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Episode #1: Darin Tingey - Marshall Islands & Kiribati - Ebeye, Majuro, Maiana, Lae
56 Plays19 days ago
Iawke & Mauri! Welcome to the Islands Podcast. I, Darin Tingey, am your host and this episode is to give you a brief intro of what this podcast is about and who I am. This is a passion project where I bring on former missionaries that served in the Marshall Islands and Kiribati, two tiny island countries in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We are going to talk island life, mission life, language, culture, food, conversion stories and much more. I also really want to dive in on each outer island that we had missionaries on.
I started my mission in the Marshall Islands in Ebeye (Kwajalein Atoll) then went to Ajeltake (Majuro Atoll), then was transferred to the other island country of Kiribati where I served on the outer island of Maiana, then transferred back to the Marshall Islands to Long Island (Majuro Atoll), then to the outer island of Lae, and then back to Uliga (Majuro Atoll) where I completed my mission. I served from 2016-2018.
Let's talk islands!
#MarshallIslandsMajuroMisssion #MarshallIslands/KiribatiMission #Marshall Islands #Kiribati #Ebeye #Majuro #Maiana #Lae
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Transcript
Introduction to Islands Podcast
00:00:01
Darin Tingey
All right, this is episode one of the Islands Podcast. Welcome, my name is Darren Tingey. I'll be the host of this podcast where primarily I'll be interviewing others.
00:00:13
Darin Tingey
It won't be just myself, but for the first one, I'll give you a quick intro on myself and what this podcast is about. This is
Darren's Background and Passion for Islands
00:00:22
Darin Tingey
a passion project for me.
00:00:24
Darin Tingey
So I grew up in Arizona and After high school, I went on a two-year service mission for my church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
00:00:38
Darin Tingey
And I served in the Marshall Islands-Madura mission, which later changed to the Marshall Islands-Kittabas mission. So the Marshall Islands and Kittabas are two tiny island countries in the middle of the Pacific.
00:00:51
Darin Tingey
And it was two years of the best time of my life. And
Focus on Marshall Islands and Kiribati Missions
00:00:56
Darin Tingey
I'm passionate about the islands. I want to talk about them all the time. So this is a fun passion project for me where I get to sit down with people like myself who served in that mission, served in Kitabas, served in the Marshall Islands.
00:01:13
Darin Tingey
I'll probably eventually expand it to include all of the island missions. Whether that's Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, Tuvalu, Panawatu, Micronesia, ah you name it, we're going to probably add it in.
00:01:29
Darin Tingey
and But for now, we'll start off with people who served their missions with myself, as well as those that came after me who have recently been returned from the Marsh Islands in Kiribati and those who served 20, 30 years ago.
00:01:45
Darin Tingey
It should
Receiving the Mission Call
00:01:46
Darin Tingey
be fun and I'm excited. To give a quick background on on my mission, I graduated in 2016 from high school and the day I graduated is the day I got my mission call.
00:01:59
Darin Tingey
And when I opened it, I really wanted to go to Spanish speaking. So I read it and it said the Marsh Islands Maduro mission, but I i said Mahuro because I really wanted to go Spanish speaking.
00:02:13
Darin Tingey
ended up leaving in September, going to the MTC where my intake overlapped with ah the intake ahead of me. And there was about 12 in intake above me and 12 or 13 in my intake. So a lot of missionaries, we were all going to the Marshall Islands side of the mission.
00:02:32
Darin Tingey
There was another intake going to Kiribati as well. So my mission consisted of three countries, the Marshall Islands, Kiribati or the Gilbert Islands and Nauru.
00:02:44
Darin Tingey
Three countries,
Mission Structure and Cultural Influence
00:02:45
Darin Tingey
three different cultures, three different languages. There are no missionaries currently in Nauru, it's not legal. And then when I was in the mission, there was about roughly 30 missionaries in the Marshall Islands. And in Kiribati there was anywhere from 80 to 100.
00:03:05
Darin Tingey
So quick background, Marshall Islands has probably influenced your life more than you know it. If you ever watched SpongeBob, Bikini Bottom comes from Bikini Atoll, which is in the Marshall Islands where the US s tested atomic and hydrogen bombs.
00:03:24
Darin Tingey
um So you've probably seen the pictures of the mushroom cloud on the island of the the atomic bomb, and that's the Marshall Islands.
Geography and People of the Islands
00:03:33
Darin Tingey
And Kitabas is just south of it.
00:03:36
Darin Tingey
Very similar. They're both countries that are have islands, atolls.
00:03:43
Darin Tingey
So that means not necessarily one specific island, but a chain of coral coral islands that surrounded volcanoes thousands of years ago.
00:03:56
Darin Tingey
So they're tiny islands about six feet above sea level. You can see the ocean on both sides and just incredible that you can't see it on a map and you look in the Pacific.
00:04:08
Darin Tingey
But both of them have ah amazing people and culture. In the Marshall Islands, there's probably about 30,000 people or thirty thousand people or less Now, there have been more when I was there in 2016 through 2018, but a lot of them live in the States now because the US bombed a lot of their country, they let them come to the States.
00:04:33
Darin Tingey
And Kiribati is a lot more. I can't remember the exact number, but I want to say around 80 to 100,000 people. So their outer islands are a lot more populated. They just have more people.
00:04:47
Darin Tingey
So they have more missionaries there.
Personal Experiences and Cultural Differences
00:04:49
Darin Tingey
Recently, there's a temple announced for Kitabas. The work there was booming. In my mission, ah for me for me specifically, I was called Marshallese speaking. So I was going to magic the Marshall Islands.
00:05:02
Darin Tingey
So i ended up going to the Marshall Islands, started my mission there. And then six months into my mission, I was transferred to Kitabas. And then spent some time in Kitabas for a while, and then got transferred back to the Marshall Islands.
00:05:15
Darin Tingey
so The fun part about this podcast is I experienced both sides of the mission, both countries, both languages, both cultures. And so we're going to talk to people who served in the marsh islands. We're going to talk to people served in Kiribati.
00:05:29
Darin Tingey
We're going talk to talk people who are like myself. We got to serve them both. And we'll kind of get to see what island life was like on all the different outer islands. In the marsh islands, we had, i think that at most, we had seven outer islands open.
00:05:47
Darin Tingey
and two main islands, Maduro, which is the capital, and then Ebay, which is in Kwajalein Atoll next to the U.S. Army base. There's a lot of people there. And then the outer islands that we had missionaries on were Arno, Mile, Ebon, Jalewicz, Wutje, Lai, and I think Lavalap.
00:06:12
Darin Tingey
Before my time, there had been Wigai and some others. And then in Kiribati, man, I think they had every single one of the outer islands open except for Mena and Arde at one point in my mission.
00:06:28
Darin Tingey
Even Bona Bay had missionaries on it, which was one for the books. Hopefully we'll get some some of those missionaries on here to talk about what that was like because that's a once-in-a-lifetime experience and not many people got to do that one.
00:06:44
Darin Tingey
As
Transition from Marshall Islands to Kiribati
00:06:45
Darin Tingey
far as areas I served, I started in E-Buy. i was Yolup, so that the E-Buy Third Ward. And then I went to South, the Rook, which is E-Buy First Ward, I believe.
00:07:01
Darin Tingey
So I was on E-Buy for a total of three transfers. And then I got transferred to Maduro, which is the main island of the Marsh Islands. And I was in Ajitake for one's transfer.
00:07:14
Darin Tingey
That's the countryside of the marsh islands, probably the skinniest, tiniest part of Maduro where you can throw a rock from ocean side to lick side or lagoon side to ocean side.
00:07:27
Darin Tingey
And then from there, i was transferred to Kiribati, along with five other elders. Basically, what happened there was president was saying, hey, I have a lot of work in Kiribati. I'm losing 20 missionaries this summer.
00:07:38
Darin Tingey
So I want to send six of you over to help out. And all of us were pretty shocked. We were stoked to go but it was basically restarting our mission.
00:07:51
Darin Tingey
a whole new language, whole new culture, brand new missionaries that most of us didn't know any of them besides the ones that we were in MTC with, which was fun to see them later.
00:08:03
Darin Tingey
And we got the news. The president was like, I'm sending you over as fast as we can get your visas. And we said goodbye to all the missionaries in the Marshall Islands because we didn't know if we had ever seen them again.
00:08:18
Darin Tingey
I kind of had ah hope that this would happen to me because both of my MTC teachers, Brother Sherman and Tonini, both served in the Marshall Islands and Kitabas. The Tonini served in both and Sherman was AP and he got to travel to both. He didn't officially serve in Kitabas at all, but he traveled to both.
00:08:39
Darin Tingey
So I had seen this and I kind of hoped that this would happen to me. I thought it'd a crazy cool experience to to get to be in both sides of the mission in both countries and and and learn a lot and it was an incredible experience i when i when we got to kiribus um we all got told we were being sent to outer islands i got sent to mayana which is the outer island just south of tarawa you could The flight was 10 minutes. It was so fast.
00:09:08
Darin Tingey
But little dinky plane out to Miami. And it was my it was such an amazing island. Pretty large. Large for Kitabas. Super long.
00:09:21
Darin Tingey
super long island and i was I was on there for little over four months, two different companions ah there. One Elder Tui was my trainer, which was kind of funny to have another trainer mid in the mission.
00:09:39
Darin Tingey
And then Elder Otto, who was actually in the MTC with me. so fun uh in mayana i hope i get to talk about it with some other missionaries that served there but we did church in four different villages they live a very traditional life i lived in the stick hut uh
00:09:58
Darin Tingey
lots of bugs, mosquitoes. It was
Life and Work on Lai Island
00:10:01
Darin Tingey
amazing ah to say the least. And then from there, I actually get transferred back to the Marshall Islands.
00:10:08
Darin Tingey
I go back to Tarawa for a few days, president says, hey, some stuff happened at the Marshall Islands, or we need you back in the Marshall Islands. But you're gonna go start a kiddo branch in the Marshall Islands.
00:10:21
Darin Tingey
Because there's a lot of kiddos people that go work in the Marshall Islands because they the pay is a little bit better. and there's pretty large community. So I was very sad to leave Kitabas at the time, but very excited to go back to ah the Marshall Islands to continue working with the Marshallese people and also with the Gilbertese, the Kitabas people.
00:10:40
Darin Tingey
And I was transferred to Maduro in Long Island. because that was kind of the center of Maduro and president wanted to do the Kittabas branch there.
00:10:52
Darin Tingey
So the fun part about being there and doing the Kittabas branch is I got to work anywhere in Maduro, anywhere that there was Kittabas people, I got to go. So I did that for four and a half months. We started a Kittabas branch and it was so fun.
00:11:07
Darin Tingey
ah was very exhausting ah because I had to go back and
00:11:12
Darin Tingey
speak Marshallese again and and continue learning Kitabas and try to learn both languages, continue to learn both languages at the same time, but it was amazing to to do the Kitabas branch. And it continued on even after i left the area and after I left the mission, it continued on until basically COVID shut it down.
00:11:34
Darin Tingey
But ah it was amazing to to meet every Kitabas person in the Marshall Islands That was a really cool experience. And then from there, ah was kind of like president.
00:11:45
Darin Tingey
I'm going a little crazy speaking Kiribati and Marshallese every day. i kind of i would like to either go back to Kiribati or go to an outer island in the Marshall Islands. I really love the outer island life and I really would love to.
00:11:58
Darin Tingey
and And yeah, Sometimes you got to beg president to go where you want to go, but he sent me to Lai, which ended up being the best island I've ever been on. And to give you some perspective, Lai a very, very tiny atoll with fewer than 300 people on it.
00:12:17
Darin Tingey
And they're the happiest people on earth. And of that roughly 300 people, about 100 of them are members of the Church Jesus Christ Latter-day Saints. They have an official congregation award out there. And a lot of those have gone to the temple, which is absurd. um We reopened the island. The island has had missionaries forever because they've had so much success there. And and its proximity to Ebi facilitates a lot of that success.
00:12:48
Darin Tingey
So all those kids on Lai go to school on Ebi. So, uh, we reopened the Island and me and, uh, myself and elder Scott, was just intake above me.
00:12:59
Darin Tingey
And we spent Christmas out there. We flew out there two days before Christmas, but Christmas out there. and I think I spent total four and a half months. Elder Scott ended up spending six months out there, but just amazing outer Island.
00:13:13
Darin Tingey
The plane came maybe twice a month, food boat, once every three months, ah we're getting fish, rice, octopus, crab. I mean, all this stuff I had on in Kiribati as well.
00:13:26
Darin Tingey
But Lai was something special because of the people there. And because it was so small, we talked to everyone basically three times a day, but we had a lot of success, a lot of success in Lai. And,
00:13:38
Darin Tingey
and Hopefully I'll talk to some other missionaries who also serve there and we can we can tell stories, reminisce. I'm hoping not to share the same story in every podcast so it doesn't get boring.
00:13:54
Darin Tingey
But after Lai, I went back to Maduro where I've... went to Uliga and did my last two transfers in Uliga. One training, aldaun who was from Kiribati.
00:14:08
Darin Tingey
And that was really fun because then I got to continue speaking Kiribati to him and teach him Marshallese. So I got to speak Kiribati and teach him Marshallese. And then i died.
00:14:20
Darin Tingey
with uh i sent him off to outer island after he was with me and then elder kendrick who was in my intake uh finished the mission with me we both died in ulaga and it was amazing ulaga's on the the city side of maduro so as far as my serving in maduro i had ajitaki on the countryside had long island which is kind of the middle of countryside and city and then Ullagao, which is very much city.
00:14:50
Darin Tingey
And when I say city, do not think of a city, just think of not necessarily a ton of palm coconut trees.
Insights for Future Missionaries
00:14:59
Darin Tingey
It's more businesses, houses on top of each other, lots of people, countryside is, feels more islandy, more island vibe.
00:15:10
Darin Tingey
So, ah We're going to talk about Marshallese culture, Kitabas culture, food well ah you know crazy mission stories, hopefully talk about every single outer island that we've had a missionary on what their experience was, what would their house was like, um funny stories, ah conversion stories,
00:15:39
Darin Tingey
everything, you name it. I hope that one, those that served in the mission will listen to the podcast and just reminisce about the mission and and want to come on and talk about it and then their experience. And and two, for kids that are getting called to Marshall Islands Kitabas mission,
00:16:01
Darin Tingey
ah There wasn't a lot on the line for me to like learn about the mission. i Looking back, I knew nothing about the Marshall Islands. I knew nothing about Kitabas. ah I knew kind of where they were and that they spoke Marshallese and Kitabas, but like I didn't know anything about them.
00:16:18
Darin Tingey
didn't know anything of about the culture. ah the history of their countries. And so hopefully this can and help those missionaries prepare better to serve those people and to already start building the the love of the culture and the language and the people And also probably for those moms out there who are also doing their research on their son or daughter's new mission call.
00:16:47
Darin Tingey
Hopefully they can learn something from this podcast and and learn what life's going to be like as missionary out there because it's very different. It's very different than any other mission. You know, you're a lot of times you're on an outer island that for me, we didn't have Internet access on some of them. so i was writing letters. I think a lot of that's changed now that there's Starlink and missionaries have phones and whatnot. But there still are very some remote parts of the islands and still places that you're not going to be starving ever, but that
00:17:23
Darin Tingey
you're eating fish and rice every day and you want to know what to bring. You're be wearing flip-flops. the mission is just going to be different than anything else you experience.
00:17:34
Darin Tingey
And it's going to be the best two years of your life.
Future Plans and Passion for the Pacific
00:17:37
Darin Tingey
So hopefully um you guys like the podcast, please let me know ah if you want to come on, if you've been in that mission or what you do and don't like about the podcast, what you want us to talk about. we're I'm excited.
00:17:53
Darin Tingey
Again, it's passion project for me. I'm on paternity leave after having my first son. So I've got some time to do this. I love the Marsh Islands and Kitabas. I went back in August. to the Marshall Islands.
00:18:05
Darin Tingey
I did not get the chance to go back to Kitabas too hard to do it all in one. I need a whole month to do that. But incredible.
00:18:16
Darin Tingey
I hope to go back to Kiribati soon. ah And I just, ah love the islands. i love the Pacific. And again, we won't just do Marsh Islands, Kiribati only, but that's where we'll start.
00:18:28
Darin Tingey
And then we'll get into other Pacific missions out there because the Pacific's very similar in a lot of ways. So, Thank you again. This is the Islands Podcast and look forward to bring on some great guests.