Transfer to new area. Cardenas

Hey Mom & Dad,

This week went really well. We already had 2 baptisms. My new area is awesome; I am 3 hours away from my old area which makes a total of me being 6 hours away from Leon, Guanajuato. We had kind of a crazy experience on the way to Cardenas. We left Monday night at 9:00 pm, an hour into the trip our bus tire blows out and our bus lost power so we ended up waiting for another bus for an hour, which took us to a town called Rio Verde. We drove an hour and a half to Rio Verde, and from Rio Verde to Cardenas. We ended up getting to Cardenas at 1:30am and didn’t get to our house until 2:00 am!

My new companion is a really great guy. His name is Elder Verdeja. He has about 4-1/2 months in the mission. He’s a convert to the church and has about a year and a half as a member, he comes from the capitol of Mexico D.F. (Distrito Federal).

My new area Cardenas is AWESOME. It’s really beautiful here, it’s a tiny, tiny little town, I
would say no bigger than Bishop, CA, but more beautiful. There are rivers, hills and lots
of scenery. Also the people here are a lot more loving and receptive to the gospel. Our sacrament meeting is held in the 3rd floor of a Pharmacy building, this week we had a record breaking assistance of 57 people. Its very funny because there aren’t enough able adults (due to the amount of new converts) to run the auxiliary’s. last Sunday Elder Verdeja taught the Gospel Principles class and I was in charge of the primary. I bet you can imagine how it went... CRAZY. There are about 15 kids in the primary and I basically taught them about who Jesus Christ is and then I taught them why we should always be obedient. The kids were actually pretty good, but when I let them start to draw and write they went nuts. But it turned out really well. It looks as if I might be in charge of the primary from here on out till we find someone able to run it well enough.

Our baptisms went well, we have an outdoor baptism font and the only way we can heat the water up is by making a fire, putting water in a huge pot and boiling it, then putting it in the font. Preparing for our baptism service took from 8am in the morning to 1:00 in the afternoon, 5 hours!!

Good to hear things are going well at home, I really hope the economy picks up because it is affecting a lot of people here in Mexico, but as the world keeps moving so is the gospel here in Cardenas. I gotta run.

Con mucho amor,

El Elder Salazar!

1. What is the most common thing that families feed you at appointments? (Jake Clark)
--------We seem to eat lots of different types of soups, beef soup, chicken soup, and all soups have vegetables in them.

2. Do you have a favorite hole in the wall tienda that you like to grab grub on the go? (Jake Clark)
--------I’m still figuring out where the hotspots here are in Cardenas, but in my old area we had a nifty little joint where they sold Tortas de Lomo, it’s basically a sandwich. But they cost 15 pesos, you can’t beat that!!

3. What is the most enjoyable thing about being on a mission, that makes it all worthwhile?
--------Seeing people become happier, because that makes us happy and time just seems to fly by, everyday just helping people and seeing the results.

4. Knowing what you know now, is there anything you would do differently to prepare for your mission?
--------I would have liked to know the scriptures a little bit better, and also have worked jobs more in contact with other people. Because a lot of missionary work is talking/teaching by the spirit, some elders have this gift, people are drawn to them because they speak by the spirit and the people feel something different. This is something I am working on.

5. Is it hard to gather up all your stuff and go to a new area?
--------Yeah, for me it is. Because I get worried about my investigators and saying goodbye to some of the members/converts that I really had a good relationship with, all the while worrying about packing my stuff and getting ready for a new area, for me it’s a little hectic, but its exciting.

Mucho amor de Cardenas!