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Episode 15: Nakitta Faupula Ellis - Kiribati - Tarawa, Marakei, Tarawaeita
74 Plays26 days ago
FIRST SISTER MISSIONARY ON THE POD!!! Nakitta Faupula Ellis served in Kiribati from November 2014 - May 2016. Nakitta had a rare experience to serve on the outer island of Marakei! Not often do you hear of sisters serving on outer islands, but for Nakitta, it was her "refiner's fire" moment after telling her mission president that outer islands were not for her. Nakitta knew she was headed to a third-world country, but always thought her living conditions would be a bit better than the elders'... she just didn't know that it meant being blessed with more pet rats to keep her company at night.
#MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #Kiribati #Tarawa #Marakei #Tarawaeita #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia #islandculture
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Transcript
Introduction to Nikita Faupula Ellis
00:00:01
Darin Tingey
All right, we're on with another episode of the Islands Podcast with um our first sister missionary guest, Nikita Faupula Ellis.
00:00:10
Nakitta
Mm-hmm.
00:00:15
Nakitta
and so
00:00:15
Darin Tingey
I said that right. So sister Faupula for those that served with her. Nikita, give us a quick background on you, where you're from, where you're at now, your family, all that jazz.
00:00:32
Nakitta
Alrighty. So I was born in Hawaii. My mom's Hawaiian. My dad's Tongan. They met at BYU, Hawaii. And then I was born later.
00:00:44
Nakitta
and we moved to Florida and we lived in Florida till I was 11. And in 2006, we moved to Harriman, Utah. And my parents have been here ever since.
00:01:00
Nakitta
I graduated from Harriman High and then i did one year BYU-Hawaii before I went on the mission. um Came back from the mission and went back to BYU-Hawaii and that's where I met my husband, Ezra Ellis, who just so happened to serve in the same mission as well.
00:01:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:01:22
Nakitta
What a coincidence.
00:01:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:01:23
Nakitta
But now we're back in Utah. We have two kids, a boy who is turning three soon. And then our daughter turned one this year.
00:01:36
Nakitta
and i am pregnant with
Life and Family in Utah
00:01:38
Nakitta
our third. Thanks.
00:01:40
Darin Tingey
Congratulations. That's awesome.
00:01:42
Nakitta
It's a lot.
00:01:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah, ah that is a lot. I'm i'm blessed. you got you The girls are blessed to be able to endure that, but it's a blessing at the end of it, but good on you.
00:01:55
Nakitta
Yeah, indoor is the word. Yes.
00:01:58
Darin Tingey
ah um So did you and Estrella meet on the mission or did you just meet after the mission?
Meeting Ezra at BYU Hawaii
00:02:05
Nakitta
Nope. Never met him in Kitty Vest. We met in the cafeteria at BYU-Hawaii. And so I served earlier than Ezra, so I came home first.
00:02:19
Nakitta
um
00:02:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:21
Nakitta
And I was sitting with a bunch of Kitty Vest students at BYU-Hawaii. And I guess some of them had met him before they came to school. And so they were like, oh, come sit down, come sit down. And I was like, but we don't know him, guys.
00:02:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:34
Nakitta
We're speaking different language. he He's going to be left out.
00:02:37
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:02:38
Nakitta
Like, we're going to have to speak English. And they're like, it's going to be fine. nobody Nobody wanted to tell me that he served in Kitty Vest. So I'm speaking in Kitty Vest to everybody like,
00:02:51
Nakitta
um are you guys sure like we does anybody even know who he is like why is he here and they're like no
00:02:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:58
Darin Tingey
But you're like, call it a pretty girl. That'd be pretty funny, actually. Okay.
00:03:04
Darin Tingey
call a pretty girl that'd be pretty funny actually
00:03:08
Nakitta
no well so at the time that I met him I had i was dating someone else and so it was just like uh
00:03:16
Darin Tingey
ah
00:03:19
Nakitta
too? Oh my gosh, no way. all we served in say some of the same areas. That's cool. How's everybody doing? Like, he was just a friend.
00:03:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:30
Nakitta
Like, I didn't know who he was, but he was like, oh no, Sister Fapula.
00:03:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:36
Nakitta
ah But he when he said my name, I was like, did I meet him and I forgot who he was? was like, I'm so sorry. Did I forget you? He's like, oh no, actually, like, one of my trainers knew you and like I would go through his pictures and you were in one of like the group pictures or something and so that's like so I knew who you were and I was like that's kind of scary because I have no I have no idea who you were no like um i knew the sisters from his intake and so that was the only time that I had ever heard
00:03:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah, he knew he picked you out. He knew where you were.
00:04:11
Nakitta
the name Elder Ellis is if they talked about like when they were in the MTC. Other than that, we we never met on Tharawar or anything.
00:04:21
Darin Tingey
was just a good-looking dude with a nice accent. ah
00:04:24
Nakitta
I mean, later on he became good looking, but first meeting i was like, oh, hey, nice to meet you.
00:04:27
Darin Tingey
ha
00:04:30
Darin Tingey
a Maody, maody, that's about it.
00:04:33
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:04:33
Darin Tingey
ah
00:04:34
Nakitta
good
00:04:36
Darin Tingey
So um when what years did you serve?
Mission Call and MTC Experience
00:04:40
Nakitta
I served from November 2014 to May 2016. But I only usually say like 2014, 2016 because then it sounds like I served two years.
00:04:45
Darin Tingey
Right,
00:04:50
Darin Tingey
right. right So he would have, he would have come in. You guys still cross. Yeah. So he was still serving the same time as you. Cause he came in what, like, uh, September of 2015.
00:05:01
Nakitta
He came in 2015,
00:05:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay.
00:05:03
Nakitta
and fifteen yeah
00:05:04
Darin Tingey
yeah okay You guys just never met. Yeah. I mean, there's so many missionaries on Kitabas too. And if you go to outer islands, so you're, you yeah miss a lot of people.
00:05:12
Nakitta
And their intake was huge.
00:05:12
Darin Tingey
Uh,
00:05:13
Nakitta
So like I would just randomly meet somebody from their intake and they're like, yeah, I came in with that group. was Oh yeah, you're one of the million who came in that we just can't keep track of.
00:05:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:24
Nakitta
Mm-hmm.
00:05:25
Darin Tingey
Right. Yeah, Kiribati's got really big. they They got a ton of missionaries. The Marshall Islands side, like, you knew everybody. like you Like, there's just, like, only 30 of us. It's like, you knew everybody.
00:05:35
Nakitta
Whoa. Whoa.
00:05:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. um Which was good and bad. Everyone knew the tea about everybody, which was awful. It was really bad. That's why they just needed to send everyone to Outer Islands and forget about the main island.
00:05:47
Darin Tingey
um Okay, so you get your call. what What was it like getting your mission call? like Being at BYU-Hawaii, did you know what Kitabas was? Had you met Kitabas people previously?
00:06:00
Nakitta
Yes. So, well, I wasn't really close with any of the Kitty Best students before the mission. Like, obviously, a lot of the international students like to stick to the people who from their country.
00:06:12
Nakitta
It's just easier to speak in your own language until you get to class and have to speak English or anything like that. And like, culture-wise, you know, everybody likes to be with the same people. It's just more familiar and comfortable.
00:06:25
Nakitta
um So I know I had classes with Kitty Best students, but like, They were probably the most shy students of the groups. And so they didn't, I never spoke to many QTWS students.
00:06:39
Nakitta
I got my mission call at BYU. So I stayed like to work for the summer before I came home for the mission um or for the MTC. um So I got my mission call and I read it to my family over over Skype.
00:06:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:06:54
Nakitta
um had a couple aunties with me and that was it. And then the rest of my family were at home and they invited other people from the ward, like my old bishop and some people. um so I read that out and like, I was just like, i was just crossing my fingers, like, please a different language. I cannot speak English. Like, I know I'm not going to be able to do it English. Please let me do a different language.
00:07:17
Nakitta
So I read and I was like, oh, I have no idea where this is. Never heard of Marshall Islands. Never.
00:07:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay.
00:07:27
Nakitta
or like, I guess I'd heard about Kitty Best before, but I was too young to remember it. When we lived in Florida, there was a sister from Kitty Best who served in our ward. And so she was the only person we knew, but we didn't know where it was or who they were kind of thing.
00:07:45
Nakitta
But my mom still kept in contact with her. And so she was like, do you remember a Sister Suteke? Like, yeah, you're going to hurt her country. And was like, okay, cool.
00:07:55
Nakitta
Where is that?
00:07:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:07:57
Nakitta
And then turns out my old bishop, from when I was in the youth, he was like one of the first Tongan missionaries to serve in Kiribes. And so he was like, okay, you say, Melody for hello. kojura How are you?
00:08:11
Nakitta
yeah meru I'm good. And I was like, okay, anything else? He was like, It's been over 20 years. I don't know. i Okay. i'll I'll learn it and I'll come back, you know, reteach you, Bishop.
00:08:25
Nakitta
So that was getting my mission call.
00:08:26
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:08:27
Nakitta
like we So there was definitely connections to Kitty Best, but
00:08:32
Darin Tingey
Did you ever have the misconception that you were going to the Marshall Islands because it was called the Marshall Islands Maduro mission?
00:08:39
Nakitta
No, my call said Kiribati Mission Region speaking kity best language or the Kiribati language or something like that.
00:08:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:46
Nakitta
So was like, oh, whatever that means. But I guess I'm speaking Kiribati. I'm going to a place called Kiribati.
00:08:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:56
Nakitta
um And my mom was the one who was like stuck on Marshall Islands. Your your mission is called yeah mission is called Marshall Islands Mission.
00:09:04
Darin Tingey
It's always the moms.
00:09:07
Nakitta
And then I came home and she had the Marshall Islands flag on like magnet on her fridge.
00:09:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:09:11
Nakitta
was like, take that off.
00:09:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:14
Nakitta
I never set foot in that place. I only know how to say like, hello. That's it. She was like, what your mission? Let's get us a Kitty Best flag because that's where I was for 18 months.
00:09:24
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:09:25
Nakitta
But no, I always.
00:09:29
Darin Tingey
yeah think
00:09:29
Nakitta
no I knew I knew I was going to Kitty Best. Like my husband hadn't no idea.
00:09:35
Darin Tingey
That's what Joey said in the last podcast. He was like, I had to tell him like, no, we're going to Kitabas, not the Marshall Islands, dude.
00:09:38
Nakitta
yeah
00:09:43
Darin Tingey
And he's like, what?
00:09:43
Nakitta
Yeah, when we listened to that, we were laughing so hard. at i You've told me that so many times, and I'm still in disbelief that you read your mission call, and it didn't click that that's you were going to Kitty Vest. He was like, I was just happy to go on a mission. know I read through that thing real quick and was like, all right, when do I leave? it is Oh, my gosh.
00:10:07
Darin Tingey
That's so good. so the MTC for you, were there any other sisters in and your Kitabas district?
00:10:14
Nakitta
yeah So we were there um the same time as the Marshall Islands missionaries.
00:10:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah. yeah
00:10:21
Nakitta
Yeah. So there was four of us going to Kiribes and i think it was six going to Marshall Islands at the time. So they had three sisters, three elders, and then we had two sisters, two elders.
00:10:32
Nakitta
So I was in the intake with Sister Tanuvasa, Elder Ato, and Elder Grant.
00:10:38
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:10:40
Nakitta
If you've heard any other names.
00:10:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i've I've heard the names.
00:10:42
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:10:44
Darin Tingey
i don't I don't know the faces, but I've heard the names.
00:10:46
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah,
00:10:48
Darin Tingey
um And what was it like when you got to
Arrival and Cultural Shock in Kiribati
00:10:52
Darin Tingey
Kitabas? Were you in shock or were you prepared for what Kitabas was like?
00:10:59
Nakitta
Was I in shock? I think, like,
00:11:05
Nakitta
learning that it was third world, like, I just put the third world picture in my head of, like, okay, it's not going to be built up, like,
00:11:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:15
Nakitta
And in MTC, we had Brother Burrell as one of our teachers. um And he just wanted to talk about what Kitty Best was like all the time. So he, yeah, and no electricity, no running water.
00:11:28
Nakitta
And I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait, wait.
00:11:30
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:11:31
Nakitta
but But I'm a sister. so So I'm going to have these things, right? He said, sister, it's never guaranteed, even for you guys. i was like, whoa, wait. No, no, no, no, no. no Like, I made the third world picture in my head, but not the third world, like, accommodations as well.
00:11:50
Nakitta
I still made it, like, my home here in Utah.
00:11:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:53
Nakitta
And I was like, wait, no flushing toilets? What are you talking about? Like, no hot water? This is crazy.
00:12:00
Darin Tingey
Like, I got a car, right? I got a car, right? i
00:12:04
Nakitta
Yeah. And so he was like, yeah, and if you get sent to the outer islands, sorry. No toilet paper sometimes. And that, like, no, no, no, no. no Please, not me, not me. I said, you know what?
00:12:18
Nakitta
God knows me. He knows that's not the mission for me. I'm going to stay on the main island. My whole mission, have my toilet paper. I'm going to be A-OK.
00:12:30
Nakitta
And then we got there, and it was, like, the dustiest thing I'd ever seen.
00:12:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the Lord humbled you real quick.
00:12:40
Nakitta
Yeah, and apparently, like, they didn't know we were coming. um Whatever got mixed up got mixed up. And so they thought we were coming, like, in a couple of days or something.
00:12:54
Nakitta
So we showed up way earlier than we were supposed to. And there was nobody at the airport for us.
00:13:01
Darin Tingey
No way. So you're like, what do we do?
00:13:02
Nakitta
Like, but we didn't know this until...
00:13:06
Nakitta
like later Because by the time we got out, elders had shown up for us. So somebody who was on the plane was a member. And they got out before us. And they called somebody got on a bike and got to somebody. or Whatever happened with the whole trail, they found the elders at the but is it the internet cafe.
00:13:22
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:13:28
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:13:29
Nakitta
And they told them, you just had missionaries come off the plane. And we didn't see any other people. missionaries there to pick them up and they're like oh no no no I don't think so they're coming in like two more days and they're like no we just saw three imetangs get off of that airplane and they look lost he was like so the elders just had to pack everybody up from the internet cafe and speed over lucky they got there before we came out and so they just welcomed us like they'd been there the whole time and then we get to the senior couple's house and
00:14:04
Nakitta
where you're supposed to have, like, your training and your little meal with everybody or whatever.
00:14:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:09
Nakitta
and it was the senior
Adapting to Mission Life in Buota
00:14:10
Nakitta
couple was like, oh, my gosh, we're so sorry. Because it was a pee day. Oh, my gosh, we're so sorry. We didn't have cleanup or anything. don't have anything prepared for you. I don't know what the MC is doing. They're saying people are, like, that sister Wall, she didn't play like that. She was on her schedule, and they messed up her schedule.
00:14:26
Nakitta
And so we were just, like, twiddling our thumbs, like, oh, so –
00:14:29
Darin Tingey
Did she live in Moroni? Did they take you to Moroni?
00:14:32
Nakitta
Yeah, so we were at Moroni, and we just kind of watched everybody out the window, like, have their pee day while I'm dying of heat stroke.
00:14:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:38
Nakitta
And Elder Grant, he's from Australia, so he was like, oh, yeah, this is the life. This is, you feel that humidity and that heat? close your mouth, Elder Grant. I am trying to breathe right now, and I cannot.
00:14:52
Nakitta
like So we ended up going to, like, one of the restaurants, I think, I think we went to Chiarereke for one of the restaurants to eat.
00:15:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:15:01
Nakitta
And we didn't know, like, the serving was going to be this gigantic plate of everything. and so we were like, it's hot. I don't even feel like eating. i Somebody shared this plate with me.
00:15:12
Nakitta
Like, I just want to go sleep. I'm so
00:15:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah, jet lagged.
00:15:16
Nakitta
It's jet lagged. But it's... jet la but um
00:15:20
Darin Tingey
So and then you they they tell you like, hey, this is your new companion or do they just didn't have that ready yet.
00:15:21
Nakitta
yes
00:15:26
Darin Tingey
So they just like they keep you did they keep you just have to see a couple's house for a little bit or?
00:15:31
Nakitta
So they they had like the companionships ready. like They knew who we were all going to, at least.
00:15:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:15:37
Nakitta
um or It was only three of us who came, because Elder Otto, something happened with a visa or something, so he got stuck in the MTC for a couple more weeks. So he had to come on his own. But the three of us, they knew where the three of us were going.
00:15:52
Nakitta
And so it was just kind of like a runaround, because our companions weren't ready. For us, they thought they still had a couple more days or whatever. and so that we all, like, me and Sister Tanifasa packed into the sister training leader car.
00:16:08
Nakitta
And they drove us to the different areas where our um companions were. And they were like, sorry to break it to you guys. The transfer happens right now.
00:16:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:16:18
Nakitta
And, you know, everybody's heartbroken. But Sister Tanifasa went to BESO. And she was able to go right away. So we were like, oh, wait. We're saying goodbye right now.
00:16:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah, right, right.
00:16:28
Nakitta
Yeah, say goodbye. And I was like, wait, where am I going then? you're going to Boca. And i was like, okay, where's that? They're like, the very other end of the island. Sorry, say your goodbyes right now.
00:16:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:16:40
Nakitta
Who knows when you're going to see each other again?
00:16:40
Darin Tingey
we're gonna but We're gonna drive but an hour plus to the other side of island.
00:16:42
Nakitta
so Okay. Yep, because when we got there, they had just started were in the middle of doing the roads. And so potholes everywhere, dust everywhere, half of the road, you know, like cutting off half of the road and with the construction and making traffic even longer because now you have to like do the stop go signs for one side to go and then I will let the other end of the street go.
00:17:07
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:17:13
Nakitta
And so it was forever.
00:17:14
Darin Tingey
and So did you drop did you drop her off at Beso? And so you saw Beso and then you went all the way to Buota and you're like, oh, I'm in Buota. I'm in like the sticks over here.
00:17:25
Nakitta
Well, we my companion was Sister Fisher, um um my trainer was Sister Fisher, and she was in Chareke. And by the time we got to Chareke with her her replacement, it was already late.
00:17:40
Nakitta
And so they were like, you're just going to sleep with us tonight in Ata with the sister training leaders, and then we'll take you to Bota in the morning.
00:17:47
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:17:50
Nakitta
i said, cool, i just I've been wanting to sleep all day, thanks.
00:17:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah, please let me rest.
00:17:55
Nakitta
Yeah, and Sister Fisher, Chiarareque was her very first area, and she'd been there her entire nine months. and So this was her first time.
00:18:05
Darin Tingey
Wow. Okay.
00:18:06
Nakitta
So we were going to go whitewash Bota. And, you know, I don't know anything about Kitty Bess. don't know the language. And everybody's still speaking Kitty Bess around me.
00:18:17
Nakitta
And then nobody wanted to tell me what Bota was like. They're just like, yeah, it's just the other end of the island. You'll see it was by the airport. you remember the airport? Yeah, it's right over there by the airport.
00:18:29
Nakitta
You'll see it. You'll love it. One of the sister training leaders had just moved from Puerto. And so she was like, oh, my favorite area. It's the best. People are great. Like she was hyping it up to me and sister Fisher. Like we left all of our investigators or like our people.
00:18:44
Nakitta
We told them like you guys coming to replace us. They're all ready to help you. OK, thanks. Because I'm nervous. Thanks. So they finally take us to Bota the next morning. And turns out Bota is a bike riding area.
00:19:00
Nakitta
I haven't ridden a bike in years. ah Like since elementary school. I haven't ridden a bike since elementary school.
00:19:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah, let alone in a skirt.
00:19:09
Nakitta
Let alone a skirt.
00:19:09
Darin Tingey
hey
00:19:11
Nakitta
Let alone this rusty thing.
00:19:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:14
Nakitta
Coming up with flat tires half the time. Like. On these bumpy, gigantic pothole dirt roads. like
00:19:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Boda has so many potholes. i' like It's just crazy.
00:19:25
Nakitta
it It was a lot. But Sister Fisher was the best trainer ever. Obviously, I only had one trainer. But she was the best trainer. like She was so excited to be in Puerta. Because...
00:19:40
Nakitta
at the time it was really big to be like no sisters in outer islands you only stay in Tarawa and so she was like no matter how much ask president he'll never send me out there so ah just make the most of it as I can like here in Buota this is as bookie as you can get and still be on Tarawa and i was like excuse me i was told I'm not going to the outer island but you're saying this is like outer island and she's like
00:19:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:03
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:20:05
Nakitta
Where I just came from. This is Outer Island. Comparatively. ah oh
00:20:09
Darin Tingey
Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah. Both that. And like you, you said you, uh, we were talking before this, you, you also were in like Abitau and Tabatoway. Like, so you guys are in Tarawayeta, like North Tarawa, not totally super far North Tarawa, but like that is like, yeah, that's like outer out.
00:20:19
Nakitta
Uh huh.
00:20:28
Darin Tingey
That really is.
00:20:30
Nakitta
Yeah. and You know. But that's the only thing I knew. so I was like. oh, this isn't actually too bad. Like eventually it wasn't too bad, right?
00:20:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:40
Nakitta
But that first, I'd say probably that first month, I was like, just make it to the end of the day. Just make it to the end of the day. Cause I had to relearn how to ride a bike.
00:20:53
Nakitta
And so Sister Fisher was really big on, she was very big on the obedience. We follow the schedule exactly how the schedule is. We're going to do your 12 weeks training.
00:21:04
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:21:05
Nakitta
the entire thing, all 12 weeks. And I was like, okay, sure, whatever. Like, you're senior companion. You've been here long. I'm going to follow your lead. I trust you.
00:21:17
Nakitta
Don't lead me astray, kind of thing. And we were told everybody in Pota was ready to help us. Nobody wanted to talk to us. And was like, what happened to everybody who's going to help us? We were She's like, honestly, it's probably my fault because she is the whitest Australian you've ever seen in your life.
00:21:43
Nakitta
Like completely pale and her hair is bright white, like the palest blonde you'd ever seen that hasn't been dyed or anything.
00:21:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:21:54
Nakitta
Completely blonde, almost white hair.
00:21:58
Nakitta
Pale as pale can be, white skin and blue eyes.
00:22:00
Darin Tingey
You think people...
00:22:02
Nakitta
And so they're just like, oh, she doesn't speak kitty best.
00:22:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:22:06
Nakitta
So we're just not going to talk to her. And so i was like, well, then what do we do? If nobody wants to help she's like, we just go up to their house and say hi. And they're going to let us in because guess what?
00:22:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:22:18
Nakitta
we're foreigners and the culture, you're just nice to foreigners. So she really like used that to her advantage in the beginning of Bota. And I was like, Hey, that's what you say. Then that's what we're going to do.
00:22:30
Nakitta
Okay. And I, and they would always try to talk to me and Kitty Bess just because I was darker. And i was like, um, but wow.
00:22:40
Darin Tingey
It yeah
00:22:41
Nakitta
Yeah. Um, Go ahead.
00:22:44
Darin Tingey
and passed a bus the while.
00:22:46
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah. so cup i No good, no good. Yes.
00:22:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's so funny.
00:22:52
Nakitta
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:22:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah. yeah just
00:22:54
Nakitta
So, and then, you know, there was members who were like, oh, no, no, no, no thank you.
00:22:55
Darin Tingey
that's so funny
00:23:01
Nakitta
And so we got to Sunday, and they're like, hey, sisters, how are you?
00:23:06
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:23:07
Nakitta
You all lied to us. They're like, yeah, we just wasn't sure if you guys spoke kitty best or not, so... We just thought we'd wait until Sunday and see how it goes. as Wow.
00:23:15
Darin Tingey
that's Do you feel like elders and sisters were treated differently at all by the kiddos people?
00:23:24
Nakitta
Let me tell you.
00:23:25
Darin Tingey
Let's talk about it.
00:23:26
Nakitta
Yes.
00:23:29
Nakitta
And I um i think
00:23:29
Darin Tingey
How so?
00:23:34
Nakitta
in some, there was... ah people were a lot bolder in their harassment towards us.
00:23:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:44
Nakitta
um There was that. And then ah one of one area particularly, there had been elders there for so long, and elders were just, elders led sacrament, they blessed sacrament, they passed sacrament, they did all the blessings, all the baptisms for everything, everything.
00:24:06
Nakitta
And so when we got there, they were like, well, we don't know. The elders always did it.
00:24:11
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:24:11
Nakitta
and there was There wasn't ah big, what is it?
00:24:17
Nakitta
I guess like desires is what I could think of, but like not a big desire to to help us with the work they were like, well, the elders did it all by themselves.
00:24:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:28
Nakitta
Why can't you guys? And i was like, because we don't got the priesthood, but you do, like, we had baptisms in one area, and we were like, all right, so who, who usually does the baptisms, like, in Bota, we used whoever we could find who was, you know, like, an active, worthy Melchizedek, or priesthood holder to do our baptisms, and they're like, oh, no, no, no, um,
00:24:46
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:24:56
Nakitta
Maybe just get your like district leader or your zone leader to come and do the baptisms. And we' were like, you got the priesthood, you're not going to use it?
00:25:04
Darin Tingey
right
00:25:04
Nakitta
Nah, come on. And Sister Fisher was really good about just like, no, you have the priesthood, you need to use it. like This is part of being a member of the church. This is what you do. You help the new members. You befriend them.
00:25:16
Nakitta
we're going to ask you, please, will you be the baptizer? Okay, and you, will you please be the one to do the the Holy Ghost blessing? and Oh, but we don't know. It's been so long since we've had to do it. and Well, poor us.
00:25:33
Nakitta
Like, you know, we just really had to play on the culture and like, poor us.
00:25:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:38
Nakitta
Oh, man, we're so helpless. We can't do it. And you guys said you always want to help the missionaries no matter what, right?
00:25:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I just totally played into it That's great.
00:25:49
Nakitta
like and they're like, oh, man. Okay, Dario, we'll do it.
00:25:54
Darin Tingey
a
00:25:54
Nakitta
Or Manu, we'll do it. Yes, you will, because we can't do it. There was a lot of, like, they relied so much on the elders. When the sisters came, it was like everybody was ah ah primary kid again.
00:26:08
Nakitta
They didn't know how to do stuff in the church or how organization worked kind of thing.
00:26:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:26:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah. my Yeah, my mission president was pretty good at like encouraging that. He'd always say, like hey elders, I know you want to like baptize and stuff. and like You should you should you definitely do that, but you should have some member who who can baptize them, like if you baptize your investigator.
00:26:35
Darin Tingey
And so we'd always do that and have the members baptize them because ah one, there's a connection between the investigator or the new member and member baptizing them. Plus they you know, they exercise their priesthood and do stuff in the church.
00:26:48
Darin Tingey
And it was like, it was really good for the church in general. And I thought it was like a really smart idea.
00:26:55
Nakitta
yeah Did you have Larkin all two years?
00:26:58
Darin Tingey
I did have Larkin and and you had where, right? Yeah.
00:27:02
Nakitta
Yes, I had President Weir the entire time. And he's great.
00:27:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:27:06
Nakitta
We love him.
00:27:08
Darin Tingey
I came right after Larkin got in. And so like half the missionaries had just had wear. And that's always a hard transition, right?
00:27:14
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah.
00:27:15
Darin Tingey
From one mission present to the next. And all the missionaries, you know, like it's always hard for the change.
00:27:19
Nakitta
I heard it was tough.
00:27:21
Darin Tingey
I mean, they were, from what I heard, they're just very different in their styles, which was, but that's every mission present.
00:27:21
Nakitta
Yeah, heard it was tough.
00:27:26
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:27:29
Darin Tingey
It's like, oh, this
Cultural Challenges and Living Conditions
00:27:30
Nakitta
Definitely.
00:27:30
Darin Tingey
next one, it's different.
00:27:32
Darin Tingey
um So go ahead.
00:27:33
Nakitta
Oh, go ahead.
00:27:36
Darin Tingey
I was just going to say, so you know you're working in Boota, Tarawaieta. How long were you there for? What was your house like? i How was getting to Tebetuea or Abitol?
00:27:51
Nakitta
um So we lived in the house right next to the chapel, I think. um
00:27:56
Darin Tingey
Okay, I've stayed in that house.
00:27:58
Nakitta
Were you the front house or the second house back?
00:28:00
Darin Tingey
Oh, I don't remember. but but
00:28:04
Nakitta
You might have been the front house because Ezra said that was the house that he stayed in. So we were the second cement block house back.
00:28:08
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:28:11
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:28:12
Nakitta
um And the house was, you know, it ran on rainwater until it didn't, you know.
00:28:20
Darin Tingey
Yep. goes out, right?
00:28:22
Nakitta
And then that that well water kicked in. And I was like, yuck, what is this? But, know, you get used to it. Like, it's either that or you you don't shower.
00:28:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:36
Nakitta
And I prefer to shower but with well water overnight. So um our house...
00:28:40
Darin Tingey
What about washing your clothes? Did you guys watch wash them yourselves?
00:28:42
Nakitta
Oh, we had a we had a washer dryer, but like this weird one that I'd never seen before in my life that had the hose.
00:28:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's like all in one.
00:28:51
Nakitta
Yes, it had a hose that you had to hook up to whatever to fill it.
00:28:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:57
Nakitta
And then i didn't know this, like those washers, like you shouldn't stick your hand in while it's going. like i would get shocked If you did, like, oh, you're, like, throwing more clothes in at while it's still running kind of thing.
00:29:09
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
00:29:12
Nakitta
Because it was, like, the ah top-loading kind of washer.
00:29:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:16
Nakitta
And I was like, oh, that's new. Okay. and they And the dryer was just, like, obviously it wasn't the dryer we know. It was just one that, like, spun and wrung out your clothes so you could hang dry it.
00:29:29
Darin Tingey
Right. It didn't actually get it dry. Yeah, exactly.
00:29:31
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was our washer-dryer.
00:29:34
Darin Tingey
We didn't have those in the Marshalls side. When I went to Kiribati, I saw those and I was like, oh, that's pretty cool. Because on the, in the Marshalls, like on the main island, you had washer and dryer in some apartments or like a laundromat in some areas, but some areas you had to, you had to wash by hand and outer island, you know, wash by hand.
00:29:47
Nakitta
Oh.
00:29:51
Darin Tingey
But then I went to Kiribati, I was like, these are great.
00:29:52
Nakitta
Yeah, I think...
00:29:53
Darin Tingey
They're pretty portable too.
00:29:54
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:29:57
Nakitta
I was so grateful for that. So that was fine. like But i think there were elders in that house before us. And there were some things that were broken and they just never like...
00:30:10
Nakitta
ask to fix or try to fix themselves and they're like well we did without it you guys will be fine actually i'm brand new so i'm not gonna be fine but okay we had we did have a fridge and a free did the freezer work i can't remember if the freezer worked but we had a fridge which was nice um we had well i used the mosquito net
00:30:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:30:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:30:36
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:30:37
Nakitta
Um, in Vota. Cause am a magnet. Like, Sister Fisher, for some reason, they didn't want her blood. But they all wanted to eat me up. So I had that at night.
00:30:51
Nakitta
Um, which...
00:30:52
Darin Tingey
I never used mine because it was so hot. It made it so hot. I feel like, if I don't know why, but it felt hotter to be in that. And so I just light the Moondyga and just call it good.
00:31:04
Nakitta
I don't know why we didn't do that in Vota, but... We didn't. Like, I guess Sister Fisher didn't do that in Te Arereque, so we didn't do that in Vota.
00:31:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:31:13
Nakitta
um But I want to say, did we have a fan?
00:31:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you probably you might have, which would pretty nice.
00:31:20
Nakitta
Maybe we had a ah fan, you know, and just let it oscillate between us two, so that probably helped. on top of the, like, I'm dead tired every day, so i don't care what it feels like, I'm going to sleep kind of thing, until started finding bite marks in things, and i was like, um, are there, like, i had a one of my watches, had, like, a leather wristband, and I would find, like, chunks of it taken out each morning, because I was, like, take it off when I slept, but every morning, I was like,
00:31:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:31:55
Nakitta
of bugs do they have here that are like nibbling on my watch? And Sister Fisher's like, i don't know, but you're fine. And then we'd find like claw marks in our soap, like that we'd wash our hands with. And i was like, what is happening in this house? Something is not right. But Sister Fisher kept like brushing it off.
00:32:14
Nakitta
And i was like, she's like, it's just cause you're new Everything's new to you, but you'll be fine. Like there's nothing happening here. Okay. Okay. Then I get bit one night and I was like, no way did I get bit.
00:32:25
Darin Tingey
no way
00:32:26
Nakitta
I'm in the mosquito net. Like what bit me? Okay, go back to sleep. The next night I get bit again. And then like I got bit on like my toe or something. So I kicked my foot and it connected with something gigantic.
00:32:42
Nakitta
And I was like, and I just laid there. I couldn't go back to sleep. i was like, what was it? What's in our house? And i told Sister Fisher the next morning and she was like, I think you're imagining that.
00:32:53
Nakitta
First of all, look, there's a bite mark on my elbow. Second, there's a bite mark on my toe. There's something in here. The very next night, she got bit.
00:33:02
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:33:03
Nakitta
And then she was like, it's wrapped! There's wrapped in her house!
00:33:06
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:33:07
Nakitta
You didn't want to tell me this days ago when all of my stuff was getting chewed up? What are you talking about? And Sister Fisher did not play like that. She Oh, P-Day, we're getting all the rat poison that we can get from decision the senior couples.
00:33:20
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:33:23
Nakitta
so We're killing these rats. I bet. Let's do it. Because they are eating up my clothes. They're biting holes into my skirts, into my dresses. And after we realized what it was, like, we... Because there was, like, some random dresser thing there. So we tried to, like, hang up our clothes at least to, like, I don't know, make it more homey or something.
00:33:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:33:45
Nakitta
But after that, we just would pack everything back into our suitcases. And then there's scratch marks on my suitcases where they try to get in. oh my gosh, why are they eating my clothes?
00:33:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:33:57
Nakitta
We got the poison. It did nothing. If anything, i swear it made them multiply. Like,
00:34:04
Darin Tingey
You can't get rid of the rats and kid of us. It just doesn't work.
00:34:08
Nakitta
And it made me so mad. And I was what did it make?
00:34:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:12
Nakitta
There was one night we were having like a ah late lesson after dinner with an investigator. So we just did it in like the chapel maniebe whatever you want to call it.
00:34:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:22
Nakitta
like right So we just hopped the fence, have our lesson, and we'd come back home. And then I saw the rat running through the grass. And I was like, there it is. I started chasing it with my chute.
00:34:33
Nakitta
And then they all, the investigator and the member president we had there were like,
00:34:39
Darin Tingey
Don't kill it.
00:34:39
Nakitta
leave it, leave it. And they snatched my shoe from me. like The rat just ran away. And like, I'm still not good at Kitty Best by this time. I saw like, I'm trying to broken in Kitty Best explain like, no, no, no, it bit me.
00:34:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:53
Nakitta
Like I gotta kill it. And they're trying to explain Kitty Best while Sister Fisher translates. And Sister Fisher was outraged as well. was like, get it get it. And then she explains like,
00:35:05
Nakitta
like I'd never heard this before, but they just told me that you're not allowed to kill rats. and I was like, well, why not? Because it bit me. And they're like, we understand.
00:35:17
Nakitta
ah you're not happy. But the thing they told us was, if you kill one rat, their family will be mad. And so they'll all come after you. Like, it just makes the situation worse.
00:35:30
Nakitta
So you just leave it out. and they're like, maybe leave a little food for it. So it'll eat the food and it'll leave your stuff alone.
00:35:35
Darin Tingey
ha Just start.
00:35:37
Nakitta
I'm not going to leave food out for the rats. What are you talking about?
00:35:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Kiribus has got to be the safest place for rats. Like, probably the safest place on Earth for rats.
00:35:48
Nakitta
say They're not going to touch the rat.
00:35:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:51
Nakitta
It's kind of like when people, oh, don't kill the spider, like here in the U.S., so they'll just like put it in a cup or something and release it back outside.
00:35:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:59
Nakitta
I've seen them like, oh, no, no, leave it, and just like shoo the rat out of their house. And like, there, he's gone. We're okay now. I was like, but your house has no walls.
00:36:08
Darin Tingey
and
00:36:09
Nakitta
What are you talking about? Like, I was always just so blown away.
00:36:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:36:14
Nakitta
But that was the one thing about that house was the rats.
00:36:15
Darin Tingey
So, yeah.
00:36:18
Nakitta
Everything else was a-okay.
00:36:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the house is great, mom, but there's rats everywhere and they're eating Mike's stuff.
00:36:26
Nakitta
ah
00:36:27
Darin Tingey
It's true.
00:36:27
Nakitta
president weir President Weir was very much like, If your parents don't need to know, don't tell them.
00:36:32
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:36:32
Nakitta
You tell them all the crazy stuff when you get home. But, you know, I don't need that mob of moms on Facebook coming after me because because their son wants to tell them they killed a pig on an outer island.
00:36:40
Darin Tingey
its it's true
00:36:45
Nakitta
Like, I don't need those stories to be public until you go home.
00:36:45
Darin Tingey
yeah yeah
00:36:49
Nakitta
Like, please save me the headache. um Okay, everything is great, mom. It's hard and I'm learning to ride a bike, but it's okay.
00:36:57
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:36:58
Nakitta
But, like, getting to... So Abithal and Tepe Tewea was Sister Fisher's...
00:37:04
Nakitta
I guess idea. But, um... Because somebody who had been in Bota before us told her that, oh, actually, you're supposed to Tepe Tewea and Abithal, too. And she was even more gung-ho because she was like, that's even more...
00:37:16
Darin Tingey
She's like, yes, it's Outer Island. Let's go.
00:37:19
Nakitta
Yes, she was even more like, that's even more out Ireland.
00:37:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:37:22
Nakitta
Like, I get to see it for real, for real. Like, we're going... We have no idea where that is. Like, you don't...
00:37:29
Darin Tingey
Was there a bridge or did you have to go through the water? Like, I don't remember if it was.
00:37:33
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah, yeah. To get to Abathol, you go um across the water first. And then Tabithawea, there's a bridge to get to it.
00:37:39
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:37:40
Nakitta
um But we didn't know what was out there. Like, there hadn't been elders out there for, like, a couple of transfers before us. And so they were like, yeah, the only... I think it was...
00:37:53
Nakitta
one of my district leaders or zone leaders or somebody who had been out there before. they were like, yeah, the only names I can remember are so-and-so and so-and-so. Like, those are the two names to go look for. And I was like, kill, kill, kill, kill.
00:38:03
Darin Tingey
Great. Thank you so much.
00:38:07
Nakitta
But we were also covering of Buon Riqui as well.
00:38:11
Darin Tingey
That's a lot. That's huge area that you guys had. i
00:38:13
Nakitta
It was gigantic. Like, I was already dying covering Buon Riqui.
00:38:16
Darin Tingey
Were there not that many missionaries on Tarawa?
00:38:20
Nakitta
No, I guess the intake who left just before us were big, I guess. I don't know.
00:38:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:25
Nakitta
Because there used to be four sisters in Bota, in the Bota ward. So two for Bota and then two for Bonniki. And then people left and then everybody got transferred around.
00:38:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
00:38:39
Nakitta
and So then it just became us to to whitewash all of Bonniki, like from the other side of the airport.
00:38:46
Darin Tingey
yeah that's a big area.
00:38:46
Nakitta
Kauai Bo...
00:38:47
Darin Tingey
I don't
00:38:49
Nakitta
the whole way leading up to Bota, all Bota. And then she was like, and we're going to do Epitophtaphthaya as well. And I was like, um, how?
00:38:56
Darin Tingey
and't know if you had time for that. Yeah.
00:38:59
Nakitta
Like, yeah, because Sister Fisher, I will say, she really taught me, like, work hard, work till the very end of the day. Like, we're not going to waste a second of daylight.
00:39:12
Nakitta
And she always would, like, pose to President Weir, like, So if we got as many lessons as the elders in outer islands, would you send us out there?
00:39:23
Nakitta
And he was like, no.
00:39:24
Darin Tingey
uh
00:39:24
Nakitta
She's like, well, I'm to show you. We can do it I'm going to show you. We can do it. Maybe you'll rethink this president. And i was like, why are you doing this to me? We were doing so well with the numbers we had.
00:39:35
Nakitta
But she was like, no, the elders in this island, they're record breaking. So we're going to break their record.
00:39:41
Darin Tingey
a
00:39:41
Nakitta
oh go gosh. So she was trying to get, you know, like 50, 100 lessons, whatever it was in a week. And then she found out we could do Abathot. Like President gave her the OK for Abathot-Tabathoya.
00:39:53
Nakitta
was like, President, just trying to get her off your back. That's how you're trying.
00:39:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:39:57
Nakitta
Look what you're doing, President. He's like, no, it'd be a good idea. Maybe, you know, because there's some members out there and nobody's visited them for a while. Let's check on how they're doing. man president okay so our first day we went and it was low tide and she was like perfect we're taking our bikes and I was like okay and I just started pushing my bike and she was like no no no no no no like the salt water like we'll still get on the bike it's gonna mess up your bike we have to carry it I'm five two if you stand the bike up it'll be bigger than me like
00:40:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah. road everything. Yeah.
00:40:32
Nakitta
Are you kidding me? And Sister Fisher was probably like 5'7", 5'8". She was way taller than me. And she was like, this is easy peasy. She picked it up, threw it on her shoulder, and started going. was like, okay, I guess I'm coming.
00:40:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:40:46
Nakitta
I'm bumbling over with this bike the same size as me, even bigger. just rode around. thought, do you guys know so-and-so? Do you guys know that? Oh, yeah, just keep going into the bush. They're back there. and I was like, oh!
00:40:59
Nakitta
this is not safe. This is not safe for sisters. This is why sisters don't go to Outer Islands. Hello? She's like, no, no, no. If they say they're back there, they're back there. Let's go. Let's go. So we found a couple of the members in Abitha.
00:41:13
Nakitta
I don't remember there being anybody in Tebetewea or not anybody who wanted to talk to us at least.
00:41:18
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:41:19
Nakitta
um But she...
00:41:22
Darin Tingey
But it did totally feel out around like, like more traditional than.
00:41:27
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:41:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:41:28
Nakitta
Like, looking back, i was like, oh, we were out there.
00:41:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:41:33
Nakitta
We were definitely experiencing outer island life out in Avatar and Tepe Tooea. was like, it was a nice bike ride, like, going through all of that. Like, well, this place is lovely.
00:41:45
Nakitta
Like, very clean out here.
00:41:45
Darin Tingey
you
00:41:48
Nakitta
i mean, not everyone was, like, you know, the most welcoming, but Everybody was nice. You know, it was pouring rain and they saw us just waiting under the breadfruit tree. and Okay, sisters, you can come wait at our house.
00:42:02
Nakitta
and Here's some food. Like they were very nice. You know, little kids want to say hi and ride alongside our bikes and things like that. But there weren't a lot of people coming to church in Abathon that I couldn't remember.
00:42:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:42:16
Nakitta
There was probably like two main families that were.
00:42:20
Darin Tingey
Were they coming to church in Puerta?
00:42:23
Nakitta
No, so they had their own, they would do their own sacrament. I think, I think they used to come to Bota.
00:42:27
Darin Tingey
Okay, cool.
00:42:30
Nakitta
We were told they used to come to Bota's ward, but then, you know, something happened. Somebody got offended. And so they just asked, well, can we just do it in Abathol?
00:42:41
Nakitta
Like, do we have to come to Bota? And so they let them do it in Abathol. And I think they became, what's before branch, a district, a unit, a
00:42:49
Darin Tingey
A group, a group, yeah, unit or whatever, yeah.
00:42:51
Nakitta
A group. Yeah, unit. So they were just a little Abathol unit out there. And if anybody, I think later on, Ezram told me like Abathol and Tabithawea became huge. And like there were, there were plenty of members out there.
00:43:02
Darin Tingey
Hey,
00:43:03
Nakitta
And I was like, what?
00:43:05
Darin Tingey
you planted some seeds. Yeah.
00:43:07
Nakitta
You know, I like to say that, but sure, maybe I did.
00:43:09
Darin Tingey
Hey, you did. You did. so let's i want to get to your other areas because we we spent a lot of time on this first area, but it was like probably one of the coolest.
00:43:19
Nakitta
It's where I was the longest. I think I was there just over five months.
00:43:23
Darin Tingey
Oh, wow. you're there for a long time. Yeah, long time.
00:43:25
Nakitta
So i had sister yeah I had Sister Fisher. And then she got transferred to Tarawayeta Roy. And she was like, no freaking way. This is why I came in Bota. I was getting prepared. And like it blew up the mission. Because the president was sending sisters out finally.
00:43:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:40
Nakitta
So he sent Sister Fisher and my MTC companion to Tarawayeta. And then he sent two Kitty Best sisters to Merakey. And everybody was like, whoa, it's fair game now.
00:43:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's the outer islands.
00:43:52
Nakitta
Sisters are going anywhere.
00:43:53
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
00:43:54
Nakitta
i was i was freaked out. like I like, made sure in my next meeting with President, like, President, you know me, right? Remember I told you when I first met you, I have no problem staying in Tarawa, remember?
00:44:04
Nakitta
I never gave you any issues about going out there. Remember that. He said, I do. I remember. Okay, thank you.
00:44:09
Darin Tingey
ha
00:44:10
Nakitta
So then I had Sister Cruz. And she, after I left Bota, she really picked it up with Abiton Tabithawea. So, She planted way more than I did.
00:44:22
Darin Tingey
So from there, you go to, you go to Medicaid, right?
00:44:25
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:44:26
Darin Tingey
So you got transferred to the outer island.
00:44:26
Nakitta
And I was mad.
00:44:28
Darin Tingey
ha
00:44:29
Nakitta
I was heated. And President Weir was in Marshall Islands when all of the transfers got announced. And was like, oh, he did that on purpose. He knew he was going to have a meeting with me if he was on QTBest when that transfer came out.
00:44:47
Nakitta
i did not want to go.
00:44:50
Darin Tingey
So was that the only outer island that had sister missionaries on it besides Tarawaita Roy? Was Medicaid the only one?
00:44:56
Nakitta
Yes. i heard like I heard before that there were sisters on Abeyang.
00:45:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:04
Nakitta
And then that didn't work. And so then that's why there was that huge period of no sisters out there.
00:45:09
Darin Tingey
Gotcha. They were sisters on Abayang at some point my mission.
00:45:15
Nakitta
Yes. And whatever, whichever episode we were listening to and somebody said, think it was Hayden's one.
00:45:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:22
Darin Tingey
we Yeah, Wienig.
00:45:23
Nakitta
Weenix.
00:45:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:45:24
Nakitta
Yeah. When they like split the island, was like, are you serious?
00:45:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:29
Nakitta
They made it out there? Oh my gosh.
00:45:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah, pretty cool.
00:45:30
Nakitta
Oh gosh. Like it's a big deal.
00:45:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah. me
00:45:33
Nakitta
Like,
00:45:33
Darin Tingey
And Abbey Young's pretty good pretty close to Ottawa, but like Medicaid is a little bit further north. So like why why did he choose Medicaid? Do you know? Why? Yeah. that or
00:45:43
Nakitta
No, I have no idea.
00:45:44
Darin Tingey
certain i
00:45:45
Nakitta
i never got to have that conversation with President because by the time I saw him again, i had come back to Tarawa he was kind of like, wasn't it great?
00:45:56
Nakitta
Okay, let's move on. like
00:45:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:57
Nakitta
He didn't want to have the whole spiel out with me. i was like, just don't do that again, President. That was hard.
00:46:05
Darin Tingey
So we haven't talked about Medicaid on the podcast at all. So give the listeners like a rundown of what Medicaid is like, yeah you you're flying and you see
Missionary Work in Marakei
00:46:13
Darin Tingey
it, what does it look like? What is the culture there? Like, uh, what was living situation?
00:46:16
Nakitta
yeah
00:46:19
Nakitta
Okay. um Flying there. So, Medicaid is like a giant ring. um There's a hole in the middle of the island.
00:46:31
Nakitta
like guess so look Kind of like a donut.
00:46:32
Darin Tingey
it sounds like yeah let's yeah Yeah, I'm looking at my map right now.
00:46:33
Nakitta
It's a donut. um And we were like northwest side is where our house was. That's the side with the airport as well.
00:46:45
Nakitta
So that's, let me make sure I remember these villages. So that's Rawanawi, the like main, okay, cool, cool, cool, cool.
00:46:54
Darin Tingey
I see it.
00:46:56
Nakitta
So that's Rawanawi, that's the main village. That's where the the runway is. And you know, it's just a gravel road, basically.
00:47:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:08
Nakitta
That's the airport. And it's probably like a, what, 20 minute bike from the airport to the house.
00:47:15
Darin Tingey
so Okay.
00:47:15
Nakitta
And the chapel or the house is in the same compound as the chapel there in Medicaid. And the chapel is like an exact replica of Botas.
00:47:26
Nakitta
So it had the like the pavilion for the chapel. And then on the left, like going back, um was the classrooms on this side, the classrooms and the offices.
00:47:41
Nakitta
And then on this side were like two outhouses on the right. And then at the very back, at the back fence, it was our house. And a like a basketball court, volleyball court kind of thing next to it.
00:47:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah. and And if you're on Google maps, you can literally, yeah, I can totally see it.
00:47:58
Nakitta
you see it?
00:48:00
Darin Tingey
Um, I can see the compound and it's even, it's even tagged as the church, Jesus Christ, Latter-day Saints. So I can totally see what you're talking about. Um, which is really cool. I didn't realize they had a legit church building out there.
00:48:12
Nakitta
I must say, did I get the layout rate that i right?
00:48:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah, no, you did. um Like Mayanna, we didn't have a church building. It was just people's houses. there was one like There was one that our landlord had built that was kind of a makeshift chapel, but for the the rest of it, we just had church in people's houses.
00:48:31
Darin Tingey
So the church obviously was pretty established then if they had stuff.
00:48:34
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:48:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah. that stuff
00:48:37
Nakitta
Yeah, so it was a big crowd. Or congregation. A bigger congregation. um Maybe like 40 people. 40 people came to church and in that village.
00:48:52
Nakitta
Because the neighboring village starts with a Right? Does it make it on the map?
00:48:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Temo tu or temo su? Temo su?
00:49:03
Nakitta
Temos. Yes.
00:49:04
Darin Tingey
Temo su?
00:49:05
Nakitta
Temos. Temos.
00:49:05
Darin Tingey
Temo su?
00:49:06
Nakitta
Temosu, it was a smaller village. And so they came to church in Rabanawi.
00:49:11
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:49:13
Nakitta
and then and then a bunch of bush, bunch of forest, basically.
00:49:17
Darin Tingey
ye
00:49:18
Nakitta
Until you get to Reviay. Right? Reviay?
00:49:22
Darin Tingey
Yep. It doesn't show it on here, but sure. Before both of us.
00:49:25
Nakitta
Yeah. And then that has a pretty big... They meet in um they meet in somebody's house.
00:49:32
Darin Tingey
ah come
00:49:33
Nakitta
his name is His name is Kobure. He's probably like the most active, like the biggest.
00:49:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah, he's the strongest number.
00:49:42
Nakitta
Yeah, the most the most strongest member. Thank you. That's what I'm looking for.
00:49:44
Darin Tingey
His name's Kobure?
00:49:46
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:49:46
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:49:47
Nakitta
Yes.
00:49:47
Darin Tingey
That's hilarious name.
00:49:48
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:49:49
Darin Tingey
It's basically like you're a mistake.
00:49:51
Nakitta
yes Yeah,
00:49:53
Darin Tingey
ah You're wrong. Like, Kobure. That's so funny.
00:49:57
Nakitta
yeah tanko but i think um The congregation in that village probably rivaled the main village, like, if not even more active because Kobure was very much like, all right, everybody round everybody up.
00:50:06
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:50:13
Nakitta
We're having church right now. And if somebody is missing, then he sent somebody out to go call them.
00:50:17
Darin Tingey
To get them.
00:50:19
Nakitta
Tell them we're waiting on them. So they better hurry up and come to church kind of thing.
00:50:23
Darin Tingey
So is he the group leader of that?
00:50:24
Nakitta
Yeah, he led sacrament for that village.
00:50:25
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:50:28
Nakitta
And then if you keep going, going to forget the name of that next village.
00:50:29
Darin Tingey
What a baller.
00:50:35
Nakitta
But they had church in somebody's house as well. And they were probably like three families that would meet at somebody's house.
00:50:42
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:50:43
Nakitta
And then the next ones, it's even the bigger village or bigger forest. This is the biggest forest past
00:50:53
Darin Tingey
Where is this?
00:50:53
Nakitta
of the island this south like south going or south southeast coming up to the east yes so by nuna is the end until you get to and then you hit that giant patch of forest and then you come up i think it's dice um
00:50:54
Darin Tingey
is us Is this still the south, the southwest?
00:51:02
Darin Tingey
By by Nuna? By Nuna.
00:51:11
Darin Tingey
Uh huh.
00:51:13
Darin Tingey
nor Okay, okay keep going. And then they need church there too. Yeah.
00:51:21
Nakitta
Yeah, but that was very small. I can't remember these last two villages. It's Thice and something. But it was very small. like And because some people live like way out in the bush, they would just have church by themselves.
00:51:32
Darin Tingey
ah colon
00:51:34
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:51:35
Nakitta
And so we would go out and have church with them sometimes and come back, do church in this village. and i And that's where, this is where it was like the hardest for me was because...
00:51:49
Nakitta
Like, I could understand pretty good now, but I was still so scared to speak. and i had And my companion was Sister Tesika, so she's from Kiribest as well. And it was hard for her because, like, culturally nobody was taking her seriously.
00:52:06
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:52:07
Nakitta
i don't know why they took us more seriously than the missionaries.
00:52:10
Darin Tingey
The foreigners, yeah, they just respect you more probably.
00:52:11
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:52:15
Nakitta
And the companion... that I replaced or the sister I replaced, she's from Medicaid. And she was like, president, i don't know if that's a great idea to send me back home, like born and raised Medicaid till she dies kind of thing.
00:52:25
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:52:27
Nakitta
And he was like, no, I think it needs to be you to like, you know, let get the members ready for more or more sisters to come and like get them to help and like that.
00:52:39
Nakitta
She's okay. But then when I switched with her, um like there's no room for her on the plane going back. So she had to wait a day. and so like just talking to her the night before she left she was like no it was hard because she used to be catholic so she um before she became a member and like people wouldn't like i try to talk to anybody they're like well you used to be catholic and then you switch to this watch tomorrow you're gonna be protestant like we're not gonna listen to you like and they knew her growing up her entire life and so that kind of followed sister tesica as well like
00:52:54
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:53:15
Nakitta
Oh, you were probably something else too, weren't you? I know you weren't born into this Mormon church kind of thing. And so she had to, she didn't have to rely on me, but she kind of pushed me to be more senior companion than I was ready for.
00:53:29
Nakitta
But she was like, I don't know what to tell you. Like, I'm really sorry. They're just not going to take me seriously unless you're leading it. Like, I need you to take the charge kind of thing. And like, the, the, the,
00:53:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:53:43
Nakitta
Like, she couldn't say no to some things. Just, like, she just felt like she couldn't.
00:53:46
Darin Tingey
Sure.
00:53:47
Nakitta
I was like, but we're missionaries. And there's rules. Like, no is no. And she was like, te kate, you know.
00:53:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:53:55
Nakitta
And, like, it had her in a choco with the culture. And I was like, okay, you need me to be the bad guy? I'll be the bad guy. I'll tell them no. It's way too late to go out.
00:54:06
Nakitta
Getting crab. It's way too late for us to be sitting in this maniabe at the botaki. Like, we said our piece, they need to let us go home, like, she was very much like, could you, can you do it, can you do it, like, tell them, me tell them we have to go home, was like, oh, okay, sure,
00:54:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:54:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, honestly, it's probably hard because like they probably respect the foreigners decisions more of like, hey, no, this is just how it is versus the person who's from Kitabat. It's like, oh, like, you know, the culture like, yeah, you can't say no to us.
00:54:35
Nakitta
yeah, it was, it was kind of sad to see, like, her tell them no and explain everything. And me tell them no. I say the same exact thing that she said. And they're like, oh, okay, sister. papo Okay.
00:54:48
Nakitta
Thank you. We'll, we'll say our piece, whatever in the botak and like, and like dismiss you guys kind of thing.
00:54:49
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:54:53
Nakitta
And I was like, I,
00:54:55
Darin Tingey
Would they let you, would you still sit ah like as a guest in the botakis or would you guys sit back kind of like the other women? You'd sit back. Yeah.
00:55:07
Nakitta
And like, i didn' I didn't clock that at first, like, because I was already nervous in being there. I didn't want to be singled out to speak or to dance or anything. So I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, put us in the back.
00:55:18
Nakitta
I'll sit right in the, I'll sit behind whoever you want me to sit behind.
00:55:20
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:55:21
Nakitta
and it was, it was only in the heavy night that we had to do this. Like the other villages they didn't really care about like if we had came or not, like we weren't important like that in other villages, but because Kobure was also like one of the unimane of the village.
00:55:37
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:55:37
Nakitta
I don't know what that is in English, like a council member.
00:55:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah, he was an old man that was respected in the village. Yeah. Yeah.
00:55:44
Nakitta
Yeah, because he was like one of the those guys.
00:55:47
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:55:48
Nakitta
And he was like, no, you're going to be my guest at the Botaki tonight. like Because for whatever it was.
00:55:52
Darin Tingey
I love that. This guy's awesome.
00:55:54
Nakitta
And i was like,
00:55:54
Darin Tingey
I want to meet this guy. if I don't know if he's still alive.
00:55:56
Nakitta
But he lied to us.
00:55:58
Darin Tingey
oh
00:55:58
Nakitta
He was like, like, yeah, to us I'll feed you guys for dinner tomorrow. Come to my house tomorrow and we'll have dinner for you guys. Okay, bet. Like we were excited. like, great guy. He helps us with the investigators in his village.
00:56:13
Nakitta
Cool. We show up and he's not home and like nobody's home. We're like, oh, botak, let's be quiet. like Make sure we walk our bikes. like They were very much kate out there, at least in Medicaid.
00:56:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:56:26
Nakitta
And especially when it came to us, like if the slightest thing like we did off, yeah, the slightest thing I did off from the kate, they were like, ah, so, yep, sisters, sisters, you have to pay, or at the next botak, you better bring corned beef and this and this.
00:56:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:56:37
Darin Tingey
Oh gosh.
00:56:44
Nakitta
like
00:56:45
Darin Tingey
I don't think I was ever sued, which I was was scared of, but i don't think I ever have.
00:56:45
Nakitta
Yeah, we ended
00:56:48
Nakitta
I think we got suad, I think we got suad like twice because of me.
00:56:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and like how would you describe SUA to the guests? Kind of like a punishment or fine or something that they have to do?
00:56:58
Nakitta
Yeah, I think a fine, think a fine is a good translation, like you broke protocol, so now you get fined.
00:57:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:57:07
Nakitta
Sometimes it's money, or sometimes they'll be nice and be like, um you were fined this much Milo for the next botaki or something like that. And so they tried to find us tea.
00:57:19
Nakitta
They're like, yeah, you have to bring like five pounds of tea. Like all the tea from all the stores, go buy it up and bring it to the next botak.
00:57:27
Darin Tingey
Oh gosh.
00:57:28
Nakitta
And i I said, oh, I'm sorry. We don't do tea. Is there anything else I can bring you guys? And they like, for a second, all the unimane were like, what? Like, and my companion was like so why is this a while like, you can't negotiate.
00:57:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:57:44
Nakitta
You're fine. Like, what are you talking about? Like, she's trying to get me shut up. But I was like, I'm not buying tea for everybody because I said need to go home. like what are you talking about, lady?
00:57:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:57:53
Nakitta
And so they were like, luckily Kobuda was like, well, all and like, you know, old man talked his way, like talked our way out of it and was like, you got lucky.
00:57:59
Darin Tingey
Explain a little bit.
00:58:05
Nakitta
They said you guys can bring Milo instead of tea. Like, like you got so lucky. You could have been fined so much money, sister. And i was like, Oh, I didn't know. Like, I really had to play that up on Medicaid. Like, oh, sorry, I didn't know.
00:58:19
Nakitta
like, heway by and dead that yeah I still don't understand everything perfectly.
00:58:20
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:58:24
Nakitta
Oh, I'm so sorry. Like, I used that as much as I could in Medicaid because, like, a lot of time i I didn't know, like, the laws of some things.
00:58:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:58:33
Nakitta
And so the next time.
00:58:33
Darin Tingey
I think that's so ah such a unique thing in Kitabas, like the Sula. I just want to talk about that for a second because it's like so foreign to us in America. I'm trying to figure out like what the best way to make a comparison. I guess it's like Man, i don't even know it.
00:58:52
Darin Tingey
don't know.
00:58:53
Nakitta
I'm thinking of like...
00:58:53
Darin Tingey
You have a family reunion and your cousin but something stupid. and youre And so grandpa's like, you have to bring dessert for everybody tomorrow. Like that's, you have no like I Like that is, don't know if.
00:59:04
Nakitta
Yeah.
00:59:07
Nakitta
And it sounds like like a joke. like you sound It sounds like, oh, they want me to bring tea for everybody? like
00:59:14
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:59:14
Nakitta
You're not serious. like It's just tea. But they're dead serious. You don't bring tea for the next party.
00:59:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:59:20
Nakitta
Okay, the suwa goes the fine goes up. Now you have to bring, I think they tried to get us to do corned beef one time. Like the bit gigantic, however many kilogram ones.
00:59:29
Darin Tingey
The huge
00:59:33
Darin Tingey
The oxen park.
00:59:34
Nakitta
Yeah, they wanted us to get like five of the biggest ones you could get. And I was like, those go for like 20 bucks or something.
00:59:40
Darin Tingey
It's expensive. Yeah.
00:59:42
Nakitta
What are you talking about? You want me to drop a hundred bucks for your guys' corned beef? hu And so they're like, yeah, exactly, sister. Stop talking at a turn.
00:59:52
Nakitta
Like, I think that was also like, oh, none of the other women are talking here.
00:59:58
Darin Tingey
right
00:59:59
Nakitta
And they really don't like it when I push back on stuff. I said, oh, I'm going to get in trouble here a lot. Like, I had a bad habit of that before the mission of, like, accidentally saying whatever was on my mind.
01:00:13
Nakitta
Like, sometimes the filter was just gone.
01:00:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:00:16
Nakitta
And so I'm like, huh? No forgetting like it was an unimane thing like the old guys thing like I'm not supposed to talk unless spoken to.
01:00:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:00:26
Nakitta
Like that was a hard thing about the culture for me to deal with and my companion is like pinching my leg while we're sitting there like stop it's okay it's okay like whatever they say we'll do it. No.
01:00:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:00:38
Nakitta
no
01:00:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah. I guess like for the listeners that don't, that maybe, maybe some of the moms out there learning the culture, like in Kiribati, at all the, at all the parties, like they sit around like kind of in a big circle or under the minyebe, which is like a big,
01:00:56
Nakitta
Like pavilion.
01:00:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah, big pavilion. The ceiling goes low. Anyway, they all sit around it, around the edge, and all the men sit around the edge, and then the women sit behind, usually. like
01:01:07
Nakitta
you're like, we're sitting on the rocks.
01:01:07
Darin Tingey
it' Sometimes, yeah yeah, you're on the rocks, spot out kind of out almost outside the maniabe a little bit sometimes.
01:01:14
Nakitta
Mm hmm.
01:01:16
Darin Tingey
It would be like very rare that a woman would sit in the front row, and it's usually like maybe like a very special person that was visiting, and
01:01:25
Nakitta
Like, I saw it in Medicaid, it would be, like, one of the nuns.
01:01:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:31
Nakitta
But it'd only get to be one. Like, they wouldn't let more than one nun sit in front. And that was, like, only because they were highlighting something for the Catholic Church.
01:01:44
Nakitta
So she got to sit up front because, like, she was one of the guests.
01:01:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:48
Nakitta
After that, they had their, like, big speeches about whatever was happening with the Catholic Church.
Cultural Insights and Island Life
01:01:54
Nakitta
And then like the guests moved.
01:01:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:57
Nakitta
And so she was back outside or like would go home or whatever.
01:02:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And that's just how it is culturally for them. You know, it's, it's a very patriarchal society. Um, which is why I think like being a sister out there would be a lot, be lot harder.
01:02:07
Nakitta
Mm-hmm.
01:02:12
Darin Tingey
Um, and like, did you guys ever get to go like fishing or anything like that? Or i would, I would think on the outer Island too, they're like, Oh, like women, women don't go fishing.
01:02:22
Darin Tingey
Right. Or like women don't do this, you know?
01:02:25
Nakitta
Yeah, yeah, it was. It was very much like, if I even mentioned a little bit of like, because we did want to, what is it? Like catch crab.
01:02:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:02:35
Nakitta
Like Merake is known for, for a lot of having a lot of crab. And then also, i think it's called like the Taomanta or something like that. Like they also don't have a filter. And so they say whatever. And it's usually like,
01:02:50
Nakitta
Usually about like describing people. So like, oh, do you know so-and-so? Oh, the tall one with the big nose and big ears. And like, and you know exactly who they're talking about.
01:02:58
Darin Tingey
yeah Yeah. yeah did
01:03:01
Nakitta
ah so you're like, oh, yes, yes, yes. Like it's not found offensive to them when you do that.
01:03:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:06
Nakitta
You're like, oh, the fat guy who who always is smoking on like Lagoon side. And he always calls out and he says, yeah, guy. Like that is kind of what they were known for as well. Like just calling it how it was and it is what it is.
01:03:16
Darin Tingey
yeah Yeah, very descriptive and just, yeah. If they're fat, they call you fat. If they're ugly, they're calling you ugly.
01:03:23
Nakitta
Yeah.
01:03:24
Darin Tingey
Like it doesn't affect them whatsoever. They're just saying that.
01:03:28
Nakitta
Yeah, so that was ah was very much very much Medicaid and that I had to get used to as well. Like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what did just say about me? ah You don't really comment on people's appearance.
01:03:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah, right, right.
01:03:38
Nakitta
Thank you very much. And they're like, what's wrong, sister?
01:03:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:42
Nakitta
Is that not how you look? And I was like, geez.
01:03:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah, they're brutal.
01:03:46
Nakitta
Thanks, guys.
01:03:47
Darin Tingey
That's just how they are in Kiribati.
01:03:48
Nakitta
Yeah.
01:03:49
Darin Tingey
They just don't care. They just say it and they don't get offended.
01:03:53
Nakitta
But like if I tried to, we wanted to go catch crab one night and they were like, yes, tonight, like I think it was raining or something.
01:03:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:04:00
Nakitta
And they were like, yeah, tonight's going to good night. And then like we were so ready to go. and then eventually they were like, actually, it's not safe for you sisters.
01:04:11
Nakitta
We'll go get the crab and you guys can eat it tomorrow. And we were like, what? We're like, said we could go with you guys. We were so ready. Like, Sister Jessica, even being from Kiribes, like, she'd never done it before because she lived on Tarawa, like, her whole life almost.
01:04:22
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:04:23
Nakitta
Or so I think maybe a little bit in Onoto. But she was like, but they didn't do crab like that out there in Onoto. Like, they're stingy out there. So she was so excited for Medicaid and, like, to go crab hunting and whatever. And they wouldn't let us do that.
01:04:39
Nakitta
the The closest I got to ever, like, fishing or anything was like a P-Day or like some of the YSA and one of the like aunties in the ward took us to like the lagoon and we tried to catch stuff in the water, but it wasn't like big fishing like that I've seen elders do. And I was like, wow, how come nobody ever invited us to do that? But like very much, this isn't it for you guys.
01:05:04
Nakitta
We'll go get the fish and we'll bring it back.
01:05:04
Darin Tingey
just
01:05:06
Nakitta
Don't worry. You guys can like help descale it and clean it and all that. But like, yeah, there was a lot of that.
01:05:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah. is Does the lagoon, does it get like when it's low tide, does it basically drain the whole lagoon or no?
01:05:20
Nakitta
No. like the lagoon.
01:05:21
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:05:22
Nakitta
Yeah, lagoon is like the big donut hole in the middle.
01:05:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah, is it still?
01:05:25
Nakitta
And I never saw that drained ever.
01:05:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah. feel like on some on some of the, like when Mayanna, like when it was low tide, like the lagoon, you could like walk out there forever. Yeah.
01:05:35
Nakitta
That's crazy. I never, yeah, never would have tried that in Medicaid just because like, yeah, it's just all contained right there.
01:05:37
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:05:41
Nakitta
So it's still, it'd probably go up to maybe like mid-calf or something like it never got completely dried out
01:05:49
Darin Tingey
Okay. And then it's just looking at it on the map, like there probably wasn't any like big ships that were going the lagoon because it's, uh, these like, there's, there's two, there's two like inlets, but they're tiny and they don't look very deep.
01:05:59
Nakitta
I don't know then I don't know how they'd get there i yeah I just had a flashback of where one would enter and
01:06:05
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:06:10
Nakitta
Like, even on high tide, because I think there was a bridge in one area of, like, where anything could ever enter.
01:06:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:17
Nakitta
So, like, even if they did try to get into the lagoon, like, the bridge stopped them.
01:06:21
Darin Tingey
Right. Yeah. it probably wasn't deep enough either. So how long would it take you to bike around the whole island?
01:06:24
Nakitta
Yeah, I don't think it ever would have been.
01:06:29
Nakitta
Oh, we had to do that, like, my second day. So, I think this is in other islands, too, but. There's like, i think three or four witches.
01:06:40
Darin Tingey
Four.
01:06:41
Nakitta
Four, yeah. So there's like the four witches of Merike. And there's four statues for them along the island. And any visitor, like the first thing you have to do, you're not allowed to go anywhere until you visit each um each statue and like liva leave a gift or whatever you're supposed
01:07:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:07:03
Nakitta
I'll say gift, that sounds nicer. Offering. um and that was like a big shock to me when they're like yeah so that we were gonna get like tobacco sticks like that's what you're supposed to leave the with the statues and I'm like we are not missionaries buying tobacco sticks again are you crazy lady she's like sister and I was like there has to be something else like little I know little kids are walking around with tobacco sticks giving it to the
01:07:14
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:07:31
Nakitta
the witches, what are you talking about, and eventually, like, oh, yeah, little kids are walking around, like, buying tobacco for their parents and stuff, but that's another story, ah so we ended up buying, like, um the sticks of gum, I forget what they're called, but, like, the the kitty best gum, we got, like, sticks of kitty best gum, and that was our offering for these witches, and you're supposed to have, like, people along the way who, like,
01:07:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I could take forever.
01:07:57
Nakitta
have food ready for you so that you can keep going. And they told me we were supposed to do it on a motorcycle, like to speed it up. But then, yeah, I was freaked out. I was like, I've never been on a motorcycle before. I'm in a skirt.
01:08:11
Nakitta
I can't go on a motorcycle.
01:08:12
Darin Tingey
Right, right.
01:08:12
Nakitta
What the heck?
01:08:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:14
Nakitta
and But I like, I lucked out. Like, I swear, Heavenly Father heard all of my prayers on Medicaid because everything that I was like, no, I can't, I can't. That's too scary. He was like, fine, I'll give you an out. Like,
01:08:25
Nakitta
here go and that person's motorcycle broke down like that very morning and so we biked the whole thing i think all up it takes probably like i say three hours probably less if you're like booking it because we had stops it was probably like three hours so maybe like two if you just go non-stop it'd be like two hours and i i was like wow i'm really just biking miles and miles and miles
01:08:39
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:08:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Okay.
01:08:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:54
Nakitta
Every day.
01:08:55
Darin Tingey
But at least it looped. At least looped.
01:08:58
Nakitta
Yes.
01:08:58
Darin Tingey
On my end, it was like, oh, you i it wasn't two hours a loop.
01:08:59
Nakitta
Yes.
01:09:02
Darin Tingey
It was like two hours one way you know or whatever.
01:09:04
Nakitta
Yeah, that, seeing other islands, are like, that's crazy.
01:09:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:09:08
Nakitta
What what do you guys do we out there?
01:09:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:09:11
Nakitta
That's a lot.
01:09:12
Darin Tingey
So I had remembered hearing about this on my mission about Medicaid, about the the the four women, whatever.
01:09:19
Nakitta
Mm-hmm.
01:09:20
Darin Tingey
And so I had asked Chad GPT about it. and and it And it says, and you know i I always trust Chad GPT with grain of salt, especially when it's talking about Kitabas and Marsh Islands.
01:09:31
Nakitta
Yes.
01:09:31
Darin Tingey
It doesn't have a lot of information there. But it says, known as the land of women, Medicaid is culture... mythology centers on four female spiritual gardens guardians villagers honor them at the shrines uh and i would i would do their names but i'm gonna butcher all the names but yeah
01:09:49
Nakitta
Oh, I never learned their names.
01:09:54
Nakitta
I don't think anyone else.
01:09:57
Darin Tingey
and nay that the to give ma um know if i said that right it's been a while since i've done kidnabis name ah but the But apparently you're supposed to, yeah, when you first visit the island or life like you did like second day, like you have to go counterclockwise around the island leaving the
01:10:15
Nakitta
who
Transfers and Transportation Challenges
01:10:16
Darin Tingey
offering, which says usually tobacco at each shrine to ensure a blessing and avoid misfortune.
01:10:23
Nakitta
The Catoro Bibia, I think it was what it was called, Catoro Bibia.
01:10:23
Darin Tingey
cool. Yeah. Yeah.
01:10:26
Nakitta
But um we had to you're supposed to have like a guide with you, like somebody from Merke to guide you to each um shrine.
01:10:26
Darin Tingey
ah cool
01:10:31
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:10:36
Nakitta
And then like they give a little speech like, here's a visitor. They've came bring their offering. Please take care of them while they're here on our land. Like some kind of little speech to the shrine. And then you give your thing. And then they're like and then they say something. Your guide will say something else.
01:10:53
Nakitta
And then they're like, okay, all done. And then when we were all done, our guide, she grabbed the gum right off the shrine and started eating it.
01:11:00
Darin Tingey
and
01:11:01
Nakitta
i was like, oh.
01:11:04
Nakitta
what are you doing? was like, because I was just so scared. was like, um, black magic, like, don't mess with that kind of stuff.
01:11:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you're like, now we're going to misfortune Medicaid.
01:11:11
Nakitta
Like, you don't mess with it. That's exactly, that's exactly what i was thinking. I was like, don't mess with it. It's not going to mess with us, but we just messed up. We just took her offering like this.
01:11:22
Darin Tingey
That's so funny.
01:11:23
Nakitta
She's like, but like, they take it seriously to a point, like, until that, like, once your offering is done, they said their speech. All right, it's all done. We can take it now. And like,
01:11:34
Nakitta
what so we took gum from each offering was just eating all eating our gum along the way and i was like heavenly father please take care of me um i don't know what we're doing if we really should be doing this but please take care of me while we're here that's a that's exactly what it was like just do it because it's the kate okay
01:11:37
Darin Tingey
That's so funny.
01:11:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:11:47
Darin Tingey
It was a check the box thing and and you, yeah. So, yeah, it's the good thing.
01:11:54
Nakitta
okay
01:11:56
Darin Tingey
You got to follow. um So how long on Medicaid and then we can we can kind of cruise through the rest of your areas here with our last couple of minutes. But,
01:12:05
Nakitta
Okay, I wrote it all out because I forgot.
01:12:09
Darin Tingey
But Medicaid,
01:12:12
Nakitta
Medicaid was like three and a half-ish months.
01:12:15
Darin Tingey
okay. So about two, a little over two transfers.
01:12:16
Nakitta
Yeah. yeah my my timeline isn't completely accurate, but for the most part, it's around these.
01:12:27
Nakitta
Boto was five-ish months. Medicaid is three and a half-ish. And then... I found out later on I was supposed to transfer straight to Abbey Young from Medicaid, but, and then I was supposed to train somebody there, like a brand new sister.
01:12:43
Nakitta
i was like, whoa, first of all, you want me to whitewash an outer island that I don't even know all the rules to, and then you want me to train somebody?
01:12:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and Frank.
01:12:52
Nakitta
That's crazy, President. That was a lot of trust. Never again. But for some reason, like, that whole intake just never showed up to the MTC, like, Nobody knows what happened to the people called for that intake, but there is no, like the sister or the missionaries, they expected to come.
01:13:05
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
01:13:11
Nakitta
They never made it to the MTC. So I lucked out. Well, I don't want to lucked out, but plans changed. And then I transferred Bikinibu. with sister nena she's from kosha so micronesia kosha coast to guam and pompeii and all them we think we had maybe we did beginning view one and two because again it was shortage of elders or shortage of missionaries in general at that moment um so when i transferred to her she'd been covering both wards
01:13:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:41
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:13:49
Nakitta
um And she was supposed to have a bike, but whatever the elders did before she got there, the bikes were broken. And so she'd been walking and biking or walking and busing the entire time.
01:14:01
Nakitta
And I was like, that's kind that's eating up so much of your money.
01:14:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah, money. Yeah. yeah
01:14:05
Nakitta
ah was like, and we're only busing in Bikini View. Like we're not going anywhere else. She's like, yeah, but like it's going to take forever to walk from our house the end of Bikini View all the way to Bikini Bue first. Like, so it was just easier to bust. And i was like...
01:14:23
Darin Tingey
Is Bikinibu that big? I mean, let's see. You got Tamaiku and then Bikinibu. So it's towards, if you're looking at a map on, you go from the airport towards Bay. So it's kind of like the second town.
01:14:32
Nakitta
You come... Yeah, come down that long road and then you'll turn left to Tamaiku and then right to Bikini Bue.
01:14:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:41
Nakitta
And...
01:14:42
Darin Tingey
yeah I guess it's pretty big.
01:14:42
Nakitta
Well, she was also, like, shorter than me. She's, like, four foot something. And so, you know, her... Her walking wasn't like didn't have the very didn't have the longest strides in the world.
01:14:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:53
Nakitta
And so she was like, it's just easier for us to bus. Like, I don't walk very fast. And I was like, OK.
01:15:00
Darin Tingey
The buses were crazy because like you hop on, like for anyone who doesn't know, like Kittabus, they don't really have tax they ont taxis. They have, they buses. So you like hop on.
01:15:09
Nakitta
They have 15 passenger vans.
01:15:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah. If you vans, you hop on and there's like a million people on them.
01:15:12
Nakitta
OK.
01:15:16
Darin Tingey
And there's like a lady there that,
01:15:20
Nakitta
Who opens and closes the door.
01:15:21
Darin Tingey
Uh-huh. And she's yelling out, you know, where they're where they're going, where they're at, whatever. And then what's crazy is she knows when you got on and when you get off and can tell you your exact fare.
01:15:29
Nakitta
yeah
01:15:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:32
Nakitta
And she knows that bus is packed. I'm sitting on my companion's lap.
01:15:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:38
Nakitta
Everybody's sitting on somebody's lap. It's packed. And she remembers every single person on that bus. Jam packed. So when you get off. Yep. 250 please.
01:15:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:50
Nakitta
She's like, right from this area to this area. if You're right. i I'm not going to argue with you.
01:15:54
Darin Tingey
but I don't know how they did that.
01:15:55
Nakitta
Whatever you say.
01:15:56
Darin Tingey
I mean, maybe they're making up numbers, but like it was impressive. I was like, I was in shock. i was like, whoa, that's pretty, that's pretty good. It's a skill.
01:16:02
Nakitta
Sister Nana got really good at the bus system, like, knowing exactly how much it was going to take us from, if we get on from this part of the village, there's going this much. If we get on from this part, it'll get it'll be this much. So she always tried to do it, like, in the cheapest spot.
01:16:18
Nakitta
Like, get as close...
01:16:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:16:19
Nakitta
to Like, wherever our last investigator stopped in Bikini View 2nd, we would get on the bus from there so the end of Bikini View 1st and then work our way back down.
01:16:31
Nakitta
And that's how she would, like, organize it. And was like, okay. Eventually, i was like, um, let's talk to somebody about getting bikes. Like, and now I'm really good at biking. I'm like, let's bike all the time, guys. Like, so then we eventually we got bikes and that made it easier. And then.
01:16:50
Nakitta
it was um It was a big group of elders who came in. oh It was like Zamora and them. Zamora, Kitchens.
01:17:00
Darin Tingey
Yep, yep.
01:17:00
Nakitta
um I think it was like 10 or 12 elders.
01:17:04
Darin Tingey
Parrish, is Parrish part of that group too?
01:17:05
Nakitta
Something like that.
01:17:07
Darin Tingey
can't remember.
01:17:08
Nakitta
He was the next one.
01:17:09
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:17:10
Nakitta
Or was he? Or maybe hit that was his.
01:17:11
Darin Tingey
I can't remember. ah
01:17:13
Nakitta
That was his. That was his.
01:17:15
Darin Tingey
can't remember this.
01:17:15
Nakitta
Him and Percy. Elder Percy. Is that his name?
01:17:19
Darin Tingey
Yep, yep.
01:17:20
Nakitta
yeah Yeah, so that that was all their intake. that I think it was like 10 or 12 elders.
01:17:25
Darin Tingey
Remind me, i can't remember... but for the vans, for the buses, could you could you just get on anywhere? Like you just wave it down and cap on or were there specific stops?
01:17:35
Darin Tingey
I can't remember.
01:17:36
Nakitta
Um, so what when I first started, it could, it was anywhere you stood, you could get on.
01:17:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:17:44
Nakitta
And then eventually when the road was completely done or like done up to like Bayeriki, when the road was done as far as it went, then they started having like designated bus stops.
01:17:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:17:55
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:17:56
Nakitta
And at first, like nobody listened to the bus stops and they were like,
01:18:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:18:01
Nakitta
You know, like that's an Australian thing. The Australians just put it in when they made the road. But we don't need to do that. Until like, I guess like police started enforcing it. So like, I remember just like flagging down the bus one day and wherever we were going, they're like, oh yeah, we got room, get in.
01:18:17
Nakitta
We got on and maybe like two stops later, they got pulled over, pulled over. um And then they were told like, whoever you just let on and like the last two stops, take them off. Like
Mission Experiences and Challenges
01:18:30
Nakitta
they didn't go to a bus stop.
01:18:32
Nakitta
And I was like, what? is this?
01:18:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:18:34
Nakitta
You used to be able to get on the bus anywhere, ride your bike on the um the airport, like on the runway. Kitty bass is changing, man.
01:18:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:18:42
Nakitta
Kitty bass is Australian now.
01:18:43
Darin Tingey
a
01:18:44
Nakitta
This sucks. So, like, we got kicked off the bus because we didn't, like, go to a proper bus stop or whatever. Like, I don't know how it is now still, but, like, when they first started enforcing that, i was like, this is lame.
01:18:57
Nakitta
You got to find a bus stop now all the way down the road or something.
01:19:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:01
Nakitta
It
01:19:01
Darin Tingey
So how long were you in Bekeniby before you went Eita?
01:19:06
Nakitta
but can you but yeah was three months-ish.
01:19:10
Darin Tingey
And then Eita, right?
01:19:13
Nakitta
Now, it was only one month.
01:19:15
Darin Tingey
And then you went to Terawaito Roy.
01:19:16
Nakitta
um Yeah, that was two-ish months, like two and half maybe. And then BESO, second, I ended my last two months.
01:19:26
Darin Tingey
Wow. Okay. So your last couple of areas were kind of like quick, like spent just like one or two months in and then done.
01:19:27
Nakitta
Yeah.
01:19:34
Nakitta
Yes. And so like Tarawayeta, we were told... Because it was so big. And then we were also going to like the little Esmokoros, the outer islands of those as well.
01:19:47
Nakitta
so we, I can't remember what the little tiny one was called. But then we went to Nabena, which was the furthest little outer island from, that was thought away like, it went Nabena.
01:20:00
Nakitta
And then you would hit like Tabitha, Abitha, or Tabitha, Abitha. Tabitha, Abitha. Oof. So it was like the furthest south you could go before you hit like Bota area, i guess, like Bota's section.
01:20:11
Darin Tingey
but
01:20:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:19
Nakitta
And so, we you know, you split it up. Like this half of the island is these couple days. South part of the island are these couple days. And then Nabenah got like a day, I think, in the week.
01:20:34
Nakitta
We would just go out. So you get to the end of Tarawayeta. And then we took a dinky little boat all the way out Nabeina. And my first time on this boat, i was like, oh, what a nice little ride. Like, oh, so lovely.
01:20:50
Nakitta
And so my companion, like, her name's Sister Tuiloto Lava. She was born out in Tarawayeta. Like, that's her very first area. That's all she knew. i so, like, she was loving in it out there. I said, great for you, girl.
01:21:04
Nakitta
We're in this little dinky boat and she hands me a giant sponge, like the ones you use to wash your car. And she was like, here. And I'm like, what do you want me doing this?
01:21:15
Nakitta
And she pointed at our feet and I looked down and there's holes in the boat. And so we're supposed to use our sponge and our cup and like soak up. I'm soaking up water and squeezing it over the edge while she's scooping it up with like her giant like plastic cup that they use.
01:21:27
Darin Tingey
Thank you.
01:21:32
Nakitta
She's scooping the water, pouring it out, and I'm soaking it up with the sponge and then wringing it out on the side. And that was our entire ride there and back. And I was like, I think we're better off, like, walking in low tide than this boat that's going to sink in the middle of the ocean. Like, what the heck?
01:21:53
Nakitta
But that... That was a shocker. But we went to, we'd go to Nibena.
01:21:58
Darin Tingey
Thank you.
01:22:00
Nakitta
I think we had like, we had three investigators on Nibena. And we had one family on another little Esmakoro. um And they didn't, I guess they got like, not exiled, but kind of like kicked out of the village of one of the other outer islands. So they were just on like the smallest patch of land they could be on before they were in the water kind of a thing.
01:22:24
Nakitta
Like, their little hut, and then you rode for maybe, like, five minutes, and then there was the village. Like, they never told us what happened, but they got kicked out.
01:22:33
Darin Tingey
Oh, gosh.
01:22:34
Nakitta
and So I was like, and i was like oh, you guys you guys need some uplifting, huh?
01:22:34
Darin Tingey
Wow.
01:22:39
Nakitta
Okay, we got a message for Yeah.
01:22:42
Darin Tingey
It's perfect. Perfect. Let me tell you about Yesu Cristo.
01:22:44
Nakitta
yep yeah but that was yeah so we were told like um that president was gonna split Tarawayeta we would keep the top half and then elders would do the bottom half plus the plus Nibena and we were like oh my gosh that's so great because most of our people are on this side like we only had a couple in the south like oh that's perfect and we never went to like north north that was too much of a bike ride and so we're like
01:22:47
Darin Tingey
um That's awesome.
01:23:00
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:23:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:23:13
Nakitta
Now we're going to get up there too. Like we're finally going to get people up there. Like this is going so great. We were so excited. Like I was so scared for Medicaid. Like, like brother po or brother Powell, like Joey, he was saying like, I think he said that with the whale was like his refiner's fire.
01:23:27
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:23:30
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:23:31
Nakitta
That was Medicaid for me. And I was like, wow, so eloquent Powell. Like that is exactly what it was. The refiner is fire out there. So when I got to Tarawayeta, like, I felt way more prepared.
01:23:43
Nakitta
Plus, I was, like, the end of my mission, basically.
01:23:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:23:47
Nakitta
But felt way more prepared. I was, like, you know, had the revitalization or whatever of, like, kicking it into drive and really working, and trying to get as much out of this area as you could.
01:24:00
Nakitta
and then we get a call from zone leaders. So Tarawayeta, you could have a cell phone. Marque, you had to do the radio. So Taroyeta, we finally got, who finally got, what is it called? Like a refill? um
01:24:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the card, the minutes, what you buy your minutes basically.
01:24:15
Nakitta
Yeah.
01:24:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:24:17
Nakitta
Yeah, we finally got like a refill of minutes. Like they finally had cards within the stores. So, and we finally got the text from elders like, so actually the president said, no, you guys are coming in.
01:24:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:24:31
Nakitta
and i was like, don't play with me. Like,
01:24:35
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:24:36
Nakitta
i I'm finally, like, so happy to be on an outer island. What are you talking about? And it was, um one of the zone leaders was Elder Ato, so he was in the MTC with me.
01:24:47
Nakitta
He was like, I'm so sorry, Manu. Like, we tried to tell president that you're that you're doing so great out there, you and your companion, or, you know, you're really working hard, you got all the lessons, da-da-da. But for president, it was more about, like, the...
01:25:03
Nakitta
the perception of having two sisters, two elders out there with nobody, no leadership there to watch us.
01:25:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:25:13
Nakitta
just the like Something I always remember from the so the handbook was like to avoid the appearance of evil.
01:25:24
Nakitta
And I think that that is something that President was just like, I actually don't think that looks right. Even if you guys never cross your guys' is boundary of north and south, like, you know, and anybody from another religion who's trying to find something to be mad at us for could look at that and be like, oh, look, they're just out there dating or something like that, you know?
01:25:24
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:25:46
Darin Tingey
yeah Elders, yeah.
01:25:46
Nakitta
so So that's what that was President's reasoning for bringing us back. And the day we left, we just bawled our eyes out. And we felt, like, so bad for the elders who picked us up.
01:25:59
Nakitta
And the elders who replaced us. So they did end up splitting Tarawayeta. But it was just elders on both ends. Yeah.
01:26:04
Darin Tingey
this boat The boat came and picked you up and it took you back to where did the boat take you?
01:26:05
Nakitta
So.
01:26:09
Nakitta
Yeah. the The church's speedboat.
01:26:11
Darin Tingey
Oh, the church's boat, yeah.
01:26:13
Nakitta
Yeah. So that's the one that took us out there. And it brought us back. So it brought us right back to Eita. I think. I believe. Yes. Took us right back to Eita.
01:26:24
Nakitta
We're saying bye. We're like, oh, hi, elders. This is so-and-so. And she's. and And they're really great. And they're going to help you. And this is the bridge president. And they're like, okay, we'll take care of them, Stifapula. Don't worry. like
01:26:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:26:37
Nakitta
You can stop crying. Just stop crying. trying. I'm okay. my companion just held each other the entire way back to Aitha crying. And the elders were like, do you need anything?
01:26:51
Nakitta
we're fine. Okay. They left us at the back of the boat and went and sat up front with the driver and like, And hung out with him until we got to Eta. Then they told us that me and Sister Tui Loto Lava were going to Basel together.
01:27:05
Nakitta
and I was like, I've never it never been to Basel. I haven't been back to Basel since the beginning my mission.
01:27:11
Darin Tingey
beginning. Yeah.
01:27:13
Nakitta
like I have no idea what that place looks like. like i have I have zero knowledge of Basel. And they're like, Well, don't worry. Like Elder Son, he's um he's a kiddie best elder. Elder Son, he was working hard.
01:27:26
Nakitta
And he told us that he drew the map for all of his investigators on their um in the area book. like he drew the map for everybody.
01:27:33
Darin Tingey
The map of like a million homes.
01:27:33
Nakitta
i was like, oh, thank goodness. Yes. And he's not like he labeled them like blue house, copper roof house.
01:27:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:27:41
Nakitta
He didn't do any of that. He just did square, square, square tree. And then he would circle the next house and put an arrow.
01:27:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:27:49
Nakitta
and then put the name of the investigator. i was like, you guys told me Elder San did the maps. They're like, yeah, that's what he said.
01:27:56
Darin Tingey
like impossible to map that place.
01:27:56
Nakitta
Well, Elder San, I said, Elder San, who's from Kiribeth, who knows what Bessel looks like. Yeah, he's one who drew the map for two sisters who've never been there before.
01:28:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:08
Nakitta
And they're like, well, you'll figure it out. Nobody told us like where our area started or stopped. So they were just like, here's your house, and these are and look, these sisters, they are whitewashing, and they've been going strong for a couple of weeks, like, so they got the hang of it, you'll get the hang of it, and was like, okay, cool, thanks, guys, we were just wandering Bezo, our first date, and then we ended up seeing the sisters in Bezo first, and they're like, um, yeah, they're like, what's what's wrong, guys, like, were you looking for us or something, like, oh, no, we're just looking, we're trying to follow other songs map, we're like,
01:28:35
Darin Tingey
I'm like, what are you doing here?
01:28:44
Nakitta
i think it's I think we're going this way. They're like, no.
01:28:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:49
Nakitta
This is our area. You were supposed to go the other way. was like, freaking heck, man.
01:28:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:56
Nakitta
Turned all the way around. So we were like the middle section of, if Beso is a giant circle, we were the middle chunk of it.
01:29:03
Darin Tingey
Okay. You had all this stuff in there.
01:29:04
Nakitta
And so that's Beso's second. Yeah,
01:29:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you had like hotel. Did you have the sports complex in there?
01:29:10
Nakitta
yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:29:11
Darin Tingey
a
01:29:12
Nakitta
Sports complex is ours.
01:29:13
Darin Tingey
I mean, the most like city, the most city part of Tarawa.
01:29:13
Nakitta
but that
01:29:17
Darin Tingey
I mean, yeah.
01:29:17
Nakitta
it me and my companion my companion who was only known Tarawayeta for like the first four months of her life or of her mission as she came to Basel and she was like I don't like there's too many cars she's like oh it's so dusty here and like she was so down for the work it was just the environment was a complete shock to her she was like
01:29:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I'm sure it was kind chalky.
01:29:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:42
Nakitta
This isn't Kitty Bess. No, no, no. Kitty Bess isn't supposed to be like this. Like, this isn't like Tarabayeta. I said, I know. I tried to warn you. I told you this was city. But I had no idea how city this was either.
01:29:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:55
Nakitta
Like, we had all the stores right in our area.
01:29:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:58
Nakitta
We had the wharf. Like, the like the little harbor thing. All the big ships came in, too.
01:30:03
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:30:05
Nakitta
So, like, I think the think the Kitty Bess MTC was there, too. Like, for the seamen.
01:30:12
Darin Tingey
Okay. Yeah.
01:30:14
Nakitta
the
01:30:14
Darin Tingey
You guys have a bunch of
01:30:15
Nakitta
the marine Marine Training Center or something like that. So they had an MTC and we were like, what?
01:30:20
Darin Tingey
stuff. That's
01:30:20
Nakitta
MTC? And they're like, oh, no, no, for the semen. Oh, okay.
01:30:23
Darin Tingey
funny.
01:30:24
Nakitta
But like, so that was there. The prison, I think, was in our area maybe. Or just before, I think the prison was like the cutoff or something like that.
01:30:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah. I mean, Beso, besides besides like around the airport, kind of like one of the thicker parts of Tarawa, but...
01:30:33
Nakitta
So...
01:30:41
Nakitta
And I know we didn't even scratch the surface with Beso II.
01:30:42
Darin Tingey
There's such impact.
01:30:45
Nakitta
Like, with everywhere we were visiting and it felt like like we knew all the little side streets and all the crevices of where anybody could live.
01:30:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:30:56
Nakitta
And then they're like, oh, no, no, they're back even further behind those people. and you're like, how do you get there?
01:31:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:02
Nakitta
oh just walk through all those houses and tell them where you're going and they'll let you go through their house. and
01:31:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:09
Nakitta
When I thought I couldn't be surprised anymore in Kiki Bes. Excuse me, so sorry. We're just trying to get to to the uncle's house. and
01:31:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:17
Nakitta
Oh, yeah, yeah, he's back there. Go ahead.
01:31:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:22
Nakitta
yeah and I was like, wow, I've never experienced, like,
01:31:26
Darin Tingey
yeah
Reflections on Kiribati Culture
01:31:27
Nakitta
never experienced how crowded Beso was.
01:31:30
Darin Tingey
So with the last two minutes here, want to hear just the three kind of things I always ask people at the end. What was your favorite area?
01:31:41
Darin Tingey
What was your favorite food? And what was your favorite cultural thing about Kittabus? Or your favorite thing about Kittabus?
01:31:47
Nakitta
so we kind of like prepared this like Ezra asked me this we like we we so whoever is one we were listening to and then it was probably like the first one I ever listened to it was probably Everett and and you asked him that and so Ezra was like oh what would your answer be if you just were on the podcast maybe like what would your answer be
01:31:50
Darin Tingey
ah ah I love it.
01:32:06
Nakitta
But so, yeah, as I named stuff off, he was like, oh, that's my answer too.
01:32:07
Darin Tingey
And now here we are. i love it.
01:32:12
Nakitta
That's my answer. No, no, no, you don't get to steal my answer. Come up with your own thing. This is mine. um my My favorite cultural thing um was was them being so ready to accept us in their home.
01:32:26
Nakitta
um Just so friendly. And even if they didn't want to hear any lessons, they were still ready to accept you and offer you something because... because you're a foreigner and we just are hospitable to everyone, but especially foreigners.
01:32:43
Nakitta
So um I really appreciated that. It felt a lot like home, like in Polynesian culture, um being friendly and willing to feed anybody.
01:32:54
Nakitta
So it felt so very um very familiar.
01:32:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:32:57
Nakitta
That was very nice. um My favorite food, forever now would be the raw fish and like the breadfruit chips or or rice um like like I grew up eating rice so i was like so thankful that there was like something I was familiar with because I hated fish growing up any seafood around like oh that stinks oh that's so gross
01:33:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah, rice is good. Yeah.
01:33:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:33:31
Nakitta
Until you get to Kiribati, was like, oh, it's not supposed to smell like that. That wasn't right from the ocean to my plate.
01:33:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah. So you like the raw fish.
01:33:40
Nakitta
You know, it's raw fish, but like when they use the kareve for it.
01:33:40
Darin Tingey
You'd say the raw fish is your favorite.
01:33:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Oh, that's good.
01:33:47
Nakitta
Kareve and a little like coconut milk.
01:33:51
Darin Tingey
That's good. Yeah.
01:33:51
Nakitta
That's the one. That's the one.
01:33:52
Darin Tingey
All right.
01:33:53
Nakitta
And plus some like breadfruit chips on the side or some rice.
01:33:56
Darin Tingey
All right.
01:33:56
Nakitta
And then like, and then my favorite area is like forever, always, Bota and Buoniki. I don't ever, I don't say Abitota Abitoya just because I didn't get out there as much as the others who I know.
01:34:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:13
Nakitta
did a lot more but Botanbuaniki I was born there that's the place I was the longest in and i just
01:34:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Well,
Final Reflections and Episode Closing
01:34:21
Nakitta
felt like I knew that place so well and knew the members and everybody so that's where I learned to ride a bike again
01:34:26
Darin Tingey
yeah well Yeah, and and it's it's it was fun to hear you talk about from the beginning. like You were like, oh, please don't put me on the Outer Islands.
01:34:36
Darin Tingey
And then you spent a lot of your mission in the Outer Islands, like both the area, like Outer Island of Tarawa, Tarawa, Tarawa, and he went to an Outer Island.
01:34:43
Nakitta
And i i like I couldn't believe
01:34:46
Darin Tingey
like not many Not many sisters go to Outer Islands in the mission, and you were one of them.
01:34:50
Nakitta
And everybody was like, you should be grateful. You should be grateful. i was like, what I said? You can go.
01:34:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:55
Nakitta
don't care.
01:34:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:56
Nakitta
The zone leaders were like fed up with me. Well, too bad, sister. yeah That's where President said you're going. So you're going. Get ready. You're leaving on Wednesday. And was like, oh, so okay.
01:35:05
Darin Tingey
I love it.
01:35:05
Nakitta
I'll go.
01:35:07
Darin Tingey
Well, Kito, this was a great episode. i'm I'm happy that you were the first sister missionary to be on here.
01:35:12
Nakitta
Thanks.
01:35:13
Darin Tingey
You had yeah awesome stories. And for you to serve on Outer Island, too, and just like Darawa, all over Darawa, it's incredible mission. so and And I'm sure you and Ezra talk about all the time, about the mission or Kiribati.
01:35:24
Nakitta
Thanks.
01:35:31
Darin Tingey
Maybe too much.
01:35:31
Nakitta
Yeah, it is um a little bit.
01:35:33
Darin Tingey
Maybe and be too much.
01:35:35
Nakitta
Yeah, around my family, we're like, maybe we should dial it back just little bit.
01:35:39
Darin Tingey
ah um Well, to those listening, if you've made it this far, go follow the podcast if you haven't or give us a review and share this podcast.
01:35:47
Nakitta
Mm-hmm.
01:35:49
Darin Tingey
And this was another great episode of the on podcast.