22 July 1999

Well, I'm in my third area now.  I showed up at the office on Tuesday with Elder Roberts (Elder Surowiec was on splits with Elder Salea doing that awesome CSP).  Elder Pfister was already there.  I found out that he had very recently been certified.  Since he's been around quite a bit longer than I have, they made him district leader instead.  Part of me is really happy that I don't have to deal with that responsibility yet, but another part of me is disappointed that I don't have to deal with that responsibility yet.  Oh well.

Elder Pfister and Elder MacKenzie

A group of us (me, Elders Roberts, Pfister, Richardson, Hale, and Andersen (not to be confused with Anderson)) went to Shakey's Pizza for dinner.  Elder Hughes was just leaving.  He was being transferred from Catarman to San Isidro.  I ate a regular-sized pizza, mojos (fried potatoes), and a bottomless root beer.  I chugged my first two mugs.  Elder Richardson was so impressed that he kept making me do it again.  After the sixth mug, I ran to the restroom and vomited up a bunch of foam with little chunks of cheese in it.  I thought I was dying, but I felt great after I was finished.

Today was my first full day of work in Almeria.  After lunch, we had to go on splits for baptismal interviews.  I stayed with Elder Knighton, one of the zone leaders, and Elder Kopp's trainer.  By the way, Elder Wynder is my other zone leader.  Canada power!  Anyway, Elder Knighton interviewed two of our investigators who are getting baptized this Saturday.  They're cool.  I love this area so far.  It's beautiful.  I've met quite a few of the members, and I love them already.  We do a lot of walking here, because it's pretty bukid (rustic), but that's okay.

24 July 1999

Today was pretty cool.  We went to Agta Beach with Almeria and Kawayan groups.  The Kawayan elders (Crapo and Martinez) were there, too.  First, we had five baptisms.  Two were ours (Jeralyn Macabenta and Celso Sedaya), and the other three were from Kawayan.  It was cool.  I had never witnessed a baptism in the sea before.  After the baptisms, we had a bi-group activity.  We ate and played a few games.  Some of the children went swimming.  It was very nice.  I got to know the members a little better.  I really seem to be hitting it off with the youth and primary.  The primary girls were hanging all over me.  I love children.  I can't wait until I have a family of my own.

At 4:00 this afternoon, we taught a second discussion to a guy named Pascual, his pregnant wife Suzanna, and their neighbour Josephine.  They're all now committed to baptism on August 7.

I love my mission.

31 July 1999

This morning, we were sitting on bags of gravel on the side of the road in the shade waiting for a ride.  A middle-aged guy came around the corner on a bike going pretty fast downhill.  His hand was squeezing the brake a little bit.  Then his hat almost blew off, so he reached up and grabbed it.  Trouble was, he grabbed it with the hand that had been holding the brake.  As the bike suddenly started going faster, and because of his momentary distraction, he lost control.  He swerved to his left, almost knocked over an old man, went off the road, and hit the bags of gravel behind us.  The bike stopped, and he flipped neatly over the handlebars, landed on his back, then sat up and said in a normal, undisturbed voice, "Wa'y problema," (No problem) as if nothing interesting had happened.  We made sure he was okay, and then he left.  As soon as he was gone, Elder Pfister and I laughed our butts off.

1 August 1999

Elder Pfister and I were walking down the Daro Highway this afternoon.  It was hot.  I said, "No shade, no breeze, no clouds.  This sucks."  We laughed.  You had to be there.

Later this evening, we were teaching a new member discussion to Brother Sedaya.  He has no electricity (quite common), so we had little fuel lamps.  I was holding one while teaching my part.  The NMDs are only printed in English, so we had to translate.  I read this one part under my breath in English.  It was really hard to translate, so I sighed.  It blew the light out.  Everyone found it very funny.

2 August 1999

I drew this flag originally on the chalk board for Elder Pfister.  I called it a compromise.  I like it so much, I made a colour copy.  (It's an amalgamation of the Canadian, US, and Filipino flags)

3 August 1999

Elder Pfister and I were walking to an appointment last night.  We saw two dogs who had just barely finished having sex.  The thing is, when dogs have sex, the male's organ swells up, and they can't pull apart for a minute or two.  Elder Pfister scared them.  The female ran while the male was still trapped.  She dragged him by the dick.  That was some high yelping and squealing.  We laughed our butts off.  Poor dog.

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.