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

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 

Baptism

 Welcome back to my weekly email,

This week wasn't the most eventful so this will be short.

The main event of this week was the baptism of Kelaia. It was Friday the 26th. A ton of members showed up, enough that a few, including us, had to stand and watch from the hallway. Elder Vega got to do the baptism. Ward members had mentioned that for past bauptims the water had been super cold, so we made sure to fill it up with hot water earlier that day. However when the baptism came it was cold. Lucky Vega! 

Throughout this week we also visited, or at least tried to visit, a lot of inactive members. Constitución has a ton so we are going around and inviting them back to church. Covid hit pretty hard here so most have had a nice two year hiatus from church.

President also announced that we can take public transport now, all except for the metro. So getting around now should be a lot easier and cheaper! This p-day we took a Pesero, the micro busses here in Mexico City, they are crazy. The drivers are super aggressive weaving in between cars, passing on the left or right it doesn't matter. I look forward to taking more in the future. 

Almost forgot this story, but in church this week the stake announced a service activity this saturday for light the world. My favorite part was that they told everyone to bring their machetes. First time I have heard that form over the pulpit.

Elder Neilson

Picture

-Kelaia´s baptism

Living out of a Suitcase

 This title would have been more appropriate last transfer when I did live out of my suitcase for 5 weeks but I'll use it now.

This week we had exchanges and Zone conference. The exchanges started tuesday and the first one was with the other set of missionaries in our district (it's just the elders in Meyehualco and us here in Constitución). Exchanges are usually done in the area of the leader but, as the distict Leader, Elde Vega wanted to do it in thier area for a change. It was great it is always fun to get to work in another area. We spent the night at thier appartment and in the morning were were off to Presidentes for exchanges with the Zone leaders. Again a great time, we got to do some street contacting, something I haven't gotten to do a whole lot of on my mission, it was a great learning experience. As the next day was zone conference so we got to return to our house to sleep.

On to Zone confrence. It was a combined Zone Confrence of two Zones, our zone Meyehualco/Tlauhac and the Ermita Zone, in total about 50 missionaries. It was also 6 hours. But it was totaly worth it. For lunch they gave us Thanksgiving Dinner, turkey, potatos, the works. Sister Lyman shared a great message form Mark chapter 6. Where Jesus' apostles were stuggling to cross the sea of Galilee and he waited until the 4th watch to help. She shared that Christ will always help us but some times he will let us struggle before he steps in so we can learn what he wants us to. Durring the mission, and life, there are stuggles and dificultys but it is so we can grow and learn and become the person God wants us to be.

Sorry no pictures this week,

Elder Neilson

1st Sealing

 Hola,

This week can be summed up in about three words: blessings, fecha, and sealing.

Starting with the first "blessings." We gave a lot of blessings this week. I think 8 or 9, almost everyday someone asked for one! We gave ones to our investigators from Slovenia, this was the first time I did the actual blessing, I usually do the anointing, but as they are more comfortable with English so I got to do it. It was a fantastic experience. I have developed a greater love and appreciation for blessing while on my mission. It is always a great experience to get to use the Priesthood to bless God's children.

On to the second "fecha" (Date: in English). We have another baptism scheduled, this one for the end of the month. We are super excited, three baptisms in one month is fantastic. The ward members have really helped with this one and she feels super welcome at church, and is excited for her baptism. We have a few other investigators who are progressing and hopefully a few more fechas in the future!

Finally the last word "sealing." Me and Vega had the opportunity to go to the temple this Saturday for his cousin's sealing (don't worry we got president's permission). We got to the temple early to be safe. Across the street from the temple is a torta stand which sells a bunch of Book of Mormon named tortas, the owners aren't members but have picked up the name as a bunch of members eat there when they have temple trips. For lunch we got Lehis. At the visitors center we met the father of Elder Pano, one of the missionaries that got here at the same time as me. His mission president is the current Mexico city Temple president so he was visiting them. It is always funny how small the world seems with members of the church. The sealing was scheduled for 2:30 but the traffic in Mexico City was so bad the Elder Vega's cousin and his wife didn't get there until 4:30. The temple gave us the new time slot for 4:45 which worked. As this was my first time attending a sealing I was excited. It was a fantastic experience. The sealer gave a great message and I liked his thoughts on service and how it is so important In the church. Obedience and service sum up the two great commandments. 

One thing I have been doing in my free time is listening to all of President Nelson's conference talks. I'm right at the turn of the century now. It has been an enlightening experience. He has had a lot of themes he has continually talked about: Devine Law, our Divine identity, the importance of women, to name a few. I love President Nelson and know that he is the prophet of God for our day. 

Hasta Semana, Elder Neilson

Hermano Pano at the temple

 temple at night

Elder Vega and his cousin that got sealed 

- $2.50 USD watermelon 

 I broke one of our apartments windows "everyone breaks a window in their day"