Hey ma, Hey pops,

That’s awesome you and dad were looking at Cardenas, if you want to see where we live, we live in an apartment above a tool store. The main street is called "20 De Noviembre" and it crosses a street called "La Colon". Its right next to some train tracks. There is a lawyer here in our branch and he has Google Earth and so I was showing him where we live and where Pacifica HS is, it was fun.

We had a baptism this past Saturday. We baptized a 16yr old girl named Miertha. The baptisms here are absolutely hectic. I’ll explain... Since we don’t have a church building, that means we don’t have a baptism font, but we do have a portable font. It is basically a 5ft x 5ft bath tub about 4.5ft high. We don’t hold our baptism services in the meeting house (a room above a pharmacy) because there isn’t enough room, so we hold our baptism services in the backyard of a members office building. We first have to fill the tub with hose water, but in order to have warm/hot water for the person who is going to get baptized (no one wants to be baptized in cold water) we have to light a fire under a big pot and heat the water in this way. It usually takes 4-5 hours to heat the water to a nice temperature. It’s not a lot of things to do, but it’s really stressful. We pull off our services really well though.

Other than that, our week went well. Saturday was really, really hot and today it’s basically raining, kinda weird. Our church service went really well yesterday, we were able to bring 7 people to church which makes 5 eligible to be baptized next Saturday so if all continues to go well we should have 4 maybe 5 baptisms this weekend, so pray for us. Also we had 57 people in the sacrament meeting, which is really good. If we can maintain an assistance of about 40 every week for 4-6 months the church will begin putting plans in to build a church building here.

I’m still reading Jesus the Christ, but I am also reading "The Infinite Atonement" that you and dad sent me for Christmas. I have already finished reading it but I am now taking notes on it. Sounds like all is going well over in the OC.

Anyways, not much changing here. We are coming to the end of the change here in Cardenas, it looks as if Elder Verdeja will be leaving but we will not know till the last day. Anyways, gotta run.

Tell everyone I love and miss them.

Love Ya,

Elder Salsa (my nickname) =D

1. Is there fast food in Cardenas?

------ Fast food like Carls jr, McDonalds, no. But they do make really really good tortas

(sandwiches) here in about 5 minutes for 15 pesos. Its basically our own little Fantastic Burger, we go every Monday.

2. What do the kids do for fun in Cardenas?

------ The usual, Soccer, video games, internet. There isnt very much to do here.

3. What is your living quarters like, and what does rent cost in Cardenas?

------ We rent an apartment for 800 pesos a month ($80!) It’s pretty nice. It’s tiny, tiny but perfect for a companionship of missionaries. It’s two rooms and 1 bathroom/shower. We don’t have a kitchen which is a bummer but we aren’t home much anyways.

4. What are the differences between Irapuato, and Cardenas?

------ The difference is pretty big. Irapuato has more retail stores and is a lot bigger. It has a lot more crime, cars, people, stores and basically everything. Cardenas is tiny, there aren’t very many people (we see a lot of the same people everyday). There are a lot more unpaved roads, animals (cows, horses, goats etc.), its just a tiny town. The poverty here is a lot worse, people live in conditions I never knew existed. So the difference is pretty big.