Half Way and $156 Burgers

A bon okioki taiani kaukuukin au reeta nakoimi...ma I aki tabe iai. Kam bon aki ota.

We spent $156 on hamburgers this week.

You know how they teach you to open with a "hook" to grab the readers attention? Did it work??

You know with an opening line like that it was a good week.

Yep, this week was pretty important in the missionary world. The tally marks on the walls kind of get abandoned after a few months, but there was not way to forget this one. I am now officially halfway done with my time serving as a missionary in Kiribati (hence the obscene amount of burgers). It's a pretty strange feeling. I feel happy that I've made it this far, but also nervous. There's still so much more I want to get done! A year goes by so fast. I know that's what all missionaries say, but it's true.

The highlight of this week was probably getting to watch general conference. I never realized how much I love general conference until pretty recently. There's just such a soothing calm that comes from soaking in the words of the apostles. Pretty much after every talk, I leaned over to my companion and said, "Wow, that was a good one." I can't wait to read it again. Hearing the Tabernacle choir was a blessing too. (Go to https://www.lds.org/general-conference?cid=HP14GC2&lang=eng to watch, read, or print the talks. Or, if interested in the choir, listen here: https://mormontabernaclechoir.org)

Conference here is a little different though. Instead of taking it a couple hours at a time with breaks in between sessions, they prefer to straight-up marathon it here. Sunday was a pretty long day. I think that's the longest I've ever sat in front of a TV in my life. I never thought I'd be saying that on my mission...

Apart from that, it was a fairly standard week. We had some solid lessons. A couple of our families are progressing very well. We went and dropped Elder Baker off at the airport to go home. I'm going to miss him, but....the name confusion has finally stopped.

That's all folks! Not a ton more to report on this week, The Lord's work keeps going. The prophet keeps guiding. The church keeps being true. I keep loving being a missionary. Burgers keep costing $13 each (the entire district bought burgers). I keep running out of things to say.

Have a great week everyone! Tia bo moa!

Elder Barker