January 8, 1997, Wednesday
It was P-Day. We rested and all. Then we went to the church. I stayed to teach someone and my companion went on splits to teach a husband and wife. They’re very good and wanted to get baptized. The guy I taught, we found him on the train and gave him a Book of Mormon. Then he called us this afternoon and said he would like to come to church. […] Too bad that he lives in Midwood (another mission area) After I taught him, we went into the talent show and I played a song in front of everyone, Pink Floyd, Wish You Were Here. I was trembling. My limbs quivering. But I did it in front of like 80 people. Wow it was a rush. […]
January 9, 1997, Thursday
Wow, this was my most busy day in so long. The whole day was full of so much. One thing after another. We ate 4 times and one day after I said I wouldn’t focus on eating. […]
January 10, 1997, Friday
We had a short zone meeting. We only had interviews with the zone leaders. They told me they thought I would be a zone leader soon. Then we taught a man and lady who were very physical with each other (touching a lot). We invited them to a farewell for [Elder – My old companion]. So we went to that but in between we went to see a Dominican girl and her mother and the mom wants to get baptized. […] We went to the farewell. It was so long.
Something is so weird I got this disease? I don’t know what it is. It’s like little spots all over my body like a bad rash and hives all over. But they don’t itch actually. They’re on my chest stomach and arms. Weird. I’ve been putting stuff on them and taking allergy pills for a week and nothing. Oh well, I guess it’s time to go and see a doctor.
[Elder’s] converts went to the temple on the temple trip. They were in the bus and came over the hill at night and saw the temple glowing white and huge. Rosana started crying. Her husband Jovani started crying. They loved it. […] They wanted so badly to go upstairs in the temple and not just do baptisms. But they are willing to wait a year.
January 12, 1997, Sunday
Wow, what a day, we were supposed to have like 10 investigators at church. Only had 4 come. But we had 15 from our zone. After church, we went to go and see one of our investigators who said they would like to be baptized. [Elder – Who we just had a farewell for] was leaving just as we got there and had committed our people to get baptized in 3 weeks. Dangs I was pissed. I’m like what? He’s like, Ya I’m coming back in 3 weeks to baptize them. He never taught them. [I’m not going to comment on this further]
January 13, 1997, Monday
We had a leadership meeting today. […] Learned a lot about being more Christlike. For Zone presentations, I got up because my ZL’s were really late. So I took charge. […]
EXPLANATIONS
The rash went away eventually. It was caused by the laundry detergent I was buying.
Some of my best memories were the presentations zones would put together detailing how they did for the previous month, and what they were going to do the next month. One of my favorites ever was, “He’s Going The Distance.” It’s a song by Cake, but one zone played the song while acting out teaching (flip charting) baptizing, and giving the holy ghost. It was pretty fun. I had not heard the song prior to that, but the whole skit was seriously entertaining.
I love playing the guitar and writing music, but as you can see, I am terrified to play in front of people.