My Final Day Being a Teen

Kam na bane ni mauri moa tariu ma maneu n tamaroan ingabongin te pday aio!

This week...has been so tiring. Let me sum it up like this: We woke up at 5 am today (may I point out that this is a pday today) to run and drop off some elders at the airport. Yep.

In all honesty, though, this week has been awesome. It's an interesting correlation that the weeks that are the most tiring are usually the weeks that are the most rewarding as well.

We had a couple of pretty interesting experiences this week. On Thursday night we had just finished our last lesson of the day and were heading to our dinner appointment at around 8pm. On our way to the main road, we stopped and tried to remember which footpath to take. It's a path that we use nearly every day, but for some reason both of us were confused on which one it was. Maybe it was because it was dark...I'm not really sure. Right when we remembered the road, a little girl ran up to us and said that her dad was having a seizure, and her grandmother wanted us to come right away. We followed the girl and ran to the house. The grandmother met us at the front of the property in tears. She explained that she was a long-time inactive member. Her thirty-five year old son started acting funny that afternoon, then suddenly collapsed and started having a seizure. He was laying on a plank in front of the house writhing around uncontrollably on the ground. There was a big man from one of the surrounding houses trying to hold him down and his wife was sitting in the mud trying to talk to him. The mother explained that she always sees us walking around that area, and was praying that we would walk by at that moment so that we could give her son a blessing. Soon after saying the prayer, she saw us out near the road, trying to decide which way to go, and sent the young girl to get us to come over.

We gave the son a blessing while he was on the ground. We stayed around for about 10 minutes to to see if there was anything else we could do. After a few minutes, the man on the ground calmed down. He stopped grunting and rolling around, and his breathing returned back to normal. It was a blessing from Heaven in every sense of the word.

A few days later, we visited that family again to make sure that the man was okay. He and his wife welcomed us in and we visited them for about an hour. It turns out that they had met with missionaries before in Butaritari (an outer island), but had moved to Tarawa before they got very far. The man's father was a very strong member out there but had just recently passed away. We chatted for a while and got to know them, then shared a small first lesson with them. They very enthusiastically accepted a return appointment for tomorrow. I can't wait to see where they go! I know that the Lord places people in our path that are prepared, we just have to be ready and willing to see them!

This week was also a very big week because it was...(drumroll please)...MISSION TOUR! Elder Ian S. Ardern of the area Seventy came and visited our mission and gave us some really good trainings. Elder Miller and I have been planning logistics for this for weeks! All of the missionaries from outer islands and from Kiritimati island came in for it as well. So it was a very full week! The mission tour went well. We had a meeting with him where I conducted...it was only a little bit intimidating! Not only that, but he asked to look at my daily planner, held it up in front of everybody, and critiqued it. Luckily it was a pretty busy day...

He also called on my companion and I do come up in front of everyone and do a role play, teaching him and his wife...twice! Then he stood up there and critiqued us as well. It actually went pretty well, especially considering the fact that we did it in English. Teaching in English is really really difficult right now because we do almost everything in Kiribati. Elder Ardern had some very insightful instruction and advice for our mission, so I think it really helped out. It was really nice to take a break from the rigors of proselyting and just feel the Spirit for a day.

We had to drop off a lot of people after the mission tour, so we got home pretty late at night. When I walked in the door, all twelve Elders that were staying in our house burst into "Happy Birthday!" I don't know how or where or who, but they got me a cake. A REAL CHOCOLATE cake. I don't think I've ever had a better cake than that in my life!

So, to wrap things up...I am pretty tired right now. Life is good. Missionary work is the best. And today is my last day being a teenager (whoa, did I just say that?).

I tangiringkami!

Elder Barker