11 September 1999

Well, another Saturday, another successful baptism.  We had one convert baptism and one child of record baptism.  The convert was Patricio Deizmo, the father of one of the members here.  It was cool.  I love baptisms.  I've had a lot of them here in Almeria.  I'm thankful for that.

Today is Jonah's third birthday.  I plan on celebrating tonight with ice cream.

There has been a lot of activity around our house all week.  Let me explain the background situation a little first.  We don't rent this entire house.  There's a big section on the front that has been vacant and closed off to us for as long as missionaries have been here, plus one room upstairs.  On Monday, a small group of people showed up and unlocked the front door.  They've been working in there fixing the place up all week.  That's where they sleep, too.  According to our house help, the owner's mother is going to be staying there.  We don't know if it'll be permanent or what.  We were here at lunchtime on Thursday with the zone leaders, and one of the workers just walked in saying he needed to go on the roof to fix it.  The easiest access to the roof is from the balcony, and you have to go through our part of the house to get there.  And that meant we had to stay here for a few hours to watch the house while they were coming in and out while they fixed the roof.  They did it again on Friday morning.  Then this afternoon, we came back here to drop something off.  Brother Allegado was still here working, so the door was unlocked.  They were in our part of the house trying to get into that one room that we aren't allowed going into.  That is against the contract, and against mission rules.  Now we have to stay here watching the house until Brother goes home so we can lock the door.  The zone leaders are giving us a copy of the contract on Monday.  Once we know exactly what's in it, we're going over there to talk about the electric bill, water bill, and them coming in here without permission.  I really hope those people aren't here long term.  On top of everything I just finished talking about, we have lost a big chunk of privacy.  Elder Zapanta, once of the APs, has been trying to get that front part leased so that the members won't be squished in here.  We have an average of 60 people attending church now.  Our little apartment can't hold them all anymore.