Lovely Siaton

Good Morning, Friends and Family;

It’s a brand new area here in Siaton and its fantastic! I'll start with the journey. Like Mom said, I came from about as far away as possible. So, I had to leave Camotes in the afternoon on Thursday. By myself.  I made it to the Temple all by myself. So, I got there at night, and it was cool. Now that I'm not afraid of the public transportation, it’s sort of fun travelling around the Philippines. Thursday night, I slept at the City Zone Leaders apartment, which was fun since that’s my trainer, Elder Tan's house right now. Then, Friday, we had the transfer meeting which was great since I got to see a bunch of my Batch (missionaries who came out of the MTC with Nik). We had a good ol' time and President Hansen gave a great talk. In his talk he said in the next couple of months some huge changes would be coming that probably won't be happening in any other mission. Mystic. Then, we started the really long convoy down to Negros. We took a bus down to the bottom tip of the island of Cebu and then took a boat that the bus drives onto over to Dumaguette. Then, we slept with the missionaries in Dumaguette. Then, we take another bus to Siaton in the morning. It’s only like an hour out from Dumaguette, but it is way amazing. It’s gorgeous, it feels alot more like Asia than Camotes did - a lot of rice fields and rolling hills. I'll take some pictures. The house we live in is huge and it’s just me and Elder Angeles, who is a boss by the way. He is my first senior in the mission. The area is really big so we have to take busses out to our tracting areas. It’s cool cuz Siaton is a nice little town, although bigger than San Francisco (Camotes) but no where near as big as Dumaguette or Cebu. It’s a bit like Provo. We usually work out in the outskirts though, because the people aren't as busy. The Chapel is really big too. The only problem is there are a lot of inactive members.

The best part of Siaton is we have a member who takes it upon herself to be our mother. She is fantastic. She cooks us lunch and dinner EVERY DAY. She also does our laundry. She is also super sweet. The misionaries have been eating at her house everyday for 9 years now. Sister Garcia. She is amazing. This may be the only area that like that. So I'm crazy lucky.

But, Utah sounds nice, too, guys. Sounds nice and chilly, just as you like it, Dad.

Also a special Shout out to Tania and Alexis and the Wallins. They are my real friends.  (These are the people who have registered as followers of this blog)

Next week, I'll put up some pictures of Camotes and my batch here in the mission. We actually look like missionaries now, because we aren't in the MTC and wearing suits all the time. You all stay crazy. Remember how much I love all of you.

Gugma, Elder Abbott.

P.S. I forgot, I got the Andersons Christmas Card. Thank you very much! I'm glad I have a picture of you guys. I almost forgot what Josh looked like.

 P.S. (In response to Dad’s question) Bukid means Mountain. We just use it to describe an area if it’s rural and full of farms and stuff. Siaton is Bukid. Another good word for describing areas is Mingaw. It means there aren't a lot of people. It means like quiet, but quiet in a ghost town sense. It also means "to miss", fun fact.