Transcript
Darin Tingey: All right. We are back with another episode of the Islands podcast. Got an OG from the Marshall Islands mission, Tony Hyde, on today.
Darin Tingey: You may have seen him on Facebook, speaking Marshallese, on family as a Family of Swain.
Tony: I don't know.
Darin Tingey: They're
Tony: I don't have Facebook so I wouldn't know.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Don't have it? Oh, man.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: they Yeah, they I think it's Family of Swain, their social media. They'll they'll post you speaking Marshallese.
Tony: Let's go.
Darin Tingey: Tony, where where are you from and where are you at now?
Tony: Man, I feel like before I start, I have to be like, mogatao ru james jadu yawe you know what I mean?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, dude.
Tony: I feel like brothers and sisters, like, hello.
Tony: Yahweh jolting and reining.
Darin Tingey: a
Tony: I am, I grew up in Draper, Utah. I currently reside.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: in Provo, Utah. i have five kids They all go to Tim Few. besides the ones that are in elementary and we're just
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: We're just winging life. you know legit winging life with five.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And he's...
Tony: Never done it before. and doing it now.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And still keeping your Marshallese, man. I wonder how many guys that you serve with can still speak the language, you know?
Tony: All basic, right? Very basic. like hey Hello, how are you? some slang words, but
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: It. You get him with some Marshallese and it's it's a totally different ballgame when you haven't spoken and then you show up on a... you know, a beat day in Christmas. And they're like. but You're like, whoa. And all Marshallese, they speak really fast.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's like way faster than you remember. Yeah.
Tony: Yeah, they're so fast and they're so sarcastic that it's like you have to know the flow of where the language is going or else you get lost pretty quick.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I try and... Honestly, I use my Facebook for like... keeping in touch with Marshallese people. And I, I use it to like, listen to Marshallese people speak. So I can like keep my ears trained, uh, on the, on the pace and, you know, listen to all these guys.
Tony: Yeah. Oh yeah.
Darin Tingey: Anyway, Tony, when did you when did you serve in the Marsh Islands? What were the years?
Tony: 2001 of October to 2003 of October.
Darin Tingey: Oh. Okay, so it wasn't its own mission yet. It was part of Micronesia Guam, right?
Tony: And there was... The mic. micronesia guam mission yep so we got called the micronesia guam english speaking Three weeks in the MTC. You know, and when you like open your call and you read Micronesia Guam.
Tony: I swear, I barely graduated high school. I'm like, Vietnam? like What's Guam?
Darin Tingey: Yeah
Tony: I have no idea where it is. And, you know, in that packet, it says that there's nine different languages in that island. You know, you have Yap, you have Chuuk, you have Pompeii, you have all these different ones, right?
Tony: That speak different languages.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And so, you know, I was excited to speak English. I was like, okay, cool. I'm going to an island. I get to speak English. like
Darin Tingey: Yeah, great.
Tony: Easy peasy, man. you know graduating with a you know two five like i'm gonna be fine out in the out and the out out in the mission so
Tony: you know The MTC was a ride. to go to the MTC and to be there during conference. you know.
Darin Tingey: Oh cool.
Tony: I felt like I was. Yeah. you already When you go to the MTC, it's like FSY on steroids. you know It's like, whoa, like you're taking everything in. that you've never really seen the gospel in that way and you have so many people that are bought into the same purpose and you're all trying to figure out what's going on to a certain extent right like you want to serve gospel is true but you're
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: You're learning about the first vision and everything else that's going on, you know?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Exactly.
Tony: At least that's, yeah. And so it was epic to have. conference for, you know. those those couple days and to be in the mtc when that was going on i feel like it was like the first time i really dove into conference like oh wait like this is
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: This is from God.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: I probably should listen up. So.
Darin Tingey: i was there I was there during conference too, and I remember them like passing around a thing. like I didn't really think about it, but they're like, are you a good singer? you know And I'm like... you know, I'm not, I'm not putting on there that I'm a good singer hindsight.
Darin Tingey: I should have totally put them on like that. I was a good singer because those people got to go sing in the missionary choir for the general conference.
Tony: Yes. and Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I was like, no, I missed my shot. That'd have been so cool.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: My companion is from Samoa, so he got selected just because he's from Samoa.
Tony: Yeah.
Tony: For sure.
Darin Tingey: Like, yeah, we're going to need this guy up there.
Tony: yeah like you like you can't bring your ukulele but yeah you're in
Darin Tingey: Okay. Yeah.
Tony: Definite in.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. So when you left, the and first of all, did you have anyone going to Guam with you? In the MTC.
Tony: Yeah, we I think we had three. There's three elders and two sisters. So it was a small, like small group.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: And then like our district was like with the district from what going to Washington. You know what I mean? Like when you have English speaking, it's just kind of random who, who you're, who you're, yeah, who you're putting together.
Darin Tingey: It's just... Yeah, hodgepodge.
Tony: So we got to Guam and president Bangor was my mission president at the time. And the wild thing with that is that he was a first counselor. in the Micronesia Guam mission.
Tony: And the mission president before his wife's past wife passed away. And so they made President Bangerter the mission president.
Darin Tingey: Oh gosh.
Tony: So they're like, hey, look, you've been out for a year. We need you for another three. And he became that he came he became the mission president.
Tony: And at that time... they had you know the mission presidency and then they had like one counselor That was like their. you know, their assistant. And that counselor lived in Majuro at the time.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: Okay, and so When President Mills got called to be the mission president, he came from Majuro. So like.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: He's been building that. The church was really, you know, getting legs there. And he was he was really... The glorified, he wasn't the state president, you know but like he was making sure things were being being being ran how they were supposed to be run.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and so when president banger i show up and we do the two -day you know mission thing where we go out with missionaries and then we're having like an orientation And then I'll never forget him bringing me in as...
Tony: room opened up the board. And it was like a trifold board.
Darin Tingey: It's just massive.
Tony: like chalkboard old style massive And there's like 120 missionaries at the time, you know, and they're all... so there's all these islands and he goes i'm going to send you to like the one that i know the best about and the most about the gospels fruitful.
Tony: And I always send people that I know they're going to be obedient and I trust. Because i i won't I don't even know if I'll ever see you. And like that was kind of like that was kind of like the conversation and you're gonna go look you're gonna go learn uh marshallese and here's the book that you're gonna learn people are great and
Darin Tingey: That's crazy.
Tony: They just got to learn how to pay tithing and this, that, and the other. Whatever, right? I can't remember all the details.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: But you then you open up that book and you're like, what wait, what? Like.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, what the heck is this
Tony: english English scriptures are hard enough to then all of a sudden like, wait, what? What's like?
Darin Tingey: Was it the Book of Mormon in Marshallese or or or se what is it called?
Tony: You know?
Tony: It was sections.
Darin Tingey: sections.
Tony: Yeah, we had the 116 pages you know that everyone was waiting on.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: No, no.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Tony: All dad jokes aside, we had you know we had good selections of it. It's just it was so poorly translated that it was really hard for people.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: I mean, it. Let's be honest. A ton of people were converted from it. And a stake, essentially a stake was...
Darin Tingey: Sure.
Tony: built off of off of the testimonies and things written down in that book, regardless of... how the spelling was hard for people to re read you know and frankly marshallese people don't read their own language very well anyway so
Darin Tingey: Trans. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, they don't
Tony: Yeah. And
Darin Tingey: Even now.
Tony: yeah even even now so like the ones that can really read were the ones like man this is How it's translated is not correct. But that's another that's another story we can come back to of when it was translated. and My last four months of my mission, we had the the whole book.
Tony: So we went on a whole book tour.
Darin Tingey: Oh cool.
Tony: Actually, we can get into it now. We went on a whole book tour. and took old Book of Mormons and gave new Book of Mormons to people.
Darin Tingey: No way.
Tony: And the first...
Darin Tingey: That's so cool.
Tony: and the first edition book of mormons at the time when you opened them up they It just said... Jesus Christ is is supposed to say, Another testament of Jesus Christ.
Tony: Baruch Shunkalimorik in Jesus Christ.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: So if you get a first edition Book of Mormon, it has a sticker. On the first page. Because. They had printed all the books. They didn't have that there. And so they printed stickers so we could go through and put stickers on the new books.
Tony: on the on the inside like on the introduction page right before the introduction page it's so marshallese though right like it like it's so marshallese you know like mutitic you know stickers re energyy dog moitic
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's so funny
Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah
Tony: Keel what? Keel? So, you know. I spent... to to kind of go into I flew to Majuro. We'll kind of rewind for a second.
Darin Tingey: did you Did you...
Tony: i fluid
Darin Tingey: Did you fly, like, were you the only one going to the Marshalls?
Tony: Good.
Darin Tingey: from that group.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah, so we drop someone off in Chuuk. And. that And then Koshrai, and then it was Marshall Islands. and i'll never i'll never forget like a flight attendant she was marshall easter she's like hey
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: like And she knew English. She's like, you're going to be fine. Lives on Kwajalein. You're going to be fine.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: You're going to love it. And I was just still in like.
Darin Tingey: I like that.
Tony: I just kept opening the Book of Mormon the whole way, like, how am I, like, how? like that. Like, how? How am I going to figure this out?
Darin Tingey: So you didn't you did you actually think you were going to learn?
Tony: Okay.
Darin Tingey: English Oh, or do I mean, just speak English or did you think. prior to the mission that you were actually going to learn a language.
Tony: I just didn't even know Too naive to know.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: You know. Like probably, probably going to learn one, but it's not like that changed anything. Like what am I going to prepare for?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: hu
Darin Tingey: and do you And do you know, and sorry, just because I'm curious, but... Uh... 120 missionaries. what which islands had the majority of missionaries.
Tony: You had a lot on Guam.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: You had a lot on Pompeii. Chuuk had a lot. Koshrai had a lot. Saipan had some, Yap had some.
Darin Tingey: Hmm. Yeah.
Tony: And then the Marshall Islands consisted of... We had four elders. and eBuy.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: And then you had. Dell up, Oolaga. gender, their career. and all elders and then you had long island ashotaki laura right like that was those were the areas at the time until we opened up lie and we can talk about that later but like there's
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: That. That was kind of the... you know, you had 20 something, 30 something elders and sisters, but we did more. in in the Marshall Islands than the whole mission combined.
Tony: Like when we when they so when when they sent out...
Darin Tingey: Oh dang.
Tony: a baptismal thing and like a whole. This is the month today where everyone's at. And here's a special, you know, here's everyone that was baptized. You could see like. The Marshall Islands had.
Tony: you know it was like 30 baptisms like every month 40 baptisms like people it was it was the fruitful place to to definitely be compared to going to Yap or even Guam, right?
Darin Tingey: Wow See you.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: But stone money...
Darin Tingey: It's interesting, like which country kind of.
Tony: Stone Money is pretty cool, though. It's...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Okay.
Darin Tingey: that is That is true. Marshawn doesn't have that.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Uh, it is kind of cool to hear like. you know, which countries were ripe at different times right like i i feel like
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: We weren't baptizing. that many people in the marshals when i was there i mean we we baptized a bunch we we really did but we also had way more missionaries than you guys did at the time so
Tony: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Interesting that you guys have a ton of success at that time.
Darin Tingey: Okay, so you get to... You get to the marsh islands.
Tony: So for.
Darin Tingey: You're the only one flying on there.
Tony: So first night, right? i I get in, the flights come at two times. They either come in the morning or at night at one day. You know, you don't know. There's like, it's going to show up sometime today.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: that's like how it That's how it typically works. I think we're on a continental. flight at this time. And, you know, you land and immediately. The brakes are being hit. The thrusters are being hit. And it's like the back end's lifting up. And they're doing like a three -point turn. And I had already felt that on Pompeii and Koshrai. like though Their runways are way shorter than the Marshall Islands, like way shorter.
Darin Tingey: Really? Okay.
Tony: yeah like it's like rock on each side like you're landing you're like dude are we in the water like this is this is nuts
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah.
Tony: And I was in a threesome at the very, very start. So I had Elder Richard and Elder Harmon. which i actually really loved being in like a group of already having two like senior companions and The first we go out and we go to a Cayman, you know, first, first year birthday.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And I'm drinking coconuts. I'm eating everything. And I'm sitting down and you know how it is. You're sitting down right where the person's next. that's They're singing birthday happy birthday to, giving them money, throwing candy at them, doing all the crazy stuff.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: And then they feed you and they watch you. And they ubac you you know they sit there and they fly away from you.
Darin Tingey: And. OOBAG!
Tony: woobaga uoba gay You know, like the women are like you did.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. i love that you still have all these words these are so good dude i love this
Tony: yeah yeah i so Yeah, I still have them. i've For some reason, I've never lost them. And. I'll never forget getting home that night. and Waking up at like 2 in the morning 3 in the morning And I just.
Tony: My stomach was. Act. Coconuts. When you get to the island and it's straight humidity and you're drinking coconuts and you haven't drink Really a fresh coconut before.
Tony: I mean, it it rocked me. And I woke up that next morning and both of my... you know so we had it was a bunk bed and then we had like a mat on the ground And they're like man you had a rough night last night Like, how many coconuts did you have? And I said, at least four.
Darin Tingey: Oh my God.
Tony: And we're in Gendrick.
Darin Tingey: I should.
Tony: We're we're in Gendrick. So it's not like there's a bunch of coconuts. You know what I mean?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, right.
Tony: Like they're coming in. But they were they were loading them on for the new guy. and it was funny it was funny like meeting with the doctor months after he said the thing that will make your stomach the strongest is actually coconuts Like drinking that coconut will make your stomach like.
Darin Tingey: Interesting.
Tony: It will it will line your stomach in a different way and make you bulletproof And so I never got sick after that like I never got sick in the mission stomach sickness at all and people did
Darin Tingey: it You lucky dog.
Tony: People did.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: People did eat raw chicken. People did eat all sorts of things. I never did. They never did, which was... which was great.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, no, the I kind of tell everyone that it goes to like, you know, how do I not get sick? I'm like, you're gonna get sick. Like I you just you just are and I don't know how to tell you to deal with it.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's going to suck. I got really sick on that round in Kid Abyss, but... and you know when i first got to e -buy i got sick you know first little bit it's hard to go out and walk around when you feel like you gotta
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Piroro every tube.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: you know, two hours. But,
Tony: Yeah. That happens Yeah, I never got Jardia where people had that.
Darin Tingey: You're lucky.
Tony: and you know that never happened but i i'll never forget my first you know My first transfer. I had. you know two elders that were very well respected that knew the language very very well They were studs.
Tony: And so I could go annoy one.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And then asked the other one what was going on. And I walked around with like, you know, those binders that they look like the size of a three by five card. It's like if you were to put in your little, you know, your pocket here, like a little flip book.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: that's like lined.
Darin Tingey: it Yep. Yep.
Tony: I went through so many of those in the mission because my goal was like, whatever I didn't understand, it was writing that down. and how it looked in english and how you'd sound it out and then it was like Father Richard. other harming like What does this mean?
Tony: What does this mean? What does this mean?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Just annoy him and going back and forth. and so That was really cool to have to, you know. really senior comps my my my first transfer first two transfers and then i went to ebuy And that was.
Darin Tingey: So you were with them for two transfers in a trio.
Tony: Two transfer. Yeah. Trio. And then.
Darin Tingey: Dang
Tony: And then well, excuse me. And then I went to Dell up for a transfer and then they moved me to. to ebuy and so
Darin Tingey: See you. Bye.
Tony: So when you fly to... And Delop was great. dealts We called it the skillet. like anywhere between where the church is. All the way to Buting on Jesus. We call it the skillet. like That's the hottest part of Majuro.
Tony: The sun is always beating there. It is brutal.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And. So anyway, Delipa's great, but I and ended up going to Ibai, and we only had, at the time that I got to Ibai, we had four elders. So we had elders in... and look down So on the south side.
Darin Tingey: Okay. Yep.
Tony: And that I don't know if they still have that house, but it was like a. plywood house with coordinated tin. We had... you know it was it was wild we had fans hanging from the ceiling to like keep us like so to keep us cool.
Tony: Cause we didn't have AC and it was bucket showers and it was rat infested. You know, it was, it was wild.
Darin Tingey: Was it Yad or Lixad or in the middle?
Tony: Lick lick.
Darin Tingey: Okay. So you got a little bit of a breeze maybe every now and then.
Tony: Yeah, you did yeah you had her you had a breeze, but you wanted to shut it. because rats you know rat anyway rats are rats are nasty
Darin Tingey: The rats on eBuy are huge.
Tony: yeah they're like so they're they're like small cats they're like a year old cat it's like
Darin Tingey: Like so massive. Yeah.
Tony: You were a little cat and now you're just a little bit bigger. That's how big they are. They're wild.
Darin Tingey: yeah i remember being in like one of my first lessons on e -bike because that was my first area and i just like see this huge rat just running running behind the investigator with a with a bag of chips in its mouth you know i'm like
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: are we going to do anything about that and it's just like You know, that's fine.
Tony: E -E -But...
Darin Tingey: It's whatever.
Tony: ebay's wild so i was in uh rooktown for a transfer and then they moved me up to dumptown And then we decided to bring more elders. So we had, there's a little.
Darin Tingey: Totally opposite. Yeah.
Tony: where the where the church where the church is. And I believe it's still in that bomb shelter area of the church. where it looks like a bomb shelter.
Darin Tingey: Yep. Yep, it is.
Tony: And then right across the street was the Manuia and we lived above the Manuia.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: So we lived below the store where we'd get any food that we wanted to get which was great But we ended up having...
Darin Tingey: Like when you say like a true like a Truman we are like Triple J
Tony: It was a true, uh, triple G. it's probably i don't think it was called triple j but it was called something yeah
Darin Tingey: Okay. That groceries the grocery store that was there or whatever
Tony: No, no, it wasn't a grocery store.
Darin Tingey: Okay, okay.
Tony: No, it was a legit, it was a legit Manuia. So like...
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: there's There's three areas in E -Buy that we call it. We call it Rooktown in the south. And then KIP in the middle.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: and then Dump Town.
Darin Tingey: K -I -P. I haven't heard of K -I -P, but...
Tony: because they had a gang called the KIP gang and it was like the the young kids like that was the craziest area ever just that middle area so we had we had four of us stay in that
Darin Tingey: boom
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: in that home and that's fun when you have four elders in the same home like
Darin Tingey: Oh yeah, it's a party.
Tony: And you're, and you're cranking on discussions and you're, you're ultra successful and you're starting to pick up, you know, at that time you've been, I've been out for four months, five months, six months. Like you're starting to understand a lot more, but you're able to.
Tony: community communicate. communicate Besides the fact of just talking to, you know, little kids are just young. ballet re bad lay And you're like, how old are you?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: What's your name? What do you like to do?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Like the basic stuff, right? your ear
Darin Tingey: Lima, Lima, quija, quija.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah, nima, nima. They don't teach you know, so Yeah. it ebay was ebay was it was wild for me and preparation days were fun i don't know what you guys did we either fished or we went to kwajalein So we would take a water taxi to Kwajalein.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: We either would take, we would...
Darin Tingey: Go get some food.
Tony: We would either take the the big barge boat. But if we had enough money, we'd take a water taxi. before they got outlawed.
Darin Tingey: Interesting.
Tony: so i'd be like oh what
Darin Tingey: Yeah, they didn't have that
Tony: It was $5 for a water taxi to go over. I was like, boom, let's go. Five bucks like for.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: For all of us, for like five bucks for four of us? Yeah, like.
Darin Tingey: Oh that's sick, yeah.
Tony: Like, let's go. And they'd get really close to the... you know, all of those, those little islands on the way to, KwaZulu.
Darin Tingey: Cool.
Tony: and And so you'd see turtles, you'd see, like, you felt like, okay, I'm off the island.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, we're in that yeah, yeah
Tony: and Yeah and then we could just only eat at one spot there. that they'd let us eat at, and members would always feed us. So we always had a member meal. I don't know if they, do they still do that tradition there?
Tony: Or no?
Darin Tingey: now Now, you mean to talk about Enquadge?
Tony: Yeah, of course.
Darin Tingey: At least when I was there. Like we could eat at that Burger King, it's I don't know if it's actually a Burger King, but the burger place
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then... Sometimes the members would bring us Subway. but like Dinner on quads, we would only eat. We got invited over for like.
Darin Tingey: Thanksgiving and... and
Tony: Oh.
Darin Tingey: Christmas, but...
Tony: Yeah, I think i think the the district president that was in charge of like...
Darin Tingey: Never.
Tony: eBuy and... kwzlin He was all, I mean, we went, we had meals every. every P -Day. which was sick
Darin Tingey: That's so sick. Yeah, that's so cool.
Tony: so like we didn't we didn't have like the hamburger stuff like that we could go in one store and buy something but we really just we the member mills were like okay sick we could go have a
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: a member mill, you know? which was nice and then you go back to then you go back to ebay and you eat more you know
Darin Tingey: Did you?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, dude, E -Buy, you get fat everywhere. Did...
Tony: Yeah, it's wild.
Darin Tingey: did What was the church like on Ibai? when you were there.
Tony: It was booming. Yeah, it was it was booming. We had President Bungan and President Aini at the time.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: We had a lot of guys coming down from Lai. So we had Billyman. We had the Jake family that would come down from Lai. So Billyman was an older...
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: Billy Minty, he was an older Lollip that had like I don't know if he had spina bifida, but his, his spine was tapped. He was hunched over and he was from lie.
Tony: And he was like one of the first members period. So like when he came in, everyone was like, this guy's.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Like he's he's the man. And so he would bring the Jake family and a few others from Lye that would come in. and We taught a lot of people from outer islands that would. Come on eBuy to find more opportunity.
Tony: Stay there for a few months and then go back, right?
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: But it was really, eBuy was just such a grind. There's just so many people to talk to. You know, you have 18 ,000 people or something crazy on there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: the powers The power's going out. It's really hot.
Tony: toilets work sometimes Sometimes you have a shower.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. jump through the Like, yeah, you're not.
Tony: i mean it It shot two to do. Yeah. Yeah. It's. It's...
Darin Tingey: waters Water's not always available on the island.
Tony: it
Tony: But... you know When I've been back, they've cleaned up that dump area. a lot better than it used to be like there used to be mobile homes in the dump like right where trash was
Darin Tingey: Oh wow. Dang.
Tony: Like. Like you teach people in a mobile home and they've like, there was trash that was dumped. like 20 yards, 30 yards from them.
Darin Tingey: Gosh.
Tony: Yeah, it was wild. so
Darin Tingey: So so two two branches, north and south, basically?
Darin Tingey: Okay. And then a branch on quads.
Tony: Branch on cause, yep.
Darin Tingey: Okay, and then you said... Uh... was there Was there a branch on lie at this point or no? A group maybe?
Tony: there was There was a group and there was a branch. there was a branch but it wasn't no no one was visiting that area.
Darin Tingey: Right.
Tony: no no No one was going out to it, but it was if it was officially a branch.
Darin Tingey: Okay, okay.
Tony: Like they were like they were they were running church
Darin Tingey: so
Tony: And. Anytime we had leadership stuff, if someone flew in, they came in from there, but it was still like hit and miss. At that time. you know they didn't have starlink so like communication that they're going through is all you know, radio
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And you know... What?
Darin Tingey: What's...
Tony: there wasn't internet out online at that time.
Darin Tingey: Did you have internet on eBay?
Tony: Uh... No, we didn't. We didn't use any internet. The only place that I could go get internet was an NTA. like a internet. spot in majiro and they'd charge you so you'd go and basically you know send your mom a message hey i need money or i need to get shoes can you send them and that was it Most of my stuff was sending letters, you know.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: sending letters, and even if we took pictures, we'd send our film back. and then it would take three weeks and then we get our film back and then we would be out of that area we would meet people and hand them out their pictures it was kind of wild honestly There was no, there was no, there's no phones at that time, right?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So after, after eBuy. I get called to. come back to dellup and i'm the district leader at that time So I come back. I'm in, i'm I'm in, I go back to Dell up. So I go to eBuy. I'm in eBuy for. you know.
Tony: I've been out probably six months.
Darin Tingey: How? Okay.
Tony: And then...
Darin Tingey: did Did you feel like...
Tony: Go ahead.
Darin Tingey: Let me just talk about eBay for a second. Did you... I mean, there's so many people on eBuy. You're talking to everyone and their dog.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Uh... One, did you finally feel like you were like really comfortable with the language of that at that time? And, and to. Did you guys have a lot of success? on ebay As missionaries.
Tony: yeah at that time we were doing discussions right so it was like a six standard discussion memorization
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: and then it transitioned to outlines and you need other things before Preach My Gospel came. We would do 40 to 50 discussions a week.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So...
Darin Tingey: Dang.
Tony: Like, we were we were we would leave and wed leave in the morning and we wouldn't come home.
Darin Tingey: Dang. It's a lot.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and And you're eating everywhere. you know You're eating hot corned beef, cold corned beef. You're eating Japan in the morning. So we would.
Darin Tingey: he
Tony: with Japan and eggs. Like, so we would, we would.
Darin Tingey: Da -bam.
Tony: ja bam We would just start really early. And... You just get after it. you know You were just getting after it. you could Six elders on there. all of us were teaching you know close to 100 120 130 discussions a week
Darin Tingey: That's crazy.
Tony: You know, between all...
Darin Tingey: Did you? If you had six elders and you had two branches, like how did you split it up?
Tony: We had four. Four Elders North and then...
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: Rooktown Rooktown was just handled by two elders
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: So we had a lot more success in that like.
Darin Tingey: I never.
Tony: concentrated area Dump town in KAP, like where the church was.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: it's just because everyone's running into each other all the time and you know. We hit one. At that point, we had really dug into... No one had really done this yet. We dug into FHE really, really hard. So we would take all our investigators. So we started that like in. to FHEE wasn't like a big thing. And then we're like, you know, profit came out. Like we need to do FHE. We need to do X, Y, and Z.
Tony: And so we started just taking all of our investigators to members' homes and do FHE. We just...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: That's what we're doing. So we'd have two to three families. that are like fellowshipping these people. And that's Marshallese. Marshallese are people of, you know, major or major not image, right? There are many faces, many people, and all they want to do is feel. loved, heard, respected, that they're a part of a community in something. And so you have You have the Protestant church.
Tony: you have the catholic church and those are like the big strongholds besides this and remind me that
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Tell you a story about buting on Jesus. That's another story to have. But.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: But the the the funny the funny thing is, is that... If you can create that culture of like belonging and like. You can still show up to the church, even if it's not Sunday, and we can still do activities, and we can be around each other and and create these things in home.
Tony: We just saw so much success the members were bought into the people and they were bought into like yeah, it's It's not just because they're having Bible study. at Protestant church or at the Catholic church, which is great, which is amazing.
Tony: I'm not dogging on it, but like.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Right.
Tony: you you can You can do that at home. with your family. And so we leaned into that and that was. it went throughout the it went out It went throughout the mission pretty hard in Majuro.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, let me tell you, it definitely stuck me by because I swear we had an FHE every night, all these families, FHE, FHE.
Tony: Bye.
Tony: Yeah. It didn't matter if it was Monday.
Tony: It didn't matter if it was Monday.
Darin Tingey: No.
Tony: like You're doing it any day. that yeah Can you come Tuesday? Can you come Wednesday? Whatever.
Darin Tingey: It was funny. the The families would be like. all right, my day is Monday. Every Monday where it's it's my house and all the missionaries are coming.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I'm like, well, we've got like. at that time we had three sets of elders and a set of sisters im like we have Like a lot of missionaries, not that. It's great. You want to feed us all. But we also have a ton of members that are also wanting to do FHE on Monday or Wednesday, whatever.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And so I remember them being like, Wednesday's our day. We have everyone. I'm like, yeah, but like. Really, they should go to like. where they cover their ward and like that way we can have you know, four different FHEs.
Tony: yeah
Darin Tingey: And like, at first they were like all offended. Like, what the heck? You know, that's my day.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I'm like, well, it can't be seven families now and that we just constantly are doing FHE with.
Tony: Yeah.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: conceited and like, all right, fine.
Tony: They conceded. They caved.
Darin Tingey: that that man That makes sense. But eBay was the best place to have, like you said, like a member present. Lesson, you know, fellowshipping was easy because they all lived close to each other and it wasn't actually.
Darin Tingey: It wasn't difficult or... inconvenient for them to like come to a lesson with you or be, you know, invite the family over.
Tony: mm -hmm Mm hmm.
Darin Tingey: That's, that's why eat by is like. awesome for missionary work. It's just the best.
Tony: Yeah, I mean, you're thrown into it and... there's There's an energy. so the thing about ebay that's different than any other place is that there's so many people there That once people are up and moving.
Tony: Kids are barefoot. in the street. playing whatever they want to play if they're surfing naked out on the lick side if they're playing you know basketball, if they're playing a ukulele, if they're just chasing you, waiting for you to do magic.
Tony: or call you a rebel, like 20 of you, you know, like.
Darin Tingey: Gee, bye. Yeah.
Tony: you you You name it. You name it. like There's such an energy there that Ibai is like.
Darin Tingey: Yeah
Tony: it's so so it's it's It's a special, special place. for anyone, anyone that goes there, they're like, man, it was, it's so hood, but Like the hood is so good.
Darin Tingey: dude yeah it's amazing
Tony: like it's so good it's like it's it's good it's i call it ghetto fabulous like it's just so good
Darin Tingey: and
Tony: And the people there are amazing.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: People there are. Unreal. And I served with some Marshallese elders from there.
Darin Tingey: They are.
Tony: Dustin Peter. Takio Lankio. guys that were in Ibai, but they probably, after they served, a lot of guys moved to Hawaii or moved to the States. and you know
Darin Tingey: I'm jealous you got to serve with Marshallese. missionaries because I think we have like one or two. elders that were from the Marsh Islands. I mean typically they were getting called elsewhere.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Uh, or even if they were called to the marsh islands, my mission president would just send them to kid of us. It's like, you need to, you need to experience away from home.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that was it was the latter half of the mission.
Tony: it was definitely like the last six months of the mission that's when i started getting you know. People who graduated in high school.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They're... they're getting ready for their you know they want to go on a mission They want to leave the Marshall Islands and then they get called to the Marshall Islands. Yeah, eBuy was great.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: I was sad to leave eBuy and I... I came back to Dell up and. And, you know, it was district leader there. and The funny thing is, is that I never trained one missionary on my entire mission.
Tony: But I got more missionaries after like one month. than I swear anyone.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Tony: It was like, hey, teach this guy how to like speak the language, but like we don't trust you to start him out.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah.
Tony: I've been out like maybe 14 months. and like Guys that have been out six months or training, I'm like, all right, I don't understand what I'm doing wrong. I feel like I'm working hard. like What's going on? I wanted to train so bad. but
Darin Tingey: Yeah, no, I felt that.
Tony: it's It's wild to you know get people. second transfer in or first transfer in, but I spent a lot of time in, Delip and Ulaga. At that time. you know because we had a district leader and then you had you had the east side west side So the west side consisted of Long Island.
Tony: actual talking Laura was one area at that time.
Darin Tingey: Dude, I don't know how that could be one area.
Tony: Do it then.
Darin Tingey: That's crazy
Tony: Yeah, and that's...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: That's that's right. That's right finished was Laura, Laura and Evie. I mean, Laura and, agile talkie.
Darin Tingey: As a tagging, yeah.
Tony: But. You know, really the West side was getting all the baptisms. And you had, you you know, you had your district leader and you had two zone leaders and one was like an assistant to the president.
Tony: And his glorified thing was telling everything that was going on with the elders and helping choose. where guys were getting placed.
Darin Tingey: Yeah transfers, yeah
Tony: Yeah, so such so transfers. And we didn't we didn't work with our mission president, President Banger. At the time, it was just with the first counselor. So we would so so we so we yeah, so we would send.
Darin Tingey: Oh, really? Okay. So it's like...
Tony: like faxes. You know what a fax is?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I know the faxes.
Tony: Okay. We would send faxes of like just our our letters to our mission president and come back. So when we did transfers or the board, it was done with us. And then we submitted it to him. And he just like.
Tony: Gave. gave gave the gave the thumbs up, you know, if it was yay or nay. And so those two zone leaders that were together, it was, you know, it was kind of a glorified, like, you're the assistant to the president because you get to, like, and choose where people are going, and which is epic to know, right?
Tony: Like, if you can...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: If you can place people.
Darin Tingey: little power there.
Tony: But...
Darin Tingey: It's kind of kind of fun.
Tony: Yeah. delop is delop is a is a is a fun place i mean you're in that little area it's grown a ton. Like I can't believe how many homes are on the lick side now.
Tony: since I've been back.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I'm sure it looks like so different. than when you were there.
Tony: Bro, it is... what i mean there's walls up there wasn't walls of like people's fences there wasn't anything like that
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So you were walking freely.
Darin Tingey: It...
Tony: like now it's Now it's like boarded up. i can't tell if i can get in there if there's a dog in there or not and
Darin Tingey: yeah
Tony: Just grab a you know, and just...
Darin Tingey: Probably did. and
Tony: Just hit him
Darin Tingey: Dear It is like...
Darin Tingey: It's... Obviously, I can't be sad where... there's growth in Maduro or Ibai or whatever, but it is like sad at the same time.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's like, man. This island used to look so different. and You can't. You can't be too sad about it, but... It is sad to see something change like that and all these homes come in and just get like really densely populated.
Darin Tingey: And honestly, now I actually feel the opposite.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I i went back two years ago and I was like, man. There's no one here anymore. like
Tony: Oh really?
Darin Tingey: It... It... post COVID, it feels like a lot of people have left. uh the marsh islands once they reopened their borders it felt like especially ebay it felt
Tony: I went during COVID.
Darin Tingey: It was all.
Tony: That it was wild.
Darin Tingey: Felt empty. You went during COVID. That that is wild.
Tony: I had a... I had to get... permission through a senator to go in at the time. And I stayed on. Kwajalein. for 10 days.
Darin Tingey: it's a quarantine
Tony: quarantined for 10 days. me and willie swaine Me and Willie Swain did. And then we came on the island. That was wild. Because you quarantined for a total of 14 days.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's like. Most people if they're going to visit you're there for like a week max, you know, maybe 10 days So, I mean that's your whole time if you're quarantining Ahem.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, it was it was hey, I felt like I was in prison I was like man, this is really hard like and they treated it like like you were behind a fence They'd bring you your food
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They'd knock on the door, bring you your food, and then they'd give you a COVID test every day. And they would check your temperature. every They'd literally come in suits from head to toe. Like. that we had some disease.
Darin Tingey: That is crazy.
Tony: like it was it was wild and the only the benefit is is that I'm in this army barrack and I have a window that I can look out to the ocean but anytime I open my window I'd get a call like, hey, you got to keep your window shut.
Tony: Like they thought we were going to spread.
Darin Tingey: No way.
Tony: They thought we were going to, I mean, think about it. Marshall is being told. you know, COVID is going to kill you. You're in a small island. Of course, they're going to think the absolute. I don't blame them.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: right I'd probably do the same thing, like shut it down. But it was. It was wild. I was like, am I in the show lost? Like, I feel like, I feel like they're just like, this is crazy.
Darin Tingey: Hey. It... Okay. Quads feels like that. Quads honestly feels like the show Lost.
Tony: It does.
Darin Tingey: It's really weird.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah, it's it is it is it is different.
Darin Tingey: Okay, sorry, we we got sidetracked, but... yeah it but So you're in Delop.
Tony: It's okay.
Darin Tingey: You're back there, district leader. Uh... Had the mission grown with missionaries like in the Marshall Islands? Had there been more and more missionaries coming while you were there? Or did they kind of stay steady?
Tony: it it stayed It stayed pretty just steady.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: Like if we had 10 going out, we had 10 coming in. And where it changed. and President Ballard had raised the standards of like missionaries. It's like, hey, we need to raise the bar on missionaries. Missionaries need to be prepared when they go out. this, that and the other.
Tony: And. We were like three missionaries short. like they weren't calling people to our mission and so it's either like do we call kids that have been graduated from high school.
Tony: And call them as, like, pre -missionaries.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Like, they're not elders, but they're going to, like, live and serve with you. And so that's when we called Cassidy Swain and Willie Swain. So think about graduating high school in Uluga.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: and going to RMI. and then all of a sudden you're going to be an elder in your... You're going to be a missionary. in your native like island where you've lived. And so the crazy thing is, is I was companions with Willie for like.
Tony: almost a transfer, I think four or five weeks. There was an emergency transfer on that. But Willie, I gave him a name tag and it was my name tag.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: And then I... I put a piece of paper over Hyde and put Swain. And I used to tell him, i when I'd introduce him, I was like, this is, you know, this is Elder Swain, La Billy Jojo and Elder.
Tony: Like, he's not a real elder, like La Billy Jojo.
Darin Tingey: Being an idiot.
Tony: Like, he's like a wannabe elder. Like, that's not, you know, it was like the funny thing to like make him laugh in the sarcasm of.
Darin Tingey: Oh I bet, yeah.
Tony: The Marshallese is just, just epic. and to see Willie to come out and be a missionary. I mean... He was a basketball player. So they go and travel and play against these other teams.
Tony: And now people are seeing him as an elder, like, whoa, bro, you just graduated high school. Like, what are you doing? And to to see him like.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: buckle down and just like i'm doing this for the lord and this and being proud of it was an epic moment to like see it was it was so cool to see a high schooler just like yeah This is what I'm doing. I mean, Willie served for over nine months before he got his actual call.
Tony: to Australia.
Darin Tingey: Oh, no way. Okay, so he did... He basically wasn't even called as a missionary.
Tony: Bro.
Darin Tingey: He was just like, all right, this is what we're doing.
Tony: Yeah. Like this is, this is.
Darin Tingey: That's crazy.
Tony: this is this is This is what we're doing. And so... When I had finished out in Laura, like we were together and. It was epic to go and do FHEs with a Marshallese that's super spiritual.
Tony: That's a go -getter. And. you know laura being Being in that area, in Laura, and I'll talk about that briefly because I showed up. And church, we had.
Tony: Eight Relief Society people there from the Relief Society. We had the Elders Quorum president and we had the branch president.
Darin Tingey: Hmm.
Tony: That was it. And like two deacons. And I was like, oh crap.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And I had the opportunity.
Darin Tingey: some work to do.
Tony: i had the opportunity to either choose an outer island or to go to Laura with a Marshalese Elder. at the time. and I wanted to send my buddy, like my good buddy at the time I was, I transitioned and I was zone leader.
Tony: And I was going over transfers. It's like, hey, do you want to go in Laura? I still want to work with you. You go to Laura and work Laura Ageltaki. Or we're going to open up Lai. What do you think about opening up Lai? Who would you send? And.
Tony: if If I could do it all over again, I would have sent myself and Elder John for sure.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: But elder john was an er Elder John was an Arizona kid. really good fishermen, like just such a stud outdoorsman. Like, okay. He... He came to transfer after me. He's a homie.
Tony: He's in. ebiy He'll go crush. Like, he'll go crush.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And we sent him there. and i went to laura and so like I'll never forget being in Laura. I'm like, dude, what am I like? What? What was I?
Darin Tingey: yeah Should have gotten a light.
Tony: Life.
Darin Tingey: Dang it.
Tony: Like like should have gone to lie like what was I thinking? And... Then we just buckle down on that family home. name We buckle down on that so hard. and by the time you know my last three three months of my mission I mean, we had 150 people showing up to church in Florida.
Tony: Like it was wild.
Darin Tingey: Dang.
Tony: It was wild. and The difference is is that you know we had a van, we had a traveling van, that you could but you couldn't pick anyone up and take anyone to church. So what we decided...
Darin Tingey: Just from Mission Rules.
Tony: mission rules.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: we couldn't we couldn't have anyone in our car and we had a truck too and then i told the mission i was like we we can't have a truck Like take the truck, give us the minivan. Because the truck is... Kids are going to jump in the back of the truck no matter what.
Darin Tingey: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Tony: Like they see the elders, they're jumping them.
Darin Tingey: You can't stop that.
Tony: And we just started. Every Sunday we would do our companionship study, but it was really just planning, and we'd leave. So we would go wake people up. If church is at 1030.
Tony: we were we were out 7am we were waking people up eating with them and just making the rounds from the
Darin Tingey: Mhm.
Tony: the far end of where Laura is. and then all the way to Arak and it would take us a couple hours. and we would just go hit our investigators go talk to our members hey you need to go pick him up he's ready help him tie a tie. Like we just, we were just like, we like, we got to get gritty.
Tony: Like we got to get g gritty and we got to get g gritty and to show them.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: Hey, we're not going to drive the van around. We only drove the van around when we had to go pick up sisters. for p -day and they had to go shopping and stuff other than that we're like we're leaving the van Like we just.
Darin Tingey: You get bikes.
Tony: No.
Darin Tingey: You're walking.
Tony: We... We just planned on, we we planned areas of where we would work. So we we would plan.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: We planned this area that we're going to work this area. If we had to drive the car a little bit and put it halfway, but we just didn't drive it from area to area. and It allowed us to just to see more people that were hidden in there. I mean, you can talk to in Laura, laura asheltyey you can talk to people pretty quick and, and find out, but there's always people that are moving in that are kind of, how long has this guy been here?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Oh, he's been here two weeks. He's from a bone or he's from Millie. And you're like, wait, what's up? And then you start to fellowship them and, and, and get in with that. and yeah laura was laura was an epic spot to end just because you're finally in You know.
Tony: Some... some trees and some food and
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it feels like...
Tony: It's still...
Darin Tingey: Feels like an an island.
Tony: Yeah, you feel yeah you feel like you're on you feel like you're on an island, but it definitely had a bad rap. The West Side is definitely like, oh, you go there, it's not it's not successful, it's hard to baptize. and we had the opposite like with with willie and then elder teban at the time i had uh i had switched to a different missionary elder teban and we just we just went after it man we had to we had so much success over there But just like.
Darin Tingey: Did you feel like the Marshallese? respected the Marshallese elders.
Darin Tingey: Or...
Tony: Uh... They were so...
Darin Tingey: Like it was
Tony: yet Yeah, they were so they were so young. Marshallese typically will always look... to us to like for the final answer Like, hey, you know, like, well, Elder, is that correct?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: You know, you're like, you actually, that's like, what he said was, even though I would have said a little bit differently, like, the principal doctrine application, like, it's it's there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: You know what I
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's mostly correct. Yeah.
Tony: Yeah, he's like, he's blessed. He said this wrong in the blessing. It's like, oh, I mean, he didn't say all of our pay copay. You know what I mean?
Darin Tingey: Pick.
Tony: Like, like it does like, okay, like it's fine.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: It's fine.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: He just said his hands. It doesn't say all of our hands, you know.
Darin Tingey: Ha ha.
Darin Tingey: and
Tony: I felt.
Darin Tingey: That's funny.
Tony: I felt like that. It was hard for Marshallese at first.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: As far as elders. to open up, to be like, to just teach by the spirit. And. really say how how they feel compared to... You know. we first were taught on just principles of like here's your six discussions god's our eternal father he's got a son the holy ghost like we were on all these discussions and halfway through the mission they changed from memorizing of discussions to outlines
Tony: So they're like, we want you to do an outline. on faith. We want you to outline on baptism. So study on your own. And we created outlines and then we turned them into our district leader, our zone leader. and And passed them off it was it was totally they were trying to change the narrative of like teaching by the spirit instead of just teaching off of you know memorize quotes and phrases that you have.
Tony: of...
Darin Tingey: Sure. Yeah.
Tony: of that and so i think that was hard for and i think that's hard for any elder but once that switches Once the Marshallese, they switch that, they can speak way better Marshallese than I can.
Tony: And then you can.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And. You know, they could say certain things that would. Look when you're right along, you little... you know but it like they would really know like man what he's saying is true because i've lived I know when water when the barge doesn't show up.
Tony: I know when it doesn't rain. I know when it doesn't do this. like the The benefit of marshalling these people is that they're so God -fearing. And really, anyone on an island is very God -fearing, right?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: The hardest thing is just commitment. you know, commitment and and and and and sticking to it.
Darin Tingey: Heh. Yes. Oh my gosh, that was my that was the hardest thing about the mission for me. is people would just say yes to everything, right? They're the nicest people. They're never going to tell you no.
Darin Tingey: I got to the point, like at the end of my mission, when people would say yes, I just like. Tell my companion, back yeah, third. they're not going to come to church you know like they're did Yes.
Tony: Yeah. Matanjirik. Matanjirik.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: Matanjirik, you know.
Darin Tingey: game game on lower
Tony: Yeah man, yeah, man You know, you're like, come on, man.
Darin Tingey: Uhhh... Thank you, Anand.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And it's just like... Dude, I... I just got so jaded and I was just... It says... i kind of had a bad attitude by the end from that that is probably like the one of my biggest struggles of the mission was just
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Everyone's saying yes, and I... for some reason would get my hopes up and then just kind of lost all. Oh, faith.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Faith in it. It was almost better than they tell me no. I'm like, thank you for being honest with me.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I appreciate it
Tony: Yeah, which is... Which is wild. And the the other thing with Marshallese is that... if they make a com commitment, they get baptized and they backslide. It's like, it's the end of the, it's the end of the world. You know what I mean? And, and just like anything, the repentance process.
Tony: If you're in the States or you if you're in the Marshall Islands, it's the same. But the way that people look upon it, they still look upon it here negatively. You know you still see it, people judging people.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: But in the Marshall Islands, you know if the guy backslides, he's not wearing a white shirt anymore. And he doesn't show up to church and he's hiding from you.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: And. you know i already I'll never forget being in Dell up. And it was during Christmas time. And on the backside of Delta where Butanon Jesus is, I don't know if it's still, yeah, it's the same church. Butanon Jesus, finding Jesus. Or do they call it something else?
Darin Tingey: I don't remember. I didn't serve in Delops, so I don't know.
Tony: So, Buting on Jesus is...
Darin Tingey: We're going to answer this.
Tony: Buting on Jesus, is it's assembly of God, and then buting on Jesus was like a a new church that everyone was going to.
Darin Tingey: Okay, okay.
Tony: And at the time. on that whole uh Lickside. where you had homes you had the main street so if you have the the main market that you get food from, you have the main street, and then you have the one that goes on the backside of it.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: That backside was all, all butane on Jesus.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And we we we we couldn't get any success in there.
Darin Tingey: Interesting.
Tony: And I met with this guy that was trying to Bible bash. I was like, look, I don't. Like, I'm just going to testify to you. And like, the Jesus loves you. Read the scriptures, pray about it. And then I finally made a commitment to him. I was like, you know what?
Tony: He's not a country singer, but he's got the name of a country singer.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: And... It was the 23rd of December. And we rolled into Buting on Jesus. I had a Bible in one hand and I had a Book of Mormon in the other.
Tony: and we rolled in there
Darin Tingey: Heck yeah.
Tony: and the pastures like. Hopping off. Like you couldn't even understand his Spanish because he's just yelling and screaming and gifts of gift of tongues. And we sat. five rows back.
Tony: And when I walked in. It was like he kept going, but everyone just turned. and like looked at us
Darin Tingey: Stared at you, yeah.
Tony: and we And we sat down and we listened to his whole sermon. He was they were very gracious like came up like everyone greeted us But what that did what that did. like after we left that the next day it was like We can talk to the elders. like They respected us. They came to our church.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And we got into so we got into so many more discussions, but I'll never forget like how nervous, like going in there, I felt like my heart like hit the top of the ceiling and then back. I was like, dude, I'm like, I don't know what I'm getting myself into, but we're.
Tony: They invited me to come. I'm going to come. I'm going to show them that, you know. we we're all We all believe in Jesus.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: We'll see what happens. And it opened up some major doors for us. on that backside of, of Dell up. so it's like you know you look at stories and things you've gone through and you're like man it's it's it's pretty wild you know 20 years later there's still guys going to the same mission Really talking to the same people either that we converted or that have left, and there's a lot of reinactivating. I mean, there's just a lot of circumventing and coming back. and
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: It's definitely a thing that's always been tough with the marshals, right? getting them to be a
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: uh A steak. That was the big thing. Be a stake. We want to be a stake. We want to be a stake. And they were pushing for it, right? Pushing really hard for it. and
Darin Tingey: And... Quad just made a steak. the week before I got to eBay. Madro was already a steak by then, but like while I was in the MTC.
Darin Tingey: Quad was made of steak, which was pretty cool. I am sad I missed it by a week for the celebration.
Tony: That's right.
Darin Tingey: But I... You touched on a few points that I want to talk about. talk about. One being. the the backslide issue or you know the the men aren't wearing a white shirt that's how you know and it is sad because you try and teach them repentance And...
Darin Tingey: you know, God forgives you for your sins. Christ died for you and and and knows knows you personally, and you can become clean. And I think that... clicks form at the beginning when they're baptized
Darin Tingey: but it doesn't click again. that even though they make a mistake, they can repent and come back because, and and they're I don't know, they just like, they hide it. They're very. Maybe they feel shame.
Tony: Well, I
Darin Tingey: It's just like this cultural thing is so frustrating.
Tony: I...
Tony: I think a lot of it is. It's like Okay. Have you seen the... the little movie from uh boy k packer we talked about spiritual crocodiles Spiritual crocodiles.
Darin Tingey: Okay. No.
Tony: So these these crocodiles are in the water. And. You can't see him. and you have these impalas and These animals are coming down to get a drink of water and they're like nervous to come in because they think there's something there.
Tony: and they like run away and then they come back by like an hour or two. They're drinking right on in the water and then they get, they get snatched. And. So the reason I bring that up is the difference i I strongly believe in the Marshall Islands of why this happens so much.
Tony: is that during If they get baptized, they might be the only person in their family that got baptized or they know someone that's in another world that got baptized. They're still surrounded by crocodiles and wolves.
Tony: of like the people that are their friends or their family or their neighbors. I mean, everyone everyone that lives in an area is family. and their relatives of some sort and so there's always there's always you know betel nut
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: nicotine and alcohol always there's always a group of four or five guys that are
Darin Tingey: Always.
Tony: drinking a whole bottle.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, right there.
Tony: And. Yeah. And so i I think that, you know, when you go and work with someone that stops smoking and stops drinking, you have this big change and it's like beautiful.
Tony: And they're on this like this they're on this high this upper of like This is amazing. I want to feel this all the time. And then the dog's like, dude, your baptism was great. awesome. Come down and come sit with us. Like they, I just feel like that they don't get fellowshiped enough.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: From. unless you're in a certain area where there's members, you know, if you're, if you're on lie or you're in an area where it's Arlington team and in all of that area, he's been a.
Tony: you know, branch a branch president. He's been a... I'm stake president for. many years. And he's an absolute dog.
Darin Tingey: Twice.
Tony: Like he's going to, yeah, he's good.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: He's good. He's going to own that area and everyone's going to know, like you take care of the elders. you respect this you respect that like that's that's the way it runs right but you know i think that's why backsliding happens so much and because it's in your it's in your face that someone sees it
Darin Tingey: Right.
Tony: It's like, oh, well, like, did you?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: He backslid, like, you can't go to church. And it's, it's, it's just like, it's so, it's so, so, so sad.
Darin Tingey: I know. It's just like the whisperings in their ear. Gosh.
Tony: And I'm sure it's similar still, right? Like 20 years later.
Darin Tingey: Same thing.
Tony: It's it's.
Darin Tingey: i
Tony: it's It's the same thing.
Darin Tingey: one of my the saddest ones i thought it wasn't even that the the dude backslid he'd It was on Lai. And. This guy. Only member in his family. Went on a mission to Vanuatu. He had just gotten back within like... you know six months was on ebuy for a little bit then came back to lie And...
Darin Tingey: we were learning beat and he was like helping, helping doing teach beat. And then there was one little disagreement of like what the move should be.
Darin Tingey: For the men? And... Like like got the other guys like no you should do this when he gets pit and the guy gets pissed and he just storms off And he never came back to church.
Tony: Never give up. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I was like,
Tony: Yeah, it's wild.
Darin Tingey: Dude, like. Here you are. He was like the strongest guy, like teaching Sunday school. And then one thing, boom, never came back. Still to this day, not active. You know, I'm sure his parents, I mean, his family's great people, but I'm sure it was like.
Darin Tingey: oh welcome home son you know like
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Come right in here.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: We will accept you. and it's It's sad. It really is. I have faith that... He'll come back right, you know, it'll it'll It'll all turn out. I feel like all the missionaries from the marsh islands they come home they backslide i mean that's pretty common in the states too but they backslide They get you know they have a kid before they're married, and then they come around, and then they become the bishop.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: you know like it It always like works out in the weirdest way, but it is just hard. hard to watch. them go through that. And it's like, Eat.
Darin Tingey: you're missing the point a little bit that like
Tony: Yeah, everyone's everyone's got their stuff.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: your're You're Marshallese, you're American, everyone's got their stuff.
Darin Tingey: Totally.
Tony: And, you know, if there's if there's anything that I'd want to... I mean, what you're saying to go back on, like would want to teach them is. like the same feeling that you felt when you when you stopped like smoking or you stopped drinking like You can feel that all the time.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And guess what? like You're going to mess up all the time.
Darin Tingey: Heh heh.
Tony: And but you still get, to you still get to feel that. And you still get to feel those things.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And maybe there needs to be like a white shirt conversation when one of these elders is like, look. We wear white shirts to show respect, but it's really not like a standard that you have to do. Everybody.
Tony: like let's let's Let's have this circle of... of of love instead of throwing rocks. It's, it's, it's a wild thing. And I don't think it's because they don't love. I just think that the judgmental is just on a different angle because it's in your face.
Tony: You live with these people for.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: 40 years and you don't own you actually don't own the land that you live on. you know.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah, that's true. And then the other thing you mentioned that I thought was interesting is going to different churches.
Tony: jesus
Darin Tingey: I wish I would have done more of that. I ended up going to like. two or three one was lighthouse i don't i don't know if they were around then that was a fun one you're jumping in the air punching the ground like it was wild kind of fun uh but it opens doors it always does and then You know, I remember beyond lie.
Tony: No.
Tony: Yeah, yeah
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And we went to the Protestant church and everyone's like. Whoa. you know like
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Even just for beat. like members of our church were like looking in from the outside i'm like guys come in like it's not a big deal to like be in the other church.
Tony: It's not us versus them.
Darin Tingey: like with yeah Yeah, it's like we hope that they come into ours as well.
Tony: the The enemy, the enemy's outside the wire. Yeah, you know, it's like the enemy's not down on the island.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But I think...
Tony: So true.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it does open a lot more doors and I wish. I would have done it more. so New missionaries, go do that. uh
Tony: 100%.
Darin Tingey: so Tell me about the Outer Islands that you guys had open at the time. or or reopened.
Tony: We only have... we only had lie
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: so
Darin Tingey: Only light.
Tony: It was a...
Darin Tingey: Was there other like previous islands open that had missionaries and you guys wanted to... like try reopening them or what was the consensus around that
Tony: No, that that wasn't that wasn't even it wasn't even an option. We were trying to get the main focus. was trained to get Masrow to be a stake.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: so They just rebuilt the agile talkie. Chapel. That was. It was done like the last six months of my mission.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: Like, that was cool.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and There wasn't a spot there before. And then. you really you really were just trying to build that and for them to be a stake and the only reason why lie was brought up is that we had members that were so solid that were asking for elders to come it got around it got around to the mission president well really president mills and then president mills is like like let's let's Let's do this. Do you want to do it?
Tony: And which is great. they I mean, they had a tough time there. They they were really, really successful. They had a tough, elders had a tough time. And you can't get a hold of anyone.
Darin Tingey: Hmm.
Tony: And the bars doesn't show up.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and people don't have food and then your companion gets sick but the other guys are a rock star like there's just things that are out of your control and
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: you know God's always going to provide, and we were never worried worried that the the elders that were there were. not could be taken care of but again You know, experience is the greatest teacher and the most expensive one.
Tony: Most of these decisions that are made are like made on a thought.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And yeah, I think we should. Yeah, there's a lot of cool members out there. Let's go check it out. we We just had someone that our mission president, President Bangerter at the time, he had spent most of his time on the Marshall Islands.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So he knew what he had there. And he knew how much work had to be done before we just go and shotgun all these other areas, right?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: We needed to have like a good foundation of really who the church is.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They wouldn't even let us have a school. We were trying to get a school on Majuro forever.
Darin Tingey: I wish that you guys would have got a school like.
Tony: It's like... It's like everyone can have a school, but we can't.
Darin Tingey: I know, every other church does.
Tony: Like what do you talk like what do you? Like, what are you talking about?
Darin Tingey: yeah
Tony: You know?
Darin Tingey: a
Tony: Seven -day Adventists, you know, Assembly of God, all of them.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So we were the church of RMI, you know, we were like, you guys can come play basketball here.
Darin Tingey: What? Yeah. a
Tony: We got you.
Darin Tingey: That's right. I... It would have been... incredible for the work if there was a school there.
Tony: Yes. Yes.
Darin Tingey: I...
Tony: We would have taught English better than anyone. It would have been organized better than anything.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I...
Tony: yeah i i
Darin Tingey: I saw it on the kid of a side. with Moroni High School, I was like, Wow. This school is awesome and people know it in the country here. And everyone wants their kid to go to Moroni High School.
Darin Tingey: And it just totally helped build the foundation for the church on Tarawa.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah, it's a
Darin Tingey: it was It's crazy.
Tony: It's a proof play. It's like, look, we're amazing. Like we have amazing people. We're going to teach you the right way and your kids are going to be better for it. Like I can't. I can't imagine how amazing how amazing that was.
Tony: Like...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Heh. How many kids went to the school?
Darin Tingey: oh hundreds i don't i don't remember it was it was big it's one of the biggest schools in darawa
Tony: Tarawa. I wish I knew how to speak it.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Tarawa.
Darin Tingey: Uh... There it. it Like you just see it like, okay. Liahona High School in Tonga, which... I actually got to go to Tonga this summer. Super cool. I went to... and went to Liahona High School.
Darin Tingey: like which arlington teban actually went to leona high school so you see like a lot of these early church members in different island countries in the Pacific.
Darin Tingey: they went to Liahona high school. Like that is really where.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: They went top built a strong testimony went back to their countries belt the church up. like That is the story of how the church got started in Kiribati. uh that is the story of the leaders in the marsh islands you know there's some of the leaders there and it's like
Tony: Yeah, Lonnie Lane William ring like all all the main
Darin Tingey: It's like, do you not see that like this? from the school. like it It affected everywhere and grew the church. I just wish they did. more of those especially in the marsh islands would have been awesome
Tony: I wanted that. we were just We would just show up on... like service day when we're doing service we just go to the Catholic school a lot. and
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And. go build something some concrete they're probably still building the same thing we were building and then go eat some boiled chicken and some rice and it was actually pretty good you know
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah, we... The home race. My president was former Catholic. And so one of the first things he did was go to all the Catholic schools and say, hey, can my missionaries come teach English?
Darin Tingey: And so. I taught English at the Catholic school on eBuy every week. which was super fun.
Tony: This. So awesome.
Darin Tingey: Uh, Super cool experience. Kind of frustrating. It's hard to be a teacher. I don't know how they do it. That's one of the projects. that I want to do is somehow get textbooks in Marshallese. Because here are these Marshallese teachers trying to teach their students with an English textbook that they can barely understand what it says.
Darin Tingey: And then trying to teach the kids.
Tony: just make it like primary just keep very basic simple things
Darin Tingey: In English. Yeah. I know. it's It would be a big project and maybe AI can help me with that. But I think it'd be cool.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Did you have any crazy or memorable? conversion stories.
Tony: Yeah, I had one in... Arc. and then also one in laura so i was teaching a guy named rant right where the road split
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: When you come into Laura. the road splits and like
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: There was a cement house that was there, and then there was just this small little... little shack. And this gentleman named, it was Diana and and Randy. And. When you're making your loop.
Tony: you know, like You've talked to everyone. So you're making your loop, you're re -talking to people, you're saying hi, you're nodding, morning, morning, morning, you know.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Morning morning.
Tony: yeah jolda yagwen jolda you know just throwing up your head
Darin Tingey: I love that.
Darin Tingey: Thank you.
Tony: And. i remember knocking on a door and a guy was he was really really hammered and his wife was I think she she was Protestant at the time, but they weren't really active in anything. but She was very embarrassed that.
Tony: You know? A servant of God is showing up to your house.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and you're wasted, and you can't even like look at them and talk to them. And they're pretty violent. like If a Marshallese wants to like say how they feel, they show how they feel, you know like smacking someone. or
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and shooing them away. It's all good, but they all, you know. Leading out of love. And I remember setting an appointment to meet with both of them. The next day I show up, she's not there and it's just him. And he's not, he apologizes for being drunk.
Tony: And so we walk across the street. because i want to just take him out of his element he's a so he fishes at night so he'll go to rung at night or oh oh like he he's just a total fisherman
Darin Tingey: Love that.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And so we go on the lick side and his eyes are just bloodshot because he's been. he's been fishing all morning and he's not even I think I like woke him up at one o 'clock and that was still one o 'clock in the afternoon and that was too too early The thing about Marshallese is that if it's... lugo la red
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: Dreamy Jiggy, and then they look like, what? ray mijii like no matter i met like a logia i met like butra like no matter what like i'm tired my head hurts my stomach hurts like if they don't want to talk to you like that's the way it is and we go to lick side and we're sitting down like on just like some coconut shells like
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yep.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: You know, because you got the sand there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And... Teach me about Joseph Smith. and about the first vision. and then taught him how to pray. and I said, I'm gonna say the prayer first.
Tony: And I'm going to ask if Joseph Smith was a prophet. And if the Book of Mormon is true. And then... I'm going to have you say the prayer, and I've written it out, and I want you to ask.
Darin Tingey: Hmm.
Tony: And... At this time in the mission, our goal was to see how many first vision discussions we could give. Like talk about the first vision. If we're in a taxi, like let's talk about the first vision because if Joe Smith wasn't a prophet.
Tony: If he didn't translate the Book of Mormon, the Book of Mormon's not true, this church isn't true. And everyone thinks that we worship Joseph Smith here, and everyone thinks that we worship like...
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: that that's our jesus and it's not we're gonna go explain who he is and then we're gonna We're going to invite them. We're going to invite, instruct, inspire them to read the Book of Mormon and and invite them to pray and ask, right?
Tony: And. He was a little bit slower. Fisherman guys that are not like haven't really been in school ever. and So we practiced this prayer a couple times. And...
Tony: I said I want you to ask. And if you don't feel... and in galatians like 5 22 i think it was like the fruits of the spirit you know if you don't feel you know, anger, if you don't feel like all these other things, you know, iin a mu if you don't feel all this stuff, then...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: you know I want you to ask again. And I'll never forget. We are kneeling. So I'm like, okay, we're going to kneel.
Darin Tingey: Cool.
Tony: And I said, And the Spirit's really strong. and Then I... Before I invite him to say it, I just said... How do you feel? and He just goes, met him.
Tony: He's like light. And we both had our eyes closed. but he had felt so much light and we were underneath a tree. Like on the lick side, you know, the big trees in Laura.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah.
Tony: may i think it was a I think it was a may yeah or or a may tree or something amazing.
Darin Tingey: i definite The huge ones.
Tony: Oh, I love May.
Tony: He said, he said metal. And I'm like. Why? And I said, metal? And he's like, yeah. I'm like, how else do you feel? And he just goes, madam. He says it again. So I asked him to pray.
Tony: And... As he finishes praying. It's so bright Like that me that we both just open up our eyes. And he's looking at me and he just starts crying.
Tony: Like he just like it makes me crazy. think He just starts crying. He's just like
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: He's like Merom. Like I, like... I feel the same light. like i feel like I feel the same light. You said that Joseph saw a pillar of light. like I feel... I feel the same light. And like when we opened up our eyes, it wasn't like it was like bright and over, but when our eyes were closed, it was like someone had a flashlight on our eyes.
Darin Tingey: Wow.
Tony: on her eyelids. Like it was that, it was that. There's only one other time that's happened. And. He was the only one that cold turkey dropped. I mean, really Didn't make like cigarettes, alcohol.
Tony: And. Just bought in. And after that, we had so we studied with him. and like six times, and his wife didn't want to study with us. Because she just thought he was just gonna be the same old guy
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and then she saw the change And like. you know. she saw the change of who he was and what he's becoming she wanted to learn more about it and so you're placed you know you have like the main house that has the main family in it And, you know, you have two or three families that are in there and then you have them in their little hut that every time it rains, it's getting wet. every like They're in the poverty of the poverty.
Tony: They're on the lowest of low. Like you provide fish for us.
Darin Tingey: and
Tony: We provide rice for you. kind of kind of kind of deal.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So that was that was a very, very, very powerful experience. That one was definitely life -changing for me to like. Feel that, see that.
Tony: and have a marshallese missionary there at that time it was elder thieman
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And... He was just like... He couldn't even talk. You know, there's like those missionaries were like, Hey, anything you want to add? You know, you're just like. He's like, he's like, he's like, I'm on.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: He's like, I'm on.
Darin Tingey: And one.
Tony: I'm on Jenny.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Tony: I'm on Jay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. No totally.
Tony: I'm like, alright.
Darin Tingey: I mean, that that experience is like...
Darin Tingey: They're you know A special one. Very few people get to. Have that
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: that deep. experience and really feeling it like you said seeing the light and then it's so fun to see the change in that person. And just like.
Darin Tingey: They feel it. They see it. It is changing their lives.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: and for the wife to see it too. i i had the one similar and it's not nothing's better than seeing the wife like proud of their husband for the change.
Tony: oh yeah proud of their husband but you know two weeks two weeks later her
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Grandma. dies.
Darin Tingey: Hmm.
Tony: and it's protestant and you know how you know if someone dies in the marshall islands it's
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They're they're in that house. They're a bombed and then they're in that house for a week or sometimes two weeks
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And I'll never forget. Them asking me to go pray on there on their mom
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And to like give a blessing. And I had never done that. and like talk about the spirit world and talk about like Like it was there was some Stephanie some guidance where you're just like holy cow Like as a missionary, you're so in tuned and that's what you miss. That's where like when you get back, you're like man.
Tony: I need to. I need to lock in more to be more in tuned of. They're not my ideas. the ideas that are coming is that the gods and the details of the all of those And.
Tony: that if you just react to when he gives you a prompting and you do it like crazy things happen and then when you finish like i can't believe i said that When in all reality, like it was, it wasn't really you saying it was the spirit.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Like, Hey man. Like. Faith and repentance. If he tells you to speak on faith and repentance, speak of faith and repentance.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah
Tony: So it's... There's definitely epic moment moments in being a missionary. you know From 2001 to 2003, there's just... there's There's so many experiences, even the fishing experiences of...
Tony: you know. Willie. Willie and Cassidy came from Carbon Metal. so
Darin Tingey: Yeah, from Wujai, right?
Tony: w i Yeah. which i So we used to always have the joke, which i lie coin meto you know, like that's where you're from.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: That's where I'm from. But Willie grew up there until he was like 10 or 11. It didn't have power, you know? And so he was a fisherman.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Isn't that crazy?
Tony: And so we learned how to cook with. where we would go out on low tide. And we would lift up little rocks that were in the the coral. You could see like a little like gravel, like rock.
Tony: We'd grab it, lift it, and you'd see the tentacles of a kukwit like an octopus.
Darin Tingey: No way.
Tony: And then we would take. we would take He would have a stick. I learned this from Willie and his brother. So then we would we would just take a stick. Push the stick in there right at it and then the it will grab onto you with all its tentacles and then you pull it out and they would just flip the head inside out.
Tony: But we would we would go get a dozen of those on a preparation day. And.
Darin Tingey: That's so fun.
Tony: beat them up against a rock, you know, soften them down, boil them up and then fry them. And I was like... Bye. ay How did you know that was there?
Darin Tingey: So cool.
Darin Tingey: It's crazy.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, but yeah our eyes don't see them because we're... not used to that at all. Like, oh man, I wouldn't start, you know. If you went snorkeling now, it's like, i would never I wish I saw one, but like you probably saw a bunch.
Tony: And I...
Tony: Well, and i we we need to we need to link up because I have video of us doing it. So I have an old camcorder at the end of my mission and I'm like, I have to get this.
Darin Tingey: Yes. Yes.
Tony: So you have a Marshallese doing it, freaking out because it's a camera, you know, like, oh. It's going to get me, you know, like, dude, just kill the thing. Like, we know. it's fine but you know fishing was fishing is so fun to learn from from natives where they're You know, throwing out, an a you know, a line in AO with.
Tony: some squid on it and catching a shark or
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: catching whatever it may be the food is just the food is just so good If you like fish. If you like, you know. One. a quinn Luke when you, we, you know, Like...
Darin Tingey: Heh heh heh yeah Uh oh.
Tony: Like turtle is amazing.
Darin Tingey: Turtle is so good.
Tony: There's just...
Darin Tingey: i Yeah, I love Turtle. Had a decent amount on lie. Have you... I guess we should talk about a little bit. post -mission for you. Sounds like you've been back a few times.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And... Have you been? Have you been to lie? You need to go to lie.
Tony: i I have not, and I need to. I need to, when I talked to the center of lib, he's like, okay, listen, like we'll go into quash, we'll get a boat and then we'll.
Darin Tingey: Well...
Tony: well I'll take you to both areas. But anyone that... has been to lie. They're like, Tony, like that's your. Like that's your island. Like people will love you and lie because you speak Marshallese still. Like you love everything about Marshallese. Because, i you know, you...
Tony: The thing about Marshallese... is you have to be super obedient. And because they can see what you're doing. Like, you just have to.
Darin Tingey: yeah they'll Yeah, they'll call you out for it.
Tony: and you and it
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And you have you have to love the people. if you if you don't love them like they can feel it they can see it they know it if you're not eating the food
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: if you're shoving everything down and going home, like hurting every night, you're like, dude, i I don't know how I finished that rice ball. I don't know how I finished that, that, that cold corn beef, but like, I put it down.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Yeah, so I definitely need to go back. Maybe we should plan it. We'll go back with Willie. Every time I've gone, I've... But once I've taken Willie with me and it's...
Darin Tingey: Oh yeah, that's so amazing.
Tony: is
Darin Tingey: i I took my wife and my parents back in... August of 2024, so two years ago.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And we did Majuro for a few days. And then... i wanted to go to live for a few days but the plane It goes once a week.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And so. uh albin seligay he's the bishop now of long island ward he was the pilot for many years still runs the airline i was like albin you know like hook it up like i like could you pick me up on a different day. Like if we went out on a Wednesday, the normal flight, could you pick me up on Friday? And he's like, yeah, for sure. I was like, sweet. Like this is, I got the hookup.
Darin Tingey: And then...
Darin Tingey: We go. and we buy our tickets and he's like, Yeah, it's going to be.
Tony: Not going
Darin Tingey: It's gonna be six grand to pick you guys up on Friday. And I was like, what? my...
Tony: There's that.
Darin Tingey: It's not gonna work.
Tony: That's that's my.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: That's Marshallese for you. That's it's how it is.
Darin Tingey: oh
Tony: Oh. Like, yeah, I'll for sure take you anytime you want.
Darin Tingey: was I was like...
Tony: yeah
Darin Tingey: Yes. Yeah.
Tony: nine thousand dollars
Darin Tingey: I was like, yo, that's not gonna work.
Tony: You're like yeah, you're like you're like mutton judic. You're like key like judic.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: He likes. Yes soon
Darin Tingey: Yeah. So, but I... I wanted my family to see lie. I was like. Lai is my island. it's It is blessed by God. like Jesus will appear there first.
Darin Tingey: you know over any place in the world.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: and so i i paid like a thousand bucks to ground the plane for an hour uh and the island's tying up and they all come for when the plane comes anyway so We saw everyone, ran around. And then went to...
Tony: That's so awesome.
Darin Tingey: but it was, it was so fun. so Sorry. Yeah, anyway, we need we need to go back. Sounds like you've been back a few times.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Was it just kind of for fun? Did you do like some projects?
Darin Tingey: or
Tony: My goal, I got into solar. 2014. And one of my goals was that scared the crap out of me is to. power on an island that never had power on it before like that was like one of my top goals and
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Meaning like... In our company, we had core values of become, create, give. How do I help guys become better versions of themselves? How do I create a better experience? And then how do I give back to those I either work with or those that I've served?
Tony: And my biggest audacious dream was like, I want to go power an island in the Marshall Islands that doesn't have power.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: like Like, I'm going to go do that.
Darin Tingey: That's cool.
Tony: and If it's a little amount at first and. So I went during COVID. and met with. I met with. every school director.
Tony: senators, you name it, just did a whole tour once we got in there after like the COVID quarantine. I just want to see like. who's you know Who's deserving of this the most if we're going to go power something and and back it up and we're going to do X, Y, and Z?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and We went to an island right outside of Majuro. where... A bunch of people. I don't know if it's from Bikini Atoll, but it's from one of the the atolls that got bombed.
Tony: It's somewhere else. Kili. Maybe it's Kili.
Darin Tingey: Kille, yeah.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Kill it, yeah.
Tony: so we So we went on that island, maybe could do something there because their power is not guaranteed. It's still connected. They have it get shut off all the time in Majuro. They'll shut off that corner first.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And then I went and met with the the senator. of lib And we spoke for a couple hours and I just had like this. I'm like, okay, there's 60 homes.
Tony: There's 130 people that live there. I have like all of their ages, what things are like, can we come in and bring computers? Can we come in and do internet? What will that change? How do we create a micro grid to allow people that are Marshallese to take care of it and be a part of the construction process?
Tony: Because when we leave, we're not going to be doing it.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And it will go to, it will go to, you know what?
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: but And so there's still... There's still the company I'm working with transitioned. So we're. we're going to raise some money. We've got to raise some stuff and we'll definitely get out there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: It will definitely happen in in my lifetime. We'll go power an island that doesn't. And maybe it's not Lib, maybe it's somewhere else. But what attracted me to Lib is that you had a senator that wasn't corrupt.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: like that was legit that cared about the people that was When he had money, he was putting a new dock in so like boats could come and dock up there. like There's just like certain things that you know that align with like, oh, if i give you if we give you X amount of dollars, it means that it's going to go do this and we're going to create these jobs instead of going in to so -and -so's pocket to create a livelihood better for him in the States or in the Marshall Islands.
Darin Tingey: That's cool.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: That's the lopsided thing. and so I've been back and... i've I've seen people I've worked with. I've also just seen like leadership that's leveled up over the years. Like Arlington was.
Tony: you know. And Rita is so powerful. But his wife wasn't a member at the time. And she's... You know, she comes from Yeroy's blood.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And for her to get like. yeah it's okay for you to meet with the the sisters and to meet with chelsea and then for her to get back like there's just a lot of things that have happened with so many people that have so that i've Served there that have left that have come back Robert Ned That was a branch president in Delop was powerful. he He spends a lot of time in Utah, but guys just keep going back. So it's just, it's fun to get out there. It's fun to see like the new leadership. Even now.
Tony: David Betty.
Darin Tingey: Hey everybody.
Tony: David Betty. david David Betty was an elder. He was out six weeks. So like I was his own leader.
Darin Tingey: No way.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: So he was he was brand new.
Darin Tingey: Did.
Tony: And he David Betty. is the salt of the earth. Okay.
Darin Tingey: Yet.
Tony: Like he's one of those dogs that like, not only will he change his family tree, like he will change so many lives in the Marshall Islands. And he's one of he's one of those fur firm like...
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: Just not only believer guys, but he's an action guy. And then he married. She was a sister missionary at the time. I don't remember her name. But she was a sister missionary at the same time.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: So like picture us at the end of the mission, four months, six months, we have like. Three or four sister missionaries that are. marshallese and then we get like Four that are...
Tony: you It was like the first round of them, but they're...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: The ones from Ibai are serving in Majuro. You know, like it it just, it changed things around. and It was wild to see the work like.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: take off with those with those marshallese people jumping in because most of them got sent somewhere else you know if it was japan if it was
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Australia or wherever it may be. so
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I think David served his mission, his whole mission in the marshals, I think.
Tony: It was...
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: He is a dog, dude. He... He is going to be so.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Good. for the stake in maduro he already went to arno because they include arno in the Maduro stake, just because it's so close versus like quad state covers the rest of the outer islands.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: dude he's already like we're going to arno we're going to get missionaries out there
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: We're like. We're going to come visit you guys, leadership. Like we're taking care of you. Like he is the man. And Arlington Teeban was the man too. Like he was the man. And it was, I mean, it was time.
Darin Tingey: You know, he'd been this.
Tony: Present team. President Tima before that is probably still around.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's just like these these guys that are like...
Tony: Bye.
Darin Tingey: Just... uh giants uh in in the marshall islands and president delegate in on the quad stake he's a dog too and it's just it's just so fun i'm like good these guys they need good leadership and they're gonna do such a good job and I don't know. It's cool that you got to be a part and really see a lot of those like pioneers.
Darin Tingey: When you were there.
Tony: Well, yeah, it was wild. It was wild. when One day that I was there, I was with Percy. Do you know Percy Jorlun?
Darin Tingey: No.
Tony: Percy Jorlung, he used to take care of all of the housing and churches for the church. he used to do all of He used to do all of that.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: And. I ran into him and he was a member. And he didn't say he was a member. He was drunk. And his wife came up and slapped him. She's like, he's drunk. like He's a member. And then we came back and started teaching them. And he ended up baptizing his wife. They're my closest, still to this day, they're besides Willie, they're my closest.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: marcia like And then I helped him get a job. for the church. And so then that just but he is he's one of those pillars, too.
Darin Tingey: So cool.
Tony: He was an executive secretary in the state presidencies. all of that. But it's just it was cool to go back. And I was with Percy. And we see a bunch of... you know Like.
Tony: The steak. All of these guys in the back of the truck. So David, Betty, all of them. And they're going to Long Island to go meet. and Percy stops him, and they see me, and it's the first time I've seen David Betty in.
Tony: 20 years, you know
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: And he's like, yeah obviously, I got gray hair. I'm old. But like, once I start speaking Marshallese, I was called Elder Pucarar. or ikarar. Like I was, I was, I was bigger than a Bucarar.
Darin Tingey: Ahem.
Tony: I was an Icarar. And, I went and did like a little steak meeting with them. And...
Darin Tingey: So cool.
Tony: To like listen to everything that's going on in the church. And they just let me listen. And then they had me, of course, at the very end, like, hey, will you share some things?
Darin Tingey: say Yeah, yeah.
Tony: and And.
Darin Tingey: Hmm.
Tony: And. It was just so cool to be back and be surrounded by. You know, the the coolest thing about the the islands in general is that you can go into a place and it can be very very very quiet And then you invite the spirit by singing and no one's singing on tune and it's in a different like wave of like how the melody is supposed to go.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: and then get into a meeting and just like. Feel the spirit so, so, so strong, right? Marshallese people and islanders just know how to invite the spirit very well. and they're so tenderhearted that they can't deny the feeling that they're feeling. And so it was so cool to be in there and be like, man, these are juggernauts. Like, I know i know all all of them were like little dudes.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And now they're running the ship. Julan, Jab Julan's son that's there. There was just, there was so many. uh people that i'm like man i served you look older i look older
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And you're you're still you're still rocking it, right? You're still... You're still holding on and doing the best you can. And that was just really cool though. to be a part of that. And the other thing is, is that.
Tony: Going to Majuro. you They have so many manuias. Like there was a lot of manuias when I was there, but everyone is selling rice and bao, you know.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Like you can go buy your.
Darin Tingey: Thank you.
Tony: rape ra pub what that that leg ja mal You know, like I could go get anything I want.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: that you couldn't get unless you were. Someone from an outer island brought it to you? Or you came from Laura. So they capitalized on that really well to like. Have them bring in the food from Laura.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and have her bring in some fruit. Like that was never there.
Darin Tingey: Interesting.
Tony: And. That was really cool to come back and be like, oh, sick. So I can just buy i can just buy a plate and get sick right here if I want to.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: That's right.
Tony: i Like there's going to be blood in the chicken.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Like, yeah, let's like, let's go.
Darin Tingey: let's be Yes. Let's go. eBuy special right there.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: uh Well, dude, I think it is cool for you to go back and it it feels kind of like. When Ammon and... you know, the sons of Mosiah and Alma that all come.
Darin Tingey: come back together you know after all their work and it's like yo, we're still in it. You know, we're still, we're still doing this thing, building, building Zion here in the Marshall Islands.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's just a cool, a cool thing.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Okay, last. Last three questions that I ask everybody. favorite Favorite food?
Tony: Luke Wonyui won. For sure, Turtle.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: Turtle's the best.
Darin Tingey: Uh huh.
Tony: My favorite pub, Rao Pub. If I'm Urur Pub, you don't Mangai Pub, you're Urur Pub.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: is uh with that that
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: with that that I love with that, that I don't like boiled, you know. But those are those would be my two those would be my two favorites. Sorry, I'm going into a little bit more my favorite fish.
Tony: Koobong.
Darin Tingey: Which one's Kuban?
Tony: Kubung is a small rock fish that's like this big, that's got like... It's like a greenish yellow with like black stripes. there's
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Tony: They're like that big and they get them in a...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They get them in an okai with oak or okarigar when they throw them.
Darin Tingey: Yep, yep Okay.
Tony: those are those are Those are like chips.
Tony: That's what I love. So those those are my favorite foods for sure.
Darin Tingey: the The bub. It's funny. uh when i went to kitabus they would like got you kong they would like eat it they would just eat the pandanus and i'm like what are you doing dude you got like you got a little above you don't eat that you know he's huge
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: god Like, yeah, it's kind of weird, dude.
Tony: Huh? Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But like, that's that they didn't get a miss. And I was like, that's so odd.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then then you got to like other. Island countries and the like. That's pig food, dude. We don't eat that here.
Tony: Yeah, like eating turkey neck in the Marshall Islands.
Darin Tingey: and they're like What? Yeah. yeah
Tony: You're like, why am I eating turkey neck and cold corned beef?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. But... Yeah.
Tony: You know?
Darin Tingey: So funny. Okay, it's a turtle.
Tony: what were the other What were the other two?
Darin Tingey: i
Tony: What were the other two questions?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, the the other two are awas. one and then i'll finish the last one but the the next one is what was your favorite area
Tony: Alright.
Tony: the
Tony: I think at the time, because it was the end of the mission and no one wanted to go there. to like make laura successful
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: and like just double down and like work of like hey we're gonna We're going to go do this. Laura had to be my favorite area. I saw the most growth out of there from members.
Tony: And... You know, at that time, when you're out for 20 months, like you're, you know. You're spitting fire. Like he... You know how to speak Marshallese really good.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And then when you have a, and then you have a Marshallese companion that you've been companions with for six weeks, then you're really, you start to get fine -tuned like, oh, I've actually been saying that wrong for two years.
Darin Tingey: yeah I know, right? That was me on lie, dude. The kids were like. Another thank you. It's not. I was like, with me, I'd say Yipa. And like, it's bad.
Darin Tingey: He bat and I was like, I'm like, all right, I I'm a year and a half in, and I've been saying it wrong the whole freaking time.
Tony: Eat that, yeah. Yeah.
Tony: Yeah. Well, it's it's like the basic thing like my water like people were saying lima and it's nima
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: like little kids say it like lima lima so elders were saying it like lima lima lima they're like dude you're saying it like you're a little kid like no like don't say that
Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: they look nima You know?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah
Tony: i'd Yeah, i'd say I'd say Laura, but that's so hard because... Each stage, you have so many different, like Ibai, you could never be the elder that you were going to be if I wouldn't have.
Tony: gone to ebay and just like taken it with a fire hose of what
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: There's just so many people you just are. baptism by fire of figuring out. What the heck's going on? Sitting Indian style. Your feet are hurting uncontrollably. You're like putting things in between.
Tony: You're trying to figure out not to fall asleep. So there's just so many epic things. But Laura, just because it was the end and the parties there were epic at the end, you know, like I'm leaving and it's like.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Dude the parties are so fun
Tony: Like so epic. And I'm doing Roros and doing other. other other things with them that I had learned throughout the mission. from, the guy in caution that though that i spent a lot of time with
Darin Tingey: rodos I feel like I didn't learn. Or even know about Roros until I went to Lai, which is like at the end of my mission. I was like, why have I not been learning Roros this whole time?
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Like.
Tony: Yeah, I had a memory.
Darin Tingey: I think that's so cool.
Tony: I had a member named Kolojuna that was from Millie. And he was like. A big time, like all up down there. And he came to Majuro because he had du you know he was diabetes he was going to die.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And so every preparation day for like three months, I would go study with him for like two hours.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: My companion would write his letter and I would just study with him. We'd just chat. he he caught He taught me Kazantratak and Kazantralik and taught me... rotos he taught me like a dozen rotos of like This is what this means.
Darin Tingey: So fun.
Tony: This is what, you know. as a cup cup boom in bra and meto na like ain'tum brandne like this is when you're out there fishing out on the lick side and then you see like You know.
Tony: the the sun come up. over the water and it's like then it's the next day or then you're into your day you know like just teaching you not just like how to say a roto but what the meaning was
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And it was just, it was really cool to. So that like. you know That was the best part about the Marshall Islands is the people, right?
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: like
Darin Tingey: right that That leads into my next question.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: What was what was the best? What's the best thing about the Marshall Islands? You just said it.
Tony: I mean... I mean it's the people. People,
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: When you have people that will feed you before they feed themselves, even if they don't have anything.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They'll give you. you know christmas you guys i don't know if they did that like i christmas that like i want that they'd like a christmas that hat i christmas that watch and you have to give them the watch you know
Darin Tingey: That's funny that they would call it that they would just be like
Tony: like Christmas.
Darin Tingey: Leta Meninjolet. You know, like, yeah.
Tony: Yeah, no, no, they'd be like, christmas Christmasy, Christmasy, Christmasy, Christmasy, watch now.
Tony: Let it go. You know, like that's how they would, that's how they talk.
Darin Tingey: and
Tony: But like the people. I mean, really their people is what converted me to. To the mish, right?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yep.
Tony: that's what That's what kept you there. That's what kept you so excited. That's what kept you going. is that you knew there was You know, there are some morning donuts from someone that you're going to get and you're going to meet someone, you know. Like it was.
Tony: There's, there's always, so there's always something and they're so giving.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: They're so, so, so giving.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it is funny. In America, it's like... This is my stuff. You know? And.
Tony: What are you bringing?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: What are you bringing to the pocket?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah. we're Having dinner, you should bring something, you know. Or Venmo, here's the Venmo request, you know, like.
Tony: Yeah. Everyone go on Google Doc and fill out what you're going to bring.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Marshawn's, it's like, no, dude, I... What do you want? Sure, I'll give it to you. like it you know here take this take that Have my food. I'm eating it. i I literally just took a bite.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Here you have it. It's yours.
Tony: Yeah.
Tony: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Just incredible people. that You just realize that life is... A lot simpler than we tend to make it. and Just. easier to be happy when you're Just giving and... and living, honestly, just just living. just She said, buttic you know, butbanado like just.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Just living.
Tony: Yeah, their relationships relationships are everything for people in the Marshall Islands because that's what they have.
Darin Tingey: The people are amazing.
Tony: You know relationships a couple shirts
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: you know some zoris and that's it You know. Other than that, like they, they don't have much, they have each other.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Tony: And so relationships are.
Tony: that's what's made me better in business is definitely learning from them and how they. Have relationships. It's amazing.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Well, Tony, super fun to do the podcast. Finally, like I said, I've been I've seen you on the speaking Marshallese on Facebook and Instagram and stuff.
Tony: Ha ha. Heh.
Darin Tingey: And it's fun to hear that, like you've kept up with the Marshallese and with the like the people and like gone back a bunch. I think you and I are are similar in that aspect of like.
Darin Tingey: just wanting to stay involved in it.
Tony: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: up to date but you're the man and this was another great episode of the islands podcast
Tony: Thanks for having me.
