Transcript
Darin Tingey: All right, we're on with another episode of the Islands Podcast. I've been begging this guest to come on for a while now. He's is' probably one of the most well-known ah missionaries, I think, probably, in in the Marsh Islands Kittabas mission because he did get to see both sides and was a teacher in the MTC.
Darin Tingey: We got Josh Sherman on today. Josh, give a quick background on you.
Josh: Hey, thanks for having me, Darren. That's a lot of pressure being well-known in something. So um hopefully a a lot more good than bad. But um Josh Sherman, ah born in Utah, but grew up in Indiana for pretty much most of my life.
Josh: I was on the younger side, so I was able to go to college for about a year before entering the mission. And when I was at BYU, it didn't really like...
Josh: I wasn't like dead set going, but just seeing everyone else get their mission calls that made me want to like, you know, reach out to the Bishop and and get my papers going. And, um, yeah, I thought like, like everyone else when they got their call, you know, I'd be out like a couple weeks later, but I had like a three month pause. And so that was kind of weird, but, um,
Josh: Yeah, I was in the marching band. We won three national titles out in Indiana. So I played a French horn, mellophone, and ah I'm half Japanese. And so i I felt like there was some good connections, all albeit a shaky history with the Marshall Islands, you know both being an American and Japanese.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: ah There's a lot of history there.
Darin Tingey: ah
Josh: So ah when I got the call to the Marshall Islands, I joked with my family that because I was half Japanese, I i got a halfway ticket to Japan. But both of my brothers did in fact get called to Japan. So i think God was just, was just teasing me or something.
Josh: So
Darin Tingey: That's awesome. Did you speak Japanese growing up at all?
Josh: i so I spoke a little bit and then they like offered ah ah Japanese course my like sophomore year in high school. And and then I started taking that. So.
Darin Tingey: Cool. So you yeah, you probably thought going to Japan. I just, I had just interviewed Winston Farley, you know, you know, you know, its and he said the same thing.
Josh: Oh.
Darin Tingey: as like, I spoke Japanese. I thought I was going to Japan.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah, exactly.
Darin Tingey: um
Josh: So.
Darin Tingey: um And then, okay, so you went to the Marshall Islands, then back to BYU, Tottenham, to see where and then where do you live now? And
Josh: Oh, yeah, yeah. So um now we're currently in American Fork, Utah. I have a wife and and four kids now. And so it's been been.
Josh: fun and and chaotic all at the same time. so
Darin Tingey: Yeah. ah And you were my MTC teacher, which is fun. Which is fun to have you on here too. Because I feel like when I was an MTC, you you did share stories about the mission, but i feel like we had to like really pry it out of you.
Darin Tingey: Like, come on, tell us more. Tell us more. and you're like, no, I'm here to teach you guys, you know.
Josh: Yeah, i've come to find out listening to the podcast, I think Tonini did a better job at giving you more that.
Darin Tingey: Yeah! Yeah!
Josh: so
Darin Tingey: So he needed to tell us a lot of stories. um but but But, hey, we needed a good balance, you know, someone to do the the gospel teaching, how to be missionaries, how to teach the language, and then someone one to get us hyped for the mission, I guess.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah, I'm not much of a hype man, so I'm glad Tonini filled that role.
Darin Tingey: But you, um just before we start, I guess, how how many how long did you teach at the MTC?
Josh: Oh, gosh. um I don't know. I felt maybe like two to three years
Josh: I mean, there was ah there was a stint where I did teach Kitabas for maybe like two intakes.
Darin Tingey: Oh, nice.
Josh: And candidly, i was like super nervous and felt super underqualified to do that. But there was like really no other Kitabas teacher or something that they could find.
Darin Tingey: yeah Hey, those missionaries didn't know that, you know, you were amazing, Akitobas.
Josh: And i was like, I'll do it for a little bit. So...
Josh: i i don I felt maybe one or two of the the extremely smart ones started to catch on, but ah they asked a lot of questions.
Darin Tingey: and
Josh: I was like, I don't know, guys. and Sorry.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, you'll figure it out.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: See, that's why I think you're one of the most well-known missionaries to ever serve on the mission because, and I'm skipping ahead here, but you got to see both sides of the mission. You spent a lot of time on both sides while you were a missionary. And then you went on teaching for a few years in MTC. So all the Marshallese and some Kitabas missionaries get to know you.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So...
Josh: Fair point.
Darin Tingey: I think, I think you might, you might hold, you know, I'm coming for you though. I'm coming for you as the most well known. We'll see.
Josh: Yeah. guess if, uh, you make a couple of trips back there, you'll, uh, you'll knock me off that throne.
Darin Tingey: That's that's right. No. um Okay. So you got your mission call when you said we went to college first, but, but when did you get your call?
Josh: I got my call June, 2012. So yeah, that's that's when I turned 19.
Darin Tingey: Come.
Josh: So got call like week later.
Josh: so i got my call like a week later so maybe it was, maybe it was July, um but so somewhere around there, and I opened it up, you know, it said, you're going to the Marshall Islands, Marshall Mission, speaking Marshallese, and, you know, I, I, like, vaguely heard Marshall Islands, like, maybe through, like, a World War II class, or something like that, when they talked about Pacific theater but didn't really know like how big it was how small and you know it just felt like going to like the other side of heaven like I was gonna have that mission when we were just like looking at pictures at the time of of the Marshall Islands and so um and then it was like you'll report in the MTC in October
Josh: So i was like, i had like just quit my job because I was like, I'm going be leaving. And then it was like, psych, ah you're waiting like three months before you have to and enter the MTC.
Josh: So I worked at Amazon warehouse until then.
Darin Tingey: and
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: let's go and then you i mean what's what's funny entering in october right you go to utah and it's cold and so you're you're wearing like full suits and coat only to you know get to the marshall islands and short sleeve shirt and rolled up pants and stuff you know
Josh: Yeah.
Josh: yeah Yeah, that was like the first thing they did was like, here elders, like just hang in this closet. You're never going to see your your coat again till till you leave. So that was a that was a weather shock and for sure. so
Darin Tingey: Did you, ah for the MTC, any other missionaries with you in the MTC going to the Marsh Islands?
Josh: ah Yeah, so our intake was fairly large for the Marshallese side. think the Kitavis side was like four or five, maybe like one or two sisters or something like that, and like three...
Josh: three elders or three, four elders. um But yeah, we had a huge group and we were like this, I think the second intake to officially receive Marshallese instruction in the MTC. So um I had three MTC teachers, i brother Fallon, brother Mora, and they both served in Oklahoma and spoke Marshallese.
Josh: And then there was a sister, sister Howard, and then she went to the Marshall Islands Maduro mission.
Darin Tingey: And was it six weeks or nine weeks in the MTC?
Josh: Um, I, I think we're in the, we're the nine weeks.
Josh: Yeah, it was, it was brutal.
Darin Tingey: That's rough.
Darin Tingey: Six was already brutal enough for me. Nine, I just, I can't imagine that in the
Josh: Yeah, I remember some of you guys were complaining about six weeks when I was an MTC teacher and I just laughed. It's like, you have no idea how good you got it.
Darin Tingey: I wish, yeah, I wish it's like just three weeks and you're out, you know, honestly, that's just how it should be. But Yeah, because I mean, the best way to learn is to just be to be there, right?
Josh: Yeah, i I think if they could do that and then maybe help provide a little bit more language resources like out in the field, just like grammar wise, I think that that should be sufficient.
Josh: Yeah, it is to speak, yeah.
Darin Tingey: And It's to be there and to speak. And being an MTC, you're just like, you know, you almost create bad habits of how you say words to when you go into the field, then you're like, oh, this is how the word is.
Darin Tingey: And I'm to go off a tangent here. The word for repent, man, oh my gosh, this would drive me crazy for missionaries. um The word is uguelak. But in the MTC, I swear we all said, Oogwilak.
Darin Tingey: And then all the missionaries would go to the Marsh marsh Islands and say, Oogwilak, Oogwilak. And like, I still hear it like a year and i'm like, guys, stop like saying it the way we said it in the MTC. It's not like everything we like said in the MTC was like our way of how we thought about that that word should be said and it's not that way.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Anyway. Sorry, i was that that was like a pet peeve of mine. I just hated like stuff like that. Anyway. ah Okay, so MTC group, pretty good. You got Marshallese training. You're there for nine weeks.
Darin Tingey: You're suffering. Finally get to the Marsh Islands. Did you get there before Christmas then?
Josh: Yeah, we did. i reviewed the planner. It was the 23rd.
Darin Tingey: Let's go. What a time to arrive.
Josh: i I know. So we get there and you know, like you said before, it's just super cold in Utah.
Josh: And then I think we did have a little pit stop in Hawaii before we left.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So it was like, oh, this is hot and we're all in our suits, right? And then we get there and it's just brutal. Like I'm in the sweating. Like i was from the Midwest and like, I was like, I thought I should be used to this.
Josh: was like, I've never lived at the equator before. And I remember the first night.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: too you were just so hot and then someone finally decided to turn on the the ac you know the one that's like built into the wall and someone like turned it down to like 60 degrees and i remember i i thought i was gonna freeze to death that night because it's so cold and then someone else that was like in my intake like went up to turn it off and like within an hour you just like couldn't sleep because you were sweating and uncomfortable and
Darin Tingey: Uh-huh.
Josh: There was a lot of back and forth of turning it on and off throughout the night. I think I slept in a, in a van seat that night, actually, because our intake was so large. They didn't like know where to put all of us. So I think there was like six or seven of us, like all crammed into like one of the rooms in like Long Island.
Josh: And slept, I slept on like a van seat that they had just sitting there.
Darin Tingey: Just to see, you just, did you, I didn't have any covers either too, because it's like, yes like you said, it's hot and then someone turns the AC on and you're freezing and you have no covers.
Josh: and no Yeah, and no covers.
Josh: Yeah, because you're in your garments and you're just like, I'm going to die from cold and then I'm going to die from heat and you're just you're just miserable the entire night.
Darin Tingey: and
Josh: Oh, and then what made it great was, ah you know, like six o'clock would roll around or 530 and the freaking chickens and roosters would start going off because it it's morning. And that that was fun, too, to just have a natural alarm clock that that day.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And you're super jet lagged and you're just like, I just want to sleep.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And did they was mission president there when you got to the mission?
Josh: Oh, boy. um i think so i think i remember yeah i i think he was and then i think we met the ap's at the time think the ap that met was elder jensen he's pretty cool from what i remember um yeah and then they like took us out and like met some members in long island did the whole like oh i'm gonna introduce you to the bishop but pretend he's like an investigator kind of thingy and
Darin Tingey: Classic.
Josh: I think I, yeah. And then we like ate the, I think it's jacaro, right? Or am I saying that right?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. Like Bwido?
Josh: Do remember correctly?
Darin Tingey: Or? Yeah.
Josh: So we, read we drank the coconut. So that was interesting. And then they also brought out meh, but it was like smoked where they like burn it.
Josh: Yeah, Buiro, yeah.
Darin Tingey: or
Josh: So I think they brought out meh chips and then Buiro.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Darin Tingey: guys
Josh: And um that Buiro was just disgusting. I thought I was just eating fireplace.
Darin Tingey: well
Josh: ah You know, the first day I was like, this is awesome. I get to look forward to eating fireplace for the next two years.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, the like i never disliked I honestly didn't dislike anything that ate Marsh Islands But I'd say like initially Like those first few things You're like, this isn't very good You know, and then It wasn't like disgusting But it wasn't great
Josh: yeah
Josh: I'll say that for most things, but I was not a big fan of Buiro.
Darin Tingey: Buido. Buido definitely an acquired taste. Buido kun. So it literally means buido, smell of poop. Because it smells like poop.
Darin Tingey: It's such a weird thing. But if you eat it if you eat it with the the brown coconut with the whiny, I think it's good. I think you can it's good like that. And for those listeners that don't know what buido is, buido is preserved breadfruit.
Darin Tingey: They like... take the the breadfruit and like they mash it up they'll even like put it in the ocean and like it's crazy way and then they put it in the ground and bury it and then they can preserve it for like years that stuff can last so long um and then they eat it later and it smells like poop but anyway is was your mission president uh president shah
Josh: Yes, he was. Yeah, it was President Shaw.
Darin Tingey: And do you remember like roughly how many missionaries were on the Marsh Island side when you got there? If you had to guess.
Josh: ah I want to say it was like maybe 60%, 40%, like Marshals, ah maybe somewhere between saying i don't know one twenty
Darin Tingey: Okay. Okay.
Josh: 120 total missionaries and then that I think grew with like the age decrease in in the missionary age and then we just saw massive intakes for like three four intakes straight.
Darin Tingey: right.
Josh: um I don't know. the where Are those numbers a little bit lower than what you initially had.
Darin Tingey: No, I think we had around that. um I feel like on the Marshall Island side, we always had between like 30 and 40 missionaries. Like we didn't have that many.
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Darin Tingey: Kitabas saw the Kitabas is where, i mean, at your time, it seemed like it was flipped. But by the time it got to me, like it was way more missionaries than Kitabas had, like 80 to 100 and then like 30 to 40.
Josh: Yeah, no, I think that tracks. I think it was heavy on the Marshall side and and then it did flip.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: And I think that is also like prevalent with the temple being announced in Tadawa. It's just the membership, and we can get into more about this later, but I felt like the membership and the you know the church there had was a little bit stronger presence.
Josh: ah Maybe having a high school there helped, but... but for sure Kitabas out of the two countries deserve to have the temple. um But it was also very interesting to see my second mission president, President Weir, just have this vision or understanding of how the church grows.
Josh: And I remember sitting in his office and he's like, you know, circling island, like remote islands together, outer islands together. and he's like, okay, branch here, branch here.
Josh: This is how we get stakes. So then we can justify a temple. And like, that didn't click to me.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: And then in 2020, when it was announced, Tarawa Kitabas, I was just mind blown that I got to see a small part of the the work being done.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Darin Tingey: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Okay. Yeah, we'll save, we'll save that so the back half of that conversation because I do want talk about that.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Okay. So back, back to the beginning, you get there right before Christmas, right?
Josh: Yeah, yeah. Yep.
Darin Tingey: Little introductions, sleep on the chair. Is the next day Christmas or Christmas Eve?
Josh: I think it's Christmas Eve, yeah. So then we just do the generic trainings and then meet your companions.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: And i my My trainer was ah Elder Fessili. He's a New Zealander and he was zone leader. So he had to be zone leader and train at the same time.
Josh: So Fess, if you're worth listening to this, I apologize for being such a noob and new to to everything.
Darin Tingey: but
Darin Tingey: Yeah, that I feel like when you have a ah large influx of missionaries that often happens with a zone leader has to be a trainer as well.
Josh: Yep.
Darin Tingey: ah And where was your first area?
Josh: Uluga North.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: Yep. So then we have Beat, right?
Darin Tingey: good
Josh: ah couple days later. So it was just like huge culture shock. But it was also kind of nice too because like you're not like diving into it It's already chill.
Darin Tingey: Ciao. yeah
Josh: Like not too many lessons are being taught because everyone's focused on this massive, ah you know, dance. um For those that are listening, Beat is like a dance where a bunch of people get together and they have specific dances that kind of reflect either the island they're from or, or the culture that, that, that they're from. And it's just a great time for them to get together and to, to celebrate Christmas.
Josh: So.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, and every every church does it, whether Protestant, Catholic, Assembly of God, LDS.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And within the LDS church, least on Maduro, it's like every ward, you know, same thing on EBI.
Josh: Yep. Yep.
Darin Tingey: Depending the islands, you'll often, each church will come to theirs at a central location. Everyone kind of sees the beat. It's a really it's probably the but the biggest day in the Marshall Islands every year.
Josh: Yep. Next to Mayday, right?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's honestly such a fun time. we like see beat and you're like, what is this? This is like, don't know. So cool. It's like, it's such a cool dance. It's so weird, but so cool.
Josh: I know, and then like you're expected to like participate, but then you're like, I have no idea what I'm doing. you just look like an idiot right off the rip. um But you know i you're you're there to serve them you're there to love them and and help them to come down to Christ. So like I tried to embrace that as much as I could.
Josh: So I'm a very shy person, believe it or not. So doing that those types of things was really ah uncomfortable.
Darin Tingey: Sure. Did you guys have a missionary beat with all the missionaries?
Josh: But I think we did too. so it was like, there was the missionary beat and then there was like a Ulaga North beat and, you know, everyone's like, oh, Eldar, Eldar, like do this, do that.
Josh: And then you're like, I have no clue what you're saying. So.
Darin Tingey: and Okay, so quickly run me through your areas and then we'll kind of go from the beginning.
Josh: ah Okay. So served in Ulaga North for about two transfers. um think ah started with Feslai and he finished my training there.
Josh: And then i
Josh: um had a short stint with ah Elder Waita in Uluga North and then got transferred to Dellup West. I don't know how Dellup gets divided, you know, as of late, but ah it was, do you know,
Josh: What's the big supermarket in Delaware?
Darin Tingey: okay.
Josh: K&K now? Okay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: ah it was like K&K and then towards Long Island was like Delaware West.
Darin Tingey: Okay, okay.
Josh: So i served in Delaware West for about two transfers there um where I did train Elder Bowden for a transfer. um Then I went to Rita.
Josh: for a transfer there, was district leader there, and then transferred to Agil Taki, and was zone leader for about three to four transfers, and then um went to Long Island, and for the rest of my mission, ah for six and a half transfers as AP, and went out as AP, so...
Darin Tingey: That's so long. That is crazy.
Josh: Yeah, I think I looked back, I did the calc, and I think 70% of my mission was leadership from DL to AP.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, that was complete opposite for me.
Josh: um
Darin Tingey: ah You know, some are chosen.
Josh: um
Darin Tingey: That's crazy.
Josh: Yeah, so it is fun listening to like everyone else's experiences on Outers. Obviously, I got to watch a lot of people go on Outers and and come back with stories. um i just I think Outers, just in living on one, just wasn't in the cards for me and for whatever reason.
Josh: But ah yeah, I think ah it it still played out. like I got to see plenty of Outers on my mission, so
Darin Tingey: Yeah, you did. Yeah, you did. we'll And we'll get to that. um Okay, so starting Uluga, probably not what you expected the Marsh Islands to be like when you got to Uluga, right?
Josh: Yeah, I mean, there wasn't a lot of towns per se. I think I did see like an image of Ebi. um was like, oh, this is what it's going to be But like nowhere in Majuro is anywhere close to what Ebi is i ah from a population density perspective.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So um i knew I was going to a third world country, but it was a culture shock to see how destitute living conditions were there, you know, like,
Josh: um i you might get a concrete floor in some houses and then you just have wood, wood sheets all around and then ah like a tin ten roof and that was it.
Josh: And then some people had really, really small houses where, you know, four or five of them would be sleeping. on you know on the floor and stuff like that.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So yeah, I think ah my in Uluga North, the place where i we taught most of our lessons was Myogo.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So it was like a slum of Uluga North where I like was introduced to Majuro.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: yeah year ago which i think is the name of the company that used to be there i think that's what why it's namedim after that or something like that
Josh: yeah Yeah, yeah, like a school or something.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, but yeah, I would say that is kind of the slums of Maduro, which it's actually been kind of taken over by Kitabas people. There's tons of Kitabas people there. Were there a bunch Kitabas people when you were there?
Josh: Um, I, I think maybe like one or two, i think it was very sparse.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: I felt like the majority of the kid of us people were probably in long Island or spread out like through agile talkie Laura side instead of like the more dense part of Majuro.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, they have a home in Yebe there, and there's a bunch of families there.
Josh: Oh, okay. Very cool.
Darin Tingey: ah How was learning the language for you?
Josh: um i I don't know. I felt like language came naturally ah for me. i did not have the greatest accent. um I couldn't roll my R's.
Josh: um And so like the R and the D... D syllables just completely failed at. But, you know, I i learned Japanese in high school and that's a tough language. There's a whole writing system you got to learn, the the phonetics as well.
Josh: um And so I felt like I before I came to the Marshall Islands, because we were in the MTC so long and when we went through all the material, I set out a goal to memorize the entire dictionary they gave us at the time. It was like the small orange book.
Josh: I don't know if they gave you that or if I helped improve the materials back then.
Darin Tingey: Uh-huh. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, they did.
Josh: But yeah, I decided to memorize all the words in the dictionary before I got to the Marshall Islands. And hey i was able to do that.
Darin Tingey: That's crazy.
Josh: So...
Darin Tingey: That's actually crazy that you were able to do that.
Josh: Yeah, i well, I mean, if you go back and look, like, you're not, you're like, okay, if I took this approach to it, it wouldn't have been that special. But, like, you know how, like, tree is, like, wushki.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: And then, like, flower is, like, wushki at the time. Like, it was, like, the same word for, like, 15 other English words.
Darin Tingey: you
Josh: I was like, this is easy. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, right, right, right. I mean, honestly, Marshallese in general is like that, though.
Josh: yeah
Darin Tingey: We have like a million descriptive words in English for their one word in Marshallese.
Josh: Yep. Yep. So it it was, it was easy to do that, but like definitely the listening was hard. Just how fast they talked, how, how much they slurred that was, that was hard to get into, but I felt like teaching lessons, I was able to be confident and I knew that I would never be able to like learn the language if I didn't try.
Josh: Like if I, if I was shy and I didn't open my mouth, you know, there's no faith being used. There's no action from my end. So why would God like bless me with the gift of tongues or even assist me in trying to learn the language? And so I always had that perspective. And so I just always worked my butt off um and just always wrote in my planner when I heard words or like wanted to say something, I'd i'd write that down and then I would try and apply in like the next lesson or the next couple of days.
Josh: I would I would like steer my conversations so that I could use the the word I just learned. Right. ah
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: But yeah, I think the language um came a little bit easier to me than than most. But accent wise, will confess, like I'm I'm not a native speaker, nor did I try that hard to be so
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah. And I think of something I just thought about when you were, when you're talking about like, you felt comfortable speaking, but listening was a hard thing. think that's definitely a shock when you get to the Marshall Islands is like the sound of the Marshallese speaking It's just like nothing you've ever heard of, right? Like we've heard people speak Spanish. We've heard people speak Chinese, Japanese, ah you know, French. are Our brains kind of know what that sounds like.
Darin Tingey: We may not understand a single word, but we know what it sounds like. Marshallese, no idea. No idea.
Josh: yeah yeah yeah let me you make a good point it's like when I came back they're like oh what does it sound like and I always struggled with that question i was like like a mix of French and Samoan Tongan or like I don't know
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Like nothing you've ever heard of. That's what I just tell everybody every time. Like, it's like nothing you've ever heard of. Just imagine someone mumbling in the back of their throat.
Josh: yeah yeah
Darin Tingey: Like that's what Marshall is. And it's like high nasally for the women.
Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: ah
Josh: you Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. It's just, it's just like something, your ears like have to train to a whole different thing, which is so unique.
Josh: Yep, agreed.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Yep.
Darin Tingey: um so much different than any other language I'd say or at least the main languages that we kind of hear um and so ULUGA for two transfers like how was that for you how is how was the work there
Josh: Yeah, I mean, Feslai was his own leader and he was a very good missionary and, you know, did taught me how to find and and talk to other peoples. He was already teaching like a family and just baptized the mom and dad.
Josh: And so and then we were just starting with the kids. um And so I got to be really close with but that family. I think their names are Jerry and Tarapen.
Josh: And we taught their kids. And so like, it was a nice way for me to also ease into the language, also talk to people who are way more shy than I ever was. um
Darin Tingey: So true.
Josh: But yeah, the the the work was good. We had several baptisms. um we had It was fun baptizing a person, Johnny Way, and he eventually served his mission, which was very cool because when I was in the MTC as a teacher, I saw him come through.
Josh: And so yeah, the the work was good.
Darin Tingey: So cool.
Josh: I think the work is... the work is always good, but sometimes there's different aspects of it. You know, like when I, when I hear about outers, like, yes, in lie, like all the members, ah the entire islands, mostly members, like the work, there's a different take on the work. And,
Josh: um I guess my perspective comes from that. When we get to Rita, I was strictly less active. Like I wasn't teaching investigators in Rita. I was strictly less active because President Monson was saying like, go after the one. So yeah, Uluga North was really great.
Josh: ah here's Here's a good culture shock story from Uluga North. was at that church. um And, you know, just trying to greet people, say hello. i sat down.
Josh: I thought like Fessla would like come sit by me or something. But I think he went and sat with, you know, the people that he knew. And this massive Marshallese lady sits next to me. And she probably had like a three to four year old kid. And I didn't recognize the word at the time, but I heard nin nin.
Josh: And this lady just during like sacrament, like we're just like the song is going and everything. She starts to breastfeed this, this three-year-old. And I am just like looking straight forward, like fresh off the MTC. Like, I'm not going to look at this. I'm not going to have, but I had to hear it while like the sacrament song was going on. And that was, uh, that was quite the culture shock for me.
Darin Tingey: Really brought the spirit there for you there, Elder.
Josh: Was not feeling the spirit, I will tell you that, but...
Darin Tingey: nice
Josh: But, uh... Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yes.
Josh: Good time.
Darin Tingey: ah Totally normal in the Marsh Islands and Kiribati to just, you know, breastfeed right in front of everybody.
Josh: Yep.
Darin Tingey: Totally normal.
Josh: Yep.
Darin Tingey: No one bats an eye. Yeah. Yeah, you will see, i for those going to serve there, just be prepared because you will see that everywhere.
Josh: yeah
Darin Tingey: And it's totally normal. I remember teaching teaching a lady too and like she starts breastfeeding while we're teaching her and then you know switches the other side and I'm like, all right, you know we're just teaching this lady while she just, everything's full out front of us and it's like, all right, here we are.
Josh: Yep.
Josh: Yep. yep That's what was saying. it was a culture shock. so
Darin Tingey: Oh, so good. That's great. Okay. So Uligad to then Delup, right?
Josh: Della.
Darin Tingey: Or Rita.
Josh: Yep.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: Yep. Della.
Darin Tingey: Delup. And then your training, like, so you have your training and then your training, right?
Josh: ah No, so I had Elder Waita in Ulligan North. He was more of my senior, ah but I also felt bad because like, I think my understanding grammatically of the language ah was a lot better than his.
Josh: um So I think... We kind of butted heads, but I yeah i love him. it's it's The past isn't the past, but he just sees this little Asian kid come in and just like, oh, I know the language. and ah So i we kind of butted heads for a little bit. And then when I went to Delop, I got to be companions with Elder Schmidt, and he was in my intake.
Josh: So two two people later, like I'm already with someone
Darin Tingey: Oh, cool.
Josh: from my own intake and we're just stumbling about and Delop. And then after him is when I received Elder Bowden and and taught him for a little bit. I don't think I even finished his training because I did such a bad job, so.
Darin Tingey: a How was Dellup compared to Ulaga? I mean, they're they're kind of similar, but
Josh: Yeah, kind I felt like Delop was ah a lot more compact. I don't know. Well, Uluga was, it was very long.
Josh: So Uluga North was very long. Yes. it Like when you're visiting people, like it is very crammed, but Dellup is much bigger, but ah like not as long.
Darin Tingey: Sure.
Josh: um Definitely could little bit more like, I want to say like undergrowth, a little bit more palm trees and bushes in Delop than Uluga North.
Darin Tingey: Sure.
Josh: But ah yeah, i loved it. Like it was very much like city life, like the K&K. It wasn't called K&K at the time. I forgot what it was called, but The supermarket was there.
Josh: um And, you know, it was just fun being with ah someone from my intake. And we're just, we don't know what we're doing.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Finding was intimidating. We had to go go talk to someone. And the story from there is we were just... It was one of those brutal hot summer days where you're just walking on that back road in the heat and, you know, the, all the heat from the asphalt's just hitting you and you're like, we're tired, we're exhausted.
Darin Tingey: out
Josh: We just see this lady sitting on a tire and we're like, we're just going go sit down and talk to her so we can like, you know, count and not feel bad about just relaxing for a bit. Yeah.
Josh: Yeah, and then we just started talking to her and she, forget which religion she she belonged to, but um we started talking to her and she became like our golden investigator, all because we decided to sit down and have ice cream with her or something.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: those Those are the best stories because Marshall's people truly do just want to sit down and webinar, that just kind converse and tell stories and
Darin Tingey: and And when you just sit down with them and talk, so even though they're shy people, like you mentioned, that Martian people are very shy.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: ah But if you sit down with them, and especially kind of if you you guys are probably at that point where you knew the language, but you're still learning a lot, right? You're still learning, and making mistakes.
Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: And they kind of like have fun with it and kind of help you out.
Josh: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but she was like, she was little bit older lady, like almost like a, it was giving like grandma aura, you know, like she could just be our grandma.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: And she like took us in and she'd make us like pancakes, donuts, and we'd eat donuts with peanut butter. And it was just the great, the greatest. And we were teaching her and we had member present lessons all the time that were super helpful.
Josh: I think the Lauterich family helped out a lot with that. um So, yeah, it was just a very, i think, like, of all my baptisms, i think Dellup was very dear to my heart because we found this person named Grandy.
Josh: And she was from Abel, and and she was just here for a little bit.
Darin Tingey: Oh, cool.
Josh: And, yeah, we we taught a lot of lessons, and Schmidt and I, we we had a lot of fun, so
Darin Tingey: It's always fun to find someone like that that's a gold investigator that you found she's like, you you know, you're kind of the ownership, like this is my investigator.
Darin Tingey: and then And then just to have them totally like embrace it, you know, and it's such an awesome, cool feeling as a missionary to see that.
Josh: Yeah, yeah.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah, because, like, I think every missionary will see, like, it' it's a tough life on Marshall's. Like it's very simple, but that makes it tough sometimes with the, like living the gospel the best you can.
Josh: And like, I've already had some baptisms where it's like, all right, two weeks later, they're back to doing whatever.
Darin Tingey: and
Josh: Right. And that, that, that hurts. Right. And so having that goal to investigate definitely does boost, boost morale. So yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, absolutely. okay. So Dell up to Rita.
Josh: Rita, yeah. um So yeah, I got done training ah and then went to Rita and then they're like, hey, you're gonna be district leader in Rita, um but you're going to be specifically teaching less actives.
Josh: Because like Elder Monson came out with the message at the time, like go rescue the one.
Darin Tingey: Mm-hmm.
Josh: And so it was a very interesting shift in my like what missionary work should be. Cause like everyone's like, I'm going to go baptize like a billion people.
Josh: going to tell everyone about it. Right. Um, I get there and it's like, no, me and elder Walden, who was also from my intake as well. Um, uh, we were going to go teach less actives. And I was like, kind of bummed about it. Cause I wasn't going to get, ah baptisms per se, but it was really fun. Cause like that first week,
Josh: I didn't realize this at the time, but a lot of like the high council members were from Rita back then. And it was that week where they were supposed to go out and like visit all the wards.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: And I go in and I see the church and I was like, this is a ward. I was like, this is a branch.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Like there was like maybe 70 people or less in in the Rita ward. And that got me fired up. And I was like, we're going to go find everybody.
Josh: And so, ah yeah, it was it fun being with Elder Walden at the time. ah yeah he He's one that ah struggled with the language a lot. And ah i think he knew it. And I think it was also hard on him just being paired up with me who was able to speak. And that wasn't a good confidence booster for him.
Josh: So I spent a lot of time like trying be like, he was a great singer. his His story was actually really cool where he was a convert. ah He converted his and most of his family too, I think eventually.
Josh: But he was like getting record deals with like Christina Aguilera and decided to like ditch that and go serve a mission.
Darin Tingey: Oh.
Josh: So I had mad respect for him. Like he was making ton of money, had nice cars, you know, had had the girlfriend and, you know, everything, you know, the, the 19 year old guy what you know, thought was all the world, you know, back then, you know, fame, money and, and all that. And he, he decided to serve a mission. So, and he was,
Josh: He was a great example of like just why you should go. Right. But he would go in there. And so he'd get the ukulele out and he'd start singing. And I got sing this, sing that. And he'd go around singing the new Justin Bieber song.
Darin Tingey: that's so good.
Josh: And so, ah you know, we wanted to kind of leverage his skills and and also just it was a great way to get people to come.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Right. Because he was also very good at like magic tricks, too.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: And so that was really fun. um But yeah, Rita was Rita was a very ah special place in my heart, too, because like it was a it was a mental shift of. The work isn't just about baptizing people. It's about enduring to the end.
Josh: It's about getting these people that, yes, at one point in time, they they did feel the spirit and they did want to get baptized, but they eventually forgot about it. And so learning how to ask questions.
Josh: And I think the biggest aha moment for me was like, you always have to like go back to like what they remember about their baptism. And if they remember stuff and they talk to you about it, I knew that they were ready to like come back because we could tap into those feelings again, um help them remember. And if like others were like, oh I was baptized when I was a kid, like,
Josh: they Or like, I don't remember. I was like, okay, they're probably not great, ah great person, like a progressing investigator, you know, a progressing less active at the time um to teach.
Darin Tingey: sorry
Josh: And it was really, it was really fun. Did you ever meet Gideon?
Darin Tingey: Yes, I did make it in.
Josh: iian yeah so i think back then and again i don't know where where things are at now with with ah with him but back then gideon was just awesome stalwart guy he was like usually it's the women that's like always in church leading leading everything and then gideon was like always there in rita and he was just so cool and then his like wife was inactive at the time or less active and uh
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Is
Josh: we got to teach her. and I remember having very powerful, like actual prep work, right? Like reading, preach my gospel. And it's like, hey, say these words.
Josh: And was like, yes, sir. ah We get to the get to the to the the lesson. And i basically just read, preached my gospel to her. I was like, these are the blessings. If you pray, will you pray? She said yes.
Josh: And like a week or two later, we started seeing her at church and then like consistently at church. So lots of, I felt like when stories in Rita, despite being just strictly like less active and active kind of, uh, focused.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I mean, the the Marsh Islands has a massive number of inactives and less actives. Like, so many people.
Darin Tingey: They get baptized, you know, they came to church three times, two times, two times, baptized and fell away. And... and I'm sure that happens all over the world too, but it felt it felt like it happened a lot in the Marsh Islands and it was easy for them to go back to the Protestant church or whatever, or it's something culturally in the Marsh Islands, which is interesting is um the men, if they feel unworthy, they won't wear a white shirt to church.
Josh: Yeah.
Josh: Oh, yeah.
Darin Tingey: They'll
Josh: And that was such a good indicator for me to be like, all right, I need to go talk to you, you, you, you And it was just like super fun, too, because it's like, all right, but let's but let's get to work.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's so funny that they don't, if yeah they don't wear a white shirt, they feel unworthy, you know, and I don't know if that stems from another church culture or what, but.
Josh: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah, I agree. And it's like, you almost appreciate that part of their culture too, because i like some of us could just be hiding it and then pretending to be like, everything's fine.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So I, I did appreciate like their honesty, even though like sometimes when it came to like setting appointments and lessons, they're like, yeah, I'll be there. or if they see you, they'll run and scatter. Right. yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Will you come to church? Yeah, for sure. I will be there. Don't you worry.
Josh: I had really bad headache.
Darin Tingey: thing.
Josh: Oh, I slept in. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: probably the most frustrating thing for me as a missionary was like the them committing, even though they weren't actually, they just say yes to everything. And I understood that throughout my mission, but it's still like by the end, anytime anyone would say yes to any of my invitations, I just didn't believe them. It was so bad. I was so jaded.
Darin Tingey: And by the end, I was just like so frustrated with it.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: um
Josh: Yeah. So, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Anyway.
Josh: So after Rita, I did a short stint there. um It was a four elder house. So crazy craziness and fun times there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: ah
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: and But I was only there for, for a transfer and i I was actually kind of bummed, ah but then went to agile talkie as, as zone leader and had a lot of fun there. It was definitely almost like another culture shock.
Josh: Because for most of my mission at that, or for my entire mission at the time, I served like city areas and in, in Majuro.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: And then Agil Taki is more, like more rural country kind of vibes. A lot more coconut trees, lot more, uh, Biro, Waini, like all that stuff. But, but it was really fun in Agil Taki as well.
Josh: It is like that very small church house as well. ah
Darin Tingey: that where you live, the chapel house?
Josh: Yeah, the Chapel House. So I think Dellup had one, and then Agile Taki had one.
Darin Tingey: Yes, I live there too.
Josh: so
Darin Tingey: and Long Island. Long Island also had a chapel house.
Josh: Long Island got one, too? Oh, that's right.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Long Island did have one.
Darin Tingey: i love I lived in both Ashton and Long Island Chapel House. that Tiny. Ashton Chapel House, so small. ah But i love I loved living in that house because I'd just wake up and go watch this.
Josh: Hot Shower, too?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Oh, man, was good. go watch the sunrise, though, every morning.
Josh: Oh yeah, that that was nice.
Darin Tingey: was
Josh: Yeah. So Agile Taki was really fun. i feel like the work slowed. um I think we whitewashed the area, but I'm not quite sure, but work was definitely slower.
Darin Tingey: Definitely.
Josh: Yeah. And the rain, I don't know if people have talked to ah about it. They they must have. But when it rains in the Marshall Islands, don't expect too much to get done. Like people either sleeping or they don't want to let wet people in. So I think whenever like I was just looking at my planners, I was like, today sucked. It rained the entire day.
Josh: And so like we didn't do anything.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's funny in Marshall Islands, if it rains, everyone sleeps. Don't come to the house. If it's too hot, everyone sleeps. Don't come to the house. yeah ah So you got to catch them
Josh: yeah Which is your entire mission.
Darin Tingey: yeah so you got to catch him in those evening hours where it's a little of a cooler uh
Josh: Yeah. Yep.
Darin Tingey: um and and in ashtaki like were who do you remember who was bishop or branch president maybe at the time was it bonnie that name sound familiar
Josh: No, we we we taught Bonnie. um Well, I think the sisters taught Bonnie and his family. um think it's Billy. Billy Aini? I don't know.
Josh: I think he went inactive eventually.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: Onko.
Darin Tingey: Well, but I mean, if...
Josh: Billy Onko was his name.
Darin Tingey: Okay, I don't i don't remember him.
Josh: He like worked at the fire ah fireplace. Fire fighting place.
Darin Tingey: Fire station.
Josh: Fire station. Yes, thank you. My goodness.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, Ajitaki works definitely a lot slower just because like people are dispersed and it takes you forever to get to one place or I'm assuming you had a car as a zone leader in Ajitaki.
Josh: Yeah, we did have a car. So we did use that a lot. i don't think I i biked ever on my mission. Maybe like one or two times in Agile talking.
Josh: I think my zone leader companion, another one wanted to do that. But then the bikes were just like Joran, like the broken. And was like, it's just so much faster to get to and from appointments.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: But again, I carried over like what I learned in Rita, like less active work. over to Agile Tagi. And so that was really fun to, we met like a Kitabas Marshallese guy. His name was Itari.
Josh: But he eventually served ah mission. And so it was cool seeing him. And I think he eventually got married. ah But the the youth, I think we were we we were able to really increase the the young single adults activity there.
Josh: It was good for, we had ah Keith. I don't know if he he was still there.
Darin Tingey: Yes. Yeah, Keith's the man. He was like executive secretary something when was there.
Josh: oh really? So, oh, he must've been executive secretary for a long time. ah Yeah, love Keith. Keith was the man ah back then. he he was on crutches.
Josh: So I don't know if he was still on crutches with you. but
Darin Tingey: No.
Josh: So we would use and abuse Keith, poor Keith, because he had nothing to do when he was on crutches. He wanted to serve a mission but couldn't with his his injury. And so we just took him everywhere.
Josh: me Me and Elder Gatmeyer, we took Keith.
Darin Tingey: Just threw him in the van.
Josh: just threw him in the van and he would just drive with us. And we almost gave him like a missionary, like a mission experience. And he was just such a great like member present and just had such a strong testimony.
Josh: and I loved Keith. He was, he was so much fun. Lots of play on words. think that's where I like had like the most weird food was agile talkie like eight.
Josh: don't, I don't know what I ate. It was like maybe some sort of slug or something that came out of the shell. And it kind of had like a chickeny taste to it. ah had turtle out there, which was interesting.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: it was like a it turtle tastes like steak, but like a really rich fish steak. So, yeah, I actually really liked, liked turtle, but so.
Darin Tingey: Did you like it?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I thought it was delicious. um
Darin Tingey: Sorry, I just thought of this when you were talking about, just a quick back to Waldron, Elder wal Waldron, is his name?
Josh: Walden.
Darin Tingey: Walden, thank you. Just a quick note, i saw video of him singing Liga Tu En Vajo on the ukulele.
Josh: Yes.
Darin Tingey: ah And I follow this thing on Facebook. It's Marshallese Vines is the name, is the handle, and they'll post like Marshallese videos.
Josh: hiring.
Darin Tingey: And recently they posted the video of him singing Liga Tu En Vajo on the ukulele, which I thought was so cool.
Josh: Oh, that is awesome.
Darin Tingey: Yay, awesome.
Josh: Yeah, we'll have to reach out to him and and send him that. That's so cool.
Darin Tingey: um Sorry. that I just thought about that. Anyway, so Ashtaki, you're zone leader. And then, I mean, I feel like if you're zone leader, the odds of you getting pulled up to AP are pretty high, especially on the Marsh Island side.
Darin Tingey: Did you know it was coming?
Josh: No, I was shocked. It's It's tough.
Darin Tingey: And by this time, President Ware had come in, right?
Josh: Yeah, yeah, yeah. i had I had President Shaw for maybe,
Darin Tingey: Ware.
Josh: i don't know, it was a maybe six months of my mission, and then President ah Weir came in.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: um Yeah, so Zone Leader, I thought I was going to go Outer, um because like at that time, Outers were like a reward for like good behavior.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: And President had opened up a ton, President Weir. um And yeah, i i also ran into i but i wouldn't say beef is the correct word, but I had issues with a couple of my companionships.
Josh: um And one of them, he was driving the car. And I don't know what, so something snapped. I don't know if I said something incorrectly. I did something that was like Zhajemane in like ah Tongan culture or something.
Josh: And he just started driving toward Long Island like a madman. Like we were speeding. We were probably going like, I don't know, 90 kilometers per hour.
Josh: And like, but even like 30 to 45, 40 miles per hour in the Marshall Islands felt like you were speeding.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, you're cruising.
Josh: Right. It was just, so yeah, you were just cruising. ah And it had that whole fiasco. um i was like, elder, where are we going? where Where are we going? And he was like, get the out of the car before I beat the crap out of you.
Josh: And I was like, Yes, sir. I got out of the car and he sped off towards the Long Island.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: And I was like, he left me. You know, the scene from Jurassic Park. you
Darin Tingey: Oh yeah, yeah.
Josh: p And so I just started walking back. and I got to the sister's house and ah one of them like injured their leg. And so they they were inside. And of course, all their minutes on their phone were gone.
Darin Tingey: Classic Texan, Texan all the other sisters.
Josh: Classic. Texting.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah. And so was like, and by this time I'm like just chilling at the sister's house. I'm like, I've already broken so many rules at this point. um and then i I actually see the Mitsubishi Lancer drive back and I was like, Oh, great. I don't want to walk back. Cause if I do, i might get the living daylights beaten out of me.
Josh: And so I finally called the APs and then they come and they're like, what do you want to do?
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: I'm like, I don't feel comfortable like staying another night with this guy. And, um, I think he transferred out. I don't remember where to, but I think I had a couple other, uh, companionships and then, yeah, became AP.
Josh: And i was like, I thought because i went through all that, like maybe I'd get that Audi experience and did it didn't happen.
Darin Tingey: Right.
Josh: So,
Darin Tingey: They needed you for a much bigger cause, I guess. But...
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: You know, that i the story of of getting in fights with your companions, that brings back some memories for me, which I'll share at a later time, but I definitely know what you're saying.
Josh: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And like being, ah you know, I'm not a very big guy and being with some of these like bigger Tongan Samoan guys, I'm like, dude, I don't stand chance. Like there's, I don't stand a chance against these guys.
Josh: yeah
Josh: yeah Yeah, so i I had a first run in you know very early on, and the I was like, oh, this is fine. I got it. Nothing bad is going to happen.
Josh: Well, like a week or two later, i get an email from one of my good friends that I grew up with in the Philippines, and he needed plastic surgery because his companion beat the crap out of him.
Josh: So ever since then, I was like,
Darin Tingey: No way.
Josh: All right, we'll do it your way. well You can sleep in. I'll do personal study for four hours. We'll play a little bit of volleyball and and teach a few lessons. like If that's missionary work to you, I'll live with that. So that was a very stressful time back then. But I did get to read like a Book of Mormon every 30 days. Yeah.
Josh: so
Darin Tingey: Wow. Dang, you're cruising on the Book of Mormon reading.
Josh: i had I had a ton of time. So anyway, anyways, moving on became AP with Elder Decker. And um it was crazy. He he was from the Kitabas side.
Josh: And so I think the the funniest thing with Elder Decker at that time is like, I didn't know too much about Kitabas culture. And so he would always like raise his eyebrows. I'm like...
Darin Tingey: Yeah. it
Josh: And then point with his nose. And so i would just get Elder Decker and he's just always like, where is it?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: He's just like, dude, just be normal, please. And ah it was a good time, you know, him being a D1 soccer player.
Josh: i wish I could sell his autograph and make millions of dollars from having a signed autograph, but he didn't he didn't go pro and you know, Europe.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So, but yeah, anyways, that from there, what what what would you like to know from, from that?
Darin Tingey: Man, I mean, you were you were AP, like you said, for so long, right? that For six six plus transfers. So I guess dive into a little bit about one, what it's like to be AP, right? And it's different for every mission. I felt like for our mission,
Darin Tingey: We didn't have office elders, so it's a little bit APs who are office elders. and then And then kind of maybe how transfers worked. And then with where, it seems like you guys tre it traveled a bunch.
Darin Tingey: So I want to hear want hear all that.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And that's a lot, but maybe we start from beginning.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So with president, where I think it was a fundamental shift in just the approach to, you know, what is the word called? What are we doing here?
Josh: It's not just like, serve a mission and be done and and, and like hope to grow the church through baptisms. Um, I, I think on the kid of a side, like people didn't know president Shaw that much. I don't think he traveled as frequently to kid of this like president weirded.
Josh: And so president weird started going to both, um, and we started having more balanced APs of Marshalls, Kitabas on a frequent basis.
Josh: Um, when we were APs at the time, I think we just, I would say did normal AP stuff. So, um, you know assisted with, with trainings, um, you know, inputted on like how missionaries were doing, uh, to the president.
Josh: Um, And we were we would just do that. And then Decker was great too about like, we're going to go out and teach. And he knew how to spot the kiddos people.
Josh: And if we'd go out and we teach a lesson. And I felt like I was like day one back in back in December before beat.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: I had no clue what anyone was saying. And that got me... That got me agitated because I was like, this is the tail end of my mission. This is where I'm like supposed to be really good. This is where I'm supposed to be thriving, you know, and I was back to day one out in the mission field, not and knowing what was going on.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: So um i really wanted to learn Kitabas. And then i started trying to figure out and grab resources to do so. And so, yeah, I And then a little while, all the senior missionaries um went home and then we became office elders.
Josh: And then we were getting cooped up. And I think we were able to convince president like, oh, maybe we should get another pair of like actual office elders. And then we started to travel.
Josh: ah Well, they're like backup ah office elders or something.
Darin Tingey: Okay, so you actually did have office elders that came in.
Josh: We started traveling. Yeah, for a for a little bit.
Darin Tingey: Okay. And then started traveling. Like, would did the APs travel much before? I know it was like, okay, one AP from the Marshals, one AP from Kitabas. They stayed and lived in Maduro in the Marsh Islands.
Darin Tingey: But did they travel to either side of the mission ever?
Josh: No, not, not ever. Uh, it wasn't until, ah my trainer, Elder Fessili, he became AP eventually. And near the tail end of his mission, he he dubbed himself the jumbo king because he got to travel. he got to go visit Kitabas.
Josh: And it was just completely mind boggling for all the people in the marshals at the time, right? That someone could get, could see the other side. um
Darin Tingey: Right.
Josh: And so he he dubbed himself the the Jumbo King. I think he had a couple ah trips there and a couple of outies there. And, you know, because he was my trainer, I i definitely had to one-up him and I eventually did. so
Darin Tingey: um So how often would you guys travel back and forth between the Marshalls and Kiribati?
Josh: um
Josh: I don't know. ah i'd have to like go visit my planners and then see like the timing. But I felt like we went to each side maybe every month or so, or every two months or something like that.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: um um'm I'm looking at everywhere I've gone. um i think I went to Tarawa four times. I went to Christmas twice.
Josh: went to Ibai twice. I went to Abayang twice, been to Onotoa. Sias is telling me we've been to Taruyeta, but don't recall that ever.
Josh: ah Been to Mayana, been to been to and been to Nonos. And then I think we were going to go to Banabe, but I think something canceled for whatever reason.
Darin Tingey: Dang. You, it's crazy because here you are called to the Marshall Islands side, you become AP, and you would think that maybe you'd see the Outer Islands on the Marshall Islands side.
Darin Tingey: But no, you would basically went and saw the Outer Islands on the Kiddopast side.
Josh: Yeah. And I think the main reason was like transportation at the time was more reliable in Kitabas than Marshall's.
Darin Tingey: Still is.
Josh: um We had the boat. ah We could charter the plane. and it was much cheaper to charter, I think, on the Kitabas side than than Marshall's. So yeah, it was a bummer.
Darin Tingey: Interesting.
Josh: I didn't get to see a bunch of Marshallese lagoons. And I think and correct me if I'm wrong, but I felt like the lagoons or the atolls in Kitabas were very different than the atolls in Marshalls. like ah Marshalls was very rocky, and it's not like the nice beaches of sand or everything. It's more coral-based and maybe some outers.
Josh: like I've heard Eiling Lobelob is very beautiful white sand beach and stuff like that, but Kitabas
Darin Tingey: mean I would say, no I agree with you to some aspect. I'd say you still have the sandy, beautiful sandy beaches in the marsh islands, but the lagoons are deeper and have more coral in the lagoons versus like in Kiribati, like you you probably remember flying into Tarawa.
Josh: i Okay.
Darin Tingey: You're like, look at that lagoon. you're like, whoa, it's so shallow, like so, so shallow.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Well, it's more vibrant because of the shallowness, but you just saw so much more blues in Kittadus than you did Marshalls.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And like when I was on Myana and you, I mean, you visited Myana, but like when the tide would go out, you could walk in the lagoon for ah you know an hour plus.
Darin Tingey: You could walk all the way out there
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: and uh but you know in the marshals the lagoon never it never drained the lagoon i guess versus kiribus it did and that was super weird like especially flying from madro to tarawa like madro you have like this skinny skinny island deep blue lagoon and then you fly into tarawa and you're like whoa it's super wide i mean it's not even that wide but like compared to madro you're like whoa
Josh: Yeah. yeah
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. No, agreed. So, uh, I think going, so I, I was learning kid abuse with Decker. So I'll will attribute to learning kid abuse.
Josh: I know that I listened to both the pods and size and Decker both saying they trained me the most.
Darin Tingey: Ha ha ha.
Josh: Um, Wanted to humble them and say, ah you know, it's the spirit that taught me the language, not them. But definitely Decker helped me instill that fire.
Darin Tingey: ah
Josh: you know, he just had that competitive nature. ah And I want to do that. But I spent the most time with Sias and he he helped me out a ton there. But I was starting to be able to teach rudimentary lessons, like what you did in your first six weeks on on the Mish, like in the field.
Josh: And... Once I once I got that first visit Tarawa, it just like it clicked. Like I was like, oh, the grammar just like Marshallese.
Josh: It's just the words are different.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: And so as soon as I started doing that, I went back I'm going to memorize the entire dictionary and then just just speak, just try and fail and try and fail. And it was really cool.
Darin Tingey: what ah What language would you say was easier to learn?
Josh: Kitabus, but I would only say that's because I learned Marshallese first.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, i I would agree with part of that. I will say, i think Kiribati's is easier on the ears than Marshallese is.
Josh: I think you can hit the... You can hit... You can enunciate Kitabus easier than Marshallese.
Darin Tingey: Yes.
Darin Tingey: Right. And I think the Kiribati will do enunciate better too than, like Marshallese, again, it's like so like back your throat, mumbling, slurring.
Josh: yeah
Darin Tingey: Kiribati, you get that too. But like, I still think it's easier on the ears, easier on the tongue.
Josh: yeah I agree
Darin Tingey: Um...
Darin Tingey: but But I mean, I do think we probably learned it faster because we had already learned Marshallese. And people always ask, like, they're always like, oh, so like, are they similar?
Darin Tingey: And you're like, It's not like Portuguese and Spanish where if you knew one, you could kind of understand. like they It doesn't work that way. But once you do learn them, you're like, oh, this word is like almost is either the same or very similar.
Darin Tingey: And the structure is similar. you know
Josh: Yeah, like the the phonetics were like different, but the grammar was was the same, like the way they like the pronouns worked. Right.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: That that was all the same, but it just it was a different sound. But as long as you can know the sound, then you could do you could create any sentences you wanted if you just knew the vocab.
Josh: Right. So i felt like Kitabats, there was a lot of like K's too.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So like I There's so many K's everywhere. ah That was a little bit tricky to just like separate all of them.
Darin Tingey: So let's talk about the the mission culture as far as like, because there's a division, right, and naturally, between the Marsh Islands and Kiribati, just the way the mission is.
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Darin Tingey: How did it feel as ADP going back and forth?
Josh: Dude, i As far as culture-wise, I don't know. I think maybe they thought... like this I'd have to talk to them.
Josh: you' You'd have to talk to them. I was so engulfed in trying to learn another language, teach, be an office elder, travel, make sure like President Weir's travel plans are okay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: and um I don't know. I felt like... that whole like initial core, like doing trainings with missionaries and stuff like that. Um, or like being with them all the time and knowing under like understanding what they're doing,
Josh: like I feel like a if you miss like two weeks, like a lot can happen in two weeks with someone or a companionship.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: um So I don't know what that was like. they They probably thought like it was just he's living the best time of his life, you know, like being able to travel all the time.
Josh: But, you know, there's plenty of missionaries. In the mission, President Weir opened up a ton of Outer Islands. So I felt like a lot of people got to experience that, got to experience in Outer Island.
Josh: So they weren't as jealous or or stuff like that.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: But yeah, I'm not too sure of what they thought of me like traveling all the time, know?
Darin Tingey: Sure, sure. I guess to rephrase my question, like like did you feel that one side of the mission was more you know upbeat or happier in the work or maybe better at the language or something like that?
Josh: Okay, i see I see where you're coming from. Yeah, so as far as like work-wise, we mentioned before, ah I think the temple deserved to be in Kitabas with how much the the the work has grown there and how much the church has grown.
Josh: um
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: So from a work perspective... i The members, once they caught on to that, they just had this fire of wanting it to share. they They'd have a member there. um i always felt like it was like a cousin, cousin, cousin kind of the thing. And so you'd always have some sort of...
Josh: relative that was a member that would sit in and they just, they do both do a great job at fellowshipping, uh, Kitabas and Marshallese.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: I think Kitabas is a little bit stronger. um but both sides, ah the people wise, both, you know, very faith filled people, you know, they believe in their visions and dreams, um, very much.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: They'll sleep with the book of Mormon and it'll cure their headache. And, um, yeah yeah I don't want to take away from that at all. Right. So it's, it's special that that's their philosophy.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: um But as far as like missionary wise, I felt like it, and it's the pride cycle. Right. And it's like, there's a point where like work's doing good. People are obedient.
Josh: We get lackadaisical backslide, ti backslide lot. um And then, you know, there's that sin phase and no disobedience phase. And it was very interesting as AP, like I got to be a part of that and I had my own moments.
Josh: And I think that's when becoming AP is like, and being next to president, we're all the time. It's just like, Oh, I get it now. And so it was hard to see missionaries make decisions that were weren't in agreement to, ah you know, what truly being a disciple was or, or what obedience demanded at of them at the time. Right.
Josh: um So i think on, on both sides, I think part, I think Kitabas was struggling when I first got there. Maybe maybe it wasn't, I I'm not too sure. Cause again, no one really moved between the two missions.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: um So, but I always think it's just a natural like pride cycle. And so one side, it felt like, it it almost seemed like they both operated off of, they were like inverse, inverse, right?
Josh: Like one would do really well and then the other one would suffer and then it would like, okay, the other side's doing really well and now the other side's suffering is is, it was my perspective, but maybe it's different now.
Darin Tingey: okay
Darin Tingey: Touch on ah President Ware's kind of philosophy as mission president. You know, we've, you and I have talked about this of he chose not to send home missionaries that probably should have or would have, maybe not should have, but would have gotten sent home in most other missions and in his his philosophy around keeping them on the mission.
Josh: Yeah, I think I think it was, you know, the letter of the law with President Shaw is what I felt like. um and And there's pros and cons to that approach. And then President Weir's approach was more spirit of the law. And, um you know, I think we preach repentance.
Josh: Why not give these missionaries an opportunity to repent? um Because if you send them back, ah you know, what are they going to do? So um a lot more mercy and repentance oriented than, and then again, there's, I think, pros and cons to that as well.
Josh: I think we've, we've talked about, but um what I will say, like President Weir's ability to understand how the church grows is why we got to see a temple announced, um,
Josh: um in 2020 and all in part to your guys' efforts and all the missionaries that came ah leading leading up to that is like we needed to bring in Melchizedek priesthood holders. We needed to, it didn't matter um if it was a ward or branch. So getting these branches stood up on all these outers with more Melchizedek priesthood holders was key to ensuring that one day they would be able to enjoy all the blessings of, of the gospel.
Josh: So, um yeah, I think, again, his I think you might've seen more of the cons of the spirit of law approach based on our, our,
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: our conversations, but, um, I definitely appreciate it because I think even looking now, like with peers, it's like, Oh, I'm leaving the church because I got a piercing and then people looked at me differently.
Josh: Right. It's like, no one should feel like that.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: Um, so I think that there was a good blend that I got on, on my mission. I got to see two perspectives. Right.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah, i think it's I think it's really cool. I i agree with it. It's like yeah missionaries that get sent home early for mistakes they made usually aren't the ones that are excited to go back to their home ward, you know, they're just really not excited about that, as anyone would feel probably shame.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: um So being able to keep them out there and I think is really cool. Now, you know, who knows what happened with everyone, not no one's perfect. We all made our mistakes.
Josh: Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: So who who's to say one should get home versus another, but anyway, um, I want to talk about year your outer island visits.
Josh: Okay.
Darin Tingey: those like You had so many, and I want to hear kind of like what you guys were doing on those islands, maybe some cool stories from some of those islands, how long you were out there, that type of stuff.
Josh: Yeah, this is this was like all a blur. I was like trying to remember all the cool stories, which is why I think I shared more of my stories about Majuro because I've just been there and I was doing the work there more.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: But um like I got to visit Butaritari. um I forget who was out there, but I do remember seeing Japanese...
Darin Tingey: Risk, Risk was out there.
Josh: Huh?
Darin Tingey: I think Risk was out there.
Josh: Risk was out there in Butaritari? Yeah.
Darin Tingey: think I have a picture with him on a big, tall Booyah. Maybe not, I could be wrong.
Josh: ah Like I said, it's it was all a blur and up sorry to everyone that I met. There's a few people, if I go back, i' was like I can remember your face now. but
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: yeah i I'm lost on names, but I went to ButariTari. The one cool thing that i remember about ButariTari was... um ah there was a Japanese Zero in the lagoon. And I was like, that is so freaking cool just to see World War two right there. And and you have to understand, like with a lot of these outers, like I was only there for ah couple, ah sometimes just a day or sometimes a couple of days.
Josh: I think Makin, was on the longest. But um yeah, a lot of these, I was only there for like three, four days. And so like, I didn't, I didn't get to have like the teaching experience, like a lot the missionaries that served there for couple transfers or not.
Josh: But um yeah, but probably,
Darin Tingey: Sure, but you would go and and meet with the missionaries, train do some trainings or like see how the work was going?
Josh: yeah Yeah, we would do some training, see how the work was going.
Darin Tingey: What was that?
Josh: um Just kind of do an overall check in. I think, you know, one of the side effects of opening up a lot of the outers is missionaries will get sick more often and just making sure that they're healthy.
Darin Tingey: help
Josh: Spirits are high. um Some elders treat, you know, being stranded on an island very differently than others, right? That can get to their head that there could be companionship issues that, you know, they're more welcome to confide in us than maybe mission president.
Josh: And we'll try and relay those on. But yeah, a lot of times it's just like meeting with members, like president would be out and travel with us to some of these islands and he'd go out with a member and to really understand like how the work is growing out there. Are we getting a branch? Are we getting Melchizedek priesthood holders?
Josh: um So we would do a lot about a lot of that. i feel it I feel really bad for the people I visited on Machin. um the day that The day prior to when we when we flew to Machin, we boated out to Abayang.
Josh: um And President Weir loved fishing. And so sometimes we would get fishing ah trips. And this fishing trip was night fishing.
Josh: And so we were out in the Pacific Ocean at the dead of night, night fishing with President Weir. And it was it was a blast. And until I ate an egg salad sandwich and just sitting in the middle of the ocean, just rocking.
Josh: um But I think I caught a barracuda that day.
Darin Tingey: oh
Josh: But I was not catching anything else like what the rest of them were catching.
Darin Tingey: Let's go.
Josh: I was just like out there. I was just sick to my stomach. I caught a barracuda. And then I think we we boated back in the rain. started raining and storming. Just in the middle of the night, think we got back to like Tadawa like at 3 a.m., 4 a.m.
Josh: And then we had to fly out to Machen at like 6 a.m.
Josh: And then i when we get to Makin, we slept in. like I felt so bad for those elders. like All those stories about Makin and like being sleeping on the floor with the mosquito nets, 100% true. like I did that.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: It sucked. But luckily, it was been on the mission enough where like mosquito bites didn't bother me anymore. so
Darin Tingey: Did you guys fly to Maquin and Putaritari or did you take the boat?
Josh: Yeah, we yeah we we flew to Puttari and Makin. um, Abayong and Mayana boated um, Mayana was fun.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Like you were saying, very shallow lagoon. Uh, the thing that I remember there is, uh, uh, we were walking back because i think president wanted to go fishing.
Josh: So conducted business a little bit quicker than usual, but then the tide was, the boat was all the way out there. And president where he was a heavy lifter, a power, power lifter. And, uh,
Josh: He was a bigger bigger guy. And we were trudging through that mud. And poor guy had a panic attack and was like calling for the boat. And so me and Sias him on each shoulder walking him through.
Josh: and it was kind of scary. like He got to the boat and he was just super pale. And he was just laying down. you know took off his ah his tie.
Darin Tingey: Thank you.
Josh: Just... yes took a minute or two to, you know, catch his breath. And then the light came back in his eyes. he's like, who's ready to go fishing. Um, we, did we, we, we did trolling and we caught, you know, fish, uh, I was, I was about to give you the kid of this measurement, but you know, like a good arm's length, just these massive Pacific fish. I don't know what they're called. at but I'd have to go look it up, but that, that was what I remember from my Anna, you know, present. We were almost dying on his mission. and Um, um,
Darin Tingey: Was it just the mud was like so deep and it was hot and it was so far that it just kind of freaked him out like he wasn't going to make it?
Josh: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's I mean, like I said, it gets it drains the whole lagoon and it's far. It's a far walk.
Josh: Yeah. ye so
Darin Tingey: I love that he wanted to go fishing and that he took you guys fishing. I mean, you're in the middle of Pacific. like When are you ever going to live there again and have that opportunity?
Josh: yeah yeah
Darin Tingey: I'm glad he like wanted to capitalize on that.
Josh: Well, yeah, I think that was a good balance, too. It was like you're on your mission, but there's also like, you know, you can have fun, too.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: and that And I will say there's also mission rules for a reason because someone did have fun and something bad happened. So ah one experience is on Abbey Young, I decided to climb the 20-foot coconut tree.
Josh: um That was stupid in hindsight, because I think some um missionary in Guam did it and then died.
Darin Tingey: Gosh. ah
Josh: And so, ah yeah, there's a reason why they have rules.
Darin Tingey: hat
Josh: um But yeah, anyways.
Darin Tingey: But everyone should climb a Cocoa Head Tree. Everyone should, it's fun.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Maybe that to be the tallest one, but it could be, you know.
Josh: Yeah, do do do not climb the tallest ones because because then you lose the foot holdings. They stop like halfway up and then you're just like hugging the tree, hugging a coconut tree for your life.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. i i I wish though, like I kind of had the,
Darin Tingey: play, work hard, play hard mentality second half my mission. Like the first, when I was on Myana, I didn't take advantage of like the P days and like going fishing with numbers as much as I should have.
Darin Tingey: We did a few picnics where I did.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then the second half of my mission where i went to lie, I was like, all right, I'm going fishing every P day. Like I'm going to do this.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And like, I'm just going to enjoy it and it's going to be awesome. We're going to work hard and we're play hard. And And it was so fun. And i I kind of wish I could redo like my Anna and like relive that because there's just like I just will never live on my Anna ever again.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And, um you know, I just think it's a once in a lifetime.
Josh: yeah
Darin Tingey: You don't have to like go swimming all day, but like going fishing is like good. i don't know.
Josh: Yeah, no, I agree. Like there's, there is a balance because there would be members that are just completely turned off. If you like, you're just super strict, like they are very playful people.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: They're fun people. And so I, I, I mean, I do agree with that, that sentiment. So, but yeah, I going to Onotoa was fun.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: We flew there. um I think what I remember there was meeting the members, you know, sitting in the back of a truck driving and just, you know, bouncing to everything and then drinking some weird thing out of a mini coconut.
Josh: I don't know. It was like a brownish gray goo. I don't know what it was, but, um,
Darin Tingey: It wasn't like ah the kamayimai, like ah the, you know how they, so they they have the karewe, which is jekaro in Marshallese, and then they'll boil it and make like a thicker syrup.
Josh: know
Darin Tingey: um In Marshallese, it's called jekamay, and then Kiribati, it's the kamayimai.
Josh: Check my I was not checking mine.
Darin Tingey: It's like a, okay, okay.
Josh: No, it was something. It was some sort of concoction. I was like, okay, this, this is definitely Southern kid of this people, you know, like, yeah, maybe,
Darin Tingey: but pig blood that's probably what it was
Josh: um Yeah, I went to Ninos, flew there. so it was it was fun just flying in like these small, you know, so four or six seater charters, unless we took like the Kitabas Air or whatever it's called.
Josh: And it was like a 27 kind of seater plane.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: um But yeah, the small one, those were fun. Just like, this is what it was like back in the day with like prop planes and the entire plane is is vibrating. And so like,
Josh: the joke of like, Oh land, you know, that was very much kind of what I felt like when you're in that plane for like two hours, your entire legs are numb.
Darin Tingey: Mm-hmm.
Josh: You can't walk. Um, went to Christmas. Uh, I, that was fun, especially going with elder size. Um, it was, that was like his area that he loved Christmas so much. so was, it's always fun being with a companion that just absolutely loves the area, um, loves the people. And so sleeping in that stick hut on a bamboo bed, uh, was, was great.
Josh: Um,
Darin Tingey: Well, Christmas is like such a different island than any other island. It's like huge, but like the lagoon is kind of weird. it's like the There's not really places to actually live on the island. It's kind of sparse.
Josh: yeah.
Darin Tingey: I guess like I haven't seen it Google Maps, but like what was it like flying in there?
Josh: um I mean, flying in there felt honestly more comfortable than flying to Tarawa.
Darin Tingey: Or just visiting the island, I guess. Yeah.
Josh: um I think first time I got to Tarawa, I thought we were going to go off the runway and into the ocean. um and we took, I think, ah we went the Hawaii route, so I forget which airline took us out there. It was probably Fiji air Airways or something like that.
Darin Tingey: ah car
Josh: But um yeah, like the airport was super far from the chapel house or house at the time. So we drove, um, lots of crabs all over the Island, like a lot, like you would almost think it was like the other Christmas Island from Australia.
Josh: Cause that they also have a bunch of crabs, but, um,
Darin Tingey: Right. Yeah. Anytime about, yeah.
Josh: But yeah, it was it was fun driving the car and we tried to hit as many crabs as we could and you just hear them underneath the car. So that was fun. ah But yeah, very, very sparse.
Josh: But I felt like the there was couple of areas um where there was just ah a bunch of people located. So I forget where all the places were called. i think they were all named after like European cities or something.
Darin Tingey: like London and paris yeah, yeah, something like that.
Josh: London, Poland. Yeah, Paris. Yeah. I remember we did take a pee day out with, ah I think, a senior couple at the time that was on Christmas. And we didn't get back in time.
Josh: The water started coming back in and the car got stuck. So we had got the we had to dig out the van. i was like, oh, no, are we are we just going to lose a van to the ocean?
Josh: so
Darin Tingey: What's funny is you say that story and I mean, you served before us, but there's a sister I did a podcast with a couple weeks ago, Sister Lee. You should listen to hers. She tells almost an identical story to that on Christmas Island, almost losing a van That is so funny.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: but
Josh: Yeah. So Christmas was fun too. Cause I honestly, if I went back to Kitabas and could only go to like one place, I'd probably go to Christmas. Um, There's just like not very many lights.
Josh: um Maybe it's different now. was like very, mostly torches, fireplaces, but looking up in the sky, it was like the most beautiful thing I've ever seen. Like I never thought space could look like that.
Josh: It was almost like looking at the ocean's reflection. um So that was very fun. The, what is it? The bony fish or something?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, the bonefish. Yeah, that's
Josh: the Yeah, the bonefish, that was okay, but my favorite was the red snapper in Kitabiss.
Darin Tingey: good.
Josh: Hands down the best fish ever. um Christmas was fun. I remember, like, eating, like, to ice. To ice, yeah, that was just so good.
Darin Tingey: The eyes, yeah.
Josh: And then, like, you get, the like, the Milo to ice and all the different flavors there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: I felt like every trip I made to Kitabas, I like exponentially increased in my ability to speak the language. Whereas was like I was only in Kitabas for maybe a total of like six weeks.
Josh: But I felt like I spoke the language like a 10 month, 11 month in the field missionary.
Darin Tingey: Okay. Yeah.
Josh: And so it was kind of. when we did like exchanges or something in Christmas and was teaching lessons with them, i remember I was partnered with someone who was, who'd been on kid Abyss for like six months and I was the one leading lessons and like helping us out.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: And so that, that was really cool and was really grateful for that opportunity to, to just use my skills to add. I didn't know him at the time. I could have done more to like reach and like, how are you feeling? And i I wasn't much of a feely person kind of guy, not, not emotions kind of guy.
Josh: So apologies to to everyone who interacts with me on that front. But, Yeah, it was it was fun to actually like leverage my skills and help missionaries that might have been there for a little bit ah longer than me, just like immersion wise. But I could help them like, oh, this is how like you go reach out and teach a lesson and things like that.
Darin Tingey: You know, I think the Kitabas missionaries probably ah appreciated that you tried to learn Kitabas. ah Not to throw other Kitabas APs under the bus, but I don't think they really tried to learn Marshallese.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But I could be wrong, but I don't think they tried.
Josh: Yeah. i'll throw the background I'll throw Decker under the bus. Saez did much better at trying to learn Marshallese than
Darin Tingey: Because I heard, I mean, they kind of have a cheat because there are kiddos people on Maduro. So they're just like, I'll just go find the kiddos people, you know?
Josh: Yeah, I think if...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Again, I felt like Kitavis people were a little bit more welcoming and less like, i'm gonna if I say, yes, you can come, I'm not going to try and like blow you off. And so I felt like it was easier to like teach kid of this people than Marshallese.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So I don't know, maybe if they felt like they just had to teach a Marshallese lesson, maybe they would have felt like they could have gotten away with or been more motivated to learn Marshallese.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: But yeah, I hear you. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, ah we'll forgive him. um
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: what What island of the outer islands you visited in Kiribati did you like the best or did you think that was the coolest?
Josh: um i don't know like like ah may maybe abeyang because that's probably the one i saw the most of gotten a little motorbike and just cruising with uh i think it was a someone from vanuatu just a vanuatu and the elder and we got to see a ton of abeyang and farley was there think i also saw sigwain there too um Elder Seguine.
Josh: But yeah, I like the other ones. Onoto was cool. They were all just so unique, but I don't know if you'd count Christmas as an outer, but I don't know.
Darin Tingey: Sure. Yeah.
Josh: I think Christmas is up there for me, but.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. No, I mean, again, like, every elder's jealousy got to see so much of the mission. Like, I think that's just one of the things that I don't know if I'll ever do unless I've got a ton of money and can can just go spend couple months in Kitabas and a couple months in the Marsh Islands to charter my own plane to go see all these islands.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: you know
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I would love to do that. I really would. I just... I there's just probably never going to be a time in my life that I can do that now.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: You know, I'm, I'm in the long haul for, to be mission president of the mission, but, uh, kidding. I don't I'm not sure if I totally want the job. I mean, I kind of want the job to like, see, be be in the countries more, but I know it's a, it's an insanely hard job, but, um, just like to see all those islands, it's just like a once in lifetime experience.
Josh: yeah
Josh: Yeah, absolutely.
Darin Tingey: Um,
Josh: And I feel bad because, like like I said, it's all a blur. like I don't remember too much from Nonos. I remember it being big. like The runway was massive.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: I saw Medicaid for like a little bit, and I saw... i i think we just touched base there, maybe. i saw the runway, and it was like at the very edge of the island. It was like the smallest runway ever.
Josh: But I think... you know, what was really cool was like, you hear the words of like Isles of the Sea and the scriptures and stuff. It's like these people way back when must have, must have, you know, received instruction from, from, from Christ and and stuff like that. And it was just really cool to have like that perspective or belief. Like, you know, one day he's going to visit all people and he's going to set foot back on Onotoa or Nonos Abimeime or whatever island you were on.
Josh: You know, god God loves everyone and he's going to go visit them.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: So for all those that will serve on a future ah outer island, like you just got to have that perspective that, um you know, even though like you're in the most remote place in the world, like.
Josh: God loves them. God loves you. Work hard, play hard, or work hard. do You do you. Do whatever you feel inclined to as directed by by the Spirit. But yeah, it was very cool to see all of Kid Abyss pretty much.
Josh: um And I got to see most of Majuro. I didn't get to see very many Outer Islands. ah there with the transportation being unreliable. But I loved EBI. EBI was fun.
Josh: Lots of strong members there. Also fun experiences where, you know, saw someone from EBI and they were just kind of, you know, investigating the church and then they were on their mission in the MTC and in and saying hi there.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: And Roberts is the most prominent person, I think, on EBI. And
Darin Tingey: David Robertson.
Josh: David Roberts and li who was on who was in Long Island?
Darin Tingey: Yeah,
Josh: It was did you meet Lena?
Darin Tingey: yeah yeah, yeah, yeah, I did.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: i did meet Lena.
Josh: Yeah, those are two cherished souls right there, but
Darin Tingey: ah They are. um And I know we've been going for long. i just, a few more questions for you. And I just, you know, with transportation being so unreliable in the Marsh Islands, did President, where did, I know he, I've seen a picture of him on live.
Darin Tingey: So I know he made it out to live, but like, did he visit any of the other outer islands that were opened or did he, was he just like, I'm sending the missionaries out and like, good luck.
Josh: Um, I think there was another island he went to, maybe Arno, but that was by like Boat or something like that.
Darin Tingey: yeah i don't know close to Maduro, so that makes sense.
Josh: I don't know if he went to others. I can't remember.
Darin Tingey: What outer islands did you have open in the Marshall Islands, if you can remember?
Josh: Oh, we had tons. We had,
Josh: milly um Ujjayi. I feel like I'm missing a major one. I said to Abel, right?
Darin Tingey: I've, yeah, I've heard Liggy up. Did you guys have Liggy up open?
Josh: Oh, maybe. No, I don't think so. Maybe that maybe that was like after I left. They opened up Likia for something.
Darin Tingey: I mean, those are the kind of the main ones that we had open too. So I would think,
Josh: Yeah. I mean, we went from like maybe... two to three outer islands to like eight in the Marshall side, which is crazy.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: So.
Darin Tingey: It's so good though. I mean, <unk> it's good for the missionaries most of the time. ah it's you know It's bringing the gospel to these outer islands, um which obviously it's prophesied the scriptures of the gospel. like God remembers all of his children in the Isles of the Sea, like you said.
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Darin Tingey: um And then you you get islands like Lai, which is this tiny island that has a ward. And you're like, why? you know That could be every outer island in the marsh islands. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: uh and in kitabas and in the and in kitabas like you've seen it like it's strong now i will say they've got like a lot more people on our islands than the marsh islands dude that's probably the marsh island's biggest problem just retaining people but um
Josh: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah. I feel like you find more Marshallese people's U.S. side than Kitavis people.
Darin Tingey: yeah oh yeah absolutely um
Josh: or Or maybe because Australia is more influential influential on the Kitabas side, maybe you might see more Kitabas people in Australia than you do Marshallese.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, 100%. But they're not leaving as much in Kitabas than they are leaving the Marsh Islands.
Josh: Yeah. Uh-huh.
Darin Tingey: Anyway, all right, last three questions for you.
Josh: Okay. Okay.
Darin Tingey: ah Favorite area, favorite food, and then your favorite thing about the Marsh Islands. Or Marsh Islands or Kitabas. Actually, i want I want one from each if you can think of one.
Josh: Okay, so area, food, and what else?
Darin Tingey: Well, let's do answer those two first, and we'll go from there.
Josh: Okay, all right. Okay. So favorite favorite area from each?
Josh: Well, I mean, if you're going favorite area, I was just going to the Marshall Islands Maduro Mission, because i basically went everywhere.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. You did go everywhere. Okay, maybe like, maybe, i guess for since, yeah, yours was so unique, maybe one area that you were actually like,
Darin Tingey: Like that was your specific area, maybe on Maduro, I guess.
Josh: Yeah, okay. So, I mean, from that perspective, know.
Josh: Maybe Dellup.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: Dellup, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Okay.
Josh: Dellup, Rita, and Agile Tagi were just all so close.
Darin Tingey: you
Josh: That's hard. i'll You know, I'll say Dellup.
Josh: Okay.
Darin Tingey: Okay, what about what what about an island, your favorite island, since you visited so many?
Josh: Island. Marshall's side, I did love Ebi. I think the work on Ebi is probably closer to the work Like on Kitabas.
Josh: Members are strong.
Darin Tingey: Mm-hmm.
Josh: They're from Kitabas. I think Christmas is just so great.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. All right.
Josh: So.
Darin Tingey: Favorite food.
Josh: Dude. From the Kitabas side. Red Snapper. Hands down.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: um Marshall's side. what...
Josh: I don't know, dude.
Josh: Honestly, those donuts with just a little bit of peanut butter was good, but that's not even like that wasn't even true Marshallese culture stuff.
Darin Tingey: it
Josh: you know
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: i don't know. like Maybe Bub. like I could go for a good Bub. like
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: What a Bub? Pandana's fruit.
Darin Tingey: Yeah?
Josh: pen pendanus fruit I don't know. I don't know, dude. I felt like a little of their food was, was us related.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: Like you had rice and like, it was either rice or fish and that was kind of plain or it was like rice and hot dog or rice and something American related.
Darin Tingey: yeah the main
Josh: Right.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. On the main island, do you for sure get that. I say on the outer islands, you get more classic Marshallese food.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So that's fair.
Josh: Yeah. And that's where it's like, I had zero experience on Marshallese outers. So I'm a city boy.
Darin Tingey: That's fair. um ah Okay, here's... I said the last question, but I'm going to throw in i'm but sort throwing in a different one every time as well.
Darin Tingey: ah And this is for all the moms out there. What's ah like the best thing you brought on your mission?
Josh: best thing and brought on the mission.
Darin Tingey: Or that you maybe wish you had? Like, for example, I brought itching cream. And sorry for the listeners. I talked about in the last podcast too.
Darin Tingey: But I brought like bug itching cream, which saved my life on Myana. it was awesome.
Josh: Yeah, I would say like, don't know, diarrhea medicine is probably the best.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Josh: And it's like, that that was like, it, it, yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's a guarantee.
Josh: Well, believe it or not, like I made it most of my mission without having like really bad diarrhea until I got to get a bit. And the thing that gets me a hundred percent of the time, it's the raw chicken.
Josh: So.
Darin Tingey: Mm-hmm.
Josh: just future missionaries watch out, make sure that chicken is cooked fully. Um, raw chicken, sashimi chicken will, will get you immediately. And that's what got me in, in Kitabas was uncooked chicken.
Josh: Um, I would say that that was it. Like for me, itching cream, like I just had a, it was like a mentality thing where I was like, yeah, I see that bite, but I ain't scratching you. And then it'll go away like the next day or something.
Josh: So,
Darin Tingey: Yeah, you do get used to all the bug bites, but dude, on my end, I swear that the bugs would wake up at night and like, like it's like getting dusk and you just hear them all like wake up from the forest and like, oh dude, it was the worst.
Josh: Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: Yeah. No, I hear you.
Darin Tingey: um
Josh: don't don't Don't bring a ton of black either.
Darin Tingey: the
Josh: The mosquitoes are attracted to darker colors, so...
Darin Tingey: um Okay, and then final question for you. what Just what was your favorite thing about the the Marsh Islands and Kitabas and the mission as a whole?
Josh: um Those the people, hands down. um They're just so humble. They don't have a lot. They just have each other. They have the gospel. And the more you can focus on them instead of you, i think you'll have a better experience.
Josh: And that all comes from that. that That was the thing my mom hammered hammered to me every time was like, just love the people. So I think if you can do that, yes, you'll you'll have disagreements with your companions.
Josh: But you're there for the people, you're there for for Christ, and they are hands down my favorite. It was fun to, I felt like they had the same humor as me.
Josh: And so i was also a city boy, so I learned a little bit more slang than like, cultural traditional Marshallese like Roros and stuff like that. I was not a ever good, good with that, but like the whole teasing and, and stuff like that, they're just such great people.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Josh: And yes, we've, we've joked about them like running away and, and sleeping all the time, but they're just such wonderful people. And, um,
Josh: so grateful that I had the opportunity to just meet people that were different than me and, uh, and know that God loved them still. So.
Darin Tingey: yeah And you know as a half Japanese person to so we go go into Marshallese culture where you know they have history with Japanese people controlling their islands.
Josh: Yeah. And, and you know, that that wasn't a positive experience ah for, for some of them, but it was interesting to see, like some of them do look Japanese because they did mingle with, with, the with the soldiers back then.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Josh: um And also Denki, you know, that word is actually Japanese.
Josh: Yeah. Denki is light in Marshallese and that's what it is in Japanese. So that's what they call flashlights is Denki. So yeah. For,
Darin Tingey: You know that that's what my name was in the Marsh Islands, right?
Josh: Oh, really?
Darin Tingey: i went I went by Elder Thanky. Yeah. ah ah
Josh: um
Darin Tingey: Yeah, Elder Flashlight.
Josh: Nice.
Darin Tingey: I mean, Tingy and Thanky is close enough, so that's what I went by.
Josh: Yeah. Yeah, that's good, dude.
Darin Tingey: Well, Josh, this was awesome. I... I mean, we've caught up before, but it's fun to really dive deep into your mission and hear all about it. I think I've been wanting to hear about your mission since I was in the MTC with you when you were my teacher.
Josh: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: ah It's just, it's so fun. Our mission is so unique and to hear the stories and and each person's mission was so different.
Josh: Mm-hmm.
Darin Tingey: Mine was so much different like so different than yours and what we saw, who we interacted with. And it's it's really cool. I think you had a really large impact on the mission, not only while you're a missionary, but after as an MTC teacher. you know like You really instilled in this to work hard, to be obedient, to to really learn the language. And so i think I think the mission benefited from you greatly for that. So Really thank you. And it was a great episode of the Alan's podcast.
Josh: Yeah. Thank you, Darren. Appreciate all the kind words.
