6 more weeks in Milpa Alta

 ¿Qué Onda?

Transfers have come. And it turns out Elder Mangus and I are here for another 6 weeks. Six more weeks of street dogs and nopales!

Tuesday and Friday. We got to go to San Pablo and teach some great lessons. During a lull on friday we decided to visit one investigator who lives up the mountain quite a ways. He doesn't have a phone so it can be really hard to contact him. We were able to catch him at his house and set a time to teach him. It is also super pretty up where he lives. You can see the entire City. 

The last district counsel of the transfer was wednesday. It went great. 

I got out of giving a talk last week but it wasn't to last. On thursday the Branch President asked me to give a talk in sacrament meeting. At least this time I had more than one day to prepare, and the topic was easier, faith. 

Sunday night we had a great Zone testimony meeting. I never really know what to say when I bear my testimony, but I just opened my mouth and the word came to me. That is something I have learned on my mission, when sharing the gospel we don't need to have eloquent speeches,or responses prepared, if we just have the courage to open our mouths the Spirit will give us what we need to say. 

Elder Neilson

Plaza of Tecómitl

Me with Parroquia de La Asunción de María

San Pablo view

Parroquia de La Asunción de María en Milpa Alta

Elder Mangus and I chilling at Parroquia de La Asunción de María

Milpa Alta

Lights of the City 

El distrito

Otro correo de Milpa Alta

 Hola, 

This week just flew by!

Interviews with President Lyman were on wednesday. 

Covid is ramping up again in Mexico City, so in the mission's weekly zoom call, Thursday, President announced new restrictions. The two big ones were no street contacting, and no public transportation. Lucky president gave our area an exception, as it is so big! Without buses we could not effectively get around. We would spend all day walking to get to one lesson. 

Saturday morning, the branch president of San Pablo asked us to give talks the next day in Sacrament meeting. It was short notice, but never turn down a chance to serve. What stressed us out a bit was that our day was packed with lessons and travel, so we had no time to sit down and write them, and the topic was tithing. We got to work on them for a little bit that morning and that was it for the day. Beyond the stress of surprise talks the day was fantastic! We had alot of our lessons up in San Pablo that night. They went great and none of them fell though! 

Sunday morning we got to the church early to finish our talks. In the Milpa Alta ward which meets first, we were asked to teach the youth Sunday school, it was a great time. The members of the San Pablo branch all arrive on the same bus, and that day it ran 15 minutes late, So sacrament meeting was short and I ended up not giving my talk. I was a little bummed because it was going to be epic, but at least I have a tithing talk in my pocket for the future!  

P-day was over all a lazy day, however we did get to take the garbage out. It needed to be done. 

Hasta la próxima, 

Elder Neilson

Pictures:

Me at the plaza of Xochimilco

Pretty View 

Dog friend 

Horses in San Pablo 

we found two of the Nino Dios dolls at the same time in my Rosca 

Los Reyes

 Hola, 

This week started off with exchanges with the district leaders on Tuesday. It went great. I got to go to the area of Villa Coapa and serve with Elder Valenzuela . It is one of the nicest areas in the mission. Lots of American brands that I recognized. Elder Valenzuela said that if you could think of a store, odds are, there is one in Villa Coapa. 

Wednesday, after a lesson in San Pablo, when we were waiting for a bus to go back to Milpa Alta, a drunk friend of ours came up and started talking to us. When that happens it is always a fun experience. 

Dia de los Reyes was thursday. It is the Mexican holiday celebrating when the wise men visited Jesus. Between it and Christmas, It is the bigger gift giving holiday here in Mexico. The Rosca de los Reyes is the traditional sweet bread for it and in it are baked little baby jesus dolls. As it is a big holiday here in Mexico it was another 7:00pm curfew.  

Friday Night we went with the ward mission leader on a wild goose chase to find an inactive member. We were eventually able to get their address but as it was late we had to call it for the day. He is a taquero, sells tacos, to finish we went back to his taquería and had a few, they were super good. 

Saturday I had my first big day up in San Pablo. We usually only go up there if we have a lesson because it takes quite a bit of time to go there. But today our schedule was pretty open so we decided to visit some of the investigators up there and get lessons scheduled. It went fantastic. We were able to meet everyone we wanted to and schedule lessons this coming week! San Pablo is super high up in the mountains so we could see a ton of the city. We could even see my old areas!

This week I've been reading Mathew, I decided to start reading the New Testament from the beginning. One thing that has struck me is how it highlights how Christ fulfilled the prophecies about the messiah. People thought that the messiah would be a military leader to free them from Rome. In reality he is our savior from sin, and only through him can we return to live with our father in heaven again. I know that Christ lives and that he is our savior and that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is his only true and living church. 

Elder Neilson

Elder Mangus with some street dogs

City at night 

Me with a mini Rosca de Reyes

A cool snake thing we saw when we went to food one day

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El Año Nuevo

 Coming at you from Milpa Alta its Elder Neilson,

This week was great, Tuesday we had a fun experience. We went to visit a family in San Pablo. That night they couldn't, and as they live a bit down the mountain. so we decided to walk down to San Pedro instead of walking back up to San Pablo. The road started off well lit and paved, but after a bit it changed to a completely unlit, rough, dirt road. We were a little scared about getting jumped but we saw only 2 people the entire time. We finally got to San Pedro and agreed that was not our best decision making. The rest of the week was pretty chill. New Years eve and day were a new experience for me. The thing is Mexicans love fireworks, any day of the year you will hear them going off. But on holidays they go hard. It sounded like Milpa Alta was being bomb with the amount of explosions! Mid day it was just: boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.  

Come follow me this week and include one of my favorite scriptures. Moses 1:39 " For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man." As a missionary I have seen how when we as disciples of Christ work to become like him, his purpose becomes our purpose. So we work to bring to the past the immortality and eternal life of our fellow children of God. 

hope you guys have a great 2022,

Elder Neilson

- Iztaccihuatl

The walk to Belén

 Feliz Navidad,

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas. 

This week started off with Zone Conference on tuesday. It was great, the theme was "Comfort and Joy". For an activity/craft we had ornaments and we put a piece of paper with a scripture or hymn that gives us comfort or joy. I did a scripture and hymn because why not. I chose 2 Nephi 4:15-35, Nephi's testimony of Christ, and hymn 281 "Help Me Teach with Inspiration". Hymn 281 has become a favorite of mine over my mission. Nephi's testimony of the atonement and how putting your faith in Christ is essential for our lives and how it brings joy, has been verses that have brought amens amounts of "comfort and Joy" to my life . 

Wednesday was fun and we had quite an experience getting to a lesson. The part member family we were visiting lives in San Pedro Atocpan, the mole capital of the world. Aprenetly 95% of the jobs there are somehow related to mole. The address they sent us was a thirty minute walk from where the bus dropped us off. So off we went. We finally make it to the address and are standing outside of a field full of sheep. We called them and it turns out the address was completely wrong. So we got the new one and walked the thirty minutes back and then up a giant hill. It was an adventure but we had a great discussion with the family, so it worked out.

Thursday we had another adventure of a hike. We went up to San Pablo for the first time for a lesson, but the investigator never sent us their address so we decided to visit an inactive family instead. They lived in the valley between the towns of San Pablo and San Bartolomé. So we hiked down to the house, it turns out they weren't home so we then hiked up to San Bartolomé to get a bus back to Milpa Alta. And while in San Bartolomé the town was doing a nativity play which we watched for a little bit. They took some creative liberties with it, and as we were leaving they started to playing Gangnam style. I'm not sure what was happening.

Friday, Christmas Eve, the zone had a Christmas activity which included a White Elephant gift exchange. Each companionship brought two gifts. We brought nopales with a small ceramic bowl and a poster of BTS, the k-pop group. The poster was a hit and a sister in our Zone brought two live goldfish which was hilarious. 

Christmas again was a big walking day. In the morning after we got to call our families we went to a lesson and again it was quite an uphill walk. We also had dinner at a member's house which was fantastic. We originally thought it was canceled so we walked down the mountain for an hour to go back to the church only for them to call us and ask where were we're. We sanged a taxi and were able to make it in time. 

Sunday was great, but the San Pablo branch canceled their sacrament meeting, and we didn't know so one of our investigators showed up and it was a little awkward. He was super chill about it and even took us out for lunch.

Monday, Pday, and my birthday, was great. The Zone had a pday activity in the La Noria Chapel. We played some sports and card games. Super fun! The ZL also got the entire zone pizza! not the most eventful birthday but still great. 

Elder Neilson   

View from Milpa Alta

Above San Pedro

Hike up to San Bartolomé

Picture with Iztaccihuatl 

The nativity play

Nativity at a local Church

 A returned Brazilian missionary we meet who visiting people he taught in the area