4 & 5 August 1999

I'm in Ormoc again.  It's zone conference.  My entire batch is here.  It was my first time seeing Elder Swingler in seven months.  Upon seeing him, I realized that I've forgiven him (I needed forgiveness myself, and Swingler was gracious enough to grant it).  I even hugged the little bugger.  It was cool getting caught up with him.

Elder Kopp, Elder MacKenzie, and Elder Swingler.  That's Elder Hale on the right posing for someone else's camera.

A bunch of us went over to the sisters' apartment last night searching for mattresses.  It was 9:30, so we figured that they'd be there.  The lights were off, and nobody was answering the door, so we concluded that they weren't home yet.  We really wanted mattresses, and we were tired of waiting for the sisters to come home, so we got Elder Kopp (he's Ormoc district leader now) to climb onto their balcony and see if the door up there was locked.  As he was just getting to the top, Elder Sutton said, "It would be funny if the sister were asleep up there."  Right after he said that, Elder Kopp turned around with a horrified look on his face and said, "The sisters are sleeping in there!"  We thought he was joking at first, but he wasn't.  Elder Pfister handed him a long stick which he used to knock on the window without looking in.  We waited a little while, laughing at Elder Kopp, and then we hear Sister Kagahastian say, "Oh, dili maayo, Elder."  (Oh, not good, Elder.)  Kopp was so embarrassed and flustered.  He told them all to get dressed, because he was coming through.  He waited a few minutes while the rest of us laughed.  Then the door on the balcony opened, and he said, "Okay, I'm coming!" and ran for the door.  We heard the sisters scream, and the door slammed shut.  "Okay, I'm not coming," he said.  They opened the door again and let him make a run for it.  We heard his feet stomping down the stairs.  Elder Sutton held the front door shut so he couldn't get out.  "The door's locked!  I can't get out!  For the love of all that's holy, I can't get out!" Elder Kopp was yelling.  He finally got out, apologizing to the sisters while the rest of us died laughing.

Zone Conference was excellent.  I'm really excited about President Dela Vega.  He's a great guy.  Very spiritual.  He'll do a lot of good for this mission.

I'm starting to get famous in the mission for my toe, and then the root beer incident.