21 October 1998 - 2 January 1999

Since the purpose of the blog is to give a picture of life in the Philippines, I'm not going to include my journal entries from the MTC.  I will sum it up, though.  I arrived on the 21st of October and was assigned to District D of Branch 59.  My companion was Elder Swingler from LA.  Our district was made up of six elders, and we all slept in the same room.  Besides Swingler and myself, there was Elder Kopp (district leader, and later assistant to the branch president), Elder Coon, Elder Smith, and Elder Spitzenberg (he took over as district leader after Elder Kopp became AP).  Our days consisted of three classes a day, each class lasting three hours.  Our teachers were Sister Taylor, Sister Wright, and Brother Davidson.  In these classes, we learned Tagalog and how to be a missionary.  Our branch president was President Chapman.  There were no classes on Sunday.  We had church in the morning, rest in the afternoon, and a fireside in the evening.

MacKenzie, Smith, Coon, Swingler, Spitzenberg, Kopp

Elder Swingler is a great guy, but we didn't get along very well while we were companions.  Most of it was my fault.  I had always been a quiet guy who valued his privacy, and I was suddenly sharing a room with five other guys, and spending every moment with a talkative 19-year-old boy.  Things got pretty bad between us, but after some time apart in the field, we forgave each other, and he was one of my favourite people in the mission.

Despite his German name, Elder Spitzenberg was Samoan.  He had his mother send us all a lava-lava

We were supposed to leave the MTC and head to the Philippines around December 21, but there was a delay because of an airline strike in the Philippines.  We spent four major holidays in the MTC: Halloween (for costumes, we all switched name tags), American Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Eve.  Elders Smith, Coon, and Spitzenberg left on the 1st of January (they were going to the Philippines Bagio Mission).  Swingler, Kopp, and I left on the 2nd of January.

The Provo Temple was across the street from the MTC.  We went there once a week.

5 January 1999

I'm in Manila!  It sure is hot here.  And humid!  I was told that the humidity was bad, but nothing can prepare a person for that first step out of the airport.  But I'm glad I'm here.  I'm excited.  I'm at the Missionary Reception Center right now (I got here yesterday), and we leave tomorrow.  Traveling here was a new and interesting experience.  There were five of us traveling together: Elder Swingler, Elder Kopp, me, Elder Bush, and Elder Danielson.  We left the MTC at 4:00 pm and went to the Salt Lake City airport.  Elder Kopp's family met us there.  While they visited, I phoned home.  I talked to everyone but Jenny and Rob.  It was nice to hear their voices again.  They're doing well.  We left Salt Lake at 7:00 and flew to Los Angeles, where Elder Swingler's family met him.  I don't like LAX.  I didn't like it the first time I was there, and I liked it even less this time.  We had to walk a long way with all our luggage to get to the EVA Airway terminal.  And when we got there, we found out that the Church had given us weekday tickets.  Since it was Saturday, we each to to pay $21 extra.  The flight from LA to Taipei, Taiwan was 14 hours, but it was pretty cool.  It was a huge plane.  It was a Boeing 747-400.  And we flew Deluxe Class.  Very comfortable, and the food was okay.  Each seat had its own radio and TV.

Hanging out in Taiwan

I just found out that I have to wake up at 2:30 in the morning.  I'll finish this later.

6 January 1999

Now I'm in Tacloban City!  We landed in Taipei, Taiwan at 6:00 am their time, only instead of being Sunday the third, which it was in North America, it was Monday the fourth.  It was really messed up.  At 9:30 am, we left Taipei and arrived in Manila at 11:40 am.  Elder Makanoa (the man in charge of the MRC (Missionary Reception Center), along with his wife) picked us up at the airport.  We exchanged our money at a place in some sort of mall.  It was crowded.  Yesterday, we got Philippines drivers licenses.  Afterwards, we wanted to do a session at the Manila Temple, but we discovered that it was closed for repairs.  So we just walked around the grounds for a few minutes.  This morning, we left Manila at 5:30 and arrived here in Tacloban.  President and Sister Dimaya are cool.  Elder Kopp is chasing a tiny little lizard right now in our room for the night.  We're at the mission home.  We'll be meeting our trainers in about an hour.  I love it here.  We went to the General MacArthur monument earlier today.  We bought a fresh coconut while we were there.  It was okay, but I was expecting more.  Tomorrow, I'll be in my first area!

President Dimaya, Elder MacKenzie, Sister Dimaya

Wynder, Swingler, Roberts, MacKenzie, Kopp, Knighton, Dimaya

(For a more detailed description of this first day, go here.)

8 January 1999

My new companion is Elder Michael Roberts from Ohio.  He's only been in the field for three months, and he's already training, so he must be good.  He's good so far.  Our area is Albuera.  It's a Cebuano-speaking area.  Therefore, I am very lost.  We taught the first discussion this afternoon (after my first zone conference).  I read a paragraph whenever it was my turn, but Elder Roberts did everything else.  But I love it here!  On the ride to Ormoc for zone conference, I rode outside on the back of the multicab.  It was cool.  The people are cool, too.  I'm pretty sure this'll be a great mission, especially when I learn how to speak Cebuano.

Elder MacKenzie and Elder Roberts

9 January 1999

It was a busy day.  I'm very worn out.  We went to a lot of appointments, taught another first discussion, and I met some of the members.  They were cool.  People here seem very happy.  I can't wait until I can communicate better with them.  The children are especially cool.  And they are unbelievably cute.  It makes me want to marry a Filipina after my mission just so I can have children like the ones here.

We had an appointment this afternoon way out in the bukid (wilderness).  We  took a  15- or 20-minute hike into the wilderness, and when we finally reached our destination, the person we were supposed to meet wasn't there.  Oh, well.  I needed the exercise.

I had an interesting dream last night.  It was really blurry, but this is what I remember:  I was with Elder Kopp and Elder Swingler.  We were walking between some old buildings in Manila.  We sneaked into one of the buildings, and it was the Provo MTC assembly hall.  There were a lot of missionaries coming in and sitting down, because a devotional was going to start soon.  We walked through the crowd in a bit of a hurry.  Then I walked past Sara.  I hurried back to her and asked her what she was doing there.  She told me that she was going on a mission to Washington, and she said it as if I already knew.  I thought for a moment, and then said, "Wait, I think I did know that."  And then I woke up.

20 January 1999

Well, well, well, well, well.  Before I say what I'm going to complain about, let me make a few things clear first: I love it here in the Philippines.  The people of Albuera are great.  My companion and I get along, and we're growing closer together (the chess set I bought seems to help).  I'm starting to progress visibly in my Cebuano, and I'm getting mail now.  But there are two things bothering me.  First, last Thursday I woke up covered in mosquito bites.  That was annoying, but simple to deal with.  I put up with the itching and bought some mosquito repellent.

Second: on Monday, I noticed that my big toe was starting to hurt right where the side of the nail meets the flesh.  I thought it was from when I stubbed it the previous night.  It started to hurt worse, and now it looks disgusting.  We didn't get any work done until after I got some painkillers in Ormoc.  We visited a member tonight.  He's a medic, so we showed him my toe right before we left.  He said it's an ingrown toenail!  Crap!  I don't want an ingrown toenail in the Philippines!  There was an elder at the MRC (Missionary Reception Center in Manila) at the same time I was with an ingrown toenail.  When they removed it, they took a chunk of his toe with it!  All afternoon and all night, he would bleed all over the place (soaking right through the bandages) unless he had it elevated.  For one thing, I don't want that to happen to my toe.  For another thing, that'll put me out of commission for a week or two.  I have people to teach!  I have a language to learn!  Cripes!

On the lighter side of things, Albuera is getting two more elders tomorrow: Elder Kenney (just released as an AP) and Elder Pfister.  Elder Kenney is really cool.  I've never met Elder Pfister.  The best thing about this is the splitting of the area.  We'll be able to follow up on everybody better.

21 January 1999

Uncle Bert is probably dead now.  I got a letter from home today that was written on January 6.  Mum said that he would most likely die in the next few days.  At the time she wrote the letter, he was slipping into a coma, and his kidneys and bowels had shut down.  That sucks.  I'll miss him.  I hope his family is okay.  I hope Grandma can deal with it.

28 January 1999

I'm enjoying having the new elders here.  Last Friday and Saturday, we went on splits.  Elder Roberts showed Elder Kenny around their half of the area, while Elder Pfister and I did some work in my half of the area.  Elder Pfister is pretty cool.  I like his sense of humour.  He's from Salt Lake City.  Elder Kenney is from Anaheim, but his grandmother is from Raymond.  Pretty cool, eh?  (I went to high school in Raymond.)

I haven't been to a doctor yet about my toenail.  It's getting pretty bad.  I'm out of painkillers, too.  I'll go on Monday after the Super Bowl (7:00 am).  I don't want to watch it, but my companion really does, so I'm going anyway.

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.

4 February 1999

Yesterday was a day that I won't soon forget.  We went on splits again, but this time I was with Elder Kenney. The morning was fine.  We did some less active work and some contacting, and then we came in for lunch.  Our second appointment after lunch was with the Orina family, who are less active.  Brother Orina has a Word of Wisdom problem.  (The Word of Wisdom is what prohibits Mormons from smoking and drinking alcohol, coffee, and tea.)  He was drunk when we arrived and feeling sick, but his wife told us to come in anyway.  The first wrong thing that we noticed was a poster of a practically nude woman on the wall.  We tried our best to ignore it and talked to Brother Orina and his wife.  Everything was going fine at first.  Then, when Sister was saying something to us, Brother came over, got on his hands and knees, and bowed his head between Elder Kenney and I.  It almost looked like he was worshipping us.  Elder Kenney didn't notice, because he was looking the other way at Sister, and I had no clue what he was doing, so I just sat there.  Brother finally sat up and looked at me.  He mumbled something that I couldn't hear (he usually speaks English), so I leaned in a little and said, "Pardon me?"  He gave me the ugliest look of contempt I've ever seen and started yelling at us: "I'm the head of the house, not her!  I want you to leave!  I bow down and ask for a blessing, and you listen to her!  You should leave, and I don't care for you to return!  Do I make myself clear?"

Elder Kenney calmly and seriously explained to Brother that we couldn't give him a blessing because he was drunk.  This calmed him down, and he started talking about his Word of Wisdom problems.  About 15 minutes later, when Elder Kenney and Sister were talking, Brother turned to me and asked if I was a local missionary.  I told him no.  Elder Kenney was listening now.  Brother continued: "So far, in your experience in the Philippines, have you, in a group or with an individual, attempted any sexual activities?"  I was so shocked by the question that I just sat there staring.  Brother turned to Elder Kenney and said, "That's a good question, no?  And he doesn't answer."  Elder Kenney and Brother said some things in Cebuano that I didn't understand.  Then Brother switched back to English.  He offered us to go into his room and have "sexual experiences" with his wife "free of charge."  Elder Kenney kept saying "Ayaw," which means "don't," but Brother wouldn't stop talking like that.  So we got up and started leaving.  On our way to the door, Brother came up to us and said, as he whipped out his penis, "Here in the Philippines, we have certain manipulations..."  We didn't hear the rest of the sentence, because that was when we said good-bye and left.

And after that, I fell in a rice paddy.

19 February 1999

I got two letters yesterday, one from Mum and Dad, and one from Jenny.  Uncle Bert died on the first of February.  Kidney failure.  The letters provided a lot of details about his death and funeral, so I'll just insert them in here instead of writing it all over again (the letters are taped in my journal.  I'm not going to transcribe them here).  This entry will just be my thoughts and feelings.  I read Jenny's letter first.  It hit me pretty hard when I read the first two lines, even though I already suspected he had passed away.  I guess I was still clinging to some hope.  I'm worried about Aunt Cath, but she's a strong woman; she'll be okay in time.  I'm more worried about Grandma.  It is a terrible thing to outlive your child, no matter how old the child may be.  I hope this doesn't affect her health.  I want to see her again in this life.  I'm worried about Jake, too.  This is the second loved-one who has died while he has been on his mission.  (The first was our friend, Cam Calder, who died in a motorcycle accident two months before I started my mission.)

23 February 1999

Yesterday was a very good day for me.  We had a zone activity at Lake Danao, up in the mountains.  The whole zone piled into and onto a jeepney for the ride up.  I cubited (rode on the rack on the back) and talked with Elder Reynolds (just recently transferred into the zone) on the way.  We had a pretty good talk.  He's a cool guy.  I found out that Griff (Price.  A friend from when I lived in Prince George who served in PTM before I did) was his trainer.  Lake Danao was beautiful.  We took a lot of pictures.  Since we couldn't swim, we played chess and yahtzee for an hour and a half.  Then we went back to Ormoc.  I top-loaded (rode on the roof rack) this time, and had a good talk with Elder Crabtree, one of the zone leaders.  He's a Filipino, but he's very tall.  He's cool, too.  A certain section of the road was pretty rough, and Elder Nanol was shaken off of the back and landed in a big puddle.  We were going slow, so he wasn't hurt.  We all had a good laugh at that.  It was a great P-Day.  I feel closer to the other missionaries in the zone, and I've developed a love for this country.

Elder MacKenzie and Elder Roberts at Lake Danao

26 February 1999

Today was a pretty good day.  It was zone conference for four zones, including Ormoc.  Much to my surprise, Elder Kopp was there.  He was recently transferred from his Waray-Waray speaking area to the Cebuano-speaking San Isidro area, which was Elder Pfister's last area.  It was great seeing him again.  I talked with him quite a bit.

Sister Dimaya brings a scale to each zone conference.  I've lost ten pounds since I've been here!  Elder Roberts gained ten pounds since last zone conference.

2 March 1999

I just killed a rat.  Big sucker, too.  It was a companionship effort, but I got the death blow with my rubber boot while Elder Roberts kept its tail caught in Elder Kenney's luggage.  Then we took it outside, poured alcohol on it, and lit it on fire.  The carcass is gone now.  I figure our landlady's dog took it.  That kind of sucks, because I wanted to show it to Elder Kenney and Elder Pfister.  At least I got some pictures of it.

The chase is on

Burning the evidence

12 March 1999

Elder Pfister was transferred on Tuesday.  He's assigned in Ormoc now.  Elder Kenney's new companion is fresh from the MTC.  His name is Elder Anderson.  Elder Kenney is excited, because this is his first time training.  After we were done proselyting on Wednesday night, we ate a "greenie" (missionary slang for new missionary) snack: green coconuts, green bananas, green ice cream (buco (young coconut) avocado), and balut (fetal duck egg).  I actually ate it this time.  It tasted okay, but the actual duck fetus was really mushy, so I didn't really enjoy it.

Elder Anderson and Elder Kenney eating coconut

Elder MacKenzie eating balut

There were a lot of baptismal interviews that needed to be done in Ormoc Zone yesterday.  To make it possible to be done, all of the district leaders and their companions (Elder Roberts is a district leader) met at the zone leaders' apartment for lunch (really good pizza), and then we all split off.  Elder Roberts went to Canangga with Elder Jensen and Elder Bradbury.  I came back to Albuera with Elder Pfister and his new companion, Elder McIver (Elder Roberts' companion in the MTC).  We're going back to Ormoc this morning to get back into our companionships.

16 March 1999

I'm in the mission office at Tacloban right now waiting for Elder Vaudrie to set up a doctor's appointment.  My toenail is ingrown again, and really infected this time.  Sister Dimaya took a look at it this morning and decided she couldn't do it herself.  At best, half the nail will have to come out.  But, probably, the whole thing will be removed.  Fun, fun, fun.  I'm on really strong antibiotics.  Hopefully, after all this I'll be able to go the rest of my mission with no more physical problems.  (Yeah, good luck with that, Past Me.)

LATER

I'm back in Albuera now.  The surgery is over with.  Only half of the nail came out.  The doctor gave me a local anaesthetic, which required two painful needles in my toe.  But that pain was nothing compared to what was to follow.  Because of the great infection, the part of my toe that needed to be operated on was barely affected by the anaesthetic.  The operation wasn't the worst pain I've ever felt.  That particular prize goes to my broken jaw  back in '86.  But this was the most intense pain I've ever felt.  I hope it never happens again.

19 March 1999

I was the senior companion today with a greenie (new missionary) who learned Tagalog in the MTC.  We went on splits, and I was with Elder Anderson.  It was cool.  I did everything.  I know Cebuano better than I thought.  Elder Anderson is cool.  Once he learns the language, he'll be a great missionary.

(I can't believe I didn't write about the following story at the time, so I'll tell it now.  We were visiting with a family, and Elder Anderson and I were telling the kids about life in North America.  Anderson mentioned how many phones were in his house, and the kids thought that they must be pretty noisy.  Anderson laughed and demonstrated what they thought it was like by making a phone-ringing sound and pantomiming picking up several phones at once.  The sound he made was "brrring!"  Everyone started laughing uproariously.  Brrring sounded a lot like the Cebuano word "buring" (they roll their Rs when they speak), which means "whore."  I explained this to Anderson, and we had a good laugh.)

17 March 1999

(This entry was written by Elder Kenney)

Elder Kenney in front of the Albuera chapel.  (My camera tended to focus on everything except for the subject of the photo.)

Let it hereby be known by all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people that I, Elder Brent Allen Kenney, have been bestowed with the immense privilege and responsibility to write a few words unto the posterity of Elder Michael Bruce MacKenzie.  For nigh unto two months, I've been observing the general behavior and sundry idiosyncrasies of the aforementioned Elder MacKenzie, of which I shall now make a brief account.  With his rosy cheeks and healthy constitution, my first encounter with our subject was fraught with nostalgia as I remembered one of my favorite childhood Christmas poems.  After having my daydream shattered by realizing he wasn't Jolly Ol' St. Nick, I rebounded gracefully, and in little time I began to know the fabled Elder MacKenzie.

I find Elder MacKenzie to be a very genuine and considerate fellow.  With his dutilike Canadian pride and subtle comments, he has a unique way of sparking smiles on his cronies' faces.  Elder MacKenzie is a very even-tempered man who is slow to anger but quick to give courteous chuckles to my attempts, which I liberally call comedy.  Nevertheless, and notwithstanding, I see great opportunities for humble, Christ-like service as Elder MacKenzie progresses on his mission.  His objective is pure, his motives just, and he carries on without complaint or cutting remarks.  Dedicated, devoted, and determined, he forges ahead to bring his brothers and sisters to a better tomorrow.  This is Elder MacKenzie--the man we love.

22 March 1999

I turned 21 on Saturday.  That was pretty cool.  I told the Sanico family, they told Sister Rom and Sister Embalude, and the word spread like wildfire from there.  I showed up at the church for missionary correlation meeting (MCM), and everybody started singing happy birthday.  We joined a family home evening later that night, and everyone there sang happy birthday again.  When we were back at the apartment, I stuck 21 candles into a pot of rice and blew them out.  Then we ate chocolate and ube ice cream.  The Sanico family gave us crabs.

Not sure why the camera's date stamp says March 21.  Did I celebrate a day late?  Could have happened.

21 felt so old at the time, but holy cow, I was so young!  That's Elder Kenney on the left.  The purple ice cream is ube.

29 March 1999

Elder Roberts and I will be parting company this Wednesday.  He's transferred to Merida.  My new companion will be Elder Jones.  He learned Cebuano in the MTC, and his first few areas were Cebuano-speaking, but he's spent the last eight months in Samar speaking Waray-Waray.  It'll be interesting to hear his Cebuano skills now.