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Episode 16: Ezrym Ellis - Tabiteuea, Kiritimati, Tarawa, Outer Islands as AP
73 Plays11 days ago
Ezrym Ellis was originally called to serve in the Marshall Islands Majuro Mission from 2015–2017. However, about halfway through his time in the MTC, he learned that he wouldn’t actually be serving in the Marshall Islands at all—instead, he was headed to the other country in the mission: Kiribati. During his service, Ezrym served on Tabiteuea (first in Tab South, then Tab North), Kiritimati, and Tarawa, and was blessed with opportunities to visit several outer islands while serving as AP.
I still remember being personally welcomed by Ezrym's crossover at Moroni High School on my very first P-day in Kiribati—and legend has it, I wasn’t the first, nor the last, to receive such a welcome.
#MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #Kiribati #Tarawa #Tabiteuea #Kiritimati #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia #islandculture
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Transcript
Introduction and Podcast Promotion
00:00:01
Darin Tingey
ah right, we're on with another episode of the Islands Podcast. If you're listening to these and you haven't already followed us on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, hit the follow button. and like Same with Facebook and Instagram.
00:00:18
Darin Tingey
Share it with someone that served in the mission or is going to.
Guest Introduction: Isram Ellis
00:00:22
Darin Tingey
would love to just get more feedback. and Anyway, we've got a great guest today.
00:00:29
Darin Tingey
i think it's our first... uh, well, guess wouldn't say first international guests, but first missionary international guests,
Isram Ellis's Background and Career
00:00:38
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:00:38
Darin Tingey
uh, as from Ellis.
00:00:41
Darin Tingey
So as from give a quick background on yourself.
00:00:45
Ezrym Ellis
Sweet. ah Thanks for putting this on. Darren, my name is Isram Ellis, originally from Temple View, Hamilton, New Zealand. um yeah Background, I studied exercise science at BYU Hawaii and President Larkin actually kind of pointed me in that direction.
00:01:05
Ezrym Ellis
so Can touch on that later, but studied exercise science and was a strength coach at Salt Lake Community College for about two years, coaching the basketball, the volleyball and the softball teams.
00:01:18
Ezrym Ellis
And that was really awesome. Worked at the Polynesian Culture Center in Hawaii for four years as a student. And that was fantastic experience as well.
00:01:25
Darin Tingey
Nice.
00:01:27
Ezrym Ellis
And I also met my wife there, who's done one of these episodes, a few episodes before me.
Ellis's Transition to Tech and Real Estate
00:01:35
Ezrym Ellis
and So, yep. And then I moved to tech sales here in Utah from 2022 to now.
00:01:42
Ezrym Ellis
So that's a little bit about me.
00:01:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And you live in Eagle mountain area, right?
00:01:49
Ezrym Ellis
That's right. I just bought our first home about six months ago. and know you're in real estate, so you know little bit about that stuff.
00:01:55
Darin Tingey
ha
00:01:57
Ezrym Ellis
But yeah, we live in Eagle Mountain.
00:01:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it, um, I didn't, And then I didn't realize that Kida was from the U S because I always just saw you guys' pictures in New Zealand during COVID.
Personal Connections and Humorous Anecdotes
00:02:09
Darin Tingey
And so I, I thought she was from New Zealand as well until I met her.
00:02:09
Ezrym Ellis
yeah.
00:02:12
Darin Tingey
And I was like, Oh wait, she's from the States. I didn't realize that. Um, I thought it'd be very fitting to have you guys back to back. I, it's been summertime. So sorry. I haven't done very many podcasts in the summer, but it got a fun to have your wife.
00:02:26
Darin Tingey
And then now you back to back on the pod, uh,
00:02:30
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:02:31
Darin Tingey
Pretty special. I mean, she kind of touched on how you guys met. Is there anything you wanted to add or correct?
00:02:36
Ezrym Ellis
Sure. Yeah. So let me paint the picture. um Everything was slow motion. there's only She was the only person in the room. we were chatting it up and I thought we were doing really well.
00:02:48
Ezrym Ellis
And she said we met in the cafe or the cafeteria. But I feel like our real time that we met was and at a wedding. We were at a Kitty Bess wedding, actually. The Kitty Bess couple were getting married and we we sat I sat down next to her and was just chopping it up and I thought man she's a real one She must be something special. So that's how we met.
00:03:11
Darin Tingey
ah I love it.
00:03:11
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:03:13
Darin Tingey
That's the real story. She's gonna love that.
00:03:14
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, that's how it goes. Yeah. And I didn't know. I knew about her. she served in Kitty Bass. And the only thing i heard was that she had served in an outer island. So I thought, man, she must be a legend, you know, if she's the Lord wanted to call her to go out there.
00:03:30
Ezrym Ellis
and so, yeah, I think a few of my maybe made my backup trainer,
00:03:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:35
Ezrym Ellis
had mentioned her So I was like, oh, cool. We'll never meet, but she seems cool. And then we've met and we got married, two kids, one on the way.
00:03:40
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:03:43
Ezrym Ellis
yeah life.
00:03:45
Darin Tingey
The rest is history. I love it. I love it.
Mission Call and Initial Experiences
00:03:48
Darin Tingey
So, ah let's talk about when you got your mission call and a little bit about the MTC.
00:03:54
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:03:56
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, because I think Pal mentioned, and because I thought that we were Majuro,
00:03:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:04:03
Ezrym Ellis
Marshall Islands because all I did was you know read the few first few lines and then read Marshall Islands and that's it. That's all I read. was like, woohoo, we're going to Marshall. Where is that? you know Started Googling it and studying it and started learning a little bit about Marjoro and stuff like that. and That's where I thought we were going up until why maybe halfway through my MTC.
00:04:26
Ezrym Ellis
It kind of dawned like, oh We're not going there. We're going to kiddie bus, completely different place. And so i think my mission, my state president actually mentioned like, yeah, we've actually had to readjust your mission calling and something.
00:04:41
Ezrym Ellis
And so I think maybe I was supposed to go to Dimajiro, but ended up going to kiddie bus. So super happy that I went there.
00:04:47
Darin Tingey
Did you have a, did you have a Marshallese flag that you took pictures with before the mission at all?
00:04:52
Ezrym Ellis
No, I know like American missionaries like doing that, taking photos with flags and stuff.
00:04:55
Darin Tingey
but
00:04:57
Ezrym Ellis
I never really got into it. um but But I did have the flag in my mind, at least. i was like, okay, I know where I'm going. I did a little bit of study. That's where they did testing. And it's part partially American.
00:05:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:08
Ezrym Ellis
And there's it's um it's a good place. I heard it was a great place. and Because my cousin actually was out there when I was i got my call out of Kindle, who his uncle,
00:05:12
Darin Tingey
It's,
00:05:17
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:05:20
Ezrym Ellis
actually became mission president in Kitty Bass a couple of years after I finished. And so, yeah, they just finished.
00:05:26
Darin Tingey
huh The candles, they just finished like a month ago.
00:05:30
Ezrym Ellis
And he was my stake president who set me a apart and released me from my mission. So, yeah,
00:05:36
Darin Tingey
Such a small world, dude. That's
Mission Work and Cultural Adjustments
00:05:39
Darin Tingey
crazy. So, so you, you were NTC. They're like, yeah, we're going to Kitabas, not the Marshall Islands.
00:05:39
Ezrym Ellis
yeah.
00:05:46
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:05:47
Darin Tingey
You're like, probably like, cool. Where's Kitabas?
00:05:50
Ezrym Ellis
Exactly right.
00:05:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:51
Ezrym Ellis
And I was super happy to, like, I always wanted to visit America, not going to lie.
00:05:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:57
Ezrym Ellis
You know, i thought it was the coolest place. And when I got there, i was like, whoa, everything is true. The yellow school buses, you know, the cafeteria, the locker rooms, like high school locker room kind of feel.
00:06:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:06:09
Ezrym Ellis
It's like the movies to me. And so I was super happy to just be in the States. aye I know some some of our intake might have not liked the food in the NTC, but...
00:06:20
Ezrym Ellis
I loved it. I was already a pretty heavy kid after sports had finished. And in between that time, I had to save up for my mission. And I did every job that you could think of.
00:06:33
Ezrym Ellis
Every job you could think of, janitor, et cetera, mowing lawns. And then once I got there, yeah, I think I gained like 20 kgs. That's like 40 pounds in your speak.
00:06:43
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh, no way.
00:06:44
Ezrym Ellis
bro in love with the chocolate milk and the burgers and sometimes there were 14 of us in our uh intake and some of them would have leftovers and you know polynesian background are you going to finish that i'll finish it for you so i'll take that and i yeah pretty much ate everyone's plate it felt like sometimes and so yeah i was i was ready and primed for kitty bus when i finally got out there
00:07:09
Darin Tingey
Absolutely you were. I mean, I guess, how quick did you lose that 40 pounds when you went to get a vest?
00:07:14
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, pretty quickly, pretty quickly. um Yeah, pretty much ASAP in my first area. I think I lost it all. um But yeah, there were 14 of us.
00:07:25
Ezrym Ellis
There four sisters, Sister Baldwin, Sister Wamuda, Sister Eubanks, Sister Vivute. Elders was me and Powell, out of Graham, out of Larson, Christensen, out of Hoskins, Tomlinson, out of Behrens, out of Johnson and Osborne.
00:07:41
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, I thought they were the coolest bunch.
00:07:41
Darin Tingey
Like, what is what a solid crew, honestly. I feel like that's a great intake missionaries.
00:07:45
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:07:48
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. I love them. Yeah, they were fantastic. And heaps of cool, cool stories with them. And
00:07:57
Darin Tingey
So you get to Kidobus. Like, um I guess quickly just walk me through all your areas and then we'll start at the beginning. Okay.
00:08:05
Ezrym Ellis
yeah, so I started in tab south. And then I went to tab north, then I transferred to christmas
00:08:09
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:08:14
Ezrym Ellis
and worked in two areas there, Banana and Tabakia. And then I went to Tarawa, worked in Bota, and then I think I finished in Teore Rekisekend, if I remember.
00:08:27
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:08:28
Ezrym Ellis
It's been like 10 years now.
00:08:30
Darin Tingey
I know, it's crazy.
00:08:31
Ezrym Ellis
So i I wish I had my old journals with me. I would have read up on it before this podcast. But yeah, those I think those my areas.
00:08:38
Darin Tingey
So use you start USER 2015 to 2017.
00:08:43
Ezrym Ellis
Yep.
00:08:44
Darin Tingey
um So you you find at Ottawa, you go to Morona High School, I'm assuming.
00:08:51
Ezrym Ellis
Yep.
00:08:51
Darin Tingey
And from there, you find out you're going to Tab South, right?
00:08:55
Ezrym Ellis
hu So favorite area, by the way, Tab South. I know in the podcast, a lot of missionaries have been talking about it.
00:09:02
Darin Tingey
Hot take, hot take.
00:09:04
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, for real. This is my top spot.
00:09:07
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:09:08
Ezrym Ellis
So, yeah, we get and we got off the plane. you know i think it was a afatai out of out of Open Shore, out of Davis, and and their companions picking us up in the Hilux, the white truck, put all our bags in there. We're sweating. We're hot.
00:09:24
Ezrym Ellis
and Listening to this podcast, all the smells came back and all the memories.
00:09:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:09:29
Ezrym Ellis
We go to Moroni, and they give us a little rundown, the sister missionary at the time, of make sure you're prepared with the antibacterial soap and things like that.
00:09:43
Ezrym Ellis
And I thought, yeah, sure, sure, sure.
00:09:44
Darin Tingey
but
00:09:46
Ezrym Ellis
My island's going to have that stuff.
00:09:46
Darin Tingey
ah
00:09:48
Ezrym Ellis
I can just buy it.
00:09:49
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:09:49
Ezrym Ellis
And so South had none of that.
00:09:51
Darin Tingey
Of course. Yeah.
00:09:53
Ezrym Ellis
so It was pretty much like a camp, young men's camp for two years, it felt like. That's what TAP South was in a nutshell. Yeah.
00:10:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah. yeah it's It's funny. It's a hot take to have Tab South as as your favorite. And I'm also like, You know, the number of people I've had this podcast, like so many people said to Tab South. And I'm just kind of shocked that we had missionaries in Tab South for so long because it doesn't seem like the church was like that strong compared to some other islands.
00:10:25
Ezrym Ellis
Well, it wasn't there, to be honest. Elder Openshaw and Davis were the ones that told me, you're a lucky elder, Elder Ellis. You're going to get to open up an island. It's called Tab South.
00:10:37
Ezrym Ellis
And I'm like, man, what what does open an island even mean? I had no idea. had no idea. And your companion, he's going to be out of Tekangui, doesn't speak English.
00:10:48
Ezrym Ellis
So good luck.
00:10:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:10:50
Ezrym Ellis
And man, what a ride it was. What a ride it was.
00:10:53
Darin Tingey
So were you the first like ever or just like the first to reopen it?
00:10:58
Ezrym Ellis
So that's what I thought. And then I've met missionaries from the 80s and 90s over time that said that they spent some time there.
Miraculous Experiences and Language Challenges
00:11:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:05
Ezrym Ellis
But supposedly I either opened or reopened the area.
00:11:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:09
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Well, Tekangwi, I was his junior companion.
00:11:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah, right. You together.
00:11:13
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:11:14
Darin Tingey
and technical it's from kiddobe yeah
00:11:14
Ezrym Ellis
Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's from Kitty Bass. Great. Great. His first name is Bernard, actually. So when I saw Bernard, I was like, okay, maybe I can, maybe he understands, but no, no English whatsoever.
00:11:21
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha.
00:11:27
Ezrym Ellis
So part of my job was to help him learn a bit of English while he just lived his life, I guess. And I tried to tag along. um But yeah, we didn't have anywhere to stay.
00:11:38
Ezrym Ellis
Tab South. We first got there. I was like, man, where's our apartment? know no such thing no such thing um we ended up staying with a family who had one less active person that was a member so to my knowledge at the time there was one member on the island you know the whole island and we had already heard like stories um pastors had already spread the message that missionaries were coming to tab south and started spreading things about joseph smith and things like
00:11:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:12:10
Ezrym Ellis
um he was a thief, you gold, stealing gold, and he had lots of wives, and you know, the normal things that come through, but we were kind of, I guess, from there at a disadvantage, from day one, and
00:12:13
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:12:25
Ezrym Ellis
But man, so many miracles came from Tev South. so So it was kind of sad every time that I would talk to people that would go saying that things had kind of turned around because by the time I finished, I think we had we went from zero to maybe 45 or 50 people in attendance.
00:12:43
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:12:43
Ezrym Ellis
um you know No unit had been established yet or anything of that nature. And I slowly became um obsessed with the church manual.
00:12:55
Ezrym Ellis
Because remember like, is this how we're supposed to run church?
00:12:58
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:12:58
Ezrym Ellis
Like, I'm pretty sure this isn't how it's supposed to be. um I remember my first fast Sunday there, me and Te Khang Wee and our five investigators. And it was fast Sunday.
00:13:09
Ezrym Ellis
And after Te Khang Wee said, okay, I've shared my testimony. Now I'm going to open the floor. You know how you do it at regular ward? for anyone that wants to share their testimony.
00:13:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:13:19
Ezrym Ellis
We sat there for like 10 minutes. Then I realized, oh, they don't even know what a testimony is, you know?
00:13:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:13:26
Ezrym Ellis
So it was just super pure and super new to the gospel.
00:13:27
Darin Tingey
no
00:13:32
Ezrym Ellis
Tab South, that's why it's definitely my favorite spot.
00:13:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. so So by the time you left the island, they had 40 or by the time you left your mission, they had 40 people.
00:13:41
Ezrym Ellis
By the time I left the island, um,
00:13:43
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:13:45
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, it was crazy work.
00:13:45
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:13:46
Ezrym Ellis
I think half of my baptisms came from Tab South. And one of those, just she just finished her mission in Hawaii, Te Mentake. So that was pretty full circle moment.
00:13:57
Ezrym Ellis
I got to see her at the program MTC.
00:13:58
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
00:13:59
Ezrym Ellis
I was like, whoa, I met you in the middle of nowhere. We baptized you. And now you're here in America, you know, becoming a missionary, learning English and, you know, progressing. And it was pretty cool.
00:14:10
Ezrym Ellis
It was pretty cool.
00:14:10
Darin Tingey
but Isn't that crazy? It's just like, I met you in the middle of the Pacific. Like, and there was a, I served on Lai in the Marsh Islands and I was like, it's this tiny island in the middle Pacific.
00:14:23
Darin Tingey
And this girl that I'm talking to just got back from her mission in Logan, Utah, where she served with one of my high school friends. I'm like, this is crazy.
00:14:29
Ezrym Ellis
Wow, it's crazy.
00:14:31
Darin Tingey
Like, Like the church just makes it such a small world. And it's also just crazy to see these people from these tiny islands, like get called to, you know, Hawaii all over the world.
00:14:41
Darin Tingey
And it's like, they.
00:14:42
Ezrym Ellis
It's mind blowing.
00:14:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:43
Ezrym Ellis
It's mind blowing. I had conversations with some of them out there and they would boast or brag to me that their shop had bread. You know, i was like, man, I wish I could take you to the middle of the States, take you to a Walmart.
00:14:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:57
Ezrym Ellis
and Whoa, there's 30 different types of breeds at this one.
00:15:01
Ezrym Ellis
It's just the sort of tunnel vision and the the simplicity approach that they had, which was really beautiful. And man, Tab South is like way out there. So we went from, I went from LA to cg Fiji, Fiji to Tarawa, Tarawa to Tab North is all plane rides.
00:15:17
Ezrym Ellis
and then tab north, take a three-hour boat trip to tab south. And thats that is as far out as you can get. i remember, like, I hadn't even reached my first area, and we were in a boat, and were going, it's Powerade, Gatorade-looking water, you know blue, beautiful.
00:15:25
Darin Tingey
Let's go.
00:15:36
Ezrym Ellis
And, like, halfway there, my boat breaks down, you know? And I'm pretty sure that's not uncommon. I'm pretty sure all the missionaries had experiences like that, but We're stuck in the middle of the ocean. I'm like, man, I haven't even started my mission and I might die.
00:15:49
Ezrym Ellis
um I might die before I get there. That's how I felt. I remember Hoskins in the MTC. He was like, man, if I go out, at least I go out serving the Lord. I was like, yeah, that memory came to me as I was in the middle of the ocean.
00:16:03
Ezrym Ellis
I was like, yeah, if I go out, I go out.
00:16:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:16:05
Ezrym Ellis
It's all good.
00:16:06
Darin Tingey
This might be it.
00:16:07
Ezrym Ellis
This might be it.
00:16:07
Darin Tingey
Having to get my first email, this might be it
00:16:10
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, I haven't even sent an email. And in my first area, they didn't even have internet. So we I wrote letters, actually, in my first area. You know, I felt like Outer Powell was saying, like, I don't know how Outer Alice did it.
00:16:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:16:23
Ezrym Ellis
ah There's two missionaries that helped me do it. It was Outer Musser and Outer Parrish. don't know if you ever met Parrish.
00:16:29
Darin Tingey
Yep, yep.
00:16:29
Ezrym Ellis
But those guys were in Tab North, and they'd come up for exchanges. And that they were a big reason why I made it through, for sure, for sure.
00:16:37
Darin Tingey
That's cool you guys got to do exchanges with the elders in Tab North. Your parents and I knew each other before the mission actually, and we're pretty good friends after So that's really cool you guys to do exchanges.
00:16:45
Ezrym Ellis
Okay.
00:16:48
Darin Tingey
So like, give me a little bit more about like Tab self from from your view, right? Like have we've heard of many people's views, like, what was it like from your view?
00:16:55
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:16:57
Darin Tingey
Because you're here's a special in the sense that you started your mission there and you guys had a lot of success.
00:17:03
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, so we ended up staying with the less active. Her name was Masireta. She was a school teacher in the middle of the island. She taught elementary school.
00:17:13
Ezrym Ellis
And then it was either her who was the member or Tao Tabong, the husband. And so we lived with a family. So we did family work
00:17:20
Darin Tingey
Did you just find them Did you just like find him be like, hey, can we stay you?
00:17:23
Ezrym Ellis
I had no idea how we got there. i was I was just, where are we?
00:17:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:17:27
Ezrym Ellis
What are we doing here? had no idea how we met. But Tee Kangui was like, I got us a place. He's like, sweet, sweet. We have a place. And it was with a family. And so I had to learn how to do kiddie best work.
00:17:39
Ezrym Ellis
Because i was I was raised in a hardworking family. Like, I know how to mow lawns. and stuff like that and clean my bed.
00:17:44
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:17:46
Ezrym Ellis
But I had no idea how to do makuri ni kiribasu, right?
00:17:50
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:17:50
Ezrym Ellis
Because I'm sure a lot of us did. So I was thrown into the fire um and my companion would be up every morning. Earlier than wake up time, I think wake up time was six or something. He'd be up at five.
00:18:02
Ezrym Ellis
Kuro karebe, you know, kare in the karebe and then helping out with the work.
00:18:02
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:18:05
Ezrym Ellis
And by the time I had woken up, all the chores were done. and so I felt out of place a lot. There's a lot of cultural things that I missed and and had to learn the hard way. And those were one of them.
00:18:16
Ezrym Ellis
Like they're up and working. Their work is done before 7 a.m. Then it's chill the rest of the day or go out fishing kind of thing.
00:18:21
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:18:25
Ezrym Ellis
So from my perspective, it was amazing. I had to learn quick. You know, that would mock me because I didn't know how to clean my clothes. with the washboard and and the yellow soap, had no idea. and My mum was raised washing clothes like that. And so I thought I'd have a bit of a know-how, but then nah, I was terrible.
00:18:45
Ezrym Ellis
I was terrible. Lots of lots of memories though, in particular, like gift of tongues, like Ada Powell was saying. Sometimes I was limited to, you I know the church is That was my whole you know i know the church is true that was my wholepiel every lesson for the first
00:18:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:02
Ezrym Ellis
two months
00:19:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:03
Ezrym Ellis
um
00:19:03
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:19:04
Ezrym Ellis
You know, and and then I would read the Joseph Smith First Vision. that was I was limited to that. But every now and again, Kang Wee would pass the time to me and he's like, just do your thing.
00:19:18
Ezrym Ellis
I think I remember, I think it was like two months in, he was like, okay, Elder Alice, you're going to teach this lesson. i was like, whoa, okay. And was with it it was ah it with a family, an elderly man and a woman and taught the lesson.
00:19:32
Ezrym Ellis
you know, they ended up getting baptized. But I don't know what I was saying, you know, this is how it goes. um And then I think by month three, Masireta, she just spoke to me. And I was like, huh, I know what you're saying.
00:19:46
Ezrym Ellis
And I talked back.
00:19:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:47
Ezrym Ellis
It's my first, like, we're having a conversation. um remember screaming for joy or something because we were out in the Kamsura. And I was like, man, it's coming, you know And I think it had to come quick or else i was going to struggle for the whole time. But It eventually came.
00:20:02
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:20:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that there's no better feeling than like someone's talking to you and you're like, I understood that. Like, I know what they're saying. I remember we'd have dinner with this guy and his name was Monday, tenmon ago and we'd have dinner with him every week.
00:20:16
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:20:18
Darin Tingey
And he was just be like, and Elder Tingey knows what I'm saying. I know he can understand what I'm saying. He just can't speak back to me.
00:20:24
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:20:25
Darin Tingey
And I was like, yes, I can understand what you're saying. I just can't say anything back to you.
00:20:31
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, no, I totally agree. But yeah, no internet, no water. We had to walk maybe two miles for to get to a well. And that well water was not great.
00:20:43
Darin Tingey
So delicious.
00:20:43
Ezrym Ellis
I actually was yeah, i you know and We fished many weekends or fished many P days and out where president where said it was okay to just go out there in middle of the ocean again and get some fish.
00:20:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:57
Ezrym Ellis
And so we'd fish cause the cargo, we never seemed to got it, get it when I was there and I hated fasting. And so still hate it to this day to be honest, but tab South taught me how to fast properly.
00:21:12
Ezrym Ellis
And yeah, really felt some strength coming from that. Um,
00:21:16
Darin Tingey
Did you feel, you know, I've heard, you know, um another, um the other podcasts, you say like, oh, like they're little more serious in tap south. Like, did you feel that? Like. Yeah.
00:21:27
Ezrym Ellis
I never got that. No, I didn't understand. But maybe it's because I didn't know what they were saying, you know?
00:21:31
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:21:33
Ezrym Ellis
Because that my my thought, because I'm Polynesian, I'm Māori, so I'm like, okay, i understand some of the nuances that I can understand some.
00:21:39
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:21:41
Ezrym Ellis
but But yeah, I really didn't. I saw everyone with knives too. So I was like, okay, it's true, it's true. And the way that they pronounced the T-U was different as well.
00:21:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
00:21:50
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:21:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's right.
00:21:52
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, i didn't I didn't sense the seriousness at all. um Yeah, they loved having parties. They were up late a lot doing, you know, keeping up with the container ah tradition and certain things about the mission, like that the white handbook would say to do this.
00:22:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:22:04
Darin Tingey
that's right
00:22:10
Ezrym Ellis
And then, you know, the spirit or the mission of it would say, do that, you know?
00:22:15
Darin Tingey
That's exactly right.
00:22:16
Ezrym Ellis
Because but
00:22:17
Darin Tingey
That's a great way to put it. That's a great way to put it.
00:22:18
Ezrym Ellis
ay um because
00:22:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the spirit told us we needed to be here for this. Yeah.
00:22:24
Ezrym Ellis
Like I was a bit, you know, I grew up kind of ah strict and then that definitely, the the mission definitely altered that a little bit.
00:22:35
Ezrym Ellis
I remember in the White Handbook, it says, you know, no holding babies. And I can't understand why, if you're serving in the States or in a Western area.
00:22:43
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:22:44
Ezrym Ellis
But no, there are many times where they asked me to hold their crying baby to sleep. because you know we sleep with ah we live with the family So, and just the cutest kid, Tao Tebonga.
00:22:52
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:22:54
Ezrym Ellis
I wish I could adopt him. He's just such a cutie. And yeah, I guess that was practice for being a dad now because I'm not very good at it now.
00:23:05
Ezrym Ellis
But back then, you know, maybe you had the spirit with me then as a missionary. But yeah, but times like that.
00:23:10
Darin Tingey
yeah thea though I totally agree that like the white handbook would be like, yeah be back by 9.30. It's like, well, the town that i the village that live in is having a party all week and I'm required to be there.
00:23:23
Darin Tingey
They're going to think it's very, very rude if I'm not there.
00:23:26
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:27
Darin Tingey
and like And I don't really have a good excuse I need to go home because my house was right next to the Minyebe. It's literally right next to it.
00:23:33
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Right.
00:23:35
Darin Tingey
there's the the like There's no way that we're like leaving this Botaki because of our time. Anyway, you kind of had to find the right balance. And being on the Outer Island, I feel like you kind of just had to pick your battles on on some of that stuff.
00:23:45
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:23:50
Darin Tingey
And I think President... would always be like, just use your use your best judgment. I mean, like, we didn't talk to President others. In those out round, it was just like, he trusts you to go out there and be an elder, you know?
00:23:57
Ezrym Ellis
but
00:24:01
Ezrym Ellis
yeah exactly and and tick on we every morning was up in the trees and i don't think that was loud but uh but yeah what a hard worker that guy was i can't wait to see him again 2027 think we're going to try go back yeah
00:24:08
Darin Tingey
ah
00:24:15
Darin Tingey
That's awesome. So how long were you on top self? Before got
00:24:18
Ezrym Ellis
I felt like i was there for a year. But when I think about it, I think it was only three months. But, you know, all the growth, it was must have been three or four months, I'm guessing. All the dates are fuzzy to me now.
00:24:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:31
Ezrym Ellis
But I felt like I was there the longest, maybe because I enjoyed it the most.
00:24:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Well, and I was at the beginning your mission and you're probably shocked culturally and everything just, you weren't eating anything.
00:24:41
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:42
Darin Tingey
You probably, you know, has
00:24:44
Ezrym Ellis
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Actually, I was eating all the food there was. We learned how to catch crabs and the fishing and turtles every every weekend, Sunday. um But, yeah.
00:24:56
Darin Tingey
The island gives you what you need. Like Moana, that song is like legit. It's like the island does give you everything you need. You don't.
00:25:02
Ezrym Ellis
I had no idea how resourceful a coconut was, to be honest. Yeah, about all of it.
00:25:06
Darin Tingey
It's crazy.
00:25:07
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. So.
00:25:08
Darin Tingey
um Did you get, so did you get transferred to Tab North or did you just go up
00:25:12
Ezrym Ellis
Yes.
Transfer to Tab North and Improved Conditions
00:25:13
Darin Tingey
to Tab North?
00:25:13
Darin Tingey
Okay, so you actually got transferred to Tab North.
00:25:14
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Yep. So Te Kongi was my companion in Tab South. Got transferred. I don't know if Te Kongi was happy about that. I think he wanted to go. but
00:25:23
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha ha.
00:25:24
Ezrym Ellis
but by the time we left, it was it was big. There were like 50 people at church and it was beautiful.
00:25:28
Darin Tingey
crazy.
00:25:28
Ezrym Ellis
And I was super happy about the success there. I know it started to dim later. maybe Maybe I wish I was more obsessed with the church handbook beforehand so we could have you know, there's all, yeah, trained other Melchizedek priesthood holders to hold down the fort when missionaries are not there kind of thing.
00:25:39
Darin Tingey
Trained or something? yeah
00:25:47
Ezrym Ellis
But yeah, got transferred to Tab North. And man, in my mission, my first area, the conditioning, the the living conditions were like subpar, right?
00:25:59
Ezrym Ellis
Beautiful.
00:25:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:59
Ezrym Ellis
And then it essential it eventually got better and better. And I guess my mission, the work started off
00:26:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:26:05
Ezrym Ellis
very good and then slowly you got less and less, I guess. Yeah, I'd see. So I guess the more simple the people lived, the more open they were to the gospel, I'd say.
00:26:17
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:26:18
Ezrym Ellis
So tab north and my companion was Elder Johnson. Not our Johnson, another Johnson. And he was awesome too.
00:26:29
Ezrym Ellis
he had He was very organized. He teach me how to be more organized. Taekangwi was as hard a work as he was. We were all over the place, you know, like just work, work, work and no records and stuff like that.
00:26:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:26:41
Ezrym Ellis
And area books, hygiene, it was just get it done.
00:26:45
Darin Tingey
ah The wild wild west out there.
00:26:46
Ezrym Ellis
And it was, it was. And then Tab North, we had a nice little home with walls and a fan and there was a water tank and we were right next to the chapel.
00:26:54
Darin Tingey
ah wow.
00:26:58
Ezrym Ellis
um
00:26:59
Darin Tingey
Was there an actual chapel?
00:27:01
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, it was a bit of a makeshift thing, but we had walls and a whiteboards and was much better than what we had.
00:27:06
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:27:08
Ezrym Ellis
We didn't have anything Tampa South.
00:27:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:27:11
Ezrym Ellis
So, yeah.
00:27:12
Darin Tingey
I imagine just people's homes you were having church at.
00:27:15
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, it was a lot more... ah organized. There was a nice road and homes all in a row kind of thing. And I guess they got better cargo and they had internet.
00:27:28
Ezrym Ellis
So I started emailing my parents finally after about three or four months.
00:27:33
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:27:34
Ezrym Ellis
And I just asked my mom earlier today, he's like, what was your thought about about it all? And she was like, oh, we prayed for you more than our older brother, you know, my older brother, just based on what we – and I actually didn't tell them about, you know, the all the stuff that happened. Like i got an infection in my foot in Tab North and Tab South.
00:27:55
Ezrym Ellis
I didn't actually report that to Yeah.
00:27:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah, dude, you don't, when you get sick on the outer, you don't tell anybody unless you're about to die because otherwise you get pulled off the Audi and you don't get to go back out.
00:28:07
Ezrym Ellis
And it's done. Yeah. And so my leg was wrecked for most of my time on Tab, actually. And there was no real nurse out on Tab South.
00:28:18
Ezrym Ellis
So I got introduced to voodoo and black magic and all that stuff. And my family tried to put spells on it and stuff to get it better.
00:28:29
Ezrym Ellis
it was just boils that I didn't know. what they were. I'd never had a boil in my life. And I think that's how I gave it.
00:28:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:36
Ezrym Ellis
I'm pretty sure i'm the one who gave it to out of Dale who spoke on the podcast. I'm pretty sure it came from me.
00:28:40
Darin Tingey
ha
00:28:42
Ezrym Ellis
Um, but yeah, that, that foot didn't get better to tap North because they had a nurse there who gave me medicine and it was disgusting. i don't want to maggots in there and all that, but yeah, we'll move on from that.
00:28:55
Ezrym Ellis
It was yuck. It was, it was yuck, but yeah.
00:28:57
Darin Tingey
It's crazy. It's crazy to me, like to think how much different tab south is from tab north. Like it's actually wild how different they are.
00:29:04
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:29:08
Ezrym Ellis
They had more shops. yeah I was introduced to canned food and all that sort of stuff. And um don't know if you remember the chips called bongos.
00:29:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah, dude, of course.
00:29:19
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, Outer Johnson introduced me to a bongo break whenever we get tired because Tee Kang Wee didn't know what a break was.
00:29:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:26
Ezrym Ellis
We were just go, go, go. And so Outer Johnson told me how to, you know, slow down, take your time and do it, you know, do it right. And so shout out to Outer Johnson and the bongo breaks. I still remember that.
00:29:40
Ezrym Ellis
Awesome time. I remember in Tab North, there was 3 a.m. And I don't know if you remember, but moonlit nights in the islands, just some of the most beautiful nights ever.
00:29:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah, amazing.
00:29:52
Ezrym Ellis
Just amazing. No lighting, no no unnatural lighting at least. And 3 a.m., get a knock on the door, and it's one of the members and their baby's screaming, like yelling, unnatural yelling, i think, you know.
00:30:07
Ezrym Ellis
and they ask for a blessing, and we we try to put our hands on the baby. I'm praying profusely. Outer Johnson is my senior companion, so like, you got it, bro. And he puts his hands on, gives the blessing, and the baby goes to sleep.
00:30:21
Ezrym Ellis
But, yeah, I hope that he remembers those times too because they were, yeah, miraculous times for sure. Yeah.
00:30:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's, that's incredible. And like, i feel like in islands, they have a lot of faith in, in blessings, priesthood blessings, which is really cool.
00:30:36
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:30:38
Darin Tingey
I mean, I had my fair share of blessing babies and and whatnot. So
00:30:44
Ezrym Ellis
They were a spiritual, they are a spiritual people.
00:30:48
Darin Tingey
yeah.
00:30:48
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, so I guess they're susceptible to both sides of it. And yeah, lots of faith. I really love that about them. Yeah, but Tab North was a blast as well. Yeah.
00:30:59
Darin Tingey
the yeah The moonlit nights, dude, that just brought back a lot of memories for me. um I'm just thinking about on Mayanna, like we would leave the furthest southern village to to ride home and it was like an hour plus on our bikes.
00:31:16
Darin Tingey
And if you didn't have a flashlight and the moon wasn't out there, dude, it was just like pitch black, right? in the dark, but when the moon was out, man, you could see everything.
00:31:23
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:31:26
Darin Tingey
It was beautiful. And the water, uh,
00:31:28
Ezrym Ellis
It's something else. It is something else. And you you bring up a memory again of a time in Tag where Adetikungwe was so fast on his bike.
00:31:39
Ezrym Ellis
He was just a blitz. I played sports my whole life, so I'm thinking I'm in shape, like Adepal was saying, but it's true. He just blitz off. And I remember crying. I'm like, I'm in the middle of nowhere.
00:31:50
Ezrym Ellis
It's pitch pitch black. Putting my hand in front of my face. I can't see. they like were I'm lost.
00:31:55
Darin Tingey
Hahaha.
00:31:56
Ezrym Ellis
Where do I go? So I'm praying and praying and praying. And finally come out of the bushes and I look up and boom, the stars are just lighting up my path. And it was something I'll never forget, honestly, because I thought I can't get home.
00:32:11
Ezrym Ellis
and I'm lost. I'm in the middle of the Pacific. It's a scary time. and yeah, it just let me home and I found my way back. was amazing.
00:32:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's, it's, uh, I, I can think about those times.
00:32:20
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:32:23
Darin Tingey
It's like, no one else will experience this like the same, in the same way. Uh, it, it's just, you can describe it as much as you want, but it just won't be the same. Um, so, and, and how long were you on Tab North?
00:32:34
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:32:38
Ezrym Ellis
I think about the same three or four months, out of Carrington and his companion came out for a few exchanges. And like you we're walking in the dark and it's a starry night and he plays one of the songs from Lion King.
00:32:53
Ezrym Ellis
ah He lives in you, that one. and And we're like, whoa, this is it right here.
00:32:56
Darin Tingey
ahha
00:32:58
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, never going to get that again. Never going to get that experience ever again. But yeah, I was there about three or four months without a Johnson.
00:33:05
Darin Tingey
Okay, so Tabitha Ware is Ellis Island basically at this point.
00:33:06
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:33:11
Ezrym Ellis
For real.
00:33:12
Darin Tingey
oh
00:33:12
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:33:13
Darin Tingey
um And then from there you go, did you how long did you spend on Tarawa before they're like you're going to Christmas?
00:33:20
Ezrym Ellis
I went straight to Christmas, I believe. ah Yeah, not too long. So Adam Johnson, we had the radio in Tab North and he he got the message that I was being sent.
00:33:32
Ezrym Ellis
And Adam Johnson actually served in Christmas as well. So he was super stoked for me to maybe meet some of his people and stuff. And so remember going to Tarawa maybe a day or so and then
00:33:39
Darin Tingey
No
00:33:42
Ezrym Ellis
going straight to Fiji. And we stayed in Nandi. I think it was like a few days where we got to spend time in Fiji. I think I remember getting transferred. i was like, whoa, five-star life right here, you know?
00:33:55
Ezrym Ellis
Like they got everything. And I'm walking into the net calf to do my email. And I look to my right and it's the 2016 NBA Finals. And I think was like, holy moly, is that Kyrie Irving? Yeah. And I think he hits that, that step back shot Steph.
00:34:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:14
Ezrym Ellis
And I was like, I might just, you know, slowly get to the net cap, see what's going on. But to me, it was like, well, I just went from the middle of nowhere with limited resources to like a five-star resort in Fiji.
00:34:28
Ezrym Ellis
Got some food, butter chicken. I think they had a McDonald's and a Burger King out there. It was amazing. Hot showers. That was my first time having hot showers in a long time. i was like, man, I cannot get used to this.
00:34:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:40
Ezrym Ellis
I'm going to get cushy if I get too used to this lifestyle. But we were only there a couple of days and then I made it out to ah to Christmas Island. Yeah.
00:34:49
Darin Tingey
It's just crazy because you went from you know Fiji to Tarawa, Tarawa to Tab South, Tab North. like You went from like you know regular life to extreme like the extreme of Kiribati, then back to like
00:35:03
Ezrym Ellis
Yep.
00:35:06
Darin Tingey
bougie Fiji. I mean, I guess, i don't know how bougie Fiji is, but a nice resort. And then like, that's just, and you spent like no time on Tarawa to really like, Tarawa is like, I mean, Tarawa is a culture shock and of itself, but like, it's kind of like the middle between Fiji and Taps Out.
00:35:15
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:35:19
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:35:23
Ezrym Ellis
Uh-huh.
00:35:24
Darin Tingey
And you just like skipped over all of that for your whole first year. Like you weren't even in Tarawa basically.
00:35:28
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. So my first year, all I knew was my companions out of Tekagmin and out of Johnson.
00:35:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:34
Ezrym Ellis
And then really just my intake and the few missionaries that were on Christmas for the first year. Yeah.
00:35:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you you missed out on all those other missionaries that...
00:35:44
Ezrym Ellis
Missed all the other stuff, you know, the P days where everyone comes together and everything being so close.
00:35:45
Darin Tingey
and
00:35:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:50
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Missed it all for my first half of the half of the mission. Yeah.
00:35:54
Darin Tingey
ah But um I mean, it's also like a give and take, right? Like you to serve on the Outer Islands, you to go to Christmas. Like no not every elder gets that.
00:36:03
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:36:03
Darin Tingey
um what was what was like What was Christmas like for you
00:36:08
Ezrym Ellis
It was amazing. yeah I thought it was fantastic. i know missionaries want to go there. So that was like, okay,
Christmas Island Experiences and Observations
00:36:14
Ezrym Ellis
I'm a lucky man. you know
00:36:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
00:36:15
Ezrym Ellis
I'm lucky I get to go out here. And my first area was Banana. So it was right on the tip ah the of Christmas. And there was a lot of biking involved. We lived in a little hotel ah right next to a restaurant.
00:36:30
Ezrym Ellis
And so I was like, man we're living good
00:36:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah, ah sounds that sounds amazing.
00:36:33
Ezrym Ellis
living super good yeah oh yeah if if members didn't feed us we were right next to a restaurant for like two dollars a meal or something so um and the great bunch of boys out there i think i think it was just elders at the time no senior couple no sisters so just boys i think i can't remember who it was to be honest i think it was out of hunter where i think he got transferred as i as i got there
00:36:35
Darin Tingey
Heck yeah.
00:36:42
Darin Tingey
like yeah
00:37:02
Ezrym Ellis
So I think it was Alder Perry, who was the district leader out of Perry. So you should get him on the pod too. It's lanky, lanky skinny kid.
00:37:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah, no.
00:37:11
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. From Idaho, I think.
00:37:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:37:13
Ezrym Ellis
I can't remember. but
00:37:14
Darin Tingey
Eric, right? Eric Perry?
00:37:16
Ezrym Ellis
Eric. Yep. That's the one.
00:37:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah. So where did you live?
00:37:18
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:37:19
Darin Tingey
Let's see. Is that where the airport is in Banana?
00:37:21
Ezrym Ellis
Yes. Yes. I was close to the airport. Yep. Yep. Yep. So I think I saw Alder Miller finish his time there.
00:37:24
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:37:28
Ezrym Ellis
um And i think I think it was out of Hunter or maybe I'm imagining things.
00:37:34
Ezrym Ellis
But, yeah, I served in Banana with Outer Johnson from my intake, Outer Jeffrey Johnson. And, man, he taught me a ton of stuff as well. He was just the most energetic guy, happiest guy I'd ever met, you know.
00:37:48
Ezrym Ellis
And he was up 6 a.m. working out hard and just a hard worker. learned a ton from him. Yeah.
00:37:55
Darin Tingey
Christmas is an interesting island.
00:37:55
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:37:56
Darin Tingey
like like um
00:37:57
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:37:58
Darin Tingey
I'm looking at the map right now, right? like it's like It's really big, but at the same time, the land that you actually can like be on seems quite small.
00:38:06
Ezrym Ellis
yeah Yeah.
00:38:08
Darin Tingey
like It seems like the the lagoon is is like really like shallow and sandy, is that right?
00:38:15
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, it was like a video game where you have a huge map and you can only go into a small section of it.
00:38:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:38:21
Ezrym Ellis
That was kind of us. Yeah.
00:38:24
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, there's a few stories from there. We're teaching a young kid, sort of before the shift happened where we kind of focus strictly on families. You know, I used to teach kids.
00:38:35
Ezrym Ellis
But there was this one kid we're teaching, Te Kork, and we used to, man, we're silly, man.
00:38:36
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:38:40
Ezrym Ellis
We're just messing around. But we we're trying to be serious. And his name was Te Kork, and we'd mock him on the name. But um we're having great lessons with him, and he's moving along. And mid-lesson, minister would just come up and say, hey, that's my sheep.
00:38:55
Ezrym Ellis
You know, you can't can't teach them. I was like, yikes. She just rolled up in her fancy car. in the middle of Christmas Island and yeah, just yeah laid it out for us.
00:39:05
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:39:06
Ezrym Ellis
And I thought we had it pretty rough. Then I heard, ah I think when I was a zone leader, we got notified that Alder Karula, Jershon, actually got a bit of persecution from some of the, like throwing stones at him stuff kind of thing from his time.
00:39:24
Darin Tingey
No way!
00:39:25
Ezrym Ellis
So i was like, okay, I was like, all right, and my one was fine. All they said was stop teaching that person and that's my sheep.
00:39:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:39:33
Ezrym Ellis
And then Johnson was like, don't you mean the Lord's sheep? I was like, oh, man, I think we should just go, bro. We should just leave.
00:39:41
Darin Tingey
It's... That's so funny. And isn't it crazy? Like you mentioned like on Tab South, how they like would say stuff about Joseph Smith. And it's like, you know, it is crazy. Like there's this these people in the middle of the Pacific that know about Joseph Smith, or least know the name, you know, it's crazy.
00:39:56
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, yeah, that's prophesied, you know. His name would be had for good or bad throughout.
00:39:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:40:01
Ezrym Ellis
And it's true, even in the middle of nowhere, his name is known, even more so.
00:40:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah. It's like, how did his name get on this tiny island? Like, it's just crazy. Yeah, did the prophecy fulfilled. It's ah it's wild.
00:40:12
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, they're wild. That's how i learned I learned how to bike with no hands in Banana. There's a ton of biking to get to the area. So big, long road, and then we're in our spot.
00:40:24
Ezrym Ellis
And I just remember like thinking, wow, this is different from Tab. It's a nice road. They're like pine trees, and the homes are like wooden with frames and everything.
00:40:36
Darin Tingey
it ah
00:40:38
Ezrym Ellis
but Yeah, it was like a step up for me. Cemented buildings. There are some cemented buildings and stuff.
00:40:44
Darin Tingey
Is that just from, you know, like ah the u the US, the US, partially US tested some bombs there are some somewhere close.
00:40:44
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:40:56
Ezrym Ellis
That's what I'm thinking, because when I got there, you know, in Eagle Mountain here, all these homes look the same. And that's kind of like what it was like in Kitty Vests, honestly, like all pretty similar home builds.
00:41:08
Ezrym Ellis
Obviously not like this, but yeah, pretty similar. And if you think about it.
00:41:13
Darin Tingey
ah simply Christmas had a lot of Western influence.
00:41:17
Ezrym Ellis
Yep, yep. Lots of American cargo. ah think that's why the American elders particularly liked it. It had their peanut butter. It had their ice cream tubs.
00:41:24
Darin Tingey
a
00:41:26
Ezrym Ellis
um It had all their and one basketball shorts everyone had.
00:41:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the end of basketball sports.
00:41:31
Ezrym Ellis
um
00:41:34
Ezrym Ellis
It had all that sort of stuff, so I think that probably made them feel at home. I know one of the members had BYU TV in London, and so he'd say, come watch the game come watch conference at my house, and he had a giant satellite thing outside of his house, had no idea how he got there or got it there, probably from his fishing endeavors, but yeah, there was things like that.
00:41:43
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:41:54
Darin Tingey
That is so awesome.
00:41:59
Ezrym Ellis
The buildings were actual wards, you know, like
00:42:03
Darin Tingey
Hmm.
00:42:03
Ezrym Ellis
Actual chapels is big step up from what I was used to. And church was run semi of what how it's supposed to be. you know with I don't know what it's supposed to be like, but you know like there was some sort of structure in comparison to what we were doing in TAB.
00:42:19
Darin Tingey
yeah how many how many wards or branches or groups were on the island
00:42:21
Ezrym Ellis
it's
00:42:25
Ezrym Ellis
I want to say one, two, three, maybe four or five branches out there.
00:42:30
Darin Tingey
okay pretty good
00:42:30
Ezrym Ellis
would be my guess. Yeah. Tabakia was sort of like the main stay. i was out in Banana. Then London was like Commerce Central, all the shopping, little mall thing with all the cargo. And so, yeah, we'd go there for P-Day.
00:42:46
Darin Tingey
Is that because the ships can actually get to London area?
00:42:49
Ezrym Ellis
I think so. Yeah, i think I think that's how it works.
00:42:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:42:52
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. So that was Tabakia. Yeah.
00:42:55
Darin Tingey
Did you guys see a lot of tourists there? Like fishing?
00:42:58
Ezrym Ellis
Yes. Oh, heck yeah. A lot. Right across the chapel in Tabakia, a member owned the hotel there and his two daughters spoke like with an American accent that were raised in the States or something.
00:43:12
Ezrym Ellis
And so, yeah, he was a bit of an entrepreneur. And so he owned that whole area. He would feed the missionaries a lot, especially during Christmas or events. And it was just food, food that you're used to.
00:43:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:24
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. And he would have a ton of guests over in that area Yeah. From all over the place.
00:43:29
Darin Tingey
Cause yeah, I'm pretty sure. I mean, Christmas Island is like, is really well known in the fishing community. Like it's like really big to go like fly fishing for bonefish.
00:43:36
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:43:42
Ezrym Ellis
Yep, I think Al Adele touched on that, but yeah, apparently pretty famous spot for fishing of that type. And and I was amazed too at the fishing there. When we would go, all we had to do was put the net down and we had fish.
00:43:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:56
Ezrym Ellis
There hundreds in there.
00:43:57
Ezrym Ellis
i was like, man, I can see a gazillion fish in there. It's crazy. And so I see why it's such a famous spot in the fishing community, literally. Because in TAB, we'd go out all the way out to the ocean and put our line out and wait for like 30 minutes, 20 minutes.
00:44:10
Ezrym Ellis
twenty minutes But in Christmas, was like pretty instant.
00:44:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:44:15
Ezrym Ellis
Down, up, you got your fish. Yeah.
00:44:17
Darin Tingey
ah Bite the head to kill it. Did you do that? Did you ever bite the head?
00:44:20
Ezrym Ellis
I never did, but Te Kang, we did it all the time. He said, check this out. You know, was like, holy moly.
00:44:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:44:27
Ezrym Ellis
Eat the eye and stuff like that. It's good. It's still alive. He's cutting it still. It's wrangling around and he's eating it as it's alive. was like, man, that's how it's supposed to be, I guess. Yeah, I got to learn quick.
00:44:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:44:39
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:44:40
Darin Tingey
ah And how long were you on one Christmas?
00:44:45
Ezrym Ellis
I was on Christmas for, say, I want to guess around six months as well because I went from Tabakia, from Banana, then I was transferred to Tabakia and they turned it into a zone.
00:44:59
Ezrym Ellis
So they made me the... The first zone leader, I guess you could say, out there.
00:45:03
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:45:04
Ezrym Ellis
And that's when I trained Katawa Taukai Bekia, who's a Kiribas elder. So full circle moment there, being able to give back to the Kiribas elder instead of having to take everything from him
00:45:13
Darin Tingey
That's right.
00:45:19
Ezrym Ellis
um And that's because Outta Dale had a hernia, apparently. so So yeah, I had a visa waiter with me.
00:45:24
Darin Tingey
right
00:45:27
Ezrym Ellis
And he was great. Outta Kaibeke was fantastic, super humble guy. And then I got to train Outta Dale. So he was technically a zone leader in his first area.
00:45:37
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:45:38
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
00:45:39
Darin Tingey
Wow, I didn't I didn't realize that you trained other day. Okay. Did you spend Christmas on tab? South? Like holiday?
00:45:48
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, no actually. yeah so I spent my first Christmas in Tab North because we did an exchange because Adam Masur wanted to make sure that I could video chat with my mom for for all of that stuff, you know?
00:46:00
Darin Tingey
a
00:46:01
Ezrym Ellis
And so he was like, you know what? see You're sad out there. Come over here for an exchange. And yeah, so my first Christmas was int Tab North with people that I'd never met. And so they were giving me gifts and, you know, stuff like that. I was like, I feel great, but I'm sorry I don't really know you guys yet.
00:46:17
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:46:18
Ezrym Ellis
um But i did get to Zoom call my mom and dad. Yeah. And family.
00:46:24
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:46:25
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:46:25
Darin Tingey
i I went to an outer island like two days before Christmas. And they're like, you can just call when you get back. So I got back.
00:46:32
Ezrym Ellis
OK.
00:46:33
Darin Tingey
ah like you know I spent like four and half months out there. And then I did my Christmas call like in April. you know I was like, sorry, mom and dad.
00:46:38
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. OK. OK. Yeah.
00:46:40
Darin Tingey
It was so quick. But that's cool. Sorry, back back to Christmas Island. like any Any stories that you wanted to touch on about Christmas or...
00:46:52
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, double care was great.
00:46:56
Ezrym Ellis
We tried to work harder. tried to show Dale somewhat of how to be a missionary. He was kind of the man when he came in, so super happy about that.
00:47:07
Darin Tingey
Was the work hard on ah Christmas?
00:47:10
Ezrym Ellis
and my If I were to compare it, yes, yes, definitely yes. But I feel like I worked harder in Christmas but with less – um success in terms of baptisms and straight away.
00:47:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:27
Ezrym Ellis
But I feel like my work ethic went up tenfold in that place because ah i was starting to be the senior companion. So I was like, all right, we've put a good example forward.
00:47:38
Ezrym Ellis
And Adele was great. Whenever I hear Dale speak Kitty Vass, I'm like, yeah, yeah, that sounds like me. And then sound like Te Congui. So yeah, I was like, that's my boy. Yeah, he's a good guy.
00:47:52
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, go ahead.
00:47:53
Darin Tingey
I was just going to say this, like, culturally, you know, I mean, Christmas is, like, were they so different? You know, each island and in Kitabas is, like, you know, known for something. And Christmas is, I don't know if it's just because they were placed there, you know, way back in the day or what, like, but culturally, is there are they, like,
00:48:14
Darin Tingey
different in any way on Christmas Island than they are any of the other islands or any like churches that are stronger on Christmas than others?
00:48:24
Ezrym Ellis
I couldn't really tell, um but I would say that they had more resource. So maybe that was a thing. I think when I got there, they introduced the Wawatara thing where you could sell your coconuts for an exchange for money.
00:48:41
Ezrym Ellis
I think it was like $2 kg or something like that.
00:48:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:48:43
Ezrym Ellis
So everyone was in the entrepreneurship field after that and started to get a hold of
00:48:49
Darin Tingey
But that wasn't a that wasn't a thing before you got that.
00:48:49
Ezrym Ellis
once No, yeah, no no, It was happening as I was there. So people were getting phones and TVs and media and people, semen from Christmas would come with flash drives of movies and the latest music and stuff like that.
00:48:59
Darin Tingey
ah
00:49:06
Ezrym Ellis
So maybe they're a little bit more of on that side of things is what I'd say.
00:49:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:49:11
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:49:13
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, more exposure Imetang. Some of the Imetang perceptions in Tab South were way off. Why Some of them thought I was related to Spider-Man or ah knew John Cena or I don't know John Cena.
00:49:29
Ezrym Ellis
I'm sorry. I'm not even from America, but they they couldn't really tell the difference.
00:49:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:49:32
Ezrym Ellis
You know, they thought I was American too.
00:49:34
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:49:35
Ezrym Ellis
was like, no, I'm from New Zealand. they're like Oh, New Zealand. Okay. Okay. Okay.
00:49:39
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:49:39
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. and so
00:49:40
Darin Tingey
Where's that?
00:49:41
Ezrym Ellis
Right, right, right. Yeah. So I couldn't really tell.
00:49:45
Darin Tingey
That's funny.
00:49:46
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:49:46
Darin Tingey
That's funny. it's such a That's such a true statement of like, you could say that you know, this play, my companion tell people like I'm Steph Curry's son and they would believe it. They were like, oh my gosh, you're Steph Curry's son.
00:50:00
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:50:00
Darin Tingey
And like, I felt so bad. It's like, you could tell them anything.
00:50:02
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:50:03
Darin Tingey
They just believe it.
00:50:05
Ezrym Ellis
You can tell them anything. And sometimes I wanted to just take someone from Kitty Vest and just pop them in New Zealand or pop them in the States and just see how bit of a culture explosion they would have, you know, wash their face.
00:50:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Watch their face. Um,
00:50:21
Ezrym Ellis
Just, yeah.
00:50:23
Darin Tingey
So yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:50:23
Ezrym Ellis
Both have advantages and disadvantages. Yeah.
00:50:27
Darin Tingey
So Christmas Island, great experience.
Return to Tarawa and Leadership Roles
00:50:31
Darin Tingey
From there, you finally go back to Tarawa, right?
00:50:35
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, and so actually Christmas was my first area that I had a senior couples, the Pilkingtons from Australia, and just being around missionaries.
00:50:41
Darin Tingey
Okay, yeah.
00:50:45
Ezrym Ellis
And so going to Tad or going to Tarawa was another change, another change indeed. we I think we had the Christmas event that has been spoken of in the past podcasts.
00:50:59
Darin Tingey
that was supposed to never be spoken of, apparently.
00:51:03
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, I think Elder McCarthy from my stake. I'm pretty sure he has a video of a president with the fist pump, you know.
00:51:14
Ezrym Ellis
But it was awesome. I really enjoyed that too. It was really fun getting to see all the missionaries. And I finally got to meet everyone and see what everyone was about and what Tarawa life was like.
00:51:26
Ezrym Ellis
And then when that subsided, I was transferred to Bota. Yeah. So that was my next area, i think.
00:51:35
Darin Tingey
which, and we've talked about both of like both of those, you know, you know, very, uh, countryside of Tarawa. So you're very familiar with that side of Kiribati.
00:51:46
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, by then I was like, yeah, I know what this is like. And even this is better, you know, we have a shower inside.
00:51:50
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:51:51
Ezrym Ellis
We have hot but we have fans that I turn on and just sit underneath. Me and Tui or Kitchens would just sit under there under the fan, have a little nap. I actually got really good at taking naps, I think, for my mission.
00:52:03
Ezrym Ellis
could take a midday naps for like 30 minutes and it was just amazing.
00:52:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Well,
00:52:08
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, I still take naps today from it.
00:52:11
Darin Tingey
it's like so hot. It's like so hot in the middle of day and your body is just like so exhausted and you just fall asleep.
00:52:19
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, yeah. And I think we were zone leaders there. i think that's east side. And so I can't really remember who my first companion there was, actually. that I have to take a look at my um journals.
00:52:32
Ezrym Ellis
But I eventually remember me working without a pal again. So he was my MTC companion. So...
00:52:39
Darin Tingey
That's cool. You got to be with him again.
00:52:41
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, another full circle moment and now we can speak the language and now it's, man, life is good, we're working and was a bit of a passive missionary.
00:52:41
Darin Tingey
That's pretty cool.
00:52:49
Ezrym Ellis
So even though I was a senior companion, I kind of let him lead the way into what we were doing and it was good work. was good work. he actually We actually wanted to go out to Tarawaieta and that area.
00:53:03
Ezrym Ellis
So that that was really cool.
00:53:04
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:53:06
Ezrym Ellis
Going across the low tide and then taking cool pictures carrying our bikes, you know, missionary styles.
00:53:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah. that so Those pictures are some of the coolest from Kitabas.
00:53:17
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:53:18
Darin Tingey
but
00:53:19
Ezrym Ellis
Anupala has some iconic photos. i don't know if he sent you those, but yeah, he's got some pretty sweet ones and I took a couple of them. So credit, credit.
00:53:30
Darin Tingey
So
00:53:30
Ezrym Ellis
But yeah.
00:53:32
Darin Tingey
um did did you ever have the feeling of like, I just wish I was back on an outer island? Or were you like, no, dota like this is great.
00:53:43
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, I think, nah, I got cushy is the word. I got super cushy each area because each area kind of improved its living standards. So I started to get softer and softer and softer. I felt like, and in my last year as an assistant, um I think I had the opportunity to go back out and I was like no i can't do it hu
00:54:08
Darin Tingey
ha
00:54:09
Ezrym Ellis
I'm done. Like, I'm still, yeah I'm so used to these hot showers and fridges and senior companions, couples giving us free food and stuff like that. So, no, my answer to that would be, no, I was, I think my outer island time was done.
00:54:25
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:54:26
Darin Tingey
So um you became AP right, well, actually, maybe before before I got to Kibibus.
00:54:40
Darin Tingey
The day, i don't know if you remember when when we came over from the Marshalls.
00:54:43
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, I remember you boys coming in. Yep. I remember you. I remember you had this killer jump shot. I was like, whoa, heaven that's a nice jump shot. it must be from the States.
00:54:52
Darin Tingey
that is house
00:54:53
Ezrym Ellis
I remember when you came in, dude. I remember when, who's the other one who's been on the pod, served in Onatoa, super tall.
00:54:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:55:00
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, Sheffield came in. i was like, oh, these guys are awesome. Peterson. I remember you guys when you came in. i was like, man, we need the help too. I think Lachan, I don't want to speak too much. I'll let him talk when it's his turn. But, you know, he was a bit more of the competitive side. So he saw that there was a need in Kitty Bass.
00:55:18
Ezrym Ellis
I think we grew up to about 100 missionaries at one point because he saw the numbers and stuff and maybe it just made sense to to move to move you guys over.
00:55:21
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:55:27
Ezrym Ellis
Were you happy to come over? Yeah.
00:55:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i was pretty pumped. um you know and want to because i wanted i do want to talk to you about it selfishly for a little bit. sorry i'm Sorry to the listeners who've heard me talk about this a million times, but...
00:55:36
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:55:40
Darin Tingey
um Yeah, like I had two, both my MTC teachers, you know, I was called Marshallese speaking, so it's the Marshall Islands.
00:55:46
Ezrym Ellis
Hmm.
00:55:50
Darin Tingey
Both had spent time in Kitabas. One had served in both and one was AP that went back and forth between Marshallese and Kitabas.
00:55:52
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:55:58
Ezrym Ellis
Was Sherman? Sherman or?
00:55:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Sherman.
00:56:00
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:56:00
Darin Tingey
Sherman and then Tonini.
00:56:02
Ezrym Ellis
ah tony Okay.
00:56:03
Darin Tingey
And so, like, i hearing that they went to both, like, when I was in MTC, I was like, oh, that'd be pretty cool, like, if I went to both, you know? like But it was like, you know, i didn't think it ever happened. It was just kind of like a wish.
00:56:16
Darin Tingey
um And then when I got to the mission, ah there was, like, one elder in the marshals that had came over from Kiribati.
00:56:24
Ezrym Ellis
yeah.
00:56:25
Darin Tingey
But again, I was like, oh, it's probably not going to happen. And then, you know, six months in, President's like, hey, I'm losing 20 missionaries plus in Kitabas. I'm going to send six of you over.
00:56:36
Darin Tingey
I was like, I was like, no way. Like, are you send me to Kitabas? Like, this is sick.
00:56:40
Ezrym Ellis
yeah yeah
00:56:41
Darin Tingey
This is awesome. But also like, dude, like, I just got the language it felt like in the Marshall Islands.
00:56:46
Ezrym Ellis
Right, a right, right.
00:56:47
Darin Tingey
ah And then, you know, there's some Kitabas sisters serving on the Marshalls. So were just talking to them all about it. And were pumped. And, And then when we get to Kitabas, was just like, oh, shoot, like this is real.
00:56:59
Darin Tingey
I feel like I was starting all over again.
00:57:00
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:57:02
Darin Tingey
I think one of the hard things that I had to... like And poor Tui. Tui was the man, and poor Gal had to deal with me because...
00:57:13
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:57:13
Darin Tingey
You know, he's like, he's treated me as like a new missionary. And like, I understand ha why he would do that. Cause like, I'm new to Kitabas, new to the language, but I was also like, dude, I've been a missionary for six months.
00:57:21
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
00:57:24
Darin Tingey
Like I know how to be a missionary. I see you teach me the language and that.
00:57:27
Ezrym Ellis
Are you talking about, uh, Kulavatsu?
00:57:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:57:30
Ezrym Ellis
Oh yeah.
00:57:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah. he
00:57:31
Ezrym Ellis
He was a beast. Yeah.
00:57:32
Darin Tingey
He's the man. He's the man. He's had to deal with me being a stuck up kid, but, um, That was that was like something that was hard for me, but when I got to Kittabus, I was pretty pumped. You as the AP at the time, like how like how did you guys discuss this with President at all, or was this like, hey, I'm doing this?
00:57:48
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, we did. We did. so So you know how usually um aps would go to the marshals, you know?
00:57:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:57:56
Ezrym Ellis
So I was a little bit for that, you know? i was like, maybe I'm going to go out there. But then we talked about it. and It was like, you know, what's the point of us going out there? and I was like, oh, dang, yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right.
00:58:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:58:08
Ezrym Ellis
So he was like, yeah, actually, we're going to bring some over because we really need the numbers.
00:58:14
Ezrym Ellis
I think there was a large intake going home. And yeah, made a lot of mistakes as an AP too, not going to lie. I think I cost the church some money, you know, on transfer mistakes and things like that.
00:58:25
Darin Tingey
ah
00:58:28
Ezrym Ellis
But President Larkin was a good man about it. and And yeah, and we decided to, he kind of put his money on Kitty Bass, I'd say. Like he was a bit competitive about Samoa, where the number one baptizing mission in the Pacific.
00:58:37
Darin Tingey
Definitely did.
00:58:46
Ezrym Ellis
And he wanted to beat them. you know They have stakes on stakes. So they have all the support there. So it was a bit of a hard challenge. But you know we really tried. And we really I think we did pretty well. I'd say you guys did great coming over.
00:59:00
Ezrym Ellis
um Yeah, so instead of going to the marshals, they sent me and my companion to the different outer islands because... to do exchanges and to check on the elders, but also to actually um formally establish the units and the branches.
00:59:19
Ezrym Ellis
None of the paperwork was done um on the islands. And so that was kind of our job was to do a, what's the word?
00:59:29
Darin Tingey
An audit.
00:59:31
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, an audit of the area and then to submit those papers to the church to have it officially b a part of church membership.
00:59:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:59:40
Ezrym Ellis
um Yeah, and that was really cool. I got to go back to Audis, but only got to go, yeah, I got to go only for like a day or two.
00:59:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah, what I was
00:59:48
Ezrym Ellis
So I didn't, you know, it was an adventure and then pop back, adventure, pop back.
00:59:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:59:52
Ezrym Ellis
So ended up going to Nonos, I think, Onotoa, I think that's where met Sheffield. I got to go back to Tab. So I got to go back to Tab South.
01:00:01
Darin Tingey
So cool.
01:00:02
Ezrym Ellis
The thing is, yeah, my companion at the time was out at Dinsdale and he's the one that was whispering it because he served in Tab South as well.
01:00:02
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
01:00:11
Ezrym Ellis
So he was like, hey, Elder, why don't we, you know you know, do an exchange quotation marks in Tab South? And like, that's a brilliant idea.
01:00:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, great idea, Elvin.
01:00:20
Ezrym Ellis
and so we went out there to officially, you know, collect the numbers and hear about all the drama that was going on down there and stuff like that. I think there was beef between where the chapel would be.
01:00:31
Ezrym Ellis
I think that might have led to a less activity kind of thing because one of the elders wanted it in his area and then the other elder wanted in his place. And so I don't know. I think it was a money thing. But we got to go to Tab South and Tab North again. And this time I knew what i saying so I could talk. And that that was a full circle moment.
01:00:51
Ezrym Ellis
And then out of Christmas.
01:00:52
Darin Tingey
Was everyone's like so pumped, just like, oh my gosh.
01:00:55
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, they they're like, man, you understand. You know, the kids, the children tell the truth straight up. they My first few months were brutal. They're like, man, you suck at Kitty Vest, know, like you're really bad.
01:01:09
Ezrym Ellis
But they don't mean it that way, right?
01:01:09
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:01:10
Ezrym Ellis
They just say it how it is. But I didn't know that at the time. But yeah, coming back to was a full moment. it was It was really nice to go back and see them. And then I think the other times I went out with Christensen, who was my companion as well, and You know, i thought I had a good grasp on the language until until I was with Christensen.
01:01:28
Ezrym Ellis
I was like, man, this dude is amazing.
01:01:28
Darin Tingey
So Christensen, next level.
01:01:31
Ezrym Ellis
If you were to close your eyes, if you were to close your eyes, you would think it's an elder from Kitty Bass who'd lived there his whole life. And I learned at the time he would correct me all the time because, you know, yeah, it's all good, but.
01:01:43
Darin Tingey
when i When I got to Kiribus and we went to Murrow and to have our little meeting with you guys, You and him were APs and he was getting released that day but as AP.
01:01:55
Ezrym Ellis
Mmm. Yeah.
01:01:56
Darin Tingey
So that's when Elder Dinsdale became AP.
01:02:00
Ezrym Ellis
Gotcha.
01:02:00
Darin Tingey
bonnie Bonnie was zone leader. and I can't remember with who. mean, it was with Dinsdale and then he went to be AP. And then Powell and Hoskins were zone leaders.
01:02:11
Ezrym Ellis
Mmm.
01:02:11
Darin Tingey
So I've never seen the shift and then Christensen was with us in Puerta that night and then we went on a van, we went in a van and he was speaking kitabas to this lady and like I just saw her like, oh my gosh, you know?
01:02:21
Ezrym Ellis
Hey, you know what?
01:02:24
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:02:24
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:02:25
Ezrym Ellis
every Every interaction was like that. This is Imetang Boy speaking our native tongue, like us. And man, he taught me a ton. And he was like that from day one, to be honest. I think he's got photographic memory or something.
01:02:41
Ezrym Ellis
And every time, like straight from the MTC, my first actual day in Kitty Bass, was in Beso.
01:02:41
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:02:48
Ezrym Ellis
had to stay ba up with him for a couple days him out of zamora and a few others and uh he was already amongst it participating you know talking about what the plans are for tomorrow in kitty vest i was like yo this is day one like this guy's amazing yeah big inspiration honestly yeah
01:03:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Incredible.
01:03:10
Darin Tingey
did and When we came over to Kiribati and we all went to Outer Islands, did you feel any like, don't know, if if if the Kiribati, if President had brought elders from Kiribati over to the Marshals and sent them to the Outer Islands, every elder Marshals would be jealous would be like, what the heck? like
01:03:29
Ezrym Ellis
Really?
01:03:29
Darin Tingey
I don't get to go to the Outer Islands, but they do. but Because we didn't as we didn't have as many Outer Islands open at the time.
01:03:35
Ezrym Ellis
Right.
01:03:37
Darin Tingey
I didn't know if there was any any bad blood there. know there's like, I think like there's a little competition of Marsh Island's Kiribati because like you said, President favored Kiribati a lot.
01:03:47
Darin Tingey
But also, i i think in the Kiribati side, like none of the Kiribati missionaries like thought about the Marsh Islands, but the Marsh Island side probably thought about Kiribati because we were the little brother almost, you know?
01:03:48
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:03:59
Ezrym Ellis
Really? la Okay. Yeah, I never felt that way. um i always thought it was your mission because your name was, the name of the mission was Marshall Islands Majuro.
01:04:10
Ezrym Ellis
And I know President changed that intentionally, you know, Marshall Islands, Kittibass mission to have some inclusion.
01:04:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:04:13
Darin Tingey
Yes. yes
01:04:19
Ezrym Ellis
And so I thought that was pretty cool. But no, I had my time in the Outer Islands. And so I knew what it was like. And so my thought was good luck to you. And I was happy for you guys, you know, pride, you know, proud and happy for to get out there and get amongst it.
01:04:36
Ezrym Ellis
And in my experience, that was the fastest way to learn the language anyways, is to go straight out there.
01:04:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah, absolutely it was.
01:04:42
Ezrym Ellis
Cause yeah, in Tab South, no one spoke English. at all. Maybe the school teacher did because she has to teach it. But yeah, that was about it. Yeah. So I, I got soft man and I was happy to be on the main leg.
01:04:55
Darin Tingey
ha
01:04:57
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:04:57
Darin Tingey
Well, you just met reminded me of something that happened when I was, when I, so I got sent to Mayanna. You guys sent me to Mayanna.
01:05:05
Ezrym Ellis
Hmm.
01:05:05
Darin Tingey
and I was with Tui and one of the first boat that is we went to, the Kiribus people thought it'd be so funny if they'd have a guy up there speaking English and he'd have a Kiribus translator and then Thuy's half Tongan and so they're like, oh, then we're gonna do Tongan, speaking Tongan too.
01:05:25
Darin Tingey
And so like, there's this guy out there, he's speaking English, he's just speaking gibberish and everyone's like dying laughing. He's just like saying whatever English words he knows. And then like the Kitabas guy is like translating it and he's making some sort of funny story out of it.
01:05:34
Ezrym Ellis
yeah.
01:05:39
Darin Tingey
And like the whole village is like dying laughing and they do the same thing in Tonga, like with Tonga, Tongan.
01:05:47
Darin Tingey
And they're just like dying laughing. That was the funniest thing ever. I just thought it was hilarious they did that.
01:05:47
Ezrym Ellis
Yep.
01:05:53
Ezrym Ellis
You know, and I think wherever Tui went, laughter went with
Missionary Success Stories and Memorable Visits
01:05:56
Ezrym Ellis
him.
01:05:57
Darin Tingey
Oh, absolutely.
01:05:57
Ezrym Ellis
Like, he was a monster. So when I was the, you quotation zone leader in Christmas, him and Kitchens opened a and outer island on Christmas. And that was his first area.
01:06:09
Ezrym Ellis
And they just blew it out of the park. If you think like 45, 50 was nice, which I thought was great, that they were doubling that and they were sitting units and units like in priesthood holders and stuff and, and kitchens.
01:06:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah. In Daraina, right?
01:06:23
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. tarina and And Christmas kitchens was a big part of that. Like when we would get the reports back for his only the stuff, um, you know, Christmas Island as a whole would have one or two baptisms.
01:06:35
Ezrym Ellis
And then you'd have ah two Ian kitchens with like 10, 15, 20. ten fifteen twenty And I'm like, yeah.
01:06:41
Darin Tingey
It's crazy.
01:06:43
Ezrym Ellis
And President Larkin's like, whoa, you're doing a great job out there, Outer Ellis. I'm like, no. i
01:06:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:48
Ezrym Ellis
I'm not doing anything. i like i'm i'm hustling, but we're not getting 20 week, you know, kind of thing. So, yeah.
01:06:56
Darin Tingey
yeah he had some cool stories from the arena Tui you're gonna be on the pod dude you're gonna be on the pod we're gonna get you Tui Tui and Kitchens I'm sure kitchen the Kitchens got some some great stories but
01:06:58
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Oh, man, you got to get him on. He's in Hawaii. I think he's doing his vases right now. He's great.
01:07:08
Ezrym Ellis
And the conversational kitty bass was just out of this world. I got to see, we got to see Kitchens actually recently, right, at the Tsurai celebration. And man, his language is still there.
01:07:19
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, it's still great.
01:07:19
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:07:20
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, yeah.
01:07:22
Darin Tingey
um And and so so as AP, went to Nanos, Tab South, Tab North, Onotoa. Miami.
01:07:31
Ezrym Ellis
Yes. I think we went to Medicaid as well where my wife served, I think. Yes, went to Mayana. That was fun because I think that was the Kivya place, wasn't it?
01:07:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
01:07:42
Ezrym Ellis
Yes, I was like, oh, we're here. And and that was that was a good time. And I can't remember the other ones we went to, but I think we ended up sending some of the zone leaders out as well to Outer Islands.
01:07:54
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, so I really enjoyed that.
01:07:55
Darin Tingey
That was always the reason I wanted, like, i was like, I don't want to be AP, but like, if there was a reason to be AP, it was to be able to go to, alba like, to just go to the outer islands and see them.
01:08:01
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:08:03
Ezrym Ellis
Right.
01:08:05
Darin Tingey
Which one did you think was like the cool, I mean, I know Tab South has a special place in your heart, but like, what was like a cool, one of the cool ones that you got to visit?
01:08:06
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:08:10
Ezrym Ellis
Thank you.
01:08:15
Ezrym Ellis
I like Nonos, I think, because I think Outer Powell served there so I could spark up conversation with people easier. I think it was quite a long island too, so it reminded me of Tab South and and Banana and Christmas, so I'd say that reason.
01:08:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:30
Ezrym Ellis
My Anna was sweet too, not going to lie.
01:08:30
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:08:32
Ezrym Ellis
It was good. Yeah, i think there was well I think we had a ton of parties there in the, what, two days that we were there.
01:08:33
Darin Tingey
Dude,
01:08:37
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:08:38
Darin Tingey
Diana anna loves to party.
01:08:38
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. a
01:08:40
Darin Tingey
I swear, I went to couple parties a week. It was so many. And Tui made me give a speech like my first week I was there. I was like, dude, i don't know what to say.
01:08:51
Darin Tingey
And he's like, just get up. But I honestly think like having all those made me just, my language so much better just because i was forced to
01:09:00
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:09:01
Darin Tingey
Speak. um but any Any other stories that you had written down that you wanted to share or anything that we missed?
01:09:10
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:09:12
Ezrym Ellis
So bottom was good. Super clear water. There's a bridge there that i want to jump off of in 2027.
01:09:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah. They redid the bridge. They redid it.
01:09:20
Ezrym Ellis
Okay.
01:09:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:09:21
Ezrym Ellis
I'm looking forward to jumping off of it. Um, and then twoo take his second was my last ward and Definitely a testimony builder that that area, the church was strong. The ward was great.
01:09:36
Ezrym Ellis
The new church buildings were being renovated at the time. um And it felt like the work was really moving, you know, with the insertion of President Larkin and the vision that he had for the the mission.
01:09:48
Ezrym Ellis
There was a time. So I was actually the last one to leave from my intake. All my intake kind of scattered, finishing their time. I think two finished or the sisters finished and then maybe two elders left and then the rest of the eight, seven elders went.
01:10:08
Ezrym Ellis
And so I stayed an extra two months, not on purpose, you
Significant Baptism and Community Support
01:10:11
Ezrym Ellis
know, not trying to do that.
01:10:12
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:10:13
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. I stayed an extra two months, not because I wanted to, but i can say that short, but yeah, I just couldn't leave, you know, stay two months.
01:10:18
Darin Tingey
That's
01:10:21
Ezrym Ellis
But the actual thing was my visa. um There was something with my visa that they wanted me to stay and extra two months. Yeah. Yeah. And I would say, that's what they said.
01:10:29
Darin Tingey
that's what they told you. That's what they told you President Larkin wanted you around for a while longer.
01:10:34
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. And there was a miracle that happened, I'd say, because we had a golden investigator there. Her name was Kwonga. And we were teaching her when I got there. And she and her family had elders for like a thick area book of her.
01:10:49
Ezrym Ellis
like you know she And she was super golden.
01:10:51
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:10:52
Ezrym Ellis
And there were just reasons why she couldn't progress to to baptism. But It wasn't until like that last week. And if if the visa problem issue, whatever hadn't happened, I wouldn't have seen it. But we got to baptize her. Something that stood out to me was, I think the village that she was in was strong Catholic.
01:11:11
Ezrym Ellis
And she she was beat by her village. I think it was three or four um of the women. And it might have been the husband too. i don't want to speculate, but she was beat.
01:11:25
Ezrym Ellis
Her hair was cut. She had bruises up and down her face. And to be honest, I wanted to take my tag off. I was mad. was angry. And I wanted to... We went to the police.
01:11:37
Ezrym Ellis
We went to the police, me and my companion. They're like, hey, there's ah domestic violence. and And they just brushed it off and said, you know, that's how it goes. And right, right.
01:11:45
Darin Tingey
is a welcome to Kiribati elders. Wow.
01:11:48
Ezrym Ellis
I just couldn't believe it. I was like, I'm a nice guy. But I was ready to throw hands, to be honest, like with whoever, you know, touched her because she was just so golden and got married to the husband.
01:12:01
Ezrym Ellis
And the the Relief Society really took her in. She showed up to church, you know, all tatted up, beat it up.
01:12:08
Darin Tingey
wow
01:12:08
Ezrym Ellis
And yeah, that was a big moment for me. And we ended ended up baptizing her about the week of before I left. And when I got home, I think it was Adam Miller, who was my companion,
01:12:20
Ezrym Ellis
who I was replaced by Ada Barker. He was a beast.
01:12:25
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah, is.
01:12:25
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. mean, I thought was like, man these new kids are like, they're amazing. But anyways, yeah, I think a few months later, Ada Miller sends me a photo of the rest of the family in white being baptized.
01:12:41
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, and I was like, that's amazing.
01:12:41
Darin Tingey
So cool.
01:12:43
Ezrym Ellis
And Aldabaka actually went back recently, and she but he bumped into her, and they they still go to church and everything to this day. So, yeah, that was nice.
01:12:53
Darin Tingey
That's awesome.
01:12:53
Ezrym Ellis
That was a nice touch. Yeah.
01:12:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah, in your're and you're like, all right, the two months two months are worth it.
01:13:00
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, definitely. Definitely worth it. Yeah, and the church was super strong in the area. it went from tab south, literally zero, maybe one less active, to meeting in awards that meet every week and have everything going for them.
01:13:17
Ezrym Ellis
And yeah, was amazed.
01:13:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:19
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
Cultural Impressions and Gratitude
01:13:20
Darin Tingey
so You know, I was asked the three questions. I know you and Kito always talk about these, but just to kind of close us out, you know, favorite area. You did mention it.
01:13:31
Darin Tingey
i just want to confirm favorite area, favorite food and favorite thing about Kiribati or the culture in Kiribati.
01:13:31
Ezrym Ellis
yeah
01:13:39
Ezrym Ellis
Favorite food? There's a ton. And I couldn't think of any food that was out there. You know, my my vision, my mind was shooting blanks. But then my wife was talking about, oh yeah, there's a ton.
01:13:52
Ezrym Ellis
So I would say from tab south, it's teora, so the raw fish, bit of rice with a bit of kiribas vinegar, and a little bit of the Indian curry powder from Fiji.
01:13:57
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:14:05
Ezrym Ellis
Man, there's something about that meal. but I just love, especially that little bit of vinegar, something about it. And maybe i had a rose tint on my mission.
01:14:16
Ezrym Ellis
Uh, because when I think back, I only think it was a fantastic, amazing time. And I think I read some old thoughts or all the emails like, Oh, it sucks. Sometimes it was tough.
01:14:26
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:14:27
Ezrym Ellis
Sometimes yeah but i didn't realize that. Um, But definitely that Diorara is like listening to your podcast and I was thinking back to the taste of that. And when we went to the Surai thing recently, I think I just put a mountain on my plate.
01:14:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:42
Ezrym Ellis
I was like, whoa, where where did these foods go? I forgot all about this.
01:14:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:46
Ezrym Ellis
um
01:14:46
Darin Tingey
So many that you don't remember. Okay.
01:14:48
Ezrym Ellis
So many. So that one, the Sourime was legit. And I'd say those are the top two for me.
01:14:55
Darin Tingey
ah okay
01:14:56
Ezrym Ellis
Ton of others. But yeah, I'll go with those ones.
01:14:58
Darin Tingey
Okay. Sibony May I really like as well. Very, very sweet.
01:15:01
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. Oh, and there's another one. i forget the name, but we have a similar dish in New Zealand amongst Maldi. It's called dough boys in Maldi. It's those flour doughs in the coconut cream flour dough.
01:15:12
Darin Tingey
Uh-huh.
01:15:13
Ezrym Ellis
I forget the name of it and Kitty best, but, uh, I like that one too. Yeah.
01:15:18
Darin Tingey
is that Is that where it's it's kind of soupy and it's like clumps of flour? Is that what it is?
01:15:22
Ezrym Ellis
yeah Yeah. What's that one called again?
01:15:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah. I don't remember. I remember the my name of Marsha Lees, but don't remember it in Kitavis.
01:15:28
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, we had a similar dish.
01:15:28
Darin Tingey
ah
01:15:29
Ezrym Ellis
So in New Zealand, yeah, we have similar foods. And um so that one was like a homage to, yeah, I know this food kind of thing, you know.
01:15:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah. A little taste of home.
01:15:40
Ezrym Ellis
Little taste of home. So that was that. Second question was favorite area.
01:15:44
Darin Tingey
well Yeah. What you said, right?
01:15:48
Ezrym Ellis
Tab South, hands down. Tab North, tab yeah, Tab Duer all day.
01:15:49
Darin Tingey
and staff
01:15:54
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, and then...
01:15:54
Darin Tingey
And then favorite thing about Kiribati or the culture.
01:15:58
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, there's been some great answers. My answer would say that you know, they live in the present. You know, they worry about what they're going eat tonight. And they're not too worried about the future or the past, you know.
01:16:11
Ezrym Ellis
And that's a lesson that I've been trying to learn today. i constantly and planning tomorrow, next year, 2027, 2028.
01:16:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:16:17
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, those guys... yeah but those guys you know, all they're worried about is today and I think I got to learn, you know, still got to learn lessons from them about that. Other than that, they're happy as well. Super happy and the simple approach to life.
01:16:33
Ezrym Ellis
Yep.
01:16:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the but life in Kiribati and especially the outer islands, it's just ah it's a simple one.
01:16:33
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:16:39
Darin Tingey
ah you know Their faith is simple and it's just great. It's blissful. And you wish I wish I could live like that sometimes.
01:16:44
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:16:49
Darin Tingey
my I wish I could live on the outer island and not think about paying you know my mortgage or my insurance or you know all these different things that we have.
01:16:49
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:16:55
Ezrym Ellis
Yep.
01:16:58
Ezrym Ellis
Keeping up with the chances, all that stuff.
01:17:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah, one might like I just, I just want to go, you know, hang out on on the islands, but it's just, it's just different.
01:17:01
Ezrym Ellis
that I don't care. Yeah.
01:17:09
Ezrym Ellis
I remember thinking, um, out in tab, I was like, yeah, I could live this life.
01:17:09
Darin Tingey
So
01:17:15
Ezrym Ellis
I could do it.
01:17:15
Darin Tingey
right, right.
01:17:16
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah. But I, you know, hadn't been exposed to hot showers in a while and, you know, air con rooms. I forgot what that was. So for that moment, I was like, yeah, I could do it.
01:17:25
Darin Tingey
Or cold, cold water, cold water.
01:17:27
Ezrym Ellis
Cold water. Yeah, yeah.
01:17:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's always a like refrigerator while just tasting it like, oh, it's so different.
01:17:36
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah, different.
01:17:38
Darin Tingey
Well, Ezra, this has been an amazing episode. You've got great stories. You were, as I'm glad I got to meet you my mission in Kitabas. I'm glad you crossed cross me over a few times at Moroni before you sent me out to Mayanna.
01:17:48
Ezrym Ellis
Yeah.
01:17:53
Darin Tingey
ah But, uh,
01:17:56
Ezrym Ellis
Thank you. yeah
01:17:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah, a great a great episode. And it's just so fun to have your wife and then you on the podcast. So again, if you've listened the way through, give it the podcast a follow. And this was another great episode of the Islands Podcast.
01:18:13
Ezrym Ellis
ah you