21 October 1998 - 2 January 1999

Since the purpose of the blog is to give a picture of life in the Philippines, I'm not going to include my journal entries from the MTC.  I will sum it up, though.  I arrived on the 21st of October and was assigned to District D of Branch 59.  My companion was Elder Swingler from LA.  Our district was made up of six elders, and we all slept in the same room.  Besides Swingler and myself, there was Elder Kopp (district leader, and later assistant to the branch president), Elder Coon, Elder Smith, and Elder Spitzenberg (he took over as district leader after Elder Kopp became AP).  Our days consisted of three classes a day, each class lasting three hours.  Our teachers were Sister Taylor, Sister Wright, and Brother Davidson.  In these classes, we learned Tagalog and how to be a missionary.  Our branch president was President Chapman.  There were no classes on Sunday.  We had church in the morning, rest in the afternoon, and a fireside in the evening.

MacKenzie, Smith, Coon, Swingler, Spitzenberg, Kopp

Elder Swingler is a great guy, but we didn't get along very well while we were companions.  Most of it was my fault.  I had always been a quiet guy who valued his privacy, and I was suddenly sharing a room with five other guys, and spending every moment with a talkative 19-year-old boy.  Things got pretty bad between us, but after some time apart in the field, we forgave each other, and he was one of my favourite people in the mission.

Despite his German name, Elder Spitzenberg was Samoan.  He had his mother send us all a lava-lava

We were supposed to leave the MTC and head to the Philippines around December 21, but there was a delay because of an airline strike in the Philippines.  We spent four major holidays in the MTC: Halloween (for costumes, we all switched name tags), American Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve.  Elders Smith, Coon, and Spitzenberg left on the 1st of January (they were going to the Philippines Bagio Mission).  Swingler, Kopp, and I left on the 2nd of January.

The Provo Temple was across the street from the MTC.  We went there once a week.

5 January 1999

I'm in Manila!  It sure is hot here.  And humid!  I was told that the humidity was bad, but nothing can prepare a person for that first step out of the airport.  But I'm glad I'm here.  I'm excited.  I'm at the Missionary Reception Center right now (I got here yesterday), and we leave tomorrow.  Traveling here was a new and interesting experience.  There were five of us traveling together: Elder Swingler, Elder Kopp, me, Elder Bush, and Elder Danielson.  We left the MTC at 4:00 pm and went to the Salt Lake City airport.  Elder Kopp's family met us there.  While they visited, I phoned home.  I talked to everyone but Jenny and Rob.  It was nice to hear their voices again.  They're doing well.  We left Salt Lake at 7:00 and flew to Los Angeles, where Elder Swingler's family met him.  I don't like LAX.  I didn't like it the first time I was there, and I liked it even less this time.  We had to walk a long way with all our luggage to get to the EVA Airway terminal.  And when we got there, we found out that the Church had given us weekday tickets.  Since it was Saturday, we each to to pay $21 extra.  The flight from LA to Taipei, Taiwan was 14 hours, but it was pretty cool.  It was a huge plane.  It was a Boeing 747-400.  And we flew Deluxe Class.  Very comfortable, and the food was okay.  Each seat had its own radio and TV.

Hanging out in Taiwan

I just found out that I have to wake up at 2:30 in the morning.  I'll finish this later.

6 January 1999

Now I'm in Tacloban City!  We landed in Taipei, Taiwan at 6:00 am their time, only instead of being Sunday the third, which it was in North America, it was Monday the fourth.  It was really messed up.  At 9:30 am, we left Taipei and arrived in Manila at 11:40 am.  Elder Makanoa (the man in charge of the MRC (Missionary Reception Center), along with his wife) picked us up at the airport.  We exchanged our money at a place in some sort of mall.  It was crowded.  Yesterday, we got Philippines drivers licenses.  Afterwards, we wanted to do a session at the Manila Temple, but we discovered that it was closed for repairs.  So we just walked around the grounds for a few minutes.  This morning, we left Manila at 5:30 and arrived here in Tacloban.  President and Sister Dimaya are cool.  Elder Kopp is chasing a tiny little lizard right now in our room for the night.  We're at the mission home.  We'll be meeting our trainers in about an hour.  I love it here.  We went to the General MacArthur monument earlier today.  We bought a fresh coconut while we were there.  It was okay, but I was expecting more.  Tomorrow, I'll be in my first area!

President Dimaya, Elder MacKenzie, Sister Dimaya

Wynder, Swingler, Roberts, MacKenzie, Kopp, Knighton, Dimaya

(For a more detailed description of this first day, go here.)

8 January 1999

My new companion is Elder Michael Roberts from Ohio.  He's only been in the field for three months, and he's already training, so he must be good.  He's good so far.  Our area is Albuera.  It's a Cebuano-speaking area.  Therefore, I am very lost.  We taught the first discussion this afternoon (after my first zone conference).  I read a paragraph whenever it was my turn, but Elder Roberts did everything else.  But I love it here!  On the ride to Ormoc for zone conference, I rode outside on the back of the multicab.  It was cool.  The people are cool, too.  I'm pretty sure this'll be a great mission, especially when I learn how to speak Cebuano.

Elder MacKenzie and Elder Roberts

9 January 1999

It was a busy day.  I'm very worn out.  We went to a lot of appointments, taught another first discussion, and I met some of the members.  They were cool.  People here seem very happy.  I can't wait until I can communicate better with them.  The children are especially cool.  And they are unbelievably cute.  It makes me want to marry a Filipina after my mission just so I can have children like the ones here.

We had an appointment this afternoon way out in the bukid (wilderness).  We  took a  15- or 20-minute hike into the wilderness, and when we finally reached our destination, the person we were supposed to meet wasn't there.  Oh, well.  I needed the exercise.

I had an interesting dream last night.  It was really blurry, but this is what I remember:  I was with Elder Kopp and Elder Swingler.  We were walking between some old buildings in Manila.  We sneaked into one of the buildings, and it was the Provo MTC assembly hall.  There were a lot of missionaries coming in and sitting down, because a devotional was going to start soon.  We walked through the crowd in a bit of a hurry.  Then I walked past Sara.  I hurried back to her and asked her what she was doing there.  She told me that she was going on a mission to Washington, and she said it as if I already knew.  I thought for a moment, and then said, "Wait, I think I did know that."  And then I woke up.

20 January 1999

Well, well, well, well, well.  Before I say what I'm going to complain about, let me make a few things clear first: I love it here in the Philippines.  The people of Albuera are great.  My companion and I get along, and we're growing closer together (the chess set I bought seems to help).  I'm starting to progress visibly in my Cebuano, and I'm getting mail now.  But there are two things bothering me.  First, last Thursday I woke up covered in mosquito bites.  That was annoying, but simple to deal with.  I put up with the itching and bought some mosquito repellent.

Second: on Monday, I noticed that my big toe was starting to hurt right where the side of the nail meets the flesh.  I thought it was from when I stubbed it the previous night.  It started to hurt worse, and now it looks disgusting.  We didn't get any work done until after I got some painkillers in Ormoc.  We visited a member tonight.  He's a medic, so we showed him my toe right before we left.  He said it's an ingrown toenail!  Crap!  I don't want an ingrown toenail in the Philippines!  There was an elder at the MRC (Missionary Reception Center in Manila) at the same time I was with an ingrown toenail.  When they removed it, they took a chunk of his toe with it!  All afternoon and all night, he would bleed all over the place (soaking right through the bandages) unless he had it elevated.  For one thing, I don't want that to happen to my toe.  For another thing, that'll put me out of commission for a week or two.  I have people to teach!  I have a language to learn!  Cripes!

On the lighter side of things, Albuera is getting two more elders tomorrow: Elder Kenney (just released as an AP) and Elder Pfister.  Elder Kenney is really cool.  I've never met Elder Pfister.  The best thing about this is the splitting of the area.  We'll be able to follow up on everybody better.

21 January 1999

Uncle Bert is probably dead now.  I got a letter from home today that was written on January 6.  Mum said that he would most likely die in the next few days.  At the time she wrote the letter, he was slipping into a coma, and his kidneys and bowels had shut down.  That sucks.  I'll miss him.  I hope his family is okay.  I hope Grandma can deal with it.