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Episode 22: Tanner Risk - Kiribati - Butaritari, Makin, Marakei, Maiana, Tabiteuea, Tarawa
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Tanner Risk served in Kiribati from 2013 - 2015 and was a part of the missionary age change flood of missionaries world wide. After serving just a few months on Tarawa, Tanner was sent to the outer island of Butaritari where he would begin his life as the "outer islands elder." Almost his whole two years as a missionary in Kiribati, Tanner would be serving the people of the outer islands: Butaritari, Makin, Marakei, Maiana, and Tabiteuea. Everywhere Tanner went the church grew and near death encounters occurred, but that's what we call a mission in the islands of the Pacific.
#MarshallIslandsMajuroMission #MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #Kiribati #Tarawa #Butaritari #Makin #Marakei #Maiana #Tabiteuea #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia #islandculture
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Transcript
Introduction and Mission Beginnings
00:00:00
Darin Tingey
All right, we're on with another episode of the islands podcast. And this one is a fun one for me because this is like a name that I heard on my mission as a legend.
00:00:11
Darin Tingey
So it's fun to finally talk about the mission. Tanner risk, Tanner, you were legend on my end, I'll just say that your name was known everywhere. so this is gonna be super fun. But give a quick background on you.
00:00:24
Tanner Risk
All right. Yeah, man, i was on my end for a long time, so it doesn't surprise me that ah my name stuck there. But ah yeah, I'm so my name is Tanner Risk. I served in Kitabas from September 2013 to September And I grew up in Lacey, Washington.
00:00:42
Tanner Risk
um i I received my mission call during my senior year of high school. I i was part of that initial age change rush. So that that happened while I was a senior in high school.
00:00:51
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:00:53
Tanner Risk
And a lot of my you know I was planning on going to BYU right after high school. And even after the
Surprises and Early Experiences
00:00:59
Tanner Risk
age change, I was like, you know what? I'm still going to go to BYU for a year and then go on a mission. That's what I was always planning. That's what I want to do.
00:01:06
Tanner Risk
But so many of my friends started like turning in all their mission papers. And the peer pressure got to me. And I i prayed about And was like, you know what? i I'm just going to go. I'm just going to go. you know So I submitted mission papers.
00:01:18
Tanner Risk
And... you know the About a couple months later, I got my mission call, that white envelope in the mail. and I was so stoked. I got it during lunch. I went home to check the mailbox during lunch, and i saw it was in there.
00:01:32
Tanner Risk
and started texting everyone, and... Yeah, I mean, I had everybody that I knew that that was important to me come over to my place for the mission call opening. And I've been to a lot of mission call openings at this point because everybody was going on a mission because of the age change.
00:01:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:01:47
Tanner Risk
And all of my friends were going to like South America, Mexico, Colorado, Texas, California. and that's pretty much it. You know, maybe a couple went to the UK or something.
00:01:59
Tanner Risk
And the islands were not even on my mind at all. I had not even considered an island mission. And so when i when I opened that call and saw that I was going to the Marshall Islands Majuro mission, i i was absolutely blown away.
00:02:15
Tanner Risk
I had never even heard of it at all. i hadn't even heard of the Marshall Islands.
00:02:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:19
Tanner Risk
like I wasn't a history buff. I didn't know like World War II history or anything.
00:02:23
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:02:23
Tanner Risk
And I was like, what? And then I kept reading and I was like, you're going to preach the language in the Kira body language? And everybody is just like freaking out.
00:02:33
Tanner Risk
They're like, where are you going? Like it was, it was just crazy. i couldn't believe it.
00:02:37
Darin Tingey
And then you can't even you can't look on the map. It doesn't even like show up on the paper map that you probably had out.
00:02:42
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:02:43
Darin Tingey
It's like,
00:02:44
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
Life in Virginia and MTC Memories
00:02:44
Tanner Risk
That, that paper, paper. No, it was like, because it's the they have that world map in the mission call, and it was like divided on like one side of the page and the other side of the page because of, you know, the words, because of Christmas Island. And so it was just, it was so crazy. i couldn't believe it. And I also couldn't believe that I was going to have to wait until September to leave on my mission because I opened my call in April.
00:02:44
Darin Tingey
where is this place?
00:03:07
Tanner Risk
ah Because of the age change, like, and the rush, like, they they do I had to wait like five and a half months to to leave, so...
00:03:08
Darin Tingey
It's a long time.
00:03:15
Tanner Risk
it was It was a long wait, but eventually I got there to the MTC in Provo, and i i couldn't have been more stoked.
00:03:22
Darin Tingey
And now, ah post-mission, where do you live?
00:03:26
Tanner Risk
so now So now I'm living in Virginia right now. I'm married, and then I have ah a three-year-old daughter and a one-year-old son. So yeah, things are good.
00:03:33
Darin Tingey
Nice. Where in Virginia?
00:03:35
Tanner Risk
Buena Vista, Virginia. So it's it's up in the...
00:03:37
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:03:39
Tanner Risk
Buena Vista is how they say it here. It's up in the Appalachian Mountains. Yeah, it's a beautiful place.
00:03:42
Darin Tingey
Okay. I lived in Arlington for the past three years.
00:03:46
Tanner Risk
Oh, awesome.
00:03:46
Darin Tingey
Now I'm in Utah. So I love Virginia. Huge fan.
00:03:50
Tanner Risk
Yeah, yeah, we we really like it here. It's beautiful.
00:03:52
Darin Tingey
So to the MTC. Were you expecting a big MTC group given that there was a big rush of missionaries?
00:04:01
Tanner Risk
I was. i was. Honestly, i I had
First Area and Cultural Adjustments
00:04:04
Tanner Risk
no idea. i was expecting there to be more than there was. It was just and was just me, Elder Farley, and Elder Fawcett. We were a threesome, and we were the entire Kitabas district.
00:04:14
Tanner Risk
So it was it was just insane to see that there was literally just three of us. going going there.
00:04:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:04:21
Tanner Risk
We were like the smallest district in the MTC, I think. um It was, and you know, the other island zones or the other island districts within the island zone, like the the Samoa district and the the Fiji one, like they were all bigger. They're like 12 to 15 per.
00:04:37
Tanner Risk
And we were just the three of us. And it made us just feel even more like, where are we going? Like, what is this place?
00:04:42
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:04:43
Tanner Risk
You know, like, we have no idea what we're getting into. And back then, like, there wasn't much information online either about Kitabus. Like, the internet wasn't very big there.
00:04:51
Darin Tingey
and
00:04:53
Tanner Risk
There was like nothing on YouTube. So they weren't on Facebook yet, really, yet there. so there was just hardly any information. And we just really, it was so mysterious. We had no idea what we were what we were getting into.
00:05:07
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:05:07
Darin Tingey
Were there any Marshallese elders there too?
00:05:10
Tanner Risk
Yeah, yeah. There was a there was probably... I mean like six or seven people going to the Marshall Islands. There's a mix of sisters and elders. I don't remember all their names.
00:05:19
Tanner Risk
I just remember that Elder Price was one of them. he was a good friend of ours. We hung out with him a lot, but he was going to the Marshall side and we were going to the Kitabas side. So we knew we might never even see him over there because our teachers explained to us like you don't really switch sides unless you're an AP.
00:05:30
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:05:33
Tanner Risk
So, um but he was a great guy. I just remember Elder Price was there.
00:05:37
Darin Tingey
So when you flew to Kiribati, did you go through Fiji or was it like the the Hawaii Christmas Fiji Tarawa flight?
00:05:46
Tanner Risk
Yeah. So, so we did the, the salt lake to LAX, l LAX to Fiji, to Nandi, Fiji. And then we spent a day there in Fiji, which was really cool. It was really weird to just, cause we, you know, you work so hard at the MTC. We were there for seven weeks.
00:06:02
Tanner Risk
We were supposed to be there for six, but we got delayed a week. So we ended up going a week later, but You know, you work
Outer Islands and Health Challenges
00:06:08
Tanner Risk
so hard, the structure is is so rigid at the MTC, it's so strict. And then we just have this like full day layover in Fiji, just lounging around at the hotel.
00:06:17
Tanner Risk
And I have pictures of of the three of us, me, Fawcett, and Farley, just like laying in the hotel, like drinking Mountain Dew, just doing nothing, you know?
00:06:28
Tanner Risk
We're we're like, this is so weird.
00:06:29
Darin Tingey
Peace.
00:06:30
Tanner Risk
But the next day, we caught our shuttle to the airport and did that fateful... You know, scary flight up to Tarawa, the three hour flight and flying into Tarawa, you just, yeah i mean, you know how it is. You just cannot believe your eyes when you see that atoll for the first time. You see how small it is, how much water there is surrounding everything.
00:06:55
Tanner Risk
And you're just blown away. And it's horrifying. It's horrifying pulling in, like flying into that airport. You see the length of the the airstrip going from one end of the island to the other. and the plane is like over the lagoon. I mean, it's just, it was surreal. You just can't believe it when you're landing in Bonadiki. So that was, yeah.
00:07:15
Tanner Risk
I mean, everybody who serves here knows how how that feeling was. was crazy.
00:07:20
Darin Tingey
i was I remember being shocked that the airstrip was the width of the island rather than like ah like a length, like the longer part.
00:07:29
Darin Tingey
It was just the width. And I was like, oh shoot, like that's pretty small.
00:07:30
Tanner Risk
Right, right. Yeah. Yeah. Like, why why did they build it that direction? Yeah. Yeah, I don't know.
00:07:38
Darin Tingey
um
00:07:38
Tanner Risk
So we... Yeah, go ahead.
00:07:40
Darin Tingey
No, so you get there and did you classic Moroni high school, meet your companion.
00:07:45
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we landed there and there was like the entire Tarawa's population of missionaries at the airport to greet us. So that was really cool. Like we land and we can see them all standing through that like chain link fence.
00:08:01
Tanner Risk
And there was so many people there to greet us.
00:08:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:04
Tanner Risk
um One crazy thing from that, actually from getting there to Boneriki was I recognized one of the guys, one of the elders. And I was like, I know you from somewhere. And we look at each other's name tags and he's like,
00:08:16
Tanner Risk
did we meet at wrestling camp like for three years ago? and I was like, yeah, it was Elder Maisie, Elder Eddie Maisie. I don't know if you know his name, but we had we had met at wrestling camp like three years prior, and we remembered each other's names and faces like randomly.
00:08:30
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:08:32
Tanner Risk
And it was like, it was so weird to run into him on the other side of the world on this tiny island. and the That was just like a really weird like first 15 minutes, you know.
00:08:43
Tanner Risk
But yeah, we we get taken to... Tomorone High School, we go into the senior couple's house and they run us they give us the rundown and everything. And that's when I found out that my first area is supposed to be Abayang.
00:08:57
Tanner Risk
So that's... i I had forgotten about that, honestly, but I was supposed to go out to Abayang for my very first area with Elder Maddie.
00:09:00
Darin Tingey
Oh shoot.
00:09:07
Tanner Risk
So he was supposed to die with me on Abayang. And the problem was though was that he was having health issues. So he... was They were
Fiji Trip and Continued Mission Work
00:09:17
Tanner Risk
like delaying it like a week, us going out there, while he got like checked by the doctors on Tarawa.
00:09:22
Tanner Risk
and it It ended up being that he actually had to go home because of he had like a liver issue. um so He ended up having to go home.
00:09:27
Darin Tingey
ah shit
00:09:29
Tanner Risk
and so Instead, they stuck me with Elder Whippy. So they know where to put me you know at this point. So they put me with Elder Whitby in Elder Data in Ata Second. So that's that's how I ended up in Ata Second as my very first area.
00:09:44
Tanner Risk
i was only there for a couple of months. But um yeah, so I spent that that first time in Ata Second. Elder Whitby was technically my my dad in the mission.
00:09:54
Darin Tingey
I feel like ada Ada is a great place to start.
00:09:55
Tanner Risk
ah
00:09:58
Darin Tingey
That's just a good area on Barawa. I think it's an awesome place to start a mission.
00:10:02
Tanner Risk
Yeah, that's what that's what everyone was telling me that I was so lucky to get to start there. Elder Farley got shipped out to Beso with Elder Mendenhall. And every every like Sunday or Peter or whatever it was when I see him, he's like, dude, you have no idea what I'm going through out there.
00:10:17
Darin Tingey
What?
00:10:18
Tanner Risk
Like, Beso is insane. i tried to avoid Beso at all costs, but I felt bad for him having to go there. Elder Fawcett went to, i think it was Bwota.
00:10:28
Tanner Risk
with Elder Ward, but I got Ada second with Elder Whitby and that was great.
00:10:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:10:33
Tanner Risk
He was a really good guy. um And he he did a lot to teach me like the language he tried to. And even though I wasn't very good at it, but he just he just knew the culture so well.
00:10:45
Tanner Risk
he knew the language so well. He's such a great guy. Everybody loved him. So I was i was really lucky to be able to be with him initially. that was That was really good. But i was in another threesome. you know i was like I was in a threesome at the MTC, and then I show up in Kitabas, and I get put in another threesome.
00:11:00
Tanner Risk
And so I was like, man,
Transfers and Responsibilities
00:11:01
Tanner Risk
these first like two months my mission, I've just been in a threesome the whole time. And...
00:11:05
Darin Tingey
those are always hard because like teaching, you're all all trying to get like a little piece in, you know, or it's like who answers what or like for you, you probably maybe didn't get as much time to speak and practice your language because you had these other two guys.
00:11:10
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah.
00:11:18
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah. That's it's it's a weird dynamic. ah But especially when you're like actually in the field, it's a weird dynamic.
00:11:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:26
Tanner Risk
But Whippy ended up he I mean, he died with me. So he was i was his last companion basically for that last month. And then he went home. And i got Elder Taras from Bay. So he's like the son of the owner of Triple t So everybody knew him. he was a really great guy.
00:11:43
Tanner Risk
i really, really loved being his companion. He was a hard worker. ah He helped me out with the language a lot. Heart of gold. Really, really wonderful guy. i loved being with him. But it was really short. You know, like a month later, or like three weeks later, they told me...
00:11:59
Tanner Risk
like you're going to be going to but dahi dahi and makin and
Mayana Branch Efforts and Reflections
00:12:04
Tanner Risk
so I was excited to get out of it. I was like so excited to go to an outer island. i was pumped.
00:12:10
Tanner Risk
But the problem was they had to like wait two weeks for me to go or something. So they gave Elder, because of the timing, they gave Elder Tadas his new companion, Elder Mimea.
00:12:22
Tanner Risk
So now I was back in another threesome for like two weeks. And it was kind of just awkward because says this is like their new companionship. And I was just kind of there in the middle of it. That's how I felt at least, you know.
00:12:33
Tanner Risk
and
00:12:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:12:35
Tanner Risk
So I was just there with them for like two weeks in the middle of their like new companionship, just kind of waiting to go out to boot. So that's, that's how the last two weeks were in Ada second.
00:12:46
Tanner Risk
Um, but I got really, yeah, yeah.
00:12:46
Darin Tingey
Were you replacing someone on Butari Tari?
00:12:51
Tanner Risk
So boot that it thought was really, really struggling at the time. ah they were, there was like zero investigators that they were reporting at the time.
00:13:01
Tanner Risk
So, The zone leaders at the time, I think it was it was like Elder Copeland, Elder Sias, Elder Monson, and Elder Decker.
00:13:11
Tanner Risk
i believe those were the zone leaders at the time. They i mean they basically just said, Bhuttaritari needs like to be kind of reinvigorated. you know We need like fresh blood out there.
00:13:23
Tanner Risk
There's no work happening, basically. so your assignment, I guess, out there is just to kind of get the work going again. And we're also going to potentially have you reopen Makin. Because Makin was closed at the time. There was no missionaries there.
00:13:37
Tanner Risk
Missionaries had been there, obviously, but it had been almost like ah it been like eight or nine months or something for since the the elders were there. So they wanted to maybe have us go reopen Makin and see how the island's doing.
00:13:48
Tanner Risk
So yeah, it was crazy shipping out to Butaritari and just
00:13:52
Darin Tingey
Like I finally get to go to the outer island. Like Abayam was promised, didn't happen.
00:13:56
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:13:57
Darin Tingey
you're like two weeks, like man, am I actually gonna make it out there? And then finally you go.
00:14:02
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Finally go and A whole new planet. That's what it felt like. A whole new, like it was completely different than Tarawa.
00:14:13
Tanner Risk
You know, yeah you've been to outer islands. You show up and you're just like, I had no idea it could get this underdeveloped, like this primitive. You know, you hear the stories, right? Like the other missionaries tell you about what Audis are like, but then you get there and you're just like,
00:14:28
Tanner Risk
Okay. Yeah. You land, we landed on Buttaritari. It's just a whole new planet, you know, and it was so lush and green and so open and the road was just so terrible.
00:14:39
Tanner Risk
and all of these things, all of these things, you know, you see, you get to an outer island and it's you're just blown away. Like, cause on, on Tarawa, you know, they have cars, there's a paved road. They're still building like brick and mortar and stuff. There's Marone high school, there's electricity,
00:14:54
Tanner Risk
but you know, being taken from the airport to our house in Putaritari is just, you just can't believe that this is where where you're living, you know? And and that it's just, yeah.
00:15:05
Tanner Risk
It was really beautiful though.
00:15:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah, just thought it was like its own culture shock. And then like out around it's like way bigger shock. And you're like, all right, this is kind of what I imagined.
00:15:13
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:15
Darin Tingey
But like, I'm actually here and I'm living on this tiny island in the middle of Pacific where there's like nothing besides coconut trees and thatch houses.
00:15:26
Tanner Risk
Yeah, absolutely. And there's so much less people, so much less busy. It's like quiet, you know? And it's really I really preferred the outer islands, honestly. absolutely Which is why I got lucky with where I served my mission.
00:15:39
Tanner Risk
um So my life companion there was Elder Tawana.
00:15:41
Darin Tingey
you
00:15:43
Tanner Risk
He was a Kitabas guy from the island of Beru. Straight outer island guy. Spoke no English. Full-on Kitabas culture guy. And he was just, he was known for being difficult to be companions with. That's that's what I'll say.
00:16:00
Tanner Risk
Like he was just really hard to kind of get along with and mesh with. And he was my most difficult companionship, partly because I wasn't good at the language yet.
00:16:11
Tanner Risk
You know, I did, I got sent out to this outer island where nobody speaks English.
00:16:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:16:14
Tanner Risk
My companion doesn't even speak English. And I've only been in the mission for a couple months. So I don't really speak the language very well. And so communication was just a really, really hard part. But he would just do he would just do odd things sometimes. Like this guy was just really interesting. One time we were we were just like hanging out with some members on their booyah, you know, and talking about if they have any referrals. And he's like, I'll be right back. And he just leaves.
00:16:38
Tanner Risk
And I'm just there like, where did he go, you know? And he comes back with a puppy. And I'm like, what is that? And he's like, this is my new puppy. Like what?
00:16:50
Tanner Risk
We can't have a dog like and he just completely.
00:16:53
Darin Tingey
well
00:16:55
Tanner Risk
Anytime I said like we're not allowed to have pets like it's in the white handbook. He's like, oh, you know, OK. And he would just keep it.
00:17:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:17:02
Tanner Risk
And yes, and he loved he loved that dog more than anything. That became like his sole focus was that dog. So anyway, he was just an interesting guy just kind of just kind of difficult, you know, but we I tried really hard to just get that work going on Butareitare, trying to like push to go contact people, go find investigators and ah just get get the work going there.
00:17:29
Tanner Risk
You know, and that that was what I was really trying to do.
00:17:31
Darin Tingey
You know, I was always jealous, um you know, during the podcast and hearing all your guys' stories of how many ah kiddos people you guys actually get to serve with, like have a native companion.
00:17:41
Darin Tingey
and We just like didn't have that on the Marshall Island side. And I don't know if it was just because...
00:17:48
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:17:48
Darin Tingey
there were one, there's probably not as many people going on missions, uh, just fewer people in general in the marsh islands, but to like, even if they were called to our mission president, which is like sent them over to Kitabas.
00:17:58
Darin Tingey
Um, so they weren't like serving in their home ward basically. But I was always jealous. Like, man, like i feel like my language would be so much better if I had a native companion. yeah.
00:18:10
Darin Tingey
and um But I do understand like some parts it's really hard.
00:18:10
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:18:12
Darin Tingey
like If you're on an outer island and the guy doesn't speak English, and're like this outer island life is already hard enough to like get adjusted to. And then on top of that, the guy doesn't speak English at and I'm trying to learn the language and the culture. and It's just like three whammies, dude.
00:18:28
Tanner Risk
yeah Yeah, yeah, 100%. Like, it's good to be forced to speak the language, like, nonstop. Absolutely, that's true.
00:18:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:36
Tanner Risk
I just felt really isolated those those couple months with Elder Tawana. Like, I and got sent out to this Audi, you know, far away. i wasn't getting any letters or anything from family. There's no internet, you know, no email.
00:18:48
Tanner Risk
And... i I just felt really isolated and alone. Like it was a really hard time ah of my mission to be out there.
00:18:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:18:57
Tanner Risk
I miss the other guys in the mission that I become such good friends with. And it was just rough. Like it and the work wasn't getting going that well, you know, so the people weren't that interested.
00:19:09
Tanner Risk
We did have we did start picking it up and we started getting some investigators. But It was just hard, you know, and butari is a hard island to serve on too, because it's just pouring rain, like every single day.
00:19:23
Tanner Risk
And people don't like you coming to teach lessons when you're like soaking wet and you get on their buyo and you're like dripping, you know. People don't like that.
00:19:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:19:31
Tanner Risk
So it was just really hard to just constantly be soaking wet, covered in mud. The road was terrible. was just potholes. we would We would do sacraments up and down the island, of course.
00:19:43
Tanner Risk
You know, like most outer islands you have to.
00:19:44
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:19:46
Tanner Risk
And yeah it's like four and a half hours to bike the whole island. so But we would do it, you know. and We would have to bike all the way up to the furthest north um village, which which I think was called Kume.
00:20:01
Tanner Risk
That was the furthest north village. like You can see Ma Khin from the village of Kume.
00:20:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's pretty cool.
00:20:07
Tanner Risk
ah But we we would sometimes stay overnight with the with the people there in that village, the members that we would do the sacrament for, and then spend like half of our P-Day there the next day.
00:20:19
Tanner Risk
and then come back. So, um, one time, one time we went fishing with him on his wah, uh, then on P day and,
00:20:23
Darin Tingey
The, yeah
00:20:31
Tanner Risk
ah this is ah This was a horrible, horrible experience. I had terrible diarrhea for so much of my mission. I'll just start with that. But we were out on this wah in the middle of the lagoon, like catching fish, you know.
00:20:44
Tanner Risk
And he's like, yeah, let's head out to this other little, this little islet over there. There's like some cool stuff to see. And we start going towards it But we're still like a mile away probably.
00:20:56
Tanner Risk
And i have to go so, so so bad. i like literally cannot hold it. I'm like, I'm like, guys, I have to jump. and They're like, all right, we'll just meet you there. Like they don't, they don't wait. Like they literally leave, I jump off the boat and they just leave me there in the ocean and they go to the next island, to that little islet.
00:21:19
Tanner Risk
And I'm just floating there in the middle little middle of the lagoon. And i you know, I do my business in the water and I start and I just like kind of watch where they go. and I just like start making my way there. And i remember it dawning on me. i looked down and I can see probably like 40 to 50 feet down of just clear water all the way to the ocean bottom.
00:21:45
Tanner Risk
And I can see fish. And I'm like, what if there's a shark? And I i start like panicking. And I start, I just start booking it to this little islet swimming.
00:21:55
Tanner Risk
And, you know, I hope President Weir doesn't listen to this. But um yeah, so I get there and they're like, oh, you made it.
00:22:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:22:05
Tanner Risk
And I was like, why did you guys just leave, you know? and and yeah, so that was that was an insane, insane experience.
00:22:14
Darin Tingey
I think I probably most of the missionaries have an experience of pooping in the water. And it's a it's a weird feeling. Your body doesn't want to do it, but it just does.
00:22:28
Darin Tingey
And it's ah ah such a such a funny thing about our mission.
00:22:28
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:22:32
Darin Tingey
It's good.
00:22:33
Tanner Risk
Yeah. So not long after that,
00:22:34
Darin Tingey
So did you guys did you guys go to my kin a lot?
00:22:38
Tanner Risk
Yeah, so, I mean, we weren't there. i wasn't there for that long, and the zone leaders went ahead and told us, like, you guys can go on my go to McKinn on the next flight and, you know, just talk to the agent at the airport and go to McKinn come back and then let us know what you find, you know, like what the status of the church is there.
00:22:58
Tanner Risk
And when we got there, we did take a plane, yeah, we because the the flight...
00:22:59
Darin Tingey
So you didn't take a boat, you took a plane.
00:23:05
Tanner Risk
that Eric Hittibus was doing at the time, like they would stop in Butaritari and then stop in Makkin and then go back to Tarawa. So we were able to hop on the plane there in Butaritari and then take that short little jump over to Makkin.
00:23:13
Darin Tingey
OK.
00:23:19
Tanner Risk
So that's what we did. And when we got there, people were just shocked to see us. They were like, There's elders, there's elders. Like we haven't seen elders in so long.
00:23:30
Tanner Risk
And we found the people that had had elders living with them before and they still had an area book there in their house. And we looked through the area book and we like found names and stuff, but like the majority of people had moved.
00:23:39
Darin Tingey
Oh, well.
00:23:44
Tanner Risk
We ended up, we walked to the whole island. It was pretty small. And we found that there was only eight active members on the island and one Melchizedek priesthood holder, which isn't too unusual for a really small outie. But we were just like, man, there's like literally nobody here.
00:23:59
Tanner Risk
And the presence of like the other churches, the Catholic and the Protestant church was, it was really, really strong there. So we walked around and talked to basically everybody on the island and not a single person was interested in having lessons.
00:24:12
Tanner Risk
So Machin, it was really, really hard to do to do work there.
00:24:13
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:24:16
Tanner Risk
um But we tried.
00:24:16
Darin Tingey
Was the Protestant church, like, I know the Catholic is, like, super strong in Markian and Butari-dari. Like, was the Protestant church, like, they actually have a good amount of members?
00:24:23
Tanner Risk
yeah
00:24:25
Tanner Risk
I, it's hard to remember. i remember there being like a really big, beautiful Protestant chapel, I think. I could be remembering wrong, but I know that almost everybody we talked to, they said, i can't have lessons with you even if I wanted to because the Catholic missionary will like beat me or something.
00:24:32
Darin Tingey
Okay. Okay.
00:24:43
Tanner Risk
And that's kind of how it went with like everybody.
00:24:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:46
Tanner Risk
So and we were well were like, well, we'll just be like service missionaries. Like we'll just do service and and help people and ask what we can do to help. We ended up getting some lessons with people, but nothing like super productive, you know?
00:24:59
Tanner Risk
And we ended we tried going out to Keabu though. and Kibu is the little islet to the south of Makin that you can walk to when the tide is out.
00:25:04
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:25:07
Tanner Risk
But we when we tried coming back that day, we didn't time it right with the tide, and the water was like already coming in pretty heavily from the ocean side to the lagoon side.
00:25:18
Tanner Risk
And we're like, we we cannot stay here. like We have to go back. And so we get these like long sticks, me and Elder Tawana. And we're like, let's just make our way back to Mak'in.
00:25:30
Tanner Risk
And we start going through and you know, because the tide's coming in. So the water just keeps getting deeper and deeper as we're like wading in the water between these two islands. And it was really It was really terrifying because the current was really strong and it was just taking you straight out to sea.
00:25:47
Tanner Risk
you know and other Tawano, he was a little guy.
00:25:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:51
Tanner Risk
And so he he like slipped and fell. And i like dove and caught him and picked him back up. And once he got his footing, we kind of like linked arms and forced our way through the current back to Maquin.
00:26:06
Tanner Risk
And they that we told the members about it and they were pissed. They were so mad. They're like, what are you guys thinking? Someone just died doing that. Like, are you guys crazy? Like, and we like we couldn't have stayed there the night. We didn't know it was that dangerous.
00:26:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you definitely could have been filled out to sea easily, just gone.
00:26:21
Tanner Risk
So that was.
00:26:24
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:26:25
Tanner Risk
Yeah, it was it was kind of a stupid move. I didn't know that it was that dangerous, but we made it. we were alive, so that was good. ah and then we went back to boot, you know, and um not long after that, I think, is when I got my new companion, which was Elder Kim.
00:26:44
Tanner Risk
So Elder Kim was from the intake just before me, but he was really good with the language. He was kind of a gifted... you know, gift of tongues type of guy. Like he knew the language really well.
00:26:57
Tanner Risk
So I was really happy to be with Elder Kim, a great missionary. We worked really hard and he helped me a lot with the language. That's when I felt like I started to really get a grasp of the language was with was with Elder Kim.
00:27:10
Darin Tingey
So when you were on Butare, then you went to Mak'in, guys just stayed at Mak'in for like a week. Did you guys ever go back?
00:27:18
Tanner Risk
Yeah, I think it was like a week. i went we went back with I went back with Elder Kim again. um But not ah we we we we worked on Boot for a little bit. And then we went back to Mokin again.
00:27:34
Tanner Risk
and kind of the same story, just trying to contact everybody. not a lot of people were interested. Everyone's scared of the Catholic Church.
00:27:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:42
Tanner Risk
And then the craziest thing. so we We get on the airplane in Ma Khen and they start going back to Bhutaritari to like drop us off. you know And there was this we could see that there was this crazy storm over Bhutaritari and we're like, oh no. like good like This is a tiny airplane. It was just me and him. like It was just me, him, and the pilots.
00:28:05
Tanner Risk
And and
00:28:06
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:28:07
Tanner Risk
And they're like, well, we're going to try to land. And we're like, okay, well, let's do this. They take three attempts going down through the rain, through the clouds to this.
00:28:17
Tanner Risk
And every single time we would come out of the clouds, it was just trees. And then they'd pull up again. and me and Elder Kim are like, dude, work we're like, we're going to die. Like, this is how we die. And after the third attempt and of them not being able to hit the airstrip, they're like, you know, we're just going to go back to Tarawa.
00:28:36
Tanner Risk
And me and Elder Kim look at each other and I could tell he was elated. He was so pumped to be going back to Tarawa. He's like, dude, we're going to get ice cream and cold water. I'm so excited. Air conditioning.
00:28:49
Tanner Risk
And I was just like, what is happening? Like we're going to Tarawa right now. You know, one minute you're on outer islands, like serving, doing your thing. You're isolated out there. And then an hour, like an hour later, however long the flight was, we were we were on Tarawa and nobody knew we were coming.
00:29:04
Tanner Risk
So we land there. i think the zone leader at the time was Elder Klatt. And Elder Klatt was hilarious on the phone. he And we call him and we're like, hey, so we're we're in Bondiki right now.
00:29:18
Tanner Risk
He's like, what are what what are you guys doing? What the fetch? Like, you guys are crazy. Why are you here? You know, and he starts freaking out. And they ended up having like a train the trainer thing at the moment. So they came and got us and we got to see like literally everybody. And it was...
00:29:32
Tanner Risk
It was this really fun reunion. It was a nice little break from the isolation of the outer island, you know. But the culture shock of going back to Tarawa was crazy.
00:29:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:40
Tanner Risk
I couldn't believe it. Like, it seemed so advanced to me. Like, the cars and the people and the air conditioning and, you know the food, everything. It was like reverse culture shock, you know.
00:29:51
Tanner Risk
Coming from the outer island to Tarawa.
00:29:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:54
Tanner Risk
Like, that was that was such a crazy, crazy experience. But they they got a flight for us the next morning. So the next morning... we We went right back out.
00:30:02
Darin Tingey
You're back.
00:30:04
Tanner Risk
Right back out to the Duddy Duddy. So...
00:30:06
Darin Tingey
Dude, that's lucky you got to back out though. guess I feel like sometimes it probably i would have been like, yeah, well, you're back here now. We'll just have you guys on Tarahua. Like we're going to shut down the island for a second or we're going to do transfers.
00:30:16
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:30:19
Darin Tingey
I mean, thankfully you got to go back grab your stuff and like, I don't know how much longer you stayed out there, but say goodbye to everybody.
00:30:22
Tanner Risk
Yeah. I mean, all my...
00:30:26
Tanner Risk
Yeah, all my stuff was still there, obviously. and speaking of getting to say goodbye to everybody, i didn't on Butari Tari because not long after that... i'd been on I've been out there for four months now, and we get a call from the zone leaders at like 9.30 at night. um You know, we're like getting ready for bed. It's like 9.30 at night, and the zone leaders were like, so Elder Risk, you are leaving at 8 o'clock in the morning on a charter flight, and you're going straight to Medicaid.
00:31:01
Tanner Risk
And... That was like devastating. I didn't get to have any carraures, like goodbye parties. I didn't get to say goodbye to any of the people I'd become close with.
00:31:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:31:11
Tanner Risk
I didn't get to even like really process that I was going directly to another outer island. The next morning, Elder Taras showed up on a charter flight. And i said goodbye to Elder Kim. And they they dropped off, like I think it was Elder Trussell. They dropped off Elder Trussell with Elder Kim.
00:31:29
Tanner Risk
And i just flew directly south to Medicaid. The elder there, i don't remember the reason, but he had to leave. So they had me swap him out.
00:31:40
Tanner Risk
And I was with another kid of his companion, Elder Tebe, who was a really good guy. He was from Christmas Island. He was just waiting on his visa to go to Papua New Guinea. So he was there with me and Medicaid.
00:31:51
Tanner Risk
And yeah, so that was kind of just that was an insane emergency transfer um experience just straight from boot to Medicaid.
00:32:01
Darin Tingey
Was Medicaid as green as Buddha and Mark N?
00:32:05
Tanner Risk
No, not at all. Like it, like it was, it was green.
00:32:08
Darin Tingey
So
00:32:09
Tanner Risk
Like, you know, it's, it's, ah it's one of the Northern islands, but nothing like Butari Tari. Butari Tari was like lush, rained every day. There's banana trees everywhere, like jungle, you know, like thick.
00:32:20
Tanner Risk
And Medicae was ah lot the more sparse, a lot less rain. And it was so weird. Like it was just barely South, you know, but the climate was like, was totally different.
00:32:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:31
Tanner Risk
It's so odd to me how that worked.
00:32:33
Darin Tingey
that That's that I mean, that's how the marsh islands were like the marsh islands were like, boo daddy daddy, like very green, green grass rain so much. And it also affected the work like if it rained, which it rained every day, every day it rained.
00:32:48
Darin Tingey
And you couldn't go to anybody's house. Like very bad culture to go to someone's house when it rains. They're all napping when it rains. But as on the flip side, and the flip website it's like so hot during the day.
00:32:59
Darin Tingey
They're also like napping when it's like extremely hot during the day too. you see you don't go either there either.
00:33:03
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:33:04
Darin Tingey
But anyway, it's so funny.
00:33:05
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:33:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
00:33:06
Tanner Risk
Love the struggles of trying to find out when people aren't napping. Right.
00:33:10
Darin Tingey
yeah exactly. Exactly. So Medicaid, like a lot smaller than Butaritari Island-wise.
00:33:17
Tanner Risk
Yeah, a lot smaller and a lot of people know it's like a circle. So that was really cool too, that you could like bike in a circle around the whole island and the lagoon was like in the middle. So that was a lot different.
00:33:29
Tanner Risk
um Also the culture there was just different. You had to get off your bike to walk past Amanyebe. When there was like Botake going on, you couldn't bike past it.
00:33:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:33:38
Tanner Risk
We made that mistake a couple of times and they like run out and tell us, hey elders, like you guys didn't get off your bikes. You have to buy us like a whole can of corned beef now.
00:33:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah. gonna su ah
00:33:47
Tanner Risk
you know and And they know like we're the elders, so they're like, you're going to to buy us like all this expensive stuff. And we're just like, oh, okay. you know So that was that took some getting used to Also, just like the superstitious culture there. People are just all about like spirits and ghosts and tabunea and...
00:34:06
Tanner Risk
You know, like my first, my very first night there, they take me biking around the island going to each of these like Unaine, like ghost statues to like give an offering to the ghost statue. And have to like put your hand into like a hole on the statue and leave like an offering. It was so sketchy to me. i It was so scary.
00:34:26
Tanner Risk
And but they they had me do it at night, you know? so that's like...
00:34:29
Darin Tingey
That is scary.
00:34:30
Tanner Risk
like, why can't we do this during the day? But they're like, you have to do this right now because if you don't, like you'll get haunted. And I'm like, okay.
00:34:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Has to be first day.
00:34:37
Tanner Risk
So that was – yeah, that was my intro to Medicaid.
00:34:38
Darin Tingey
First day you arrive, right?
00:34:42
Tanner Risk
So that was anyway, the culture there was just different. it was weird.
00:34:46
Darin Tingey
And church was, ah was the church stronger on Marike than it was on the territory?
00:34:50
Tanner Risk
Yeah, that was the other big shock was like they had an actual chapel there. One of the outdoor-ish like island chapels. We had like a missionary house on the chapel grounds. So a much better living situation there in Medicaid.
00:35:04
Tanner Risk
And...
00:35:04
Darin Tingey
Which is so funny because it's just like another outer island. But like and like you said, it wasn't that far from Butaretari, but just the change is like so different. Having a chapel and a chapel house
00:35:14
Tanner Risk
Yeah, and the... Right. And the fact that it wasn't like necessarily the closest outer island to Tarawa, like there was Abayang in between the two. And yet Abayang, I heard, i never went there, but ah heard it was, the church was smaller Abayang and the elders lived in, you know, like a classic area.
00:35:33
Tanner Risk
you know hut, at least that's what it may be heard. But the church was a lot bigger in Medicaid, even though it was further away from Tarawa than Abayang. So that was like, that was really interesting. It was cool to be a part of like a branch, not have to like run, that run it, you know?
00:35:49
Tanner Risk
And it was, it was really nice to just,
00:35:49
Darin Tingey
So nice. So nice to be like out around experience, but not have to run church.
00:35:53
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah, to just focus on the work, you know, and the branch president can deal with the tithing and deal with like, you know interviewing, me all that kind of stuff. So it was it was totally different. I really liked it.
00:36:07
Tanner Risk
I tried to get more into the culture there. I learned to corocarebe there. i learned to climb coconut trees there. So I really tried to get more into like becoming more like the people, you know, being able to do these types of like all these things that they can do. I wanted to learn how to do it all, you know.
00:36:24
Tanner Risk
So i spent I spent that time in Medicaid just trying to be with the people, ah do what they do understand more of the culture, not just the mission, like the church language, but also like the people's language.
00:36:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:36:37
Tanner Risk
And being with another Kiribati companion was really useful for that. other to other to He was a really good guy, Elder Tebe. He was so kind, and completely different than working with Elder Tawana.
00:36:49
Tanner Risk
And... He spoke okay English as well, but by then my language was getting better, so it wasn't that important that he spoke good English, if that makes sense. So, yeah, we worked well together.
00:36:58
Darin Tingey
ah How do you feel like the people responded to a kid of his elder? Did they like learning from another kid person or not really?
00:37:09
Tanner Risk
I never really noticed that much of a difference, to be honest. i think I think people did like it. They respected him kind of the same. ah people it's just kind of It's a novelty that you're white and that you're American and that you don't you have an accent, right? So people find that really interesting and ah they kind of hold you up on this pedestal.
00:37:28
Tanner Risk
But I think Elder Tabeck, he was still respected and people still loved him. so Yeah, I mean, I had a good time. We had some good success. We tried just trying to get the work going everywhere I went. So I did almost die again, though, during that first month there on Medicaid. the We were going to teach someone and this like this black wasp or something stung me on my temple.
00:37:52
Tanner Risk
And i was like, yeah, that really hurt. Like I swatted it away and we went to go teach the lesson. And during the lesson, I noticed like everything was starting to itch. Like my face was starting to itch. My ears were starting to itch.
00:38:04
Tanner Risk
And it dawned on me, i I never had an allergic reaction before, but I was like, I'm having an allergic reaction. I've been stung by bees, so I wasn't worried about it when it stung me. And so I tell Eldor to bet, was like, we have to go right now.
00:38:16
Tanner Risk
And because I knew it could be dangerous, you know, so we we hop on our bikes and we book it back to the house.
00:38:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:38:23
Tanner Risk
And that just kind of pumped the the allergen through my body even faster.
00:38:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah, all the blood rushing.
00:38:28
Tanner Risk
And by the time by the time we got back to the house, my entire body was covered in hives. My face was swollen up. And I was having difficulty breathing.
00:38:39
Tanner Risk
And it once again, was like, this is how I die. Like, I'm going to die out here on this island because I'm having an allergic reaction and there's no like hospital. There's nothing to help me.
00:38:50
Tanner Risk
But we found the medical kit in like the storage room of the house and it had Benadryl in it. So i I didn't know what the dosage should be. I'd never taken Benadryl before, but I just popped a bunch of them.
00:39:04
Tanner Risk
And I sat at my desk and I was like, well, guess we'll find out if I'm alive in like an hour. And when I fell asleep, when the Benadryl knocked me out, I was still having difficulty kind of breathing.
00:39:19
Tanner Risk
But when I woke up again, like a few hours later, the sun was setting by then. Elder Tibet was just like studying in the other room. Yeah. ah you He was just like, oh, he'll be fine. um So i wake I wake up and the the hives are going away.
00:39:33
Tanner Risk
i My breathing is fine and my face, the swelling is going down. I was like, okay, I'm alive. Back to work. you know So that was that was a crazy experience.
00:39:40
Darin Tingey
Dude, so scary.
00:39:45
Tanner Risk
yeah. but
00:39:46
Darin Tingey
I i had a had a companion had, he ate ah some sort of berry or
00:39:47
Tanner Risk
yeah
00:39:51
Darin Tingey
some sort of barriers, I'm like, someone to put it in our food. And we were at a baptism and same thing. He's like, Elder, we need to go right now. And he was just swelling up and same thing, like breathing was going out.
00:40:03
Tanner Risk
Oh, man. Yeah.
00:40:05
Darin Tingey
I was so scared. Luckily we were main island and we were able to go to hospital, but like, dude, it was scary. I was like, I was my first, my first interaction with it too, with the allergic reaction like that.
00:40:17
Darin Tingey
i was like, And this guy was a big dude. Actually, I don't know you knew him but you he was a big dude.
00:40:20
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:40:23
Darin Tingey
And I feel like it was just swelling up so fast on his throat. And I got real scared.
00:40:28
Tanner Risk
Right. It's terrifying. It's terrifying. um And I had never had any reaction like that. So it was very scary to me.
00:40:36
Darin Tingey
Was...
00:40:37
Tanner Risk
I've been dealing with tooth pain for a while medic.
00:40:37
Darin Tingey
well Okay.
00:40:39
Tanner Risk
What's that? Yeah. So I've been dealing with really bad tooth pain for a while.
00:40:41
Darin Tingey
Now continue. Okay.
00:40:44
Tanner Risk
ah That was just kind of going on in the background. But it got to a point where i was like, I think I need to have dental work done or else this could be... really bad. So I told sister Casita, who was the nurse at the time, and she said, yeah, you're going to need dental work.
00:40:57
Tanner Risk
I think you have a really bad cavity that like tooth decay, you know, and long story short, the flights, the flights weren't working out.
00:41:03
Darin Tingey
And Makhawim.
00:41:07
Tanner Risk
The cell phone service was, was gone. Like the tower was down for like two weeks. She had told me something about like them, sending someone out to replace me on the airplane. So every time the airplane would come, we would go to the airport and like see if an elder shows up.
00:41:21
Tanner Risk
We had no communication at all. And, um eventually, out of nowhere, Elder Ward and Elder Maisie show up on the Liahona, the boat.
00:41:34
Tanner Risk
And they're just like, hey, Risk, we're here to get you. Pack your stuff. You guys are coming back to Tarawa. So we hop on the Liahona and we do the boat ride down to Tarawa.
00:41:45
Tanner Risk
And my understanding was that I was just going to get dental work done there on Tarawa. But i get there and they're like, so you're actually going to Fiji. And was like, what? I'm going to Fiji for dental work?
00:41:59
Tanner Risk
So yeah, I mean, a few days later, they send me out to to Fiji to get dental work done. And it was a root canal. i ended up having to have a root canal. So flew Tarawa to Nandi, Nandi to Suva.
00:42:09
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
00:42:13
Tanner Risk
My flight to Nandi was actually with, some people may remember Elder Burrell. um he He was going home. And so I got to fly on his flight home with him to Fiji.
00:42:23
Darin Tingey
cool.
00:42:23
Tanner Risk
And then he went to LA and I went to Suva. And... they In Suva, they took me to this dentist that was, he was Indian and he did the root canal. And he's like, okay, well, I'm going to Dubai tomorrow. I'll be back in a week and a half to finish it. i was like, what?
00:42:43
Tanner Risk
um I thought I was just getting this all done today and leaving in like two days. And they're like, oh no, yeah, you're going to be here for two weeks.
00:42:48
Darin Tingey
No
00:42:52
Tanner Risk
So the the mission there was, it was really intense. They did not let you... they weren't just going to put me in the mission office basically and have me like push paperwork, you know, for two weeks.
00:43:03
Tanner Risk
They put me with a companionship out in the middle of nowhere. And we're, and I'm like doing missionary work there in Fiji, just sitting in on these lessons in Fijian and in Hindi and having no idea what's going on.
00:43:16
Darin Tingey
of way.
00:43:18
Tanner Risk
Not able. And it was so boring. ah had a good time, you know, being in Fiji, getting to have some of those, know,
00:43:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:27
Tanner Risk
you know, modern things like milk and Oreos and like that kind of stuff. But, um, I was just, I just really, really wanted to go back and get back to work and Kitabas and the language that I had started to learn, you know, and I was there stuck in Fiji and, but they finished the root canal
00:43:43
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:43:46
Tanner Risk
ah you know, a couple of weeks later and I flew back to, Tarawa elder. I brought a, McChicken for elder ward. He told me when I left, he was like, my only request is that you bring me McDonald's.
00:43:58
Tanner Risk
And so I told the, the airport zone leaders there Nandi, was like, let's, let's just stop by McDonald's.
00:43:59
Darin Tingey
that That's so cool.
00:44:06
Tanner Risk
I'm going to get a McChicken and sneak it on the flight to Kitabas. And when I showed up and and I gave him the McChicken, he was elated. He was so happy. and That was a funny experience.
00:44:18
Tanner Risk
But I thought I was just going to stay on.
00:44:18
Darin Tingey
So when...
00:44:19
Tanner Risk
go ahead.
00:44:21
Darin Tingey
when you when you When you were like on Medicaid, right? or You mentioned being lonely on butardari and then you mentioned Medicaid. Did you have internet or like, were you able to tell your family and then we you got back to Tarawa, like, hey, I'm going to Fiji to do this teeth, like get to go see a dentist.
00:44:35
Darin Tingey
Like, did they know about it at all?
00:44:38
Tanner Risk
um so what yeah So when I got to Tarawa and was told that I was going to Fiji, they let me email on the senior missionary's computer and say, hey so I'm back in Tarawa.
00:44:50
Tanner Risk
this This happened and I'm going to Fiji tomorrow. And they replied they're just like, are you serious? like What is this mission? What is going on? like Why are you going to Fiji?
00:44:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:01
Tanner Risk
So yeah, it was crazy. my family My family had a really hard time. My mom had a really hard time with all of this stuff. just such little communication. My letters took like three months to get from Butari Tari to home and then Medicaid at home. So all the letters they were getting,
00:45:17
Tanner Risk
were always like so behind, you know, you guys all know how that is.
00:45:20
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:45:20
Tanner Risk
So yeah, it was hard on my family. And then when I got back to Tarawa after Fiji, like I told my family, so you're not going to believe this, but they're sending me back to Medicaid with the same companion with elder Tibet.
00:45:34
Tanner Risk
And my family's like, Oh, okay. Like, you know, go do your work. you So, so like I mean, I couldn't believe it either, but they sent me back out to Medicaid And I'm like, okay, I think I'm going to be here for a while.
00:45:46
Tanner Risk
So let's get established. Let's get the church going. And let's just get some work in. but And we started to do well. wait We had a bunch of baptisms. We got a bunch of investigators. We're having a good time.
00:45:57
Tanner Risk
it was hard with Kitabas Independence Day that happened while I was there that month. So people didn't really...
00:46:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the whole week, you're not doing anything.
00:46:03
Tanner Risk
Yeah, it's rough. But... Just a month later, Elder Tabez visa came through for Papua New Guinea. So I thought I was going to get a new companion, but they said, yeah, there's no one to replace him. So you're just coming back and you're going to work in Bayeriki.
00:46:21
Tanner Risk
So I was like, okay, well, here we go. You know, my outer island tenure is done. Time to go work in Tarawa, maybe be like a district leader.
00:46:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:46:28
Tanner Risk
I'm halfway through my mission almost. So They tell me I'm going to work in Bayeriki. And I get to Tarawa and they're like, yeah, we tricked you You're actually going to Mayana.
00:46:38
Tanner Risk
I was like, you have got to be kidding me.
00:46:38
Darin Tingey
No Yeah.
00:46:42
Tanner Risk
I'm going back to another outer island. like i it was It was so odd at the time. It was very odd at the time. Most missionaries at this time were doing like one or two Outer Islands for maybe a total of 40% to 50% of your mission.
00:46:54
Darin Tingey
oh
00:46:57
Tanner Risk
Most of your time is going to be on Tarawa. So I'm almost halfway through my mission. i've already been out on the Audis almost the whole time, except those first couple of months and eight a second. And I'm going back out to an Outer Island to Mayana.
00:47:10
Tanner Risk
So all I knew about my Anna was that you live in a stick hut. There's no internet. It's really primitive, but the church is pretty good. So the pro yeah.
00:47:20
Darin Tingey
it Did you ever have the thought of like, okay, am I a troubled missionary? Is that why they're sending me the Outer Islands all the time? Or like, do they really just trust me? Like I'm a good missionary and I'm going to the Islands. Yeah.
00:47:33
Tanner Risk
honestly Honestly, my impression was that President Weir was really pushing Outer Islands. He wanted to open as many islands as possible. he was an incredible...
00:47:44
Tanner Risk
you know, builder of the kingdom in Kitabas. He put so much effort and work into opening as many islands, setting up a new district, I think he did, organizing a new stake. Like, he was just really pushing, expanding as much as you can to all the islands.
00:48:02
Tanner Risk
And the elders on Maiana were really male buaca at the time. So they were just kind of lazy.
00:48:08
Darin Tingey
Thanks.
00:48:08
Tanner Risk
they were just playing volleyball. They weren't really reporting any numbers, no baptisms. And so my impression was just that like I was being sent to these places to kind of get them back going because President Weir wanted Outer Islands to be strong.
00:48:26
Tanner Risk
That was really important to him. So no, I didn't ever think that I was being sent places because I was a problem elder or they didn't want me on Tarawa anything like that. i i i viewed it as an honor to to be honest.
00:48:38
Tanner Risk
I i really, i felt like I was being trusted
00:48:40
Darin Tingey
And it absolutely was.
00:48:41
Tanner Risk
Yeah, I felt like I was being trusted with an island, you know, like of this whole area and to to build the church up stronger.
00:48:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:48:50
Tanner Risk
And the elders who were on my end at the time weren't doing anything. So they sent me out there with Elder Lowe, who... I think had been trained on Mayanna and elder low. We had a lot of similarities. He was one of my favorite companions.
00:49:04
Tanner Risk
You know, we were both wrestlers. We will play football. um we had a lot of, lot of similarities and we're both hunters, you know? And so we went out there together replaced the two elders that were there. And Elder Lowe basically just spent a month showing me around the island, introducing me to everybody that he knew when he was there, and getting as many contacts and investigators as possible to get the work going.
00:49:29
Tanner Risk
And this was kind of the start of my like prime mission time, I think. This is when I started to become a much more effective missionary.
00:49:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:49:40
Tanner Risk
Elder Los had a really good example for me, and he showed me how to do the work on Mayanna, and he got me a great head start. And then after just a month, he got sent out to Curia with Elder Openshaw.
00:49:56
Tanner Risk
Brand new missionaries from the new intake. Elder Stone and Elder Openshaw showed up on Mayanna on a charter plane, And I said goodbye to Elder Lowe. Elder Lowe got on the charter plane and Elder Stone got off.
00:50:10
Tanner Risk
And the charter plane then took Elder Lowe and Elder Openshaw to Curia, just south of Mayana, dropped them off.
00:50:16
Darin Tingey
the
00:50:18
Tanner Risk
And side note, I think Elder Lowe spent like nine months there. So he did, he he did like 10 straight months of Outer Islands.
00:50:23
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
00:50:29
Tanner Risk
He, without going back to Tarawas, because he spent a month with month with me and then nine months on Curia. And that place is like a black hole from what I know. Like it's, It's like Tabunea hive heaven, like black magic crazy.
00:50:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:44
Tanner Risk
So least that's what I heard. So anyway, i got Elderstone and that was my very first time training. And...
00:50:52
Darin Tingey
which Which is pretty cool. we Before the podcast, we talked this. Elder Stone, like small world, was from my stake, my home stake in Arizona. Like he grew up down the street from me, like couple streets over.
00:51:05
Darin Tingey
So I remember when I served on Mayanna in 2017, seeing his name on the house and I was like, I know that guy.
00:51:11
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:51:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:51:14
Tanner Risk
That is serious. It's so cool. Like I said earlier with the small connection I had with Elder Maisie, it's just so cool that that you also have that that small connection with Elder Stone. like And you you got to see his name on the pole.
00:51:28
Tanner Risk
It's so cool to me because that's why we put our names on in the house. like We wanted people to see who had served here and maybe like you know somebody.
00:51:34
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:51:36
Tanner Risk
like that's So it's really cool that that that that that paid off like that. I love that connection. But elder what's funny also is that, I mean, Elder, I said Elder Openshaw and Elder Stone came out together.
00:51:47
Tanner Risk
They like were best friends growing up when they were kids and they and Elder Stone had moved away and they'd gotten their mission calls and found out that they were going to the same tiny mission in the middle of the ocean.
00:51:52
Darin Tingey
ah no way
00:51:59
Tanner Risk
So that was kind of a cool story that they and then they they get sent out to and the both of their dads were companions on Mayanna. Like and we split up to train them.
00:52:10
Tanner Risk
So that was kind of cool.
00:52:12
Tanner Risk
I loved Elder Stone. He was fantastic. Wonderful, wonderful guy. um He worked incredibly hard. I worked him incredibly hard. my my goal My goal in Myanna was just to go crazy, to just get as many people as possible, teach as many lessons as possible.
00:52:21
Darin Tingey
ah
00:52:30
Tanner Risk
I really wanted to establish a branch because it was just a unit at the time. we were the branch presidents. um I really wanted to like get a branch presidency called and establish like an actual branch.
00:52:42
Tanner Risk
And so that was my goal. And we just worked super, super hard. I know I put Elder Stone through a lot. I'm sorry, but that was his introduction to to the mission was Elder Risk, dragging him up and down the island, teaching 50 to 70 lessons a week ah and just just going crazy.
00:52:59
Darin Tingey
Dang, dude, wow.
00:53:01
Tanner Risk
yeah we We had baptisms every weekend, I think. And I think probably 40 to 50% of all my baptism in my mission were in Mayana.
00:53:12
Tanner Risk
So we were just booming for the whole time we were together. um what really?
00:53:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah, so let's let's let's talk about Mayanna for a second because for the listeners, going to be selfish because I served on Mayanna.
00:53:17
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:53:22
Darin Tingey
And we haven't talked about Mayanna on the podcast yet. So I really want to dive in deep.
00:53:26
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:53:27
Darin Tingey
So flying to Mayanna, first of all, like quickest flight ever.
00:53:27
Tanner Risk
yeah
00:53:33
Darin Tingey
You like go up and you see, like from Tarawa, you see Mayanna and you land like 10 minutes later. Not even, you know.
00:53:38
Tanner Risk
Yep, yep.
00:53:40
Darin Tingey
And you land in the furthest north part of the island.
00:53:41
Tanner Risk
Right.
00:53:44
Darin Tingey
And then You were replacing a missionary. So were they, it was Tavita there? Was the, was your landlord there to pick you up in his truck? Did he have a truck at the time or no?
00:53:53
Tanner Risk
I don't think they were there to pick us up. No, me and Elder Lowe, we... we hopped We just caught a ride on one of the trucks that was there at the airport. ah
00:54:03
Darin Tingey
Okay. Okay.
00:54:03
Tanner Risk
And we were just like, hey, we're going to just hop on the truck and you guys can drop us off in Toyota. So that's...
00:54:09
Darin Tingey
and Which is really far. Tora is really far from airport.
00:54:12
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:54:13
Darin Tingey
Tora is like the middle of the island and the airport furthest north.
00:54:14
Tanner Risk
Yeah, it is.
00:54:17
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah. So that's, it was, was a bit of a, bit of a hike to get to and from the airport from where we lived. But ah yeah, we, we just hopped on the truck and like I said, Elder Lowe had been there before.
00:54:30
Tanner Risk
Like he'd already been there for a while. So was, I'm really glad he was there with me, but yeah, Tabita was there and his daughter, eight ace i think was her name and 10 Johnny was her husband.
00:54:40
Darin Tingey
ye
00:54:41
Tanner Risk
And so they were our landlords and they were, they were absolutely thrilled to see Elder Lowe again. um But yeah, I couldn't believe that it was so close to Tarawa. Like it wasn't that far away mileage wise, but we it was like the most primitive conditions i had lived in yet as an Outer Islands missionary.
00:55:00
Tanner Risk
So I loved it though.
00:55:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:55:02
Tanner Risk
Like I loved having the stick hut and the booyah bed just sleeping on a Kia with a mosquito net, showering with well water. Like I loved that. like I thrived in it.
00:55:13
Tanner Risk
So I'd much rather have that than like one of the nasty Tarawa flats that was like had a disgusting bathroom and kitchen.
00:55:18
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah.
00:55:20
Tanner Risk
i'd rather just like be dirty and be using well water than have like a disgusting sink. You know what I mean? Like that's how I was. So
00:55:26
Darin Tingey
Absolutely. Absolutely. Because, like, the nicer house on Tarawa, like, it's actually not that much nicer.
00:55:27
Tanner Risk
i
00:55:32
Darin Tingey
Like, it may look nicer, but it that it feels worse than the Outer Islands to cut.
00:55:37
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Yeah. So, Maena is just fascinating place. You know, the the missionary house, the little hut is like right on the water. So, anytime there was like a king tide or a really bad storm, we'd have to like dig a ditch around the house so that the ocean wouldn't flood the house, you know.
00:55:52
Darin Tingey
ah
00:55:55
Tanner Risk
um Right on the water.
00:55:56
Darin Tingey
And it was right next to the Menebe of Tora, the village Menebe.
00:55:56
Tanner Risk
Absolutely beautiful.
00:56:01
Tanner Risk
Yeah, right next to the manyebe. and mina yeah know Side note, me and Elder Stone got really tired of botakis at night. so we would And we knew that if they saw us, they would invite us into the botakis.
00:56:14
Tanner Risk
So we when we would get home from teaching and it was like dark, we would sneak around the back of the manyebe, carrying our bikes so they didn't make noise.
00:56:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:56:24
Tanner Risk
And we would just quietly sneak into our house and like not turn any lights on. We're like, we don't want to go to this botaki.
00:56:30
Darin Tingey
and but
00:56:30
Tanner Risk
So that was, that would be issue with living right next to the mind. Yeah, that for sure. Yeah.
00:56:34
Darin Tingey
Yes, I went to every single one. There was like, I don't know, maybe you know this, since you start on different outer islands in Kiribati, but Mayana, I feel like was known for partying. And I went to so many Botakis on Mayana, like every week there was multiple Botakis that we were at.
00:56:48
Tanner Risk
yeah
00:56:50
Darin Tingey
And it was just like, it was really fun, but also exhausting, like so many parties, so many.
00:56:56
Tanner Risk
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Exhausting and repetitive. Like at first I went to all of them, you know, but we we were teaching so much. we were just so beat at the end of every day. And we did not. All we wanted to do was like go to bed. So we didn't want to have to go sit at a Botaki like every single night. So we would just we started just kind of trying to avoid them.
00:57:20
Tanner Risk
But yeah, lots, lots of Botakis on Mayana.
00:57:21
Darin Tingey
ah
00:57:23
Tanner Risk
So many for sure.
00:57:24
Darin Tingey
did um what What villages did you spend most time in?
00:57:28
Tanner Risk
ah What was the name?
00:57:28
Darin Tingey
If you remember.
00:57:29
Tanner Risk
Was it Tebanga? Was that one of them?
00:57:33
Darin Tingey
Tabanga.
00:57:34
Tanner Risk
um What was the furthest south one? I forget.
00:57:38
Darin Tingey
Bubutay.
00:57:39
Tanner Risk
Bubute. Yeah, Bubute we probably spent a ton of time and we had so many investigators down there. ah but There was a big family that we had baptized and that they were kind of the like hub where we would do sacrament down there. And they gave us tons of referrals. Pretty much everyone around them started becoming interested in the church.
00:58:01
Tanner Risk
And that so that led to a lot of investigators. So probably Bubu Day and Tabanga.
00:58:04
Darin Tingey
Did you have the church and Bubu Day was the church in that second story building and you were in the first floor?
00:58:10
Tanner Risk
Yes.
00:58:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:58:12
Tanner Risk
we we well We did it in the top. We did it in the top.
00:58:15
Darin Tingey
Oh, you did in the top.
00:58:15
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:58:16
Darin Tingey
We did it in the bottom.
00:58:16
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Did you? Okay. They might've renovated it at the time. The bottom was just like a dirt floor and they had like a kitchen down there where they would cook and stuff. So, uh, but the, the upper floor is where we would do church usually. Yeah.
00:58:30
Tanner Risk
I love, I love that you, that you went there. It's seriously so cool. Yeah.
00:58:34
Darin Tingey
Bubute is like, for anyone that doesn't know, Mayana, like the biggest village is definitely Bubute, which is furthest south. Like, it's so big that they're like, you know, Bubute, Meyang, Bubute, Meyaki, Bubute, Nuka. Like, it's like split into, they have like a manyebe for like each of, each part of the village. That's how big it is.
00:58:52
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:58:52
Darin Tingey
And it's also like an hour plus bike ride from where the missionaries live.
00:58:53
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
00:58:58
Darin Tingey
So if you go down there, it's like you're spending the whole day getting down there, getting back and just spending time of the day.
00:59:05
Tanner Risk
Yeah. We would kind of alternate our days. We would do like North one day, South one day and kind of go back and forth like that. And yeah, that's, that's kind of how we did the work.
00:59:14
Darin Tingey
always I don't know how if you felt this way, but I always felt like I passed by so many villages just to get the boo-boo day. And I was like, man, I could be teaching all these people in these villages, but like I'm just passing by them to get...
00:59:27
Darin Tingey
I don't know. We we could have probably had more missionaries and split it up, but there's just so many villages on Miami.
00:59:31
Tanner Risk
Right. Yeah. And we tried to, we really tried because for that exact reason, we really tried to contact people and everywhere we could and get investigators in those villages so that we could like teach our way South instead of just passing through all of them. We would like stop and do lessons.
00:59:46
Tanner Risk
And we did like, we did end up having places like with investigators and we start doing church in those villages. And we ended up like doing seven sacrament meetings every Sunday um at one point. So pretty much every, every village we were doing sacrament meeting in and we got permission from the zone leaders to use a motorcycle. So every Sunday we were using a motorcycle, you know, getting up really early, at like five 35 in the morning to get ready and go.
01:00:13
Tanner Risk
And spending just the whole Sunday doing sacrament meetings from north to south. So weird' seven a day was just, it was crazy. It was a lot.
01:00:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's nuts. I mean, i did I did four or five a day, and that was even nuts. like we were getting back to it We did church in the main village, Tora, at the end of the day, and even then, it was like um it was nighttime by then. It was just exhausting.
01:00:37
Tanner Risk
Yeah, yeah. Yep, so you know how it is. And at one point, the there was ah there was a lull in our work. Like, instead of teaching like a ton of lessons, we were doing 30 to 40 or something, and it felt like a lull. It felt like we're running out of investigators. And I started praying to get a bunch of referrals to, you know, contact a bunch more people and get new investigators. Cause we were just having a hard time finding people.
01:01:03
Tanner Risk
And one morning we, me and Elder Stone were like studying in the house and I hear Maori elders. And we look out, so out the door and there's this white guy and he's with the kid of his guy.
01:01:16
Tanner Risk
and he comes up and he's like, Hey, my name's Taylor l Everett. And i served here. Like I served in kid of this. And I was like, Everett, that name sounds familiar. and he's like, and he was like, who trained you? and i the Elder Whippy? He's like, that's my and listen that's my son. Like he trained Elder Whippy. So this was my mission grandpa showing up out of nowhere, ah visiting Kitabas on Myana.
01:01:39
Tanner Risk
And it was the weirdest thing. He was like an apparition. He just, he showed up. He gives us 13 referrals to people that he had heard on Myana want to be taught.
01:01:51
Tanner Risk
And then he just leaves. Like, we I don't remember seeing him again. Like, he just showed up. He's like, Maudie Elders, my name is Taylor ever Everett. I'm your mission grandpa. Here's 13 referrals, KCIA.
01:02:03
Tanner Risk
And he left.
01:02:04
Darin Tingey
You're like, was that really Everett? Was that one three Nephites? Like, who was that?
01:02:08
Tanner Risk
no
01:02:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:02:08
Tanner Risk
that's exactly what it felt like. That's exactly what it felt like. One of the three Nephites just showing up, giving me exactly what I had been praying for and then like, and then leaving. It was crazy. And so then the work started booming again. Those 13 referrals made a huge, huge difference.
01:02:24
Tanner Risk
Um, so that was awesome.
01:02:26
Darin Tingey
That's so crazy.
01:02:27
Tanner Risk
That was crazy. Yeah.
01:02:29
Darin Tingey
Did you guys, um like, you guys are working like crazy, just like working by Anna.
01:02:29
Tanner Risk
That's,
01:02:33
Darin Tingey
Did you guys on P days, would you ever go like fishing with Davita or do picnics with any of the groups?
01:02:38
Tanner Risk
Yeah, Pidés. Yeah, I had um i had ah goal for myself to always take advantage of Pidés to do like fun Kitabas stuff.
01:02:51
Tanner Risk
So we'd go fishing with Alkisno. He would take us out on his boat to do like sea turtle fishing or just regular fishing. And we would we go hiking to the very end of the island so the the very, very tip and just like have my motos, you know, and chill and just explore.
01:03:08
Tanner Risk
we were we were we were big explorers. I loved to just go everywhere that I could see the whole island, go to the ocean side, check stuff out. So we were always doing fun stuff like that. Yeah.
01:03:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and and I got to say this in here, but like when I got to Miami, which I got there in 2017. So i don't know, four years after you, couple years after you.
01:03:30
Darin Tingey
your name was still like the only elder name that they remember. Like, Oh, do you know other risk? And I'm like, no, I don't know the risk. You know, like we love other risks.
01:03:39
Tanner Risk
Yeah,
01:03:39
Darin Tingey
Like the whole village of Thora, like especially Thora, like, Oh, the risk is the best. We love other risks. And I'm like, I gotta meet this elder risk guy. And I'm so happy.
01:03:49
Darin Tingey
Like it's happening now, like 10 years later, but is they just loved you.
01:03:53
Tanner Risk
yeah that is... It's really, it's really humbling and cool to hear that. Honestly, it means a lot to me. my Anna was, was a huge, huge part of my mission and created so many bonds and memories.
01:04:07
Tanner Risk
And it's so cool to hear that I had some sort of impact, you know, and that people still like that. My name stuck a little bit, you know, and to be able to talk to someone who served there also and,
01:04:19
Tanner Risk
and heard and heard my name and people still said that they remembered me that that really really means a lot to me so yeah it's just really really cool to to hear that so
01:04:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah, dude, you they they love you. They probably still remember you to this day, man. It's just a legend, and I i love it.
01:04:35
Tanner Risk
The people
01:04:36
Darin Tingey
that
01:04:38
Tanner Risk
Tora probably remember my my horrible eye injury. That was a big event for the village. i It was night, and I just like went to the next door buia to like ask for something, and one of the sticks...
01:04:52
Tanner Risk
like protruding out of the hut, like jabbed me in the eye and it really, really
Miraculous Recovery and High Lesson Count
01:04:58
Tanner Risk
hurt. And I went back to the house and I was like, elder stone, I think something really bad just happened to my eye.
01:05:05
Tanner Risk
and
01:05:07
Tanner Risk
By morning, I wasn't able to open my eye and I wasn't able to open my other eye either because anytime i moved this eye, like it would hurt the other one. And i was in severe, severe pain. i thought I was going to lose the eye, you know. And there there was a little bit of blood, i think I remember. and it was like straight on my eyeball.
01:05:28
Tanner Risk
And ah ended up having to just lay there for like three days. with tears just streaming out of both of my eyes from the pain and from the injury itself.
01:05:40
Tanner Risk
And these, everybody kept coming and trying to like heal me. They'd be like, Hey, like, you know, this minister wants to give you blessing. And i'm like, no, like, no, like I have a companion for that.
01:05:53
Tanner Risk
And people will be like, here, like we have this, like, this juice from the the coconut tree. They're going to like squeeze it into your eye. And I was like, okay. And they did it and it hurts so bad. And I'm like, just stop, just stop, please.
01:06:10
Tanner Risk
And i it was actually, was an, it was a really, really devastating injury. And um On the third day, i was laying there feeling sorry for myself, feeling like I'm going to be blind and just in so much pain and ah just asking the Lord to like heal me, you know, to help me.
01:06:33
Tanner Risk
And like in that moment, I still haven't opened my eyes for like two or three days. Uh, cause the pain is so bad. And in that moment, like I heard the Lord's voice say to me what he said to Joseph Smith in Liberty jail that, um, you know, a peace be unto you, my son,
01:06:52
Tanner Risk
yeah your affliction is but a moment. And if you endure it well, God will exalt you on high. Those words. I heard those words in my mind. And the next morning i was able to open my eyes. The pain was almost gone and we went right back to work.
01:07:08
Tanner Risk
So,
01:07:10
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:07:10
Tanner Risk
That was a a terrible experience, but an amazing experience at the same time because I felt like the Lord was watching after me. He knew me and that I got my vision back, you know.
01:07:21
Tanner Risk
So i i still to this day have issues with the eye, actually. Like I can still feel i can still feel the scar there. And yeah, that was a bad injury, but we got right back to work and just kept doing what we were doing, you know, trying to teach 50 to 70 lessons a week. I think we taught 90 lessons at one point in a week and they told us it was like the mission process.
01:07:45
Tanner Risk
leading the mission or something but and when i got back from my nna everybody was like how did you teach 90 lessons like that's impossible and was like i can show you my planner like we were literally i can show you the appointments they weren't just in one house having people just come in and out less one lesson after another like we literally taught that many um the work was just it was really great there i loved it we we did so well
01:07:55
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:08:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i even you said you wanted to create
Branch Challenges and Chapel Project
01:08:12
Darin Tingey
a branch. And when I was out there, we thought we were going create a branch. We were so many members coming. pi Honestly, probably not as many but were coming for you.
01:08:22
Darin Tingey
um But we had like a good, solid group. that were like The work was okay when I was there. Probably had like seven baptisms something like that. um But we had like a good amount of people coming regularly and priesthood holders and whatnot.
01:08:35
Darin Tingey
And I remember the APs had come out right before I got there to like do paperwork for a branch. And then Joshua Tune was like coming out. And so we had like a big Sunday celebration where everyone came to Torah for church.
01:08:49
Darin Tingey
And Joshua met with the Melchizedek priesthood holders and were like, sweet, they're going to make a branch.
01:08:49
Tanner Risk
Yeah. Uh,
01:08:54
Darin Tingey
We're so pumped. And like, nope, didn't create a branch. And i was like, we were just so bummed. We were just so sad about it.
01:09:01
Tanner Risk
ah Yeah. Yep. That was, i was so sad when it didn't happen while I was there. our goal was to get like new Melchizedek priesthood holders because we wanted to get more Melchizedek priesthood holders so that it would be more likely to be made a branch. Cause there's plenty of women, you know, it was the men that were hard to get, to get going.
01:09:20
Tanner Risk
um but yeah, I, so that was, you know, um
01:09:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:09:26
Tanner Risk
Disappointing that that didn't happen, but me and my next companion, Elder Grant, we had a chapel built there ah in Toda. We cleared the land.
01:09:34
Darin Tingey
yeah know
01:09:35
Tanner Risk
we We helped build the manyebe there for the the chapel. i never even got to see it finished. I got transferred out before it was finished, but... um i we got that going i got that going there so that was ah that was one of my big projects was to have an actual like meeting house you know and not because at that point all this yeah there we go see at that point all of our sacrament meetings were just in people's booyahs in people's houses so but my goal was to have an actual meeting place that was so i'm glad that we got that going
01:09:51
Darin Tingey
I'll send you the pictures.
Community Turmoil and Unique Customs
01:10:06
Tanner Risk
um Let's see, before Elder Grant came though, I think one of the craziest things that happened was we went down to Bubute and we had heard that one of my investigators' dads had like stabbed and killed somebody.
01:10:19
Tanner Risk
and And the whole village was just in an uproar about it, you know? and
01:10:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:10:25
Tanner Risk
And it was one of my investigators dad who I like talk to and stuff and that, and they had arrested him and he was, it so he was arrested, but he ran away and hung himself.
01:10:36
Tanner Risk
And so that was like the craziness that was going on. And somebody told me that he had actually killed somebody before and been imprisoned, but they did black magic on him to make him good and set him free.
01:10:50
Darin Tingey
Oh, no.
01:10:51
Tanner Risk
was like, I was like, oh, so that's how black magic works. Okay, so you you do it you do it on violent criminals to make them good now, and then you set them loose back into society, and they kill somebody else, and then kill themselves. Okay.
01:11:06
Tanner Risk
So that was pretty...
01:11:07
Darin Tingey
um much
01:11:09
Tanner Risk
Me and Elder Stone were just like, that, okay, that that makes sense, sure. um Yeah, let's see, what else with Elder Stone...
01:11:16
Darin Tingey
ah It's funny, you mentioned yeah you mentioned yeah being imprisoned and I remember prison on an outer island. i don't really know how they do that, but in the marshals, they had arrested someone on outer island and the way they just like put them in prison is they just handcuffed them around a coconut tree.
01:11:35
Darin Tingey
So their arms were like, they were like bear hugging this coconut tree and that's how they were in prison.
01:11:39
Tanner Risk
Oh, man.
01:11:40
Darin Tingey
So funny.
01:11:41
Tanner Risk
yeah Yeah, you got to love it. You got to love it it will Whatever works, I guess, but it doesn't but it doesn't work. So Elder Stone and I tried to also get investigators out in Tabikirai.
01:11:54
Tanner Risk
I don't know if you ever went out there into the little islet. um It was hard to get to
01:11:58
Darin Tingey
North. Yeah.
01:12:00
Tanner Risk
Yeah, all the way north past the airport. We went out there a number of times.
01:12:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:12:04
Tanner Risk
One time specifically, and elder if Elder Stone ever listens to this, this will be PTSD for him. We left our bikes there in the bush to walk across to the island. And we met with people, met with some members, taught a lessons.
01:12:18
Tanner Risk
And then we had to go back and we had to like walk through the water because the tide was coming in. So we're like, oh, yeah know but it wasn't going that fast. It wasn't that dangerous. It was fine. But we got wet.
01:12:28
Tanner Risk
We get back to our bikes Elderstone's tire is flat. And we're like, what? like These were completely hidden. There was no way anyone could have come and slashed it. But the tire was just completely flat.
01:12:41
Tanner Risk
And so we had to just like carry our bikes. And we decided to cut through... like through the lagoon to get back to to the main Island.
01:12:55
Tanner Risk
And so we're just holding our bikes up above our heads, wading through the water. Cause it was just, it was like a six mile bike ride, the other go taking the path.
01:13:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah, so far, so far.
01:13:05
Tanner Risk
So we just cut straight. We just cut straight through the water, carrying our bikes over our heads. It was a, it was such a workout, but, um It was getting late. The sun was setting and we heard an airplane coming and we're like, hey, that means there's going to be a truck at the airstrip.
01:13:23
Tanner Risk
So we start booking it, holding our bikes, just running for the airstrip because we're like, we got to get on a truck instead of biking all the way back home and trying to fix your tire at someone's house.
01:13:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:36
Tanner Risk
And by the time we got there, though, the truck was gone. And so we had to it was dark. It was dark and we had to like ask somebody for a patch and we pumped. We finally fixed his tire and we had to bike all the way back home.
01:13:52
Tanner Risk
And yeah, that was a that was a terrible experience.
01:13:54
Darin Tingey
It's long bike ride.
01:13:56
Tanner Risk
We had some interesting experiences with with To Be Good-Eyed.
01:13:56
Darin Tingey
ah yeah
01:14:01
Darin Tingey
i I never made it out to Tobikirai. I think back to my end all the time. i'm like, I would have so many things differently than I did. But um we never made it out to Tobikirai. But we did have one Malchizedek priesthood holder who lived out there and he would come occasionally.
01:14:15
Darin Tingey
he If the tide was low, he'd ride his motorcycle across and come to church in one of the villages like in Dora or something. But i I regret not going out there.
01:14:22
Tanner Risk
Okay.
01:14:24
Darin Tingey
I wish I did.
01:14:26
Tanner Risk
Yeah, it was an adventure every single time. Something bad always happened. One time we ended up having to bike through the lagoon mud and our bikes were covered in mud and we were covered in mud. Like, the you know, like the sand mud crap. Like,
01:14:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
01:14:39
Tanner Risk
something always went wrong. and I think Elderstone always was mad that I kept saying, let's go to Tabika. I like, we need to go out there. he ah Yeah. We, like I said, I put him through a lot, but at the end of our time, like we had, I trained him for three months now or for four months now.
Unexpected Transfers and New Assignments
01:14:57
Tanner Risk
And we heard that the transfer was happening. So four months with Elderstone, it was wonderful. Great guy. And ah we, we were told a transfer is happening soon. So I'm like, okay, like,
01:15:08
Tanner Risk
Now I'm going to go back to Tarawa. have like five and a half months left on my mission. So now it's time for me to like do my Tarawa time. i I've done my Outer Island time more than like anyone would have ever expected.
01:15:21
Tanner Risk
And maybe I'll be a zone leader or a district leader or something, get that type of experience. But then Elder Farley, who was the zone leader at the time, he tells me, you're not going to believe this.
01:15:34
Tanner Risk
I'm like... I'm like, what? And he's like, you're staying my Anna. And I'm sorry, at this point, I didn't have five and a half months left to my mission. That was when I left my Anna. But at this point, um i had about nine months left. And he said, you're staying on my Anna. Elderstone is leaving and you're getting another kid.
01:15:54
Tanner Risk
Another trainee. And I was like, are you serious? I've been here for I've been here for five months already. Like and so sure enough, charter plan or not a charter plan, an air kit of his plane comes.
01:16:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:16:09
Tanner Risk
Elder Stone gets on and Elder Grant gets off. And they told me the whole time that he was an American. that you're getting an American kid. so And when he said hi he was Aussie.
01:16:22
Tanner Risk
so So that was like, oh, you're Australian.
01:16:23
Darin Tingey
a
01:16:24
Tanner Risk
You're like you're not even American. But I loved working with Elder Grant. My time with him was was kind of a blur. like we just We just kept working.
01:16:35
Tanner Risk
And we had some crazy stuff happen. like We had a really bad storm at one point. It was the edges of a hurricane that hit Vanuatu. And our house got like almost blown apart.
01:16:46
Tanner Risk
But Tavita was like up on the roof in the middle of the night, like hammering down coconut branches and building a wall.
01:16:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:16:54
Tanner Risk
And he's like digging a trench around our house. And I was outside helping him. And it's like... I don't know what mile per hour winds, but it was like almost blowing our house apart. The water was coming up close to the house. It was really scary, but we survived that. We had a lot of baptisms together.
01:17:11
Tanner Risk
um yeah Elder Grant was great. Trained him for three months. It was crazy. Like ah by the time of, by the time me and Elder Stone were done together, he got, gotten pretty good at teaching, got pretty decent at the language.
01:17:21
Tanner Risk
And so then it was like restarting from square run, still in the same place, you know, still in my Anna.
01:17:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:17:29
Darin Tingey
But hey, Maiana is such a good place, so at least you got to spend a lot of time there.
01:17:29
Tanner Risk
but I know, i know I couldn't, I just couldn't, I wasn't like mad. I wasn't disappointed. i just couldn't believe that they were still keeping me out there. Like it was just unusual at the time to be out there for that long.
01:17:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah, so long.
01:17:43
Tanner Risk
And so I did three months training elder grant. And when that time finished, they told me again, like, Hey, there's transfer coming up, you know, you're, I think you might be leaving.
01:17:56
Tanner Risk
like, okay. So at this point I had like five and a half months left of my mission. like, okay, now, like now it's Tarawa time. I've done my outer island time. And then elder Farley was like, you know, i'm sorry to tell you this, bro, but you're, you're going to that you're going to tab and i go into debit the way.
01:18:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:18:15
Tanner Risk
And i was like, okay, that this is just my mission. Like I, I'm not a Tarawa missionary, I guess.
01:18:19
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:18:20
Tanner Risk
Like I'm just an outer island missionary. And I said goodbye to Grant. And i was it was really, really emotional leaving my Anna. It was really hard. I'd been there for so long. I'd made such close friendships. i remember not expecting to break down, like, saying my goodbye messages to, like, at sacrament meetings. But it was...
01:18:42
Tanner Risk
Like it was really hard to get through it because i I really loved those people and I was going to miss it. I've been there for so long. So once again, you know, the whole reverse culture shock, going back to Tarawa, seeing everybody, Farley was there at the airport to pick me up along with Elder Maisie and Elder Price. i think they were the APs at the time.
01:19:01
Tanner Risk
And Elder Elder Farley was like risk, like, you look like some kind of like outer island creature. Like my my feet were like filthy. I wasn't wearing shoes.
01:19:12
Tanner Risk
My pants were kind of rolled up. My shirt was like brown. Like I've been out there for, for a while.
01:19:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:19
Tanner Risk
And, um, elder Farley just thought it was so funny what I looked like. um
01:19:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah, when I flew into Mayanna, the elder that was hopping on the plane, I was replacing. he's like, wow, your shirt is so white. Yeah.
01:19:32
Tanner Risk
but Yeah, after, i think I only had like three shirts out there the whole eight months. So there's hand, and you're hand washing them.
01:19:40
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:19:41
Tanner Risk
So by the time I left, they're like brown, you know? But then I shipped out to Tab. And yeah, just in, is so both.
01:19:49
Darin Tingey
Were you TEP North or TEP South or just, they just said TEP with the way up? ah Okay.
01:19:53
Tanner Risk
At the time, Tab South was closed. ah Missionaries hadn't been there in a long time. yeah, They sent me to Tab North, and once again, were like... So we might have you open tab South while you're there, but we'll let you know.
01:20:09
Tanner Risk
think that's how it went.
01:20:09
Darin Tingey
Okay.
Training Companions and Strengthening Skills
01:20:10
Tanner Risk
So yeah we, i go out to tab and i get paired with, uh, elder Otto, who was an, also one of my favorite companions. Fantastic, fantastic guy. He was from New Zealand. He was Samoan from New Zealand and he, he was a great missionary, but he was also new. Like he'd only been out for three months and,
01:20:32
Tanner Risk
the elder he had been with, I guess training hadn't gone very well for whatever reason. And so even though he had been on tab for three months, he did not know the language and he didn't know how to, ah like lead a lesson and stuff.
01:20:48
Tanner Risk
Like the training just hadn't gone well, I guess, with the trainer. um I don't know if that was the trainer's fault, but I was basically training again. And so elder Otto will say to this day that like, i that I'm his mission dad.
01:20:58
Darin Tingey
Great times.
01:21:00
Tanner Risk
Like, cause I've literally, cause I like trained him on everything. i taught him the language and the culture and everything. And i couldn't have loved working with him more. We, we got to work, worked really hard.
01:21:12
Tanner Risk
Once again on an outer Island, biking up and down sacrament meetings, you know, the whole, the whole story. and
01:21:20
Darin Tingey
So exhausting. like i i
01:21:22
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
01:21:24
Darin Tingey
Also, your language is probably like insanely good by this point. Outer Islands, your whole mission, and you had Kitabas Companions, like your language is probably just golden.
01:21:32
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
01:21:35
Tanner Risk
Right. i felt I felt very, very comfortable with the language by the time I got to Tab. um By the time I got there, like you said, had been on Outer Islands for 15 months already and multiple Kitabas companions and non-Kitabas companions who were really good with the language as well. you know so
01:21:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:21:56
Tanner Risk
but And training also makes you better with the language because you're having to teach. And I just spent the last eight months training. So yeah, by the time I got to TAB, I was very comfortable with the language, both religious language and non-religious. And I was ready to just you know to just dive in and just spend those last months working as hard as I possibly could.
01:22:19
Tanner Risk
to just try to leave another impact on another island. And like I said, Elder Otto was great to work with. um But soon they told us, like, we need you to go reopen Tab South and come back and let us know what's there.
01:22:37
Tanner Risk
So we got then we got one name from somebody. We got one name. it was Temake. That's what we heard. Someone told us, there's a guy down there. He's a Melchizedek priesthood holder, we believe, we think.
01:22:51
Tanner Risk
And we think his name is Temake. That's all we knew. And so we I think we took a boat the first time we went. We took a boat down to Tab.
01:23:02
Tanner Risk
We hired a ah member, and he took us down there. And we just showed up with like our luggage and we just started like walking around the island in Tab South, like trying to trying to like find this guy that they said is potentially a Melchizedek priesthood holder.
01:23:19
Tanner Risk
And I'll always remember when we walk up to his house and he like looks out and sees us. And he just like spills what he's eating. He jumps off the bouillard.
01:23:29
Tanner Risk
He's like, elders, elders, elders. Like, what are you guys doing here? It's been like a year since we had elders or longer. i don't know how long it had been, but that was crazy. Just showing up to an island that had been closed for so long and like reopening it and starting that.
01:23:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:23:44
Tanner Risk
And like, because then we had tab north and tab south. So we started going back and forth. between the two. And so we had like all these investigators and areas up in tab North, which is huge by the way, tab North is massive.
01:23:57
Tanner Risk
You know, it's like, it's like kind of like boot, but it was like five hours to bike from one end to the other.
01:23:58
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:24:03
Tanner Risk
I don't know, or something like that. And tap South wasn't as big, but it was a whole nother area with all these villages. And we, um, had all these people down there. So that was hard going back and forth.
01:24:15
Tanner Risk
And, but, We loved the South. We really enjoyed our time down there. I had a lot of great experiences.
01:24:21
Darin Tingey
i think the I think the church needs to study your mission because you were on these like huge
Reopening Tab South and Organizing Growth
01:24:27
Darin Tingey
islands. Butte Artari is huge. Mayana is huge.
01:24:31
Darin Tingey
i mean I don't know how ah huge it is in comparison to the other ones, but it felt huge. Tabatole is huge. and you were able to just I don't know how you're able to juggle going back and forth. and like All these villages have so many investigators. because that is just I just didn't feel like I had the time for all that. I don't know how you found time for all that.
01:24:50
Tanner Risk
Yeah, we had to keep the information really organized. And i think I was also just really gung-ho gung-ho about the fact that they they had... I felt like they had given me, once again, the assignment to go out to an outer island, you know, and that that was that that was my my duty to build the church there, to reinvigorate the work, to reopen this island. And so I just took that, like, really, really seriously.
01:25:18
Tanner Risk
And we But like I said, with all... Like you said, all the investigators, the all the different villages to keep track of, we had to... um like write everything down really clearly. And every time we would go back to the next island, we'd like to read through all the investigators' names and be like, okay, like that's who we're teaching up here.
01:25:36
Tanner Risk
it was a lot of it was a lot of people on both islands, but we just tried to keep the information organized and and try to do the best we could.
01:25:44
Tanner Risk
so
01:25:45
Darin Tingey
And so did you finit, like, did you die on, on Tabithoya? Did you finish on Tab?
01:25:50
Tanner Risk
Yeah, so i was with I was with Elder Otto for, i think, three months. And then he transferred out, and I got Elder Musser. And Elder Musser was also, like, I really, really enjoyed. He was an interesting guy, but he had a heart of gold.
01:26:09
Tanner Risk
He wore, like, combat boots. a lot of people will remember that. ah So that was, like, kind of interesting.
01:26:13
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:26:14
Tanner Risk
um So he just had those things, but he was he was such a good missionary, and he was so down to like work as hard as we possibly could. And he was um he came with me to Tab South multiple times when we went down there. and we We started to have a lot of success in Tab South. the We had like 40 people coming to church by the end of by the end of the time there, 40 to 50 people.
01:26:44
Tanner Risk
We'd had probably like 15 or so baptisms, something like that. And i felt like the church was growing really well there. I heard later on that it didn't... like that people moved away and people stopped being receptive. But I felt like we we had done a good job trying to get the church going there.
01:27:03
Tanner Risk
And President Weir had had asked us to call like a unit leader down there And so we did that. We we called a unit leader. we set up an official unit.
01:27:14
Tanner Risk
And yeah, then I finished my mission. And i don't remember, don't even remember who replaced me out there on TAB. But I just remember that Elder Farley at the time was on the neighboring island. I think it was Onotoa.
01:27:29
Tanner Risk
And so Elder Fawcett, who was AP at the time, took a charter down to pick up Elder Farley. And then they landed in TAB. And so me, Fawcett, and Farley were reunited on the charter flight back up to Tarawa for me to spend my last couple weeks with um Elder Farley and in Bikinabu.
01:27:43
Darin Tingey
that
01:27:49
Tanner Risk
And Elder Fawcett was there too because he was AP. so um The three of us were kind of just there back on Tarawa to like finish our time.
01:27:54
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
01:27:58
Tanner Risk
And it was good.
01:28:00
Darin Tingey
if I feel like that's like ah the Book of Mormon story that comes to mind. It's like Ammon and and in the Sons of Mosiah, you know, they go out to the Lamanites and they come back and like, you know, they get reunited later. That's what it feels like. It's like you like towards the end your mission, pick you up on the plane, like, oh, go back to Tarawa, like, let's go finish our last couple of weeks and go home. Like, this has been incredible. Like, that's what it that's what it feels like, the sounds like right there.
01:28:27
Tanner Risk
Yeah, that's, that is exactly, that's a really good, um, like comparison. That's cause that's how it felt. It felt like, you know, we started this together. we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. And now here we are at the very end, um, yeah reuniting and, and,
01:28:44
Tanner Risk
you know, Fawcett was the, the AP and he picked up me and Farley from our Audis. And then we, we finished our
Mission Reflections and Cultural Highlights
01:28:51
Tanner Risk
time there. And i like I, when I went out there, i had no idea that 21 out of my 24 months as a missionary, we're going to be on outer islands.
01:29:04
Tanner Risk
That, that ended up being like the total number I did.
01:29:05
Darin Tingey
That's insane.
01:29:07
Tanner Risk
And at the time, like like like I already said, like at the time, that was like extremely unusual, which is why i just never expected that. like Most people did ah one or two Audis, you know six to eight months maybe total, and then the rest of the time on Tarawa. So the fact that I spent 21 months on the outer islands was just, it was insane. i but I wouldn't have had it any other way.
01:29:30
Tanner Risk
Like that's, that's what I loved doing. And i felt like that's what I was called to do. So it was, it was hard, but it was worth it, you know?
01:29:39
Darin Tingey
You have no idea like how jealous I am about your mission, just hearing how long you're on Outer Islands. Because I, i same thing, I loved Outer Islands. I would have already been on Outer Islands and Main Island any day. just The experience is so cool, and the work is always...
01:29:55
Darin Tingey
more rewarding, it feels like on an outer island. And you get to experience the culture and what it really means to live in Kitabas or and Marshalls, you know, and, and I like, I'll bet you everybody listen that listens to this podcast would be just so jealous of you because even, even like during my mission, when people did serve on two, three outer islands, like no one got 21 out 24 months.
01:30:05
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
01:30:20
Darin Tingey
on an outer island like that is crazy. You were like you were just like the outer island elder, who just sent to each island to dominate the work and just get it going again, which is incredible.
01:30:30
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
01:30:33
Tanner Risk
Yeah, yeah. i I did become known, I think, like people knew me as that guy who no one knows what he looks like who's out on outer islands. like But when I went back to Tarawa at the end and worked in Bikini Bill for a couple weeks with Farley before we went home – there was all these missionaries who had been out for a while, like a good chunk of time.
01:30:54
Tanner Risk
And they're like, oh, like, who are you? Are you new? like, no, man, I'm done.
01:30:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:30:59
Tanner Risk
Like, I'm going home. I've been here for two years. It was just, it was so crazy um being back and all all these people who are like, oh, I think I've heard your name. Like, you're just on Outer Islands the whole time.
01:31:12
Tanner Risk
ah i i did not expect that. My first two months being in Ada, That was like my introduction to the mission, but then my mission ended up being completely different. So every time they would tell me, oh you're going to another Audi, it was just mind blowing.
01:31:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah. So many missionaries that you never met that like, you know, served with you a majority of the time, but you just never met them because you run out around the whole time. um
01:31:38
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
01:31:39
Darin Tingey
And then last, last three questions that i always ask people, you know, what what's your favorite, your favorite area, your favorite food and your favorite thing about Kittabas?
01:31:44
Tanner Risk
Yeah.
01:31:50
Tanner Risk
Okay, so my my favorite area, that's such a hard question. I'm sure everybody says that. you know It's so hard to pick one because they each had their there amazing things that I remember about them.
01:32:03
Tanner Risk
ah I've got to go with Myena. I think that's that's just what I have to say. And and that's the honest it's the honest answer.
01:32:09
Darin Tingey
Yes.
01:32:11
Tanner Risk
Myena is where I became my my full missionary self, it's where I had the most, you know, success is where I built the most connections where I grew the most as a person.
01:32:25
Tanner Risk
um I actually gave my daughter the middle name, my Anna. So that, that, and the, my time there meant so much to me.
01:32:30
Darin Tingey
So cool.
01:32:34
Tanner Risk
ah my daughter's name is Isabella myanna and and, yeah, so that it meant so much to me and I just, the best companions there, So that was my favorite area. And then ah favorite food.
01:32:48
Tanner Risk
Favorite food, man, I really loved the bonefish with rice. Especially when like they would go catch it and like they'd just bring it back from the boat and then just cook it right there in front of you.
01:32:52
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:33:00
Tanner Risk
And it was just like the most fresh fish you could possibly have.
01:33:00
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:33:03
Tanner Risk
that was That was probably my favorite food. Along with breadfruit, I just loved breadfruit. Like when they would pan fry it. and like the breadfruit chips that was addicting.
01:33:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the panty maze so good.
01:33:14
Tanner Risk
Um,
01:33:15
Darin Tingey
The hikari that you mentioned that was like, I was going to tapita, he'd go fishing and come back with so many bonefish. And that night, it was always the best like elders come over and eat or like, yes, thank goodness, he's feeding us.
01:33:27
Tanner Risk
I know it's hard to eat at first. you have to like kind of figure out, I guess, for lack for for lack of a better term, like the anatomy of the fish and how to like pull the meat off.
01:33:31
Darin Tingey
Such a pain.
01:33:37
Tanner Risk
And, but once you figure it out, like it's, it's the best fish. It was so good. And let's see, favorite thing about Kitabas.
01:33:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:33:45
Tanner Risk
I think I just loved the spirituality of the people. It's why the mission is such a successful mission for everybody. It's why everybody just falls deeply in love with the culture.
01:34:00
Tanner Risk
the people are, they're open to the gospel. They're spiritual. They're kind. and It was easy to teach them about the gospel because, So much of how they lived was already like similar to it with different attributes of Christ already kind of there, present with them. So i I think that's what I just loved the most was just the kindness and the spirituality of the people.
01:34:25
Tanner Risk
And that's that's what stuck with me you know through all these years later. is just how I felt interacting with them. And i' i mean, I'm coming up on my 10-year reunion of returning home. I returned home September 10th, 2015.
01:34:43
Tanner Risk
And so now it's September 2025. So it's been 10 years. And um but but that's that's what I look back on is just how wonderful the people were.
01:34:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's such a great place. and And you really got to experience so many ah different cultures on the different islands and really good get to know Kitabas, which is incredible.
01:35:05
Darin Tingey
So again, this was like, I was looking forward to this episode so much just to hear your stories from Mayanna, just a legend. So thanks for coming on. It was a great episode of the Alan's Podcast.
01:35:18
Tanner Risk
Yeah, thank you so much for having me. it was an honor.