything that was said to me in spanish. 

Wednesday: This was Zone Conference, It was great as always. The theme was "Trying to be like Jesus" with the topic of Christ-like attributes. One of my favorite things was what President Lyman taught us. "Obtaining Christlike attributes is more than just self improvement, they are gifts from God, and we can't obtain them without his help." thi changed how I think about them, sometime i get caught up thinking that they will come passively, but that isn't true. They take work on our part. We must seek them out and when we do this God will help us. 

That's all folks. 

Hasta La Próxima,

Elder Neilson 

Street in Zapotitlan 

The Shrek water canals 

Metro 

¿Thor? 

Mole

 ¡Hola!

I hope everyone is doing well. Another good week. Not one full of news, but I will share a few highlights:

Wednesday: Elder Sanchez didn't feel well so we stayed at the house all day and he slept. I got todo a ton of Book of Mormon reading which was great! I'm trying to read the entire book of Mormon in Spanish over the summer and had fallen a bit behind so it gave me the time to grind and do a bit of catching up.

Saturday: We had a fun tarde de hogar (family home afternoon). The original plan was to have it the night before but it got cancelled at the last minute. The great thing was we were eating with that family the next day so after lunch we used the object lesson we had prepared for our spiritual thought

Sunday: I played piano in church again, another epic opportunity to serve. 

Food section:

One thing I have learned here on my mission is that "Mexican Food" in the States is not a true representation of the culinary extravaganza that exists here in Mexico. So I'd like to share some of the food I have eaten this week. 

Mole verde: I have talked about my undying love for Mole before, and this is no exception. The special thing about green mole is that it is made mainly with pumpkin seeds and green chiles. So the flavor profile is very different. It reminded me of a lot of sauces in Indian food, a lot of spices. 

Tortitas de Pollo en Salsa Verde: chicken pancakes (think Latkes but instead of potato, chicken ) in green salsa. Something in a green salsa is very popular. 

Spaghetti: Spaghetti noodles are super popular. It's not spaghetti and meatballs but the noodles with a type of sauce. It's usually an appetizer of a side dish, not the main course. One of the most common and a favorite of mine is Espagueti blanco. It is spaghetti with a white cream sauce, pieces of ham, and can include pineapple chunks. 

Albóndigas: Meatballs usually in a tomato sauce. They can have an egg center, which was a surprise the first time.  

Spiritual thought:

Alma and Amulek. Reading the account of their mission to the people of Ammonihah, I was impressed by how they worked together to preach the gospel. It made me reflect on how I can work better with my companions. I like how in Alma 10 it is when Almulek starts speaking that the people are astonished, when it was only Alma, they said "who is this guy." But now that he has a companion, they have to give him and his message more thought.

Hasta la Próxima,

Elder Neilson

Mole Verde 

Tortitas de Pollo en Salsa Verde con Espagueti

A huge bug, the size of the first segment of my thumb

Albóndigas

  

Tlaltenco Lives On

 ¿Qué Onda? 

The end of a transfer has come and gone, and I'm saying here! Elder Sánchez and I will have another transfer together here in Tlaltenco. I'm really looking Forward to it, I love the members and we have some great investigators. 

It was another slow week here. However we were able to do a lot of work with unbaptised children of members.

Wednesday night we got to celebrate the birthday of Lucio. It was great fun. We have been working with him to get him ready for his baptism for longer than I have been here, and we are getting close. His family is not the most active, but they are slowly coming back, and are some of the most fun people I have met here on my mission. 

  

Thursday night we went back to Lucio´s house for a Noche de Hogar (family home evening). We had a great lesson on strengthening our testimonies using Jenga. When we stop: praying, reading the scriptures, going to church, etc. Our testimony gets weaker and weaker, just like the Jenga tower when removing blocks, and we risk it falling down.

Friday night we had another great lesson with Daniela about the Plan of Salvation. 

Saturday we taught Kaori, and then Monday she had her bauptisiml interview and we have the green light for her baptism. Teaching her is a struggle but it's great to see that it wasn't in vain.  

A spiritual thought to end:

In king Benjamin's sermon, after teaching about keeping the commandments of God and repenting in Mosiah 4:12 he says

"And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true." 

When we follow Christ we learn who he is, and what we need to do. We can't know a master we have not served. 

Hasta la próxima,  

Elder Neilson

One Year

 Hola, 

I hope everyone is doing well. This week was great, a little slow but that happens. 

As I mentioned in my last letter, I hit one year on the mission last week. It is a little crazy to think about. When I first got here, the ending of my mission was always distant. When I would look a year into the future I would be on my mission. not anymore. Now when I look a year into the future I will be back home! I have loved my mission so far, this opportunity to serve the lord, and look forward to another year! To celebrate this occurrence on Wednesday the 29th, one year from my setting apart, we had tacos al pastor. Then on the 30th, one year from starting CCM (MTC) I bought myself a small personal tres leches cake (I did share with Elder Sánchez).  

Friday we were able to have a lesson with one of our friends, Ismeal. He has been coming to church on his own for the past 5 week, that is where we met Him, and we were finally able to get to visit him. It went great. He met the missionaries 4 year ago but he had not been taught recently. It was great to hear how the gospel has helped him and changes he has made to live a more Christ centered life. 

Sunday, I got to play the piano again in church but this time I was asked right before the start of sacrament meeting. I surprised myself with how well I did with the hymns they chose. The introductions were horrendous but when the singing started I got a whole lot better. 185 "Reverently and Meekly Now" and 219 "Because I Have Been Given Much" aren't the nicest at times. We also had a fantastic lesson Sunday after church with Aldair, one of our friends. He is only free on Sundays so we usually have a lesson with him every Sunday he comes to church.   

Monday, we had another great lesson with Daniela. Her family stopped attending before the pandemic, so she never got to be baptised. So now we get to help him prepare to enter into this covenant. We got to teach the restoration and it was an epic lesson. 

Hasta la Próxima,

Elder Neilson

Pictures:

Pictures:

Cake for the 30th

Pata de pollo

A really pretty moth

Parroquia de la Inmaculada Concepción in Santiago de Zapotitlán

A cool gate to and abandoned lot