Salamanca, 1 baptism, finally recieved care packages, 3900 hits

Hey dad,

This email is going to be short due to our lack of time. I will give a quick run down of the week.
Saturday we baptized a 16 year old girl named Ivonne. The baptism went well. If all goes well this weekend we may have 7 baptisms.

* My foot is slowly getting better, the pain is less and less.
* The District/Zone leader conference in Leon was awesome, very spiritual. Sis.Cox made us lasagna. I haven’t had lasagna in over a year.
*I got my packages, THANK YOU TRADER FAMILY!! and my family also. Most definitely some of the best packages I have received yet. The pants fit and everything.
*Elder Bednar will be here the 19th, the whole mission will be traveling to Leon to see, meet and hear him speak to us. Sadly, he will not be interviewing us all as we had thought. =(
*Salamanca is a great place, there is a huge refinery here called PEMEX, basically all of Salamanca is employed there.
*Due to the poor health regulations mexico puts on pemex, the entire city smells very badly due to the excess waste of pemex.
*Even though Salamanca smells bad it is a lot more beautiful than Irapuato, we are about 40 minutes from the city of irapuato.

Love ya!

El Elder Salazar

I will now answer your questions...

1. Tell us about Salamanca. Is it a big or small town, what do they do for work there? How does it compare to the other cities you've been in?
------It’s a relatively small town, but is constantly growing. There are a ton of people living here. Most people here work in the pemex refinery, almost all the members atleast.

2. Tell us about Elder Whittle (parents, family etc? What's is he like, what does he like to do for fun back home?
------Elder Whittle is a really good guy. He just reached his one year mark in the mission. He is obedient, has a desire to work hard and do his best. He is a big kid that’s for sure. He’s about 6 foot 4, 220 pounds. You will see him in the pic. The top of my head reaches to his shoulders. He wears a size 14 shoe!! He’s a football player. His whole family are members, his mom and dad have been on missions. His grandparents have been on more than 5 missions themselves.

3. How is your new ward, is it a big ward, are the members strong? What is the Bishop like?
------My new ward is ok. Our meeting block just changed time, from 12 to 830am. The time change has affected a lot of members. Some have a hard time getting up earlier. The bishop is a good guy, this is his 2nd time being bishop, he has a son in the Monterrey East mission right now.

4. Are there artisans or people hand making goods in your area?
------That I have seen, not really. But I am always looking. In the state of Guanajuato the big trade here is shoes, this state is FILLED with shoes. Because Leon is the leather capital of the country.

5. How many missionaries are in your area now? Do you or the zone leaders do the pre-baptism interviews?
------In my district we are 6. 4 here in Salamanca, 2 in a small town another 30 minutes away called Valle De Santiago. I do all the baptismal interviews for my district. And when I have baptisms I cant do my own interviews of my own investigators, so the Z-Leaders come out and interview them.