1 February 1999

Elder Roberts and I called Sister Dimaya on Saturday morning about my toe.  She told us to go to a doctor, and if he wanted to remove the entire nail, we should say no and go to Tacloban and let her do it.  The doctor said the whole nail should come off, so we went to Tacloban.  Sister Dimaya took a look at it and said, "It's bad, but the whole thing doesn't need to be removed."  She had me soak it for a minute or two in salt water.  While I was doing that, she left the room.  She returned shortly with a meat cleaver in her hand and said, "Okay, are you ready?"  She's so cool.  After putting the meat cleaver away, she took my foot out of the water and put some ointment on my toe to numb it.  I couldn't bring myself to watch what she did next, but I know what happened.  She cut the nail on the worst side.  It didn't feel good (kind of like scratching a chalk board), but it wasn't that bad.  Then she started to pull it out.  I gasped and my whole body tensed.  "Just think about Joseph Smith's experience," President Dimaya said as he and Elder Roberts watched.  He was referring to the time Joseph Smith had an operation on his leg as a child with no drugs.  Sister Dimaya pulled the rest of the section of the nail out.  "Ow, crap!" I said, tensing even more, and then I laughed.  I don't know why.  I was sweating more than I ever have in my life.  The reason it hurt was because there was a sharp point on it, which was also the reason that my toe had been hurting so much and got infected.  After checking to make sure that side was okay, she cut the other side of the nail.  I felt her pull it out, and when she did, Elder Roberts and President both winced and said, "Oooo!"  "Did that hurt?" Elder Roberts asked.  "I felt something, but it didn't hurt," I said.  The piece she had removed was really deep, but it wasn't jagged, so it didn't hurt.  Sister Dimaya bandaged my toe, gave me some amoxicillan, fed us, and sent us on our way.  I have to wear sandals when I go proselyting for the next two weeks.