March 19, 2014

And for the most important announcement: We will have a Zone Activity on Wednesday at 1:00 o’clock.

The missionaries cheered.

It will be at Sister Vineyard’s house. Has anyone been there?

The missionaries looked puzzled and we were the only ones to raise our hands.

You will love it. We will have Sister Tenedo cook for us and Sister Vineyard will make spaghetti with sausage and hot dogs. We will play volleyball.

The missionaries cheered again. It must have been the volleyball announcement.

Elder and Sister Hall, would you like to go with us?

We knew they just wanted us to haul the food and missionaries in the pickup, but we wanted to go back to the Vineyard house, so we said yes. Well, actually, the food did sound good. And it is always great to enjoy the energy and enthusiasm of the young missionaries.

Enthusiasm originally meant “to be inspired or possessed by a god”—meaning to have God within you. That literally happens when we receive the gift of the Holy Ghost—we have God inside our hearts. No wonder it is so great to be around these young missionaries.

My father was Chinese. I think that is why the Japanese were especially hard on our family.

Our gracious hostess was telling us about the experiences of her family during World War II.

I was only four or five years old, but I remember hiding from the Japanese.

My father had a little boat. He went up and down the coast, catching fish and finding food. When he came home, we were so excited, because we could eat. The Japanese must have been watching him, because they followed him to the house. They took every bit of the food that he brought. We were so hungry.

We looked at the table laden with delicious food, and at the young missionaries enjoying heaping platefuls. In our sheltered lives, we have never really been hungry.

Our hostess’ two dogs wandered about among the groups of missionaries. One was white with black spots. The other was a back mixture. There was a yellow stripe on the tail that curled over his back. The dogs gobbled up whatever they could get, then looked for more.  Even after the missionaries finished eating, they still wanted to take whatever they could get. The first dog was named “Clinton.” The second was named “Obama.”

President Clinton signed my citizenship papers, so I named that dog after him. Obama said he would help the poor, so I named the other one after him.

Those dogs bother me. They howl at night and I wonder what they are howling about. I wonder what will happen.

The next day we had to make a trip to Pinamungajan. As one of the many dogs that populate the roadways trotted out into the road, Elder Hall slowed. The dog stopped, and turned to go back. As Elder Hall continued, the dog suddenly turned and ran in front of the pickup. There was no way to avoid him.

Do you eat dog?

Elder Hall was telling about hitting the dog.

Not anymore.

You used to eat dog?

If you eat dog, you will feel very hot and the dogs will bark at you.

Once, when I was very young. I was working with a crew that set up sound systems. We worked all night. When I came home one morning, the others had been cooking. It smelled really good.

What is it? 

Goat.

Where did you get it?

Someone gave it to us. Do you want some?

So I ate the food. It tasted very good. But after I ate, I started feeling different. My body started feeling hot. Then I knew what I had eaten.

They admitted that they had cooked dog meat. They had found a dog that had just been run over. They hid the skin before I got there.

The next day, whenever I got close to dogs, they started barking at me.