PASKO NA!

Dear Family,

This week was pretty wild. Last Thursday and Friday we went to Cebu for Zone Conference. It was a blast! Now that I'm not in the newest batch of missionaries in the mission and I'm used to the language (and when I travel on the public transportation in the city I don't look terrified), trips to Cebu aren't as bad. It was a blast meeting a ton of Elders. We learned some good stuff about how to be better missionaries, and then, the First Presidency gave us all Christmas Cards, and President and Sister Hansen gave us these sweet Cebu Temple tie tacks. Just what I always wanted, it’s perfectly right.
Then the next night, Saturday, Elder Ko visited the Island Paradise of Camotes. President and Sister Hansen came and the AP's. The AP's slept with us which was a blast since the newest AP, Elder Elmer is “batch” with Elder Torrie (batch means they were in the same district in the MTC together). He's super cool. Then, Elder Ko came to church and had a special meeting where he said if the Branch doubled their members they would become a ward and would get a chapel. That’s crazy awesome! The branch is only a year old and already has almost 100 members. There were like 12 members when it started. So everyone is pretty excited about that. Then, we found out that one our families will get baptized this Christmas! Then, Elder Ko sat down with the missionaries and we had a meeting about the development here in Camotes. Cool stuff.
So about this phone call home, I'm super excited to talk to you all. It doesn't really feel like Christmas, we listen to Christmas music and stuff but it’s different. We bought a ton of gravy and me and Elder Torrie are making mashed potatoes.
Also Elder Torrie just told me the Provo Tabernacle burned down. WHAT! Crazy. He showed me the pictures of Jesus that remained unburned.
And now for the weirdest thing I ate this week: This week is a surprise. Friday morning before Zone Conference we ate breakfast at a little burger stand in the city. Let’s just say I don't plan on returning. Beef over here is rare and hard to find. My guess is this wasn't beef. It was really hard to feel the spirit for a couple of hours if you know what I mean.
Well, I love all of you. I got a letter from Danny so he is my favorite friend this week.

Gugma Elder Abbott

Day old lechon pig

So, the enemy has made an all out assault on the “Camotes Kings” (the elders who serve here). Sunday was going to be the happiest night of our lives - we had 2 dinner appointments! Elder Bajan and I were tracting the mountain behind our house, and then around dusk we stopped by the house for some water. It was locked, but the second we got there, Sister Malou (our next door neighbor/landlord/storekeeper/our mom/our best friend/not a member) told us to pray to begin her father’s birthday party. Then, she takes us to the backyard and there are like 30 people gathered around and she told me to bless the food. I was like, ”no problem.” I bless it and then they start dishing us out some food. We were torn - 3 dinner appointments? Could we do it? We were going to try. I started eating. I told myself just a little. I was feeling good, then Tatay brings out a plate of lechon pig for us. Elder Bajan has high blood [pressure], so he can’t eat lechon pig. So, I "had" to start downing it. It was delicious. Then we finished up, thanked them a million times and went back to work. About an hour and a half later we had our other appointment – it was super delicious. Then, we went to our third dinner – amazing! I was so happy and slept so well that night. The next day was bad. I don't want to go into a ton of detail, but our bathroom was being used at all times. We had district meeting in the morning. Then in the afternoon, when we went out to work, we put our stomachs in the Lord’s hands, because if you think our bathroom is bad, our investigator's is ..... Anyway, Satan tried to shut us down with day old lechon pig, but we beat him. Moral of the story. God always wins. 

Aside from that, my new companion, Elder Bajan, is really diligent and really great and my new Zone Leader, Elder Torrie, is great too. He is from Canada and we get along great. He and Elder Stirland are real tight.

We've been doing a lot of tracting and going all over this mountain. My legs are ripped. I love it! We have been picking up a bunch of new investigators. Also, Elder Ko and President Hansen visit this week, so wish us luck. Let’s hope everyone remembers to come to church.

Gugma Elder Abbott

P.S. Keep Benjamin in your prayers, he's having trouble with his gang.

Hapit na Pasko!

Well, it sounds like you all are totally having Christmas. Here, I usually forget that Christmas is so close since I'm always sweating and telling people to repent. But it’s all good. Pasko [Christmas in Cebuano] is close and I am getting pumped! I have a feeling I'm gonna eat some crazy stuff.

As for my first baptism - it was Dope! [i.e. Great!] I got to do it in the ocean first off, which is a two-edged sword, because I slipped and almost went all the way under a few times as we journeyed out to deeper water. It was so cool - there were like a hundred of these purple jellyfish things in the water. It looked pretty dope. Then, I baptized for the first time. One girl kept popping her elbow up but aside from that it went very well. They shared their testimonies and it was great. All around a perfect experience.

Transfers just hit. Literally. We got the call 10 minutes ago. My new Companion is going to be Elder Bajan, who I hear is crazy nice. He is a little Filipino like Elder Deguidoy, which are my favorite. So I'm excited for that. Elder Tan is moving to City Zone as a Zone Leader. Elder Tan loves the city, so It’s perfect for him. City Zone is generally where they put the rowdy elders because it is close to the President and the AP's, but his companion, Elder Gubb, is super nice and from New Zeleand. And I'm still in Camotes!

Aside from all that, God continues to bless us with amazing investigators. We're teaching one guy right now named Antonito Estrera, and his family. He is blind, but crazy nice and an amazing listener. He catches everything we tell him. He and his wife aren't married yet, but they are working on it, because they really want to be baptized. All in all life is great here in Camotes. I can almost speak the language, but I'm no where near fluent. Keep me in all of your prayers.

Gugma, Elder Abbott

p.s. No pictures this week, the computer I'm using aint having it. I got some sweet ones, though, so get excited.

Lechon Pig

(12/01/2010)

My first baptism is this Saturday. I'm way excited because my investigators rule! We had five committed, but one who we felt wasn't really into it rebelled against her mother and ran away to Cebu city. She'll be back, they always come back. But I'm crazy pumped for the other ones. Benjamin is the man! Literally an Alma the Younger story. We found out details of his very shady past and it seemed like I totally underestimated how dangerous he was. But now he is the nicest guy in the world. His Auntie loves us. She is a very devoted catholic but she is glad her nephew is being baptised and not "bad boy bad boy" anymore. In fact in a couple hours she will have made some Sanging prito for us. Which are deep fried bananas and they are great.

Which brings me to the most awesome thing that happened this week besides our investigators. On Saturday, we went to a members birthday party and guess what they prepared? A Lechon Pig! That’s the entire pig that they skewer and then rotisserie grill or something like it. I mean the whole pig! 35 kilos I think. Head to boot. Holy cow, best thing I ever ate! The skin is way crispy, and golden brown, and the the meat - Holy Cow, Dad, you would have totally died - SOOOOO moist. So, we will call that my Thanksgiving dinner. Also, Elder Deguidoy (my zone leader) tricked me into eating some weird Sud-an (anything you put on rice). I was like "what is it?" (in flawless Cebuano of course) And he was like "It’s delicious" and then walked away, so I was like, OK. I ate it all. I then asked Elder Olsen (other ZL) and he said it was the Lung of the pig. Sweet! So, that was cool. The next day, a sweet old lady who is a recent convert made us Banana Lumpya, which is amazing. It’s just what it sounds. A saging wrapped in a lumpya shell, then deep fried and covered with sugar. So that was great.

As for other things, we just kicked Satan's butt as usual. President Hansen has been challenging us to commit to baptize during the first lesson. We've been seeing crazy good results. No one yet has turned it down straight up. And a lot of people are committing to be ready by Pasko (Christmas) so  that could be the happiest Christmas of my life.

Before I forget, I got Brothers Moore’s letter. Dear Elder Rules!

And I've gotten 3 letters from Alexis, the first two were written to MTC Elder Abbott but its all good mail is really rare so I dig it either way.

I can't remember if there were any other awesome things going on. I'm excited for the package. Philipino snacks are ok, but I really miss fruit flavored candies, like Skittles. The only fruity thing they have is called Yoogoo, and it’s a mysterious cloudy semi liquid semi solid candy cup. It’s really cheap, so I eat it a lot. Pray for me to not get transferred, its coming up next week. And since one elder is going home on monday the three of us remaining in Camotes were asked to all come down to transfer meeting. Which means probably 2 of us are being transferred. The odds are in my favor, I think.

That’s pretty much it. I love you all. I miss you all. But I wouldn't want to be anywhere else besides Camotes right now. God loves us. I know it. Don't you all ever forget it.

Gugma, Elder Abbott

p.s. Mom, the language is ok. I can sometimes talk to the people. It really just depends on how many teeth they have and how drunk they are. I'm only half kidding.  

p.s.s. Dad you have the right island, Porro is connected by what seems like a land bridge. There is this one spot in our area where we look right at Porro across the ocean. Its really really breathtaking. I'll get a picture one day.

Gangsters!

[Date of this letter was 11/23/2010 - sorry]

Now I remember why I wanted to go to somewhere warm on my mission - Winter. Winter here is great. The sun shines and the plants grow. Have I ever mentioned how green it is here? I'm going to get homesick if you keep writing stuff like that in your letters. But, I have a feeling Thanksgiving will come and go tomorrow and I'll forget all about it. Maybe I'll splurge and buy a soft drink.

It’s sweet, I got this belt made out of Caribou horn. The guy who makes them is a bishop and literally all the missionaries have his belt! It’s sweet, it’s kind of a Cebu thing. Speaking of which, the Cebu trip was cool. The City is SOOOO different then Camotes. The Camotes is the most bukid (mountain) area in the mission it turns out. The city is super loud and there are a million people. On the plus side, they have really, really efficient transportation systems called jipneys. I love them. They're old military jeeps that they use as busses, and they are mega cheap. They cram people on there. But, after the Cebu trip, I got to take a Habal-habal (motorcycle) from the dock back to my apartment and it made me realize that I was literally in the most beautiful area in the mission. I'm super lucky!

Also, because the people here are super prepared for the message. We have 5 people committed for baptism on Dec. 4 and the other two elders have one also. So that will be the happiest day of my life. Last week I talked about Gwen, this week I want to talk about Benjamin.

Benjamin is 19 years old, and totally thug. He has 2 diamond stud earrings and wears huge shirts. He also started the Bloods on Camotes. They're like the bloods in America, but probably less violent. Long story short, he is a pretty intense dude. We taught him and his cousin one night and much to our surprise he showed up at church the next day. He told us he wants to change. He has been super receptive, came to church again on Sunday and committed to baptism. He has given up smoking and drinking. He works with us now during the day and has serious street cred. He knows everyone cuz it turns out there 200 guys in his gang. He is inviting all of his friends to church this Sunday, so I'm way pumped about him. He is great. He worked with us yesterday morning and then went home and said he'd meet us again at 3 and he didn't show up so we were bummed. Later that night we were coming back from an appointment we hopped off the Habal-habal and sure enough there he was reading Elder Tan's Book of Mormon, waiting for us. He apologized for coming late and said he had dropped by 3 times waiting for us. He is super nice. Today we were going to go eat coconuts with him up in the bukid but we got lost and ended just taking a good long hike. Mom would have loved it, the view was amazing. The pictures really don't do any justice. It literally is paradise.

So basically my joy is full right now. I'm in such a good mood all the time, that scripture on my plaque is so true. The feeling that comes over you when an investigator says they will be baptized is indescribable. Also when I was in Cebu I got to see Elder Pasikala - the first time I saw an elder from my batch (the elders you were in the MTC with) so that was fun. We were going to do a temple tour but the group never showed up so we just chatted until they called and said they broke down. So to answer your question, yes I saw the temple. The temple Complex has the mission home and office on it. It’s a sweet complex, it feels super American. Also, the city I work in is called San Francisco, on Camotes. It’s on the Island across from Porro. So I look at Porro, and Leyte (where Elder Johnson and Sister Brinton are) everyday while I tract. It’s the best.

Milagro

Things are going great! As usual, I'm super happy all the time and love being a missionary. It helps that I get to look at the ocean everyday and then hike through the jungle. Hopefully, I'll be able to send some pictures to you this week. I get to go to Cebu in a few hours for 2 days. Since there is a leadership training and everyone in my house is a leader but me, they have to take me along. I guess I'm going to work in city zone for a couple of days, which I hear is radically different then the Camotes. But, I hear literally every district is different than Camotes. I wouldn't have it any other way. My trainer is really good, by the way. He pushes me really hard and I've seen some very positive results. He's been making me teach lessons in Bisayat every day since I've been here. It’s hard but I enjoy it and surprisingly the people understand me. I just have no idea what they say to me when I ask a question, but that’s slowly improving.

It’s been a great week as far as the work goes. It went by really fast. Wednesday night we witnessed a miracle. Remember Gwen? Her and her two sisters are getting baptized December 4 because we saw them on the street. Well, Wednesday night we finished teaching a lesson at the Perez house and were hiking back to the road, and the second we hit the road Gwen and Rowena drove by on the their motor. They stopped and were all happy to see us. We got to talking and they said they've been having some problems and Gwen’s ex-boyfriend started choking her. Crazy! So we went to her house and shared a quick message. We talked about 1 Nephi 3:7 and how the Lord has a plan for all of us. She thanked us and we left. Then last night we had FHE at her house and she talked about the experience last Wednesday night and how she thinks that this is all part of God’s plan to get her baptized, since she wasn't able to in the past because she was living with her boyfriend. So we have been very excited and very grateful. We thought about our meeting on the road. It was wild. If we had literally stayed 2 seconds longer or shorter at the Perez house, we would have missed them - not a coincidence.

Aside from that, the work moves along. I'm enjoying FHE's more and more since I understand more and more. They are fun because there are always a million little kids and they love missionaries. Like yesterday we got dropped off by our ZL's for an appointment and there were these 3 little kids outside of where our car was and they all started cheering when they saw us, and gave us all high fives and followed us up the hill.   

That’s pretty much it. I love you all a ton. The weirdest thing I ate this week was pig intestine. No Balut yet. It’s not very popular in Camotes.

Be cool, be good, Gugma Elder Abbott

P.S. Read Alma chapter 26. It’s my favorite in the Book of Mormon. It’s weird, Ammon used to be my favorite as a kid because he cut off all the arms of people, now he's my favorite for other reasons.

Kurat! Bunyag!

So, this week has been great. I think it was Thursday when we were just walking down the road and a motorcycle pulls over with two girls riding it. Elder Tan recognized them, so I figured they were either members or former investigators. They chatted with us and I wasn't picking up what they were talking about really, but all of the sudden the only sentence I heard her (Gwen) say was, “I can be baptized!” Everyone was smiling and looking very excited, so I threw up my excited face to match. I find out later she had been taught a few months ago by some elders before me, but she was living with her boyfriend and wouldn't break up or marry him, so they couldn't do anything. But she had just broke up with her boyfriend and moved back home with her two other sisters (Rowena and Maylin), who had also been taught already. So, we had 3 dynamite investigators dropped in our lap! She still needs all the lessons and to come to church 3 more times before she can be baptized, but it’s way great! Unfortunately, it’s moving slowly because a new rule in our mission is that there always needs to be a male present during every lesson, since some elders got sent home for some inappropriate conduct. So we have only been able to teach her once since we have to wait for a member to come with us before we can teach her, but we visit very often and they are super nice. Gwen (the oldest one) has a 3 year old daughter who only speaks Tagalog and always shouts my name.
Aside from that we are slowly building up a strength of investigators. Apparently, I came at a very slow time. We only had like 1 progressing investigator and the other companionship didn't have any, so we are getting there slowly. We had a bunch of people committed to come to church, but only like 2 did. So that was hard but it’s all good. I have my first baptism scheduled for December 4th. I'm pumped!
All in all, I feel like I'm beginning to figure this whole thing out. The bathroom is a trial, especially with my body adjusting to the diet here. I eat rice everyday, and I have eaten a bunch of stuff like squid. We eat a lot of these small fish that you clean on your plate. The head comes attached.  They are actually pretty good. Elder Deguidoy and a tiny little elder in the the house makes food all the time – it’s great! He is way funny and looks like he is 12. He met Gwen once and she was like “missionaries are so young!” She pointed to him and was like, “you must be like 14 or 15.” He was like, “I'm 20.” She was like, “oh, you’re so cute.” Its good times here. The only problem with the Camotes is that it called "outer Darkness" since it is the most far flung and devoid of missionaries place in the mission. It is just us four in the house. The AP's came to visit a couple nights ago but the second they got there they found out their was a problem the Mission President wanted them to solve over in Bohol. So they slept there and left at like 5 in the morning. That was the first contact I've had from anyone in the mission since I got on the boat. Although President Hansen e-mailed me and said President Ko of the area authority is probably going to come visit before Christmas. So that will be cool. He said the growth in Camotes has been huge, so he wants to visit the Saints.
Mom, I got your letter Monday night when the AP's came. Sorry. It was good though. I love getting mail. As for the package, don't bother with toilet paper. Just send stuff like American snacks and stuff. And maybe some cash. They have some cool stuff here you can't get in America, like these belts made of Carabou Horns and bamboo, or scripture cases made of bamboo.
P.S. Everything here is made of bamboo! All the houses. It's nuts. I really dig it actually. This one member made a huge bridge out of bamboo that goes out over the ocean and we watched the sunset there one night, gorgeous.
Well, I think that's about it. I love all of you. God definitely has been helping me. The language isn't easier, but I can tell I've grown a lot and I know its all Him. He loves us, individually. I really know that. I love you all, individually too.
Gugma Elder Abbott
P.S. Laundry here is sweet. It's all by hand. I feel like it does a much better job. I can really get the problem areas, but I still miss laundry machines like crazy.  
P.P.S I don't know if there is a way to contact Brother Young, but if there is, like he e-mails you or something, let him know I'm in the Camotes. He'll go nuts.