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Episode 32: President John Larkin - Mission President of the Marshall Islands/Kiribati Mission 2016 - 2019
79 Plays1 month ago
President John and Sister Robyn Larkin’s path to becoming Mission Leaders in the Pacific began with their own conversions to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That personal conversion fueled a three-year journey of sacrifice and "laser-focused" diplomacy across the tiny islands of the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, and Nauru.
#MarshallIslandsMajuroMission #MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #MarshallIslands #Kiribati #Nauru #Majuro #Ebeye #Tarawa #Kiritmati #Ailinglaplap #Lae #Maiana #MissionPresident #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia
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Transcript
Intro
Introduction and Reunion
00:01:41
darintingey
All right, we are on with another episode of the islands podcast one that has been long time coming. Today we have an awesome guest and my mission president, President John Larkin.
00:01:56
darintingey
President so happy to have you on it's it's been, you know, almost 10 years since I started my mission and you started yours. ah
00:02:06
John Larkin
yeah Okay, well, it's nice to be here with you, Darren, and and your viewers.
00:02:07
darintingey
And, and anyway, we've got a lot to talk about today, but something that I just wanted to start with was just a ah quick background on, on you and i'll use John Larkin.
Conversion and Family
00:02:24
John Larkin
So background is raised Catholic. I was 30 years Catholic. was thirty years catholic And then two of my friends in the Catholic Church were baptised into our church.
00:02:38
John Larkin
And I spent one year trying to get them out of the church. So I studied a lot of anti-Mormon material in those early days. This is about 1982.
00:02:47
John Larkin
And a year later, I got baptized.
00:02:51
darintingey
this is
00:02:53
John Larkin
So I became pretty well read in the standard anti-arguments. And over time, the Spirit convinced me that the church was true. So I got baptized, baptized by one of my friends and confirmed by the other one, the two that I was trying to get out of the church.
00:03:14
darintingey
Very cool. That's so cool that they got to do that.
00:03:17
John Larkin
So I'm a convert to the church. Came in, I was just under 30 years old when I joined.
00:03:24
John Larkin
Yeah, so raised and grew up in Melbourne, Australia. um Pretty normal sort of life, school, sport, lot of sport. But once I joined the church in 1983, life really took off then.
00:03:36
John Larkin
life really took off then
00:03:39
darintingey
And were you married at the time or not yet?
00:03:43
John Larkin
I was married shortly after to Robyn, to Sister Larkin, so we got married in 1985, so it wasn't that long after.
00:03:51
darintingey
Okay.
00:03:52
John Larkin
I met her at a church function.
00:03:52
darintingey
and Okay, great. And she was a convert as well.
00:03:56
John Larkin
Yeah. She's a convert. She got baptised over in Perth on the Western Australian side.
00:04:04
darintingey
Okay.
00:04:04
John Larkin
And she happened to be in Melbourne where I was living at the time and came along to an event and we met and the rest is history.
00:04:12
darintingey
Yes. And how many kids do you guys have and grandkids?
00:04:15
John Larkin
We have six children now and 12 grandchildren.
00:04:19
darintingey
Okay. And I know you've had a lot of different professions and careers in your life, but I guess maybe some of the some of the bigger ones, what did
00:04:26
John Larkin
Sure.
Career and Mission Call
00:04:30
darintingey
you do for for a career?
00:04:30
John Larkin
Yeah. So I started my career when I was 16. I did an apprenticeship, what they call fitting and turning. So it's really an engineering type thing. I didn't like it. I left it. And then I went back to university and became a physical education teacher at a high secondary school, like college, and did that for about eight years.
00:04:47
darintingey
Yeah.
00:04:49
John Larkin
And then I left that and went into business and in the corporate world. mainly in sales, IT sales, large outsourcing deals.
00:05:00
John Larkin
I worked for two American companies. One was Accenture, very big company there, and the other one was Unisys.
00:05:06
darintingey
yeah
00:05:08
John Larkin
And so i worked in that, and then I went back to university later on and did a degree, a couple of degrees in counselling. And then I went to the US and I trained there in some fields. And so I've got my own counselling business running now, which covers Australia and Asia.
00:05:26
darintingey
Oh, wow. Okay.
00:05:28
John Larkin
Yeah, it's what I do now.
00:05:28
darintingey
yeah who Who knew that?
00:05:29
John Larkin
I do that part time. I was sort of a, I retired, technically retired about 14 years ago.
00:05:32
darintingey
Okay.
00:05:35
John Larkin
But I do this picture because I like helping people.
00:05:38
darintingey
Yes. And yeah who knew had come in handy of being a mission president? you had you probably had no idea.
00:05:45
John Larkin
well it probably extended the interviews a little bit yeah no it was handy and I loved it I loved love being with you and the missionaries was wonderful
00:05:48
darintingey
a That's probably true.
00:05:59
darintingey
So now let's let's go to receiving your call. So you served as a mission president from July 2016 to July 2019.
00:06:08
John Larkin
yes
00:06:09
darintingey
um What was it like receiving a call as a mission president?
00:06:14
John Larkin
Well, it was interesting. Prior to that in Canberra, Canberra is the capital of Australia. It's a small city, a bit like Washington. I was in the state presidency there for 14 years.
00:06:24
John Larkin
Five years as councillor and nine years as state president.
00:06:25
darintingey
Wow.
00:06:28
John Larkin
And it's interesting, i only mention this because we have about 150 embassies in Canberra, bit like Washington does. And I was involved with the public relations with a lot of the embassies.
00:06:41
John Larkin
So I would meet ambassadors from various, including the US ambassador and other countries, which gave me a bit of a grounding when we got into the mission field for those two or three country leaders that we had.
00:06:56
darintingey
Yeah. Okay.
00:06:57
John Larkin
So I was in the state Princeton. I got released in 2014.
00:07:01
John Larkin
And then probably about 18 months later, I had a call from Elder Cook's secretary.
00:07:09
darintingey
okay
00:07:09
John Larkin
And she said, Elder Cook would like to have an interview with you and your wife. And I said, well, my wife is in Italy with her sister on holidays. Could we do it in a couple of weeks?
00:07:21
John Larkin
Which they agreed. And so in in a couple of weeks, I had a video, bit like this, call with Elder Cook, with my wife next to me, probably for about 30 minutes.
00:07:33
John Larkin
And at the end of that call, he said, Brother Larkin, you may not hear back from us again. We have more people than we need for certain callings in the church.
00:07:47
John Larkin
And i said I said, that's fine.
00:07:48
darintingey
Yeah.
00:07:51
darintingey
ah
00:07:52
John Larkin
So we finished that interview. it was almost it was sort of a almost like a character reference interview, to be honest, a little bit about history and family. And then about two months later, I got a call from President Uchtdorf's secretary.
00:08:08
John Larkin
And she said, President Uchtdorf would like to meet with you and your wife. Then I knew something was up. Something was on.
00:08:17
John Larkin
And so we had that call and we're on the call like this, waiting. It's just a blank screen. Then he walks with his big smile and we had probably about 15 to 20 minutes and he extended the call, but he didn't tell us where we were serving.
00:08:34
John Larkin
So we were called as mission president and companion, but we had to wait for the letter to arrive a few months later.
00:08:41
darintingey
So you knew that you were gonna be a mission president and you
00:08:41
John Larkin
And then the letter arrived.
Training and Arrival
00:08:44
darintingey
knew that you knew the time.
00:08:44
John Larkin
Then the letter arrived and the letter said, you are hereby called to serve in the Marshall Islands Magidore mission.
00:08:45
darintingey
Yeah.
00:08:51
John Larkin
We didn't know where that was, so we got the iPad out. We had a room full of people there, as you do.
00:08:56
darintingey
yeah
00:08:57
John Larkin
as you did, and we looked it up on Google where it was. Found this little tiny dot in the Pacific called the Marshall Islands. And it wasn't until a little bit later that we found out that Kiribati was included, and so was Nauru.
00:09:13
darintingey
Yeah. Yeah, I think you have the same reaction that most missionaries, you know, it's the same thing.
00:09:19
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:09:20
darintingey
It's like, where is it? And then it's like, oh, it's this huge, you know, you look at the map of our mission, it was massive. It was a huge cut out of the Pacific.
00:09:29
John Larkin
It is. it's It's the largest geographic mission in the world. Most of it is water.
00:09:37
darintingey
It's just crazy.
00:09:39
John Larkin
33 islands in the Republic of Kiribati and about 33 in Islands and one in Nauru, one island.
00:09:44
darintingey
The marshals, yeah.
00:09:46
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:09:49
darintingey
So, you know, okay, they give you your call and you receive it.
00:09:49
John Larkin
yeah
00:09:54
darintingey
um Do they have you do any trainings from once you receive your call to when you go in the MTC?
00:09:58
John Larkin
Yes.
00:10:02
John Larkin
So the year that we were called, there were 171 mission presidents called that year.
00:10:07
John Larkin
So they reached every, because it's a three-year cycle. And so we did six months online training like this with the MTC. Okay.
00:10:08
darintingey
Mm-hmm.
00:10:18
John Larkin
So once a week there would be, I think it was four hours, five hours, something like that. And we had homework to do during the week. um And then we would report back and we'd be in a small group of probably about eight to 10 mission presidents.
00:10:38
darintingey
Okay.
00:10:39
John Larkin
MTC, we were there for three days. And while we were there, we're all 171 of us were there. And all of the 12 apostles were there except President Monson, who wasn't well.
00:10:53
John Larkin
And we had, so we had the apostles virtually in the same room and having lunch with them for three days.
00:10:54
darintingey
Okay.
00:11:02
darintingey
Wow.
00:11:03
John Larkin
Incredible experience.
00:11:05
darintingey
Yeah. and And is that where you got set apart by an apostle?
00:11:08
John Larkin
No, I was set apart by Elder Holland in Elder Holland's office.
00:11:13
John Larkin
And Elder Craig Carden was the area, that was 70. He was there as well. And so Robin and I and some friends from Salt Lake were in his office and he did the setting apart.
00:11:26
darintingey
That's probably it's such an incredible experience to be set apart by an apostle the Lord.
00:11:28
John Larkin
Oh, yeah. Oh, you never forget it. we'd We'd already sold our house, planning to move to another city, and we'd sold our car, and we told Elder Holland, and he said, he looked at Elder Carden and he said, on the way out, perhaps we'd better take the Larkins down to Welfare Square and get them something.
00:11:50
darintingey
but
00:11:52
John Larkin
Because they've sold everything. Yeah. That was funny.
00:11:57
darintingey
yeah were you Did you get to meet any of the missionaries in the MTC that were going to the mission?
00:12:03
John Larkin
Yes, there was about six from memory, five or six, including Elder... um Oh, boy, it's out of my head. There was the one from the Marshall Islands and and the rest were from Kiribati.
00:12:15
darintingey
Okay. I think Peterson in from the Marshalls and yeah.
00:12:16
John Larkin
Yeah. Elder Peterson was the only one from the Marshall Islands.
00:12:20
darintingey
And then Elder Dale and his group probably.
00:12:23
John Larkin
Right, right.
00:12:24
darintingey
Okay.
00:12:24
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:12:25
darintingey
And so from the MTC, that then you guys flew straight to the mission, or I guess to Hawaii and then to Hawaii to the Marshalls?
00:12:29
John Larkin
Yes. Hawaii, then the Marshall Islands, we landed in Majuro and met the existing mission president. He couldn't get out for two days because as you know, there's not many flights.
00:12:42
John Larkin
And so he moved into a hotel. We moved into the mission home.
00:12:42
darintingey
Right.
00:12:46
darintingey
So um what were your... first impressions when you landed in the Marshall Islands?
00:12:53
John Larkin
Oh, loved it. It was exciting. Elder Bednar told us that when he went there, i think Elder Bednar must have established the Magidore stake because he said that when he flew in with his wife, his wife got nervous because they're landing and there's water on both sides of the plane.
00:13:03
darintingey
Okay.
00:13:13
darintingey
ah Yeah, yep.
00:13:16
John Larkin
But I loved it. When we landed, I was just so excited to be there. I love the weather. I love the people.
00:13:21
darintingey
Was the house nicer than you expected, the mission home?
00:13:25
John Larkin
Oh, way better. i I thought it was like the Taj Mahal. It was unbelievable to have a house like that.
00:13:30
darintingey
It probably, it's it's definitely one of the nicest houses in the country. Yeah.
00:13:36
John Larkin
Oh, yeah, I think it it was over the top, to be honest.
00:13:40
darintingey
yeah i remember walking into at my first day and I was like, wow, this is an American house.
00:13:45
John Larkin
Yeah, I know.
00:13:45
darintingey
you know This is a nice house.
00:13:47
John Larkin
Exactly. Unlike Kiribati, which we can talk about. But what I do want to say the day we landed, went into the office, met a few people. I got in the car and I drove down to the Catholic Cathedral.
00:14:01
John Larkin
And there was it was empty because it's in the middle of the day.
00:14:04
darintingey
Mm-hmm.
00:14:04
John Larkin
So I walked into the Catholic cathedral looking for somebody. Eventually, a man came out in a white robe. And it was the the priest or the local, I'm sure if he's a bishop, but Father Ray.
00:14:16
John Larkin
don't know if you remember him. So because I had been raised a Catholic, I thought I'll start to use my public relations straight away, first day. so I went in and I said, Father Ray, i put my hand down and shook his hand. I said, Father Ray, I was a Catholic for 30 years.
00:14:34
John Larkin
Now i am the mission president here for the Mormon Church. And I said, all my family are Catholic, but I'm the only member. I said, I'm the black sheep in the family.
00:14:47
John Larkin
He looked at me and smiled and he said, maybe you're the white sheep.
00:14:53
darintingey
Yeah.
00:14:54
John Larkin
and we And as you know from your mission, we then did a lot of good work with the Catholic church and and schools, all of that stuff.
00:15:01
darintingey
Yep. Yep. I taught i taught English.
00:15:03
John Larkin
was and It was a nice first day experience.
Challenges and Successes
00:15:06
darintingey
I taught English in the Catholic school on Ebi. remember that.
00:15:08
John Larkin
You did.
00:15:10
John Larkin
And that that was such a fantastic thing that you did and the other missionaries.
00:15:10
darintingey
Yep.
00:15:14
darintingey
Yeah, it was it was an incredible experience. I loved it.
00:15:17
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:15:18
darintingey
So when you get there and you meet with the former mission president, President Weir,
00:15:23
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:15:25
darintingey
um what's that interaction like? I've heard you know that the old mission president is not supposed to tell you too much because you don't wanna have a bias when you come in.
00:15:34
John Larkin
Right.
00:15:35
darintingey
So what is that interaction like? How long is it supposed to be?
00:15:40
John Larkin
Yeah, there wasn't a lot of interaction. Not really. If I had a question I would ask, it's a little bit it's a little bit like, here's the keys, see you later.
00:15:52
darintingey
Yeah.
00:15:55
John Larkin
and
00:15:55
darintingey
Scary.
00:15:56
John Larkin
ah it's I mean, there was obviously conversations we had, but there was no real in-depth conversations about missionaries or their behaviour.
00:15:56
darintingey
That's scary.
00:16:05
John Larkin
It was like clean stuff.
00:16:09
darintingey
Yeah. Okay.
00:16:10
John Larkin
i did ask about I did ask about what islands have missionaries on them because we had the transfer board, you know all that sort of stuff.
00:16:17
darintingey
Sure.
00:16:18
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:16:19
darintingey
And, um, You had APs there, i think PD and Hunter.
00:16:24
John Larkin
Elder Pisi and Elder Larson, I think it was.
00:16:26
darintingey
Okay. um So they were kind of.
00:16:29
John Larkin
And that was that was one of the first things I'll just say I did because Elder Pidi was really from Kiribati, spoke Kiribati.
00:16:36
darintingey
Yep.
00:16:37
John Larkin
Elder Larson was, was Elder Larson?
00:16:40
darintingey
There was Hunter.
00:16:40
John Larkin
He spoke Marshallese. So immediately, i immediatelyly I decided to have two sets of APs.
00:16:42
darintingey
okay
00:16:46
darintingey
Yeah.
00:16:47
John Larkin
and And when I put that forward to the area presidency, the message was no other mission in the world has two sets of APs.
00:16:47
darintingey
and and i
00:16:54
John Larkin
And I said, well, we've got two different languages and two countries here. So eventually that was agreed.
00:17:00
darintingey
Yeah. Which I think was a really smart thing to do. um I think that was great because, you know, the, It felt like if there was one set and they stayed in one country versus the other, the other country didn't get it.
00:17:13
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:17:14
darintingey
The missionaries didn't have that voice to to work with the APs and and help that they needed.
00:17:18
John Larkin
Right. Yeah, you really needed to live there and and be there.
00:17:24
darintingey
Yeah, absolutely. So, so you meet with the mission president, meet the APs. Uh, it's It's a really daunting task to take over a mission because there's already a mission culture established.
00:17:40
darintingey
out How would you say those first few transfers were of establishing the culture that you wanted to build, which obviously took more than a few transfers, but the change, you know how how that was adopted?
00:17:50
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:17:53
John Larkin
Well, I guess you've got to get the feel of the mission. So you interview missionaries, you get talk to senior missionaries, young missionaries and local members too. um So it probably took six months for me to what I think establish that work culture ethic that we had, which you were a big part of.
00:18:15
John Larkin
um So, yeah, you know, rocky, a bit rocky in the first three to six months.
00:18:20
darintingey
Yeah. I mean, I remember.
00:18:21
John Larkin
But um having it after that, I think we saw the results. I mean, we ended up the mission baptised 1,200 a year for three years.
00:18:31
darintingey
Yeah. It was impressive. I, it was.
00:18:34
John Larkin
that's so That's a state. A state was baptised in three years.
00:18:38
darintingey
Yeah. Which is incredible. I, um, I remember like I can't, I came in and, um I went to the MTC in September and that I got to the Marshalls in October.
00:18:48
darintingey
So you had been there, you know, for four, four months, almost five months that time.
00:18:49
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:18:54
darintingey
so I remember, you know, it it was kind of like a huge few intakes of young missionaries. And then you had the old missionaries and it was this little bit of,
00:19:01
John Larkin
Right.
00:19:04
darintingey
you know, the old missionaries still holding on to the old mission president's ways and the culture.
00:19:06
John Larkin
Yep.
00:19:09
John Larkin
Right.
00:19:10
darintingey
And then we were, you know, we only knew you and how the culture that you wanted to build. And I definitely, there was definitely a division there that made it difficult for for all of us.
00:19:15
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:19:18
John Larkin
Right.
00:19:20
darintingey
And I can't imagine, you know, being a mission president, having to deal with all of that.
00:19:26
John Larkin
Well, that's right. and And look, I loved it, but I did have a lot of early conversations with the area of presidency about a number of things.
00:19:34
darintingey
Yeah.
00:19:35
John Larkin
So it was great, though, you know, really great.
00:19:40
darintingey
So how long did you stay in the Marsh Islands before visiting Kitabas for the first time?
00:19:44
John Larkin
I think we were there for about two weeks and then we flew into Kiribati.
00:19:44
darintingey
Okay.
00:19:50
John Larkin
And that was another experience because it's a sort of a scale down in terms of housing, and as you know, because you you serve there.
00:19:59
John Larkin
So when you fly into Bonn Riki Airport, ah it's fairly primitive.
00:19:59
darintingey
Yep.
00:20:06
darintingey
Yeah.
00:20:07
John Larkin
Fairly primitive.
00:20:07
darintingey
It's another culture shock. You know, Marshall Islands is one culture shock, and then you get kid of us, and it's another culture shock.
00:20:12
John Larkin
Well, it it was, the only the the upside was that they drive on the on the left side of the road
00:20:17
darintingey
ah
00:20:20
darintingey
felt like Felt like home in that aspect, yeah.
00:20:21
John Larkin
which I do here, you know, and they they also use Australian coin and money.
00:20:28
darintingey
Yes. hot
00:20:29
John Larkin
So that was similar.
00:20:33
darintingey
That's right.
00:20:34
John Larkin
I had to keep trying to remember what a dime was for a quarter, you know.
00:20:34
darintingey
So when you land...
00:20:38
darintingey
Yeah, how much is that? Exactly, exactly. So what was kind of the, you know, ahead.
00:20:42
John Larkin
Yeah. I would buy something in the Marshall Islands, I'd buy something. So I was going to say I'd buy something in the marshals, I'd put the money on the counter and I'd say, can you take out what I owe you, please?
00:20:58
darintingey
That's good. That's good.
00:21:00
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:21:01
darintingey
um Yeah, the I remember going to Kitabas and being like, oh, Australian dollars. Like, I i got to figure this out.
00:21:07
John Larkin
Right.
00:21:08
darintingey
And it shouldn't be that hard, but it felt it felt hard.
00:21:09
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:21:12
darintingey
um Okay, so so landing in Kitabas for the first time, like what what was kind of the first few things? Same thing, know, meet with everybody type of deal, get a lay of the land.
00:21:22
John Larkin
Let's meet with everybody, catch up.
00:21:22
darintingey
Yeah.
00:21:23
John Larkin
and The difference there was they have a service centre that employs a number of, you know, church members to work for the church. So I went to the service centre and we didn't have a house in Kiribati.
00:21:36
John Larkin
So at the back of the Moroni High School, you'll remember, there was some apartments, little ones.
00:21:41
darintingey
Yep.
00:21:42
John Larkin
And... the previous mission president, President Weir, you had to pack all your belongings in a plastic box. And when you came back, it would be moved to a different apartment.
00:21:57
John Larkin
Kiribati.
00:21:59
darintingey
That's gotta to be difficult.
00:22:00
John Larkin
So I would use the service centre to interview missionaries in the conference room.
00:22:05
darintingey
Yep. Yep.
00:22:06
John Larkin
And eventually I contact, when the area president came, President Halleck, for mission tour. I took him around and I said, we really need something here to live in.
00:22:16
John Larkin
And I went to a Hotel Usharede and they had at the front of the hotel, they had a conference room and I said to President Halleck, if we rent this room, that could be the mission office us and went they could build a little money-eba type apartment behind that.
00:22:35
John Larkin
And that's what they did. So we got a little place built.
00:22:37
darintingey
Yeah.
00:22:39
darintingey
Which was great because you, um, you know, with the amount of missionaries that were in Kitabas, you know, you were spending significant time there and to be bouncing around is just unsettling.
00:22:51
John Larkin
50
00:22:52
darintingey
Yeah. Fit at 50 at the max in the Marshall. I feel like we had, yeah, we, there was times where it felt 30, you know, probably 30 or so.
00:22:55
John Larkin
at the max.
00:23:00
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
00:23:03
darintingey
Um, And I'm just now remembering, okay, so Marshalls Kiribati, was the first time you went to E-Buy in the Marshalls when the new stake was created?
00:23:14
John Larkin
yeah No, we went there before that, and that was the first time I'd ever heard young people sing so loudly. it It just knocked me over.
00:23:26
John Larkin
So we went to Ebi. We got a really good welcome in that old stake centre down below, the old bunker.
00:23:33
darintingey
Yep.
00:23:35
John Larkin
And that's when we went there, and but we went back later on for the creation of the stake quadulant.
00:23:43
darintingey
And that was the first stake that you got you got to see created during your mission. Is that correct?
00:23:47
John Larkin
Correct. That was the first one we'd been involved with. So in our mission, there was that stake, there was the Southern District in Kiribati created, and there were seven branches in Kiribati.
00:23:57
darintingey
Yeah. And now I saw Kitabush just had another stake created.
00:24:01
John Larkin
Yes, they've got four stakes then right now. North Tarawa is a stake, and you've got the one up near Besaw.
00:24:07
darintingey
Yeah, that's right. So when you were, so you were in mission president, Marsh Island's just created its second while you were there, and then Kiribati had two, and then two districts, is that right?
00:24:18
John Larkin
Kiribati had two stakes in two districts, Christmas Island and um North Tarawa and two stakes.
00:24:25
darintingey
Okay.
00:24:26
John Larkin
They the West and the East Stake. The Marshall Islands had Manjaro and then Kwajalein Kwajalein and some units out on the islands.
00:24:33
darintingey
That's right.
00:24:36
darintingey
Yep. Yes. So, and then Nauru, how long did it take you to get to the third country of our mission, the one that had no missionaries? Yeah.
00:24:45
John Larkin
So Nauru was a bit of a challenge because President Weir was almost arrested there. He went there wearing his mission badge and was escorted back to the plane to go to get off the island, basically.
00:25:00
John Larkin
The church was banned there at the time he went and when I went. So the history there is the Jehovah's Witness and our church were banned largely because the president of Nauru had his own church, which was a Christian denomination.
00:25:15
darintingey
Okay.
00:25:19
John Larkin
And I guess they weren't happy to have proselyting type churches on the island. It's a small island. There's only 11,000 people there.
00:25:28
darintingey
yeah
00:25:28
John Larkin
So ah probably it was about three months and I decided to go out there dressed in casuals as a tourist.
00:25:38
darintingey
guys
00:25:38
John Larkin
So I went there as a tourist and I had my shirt and tie and badge in my suitcase, hoping they wouldn't check it. So I went through, I got into Nauru. There was a like a young lady there who was a member who met me at the airport.
00:25:53
John Larkin
And then I went to the Australian embassy. And I met up with the lady that ran the Australian Embassy there and just sort of built some relations. So the first trip, I really didn't wear my badge at all.
00:26:05
John Larkin
But what I was able to do, they had a small branch there. I was able to go to a little store and buy a TV monitor, a DVD player, TV.
00:26:17
John Larkin
um chairs. So I actually was able to set up a little room for them where they could have church instead of just sitting on the floor with nothing.
00:26:27
John Larkin
So that was my first trip there. But that that improved as we kept going back there.
00:26:28
darintingey
Very cool.
00:26:32
darintingey
Okay, so you went back a handful of times and met with continued me people.
00:26:35
John Larkin
Yes, I'd go back and I took others with me. We did humanitarian work there. We grew vegetables and cooking. And eventually the government, the president got lost the election. And now today it's a lot different.
00:26:48
darintingey
Okay. I always remember hearing whispers from missionaries, you know, oh, they might open Nauru soon. you might be the you might be the first missionaries on Nauru, but I think those were just rumors that, you know, missionaries like to.
00:26:54
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:27:03
John Larkin
Yeah. Now, we did a bit of groundwork and today, you know, it's a lot better and today than it was.
00:27:11
darintingey
Okay. Okay. and And then how long did it take you to get out to Christmas Island? Again, all these islands are so difficult to get.
00:27:19
John Larkin
I can't remember. Yeah, the date, can't remember. It was similar, few months probably. And I went there every quarter. So I went there about, what's that, probably about three, probably 10 or 12 times.
00:27:25
darintingey
Okay.
00:27:32
darintingey
Okay. Yeah. And and you'd you'd make the round kind of, right?
00:27:33
John Larkin
and
00:27:35
darintingey
Like Marshalls Tarawa, to Kiribati, down to Fiji, Back to Christmas and then Hawaii and over.
00:27:43
John Larkin
no no the No, the way we did it, so we did 95 flights a year. So we we would fly between Marshall Islands and Kiribati a lot.
00:27:54
darintingey
Yep.
00:27:54
John Larkin
When we went to Christmas, we flew from Majuro to Hawaii.
00:28:00
darintingey
Okay.
00:28:01
John Larkin
And then we'd go Hawaii, Fiji on out to Christmas.
00:28:05
darintingey
Okay.
00:28:06
John Larkin
Yeah. And then part of the reason for that was Sister Larkin would buy food there in Hawaii and then she could bring it all the way back and was able to have those farewell meals that she would cook for.
00:28:07
darintingey
That makes sense.
00:28:22
darintingey
Yes.
00:28:23
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:28:23
darintingey
Yes, the far the farewell meals, which were always so great. When missionaries were leaving, they'd come have that final meal with with you guys.
00:28:28
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:28:31
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah.
00:28:33
darintingey
How special was that for for you as a mission president?
00:28:36
John Larkin
Oh, we loved it. And my wife, she just wanted to, she would generally ask every missionary, what would you like to have? Wherever they're from.
00:28:44
darintingey
Yeah.
00:28:45
John Larkin
And so she would try and do her best to buy things and make those things.
00:28:50
darintingey
I, you just reminded me of, I don't know if you remember it, but about the last few transfers of my mission, I had this thing in my forehead that um everyone was, my mom was worried and in a Bishop Ackley, Dr.
00:28:50
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:29:02
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:29:09
darintingey
Ackley was worried it potentially could be like a worm or something. And I remember you calling me in. My mom probably hounded you so much, but i think you're like, Elder Tingy, like, you know, it's a medical thing.
00:29:21
darintingey
If you want to go home, like I can get you on a plane in two days. And I was like, whoa, you know, I only had three.
00:29:27
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:29:27
darintingey
i was like, that's quick. I only had three weeks left.
00:29:31
John Larkin
yeah
00:29:31
darintingey
remember I remember calling my mom and you let me call her. And i was like, mom, I just want to stay out and just finish because I wanted that farewell dinner.
00:29:38
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:29:41
darintingey
I wanted to say my goodbyes and and kind of have that
00:29:42
John Larkin
yeah
00:29:45
darintingey
that, you know, finish of my mission and and definitely the farewell dinner was one of those things that that kept me around those last three weeks.
00:29:46
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:29:52
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:29:53
darintingey
i
00:29:54
John Larkin
I'll let Sister Larkin know that that. She would be really happy to hear that.
00:29:59
darintingey
Yeah, it was, no, it was such a great, you know, cherry on top to the end of the mission and just being with you guys.
00:30:03
John Larkin
Yeah. Well, you had you had the real blessing of serving in both countries.
00:30:06
darintingey
Yeah.
00:30:11
John Larkin
And I think there were only six from memory, six or eight, seven that went from the Marshal Elder Peterson was one down there to the Kiribati's mission. And at the time, i don't think previous to me that had happened before.
00:30:26
John Larkin
But the spirit told me to do that and I didn't always know the reason.
00:30:31
darintingey
Yeah.
00:30:33
John Larkin
In fact, I can remember one of our senior missionaries back in the Marshall said, President, it's not really my place but if we take these missionaries out of here and send them down there, we're really weakening the Marshall Islands.
00:30:50
darintingey
yeah
00:30:51
John Larkin
And I said, I don't disagree. I said, but for some reason, the Lord wants them there. Now, some of those reasons became clear later on. For the missionaries and to me.
00:31:02
darintingey
yeah Yeah.
00:31:03
John Larkin
And you.
00:31:04
darintingey
Yeah. I mean, this is something I wanted to talk about, so I'm glad we're talking about it because I remember getting pulled into your office and you're like, you know, I just thought it was a normal catch up and it was Elder Tingy.
00:31:12
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:31:16
darintingey
I'm sending six elders to Damnikitibus and I want you to be one of them. And and I was kind of just shocked.
00:31:25
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:31:26
darintingey
just didn't know what to think. And you told me there was like 20 missionaries leaving that summer and kid of us needed some help.
00:31:33
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:31:35
darintingey
And, you know, probably that was the reason why initially, but again, you didn't fully understand the reason why.
00:31:42
John Larkin
True.
00:31:42
darintingey
It's six of us going, like you said, and I was very excited. i was also nervous. I remember asking you, will come back? you know And you said, I don't know.
00:31:51
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:31:53
darintingey
i don't know will happen. was like, all right, well, I'm excited to go. and then you sent, I think you sent us all to outer islands. I went to Mayana, just the island south of Tarawa.
00:32:02
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah, that's true.
00:32:06
darintingey
And I was there for four and a half months. And you pulled me back onto Tarawa. And on Wednesday we met and you said, oh, the Tinky, I have a a new assignment for you.
00:32:17
darintingey
And I was like, okay, thinking, oh, you know, spend some time on Tarawa or maybe another outer island.
00:32:22
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:32:23
darintingey
And it was, I'm sending you back to the Marshall Islands. I was just even more shocked than I was about going to Kitabas.
00:32:28
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:32:31
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:32:34
darintingey
I was like, president, you just sent me here, you know, four and a half months ago.
00:32:37
John Larkin
yeah
00:32:38
darintingey
And I had to basically restart my mission.
00:32:38
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:32:41
darintingey
um And it was it was very confusing at the time. I'm sure expressed that.
00:32:45
John Larkin
Yeah. Well, you had to learn the new language down there in Kitabas, which you did.
00:32:53
darintingey
Yeah, it was tough. um
00:32:55
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:32:57
darintingey
But part of it, and I'm so happy I was able to do this, is when you sent me back to the Marshals. And I think some things that's happened on the Marsh Island side where they're there was needed some some missionary help back there.
00:33:05
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:33:08
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:33:09
darintingey
but you had me start the Kitabas branch. And I did that for another four and a half months.
00:33:12
John Larkin
That's right.
00:33:15
John Larkin
I think that was right behind our mission home, wasn't it?
00:33:15
darintingey
And man, that was, yeah, yes. It was in Long Island.
00:33:21
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:33:23
darintingey
We did it right after the Long Island Award.
00:33:24
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:33:26
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:33:27
darintingey
And man, that was a ah very taxing um but rewarding assignment for four and a half months.
00:33:34
John Larkin
Yeah. You did a great job.
00:33:35
darintingey
I was just,
00:33:36
John Larkin
You did a great job there, I tell you.
00:33:38
darintingey
Thank you. I was
00:33:39
John Larkin
Oh, you did. here but Yeah. yeah
00:33:42
darintingey
i was very happy to see to see that it it lasted through COVID, until COVID, basically.
00:33:42
John Larkin
I do want to just... I don't know... Well, yeah, that's right. Do you remember Alden Suwa?
00:33:51
darintingey
Yes, he was my companion for a little bit.
00:33:54
John Larkin
He was. Do you remember the story about him finding his grandmother?
00:33:58
darintingey
i Vaguely, please go ahead and share it, yeah.
00:34:03
John Larkin
So when I, ah he was, he was, sent because he was born, born in the marshals, grew up there, spoke marshallese, of course, and then I sent him down there out to an outer island.
00:34:15
John Larkin
um Was he on my end with you? No.
00:34:18
darintingey
No, I don't remember which outer island in Kiribati he was in.
00:34:22
John Larkin
Anyway, after about a month or six weeks, he wrote to me, email, he said, President, my language sucks. And I don't know why I'm here.
00:34:33
John Larkin
I want to come back.
00:34:34
darintingey
Okay.
00:34:36
John Larkin
So I said, Elvin Asua, I'm not sure why you're there fully, but you need to stay there because he can't get off the
Personal Stories and Impact
00:34:43
John Larkin
island anyway. So...
00:34:45
darintingey
Ha ha ha.
00:34:45
John Larkin
hope Well, anyway, he eventually came back. i brought him into Tarawa up at Bessel, I think it was. And after church one day, um he and his companion...
00:34:58
John Larkin
were asked to give a blessing to a member. So they went around to this little hut, little house, and he walked in. but They both walked in, and Elder Nasua saw a picture on the wall of a man not an elderly man, and on the bottom it how had had the surname Nasua.
00:35:17
John Larkin
And he looked at that.
00:35:17
darintingey
Mm-hmm.
00:35:18
John Larkin
He thought, that's odd. That's the same as my name. spelt the same. And then a lady walked out, came into the room and she saw his badge and she started crying. She said, what is your first name?
00:35:35
John Larkin
He told her, hey she said, you are my grandson.
00:35:41
John Larkin
i have never met you. She said, my daughter got was pregnant. from a Marshallese man and she went back and they lived in the Marshall Islands and so you were born up there but you're actually from Kitabas as well and so that connection El Nassua with his grandmother i think was a really important reason why the Lord sent him there
00:36:09
John Larkin
great story
00:36:10
darintingey
Yeah, it was incredible. And then you brought him back for a transfer to help me out with the Kitabas branch in the Marshall Islands, which was incredible.
00:36:14
John Larkin
Right.
00:36:17
John Larkin
That's it. Yeah.
00:36:20
darintingey
Because I only had four and a half months of language training in Kitabas, and then I'm trying to do a Kitabas branch in the Marshall Islands.
00:36:24
John Larkin
I know. I know.
00:36:27
darintingey
And man, that was that was difficult. But the you know quick side story, I went back to the Marshall Islands man a year and a half ago now.
00:36:38
darintingey
And I was only able to, okay.
00:36:39
John Larkin
I saw the video. I saw you on Facebook.
00:36:43
darintingey
I was, a you know, because I did the Kitabas branch, I basically got to meet every Kitabas person in the Marsh Islands.
00:36:48
John Larkin
Oh, wow.
00:36:50
darintingey
And when I went back, ah my the Kitabas community threw a party for my family, which was really cool because we weren't able to make it down to Kitabas, but we were still able to experience the Kitabas culture with my family, um which was so awesome.
00:36:56
John Larkin
Oh, wow. That's nice.
00:37:01
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:37:03
John Larkin
Right, right.
00:37:07
John Larkin
That's so nice.
00:37:08
darintingey
So what um you know how did you how did you feel about Outer Islands?
00:37:08
John Larkin
Boy.
00:37:16
darintingey
right Because Kitabas had a lot more Outer Islands open at the time that you became mission president, and the Marshall Islands only had a few, and it took you a little bit.
00:37:24
John Larkin
yeah
00:37:28
darintingey
It took you actually quite ah quite a bit longer to eventually open the outer islands and the marsh islands. How did you think about about that?
00:37:38
John Larkin
Yes, some of that decision-making was informed by the locals, the leaders, the Marshallese leaders, you know, because... Plus, obviously, you feel inspired to do that.
00:37:50
John Larkin
um But looking back... I think it was it was always striving to get the right balance between if you spread too thin, yeah you don't have the critical mass to build up.
00:38:02
John Larkin
you know It's a bit like the gathering. And so eventually i think within with it you know comments and insights from others, eventually the other islands did open up and they're doing very well now, I see.
00:38:16
John Larkin
ah love the new chapel out of Lai. Beautiful.
00:38:19
darintingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:38:20
darintingey
um which and which is crazy Which is crazy to see an island with fewer than 300 people, you know, get a new chapel because they outgrew their other one.
00:38:20
John Larkin
Beautiful. Beautiful.
00:38:27
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:38:30
John Larkin
Right.
00:38:30
darintingey
ah
00:38:31
darintingey
And I think Outer Islands, you know, were so great for missionaries. You know, they they could be bad, you know so you know, no oversight.
00:38:36
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:38:39
darintingey
But I think for the vast majority, they helped missionaries learn the culture, the language.
00:38:40
John Larkin
Sure.
00:38:46
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:38:46
darintingey
And, you know, it was just a difficult time being on Outer Island.
00:38:49
darintingey
So you really built that relationship with with God and and the community.
00:38:50
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:38:53
John Larkin
Yes.
00:38:54
darintingey
Yeah.
00:38:55
John Larkin
yeah I think you're 100% right on that. ah Yeah.
00:38:59
darintingey
Yeah. I remember just being like, sometimes Madro felt so crowded. I was like, president, we need to get everyone out of here. You know? Yeah. oh
00:39:08
John Larkin
Yeah, we did have a lot on the island there at that point. You're right. Yeah. Well, one of the challenges was... The missionary department, people in the missionary department, some of them didn't realise that there was two languages in our mission.
00:39:24
John Larkin
Obviously, the people in the MTC teaching it knew, but those involved in all of the administration And even the assignment of once they've been called. I can remember speaking to one lady in the Mishmi department and she said, oh, I didn't realise there was two separate languages. Yeah.
00:39:46
darintingey
Yeah, two separate languages, two different countries. ah You know, you mentioned you mentioned that because a lot of missionaries that got their call to Kiribati, they thought they were going to the Marshall Islands.
00:39:58
John Larkin
yeah
00:39:58
darintingey
So you eventually got the mission name switched.
00:40:01
John Larkin
Well, I did. Two months after I got into the mission field, I looked at the map and I thought, why have we got 100 missionaries there and 40 or 50 here? But the the the the parents of missionaries in Kiribati can't even look at the mission as having their name in it.
00:40:17
John Larkin
So I wrote a letter to the area president.
00:40:17
darintingey
Yeah.
00:40:20
John Larkin
I put a proposal to him that we change the mission name to the Kiribati slash Marshall Islands mission.
00:40:30
John Larkin
that They approved it. Then it went over to Elder Anderson of the 12.
00:40:36
John Larkin
And he came back and said, no, we won't do it that way. What we'll do is Marshall Islands slash Kiribati.
00:40:46
John Larkin
yeah
00:40:46
darintingey
Nice.
00:40:47
John Larkin
So it got approved a couple of months in.
00:40:49
darintingey
Okay. So it has to go, yeah, it has to go all the way up to the top.
00:40:50
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:40:52
darintingey
Okay.
00:40:52
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:40:53
darintingey
And then then eventually, you know, when missionaries go to Nauru, they're going to have to do slash Nauru as well.
00:40:59
John Larkin
Yeah, I don't know what they'll do with that. Yeah, exactly.
00:41:03
darintingey
um So I guess on the on the topic of of parents, did you often get bombarded with emails from parents? You know,
00:41:13
John Larkin
we did, as you know, we we we get emails. Some parents probably had more anxiety than others, to be kind.
00:41:22
darintingey
Yeah.
00:41:23
John Larkin
ah
00:41:23
darintingey
Yeah.
00:41:24
John Larkin
But overall, I'd have to say generally the parents were very supportive because at one point, I think you may remember, I asked all the parents to stop sending books because there were boxes of books coming and all sorts of things.
00:41:40
John Larkin
And i just said the only books they need are the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, the Bible, and the Mission Handbook. That's it. let's Let's not do all the other stuff.
00:41:51
John Larkin
So they were good with that. The other thing that was good about the parents, for a lot of the missionaries from the islands didn't have anything at Christmas.
00:42:01
John Larkin
And so my wife would contact all the parents and we ended up getting parents sent out things which we could then put into little Christmas boxes to to ensure that everybody got something at Christmas.
00:42:16
darintingey
Yeah, which was really special for those missionaries that that didn't didn't have that.
00:42:21
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:42:22
darintingey
you know some Often missionaries were receiving packages a couple times to transfer, and you know one missionary would go with never having that.
00:42:27
John Larkin
Right, right.
00:42:30
darintingey
um
00:42:31
John Larkin
Yeah, that's right. So we had to try and manage that with the parent support and that worked in the end.
00:42:32
darintingey
and know
00:42:35
darintingey
Yeah.
00:42:36
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:42:39
darintingey
Let's talk about your first Christmas, or I guess New Year's, when You were really, you know, you were trying to build a relationship with the president of Kitabas and the other just leadership in the islands.
00:42:50
John Larkin
Yes.
00:42:52
darintingey
um
00:42:52
John Larkin
And President Huyni too from the Marshall Islands.
00:42:55
darintingey
Yes, yes, President Haine. But it seems like you kind of had a breakthrough with Donis Mau Mau, president of Kitabas. Talk a little bit about that relationship and how you built that.
00:43:09
John Larkin
Well, it was sort of fortunate. um It wasn't all me because about two months into the mission, I was at a meeting Kiribati with Elder Johansson, who was the Area 70, and Elder Tune, Joshua Tune, was his secretary.
00:43:18
darintingey
Thank you.
00:43:26
John Larkin
And in that meeting, the spirit said, you need to call Elder Tune to be your counsellor in the mission presidency. So when we got out of the room, I said to Elder Johansson, I felt prompted to ask you if you could release Elder Tune.
00:43:44
John Larkin
so I can call him into the mission presidency. He said I had the same prompting.
00:43:49
John Larkin
He released him straight away. Now, I mention that because Elder Tune was very close to President Marmel.
00:43:56
John Larkin
So President Marmel's brother was a stake president in our church.
00:44:00
darintingey
No way, I did not know that.
00:44:03
John Larkin
He had bad diabetes and he died at age 42.
00:44:07
John Larkin
So we had that connection. So then, of course, then we had, we were doing lots of humanitarian work there too through the senior missionaries. um And President Marmau saw that, water tanks, digging wells, growing vegetables, you know. and then we had the ferry tragedy later on.
00:44:27
John Larkin
And... So over time, we built up and I was fortunate to be able to get to know him quite well. In fact, i connected with him recently over the death of his wife.
00:44:40
darintingey
Oh, I didn't see that.
00:44:42
John Larkin
So that helped a lot. home And that was instrumental later on, as you know about in terms of the temple.
00:44:49
darintingey
Yeah. And he, um, He invited you and the rest of the missionaries, and I think it happened to be during a mission tour, to come to his um his place for, was it New Year's or was it Christmas?
00:45:01
John Larkin
Right.
00:45:05
John Larkin
It was New Year's Eve and he called up Elder Tune, who was then manager of the Surfer Centre, and said, I would like to have a special New Year's Eve celebration with all of the Mormon missionaries in Kiribati.
00:45:19
John Larkin
hundred and three that included seniors So I flew in all the missionaries from Christmas Island, quite expensive to do that.
00:45:29
darintingey
Yeah.
00:45:29
John Larkin
All the outer islands came in. So Al and Sister Hanson, I think it was doing the the flight bookings, were run off their feet. So as we had that terrific event and President Hallick and his wife were there for the mission tour.
00:45:45
John Larkin
And you probably remember the story, but President Marmell... was in Parliament there, Parliament House, and he mentioned to all the parliamentarians about this function. He wanted them to attend.
00:46:01
John Larkin
And he said, but there will be no smoking, there'll be no alcohol, no swearing.
00:46:09
John Larkin
And he said, I'd like a vote, a sustaining vote on that. LAUGHTER So anyway, so that's what happened. We all turned up and had the the feast.
00:46:22
John Larkin
President Hallig spoke. President Marmel spoke. President Hallig presented the Christus statue. And it was just a wonderful event.
00:46:30
John Larkin
Never happened before and it's never happened since.
00:46:34
darintingey
so So you're at the party with President Mao Mao and like the council and you know dancing and the party, Kitabas party.
00:46:46
darintingey
ah I'm sure that was kind of maybe the ah first ah first time party for you where you felt a little bit culturally obligated to stick around a little bit longer than you typically would.
00:47:01
John Larkin
Right,
00:47:01
darintingey
How is that been president? How do I balance the relationship here as well as keep intervals?
00:47:09
John Larkin
right. right Well, yeah, President Marmow knew there was a curfew. He knew that we would need to leave reasonably early to get all the missionaries home.
00:47:19
darintingey
Yeah.
00:47:20
John Larkin
So it wasn't too bad.
00:47:22
darintingey
Okay. ah Talk to me about building relationships with other leaders of either embassies or the Marshall Islands president.
00:47:33
John Larkin
Well, we tried to, well I guess because of my background, i was it I was in marketing and sales and public relations. so we had the US ambassador to the Marshall Islands over for dinner and yeah that was really nice and her staff, my first staff.
00:47:51
John Larkin
I took President Hallig to meet President Heine and we had some time there and Father Ray. So whenever I could, i would try and meet with the decision makers and, you know, people of influence there. I even sat next to the head of the Catholic Church in Kiribati at a dinner just to try and build relationships.
00:48:11
John Larkin
Even in the Outer Islands, we we would go out and have a gift and, you know, all that sort of thing.
00:48:19
darintingey
Yeah, which I'm sure they totally loved and respected um you, you know, coming into their culture, of their country and trying to with each of them individually.
00:48:32
John Larkin
Yeah, i think so I think they did. I mean, Ilingaluplup, they didn't have a keyboard to play in that church city their church. So I got Elder Seeger to order one.
00:48:44
John Larkin
So we bought a keyboard and then the two missionaries on the island then, one of them could play. So I said, your assignment now is to teach couple of people in the Protestant church how to play this.
00:48:59
darintingey
Yeah.
00:48:59
John Larkin
And so that that was really a building thing too, relationship wise.
00:49:04
darintingey
Yeah. um You mentioned Outer Islands. How did you visit any on the Marshall Islands side? I know the Kiddivah side was a little bit easier with airfare and the boat.
00:49:16
darintingey
The Marshall Islands side, did you go to any of the Outer Islands?
00:49:19
John Larkin
Yeah, we did. We went, I think, to most of them, to Lai, to Lingalup Blup. You know, I think pretty well all of them because we had the pilot there, remember?
00:49:28
darintingey
Yeah. Albin. Albin Tilligan. Yes.
00:49:31
John Larkin
Albert. yeah We had Elder Seeger sitting up in the cockpit with him because he loved flying,
00:49:36
darintingey
a yes
00:49:39
John Larkin
which was great. So we did get around to the Outer Islands. Yeah, it was great. I loved it. I didn't get it i didn't get to the Outer Islands all the time in Kiribati, but when I first arrived there, the first week, we chartered a plane.
00:49:56
John Larkin
There's a little plane that was little airline owned by Jeff. know if you remember Jeff.
00:50:01
darintingey
Yep. Okay.
00:50:01
John Larkin
Not a member. But so myself, my wife and sister Shumway, the nurse,
00:50:07
darintingey
yep
00:50:08
John Larkin
We flew around to every island and where we had missionaries and in three days landed. And I would do an interview with the missionaries under a coconut tree. And we took some fresh apples out there, actually. are Not fresh, but, you know, something for them. So I did get out there early on.
00:50:25
John Larkin
And then over time, periodically, I got out there.
00:50:28
darintingey
okay Did you go on the Liahona, the boat often or?
00:50:31
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:50:34
John Larkin
Yeah, we did. They got a big new one now.
00:50:39
darintingey
did did Did you ever consider getting a church boat for the Marsh Islands?
00:50:44
John Larkin
we've We've talked about a church boat. I even talked about a floating temple, actually, to the area of presidency.
00:50:49
darintingey
Yeah, yeah, which would be so cool.
00:50:51
John Larkin
and I talked about a lot of things, but it didn't happen. So i think, you know, over time, um the Lord was obviously directing.
00:51:02
John Larkin
The pinnacle of of those countries now really will be the temple. in terms of the work for salvation for the living and the dead, it's going to be the Kiribati Temple,
Kiribati Temple and Church Growth
00:51:13
darintingey
Yeah.
00:51:14
John Larkin
for sure.
00:51:16
darintingey
Yeah. and And I mean, Kitabas obviously makes the most sense for the temple, right? They're just the church is bigger. there There's more people.
00:51:23
John Larkin
Well, later on, there could be one in the marshals as well.
00:51:26
darintingey
Yeah. I really wish that the marshals had a a church school like Kitabas does. Having Moroni is such a huge help in the in the work.
00:51:33
John Larkin
Right. Oh, yeah. Yeah, true.
00:51:37
darintingey
ah um I just, and and I wish more Marshallese students went over to study there too. They don't do that very much. other otherwise I know there's one or two.
00:51:47
John Larkin
Well, and I think the the other challenge is the Marshallese can go to the US to live and walk in, whereas the Kiribati people don't have anywhere to go.
00:51:57
darintingey
Yeah.
00:51:57
John Larkin
And so they tend to stay there.
00:52:00
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:52:01
darintingey
So, um
00:52:02
darintingey
How was it emailing missionaries? I mean, you had 150 missionaries, 160. How did you manage emailing missionaries and reading all emails and letters?
00:52:15
John Larkin
yeah Boy, that was a big job. Early on, I thought I would do a cut and paste generic one.
00:52:24
John Larkin
And then Elder, one of the, what's his name? You know him. Was my AP in the Marshall Slater. One of the missionaries said to me, President, I don't think you should do that because it looks like it's generic and it is generic.
00:52:36
John Larkin
It's not personal. So fortunately, he gave me the feedback and I then started to write a short one to every missionary. every week that I could. um And that was that was like hours and hours.
00:52:51
darintingey
Yeah.
00:52:51
John Larkin
really well in the mission In the MTC, we were advised to write to about 10% only. So
00:52:59
darintingey
Really? 10% is such a low number.
00:53:03
John Larkin
you do this lot this week and another lot next week and another lot the week after. you'd spread it out.
00:53:11
darintingey
Yeah.
00:53:12
John Larkin
And I just had this personal challenge to see if I could at least say something to all the missionaries.
00:53:20
darintingey
Yeah. Yeah. it's I mean, it's, it's quite nearly impossible to do it every week all the time and, and to even read all the nerve emails from the missionaries.
00:53:34
John Larkin
Oh, I read all of them.
00:53:35
darintingey
Yeah. I think, I think, I think that's good to hear because I feel like probably a lot of missionaries didn't, didn't think you actually did not, not, not the same thing.
00:53:37
John Larkin
Yeah, everyone.
00:53:43
John Larkin
male No, I read every one.
00:53:47
darintingey
Yeah. It's, um,
00:53:49
John Larkin
I may not have always got back on that all the time, but i I was, you know, I would be up pretty late at night doing that stuff.
00:53:56
darintingey
yeah how How much did that influence transfers and and how did you go about doing transfers?
00:53:58
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:54:02
darintingey
you know cause it's
00:54:03
John Larkin
Well, transfers is always a great spiritual experience because you've got your transfer brought up. You're getting feedback from zone leaders and APs and district leaders and ah local local leaders as well.
00:54:17
John Larkin
a Because if if local leaders, bishops, are very missionary-minded and they've got a good pool of people to teach, you're more inclined to have missionaries in that ward than you are in wards or or areas where it's hard to get traction.
00:54:35
John Larkin
And so it's not all like that. It's not just about the numbers. But certainly the idea is to keep missionaries busy teaching, teaching, baptizing. um But there's a lot of factors go into it. In the end, this you just feel by the spirit where people should go. And sometimes I've got to tell you, i would i would have made a different decision on some cases, but it just felt to be the right thing to do.
00:55:04
darintingey
Yeah.
00:55:04
John Larkin
It's bit like sending you down to Kiribati, you know. Logically, you wouldn't send six missionaries to go down and learn a new language.
00:55:13
John Larkin
hello But the Lord knows.
00:55:13
darintingey
Yeah.
00:55:15
darintingey
Yeah. and yeah To add on top of the transfers, you know, how did you think about um I guess, I don't know, disciplinary is that the word I want to use, but, you know, dealing with missionaries that constantly are breaking rules and in you had to, you know, to deal with that and, you know, whether that was send them to to the other country or a different area or they ended up going home.
00:55:42
darintingey
How was that for you?
00:55:43
John Larkin
Sure.
00:55:44
darintingey
And that's a difficult thing to talk about, but.
00:55:48
John Larkin
Well, that's probably one of the hardest things in the in the mission call, I think, is you want every missionary to be successful and grow in testimony. You want them to finish their mission.
00:55:59
John Larkin
But you also have a responsibility to the Lord and to the local members. And so you've got to sort of do all you can, well, I think, to help missionaries through and to, because I think that's why I mentioned earlier, the first six months were really, you know, culture forming.
00:56:19
John Larkin
After that, I can remember one missionary coming up to me probably seven or eight months after we got there and he he said, he said, President, I'm feeling much better about my mission now because of the parameters that we're striving to live by as missionaries.
00:56:39
John Larkin
So it's a tough one.
00:56:42
John Larkin
No easy way around it, though. But I think in the end, the culture was very good, which was evident by the success that you and all the missionaries had.
00:56:50
darintingey
Yeah. I want to say, I mean, this is ah my biased side view of starting in the marshals, but it seems like the the culture was a little bit better in Kitabas, at least earlier.
00:57:03
darintingey
um And the marshals took a little bit longer to really change over that culture.
00:57:08
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:57:09
darintingey
Am i correct in saying that?
00:57:12
John Larkin
There were some challenges. Definitely, I noticed some differences. And i think the differences are also cultural in the in the countries too.
00:57:20
darintingey
yeah.
00:57:21
John Larkin
You know, the the Marshall Islands has been very influenced by the US and well there was a territory. It's still very influenced that way. Kiribati sort of very primitive and on its own. it didn't have the same culture. It's more of a subsistence living down there.
00:57:40
John Larkin
But you're right. there was There was definitely some cultural differences. I think over time that definitely um came good and and and everything went really well there.
00:57:53
darintingey
Yeah, I think just the, because there was more missionaries in Kiribati, I'd say the gossip was less. I feel like on the Marshall side, because there were so few missionaries, everybody knew everybody.
00:58:11
darintingey
And therefore the gossip was, you know, well known and well spread because it was a tighter knit, you know, a tighter knit community.
00:58:17
John Larkin
Right. Right.
00:58:21
darintingey
community and within the missionaries and um i remember telling you was like president you got to send this to outer islands you got to get people off of maduro happen
00:58:23
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:58:31
John Larkin
Yeah, you did say that. Yeah.
00:58:34
John Larkin
One thing I probably have never shared, to be honest, I know you've talked about the Outer Islands and the marshals. hey One of the challenges was that there were missionaries on some of the Outer Islands previous to me getting there.
00:58:50
John Larkin
And some of the missionaries um did not endear themselves to the locals.
00:58:56
John Larkin
There was behaviours that were not appropriate in some cases. And so the local some of the local ah outer islands, members and non-members did not want missionaries back
00:59:09
John Larkin
because of the behaviours of some. So it took a little while to rebuild confidence, work with locals and get that to open up again.
00:59:20
John Larkin
So that's something that I just share with you because you've raised it.
00:59:23
darintingey
yeah no i i've been trying to pull it out of you i'm glad i got you know got it because um
00:59:32
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:59:33
darintingey
I mean, I think that was the reality of the mission, right? that that That's what it was.
00:59:37
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:59:37
darintingey
Outer Islands, you either had the choice of being a good, obedient missionary and building relationship with the the islanders, or you made poor decisions and you hurt the relationship with the church.
00:59:40
John Larkin
Right.
00:59:43
John Larkin
Yeah.
00:59:50
darintingey
And yeah.
00:59:51
John Larkin
That's true. So, but, you know, in the end it blossomed. it grew. the And we're s seeing that today. You know, it's... that's um I mean, that the new stake centre on eBay is really good.
01:00:05
darintingey
Yeah, it looks beautiful. And and you know see it continues to amaze me because like we talked about, a lot of the Marshals people moved to the States.
01:00:15
darintingey
And so really the work in the Marsh Islands is almost continue like we're baptizing and just kind of keeping the same level, maintaining the the the level of of members that are there.
01:00:16
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:00:23
John Larkin
Right.
01:00:28
darintingey
But it's just fun to see kind of, even though a lot of the strong members have left,
01:00:29
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:00:34
darintingey
you know other members rise up and take on that responsibility, which is so cool to see.
01:00:37
John Larkin
That's right. Yeah.
01:00:41
darintingey
i wish a little bit, you know i don't I don't blame Marshall's people to move to the States for you know a better life or to be with family, but all also, man man, I wish they'd stay and just build Zion there because you've seen it in Kiribati and how they, they I think Kiribati people are the most patriotic people i've ever met.
01:00:48
John Larkin
Cool.
01:00:54
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:00:59
darintingey
They love their country. um They say it's the best country in the world.
01:01:01
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:01:03
darintingey
They love their outer island that they're from and they want to live there.
01:01:05
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:01:07
darintingey
And even though they're so poor, there's they're so rich in in their love for their country.
01:01:08
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:01:15
darintingey
And you see it.
01:01:16
John Larkin
That's true. That's true, I think. Yeah.
01:01:20
darintingey
um How was it with recruiting senior couples? I remember...
01:01:26
John Larkin
That was always a challenge because when we got there, some of the couples were getting to the end of their mission. They were mostly from the US. so and i i worked with the area presidency to try and get more but we couldn't they couldn't i couldn't then i then i went straight to the missionary department myself to see if i could do any good there really difficult so then i eventually decided to put on my marketing hat so i wrote a letter to 24 state presidents in australia
01:02:00
John Larkin
And the letter outlined the great place the mission was. I had the beach, the coconut tree picture.
01:02:10
John Larkin
And I would just, I just made it, you out of that, I got seven couples.
01:02:16
John Larkin
so that really helped. So we got... People like the Landers and, in fact, my counselor out of Christmas Island. They were Pilkingtons. There was a bunch of people I got, but it was difficult.
01:02:29
darintingey
Yeah.
01:02:30
John Larkin
But we were bless we were blessed because we we had quite a good, strong group of senior missionaries.
01:02:35
darintingey
Yeah. There was, there was definitely times that it was like, there's only, you know, one senior couple in the Marshalls and a few in Kitabas,
01:02:41
John Larkin
Right. know.
01:02:44
darintingey
ah
01:02:44
John Larkin
Very difficult.
01:02:45
darintingey
which I, mean I mean, I'm, I'm trying to imagine how you as a mission president managing 150 missionaries across two countries with only a few senior couples to help you.
01:02:46
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah.
01:02:53
John Larkin
Yep.
01:02:55
darintingey
Yeah.
01:02:57
John Larkin
Well, that's right. and And, you know, getting the senior missionaries was important. um So that that happened over time. um Yeah, so, and actually there was a couple I recruited from Australia who couldn't come um because of a medical reason. So senior couples have to jump through a lot of hoops.
01:03:18
John Larkin
to get into a mission like Kiribati and Marshall Islands. um And a lot of the older people, senior people, have got things or had things.
01:03:30
John Larkin
So that's the challenge.
01:03:32
darintingey
Yeah. how did you
01:03:34
John Larkin
Yeah. But we were blessed. We had great missionary, senior missionaries.
01:03:38
darintingey
How did you decide who was your counselors in the mission presidency? I also had no idea that a mission president had counselors until I went to Kittabas, and I realized both were there.
01:03:47
John Larkin
Yeah. that's ah that's that's That's one thing I regret that I should have done better. ah should have done a better job of outlining what the mission structure looks like to the missionaries.
01:04:02
John Larkin
Once I got Elder Tune as my first counsellor, here was he was there for the rest of the time. And I gave him all the outer islands in the Kiribati.
01:04:13
John Larkin
The other counsellor was Elder Pilkington, he went out with his wife to Christmas Island. Christmas Island never had senior couple there. So the the previous mission presidents would send out um young missionaries.
01:04:29
John Larkin
But at one point we had 14 missionaries on Christmas Island and I needed to have anita to have a senior couple living there he was my second counsellor.
01:04:33
darintingey
Wow.
01:04:40
darintingey
Okay.
01:04:41
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:04:42
darintingey
and
01:04:42
John Larkin
So that was pretty more logic. I mean, yeah, once we got them, that's where they went.
01:04:47
darintingey
And so sounds like El Tune's role was to kind of cover the Outer Islands and their leadership and Pilkington was focused on Christmas Island.
01:04:57
John Larkin
Yes. So he would cover all the other islands for me. And we also called a couple, our sister, Kitione. He passed away now, but they were dedicated to, he was a former bishop.
01:05:10
John Larkin
They went around all the islands to do an audit of members. So I could get a reasonably accurate list of who do we have and what islands are they on?
01:05:21
John Larkin
And what's their ordinances, their priesthood. So that audit took quite a while to do.
01:05:27
darintingey
Yeah. Yeah, that is a lot. And and I remember Elder Tune coming to Mayana when I was out there and you know him meeting with the leadership.
01:05:35
John Larkin
Right.
01:05:37
darintingey
And we thought, awesome. We're like, oh, man, maybe a branch will be created finally.
01:05:42
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah.
01:05:42
darintingey
and it didn't happen.
01:05:42
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:05:43
darintingey
I was so sad, but it was really fun because he came and All the members from across the whole island came to one village and we had church and Elder Tune was there. And it was so great for the members there to just feel the love from Elder Tune and the leadership of the church in Kitabas.
01:05:55
John Larkin
yeah
01:05:59
John Larkin
ye
01:06:01
darintingey
He was a great, I think he was, I mean, I didn't really spend time with Pilkington, but he was definitely the best thing you could have done as mission president is is call him as a counselor.
01:06:12
John Larkin
Oh, yeah. he he He was such a blessing because I call him the Moses of Kiribati.
01:06:20
John Larkin
That's what he is. He's been a state president, a bishop, a principal of the school. He runs a service center still. He's probably getting close to retirement, but he's yeah he's been great.
01:06:32
John Larkin
I'm in touch with him quite a lot still.
01:06:35
darintingey
Yeah, he's, he's, he's incredible. And, and he's, if I'm not, is he's area, is he in the area presidency or area 70? That's right.
01:06:42
John Larkin
No, he's an Area 70.
01:06:44
John Larkin
And ironically, he came to our state conference here in Brisbane couple years ago and he stayed with us.
01:06:50
darintingey
That's so cool.
01:06:51
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:06:52
darintingey
Talk to me about Elder Hanks reuniting with... some
01:06:56
John Larkin
So, yeah, Elder Hanks,
01:07:00
John Larkin
he yeah was called, living in the US, called to serve in the Marshall Islands. Sorry, called to serve in Kiribati. And in my first interview with him, when I learned a bit about him, um he told me that he was born in the Marshall Islands with his brother, but he was adopted out as a baby.
01:07:20
John Larkin
And and a family a member family from Utah flew over and adopted the two boys. So if he grew up in Utah with his brother And then later on, he put his papers in and he got called to serve a mission Kiribati.
01:07:37
John Larkin
And um so i said I felt prompted to say to him, Elder Elder Hanks, once you've learned Kiribati, they've got the language down, i feel impressed to send you up to the Marshall Islands for a stint.
01:07:51
John Larkin
I didn't know his mother was there.
01:07:54
John Larkin
So he later told me that she could be there. So i when he went up to the marshals, I said to my APs, um ah want you to start, and Elder Hanks had a little photograph, tiny little stamp-sized photograph of his mother when she was about 20.
01:08:15
John Larkin
So I gave it to the APs. I said, I want you to start going around to all the branches and wards and e-bikes.
01:08:22
darintingey
Yeah.
01:08:23
John Larkin
and see who would know this person. And that's how it happened. So when they get to the ebay, you know the story, knocked on the door. A lady came to the door.
01:08:32
John Larkin
They showed the photo. She said, where did you get that? And so then they came back and said they found the mother. So I then sent Elder Hanks out to meet his mother.
01:08:44
John Larkin
And I've got photographs of that too I can send to you.
01:08:47
darintingey
Yes, please.
01:08:49
John Larkin
where he he met his biological mother. lot of tears, lot of connection, a beautiful experience. And then while he was there on eBuy, they did a messenger call or some sort of a call, FaceTime, to his brother.
01:09:06
John Larkin
So his brother back in Utah was able to see his biological mother.
01:09:12
John Larkin
That was a nice experience. And two years ago when we were in Utah for that reunion, we actually had lunch with Elder Hanks and his wife and family.
01:09:25
darintingey
Yeah.
01:09:26
John Larkin
but we we We remembered that story.
01:09:30
darintingey
Yeah.
01:09:30
John Larkin
So the Lord was very merciful.
01:09:32
darintingey
And there's been, you know, a few stories like that too, you know, ah Elder McAllister was also Marshallese, got to meet some of his family members.
01:09:37
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah. That's right.
01:09:41
darintingey
um There was a recent missionary that just returned this past summer, same thing. He was adopted and he got to meet his grandfather.
01:09:46
John Larkin
Yep.
01:09:50
darintingey
which Which is such a cool thing for these these kids who were adopted to go back and learn their language, learn their culture and and see their family.
01:09:51
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:09:54
John Larkin
Oh yeah.
01:09:58
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:09:59
darintingey
ah
01:10:00
John Larkin
Sure is.
01:10:00
darintingey
Which I think is incredible that you you got to send him from Kitabas to the marshals.
01:10:06
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah. That was the, that went in the reverse.
01:10:10
darintingey
Yeah, right. Normally it's sea different yeah normally's the way around. um i want to talk a little bit about, and you and I have discussed this previously, but just how you split your time, right?
01:10:23
darintingey
Obviously, I think you spent most of your time in Kitabas or more of it than than you did in the Marshalls.
01:10:30
John Larkin
Certainly more or more of it was, yes.
01:10:33
darintingey
um And I guess give a little bit background, like why, right? Because ah as a missionary who served in the Marshall Island side, that some sometimes I felt, you know, president cares about the Kitabas missionaries more than he cares about the marshals.
01:10:42
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:10:46
John Larkin
Yeah, I know. Yeah. Well, I know that's and that would be a natural feeling to to have. i Certainly it wasn't what I felt or thought.
01:10:57
John Larkin
You know, it's it's as I said, when you're in this position as mission president, you're you're getting information all the time from people, members, leaders, other places, and you're seeking the guidance from the Lord, from the Spirit.
01:11:13
John Larkin
And at the time, i had no idea that there would be a temple built in Kiribati. None. None. It was a hope, and I'm sure the Marshallese members would hope for that too.
01:11:26
John Larkin
um So, yeah I think the sheer number of missionaries is one thing.
01:11:32
darintingey
is the feeling.
01:11:33
John Larkin
When you've got 100 down there and 30 or 40 or 50, there's probably you've got the service centre, and it just felt and it appeared that if we're going to get a temple for the Pacific Island people in these three countries, It's more likely to happen in Kiribati.
01:11:52
John Larkin
That was the feeling I had at the time.
01:11:54
darintingey
which is the correct feeling
01:11:57
John Larkin
Not that that wasn't the only reason, by the way. There was there was lots of other reasons why i would travel down and back. um As I said, 95 flights a year.
01:12:09
John Larkin
was a lot. But I can understand why some missionaries in the Marshall Islands may have felt that too. You know, the president maybe cares more about that part of it.
01:12:20
John Larkin
um Time-wise, certainly there was more down there. um Yeah, they don't have all the answers for that.
01:12:27
darintingey
Yeah.
01:12:29
John Larkin
You sort of do what you do at the time, striving to do what the Lord wants you to do.
01:12:35
darintingey
Yeah. Which again, I think, um,
01:12:39
darintingey
I think hindsight looking back, it makes sense, right? At the time, it probably, i've at the time I didn't feel that way, um but it it makes sense, right?
01:12:44
John Larkin
At the time it doesn't, I know.
01:12:50
darintingey
If you got double the missionaries there and and you know that the temple would eventually be built there, right? And I think us seeing that now, it just kind of helps like, okay, I understand a little bit.
01:13:01
darintingey
um but
01:13:02
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:13:04
darintingey
But no, i that was something I always struggled with as a missionary there.
01:13:07
John Larkin
I know, I remember you racing it. I do.
01:13:12
darintingey
a ah I mean,
01:13:15
John Larkin
i and I felt i've helded for you too. I do remember that.
01:13:18
darintingey
i appreciate that.
01:13:19
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:13:19
darintingey
It's just, you know, serving in the marshals and then I went to Kiribati and I remember, i was like, okay. I mean, I didn't see you that often in Kiribati either because I was on the Outer Island, but, you know, you, I saw, I guess I saw the way the missionaries looked at you and I felt it was different in Kiribati than it was in the marshals.
01:13:27
John Larkin
No.
01:13:36
John Larkin
Right.
01:13:38
darintingey
um And, I don't know, a little more respect on the Kitabas side than in the Marshalls, at least was the feeling that I got.
01:13:45
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:13:46
darintingey
ah And, ah you you know, you you seem to to learn the Kitabas language a little bit more, which it's easier than Marshallese, so I don't fault you for that at all. um But, you know, those were the the feelings we had. And I think over time, I've obviously thought a lot about it and we've talked about it. And hindsight, it makes sense. Yeah.
01:14:08
John Larkin
it's It's always a hard one too, because you've got three countries at different in different stages of development in terms of the church.
01:14:17
darintingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:14:19
John Larkin
And so yeah you're trying to figure out we've got X number of resources, X number of time, how do you spread that?
01:14:30
John Larkin
Do you spread it evenly? to you yeah How do you actually manage all of that? Because ultimately what you're trying to do is leave the mission in a better place than when you got there.
01:14:45
John Larkin
With all the missionaries obviously ah contributing to all of that improvement, which you did and all the missionaries did. But I can see why missionaries in the marshals would have maybe thought that and felt that.
01:14:58
darintingey
Yeah, it's, um I can't imagine taking that many flights, you know, just, and the, the toll it takes on your body. How did you, how did you manage that? And and i and I know you also had trainings that you had to go to as well in the mix of all that.
01:15:11
John Larkin
Yep. Yeah. Well, it was very it was it was physically... but I was reasonably fit, I thought, when I went to the mission.
01:15:17
darintingey
ah
01:15:19
John Larkin
two months out Two months after getting there, I was in Kiribati and my knee swelled up because I'd already had five knee surgeries. And my knee got infected with a staph virus.
01:15:31
John Larkin
Luckily, Elder Carton was on the island visiting Mission Tour. And I was then flown back to Australia with with my wife for emergency surgery.
01:15:43
John Larkin
So in about October, what have been October 16, I was flown to Brisbane here.
Health and Leadership Challenges
01:15:50
John Larkin
talked to emergency, i had two surgeries, one on a Monday morning, one on a Wednesday, where they drew out all the infection, the pus, stitched it all up.
01:15:59
John Larkin
And I wasn't sure if I was coming back or not. I was very unsure. I thought the mission was over for me, to be honest.
01:16:07
John Larkin
Luckily, I recovered and I came back on crutches.
01:16:11
John Larkin
And so I got stitched up and recovered. I lived in the mission home here in Brisbane for a few couple of weeks. Eventually, I was given the the all clear to come back. so But over the mission, I got sick a few times, as every missionary does, I guess, out there.
01:16:28
John Larkin
Right?
01:16:28
darintingey
ye
01:16:29
John Larkin
ah So, but it it does take a toll, I must say. it's As you know, that mission is probably one of the most demanding missions physically.
01:16:39
darintingey
Yeah.
01:16:39
John Larkin
You've got impure water. You've got diseases. You've got harsh climate. You've got loneliness. You've got a whole range of things that make it really difficult for people.
01:16:51
John Larkin
People from the West.
01:16:52
darintingey
Yes. Yeah. People from the West. It's good distinction. and
01:16:55
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:16:56
darintingey
And how many trainings that you have to go to and how often you know, because you only have so much time in each country and then you got to throw in a training in Hawaii or or Fiji.
01:17:07
John Larkin
so every So every six, so every, so there are 17 missions in the Pacific and every six months they would have a mission presence seminar.
01:17:16
darintingey
Okay.
01:17:17
John Larkin
And that would be held in Fiji or Auckland or somewhere you know that so you'd go there for probably two three days and the area of presidency were there with with the Pacific Island mission presidents and their wives so that's where we as mission presidents get to vent
01:17:35
darintingey
yeah
01:17:41
darintingey
ah hey Vent and share best practices, I'm assuming, as mission presidency.
01:17:50
John Larkin
That's it, share best practices and hey take instruction and, you know, so it was a good bonding time too to be with your peers and to hear their stories because you think, oh, I'm not the only one that's having problems with that.
01:18:06
John Larkin
the one thing we haven't covered I want to mention, I don't know if you were there when we did the Outer Island training.
01:18:08
darintingey
Yeah.
01:18:12
darintingey
Okay, I don't think so.
01:18:14
John Larkin
So I had the idea of bringing in every leader from the Outer Island branches and units to Tarawa for three days.
01:18:25
John Larkin
So we flew them all in and President Marmal came and opened the conference for us.
01:18:31
darintingey
Oh, no way.
01:18:33
John Larkin
And we had every leader in Kiribati fly in. And I did a second one where I brought all the Relief Society presents as well as the priesthood.
01:18:43
John Larkin
And they all were able to stay there and we had that connection. That was a, I don't know if it's been done again, but that was a very impactful uniting. And and I would love to have done that in the Marshall Islands as well. We just never got time. only did it probably near the back end of the mission, I think.
01:19:01
darintingey
Yeah, what a cool thing to do to bring them all in. and And also the network is really good for them too. So they can connect and, you know, reach out with one another.
01:19:07
John Larkin
Yes.
01:19:10
John Larkin
Yeah, no, it was good.
01:19:13
darintingey
It would be.
01:19:13
John Larkin
I think the big thing now, for the big thing for all the members, I mean, there's 33,000 members in those two countries. hey The big thing now is the temple. And you've probably seen pictures of where that's at right now.
01:19:25
darintingey
yep
01:19:25
John Larkin
So that's going to be a real blessing to the people all throughout both sides of the mission, I think.
01:19:31
darintingey
Yeah, and i I was talking to President Selegate on the Marshall Island side, the president of Kwajalein Stake, and he was he was he was talking to them like, hey, if you build a temple, you also need to build some housing so that we have places to stay when we come.
01:19:38
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:19:44
John Larkin
Yeah. Well, they're going to do that.
01:19:47
darintingey
Good.
01:19:48
John Larkin
They're building that on the learning garden block.
01:19:51
darintingey
Good, that'll be great because...
01:19:53
John Larkin
So that's just a few hundred metres up the road.
01:19:56
darintingey
Yeah, and that's very, I mean, it'll be so much easier for the Marshes people to travel to Kiribati. Only an hour flight and it'll be incredible.
01:20:02
John Larkin
Oh yeah.
01:20:05
John Larkin
It will. they They'll have the endowment in their own language in Kiribati, they're Marshallese and it'll be all worked out. Yeah.
01:20:14
darintingey
And it's really great for those two countries to to continue to work with one another because
01:20:19
John Larkin
yeah
01:20:21
darintingey
first of all, they're very similar country-wise, right? Like the geographically and a look you know culturally, they're not too far apart, but there's a lot of Kiribati people that continue to move to the Marshall Islands.
01:20:30
John Larkin
yeah yeah.
01:20:33
darintingey
um
01:20:34
John Larkin
yeah.
01:20:35
darintingey
And so I think them keeping that, that those cultures close together is going great for the church and, and for countries as a whole.
01:20:43
John Larkin
yeah.
01:20:45
darintingey
I also think about, um, I had previously thought, you know, maybe the Marshall Islands and Kitabas needs to be two separate missions,
Logistics and Future Plans
01:20:55
darintingey
right?
01:20:56
darintingey
That's been a thought, I think, for a while, right?
01:20:57
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:20:58
darintingey
Just because it's so taxing for the mission presence to go back and forth.
01:20:59
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:21:02
John Larkin
Right.
01:21:03
darintingey
Kitabas is just growing so big. It really just could use some mission presence as full focus there.
01:21:07
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:21:11
darintingey
But because there's so much cross crossover between the two, I don't know if it ever makes sense to split them.
01:21:18
John Larkin
Yeah, that's a very good point.
01:21:19
darintingey
I'm curious your thoughts on it.
01:21:20
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:21:22
John Larkin
Well, i it used to be in the in the Fiji mission. Marshall Islands used to be up in the Guam mission.
01:21:30
John Larkin
And then we had Kiribati. So it's sort of had different models in the past. What the future looks like right now, I don't know. um i think it makes sense to keep it as it is for now because, of as you said, there's a lot of cross-mixing.
01:21:47
John Larkin
um Yeah, i it's just a challenge to have two separate missions. Could be. Who knows? um They could even build a small temple in the Marshall Islands at the back of the stake centre or something like that.
01:22:02
darintingey
Yeah, yeah i would
01:22:03
John Larkin
Could happen.
01:22:06
darintingey
it it would blow my mind as much as this kid is getting a temple, it blows my mind, but to have one in the marsh islands would be even even crazier.
01:22:12
John Larkin
Oh, yeah. It'll a wonderful blessing. I actually did talk about that a little bit um because at one point there was some discussion about whether there could be a small temple built in the Medjaro State Centre at the back.
01:22:28
John Larkin
But I don't know where that got to.
01:22:30
darintingey
yeah
01:22:31
John Larkin
That's above my pay grade now. LAUGHTER
01:22:35
darintingey
ah and is Remind me, you told me that when the temple is going built, you and Sister Larkin are going to go live in Kitabas.
01:22:45
darintingey
Is that still a plan?
01:22:47
John Larkin
Well, no, our plan well we hope we hope we would like to serve a mission there again in the temple if we could.
01:22:53
darintingey
Yeah.
01:22:54
John Larkin
We would love to serve and just be ordinance workers there for a little bit.
01:22:58
darintingey
That would be really cool.
01:22:58
John Larkin
We get to meet the people we love, both Marshallese and Kiribati. So that's 2027, maybe.
01:23:07
darintingey
Yeah, which would be such a cool thing if you if if you guys get to do that.
01:23:12
John Larkin
Well, it was a great experience last year for the groundbreaking. um And to have the Marshalese, the two state presidents there, I was with them for a lot of the time i was there.
01:23:24
John Larkin
It was a blessing.
01:23:26
darintingey
Yeah.
01:23:26
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:23:27
darintingey
What, um yeah how do you feel as the mission progresses, as the work progresses, kind of the future of the mission.
01:23:38
darintingey
Is there, is there any, you know, I'm, I can only imagine being a mission president of that mission and now no longer being the mission president, but still having the same desires and goals for it to grow and suggestions for presidents.
01:23:51
John Larkin
Oh, yeah.
01:23:56
darintingey
Um,
01:23:57
John Larkin
Well, it's it's interesting that because the the current mission president is President Mayle. He is from Perth, from Australia. He was in Brisbane here for a couple of weeks. He had some medical thing to do. So I met he and his wife before he went out there.
01:24:11
John Larkin
And he contacted me just probably two months ago about a particular man on an outer island. And he said, this man said that you interviewed him, President Barkin, for his priesthood something like that.
01:24:25
John Larkin
And he wants to know where that got to.
01:24:28
darintingey
Yeah.
01:24:29
John Larkin
So um I'm actually having some interaction with the current mission president on a couple of small things. But look, once you're once you're released, you're really observing and you just stay in touch with people you know.
01:24:43
darintingey
Yeah.
01:24:43
John Larkin
um the Lord will you know it's unfolding the way the Lord would want it to in my view in the end
01:24:49
darintingey
yeah I, how do you feel about the new living standards? Have you heard about these?
01:24:58
John Larkin
i don't I don't like it
01:24:59
darintingey
Yeah. Me neither.
01:25:01
John Larkin
I don't like it. That's a personal opinion. I can understand why they do that. But for me, having people sent out to live as they live was one of the highlights for a lot of the missionaries.
01:25:13
darintingey
Absolutely.
01:25:14
John Larkin
And now without that living, with the new living standards, that limits where some missionaries can go now.
01:25:22
darintingey
And I think a little bit, it's, um
01:25:25
darintingey
don't know if the the term I'm going to use is correct, but the we're better than you term of, oh, we can't live the same way you do. We need to have these living standards.
01:25:35
John Larkin
Right.
01:25:37
darintingey
And on outer island that people live in stick huts, that seems like a ah king's way of living.
01:25:41
John Larkin
Right.
01:25:42
darintingey
um
01:25:43
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:25:49
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:25:50
darintingey
and
01:25:50
John Larkin
I wasn't privy to any of that. I just heard about it and I was a little bit disappointed about that.
01:25:57
darintingey
yeah
01:25:57
John Larkin
Yeah. but I guess the church is very risk-averse and maybe there have been some things happen that brought that about? I'm not sure.
01:26:06
darintingey
There was one incident when you were mission president of an air flight, emergency flight out of Fanning Island, was it?
01:26:13
John Larkin
Big one.
01:26:17
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:26:17
darintingey
um And you don't necessarily have to share details, but that was probably a pretty stressful situation for you
01:26:24
John Larkin
Yeah, it was. And the elder out there thought he was in a bad way and appendix attack and on blow up and all this. So, yeah, the church had to charter a jet from South America and fly it in. And um that was not a cheap exercise and get the elder to Hawaii.
01:26:43
John Larkin
But, yeah, I did just on that. I got a call from the missionary department about that. They said, This is the most remote pickup point we've ever had in the in in the global mission.
01:27:00
darintingey
and And you said, sorry, it needs elders.
01:27:00
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:27:03
darintingey
We need to have elders too.
01:27:05
John Larkin
No, after after that, I was asked not to send missionaries out there again.
01:27:09
darintingey
Really?
01:27:10
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:27:11
darintingey
So did you not send, you didn't send anymore or?
01:27:14
John Larkin
no once they just said, we don't want missionaries there at this point, It's too far out. It's too remote. And the local plane on Christmas Island, the pilot wasn't on the island, so they couldn't use that. So the pilot of the Lear jet had to get out, and luckily he could fly a little, you know, small propeller plane out to the island.
01:27:38
John Larkin
Otherwise, he wouldn't have got him off.
01:27:41
darintingey
Gosh, that's crazy.
01:27:42
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah.
01:27:43
darintingey
That That is such a crazy thing. I don't remember if there's any others if there was any others that happened, but I just remember Outer Islands, you kind of expected to get sick.
01:27:47
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:27:53
darintingey
um
01:27:53
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:27:54
darintingey
ah you know, you even even even didn't want to tell the mission nurse that you were sick because you were afraid of getting pulled off.
01:27:58
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:28:02
John Larkin
I know.
01:28:02
darintingey
and And maybe that wasn't the best, but you only got so many Outer islands outer Island experiences.
01:28:08
John Larkin
No.
01:28:09
darintingey
I remember being super sick on my hand, but was like, I am sticking this out. I want to be out here.
01:28:14
John Larkin
no Well, the the problem is that you say sick as a dog. Sometimes it was because they ate dog.
01:28:22
darintingey
That's right.
01:28:24
John Larkin
Right?
01:28:25
darintingey
That's exactly right.
01:28:27
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:28:28
darintingey
Yeah, man, that was a crazy time.
Reflections and Gratitude
01:28:31
darintingey
i
01:28:32
John Larkin
Boy.
01:28:32
darintingey
But some of the best time of my life. um
01:28:35
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:28:35
darintingey
I look back.
01:28:36
John Larkin
ah you You had a big impact. You did. you you know In all parts of your mission, you did a great job.
01:28:41
darintingey
Thank you. i When I came home from my mission, there was a lot of things that I was frustrated at. i think every missionary is at some point, right?
01:28:48
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:28:50
darintingey
It's a hard two years. and And now I'm doing this podcast.
01:28:52
John Larkin
Oh, yeah.
01:28:55
darintingey
And it's funny, my sister told me the other day, she said, i thought you hated your mission. When you came home, you were you were just bitter a little bit.
01:29:03
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:29:03
darintingey
And and she's like now you're doing a podcast?
01:29:03
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:29:06
darintingey
And I said, listen, time heals. And I kind of forgotten all of the the bad things, the hard things about a mission.
01:29:10
John Larkin
yeah
01:29:14
darintingey
And now I talk about it all the time.
01:29:14
John Larkin
yeah Well, i can remember you I can remember you writing to me after your mission.
01:29:20
darintingey
Yeah.
01:29:21
John Larkin
I've still got it.
01:29:22
darintingey
Yeah, and for the listeners, I i had to i had to tell President Larkin there was things that I was still holding on to that I needed to get off my chest of of some things that I disagreed with about the mission and and our relationship.
01:29:25
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:29:30
John Larkin
Yep.
01:29:35
John Larkin
Yep.
01:29:37
darintingey
I mean, it was a tough it was a tough mission where i you know I didn't see you that often.
01:29:38
John Larkin
Yep.
01:29:41
darintingey
I didn't get to know you, and and that was hard for me.
01:29:43
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:29:44
darintingey
Yeah.
01:29:45
John Larkin
Yeah. Well, that's the other part of the mission, because when we arrived in Kiribati, we flew out to the outer islands. Some missionaries had had been out for nearly 12 months and never met the mission president.
01:29:58
John Larkin
because what happened um i'll just mention this, when we were at the MTC we found out that transfers occurred three weeks apart, so sorry not three weeks, on the same day so the missionaries going to Kiribati would arrive in Kiribati basically the same day as they'd arrive in the marshals so the mission president can only be in one island to meet them so if they arrived in Kiribati, got on a plane, went out to an outer island they wouldn't see the mission president
01:30:17
darintingey
yeah
01:30:28
John Larkin
So in the MTC, I asked the brethren if they could stagger they the missionaries arriving. so So there was a group of missionaries at the MTC that had to wait wait another two or three weeks before they went out.
01:30:43
darintingey
Yeah, I remember my call was for September 7th and then it got moved to September, no, sorry, it was for September 14th and it got moved up the week up a week because of that stagger.
01:30:52
John Larkin
Ah,
01:30:53
darintingey
I remember that.
01:30:55
John Larkin
Yeah, because that staggering of that allowed us to fly and be in the places when they arrived.
01:31:00
darintingey
Yeah, which I think was really smart.
01:31:02
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:31:02
darintingey
that That along with the two APs were like two great implementations that you did, which I thought were awesome.
01:31:07
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:31:09
darintingey
um Last few questions here for you.
01:31:09
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:31:12
darintingey
you know and and they
01:31:13
John Larkin
Go. Go.
01:31:14
darintingey
I kind of ask everybody these these questions, but I also have i also have two others. so One, do you have any regrets or things that you would change?
01:31:25
darintingey
I'm sure you do, but maybe the big ones, if you have any.
01:31:28
John Larkin
Yeah, look, I would do some things differently. Yeah, a lot of little things, different things. But it's like, and I'm sure a lot of missionaries go home and think, I would do that differently too.
01:31:38
darintingey
Yeah.
01:31:38
John Larkin
um hey But I think at the at the time you do the best you can, you're doing what you can, and that's what the Lord asks. So... Yeah, look, in hindsight, I think the feedback you've provided too, looking back, ah probably could have and should have spent a bit more time in the marshals, to be honest.
01:31:59
John Larkin
I think that would be something I'd look at. And there were a bunch of other things too, little things that I would do differently that are probably more personal.
01:32:08
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:32:09
darintingey
Sure.
01:32:10
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:32:11
darintingey
Yeah. And I mean, three years is a long time, right? There's a lot, lot of things. Really?
01:32:17
John Larkin
Well, it goes, I actually asked for an extension.
01:32:21
darintingey
Yeah.
01:32:22
John Larkin
I asked the area president to extend me another 12 months.
01:32:26
darintingey
And they said no.
01:32:27
John Larkin
And he gave me a very short answer. He said, we don't do that.
01:32:33
darintingey
Hey, well, that shows that you loved it. You didn't wanna get out of there. You loved it.
01:32:36
John Larkin
I did. I loved it.
01:32:37
darintingey
what What would you say um was the the biggest impact on you as a mission president?
01:32:38
John Larkin
Yeah, still do.
01:32:47
John Larkin
I think me appreciating those people on in both countries who are faithful, um happy, they don't have much.
01:33:01
John Larkin
So I think gratitude for what we have. So whenever I get a glass of water out of the tap, it triggers something. I think, oh, that water this water here is is, you know, we're blessed to have it.
01:33:14
darintingey
Yeah. Yeah.
01:33:15
John Larkin
so I think appreciating things, um and I think also you realise that happiness this doesn't come from things.
01:33:26
darintingey
yeah
01:33:26
John Larkin
It comes from people and connections and faith and Yeah, because those people in those countries, are you know they could teach they teach us a lot.
01:33:39
darintingey
happiest people on earth and they they don't have much material-wise.
01:33:41
John Larkin
They are.
01:33:44
John Larkin
They are.
01:33:45
darintingey
what um
01:33:45
John Larkin
Yeah, beautiful people.
01:33:47
darintingey
what What was your favorite thing about the marsh islands and what was your favorite thing about Kitabas?
01:33:55
John Larkin
Well, the Marshall Islands, of course, had better food.
01:33:58
darintingey
ah Yes, the cargo was a lot better.
01:33:59
John Larkin
i i like it I did enjoy being able to get an ice cream or some meat and that sort of stuff. But look, I think that... thing i like most for the people on both but in both places that you know the members were so happy they're dancing just their culture it was a ah beautiful culture as you said they're the they're the happiest people you can probably find anywhere so that's probably what i enjoyed the most i did like the weather too
01:34:29
darintingey
yeah Yeah. Yes. a lot more rain on the Marshall side than you probably got in Titipus, which was always hard as a missionary because no no one wanted us to come over when we were soaking wet.
01:34:36
John Larkin
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
01:34:41
John Larkin
Right.
01:34:44
John Larkin
Yeah. The other thing, like just thinking through your question, I think for me, seeing missionaries grow, coming in, some are nervous, lacking confidence, but you see the growth.
01:35:00
John Larkin
You know, probably because as a mission president, you want... The number of converts you want to see equals the number of missionaries that arrive at your mission.
01:35:10
John Larkin
That's what you want. You want to see converts in missionaries going home.
01:35:15
darintingey
Absolutely. Yeah, it's probably the the biggest impact a mission president can have.
01:35:17
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:35:20
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:35:21
darintingey
I agree with that. Did you get to have any Marshallese or kiddapus food that you remember that you that you liked?
01:35:30
John Larkin
that I liked. Well, on one of the outer islands in the Marshall Islands, we had turtle.
01:35:35
John Larkin
That was nice.
01:35:37
John Larkin
And we had a lot of seafood and lye. That was really nice. So, look, seafood really, as you know, is really the main thing.
01:35:48
darintingey
Yep.
01:35:49
John Larkin
In Kiribati, um you know, i they import everything too. Chicken and rice is pretty well what it is.
01:35:59
John Larkin
Chicken. ah Karanamometarais.
01:36:03
John Larkin
That was about it.
01:36:03
darintingey
Nice.
01:36:05
darintingey
Yeah.
01:36:05
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:36:06
darintingey
it's it Yeah.
01:36:07
John Larkin
So... Very limited with food, but yeah, I didn't mind it.
01:36:11
darintingey
I thought overall, overall pretty great, pretty good food.
01:36:15
John Larkin
Yeah, overall, the Marshall Islands has way better food, though.
01:36:19
darintingey
Yeah. The cargo is a little bit, is a little bit better in the Marshalls. um
01:36:25
John Larkin
Oh, yeah.
01:36:26
darintingey
What, uh,
01:36:28
darintingey
What, I guess last question last two questions here, what was your favorite island in the Marshall Islands and your favorite island in Kitabas?
01:36:39
John Larkin
I'd have to say, look, I liked all of them, but I liked Lai and I liked Christmas Island.
01:36:43
darintingey
Yeah.
01:36:46
darintingey
What stood out to you with those islands?
01:36:47
John Larkin
They were, they're right out there and, you know, hard to get to, very basic, but I loved that. But I did like all of them.
01:36:58
darintingey
Yeah, definitely something special about those two islands.
01:36:59
John Larkin
Yeah. Yeah.
01:37:02
darintingey
Obviously, I'm biased because I served on Lai. So i think it's I think it's the best island in the whole mission.
01:37:06
John Larkin
Yeah. Oh, yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing. Yeah.
01:37:15
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:37:17
darintingey
Well, President, it it was so great to to catch up and to hear your your insights as a former mission president of the Marsh Islands, Kittabas mission.
01:37:18
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:37:27
darintingey
ah You... You were and um an amazing force for good in that mission and in the in the country, especially building a relationship with the president of Kitabas, which you did a really fantastic job, which allowed the church to to be able to build a temple there. I like i really think you were like such a key piece in that.
01:37:51
darintingey
and And it's cool to see, you know, more than 10 years later, we'll get a temple.
01:37:57
darintingey
Which
01:37:58
John Larkin
Well, that's right. and And hopefully you'll get back to visit that temple.
01:38:02
darintingey
Yes, it is it is on my list. So thank you. And thank you for coming on with me. And and i know we've talked post mission, and it's been really good to to build a relationship with you, especially because often didn't get that chance while was on the mission, you know, different islands and and whatnot.
01:38:14
John Larkin
Yeah.
01:38:20
John Larkin
Sure.
01:38:21
darintingey
But I really want to thank you for everything.
01:38:23
John Larkin
Well, thank thank you for your mission. Thank you for your service. And thank you for the podcast. I think this podcast you're doing is is great for in many ways. And I look forward to seeing you hopefully next year.
01:38:40
John Larkin
Yeah.