Hey Mom y Dad,

Things here are going well. This last week was a little rough, we had about 3 baptisms scheduled and they all fell through. As for my health I have been doing very well. Before I came to Cardenas, Elder Hines gave me his bottle of Multi Vitamin pills that his mom sent him. I have been taking one every day and so I always feel really good. As For Elder Krebs, he is doing well. We are working on his Spanish, but he is struggling a little but is always making progress. It turns out that his dad served a mission in Chile, and that’s where his dad met his mom. So his mom is Chilean or from Chile, yet he still struggles. He has been adjusting to Mexico well. It was pretty funny that the first day he was here, the family we ate with made us the spiciest food they make to welcome him here, it was pretty funny to see him react.

As for the mail system here in Cardenas, I’m not to sure how it works, mail only gets delivered here once a week, but I’m not sure how outgoing mail works here. Today I will ask at our lunch appointment how it works and respond next week.

As for the missionary work, we also have been having a hard time finding people to teach but we are working hard everyday. It seems to me that when we run into challenges it is because after the challenge comes the success. This weekend we have scheduled one baptism of a lady named Isabelle, she is about 32-33 and we are going to get her married to her boyfriend this week so she can get baptized Saturday, I’ve never helped anyone get married so we will see how this goes, pray for us!

This month of March we don’t get P-days because President wants 300 baptisms in the mission this month and so we are all sacrificing our p-days in order to work more. It should be just this month. So that means I have to keep this email short. I am going to try to send some pictures but this computer is running really, really slow, so if they don’t get through you will know why.

Thanks for all the love and support, Con mucho cariño,

Elder Salazar


1. Do you drink the water?
------No, we always buy water jugs called "Garrafones" they are purified water jugs that cost about 20 pesos, one usually lasts us 1 month. We use them to drink water, brush teeth, I bought a Gatorade mix last week so I have been using water with that also.

2. How have the dogs been treating you?
------Very well, except some times when we come home at night we find fleas on us!! And we know it comes from the dogs. My poor companion probably has over 40 bug bites, I only have about 2. I keep telling him it’s because the fleas love the pure blood of Americans.

3. How is the branch taking the news of plans to build a church building in Cardenas?
------Very well also, the members who have the longest time here in Cardenas are the most excited.

4. Is there anything you need us to send you, that you can’t get there?
------No, not really, I’m doing pretty well on everything.

5. Of the church books you have read in English and Spanish, did the change of language make a difference in your understanding, or enhance your ability to teach better?
------A little bit of both, through studying in English I have learned a lot more and now understand the gospel 1000x better than before the mission and through studying in Spanish, I increased my Spanish vocabulary thus making it easier for me to communicate and teach in Spanish.