6 January 2000

Today is a landmark in my mission.  It was exactly one year ago today that Elder Kopp, Elder Swingler, and I arrived in Tacloban.  I just read my journal entry for 6 January 1999, and it was pretty sketchy, so let me retell it in more detail.  We woke up at 2:30 in the morning and left the MRC (Missionary Reception Center), getting to the small airport in Manila (as opposed to the international airport) at around 3:30.  As we waited for our flight, we met an American woman and her Filipino husband and mother-in-law.  They were members, so it was really cool running into them.  Our plane left at around 5:30 or 6:00, and we landed in Tacloban at around 6:30 or 7:00.  We walked over to the small, dirty, crowded, concrete structure that served as an airport, where we waited for a tractor to bring in all of the luggage and set it on a table.  Once we had ours, we left the airport and looked for other missionaries.  All we saw were Filipinos, jeepneys, and green.  "Maybe we should just find our own way there," Elder Swingler suggested.  I didn't think it was a good idea.  A guy came up to us speaking in a dialect that we didn't understand (Waray-Waray), but he was motioning to a jeepney, so we figured out that he was a conductor.  Elder Swingler asked in Tagalog if he would take us to our mission home.  The conductor readily said yes, anxious to get the fresh Americanos on his jeep so that he could overcharge them.  Before we could go with him, however, a van pulled up and I saw two white guys and a Filipino get out who were dressed like us.  I pointed this out to the others, and we went to greet the mission president and the APs, namely, President Dimaya, Elder Dick, and Elder Kenney.  They welcomed us warmly, and I liked them right from the start.  We loaded our stuff onto the van, and then got in, greeted by glorious air conditioning.  We drove along the road to Tacloban at a breakneck speed, marveling at coconut trees, carabao, pigs, and jeepneys.  We were taken to the mission home where we met Sister Dimaya.  She fed us a wonderful breakfast.  After breakfast, Elders Kenney and Dick took us on a tour.  They showed us MacArthur Park, the hotel where General MacArthur stayed, the San Juanico Bridge, and they let us set foot on Samar for the first time ever.  Out of the three of us, I'm the only one who has yet returned.  After we were done touring the mission, it was about time for lunch, so the APs took us to a Filipino restaurant.  It was my first exposure to sili peppers.  Very hot.  After that, we had our orientation in the office.  Actually, now that I think about it, the orientation was before lunch.  So after lunch, we just went to the annex and relaxed in air con until our trainers showed up at 6:00.  That was when I wrote that lame entry in my journal.  We had the trainers' meeting at 6:00.  I was assigned to Albuera with Elder Roberts, Elder Swingler to St. Bernard with Elder Wynder, and Elder Kopp to Tolosa with Elder Knighton.  After the meeting, we ate dinner.  The Dimayas offered us balut, but I chickened out.  I ate it later in my mission, though.  The next morning, I met Elder Anderson, the newly called AP.  After breakfast, we went to the office.  I bought a set of Cebuano discussions, and then we left for Albuera.  The APs drove us because they were headed that way for zone conference.

Kopp, Swingler, and MacKenzie with General MacArthur.  6 January  1999

Today was a very good day.  We made some promising contacts, taught Joseph the sixth discussion, taught a first discussion to a widow and her children.  It went very well.  I have high homes for her.  Her name is Yolanda Jamolin.  Her 14-year-old son, Ryan, is already committed for baptism.  He had been sitting in on the discussions with his neighbors, Monica and her son Roguel.

I went to Ethell's Place to celebrate my year in the field mark.  It was good food, but Ethell and her sisters weren't there.  After that, I bought some ice cream and we came home to eat it.  I had a shirt that was pretty hole-filled, so I decided to burn it.  I had some fun doing it.  I took pictures.

Burning a shirt at my year-in-the-field mark.