14 September 1999

Today was interesting.  I packed all morning.  At lunchtime, we went out to Basud and said good-bye to Josephine Sabornido, Arlene Mongosierra, Pascual and Suzanna Hontilla, and all their kids.  I'll miss them.  Josephine and Arlene are the first two people I've ever personally baptized, and they're all very nice people.  After that, we went out to Nolasco and Lilia Docallos and said good-bye.  They're cool.  I'll miss them, too.  Then we went out to Pitagohan to say good-bye to some people out there, namely Sister Deizmo, her children, and the Macabenta family.  Then we went out to Jamorawan to visit the Sedaya family.  I told them yesterday that I'm transferred, so when I got there, An-An and Angie were all over me.  I love those girls so much.  We hung out with the whole family for a while.  Brother Sedaya gave me a dead, dried-out seahorse on a necklace.  It's cool.  Around 5:30, we went to see Josephine Berdida with An-An and Angie.  We visited with her for about half an hour.  I wrote in her missionary notebook.  I was the third to ever write in it, Elder Gatan and Elder Martinez being the first two.  She gave me a picture of her, and then we left.  That was hard, both physically and emotionally.  When I shook her hand on the street in front of her house, she wouldn't let go.  She stood there clinging to my hand with both of hers saying, "Oy, Elder MacKenzie, away pagbalhin."  (Don't leave.  I think.  Something along those lines, anyway.)  I have to admit that I was only struggling half-heartedly.  Elder Pfister finally forced her to let go of me, and we left.  She stood there for a long time watching us walk away.  That was really hard.  Josephine's a great person; I'm going to miss her a lot.  We went to the Sedaya's house and hung out with them for another hour.  We had to leave at 7:00 to teach the sixth discussion to Locrisia.  I've never had such a hard time leaving someone's house.  Hard emotionally, not physically.  Angie and An-An kept giving me big hugs.  Everyone of them started crying.  I gave Brother a hug, too.  I almost cried myself.

The atmosphere at the Oppos house (that's where we teach Locrisia and her kids) was quite a bit different.  There were a lot of people there to see me off.  After the discussion and the district leader's worksheet were out of the way, we all sat around having a nice, fun chat.  The members here in Almeria are very fun to hang out with.  Locrisia is kind of upset that I'm transferred, because she had a dream that I baptized her.  Everyone is upset that my stay here was so short.  They gave us snacks, I gave out some pictures, we took a group picture, and then I said good-be to May-May and her mother, and then Brother Deizmo.  I'm going to miss this area so much.