Become a Creator today!Start creating today - Share your story with the world!
Start for free
00:00:00
00:00:01
Episode 27: Joanne & Jared Williams - Marshall Islands & Kiribati - Majuro, Ebeye, Tarawa, Marakei, Lae, Mili, Wotje
55 Plays7 days ago
FIRST SENIOR COUPLE ON THE PODCAST!!! Joanne and Jared Williams served for two years as a senior couple in the Marshall Islands / Kiribati Mission from 2023 -2025. Post Covid lockdowns, the Marshall Islands side of the mission did not reopen until March of 2023, and the Williams were the first senior couple to arrive in the Marshall Islands just a few months later. Joanne and Jared saw miracle after miracle as they raced to get the mission ready for a large wave of missionaries as the mission was reopening, with one of those miracles involving an Amazon loophole. Hear their story of dedication, including their efforts to visit and support the Saints on the outer islands across both sides of the mission.
If you know anyone that's willing, able, and healthy to serve in the Marshall Islands / Kiribati Mission we need more senior couples!
#MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #MarshallIslands #Kiribati #Majuro #Ebeye #Tarawa #Marakei #Lae #Mili #Wotje #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia #SeniorCouples
Recommended
Transcript
Episode Introduction with Senior Couple
00:00:00
Darin Tingey
All right, we're on with another episode of the Islands Podcast. We have some special guests today because this is new. We have not done a senior couple on the podcast yet.
00:00:12
Darin Tingey
So we had Joanne and Jared Williams, ah who served in the Marshall Islands primarily side of the mission and recently returned.
Background of Joanne and Jared Williams
00:00:22
Darin Tingey
So give a quick background, just you guys, maybe where you're from, where you live now,
00:00:29
joanne
Okay, well, we were in Steamboat Springs before we left on our mission, but originally I'm from Southern California, and Jared was from Idaho and Colorado.
00:00:41
joanne
And so from Steamboat Springs 8,500-foot elevation, we went to sea level.
00:00:48
Darin Tingey
That's a big change, yeah. and And are you guys, i know you have been bouncing around since been back, but where I guess do you call home?
00:00:56
joanne
We are just now finalizing. So we have a home in the Logan area and then one in Southern California as well.
00:01:06
Darin Tingey
Okay,
00:01:07
joanne
So we're going to be back and forth between California and Utah.
00:01:08
Darin Tingey
great.
00:01:10
Darin Tingey
Awesome, this little snowbird action, which is awesome. And so let's see, you I don't remember how long your mission was, but kind of take me back to you guys receiving your mission call to go serve in the Marshall Islands campus mission.
Mission Call and Arrival in Marshall Islands
00:01:28
joanne
Well, we got our mission call in May, probably May of 2023. And then we reported our mission in August 2023. And served two-year mission. and august of twenty twenty three and we served a two-year mission
00:01:43
Darin Tingey
Okay, two years, which I think is longer than most senior couples do. I feel like it's usually a year to 18 months. I could be wrong. I didn't know anyone that served that long.
00:01:54
Darin Tingey
ah Did you guys plan on two year? Can you can you decide that? How does that work?
00:02:01
joanne
Yes, so as a senior couple, you can choose, have a lot more options um to choose from between service missions where you're serving in your hometown and then, you know, putting in where you'd like to go So in our case, we ended up talking to the area office in the Pacific because we had interest in the Pacific.
Challenges as Post-COVID Senior Missionaries
00:02:24
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:02:25
joanne
And so we were hoping to go somewhere in the Pacific and We were thinking more like on an area gig, but then they had a got a need more for the Marshall Islands caretivist mission because at that time,
00:02:41
joanne
There had been no senior couples in the mission prior, like post-COVID. So we were first coming back to open the mission. In fact, the Marshall Islands side of the mission didn't open to foreigners until, was it March? Yeah. Of 2023.
00:02:59
joanne
So even our mission leaders could not get in be in the Marshall Islands side of the mission after that.
00:03:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:09
joanne
So they were in care of us.
00:03:09
Darin Tingey
So you guys got there to ah in August and it had just opened in March. Okay.
00:03:16
joanne
Yes.
00:03:17
Darin Tingey
and And did your call, did they give you a specific assignment? Like you're going to be over XYZ?
00:03:23
joanne
Yes, they did. So at that time, they wanted us as office specialists because they didn't have anyone and running in running finance. It was just the mission leader's wife.
00:03:35
joanne
So, you know, they were doing kind of all of that. They had support and care of us through the through the offices there. but they didn't have a vehicle coordinator and a housing coordinator. And so my responsibility was to find enough housing.
00:03:51
joanne
So we went from 14 beds to 64 beds on the Marshall Islands side. um And that was just for the young missionaries and then responsible for finding about five to six apartments to support senior couples as they started coming. or And we had two senior sisters come and serve during the time that we were there as well.
00:04:15
Darin Tingey
Okay, so you guys get there, you're basically first boots on the ground, restarting a whole new mission from square one.
00:04:27
joanne
Yes, pretty much.
00:04:28
Darin Tingey
Were you overwhelmed?
00:04:30
joanne
You know what? We didn't have time to be overwhelmed because you just had to get to work.
00:04:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:04:35
joanne
You know, that it was just get on the ground, get to work. And we had the, I think the impetus for us too, was that we had the opportunity to meet with these young missionaries in the MTC. So we got to love those missionaries prior to our arrival and we get there before they do.
00:04:54
joanne
So I was like, oh, these are my babies. we're gonna I'm going to find housing for them so they can come because we didn't have enough housing for all the missionaries that were on in the pipeline to come into the mission.
00:04:57
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:05:05
joanne
Most of them got reassigned before they did coming to the Marshall Islands. So most of the missionaries got reassigned to a mission like in the States somewhere.
00:05:17
joanne
And then when opportunity for housing was available, then they could, Mission Department would transfer them. So some of them spent yeah several couple transfers several transfers before they were, we had space for them to come in.
Stories of Faith and Miracles
00:05:34
joanne
And even getting phones, we needed to get the SIM cards was an issue.
00:05:35
Darin Tingey
Yes. so
00:05:39
joanne
you know, there's all those special issues on the backend that are interesting. in serving in a country like that. So.
00:05:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah, usually you hear about people getting reassigned because they have a difficulty with their visa. But it sounds like it was really just you guys didn't have housing, you didn't have bikes, you didn't have phones, like nothing for them to accommodate the huge influx of restarting a whole new mission.
00:06:07
joanne
Correct. So, and, but that, you know, I think the Lord just opened the doors. Um, pretty quickly we're able to find the housing and, and suitable housing. And then one of the funny stories is, you know, availability of housing items so that they could have comfortable, like just the standard things that are, there's a list, there's a list out there for the standard furnishings for young missionaries, home young mission homes, and then also for senior couples.
00:06:37
joanne
And you don't, You just can't go down to the TJ Maxx or to the Walmart. know The availability on island is not good. And it's very expensive.
00:06:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:06:48
joanne
So one day when we were at the post office, we saw this man getting all these Amazon boxes. And i i I stopped him and I said, can you please tell me how you did this? Because I've tried.
00:07:00
joanne
And he there was a trick to it. Because Because Amazon won't just ship there. No. So if you use, you use it as a country, you can't, it won't ship to the Marshall Islands, but if you use USA as the country and Marshall Islands as the state.
00:07:14
joanne
So that was the cool trick that we learned.
00:07:17
Darin Tingey
ah
00:07:17
joanne
And that changed my whole world. So because of that, I, I, I made it a Amazon account for the mission and a business account.
00:07:20
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:07:27
joanne
And then I was able to bring in You know, 20 mattresses and, you know, all kinds of things that would make life so much better for the missionaries, get them cooking equipment. They didn't have lot of them.
00:07:39
joanne
They had like maybe one fork, a couple of spoons in their apartments. It was pretty sparse. So I'm having things like that.
00:07:47
Darin Tingey
how long would how How long would it take to get an Amazon package to Marshall Islands?
00:07:51
joanne
You know, surprisingly, you could get things within a week to 10 days, or sometimes it would just be out there and you wouldn't see it for four months or five months. So you just had to plan ahead and hope for the best.
00:08:01
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:08:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that is a nice little hack. That's like so awesome that you found that because it would have probably been a night and day difference of you being able to furnish everything for these missionaries, get them beds and everything.
00:08:17
joanne
What?
00:08:19
joanne
That wasn't a hack, Darren. That was a mission miracle. that was I mean, you know, what are the odds of us being in that post office right when sure with that guy at that exact moment that that happened?
00:08:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:32
joanne
Because, you know, if we had not seen him and had not gotten that information. we' be flailing. Yeah. I mean, it would have not all it would have been almost impossible to get things ready for the missionaries.
00:08:45
joanne
So that's it that's an absolute miracle.
00:08:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:47
joanne
And, that you know, I'll... Swear that till I die because well we've been praying for it. Yeah, we needed we needed help. And, you know, I'll tell you in the mission MTC when we were in there, people were talking, oh, yeah, you know, you you're in there and you're trying to force things to happen. and And, you know, this was our trainers and they're going, yeah, you're going to get in there and you're going to see these things. going to try and force things to happen. And they they said, don't do that.
00:09:16
joanne
Just let the Lord handle it. Just turn it over to him. And I guarantee you, he will take care of it. And don't sweat it because it'll happen. It'll happen on his time when he wants it to happen.
00:09:27
joanne
And they were, you know, they were talking about housing specifically. and remember that. So when we're out there and, you know, we're seeing this and it's like, oh my gosh, there's no way to get these apartments furnished for these kids. And we're just not going to able to open the mission.
00:09:44
joanne
And so we just said, you know what? God, you
Community Work and Leadership Training
00:09:47
joanne
want this mission open. Show us. You're going to have to show us the way.
00:09:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:09:51
joanne
And almost immediately, everything boom there you go We opened up the floodgates to Amazon. All that stuff came in We're able to furnish all of those apartments, get them.
00:10:03
joanne
and find apartments. And find apartments. and and nice houses. Decent housing. So it was. you know, up to mission standards. And they have the standard furnishings list for young missionaries. And we were able to get all of that stuff on each of those apartments and made those kids' as life so that they can come there, not have to worry about, you know, so much about taking care of their living as they can.
00:10:33
joanne
Now I can live, now I can just focus on the work without having to worry about
00:10:37
Darin Tingey
yeah.
00:10:39
joanne
I got to find a spoon so I can eat some beans out of a tin can, you know, just so like and more efficient with their time. And as you know, from serving in those areas, your health, it's very difficult to stay healthy.
00:10:53
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:10:53
joanne
And so not being able to clean, not being able to just have basic things. You, those missionaries, we became very close to them because we were worked so closely with them all the time.
00:11:06
joanne
because he was the finance secretary. So all the MSF and all that he did. And so having them work so hard, you go work so hard out there and they were such hardworking missionaries and working in difficult conditions.
00:11:19
joanne
Then you want to come home and have a space that livable is livable.
00:11:23
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:11:25
joanne
And, you know, some missionaries like, oh, we just learned to live with them. Like, no, this need not be so. And of course, you know, a lot of these kids have not learned to clean.
00:11:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:35
joanne
have not learned.
00:11:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:37
joanne
And they don't know. They don't even know like what cleaner to put on the, what to clean with, you know?
00:11:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:11:44
joanne
So that was fun too, working with them. We've called, we called that miracles. I say, Oh, look at this elder.
00:11:49
Darin Tingey
Long, long.
00:11:53
joanne
we We spray this on and that comes off. he So when elders like, I didn't know that would come off. I didn't know grease would come off of the stove. It's a miracle.
00:12:05
joanne
nerve
00:12:07
Darin Tingey
Man, you guys were at you guys were totally meant to be there to open up this mission. like I think back to my mission, and there was once in a couple similar to you guys that just got stuff done.
00:12:18
Darin Tingey
And if any mission in the world needed a couple like you guys, it's this mission. Because oftentimes it's just like, Oh, we're in the Marshall Islands. Like, that's just how it is, right?
00:12:30
Darin Tingey
Like you said, that's just how we live. And, but like you said, you you guys came in like, no, we're gonna get this done. We're gonna do do it right. We're gonna, you know, make all those mothers back at home feel good that their kids are being taken care of, and they have everything they need, and they can be healthy and get the work done, which is Awesome. Like I followed your mission, but you know, after meeting you guys, when i went and visited and I continue to follow it and it's just so awesome. Like, I just know that people just love you out there and all the missionaries did. Cause you guys just got stuff done.
00:12:59
Darin Tingey
um So as a former missionary from that mission, I appreciate you guys for doing that. But I want to hear a little bit about like finding housing too. like What was that like? i You're like, you know do I look at all these old records of where we used to rent or did you just find new people?
00:13:18
joanne
We found new people. i We had a really great friend and sister, a member there, fed us names. Here, go talk to these people, go talk to these people.
00:13:31
joanne
ah So that was something that came up. And then we were able to find some pretty nice homes, like actually really nice homes. And we had some apartments that were really rough. You know, had some really rough apartments, but the that was helpful.
00:13:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:13:45
joanne
And then one of our big miracles was in ebiy with un Jenny. So just one of our all time favorite people in the world.
00:13:53
Darin Tingey
DIY.
00:13:57
joanne
And she is a Taiwanese woman that's been living there for many years and had these apartments that are pretty rough. But right We saw the potential there.
00:14:11
joanne
and because she had such a love for the missionaries, she loved the missionaries. She loved the Mormons. And um we worked with her. And then as we continue to work with her, she then presented to us her gem, a property that was very valuable and important to her, but it was not functional.
00:14:33
joanne
And it couldn't be, it was not livable. But she had offered it up to us and she was like, I'll let you stay here for free. And I said, no, Jenny, we will pay you. you know, the mission will pay for this apartment, but we're going to need to do a lot of things.
00:14:46
joanne
And so I gave her a very long laundry list of what the expectation would be like. This is what your investment is going to look like. And here's what the mission investment would look like. And so Jared and I have some pretty solid DIY abilities.
00:15:01
joanne
And so I've got shop in on Amazon. we We brought in power tools. We brought in everything that we needed. And she said she would support anything. she would She would pay for it all.
00:15:14
joanne
And so the mission fronted some money, but then she went at the end of the day, it came off of her rent. And then she also paid up front quite a bit. She had a lot of skin in the game and she just trusted us.
00:15:27
joanne
She didn't know us from Adam. We didn't present any contractor's licenses or anything.
00:15:31
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:15:31
joanne
and oh But we told her her, this is what we're going to do. And my husband looked at me like I was crazy when I showed him the property. so Oh, boy. He says, you we aren we cannot live here. I said, trust me, I have a vision.
00:15:44
joanne
And you know what? Again, the Lord just makes it, gives you the strength to do what you need to do. And it wasn't easy because we now have a car. We had the wagon. Our mission vehicle was the wagon we bought on Amazon.
00:15:57
joanne
And we would pack about 300 pounds worth of Amazon flat pack cabinets, tools, whatever, and walk it from there from from the post office to the apartment, to the house.
00:16:07
Darin Tingey
the dark all the way, yeah.
00:16:09
joanne
But anyway, so, and that was another great blessing. Missionaries would jump in and, provide service, ah you know, to help there. It's good for them to learn. And then we also were able to work with her, her workers and try to teach them a little bit better trade skills.
00:16:24
joanne
So that was also the goal is to elevate their understanding of some trade. We, we brought prex, pex plumbing in. Yeah. So we plumbed the whole place with pex hot water. we had a hot water, cold water. was great.
00:16:40
joanne
So
00:16:40
Darin Tingey
Was this house in the south of E-Buy? Was it by, what's that?
00:16:46
joanne
It's where the DIY apartments are.
Personal Growth and Reflections
00:16:48
Darin Tingey
Okay, yeah, I lived in one of those when they first they had first built them. I lived in one of those.
00:16:52
joanne
Yes. So right behind those on the lagoon side. Right on the water. Is that big blue house on the water.
00:16:59
Darin Tingey
Yes, okay, that's the one you guys,
00:17:00
joanne
Well, two story house. So that's the house we renoed. So on our Facebook, if you look at those pictures, there's a lot of pictures of before and afters and that big reno that we did there. So it was a pretty, it took us about six months.
00:17:13
joanne
actually a lot of it was just waiting for Kajor to, like the sewer was, the sewer was broken.
00:17:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:17:18
joanne
And so that was another thing that we could be a little bit more bold with um where the people there can't be quite as bold because they're afraid of some retribution maybe, you know?
00:17:32
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:17:33
joanne
And, and so we made actually another miracle for us was one day we were walking down the road we and A truck pulls over and we thought maybe he was a taxi.
00:17:45
joanne
So he pulls over. I walk up like, yeah, we'll get in. and And then I'm looking on the door and it's he's a he's a police for Kajor, right? and And so i said, oh, he was like, no, I want to give you guys a ride.
00:17:59
joanne
So we got to talk to him and and he was really important to us. So he became very important to us. And again, it was just like the Lord put him there and he felt impressed to pull over and pick us up. And he did.
00:18:13
joanne
And then with that relationship, when we had an issue that needed to be taken care of, he was the guy.
00:18:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:18:19
joanne
And he would get it taken care of. Like we're, we'd be going struggling for months and then we'd go talk to him. And then within, I mean, within hours, it was taken care of.
00:18:31
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:18:31
joanne
So.
00:18:32
Darin Tingey
It's who you know, it's right? It's who you know on on the island.
00:18:36
joanne
And to be a rebelli, you know, it's different when you're rebelli.
00:18:36
Darin Tingey
So...
00:18:39
Darin Tingey
Totally.
00:18:39
joanne
So when you're rebelli there, you maybe don't get as much, you know, but he made it, he made us important.
00:18:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:48
joanne
And so, and they even called our house, the rebelling house when, because it was so, it was so modernized, you know, compared to what the normal living circumstances are on E-buy.
00:18:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the few, the few like Western looking houses, American looking houses, like the Eroges, right? They got a few nice houses and then everything else like shacks, you know?
00:19:11
joanne
yeah the first yeah the first year but we spent in masro working in the office getting everything organized and then some other senior missionaries were able to come in yes and that allowed us to be transferred out to ebay so we spent the second year we're mission on ebay and then from there we traveled
00:19:13
Darin Tingey
ah But they're like happiest people.
00:19:37
joanne
Basically with the stake, under the stakes direction, Lai, Tu Wo Che, and those other outer islands, because those outer others are under the direction of the Ebi stake.
00:19:51
joanne
So they are... The Kwaj stake, yeah. Or the Kwaj stake, yeah. So they're, you know, the stake president in Kwaj is over those, all of those outer islands. And so that allowed us, and he was anxious to get them open back up because...
00:20:05
joanne
Missionaries had been pulled in from COVID and they had not been sent back out only to lie. There was some missionaries back on lie.
00:20:16
joanne
took a long time. It took a long time. so and then there was so it was It was huge. still a big step, but there was you could see the momentum starting happen.
00:20:29
joanne
And it was it was exciting to be a part of it because you could see the new bishop in Quage really tur took charge because that was his ward was all those outer islands other than Lai.
00:20:40
Darin Tingey
right
00:20:42
joanne
And so he was he was excited to get it organized and start taking charge. And you can see that some momentum starting to build towards the end of our mission. And we It was just exciting to be a part of. it I mean, you felt like an early pioneer, you know, I had some early pioneer ancestors that were some of the first missionaries in the church, you know, with Joseph Smith, and it's like, yeah, I know what that guy feels like.
00:21:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah, absolutely.
00:21:09
joanne
I'm out here ah here on the edges of the frontier and helping. Spread the gospel and seeing it grow. So it was that we shift exciting. We shifted. We shifted. So we shifted from office specialist to member leader support.
00:21:24
joanne
So that's where we were reassigned as member leader support. And that's where we got to work with the stake in Kwajalein.
00:21:30
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:21:30
joanne
And so Jared served as a board clerk in each ward. Yeah. And assistant stake clerk. Yep.
00:21:36
joanne
Because that that was an interesting thing. And so there's a lot of stories you could tell about that. but i
00:21:36
Darin Tingey
Nice.
00:21:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:21:45
joanne
But, you know, what what we learned was how challenging it is you know when not all of the materials are in your own language, when all of the training doesn't happen in your own language, and then they're just honestly doing their very best.
00:21:54
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:22:00
joanne
you know there And so a lot of it is not getting done maybe correctly or the way the area office would want it. But but they were trying their hardest and a lot of times they just really had their hands tied behind their backs you know so understanding the heart of the people being able to watch them learn watch them grow what my favorite probably my favorite thing i'm a big family history person so i love family history and i just been itching to get my hands on that and so
00:22:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:22:34
joanne
Eva Maramajero. So I was doing family history parties at our apartment and bringing people in because again, their technology may be out and Laura wasn't good enough and Al's Jeff Hockey didn't have really good internet.
00:22:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:22:46
joanne
So I'm like, you guys have to come to my apartment. And that was a sacrifice for them too. So they find someone with a vehicle, it all pile in and come to our apartment where we can help them and learning their family history and getting them ready to serve in the temple.
00:23:01
joanne
So our our responsibility was to help with all of the preparations um that it took to get and be able to take advantage of the general temple patron funds that are available through the area so that they could go to Hawaii and go have their family sealed to them. and And so that was probably the crowning I would say that's probably one of the crowning moments of our mission was when we could get those families off.
00:23:33
joanne
And then what I would do is go through and work on their family trees. And as you may you might guess, the Marshallese family trees are very intricate, very complicated.
00:23:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:23:44
joanne
Everything's really loosely defined. And so trying to straighten out a lot of complicated trees. But by doing that, they all became my own family.
00:23:57
joanne
Because as I'm and I would show them and teach them and show them how to find the records and find birth certificates.
00:23:57
Darin Tingey
and
00:24:04
joanne
And so we were able to find family members that they didn't know they had. Because, you know, when there's 13 children in the family and you're number, you know, 12, you might not have heard about child number three that died when he was two years old.
00:24:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:27
joanne
So that was pretty fun.
00:24:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's...
00:24:29
Darin Tingey
That's really cool work. Like you said, the the family terms are very loose in the Marsh Islands, right? yeahre What they might call their sibling is actually their cousin. What they might call their cousin is their second cousin. ah You know, parents, uncles, I mean, not parents, but, you know, uncles, aunts, whatever. it's Everyone is family to them. So figuring out where it all fits is like a crazy big puzzle.
00:24:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:57
joanne
Yes, and straightening out different things and, you know, multi-generations or, you know, or families that were blended families, getting the trees lined up the right way.
00:25:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah. yeah
00:25:10
joanne
But it was fun. And because i got to do that, I felt like it helped me, even though my language skills were not good, we were able to break through a lot of that.
00:25:21
joanne
And had my enough terms to just kind of muddle through with them. And sometimes ah one day, one time I felt like, i don't know what it was. Sometimes when I would be working with them and this is another, you know, gift of the spirit, gift of tongues, but sometimes they would just be talking to me and I felt like I knew exactly what they were saying.
00:25:42
joanne
And it was just, and i'd try to confirm like, this is really what you mean, right? I, am I understanding this correctly? And, um, and, Even though my language skills weren't good, there were moments where i it was as clear as could be.
00:25:56
joanne
And so that's where I think the Lord just, again, gives you what you need to do what needs to get done. But one day after these ladies had been with me all day doing family history, the next they came back the next day and they're like, oh, sister, is it okay if I go get sister self? She's going translate for us.
00:26:12
joanne
And she's but that' so they're like, we didn't understand a word she said the whole time. But... ah
00:26:20
joanne
So my sister's so keen to come help because we didn't understand her at all. But I understood what they were saying enough to do their trees. Isn't that funny?
00:26:28
Darin Tingey
That's crazy. The gift of understanding tongues, which I also have to thank you guys as well because you did the family history work and temple prep for one of my converts from Lai, a single mother, Anila Boro.
00:26:43
joanne
Oh, yeah, I knew the world.
00:26:44
Darin Tingey
Yes. Yeah. I baptized her on Lai when I served there in 2018. And it
00:26:50
joanne
Oh, that that was a big deal to do them.
00:26:51
Darin Tingey
and
00:26:52
joanne
Yeah.
00:26:53
Darin Tingey
see it was really cool because...
00:26:56
Darin Tingey
When I came to visit last August,
Impactful Personal Stories from the Mission
00:26:58
Darin Tingey
right? Like we ran into you on Maduro, which is kind of funny. gotta be like, oh, the tingy, I know you. You write your name on all the apartments.
00:27:09
Darin Tingey
I was like, hey, it wasn't just me.
00:27:10
joanne
i guess
00:27:12
Darin Tingey
Everyone did it too. All right. But maybe I did mine it a little bit bigger.
00:27:14
joanne
but
00:27:16
Darin Tingey
but It was fun because the time we got eBuy, guys had officially transferred over there. um That was kind of cool. I was right there right when you guys transferred there.
00:27:28
Darin Tingey
And I got to EBI after being there for about a day or two, I get a message on Facebook from Anila and she goes, hey, everyone says you're on EBI right now. I haven't seen you yet, but I want to see you and I want to thank you for helping me become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
00:27:49
Darin Tingey
I'm going to the temple. And I was like, Oh my gosh. you know And then i saw you guys doing family history with them and with her. And I got to see her and I gave her a big hug.
00:28:00
Darin Tingey
She ended up being on my flight home from Ibai to Hawaii when she went on the temple trip. And she sat next to my mom on the plane. like How cool is that?
00:28:11
Darin Tingey
It's like the coolest miracle. And thank you guys for being a part of that and helping her do her family tree and get to the temple. It was such a special moment. um So thank you. and It's such a crazy hard work to do that.
00:28:24
Darin Tingey
And anyway, want to little because... because
00:28:29
joanne
Mm-hmm.
00:28:30
Darin Tingey
I want to talk a little bit about the new living standards that came out from the area, which made it difficult to open Outer Islands.
00:28:41
Darin Tingey
ah And that was like really frustrating for me to hear because like, you know, I served on the Outer Islands and I want all the people the Outer Islands to have missionaries and missionaries to get that experience as well.
00:28:52
Darin Tingey
So I guess one, give a little update of like what the new missionary standards were and how you guys went about it to open Outer Islands.
00:29:01
joanne
So running water, flushing toilets, electricity. And so ah those are the harder, the harder, you know, the harder things, requirements.
00:29:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:14
joanne
And, you know, honestly, from my perspective and from what I've learned, it was all doable.
00:29:20
Darin Tingey
Hmm.
00:29:21
joanne
It's all doable. It's just a matter of, um, putting the effort and resources into it. And so I think, um, as time goes on and, you know, it's not so much, uh, we're just trying to reopen and keep our head above water.
00:29:39
joanne
If that makes sense, like we're just gotta, we're just trying to survive this.
00:29:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:43
joanne
And then the the ground, the path has been kind of laid out there. And so I think as the mission, like new mission leaders continue to come in and out and, the mission continues to get stronger, yeah that will be done. Because you have Air Marshal, you know, being able to get the things that you need on in these spaces, it's possible.
00:30:06
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:30:06
joanne
It really is possible. It's completely doable. But you just have to be able to be a little creative and put the time and resources into it. you got to want it to happen.
00:30:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:30:18
joanne
And you have to really want it. You know, you really have to want it. And so I feel that You know, and when we spent time on Woce, I had no idea how awesome Woce is. I would have said you could leave me there for six months.
00:30:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:30:31
joanne
You know, Woce, you know, they have a great power grid. There's air conditioning, everything. And Amazon delivers to Woce. You can get Amazon and Woce.
00:30:42
Darin Tingey
No way. That's crazy.
00:30:43
joanne
Yes, way, way. So the so that i you know, that's available. Miele is very close. to Majuro conditions could be improved greatly in Malay for the missionaries there.
00:31:00
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm. Sorry.
00:31:00
joanne
ah One of the the hard things I think to be putting missionaries out on those islands is the availability of food. We did have missionaries who are just, you know, probably left out there a little too long.
00:31:08
Darin Tingey
sorry
00:31:11
joanne
And so they were not in a good way. One had to go home. Yeah. So, but it's available in Majuro. You can, It needs more support from the from the mission. It's just more work from the mission. That's why mission senior couples, have to put the plug out there.
00:31:30
joanne
you know Senior couples that are pretty healthy and that can be away, and these areas are so desperately in need of senior support because ah mission leaders can't do it on their own.
00:31:46
joanne
And especially mission leaders that between two countries.
00:31:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:31:50
joanne
And without a ah full complement of senior couples to do all of the work that needs to be done. Right. But it's ah it's a huge sacrifice. We say, you know, our mission was that we had a lot of friends from the MTC that were in Europe and we look at their Facebook vacationing all over.
00:32:09
joanne
Oh, We're going to the museum. So we're doing this. to Castles in southern Germany. And we. Yeah.
00:32:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:14
joanne
And we're having these big gatherings and, you know, the senior couples are all just all together doing all these wonderful things together, having, just having a blast. and we're like, no, this is a working mission.
00:32:26
joanne
ah P-Day, there's no P-Day.
00:32:29
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:32:30
joanne
P-Day is like, which project will we do today for P-Day? But um it's project day, but um but truthfully, and also medical personnel.
Need for Support and Infrastructure Improvements
00:32:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:43
joanne
You know, seniors, the the need is so desperate for um adequate medical guidance and true physicians, true, like well-trained medical.
00:32:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:57
joanne
But, you know, that's that would also help, though, with the Outer Island piece, because if you have localized medical help that the missionaries can trust and, that you know, with their health,
00:33:11
joanne
then i feel that it would be easier to have them out on the outer islands because they would have the resources and support that they need, the medications, things like that.
00:33:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. i remember my mission president, like begging people, senior couples to come out, like, please, we need more senior couples. And he, my mine was Australian. So he brought a lot of Australians, just like people he knew.
00:33:34
Darin Tingey
He's like, please come out and serve for, don't know, even if you only have six months, like, please come out. And our mission nurse was like back and forth between Kitabus and Marshalls with a full mission.
00:33:39
joanne
Yeah.
00:33:43
joanne
Yes.
00:33:46
Darin Tingey
And, but that also like the culture for missionaries was like, if you're on an island and you're sick, you don't tell anybody because you're going to get pulled off that outer island and you're not going to get another outer island experience, which is unfortunate, but I remember being sick for like three weeks, but I didn't want to tell anyone because I wanted to stay on the outer island.
00:34:06
Darin Tingey
touch
00:34:06
joanne
And that's true. and And that was how it was for E-Bi too. And the so the missionaries sometimes would try to hide from us.
00:34:13
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
00:34:14
joanne
Because they didn't want us to know. And I'm like, you don't understand. Like, really, this could be for the rest of your life. This isn't just this is this is pretty serious. Like you're you can be septic like that.
00:34:24
joanne
And you're not in a place where you're going to get the medical help that you need. Like you can die or you can lose a leg or you could.
00:34:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:34:32
joanne
So, you know, when you're young, yeah, you don't want to leave. And but that just also speaks to the heart of the missionaries. It wasn't just because you wanted to be on the outer island is because you love the people so much and you couldn't bear the thought of leaving them.
00:34:42
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:34:44
joanne
And we understood that because I cried for two months before our mission was over because I was just so sad that I was going to leave these people.
00:34:54
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:34:54
joanne
and ah And there was so much work to still be done.
00:34:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah, absolutely. How many times did you guys go to lie?
00:35:01
joanne
Three, four times? Three, or four times. We spent a week there over Christmas. That was pretty awesome. That was another huge highlight. So, you know, it was a hard, hard mission. It's not a glamorous mission.
00:35:14
joanne
But those special trips really made it so worth it. So having that week at Christmas in Lai,
00:35:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah, so fun.
00:35:24
joanne
it like chris it's like you'll never have, it's like a chance of a lifetime, right? To experience.
00:35:31
Darin Tingey
Absolutely. spent Christmas on live too, so I know exactly what you're saying.
00:35:35
joanne
You know, and it's just so special. It's so special.
00:35:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:40
joanne
So that was a huge highlight, you know, and we practice beats. They are steak picked out easy ones that we could do and follow along and not look too bad. There's video, there's coverage of that. But so we love that.
00:35:54
joanne
And then Moche, Moche was a Millie. Yeah, we spent a week in Woce a couple times. week in Woce. couple times in Woce. And several day trips with the stake to Woce.
00:36:07
joanne
and then Millie. And then to Millie as well. So there were missionaries on Millie towards the end of our mission. But Millie was that's pretty primitive. pretty primitive Pretty tough.
00:36:20
joanne
pretty tough vote For the missionaries and one Elder had to get sent home. It was, he'd been there for like six months. It was too long.
00:36:29
Darin Tingey
yeah it's a long time to be on that island did did what was yeah and what was kind of the goal like so when you went to lie you went lie four times and obviously like a lot of it's housing and stuff but like when you go to melee with with uh bishop who's a on quaj like what's kind of the goal when you guys go to each of these islands
00:36:32
joanne
Yeah.
00:36:34
joanne
Without a lot of support. Yeah.
00:36:51
joanne
Well, a couple of goals. ah Stake business. Yeah. I mean, if you look at Woj and Millie, it's like we identified building sites and then communicated with the area office where appropriate sites would be for New Chapel.
00:37:07
Darin Tingey
Awesome.
00:37:07
joanne
And we traveled with the team, too. We traveled with the area area our real estate team. Mm-hmm. And so that was a big piece. And then training. Training leadership. People and leadership. So we spent quite a bit of time on Wojze with the group leader, Roland Luther and Melody. Amazing.
00:37:25
joanne
Yeah. And, you know, we taught their son-in-law. We got him so we got married to the daughter. Yeah.
00:37:34
Darin Tingey
awesome
00:37:34
joanne
And baptized. They're doing great. the mom too. We did some teaching, but it was mainly trying to teach them. You know, we'd get the groups together and said, this is how you do the sacrament.
00:37:46
joanne
And ordained some guys in the Aaronic Priesthood and got...
00:37:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:37:52
joanne
It's like the group's doing great. tip Group's doing great. They're doing great. They just need that support. You know, leadership training. I mean, those guys are all first generation members and trying the best they can.
00:38:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:38:03
joanne
to do the best they can. the best they can there with no no really full-time support. And it's... And not all the resources in their language. It's just not that easy. It's tough, but the stake is stepping it up.
00:38:13
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:38:17
joanne
and And I think they're getting them. So they actually have ordered, and it's probably there now, but Starlink. So that was a big change yeah is that the area office approved the use of Starlink.
00:38:24
Darin Tingey
and
00:38:30
joanne
in the there. And so that was a big shift. And so now we're going to see a change with that being available. i So when we went, we took our own Starlink with us.
00:38:42
joanne
So we take Starlink and we'd be out there under the palm trees and do a family history. And fact in fact, what we did is where we stayed in that little, um you know, hotel where they where the the post office and what else is there?
00:38:47
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:38:57
joanne
Something but So we'd sit on the front steps. baly Yeah, the Bomi Bank. So everyone's at the bank to get their money. And I'd be on the foot. So do you have your family tree? Would you like to see?
00:39:09
Darin Tingey
and
00:39:10
joanne
I'm like, tell me your family's name. And then I would find birth records. And I'd say, hey, is this your family? And they'd look at the birth certificates and they would just be so amazed. And they'd be so excited to see that. And I said, yeah, do you want to see more? Yeah.
00:39:24
joanne
Want a tree? Yeah. So that was really fun.
00:39:27
Darin Tingey
So does the, so does the Marshall Islands actually do a good job at keeping everyone's birth certificate? Yeah.
00:39:33
joanne
No, no, no.
00:39:34
Darin Tingey
I was gonna say, how did you how are you finding all of this information?
00:39:38
joanne
So there's there were projects and I think they're still doing at BYU, Idaho. But there' and there's a pretty big project i where they're taking Micronesian records that have been and they're and they're indexing them and digitizing them.
00:39:52
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:39:52
joanne
um I think there was a huge loss recently, lost a lot of archives and records of that huge fire that just happened this year.
00:40:01
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah.
00:40:01
joanne
um What about four? It was right after we left on our mission. So like within the last three months, there was a huge fire.
00:40:04
Darin Tingey
the government building.
00:40:06
joanne
Did you remember? Did you see about that?
00:40:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the Netagella, the government building.
00:40:10
joanne
yes yeah Yes, yes, yes.
00:40:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's crazy sad.
00:40:14
joanne
And when we would go, when we're trying to help people get their passports and things like that, and we went to this one records building and it's just, just
00:40:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:40:26
joanne
you can't even believe it's just stacks and stacks of paper everywhere. Like not even in files. It's just, floor to ceiling paper stacked up.
00:40:32
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha. a
00:40:34
joanne
and And I'm thinking, how could anyone ever find anything? And they're like, well, those ladies know. But again, that's a huge need, right? for for For support, for going in and helping places like this. But there there's a pretty decent amount of records, though. It's surprising how many there were.
Family History Work and Cultural Insights
00:40:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I mean, I think back to like the marriages or like someone would be like, yeah, I got married to somebody else and we're like, crap, we need to get them divorced from this person and married to this person.
00:41:03
joanne
Yes.
00:41:03
Darin Tingey
How are we going to do that? Like the records are so bad. I don't know how wherever we're ever going to figure this out.
00:41:10
joanne
Yeah, it's ah it's ah those those will try doing that when you're trying to get them to the temple.
00:41:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah, oh gosh.
00:41:16
joanne
Yeah, all kinds of crazy stuff about that. Or, or is this really your biological child? That was a good one.
00:41:21
Darin Tingey
yeah yeah
00:41:22
joanne
Yeah. So we went through this whole thing. That's my biological child. Then we find out. Well, actually, we had to be more specific. ah When we say biological, we mean like your husband is the father. You are the natural mother. Not that it's your but husband's sister's child.
00:41:40
joanne
It's biological child. It's not a robot.
00:41:44
Darin Tingey
but
00:41:45
joanne
so Just not your biological child. So, you know, trying to get them set up to be sealed.
00:41:49
Darin Tingey
Exactly. Yeah. Right.
00:41:50
joanne
But that family did. We got it all straightened out. i
00:41:54
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:41:54
joanne
They got sealed, but getting adoptions is very difficult there. Not because adoption itself is difficult, but on the outer islands, um there's no magistrates there. So the sacrifice they have to make to come in, to get a judgment, to give them the adoption legally, those are all huge challenges.
00:42:13
joanne
Like it can take years for you to finally get everything together
00:42:19
joanne
to be in the right place at the right time to get ah judge to sign off and file it so that you can be legally adopted and then go to the temple.
00:42:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's, yeah, miracles.
00:42:30
joanne
So that's another thing.
00:42:32
Darin Tingey
I mean, it's next to near impossible to do, I i feel like, in the Marshall Islands. miracles that you guys are able to help out with any of that um is is really crazy.
00:42:43
Darin Tingey
And, and you know, the hand Lord is is there. And I think to your trainings too, to the Outer Islands, I remember serving on an outer island in Kitabas, and we did church in four different villages, and it was exhausting every Sunday.
00:42:59
Darin Tingey
And I finally was like, all right, we have a priest's authority at East Village. I'm doing a training, and like we're going to do this. And I did trainings for a few weeks, and it it was a rough start. you know not it didn't um feel like church probably didn't happen every Sunday because I was like, I'm not going to your village for church this Sunday. like You're going to run church.
00:43:19
Darin Tingey
um But in the long run, it was good because we both got pulled off the island when we got transferred off. So they didn't have any missionaries there. And so they were prepared for it. But then i I thank my lucky stars for when I served Lai, which was after my Outer Island in Kiribati.
00:43:35
Darin Tingey
And i was like, man, this is the best of both worlds. I get an Outer Island, but there's an established ward and they do everything. And it's a fantastic.
00:43:41
joanne
Yeah. They're really good at my Bishop Bokin, right?
00:43:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:46
joanne
Yep. Bishop Bokin.
00:43:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:47
joanne
Yeah.
00:43:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah. He got, he was he became Bishop when I was out there, um which was incredible.
00:43:52
joanne
So great.
00:43:53
Darin Tingey
He's awesome. And I, and I think about Lai, like Lai is just this tiny Island with fewer than 200 people or whatever, 300 people. And they have a ward like, and probably one of the strongest wards in the whole mission.
00:44:09
joanne
Yeah.
00:44:10
Darin Tingey
And I envision that for all the other islands. Like look at Laya, they're the gold star. And if we have missionaries on the other outer islands, we could eventually get it up. Now, is close to Ebi, which helps a ton, but...
00:44:27
Darin Tingey
I just, I just, we had seven Outer Islands open on my time from the Marshall Islands. I'm trying to think. Lai, Wutze, Tselowicz, Mille, Ebon, Alain Labalap, and Arno.
00:44:42
Darin Tingey
So we had seven.
00:44:42
joanne
Oh, so you had Ebon. Oh, that's rough out there too.
00:44:44
Darin Tingey
We had, we had Ebon open.
00:44:47
joanne
landed on Ebon. but So we landed on Ebon and we landed on Island Lop a lot.
00:44:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah. yeah
00:44:52
joanne
And Ujjayi, too. we were We were trying to get out to Island Lopalop right towards the end. We couldn't pull it off. get our schedule but And Jalowit, too. So they're working on it. Just so you know, Jalowit and Island Lopalop, they're working on it.
00:45:05
joanne
But the yeah they were anxious to have the stakee is at least any mission stake support to come out and help them and
00:45:06
Darin Tingey
Hey,
00:45:14
joanne
So we were going to go stay in island up a lot for a week. But we just couldn't pull it off. Couldn't pull it off in time. but I saw it right at the end. And that's why it was so hard to leave the mission. it's like, oh, dang it. We really wanted to do that.
00:45:28
joanne
It will happen.
00:45:28
Darin Tingey
hey
00:45:29
joanne
And it will.
00:45:30
Darin Tingey
maybe you guys the next mission leaders there in couple of years.
00:45:33
joanne
Bite your tongue.
00:45:34
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:45:38
joanne
No, I don't know.
00:45:39
joanne
That's too big a job. it's ah It's a big job. and Hopefully, you know, and there's, you know, now might've heard too, they're, I think they're working on Nauru.
00:45:39
Darin Tingey
a
00:45:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah, which is crazy.
00:45:51
joanne
Yeah.
00:45:52
joanne
So that mission leader would have Nauru and Marshall Islands and Kitabas.
00:45:52
Darin Tingey
I mean...
00:45:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:46:00
joanne
So I think if that would happen, they would maybe, don't know, a lot of speculation there, but I would think it's just too much.
00:46:03
Darin Tingey
They gotta split off the marshals. but Yeah.
00:46:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I mean, it's already too much, right? ah It's like, Kittabus can be its own mission. Marsh Islands is still a little bit too small to be its own mission, but it almost need and needs to be.
00:46:22
joanne
It kind of needs to be.
00:46:24
joanne
But think of how you could be super focused, though. So having a small mission, you could just be hyper focused. And i I heard rumor that they're wanting to put a support service service center in Majuro, which would allow separate it
00:46:24
Darin Tingey
For the support, right, right.
00:46:40
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:46:43
Darin Tingey
That would be incredible.
00:46:43
joanne
So in our opinion, if they would take the Marshall Islands. This is our pontification. This is our pontification. yeah Separate it from Carabas and include it in the West Coast area, which is includes Hawaii.
00:46:59
joanne
Take it out of the Pacific area.
00:47:00
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:47:00
joanne
Take it out of the Pacific area and put it in the West Coast of the U.S. because it's really hard to get to the Marshall Islands from New Zealand. I mean, they have to literally go back to Hawaii and come back this way.
00:47:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:14
joanne
And it's a... it's a Terrible trip. It's brutal. They hate it. And so it's it's really onerous on the guys that have to go there It's not efficient. Not very efficient. So if it was part of the West Coast, ah you know, like it would be easier to get there from Los Angeles than it is from New Zealand. Literally yes So yeah way better flight.
00:47:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. That's smart.
00:47:37
joanne
And it's the same currency.
00:47:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:39
joanne
That's its own. Yeah. Yeah. and there And not only that, it gives you a lot more opportunity. So when, like I went back to that Amazon thing, i couldn't tap into the church's Amazon that they have.
00:47:51
joanne
We had to make our own.
00:47:53
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:47:53
joanne
And then in fact, they, and Amazon were like, Hey, wait a minute. You already, the church already has this thing. Who are these crazy people out here doing this? And so they, we had to go to Salt Lake and, then you know, explain everything. And they were like, okay, fine. Just leave them be. They're good.
00:48:07
joanne
Yeah. They're a nonprofit. you It's all, it's all good.
00:48:09
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:48:10
joanne
These crazy people out there, just let them go.
00:48:13
Darin Tingey
but
00:48:14
joanne
Sister Williams. Just do what they want. Sister Williams will not take no.
00:48:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah, exactly.
00:48:18
joanne
yeah Like, no, I don't know that word. And it worked. It worked.
00:48:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, hey i like I like it.
00:48:25
joanne
But that's our pontification. Yeah.
00:48:28
Darin Tingey
i I've been thinking about this for a long time that they should be split. you know i A mission president would fly in on Friday to Madro and fly back to Kitabas on Sunday. you know like that was that was kind of We were the little brother of the mission.
00:48:38
joanne
you know
00:48:42
Darin Tingey
when I went to Kitabas, I... I liked him a lot more cause i because I got to see him more. Well, I didn't really get to see him more that much, but you know he was more interested in Kitabas. So i was like, oh, I felt more important, I guess.
00:48:57
Darin Tingey
um Which i think I think it's still that way. ah Did you guys go to Kitabas?
00:49:01
joanne
Well, we did. So we were in cannabis a couple of times, two or three? Two or three times, not much. Not much, but we did make it out to an outer island, so we made it to Marike. Yeah.
00:49:11
Darin Tingey
Wow. For what?
00:49:12
joanne
So we actually...
00:49:12
Darin Tingey
Why did you guys go to Medicaid?
00:49:14
joanne
To put housing out there. So, so that to open it up. So we're, we went out and we took some stuff and we went out on the gratitude, the boat, you know, took missionaries out there, took some missionaries out there.
00:49:24
Darin Tingey
Nice. Yeah,
00:49:26
joanne
And then the situation was not that great when we got there. And I was just floored that we were just going to leave those two boys out there with a bag of rice. And some of the cooking utensils that had been taken out there a couple weeks prior got pillaged.
00:49:40
Darin Tingey
yeah.
00:49:40
joanne
Yeah, so they broke people have broken in, took their cooking, took stuff.
00:49:40
Darin Tingey
Because
00:49:44
joanne
And so mission president had to go back out the next day and try to take some stuff to them.
00:49:46
Darin Tingey
they have a chapel house.
00:49:51
joanne
Yeah.
00:49:51
Darin Tingey
Because they have a chapel house on Medicaid, right?
00:49:53
joanne
They do.
00:49:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:49:54
joanne
And it's pretty nice, actually. Yeah, it's not bad. It's pretty nice. like And that campus is really nice. So in Medicaid, that chapel and the chapel house, really really they weren't taking good care of it.
00:50:07
joanne
But it was really nice. And it could be, again, you know just maintained.
00:50:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:11
joanne
it It would be nice. So I think they've got it under control now, maybe. But I think we're probably one of the only senior couples that's been out to all of these islands.
00:50:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah. No, for sure. I think you guys are to see an outer island on both sides of the mission, which, yeah, not many people get to do. What was kind of the... I always like to ask people that have seen How did you guys feel towards Kitabas after being in the Marsh Islands?
00:50:40
joanne
Well, you know, Kiribati was beautiful. And so we got to stay in a really cushy spot. So we stayed on the Moroni campus when we were there.
00:50:47
Darin Tingey
Nice.
00:50:49
joanne
So that's pretty plush, you know.
00:50:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:52
joanne
oh So we were staying in a really nice apartment. um And so that was pretty plush. And I feel yes it's surprising. You kind of think that it's all going to be the same and it's just not.
00:51:06
joanne
You know, Kurtibus is very different.
00:51:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
00:51:08
joanne
i It's very unique in its own way. The people are fantastic. We loved the people that we got to interact with and we can
Leadership Development on Outer Islands
00:51:16
joanne
see we could see the different, like the missionaries had a different situation too than in Majuro.
00:51:24
joanne
Yeah. So that was unique. That was kind of interesting to see. More interaction with the mission president. Yeah. Well, and not only that, you know, well, lots going on in Kiribati right now as far as the church is concerned.
00:51:32
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:51:33
Darin Tingey
totally.
00:51:39
joanne
So I feel like so much focus is there. It's so visible right now because you've got the temple happening and then they've got that new medical center there that they're doing like the the dental center.
00:51:51
joanne
And i so right now there's a lot of focus on support for Kyrnobos and for good reason, because they have to have the people there ready yeah to serve in the temple.
00:52:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:06
joanne
Like you can't just stick a temple there and not have the people ready for it.
00:52:06
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:52:09
joanne
So, so I can understand that. I, I, I can see it. Although, you know, I'm a little bit more, i would say my heart's more, of course, in the Marshall Islands with our people like, hey, like we're sticking up for the underdog almost.
00:52:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's how I was.
00:52:25
Darin Tingey
Right. No, exactly. I also like to think, like, you know, would the Marsh Islands be just like Kitabas if they had a Moroni High School? You know, like, like to think about that.
00:52:36
Darin Tingey
Also, probably if they didn't all leave to the States, it'd probably be a lot different, too. We'd have a whole other stake in the Marsh Islands, probably. Yeah. Yeah. But like having Moroni there for so long like really helped build up the church and the members there. and And the Marsh Islands out-migration just didn't just didn't help Marsh Islands. I feel like the church is like, always it's growing, but it's just everyone leaves. So it's just like maintaining.
00:53:02
Darin Tingey
It's like hey maintaining the membership. And that that's just the constant battle. which is hard on leadership because you call someone to be elders quorum president he moves the States and you're like, ah well, I got to find someone else and there might not be someone else.
00:53:14
joanne
yeah And they don't have a patriarch.
00:53:17
Darin Tingey
They don't have paycheck right now.
00:53:18
joanne
No, there's no, there hasn't been a patriarch since before we were there.
00:53:21
Darin Tingey
Wow.
00:53:22
joanne
There hasn't been a patriarch there for years. Yeah. So that's another thing I was talking to one of our, cause I still talk to our friends there and, um,
00:53:29
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:53:31
joanne
I said, you probably don't even know what a patriarchal blessing is because they really don't talk about it very much because because they're not getting them.
00:53:35
Darin Tingey
Now.
00:53:37
joanne
But what they did do for a couple of our kids that were getting ready to serve their missions when they planned their temple trip, they did plan appointments with patriarchs there in Hawaii.
00:53:49
Darin Tingey
nice
00:53:51
joanne
But that's another huge need that I feel is just kind of falling through the cracks. But I mean, like you said, a lot of the people are leaving. And so try to get a patriarch, someone that has the, what it takes to be a patriarch in the Marshall Islands for these people.
00:54:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:54:08
joanne
But a lot of these people are going with no patriarchal blessing. So, you know, the things that we take for granted here, the things that we don't even think about, and you just can't imagine that so other members of the church aren't getting their patriarchal blessings.
00:54:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:54:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:54:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and I think like sometimes I'm like, man, i you know, my calling in the elders quorum feels difficult. But yeah I think back to them, like, it's way easier here than it is there, you know.
00:54:34
Darin Tingey
they Their life really is church, you know. I feel like it's family, church, and then work is last, where I feel like often here churches kind of last. at least that's kind of how I feel.
00:54:46
Darin Tingey
I mean, like so much revolves around the church, on especially on eBay, right? Like every night there's something happening at the church. They're always at the church doing something. They're helping someone else in the church.
00:54:57
joanne
That building is getting good use.
00:54:57
Darin Tingey
And yeah, it looks beautiful, by the way.
00:54:59
joanne
ah yeah
00:55:01
Darin Tingey
I was so happy about it.
00:55:03
joanne
It's a great building.
00:55:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:55:04
joanne
And they do a pretty good job. They take good care it. They do a pretty good job. They really have been keeping it up really pretty well. In fact, much better than what we see in Majuro.
00:55:13
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:55:14
joanne
That was a cultural shock for us.
00:55:17
Darin Tingey
Madre was?
00:55:18
joanne
Well, just going into the just going to that plugin the buildings, you know, the church buildings.
00:55:18
Darin Tingey
Or are you by?
00:55:23
joanne
Hold on one second.
00:55:23
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah. yeah yeah Yeah, they're a lot different. I mean, even Long Island, you know, with the steak centers, it's a nice steak center, but it's not always kept super clean.
00:55:34
joanne
No, the upkeep's not so great.
00:55:37
Darin Tingey
ah Well, i I don't want to keep you guys too too much longer here, but... You know, some of the final questions I always ask my guests are, what was your your favorite area? Which, i mean, you guys had couple of, you guys had two areas technically. And and you visit a lot. Maybe I'll ask you, like, I guess your favorite area or just favorite island that you guys visited and spent time on.
00:56:02
Darin Tingey
um
00:56:02
joanne
Oh, man.
00:56:03
Darin Tingey
Let's go with that question first. And I got two more.
00:56:06
joanne
Well, the favorite area to me was EBI just because... The service we got there. The service that we were able to do. And I think we got... Because we were out of the office. We're so office-focused in Masro. And then in EBI, it's people-focused with MLS. So...
00:56:29
joanne
um ebu's favorite area but the favorite island it harder to live in there yeah it was hard to live for sure but my my favorite island was woche mean it's like i i'd have spent my whole mission on woche so why don't you like if you take lie because i think lie is such a stunning and beautiful it's so beautiful
00:56:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:56:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:56:54
joanne
i But you don't have some of those. It's a little more primitive. It's smart a little more primitive. So you don't have the power grid that store and the stores that you have in Woce.
00:57:04
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:57:08
joanne
And so having that power, you know, having electricity really is a big plus. They have good schools in Woce. Really good schools. The kids all spoke really good English. Yeah.
00:57:20
joanne
The sense of community there was great. The mayor is doing a really great job and what Jay he's really doing a great job. And.
00:57:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah, they take in all the high school kids from you know all the outer islands there on Wutche and they do in Jalowicz and Iba and Maduro. I would like to think that more people would live or stay in the Marshall Islands if their standard of living is gets better like it is on Wutche or Jalowicz.
00:57:43
joanne
Yeah.
00:57:45
Darin Tingey
They love their outer islands and they'd probably like to stay there if life was a little bit easier.
00:57:51
joanne
Yeah. Yeah. The outer islands are so beautiful. What was your favorite area? I would agree that, you know, i just say i had my favorite things about all of it, but I would say, yeah, Woce was pretty amazing to have because I knew I could get Amazon there if I was staying there.
00:58:12
joanne
And I could have, I could cook and I could do, you know, the things I'd like to do. i I think the opportunity we had to teach in Woce, I think what I liked about Woce was that it wasn't all members.
00:58:27
joanne
And so there's a great opportunity there to grow.
00:58:31
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:58:31
joanne
And so being able to be there on the front end of that and and see that. And we so we have a lot of great pictures there. And one of my favorites is and when we had that the five baptisms when we went back. Yeah.
00:58:45
joanne
So the people that we had taught, we got to go back and see them get baptized and be able to watch the group leader that we've been helping in training, baptize his son.
00:58:56
joanne
And that was really neat too, because that was his first baptism, you know?
00:59:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:59:03
joanne
And so that was really special. Ordain him a deacon. Ordain him a deacon. So that was exciting. And then to see, you know, Jared's out there in his clothes, waited out in the water and got to be a witness.
00:59:18
joanne
And so, you know, things like that, that we get to experience that we know that a ah lot of people will never get to experience, I think.
00:59:27
Darin Tingey
yeah Yeah, which, go ahead, go ahead, sorry.
00:59:28
joanne
And then.
00:59:31
joanne
But in serving on EBI, just. You know, it's just the people there are so great. i mean, we just love, love, love our Marshallese friends. I'm like, I miss them. I'm trying to hunt down all the Marshallese branches that we can go visit.
00:59:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah. eat E-buy is a special place. It just, it's, when you think about when someone describes E-buy to you, you're like, Why would I want to live there? Why is that so great?
01:00:01
Darin Tingey
And you're like, it's just the people. You go and you're just constantly with them. You're surrounded by them. Everyone is so close and packed in together that it's just a fun place to be. And you see all your friends every day, multiple times a day.
01:00:18
Darin Tingey
and they're feeding you. Come over. you know Even though we don't have much, we're happy and living life to the fullest. And it's just such a special, special place.
01:00:29
joanne
And their love for the Lord, like their, their true love and devotion to our savior is, i think unparalleled, you know, you just really get to see the the level of faith that they have too, because again, they don't have everything, right?
01:00:29
Darin Tingey
Uh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
01:00:46
joanne
They don't have all the things that we have here, but their faith and their trust in the Lord is just so
Cultural Experiences and Local Cuisine
01:00:52
joanne
profound. And I think we learned a lot from them that way and their, and their humility.
01:00:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah. So the next question is what what's your favorite Marshallese food that you guys Okay. had?
01:01:03
joanne
I just,
01:01:07
joanne
i just I love coconut. So i loved making my own coconut milk.
01:01:12
Darin Tingey
okay
01:01:13
joanne
I loved, um i I would make this um toasted coconut treat that was really yummy. And I liked the bubble, the little balls, the little rice balls with the coconut and the little pandanus thing that they put in the plastic.
01:01:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah, this is so good.
01:01:30
joanne
You know how they make the puree, the pandanus puree, and they and they turn it and ah make little little plastic.
01:01:32
Darin Tingey
yeah. Uh
01:01:37
joanne
I really like that. And what else?
01:01:39
Darin Tingey
huh.
01:01:41
joanne
My favorite was the donuts at Jenny's. Oh, yeah, Jenny's donuts. We did love Jenny's donuts.
01:01:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:48
joanne
ah get and eat whole s sa ofmo a I those.
01:01:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:52
joanne
Those are my, those are probably some of the favorite or when they got a good fresh caught fish and they just flash fry those, yeah those, the the fish when it was really nice and fresh. Jared ate turtle egg.
01:02:03
Darin Tingey
You ate the turtle egg. I did not experience that. How was it?
01:02:08
joanne
it took a minute to, to get up the courage to eat it. But, um, because it's kind of leathery.
01:02:19
joanne
You know, when you pick it up, but it's not a hard shell like a chicken egg. It's kind of leathery, so it's a little bit squishy. And um President Jellike's were over on, where were Woce. Woce.
01:02:32
joanne
So they they'd got a turtle. Big turtle. Huge. cooked it up, and then they turtle eggs in this bowl. And he says, oh yeah, you gotta have a curdle egg. And I'm like, oh, really? He says, yeah. i was off you're gonna You're gonna love it Trust me. oh yeah So I took it, he says, I said, how do you eat it? He says, well, you take a bite and then you suck out the egg out of it.
01:02:57
joanne
So I did it. I took a bite and you kind of bite a hole in it and then you just suck the egg out. And so it's like a soft boiled egg, which I do like. I do like soft boiled eggs. So it, it,
01:03:08
joanne
Tasted great. Tasted just like a chicken egg. But you didn't get sick? I didn't get sick. and But it took a minute for me to get get up the craziness.
01:03:19
Darin Tingey
That's awesome.
01:03:19
joanne
But it was good.
01:03:20
Darin Tingey
different Did you feel a little guilty at all? like bit you know I feel like they teach us, like oh, turtles, save the turtles. and You on your mission, and you're like, should I be eating this? But it's just the way of life.
01:03:32
joanne
Well, it was it's a delicacy when they When they catch a turtle, it's a big deal. It's a big deal.
01:03:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
01:03:38
joanne
When they bring out the turtle, it's big When they're going to get one, it's for a special occasion. So, yeah, you have to participate.
01:03:46
Darin Tingey
yeah I remember one of my my investigators was like, elders, I found, like the other, last week, found where the turtle laid all her eggs, and I went and ate them all up, and they were so good. And I just heard her like...
01:04:00
Darin Tingey
When I was in school, they just taught us, you know, save the turtles, save the turtles.
01:04:03
joanne
Yeah.
01:04:03
Darin Tingey
So it's like ah like, I know it's just the way of life, but a little bit inside me, it was like, ooh, you know, save all the turtles. But then I loved the, oh, totally.
01:04:11
joanne
Well, they're probably not endangered there the same way as they are in other places too. Yeah.
01:04:16
Darin Tingey
um I love the turtle.
01:04:16
joanne
yeah
01:04:17
Darin Tingey
I think it was one of my favorite things that I had on my mission. It's just delicious. ah Okay, the last question for both of you is what was your favorite thing about the Marsh Islands? but that you know It can be Marsh Islands or your mission or the people, i guess. what like what What was your favorite thing?
01:04:38
joanne
Oh, why to me, it's the friendships that we made. And, you know, that the goodness of the people, goodness of the people. was, you know, just love President Jellicke and got to be really good friends.
01:04:54
joanne
And, you know, I just miss the guy like crazy. We talk all the time through chat. But to me, it's just the there good friends that we made. Yeah, I think that good people. And then, you know, we miss hearing that. Oh, and the weather. I have to say, i loved it.
01:05:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:05:14
joanne
i didn't know I would. and so I miss that warm rain, the warm rain. When it rains and it's hot rain and it's raining and it just is so great. You know, just, oh, love that.
01:05:26
joanne
I really loved that.
01:05:28
Darin Tingey
You need to move to Arizona.
01:05:28
joanne
Yeah.
01:05:31
joanne
Yeah. And then hearing coconuts falling from the trees, like, oh, coconut down. Go get my but that coconut fell down.
01:05:31
Darin Tingey
You'll get that in Arizona.
01:05:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah, don't park your car under underneath the tree.
01:05:40
joanne
But no, at the airport, we knew like, don't park under those trees while we're at the airport.
01:05:43
Darin Tingey
Get smashed.
01:05:48
joanne
That's back when we had a car in Maduro.
01:05:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Well, you guys had an incredible mission. two years in the Marshall Islands is a great sacrifice, but it sounds like it didn't even feel like a sacrifice for you guys because you loved it.
01:06:05
Darin Tingey
But the like i said, like thank you. i love when there's a great senior couple that makes a big difference. It really helps the work as a former missionary. like and just It just totally helps um you know having someone there to help the missionaries, but the people, and to hear you guys' stories going to outer islands. and like You guys went above and beyond.
01:06:25
Darin Tingey
so Thank you for that. and This was an awesome episode. so Thanks for coming on the Islands Podcast.
01:06:33
joanne
Thank you. Thank you. Thanks for having