22 August 1999

We had a little fun with goats today.  I went over to look closely at a young goat that was almost full-grown.  When he saw me getting close, he ran away really fast.  Trouble was, he had a rope tied around his neck with the other end tied to a tree.  When he ran out of slack, his feet went flying out from under him and his entire body flung in a tight circle with his head and neck at the centre.  I thought he might've broken his neck, but he got up and ran again, this time in a different direction.  This time when his body was flinging in a circle, his head smacked into a lubi tree (coconut tree).  This didn't stop him from running a third time, this time onto the beach.  He spun in a circle, sending black sand flying everywhere.  It was quite entertaining.

We had a total of 16 discussions last week.  The mission standard is seven.

Suzanna had her baby.  It's alive.  We're going to visit them in Naval tomorrow.

24 August 1999

Anacita isn't getting baptized this Saturday.  After we taught her and Vicente the sixth discussion, we were filling out the district leader's worksheets.  When we asked the date of her marriage, she told us that she and her husband weren't married.  Damn, I hate this country.  The freakin' Catholics run the country, so divorce is illegal.  So, naturally, a lot of couples don't get married just in case things don't work out down the road.  Then the missionaries come along and say they need to get married in order to be baptized, but they can't afford to because they have eight children and no steady income.

25 August 1999

We spent most of our day waiting for Lolito Docallos.  We needed to teach him the sixth discussion so that he could be baptized this Saturday.  He finally showed up around 4:00.

We went to see Pascual and Suzanna this evening.  They have a cute little baby girl named Helen.  They seem very happy.  Their baptism should take place on September 4 with Arlene.

We taught a first discussion to some very stupid people.  Very nice, though.  They'll probably get baptized.  (Wow.  Just...wow.  I can be a real asshole sometimes.  I'm glad I didn't record their names here, because if I remembered who I was talking about, I'd feel even worse.)

28 August 1999

It's lunchtime right now.  We had three baptisms earlier: Nolasco and Lilia Docallos, and Vicente Macabenta.  Lolito didn't show up.  Something about his cousin taking him somewhere.  I don't know exactly.  It was a good baptism anyway.  Good member turn-out.  It was a pretty spiritual service.  I think Nolasco especially felt the Spirit.  His legs are partially paralyzed, so he has a hard time walking.  To get to the river, he had to walk far.  That just goes to show his faithfulness and diligence.  To baptise him, we had to sit him on a stool in the water.  He and Lilia will make great members.

After the baptism, I had some fun with some of the Primary (mostly An-An and Angie Sedaya) and some of the youth.  I love Almeria.

Someone actually gave me a 5 sentimo piece for change today.  Those things are more worthless than pennies.

29 August 1999

I performed another ordinance today that I've never performed before.  I ordained Vicente to the Aaronic Priesthood.  Almeria Group has a deacon now.

Wow.  I have nothing else to write today.  What will I do to fill up this page?  I suppose I could bore you to death.  But that wouldn't be very nice, now, would it?

Elder Pfister is a poo-poo head.

That's it, this entry is finished.

31 August 1999

We had some time with nothing planned for a short period this afternoon, so we decided to go look around the cemetery of the Philippines Independent Catholic Church.  It started to rain, so we ducked into the nearest shelter.  In the middle of this shelter was a cement structure.  I walked around the other side of it and saw a couple of femurs sticking out of a little door.  "Okay, there are bones over there," I said.  There were a lot of bones.  At least five human skulls were just stuffed in there with other bones.  Weird.  We took pictures.

1 September 1999

(Note: this is an angry entry.  Take what I say in my rantings with a grain of salt.)

It's 4:30 in the morning, and I've been up for half an hour now.  You'll never guess what woke me up.  A parade of high school students playing drums and xylophones marched past our window.  That woke both of us up, and we weren't happy.  We screamed, "Shut up!" at them, but they didn't hear.  They marched right on down to the big outdoor basketball court downtown, and now there's a dance.  I can hear the music quite clearly.  Their favourite song seems to be "Dip yo hips," which just so happens to be my least favourite song.  I can't get back to sleep.  Elder Pfister is trying, but hasn't had any success yet.  We are pissed.  I want to go to the mayor tomorrow and complain, but I know that we'd only be brushed off.  I think this is all happening because of the stupid basketball tournament that this town has been having orgasms about for the past two weeks.  I hate this stupid country.

I just realized something.  Today is the tenth anniversary of my family leaving Nova Scotia.  What a way to celebrate, eh?

Oh my freakin' word!  It's 6:00 am now, and guess what the hell is happening now!  That damn Catholic church that's always blaring rock n' roll gospel music every Sunday morning is blaring it RIGHT NOW!  IT'S WEDNESDAY!!!!!  And the music at the basketball court is still playing!  WHAT IS SO SPECIAL ABOUT TODAY?!  There's no holiday marked on our stupid Filipino calendar.  WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!??!!!  I HATE THE PHILIPPINES!!!!!  (No I don't; I was just frustrated.)

We went out to the pier to calm down.  This is me contemplating how the hell I ended up in the Philippines.

And this is Elder Pfister.  I think he was eating something when I took this picture.

It is now 8:15 pm.  The music at the sayaw (dance) is still going strong.  I have an idea what the hell's going on now.  Something about the anniversary of some charter in the municipality.

Today sucked sour frog ass.  We went out to Basud in the morning and talked to Pascual and Suzanna about baptism.  We decided on this Saturday.  About five hours later, we ran into them again.  Pascual had a cigarette in his hand, and he was drunk.

It rained all afternoon and evening, so now I'm drenched.