ELDER PEPITO

Those days, old man Pepito got up early and had a sudden liking for them white polo shirts, no matter that most were segundo manos gifted by stateside relatives and had browned with age and smelled of moth balls, and he suddenly got to walking a lot too especially with them Elders J and K to work on his English he says but more so for the euphoria of having Americans for company his son Abet thinks, which perhaps brought peace into the house maybe because the old man is always out with them Elders but also because the old man quit drinking Abet relented, which made everyone wanting to be converted including old woman Eufrocina who’s a hard core sabadista, except Abet who never got to believe the tale of the gold plates found by the prophet called Smith, more so in protest of the hecklers who whistled "Elder Pepito!" behind his back and in his face, until old woman Eufrocina begged on her knees and Abet thought he’d give it a try to save him the embarrassment of his mother’s pleadings, and thus was baptized a Mormon after being christened a katoliko and brought up a sabadista, for the sainthood of his father which did not last even a year.

FOOTNOTE: The photo above is the Latter Day Saints church in Bambang, Nueva Vizcaya.