Mexico City

 I'm in the field,

As my MTC p-day was Wednesday, and the field p-day is Monday I have one and a half weeks to catch you guys up on.  

Finished the MTC and it was great. I loved my district. They are a bunch of all-stars. The last few days were what they have always been: class in the morning then class at night. I was sad to leave the district and teachers I grew to love over those six weeks.

One week into the field though and it feels like the MTC was forever ago. I flew down to Mexico on the 10th. It was a flight from New York to Atlanta, then Atlanta to Mexico City. The 14 new missionaries had dinner at President Lyman's (Mission President) house that night- tacos al pastor (it were delicious). The next day we went to the office and got assigned to our trainers. My trainer is Elder Colmanares, he is from Chiapas, Mexico and is fantastic. We like a lot of the same things, and have been getting along great. He doesn't speak any English though. It has been tough but nothing good is ever easy (Google translate has been a great help!). 

I'm serving in the Nopalera Area, it was the one area the older missionaries warned us greenies about when we got here as it is the most dangerous in the mission. I have loved it though. The Members are great. They give us Lunch almost every day and it has been delicious. And for being the most dangerous I have felt very safe. 

The weekend before I got to Mexico city. They reentered the Red level for Covid, so we can't do any street contacting or eat in members' houses. Not much you can do but the work will move forward. Due to this, our days consist of going to the church and calling investigators and referrals. We don't get to talk to a lot of people as the numbers we call don't exist or they don't answer. It just reminds me of the last principle of the gospel "endure to the end." The work may be hard but we just need to never get discouraged and keep pressing on. 

Sincerely, 

Elder Neilson 

Me and my trainer Elder Colmenares

Walking home in the rain (it down poors about every day here) 

P-day trip to Walmart

Me and one of the ducks that live on our roof 

El Vuela a CDMX

The missionaries of my generation

Us greenies and the secretaries at the Airport

So Hard to say goodbye

 My flight to Mexico City was super early in the morning....

said goodbye to grandpa the night before

woke Laura up early for hugs

One Week Til Mexico!

 Coming at you for that last time from the Mamaroneck MTC-it is Elder Neilson,

Sorry for no letter last week, I totally forgot and when I did remember it was already bed time. Last week was the week when my family went to Lake Tahoe. I spend most of my time in MTC class in the basement of the Cabin. But on P-day and during down time I was able to do some fun things with my family. I'll give a few of the highlights. The first is a hike we did on Tuesday. We went to an old railroad tunnel which was filled with graffiti, it was super cool and some of the graffiti was very impressive. The other highlight was Wednesday we rode some electric bikes along the Truckee river which was super fun. Electric bikes make biking super easy! 

Onto this week. First and foremost I can't believe this is my last week in the MTC. It feels like I just started but I have less than a week until I go to Mexico! I got my flight plans for Mexico and I fly out the morning of the 10th. This week has gone great! We have done more and more mock teaching and I feel I can teach the lesson pretty well. 

This p-day we went to the Natural History museum in NYC. It was awesome! I always love going there and this time was no different. 

This week the importance of the spirit was something I felt came up repeatedly. In our lessons and the Elder Holland devotional we watched. When we are teaching the gospel, we are not the one that are converting the people listening, it is the spirit. We can only share what we know the spirit does the rest. For me it was a reminder to do all I can do to have the spirit with me. as when I don't have the spirit I can't teach effectively.

Sincerely,

Elder Neilson

Pictures:

- pictures from the train tunnel hike 

- the group that went bike riding 

- natural history 

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