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Episode #3 Cameron Kendrick - Marshall Islands - Mili, Ailinglaplap, Majuro, Ebeye
80 Plays27 days ago
Cameron Kendrick served in the Marshall Islands/Kiribati Mission from 2016-2018. He served on the islands of Majuro, Ailinglaplap, Ebeye, and Mili. In this episode we talk about Cameron's experience as a missionary in the Marshall Islands and most of all his incredible experience of building a brand new church building on the beautiful outer islands of Mili!
#MarshallIslands/KiribatiMission #MarshallIslands #Majuro #Ailinglaplap #Ebeye #Mili #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands
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Transcript
Introduction of Kendrick from Ogden, Utah
00:00:00
Darin Tingey
All right, here we are with episode three of the Island Podcast with my buddy, Cameron Kendrick. I'll call you Kendrick because that's how everyone from the mission knows you and how I knew you, but Cameron's from, are you from Ogden?
00:00:19
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, logged in Utah.
Life in Farmington and Aerospace Career
00:00:22
Darin Tingey
Kendrick's from Ogden and we were actually in the MTC together.
00:00:25
Cameron Kendrick
but
00:00:28
Darin Tingey
way back in the day now, 2016.
00:00:29
Cameron Kendrick
Good times. this
00:00:33
Darin Tingey
And now lives in Farmington, Utah with his wife and ah works in dispe aerospace and defense contracting, which is incredible.
00:00:37
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
00:00:47
Darin Tingey
Did I miss anything?
Post-Mission Journey and Return to Utah
00:00:49
Cameron Kendrick
Nope, no, you hit it all.
00:00:49
Darin Tingey
Nope. No, you did all.
00:00:51
Cameron Kendrick
um Yeah, born and raised in Ogden, lived here for nearly all my life.
00:00:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:00:57
Cameron Kendrick
And then after the mission, my wife and I moved down to Houston, where she had a um soccer scholarship. So she played D1 soccer down there for Houston Baptist University.
00:01:07
Cameron Kendrick
So we lived down there for two years. And then that's right when about COVID hit. And then we moved back to Utah, been here ever since.
00:01:16
Darin Tingey
That's right. I forgot you guys lived in Houston. That's crazy.
00:01:19
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:01:19
Darin Tingey
That was, that seems like so long ago,
00:01:20
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
Mission Call and Early Departure to Marshall Islands
00:01:22
Cameron Kendrick
Right. It really does.
00:01:22
Darin Tingey
man.
00:01:24
Darin Tingey
Uh, that's awesome. You married a, a baller athlete. Good for you.
00:01:29
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah, she'll carry on those genes. It's not coming from my side.
00:01:34
Darin Tingey
Well, good. Uh, so you, like I said, entered the MTC with me in 2016. So when did you get your call? Do you remember when you got your mission call?
00:01:46
Cameron Kendrick
That's a good question. I think we we entered in what, August?
00:01:50
Darin Tingey
September 7th.
00:01:51
Cameron Kendrick
September. Okay, September. So I got my call in August then. Got it and and then we left in September. I didn't know that what something that really stuck out to me when we first got our calls is we got our calls saying, hey, this is the date.
00:02:05
Cameron Kendrick
This is the time. This is when you should show up to the MTC.
Adjusting to Marshall Islands Mission Life
00:02:08
Cameron Kendrick
And then like ah two weeks later, so it was about a month until we go into the mission. So I get a call saying, hey, is this Cameron? I'm like, Yeah this is she's like oh this is from this is from the FTC headquarters we actually want you to come a week early because your president will be going through different islands and stuff and that's the best time when he can make it to the main island and I was like holy cow I'm not even there and this is already crazy.
00:02:22
Darin Tingey
but
00:02:34
Cameron Kendrick
So I remember telling my mom that, I'm like, you're not going to believe this, but they want me to go a week early. And that was in like, I don't know, like fast forward, that would have been like two weeks to then to go into the mission.
00:02:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:45
Cameron Kendrick
She's like, what? They taking another week from me? Like, she's like, I was just like, cheering it on, like, yes, like, let's go. I was so excited. And my mom was like balling, like, so mad about it.
00:02:59
Darin Tingey
It was crazy. Because yeah, they didn't give us much time. Like before they told us, Oh, you're coming in a week early.
00:03:03
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:03:05
Darin Tingey
We're all like, Oh, what? Okay, like, I guess I gotta to get my stuff together sooner or later.
00:03:08
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:03:10
Darin Tingey
And that's crazy. You got your call in August and you're, ah you're going a September. That's wild.
00:03:14
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah. it was I remember it being a very small window for going to somewhere like that's so remote. And so like you have no idea what to but to pack, what to prepare for. And just being like getting a little overwhelmed in that sense, just being like, oh, jeez, this is really happening.
00:03:30
Cameron Kendrick
And then now it's happening even sooner. But man, I would have gone the next day if I could have.
00:03:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:36
Darin Tingey
ah Did you when you open your call, right? So it's like Marsh Island's madro mission at the time.
00:03:42
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:03:42
Darin Tingey
Did you have any idea where that was?
00:03:45
Cameron Kendrick
No idea. i saw I saw Islands in the title, and I was like, we're going. like This is sweet. And and then when when I was reading my call, I had you know like a little party over or whatever.
00:03:52
Darin Tingey
Marsh?
00:03:58
Cameron Kendrick
And they said, what language? And i was like I was reading it. I was like, Marshallese. And I was like, just you know way wrong. And they're like, what is that?
00:04:07
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:04:08
Cameron Kendrick
i like Delo!
00:04:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah, who knows?
00:04:11
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:04:12
Darin Tingey
Marshall Lee's, man, my siblings would have teased me like, you're going to speak marshmallow ease, like some some made up language, like there's no way.
00:04:16
Cameron Kendrick
Marshmello. Yeah.
00:04:21
Darin Tingey
ah
00:04:21
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, my my family just, they still to this day just say like when I speak it, like say prayer or something before dinner, though i she was like they they call it gibberish, which I don't know, gibberish is like an actual language, but they they just say you're just like speaking random vowels and and and I'm like, well, it makes sense to me and the people who speak it, so it must be real.
00:04:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:04:44
Darin Tingey
Marshall, please, honestly, though, it has to be like the closest thing to gibberish as you can, because it's like, such the back of your throat and like mumbling, mumbling, it's like, and you're like, what, like, what did they just say?
00:04:52
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah.
00:04:57
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, for sure. And it's what's really interesting is coming from like English speaking, in my in my
Missionary Training Center Experiences
00:05:04
Cameron Kendrick
own opinion, is like very you you need to pronunciate and you know pronounce and enunciate your words for it to go on to to be able to communicate. With Marshallese, they get away with just straight up just mumbling and just trying the bare minimum to speak it, but everyone knows what's going on.
00:05:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:22
Cameron Kendrick
Everyone that understands what they're saying. so That was probably the hardest part for me in learning the language, is just trying to understand and dissect what they're trying what they're saying.
00:05:32
Cameron Kendrick
Because I speak it so fast, and just like, okay, I got one word at the beginning, one word at the end. It probably meant this in this context. and that's like Little by little, you get of course, you've got more and more, but that was probably the hardest challenge for me.
00:05:46
Cameron Kendrick
it just just listening to it and translating that in your head.
00:05:50
Darin Tingey
Oh, gosh, I know. and And I think especially from, you know, the MTC, they teach us the words, right? We like, we we think what we like like, oh, that's what that word sounds like.
00:06:01
Darin Tingey
And then we get to the Marshall Islands. And it's like, all the women speak with like a high pitched nasally voice. And you're like, Whoa, like, what did I just hear?
00:06:07
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. and Yeah.
00:06:10
Darin Tingey
as That was not what it sounded like in the MTC.
00:06:11
Cameron Kendrick
you it's see Yeah. for sure.
00:06:15
Darin Tingey
luckily Luckily, we had a little taste of Elder Joseph. you know So Elder Joseph was in our intake.
00:06:18
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:06:20
Darin Tingey
He was supposed to go to the Philippines, ended up coming back to the Marshall Islands, which was fun. We got to we had to have him in the MTC.
00:06:27
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah.
00:06:27
Darin Tingey
um So you get to the MTC. you I came late. I remember I came late to the class. So I remember I walking i was walking in, and and everyone asked me when I walked in, like are you going to the Marshall Islands?
00:06:39
Cameron Kendrick
Uh
00:06:40
Darin Tingey
And I was like, like yeah, of course. you know like
00:06:43
Darin Tingey
You know what else? But your companion was not.
00:06:43
Cameron Kendrick
-huh.
00:06:47
Cameron Kendrick
ahha Yeah, my companion, bless his heart, he was the only one out of I think 12 of us or 13 and counting our sister that wasn't going to ah the Marshall Islands with us. ah Anthony Covington is going to, I believe it was Ohio?
00:07:01
Cameron Kendrick
No, Arkansas?
00:07:01
Darin Tingey
and Iowa.
00:07:03
Cameron Kendrick
Iowa. That was it. That was it Iowa. And that was a challenge in itself. Just just get um him knowing that he wasn't going to go to the islands with us, I think, put a damper on his time at the MTC. um Of course, he he later went on to go into his mission. And I talked to him through both of our missions. And and he just absolutely loved it. He crushed it. like he He was baptizing people left and right and and and just having a killing doing it.
00:07:32
Cameron Kendrick
He was absolutely loving it. But yeah, during the MTC, it was a little bit harder because it was we were all celebrating and talking about how how it's going to be so much fun. We were on the the islands and stuff, and he couldn't partake in those certain conversations as well. And so it was a little bit of a challenge that way. But man, he was a great person, great, great companion in the MTC. He was a lot of fun.
00:07:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah he's he's the man. yeah I remember talking because we finished our missions together and like hearing about his mission. like He yeah yeah absolutely loved it.
00:08:03
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:08:04
Darin Tingey
And the MTC, yeah, definitely
Challenges of Mission Culture and Rules
00:08:06
Darin Tingey
he was like one that struggled and was like, man, everyone is going to the islands and I'm not. But I stopped to learn this crazy language.
00:08:10
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:08:12
Darin Tingey
like That's a little unfair, honestly.
00:08:15
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Oh, yeah.
00:08:16
Darin Tingey
Totally.
00:08:16
Cameron Kendrick
100%.
00:08:17
Darin Tingey
But like once he got out there, man, absolutely crushed it and was totally the right place for him.
00:08:21
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:08:22
Darin Tingey
So that's awesome.
00:08:23
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:08:24
Darin Tingey
Uh, so big group for us, our teachers in the MTC were Sherman and Tony.
00:08:30
Cameron Kendrick
yeah Yeah, great guys. and it was It was definitely a lot of fun um getting to... And what was great was Tony and he had just barely come back from his mission and then he got a job you know teaching at the MTC and got we he was able to teach us.
00:08:46
Cameron Kendrick
And Sherman, I think, had been home for what four or five years, something like that, a little bit longer.
00:08:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:08:52
Cameron Kendrick
um But man, yeah, great teachers. One definitely taught us more of like the the language, how to structure the sentences and stuff like that. I think that's what he focused on and maybe more of a religious aspect. And then to ah Tonini talk to taught taught us more about like the culture, what we should and shouldn't do while there, stuff kind of like that. More more emphasis on like the missionary role.
00:09:16
Cameron Kendrick
and what we are there to um to do as as missionaries rather than just Sherman had a good grasp on like the mission the the language and stuff like that. So I think our MTC teachers were were awesome in their own way and definitely prepared us. I think prepared us really well for it. Of course, it wasn't you compare the MTC to actually being out there like your first week and you're like, whoa,
00:09:42
Cameron Kendrick
None of this makes sense. This is not what we were promised.
00:09:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:09:46
Cameron Kendrick
Francis, I don't know if you want to go ahead this far, but when I got into the mission, um my my we call it dad but my
00:09:56
Darin Tingey
right but Trainer.
00:09:57
Cameron Kendrick
but
00:09:57
Darin Tingey
Trainer.
00:09:58
Cameron Kendrick
trainer thank you My trainer had only been out there for ah like three or four weeks before he got me. So he didn't know Marshallese, he didn't know what to do, but then he got me and I remember going door to door knocking with him and just like reading from my my little book saying like the one sentence and just looking up at him and they're like, what? And then I would say it again, they're like,
00:10:24
Cameron Kendrick
they just shake their head and just like close the door like, dang. So but that that luckily, like looking back at it, it forced me to learn as ah the language as quickly as possible, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
00:10:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:10:38
Cameron Kendrick
I really wouldn't have. It was a struggle, to say the least, but I wouldn't have had it any other way, so especially because my my trainer, Elder Johnson, was just a peak missionary.
00:10:50
Cameron Kendrick
He was awesome.
00:10:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, he's the man and and yeah, so his his intake overlapped with us a week because we came into the MTC a week early.
Arrival in Marshall Islands and Climate Adjustment
00:10:59
Darin Tingey
So so we're with them. I remember I met other Johnson and I it was the very first day we got there.
00:11:04
Darin Tingey
And I was late, right? So I didn't get the language intro that everyone else did.
00:11:10
Cameron Kendrick
Right.
00:11:10
Darin Tingey
And he walks up to me and he goes at them, which means what's your name, right?
00:11:14
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:11:14
Darin Tingey
And that's like the most basic thing you learn. and And I'm like, dude, I have no idea what you just said to me.
00:11:19
Cameron Kendrick
a
00:11:20
Darin Tingey
He taps his name badges at them. And I was like, oh, other tingy. you know like this is
00:11:26
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. yeah ah I so I had new glasses and I've worn glasses since high school and and I got just like a brand new pair to go like for the to start out the mission there's a new so prescription and so I had to actually go to Costco to get them tightened around my head because they were very loose and and I didn't obviously at the marshals there was nowhere to tighten them there that you know it was like a company that would so me it was me elder house and
00:11:27
Darin Tingey
yeah That was my first introduction to him. So we so all right they go, where's another five weeks in MTC? We go, we say goodbye to other Covington, we fly to Hawaii. I can't remember, did you eat McDonald's or did you go have island food with us before we flew?
00:12:02
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:12:15
Cameron Kendrick
I believe it was Elder Dunn. We went to Costco, maybe one more person, I'm not sure. We went to Costco for that sole purpose is to have them go and tighten them because I knew that they did.
00:12:27
Cameron Kendrick
And we went there and we did and and they tightened them and then ah getting home was, and we got some pizza while there. um but But while being there, it was like a very like surreal,
00:12:33
Darin Tingey
Nice No way!
00:12:39
Cameron Kendrick
kind of experience because like we we would go up to people and ask them, hey, can we use your phone just to call a taxi to get back to our hotel? And we seriously had probably 15 people say no to us. like what yeah wouldn't even Wouldn't even give of us their phone just to just to call a taxi. Luckily, there was a member that went by and was like, hey, elders, what are you doing? And we're like, oh, I came here and to tell him the glasses, got some food and stuff. He's like, well, let me give you a ride.
00:13:08
Cameron Kendrick
So he luckily had a minivan and so he he took us back to our hotel. But yeah, I remember coming back to the hotel and all the of our people had like, ah or l the missionaries had like a just bought like a bunch of like dragon food and coconuts and pineapple from from the market. Just feasting on that.
Cultural Differences and Environmental Challenges
00:13:25
Darin Tingey
It was we so we like pass by McDonald's and we're like, let's go get island food, you know, ah biggest mistake, biggest mistake, missionaries, if you're listening to this, you're about to go have American food before you go have McDonald's while you can.
00:13:38
Cameron Kendrick
Yes, 100%. Yeah, yeah.
00:13:42
Darin Tingey
Okay, one second. I'm gonna close this blind really quick.
00:13:45
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, no problem.
00:13:45
Darin Tingey
One second.
00:13:55
Darin Tingey
There we go, a little better.
00:13:56
Cameron Kendrick
There you go.
00:13:57
Darin Tingey
um Yeah, I was like, man, I should have had McDonald's, dude. yeah So we fly to the Martians the next day.
00:14:08
Darin Tingey
And then first impressions, did you see the island like in the window? What was it like coming off the plane?
00:14:15
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, that was that was Going from in their plane and you know I think it was like it was from from to hai to Hawaii was about eight or nine hours and then from From Hawaii to the marshals and was a good another like what seven maybe six.
00:14:30
Cameron Kendrick
I believe it was I
00:14:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah, like close to sex. Yeah.
00:14:33
Cameron Kendrick
six okay and I remember just like just uh just being anxious the whole time you know just just it was probably like a good 65 cool degrees in the plane but I'm just sweating I'm just you know I stink and I'm sweating and then I remember um because ours was I believe it was overnight and so we when we
00:14:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:44
Darin Tingey
say Yeah.
00:14:54
Cameron Kendrick
when we were flipping up the the shaders and and it's bright and looking down at the the the island and how it's just so narrow. It was just you know just crystal clear blue and and green and and and the so it just white sand beaches and just thinking, all right, we're in paradise.
00:15:11
Cameron Kendrick
This this place is going to be...
00:15:11
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:15:12
Cameron Kendrick
I was so excited. And then that my first impression, my first thing, I remember vividly my head is them landing. And then when when we were landing,
00:15:24
Cameron Kendrick
you know You're coming down. You're like, we should be touching down about now. you know that We're descending. And then there's just you look to each side of your plane on the windows.
00:15:31
Darin Tingey
This water.
00:15:32
Cameron Kendrick
And there's just nothing but blue ocean. You're like, are we are we in the are we about to crash in the water or something? And then it hits the runway. It's just so narrow. but The flight attendants open up the window.
00:15:43
Cameron Kendrick
And I just feel like this rush of just hot, humid air. And it's just like, hey, you never left that after that after that point.
00:15:52
Darin Tingey
yeah It just hits you like a ton of bricks and you're like, we were just in, we were just some Provo and it's cold.
00:15:54
Cameron Kendrick
yeah Oh, it really did.
00:15:59
Darin Tingey
And then now we're here and it's just like, boom, hot, your shirt's sticking to you.
00:16:00
Cameron Kendrick
Oh.
00:16:05
Darin Tingey
You're like trying to peel it off.
00:16:07
Cameron Kendrick
Yep, yep. I remember thinking like like, man, can these people get off this plane faster? like I need some like fresh air. It's all hot and humid and like a can kind of air. and um Yeah, it was that was my first experience and then just walking off the plane and then into into the luggage area and being tired and and you know wet from the sweat. It was like, all right, this journey begins.
00:16:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah, here it is. And then, let's see, President, AP, zone leader was there to pick us up, took us to
Companionship Dynamics in Mission Field
00:16:39
Darin Tingey
President's house. We had some lunch. I think they told us there where we were going, right?
00:16:44
Darin Tingey
So you found out, had you found out from, ah who was it?
00:16:45
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:16:50
Darin Tingey
Sister Clark that we ran into in the airport the night before.
00:16:53
Cameron Kendrick
Oh yeah.
00:16:54
Darin Tingey
Did she tell you that Elder Johnson was going to be training you?
00:16:57
Cameron Kendrick
Let me think. I don't think that she I don't think that she remembered. She remembered a few other people who their companion was going to be, but not me.
00:17:09
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:17:09
Cameron Kendrick
um She knew where I was going. I was going to my first aerial was Ulaga and and that's like kind of like the center of the capital of the main island.
00:17:19
Cameron Kendrick
And she told me that's where I was going. But she didn't she didn't tell me that Elder Johnson was going to be my my comp.
00:17:26
Darin Tingey
So pretty cool. You started a new lega and you ended a new lega.
00:17:30
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, I sure did. I didn't really go with you.
00:17:30
Darin Tingey
That's crazy. ah
00:17:33
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
00:17:34
Darin Tingey
That's actually wild. I didn't realize that.
00:17:36
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:17:36
Darin Tingey
I didn't realize you started there, too. Okay, so you're like, all right, Elder Johnson's your companion. Were you a little nervous? You're like, this guy was an intake above me. There's no way he's training me.
00:17:46
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, so like ah we were we were in the president's home and that's when we just had lunch and he was telling us, you know, I'm i'm the president introducing him and his wife and some other um other senior companions and others and sisters. and And then he told us our assignments and where we're going. And he said, Elder Kendrick, you'll be in Uliga with the other Johnson. And I said, wait a minute. Didn't I saw him in the empty seat? There's no way there must be a mistake. And and And I remember remember after everyone split up and everyone was going to their cars for the only years to take them to to the respected areas, as I go up to the president. I'm like, am I with Elder Johnson? Didn't he just get here? And and he goes he he he puts his hand on my shoulder and goes, Elder?
00:18:34
Cameron Kendrick
you're gonna yeah You're going to do great. And that's what he said to me.
00:18:36
Darin Tingey
yeah a
00:18:38
Cameron Kendrick
And I was just like, I'll take that as a yes. All right. And you know I liked other Elder Johnson even just going into the MTC and stuff. So I knew it was going to be great.
00:18:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:18:48
Cameron Kendrick
I was really happy that he was my my companion even before getting into the the field with him. So i I really wasn't that nervous, maybe a little nervous for the the the language barrier. But i I knew that the experience was going to be great.
00:19:00
Cameron Kendrick
And so then, yeah, we we go to our
00:19:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:03
Cameron Kendrick
We go to our place, and I still remember the very first day going getting out of the car, and he's up he's he's up on like the second story where our house was, our little apartment was. And and he has his arms folded like this, and he goes, Nezhui, which means, hey, son.
00:19:20
Darin Tingey
yeah but
00:19:22
Cameron Kendrick
And I get out, and and I get my bags, start walking up to him. And for the, I think for the first entire week, he did not, he didn't say a single word in English to me. He was just, just try to speak as much Marshallese as he could.
00:19:34
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:19:35
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. And he he was really gifted in memorization ah and learning the language. Like he got, he picked up the language within probably, probably two months. And of course I was there for half of that.
00:19:49
Cameron Kendrick
And, um, And, but he, yeah, he, he made sure I learned the language just as quick as he did. And that was a big blessing.
00:19:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah, he was. So the reason you you're put with him is because we basically tripled the mission size, right? And two intakes.
00:20:04
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:20:05
Darin Tingey
So the intake above us, they were all trained by every elder possible that they had.
00:20:05
Cameron Kendrick
Yep.
00:20:10
Cameron Kendrick
Yep.
00:20:11
Darin Tingey
And then we came in and then it was like, I think it was basically, okay, the intake above us, now you're all paired together because we need to train the new intake.
00:20:18
Cameron Kendrick
ye
00:20:21
Darin Tingey
And then you got paired with Johnson, because we that was how the numbers worked out.
00:20:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yep, yep.
00:20:25
Darin Tingey
and and And yeah, Elder Johnson had picked up the language pretty quickly and was great to have you with him. And you guys got along great. If I'm not mistaken, besides me, you know, besides me, he's probably your favorite companion, would you say?
00:20:35
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:20:39
Cameron Kendrick
I would probably say, yeah.
00:20:41
Darin Tingey
wow Yeah.
00:20:42
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Remind me who your your trainer was.
00:20:46
Darin Tingey
So my trainer was Eldur Masur from Vanuatu.
00:20:49
Cameron Kendrick
Mysore.
00:20:50
Darin Tingey
So I was, I think I was the, okay, myself and Eldur Uatu were the only ones from our intake that didn't start on Majuro. So Majuro's the main island for those that don't know.
00:20:58
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:21:00
Darin Tingey
And then I got sent to Ibi, which is another main island. And then Eldur Uatu went to Jalewis, which is an outer island.
00:21:08
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:21:09
Darin Tingey
And it was good for me because you know how I was in the MTC, man. I was so stuck up like, I'm gonna fall every single rule and it was the worst experience like I I i didn't like the MTC because and I look back it was because I was so like ah like follow the book by the rule like we're not just that fun here we're like you know being super strict and like that was totally the wrong mindset like i look back and i tell everybody now it goes in to see like go have a lot of fun like the mission's supposed to be a lot of fun like don't be so uptight like people come from all different backgrounds and walks of life like
00:21:40
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:21:46
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, for sure.
00:21:47
Darin Tingey
you're you're not better than anybody else. And I think that's like I kind of had a ah ah bad mentality. So like sending me to eBuy and getting me away from the group was probably good was good for me and good for everybody. I got to do a little rebrand and I think I I mean, even my first companion, though, we had an emergency transfer three weeks in.
00:22:08
Darin Tingey
So like, it still took a little, it took my next companion. So Elder Masur was with me for three weeks.
00:22:12
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
00:22:13
Darin Tingey
And then Elder Kalinowski, him and Uichu came off the shallow edge, because there was some other stuff there.
00:22:16
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:22:19
Darin Tingey
And he came and was finished my training. We were together for another transfer and a half. And he's probably my besides you, he's probably my favorite ah companion.
00:22:29
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, me too.
00:22:31
Darin Tingey
and And so ski being my like trainer, like he just taught me to loosen up and like that was like the best thing from a mission.
00:22:39
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, that's some great advice is is you know hear it all the time. It's just you know go and have fun. But ah luckily for me, my older brother had just gotten home from his mission. He served in in Milan, Italy. And he gave me some great advice before going on my mission. And it's the same advice I give anyone else, too. The Lord won't punish you fur for um for going out there and trying your best.
00:23:07
Cameron Kendrick
he's gonna you know we Some of the biggest, the best advice that I could give would be, you're you're out there to do your job. um if If you're not following every single rule in that rule book, he's not going to punish you.
00:23:22
Cameron Kendrick
He's he's just not.
00:23:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:23:24
Cameron Kendrick
you know if you If you have the right mindset, your heart's there to serve the people, and you're doing what you're supposed to, you you know you you're going to get the job done. and and He shared an experience with me from my other brother's mission was um he went out to, um they were at at dinner um with a with an investigating family.
00:23:42
Cameron Kendrick
and there They had to be in indoors and you know kind of getting ready for bed at 9 p.m. And he him and his him his comp were still there um teaching this family who was who is on the edge of of baptizing.
00:23:57
Cameron Kendrick
and And maybe they were on the edge of baptizing. maybe I think it was actually their first lesson. Yeah, it was their first lesson. And um it was this family that was really interested in in learning it.
00:24:08
Cameron Kendrick
They had never heard of of the LDS Church, but they've heard of, you know, they were they were believers in Christ and stuff like that. But they were there at 8.45 p.m.
00:24:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:16
Cameron Kendrick
and that's when they had just started the lesson. And his companion, they were sitting down with him, his companion kept going over to my older brother and said, hey, we gotta go, we gotta go, like we gotta get out of here or else we're not gonna make it ah to ah to home in time by 9pm.
Adapting to Local Customs and Cultural Sensitivity
00:24:30
Cameron Kendrick
And they were saying this in English and they you know they didn't speak English, they only speak spoke Italian.
00:24:36
Cameron Kendrick
And my brother looks at it at his companion in English and goes, we're so we're so we're staying here and we're teaching this lesson. I don't care if you want to leave, go for it.
00:24:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:46
Cameron Kendrick
And so the the companion stayed with him during that that that lesson, luckily. But you know that was kind of like the like the call, like, hey, dude, shut up. let we're We're here to teach, let's teach. and um Long story short, is they they ended up baptizing that family and making a good impression on them and and stuff like that. and and He was a firm believer that if they would have left there, they you know something would have gone wrong or they maybe weren't as interested or something like that. and so He told me early on that you just kind of stuck with me. It's like, you're there to do if you're there to do what you're doing, don't worry too much about the rules. It'll just make it harder. Just have a good heart, have a good headspace, and and you know things will fall into place.
00:25:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think it's a good mindset, especially for the islands because you know. We're staying, you end up staying late at people's houses because like they invite you for dinner and you want to do, teach them and have dinner, but they don't start dinner until you get there.
00:25:40
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah.
00:25:44
Darin Tingey
And then, and then you have like a family home evening or dinner with them and then it's late.
00:25:46
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
00:25:50
Darin Tingey
I'm sorry, sorry, president, probably listen to this, but I remember like my third day, I was still in Majuro before I flew to Ibi and we went to a KEMM and this is the first birthday party.
00:25:52
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:26:02
Darin Tingey
It's a big deal in the Marshall Islands and
00:26:04
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
00:26:05
Darin Tingey
dang that food the food wasn't brought out until like 10 11 we stayed out we stayed out so late sorry president but it was kind of like ah oh whoa but i mean it's just how their culture works and we try to do our best but you also don't want to be rude at the same time
00:26:09
Cameron Kendrick
Oh yeah. And that's classic.
00:26:19
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:26:23
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, there's there's island time, which you know takes probably an hour and a half, two hours after the allotted time of when it's supposed to start. And then there's the Marshallese time, which is like three and a half hours after when it's supposed to start.
00:26:33
Darin Tingey
and
00:26:35
Cameron Kendrick
And then they get the ball rolling.
00:26:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah. What time's dinner? Uh, six. And you get there. Dinner's at nine.
00:26:42
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, oh, yeah.
00:26:42
Darin Tingey
Dinner's at nine. So I think something that was interesting was when we were in the MTC, I felt like they kind of told us like, hey, the intake above you and your intake, you know you guys are going are meant to change the
Mission Transfers and Dynamics Impact
00:26:57
Darin Tingey
mission culture.
00:26:57
Darin Tingey
Like the mission culture apparently was was pretty bad. And I don't think the MTC teachers were allowed to tell us that, right? They shouldn't have said anything, right?
00:27:04
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:05
Darin Tingey
Cause we all go into the mission like, ooh, this is such a bad mission. Like we're going to change it, ah which was totally the wrong mentality at all. Because then it was kind of like a, us versus you guys, right?
00:27:16
Darin Tingey
New versus incumbent. And I know that was like a little bit of friction for our intake and the one above us with the rest of the guys.
00:27:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:27:25
Darin Tingey
Um, and I was kinda on e-buy when a lot of stuff went down, but there was some stuff in Madro that, and like you and Johnson, we're going to get sent to, I think LaBlop together, right? So you and Ulaga for how long?
00:27:37
Cameron Kendrick
I was in Uluga for, I want to say, four or five months. Yeah, probably four or five months, so a good amount of time.
00:27:43
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:27:46
Darin Tingey
Were you at Johnson the whole time?
00:27:48
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, I was with Johnson the whole time, and then, yeah, that stuff went down. I can't exactly remember what happened. ah But then I got transferred um Because of something else there's a you know um emergency transfer somewhere else and which caused me to then go to Iraq Which is the very south end of the island with ah elder teal
00:28:10
Darin Tingey
So did you guys go to Alinglaplup in that time though, for like a little bit?
00:28:15
Cameron Kendrick
Yes, yes. so So we were in Uligah for a good, I would say, about four, maybe five months. And then him and I were going to Eiling Labla, which I don't believe there was any elders.
00:28:27
Cameron Kendrick
No, there wasn't any elders before that.
00:28:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:29
Cameron Kendrick
We were the first ones that were going there. And ah do you want me to speak on like kind of my experience there?
00:28:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. So like I just had a quick Google search, you know, I love a lot for for those who don't know, it's, it's in the Raylick chain.
00:28:39
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:28:45
Darin Tingey
So the sunset chain, which is the left left side of the Marshall Islands. And what what what would your guess be for the population?
00:28:55
Cameron Kendrick
Well, that's where they have their military base. So are we talking like ah US citizens there as well, or just islanders?
00:29:02
Darin Tingey
Uh, no, I think quadrant has the military base. I think level up.
00:29:07
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah, OK. OK.
00:29:09
Darin Tingey
So it's so hard.
00:29:09
Cameron Kendrick
So yeah yeah, you're right. You're right. You're right. Island, blah, blah, blah. I would guess probably probably like 75, maybe 80 people.
00:29:15
Darin Tingey
It's a hard guess.
00:29:19
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:29:19
Cameron Kendrick
My off.
00:29:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah, well, you ah I think that's probably where you guys were ah in that specific area total total at all.
00:29:26
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:29:29
Darin Tingey
In 2021, it was 1175. So actually, like a decent amount.
00:29:32
Cameron Kendrick
Wow, that's it. That's a good amount. I do not remember seeing it like like that many people.
00:29:38
Darin Tingey
I'm sure it didn't feel that way.
00:29:39
Cameron Kendrick
No, wow, that's crazy.
00:29:39
Darin Tingey
I'm sure it didn't feel that way.
00:29:41
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, the the the island itself is one of the largest ones, so that does make sense.
00:29:46
Darin Tingey
Yes.
00:29:47
Cameron Kendrick
um That does make sense.
00:29:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think the plane touches down in three different islands within the atoll. Is that right?
00:29:53
Cameron Kendrick
of just styling blah blah.
00:29:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think so.
00:29:56
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
00:29:56
Darin Tingey
I think it does.
00:29:57
Cameron Kendrick
OK.
00:29:58
Darin Tingey
I think it does.
00:29:58
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, I was way off.
00:30:00
Darin Tingey
um There's like, Whija. Right.
00:30:07
Darin Tingey
I just had it up here. But, but pretty cool. So so it's a it's a big island, right? It's that's the name of the not the name.
00:30:13
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:30:15
Darin Tingey
I think level up means really big islands, right?
00:30:17
Cameron Kendrick
Yep, yep.
00:30:17
Darin Tingey
So um and and it's traditionally like capital of the year age level up. So the the big Chiefs, it's kind of like, that's the that's the island. So you and other Johnson fly out there.
00:30:29
Darin Tingey
It's a dinky little plane, right?
00:30:31
Cameron Kendrick
oh Yeah, yeah, I think I remember And they say they they use the same exact planes since you know 20 years ago and they're just holding them together with like With just duct tape and and so I remember like we were like it's the probably a 12 passenger crew plane um and I see I remember like look like looking to the left engine and and you know we're sitting right where the wing is and you can see just like this black just scorch marks on the wing and the the engine was repaired and and fully working and everything but there was you could literally see scorch marks from something that had happened previously and they didn't care to you know clean it off or you know they made the proper repairs but you know it is just that case bare minimum yeah
00:31:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Bare minimum. Bare minimum.
00:31:18
Cameron Kendrick
And so that was my first experience with those planes. I had some others.
00:31:23
Darin Tingey
We'll talk about that one later.
00:31:23
Cameron Kendrick
to Yeah.
00:31:24
Darin Tingey
I know what I'm talking about. So you guys fly to Island Level Up.
00:31:27
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:31:29
Darin Tingey
Did you have any layovers or does it straight from Madro to Island Level Up?
00:31:33
Cameron Kendrick
No straight from measured or to timing level up and we get down there we touch down and that was very surreal seeing just just just trees on either side of you just palm trees and coconut trees and and going down the the runway and um It was very very bumpy going in, you know, it's not tarmac.
00:31:55
Cameron Kendrick
It's just dirt and And so that was, and I remember seeing this one little building. It was it honestly looked like a kid would, you know if you're coming here, a kid set up like some kind of lemonade shack.
00:32:09
Cameron Kendrick
I just remember seeing that on the side of the the runway. And the pilot points to him and goes, hey, there's the airport. And you know no one's in there or anything.
00:32:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:18
Cameron Kendrick
It's just kind of just like a box like a cement box. That's the literally what it was. and And I was like, OK, that's a good joke.
00:32:25
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:32:25
Cameron Kendrick
um But yeah, and then we we get out and we had a truck actually waiting there for us. And it was um just like this little Toyota truck, ah something that they don't make in the US. But I remember putting our bags into that and then driving probably probably ah almost near nearly an hour um to the Yeah, it's the lick side.
00:32:47
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:32:49
Cameron Kendrick
So that would be the ocean side of of the lagoon a lot inside of the island um out to our space which were like our little um We had a teeny little cement house those tin roof kind of like everything else there and if you're not on the the the main island.
00:33:07
Cameron Kendrick
um And I remember going into that place and there were just spiders inside of it everywhere, like everywhere. And ah me and Elder Johnson spent like hours just just hitting spiders and cockroaches with like just whatever we could find, typically rocks and just killing as many as we could.
00:33:30
Cameron Kendrick
And it was it was an interesting house. and My experience there was short-lived. The reason for that is we we go down there and we're spending about, I had spent probably four or five days there at the time, and then one morning Or is that probably in the middle of the night, I couldn't breathe. I remember vividly um being kind of like in this dream. ah you know I was say i was i sleeping, and I couldn't breathe. And um I get out of my my dream. I wake up, and and I sit up, and I still couldn't get my so my body to open up my airways. And i I shove Elder Johnson, who's sleeping next to me. I shove him like, dude, pointing at my neck. i'm like I can't breathe, like kind of like making the motion.
00:34:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:18
Cameron Kendrick
and and he hit he hits my back and and um shortly after that for some reason I took a big gasp of air and I'm like bro that was weird and for the rest I stayed there for another two days and for the rest of the time I had very very short breath like it was like
00:34:19
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:34:36
Cameron Kendrick
kind of like almost hyperventilating but just not getting that deep breath and they had some kind of doctor that was there he was he what he had practiced I guess practiced on the mainland and and moved there ever he retired by common he gave me some pepto bismol because that was the only thing that only kind of medicine that he had other than like some like um coconut you know whatever that makes it with some roots
00:34:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:43
Darin Tingey
ah yeah
00:35:00
Darin Tingey
That's so good.
00:35:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:04
Cameron Kendrick
But um yeah, he came in with some Pepto-Bismol, and I'm like, dude, this is this is not going to help me.
00:35:09
Darin Tingey
That's so invisible. Here you go.
00:35:11
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
00:35:11
Darin Tingey
This will solve your problems. That's crazy.
00:35:14
Cameron Kendrick
yeah so um ah we Long story short for that, i we had an emergency transfer. I got off that island and and went to the mainland, and I went to Dr. Ackley, who was the Bishop of Uluga, and he is he he was ah the practicing medical head doctor there in the hospital, and he gave me an x-ray.
00:35:35
Cameron Kendrick
And um I had contracted something called pericarditis, which is if inflammation and fluid around the lining of the heart. And he said, that' that is more than likely why you were having short breaths and why this happened.
00:35:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:49
Cameron Kendrick
um Now I've gotten some other medical, like i that well i've ever since coming back from the mission I've asked other people like you know maybe is that be going and flying and maybe high stress, does that have any correlation with pericarditis and and um some some some doctors or some some people have said yes it can be, um others have said no.
00:35:59
Darin Tingey
a Yeah.
00:36:11
Cameron Kendrick
so
00:36:11
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
00:36:12
Cameron Kendrick
I'm not exactly where it came from. i really I really am not. Maybe it could have been just um the the immediate elevation gain after being you know kind of acclimated to the weather there and and the the ah being on the ah surface level of the ocean level, and then going up high, and then down low, and then a mass amount of of of stress and not being able to sleep.
00:36:32
Cameron Kendrick
It could have brought that along.
00:36:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:36:35
Cameron Kendrick
But yeah, so I was only ah an island lab lab for about a week and a half, and then we had the emergency transfer, and then I went with elder tilde autoc.
00:36:39
Darin Tingey
Okay.
Life and Living Conditions on Outer Islands
00:36:44
Darin Tingey
So did you guys have a phone? Did you get the radio on? I didn't level up.
00:36:48
Cameron Kendrick
Just radio. Yep, we just radioed.
00:36:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, no internet, no phones, just the radio.
00:36:51
Cameron Kendrick
ah yeah no no No electricity at all, actually. I will get to it later, but on Millie, I had like a solar panel that that just powered one little light bulb above our above our little shack.
00:37:07
Cameron Kendrick
and um But an iing level up nope it was just I brought like a solar panel battery that my parents got me from Amazon, and that's how I charged like my camera.
00:37:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:37:17
Cameron Kendrick
um Other than that, no electricity at all.
00:37:20
Darin Tingey
What did, um, what did you guys do for cooking and and water?
00:37:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, um for cooking, we had a little well um that that our landlord kind of shared with us. So we would reach down with a bucket that was tied to like a little like a boat buoy.
00:37:38
Cameron Kendrick
He had cut that in half. And then and then that's what we used as like a kind of like a bucket.
00:37:40
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:37:43
Cameron Kendrick
So we'd roll down the rope. get up some water and in the well, you could see just like, you know, cockroaches and whatever, not just crawling around in there.
00:37:52
Darin Tingey
Smash.
00:37:53
Cameron Kendrick
and just Just, yeah, just not healthy water. And we would get that water and then boil it. And then we that's how i would we would drink.
00:38:00
Darin Tingey
Did you have a little propane, a little propane cooker or stove?
00:38:01
Cameron Kendrick
um
00:38:05
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, we did. And those are honestly so so nice. like ah like I wouldn't mind having one of those here.
00:38:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:38:13
Cameron Kendrick
I really wouldn't. It's just like a little propane. You stick it in and a little canister. And yeah, just cooked with that.
00:38:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I remember on lie like the island ran out for like a little bit.
00:38:21
Cameron Kendrick
That was.
00:38:26
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah.
00:38:26
Darin Tingey
and so And so, but there was like some contraption where you could put a fire underneath and then it would, and then you could put your pan on top. So we did that for like a week before a more propane came.
00:38:37
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
00:38:38
Darin Tingey
um But I was like, man, the propane tanks, are the little cans are awesome. um
00:38:44
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:38:45
Darin Tingey
And and the so the house you guys stayed at, I think blah, blah, blah, So you had the the well, which by the way, getting water from the well is like a skill you have to learn in the martial arts.
00:38:56
Cameron Kendrick
It is.
00:38:57
Darin Tingey
It's like this crazy, it's like jerk it and like ah ah catch the water and then it fills up. ah Which is, so it's so funny, you can't understand it unless you've done it, you know?
00:39:02
Cameron Kendrick
Yep, yep.
00:39:06
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah.
00:39:08
Darin Tingey
So the house you guys lived in, it's where previous elders had lived, is that correct?
00:39:13
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, that is correct. And they hadn't been there for, I want to say eight to eight eight months to a year. And that that but kind of like space, that little tin house was kind of abandoned since then.
00:39:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:39:26
Cameron Kendrick
and Maybe not abandoned. Maybe the the landlord had used it for kind of like a shed. um Because I remember going in there and seeing kind of like some some like gardening tools and stuff like that.
00:39:37
Darin Tingey
her
00:39:37
Cameron Kendrick
And we gave that back. We gave that to our landlord saying, hey, this is in our house. I think think this belongs to you. And so I think he may have used it for a shed for the time being. But then once once once we made had that kind of contract with him, then yeah, we lived in it.
00:39:53
Darin Tingey
Was he a member or no?
00:39:56
Cameron Kendrick
I believe he was and that's how the church came in contact with him because someone from the main island knew him and we radioed to him and so and because they had had you know the records beforehand saying that's where the elders lived and so beforehand before we went out there and so that's how they contacted him as they knew that beforehand and so yeah he was the only member on the island ah is what I recall.
00:40:23
Darin Tingey
Okay. And did you guys hold church that Sunday or, or now?
00:40:27
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, we did. um It was me, Elder Johnson, and then the our landlord, and then one other one other person, one other guy there that was, I think it was the landlord's and nephew.
00:40:42
Cameron Kendrick
He was a good 20, 22 years old, and it was us four that had church that day. And
00:41:05
Cameron Kendrick
you.
00:41:05
Darin Tingey
All
00:41:10
Darin Tingey
So you get transferred to Adak with Teal, and I was in Azure Talkie at the time, so that was fun.
00:41:10
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:41:13
Cameron Kendrick
Mm-hmm.
00:41:17
Darin Tingey
We got to be kind of close together there.
00:41:20
Cameron Kendrick
Yep.
00:41:20
Darin Tingey
for transfer And then how long were you in Arak for?
00:41:24
Cameron Kendrick
I believe I was in Iraq for four months. um I think it was about four months. And yeah, go ahead.
00:41:31
Darin Tingey
And Arak is a great area, Arak and Laura.
00:41:34
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, it's.
00:41:35
Darin Tingey
It's the countryside of Madro and it's beautiful.
00:41:38
Cameron Kendrick
I was about to say that, too. Yeah, it's it's it's the most beautiful place of of the of the main island, for sure. You're biking down the road, and you just have nothing but dense forest and coconut trees.
00:41:51
Cameron Kendrick
And it's just a beautiful place. lot A lot of more dogs, I would say, down there for some reason, which you know is our main enemy.
00:41:55
Darin Tingey
i yeah
00:42:00
Cameron Kendrick
But it was yeah man, I love that place. It was it was a lot it was lot of fun.
00:42:05
Darin Tingey
It was kind of the best of both worlds because it's the country you hit the countryside with the island feel, but you're also like main island, so you get good food still and a little bit nicer living conditions and stuff.
00:42:11
Cameron Kendrick
her
00:42:14
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, oh yeah
00:42:20
Darin Tingey
so
00:42:20
Cameron Kendrick
For sure. Yeah. Yeah, it was really nice because, you know, during P Day, all the missionaries get together and so on the island. And so, um yeah, like you said, being in the countryside and kind of being away from like the hustle and bustle of like a city um is really nice because I remember just biking down down the down the street, you know, looking for for people to go talk to. And me and Teal are just kind of having fun riding in between you like going like this with our bikes and stuff. And and just having a great time it was it was a place to have a fun experience and kind of just relax and for me especially it was after you know i had i had had that kind of like low breathing scare and and being really uncomfortable in my mission wanting to go home at that time
00:43:03
Darin Tingey
Mm hmm.
00:43:06
Cameron Kendrick
to then going to Elder Teal who was was very humble person and very, you know, kind of headstrong on doing the mission work and which was a good breath to me because I kind of just at that point let him take control of the wheel and saying like, all right, man, I'll follow you wherever you want to go. um You just just tell me where you want to go and what you want to do. And I'm i'm with you. And so that was a really great time in my mission to just kind of kind of be on autopilot.
00:43:32
Cameron Kendrick
you know I was still learning the language. I was still trying to learn how to be a missionary, but it was nice to let someone else just, not that Elder Johnson didn't, but he was very, Elder 2 was very headstrong, like, this is what we're going to do, and we're going to go do this.
00:43:47
Cameron Kendrick
And I'm just like, hey, that sounds great. Let's go do it.
00:43:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. Elder Teal's the man. he's He's such a good guy.
00:43:53
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:43:54
Darin Tingey
and And I got to spend a lot of my mission with him. Never as companions, but like always kind of close, or or living with him on eBuy.
00:43:58
Cameron Kendrick
her Yeah.
00:44:01
Darin Tingey
So I remember I was an Azutagi, and then I get transferred to Kiribati. And I was like, I'm fine. I'm never going to see you guys. You know, like, I think we said goodbye.
00:44:09
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:44:11
Darin Tingey
It was like kind of sad.
00:44:13
Cameron Kendrick
So sad.
00:44:13
Darin Tingey
um And and um
00:44:17
Cameron Kendrick
like I can't believe that was that early on in the mission. I thought it was more.
00:44:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think we've been there for six months.
00:44:22
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah.
00:44:24
Darin Tingey
and know Yeah, it was super early.
00:44:26
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
00:44:27
Darin Tingey
It was like, hey, other team, you got to start all over. You're going to get a best.
00:44:30
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, I bet I honestly bet that's what it felt like is like start over new culture, new language, new area, you know.
00:44:31
Darin Tingey
ah
00:44:34
Darin Tingey
and
00:44:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah. ah Yeah, it was it was tough. I mean, I loved it. And it was great. I was like, at the time, I was like, I don't know if I'm gonna be back. I was hoping I would be back. And and eventually I was, which was great. This is always, it's kind of how I wanted. I always wanted to finish in the Marshall Islands. This is what happened. So I leave and then I think right after that, you know some more stuff and the mission went down, people got sent home, things kind of got a little crazy.
00:45:05
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, oh man Yeah, um so
00:45:07
Darin Tingey
what was What was it like at that time? Because I i was always off island when like crazy stuff went down and it's and like that one was a big one.
00:45:19
Cameron Kendrick
Trying to think what happened. so this was
00:45:24
Cameron Kendrick
Was this the time, i like like you said, we had probably the record setting number amount of emergency transfers in our mission. I'm trying to think about which one which time this was. I think it was there was a fight or something that happened in one of the orders. I can't exactly remember.
00:45:43
Cameron Kendrick
it
00:45:43
Darin Tingey
That was a different one. This one was some co-ed sleepovers that were happening on the other side of the mission.
00:45:49
Cameron Kendrick
Okay, okay.
00:45:51
Darin Tingey
Luckily, we were on the other side and didn't have any anything to do with that.
00:45:54
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah.
00:45:55
Darin Tingey
But I remember I left and then that whole thing went down.
00:45:59
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, OK. Now I remember. Now with you saying that, yeah. Luckily, that was on the whole other side of the mission. Something not mission-like was going down. And so, yeah, there was a lot of emergency transfers. That's when I became zone leader with um Elder ah um ken Kenley.
00:46:18
Cameron Kendrick
Is that his name?
00:46:18
Darin Tingey
Kennelay.
00:46:19
Cameron Kendrick
um Kennerly. Yes, thank you.
00:46:21
Darin Tingey
Kennelay.
00:46:21
Cameron Kendrick
other kennelly him and i became zone leaders be out of result from that emergency transfer him and i stayed in dell up i think we moved into the place um or was it rita maybe it was yeah i think i think him and i moved into rita
00:46:32
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:46:41
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:46:42
Cameron Kendrick
and And that's where him and I were zone leaders for for another I think good four or five months there. And at the end of that, if you want me to go into it, that's when another emergency transfer happened.
00:46:53
Darin Tingey
Let's do it companionship.
00:46:56
Cameron Kendrick
um ah Yeah, so him and I were in a and a house with with two other people, with two other elders, and that was a great time.
00:47:08
Cameron Kendrick
It was my first time in in a house with, with ah or no, second time in a house with with two with another um pair of elders. Yeah.
00:47:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:17
Cameron Kendrick
And I really loved being ah being a zone leader. um As you know, other Kennerly is a goofball, and i just I was constantly just kind of making fun of him and teasing him and stuff like that.
00:47:23
Darin Tingey
but
00:47:29
Cameron Kendrick
He's a great person, great soul, and he would just kind of make fun of me while I made fun of him. own it and um And then him and I, towards the end of it, started but kind of button heads.
00:47:42
Cameron Kendrick
i kind of like he was very I would say he was very what you were in the MTC, very headstrong on rules. Very, very, you know we call we call it like an arrow, just like straight and forward.
00:47:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:54
Cameron Kendrick
You will not bend for anything. um And so that part of it, it wasn't anything like breaking rules or anything like that. It was more kind of just like ah like, hey, you go and do your You go and do like your personal study, um and then like I'll do kind of like what I need to do.
00:48:12
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:48:13
Cameron Kendrick
um I would still love to do personal study and stuff like that, but it was more like, um I'm going to spend maybe 15 minutes doing it, and then yeah know another 30 minutes or something doing something else.
00:48:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:48:22
Cameron Kendrick
But ah like right at that time ended, he wanted to start the next thing. I'm like, dude, like just chill out, man. like Yeah.
00:48:27
Darin Tingey
Give me a second. really
00:48:29
Cameron Kendrick
It was just kind of small things like that. And and so it kind of just kind of boiled up. That's not the um reason for the emergency transfer. Do you want me to go into...
00:48:38
Darin Tingey
No, you don't need to so talk about what it was, but you got transferred a milli from there, right?
00:48:41
Cameron Kendrick
Okay. Yeah, yeah. So something happened with with some sisters. um A kind of like they kind of fight broke out and in some Marshallese people saw something happen with the sisters and when me and Nilda Kennerly got called there trying to break it up and and it just kind of escalated from there.
00:49:01
Cameron Kendrick
and So that was a number since the transfer and then I luckily went to Millie with with Elder Teal. So I ah went from Elder Teal in Arak and then Elder Kenali as his own leader it was my companion and then back to Teal in Millie and Teal had been there for ah good ah three or four months by then.
00:49:19
Cameron Kendrick
And that was probably the pinnacle or their my peak of my mission. It was where I absolutely thrived. I loved every minute of it. It was just being out there. There was probably on our island, Millie's one of the smaller islands, um not the smallest by by any means, but a smaller island.
Adventures and Activities on Millie Island
00:49:38
Cameron Kendrick
And probably two, I would say about two miles at the ah farthest part, about two miles wide, um then and then two two miles lengthwise, maybe three. And just a beautiful, beautiful place. we We would go out for P-Day and we just made friends with all the locals there and talked to everyone and anyone.
00:49:58
Cameron Kendrick
we were kind of we were best friends with like um this pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist church there and he just kind of hanging out with them painting you know and and and his children that he had there and and just made really good friends there and we we had great success it was it was awesome we on p-day we would go out to with like one of their boats um just kind of like a little little like four-person boat and go fishing or it was just It was just a great time.
00:50:26
Cameron Kendrick
It was really good to be able to um get away from the P-Day shenanigans of of you know going with all the aid missionaries, ah how we would you know go all use the the the internet to to email home.
00:50:42
Cameron Kendrick
Didn't have to deal with that.
00:50:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:43
Cameron Kendrick
I i got i remember getting my first mail like like package or or letters while in Millie and I had been there for about four months and that was the first time that I got and after that four of months is when I first got my pat my first package and like my first round of mail and it had been it's sitting in the office for like another two months so like it was like six month old mail that had just barely gone to me
00:51:03
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:51:08
Darin Tingey
wow
00:51:10
Cameron Kendrick
But I mean, I loved it. I didn't have to worry about anything else other than then what I was doing, the work I was doing on the mission. And me and Elder Teal, we were just clicking. We were we were great friends and just just laughing and having a bunch of fun. and that was That was probably the the best experience that I had on my mission, was just being able to to truly get the the the outer island life, and I was there for a good six months, and i I'm so thankful I was out there for that long.
00:51:42
Cameron Kendrick
um Now, we we would, every Thursday, we would go to um this little manuia, like a little, little
00:51:44
Darin Tingey
All right.
00:51:52
Cameron Kendrick
kind of like Shaq that you would purchase food from. And that's who also had a ham radio that we would call into the main island to say, hey, these are our numbers for the week.
00:51:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:01
Cameron Kendrick
And if it was if it was windy that day or raining and no signal is getting through, ah you'd have to wait a whole other week.
00:52:08
Darin Tingey
but
00:52:10
Cameron Kendrick
And it was kind of like the same with ah with planes. see If we were expecting a package or some letters from the office and it was raining that day at all, if it rained at all, It would it the the plane wouldn't come and you would have to wait another week.
00:52:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:23
Cameron Kendrick
And I remember specifically wait um waiting for the plane. the the It had rained for like 20 minutes at like 7 a.m. and the plane usually comes out like one or two.
00:52:35
Cameron Kendrick
and thinking we're waiting for a package, it's gonna have a ton of food and a ton of supplies that we need for this church that we were building there. I'll get into that. um And absolutely we were so excited for it and we're waiting there at the airport for the time that it was supposed to come. We were in there for an hour and it was bright and sunny day other than like the 20 minutes that would it had rained early in the morning and it just never came. And I'm like, are you kidding me at the wait a whole nother week to get like like this these resources that we like really needed like we needed filter for our water we needed pamphlets like teaching pamphlets and stuff like that and it just never came and that's just that in life you know that's just what you get used to and then but man it was awesome so I'll talk a little bit if you're okay with ah the church that we built there
00:52:58
Darin Tingey
ha
00:53:10
Darin Tingey
and
00:53:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah, so so before we get into that really quick so like you land, your house is like a little stick hut, right?
00:53:32
Cameron Kendrick
yeah Yeah, so we landed. um This guy has this, our landlord had three of these houses that were that were honestly just bungalows.
00:53:47
Cameron Kendrick
Like that's the greatest, just shack bungalows is the greatest way to explain it. Maybe I can send you a picture and you can add it onto this, but it's, um is there a witness here?
00:53:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:53:56
Cameron Kendrick
Am I screen here? No, okay.
00:53:57
Darin Tingey
I don't think so.
00:53:58
Cameron Kendrick
That's all right It was just ah so from the the plant or the tree of pandanus What they do is they cut off anything of like the sticky part or or it was also made with palm fronds um So it was their entire side floor and roof was just made from layers and layers of layers of of ah coconut trees that that's like you rip off like the palm fronds and stick them on. And um it was about a probably a five by four.
00:54:34
Cameron Kendrick
probably five feet wide four feet you know are ah five feet long, four feet wide, and you know we we were just crammed in this teeny little place.
00:54:34
Darin Tingey
ah
00:54:43
Cameron Kendrick
And if it rained for more than probably five hours on that day, which which as you know, during rainy season, it could rain all day long, then it would kind of just soak through that palm frond and start getting everything in that that little shack wet.
00:54:48
Darin Tingey
Which is possible now.
00:54:59
Cameron Kendrick
But man, it was so great. We had, one like I said, one little light bulb that was powered by solar panel that would that would work during the night. And um other than that, we would we would pump our we would get water from the well, put it in a big bucket, and then we would have a bike pump that we would pump through a filtration system.
00:55:18
Darin Tingey
I had one of those, yeah, yeah.
00:55:20
Cameron Kendrick
And then that's what we would would drink from. um Yeah. i
00:55:25
Darin Tingey
It was, the house was on the lake side, the ocean side, right?
00:55:29
Cameron Kendrick
No, it was on the yard. So it lagoon side.
00:55:30
Darin Tingey
Oh, it's the lagoon side, okay.
00:55:32
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. And half.
00:55:33
Darin Tingey
Beautiful.
00:55:34
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, so gorgeous. And and we were you know right on right on the beach. And so you know people pay like millions of dollars to have this experience. And we we were just you know just there.
00:55:45
Cameron Kendrick
and Yeah, there's like little sticks that you would raise up to, there's like little windows, like little flaps for like to get some air in and you'd stick like this window. So the window would be here and then it would stick like you'd stick a stick right here and hold up that window and just look out to the ocean and just hear that, hear the ocean every day and all night, which Very controversy, but I was not a fan of hearing the the the ocean crash, like the waves crash throughout the night.
00:56:13
Darin Tingey
Really?
00:56:14
Cameron Kendrick
I couldn't stand it after a while. did i It would keep me up or wake me up if it was too loud of a crash. and i ah During the day, I loved it. It was great.
00:56:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:56:24
Cameron Kendrick
But at night, I couldn't stand it.
00:56:27
Darin Tingey
And so before you got there, Satio had been there with his other teft teller who he trained.
00:56:36
Cameron Kendrick
Tef telling. Yep, yep.
00:56:37
Darin Tingey
And they had had some success. And then you into had some more success. Like Millie was just popping off like, yes, really up on the island.
00:56:43
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
00:56:45
Darin Tingey
And it was and and for context, I just googled it as well. Millie, surprisingly, only 497 people in 2021.
00:56:54
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:55
Darin Tingey
um And that's like, ah did you guys spend most of the time on Mille Mille? Did you ever go to the other main, i or I guess there's a few other villages on different islands, did you ever go to those?
00:57:07
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, we didn't end up going to them. We we tried to just walk across we tried to walk across one because there was one like connected at the very tail end that you could walk across during low tide.
00:57:22
Cameron Kendrick
We were a little little bit low to get out there. And oh, no, actually, we did. Now it just hit me. We did. We took a boat to one of the islands that had about 50 people on it.
00:57:34
Cameron Kendrick
um
00:57:34
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:57:35
Cameron Kendrick
We did for a P-Day, just kind of scouting out and I think i think one of the one of the people who was going out there making the trek needed to go give them some supplies or something like that and we asked if we could go along with them just to kind of check it out.
00:57:48
Cameron Kendrick
And that was that was ah awesome. It wasn't a place really where you could go and teach because you would have to take a boat. It was about a 25-ish minute boat right out there and we just didn't have the resources to do that.
00:57:59
Cameron Kendrick
We didn't own the boat or anything like that. And so asking that person to spend that that gas money or the gas and just the resources just wasn't you know wasn't worth it to them.
00:58:05
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:58:09
Cameron Kendrick
um And so we only went out once when they needed to and it was just a gorgeous place that you know very just very untouched is very secluded from the world and um It was we met a few people there and they're very nice.
00:58:23
Cameron Kendrick
They have one little ah like school there um But yeah, we did you for one day go out there to that the other Island off of Millie.
00:58:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay.
00:58:34
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah
00:58:36
Darin Tingey
So you guys were having church in your house or by your house previously or something like that. And then you decided to build a church.
00:58:43
Cameron Kendrick
Yes. So we we had a ah place where this family that we were teaching, um it was the the husband, the wife, and then they had three kids. One was about 17, one was about 14, and then they had a daughter who was about eight or nine. And just the most down-to-earth family, they were kind of like, not the Irohich of the island, but they owned, I would say, majority of the land that was there.
00:59:13
Cameron Kendrick
um They were just the nicest, most down-to-earth people you could possibly meet. And they had offered, we were teaching them at the time, Tealhead had, Teal and Tevteller had been teaching them why what ah before I got there.
00:59:27
Cameron Kendrick
And they had offered to use kind of, they had like, kind of like this guest house. I say guest house as if it's like, you know, like bougie, but it's it's really just kind of like a shack that they that they own.
00:59:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:59:37
Cameron Kendrick
It was on their property. They said, hey, this, no one's using this. Go ah go ahead and host like your church there. So we had been using that and then um aye we had been in the talks with, we had so many people coming to church. We got so many people coming in this probably, probably I would say probably 10 by 20 area of like this building. So it was was a good decent decent you know place, but we had probably 20 to 15 people coming to church and more and more coming at the time. So like, wow, we need to expand or have this outside. We started having it outside just because we had so many people
01:00:12
Cameron Kendrick
And then his name is Niyoshi, was the guy of the family, um and the the father of the family. And we said, what do you think about us building a church here? um We will supply everything. We will well um we'll you know we'll do everything. And ah you know you won't have to pay anything. And we'll even pay you for, we'll lease out the land um from you so that you can make you know a little bit of profit from it.
01:00:41
Darin Tingey
And was this like, you talked to the APs about it, of like setting it up?
01:00:41
Cameron Kendrick
and
01:00:44
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, yeah, so we had talked to the APs about it and and we got in contact with i Elder
01:00:45
Darin Tingey
ah car
01:00:55
Cameron Kendrick
The one of the older older people, the Seager Seager.
01:00:58
Darin Tingey
Seeker? Elder Seeker? Yeah.
01:01:00
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, we talked to Elder Seager about it and he was kind of the one. Elder Seager throughout the entire mission was the one to like, you know, kind of set up like the finances of of where they're going to live or like, you know, if they go to an outer island, he was kind of the man that would go in and, you know, say, hey, you know, work out the deal with them.
01:01:16
Darin Tingey
Mm hmm.
01:01:17
Cameron Kendrick
So he he ended up talking to, I believe it was him, he talked to um us and then we talked to the Yoshi about um possibly leasing out that little chunk of land. um Now, it wouldn't have been a problem.
01:01:31
Cameron Kendrick
ah with him because he he he didn't really care but according to the church rules the church that you if you build a church or if you're like preaching there like holding sacrament something you have to lease the land um you have to kind of so that no one can just you know kick you out of there so so to him it was no problem um however he had a sister who um he was his older sister who hadn't been to the Marshall Islands hadn't been to Milley in probably 25 years
01:01:47
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:02:01
Cameron Kendrick
Her and her husband, coming from Washington, Oregon, they were they were very wealthy. like they They'd come there during, I think it was around Christmas time to be with him.
01:02:13
Cameron Kendrick
They hadn't been there for 20, 25 years, like I said.
01:02:15
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:02:15
Cameron Kendrick
They'd come to fish there and and be with them for a while. And she comes, and we are in the middle of cutting down trees, laying cement, and all this kind of stuff for the base of the church.
01:02:26
Cameron Kendrick
The church was going to be a good, probably, probably 50 by 50 feet was the base of it. And we had had the cement down and stuff like that.
01:02:34
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:02:36
Cameron Kendrick
And and she had arrived that day, went to the church and just started freaking out. She was, what are you doing? She was not a member or anything like that.
01:02:46
Cameron Kendrick
What are you doing to my brother's ze land?
01:02:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:02:48
Cameron Kendrick
Like, this is my this is my land. You have no right to do this. And we're like, well, we um we were talking to Niyoshi and he was like, like I gave him permission to do this.
01:02:59
Cameron Kendrick
like like You haven't been here in 20 years and now you have now youre the audacity to come and tell me how do i can't what I can and it can't do with this land.
01:03:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:07
Darin Tingey
ah
01:03:07
Cameron Kendrick
And she was like, you're ripping him off.
01:03:09
Cameron Kendrick
You're you're youre you're you know you're taking advantage of of these poor people. And like like first of all, it was
01:03:17
Darin Tingey
or We're paying them.
01:03:19
Cameron Kendrick
We're paying them. we're not We don't own the land. We're just leasing it. And and you know like this is all in good intentions. And and she was not having it. um She left a week later and never heard anything back from her.
01:03:32
Cameron Kendrick
And and he said, go ahead with it. And so we built.
01:03:35
Darin Tingey
which Was she yelling at you in English or Marshallese?
01:03:37
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah she was yelling at me and Teal in English. just just just in our face just yelling at us and you know we're we're a bunch of 17 year olds uh I guess yeah 18 year olds yeah 18 19 year olds just like like ah we're doing everything right like like this is what he wanted as well and and you know we're paying him and you know the dollar the dollar goes a long way in the Marshall Islands and we were paying them
01:03:47
Darin Tingey
1890, yes.
01:04:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:04:07
Cameron Kendrick
a good amount probably like eight or nine hundred dollars a month for just that which which five bucks in the Marshall Islands can get you by for a week and so I thought it was a great opportunity to give him some money that he deserves for giving us this little chunk of land for us to have you know build like this little kind of temporary church and it was it turned out and we long story short she left and we continued with it um with with his with his direction with the Yoshi's direction and
01:04:11
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:04:35
Cameron Kendrick
built this beautiful like all there's there's probably 50 people in in the island that help us built it and we laid down the cement you know it was completely flat we built like uh kind of like you know if you go into our church like our sunday church um in the chapel it has kind of like a raised on the back where the bishop sits and stuff like that we had that as well we had a little podium that we that we made
01:04:42
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:04:54
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:04:57
Cameron Kendrick
um it was ah It was a pomphrom roof, um but then like 10 walls. with so We made some windows um and it was just a beautiful, beautiful little church that we made. And it took us a good, probably two months to make it. And we we we held church there. And um I sadly only got to hold church there for one or two weeks before I had to go. I then went to to Ebay, I believe after that.
01:05:29
Darin Tingey
Did, oh, you went to Ebay after Mili?
01:05:32
Cameron Kendrick
think I believe so. I think it was Ebay.
01:05:35
Darin Tingey
I thought you came back to, uh, I thought you, I thought you came back to Ulaga.
01:05:35
Cameron Kendrick
Where did I go?
01:05:40
Darin Tingey
No.
01:05:42
Cameron Kendrick
I'm trying to think of the timeline.
01:05:44
Darin Tingey
Cause.
01:05:44
Cameron Kendrick
I know I spent six months in in Ebay and then and then I finished my mission with you in Uliga.
01:05:48
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:05:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay, I can't remember if it was you coming off of Millet or coming off of E-Buy because, or or maybe it was just E-Buy, but I remember when you came off, you were like, dude, I had been waiting for you all day.
01:06:06
Darin Tingey
I was like, where where is Kendrick? Like, where is he, dude?
01:06:10
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:06:11
Darin Tingey
And it was the evening you finally got there and you're like, bro, like the plane caught fire.
01:06:17
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah okay Yeah maybe I get my timeline mixed up maybe I went from melee to you then and then ebay was before that Yeah Huh, yeah
01:06:17
Darin Tingey
I was like, what? and
01:06:27
Darin Tingey
Okay, ah okay. But I remember, I remember you telling me that I maybe there was an earlier story, but I remember you telling me that I was like, what?
01:06:36
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, I think it was an earlier story, it might have been, but i remember I can't remember where I was going. But there was I was going from um either Ibi or Mili and back to the main island. And I was on the the right right side of the plane. And we we were in the air for a good 30 minutes. um And we were starting to descend. And I just see some black smoke coming from the engine.
01:07:01
Cameron Kendrick
And it wasn't on fire just yet. And nothing you know was was happening. Yeah, like no noise. But like it was just completely you know translucent air. And then all of a sudden, just black. And I look at the the pilots. I was the only one on the entire plane. Look at the pilots. They look back at me. And I'm like, I pointed outside. I said, um I think it's on fire.
01:07:24
Cameron Kendrick
and And some something happened. like so I heard like a cuckoo in that side of the engine. And it just like just it didn't catch on fire fire, but it just Tons of black smoke just go your like that and and luckily we were we were like descending out already um But they it was everything was safe and fine.
01:07:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:07:45
Cameron Kendrick
But yeah, I believe Because we Albin was the person ah who's in charge of the planes there and I talked to him later He wasn't flying it but he told me yeah like that plane was out of commission for the next like five months because they were doing repairs on and stuff and I'm like That was a close one
01:07:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:07:58
Darin Tingey
No way.
01:08:02
Darin Tingey
but but You lucky duck you flew over miles hundreds of miles of ocean on a sketchy engine.
01:08:09
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah.
01:08:11
Darin Tingey
ah you know One lucky duck.
01:08:12
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, man. I'll never forget that. I was like, wow, that little Lord looks after the missionaries. That's for sure.
01:08:20
Darin Tingey
ah So what was what was your favorite thing about me today?
01:08:25
Cameron Kendrick
Favorite thing about Milly, man, we ate some every single day. We ate coconuts and we a and I would honestly say my favorite thing would be.
01:08:38
Cameron Kendrick
disconnecting from the main island and just just having fun time with my companions. I had two companions while I was there. I had Elder Teal and Elder Maurer, both from Utah.
01:08:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:51
Cameron Kendrick
Maurer was an absolute stud. he was he was about He was eight or nine months younger than us into the mission.
01:08:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:59
Cameron Kendrick
And he just a stud, just absolutely was so fun to be around. And and so I think that's what my favorite part was, was just being Being on an outer island, not having to worry about what what at the drama or whatever politics are going on in the mission and being with awesome people while out there and just absolutely crushing it.
01:09:16
Cameron Kendrick
Like we had tons of success. Everyone we met and talked to was just very friendly. i Learning the island life, that's where I really got to. Kawainini, so husk, husk, coconuts and really learn their culture.
01:09:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
01:09:32
Cameron Kendrick
And that's also where my my peak of the the the language was. I didn't have any trouble speaking the language. I didn't have to think about what I was going to say. It just rolled off the tongue. it was So that was probably my my favorite time of the mission and favorite part of of Millie.
01:09:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I totally agree with you. The Outer Islands give you a nice like reset, just you and your companion.
01:09:57
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:09:57
Darin Tingey
And it's just a simple life. Everyone's super happy, even though they're super poor, but they're living on these beautiful islands.
01:10:02
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:10:05
Darin Tingey
And life is as simple as drinking a coconut, going fishing, having ah cooking it over the fire or or having it raw and eating breadfruit and buiro and
01:10:06
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah,
01:10:18
Darin Tingey
Uh, you know, what would Bob
Humorous Bananas Adventure with Teal
01:10:21
Darin Tingey
is like, ah Oh, all the island foods, like lots of bananas.
01:10:21
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:10:24
Darin Tingey
I remember you and teal, like show me the pictures, all the bananas you guys have.
01:10:28
Cameron Kendrick
yeah yeah, we would. ah We would borrow this this wheelbarrow. that This is actually a really funny story. We would borrow this wheelbarrow from our our landlord.
01:10:39
Cameron Kendrick
And this guy, our landlord, was just a goofball.
01:10:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:10:43
Cameron Kendrick
He had one eye that went this way, one eye that went went this way. And we didn't know who he saw what we could do when we were trying to talk to him. And he they were kind of the Yoroj family of the island.
01:10:53
Cameron Kendrick
and And we were like, hey, we're going to go get some bananas on the other side of the the the runway, which was about two, maybe two and a half miles down um on the other side of the island. And the banana trees that grew on the lick side, which would be the the ocean side. And so we would we would carry this wheelbarrow we' you know with the wheel, um roll this wheelbarrow all the way down about two and a half miles and get these, you'd cut down the hole the whole tree for the bananas and put them in the wheelbarrow and then and then come um and then you know roll it back.
01:11:28
Cameron Kendrick
These bananas itself are a good probably 75, 80 pounds. you know We got big ones with the biggest ones and they weighed a ton.
01:11:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah, cute.
01:11:36
Cameron Kendrick
like There's no way you could just carry it with you. and We go, we get it. We put it in the wheelbarrow, the banana stem, and we're starting to head back on the runway. Now the runway is flat, which is nice because that's where the plane lands.
01:11:52
Cameron Kendrick
However, our wheel snaps. The stud that was holding the wheel for the wheelbarrow just snaps. And me and Teal, it was getting dark at this time. you know This is when we were about we were done with all our lessons, and and we were getting ready for so for some dinner. And we were like, hey, you know what would be great? Let's go get some bananas before it gets dark.
01:12:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:12:11
Cameron Kendrick
We put him in, it snaps, and him and I, he was a football player, so he's a you know big guy, he's he's a stud, and ah we were trying to fix this this wheel, you know trying to see what we could do, and it was just not working.
01:12:26
Cameron Kendrick
And so him and I had to carry the entire wheelbarrow two and a half miles from where we got it to our our place, and it was so heavy.
01:12:34
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:12:38
Cameron Kendrick
And we're like, And I remember just like it it took us a good like half an hour No, maybe even probably like an hour and a half to get them back back in I remembering so tired He says at the end of the day and and I was just like I'm never doing that again.
01:12:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:12:56
Darin Tingey
But the bananas are so good.
01:12:58
Cameron Kendrick
Oh Yeah, oh
01:12:58
Darin Tingey
They're the little ones and they taste so sweet. I remember I had one. This was awesome.
Food Preferences and Cultural Sensitivities
01:13:04
Darin Tingey
Kidabus, someone had given us a full branch of them.
01:13:08
Cameron Kendrick
Mhmm.
01:13:08
Darin Tingey
And I ate so many. We also didn't have a ton of food options. And so I just ate a ton of bananas.
01:13:15
Darin Tingey
Dude, I swear, I was pooping whole bananas at that point. It was like just so much banana.
01:13:15
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:13:23
Cameron Kendrick
yeah ah like you said they are so good they're like people people who haven't gone and had those teeny ones they're not genetically modified they're just pure small ah bananas and they have they pack a punch of flavor it's so good it's nothing like like the Filipino you know genetically modified ones that we get here with steroids pumped in them
01:13:24
Darin Tingey
no ah
01:13:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:43
Darin Tingey
Mm
01:13:46
Cameron Kendrick
And you know they're they're like probably this big, like maybe maybe five or six inches long, and they are so good.
01:13:47
Darin Tingey
hmm.
01:13:53
Cameron Kendrick
But yeah, I could eat probably 10 of those every day and and just, like you said, poop poop nothing but those little bananas.
01:14:00
Darin Tingey
the Yeah. What was your favorite food?
01:14:06
Cameron Kendrick
Favorite food. Are we talking Marshallese food or like Marshallese food?
01:14:10
Darin Tingey
Marshallese food.
01:14:13
Cameron Kendrick
I loved those those black fish. um They were black fish with like teeny white stripes down the middle.
01:14:21
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:14:21
Cameron Kendrick
There's only probably three stripes and I don't know what it's called, but they're very small fish and it's it's a completely black fish.
01:14:26
Darin Tingey
have
01:14:28
Cameron Kendrick
And then those three white stripes and that meat of that fish was phenomenal. I wasn't a huge fish person going out to the marshals and absolutely loathed eating sashimi, just raw fish.
01:14:41
Cameron Kendrick
I couldn't do it.
01:14:42
Darin Tingey
me
01:14:42
Cameron Kendrick
I couldn't do it.
01:14:43
Darin Tingey
who
01:14:43
Cameron Kendrick
I actually had a deal with one of my companions. I can't remember who it was. I think it was Teal in Arak where we were given Sashimi just all the time. and um And we had a deal where we would slip.
01:14:57
Cameron Kendrick
He would slip me his. He didn't like he didn't like the chicken because they could get kind of raw there.
01:15:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
01:15:04
Cameron Kendrick
someone i came I don't know if it was Teal. they didn't like the chicken that much and I didn't mind the chicken it was chicken and I didn't like sashimi so anytime that we had those we'd go to investigate our family you know that we were teaching or members I would give him my sashimi because he didn't mind it and he would give me um you know just the chicken of the raw chicken or something like that and
01:15:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:24
Cameron Kendrick
You had to do it kind of slyly because if, you know, if you're given if you have this on your plate, it's very judgmental or in English is like like not culture, not in their culture, very rude to, you know, give someone else your food.
01:15:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:37
Cameron Kendrick
You're supposed to eat what's given to you or else it's just very disrespectful. So I would have to do it kind of like behind our back and like, hey, give give him some of that fish. I would try to do it, man.
01:15:48
Cameron Kendrick
But those that raw that raw fish and that cube, they put some you know lime on it in soy sauce and mayonnaise.
01:15:52
Darin Tingey
yeah mayonnaise and That's so funny.
01:15:56
Cameron Kendrick
I gagged. I gagged every time. But as I and really didn't want to be rude to him. So I would just kind of force it down. Man, I hated it. Still can't so can't stand it.
01:16:07
Darin Tingey
i I didn't necessarily like it at first, but ended up loving it. And my third companion, Elder Robinson, he hated it.
01:16:11
Cameron Kendrick
who
01:16:16
Cameron Kendrick
ah Yeah, I hated it.
01:16:17
Darin Tingey
He hated Dazzy Me, as they say.
01:16:20
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:16:21
Darin Tingey
He hated it.
01:16:21
Cameron Kendrick
da
Local Cuisine Experiences
01:16:22
Darin Tingey
And so I told every person that wore my favorite, my favorite food was Dazzy Me.
01:16:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
01:16:29
Darin Tingey
and almost every dinner they were feeding us jasmine and I was like, he he was so pissed at me and I was just like, that's why I learned to like it because I just had to eat it but like, he was so mad at me and I think hopefully he learned to like it too but I told everybody, favorite fruit, jasmine.
01:16:39
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:16:46
Darin Tingey
Oh, we'll get it for you. For sure Elder.
01:16:48
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. That's so funny.
01:16:51
Darin Tingey
So mean. So mean, but so good. Yeah, I and I actually liked the the Puyo Cun like that.
01:16:58
Cameron Kendrick
Oh really?
01:16:58
Darin Tingey
They caught the the poop smelling. Yeah, I actually enjoyed I had it a lot of lie and you eat it with whiny and I like I enjoyed it and I looked and like that wasn't like me just telling that everybody like oh, I love Puyo Cun because they thought it was hilarious.
01:17:04
Cameron Kendrick
Huh.
01:17:12
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah.
01:17:12
Darin Tingey
But like I like I like I mean, I wasn't like it's not something I like go to the pantry like oh, I want to eat that but like I liked it. The only thing I didn't like was a clam. I hated clam.
01:17:21
Cameron Kendrick
Clam, really?
01:17:22
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah, so gross.
01:17:24
Cameron Kendrick
OK. There's only one other thing that I just i couldn't stand, which was um fermented squid. And we I went out to this, yeah, i we went out to, um we were in Millie, and we went to like the farthest point of Millie North that you could go.
01:17:33
Darin Tingey
Whoa.
01:17:41
Cameron Kendrick
There's only one family that lives out there. And we set up a dinner with them. and ah We brought some coconuts and and some bananas and and then they had some like chicken that they cooked and and they they had this fermented squid tentacles. What they would do with it is they would put it in a jar um of water and then they would just absolutely dump salt into it. just Just an ungodly amount of salt into it.
01:18:08
Cameron Kendrick
and let that sit in that jar for a good month or two. i i This is the only time in my entire mission I ever had it, but when I had that, it was disgusting.
01:18:14
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:18:20
Cameron Kendrick
It was terrible, and it was super chewy, and it was super salty, and man, it was terrible.
01:18:22
Darin Tingey
ah That sounds disgusting. ah
01:18:30
Cameron Kendrick
um Going back to your question, though, I just remembered my very favorite thing, and this is going to be very, ah I'm going to get some hate from this for anyone who doesn't know the culture.
01:18:40
Cameron Kendrick
But turtle, sea turtle, is probably my very favorite food that I had there.
01:18:43
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:18:45
Cameron Kendrick
And they cooked it with some some onion powder sauce. And um i yeah I got to be a part of the whole process of of processing the entire turtle, cutting off its shell, and and you know dissecting it, and getting the meat off of it.
01:18:58
Cameron Kendrick
and very Kind of pretty inhumane how they do it. Maybe I'll spare the details.
01:19:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:04
Cameron Kendrick
but i
01:19:05
Darin Tingey
So not it's back. Yeah.
01:19:07
Cameron Kendrick
cut off its fins and purposely not kill it to see to get the blood out.
01:19:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:12
Cameron Kendrick
But but but but having her sea turtle, man, it is very, very good meat.
01:19:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:19
Cameron Kendrick
And yeah, my my mom will kill me.
01:19:21
Darin Tingey
totally against Totally against our culture because like we're taught in school, you know, they're in danger or whatever, but out there, it's like, it's their food.
01:19:22
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:19:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:19:29
Darin Tingey
They live on these remote islands. Like they just have to eat.
01:19:31
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:19:32
Darin Tingey
I remember one ah
Missionary Work and Growth on Small Islands
01:19:33
Darin Tingey
person telling me, they're like, oh, we found these sea turtle eggs and we ate them all and they were so good. And I was like, oh, oh, you know, like,
01:19:40
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. yeah
01:19:42
Darin Tingey
that hurts a little but like i know like sea turtle is so good i i'm sure you had a bunch of milie i had it online and it's just it's so good and like at shark shark was good did you guys do a lot of fishing
01:19:49
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:19:54
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. So we we did a lot of fishing. um I only went shark fishing once though. um And we you know the deal, we you get some really thick fishing line and you you chum the water, which is also illegal in the US, not there.
01:20:06
Darin Tingey
ven
01:20:12
Cameron Kendrick
but you would you would cast this out and then you would stick it in the ground or tie it to like a tree and just wait and yeah we we caught some probably four foot sharks uh got two of them and their meat was very interesting it was kind of like a i would honestly taste ah say it tasted like turkey um like a little kind of turkey chicken.
01:20:33
Cameron Kendrick
Very rough meat, though, you know, like the skin is very rough and the and the meat itself is very chewy. But man, it was good. It was and it was very ah kind of a once in a lifetime experience got to do very good.
01:20:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah, on live, like the last P-Day I was there, I was like, let's go fishing. And we had a, basically my dad on live, he'd take us fishing. And we went fishing kind
01:20:54
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
Community Interactions and Traditions
01:20:55
Darin Tingey
of in sunset.
01:20:57
Darin Tingey
And when we were everything we'd like get on the line, a shark would come and eat it. And so we're like, he's like, all right, I'm done with this. We're going shark fishing. So he pulls out, he pulls out his thick line.
01:21:07
Darin Tingey
He has things like rope, you know, yeah, it's super strong cord, tosses it in.
01:21:08
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:21:11
Darin Tingey
And we're in like the little dinky boats, the lawns as they call them.
01:21:15
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:21:16
Darin Tingey
And it's just me, Elder Scott, and Hellemung. And he pulls a shark up, and he puts it in the boat. And we're both like, scrambling, trying to dodge the shark. And he gets his machete, and just nails the shark with the machete. And we caught two sharks, man. It was so cool.
01:21:34
Cameron Kendrick
nice
01:21:34
Darin Tingey
um and And we ate them. Yeah, they're they're kind of interesting meat. It's funny you mentioned turkey, because I would i would kind of say the same. And anyone that's going to the Marshall Islands mission is going to eat a lot of turkey neck, which is the most random thing ever.
01:21:42
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:21:48
Darin Tingey
Konawa. So you're going to eat a lot of uncooked chicken, turkey neck, and then all the other island food.
01:21:49
Cameron Kendrick
It is so weird, like. Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to be honest with you. You'll you'll love the fruit and and anything that grows on a tree there. But the the chicken, they they undercook it. You'll eat yoy so much rice and and and some some weird things. But it's it's it's just such a fun experience to just be out there and eat what they eat.
01:22:18
Darin Tingey
Did you guys have any mangoes on Millie?
01:22:22
Cameron Kendrick
um
01:22:22
Darin Tingey
I feel like I heard that there might have been a mango tree.
01:22:23
Cameron Kendrick
the There wasn't there was a mango tree. There were mango trees, but they weren't in season. I was really bummed about that.
01:22:30
Darin Tingey
Ah!
01:22:31
Cameron Kendrick
However, we did get limes. There was lime trees over there, too. And then we would pick up. We would pick limes all the time and import that on our fish and stuff, which was awesome. Just green limes.
01:22:40
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
01:22:41
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:22:42
Darin Tingey
Lime sets. Yeah, I didn't have any of those. Yeah.
01:22:44
Cameron Kendrick
Hmm.
01:22:45
Darin Tingey
I mean, and we we talked about this previously, but Outer Islands is is the best. you know it' just And I think our mission president finally realized that towards the end of our mission.
01:22:49
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:22:52
Darin Tingey
right like There was nothing open at the beginning. There's maybe one or two.
01:22:55
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah.
01:22:55
Darin Tingey
and then But yeah, I think we had seven open at at one time. And it's just like, better for the mission, right?
01:23:00
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, yeah.
01:23:01
Darin Tingey
Elders got to go out and like, fear people on Madro. Madro's where all like the drama happened. So like, get everyone out. Everyone learns the culture, the language, they're pushed physically and mentally.
01:23:11
Cameron Kendrick
Yep.
01:23:12
Darin Tingey
And it's just like, so amazing. um
01:23:16
Cameron Kendrick
It's the place to grow, that's for sure. You grow as as ah as a missionary and as a person without a doubt. Yeah, missionaries, or the outer line is where I became a good missionary and and like an actual like man, that's for sure.
01:23:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and you got a good one. Millie is an amazing island and you and you did amazing things out there.
01:23:34
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:23:34
Darin Tingey
And then so finn i mean we could talk about eBuy for another hour, but eBuy is amazing and it's a poor, small, but like such a fun area.
01:23:41
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Oh yeah, amazing
01:23:45
Darin Tingey
um
Reflecting on Final Mission Days
01:23:45
Cameron Kendrick
place.
01:23:46
Cameron Kendrick
I remember the going to Ebay and and you know you have to take the ferry from the military base and then and then you go into Ebay, it's just like this teeny little place and 80 to 90% of the entire little island is just covered in tin houses, right?
01:24:05
Cameron Kendrick
and so it's nothing but just just a cement and and tin little island but and man the people there are so friendly and just compact in like wall the wall the wall and but everyone is just so friendly you i probably gained the most weight in ebay because there's a ton of members there and and if you're not even a member then people are still offering you food and and you know they you respect the elders and and the missionary people there So i I really liked you.
01:24:32
Cameron Kendrick
I had a great time in eBuy. And then I was actually companions with Elder Anderson, our brother, um while I was there. And that was a great time, too.
01:24:42
Darin Tingey
Which ward were are you in?
01:24:44
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, I don't know if I remember.
01:24:46
Darin Tingey
Or were you in north or central or south, do you remember?
01:24:50
Cameron Kendrick
we were We were in North. Yeah, you buy North.
01:24:52
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:24:53
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:24:53
Darin Tingey
Dump, near the dump.
01:24:55
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I believe so.
01:24:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:24:57
Cameron Kendrick
Let me, yeah, I think it was, maybe it wasn't.
01:25:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:25:02
Darin Tingey
um
01:25:04
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:25:06
Darin Tingey
eBuy is an amazing island. Yeah, that's where I started. And it's just, it's what's funky. It's like, they kind of, they're like poor, but also they like kind of have money because they all work on Quodge.
01:25:16
Darin Tingey
So they all work on the army base.
01:25:16
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:25:17
Darin Tingey
So yeah you'd be like in like this poor house, but then they're like, like a massive TV and an Xbox. And you're like, what, what's going on here?
01:25:23
Cameron Kendrick
ah Yeah. Yeah.
01:25:25
Darin Tingey
Like what the priorities here are like totally swapped.
01:25:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:25:29
Darin Tingey
not They don't care about the house, but they cared about their huge TV and Xbox.
01:25:32
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. They all had plasma screen TVs and and AC and and eating all the time.
01:25:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:25:38
Cameron Kendrick
and But yeah, um correction. yeah I was south. I was south.
01:25:42
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:25:42
Cameron Kendrick
So by by the high by the the high school.
01:25:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah, okay. I was, I also was in South for, and which was awesome.
01:25:47
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:25:51
Darin Tingey
It's such a fun place.
01:25:52
Cameron Kendrick
It is. Yeah.
01:25:53
Darin Tingey
And then you finished with me and Uliga.
01:25:56
Cameron Kendrick
Yes, sir.
01:25:57
Darin Tingey
Let's go. We, it was fun.
01:25:58
Cameron Kendrick
Dude.
01:25:59
Darin Tingey
It was a lot of fun.
01:25:59
Cameron Kendrick
Oh.
01:26:00
Darin Tingey
We had so much fun.
01:26:01
Cameron Kendrick
You and I are i specifically remember just being just being so happy during that time because we both knew the language. We're brothers, you know MTC brothers. We were finishing our mission soon.
01:26:13
Cameron Kendrick
You and I both knew what we were doing. And it was just a killer time. We were having so much fun.
01:26:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:26:18
Cameron Kendrick
We were going to see everyone and do everything. and But we were also, you know you and I would go out and get souvenirs every once in a while because we were getting ready to go home. you know We weren't taking things
01:26:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
Return Visit to Islands and Observations
01:26:28
Cameron Kendrick
too seriously.
01:26:29
Cameron Kendrick
I remember specifically one morning You and I, you know, we had been companions for like two or three weeks and we're like, we we were sitting on the floor because our AC had gone out and we're up on the tile floor doing like our missionary companionship, by like reading or study.
01:26:41
Darin Tingey
ah um ready Yeah.
01:26:45
Cameron Kendrick
And then I think we both just kind of fall asleep. We ended know were like, our we were like, we set an alarm on our phone, like to go out and start, you know, prospering. um Or proselyting and then and then we're like, but let's just take a little nap So we both just just both pass out on the tile it just slept for like 45 minutes and like yeah, and I woke up to get You know, I don't feel bad about that because we're we're leaving in like a month and you're like I was like we deserve that.
01:27:00
Darin Tingey
yeah a
01:27:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah, we, we definitely had a lot of fun that last transfer we still worked we did we just don't work hard and that's it.
01:27:19
Cameron Kendrick
Oh Yeah, oh Yeah
01:27:24
Darin Tingey
But like, I remember like, because house and done, we're also in our intake and they were zone leaders. So we did a fun picnic day with the athletes.
01:27:33
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah.
01:27:33
Darin Tingey
That was a lot of fun.
01:27:35
Cameron Kendrick
I look at those pictures all the time. That was so much fun going. yeah Yeah, I can remember the boat that we did, what it was called, but it was like this kind of like a cultural boat, boats like this antique boat that we took out to this island and kind of had, yeah like you said, ah and with the athletes, the bishop and and his family and had like just like a barbecue playing volleyball and and just hanging out, eating food.
01:27:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:27:58
Cameron Kendrick
And man, that was amazing. It was an awesome time.
01:28:01
Darin Tingey
It was so fun, totally worth it. and And I remember, you mentioned the souvenirs. Remember, we both bought these women gowns that we we werere goingnna do were to our parents, our moms, and we put them on.
01:28:13
Cameron Kendrick
ah
01:28:16
Cameron Kendrick
ah tree yeah We take a picture and we're like posing in it and stuff.
01:28:20
Darin Tingey
a a
01:28:23
Cameron Kendrick
What do they call them?
01:28:24
Darin Tingey
The gwoms, and the gwoms?
01:28:25
Cameron Kendrick
Glam. Yeah, and we're both in Glam.
01:28:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:28
Cameron Kendrick
There's like skin tight on us. ah
01:28:31
Darin Tingey
Super comfy, though.
01:28:32
Cameron Kendrick
Oh yeah.
01:28:32
Darin Tingey
I think we might have even slept in them that night.
01:28:34
Cameron Kendrick
We might have.
01:28:35
Darin Tingey
That's so funny. ah But good time.
01:28:37
Cameron Kendrick
ah
01:28:38
Darin Tingey
And then and then I think we are ward through us because I'm a lock goodbye party, which was so fun dancing, singing, big, big meals, we had a lot of goodbye parties, which was so fun.
01:28:41
Cameron Kendrick
Yep. Yep. Yeah.
01:28:52
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, that at least made a cake for us and man, that was awesome. I will say though, I got robbed um at the very end of the mission because me and other done stayed, a I think it was a week or two.
01:29:05
Darin Tingey
I think we'll wait longer, yeah, maybe two weeks.
01:29:08
Cameron Kendrick
a Week longer than everyone else and I remember being so Mad about that because it's not like the church has has money to you know that they're they're skimming on or any or anything, you know Like I was I couldn't for the life of me put it together why we had to stay an extra I think it was a one week Yeah, well we had to stay an extra week and ten of our brothers left and me and done.
01:29:30
Darin Tingey
was
01:29:33
Cameron Kendrick
I went to I went to um He was in I got transferred to his area. We were in Delup. And I remember just dragging my feet that last week, just not wanting to do anything because my brothers were gone.
01:29:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:49
Cameron Kendrick
i didn't like In my head, I was like, i I don't need to be here anymore. My my intake is gone. like I'm still here for some reason.
01:29:57
Darin Tingey
It was so, it was so random because yeah, like most of us went home August 10th, and then you and Dunn were a week or two weeks later. but and And I thought it was maybe for school, but Elder Dunn went to BYU, which is so did I.
01:30:06
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:30:11
Darin Tingey
So like, and may it made no sense that you guys stayed an extra week or two.
01:30:12
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah. No sense. ah Oh, and you and you bet your bottom that ah that house was just rubbing it in.
01:30:18
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
01:30:23
Cameron Kendrick
Man, he would he would be like, like he would look at me, point me in the chest and go, I'm going home and you're going to stay here. And I just remember just like wanting to fight him at that point.
01:30:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and at that point, you'd already said goodbye to everybody. And, oh, that's tough, man.
01:30:38
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I remember going to a house and and being like, oh, Kendrick, you're still here? I'm like, yes, I'm still here. And it just rubbed it in, you know?
01:30:49
Darin Tingey
a
01:30:51
Cameron Kendrick
But it went by fast.
01:30:52
Darin Tingey
ah
01:30:53
Cameron Kendrick
We we we used like we had been saving up kind of like our money for like the month to buy like souvenirs. And I didn't get to spend it um all of it. And so me and Dunn went to like the fanciest restaurants that they had um like every day that we were there.
01:31:06
Darin Tingey
Nice.
01:31:07
Cameron Kendrick
So it wasn't too bad. But I was very, very ready to go home, that's for sure. um
01:31:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Man, what a time. All right. Do you ever plan to go back?
01:31:17
Cameron Kendrick
I do and I actually wanted to ask you about ah how it was your time going back because you went back just recently.
01:31:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I got to go back in August. it was It was a dream, man. I took my parents and my wife.
01:31:28
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:31:29
Darin Tingey
but So my wife was actually pregnant, like a few months pregnant.
01:31:32
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:31:33
Darin Tingey
Because it was like, hey, we got to do this now or never. Like, little little kid coming at just little a little harder.
01:31:37
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:31:40
Darin Tingey
We wanted to go after we graduated from college, but it was still shut down because of COVID.
01:31:46
Darin Tingey
so we couldn't go so we finally went it was amazing we stayed in madro at rmi which is the the resort ha um it was impossible to like even get a reservation i had to like like their phone number and emails are like wrong on their website so i had to like
01:31:46
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:31:48
Cameron Kendrick
Gotcha.
01:31:54
Cameron Kendrick
Okay. There is our, yeah.
01:32:07
Darin Tingey
Facebook messaged ah President Teven, the state president of Madro, and he hooked it up.
01:32:11
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:32:12
Darin Tingey
He got us a ah hotel and a car.
01:32:16
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:32:16
Darin Tingey
and And then I was messaging Albin to figure out a plane, so I wanted to go to Lai, right? That was the outer island that I served in in the Marshall Islands, and I wanted to take my family, because hands down, favorite island, favorite area.
01:32:23
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:32:29
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:32:30
Darin Tingey
And he was like, for sure, man, I'll hook it up. Like for context, when I was on Lai, the plane came, every other week. So twice a month, right? Which is crazy.
01:32:40
Cameron Kendrick
yeah.
01:32:40
Darin Tingey
And then while I was, like, recently they do every week now. So I was like, hey, like, is there any way you could hook it up? And like, we only go for a day, two days, three days, whatever, four days.
01:32:53
Darin Tingey
I don't want to go to lie.
01:32:53
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:32:53
Darin Tingey
And he's like, yeah, for sure. I'm like, okay, great. This is sweet. So we go, we're on Madro. We're set to fly out to lie on Wednesday, because that was when the flight was.
01:33:07
Darin Tingey
So we buy our tickets. They're like insanely expensive.
01:33:10
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:33:11
Darin Tingey
And we The lady's like, all right, so you're going to come back in a week. And I was like, no, no, no, like, like Albin said, he'd hook it up and he'd pick us up, you know, a few days later.
01:33:22
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:33:22
Darin Tingey
And she's like, okay. So she like writes it up, gives us our tickets. And then I get back to the hotel cause I didn't have wife. I didn't have a phone, right? So he's had a wifi at the hotel and I get a message from him.
01:33:34
Darin Tingey
He's like, Hey, just got the bill from the team. It's going to be $6,000 to pick you guys up. like
01:33:39
Cameron Kendrick
Holy cow!
01:33:42
Darin Tingey
yeah know $6,000.
01:33:45
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, jeez.
01:33:46
Darin Tingey
So I was like, dude, I was like, I'm not paying $6,000 together, like maybe maybe in 20 years when I have a lot more money. But like, I was like, I can't do that.
01:33:55
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:33:57
Darin Tingey
And he's like, What about 3000? I was like, No, like, I'm just not doing it.
01:34:02
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:34:02
Darin Tingey
And so he's like, All right, how about we ground the plane for an hour? I was like, All right, I'll do that.
01:34:08
Cameron Kendrick
ah Okay.
01:34:08
Darin Tingey
I ended up paying 900 bucks to ground the plane for an hour, which was totally worth it.
01:34:10
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:34:14
Cameron Kendrick
Wow. and he Oh no.
01:34:17
Darin Tingey
I will say though, it did like dump rain on us most of the time around lie. I was unfortunate, but lies so small that like you land, everyone knew that we were coming because people would call them.
01:34:30
Darin Tingey
They like have phones out there now.
01:34:32
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:34:32
Darin Tingey
And they have Starlink internet.
01:34:35
Cameron Kendrick
No way.
01:34:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
01:34:37
Cameron Kendrick
Shout out Elon, man.
01:34:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I was cooking it up. So like everyone knew we were coming. So everyone was there like at the airport when we landed and like, said hi, and they gave us tons of amimonos.
01:34:49
Darin Tingey
And it was amazing.
01:34:49
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:34:50
Darin Tingey
And they had just built a new church building online because they outgrew the one they already had.
01:34:52
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, really?
01:34:55
Darin Tingey
So they built them a bigger one.
01:34:55
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:34:56
Darin Tingey
And we got to see that. And there was actually two missionaries there at the time. So that was fun to see them. And
01:35:01
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, awesome.
01:35:03
Darin Tingey
It was amazing. I wish we could have stayed for a few days longer, but it was there. And then from there, we flew to eBuy, and then we spent five days on eBuy, which was way too many, but because i had a lot of I had a lot of time to stay on Lie, so we were only going to be on eBuy for like two, three days.
01:35:11
Cameron Kendrick
What's that?
01:35:20
Cameron Kendrick
Right.
01:35:21
Darin Tingey
but But Lie didn't work out, so we ended up spending like five days on eBuy, and eBuy is tiny, so it was definitely too many.
01:35:27
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:35:28
Darin Tingey
But like we still made it the most that we did. like ah picnic day with the Stevens, and we went swimming and barbecue and fishing.
01:35:34
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:35:38
Darin Tingey
And then we actually went to Quodge one day. We got a sponsor on Quodge, and we went and snorkeled on Quodge, which was super sick.
01:35:43
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, no way.
01:35:46
Darin Tingey
You had the fish up on Quodge sponsored us.
01:35:48
Cameron Kendrick
Wow, that's awesome. How did you get in contact with him?
01:35:49
Darin Tingey
Do you remember Leah Hona from eBuy?
01:35:55
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, yeah, I do.
01:35:55
Darin Tingey
make um She, or it was Leah Hunter or some other member on eBuy that was like, Hey, you should reach out to the Bishop's wife via Facebook.
01:36:05
Cameron Kendrick
OK, yeah.
01:36:05
Darin Tingey
So I did. And then, yeah, she just like, oh, they just like met us at the dock, right? And they've got us in and then they're like, all right, like we've been rented snorkeling gear from the, from Quaj and they're like, all right, go have fun.
01:36:19
Darin Tingey
Like call us when you need us to come take you back. So like, they didn't even come with us. They just like, let us go.
01:36:24
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:36:25
Darin Tingey
And we snorkeled and it was amazing. My dad saw, I didn't see him, but my dad saw a man of rays and a sea turtle.
01:36:30
Cameron Kendrick
Wow.
01:36:32
Darin Tingey
And he was like, beautiful, man.
01:36:33
Cameron Kendrick
I bet, I bet.
01:36:33
Darin Tingey
It's so gorgeous. But amazing trip. I still got some, I mean, you probably follow me on Instagram. I have way too many posts about it, but um I've got i got some drone videos that I'm, from the drone that you convinced me to get, man.
01:36:41
Cameron Kendrick
I loved them.
01:36:47
Darin Tingey
I have some drone some drum videos I'm still putting together.
01:36:47
Cameron Kendrick
Yes, sir.
01:36:51
Cameron Kendrick
OK. Yeah, I'm excited to see those.
01:36:52
Darin Tingey
I'll send them up.
01:36:54
Cameron Kendrick
Did they let you fly that? I'm assuming not on quads.
01:36:57
Darin Tingey
I didn't take it to Quodge. I flew it on eBuy, you know, because it on it'll show you on the on the map where you can fly or you can't.
01:36:59
Cameron Kendrick
OK. OK.
01:37:04
Cameron Kendrick
We can't, yeah.
01:37:05
Darin Tingey
So if I got too close to the Quodge, it like stops. I i just flew it around eBuy, and Madro, and like a little
01:37:08
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:37:12
Darin Tingey
I didn't get it out online because we didn't have enough time online to do it, but it was du it it was amazing.
01:37:15
Cameron Kendrick
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
01:37:19
Darin Tingey
You should go back. I think Millie, that you can actually take a boat from Madro that doesn't take too long.
01:37:23
Cameron Kendrick
Oh, really?
01:37:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think there's a more frequent boat to Millie, so like that that could work where you could take a boat and plane back or plane there and boat back or something.
01:37:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:37:30
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I think I'll do the same thing that you did before we have a child that I'll want to go, because see like you said it, making a child how great they are, but it makes things more difficult to do.
01:37:42
Cameron Kendrick
So I think that's my goal.
01:37:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. And to the people there, they they still surprisingly still remembered me, which I thought was crazy.
01:37:49
Cameron Kendrick
Really? Yeah.
01:37:51
Darin Tingey
um They still remember me, there'd be like kids like other thanky other thanky. And I was like, Yeah, who are you like teenagers now? Like, who are you they're like?
01:37:58
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:37:59
Darin Tingey
Oh, I was a little, you know, little Johnny. and I'm like, Oh my gosh, like you're so grown up now.
01:38:02
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Yeah.
01:38:05
Darin Tingey
And that was so rewarding and fun.
01:38:05
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:38:08
Darin Tingey
and And so totally, totally worth going back.
01:38:09
Cameron Kendrick
yeah
01:38:12
Darin Tingey
And they were like, no missionaries ever come back. And like, none of them ever bring their family or their wife. And they're like, next time you come, you're going to bring your two kids like the other side of heaven too.
01:38:18
Cameron Kendrick
and
01:38:23
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah.
01:38:23
Darin Tingey
You know, like like the movie. yeah It was amazing.
01:38:25
Cameron Kendrick
Yeah. Oh, that's awesome.
01:38:28
Darin Tingey
But I will say there's a lot fewer people there after COVID, a lot of them left. So yeah.
01:38:33
Cameron Kendrick
Really interesting. Did they end up like getting the virus there? Because I know that they were like locked down.
01:38:38
Darin Tingey
and Eventually, they did. Yeah.
01:38:42
Cameron Kendrick
They did.
01:38:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah, but I don't and don't think it was bad.
01:38:42
Cameron Kendrick
OK.
01:38:44
Darin Tingey
So yeah,
01:38:46
Cameron Kendrick
Just because I know like with with COVID, like a lot of the Marshallese people have those underlying defects, like health health issues. And then I would think that COVID would just plague that place. but
01:38:59
Darin Tingey
yeah you would think I think I think Yeah, I think it wasn't too bad from what what they had told me, but because of the, they'd been locked down for so long that once they lifted the restriction, thousands left, apparently.
01:39:05
Cameron Kendrick
That's good.
01:39:11
Cameron Kendrick
Gotcha. Interesting.
01:39:11
Darin Tingey
So that's thanks, yeah.
Conclusion and Gratitude for Island Adventures
01:39:13
Cameron Kendrick
Huh.
01:39:14
Darin Tingey
Well, it's Kendrick, it's been a pleasure having you on.
01:39:17
Cameron Kendrick
Well, thanks for having me, man.
01:39:18
Darin Tingey
It is, it's like old times, just back on the mission, chatting away in Uluga.
01:39:23
Cameron Kendrick
ah
01:39:24
Darin Tingey
no, it's been so fun. Thanks for coming on the Islands Podcast.
01:39:29
Cameron Kendrick
Thank you so much. All right, man. Take it easy.
01:39:32
Darin Tingey
All right, likewise.