Christmas Eve in the mission hm. BMS phone home. 6210 blog hits

Christmas Eve in the Mission Home
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Hola madre y padre

I agree the phone call was great. I was very happy to have talked to you. Xmas eve was great here, as you can see from Sis Cox´ blog we had a lot of fun.

THANK YOU FOR THE GIFTS!! I liked the socks! Too bad I couldn’t talk to the grandparents but I am glad I got to talk to the all the brothers.

We are now getting ready for January. Once January is over I only have February and that’s it, I am done. I am trying to keep the same pace I have always had in the mission so I keep working harder and harder, and harder!!

I’m about to jump on a bus to Aguascalientes to go out and do some divisions to help some people get baptized in other areas. Ill probably be back in Leon on Wednesday.

I enjoyed xmas and the phone call. Pretty soon well be talking in person! love ya!

Elder Salazar
Send everyone my love...

Happy bday Erica!


http://bobandbeckycoxfamily.blogspot.com/


Elder Salazar and Mission Hm cat (Celaya)
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Arbide. Elder Maxfield. 2 Baptism's. 6130 blog hits.

Hey mom & dad,

I am writing a little bit late, today has been SUPER busy. On Saturday and again today we had to get up at 3:30am to take missionaries to the airport and see them off. We had to be at the airport in Silao by 5am. Also today we had to make over 35 missionary changes and make sure they got off to their new areas and then we welcomed 11 new Hispanic elders and 1 new American elder to the mission. We have been very busy training and teaching the newbie’s. Anyways, not too much is going on here. We have been working really hard and have about 11 people baptized this month, we have 4 more people ready to be baptized but 2 need to get married, and the civil register is closed here until the new year =(. Which puts a hold on things.

Elder Hatton went home today, he was one of the old assistants and a good friend of Elder Callen and I. I must admit, Hatton leaving, made me realize that I do have a lot of time here in the mission, almost 21 months. Elder Hatton was one of the hardest working elders in the mission, but he was one of the funnest to be around. He has had more success in the Mexico, Leon mission than ANY other missionary in the history of Mexico Leon. He ended up with about 200 baptisms.

I got the Fed-Ex envelope with my driver’s license, some pictures and everything. Thanks! I really, really enjoyed the pics. The second Christmas package never arrived, but don’t worry about it, I am not really going to need anything for the rest of my mission. But when we have p-days again in February, I plan on buying a new suit, a pair of dress shoes and souvenirs for the family.

I was glad to hear that Justin is well and didn’t re-injure his knee again.

I sent a few pictures. One is of a baptism we had. We recently baptized a family of 5, and last week we FINALLY baptized the dad!! There is another picture of a person we baptized who is deaf and speech impaired (the one w/the glasses).

President gave me permission to call on Christmas Eve. I will actually be able to call YOU, instead of you calling me! I look forward to talking to the family on Xmas eve.

Love ya!!

Elder Salazar

Asistente al Presidente Cox.

Elder Hatton

Arbide & Loma Bonita. Baptism. Maxfield & Callen. 6050 blog hits

President Cox with Elders Callen, Maxfield & Salazar
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Hey mom, and dad,

Thanks for your email! I am really short on time because this is the last week of the changes and we have to take an elder home a week early because he lives in Argentina. We just had breakfast at Presidents house. Sis Cox made scrambled eggs and we had OJ and ham left over from last night. It was great. As for eating dinner with Pres and Sis Cox on Sunday nights, it’s a lot of fun. At 6pm we (assistants) have a meeting with president and we go over the weeks numbers, baptisms, problems etc. We discuss the mission and the elders. Then at 7 we have dinner with Pres. And Sister Cox. The ambiance is really great. President really opens up and we all talk about the mission, life back home, movies etc etc. We eat well and have a lot of fun. Right after dinner is over we go back to business.

As an assistant I make about 500 phone calls a week because we are constantly calling the zone leaders and making sure everyone is working and baptizing. Right now I am still in the same zone (West Leon) and I go to the same building, until this next Monday (when we receive new zone leaders). So for now I am still going to Arbide and the other ward called Loma Bonita.

This last week went ok, we baptized a girl named Lucy. Her mom and the rest of her family were baptized last week, now we are working on baptizing the dad.

Sorry to hear about Justin, I hope he gets better soon and hasn’t done anymore damage.

I still don’t know anything about the phone call but I am pretty sure that president will let me call Christmas Eve. I will let you know as soon as I know. All is well here; I am still waiting for my package and license to get here.

Anyways, I gotta run but thanks for everything!

Love ya!!!

ELDER SALAZAR


*** HAPPY BDAY NATE! ***

Loma Bonita. Elder Maxfield. Moved into mission home. 5940 Blog hits

Elders Hatten, Robles, Salazar & Maxfield
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Hello mom, dad and family,

This was the first real week in the offices. Elder Maxfield, Elder Callen and I have officially moved into the offices. There are 7 of us living here right now. Elder Verdeja (my old comp from Cardenas) whom is the Executive Secretary in the mission, Elder Sherman who is the Financial secretary, Elder Hatton and Elder Schow who are the old assistants, Elder Maxfield, Elder Callen and myself. We have a lot of fun but we are all working really hard. Elder Hatton and Elder Schow are really good friends and they have been traveling the entire mission helping out the zone leaders. Elder Hatton is from Naples, Florida and Elder Schow is from a small town called "Medicine Hat, Canada". They are both really great elders, they will be leaving the 19th and 20th of this month to be home for Xmas.

I will not be working Arbide anymore; we will be focusing on the next area over from ours called Loma Bonita. I am a little worried about my new area, only because the assistants have been working this area the last 10 years. Just imagine 10 years of the most dedicated, hardest workers, the best teachers, best door knockers, you would think that the area is literally overworked. I feel under qualified but I know that with the help of Elder Maxfield and Elder Callen we can find investigators and baptize.

Some other great news...! This last month, Elder Maxfield and I had the highest baptizing zone in the mission, also Elder Maxfield and I were the highest baptizers in the entire mission for the month of November. Overall, the month of November has been one of the best months of my mission by far.

Anyways... Some of the duties of assistants are... Provide Training for the ZL's and the other missionaries. Set goals for the mission. Be in charge of various ZL’s to make sure their Zones are working hard, baptizing and being obedient. Decide what the Mission studies in their companionship study. For example, this week we are studying Chapter 1 of Preach my Gospel "My Purpose as a Missionary", 1st and 2nd sections. Also, as assistants we should be setting an example for the whole mission, this is probably the most important duty. We have to be the most obedient, the hardest workers and we should always be contacting investigators and baptizing. We also take the elders who are going home to the airport and send them off. We receive the new elders who come from the US MTC and the Mexican CCM, and we give them a small training meeting. We get to drive mission vehicles (including presidents Trailblazer =)! and we eat dinner with Sister Cox on Sundays.

This week went well, we baptized 7 people! The baptisms went great. Things are going great here in the mission. We are working hard and having fun. It’s a lot of stress, but it’s the same stress I felt when I first became a ZL, and I know that with time, instead of stress I will feel confidence!

Thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Salazar