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I seriously don't know where to start.

This week has been absolutely crazy. Everything has changed. It's like another world here.

We left the MTC this Tuesday at noon. It was kinda sad to have our last classes with Brother Packer and Brother Farley. We stayed up super late packing. Then we loaded onto a bus. We drove about twently minutes to the train station. It was rather awkward to travel with 9 people (three suitcases each....you do the math). But we crammed into the train and made it work. My companin and I say next to this guy. Turns out, he's a really well known rock climber. We talked with him for about an hour and half and gave him a Book of Mormon. So that was pretty cool. Then we got on another train that took us to the airport . We checked in, went to our gate, and...waited.

The SLC airport in't huge, so it was pretty easy. I was able to call my family from a payphone (it's allowed) for about half an hour, which was awesome. Then we boarded a three hour flight to LAX. Airplane food just doesn't compare to MTC food. But we barely survived and made it to LA. LAX is huge. We may or may not have gotten lost. But we made it to the gate with time to spare. We met a guy from Tonga who spoke very little English. We asked him if he had ever talked with the missionaries, and he said yes. We were really excited to spend the next hour teaching him and maybe baptize him ni the fountain (just kidding, just kidding). We started talking, then we found out he was a Bishop in Tonga!! Classic greenies...

The flight to Nadi, Fiji, was eleven hours. It was nice though. I sat next to this big Samoan dude. I talked to him for five hours (until 2 AM). After talking to him, he wants to go to church. He said he would read the BOM that I gave him. And he gave me his address so the missionaries can visit him in Samoa (fist pump).

When we stepped off the plane in Fiji, I almost drowned. It was so humid, you have to swim through the air. It is so beautiful there! When we cleared customs, we ran into two other elders just returning from an outer island to Tarawa. They were really nice and bought all of us ice cream cones, since none of us had any Fijian currency. We boarded the plane, sat there for and hour, then switched planes. Finally, we were on our way to Kiribati!!!!

The runway on Tarawa is sketchy. One end is about 50 yards from the ocean, and the other end is about 30 yards from the ocean. So when you land, it looks like you are going in the water until the last second. Then you have to slow down really fast. When we got off the plane, there were about a hundred kids pressed up against the fence. We went to the baggage claim (a pile of luggage in the middle of the room), and got our bags. Then we met President Larkin. He drove us to the stake center and we had an orientation. Usually, there is a nice dinner. Not in this mission. We had dried beach worms. They look like french fries and taste like beef jerkey. Not bad.

My companion is a guy from Georgia. He is super nice and reallly really good at speaking Kiribati. We live in this little room behind a restaraunt. It's weird though...a whole bunch of people sleep right outside our door on the ground. We are actually moving houses today, so we'll see how the new one is. I'm in a town called Betio, which is the most crowded city in Kiribati. It's on the western end of Tarawa (the biggest island).

I dropped off my bags, then we went straight to a lesson. It was on the Plan of Happiness. It went pretty well. We had dinner...they put a plate with a fried octopus in from of me. The entire octopus. I was still in shock. The culture is way way way different. There are tons of little grass huts. THere are naked people everywhere. Nobody works, they just sit in their house and sleep all day. I'm serious. The trees are awesome. There are coconuts everywhere. Everybody rides bikes. There is a "bus" system...people who drive just stop and pick you up if you are standing next to the road. It costs 60 cents. Last night on the way home there were 34 people in the 10 passenger van we were in. I thought for sure it was going to fall apart, but we made it. I think I've had more raw chicken/fish and rice in the past four days than my entire life (which isn't saying a whole lot, but..still). I never thought that sitting cross-legged would be uncomfortable, but when you do it for six hours a day...it is. my ankles are bruised and my feet are pretty swollen. But everyone says I'll get used to it. Also, I ate some bad papaya a couple days ago and got really sick. 103 fever, upset stomach, headache...it was rough. That combined with the heat here made it a really hard day.

When I first heard someone speak, I had a mini panic attack. It is nothing like the MTC. Most of the time I have no idea what's going on. It's a good thing my compaion is good. The poeple here are awesome. They laugh at everything. When I introduce myself, I say I'm from Tonga. They think it's hilarious. I tell them that I'm the oldest child, that I'm the "boss." They laugh so much.

Church was pretty cool yesterday. I played the piano. Nopbody here can play it becuase nobody has a piano to practice on. I was sight reading, so it was kinda rough, but they liked it. Afterwards I taught a whole bunch of kids how to lead music. They thought it was really funny (??). It is kinda weird though...everybody stares at us. I was sitting in class and six or seven people just walked up to me and stared at me. Awkward?

On Saturday we had our first baptism. I never taught them, but the companion i replaced did. It was pretty cool. They don't have a lot of water, so we did it in the ocean. Actually, most of the water here is sketchy. The shower water isn't clean (we are some of the lucky few who have a shower), so it makes you really itchy. But I'll get used to it.

Seriously though, Kiribati is awesome. The best part is teaching people. They are pretty open to the message and let us right in (or up). When we teach, I can see how it helps their lives. That's one thing I love about the gospel of Jesus Christ. It applies to everyone. It applies to your neighbor. It applies to me. It applies to the people sleeping on the ground outside our door. It applies to you.

Thanks for reading this novel,

Elder Barker