Flu epidemic, and no water

Hey ma, hey pops,

Elder Krebs and I are doing well. Cardenas is in quite the crisis right now. Many city services are closed due to the flu, and everyone is scared to leave their homes due to the flu. Secondly a pipe broke around here somewhere and the whole town is without water, and they still haven’t fixed it. Water sometimes arrives to the houses at about 630am to 700am, but it's not enough. A lot of people are suffering. There is very, very little water. Many people have to go to the local pozos(wells?) and water springs around here and are carrying water back to their houses, its pretty sad. It definitely has been a wake up call to me, to heed the counsel of the church and have at least a 2 week supply of food and water. I have seen first hand how a town reacts when they don’t have water. We are doing ok, because we use very little water. Because we are never home, our tanks fills up when we are away.

Other than that the work is going forth. Elder Krebs and I found almost 20 new people to teach this week and we taught over 40 lessons and we put over 10 baptism dates for the 16th of May. We also found 2 families this week, so we are very excited. Pray for us that these families and people keep progressing towards their baptism.

Good to hear that Colin and Bryce are doing well. I am excited Bryce is making it to a mission. I think him going on a mission is by far one of the most critical decisions he could make in his life, now he can depend on the lord to make him into the bishop, husband, responsible father that he will need to be in the years following his mission.

It was funny to hear about Mike Corona. I say funny because at one point in his life Mike Corona was in charge of the jails, now he’s going to be in jail. Weird how that works. And ouch for Chad Reed, losing the title by a mere 3 points. I bet he won’t do as well in Outdoor motocross because Reed is a Supercross rider and I think Bubba excels in the outdoors as a motocross rider. I like the pics you have been sending me, seeing those pistols makes me homesick!! Elder Krebs likes looking at them too, I dont think he’s ever shot a gun before.

Anyways...I will answer your questions now.

tu hijo amado,

El Elder Salazarrr!


1. Are there any senior couples serving in the Mexico, Leon mission? Do they speak Spanish? (question submitted by the person formerly known as Bishop Robinson)

------At the current time no there aren’t. But In Cardenas I had the opportunity to meet a Humanitarian Aid couple serving for the church here in Mexico and they were actually from Southern California. Their names were Brother and Sister Olsen. They weren’t from the Garden Grove stake but were from, I believe, the Brea stake?? Nevertheless, they were good friends of President Lewis, and knew gramma and grampa Hicken. They also knew many other people from our stake.

2. What precautions is the church taking because of the flu?

------ I am not 100% sure but I believe almost all church sacrament meetings in Mexico have been cancelled the last two weeks and this next Sunday. I am 100% sure that here in my mission all services in SLP, Guanajuato and Aguascalientes have been cancelled.

3. How is the missionary efforts being affected by the flu?

------We are taking advantage! Many people strongly believe this is a plague sent by god, and that the world is ending. People are inviting us in to ask us if that is true and we happily answer their questions, and teach them the truth. Also, many people are trying to stay home and avoid leaving the house due to the sickness. So when we knock doors, ALOT of people are home and willing to listen.

4. Think of something to put here, I'm out of questions...dad.

------This last weekend we broke the mission record of baptisms in 1 week. Our mission baptized 80 people! And we still have 4 weeks left, to get to 300!!