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Episode 21: Austin Decker - Kiribati & Marshall Islands - Tarawa, North Tarawa, Abemama, Majuro
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Austin Decker served in Kiribati & the Marshall Islands from 2011 - 2014. Before the mission, Austin was a highly touted soccer recruit (#42 in the country) playing on both the U.S. Soccer Youth National Team and the U.S. Region 2 Olympic Development Program. Austin went on to play collegiate soccer at Lehigh University and after his sophomore season was influenced by his younger brother to put his dreams of soccer on hold and serve a mission. Austin was called to serve in Kiribati not once, but twice, and became a true believer in Jesus Christ's atonement during that special time of his life.
Austin served in Tarawa, North Tarawa, Abemama, Majuro, and was lucky enough to visit some other islands as AP.
#MarshallIslandsMajuroMission #MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #Kiribati #Tarawa #Tarawaieta #Abemama #MarshallIslands #Majuro #Kiritimati #Maiana #Abaiang #Butaritari #Beru #Ebeye #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia #islandculture
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Transcript
Introduction to Austin Decker
00:00:01
Darin Tingey
Alright, we're on with another episode of the Islands Podcast and today we've got Austin Decker, which is fun because both sides of the mission will have known you given that you served on both.
00:00:14
Darin Tingey
um Austin, give us a quick background on you.
00:00:20
Austin Decker
Yeah. Thanks for having me on. I'm super excited. um yeah I'm from Iowa. um So I don't know if there are any other Iowa missionaries that have served in Kitabas.
00:00:32
Austin Decker
I do know that there is going to be a missionary out there whose dad, ah Todd Murdoch, served in my ward. So there may be somebody who at least has an Iowa connection.
00:00:43
Austin Decker
I don't think he claims Iowa like I do. um Yeah.
00:00:46
Darin Tingey
Where in Iowa?
00:00:47
Austin Decker
So was that?
00:00:50
Darin Tingey
Where in Iowa? Small town? Okay.
00:00:51
Austin Decker
Uh, outside of Iowa city. So, I mean, it is a small town if I say a manna or Tiffin, but Iowa city is usually where I give. Yeah. So that people can know.
00:01:00
Darin Tingey
ah Okay.
Soccer to Mission Decision
00:01:02
Austin Decker
Yeah. So grew up in Iowa. Um, I went to high school actually in Minnesota. I went to a, uh, a boarding school up there for soccer.
00:01:12
Austin Decker
I got recruited and went up there and then, um, I played some college soccer before i went out on the mission. and So,
00:01:20
Darin Tingey
And now you live, um where do you live now?
00:01:23
Austin Decker
Yeah, I live in Cincinnati. um I'm an attorney out here. So between being real busy at the office and and then, you know, I got the best calling in the world right now.
00:01:34
Austin Decker
I'm a priest quorum advisor. So I get to, you know, play dodgeball and spikeball and get to go to all the campouts and and still get to, you know, be with the youth. So it's it's it's awesome.
00:01:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:01:44
Austin Decker
I love it.
00:01:46
Darin Tingey
That is awesome. um
00:01:47
Austin Decker
Yep.
00:01:48
Darin Tingey
So where did you play soccer?
00:01:50
Austin Decker
Yeah, I played soccer at Lehigh University. um it It's a little bit North Philly.
00:01:52
Darin Tingey
Okay. Yeah.
00:01:55
Austin Decker
People usually know it from CJ McCollum, who plays in the NBA.
00:01:57
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:01:59
Austin Decker
Yep. So he was actually, his his freshman year is my freshman year. And so I went out there and and I was on
Mission Call and MTC Experience
00:02:06
Austin Decker
a scholarship out there to play soccer. I had no plans to serve a mission.
00:02:10
Austin Decker
um I always kind of felt like I was going to do the Jimmer Fredette route. I was a good dude, but I could, you know, touch more people and spread a better message if I played professional. And so I thought I was going to do that.
00:02:25
Austin Decker
um mean And then. Yeah.
00:02:27
Darin Tingey
Was the goal to go to like to to Europe and play or like in the States?
00:02:30
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:02:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:02:32
Austin Decker
Yep. So I've played overseas. I've i've played in um Germany. um We did little bit in Austria. I've played in Costa Rica, Argentina. I've traveled quite a bit.
00:02:43
Austin Decker
um And my freshman the year at Lehigh was pretty successful. um Coming out of high school, I was the 42nd recruit in the country um for top tour.
00:02:53
Darin Tingey
Dang.
00:02:53
Austin Decker
So Yeah, I did. i had I had big dreams of playing in professional soccer, and I thought that was going to be that was going to be my stake in what I could do.
00:03:04
Austin Decker
And then, um yeah, I came home from my sophomore year sophomore year and You know, I always went to really small branch in Iowa. We had a branch. it was out in Belle Plaine.
00:03:20
Austin Decker
And you'd be lucky to have 35 people attend church with us. And it was me, my brother, and my dad passing the sacrament. And there was like, you know, three other families in the in the branch plus some extras.
00:03:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:34
Austin Decker
um And then, that mean, that was it. And so I was out there and we had a really good, um believe it was a gospel doctrine lesson, but we're talking in in James and, you know, and faith without works is dead.
00:03:52
Austin Decker
And they started talking about, um, you know, how even, even the devils know that, that Christ is Christ. And so, you know, just knowing that, that Jesus is your savior doesn't really separate you that much, even from them.
00:04:09
Austin Decker
and And it's your works and what you do with your faith. That's gonna really um decide where you go. And so, that lesson kind of just was like a lightning bolt. It it just hit me hard.
00:04:23
Austin Decker
And then my brother told my family he was going to serve a mission. i I'm a younger brother. And so, you know, I'd always grown up kind of the big brother and, and, you know, traveling the world and playing soccer. and And they'd always looked up to me and I felt like,
00:04:37
Austin Decker
you know I had something to live up to. And then when my brother also was like, I'm actually going to do this. And it just,
Early Mission Challenges in Tamaiku
00:04:44
Austin Decker
I don't know. and just shook me. i was like, man, what kind of my for what kind of example am I giving you know that that I'm for some reason think i'm I'm above serving the mission and so yeah so I told my mom I was going to serve a mission and she couldn't handle it she he she broke down and and she just couldn't believe what I was telling her and I was nervous to tell my coach because you know I had a full ride and was a big deal out there and they had done a lot to get me to their school and
00:05:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:18
Austin Decker
I was nervous to tell him because i mean, up to that point, I mean, I was, i was active, but I mean, not really. Like when I went to boarding school, I went to seminary like every other month, maybe like, no,
00:05:30
Darin Tingey
I'm surprised they even had seminary. Like, i don't know how big the church was in Minnesota.
00:05:33
Austin Decker
Right. Well, I went to an Episcopalian school.
00:05:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:36
Austin Decker
So like it was students off campus would have to come pick me up.
00:05:37
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:05:41
Austin Decker
And I was up there living on my own 14, 15, 16, 17. fourteen fifteen sixteen seventeen I was not getting up at, you know, 5, 15 on my own in my own dorm room.
00:05:47
Darin Tingey
now
00:05:50
Austin Decker
And so I rarely made it to seminary. And I was traveling a lot with soccer on Sundays. um Even in college, kind of the same thing. I'd come home and, you know, I knew,
00:06:02
Austin Decker
and I knew what I believed and I believed in the church, but it was really secondary to kind of what I was doing. And so my coach, nobody on my team, nobody knew that that was even something I was even considering.
00:06:13
Austin Decker
You know, I would venture to say a number of them probably didn't even know I was LDS. And so I was really nervous to bring up to my coach that like, Hey, I'm, I'm actually choosing to leave. And I mean really hope you keep my scholarship. But even if you don't, I'm like out.
00:06:29
Austin Decker
And, uh,
00:06:31
Darin Tingey
How did he take it?
00:06:31
Austin Decker
That was really, yeah, he was, he was actually super great. He was super cool about it. Um, he was obviously shocked and, um, you know, he was, he was a little confused about why had it had taken me so long to talk to him about it.
00:06:48
Austin Decker
Um, it was also a little bit unfortunate because we were preparing for my junior season. This was in the summer. And so we're getting ready to come back for preseason. And I, you know, basically told him that I was taking a leave from the school and wasn't going to be able to do that.
00:07:01
Austin Decker
And so, so yeah, uh, He ended up keeping my scholarship. He ended up doing, doing it right by me and told me he was going to accept me come back and that I'd come back a better person and a more mature person.
00:07:15
Austin Decker
And hopefully somebody that he would still like to have on the team as a, somebody senior and more veteran for the people to come in. And I loved it. I mean, he's, he's still
Health Crisis and Spiritual Reflection
00:07:24
Austin Decker
so cool. I love him, you know, to this day.
00:07:26
Darin Tingey
that's ah That's a it's a huge like answer to your prayers probably is like, man, like how's coach going to take this?
00:07:27
Austin Decker
And
00:07:32
Austin Decker
yeah, I mean,
00:07:34
Darin Tingey
And it's like, boom, blessing.
00:07:36
Austin Decker
Yeah, 100%. I was very nervous about how that was going to go. And um yeah, he's he's an he's an awesome awesome dude. In fact, i'm I'm headed out there in a couple weeks.
00:07:47
Austin Decker
They're going to honor our team. We ended up winning the Patriot League my senior year and playing in the NCAA tournament. so they're doing like a 10-year anniversary for that. And yeah, it's really cool.
00:07:55
Darin Tingey
so cool.
00:07:56
Austin Decker
I'm really excited to go back. So yeah, put in my put in my mission papers. um And not too long after that, I ah got my mission call. It's funny, I think Elder Everett is the only one that may have also got the English mission call when like I got that back. So it's the Marshall Islands and it's English speaking.
00:08:16
Austin Decker
And yeah, it very much wasn't. so
00:08:20
Darin Tingey
So you probably you were going to the Marshall Islands then, right?
00:08:23
Austin Decker
A hundred percent all the way up through. In fact, so we went into the MTC. um we had a decent sized district and I went into the MTC.
00:08:34
Austin Decker
Didn't find out I was going to Kitabits with the Marshall Islands till like four days before we were leaving the MTC.
00:08:41
Darin Tingey
Did they not have you guys do visas for Kitabas or the Marshall Islands?
00:08:45
Austin Decker
Um, i I don't even remember, dude. I think we send in paperwork for both. Like, like when you before you get into the mission, you send in your paperwork for both of them and submit all that documentation.
00:08:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:56
Austin Decker
And don't know, after that. But in the MTZ, they actually had me go into the Marshall Islands first. And so I thought I was going to the Marshall Islands. And then, like, two days before we left, they're like, you're actually supposed to be in the kid of the side.
00:09:10
Austin Decker
And we bought you the wrong plane ticket. So...
00:09:12
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:09:14
Austin Decker
Yeah, they're like, you're going to actually have to stay. um You're going to actually have actually to stay in the MTC for a little bit. We'll reassign you to go somewhere else. And then once we get your plane tickets, you'll come out to Kitabas.
00:09:28
Austin Decker
And it was me and Elder Mickelson were the only two in my intake that were going to the Kitabas side. And so him and I just hung out at the MTC for like, I think it was 11 days, just without any district, without any teachers.
00:09:34
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:09:41
Austin Decker
Like it was...
00:09:42
Darin Tingey
Just chilling.
00:09:43
Austin Decker
It was so weird. Yeah, it was like this rogue, just me and Nicholson just wandering around. We tried really hard. We were both pretty big about like, you know, we still need to do our personal studies and our companionship studies. We need to go to our room.
00:09:55
Austin Decker
And once we found out we were going to Kittibus, there were some Kittibus people in the MTC. And so they gave us some like, I don't know, things to work on. We didn't know what we were doing. i mean, they're just like speaking fast, writing things down.
00:10:04
Darin Tingey
Sure.
00:10:07
Austin Decker
and Nicholson were just hanging out. was funny in our MTC room. i remember specifically me and him. You how they have those bunk beds? like We ended up moving them together. So we had like a keen
Return to Mission with Perseverance
00:10:18
Austin Decker
bunk bed on top and like a keen bunk bed on the bottom.
00:10:20
Darin Tingey
would
00:10:20
Austin Decker
And him and I were in there for 11 days together, I think. Yeah. and And then they did...
00:10:26
Darin Tingey
i would have just been spending my time at the gym. Like would have just gone to the basketball.
00:10:29
Austin Decker
We did do a lot of gym.
00:10:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:10:30
Austin Decker
We did a lot of gym. We did a lot of volleyball. we We did a lot of those things too. um Yeah, it was great. It was it was fun. it was an interesting way to start the mission. my yeah My MTC teachers were actually Brother Hepworth from the district, like the original district videos.
00:10:47
Darin Tingey
Oh, wow. Okay.
00:10:50
Austin Decker
who was like in San Diego. i mean, he had no idea where Cubus was. He had no idea where the Marshall Islands were. And he was teaching us English side, which was great.
00:10:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:10:58
Austin Decker
i mean, Brother Hepworth was awesome. But yeah, it was interesting. They did end up reassigning us. I can't remember where it's at. I wrote it somewhere in my journal. I think they reassigned us
00:11:10
Austin Decker
ah some So some mission. But then like once they reassigned us, the next day they're like, oh, we actually have a flight out for you like in two days. So you're leaving. And so then we ended up not getting going anywhere else. So.
00:11:22
Darin Tingey
It's so random. and And did you fly through Fiji?
00:11:24
Austin Decker
i three feet No.
00:11:24
Darin Tingey
like
00:11:26
Austin Decker
So back then we did, i think it was Salt Lake to Seattle, Seattle to Hawaii. Then we spent a night in Hawaii and then Hawaii to Christmas, Christmas to Fiji, spend a night in Fiji and then Fiji to Kitabas.
00:11:41
Darin Tingey
Gosh, that's complicated.
00:11:42
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was great. it was It was so much fun.
00:11:44
Darin Tingey
ah
00:11:45
Austin Decker
I mean, Mickelson, I love Mickelson to this day. He's so fun. We had such a good bond. was so great. and And then, you know, traveling, staying a night in Hawaii together, trying to figure out what we're going to do.
00:11:55
Austin Decker
Because you land and then it's just like, they give you a hotel room and then it's, don't know, just me and Mickelson just hanging out in a hotel room or just in Hawaii.
00:12:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:12:03
Austin Decker
We ended up walking around a little bit and and then you get to Fiji, kind of the same thing. Although we did have think we had elders in Fiji pick us up. I remember ever talking about them getting forgotten. We did not get forgotten at the airport. I'm pretty sure. i I have a vague memory of us sleeping with the elders in their room, but also I did that twice, but we'll get to that.
00:12:24
Austin Decker
um So I can't quite remember.
00:12:25
Darin Tingey
So what year is this?
00:12:28
Austin Decker
this I ended up going into the um MTC November 16th of 2011. And so we ended up getting out to Kitabas.
00:12:35
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:12:38
Austin Decker
We landed December 15th of 2011. Yep. Is Yeah.
00:12:41
Darin Tingey
Okay, so you're there right before Christmas.
00:12:44
Austin Decker
yeah
00:12:44
Darin Tingey
First area on Tarawa.
00:12:47
Austin Decker
is to myri
00:12:48
Darin Tingey
Okay. And what was the mission like?
00:12:50
Austin Decker
yeah
00:12:50
Darin Tingey
How many missionaries were in Kiribati at the time? Do you remember?
00:12:53
Austin Decker
I don't think there was that many. I mean, there weren't a ton of Outer Islands opened um opened up yet. I mean, I think that work really happened of a President Weir that he expanded a lot of that. They they had some, but not not much. I mean, I think like Elder Everett said, like I think they had Maquin, Tarawietta.
00:13:12
Austin Decker
I don't know if they had Abba Young open yet, but they did have a tab and Abba Mamma for, think his time it was there, it shut down for a little bit. um Definitely not Mayanna.
00:13:23
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:13:24
Austin Decker
So there, there wasn't a ton, ton open for everybody. And so you probably have 30, 40 missionaries on the main Island, maybe. So, yep.
00:13:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And President Shao is your mission president. Is that right? Okay.
00:13:37
Austin Decker
I came out with president Shaw. Yep. And so, Yeah, we got to, uh, got it to Mike you. And, uh, back in the day when you landed the zone leaders, I'm glad they don't do this anymore. As soon as we got off the airplane, they took us to this person's house. i think it was in Bikinabu.
00:13:56
Austin Decker
Um, but and they give you cup of Kedavik as soon as you get off the airplane. I mean, you don't even get to go to Morina yet. I mean, right off the airplane that you had like a, welcome to kid of his thing.
00:14:07
Austin Decker
And, uh, it was the grossest cup of Kedeva. I think I've ever had. There are good cups. There are some great cups of Kedeva and there are times where it's not great. And, and they chose the worst cup they could find to give to the new missionaries.
00:14:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:21
Austin Decker
And it was like an initiation thing. Like here you are in Kedeva. Here's what you're going to drink. Kind of get used to it. And then they laugh it off in the, in the van back tomorrow
Cultural Adaptation and Humor
00:14:30
Austin Decker
night to finish doing your orientation over there.
00:14:32
Darin Tingey
Welcome to the mission elders.
00:14:34
Austin Decker
Yeah. Oh man. it it, it was, it was something.
00:14:37
Darin Tingey
a
00:14:38
Austin Decker
And it's so we landed when we barely knew how to say Maori. don't even know if we know how Kawada.
00:14:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:43
Austin Decker
I mean, you basically get there and we were doing English. We didn't learn the language. And then you go into this, you know, house of somebody else they hand you cup of Canadian, you know what you were doing. Zelda, the zone leaders, like you got to finish the cup, dude.
00:14:55
Austin Decker
It was, we're like,
00:14:56
Darin Tingey
You also don't know what it is. Like, what is this? like ah
00:14:59
Austin Decker
Yeah. i And man, sometimes a really bad of cadavity, I don't know if this is like going to make and you know some good people upset, but sometimes it kind of tastes and smells like a wet dog. It's it's like it's it a really bad cup that's not fresh. it can it's It's going to be tough to get down sometimes. And so we first got off that. Me and Elder Mickelson were like, what in the world we just drink, dude?
00:15:27
Austin Decker
but I don't know, man.
00:15:28
Darin Tingey
And for the for those that don't know what karebe is, it's like the coconut sap that they cut.
00:15:32
Austin Decker
That's how. Yeah.
00:15:35
Darin Tingey
It's hard to say. i don't how to explain it, but...
00:15:36
Austin Decker
Yeah. I, I, you don't know what it is. Go back and listen to elder Everett. He does a great job of explaining what it is, but essentially they're just cutting off part of the branch to the point where they can get the sap to drip out of the coconut tree.
00:15:49
Austin Decker
And sometimes it's super good.
00:15:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:15:51
Austin Decker
Sometimes if it's super fresh, I had some really good cups of careve. Um, and, and some not so good ones. And, and the first one I ever had was not so good a one.
00:16:01
Austin Decker
So it was,
00:16:02
Darin Tingey
I had a cup in my first my second day in the Marshall Islands, and I was like, this is gross. And then by the end, I was like, I love this stuff. This stuff is so good.
00:16:10
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. hundred percent. i mean, you get a good taste for it. There are still good ones and bad ones, depending on the freshness and, and, and how they cut it and things like that too. And, and so, but, um, yeah, so that was interesting. That was the very first thing. Let go to more and I do our orientation then get to Tomaiku.
00:16:27
Austin Decker
And, um,
00:16:28
Darin Tingey
How long were you Tamaiku?
00:16:30
Austin Decker
Um, so I did about four weeks there, four weeks into my goo and man, it it so, cause we didn't know any of the language. I mean, their lessons were rough cause you get in and, and I mean, you have no idea what they're saying.
00:16:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah, not a single word. yeah
00:16:47
Austin Decker
I mean, none.
00:16:49
Austin Decker
And, and, and just learning like that. I mean, we did personal study and I, um, elder Bush was my, um, trainer. He did a pretty good job of trying to teach me the language, but it's really difficult with somebody who has absolutely no grounding in what the language is or structure or anything teaching like that. So it took a little while.
00:17:08
Austin Decker
And those first lessons, I mean, you get in, it's hot. It is hot, hot, hot. And you're sitting cross-legged, you know, on the ground. The ground is not soft. They usually have rocks underneath the leaves that they have down there that you sit on.
00:17:23
Austin Decker
And so, I mean, it was tough to stay awake. You're like, have you're sitting in a lesson for 45 minutes. Then you go to another lesson and another lesson. And by time the third lesson of the day, your legs hurt, your back hurts, you're sweating, just buckets.
00:17:38
Austin Decker
And you have no idea what anybody's saying. I mean, it was it was really tough. And i got i got super sick when I was out there. i mean, even by like week seven, it ah There were times when I was logging my diarrhea episodes for the nurse. She was like, you have to keep track of how many times they would get into like double digits. And she's like, you can't go, you can't go out and proselyte today. You got to stay home.
00:18:03
Austin Decker
And they'd do that for a couple of days.
00:18:03
Darin Tingey
ah Yeah, you're not keeping anything down.
00:18:04
Austin Decker
And I'd go out proselyte. They're like, you got to stay home again if you're having that many. And and so it was getting a little sketchy for for a little while.
00:18:15
Darin Tingey
based i mean, it's all going straight through you.
00:18:16
Austin Decker
no
00:18:18
Austin Decker
Yep.
00:18:18
Darin Tingey
You're sweating everything out too.
00:18:22
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:18:22
Darin Tingey
Gosh.
00:18:23
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was tough.
00:18:23
Darin Tingey
I feel like everyone has at least a little bit like when they first get to the mission. like They get sick. I got sick. It's hard to go out.
00:18:29
Austin Decker
Yeah, everybody will. And you'll spend ah lot of your mission without solid stools, but but for the most part, you know, it shouldn't be having more serious episodes like that.
00:18:30
Darin Tingey
But...
00:18:41
Austin Decker
So then Mission Nurse was a little worried. And then, um you know, i At about that time, so kind of back to my pre-mission life, again, I hadn't spent a ton of time being super active in the church.
00:19:00
Austin Decker
You know, was dedicating a lot of my time to soccer and traveling and and playing games on the weekends and overseas. And so, you know, me choosing to serve a mission kind of just came on, you know, fast and out of nowhere.
00:19:18
Austin Decker
And so i one of the things that came out of that is i when I was sick, I ended up thinking about you know my past and these things that that I did and and whether I'd repented enough. And and one of the things I remember in the MTC, some people were talking about, you know there's these times based on some of the actions you made. There may be like a time period you have to wait so you can choose a server mission. I was like, what in the world?
00:19:42
Austin Decker
but Why would there be a time period? like you know i Everything is good. I already repented of it all and and things. I'm not doing that anymore. i actually had a fiance that I left also when i when I came out on the mission.
00:19:53
Darin Tingey
my
00:19:55
Austin Decker
And so then as I was sick and laying in bed, a lot of these thoughts started coming my mind. And I was like, maybe maybe I do need to chat with the president about it. And so... you know, I was really nervous because I was like, well, what if I have to go home? I mean, I've already, I've already left soccer.
00:20:12
Austin Decker
I've already given that up and two years being gone, who knows, I'm going to be like, when I come back, I left a fiance, you know, I left a lot of these things. And if I tell president about some of the stuff, you know, maybe sends me home and I,
00:20:26
Austin Decker
At that point, I don't butt know if I'm going to be able to come back out
Outer Islands and Community Life
00:20:29
Austin Decker
because if I have to wait a time period, who knows how long that's going to be. and then I'm looking at missing three seasons and I'm looking at not playing soccer for three years. you know Then if I go home, you get all the shame of leaving your mission and coming home.
00:20:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:44
Austin Decker
And so then like you start thinking, maybe if I go home too, if it gets even harder to come back out, there was there's more reasons not to come out once you've come back the first time. So i I just decided I prayed hard and and had some really spiritual experiences and some really, you know, strong impressions from from the spirit. And I decided was to talk to my mission president. So I did, told President Shaw and I did end up getting sent home.
00:21:12
Austin Decker
So part of that was some of the sickness. The mission nurse had kind of suggested that I go home and recover too. And then part of that was some of the stuff that I needed to work out and, and meet with some stick president about and doing things like that. And so I ended up getting sent home in February.
00:21:27
Austin Decker
so I ended up being on kid abuse from about December 19th to the beginning of February. and then I got sent home. Um, and then, uh, And while I was home, I went through the process. It awesome. ah I have such, such a strong testimony of repentance and of the power of the of repentance and in the positive nature of what it is. It's and so wonderful. I feel like a really helped me teach repentance a lot.
00:21:53
Austin Decker
and and And I love it. It's such an awesome doctrine. So went home and prepared for all that. And I told myself when I was going home, was like I'm coming back out. There is nothing that's going to keep me from from coming back out.
00:22:08
Austin Decker
So again, I went home and had more talks with my coach, some more uncomfortable conversations with, it's actually gonna be, it's gonna be three years now, coach, it's not gonna be two.
00:22:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Why are you home? ah ah yeah
00:22:19
Austin Decker
i you know, yeah, it was, it was tough. It was really, really, really tough. But I did, I ended up needing to put my admission papers back in again.
00:22:30
Austin Decker
So just like you're starting a normal process again, I had to go back and i had to put admission papers back in and wait for another admission call. And to be honest, i I was like, after I'd served in Kitabas and after those two months, is like by far the hardest time in the mission.
00:22:45
Austin Decker
And it was the crappiest time that you have in the mission. Once you're out there, you just get the hang of it. Kitabas is amazing. You learn to love the people. You learn to love the country. but it does take some time to overcome ah cultural differences and the challenges from doing that.
00:23:00
Austin Decker
So I actually wanted to get called stateside. I was like, okay, hopefully I go somewhere where i don't have all those.
00:23:05
Darin Tingey
but
00:23:06
Austin Decker
I don't have the. kind of a I don't have, you know, sleeping on, you know.
00:23:10
Darin Tingey
I'm on the runs for 10 times a day.
00:23:13
Austin Decker
Yeah, and i don't have i don't have a ah mice crawling on me in bed that's, you know, happened a couple of times. was like, I just want to not have that. So I put in my mission call and I get Kitabas again.
00:23:24
Austin Decker
And I would like to say I was excited, but but I wasn't. I was like, oh my goodness, I got to go back and do all that over again. i mean, it took it took some prayer and some humbling to be like, you know what?
00:23:39
Austin Decker
I must really need to be there, either for myself or for somebody else. Like there's no way it's a mistake that I get called twice to Kitabas. You know, and I was dead sick.
00:23:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:23:51
Austin Decker
The church knew about that. The mission nurse had put in her information on that, about how sick I was on the mission. And, and, and I still got it. I still got the mission call again. So I get called to go back out to Kitabas a second time.
00:24:04
Austin Decker
And i was like, okay, interestingly enough, my brother had his mission call in at that same time too. And so then when I got my mission call, we actually entered the MTC at the same time, my second time out.
00:24:14
Darin Tingey
that's That's pretty cool.
00:24:15
Austin Decker
It, It was so cool to walk in there with my brother who, you know, and he's the one that even pushed me to serve a mission. I mean, he didn't actually push me, but but his example was what brought brought me into the path that I was in and it had pushed me to be a better person and to be a disciple of Christ.
00:24:33
Austin Decker
And then to be able to walk in with him again on his time. I mean, it was so cool. I felt so honored to walk in with my brother and be like, dude, this is so cool. This is, this is where we're both supposed to be brothers in Christ, but like brothers.
00:24:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:48
Austin Decker
and And it was so awesome. I loved it.
00:24:49
Darin Tingey
and ah Let's go get it.
00:24:50
Austin Decker
It was the coolest thing.
00:24:51
Darin Tingey
Let's go. let's go get after these next two years so
00:24:53
Austin Decker
Yeah. And so he ended up going Montana. So he had a very different mission than what I did. ah He had steak and he was serving on ranches and it was a steak and potatoes all the time. and And we would send letters back and forth. But yeah, so he loved it. He ended up going to Montana. And so I get back in the MTC a second time, which is so weird.
00:25:12
Austin Decker
So weird enter twice.
00:25:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah, just go through it all over again.
00:25:15
Austin Decker
Yeah. But this time it was language.
00:25:16
Darin Tingey
Especially because you had an extended period of time too.
00:25:18
Austin Decker
Yeah, this time language training. So this is, i was the first first intake to have language training the second time I went in. um
00:25:28
Darin Tingey
and you were probably a little bit ahead of everybody though, because you'd spent some time on Kiribus.
00:25:28
Austin Decker
And so I, yeah, in a way, but they had actually already been in there for, I think it was three weeks before they sent me in.
00:25:39
Austin Decker
So I actually joined their district mid-20s. mid
00:25:42
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
00:25:43
Austin Decker
time they're being in. Now we were still there. Cause I think Cody had mentioned we were, it was for a long period of time. So it still was a long period time being in there. So they had had like three weeks of language training. I had been in the country for, in Kitabyss for like two weeks. So I did have like, at least a lot of like hearing down and like the accents and getting used to how they phrase things and said things.
00:26:04
Austin Decker
Um, so
Rural Missionary Life
00:26:05
Austin Decker
I did bring some of that to the, to the district and, and, um, and got to be a part of that. And that was super cool. By that time, it was like, uh, Tautiwaa, Lasky and Grover, um, were the, uh, MTC teachers and they were awesome. I mean, Tautiwaa, Grover, Lasky, they were just, it was so good. And my district was awesome.
00:26:26
Austin Decker
Um, there ended up being four of us that went to Kitabyss on that one. So double what me and Mickelson were.
00:26:33
Darin Tingey
little barrier And when you got back to Kittabus, was Shah still the mission president?
00:26:34
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yep. Yep. We had Elder Monson, who there a is a brother to this day. I, you know, still keep in touch with them very, very frequently. And um and then Paoda and Burrell.
00:26:47
Austin Decker
We all went out to Kitabas together. same Same thing, though. We went to Hawaii, spent a night in Hawaii, went to Fiji, spent a night in Fiji, and then to Kitabas.
00:26:59
Austin Decker
He was still the mission president. Yep.
00:27:01
Darin Tingey
Was he like, welcome back, Elder?
00:27:02
Austin Decker
Yeah. Well, I didn't see him for a little bit. I think other people have have mentioned, you know, Shaw spent a lot of time in the marshals, um, when during his, uh, time as Mr. President. And so it took a little bit for me to meet him again. Um, but when I did come down, yeah, it was, it was really cool. And it was a really spiritual experience too with him. Cause he was pretty instrumental in, in going back and just the repentance process too. And he was so cool. He was so good for me. And when he came back, he had expressed, he's like, look, I am so proud to have you back. And and I think at at the time,
00:27:37
Austin Decker
one of the statistics he gave me is that only, only 2% of missionaries that go home early and are eligible to return ever end up coming back. It's a, it's a very, very small margin. and And some of that's part of the reason why I, I really kind of want to get into that.
00:27:51
Austin Decker
And I'm glad, you know, most, most of the podcasts for a lot of people is actually on the mission, but the pre-mission stuff for me, you know, there is so much power into going and back out and, and, um,
00:28:03
Austin Decker
you know Everybody has their own their own path and their own processes, and and I don't want to tell anybody what to do and and and what they should do, but but you know there is really something to getting back out there, and i am so grateful that I did. i am so grateful I got to go to Kitabist. It has changed my life.
00:28:20
Austin Decker
I have a daughter named Nayana, by the way, for everybody. was so...
00:28:23
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:28:24
Austin Decker
So it, yeah.
00:28:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:25
Austin Decker
So my daughter, Nayana, she's, she's eight now. And, uh, I, I, I wore my baby BC for her baptism. It was, it was so good. I mean, it's just, it's, it's been, it's been the best. And if anybody is listening and, and, and is, you know, questioning about going through their process, you know, coming out repenting, it's, it's, it, it is so great.
00:28:46
Austin Decker
Uh, it is, it is perfect. And, and, uh, the Lord loves you. And so, yeah, anyways, it was awesome.
00:28:52
Darin Tingey
yeah No, i am yeah I'm always impressed by people that can come home and go back out. like Even during COVID, I looked at all those missionaries and like, you guys are going back out.
00:29:04
Darin Tingey
like I feel like once you experience a mission, it's so hard. like People tell you the mission's hard.
00:29:07
Austin Decker
ah I mean, the Nishansar...
00:29:11
Darin Tingey
but they don't tell you how hard it is. And and i always remember talking companions, like, you know, if i if I went home now, I don't think I'd come back out.
00:29:14
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:29:19
Darin Tingey
Like, it's just like so hard as just just a mission part of it alone.
00:29:23
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:29:25
Darin Tingey
um
00:29:26
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:29:27
Darin Tingey
So anyway,
00:29:28
Austin Decker
Yeah. and And when you come back, there's always reasons, you know, there's more reasons not to go out. I mean, things just stack. You you get jobs. ah i I had found another girlfriend. And and so, you know, there's there's just things that that come up and and there are reasons not to go back out You know, would have been so easy for me to go back to playing Lehigh and not miss all that time and and to continue to, you know, play soccer and to try to get back to that. That was always kind of a temptation and Yeah, it was it was it was tough, but I am am so grateful I did.
00:30:00
Austin Decker
and And it was, yeah, the mission's great.
00:30:04
Darin Tingey
so So, you go back to Tarawa, you get what, what area do got you go to first?
00:30:07
Austin Decker
Yep, go back to Tarawa.
00:30:10
Austin Decker
Well, first Mickelson ended up being the zone leader when I when i came back out. So Mickelson, who I came out with, yeah.
00:30:16
Darin Tingey
That's sweet.
00:30:17
Austin Decker
And and i I loved Mickelson. it was so fun talking with him. And whenever I saw him on P days, which back then you couldn't like leave your zone for P days. You couldn't like leave your district.
00:30:28
Austin Decker
So you only combined P days. You could like see other missionaries on the island outside of your district. So, you know, I remember seeing those and chatting with Mickelson and we bonded over the tough times. And, and then I was like, sorry, dude, I'm going home. And, and then I come back and he's my zone leader. It was the coolest thing. And in my zone too, it was, it was so great to have Mickelson there. And I ended up going to, to get a deck first.
00:30:50
Austin Decker
And, uh, my, my second trainer was, uh, elder Thomas. He's an Aussie. And, uh, he was, he was so fun. It was, he was such a jokester. and We had such a good time together. um and, and,
00:31:03
Darin Tingey
Was it hard for you to be trained again?
00:31:03
Austin Decker
Yeah, very different.
00:31:06
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was.
00:31:06
Darin Tingey
Like i I kind of had a similar experience like where I went, you know, from the Marshall side to the Kitabas side and i got like trained again and it was hard for me.
00:31:08
Austin Decker
think it was
00:31:15
Darin Tingey
Like I was like, dude, I know what it's like to be a missionary.
00:31:16
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:31:18
Darin Tingey
I've done this before,
Wildlife Encounters and Health Issues
00:31:19
Darin Tingey
you know?
00:31:19
Austin Decker
Yeah. And I think it actually felt weirder for like Elder Thomas um no because he was like, you kind of know all the stuff already. And I was like, i don't know why I'm going over this. And I was like, no, dude, it's good to keep going. We'll just do this again. And then I can always learn and do more. So yeah, please. And and so it kind of felt weirder for him more than that because I was only out really two weeks in and Again, I didn't know the language, so I didn't teach a ton of lessons. I mean, i I was able to memorize prayers. And by the end of it, I was able to say certain things and and give parts of lessons, some more memorized scripts and form some beginning sentences. But it wasn't a ton.
00:32:00
Austin Decker
And so it was probably a little bit less awkward for myself than for you, who, you know, you'd already served a significant portion of your time as a missionary.
00:32:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:09
Austin Decker
Yeah. so
00:32:10
Darin Tingey
And I know how you feel about like when you first came out with no language training, like just starting from nothing. Like that's how I was too. When I came over and the marshals, like nothing.
00:32:17
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:32:21
Darin Tingey
And I wanted to speak to him everyone in Marshallese because I saw these people look kind of similar and all.
00:32:26
Austin Decker
or yep
00:32:26
Darin Tingey
I just wanted to speak Marshallese, but I couldn't.
00:32:29
Austin Decker
yeah
00:32:29
Darin Tingey
Um, so, uh, how long were you in your first area there?
00:32:35
Austin Decker
Yeah, I was in Teareke. So by time I had come back out to Teareke, we got there at the end of September and I left at the end of November. So I spent about eight weeks in Teareke.
00:32:47
Austin Decker
And um that was super cool. It was a very different experience from Tomaiku because Tomaiku is on the far kind of elbow side of the atoll where things are a lot more spread out. um You're not really cramped. Teareke is like, I mean, it's like right in the city. I mean,
00:33:03
Austin Decker
And I think we can walk our area Tededeke first and probably 30 minutes, but in that 30 minutes, I mean, you have thousands and thousands and thousands of people there. So it was very different. It was, it was a very new experience being Kitabas, um, and Tededeke versus in Tomiku.
00:33:21
Austin Decker
Um, but, uh,
00:33:23
Darin Tingey
How was the stomach? Does stomach hold up?
00:33:25
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was a lot better. I mean, crazy. it it was It was a lot better. I do have episodes. I was like, i remember I was reading my journal and preparing for this. And there was a funny journal en entry. It's like, I really want to be super obedient and work out in the morning.
00:33:38
Austin Decker
But whenever I do that, that's when the beckonaco starts. And so I'm going to do my best to still do that. But I try not to work out super hard because if I did, push myself too much. I would end up spending a lot of personal time and personal study in the bathroom.
00:33:56
Austin Decker
So, yeah, I mean, it was there a little bit, but as I look back on it and remember it now, that i was it was way better. It didn't stop any of the work. We didn't have days where I was having to stay home.
00:34:07
Austin Decker
you know I wasn't drinking taking Imodium pills like every hour.
00:34:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:14
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:34:16
Darin Tingey
I feel like working out, yeah you mentioned that. i remember when i went to Miami, working out in the morning. like We just didn't do it because we were so exhausted. like Our body's just so tired.
00:34:23
Austin Decker
yeah
00:34:24
Darin Tingey
we didn't have the energy to do some workout in the morning. I think maybe we did like the first two days, and then we're like, yeah, this it's too hot.
00:34:32
Austin Decker
I did lot.
00:34:33
Darin Tingey
We don't have good water and or good food. Yeah.
00:34:36
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it was like first out and I was like, i want to be obedient. I want to do exactly what the white handbook says. And so I'm going to try it. And then it just didn't work out any time that did that. was like, all right, I think, I think I'm going to let that, let that rule kind of, you know, taper off a little bit until, until I have a strong enough stomach to do that.
00:34:55
Austin Decker
And then i don't, i don't think it really did a workout remember for the rest of the time.
00:35:00
Darin Tingey
So you're in trying to make it for eight weeks and then and then where do you go?
00:35:05
Austin Decker
Yeah. Then I go to Tadawajeta and go up there. That was, it's kind of Buk. I mean, all that's the outer island kind of, no, it is part of Tadawajeta, but it's like it's like way up there, way far from anything else.
00:35:21
Austin Decker
um and And so you kind of get an outer island experience. And so
00:35:24
Darin Tingey
Get there by boat, right? The boat?
00:35:25
Austin Decker
Yeah, we did go by boat. So when we went out, they they did have like this wah that it's like a kid of a style boat. You know, you'll to look it up. It's like what's in Moana. You know how you have like the rigger, like the the the one arm on the small one, then have big one.
00:35:34
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:35:39
Austin Decker
And so they go out by wah. but it's like a flat top like wall rather than being in a canoe type thing. And so you're sitting on this with, I think when I'd counted, when we went out, it was like me and like close to 50 people, like the sitting cross-legged crammed on the top of this wall for like six hours.
00:35:58
Austin Decker
and And so we just like get on this boat and they were just sitting there in the sun and in my mission companion that I had at that time, I got, um, when he was going out there, he had brought like a little cover. So he had like a bay that he had put over top of him.
00:36:13
Austin Decker
I didn't have any of that. I, so I was just baking in the sun. I mean, i came back with such a, I got two daughter, we had those such a bad sunburn, and but it was, it was cool.
00:36:17
Darin Tingey
skin fried.
00:36:22
Austin Decker
It was sweet to sit there and, and it was on, you know, the lagoon side. So it wasn't, you know, you couldn't do that. Not lagoon side. Everybody would have been thrown off the boat.
00:36:34
Austin Decker
So that, you know, lagoon side is a little bit softer.
00:36:34
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:36:36
Austin Decker
So you're just kind of cruising and in this beautiful blue lagoon for six hours on the wall with everybody else going up to Tarawaieta. It was really cool. I really enjoyed it.
00:36:45
Darin Tingey
Six hours a long time. Were they stopping at different parts of Tarawaiyanta or? Yeah.
00:36:50
Austin Decker
No, I mean, it may have been close five to six. I can ah couldn't find the entry in my journal. Again, I'm just remembering some paths, but I mean, I was like, i I like had finagle the waist out.
00:37:02
Austin Decker
I actually ended up sitting towards the edge. So I ended up not sitting cross-legged. I put my feet off to the side and just ended up letting my Crocs get soaking wet and my socks are soaking wet inside.
00:37:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:37:13
Austin Decker
But, you know, I could not sit. like that for very long. Now they did. It's crazy. mean, they can sit like that, I think for days, really, the kid his people without any issue. But yeah, it was a long time.
00:37:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:37:24
Austin Decker
I mean, it was a long time sitting on that boat getting up there. And it's just like one little motor in the back. But you have this
Commitment and Lessons Learned
00:37:32
Austin Decker
boat full of, I don't know, like 40, 50 people just sitting on top.
00:37:35
Austin Decker
I mean, it went slow.
00:37:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And Tarawayeta, yeah, that it definitely feels outer, I haven't been, but heard stories, outer island feel, but still Tarawa. I mean, you're taking a boat to get there, feels, that's pretty cool.
00:37:45
Austin Decker
and Yep.
00:37:47
Austin Decker
Yeah, we still had to do the radio. We we radioed in, which I don't know if Outer Island still do that, if if that's the way they still communicate or they have service out there now. I'm sure it's something different now, but.
00:37:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah, when I was out there, I mean, this is actually almost 10 years ago now, which is crazy, but for me. um But when I was out there, some islands had the radio. Like, some had a phone.
00:38:08
Darin Tingey
My Anna had a phone. Some had the radio. But I think now, like, with Starlink, I think ah all these islands have Starlink or something,
00:38:16
Austin Decker
Yeah, makes sense.
00:38:18
Darin Tingey
um which is crazy. just, like, it's so different. I remember on My Anna, too, was, like, everyone –
00:38:22
Austin Decker
ah and too like
00:38:23
Darin Tingey
Everyone had just gotten smartphones. And so it was like, man, everyone's living in a stick hub, but they have a smartphone. Like, what is this place?
00:38:30
Austin Decker
since she yeah Yeah, they didn't have smartphones yet, but is it was it was interesting because I mean, everybody, and I tell some of the you go there and you're living in these thatch, you know, stick huts and then booyahs, and they don't really have power for anything else. They have solar, people have a solar panels, you know, these like Chinese solar panels that they could buy and and they would get some energy.
00:38:49
Austin Decker
but they were always hooked up to these big speakers, like big RGB speakers with music and they're blaring music. It was like, they didn't have power for anything, any of the essentials, you know, no AC, no like powered, like, you know, cooking appliances. What they used the power for was giant speakers and music. I mean, kids, people love to dance. They love to listen to their music and and they all use what little power they had for those speakers. It was, I loved it so much. It was so, it was so funny. I just,
00:39:18
Austin Decker
It was great, man. They loved to party and have fun.
00:39:21
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah, I forgot about the speakers. So for me, it was like the speakers. And i don't know if they had pool tables when you were there. But like randomly, every pool tables. you like what
00:39:30
Austin Decker
Oh, gosh. No, I don't think I ever saw a pool table on my mission, but that doesn't surprise me.
00:39:31
Darin Tingey
ah
00:39:35
Austin Decker
they They love to just have fun.
00:39:35
Darin Tingey
They love pool, dude. All they're like little kava places they have like pool, like pool and kava in the evenings. That's what they do every evening.
00:39:43
Austin Decker
that That makes sense. i That fits very well. I can see imagining lots of wheel tables in the Kava houses.
00:39:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. That is so funny. So, um, what was that away at the like?
00:39:55
Austin Decker
Yeah, Tarahuita was cool. i um I don't know if... ah Does the mission still have a mission speedboat?
00:40:03
Darin Tingey
Yes.
00:40:04
Austin Decker
Is it still the Riona?
00:40:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:40:07
Austin Decker
Oh, that's so great. I love that.
00:40:08
Darin Tingey
well
00:40:08
Austin Decker
I haven't heard anybody talk about it, but that's one of favorite things is that not any other mission in the world. I think do you get like a speedboat in the mission that is, and of course it's called the Liahona, which is so cool.
00:40:19
Austin Decker
mean, it's like, that is perfect.
00:40:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:40:21
Austin Decker
So yeah, but you we ended up, I get the title of Yeta. and we did have a, um, uh, chapel house. Um, so I know some people have talked about that. It's it's like built by the church.
00:40:35
Austin Decker
And so it didn't have any power to it. Um, it, it was just a structure, you know, with like some, some walls and it had a separate bathroom and it had like two rooms in it. You had your main room, which was used for like I mean, they had a sink with, you didn't have any running water, but they had a sink and a table for like personal study and stuff. And then you had the floor where we'd sleep on the floor.
00:41:00
Austin Decker
So we get up to Tarawieta. um It actually has two branches, or at least it did. I'm sure it has more than that now. um
00:41:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:41:07
Austin Decker
But they had branch in Caboni Beta and a branch in Tietany Bay. ah We lived up. at the jet in Bay, um, branch house.
00:41:18
Austin Decker
And, uh, so we biked everywhere. i mean, that was my first time where I did have to have a bike. It's a long bike ride. I think it sometimes would take us an hour and a half, maybe two hours to bike from, you know, all the way past top one, a better to where you had some investigators and some members all the way up to 10, Bay at the top.
00:41:36
Austin Decker
Um, It's really cool at the top of like the enemy Bay up very North. You can see Adelaide Yank from the top of the, from the top of the island.
00:41:44
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:41:45
Austin Decker
So, you know, but me and Elder Kakao was one of my missionaries, one of my companions I had out there. And we would always go up to that beach and we didn't talk about, oh, we can only get to Adelaide Yank from here. It's like, it's not that far.
00:41:58
Darin Tingey
Just take a boat, swim.
00:41:59
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah, you ah but that is across the ocean. So you can see the waves in there. This is the ocean in that one. That's like the Bering Strait or something. I mean, that that is some stuff. and and And then there's a lot of sharks up there, I guess.
00:42:13
Austin Decker
but We actually caught a shark. One of our but things we did when we were um on P-Days, we helped the branch president do some fishing stuff. and And so with a net, we caught like a little black tip reef shark up there and there and ended up having that for dinner.
00:42:26
Austin Decker
And so...
00:42:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i had some shark on my mission. It wasn't like that tasty, but it was cool to say like, oh, I i ate shark, you know.
00:42:31
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:42:34
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:42:34
Darin Tingey
ah
00:42:34
Austin Decker
I mean, it was actually okay. I enjoyed that. I did have shark later and it wasn't as good. i don't know if, uh, uh, president, yo, it was his name. If president, yo, was better at cooking shark than somebody else was, but it wasn't bad.
00:42:48
Austin Decker
mean, they did a pretty, pretty decent job, but, um,
00:42:51
Darin Tingey
How big was the branch?
00:42:53
Austin Decker
um, the two branches we had, uh, I think there was probably 20, 30, People that met at the Ted and Bay branch ended up growing a little bit close to the maybe forties.
00:43:05
Austin Decker
And then down in Taboni beta, it was a little bit larger, maybe 40, 50. Yeah. Yeah.
00:43:09
Darin Tingey
Wow, that's pretty good. I mean, I'm always impressed because feel like we never had that many in the different areas.
00:43:12
Austin Decker
Well,
00:43:19
Darin Tingey
as I was always impressed, like these branches, like little areas and the church is booming.
00:43:22
Austin Decker
my, my, go ahead. certain
00:43:25
Darin Tingey
So was the branch presidents, like, were they, per like, you yeah you guys didn't do anything.
00:43:26
Austin Decker
yeah well might like go ahead
00:43:32
Darin Tingey
Like, they ran church, right? Like, you guys were just there to kind of help.
00:43:34
Austin Decker
Yep. Yeah, no, we did not have to do anything like that on Tarahuyeta. They handled that all, and and we were able to just be missionaries and didn't have handle any of that. The the only...
00:43:47
Austin Decker
You know, we we had a an investigator who who did have some serious sins that we had to bring up um somebody from the Tadahue to do some stuff for their ah interviews and stuff for baptisms.
00:44:00
Austin Decker
But other than that, I mean, it was just normal missionary work and didn't have do any branch president work, which was super, super nice.
00:44:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:44:07
Darin Tingey
So nice. It's so nice.
00:44:09
Austin Decker
Yep.
00:44:09
Darin Tingey
Honestly, you have he had to do like be like the group leader, man, it is exhausting.
00:44:15
Austin Decker
Yeah. but yeah Well, my my favorite one of my very favorite sacrament that I ever did was sacrament meetings. were was in tatawayeta Part of our bike ride down, we would stop in this this little village where we just had like two families that were members.
00:44:29
Austin Decker
And it was always just so... so humbling because we would go down, we would do church in Tietany Bay, then church in Taboani Betta, and then we'd come back up and and on our way back, we would have a sacrament meeting for these two families. Sometimes it was three families.
00:44:45
Austin Decker
It was just in this little booyah, just off off to the side of the road. and and they... you know, eat they get dressed in whatever the best that they have. And they have these little white cloths that they lay out on the booyah to try to make it as, you know, spiritual and clean as it can. And and it was just the most powerful sacrament meetings that that we did have was in between these villages and just on these booyahs. And I just remember,
00:45:09
Austin Decker
You know, being so humbled by these families and their faithfulness and just, you know, they they live in this village of 50 people just in the middle nowhere. And they still, you know, faithfully wait for sacrament meeting for the missionaries to come by and hold it in their booyah and they wipe it down and they get it clean. And They're all over there getting washed as best as they can and showering and putting on whatever they can to to smell as good as they can.
00:45:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:36
Austin Decker
And it is just such a humbling experience to have sacrament meetings with these faithful Kittimus people. And it there was just, it was so awesome. and And we would use whatever they had for sacrament.
00:45:47
Austin Decker
So, you know, sometimes it was, these crackers. Sometimes it was fish.
00:45:51
Darin Tingey
But am I... yeah
00:45:52
Austin Decker
Sometimes it was, yeah, sometimes it was, you know, we had some weird things.
00:45:53
Darin Tingey
yes
00:45:57
Austin Decker
i wrote them down. was just kind of whatever they had available that was like clean enough to, to be used. that They did bake, try to bake bread most of the time before that, you know, in, in the way that they can, but, but we did have some really interesting things.
00:46:11
Austin Decker
you know, sacraments with some interesting food and in in beverage, but it just added more to the, I was just like, man, these, these, it just does not matter to them what it is they're doing. They just, they just want to worship and they want to, and they they want to be disciples of Christ. And it was just, it was so humbling. I, I mean, all of Kitabas does, but Tadoyeta has a soft spot in my heart for sure. I loved it.
00:46:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's funny you mentioned that. like I'm realizing that now as as you say it, of these people just getting dressed up, even though church was going to be at their booyah, just getting dressed up all nice, women doing their hair, you know coconut oil in their hair, just getting...
00:46:37
Austin Decker
And so,
00:46:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah, putting on the deployerera, like everything to just be at their best, even though church is like at their own cuya.
00:46:59
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:47:04
Darin Tingey
It's like still a sacred moment for them, which is really cool.
00:47:07
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah.
00:47:08
Darin Tingey
And I don't know if I feel the same way, like during COVID, I'm trying to think like COVID at my house, like I was not the same way.
00:47:09
Austin Decker
No.
00:47:15
Darin Tingey
I did not do the same thing that they did.
00:47:15
Austin Decker
no No, dude, I was not getting dressed up in the suit. I was not, you know, putting it off into like a small, like they, they had to be across the street that they would like reserve for like those, that kind of stuff. And I was just, I just remember that as a man, they are so faithful.
00:47:32
Austin Decker
And, and I mean, it's just, it's so cool. It was so awesome. And so, yeah, it it was, it was great. it It taught me a lot and then helped through the rest of my mission experience. So.
00:47:46
Darin Tingey
So how long were you on Tarawaita?
00:47:48
Austin Decker
ah A little over three months. I was there for three months, maybe four months. And then i got transferred out to another outer island. I went to Abamamet.
00:48:00
Darin Tingey
So yeah, no no rest for you back on Tarawaita.
00:48:04
Austin Decker
Yeah, I mean, there was a beard.
00:48:05
Darin Tingey
You're going around.
00:48:07
Austin Decker
And we came into Tadawa. And then, you know, they're waiting on the airplanes to come out. And sometimes they come, sometimes they don't. So you're kind of just doing some Tadawa work, waiting for waiting for the plane to be able to go. So then I ended up going out to Abameh, maybe after like a week of being on Tarawa and working out there.
00:48:24
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:48:25
Austin Decker
And then we get out to Abameh. Elder Klatt was my ah companion. And again, great friend. Just had him over for dinner and not that long ago. He lives out here in Louisville now. So he drives up and I drive down to Louisville.
00:48:39
Austin Decker
We're trying to do once a month thing. So we're still great friends. It was awesome. And Abameh started all that.
00:48:42
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:48:43
Austin Decker
It was was so good.
00:48:45
Darin Tingey
So were you were you nervous at all for an outer island or no? Because like you were just like, you were on Tarawita. Like that's basically outer island.
00:48:51
Austin Decker
Yeah, I was stoked. I loved it. Now, cla he i would finished I finished his training because they had a 12-week program. i don't know. that I doubt that's something they're still doing now. I'm sure they have something better and more advanced now.
00:49:03
Austin Decker
But I finished his 12-week program out there. And so, you know, I finished his training and that was great. I mean, he was so gung-ho. He was so ready to do the work. He loved to get at it.
00:49:17
Austin Decker
The only problem was when we first got out there, he got super sick. So it was kind of his first time. And so he got super sick. And then I think everyone had kind of talked about a moment in Maquine where they destroy the runway from some political thing.
00:49:31
Austin Decker
Same thing happened that man.
00:49:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:49:32
Austin Decker
They drove, they, they dug the deepest trench. I didn't even think it was possible to dig a trench that deep. I mean, you could stand in it and it was almost above your head and they put that right in the middle of the runway.
00:49:42
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:49:42
Austin Decker
And so, yeah, we,
00:49:43
Darin Tingey
so this is right after you got there.
00:49:45
Austin Decker
Right after we got there, we landed and a little bit later that happened. And so Clyde got super sick and this is when we only have the radio and the radio is only on once a week because it's in Moroni and the missionaries don't handle that. And so I remember thinking, we tried a couple times where he was super sick and and we we were able to get on the back of a truck or something Booboo seeing, go down and try to get a ham radio to call into the zone leaders and couldn't get anybody on, couldn't get a mission nurse.
00:50:13
Austin Decker
And so then like she ended up having a gastrointestinal infection and then also had a hernia at the same time.
00:50:20
Darin Tingey
ah
00:50:20
Austin Decker
And so it it was bad.
00:50:21
Darin Tingey
Good
00:50:23
Austin Decker
I mean, it was rough. We have some really funny stories of some... you know some inability to contain some bowels and and things like that it was it was a refiner's fire i think for him and it was really rough because we had opened abanama again it got shut down for a little while there were some things that happened on the island some previous missionaries that shut it down and so then we were kind of opening it up again and it was like we got to go out and do this and so we get there we're like go go we're going to meet everybody and then clad gets down for the count and then we spend like
00:50:55
Austin Decker
I mean, it felt like weeks where we just couldn't do anything. He couldn't even leave his bed. He couldn't even get out of the house. I mean, it it was rough and we couldn't. Mission nurse was like, I'm trying to get medicine to you, but they're not flying. And it was like, yeah, I know. We're on the radio. It's like they they destroyed the runway. You're not going to fly anything to us.
00:51:10
Austin Decker
Your best bet is to get it on a boat and hope it comes out here. And that took like weeks. I mean, he's basically healed. from some miraculous something before before the medicine even got to us. i mean, it was like, I don't know my companion is going to make it. don't know how we're going to get to the main island. i mean it was I mean, was really really rough, but the members were great.
00:51:31
Austin Decker
They continued to try to bring food to us to feed us. It was kind of difficult though. Clack couldn't eat a lot of cannabis food because he was so sick. And then you get all the Unainase that are like, oh, but if you eat this and this and this, and I promise if you come eat this, like at this time, like it's going to, it's going to heal you You have to have this and you have to take it in the evening.
00:51:40
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:51:50
Austin Decker
And he got so, and he was pretty fresh in the mission. So he got so frustrated with like these cannabis medicinal, you know, things. And he was like, I'm not teaching anything like that.
00:52:01
Austin Decker
I'm not eating whatever that is. Yeah. but
00:52:05
Darin Tingey
I'm drinking coconuts and eating coconut that is it.
00:52:08
Austin Decker
Yeah, yep we did that, and and we did that in chow for a long time. Nobody's talked about chow, but i the tomato-flavored chow is my favorite thing on the planet.
00:52:14
Darin Tingey
Oh, chow's so good. i love chow.
00:52:21
Austin Decker
It sounds disgusting, tomato-flavored ramen. and And I find myself to be a bit of ramen connoisseur, but I miss tomato-flavored chow so bad, dude.
00:52:30
Darin Tingey
Me too. Me too.
00:52:31
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:52:31
Darin Tingey
The chow, man. It just hits different.
00:52:34
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yep. So we did that and and he ends up healing and we do tons of work. I mean, we had a blast once he's healed and biking up and down the island. The island's huge. Adamamae is massive.
00:52:47
Austin Decker
You know, it's like four hours one end to the other. Clatt and I really dug in and spent a lot of time working with a lot of people there. He learned a lot. He said he was very motivated. it was awesome. I mean, it was a super good time. I love Abamame.
00:53:04
Austin Decker
Learned a little bit of Te Te Buaca from the rest of the E Abamame people.
00:53:10
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:53:10
Austin Decker
It's their thing. Yep. And some things that I don't bring home. Never said in Abamame. But...
00:53:16
Darin Tingey
did did they have a branch at at at the time
00:53:16
Austin Decker
but
00:53:20
Austin Decker
Uh, yeah, they, they, they did. i don't, it wasn't meeting regularly and when we first got out there. Um, and I'm trying to remember fully, but I think a new branch president was recently called like right before we got out there.
00:53:34
Austin Decker
And so he kind of was learning the ropes. We were kind of helping him learn some of those things and, and get that. But we did have a called branch president on that one too. He's fairly new and we were kind of helping to start the church kind of be meeting regularly again.
00:53:49
Austin Decker
and doing that.
00:53:49
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:53:50
Austin Decker
And by time we were gone, I mean, we had a ysa like class. I mean, when, when left, Klat and I were teaching a YSA class of like 14 YSA people. I mean, it was, it was amazing.
00:54:02
Austin Decker
It was so good. it was so, so much fun.
00:54:05
Darin Tingey
And a legit church building on Abomayamae?
00:54:08
Austin Decker
No, it was a,
00:54:09
Darin Tingey
I say legit, but like was it actually like built by the church or no?
00:54:12
Austin Decker
No, no, it was just a maniope. It was just a decent size maniope. I mean, I think it was like 20 feet by 10 feet maniope.
00:54:21
Darin Tingey
Yes.
00:54:22
Austin Decker
And, and that was like right next to our house. So, and and that was actually my first like stick house. I mean, we, we were there and, um, that house was like 10 feet by like eight feet. I mean, it was, it was, it was tiny.
00:54:38
Austin Decker
and And we just had like two lofted, like you have type beds. And then about, and about three feet of space between me and other class thing.
00:54:42
Darin Tingey
yes
00:54:45
Austin Decker
And that was it. I mean, that was the whole, the whole shebang was this tiny little hut with two bed two.
00:54:49
Darin Tingey
That was my house on my end, basically the same thing, same thing.
00:54:54
Austin Decker
don't know what to call them. I mean, they're, they're,
00:54:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah, they're there's stick beds.
00:54:57
Darin Tingey
No.
00:54:57
Austin Decker
Yeah, they're lifted they're lifted from the ground.
00:55:00
Austin Decker
They you lay on a bunch of sticks and no amount of Kias gets rid of all the ridges in those sticks. i was lucky.
00:55:08
Darin Tingey
oh
00:55:08
Austin Decker
I had been given like four or five Kias by that time. I brought them all out to lay on the sticks and yeah, learning to sleep on those.
00:55:20
Austin Decker
It was awesome.
00:55:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah, living in a stick cut, it's like, it's like, this is so cool, but at the same time, it like, this also sucks. ah
00:55:29
Austin Decker
Dude, I ended up getting pretty cold. So stick hut was pretty close to the ocean. And there were times when when like it was cold. Like I was like, man, I wish I had like like a blanket or a sheet or something. Like I ended up like getting dressed in my pants and like putting like two shirts on to like try and sleep because it ended up getting pretty chilly.
00:55:47
Darin Tingey
I was always so hot that i I wouldn't even sleep in my mosquito net because I felt like that made me even hotter.
00:55:53
Austin Decker
Oh, dude, that's a mistake.
00:55:56
Darin Tingey
hey
00:55:56
Austin Decker
Dude, you've got to be in the bonga, man. You've got to be in the bonga.
00:55:58
Darin Tingey
a Well, I would just like light like two or three moon tigers and be like, pray like, please don't mosquitoes get me tonight.
00:56:02
Austin Decker
the
00:56:07
Austin Decker
I hope the fairs work. There were some times where I had holes in my bungas and I was like, i have to spend, i got to find a store on this island that has another bunga because I am just getting bit and eaten alive,
00:56:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah, no, I remember every evening in Kitabas, oh my gosh, it was be like, it hit like the sun was going down and you could just hear the mosquitoes wake up from the forest and like come out.
00:56:27
Austin Decker
scared of the mosquitoes. but but forest and like that yeah the idea it's it's been something and i actually one of the
00:56:32
Darin Tingey
Oh, it was terrible.
00:56:39
Austin Decker
In Abamama, I was getting dressed in the morning and I i put on ah my my pants and and I actually had a scorpion crawl out of my pants when I was when i was out there. As I was like sitting cross-legged doing my studies, I had a scorpion crawl out of my pants du while I was out there.
00:56:55
Austin Decker
and I snagg got some pictures of it. It was the craziest thing. I checked my pants for like five months before I put them on. like I would put my hands in my pants and like move it around. and i wasn't going to put those pants on again without checking.
00:57:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:57:07
Austin Decker
and Yeah, it was interesting.
00:57:09
Darin Tingey
I had never seen a scorpion there. mean,
00:57:11
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was. I rarely did, but I found them in my pants. that' That's all I know.
00:57:17
Darin Tingey
i mean I'm from Arizona, so I'm used to scorpions. And same thing, like my towel, I'm like, I shake it off every day.
00:57:23
Austin Decker
Yeah, see.
00:57:23
Darin Tingey
I shake it off. Even though I don't live in Arizona, I don't have to worry about that anymore.
00:57:26
Austin Decker
it's It's not an Iowa thing.
00:57:27
Darin Tingey
But
00:57:27
Austin Decker
There are no ah are no scorpions in the cornfields.
00:57:28
Darin Tingey
but
00:57:30
Austin Decker
there
00:57:31
Darin Tingey
and for There was a lot of centipedes. At least on the Marshall side, there were centipedes. I don't know if I ever saw one in Kittabos.
00:57:36
Austin Decker
Yeah. Well, Abamama had a ton of frogs, ton of frogs and nowhere else.
00:57:41
Darin Tingey
Hmm.
00:57:43
Austin Decker
My mission. I think I remember them saying that was kind of like a unique thing to Abamama that, I mean, we had, we had tons and tons of frogs, but even in our house outside. I mean, in the morning at night, there would just be all over the place.
00:57:55
Austin Decker
When you're biking on the road, you tried your best not to hit like ah hundred frogs on your way home. mean, it was, it was interesting.
00:58:03
Darin Tingey
Did you eat them ever?
00:58:05
Austin Decker
No, thank goodness. We did not. We did not. I mean, there was, I had a lot of really good food in that room.
00:58:10
Darin Tingey
so
00:58:14
Austin Decker
And that was, that we got blessed quite a bit out there. We had some really sweet, sweet food.
00:58:21
Darin Tingey
How long were you on Avonade for?
00:58:23
Austin Decker
ah Almost five months, I think.
00:58:27
Darin Tingey
And then did you both get transferred off or did one of you get transferred off of?
00:58:29
Austin Decker
No, Klatt ended up staying for quite a while. So after that, he ended up staying out there, I think again for Almost like three months, maybe, maybe even longer. And then, and then he went straight to my Anna.
00:58:42
Austin Decker
So he, he had, he had a good, good run of outer islands there.
00:58:43
Darin Tingey
Dang.
00:58:47
Austin Decker
he had, he had really kind of, mean, that was most of his mission. I think by time he came into Ottawa, he had just served well over a year on outer islands.
00:58:57
Darin Tingey
So crazy. it's it's It's crazy how that can be.
00:58:58
Austin Decker
Yeah.
00:58:59
Darin Tingey
And you can just like not see anyone besides your companion for the whole first year, year and a half of your mission. Yeah.
00:59:06
Austin Decker
Yeah, yeah, it was great. It was great. But I loved, i loved Mammoth so much. i I really enjoyed the experience of living, you know, in the hut and kind of living the way they did. The bathroom was pretty funny.
00:59:17
Austin Decker
It was kind of just like the cement, like pole in the ground that they just like poured.
00:59:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Rocky. Yeah.
00:59:22
Austin Decker
Yeah, but but it was funny.
00:59:22
Darin Tingey
Ah.
00:59:23
Austin Decker
like like like you could like I would go in, and I made a mistake the first time of not, but you'd go in, you'd pour water in there, and like cockroaches would fly out of the toilet. And so like the first couple times, Clatt and I went there, and we did not do that. It was it was a harrowing experience.
00:59:38
Austin Decker
I'm going to be sitting on a toilet where cockroaches are trying to escape you know flying out. ah it was It was something. But it was great, dude.
00:59:46
Darin Tingey
ah
00:59:47
Austin Decker
I loved it so much.
00:59:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the Roki, I remember like my, towards the end of my time Mayanna, I felt like ah ah Roki like wasn't really flushing. Does that make sense? I was like, I don't know if the hole is big enough down there what, but we need to figure this out ASAP.
00:59:59
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:00:01
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. And Mayanna, did you like have to get your own water out of the well and stuff?
01:00:07
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:00:08
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:00:08
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:00:09
Austin Decker
Yep. So we got good at that. That was a, that was a unique skill to have to learn. I mean, I thought you could do it really well and pull it up with all the water, but it takes a little bit to get that bucket to get into the well, right.
01:00:19
Austin Decker
And get your water up.
01:00:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:00:21
Austin Decker
I mean.
01:00:21
Darin Tingey
It's a, it's a skill. late Yeah. Cause he you put the bucket down and it'll just float on the top unless you, unless you know how to like jerk it, you know, and then it, and then it fills up.
01:00:27
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:00:31
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. We did learn though. We had a kid this person come show us. They ended ended up putting like it was like a padlock or something that like weighted the side that was there. So it would like dip in on its own and and we ended up getting pretty good at it, but yeah, it was. Yeah. So we had to get our own water every morning, all the flush water. that the same water. We would pump through the filters to try to get drinking water and,
01:00:54
Austin Decker
I got really good out there. I hated cold showers. I hated cold showers. I don't think any amount of time I'm imagining it could have made me used to cold showers. But when I got in Abamameh, I learned that if you did got your water out in the morning and then you left it sitting in the sun all day,
01:01:11
Austin Decker
And if you planned a shower before dinner, if you could get a dinner close to home, you could get a hot bucket shower from the sun heated water. And and that was those were the greatest days when I found out I could just make warm showers by leaving the water in the sun all day long.
01:01:28
Darin Tingey
Dude, you're crazy. I wanted a cold shower from being in the hot sun all day.
01:01:31
Austin Decker
No, I i do.
01:01:32
Darin Tingey
i was
01:01:33
Austin Decker
I mean, i just kid it. I, sometimes I remember being into Mikey when I first got there, like staring up at the shower and i was like, I cannot get myself to even turn this on. I mean, I hated cold water. i hate it still to this day.
01:01:47
Austin Decker
There's no way I could take a cold shower, like willingly, even at any point. I mean, I
Daily Life Challenges
01:01:52
Austin Decker
could be, i can be in kiddo this where I'm sweating all the time or not and wanting a warm shower.
01:01:52
Darin Tingey
Oh,
01:01:57
Darin Tingey
that's crazy. That's crazy.
01:01:58
Austin Decker
Yep. Yeah.
01:01:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I remember getting my water water from the well, like i up one night just puking my guts out and just coming out both ends and
01:02:00
Austin Decker
So,
01:02:10
Austin Decker
ah but that Those are the moments, dude.
01:02:13
Darin Tingey
I had to like go get water from the well and like just throw it on the ground where I just puked all over spread it out.
01:02:20
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:02:21
Darin Tingey
Cause it was like where we showered, like the cement slab of where we showered.
01:02:23
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:02:25
Darin Tingey
So was like, this is the worst. It was the worst night.
01:02:27
Austin Decker
Yeah, dude, I know it's it's rough. We had some ceremonial burnings of some. Clatt went home with a lot less clothing from Abinamah to wherever he went to Miami.
01:02:38
Austin Decker
I mean, we had so but some things that had to get burned just from moments out there.
01:02:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:45
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was it was great. I mean, it was fun. So then i leave Abinamahah and I get called the zone leader. so I come into Tatawa. I hadn't been on Tadwa in a long time. I mean, I spent like two months in Tadarek and then the rest has been Tadwa yet.
01:03:01
Austin Decker
So then come in and I'm zone leader with Butterfield. that was a big change. um One, I learned how to drive stick with my left hand. ah So, so you, I had a German stick before, but then you're also driving on the wrong side of the road and you're shifting with your left hand.
01:03:09
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:03:15
Austin Decker
So super interesting to learn to drive both on one side and learn how to drive stick with your left hand. But I did find coming home. I did have a stick shift car waiting for me at home. um and And shifting with the right was just as easy. So it was weird, though.
01:03:30
Austin Decker
I kept like wanting to like use my left hand and then using my right anyways.
01:03:33
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:03:34
Austin Decker
But yeah.
01:03:36
Darin Tingey
I, I, yeah, I, I was freaked out when I saw the first, when I was in the, I've told the story before, but I hopped in the car when I got picked up from the airport and I was just like, so scared because the guy who should have been in the driver's seat kept turning around and talking to us the whole time.
01:03:53
Austin Decker
yeah
01:03:54
Darin Tingey
And I was like, dude, you got watch the road. I was like, oh wait, it's the other guy that's driving. and
01:03:58
Austin Decker
Yeah, because up in Marshalls, it's it's you know normal how we do over here. so
01:04:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it freaked me out, dude. like Even though I knew, like every time a guy turned around, be like, bro, you got to watch the Road.
01:04:09
Austin Decker
Yeah. Well, and driving in Kitabas is not, you know, at least back then. Now i I understand they redid the road. I don't know if it's still just as crazy with people walking on it and, and people moving.
01:04:17
Darin Tingey
Oh, it is.
01:04:20
Austin Decker
I mean, it's
Leadership and Community Engagement
01:04:21
Austin Decker
nuts. It's, it's definitely driving in a very different experience. It feels like, you know, you watch those crazy videos of people driving in India and it feels very much like that. And then you're also learning how to drive stick. It was, it was, it was a scary experience, but but we did do that and and we did get the vans and,
01:04:38
Austin Decker
began the zone leader life of, you know, moving people around on the Island and doing a lot of the stats and helping get missionaries, the stuff that they need and, and doing a lot of that. And, and that was a very new experience too, but I really enjoyed that too. I mean, I think Cody Sias, when he came on, did a good job of you know, kind of expressing that that ended up being a pretty cool experience in the mission that you're kind of serving the missionaries in a way while you're also teaching. And that was awesome.
01:05:11
Austin Decker
That was really great. And ATA, ATA is amazing. i mean i mean, i think out of the six months i ended up being in ATA, I think I ate in my house like less than 10 times. I mean, i we met we always had a dinner and the ward always filled up the the food calendar.
01:05:32
Austin Decker
We started that when we got there. And I mean, it was great. I mean, we got fed all the time. The food was great. The odor was great. The bandy May was great. and And then after I was with Butterfield, I got Elder Syus.
01:05:42
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:05:45
Austin Decker
He came in from ah Christmas Island. and And then there was these couple houses that always made banana bread. in And did Syus devour the banana bread, dude?
01:05:55
Darin Tingey
oh
01:05:56
Austin Decker
He loved it. I'm not a huge banana bread fan. So, like, so I'm not a big banana fan in general. But, like,
01:06:02
Darin Tingey
even even
Cultural Exchange and Education
01:06:03
Darin Tingey
Even the kidnavas bananas. like I feel like the Pacific bananas are way different.
01:06:06
Austin Decker
Yes. I loved the bananas out there a ton. Still wasn't a huge fan of the banana bread, but man, we got so much banana bread and Cody ate so much banana bread. It was crazy.
01:06:18
Austin Decker
And it was awesome. No, I mean, the work was good. and And like he had said, I mean, that was like, I think when we were, i was at my peak as far as like language goes and understanding, you know, your calling as a missionary and what you're supposed to be doing.
01:06:33
Austin Decker
And so, I mean, we had tons and tons of lessons. We did green tons of baptisms. The work was progressing. The one was awesome. They helped out a lot. I still keep in touch with a lot of them on on Facebook. You know, a lot of them ended up going and going to BYU to Hawaii and and they were just so faithful.
01:06:51
Austin Decker
A couple of the YSA from that ward ended up serving in Marshalls while I was up at AP. So it was so cool to see them up there. i mean, it was just, ATL was a dream. I mean, it was just what you would imagine mission was supposed to work as. Like, that was that was great.
01:07:07
Austin Decker
It was was awesome.
01:07:09
Darin Tingey
And you the high school there too which is is so huge.
01:07:12
Austin Decker
Yep.
01:07:13
Darin Tingey
I mean, i wish I wish the church had a church high school in every Pacific nation. Like the church would just boom. it Where the church has a high school, you've seen the church just grow like crazy.
01:07:21
Austin Decker
Yep.
01:07:26
Austin Decker
Yep. Yep. And it's good. and and And you get a lot of people that, you know, the church high school does a really good job of helping them learn English. And so a lot of them are able to go to New Zealand and go to Australia and go to these places and utilize that quite well. I mean, I think KG5 and things like that also teach English, but the, the,
01:07:46
Austin Decker
out of mostly the youth you speak to, I mean, I felt like members had way better
Special Assignment in Mayanna
01:07:52
Austin Decker
English than non-members and, and Mero and I did a really good job, you know, helping them learn and and giving them experiences and allowing them to kind of get out of the country and get new things and new experiences and opportunities.
01:08:07
Darin Tingey
Was it?
01:08:08
Austin Decker
So it was good.
01:08:10
Darin Tingey
Was it also, just thought about this, you know, you come from a place where you grew up and you're, it was a small branch.
01:08:17
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:08:17
Darin Tingey
And then you go to Kitabas, where the church is still like, young, in a sense, but there's more members that all the branches that you're at, then at home.
01:08:28
Darin Tingey
Was that kind of weird to you?
01:08:28
Austin Decker
yeah Yeah, 100%. I mean, there are times in Appamame or in Tadoyeta where I had more people in the church than I did at home. Yeah, it was it was interesting. I mean, sometimes like you'd get like the joke, like, oh, it's so tiny, like, you know, around here.
01:08:42
Austin Decker
and i was like, actually, I mean, I went to a smaller church in in the United States. And they're like, no way. and it's big Yeah, I mean, there are branches that are smaller than even what you have here, even in the United States.
01:08:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:52
Austin Decker
Yeah. So, yeah, it was it was interesting.
01:08:56
Darin Tingey
So ah during your time as only there's this one you got to go to Anna.
01:08:56
Austin Decker
Yep.
01:09:00
Austin Decker
Yeah, we did. So we had a little bit of a special assignment. President Weir, and people have talked about it, he did it he he really pushed to open out our islands and to get to get them an opportunity to hear the gospel as well. And so he had a big push to open those out.
01:09:14
Austin Decker
And one of them was Mayanna. And Mayanna hadn't had members for a long time. And so he had sent me and was one of the last things Elder Mickelson did, which again, it's just great. It just kept coming back to me and Mickelson from the beginning, you know, going to the end.
01:09:25
Darin Tingey
Cool.
01:09:27
Austin Decker
We got the special assignment to go to Mayena and just find what we could and see if we could find somebody who would be willing to rent, you know, the ability for missionaries to live there or there a place we could hold church.
01:09:40
Austin Decker
How many people, how many members were there? You know, if there are people willing to listen to the gospel there. And so we ended up just finding a captain that was willing to take the Liahona down.
01:09:51
Austin Decker
And so we got on the Liahota and went to Mayena and good them but we had no idea where we're going. no idea where we're landing. We had no, idea we had nobody there. And so it was just like me and Mickelson and our captain were just like going up. i was like, where should we like park the boat?
01:10:06
Austin Decker
Like where, where do we even get off? Like, like how do we find somewhere to sleep?
01:10:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:10:10
Austin Decker
How do we find like, you know, somebody to feed us or to what, like, what do where are we going to spend these next days that we're here? And, uh, Oh man, mean, it was a miracle after miracle. I mean, we just sat there in the lagoon, Mickelson and I kind of prayed about where to go. And we saw this kind of, you know, group of huts over there off to one side. And we just were like, we really feel strongly about that. So we'd go over there, we get the boat as close as we can, and then it anchors in and then we wait out, you know, across the lagoon and, and, and,
01:10:42
Austin Decker
quite a ways and then get to this hut and you know, maudi maudi, and then go in and talk to them and they ask them how they're doing, tell them they're missionaries and kind of explain what we're doing there.
01:10:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:10:53
Austin Decker
And then they gave us their booyah, like just straight up. They're like, yeah, that's awesome. We'll go ahead and we'll move. We'll move some of the stuff off of this booyah out here. And we would love to have you here. We'd love to hear what you have to say. You know, we've seen the missionaries on the Island and, and Don Tadama when they've gone and,
01:11:09
Austin Decker
kind of just want to hear the gospel. And that was our, you know, we get there and we teach the first lesson right away. And then they give us the spot to stay and then they feed us the first night. And then they find this family.
01:11:18
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
01:11:19
Austin Decker
Yeah, it was crazy. And so we kind of explained to them that we're going to leave in the morning. We had gotten missed the President Weir's OK to read adepedepe, which, by the way, is my favorite kid of his word of all time. My brother, everybody in my family loves it.
01:11:35
Austin Decker
Nobody knows adepedepe is what they call a motorcycle. And it's because it sounds like that when they're riding it out there, because they use these small, like they're Chinese made and they just like adepedepe, adepedepe, adepedepe, and they're like running. And so it's my favorite
Adventures and Assignments
01:11:48
Austin Decker
kid of his word of all time.
01:11:49
Austin Decker
did up a dipe So we get a dip-a-dip-a and then we just kind of go up and down the island and we stop it everywhere we can. We introduce ourselves. And then by the end of the first day, i mean, we we do it kind of right away in the morning, wake up because we, think we spent like three or four days there. Maybe it was our plan and wake up in the morning, get on and try to find as many people as we can.
01:12:11
Austin Decker
And I mean, by the end of the first day, we had 12 lessons taught. We had like 27 investigators. You know, it was like the craziest thing to just sit there and go on the island. We we found, you know, lunches, we found dinners. Everybody's inviting us in. They have lost a say.
01:12:26
Austin Decker
it was just miracle after miracle after miracle of just finding these people. We found members that hadn't gone to church in forever since the church left. I mean, I think it'd been like six or seven years, something crazy that the church hadn't really been on the island.
01:12:36
Darin Tingey
A long time.
01:12:38
Austin Decker
And so, you know, you get people that are just super excited. As soon as we're driving, they're yelling, it's like, yeah, loses out there's like we're members of the church. And so you swing by and talk to them and get their names down and bring it back. And I mean, it was just, it was so, so cool.
01:12:51
Austin Decker
It was, it was such an awesome experience to get out there and just have no idea what we're getting into. where we're going to go, what we're going to do. And I mean, the Lord always has a plan and, and, and blessings were just poured out upon us.
01:13:03
Austin Decker
I mean, it was, it was super cool. And then we opened the Island, clap one out and then, you know, eventually you make it to Mayena. It's just, it's there.
01:13:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Do you remember what village you you landed in when you when you first came in?
01:13:17
Austin Decker
Um, I think, I think I do. I'm pretty sure I wrote it down. uh, yeah. It's a bang. So what?
01:13:25
Darin Tingey
Devangsua? Yeah, that's ah the government village. Okay.
01:13:28
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. That's ended up kind of being where we landed.
01:13:29
Darin Tingey
ok
01:13:31
Austin Decker
It was kind of around Tvangsua. Um,
01:13:34
Darin Tingey
and And is that where the, so that's where you got a booyah. And then did, is that where the missionaries came and stayed when they first got there?
01:13:41
Austin Decker
I can't, I can't remember. There was a couple spots that, that we had found that I think we're willing to do that and, and we're members of the church and understood, you know, they had been to other outer islands and they had kind of seen that, you know, the missionaries wound up staying kind of with them and, and then the church would meet there. And, and so there was a couple spots and then, um,
01:14:03
Austin Decker
By the time I came back, that was about the time I got called the AP. and and And so we kind sent them out. And can't remember if that was a place where they had it.
01:14:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Well, because there's this there's a story, there was a story, like the family that I stayed with, they they were in Dora and they had told me a story about how they ran into the missionaries in the Bungsua on Abuya.
01:14:24
Darin Tingey
And they're like, what are you guys doing here? Like you guys should come stay with us anyway. And then that's kind of eventually how it happened. So I'm always curious, like, no, what, you know, I'd be curious in like what time that was at the beginning or was that you guys or something else, but so cool.
01:14:33
Austin Decker
It's like wet tide. Yeah.
01:14:38
Austin Decker
Yeah. Well, that's so cool. Yeah. I mean, it was just, we just, we just drove around kind of or not drove. I mean, we're on a boat. We just kind of went up and went, went a little bit and was just kind of looking for something to, you know, spark a thought of maybe that's the place to be. And then one did and and everything ended up working out. I mean, it was the very first spot. They were like, we would love to have you here and gave us a booyah and taught them. And it was great, dude. It was amazing. It was so cool. it was all my favorite experiences.
01:15:04
Austin Decker
Coming home was very sketchy. so coming Or coming back to Tatawa from Mayena on Tiriona. I mean, it was very sketchy. It was, I've never been so seasick in my life. There were some very
Festivities and Responsibilities
01:15:15
Austin Decker
big waves.
01:15:15
Austin Decker
There was a period of time where i didn't didn't know we were going to make it um to some of it. We were kind of running out of gas and the captain was like, we really kind of need to push it.
01:15:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:24
Austin Decker
I'm going kind of get as as fast as we can safely as we can, because we're kind of running out of gas and we can't stall it out here going slow. And so, made it back safe. Leona ended up making back with no issues, no damage to the Leona.
01:15:40
Austin Decker
And, uh,
01:15:40
Darin Tingey
there There's been people that have sunk just going from Tarawa to Mayena and people that have died. I met someone who survived a boat trip. Her boat sunk in between Tarawa and Mayena and she was like the only one that lived.
01:15:53
Darin Tingey
It's crazy.
01:15:53
Austin Decker
Yeah, dude, it was rough. It was rough seas. And Mickelson, he wakeboarded before he went on his mission, so he's used to that. But even he was getting pretty pretty quick pretty queasy, and it was this it was getting a little sketchy. i mean, we were saying some pretty heartfelt prayers. We were hanging on to the sides of the boat for quite a while, and it's not a short trip.
01:16:14
Austin Decker
I mean, it's it's still a few hours in there and And I mean, this point where you're not seeing the the land when you're in the boat. I mean, from both sides, you're not seeing Mayana from Tatawa. So you're out there ah little bit. And yeah, it was great. The blessings.
01:16:30
Austin Decker
Nobody got hurt. nobody Everybody was safe. Mayana making it to Tatawa. And yeah.
01:16:34
Darin Tingey
so So when you found out you were going to be AP, right?
01:16:38
Austin Decker
Yep.
01:16:39
Darin Tingey
At that time, APs were stayed in the marshals.
01:16:42
Austin Decker
yep
01:16:43
Darin Tingey
Were you...
01:16:44
Austin Decker
Which is crazy they don't now. I mean, so cool. So cool. i I cannot. I wish. I i wish. But it was great. I ended up going up to the marshals. And they had kind of just started.
01:16:56
Austin Decker
Is it like air mods or or air marshals or um martial air or something?
01:16:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Air Marshal.
01:17:01
Austin Decker
They had just started that flight from Marshall Islands to Kitabas. And so I ended up taking that up um with the mission president. And he told me it was going to be a short stint.
01:17:13
Austin Decker
He told me it was going to be just a few months. And then he was going to have me back in Kitabas to die. And to you know have my moment not being in leadership, you know not being zone leader, just being a ah missionary again on an outer line with nothing else to worry about but the gospel and teaching. It did not work that way.
01:17:33
Austin Decker
and It did not. he got me up there. and I ended up having a va'uluk. He was a Samoan and I got up there right before beat. So that was a super cool experience.
01:17:44
Austin Decker
It was so interesting, so different. He did nothing like that in Kitavis.
01:17:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:17:49
Austin Decker
um and And so i get up there with Vaulu. We do the beat, which um I think some of the other Marshallese, elders and sisters have talked about, but it's like a whole island wide, like dance fest. It's just dancing on Christmas day.
01:18:05
Austin Decker
and and everybody like does these big group dances and they do it in churches. They do it kind of like like these public places, like everybody, everybody's basically dancing all over the island and and Christmas is the coolest thing. It is such a cool experience.
01:18:21
Austin Decker
And so I got to experience that.
01:18:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Christmas is like the biggest celebration in the Marshall Islands, like the biggest one.
01:18:25
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. So I get up there after about six months of Zillinger, December 19th, I get up there and um you know, we did try to do some lessons, but I think also during that time, most of your evening, especially when you're with a ward, like we spent practicing our beat dance.
01:18:43
Austin Decker
So there was a couple hours in the evenings that you're not teaching lessons because you're with a ward and and with them and you're preparing this dance.
01:18:43
Darin Tingey
Yes.
01:18:49
Austin Decker
And so,
01:18:50
Darin Tingey
The whole month of December is just beat every night for hours.
01:18:56
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. So we did that and that was awesome. That was fun. um But that was a very short stint with Elder Va'ulu. And then I get Josh Sherman. So everybody knows Sherman, everyone that serves there. I'd
Cultural and Logistical Differences
01:19:09
Austin Decker
like to say that I was the one that helped him learn Kitibus the most.
01:19:14
Austin Decker
You know, we spent, I think, five months together, me and Sherman as AP. um So by far my longest companionship. You know, i I love Josh so much.
01:19:26
Austin Decker
We still communicate to this day and keep in touch. And, and, um, when he was in the MTC teaching, i ended up coming down and doing, I think it was called like TRC or something at the time.
01:19:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah, DLC or something.
01:19:38
Austin Decker
and
01:19:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah, something like that.
01:19:40
Austin Decker
Something like that. I don't know. But I went down and did that for a little bit for them a couple of times, both Marshallese and then a little bit in Kitabas. I ah did that for them. And it was a short stint of basically being APs, like a normal AP. Like you do a lot of training, you do a lot of, still do some stuff. But then right about that time, we had three separate senior couples all leave the Marshall Islands.
01:20:03
Austin Decker
And then we had no senior couples coming in. And so both sets of the senior couples that were working in the office, you know, they, they left. And then the senior couples are in charge of housing and like the stipend people's like their monies and the bank stuff they left.
01:20:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:20
Austin Decker
And so then me and Sherman ended up just being three senior couples working in the office and being office elders, which was so different. I mean, so different both from coming from Kitabas to the Marshall Islands, which it's crazy. I mean,
01:20:36
Austin Decker
I understand. Mark's audience is not America. i mean, don't any of the missionaries going out there, don't believe you're going to America, but coming from kid abyss, it felt like this it felt like you were coming to like a ghetto part of Hawaii, just a rundown part of, of Hawaii.
01:20:45
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:20:52
Austin Decker
You get your like supermarkets. That was a crazy people are selling like taquitos and like pizza things and hamburgers. And there's like an actual barber, like a legit barber up there. I mean, it was the craziest thing.
01:21:05
Austin Decker
And then we get into office and so yeah, it was crazy. I mean, me and Sherman were doing like the housing contracts. Like we were renewing the leases on the housings.
01:21:16
Austin Decker
We were going to the bank and depositing the money to all the missionaries and their banks. I mean, we were just, we were doing everything. We were buying presidents, you know, plane tickets to wherever he's going to Fiji to all that.
01:21:26
Darin Tingey
Why it's, uh, and
01:21:29
Austin Decker
and And he had just changed it up to where he had kind of, tried to plan it out where he was doing about a third of his time in the Marshall Islands, a third of his time in Kitabas. And then a third of his time was like at, you know, mission presidents had trains and stuff too, like in New Zealand and travel time.
01:21:44
Austin Decker
Cause you had to go through Christmas still in Fiji. And there was a lot of travel time too.
01:21:49
Darin Tingey
and then
01:21:49
Austin Decker
So me and Sherman were planning out president, we're travel schedules and booking his flights and in the office eight to five answering phone calls and, and just,
01:22:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you guys were operations. You were mission operations right there.
01:22:04
Austin Decker
It was crazy. It was crazy. my My grandparents were serving in Fiji at the time. I got to talk to them on the phone because they were in Fiji like doing their stuff as like they were they were doing ah church education stuff. And so we had some church education education stuff that we needed to communicate with.
01:22:19
Austin Decker
And I ended up talking to my grandparents and then they're serving down Fiji because I was just chilling in the office.
01:22:21
Darin Tingey
So cool.
01:22:24
Austin Decker
well What would have been a senior couple was just me and Sherman. And so president tried so hard. He tried so hard to get senior couples to come out and replace us. It just didn't happen.
01:22:35
Austin Decker
I just ended up dying AP, dying as an office elder. And he did get us out of the office for a few trips. So I did end up going to Christmas. We did spend some time in Honolulu.
01:22:47
Austin Decker
Me and Sherman actually got to do a temple session in the Laie Temple.
01:22:51
Darin Tingey
No way.
01:22:51
Austin Decker
which is so cool. It was so cool. I had got Buffalo Wild Wings when i was out there. i think you're not supposed to do that. Like when we were out there, we we ran into some members that were like, where do you what do you want? it was like, I want some Buffalo Wild Wings so bad. and so I ended up going to B-dubs while i was in Hawaii as AP. That was crazy.
01:23:09
Darin Tingey
great.
01:23:10
Austin Decker
And i remember us, we had like a two day layover or something weird in Hawaii. And so we ended up going to like the Polynesian Cultural Center there while we were there. And they ended up seeing us. And I cannot tell you the number of people that were like, elders, you're not supposed to be here.
01:23:23
Austin Decker
Like, I guess it's not, I guess it's a spot like missionaries in Hawaii aren't going and aren't supposed to go. So them seeing us there. We had like people like call the Hawaii mission and like let them know that
01:23:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
Mission Reflection and Return
01:23:35
Austin Decker
missionaries were like not in the zone they were supposed to be in and they weren't supposed to be there.
01:23:39
Austin Decker
President Weir got a phone call from like the Hawaii mission president asking about us to confirm that like we were supposed to be wandering Hawaii. the president ended up giving us some instructions on the way home about you know what we should and shouldn't do while we're in Hawaii.
01:23:54
Darin Tingey
little vacation, little vacation on the mesh.
01:23:56
Austin Decker
It was weird. Yeah. We were like, well, what do we do? we had a whole day and was like, well, we're going to go find some Kitabas people and some Marshallese people. And you're going to find those in the Polynesian Cultural Center. And so that's what we did.
01:24:06
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:24:07
Austin Decker
We went to Laie. We found some RMs from Kitabas. We found some RMs from the Marshall side, you know, hung out with them. It was, it was cool. And then I got to come down to Kitabas and do you know, a couple trips.
01:24:19
Austin Decker
I went to Appamameh, went to Abayangh. But that um that might have been it. I think we did those three when we were down there just to visit some so missionaries and get back home. And Butaritari got some of the bananas and and some papaya and got to see Mickelson up there again right before he went home. It was it was great.
01:24:39
Austin Decker
It was was awesome.
01:24:42
Darin Tingey
I'm glad you got to go back to Kitabas, you know, as AP.
01:24:44
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:24:46
Darin Tingey
and And I mean, so cool to go see these outer islands too. And like, that's such a unique experience that I i wish I had.
01:24:50
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:24:54
Darin Tingey
Cause there's like the odds of me ever seeing those islands are like, it's like so slim.
01:24:55
Austin Decker
The odds of me ever.
01:25:00
Darin Tingey
Like going back, I just don't have the time to go back and like, see them like that, you know?
01:25:01
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:25:05
Austin Decker
And so after your four months in Mayana, you and did you go AP? Was it back to the Marshalls?
01:25:10
Darin Tingey
Oh, I was never AP or zone leader.
01:25:12
Austin Decker
and Okay.
01:25:13
Darin Tingey
I just... I had gone to Kiribati because we needed more missionaries in Kiribati, apparently.
01:25:19
Austin Decker
Yep.
01:25:20
Darin Tingey
And then we got sent to Outer Islands. And then was on manna for four and a months. president brings me back Tarawa. He's like, I've got an assignment for you. like, sweet. I'm finally going to be on Tarawa for a little bit. I get to meet some people from the Kiribati side. Like...
01:25:37
Darin Tingey
whatever, maybe go to another Outer Island and Kitabas. And he's like, you're going back to the Marsh Islands. I'm like, bro, you just sent me here. Like, come on.
01:25:45
Austin Decker
yeah yeah Gosh.
01:25:47
Darin Tingey
But it was great because I still got to do i got to do a Kitabas branch in Maduro.
01:25:47
Austin Decker
Yeah. but
01:25:52
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:25:52
Darin Tingey
um I got to start a Kitabas branch, which was so fun.
01:25:55
Austin Decker
Oh, that's so cool. So cool.
01:25:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:25:57
Austin Decker
We were up there always finding less actors. I mean, so us being office elders, we ended up spending, we taught seminary in Long Island. That was like our assignment. So we would be in the office and then and our P days were Saturdays, which so weird because we had to be in the office on Monday, eight to five.
01:26:14
Austin Decker
And so we had our P days on Saturdays, but we ended up
01:26:14
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:26:18
Austin Decker
doing office. Then we tried to find some Kitabas less actives. um And Sherman used his Kitabas as best as he could out there to to help some of those lessons. And then we would teach seminary in the evening before coming back home. But yeah, we we did find a number of Kitabas less actives up there and and tried to help them come back. And then we did have some in long island some kitabas youth that were seminary and and it was easier for them with kitabas and and speaking some of that to them too so it was it was great
01:26:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i it's only grown. The kiddo community in the marshals has gotten bigger and bigger because they they go over there for work work. They can get paid more in the marsh islands.
01:26:59
Austin Decker
yeah
01:26:59
Darin Tingey
So in Mieko, which is in like the Uliga ward boundaries, there's so there's a huge manieve. And there's just tons of kiddo people there.
01:27:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:27:10
Austin Decker
That's so cool. There's builder on the Nieve up there.
01:27:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah. and And being an elder that speaks Kitabas in the Marshall Islands is so fun because no one expects you to speak Kitabas to them. And you know I can tell the difference between a Kitabas person Marshallese person.
01:27:22
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:27:25
Darin Tingey
And so I'd walk up and just, me married it's like oh my gosh, what?
01:27:26
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:27:30
Darin Tingey
And then yeah it was is awesome.
01:27:31
Austin Decker
I loved it.
01:27:34
Austin Decker
Yeah. Yeah. Cause you could see them and of course you can tell who the kid this person is. So we'd be starting to see something like that. I'm going to talk to that person in kid. Yep. I have a hundred percent. I've got to give it in. And so it was great. It was awesome.
01:27:46
Austin Decker
And, and, and your name, Elder Singy, obviously you, how was my Anna with, with Elder Singy?
01:27:50
Darin Tingey
ah
01:27:51
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:27:51
Darin Tingey
I know it was so hard, man. just got made fun of so much with the sing. Your name's Elder Fart.
01:27:57
Austin Decker
yeah
01:27:58
Darin Tingey
In the Marshall Islands, i went by Elder Danky, which is Flashlight. and that They love that too, but that was way better than Singy.
01:28:04
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:28:05
Darin Tingey
than singing
01:28:05
Austin Decker
Yeah. I had Elder Deca. So Elder Word. Deca and Decker ended up fitting well together. So there's actually a, ah she's not a baby now, but there was a baby that was named, her last name is Decker. They gave her my last name in Tadaneke.
01:28:20
Austin Decker
And so if anybody knows her name is Jamie Decker, she's got the widest name, but she was a kid this baby out there.
01:28:20
Darin Tingey
That's so sick.
01:28:26
Austin Decker
See, I think she's 12 now almost because ah maybe even 13. It was pretty early my mission that she was born. So there's a 13 year old Jamie Decker, maybe Susan Moore and I know, you know.
01:28:37
Darin Tingey
That's how you know you've made it as a missionary when they name a kid after you. Like that's on lie. There was a little kid named back backpack because there was an elder backpack or something like like that.
01:28:48
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:28:49
Darin Tingey
And yeah, and it's just like on every, on every island, there was at least one kid named after a missionary.
01:28:54
Austin Decker
Was that Elder Peck? Was that his actual name? Or is really Elder Backpack?
01:28:57
Darin Tingey
I don't know. I don't know. the,
01:28:59
Austin Decker
Because Elder Peck was in my first MTC out, and he did go Marshall aside.
01:29:00
Darin Tingey
the
01:29:04
Austin Decker
um
01:29:05
Darin Tingey
ah you have to You have to ask him because they there was an elder that went Elder Backpack and this kid was named Backpack and he's the cutest kid ever.
01:29:09
Austin Decker
Yeah, I'll reach out and see.
01:29:13
Austin Decker
Yeah. Dude, it's great. I love, funny, the kid of his names. We had an Elder Keem. Elder Kim went out there and that was a great, there was one story too. We had a kid of his elder, or he was, he's American. We went to kid of his side and he was from Colorado, which, you know, Colorado becomes the translation for, for Colorado. with Nobody knows what the means. Rato is,
01:29:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:35
Austin Decker
Yeah, it's ah it's a male body part. And so like Koro's cut. And so Koro Rato, anybody from Colorado, it's the greatest. You introduce yourself, you always say where you're from, and Koro Rato is just the best.
01:29:47
Austin Decker
And then his name was also Kakaoski, which his name is Kakaoski, but Kakaoski was his name, which in Kitabas means to be constantly showing people your butt. And so it was just like Elder Kogalski from Colorado. And it was the best, man.
01:30:01
Austin Decker
It was so great when names like that translate. So sure you have some great stories with Elder Singh.
01:30:06
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah, dude.
01:30:06
Austin Decker
I am. I'm sure.
01:30:08
Darin Tingey
Singing, man. ah I couldn't get, i was like trying to think of every way. Like, what? Is there another word? No, not just singing.
01:30:14
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:30:15
Darin Tingey
Well, and and you finished in the Marshall Islands, right?
01:30:16
Austin Decker
Yeah.
01:30:19
Darin Tingey
You died and you went straight from Marshall's home, right? Now back to Kittlebiss at all.
01:30:23
Austin Decker
I went. Yep. Straight Marshall's home from, from Maduro. And, uh, I mean, it was, it was good. Cyrus was up with me by then. So we had a sweet, you know, try painting ship of APs. You had, you had Cody and Josh and myself and,
01:30:39
Austin Decker
And those guys, you those are my boys. I did so good. We made some lifelong friendships. um Got to learn lot of cool things in Marshall's. I know one of the things you always ask everybody, favorite foods, Marshall's side, dude.
01:30:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:30:52
Austin Decker
Science did say that mango tang that we had with Thomas and his inism wife, so good. But he also did a lot of coconut crap. He had caught a lot of coconut crap. And So good. I loved it. I loved the coconut crab up there.
01:31:08
Austin Decker
um I love the beat.
01:31:09
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:31:11
Austin Decker
It's so cool. Kiddim aside, my favorite thing is just their kindness. I mean, it's just, they are so kind. They are so willing to help you out. I mean, it's it's it's amazing just when you go there and you and you And I think as a missionary, you get that. You're treated as a missionary, treated as somebody with respect, and they see you and they only want to give you the best, but i I also firmly believe it's not just because we're missionaries. I mean, they do that for everybody. I mean, all the time you go to a house and somebody is living with them and it's not their kid.
01:31:48
Austin Decker
It's not related to them. It's just somebody they know that needed a place to stay their family's on outer islands. So they're just living with them on the main islands and they just give up everything.
01:31:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:56
Austin Decker
I mean, they they give up their house, they give up their time, they take care of people and they're always willing to help each other out. it's it's It's amazing. And when you when you put that together with the gospel, I mean, it just fits right in. I mean, they're just so ready. They're so Christ-like and they get it. I mean, they they get what it means to to to help people and to Christ-centered life is a life focused on others.
01:32:23
Austin Decker
And they do that. I mean, they just, it's part of their culture and it's the best. I had so much... So much fun there. It's taught me so many things. I brought a name home. I gave it to my daughter. i do breakfastests teach my teach my wife and my kids how to speak Kitabas. They don't. It's hard to get.
01:32:42
Austin Decker
I've tried really hard. We're going to keep trying. um i It's so awesome. There's a BYU program where you learn Kitabas. It's just great. Yeah.
01:32:53
Austin Decker
I love it. It was truly the best, little more than two years for myself, the best two trips that I've had in my life. Both led me to Kitabas. So...
01:33:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah, amazing. and And what was your like ah what was your favorite at food in Kiribati and what was your favorite area?
01:33:09
Austin Decker
uh, Panty May. I'm a huge fan of Panty May. I, I loved it. I, no matter where I went, if I could booboo see for any food, it was always Panty May.
01:33:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:33:18
Austin Decker
it was always so great. Cause it's so easy for the good of his people to make. Everybody would make Panty May and everybody doesn't know there's a breadfruit. It's kind of starchy, but if you'd like, they would dice it and like these little circles and then they would just fry it. And it's like their form of like,
01:33:33
Austin Decker
french fries chips kind of thing and i was a huge fan of panameh i like the odor too i they they had this um it's like basically raw fish but it's in like a soup the and and they had like vegetables with it and it was also super good i got that a lot and um and yeah yeah i hope i'm saying that right i know that you can say some bad things who don't have the accent right but the
01:33:35
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:33:53
Darin Tingey
and That's a fan favorite. De Ororo is a fan favorite. a lot of people have been saying De Ororo.
01:34:00
Darin Tingey
ah
01:34:01
Austin Decker
But yeah, it it's it' great. My favorite. And my favorite area, it's hard to come up with a favorite area. i don't know. It's between Ata and Abamamam.
01:34:12
Austin Decker
I mean, I loved Abamamam. I love the people. I love being on an outer island. But as far as like the work we did and the members and, and, and the amount of success I felt like we were able to generate, I think Aita first was probably my favorite too.
01:34:29
Austin Decker
So
01:34:31
Darin Tingey
All right. Yeah. I mean, and that's, that's fun. Cause if you go back to Kitabas, like you can go your favorite area a lot easier than you can have a man.
01:34:37
Austin Decker
yeah, Aita is right there.
01:34:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:39
Austin Decker
It's great. It'd be hard to get to have mamut. I'm kind of, everybody's kind of talking about going back for the temple dedication. dosh I've contemplated in it. I don't know how many people are going trying to fly in and out of that country. i don't know.
01:34:53
Austin Decker
That may shut down airport for quite a while.
01:34:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Where's everyone going to stay? i don't know.
01:35:00
Austin Decker
i have no clue. There are going to be so many return missionaries there, though, but I bet you that's going to be quite the party of RMs during the temple dedication ceremony, so hopefully i can find a way to make it out.
01:35:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that'd be fun. Well, Austin, ah unique story, and I loved it. I loved hearing ah about the initial going out, coming back, and then going back out again just to see and, like, hear you just talk about it, how impactful it was in your life.
01:35:24
Austin Decker
this about it.
01:35:28
Darin Tingey
It's incredible. So thanks for coming on the pod. I'm glad you messaged me to hop on. i And this was another great episode of Dialing's Podcast.
01:35:39
Austin Decker
Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on. It's great. I love what you're doing. I love Kitabits. I love the RMs. It couldn't be a better podcast. Thanks, man.
01:35:46
Darin Tingey
Thanks.