I am Officially Old

Mauri riki te koraki!!

A warm Christmas mauri to you all!

This week e bon te b'ai teuana. It was definitely a week for the journal. The best (and worst) part of being someone's last companion is that everyone wants to say bye to you. Seriously, all of our dinners this week were like huge farewell parties for Elder Miller because it was his last week. There's nothing that makes you more homesick than sitting and doing 3 hours of weekly planning while your companion packs up his bags to go home...yep. We had a ton of farewells, including a nice one from our ward in which President Larkin came! it was a fun, and tiring, week. It ended with a bang with me getting sick again! yes!!!

Elder Miller was a great companion. He really helped me find a new perspective on missionary work. I learned to enjoy myself more! Not that we just relax and have fun all the time, but we definitely make our own fun while we work. He was very obedient. He was everyone's friend. He was a hard worker. Someone once told me that the hardest part of being a missionary is dealing with your companion. i think I might have agreed with that at other points in my mission, but not these past 3 months. The time flew, the work exploded, and our spirits soared.

My new companion is named Elder Murri. he's from Sandy, Utah, and seems pretty cool. He's six weeks older than I am in the mission, so he finishes his time in August. He just finished three months of being district leader in Temaiku. I'm pretty excited to work with him!

Every time a missionary finishes his or her time (especially your companion), it makes you think more about your own mission. It makes you think about how much time you have left. It makes you think about what you still need to accomplish. It makes you take a closer look at yourself as a missionary and identify things that you need to improve on. It can be hard to see old friends go, but it is also a wonderful motivator. There is still so much I feel like I need to do before my time ends! And every time I look at it, it just gets shorter and shorter. I had a strange thought today - I am now as old as my trainer was when he trained me. There you go; I'm officially old.

I hope you all have a great week! last one before Christmas!!!!!

With love,

Elder Barker