How to fix a popped bike tire with a spoon and duct tape.

kam na bane ni bungiro!!!

(FYI - if you say that to someone, they will be way excited here, especially if it's an old person. It's a really old and fancy way of saying hello. I used it once in a speech at a dinner and they all started clapping...)

Soooo.....I haven't been able to send out a letter for quite some time now. Sorry! I would give some legitimate excuse, but all I have is some lame story about being on an outer island with no computer. I'll try to do better next time.

Quite a bit has happened since April 3rd (my last email). For starters, I am no longer working in Tarawaieta. I left about three months ago. I was pretty sad about leaving Kainaba and Nabeina; I grew really close to the people there and loved seeing the church grow. The work was phenomenal and I loved the outer island life. My four months out there were some of the most life-changing times I have ever had. I got the call that I would be transferred to an outer island called Abemama, one of the largest in the Gilbert group. You remember how each outer island has something that it is famous for? Well, Abemama is famous for its frogs. It's the only island that has them. Pretty cool. I was assigned to work with an elder named Elder Sheffield. He had just come in to Kiribati from the Marshall Islands. He's really good at Marshallese (I mean, as far as I an tell), but knew ZERO Kiribati. I was actually pretty excited to train someone in the language.

However, at the last minute we were told that our transfer changed. We would no longer be going to Abemama...instead we would be headed out to and outer island called Onotoa. It's the southernmost island in the Gilbert group (that is open for missionaries - there are two a bit farther south, but the only allowed religion is protestant. Last time missionaries from the Catholic church went there they were stoned to death). The name literally means "six giants." Onotoa is known for two things: having the best native handcrafts, and having the best wrestlers in Kiribati. WAY cooler than frogs! I was pretty excited to go, but also kind of nervous. Onotoa is known in the mission for not having much success; there hasn't been a baptism there for over a year. It is also known for being the hottest. My first time being a senior companion, training, whitewashing (having two new missionaries in an area), being the branch president, and my first time off of Tarawa. Before we headed out, I had a meeting with the stake president and he gave us the assignment to set up a branch in Onotoa. So...needless to say, I was only slightly overwhelmed...

We hopped on this little propeller plane the next morning. It was really rattly and loud. We stopped in another island (Tabiteuea South) to drop of some cargo, then flew out to Onotoa. When we stepped off the plane, I had no idea where to go. We grabbed our bags and just kinda stood there looking around. Finally we found a member that showed us to our house. Our house is actually probably the nicest on the island. It's made out of bricks and has windows (kind of). We cook on a kerosene stove and take bucket showers from the well. We sleep on this little buia behind the house. But the most notable feature of the house is the rats. There are soooo many rats. They chew up anything and everything that gets left out. Clothes, food, pencil erasers...When we slept inside for three nights they even chewed two of my fingernails off!!!

After we dropped our bags off, we hopped on our bikes and took a look around. It turns out that this little speck on the map is huge! Well, at least it is when you're biking everywhere. From tip to tip, it takes about 3.5 hours to bike (if the roads are dry. If they're puddly, it can take longer). Of course, most of our investigators live in the villages at the two ends...so we did a ton of biking! The first few weeks of work were pretty rough. We didn't know anyone. Despite the fact that we were stuck on an island with one road, I still managed to keep getting lost. For the first few weeks, I wanted to go back. I missed Kainaba and Nabeina a lot. There wasn't much work, and there weren't many members either. The church still hadn't quite taken off yet. But we did a lot of praying and a lot of walking up to random houses and talking to people. And guess what? After about four weeks, we started making some progress. We found some new families that were interested and they started progressing really well. Church attendance went from 25 to 42. We had a few people ready for baptism and we were just finishing up lessons with them. We started to get to know people and know the area. We got used to eating canned beans, sliced bamboo, and fish for every meal. I lost 15 lbs from biking every day. I actually rather enjoyed the long bike rides home at night; it was a lot cooler at night and the stars were absolutely mind-blowing. I've never seen the milky way that clearly in my life (the Tetons come close though). We woke up at 6am pretty often and chopped coconuts for members (that's their main source of income...two dollars a kg). I probably chopped five billion or so. Admittedly, I did do a fair bit of daydreaming about cold drinks and American food, but it wasn't too bad. Overall, things were going very well for us in the little island community of Onotoa.

Until about two weeks ago.

The AP's (missionary leaders) came out to visit us, make sure we were doing our jobs correctly, and see how the church was doing in Onotoa. It was a pretty fun week working with them and I learned a lot. Everything was going well until they broke the news to us: Onotoa was going to be closed to missionary work because we don't have enough missionaries in Kiribati right now. We would be leaving in three days. Basically, all of our work from the past two and a half months were about to go to nothing. We thought they were kidding at first; things were going so well! Sadly, they weren't. We packed up and left three days later - four days before our first scheduled baptism. We were heartbroken. We had spent so many long hours in the hot sun biking and teaching and worrying about our investigators, and now...nothing. There is one thing about missionary work that I've learned: When you first get to a new area, you immediately miss your previous one. Right when you get used to your new area, the Lord moves you somewhere else. That's just how it works.

So we got back on that dinky little plane and left Onotoa. This time I wasn't nervous, I was just sad. We landed back in Tarawa and got taken to our new areas. Right now I'm working in a village called Banraeaba. It's okay, I guess. We live in a house with a fridge, ac, and a shower. I can't sleep well at night because it's too cold. I drive a 12-passenger van around to lessons. We have cold drinks and ice cream. I haven't seen a can of sliced bamboo since I got here. And there's internet here (well, obviously...).

I miss Onotoa.

So now I'm back in Tarawa. Whitewashing again (third time's a charm!). My new companion is a rugby player from Fiji. He's great (and he's worked in Onotoa and Tarawaieta also!). Now we're jsut trying to get stuff going in our new area again.

Despite the disappointment of leaving Onotoa early, I know that it was still a good experience. We still helped people. We still shared the gospel. We still helped people come closer to the Savior. At the end of the day, that's all that really matters, right? I am so grateful for my opportunity to share the peace and joy of the gospel with my Kiribati brothers and sisters in Onotoa. I learned to trust the Lord. I learned that hard work pays off. I learned the importance of prayer. I learned that serving others brings you closer to God. I learned how to fix a popped bike tire with a spoon and duct tape.

Yup, I really can't complain.

Ti a bo te aba!

Elder Barker