Episode 42: Gage Dowdle - Kiribati - Tarawa, Kiritimati, Marakei

Transcript

Darin Tingey: All right, we're back with another episode of the Islands Podcast. A guest of a brand new returned missionary, Gage Dowdle.

Darin Tingey: Super fun to have you on today, Gage, because I got to see a little bit of your mission just via Facebook and your stories and we kind of messaged back and forth.

Darin Tingey: Uh, so glad we could make it happen. I think you've been back, what, three weeks now? Three, four weeks.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it's about three or four weeks.

Darin Tingey: So adjusting back in, we were talking right before this, how it feels like a dream already to you.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Uh, it only continues to feel that way, uh, as time goes on, which is sad. give give, give a little background on you, Gage.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: are you from? yeah, where are you from?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, I'm from Southern California, LA County, a little town called La Verne. Born and raised here all my life. And then right after i graduated from high school, I went straight on my mission. I even had my mission call while i was at high school.

Gage Dowdle: And that was, yeah, that was probably one of the easiest ways to graduate high school without worrying about what to do next.

Darin Tingey: Really? I'm going.

Gage Dowdle: Because all my friends are worrying about what college to go to, what friends they'll see. And I was like, well, I'm going on a mission, so I'll worry about that later.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Did you have a lot of LDS friends in high school or not really?

Gage Dowdle: Not really. Here, especially in Southern California, i could count on my hands how many friends, how many people at my school remember. So, yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah,

Darin Tingey: So they were they kind of like, what is this mission thing? Like, where the heck are you going?

Gage Dowdle: yeah and it was a really cool missionary experience before I even became a missionary. I was able to explain where what I was doing, where I was going, and they were really interested. And my mom even... wanted to showcase it and show my friends while I was gone.

Gage Dowdle: So she made account for me so that my friends could watch her account of me on my mission, which was another cool little missionary experience.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, that is cool. So when you got your mission call, did you have people over when you opened it? Did open it by yourself? What was your impressions of getting called to the Marshall Islands Kittabas mission?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so I first opened it by myself, and before I even read where I was going, I was already bawling, like just crying. I knew this was something been waiting for forever, obviously.

Gage Dowdle: And then I read Marshall Islands, Kiribati Mission, speaking the Kiribati language, and i was like I was like crying to myself. I said, where even is that? And so obviously the first thing I did, where is Kiribati?

Gage Dowdle: And another thing, funny enough, I looked up how to pronounce Kiribati. And it actually came up with, it was close. It said Kira Bosh. but

Darin Tingey: Bosh.

Gage Dowdle: And then, yes. And then I opened it with my mom and dad and some of my cousins and my grandparents. And i already knew by the time I opened it, but I opened it and read it to them.

Gage Dowdle: And they were all like, what? What even is that? I was like, I'm not sure.

Darin Tingey: So you open it by yourself and then you open it with family after.

Gage Dowdle: yeah. yeah

Darin Tingey: nice. And then like, what did you, I'm sure you did some research. Was there, what did you find on the mission? Was there a decent amount of info about the mission when you went out?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so obviously when you're when you hear that you're going to serve in a random country you've never heard of, especially on an island like Kitty Bess, it's a little frightening. And I was honestly really scared.

Gage Dowdle: Like my dad and my grandparents were looking up photos and like, you're going here. i was like, oh no, a little scared. But, you know, It's a lot more modern than you'd think, especially nowadays in 2026.

Gage Dowdle: It's a lot more modern.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: There's even and you know cashless tap at little stores, little bo-buys across the street.

Darin Tingey: No

Gage Dowdle: So Kiribes has upped their game. They definitely becoming imetan, even if they don't want it.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: But yeah, it was a little frightening at first, but I'd say nowadays it's not... that bad. It's not that different as it was back whenever, you know, when other missionaries served, especially on Tarawa, the main island.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: yeah that was like from what i've heard yeah it's seems pretty nice now like especially the the missionary homes and you've got all the necessities

Gage Dowdle: Yep. Yes. That's the biggest one. The missionary houses are so nice. So nice.

Darin Tingey: okay so we'll get to that so so you get to your mission call in high school says you're going to kiddo best

Darin Tingey: Did it take you a second to figure out you were going to Kittabas versus the Marshall Islands or did you understand that?

Gage Dowdle: I understood that I'd only be speaking Kitty Bess. I just didn't know how many Kitty Bess people, how many people in Marshall Island spoke Kitty Bess. But once I found out that they're completely different languages, was like, okay, I'm probably just going to stay in Kitty Bess.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. I mean, i could see it in in the next 10 to 15 years. going to the Marshalls, speaking Kitabas, because a lot of them are moving there.

Darin Tingey: All the Marshalls people are moving to the States, and a lot of Kitabas people are moving into you to the Marshalls.

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah.

Darin Tingey: a I've i don't know i've said this in my other podcasts, but i so I started to evolve, and when I went back from Kitabas to the Marshalls, I started the Kitabas branch, because there was like a lot of Kitabas people there.

Darin Tingey: And even even when I went back, what was it two years ago to the Marshalls, went to Maduro and had a whole party with a bunch of kiddos people there. they had like They have a big minieve. I think there's two minievees that I know of on Maduro.

Darin Tingey: And this one was like really big. It's a bunch of kiddos people there. And they just moved there because there's work there. So kind of crazy. So you, what day did you go up to and how big was your intake?

Gage Dowdle: It was July 2024. I was four.

Gage Dowdle: us four

Darin Tingey: Smaller group for July.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, but after us, it was like tons, like 13, 15, like for three transfers in a row. So we were just the starting batch.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, okay. How was that? How was the MTC? Yeah. Okay.

Gage Dowdle: It was really fun. I wish we had a bigger intake because I was really jealous of the big intakes. It seemed like a lot of fun. But despite that, we it was just us in a trio because it was us, three elders and one sister.

Gage Dowdle: it just us three basically all day. So it was pretty fun. We got really tight and sometimes we had you know little arguments. But it was really fun despite all that.

Darin Tingey: Did, you know, learning Kitabas in MTC, did you like think that you had it like pretty good by the time you left and then you go to Kitabas and you're like, actually never mind?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so when we were learning Kittievest and the MTC, it's like, actually, fun fact, I love learning languages, and that was actually one of my hobbies before my mission.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: So I'd already studied other languages, and I knew how to learn a language. And so it was easy to pick up the language learning abilities, but Kittievest is completely different.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: So that was hard, but I felt like I had the basics that I needed coming out of the MTC down, like, you know, introducing myself, you know, explain a scripture and maybe say a simple prayer. And that was all I had. And I feel like that's all I needed. And I think that's all missionaries out the MTC need.

Gage Dowdle: And then we got, obviously, even in the Fiji airport, I heard people speaking Q2S and I was like, oh no, I'm not going to be able to understand this.

Darin Tingey: yeah I remember that too on the way to the marshals like being in Hawaii and like seeing the marshals you want to hear him speak if I go crap I don't understand or anything they're saying and the accents like way different than you expect you know I don't know maybe the training is a little bit different for you guys now like maybe you have videos to watch or

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah.

Darin Tingey: people speaking kitabas or something like that. mean, that's the biggest thing is like just training your ears to hear the language because it's not like we've heard Chinese before. You've heard Spanish. You've heard French. You've just grown up in the States. so i feel like you kind of know what those languages sound like, but you don't know what kitabas sounds like.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, exactly. I think Kitty Vest is probably the most different language out of every language in the world, let alone that it's not even known.

Gage Dowdle: First of all, it's completely different and it's not even known by half of the people, not even half, more than half people on the earth.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Right. Like it's not recognized always if there's like a language dropdown, there's like no Qtivest there.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Never.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Okay. So you guys go to, so you're in MTC in July, so you probably get Qtivest in like September or something like that. What was your first impressions of Qtivest?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so I think I'm just going to join the train and give the first response. You probably know what it is Right off the plane. I was freezing on the plane and that quickly went away right when they opened that airplane door.

Gage Dowdle: was one of the complete opposite experiences entire life. Yeah, it's really hot. And as we're landing, I see this white picket fence around the airport.

Gage Dowdle: Where am i

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And yeah, we got out of the airport, this small one terminal airport. Still, where am I? And then we met our mission president, our zone leaders. And the question never went away, where am I? Until maybe four or five months later.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Who was your mission president when you started?

Gage Dowdle: It was President Kendall.

Darin Tingey: Okay, and from New Zealand. And then when you just left, you had from Australia, right?

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Gage Dowdle: President mail

Gage Dowdle: Australia. Yes.

Darin Tingey: You split time basically pretty evenly a year.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it was actually exactly.

Darin Tingey: and a year That's cool. All right, let's talk a little about before we get to your areas and like dive in, like, let's talk about the mission, like right now, what it's like.

Darin Tingey: Because like like I said earlier, think there's a lot of kids about to go up to Kitabest and it'd be helpful to just kind of understand the state of the mission, what it's like right now.

Gage Dowdle: Hmm.

Darin Tingey: a So how many missionaries are in Kitabest right now, roughly? do you know?

Gage Dowdle: I'd say about 80. eighty It's fluctuating right now with the different intakes and visas, but when it's a nice healthy number, it's 80 about.

Darin Tingey: Okay. And how many sisters? What's the elder to sister ratio on that?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so usually there's less sisters, but now with the change of 18 years old, the sister rate has gone up tremendously. There are intakes, full intakes of only sisters coming in.

Darin Tingey: No way.

Gage Dowdle: So, which means that the elder to sister ratio is going to probably be 50-50. I won't even lie. i probably can see that in the future.

Darin Tingey: Amazing.

Gage Dowdle: Which also means that sisters are going to have to serve on Tarawa, which means elders will have to go outer islands.

Darin Tingey: you Yeah, that's crazy. I mean, okay, so 80 missionaries, it's quickly going be half and half. It is crazy. There's ton of girls that I've seen get called the kid of us.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: I should say sisters. how many How many senior couples in the mission right now?

Gage Dowdle: It's probably just under 10 maybe, or maybe there's like, there's a few kiddie best senior couples, but yeah, around there, like about five to 10.

Darin Tingey: And are mission presidents counselors? Are they in Kitabas or marshals or one in each?

Gage Dowdle: for now, by the time I left, he only had one and he was in Kitty Best.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, they're always in Kitabas. I didn't even know a mission president had counselors until later, until I was in Kitabas.

Gage Dowdle: I know, right?

Darin Tingey: And then apparently we had two there. i was like, what? How come I never even heard about this? because they never had one on the marshals. I'm not bitter about it it all at all, not at all.

Darin Tingey: And then how many, was Christmas Island open? Are there missionaries on Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: How many missionaries are on Christmas right now?

Gage Dowdle: Eight.

Darin Tingey: All elders, are there any sisters?

Gage Dowdle: All elders. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Is there a senior couple?

Gage Dowdle: No. And I think once this new couple gets out there, I think sisters will be able to go.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Were there ever sisters on Christmas while you were on your mission?

Gage Dowdle: Nope. Ever since COVID, when it closed... And then it got reopened a few years ago and it was four and then it changed to eight. And it's been that way ever since.

Darin Tingey: Okay. And then what outer islands are currently open in Kitabas?

Gage Dowdle: Right now there's Medike Bayan. There is Tabithawea North just opened.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. And then Christmas and the outer island zone leaders have been visiting many outer islands to see if they can get opened, including Mayena.

Gage Dowdle: think they're going to go to Korea, Peru. So there's hope. There's hope.

Darin Tingey: That's such a sweet,

Darin Tingey: role like to be the outrun zone leader and get to just go travel and see the islands and see if they can have missionaries on them i was always so jealous of those it's like so cool like you just get to vacation I mean like you're kind of working but you're basically vacationing and seeing all these islands that like I'll probably never see well I opened out i hope they open Miami like that's that's that's my islands so

Gage Dowdle: Right.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: So jealous.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: And it's so and it means's close to Tarawa. It's like as close as Abayam.

Gage Dowdle: yeah

Darin Tingey: And I know they at least when I was there, the church wasn't as strong. We did like church in like four different villages. And there was no group leader or anything like that.

Darin Tingey: But Abayam, I think there's... Is there a ward on Abayam?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, there's one ward and two branches.

Darin Tingey: Dang. That's crazy. Okay, so and two branches. So how many missionaries were on Abayam?

Gage Dowdle: There were eight for a while, but they went back down to six.

Darin Tingey: Wow, eight.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: That'd be a party.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: That'd be so fun. And what about Medicaid?

Gage Dowdle: Medigay had four, and actually when I left, it went down to two.

Darin Tingey: So when you were on, you said on Medicaid, right?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: So when you were there, there were four missionaries.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Also a party. Did you guys all live together?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Chapel House.

Gage Dowdle: Just a branch.

Darin Tingey: Just one branch? Okay.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: And then you said the other add-on was Tabletoyab-Meyam, Tab North?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. That's open right now.

Darin Tingey: Any branches there or wards?

Gage Dowdle: There's actually three branches just in the north.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. And they're more active than Medicaid.

Darin Tingey: Really?

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: Okay. And if the missionaries are now living there, right, the house has to be pretty decent, right? Because that was the whole thing. It's like outer islands aren't open because the area presidency raised the housing standard.

Gage Dowdle: Yes, so that was the initial reason why they closed. And ever since then, you know, they've been closed, closed, and everyone's been, oh, I want to go, i want to go.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: And they actually have been able to go. Like just in my time, a lot of islands have closed, but not just because the housing standard, but because of the work.

Gage Dowdle: And this is probably one of the biggest issues on the Outer Islands that missionaries aren't finding enough to do. And so they start to do non-missionary related activities that probably waste of time.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And our mission president wants all you know the work on Tarawa, which I completely agree with. It's kind of lame, but it honestly makes sense. But hopefully, like we talked about, the the mission is growing. The mission culture is getting a lot better.

Gage Dowdle: I actually wanted to talk about this. I was really excited to talk about this because when I got there, It honestly was not that good because the mission president I had was still coming out of COVID, which was one of the hardest times for this mission.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: And out of COVID, he was you know trying to get people even out of the house to go work.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Our mission president?

Gage Dowdle: That was probably one of the biggest goals. And then our new mission person came, and luckily I was a zone leader right when he came. And I was able to be in, you know, MLC with him.

Gage Dowdle: And that was one of the best things that happened in the mission. That was the best thing the mission needed. Because he, yes, not saying that the last one was bad, because he did what he needed for his time.

Darin Tingey: bishop president

Darin Tingey: Right.

Gage Dowdle: But now we needed an you know an evolution, you know revamp. And he did exactly that. He came in with good ideas, this and that, and they never stopped. And it just increased the mission culture like nothing else.

Gage Dowdle: And right when I left, I was not even worried about the mission culture anymore. I was so happy to see how many missionaries are out every single day doing their absolute best. Even if, you know, they just got here two, three transfers in their training, they're just going out anyways. They might not speak the language perfectly, but they're going.

Gage Dowdle: And that honestly, like, gave me so much, like, courage and brought a lot of, you know, light and hope to the future of the mission, especially these next coming months.

Darin Tingey: yeah i so it sounds like when you got there it was like everyone's kind of just hanging out chilling laid back new mission president comes culture changes for the better everyone's out working now i would say like i'm sure i'm surprised i should say i'm not surprised about the not getting out of the house and working especially on taro

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: not because there's not work to do on tarawa but because you have so many missionaries stuck on tarawa what happened at least during my time is that missionaries start end up like hanging out rather than actually working right because you're so jam-packed on a tiny island with like a ton of missionaries that it's just so much easy it's so easy to just hang out than it is to go do work because you're with other missionaries you're friends with and stuff. So that's why my pitch to my mission president was like, we need to get these outer islands open because we need to get missionaries off the main island because they're just hanging out. We need, if they go to outer islands, like, yeah, they might, it might be a little less work every day, but they're out there doing it, learning the culture and language.

Darin Tingey: you know, and and working at, it helped the main island because then there was fewer missionaries covering, like, you didn't have like eight missionaries covering one ward, you know, it's like, you're splitting the area in like tiny pieces.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yep.

Darin Tingey: And and like, i I hated that.

Gage Dowdle: Mm-hmm.

Darin Tingey: I don't know. What's your opinion on that?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so Tarawa right now is becoming very jam-packed. More and more missionaries coming in and no other outer islands are being opened. And that's exactly what happened to some wards.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's like, where do you put it?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, we had eight missionaries in at least three wards.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And it's like, yeah.

Darin Tingey: That's crazy.

Gage Dowdle: And there's, you know, like the bell curve of when you add more and more, it gets more efficient until you add too many becomes less efficient. Like just what you're talking about. It happens for any workspace, any, you know, any place there's an employee or something.

Gage Dowdle: But yeah, I think forward to award is probably most optimal unless it's a really small area. And yeah, I think there is work to do on the outer islands. We just need the most diligent missionaries to go and do it because that was probably the biggest problem. because And they send out such new missionaries too who didn't know what they were doing.

Gage Dowdle: And so if we send out experienced missionaries who have served on Tarawa and given that chance, they I think there's tons of work to do.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Interesting. So, so let's go back to the living standards. So you said islands were closed because of that, but sounds like some of them were reopened and the housing actually wasn't up to the standard that they had set or.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Gage Dowdle: Well,

Gage Dowdle: I think it was a combination.

Darin Tingey: Is what I heard. What I heard the standard was you had to have running water, AC, flushing toilet, and a bed or something like that. I'm like, that'll never allow missionaries to be on outer islands in Kiribati.

Gage Dowdle: No. Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, that that's not the housing standard. It's, I think, this is just my opinion because it's what I lived in.

Darin Tingey: What is it?

Gage Dowdle: think it's running water, four walls, and a bed.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, you don't so <unk>t always have four walls in Kiribati.

Gage Dowdle: think that's it.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. It's like four sturdy walls with a door and a bed.

Darin Tingey: Hmm. Okay.

Gage Dowdle: So, yeah, I think it was a combination.

Darin Tingey: That's doable.

Gage Dowdle: yeah I think it was a combination of housing standard plus COVID all together. And then people went back out to outer islands, but then they closed again just because of work and missionary amount.

Darin Tingey: What of islands were open during your time that we didn't already mention?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so when I first got there, it was Makim, Butaritari, you know, all the north.

Darin Tingey: Oh, wow.

Gage Dowdle: Medike, Apeyang, and then Apememe and Christmas. that was it.

Darin Tingey: Oh, wow. So you actually got quite a few open. Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it was all the north except for Mayana and then Abimame and Christmas.

Darin Tingey: Okay. And then tab north just reopened.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. That was really surprising to everyone. No one saw it.

Darin Tingey: yeah That's exciting. hope it gets back the point where missionaries are on Outer Islands all the time.

Gage Dowdle: Mm-hmm.

Darin Tingey: You know, it adds, and you served on one, so just, there's just a different cultural experience that you have and like growing experiences of being on an Outer Island and language culture that works harder.

Darin Tingey: So it's just like testing you and and like these there's a ton of members on these outer islands that just don't have any direction or help now which is good for them in the sense that they need to get more self-reliant but i promise you on lot of these outer islands that they just fall and they just probably just slipped back into normal ways and Chris It's sad because there was a lot of work there's a lot of momentum like the mission president before me from 13 16 and my mission presence in 19 like very around I helped get Chris Warnes, But anyway, sure it's on timing. Chris Warnes, It's because there a work lot of momentum mission president before from 13 to 16 16 and 19 very pro which helped get temple. Warnes, But anyway, I'm sure timing. Chris Warnes, anyway, sure God's timing. anyway,

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Yeah, that's actually one of the, not debates, but kind of things our mission president was worried about on Outer Islands as well, especially before he sent me to Medicaid, right before the transfer happened, and we knew He like kind of told me, like, hey, like want you to be able to go because it was my third to last transfer, and I'd already been ZL for six transfers with him.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And so he knew was more experienced, and he asked me and kind of told me, like, I want the branch to be able to become, you know, self-reliant.

Gage Dowdle: Because the problem with Medicaid and a lot of Outer Islands is that the missionaries were running the branch. And that was the problem, even though they had qualified people to do it.

Darin Tingey: yeah

Gage Dowdle: And, you know, when we got there, missionaries were giving talks, passing sacrament. But by the time I left, missionaries were just sitting in their chairs watching, not watching, but, you know, participating and not having to do

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: you know, give a talk every week and pass sacrament.

Darin Tingey: That's great.

Gage Dowdle: So yeah, it's getting better.

Darin Tingey: That's good work. Good work there. How many zones in Kiribati?

Gage Dowdle: yeah, when I first got there, there's three, the east, the west and outer islands. But in my time there, they created a new one, the north, which starts from Tamayku and goes all the way to Arini Bay, North Arauaya.

Darin Tingey: Not at all. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So four zones. Is Christmas a district part of the Outer Island Zone?

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: Okay. And how many that's how many districts are there?

Gage Dowdle: In the mission. One,

Darin Tingey: Yeah, do you know? On Kitabas side?

Gage Dowdle: two, three,

Gage Dowdle: six, seven, eight, nine, ten, maybe eleven or twelve.

Darin Tingey: Oh my gosh, that's crazy. 12 is on the kid of his side.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, and there was...

Darin Tingey: The kid his side so much bigger than Marshall side.

Gage Dowdle: There was one district of 16 missionaries.

Darin Tingey: Holy cow. That's nuts. That is so crazy. How many steaks?

Gage Dowdle: Yes, so that's another thing i want to talk about. When I first got there, there's two stakes, the West Stake and the East Stake. And now there's four. The Beso Stake, which includes Abaylan, the West Stake, the East Stake, and now the North Stake.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: which means all of South Tarawa is all wards, no more branches. There's only one branch in North Tarawa, or two branches in North Tarawa.

Darin Tingey: Dang, that's awesome. That's big time. And was that just, was that like a timing thing or was that a truly a member needing enough members to make those branches awards?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, that was, this is another, you know, thing I wanted to talk about when i was there, I was zone leader when in the West stake in the West zone, when it got split and I was actually in the war that was created so it could split because there were nine wards. and You need five in each.

Gage Dowdle: And so there was nine and the Nani Kai ward got split to the bydiki and Nani Kai ward, which made 10, which made two stakes.

Darin Tingey: okay

Gage Dowdle: But we saw that they were moving the dots on our PMG over lines that I could create the amount they needed, which was a little annoying for us. And I didn't know how i was working. I was like, this seems a little weird, but it worked out in the end.

Darin Tingey: Wait, what is that? Sorry, i don't I didn't follow. The lines on your PMG, what does that mean?

Gage Dowdle: So yeah, sorry. I'm so sorry. So our preach my gospel app is kind of like our area book. And so, yeah, on our phones, we have a map of our area book.

Darin Tingey: Oh, cool.

Darin Tingey: Dude, that's so nice.

Gage Dowdle: I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah.

Darin Tingey: That is so nice.

Gage Dowdle: And so we just use our phone and there's dots of all the members' houses.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: and you just go to the dot and you see the member's name and their information and phone number. And they were moving, i guess are our area book was synced with their you know stake tools or member tools, which was moving member locations to you know make the amount they needed for each ward, which seemed a little weird.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: But it worked out in the end because the line actually moved in the end and it included everybody they needed. So the boundaries.

Darin Tingey: Okay. How did people feel about like a word splitting?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. It was actually really good for the ward is exactly what they needed because they just needed more leadership positions. And the day of it splitting, oh there were so many people at church. There was probably 200 people are sitting in that small Baideki chapel.

Gage Dowdle: And we even had the most amount of friends come that day too. It was like the craziest day ever. And it split and everyone lost a little bit of momentum. But once people got leadership positions, it came back up and I think it was what they needed.

Darin Tingey: Oh, I'm sure. Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: It was just, just you know, their own motivation that they needed to push through.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Word splitting is a funky thing. in, in any ward, it's always kind of sucks, but it's probably even, i mean, the church has been around and kid of us for a while, but for, uh, for a country that relatively it's young,

Darin Tingey: It's kind of weird thing. Like, oh we're splitting this ward. You know, we're splitting the boundaries.

Gage Dowdle: When the church has been there longer than the country's independence, yes. Which is now 50 years the church has been in Kittibes.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: No way.

Darin Tingey: That's so cool. I just visited Tonga and got to go to Leahona High School. And I was like, this is so cool because this is where the first kid of us people came and went to school and then came back to kid of us as the first missionaries.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: It was really cool.

Darin Tingey: Okay, so let's go. Let's go through your areas and but the feel free to butt in whenever you want if I skip it over too fast on what you wanted to share.

Darin Tingey: But quickly run me through your areas and then we'll kind of start from from the beginning.

Gage Dowdle: So yeah, i was i was born, my first area was in Thamayku, second.

Gage Dowdle: Then after one transfer, I went straight to Christmas. I served there for,

Darin Tingey: She did one transfer on Tarawa and then went to Christmas Island.

Gage Dowdle: yeah

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: And i served about four transfers in Christmas for about five months. Came back. I served in Terereke first, then Eta second, and then I became zone leader in Nanikai when the ward got split.

Gage Dowdle: And I was there for five transfers. are there for seven months. So that was the bulk of my mission right there. And then yeah I served in Nanikai, and then we actually got moved to Bayeriki.

Gage Dowdle: That was my third area.

Darin Tingey: Oh, okay, sorry.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Tamayaku was your first area.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: just get those two mixed up.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: a I unfortunately did not serve on Tarawas. I only was there for like a total of five days. i think i was there two days before I flew to Mayana about three after I got back and went back to the Marshalls.

Darin Tingey: So I didn't ever go to Beso. I just think the furthest west I went was to the mission office, which is in Bondurk.

Darin Tingey: No, Bondurk Airport. Where's the, what's the, what's the town?

Gage Dowdle: Humble.

Darin Tingey: Ambo, thank you.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: Actually, my geography has gotten pretty good with the podcast, but there's still some of the towns.

Gage Dowdle: Ooh.

Darin Tingey: I forget what the order is.

Darin Tingey: and I try and, you know, for the parents that are listening, try and like say where it is help them, but I often mess it up. So, okay. So you start on Tarawa.

Darin Tingey: Were you happy that you started on

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah. We had one one person, not from our intake, but they were coming from a reassignment. And, ooh, I actually did want to talk about that before I move on.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: Reassignments stopped. Ever since COVID, people were being reassigned to the stateside before their visas were done. For some reason, visas were taking forever. And people would serve in you know Michigan or wherever or California.

Gage Dowdle: And then once they got their visa done, they would go to Kitty Best. So there were people you know serving five, six months reassignment in the states before they came to Kitty Best.

Gage Dowdle: my intake was the last intake to ever... not get, you know, to not be reassigned. And everyone after us was never reassigned. And everyone is getting their visas.

Darin Tingey: Because the visas were easier.

Gage Dowdle: Yep. So that's a really cool fact, and now there's no more reassignments.

Darin Tingey: Nice. I'm assuming that, did it have to do with COVID, do you think?

Gage Dowdle: Yes, 100%.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, anyways. Yeah, we had someone coming from a reassignment joining with us, and he went straight to Abayang. We were a little jealous. But, you know, I think that I was the best place for any missionary to start.

Gage Dowdle: Good trainer, good area, because it just has the most work. It's exactly what you're expecting, it exactly what you need. And it's the best way to talk to as many people as you can to learn the language as quick as you can.

Gage Dowdle: So yeah, I think that I was the best spot for me at the time. And yeah, it was honestly really you know good area. I didn't speak the language. I honestly had no say in what we did because I couldn't say anything to anyone. so

Darin Tingey: For new missionaries about to go what's like the first day like? They come off the plane and they go straight to Moroni High School?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, they don't do that anymore.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: they actually go to the mission office and think, yeah, in Ambo.

Darin Tingey: office

Gage Dowdle: And I think, no, that's the problem.

Darin Tingey: isn't that big, is it?

Gage Dowdle: So they use the senior couple house right next door.

Gage Dowdle: And they'll have maybe a lunch at the Ucidere restaurant in the hotel. and which is right next door as well.

Gage Dowdle: Then they'll have, you know a i don't know if they call it inductions or and something I forgot forgot what the name is, but an intro to the mission with the mission president and the APs all in the senior couple's house.

Gage Dowdle: And then the zone leaders will come pick them up and put them in their respective places and they're off.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, okay. So that's it. And then it's just like, all right, see ya.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Good luck. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Okay. So, all right, new missionaries, you go, you get a nice nice meal at the restaurant, pamper you a little bit, give you a little intro, and then it's off to the races.

Gage Dowdle: Yep.

Gage Dowdle: Yep.

Gage Dowdle: Yep.

Darin Tingey: Okay. So you were Interlo for one transfer. Okay. And then you go to Christmas.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it was actually weird because... Technically, the second transfer started and I was still in Thamayku, but then some emergency transfer happened and I got news like week in to the transfer that I was going to Christmas and they just sent me.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: You lucky dog. Emergency transfer to Christmas Island. That's that's hard to beat. a lot of people beg to go and they just got sent there on an ET.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Were you the only one going?

Gage Dowdle: No, it was actually four of us. Actually, I don't know if it was, it wasn't emergency as in an elder needs to come back. it was emergency. They were afraid that no more flights. We're going to go to Christmas for the rest of the year.

Gage Dowdle: And they want to, you know, they plan on sending me, you know, maybe November, December, but they sent me early in October.

Darin Tingey: Huh.

Gage Dowdle: It was like that kind of emergency.

Darin Tingey: Did you have to fly through Fiji or does Air Now River fly?

Gage Dowdle: We flow, yeah, Nauru Airlines, straight from Tarawa to Christmas.

Darin Tingey: na approve now to Nice. How long of flight is that

Gage Dowdle: Four and a half hours.

Gage Dowdle: Fiji. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: What was was, I mean Christmas is very different than Darula.

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah.

Darin Tingey: So what was that like? What was the first impressions and what was your living situation? What

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so obviously flying into Christmas, you can even see on the map, which Google Maps thinks is the main island of Kitty Bess. If you look up Kitty Bess, it'll bring you to Christmas, which is wrong.

Gage Dowdle: That's not the main island.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: It's the biggest island by far, you can just tell. And flying in, it almost like feels like America. It's like, whoa, you can see you know land and just goes on forever, even though it's still an island.

Gage Dowdle: Kind of feels like Hawaii.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: And you come in and it's obviously still hot, but it's dry this time. It's different. And there's dead grass everywhere. And there's just open fields everywhere.

Gage Dowdle: And the biggest thing, the biggest difference is the sun. The sun is way hotter on Christmas than on Tarawa. And it's not the heat as in humidity, it's the heat strength.

Gage Dowdle: It's the strength of the sunlight. you stand in the shade and then quickly pop out in the sunlight, you can feel the difference just in those two seconds.

Darin Tingey: Square.

Gage Dowdle: As in Tarawa, you stay under this the shade and you're still hot because of the hot wind. But in Christmas, you're under the shade and there's cool wind. It's not as humid, but the sun is stronger.

Gage Dowdle: that was the biggest biggest thing when I first got there. That was the biggest difference.

Darin Tingey: Interesting. And where, what area were you, were you in?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, I was first assigned to Tabakia second.

Darin Tingey: And is that, Tamakiya is the town part, right? Like right on the, sorry, go ahead.

Gage Dowdle: no that's yeah London is like the biggest town with the hospital and the government. That's the main town. And then you go north and that comes into Tabakia and then it goes to Banana on the top.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Yeah, and then Paris is on the other side, other tip, right?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, on the other other side, yeah.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah, okay. Okay, so you're in the top, okay, how many wards or branches are on Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: yeah, there's eight missionaries, two to each branch. there's four branches.

Gage Dowdle: And I've heard recently that they're close to becoming wards. When I was there, they were initiating, you know, trying to get a stake, which was crazy.

Gage Dowdle: But when I was there, I thought, yeah, yeah.

Darin Tingey: The steak for Christmas, even though they don't have awards yet.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, when I was there, i was like, yeah, that's not coming soon.

Darin Tingey: Okay, interesting.

Gage Dowdle: But sounds like rumors that they're close to becoming wards.

Gage Dowdle: So that's really exciting.

Darin Tingey: How was the work on Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: You know, the work was really good, but like i said in the beginning, because I was so new, didn't know how to be the best missionary. I didn't know all the ins and outs, and I was still getting adjusted.

Gage Dowdle: And when I was there, you know, at the time I thought I was doing my best. I was trying my very best doing everything according to my knowledge. But looking back, I feel like I could have done a lot better, obviously, but...

Gage Dowdle: The work is definitely there and there's work to do. It just needs diligent missionaries.

Darin Tingey: What was a typical P-Day like on Christmas Island?

Gage Dowdle: Oh no. Don't get me started. These were so boring.

Gage Dowdle: So boring.

Darin Tingey: You didn't take advantage of being on one of the most beautiful islands in the world with the best fishing in the world?

Gage Dowdle: Yes. it That is true, but the problem was that we're so far away from you know the forest and wilderness, and our mission president made it very clear that we weren't allowed to use the car for P-Day you know exploring.

Darin Tingey: What?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: That's crazy.

Gage Dowdle: So...

Darin Tingey: Oh man. I would have had a really hard time with that.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so it was very hard and every PDA basically included just calling families all day.

Darin Tingey: Dang, dude. That is boring.

Gage Dowdle: know Yeah, it was.

Darin Tingey: If anyone's going out to Christmas Island, go have fun and explore the islands.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, I got to things.

Darin Tingey: God will forgive you, and so will your mission president. is But seriously, though, like, when are going to be on Christmas Island?

Darin Tingey: Like, go the island, you know?

Gage Dowdle: Oh yeah, for sure.

Darin Tingey: Like, do you – if you had Christmas at the end of your mission, would you have done Thichonis?

Gage Dowdle: Probably not. But the thing is, even though it was not allowed, I was still a new missionary and didn't have almost any say.

Darin Tingey: OK,

Gage Dowdle: And the driver didn't really care. Which was you know fun. We did actually go out a few times.

Darin Tingey: okay so you did go out and have fun.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, but 99% of the P days were just calling families. No,

Darin Tingey: What about playing volleyball with people?

Gage Dowdle: missionaries want to play volleyball. I brought it up so many times and no one wanted to play. Especially because of the heat.

Darin Tingey: Oh my goodness.

Gage Dowdle: But the other thing is that at 6 p.m. we're all expected to go and work.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And 6 p.m. is right when everyone comes to play volleyball, when the heat goes away and the sun goes down.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, work, volleyball, it's all the same, right? You teach him teach him a lesson right after. Did you see a lot of tourists on Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah. That was the most tourists I've seen in Kitty Best. like You'll see a couple... in Tarawa, but Christmas there's literally truck fulls of just white people going by and like three or four at a time.

Gage Dowdle: It's like you become a kiddos person. You start staring like, what the heck?

Darin Tingey: Yeah. You're my thumb.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, my than and met thumb exactly.

Darin Tingey: You're the little kids just pointing. You know,

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, I can see why they do it. Like, it's weird, like seeing bunch of white people like, what? What's going on?

Darin Tingey: it's something you, you do forget that you're white when you're a missionary out there.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, for sure.

Darin Tingey: Just because everyone around you is, is not, not white, obviously. That's so funny. Did, So like you never did fishing in Christmas Island. It's known for like some of the best fishing in the world to know members took you out or anything.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, I actually tried a few times. We were going to caroun, which is like the the net fishing, where they throw the nets and the fish swim into There were a couple of times I tried my hardest to try and get that set up, but this all fell through.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And then I left earlier than I expected I was going to. So unfortunately, I did not get to.

Darin Tingey: Hmm.

Gage Dowdle: Which was allowed. We're allowed to do that type of fishing where, you know, you can throw the net and catch the fish on P days. So I kind of wish I took advantage of that, but I tried my best.

Darin Tingey: It was good. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: My first Outer Island experience, I didn't do a lot on P days. and I totally regret it. And so my second Outer Island, I like totally had a ton of fun.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: that's Which I, again, like, think as long as I'm not saying break mission rules at all.

Gage Dowdle: And that's the problem. It's like there's mission rules, you know, for a purpose, but there's also things you can do to have fun are.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, exactly. I don't think it's like, hey, we're going to go take a few days off of work and just go play. It's like, no. like you work In my opinion, it's like work hard, play hard.

Darin Tingey: you know like that

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: I thought that was a good mentality. But I don't know. Everyone has their own things and mission presidents have their own rules and whatnot.

Darin Tingey: And the idea of like perfect obedience, like frustrated me a little bit because no one's ever perfect. and I think you should kill yourself by trying to do that all the time.

Darin Tingey: Not saying that you shouldn't try to do like follow rules and stuff, but I like, you know, it's like, what else are we gonna do on P-Day? We just sit around, you know?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. It's like, it comes to that point where it's like, there is nothing. And when I say nothing, there is nothing to do.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, might as well like go explore the island, go fishing, go do something that's fun and cool and and gets you out and like resets, resets you for the week rather than just like sit at home and

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, that's one of the things where it made all us machines go, wish I served in the States. P-days look so fun. when people see people's photos, they go bowling or they go do this or that. They get ice cream with their whole district. Wow, that looks so fun. I'm just sitting here in my house, calling my family.

Darin Tingey: what was that What was your house like on Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so there's two spots for the houses too in London, which are own or rented by the branch president. So those are those are nice. But I stayed in the Tabakia, two chapel houses right next to the chapel.

Gage Dowdle: And they have air conditioning, but yeah, they're like 10 feet away from each other.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Two jobs.

Gage Dowdle: that was fun. Air conditioning used to work. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: That's always how it is. They get it and they know how to fix it after.

Gage Dowdle: yeah And it's all the way out in the middle nowhere. and But very windy. was able to sleep pretty well and had fans. So the power started to die a lot because of the generators. They actually have power on Christmas.

Gage Dowdle: And the generators weren't working. And so we had our own generator, actually from our district president, which was really nice. But yeah, they weren't actually that bad. The houses were pretty good.

Darin Tingey: What was your favorite memory of Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: Ooh, favorite memory. think just I think just being out there, just you know just eight missionaries on this big island.

Gage Dowdle: We had a dinner one time all the way Bananas, eight missionaries, and That drive was really fun just seeing all the the scenery and also the drive back to the airport. All the scenery is probably my favorite part about Christmas.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's a big, beautiful island. Okay, so you were you were on Christmas, you said, for about five months and you got transferred a little bit earlier than you expected.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: why was that?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Yeah. Just because most Outer Island experience, it's like six to seven months. for so And even the person I went with stayed while I left.

Gage Dowdle: So

Darin Tingey: Six to seven months is a long time.

Gage Dowdle: yeah, it is. And i was I was grateful for five months, but it was just like, oh, he he came with me and he's staying. Why is that? But no complaining.

Darin Tingey: So you, yeah, yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Beggars can't be choosers.

Darin Tingey: So you got you went back to Darawa, back to

Gage Dowdle: <unk>

Darin Tingey: Xadarayake. Gosh, I messed it up again.

Gage Dowdle: you

Darin Tingey: Okay, back to Xadarayake.

Gage Dowdle: okay

Darin Tingey: How was it being back in Darawa?

Gage Dowdle: It was so nice. It was like night and day. So many people, so many people to teach lessons and work with and wards. So that was the best part.

Darin Tingey: Tell me, tell me a little bit more about like the work you had there PDA stories or.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so Saturday Night Gai is actually the best spot for any P-Day in Kitty Bess because the chaplain in the back has a huge volleyball court.

Gage Dowdle: And people from all across the island, members, know that every p every Monday is P-Day for missionaries, and they'll come. They'll bus over just to play volleyball. And it's probably the best volleyball you'll see on the entire island.

Gage Dowdle: Like some people on the pro team will come over and play just with us because it's the most amount of people. So much fun. Every P-Day was the best in Toyota. So it was a complete shift from Christmas.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, was gonna say that sounds like a way better repeat, eh?

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah. So much fun.

Darin Tingey: How was the work there compared to Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it was really good. There's just so many prepared souls everywhere. And it's so easy to talk to everyone. There's so many people you know walking to stores, you know walking here and there, and you just, hey, are you doing? And start a conversation right then and there.

Darin Tingey: Is it crazy to think that like there's still so many people getting baptized in Kittabos, even though there's been a ton of missionaries on that tiny island, and like there's already a ton of baptisms?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it just shows that like, Exactly. It just shows that there's people who are ready and who are prepared and are ready to hear the gospel.

Darin Tingey: Do you think the hardest part is retention? don't know.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. yeah, there's definitely a lot of inactive people and trying to, you know, keep them coming each week.

Gage Dowdle: it's pretty hard for just missionaries, but when the ward, participates, it's so easy.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah, I agree. it sounds like you put a lot of level in that area, a lot lot of work.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: And how long were you in that area before?

Gage Dowdle: It was actually only four weeks. It was short transfer and my plan got cancelled.

Darin Tingey: Oh, quick.

Gage Dowdle: So I stayed on Christmas for a week longer.

Darin Tingey: And then from there you go, where'd you after that?

Gage Dowdle: eight the second.

Darin Tingey: Remind me. Okay.

Gage Dowdle: which was pretty good. You know, similar experience, very populated area, lots of missionaries.

Darin Tingey: second And 2nd, you meet in the Moroni church buildings, right?

Gage Dowdle: yes, yes. The same, yes. The building that's on the Moroni campus, the church school campus. Yeah. And,

Darin Tingey: And was there, was Moroni High School technically a part of, they have their own ward or were they part of one of the wards?

Gage Dowdle: Yes, there is a Moroni warden they meet in English.

Darin Tingey: That's funky. Are there missionaries assigned to that ward?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, the APs. So they have two.

Darin Tingey: The AAPs are on that board. Okay.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: so weird to do it in English.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, one missionary said, yeah, one missionary said, like, I went up to bear my testimony and I almost couldn't do it.

Darin Tingey: Like, did you ever...

Gage Dowdle: It was so weird.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Yep, teaching and, like, you get so good at teaching in cannabis that it's, like, so weird to teach or do anything like that in English.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Like, how do i do this, you know?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. And this area is my first time I had a Kittibest Companion.

Darin Tingey: Oh, cool.

Gage Dowdle: Actually, no, sorry. The area before that. So when I came back from Christmas, that was my first Kittibest Companion. Then I had a second one in Eta. And I actually had a third one in that same area.

Gage Dowdle: So yeah, I had three Kitty Best companions in a row. So my language was like getting so good. I was so happy. theres And most of my district, I was district leader, but most of my district were all Kitty Best and we did our meetings in Kitty Best.

Gage Dowdle: And so there were moments where I'd go days without speaking English, except for to my family.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, that's so ums so cool. I'm jealous that you had that. i I never had a native, I guess the closest thing was trained a Kitabas elder in the marshals after I had been to that really fun because got to like keep speaking Kitabas.

Gage Dowdle: Aww.

Darin Tingey: But again, I was like teaching him from Kitabas to Marshallese.

Darin Tingey: But was always jealous of the missionaries and Kiribati side because you had a lot more missionaries serving in Kiribati.

Gage Dowdle: Oh

Darin Tingey: And so like they had opportunities like you did. I'm sure it helped your language a ton.

Gage Dowdle: Oh yeah. That's where i got the best of the language. Speaking of, that is where I started to create this little Google Doc. At first, it started as a notes page for myself, like reminders about the language. Like, remember this grammar rule or whatever?

Gage Dowdle: And one elder asked me for it. and I was like, wait, this is just for me. like, it's okay. I just want to see it. And I was like, probably format this. So I made a table of contents and I added to it. And it's basically this big doc, and i i I called it a funny name, you know, according to the other books. you know there's the white book that people refer to, which is the Peace Corps Guide.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: There's another small blue book that we're given in the MTC. So I called it, accordingly, the purple book just for fun. And it's a little Google Docs that you know missionaries can look at and just get you know quick grammar rules and the reason why, you know, the way it is.

Gage Dowdle: And ever since then, I've been working on it. and Even like now I add small things. and yeah That's when I was able to really practice Kitty Bass my most.

Darin Tingey: is there a way Is there a way we can share that out?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, of course. it's yeah

Darin Tingey: Send it out to the...

Gage Dowdle: yeah The purpose is to be as open and public as possible so I can just be open to anyone.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, no, i we should... I don't know how you... Is it a Google is it google Doc?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, Google Doc.

Darin Tingey: So you can probably share it in a way that people don't have editing abilities, but they can just do it.

Gage Dowdle: Yes, exactly.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, send it. I'd love to see that. I need to practice my Ketaba suit. It's little rusty. Uh, and I'll, and I can share with, uh, if anyone wants it, let me know. And I can get in contact with Gage.

Gage Dowdle: And it kind of, the problem is it's kind of on like the advanced, not advanced, but you know, intermediate side after you've already got through the beginnings of Kitty Bass and now you're understanding and hearing, then you should start reading and it'll, you know, bring you from there.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: But even if you're beginning, it'll, it'll start to put some concepts before you meet them.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, start with the small steps and then work your way up, but that could be a good resource for a lot of missionaries.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, for sure.

Darin Tingey: the Were you in ada when you hit your year mark?

Gage Dowdle: No, my next area, in which I was Nani Kai, and I just became zone leader, was when I hit a year.

Darin Tingey: And did you experience your first surai? Did you only have Did you have one?

Gage Dowdle: Yes, yes, I only had one. i was so sad.

Darin Tingey: Oh, no. The student has kid who was independent state for those of them now. So you only experienced one. That's a little tough.

Gage Dowdle: That was the worst part. But i was zone leader and i was probably in the best area because you know the big Ferris wheel on Bayeriki? Oh, haven't been to Bayeriki. So there's a huge Ferris wheel.

Darin Tingey: Nope.

Gage Dowdle: It's broken. It was like from Australia or something. It used to work, but there's a big field over there and they bring working Ferris wheels and they set them up every July now.

Gage Dowdle: And they have a little, it's like a little fair honestly.

Darin Tingey: Wow, that's cool.

Darin Tingey: That's crazy. A little like festival, fair.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it's so cool. Exactly.

Darin Tingey: That is cool. Hey, to be fair, I only experienced one, of that as well.

Gage Dowdle: yeah.

Darin Tingey: But for only being kid of this for like four and a half months, I did hit it perfect on the timing.

Gage Dowdle: That is perfect.

Darin Tingey: a what was the What was the celebration like when you were there?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, a lot of people, you know, Kitties people love to i have any excuse to throw any party.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: They'll find any excuse and throw the biggest party there is. And yeah, the July, the Suray, which July in Kittie Pass is really good experience. They get really almost like patriotic and proud of their independence, which is really cool.

Gage Dowdle: And yeah, it's honestly just like a good time.

Darin Tingey: lot

Darin Tingey: Did you get to be part of like any boat duckies, any parties?

Gage Dowdle: Nothing huge, just like small family parties, dinners.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Did you do some, see some dancing? Did you do some dancing?

Gage Dowdle: So that's actually, yeah, later down the line.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Okay. All right.

Gage Dowdle: So I'll talk about that though.

Darin Tingey: And the Suvaai is super fun. I was on Viana during the Suvaai, it was...

Gage Dowdle: Oh, wow.

Darin Tingey: a week-long celebration of partying.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it's it's weeks long, honestly.

Darin Tingey: We had botake to go to every day. we think we did or auto book in the in the box with a with our village.

Gage Dowdle: Oh wow, the box hitting. That's so cool.

Darin Tingey: was really cool. It was really cool. Every village did their own like singing and dancing, and so we got to be part of our villages for the the day celebration and i'm pretty sure i gave a midoro like it gave a speech uh mayana they love to party so i did a lot of a lot of baltakes a lot of speeches

Gage Dowdle: That's good.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: it's so funny speed it it is like a interesting thing of like they were at this party and the religious leaders all need to stand up and give a speech.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: And the dunimanes, all the old men at the village need to get up and give a speech or any irawas, any guests, same thing.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: you know It's just like so funny.

Darin Tingey: Anyway.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, exactly.

Darin Tingey: a So, okay, so you experience Suvai in the next area, and then you're, this is when you're a zonelator.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. So this is my longest time in one. i was in the same house for seven months. I had three companions and this is where I grew spiritually the most.

Gage Dowdle: My first companion was the like biggest knowledge on the gospel. And he taught me so much. And he honestly taught me that, you know, discipleship is not something to take lightly. It's not something you can just kind of pick at and hopefully grow in. It's something you really need to work on.

Gage Dowdle: And I'm so grateful for that time because everyone was kind of scared of him, especially when I saw my name next to his on the transfer boards. I was so terrified.

Darin Tingey: What was scary

Gage Dowdle: But because he he seemed very strict and he was very, we need to follow every rule.

Darin Tingey: Gotcha.

Gage Dowdle: And so that's scary. But after being with him, it's exactly what I needed.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And I'm so grateful i was to pass with him. That taught me a lot of spiritual things. And although, oh, we're in Kitty Best, the argument is usually, oh, well, that's for stateside missionaries. We're in Kitty Best.

Gage Dowdle: He let me know, like, that's not applicable and showed me how to still have fun. We still had so much fun, but we kept all the rules.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, I think that's, there's totally a way to do that, right?

Gage Dowdle: So...

Darin Tingey: Where you can keep the rules, work hard and still have a ton of fun doing it.

Gage Dowdle: Exactly.

Darin Tingey: that You don't have to give up one to for the other.

Darin Tingey: What was the work like? Like as a zone leader, sent What I've heard, never a zone leader, but I've heard it's just like a lot of tending to missionaries versus is actual work.

Darin Tingey: Did you feel that way?

Gage Dowdle: So, yeah, that's what I thought too, but honestly it was a really good mix. And the time we were getting a lot of work done. There were times where obviously, oh I need this or I need this. There was one time one of our district leaders, he's like, it was 8 p.m. after PDA. And he's like, I need your help. I split my knee open. What? What happened?

Gage Dowdle: I was coro careve, which is like cutting in the tree for the the coconut sap, the drink, the careve.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah

Gage Dowdle: And he he he so you know swung the knife and it hit his knee. and We needed to bring him the hospital at like 8.30 at night.

Darin Tingey: Oh gosh.

Gage Dowdle: We had a dinner. We had to cancel it. So there's small things like that where it's like, well, that's a big thing. But to us, it was small in our in our schedule. But... There's small things like that that get in the way.

Gage Dowdle: But mostly the work, that was the most lessons I've ever had. you know the best I was ever at the language and the best I was spiritually. and It was honestly, I felt so healthy.

Gage Dowdle: felt so you know ready for anything that was to come. were just getting out the door, coming back home, sleep, you know wake up, study, get out the door. It was so much fun.

Gage Dowdle: And was just because we were working so hard.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, and it sounds like you got pretty close with the president during this time. Is that right?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, especially because we were his first group of leaders that he came in.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: We were already his own leaders when he came in. So we were the first leaders for him to interact with. So it was fun to watch him come in. And usually it was like, well, our last president did this.

Gage Dowdle: And he was like, I don't care. i was like, oh, okay, let's go.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And that's exactly what we needed.

Darin Tingey: That's good. I'm glad he wanted to reset it.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: did Did you have any interesting like conversion stories in this area? or

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: i think

Gage Dowdle: I had my most interesting one, actually. It was in Baidiki, and we were visiting the Elders Quorum President's first counselor's house.

Gage Dowdle: Because we had just got there, we just got moved to Pairiki because we were in Nanikai, a different area. And we were visiting members because we started the area with zero information, no friends to teach, no anything.

Gage Dowdle: And so were visiting for referrals and the guy we were looking for, his whole family's members, he wasn't there. But we saw in his information dot that all his family members, and so when we saw that only his mom was there,

Gage Dowdle: We thought, oh, her name was Manuriki. We thought, oh, maybe she's a member, so we can ask her for a referral. And right before we went, I said, do you know anyone that would want to take lessons with missionaries?

Gage Dowdle: She said, you know, the usual answer, oh, everyone's Catholic around here. no no one would want to listen. in i was like, OK, you expecting that. And then it was silent for a little. We were about to go, and she just says, me.

Gage Dowdle: i was like, what?

Darin Tingey: No way.

Gage Dowdle: Me? What do you mean? I haven't been baptized. Really? Yeah, I haven't joined the church. And it was Saturday and I said, well, do you want to come to church tomorrow? I can.

Gage Dowdle: Of course you can. Anyone can come. and She said, okay, I'll come with my son. Because whole family super strong members. He even has a kid on a mission right now.

Darin Tingey: Oh cool.

Gage Dowdle: And she's like, okay. And she never stopped coming for weeks and weeks on end.

Gage Dowdle: All because she said me.

Darin Tingey: That's so cool.

Gage Dowdle: She referred herself. Isn't that crazy?

Darin Tingey: That is crazy.

Gage Dowdle: And then she got baptized on Christmas day, which is so cool in 2025. Yeah. Oh

Darin Tingey: That is really cool. Two-back doesn't Christmas. Big celebration for her every year.

Gage Dowdle: yeah.

Darin Tingey: that

Gage Dowdle: So cool.

Darin Tingey: did Did you have, on Tarawa, did you get a lot of mix of like, where catholic like oh, oh, we're we're Protestant, or Isibon, or what was the, what was like the hardest one that you ran into?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Yeah, there's a big mix of all our religions.

Darin Tingey: Bay the Earth?

Gage Dowdle: Honestly, Catholics, not because of them like or their religion or whatever, but usually because of the culture. Culture is really hard with Catholicism because it's usually like, oh, my dad and his dad and his dad with his culture, so i have to stay this way.

Gage Dowdle: it' very culture heavy saying, sorry, they're like really nice people and they're super accepting, but they say, I'm sorry, I can't, I can't go against my culture. So that was probably one of the hardest ones.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's crazy how built in that is for Catholics. It's like People might not be active Catholics at all, but they'll they'll say, oh, I'm Catholic.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, exactly.

Darin Tingey: you know No non-inactive non-inactive member of the church ever says, like oh, um'm I'm Mormon.

Darin Tingey: you know it's like you like they They never say that.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Never.

Darin Tingey: like though It's never like, oh, yeah my family's Mormon. It's like I'm Mormon. It's not that way.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, exactly.

Darin Tingey: For Catholics, it is that way.

Gage Dowdle: Never. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Okay. Well, that was an incredible story, by the way, of the of the lady. it is crazy just how just asking you know asking the the questions, the right people at the right time, the people that you least expect will often be the ones that end up converting.

Darin Tingey: How cool. That's really cool story. So seven months, were you just whispering in President's ear every time you saw him that you wanted the other night around?

Gage Dowdle: it almost seemed like that. I honestly, i kind of made a promise myself that I wouldn't ever boo-boo see or request to go anywhere. And so I didn't, I never did.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: But you know my time was getting longer longer a zone leader. I was kind of feeling it. you know I wasn't moving. And OK, I can see, kind of feel like what's coming. And then i I moved areas as a zone leader for one transfer.

Gage Dowdle: And then i went to Medicaid. And so this is my third to last transfer. And this was just last February. And got to Medicaid, my first real, real Outer Island, you know.

Gage Dowdle: And got there and there was not a lot of work to do. That was very evident at the beginning. And, you know, me Mikey Payne were trying to get out every day doing our very best.

Gage Dowdle: But to be honest, this is the hardest part of my entire mission. because every day became slower and slower and slower.

Darin Tingey: Thank you.

Gage Dowdle: And not because you know we might have done worse, not worse, but like we could have done better we're getting lazy or what. It's just so hot. we were starting to lose sleep because it's so hot every night.

Gage Dowdle: And felt like every person we talked to was like, yeah, you can come back tomorrow. And then the next day, couldn't find them on this in this small little village on this small little island.

Gage Dowdle: And it got really hard at one point. But I was able to counteract that with learning how to dance every P-Day. So we had one friend.

Darin Tingey: Let's go. Yo,

Gage Dowdle: Thankfully, we had one friend who was really good at dancing. And he taught us. We went over like three or four P-Days. And he taught us how to do a few dances. That was one of the best like cultural experiences in my entire life, honestly.

Gage Dowdle: My entire mission, obviously. And we were actually able to, for, they called it Woman's Day, but I'm pretty sure it was Relief Society you know anniversary.

Darin Tingey: come.

Gage Dowdle: And we were able to dance for it. And we had full Binyi Kitty Bess, which is the Kitty Bess costume. i actually have a video of it.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: But...

Darin Tingey: Send it to me. Heck yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Okay, I totally will. But it was so much fun. And yeah, so it was like the hardest, but also the most fun my entire mission.

Darin Tingey: Okay.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: So when you first got some medications, you have to do the Gus, Gus.

Gage Dowdle: Yep, the katabanin, which means...

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Wait, say it again. What's the word?

Gage Dowdle: the key to the best word is katabanin.

Darin Tingey: Cut the bunning.

Gage Dowdle: hot thought bonding Yeah, which means like to go around completely.

Darin Tingey: Cut the bunning. Okay.

Gage Dowdle: to Yep.

Darin Tingey: Because you had to go visit all the idols or whatever, the witches.

Gage Dowdle: Yes.

Darin Tingey: Are they witches?

Gage Dowdle: dense <unk>va Dance.

Darin Tingey: What are they called?

Gage Dowdle: Which means like sometimes demigod, sometimes ghost.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's ghosts or... Okay.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, and so you have to go and present your gift to them, right?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Represented lollipops.

Darin Tingey: yeah Did you go around on bikes or in a car or a motorcycle?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, we got in the front of a truck because one of the rules we can't get in the back of trucks. So.

Darin Tingey: Whoa, what?

Gage Dowdle: Yep. Very controversial.

Darin Tingey: wait, kick in the back of a truck.

Gage Dowdle: Very controversial.

Darin Tingey: That is very controversial. Was that a new mission president rule?

Gage Dowdle: No, it was actually just a mission rule in general. That was in the last few years.

Darin Tingey: Huh.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: I mean, that's so hard, right? Because like they, the trucks in Kitabas, they're,

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: one of the most main forms of transportation. Yep.

Darin Tingey: yeah, everyone just hops in the back. You know, everyone's, uh hitchhiking i mean it's not really hitchhiking but you know that's the best way to describe it yeah just hop and ride in the back uh there's not really a lot of room to sit in the front

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Just a ride.

Gage Dowdle: Yep. Never once.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. So luckily they had two little spots for us. that's what I'm talking about, the culture.

Darin Tingey: dang yeah

Gage Dowdle: Like, when I first got there, everyone wrote in the back. But as time went on, everyone started to realize, like, oh, maybe we can do it. And we were able to see blessings, too. So that was the coolest part.

Gage Dowdle: But yeah, we we visit all of the idols, except it's kind of dying in their culture nowadays. It's kind of sad. When we presented the little lollipop, the kids just come by and take it.

Gage Dowdle: like,

Darin Tingey: Yeah, that's always been the case. They always do that.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. But sometimes even people come and they're like, do I really need to do it It's like, what? This is your culture. like

Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's funny.

Gage Dowdle: so

Darin Tingey: You have to do it within the first 24 hours of being there, right?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so it said it's like before you go to sleep, it's like you need to, the first time you get there ever, you need to go around and visit all the four idols on the island. But sometimes people do it a day or two later and it's like, get your work.

Darin Tingey: Well, you're cursed now, so yeah how long does it take to get around Medicaid?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, exactly.

Gage Dowdle: Ooh, it's about maybe two maybe one to two hours, somewhere in there.

Darin Tingey: Okay, and did you have bikes on Medicaid?

Gage Dowdle: Maybe, yeah an hour and a half.

Gage Dowdle: Yes, so that was a big problem. We only had two working. We had four missionaries and we actually got up to four mission sorry four bikes. Our zone leaders were the best. They just sent bikes on the weekly boat and they showed up and we just received them and we had bikes.

Darin Tingey: Cool.

Darin Tingey: Let's go.

Gage Dowdle: And so, yeah, we had bikes to go around the whole island. There was actually one time we were on exchange and me and my companion at the time, we actually went around the entire island in one day teaching lessons.

Gage Dowdle: So that was so much fun.

Darin Tingey: so cool. With four missionaries on Medicaid, did you guys split up the island and say like, hey, you guys work this half, we'll work this half?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, it was just half and half. But honestly, some of the islands are so, I'm sorry, the cities are so far that it's not worth it.

Gage Dowdle: And so there's just the big main island, sorry, interesting island.

Darin Tingey: Villages, villages.

Gage Dowdle: Main village where we were has the most amount people.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: So they just took that and we took the southern ones.

Darin Tingey: Okay. Yeah. I mean, on Mayanna, we passed by so many villages.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, exactly.

Darin Tingey: We just didn't have time to try. and we We kind of had four, four or five villages that we spent the most time in. And the furthest one was the biggest. So we tried to spend as much time there, but we looked like an hour and a half bike right away from it.

Darin Tingey: So it was like, it was difficult to get to, but you you just have to choose a few of them and say, Hey, we're going to work these villages

Gage Dowdle: Yeah,

Gage Dowdle: exactly. Which is so weird, like just being on an entire island and like thinking, like compared to other missionaries like in like the States or wherever, like, oh yeah, this is my area, the entire island. like That's like the craziest thing to say or kind of flex.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, and what's crazier is there's actually not that many of people on the island compared to the areas that people have in states.

Gage Dowdle: yeah there's yeah wikipedia Yeah, Wikipedia says about 3,000. But I think it's a little bit more.

Darin Tingey: That's pretty big. Did you guys do a lot of bow duckies on the game?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, we actually went yeah we went to a good amount. And you want to know what? Once lifetime opportunity. They're having a... What's it called? Ordination for a Catholic priest.

Gage Dowdle: which is one of the biggest things. It's like getting a new Area 70 in our church, you know?

Gage Dowdle: But in Kitty Bess, it's like the biggest thing because that only ever happens so many times. And so all of Kitty Bess, almost all of Kitty Bess comes to this one island for an entire week.

Gage Dowdle: And let me tell you, that was the craziest experience of my entire life. The island population more than doubled in size. There were so many people in the main village.

Gage Dowdle: And everyone we talked to, I'm not from here. I'm not from here. I'm not from here. It was impossible to do work. And we got invited tons of times to come as Ijoa, our guests, to the party.

Gage Dowdle: Or not the party. it's The Boatak, but Boatak doesn't mean party.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: For the ordination. And we went. And so our Saturday morning, it started at like 10 a.m. and we were guests and our zone leaders were even there.

Gage Dowdle: And so us six went to the ordination and it was so, so cool to see like so many people come together at once and to see, you know, not only a different religion, but also in a different culture, you know, they have different beliefs in us, but yeah,

Darin Tingey: wow. Okay.

Gage Dowdle: Despite that, it was so cool to see Kiribati's culture kind of intertwined and mixed within it. and They had dancing, they had singing, and all part of there their church service, which was honestly so cool.

Darin Tingey: did so Did they treat you guys as proper guests at the party at the Koducki?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Yeah, we were right behind the president of Kiribati and the president of Nauru was there too.

Darin Tingey: Oh, wow. President Naoto was there? Dang.

Gage Dowdle: yep because Yeah, because how their like area works, it's KDOS and Naodu under one section.

Darin Tingey: Okay. So, did you get to shake President Thomas Mao's hand?

Gage Dowdle: I did.

Darin Tingey: I did, too, on an Adrattling on Mayanna.

Gage Dowdle: Yes. Oh.

Darin Tingey: He came to Mayanna, so that's pretty cool. Ten years later,

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, that was fun.

Darin Tingey: hey you get to meet him. he's He's a nice guy, him and his wife.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: It's fun to see him, like, be part of the culture and like dance? Cause he's very, you know, he's diplomatic, but then it's fun to see him.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: It's also still Kitty Bess.

Darin Tingey: And yeah. And the culture and stuff.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Uh, that's so cool. Did you do a lot of dancing like the Swiss and stuff?

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, there were some times they'd like call like different islands, like, Maquine, butari-tari. And when they called Medique, we were like, oh, we're from Medique, because we are.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And so we got up and we went and danced.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: That was fun.

Darin Tingey: My favorite was the Swiss with like the old ladies would come and ask me to dance and I'm like, it was so fun.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Good times. Or the, what was it? The Busce Bicycle?

Gage Dowdle: Oh, Spicecat.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Oh, wow. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: That was such a funny one. a So like a Kinnabas party is just so fun. It's just, yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Nothing like it.

Darin Tingey: Did you ever get sick on Medicaid?

Gage Dowdle: Not really just, you know, Loss of sleep from the heat every night really got to me and it got me really tired and that was probably the hardest part.

Darin Tingey: How

Gage Dowdle: Food on Medicaid, the best food ever, but not because, you know, it was McDonald's or whatever, because it was straight kiddie-bass food. At that point I was so, you know,

Gage Dowdle: accustomed to it, that I loved it. was the end of my mission, that's all I craved. And I had the best food, you know, crab, the the breadfruit, fish, fresh fish, straight caught, rice, you know, every day. And it was so good.

Gage Dowdle: We ate so well. There were some times we'd go have lessons and without saying anything, they just feed us every time.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And one time we ate before coming to the lesson because we didn't expect him to feed us. And he got mad at us for eating. He's like, eat. We're like, okay. We ate.

Darin Tingey: Gotta eat again. ye

Gage Dowdle: We had to eat

Darin Tingey: Always gotta eat.

Gage Dowdle: yep

Darin Tingey: You get a drink at every house.

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah.

Darin Tingey: Ultimately.

Gage Dowdle: Every house.

Darin Tingey: Did you have a lot of sugar water?

Gage Dowdle: Yep. Yep.

Darin Tingey: guy Yeah. Tons of sugar water. So fun, dude. The add-rounds are just something else. they're just They're just amazing. Did you have a lot of fun on P-Days?

Darin Tingey: Did you guys make it a little more fun than Christmas?

Gage Dowdle: Oh yeah those are the best P-days ever. Except it was also mixed in with some of the most boring because the city that we did the dance practice at was like a 15-minute bike ride away.

Gage Dowdle: And so 15, 15.

Darin Tingey: or 1-5? got 15.

Gage Dowdle: fifteen fifteen

Darin Tingey: got the

Gage Dowdle: So I had to convince my companion, you want to go dance? you Yeah, sure, let's go do it. And then there were some times like, today. And we just sit and call our families at this person's house across from our house.

Gage Dowdle: But sometimes we played soccer, so that was fun. But yeah, it was a mix. Sometimes just calling, sometimes soccer, sometimes dancing. Yeah.

Darin Tingey: That's so good. Any fishing?

Gage Dowdle: No. again tried, but didn't go through. I got really unlucky.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, you did. sounds like you need to go back to kid arrest, dude.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: You need to go back and go fishing and get to do the fun stuff.

Gage Dowdle: yeah Go swim.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, go swim, do the fun stuff you couldn't do.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. But on Medicaid, we had two really cool baptisms, actually. They hadn't had baptism in nine months. And we had one guy, spnimani this old guy who was actually, he was 72 years old.

Gage Dowdle: And he was unlike any kiddos person saying, I have no religion, which is crazy. Yeah, very rare.

Darin Tingey: It is crazy. It's very rare.

Gage Dowdle: And, you know, we taughtn lessons. They all made sense to him. And he could barely walk, but we had a weekly transportation truck come by, and he always got on that truck every week.

Gage Dowdle: He needed someone to help him, but he got on every week, and he was the most faithful member in the branch. And yeah, he was baptized at 72 years old.

Darin Tingey: And so come on. We

Gage Dowdle: so And it was the talk of the town, not figuratively, but also literally. Everyone in the town was talking about it. Like people we were teaching and meeting with, like, whoa, like his name was Takyata.

Darin Tingey: have a fast.

Gage Dowdle: you're like, oh, wow, Takyata got baptized. We see like he's changed and everything. Like, wow, that's crazy. Like word spreads.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, that's a good sign. and Did you baptize? Was baptism done in the ocean or did there was there a font?

Gage Dowdle: theres actually a font There's actually a font there. It's a full-on chapel in Chapel House.

Darin Tingey: Dang.

Gage Dowdle: But it leaks really quickly, so we had to you know go to the nearest rain tank and you know shovel buckets in. That was fun.

Gage Dowdle: Which brings me that next baptism. It was a 20-year-old, just our age. He was this awesome guy who randomly stopped drinking kava and alcohol and said, I'm going to be coming to your church now. And we're like, really? And he started coming and never missed.

Gage Dowdle: And he was awesome. He see played soccer. He played tournaments. They had little tournaments on the island for money. And on the day of his baptism, he came and filled the font himself.

Gage Dowdle: He stood on top of the rain tank, reached his bucket and dipped down, giving us the buckets, and we filled down I was like, wow, this is this is awesome. like Who does this?

Darin Tingey: That's so cool.

Gage Dowdle: For their own baptism.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, that's how you know they're really converted. you know they're They're not just barely showing up.

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah.

Darin Tingey: They're excited about it and helping you with it.

Gage Dowdle: Exactly.

Darin Tingey: So cool that everyone knew the the old man getting baptized.

Gage Dowdle: And him.

Darin Tingey: Do you help too?

Gage Dowdle: The younger guy.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Oh, and the younger guy, they all know about it.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Darin Tingey: That's cool. Yeah, just, especially with the older guy, it's like, I don't have religion, I'm not part of any religion, and then people see like, wow, he joined, you know, theyll the Mormons, whatever.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: It's probably a pretty big help for you guys as missionaries.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, especially one of our friends, they basically told us they want to join the church, and they mentioned his name and also the other the younger kid's name and this other member who was always baptized, but it was as if he just was converted. He just became back strong in activity.

Gage Dowdle: And so just these small little, you know, interactions and small conversions to them are big, can like big to everyone else. Everyone sees it and they see the difference.

Gage Dowdle: And it's honestly so mind blowing and just shows that people are ready. People are ready.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. So with, Medicare having a branch did, were there still other groups in other villages?

Gage Dowdle: No, there's only one branch in the main village. They used to back way back then, they used to have like 12 missionaries, each in one, one companionship, each city.

Gage Dowdle: But obviously with COVID and all the housing standards, you can actually see brick houses in every city. You're like, that's a missionary house. Because you know there's no brick houses. And it's like abandoned. and There's no one in it.

Darin Tingey: Well, I don't know if they're missionary houses. They have those on Mayanna too. I think someone made them for somebody and they, and they,

Gage Dowdle: Yeah. Yeah. But especially on Medicaid, like there's like only one in every city. And like back then they had each companionship in each city.

Darin Tingey: that's funny.

Gage Dowdle: But yeah, then COVID and housing standards everything came back down to only two and four the time. And so it was only one branch on the entire island.

Darin Tingey: Because there, like on some of the previous episodes that i've done, people at Sgt. Medicaid, it was, there was the branch and then there was like a few other groups in different villages. Sometimes the missionaries would go and do church in the different villages or the branch president would then go do the church in the different villages.

Gage Dowdle: Oh yeah.

Darin Tingey: But it sounds like he guys have a truck that would pick people up.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, so we just like buy a local truck.

Darin Tingey: Like rent it like 20 bucks or whatever was.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: So I'll pick them Yeah,

Gage Dowdle: And which was the problem out in Medicaid that there was almost no leadership. There was just the branch president who was like 60 or 70 and his counselor was also 60 or 70 and that was it.

Gage Dowdle: One counselor and that's it. So they want to try and get it part, even though it's a branch, to join one of the Tarawa stakes so that leadership can come out and give.

Gage Dowdle: Because there are people ready for the Melchizedek Priesthood but they can't get it because of leadership and All that.

Darin Tingey: Weird.

Darin Tingey: Huh.

Gage Dowdle: Because they're under the the mission. And so the mission president is their stake president.

Darin Tingey: Gotcha.

Gage Dowdle: And so he needs to come and do it which will probably never happen. He has two countries to worry about. It's just too hard.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: So they want to try and bring him into a stake and and bring leadership out. It'll go up from there.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, that's what they did the Marshalls. In the Marshall Islands, they have Maduro. There's a stake in Maduro, and then there's a stake Kwajalein. And they just made the the they just put all the Outer Islands under the Kwajalein stake.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, that's cool.

Darin Tingey: And so they they go to all the Outer Islands and do the training and stuff.

Gage Dowdle: That's what they need.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, they should do that. and Unfortunately, Christmas is so far, so it's like...

Gage Dowdle: Oh yeah, that's its own ordeal.

Darin Tingey: Also, back in my day, with not only did they have... like I think we had every outer island open in Kitabas besides Tamananade.

Gage Dowdle: Except for the last two, yeah.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. We even had Fanning in Washington, so did I know...

Gage Dowdle: Wow.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: That's crazy.

Darin Tingey: Uh... Why am blanking on What's Fanning called in Kiribati?

Gage Dowdle: Wow.

Darin Tingey: Yeah, even on missionaries. Crazy, crazy times. So I'm sure you were hoping to die Medicaid, or did you want to back to that off?

Gage Dowdle: Funny story, yeah, since that was the hardest part of a mission and the work was slowing down so much, and as you saw, as I said, it went from four to two because of that.

Gage Dowdle: So when I left, no one replaced us.

Darin Tingey: Gotcha.

Gage Dowdle: and So yeah, I was pretty happy to go back to Tarawa. And again, same thing as when I came back from Christmas, so many people everywhere, anywhere.

Gage Dowdle: And it was in my dream area. I honestly prayed to go to this area. And I was training at the time in Medicaid, which I also prayed to not do.

Gage Dowdle: He came with me to my favorite area. We went together. And I finished his training there, and it couldn't have gotten any better end my mission.

Darin Tingey: That's cool.

Gage Dowdle: We had three people on baptism all day and you know prepared souls left and right.

Darin Tingey: That's awesome.

Gage Dowdle: I miss it.

Darin Tingey: That sounds like an incredible mission. where Did I miss any stories that you wanted to tell?

Gage Dowdle: just, you know, sorry, I'm just looking at my notes. Just small stories, nothing huge.

Gage Dowdle: Just overall, the mission just taught me like such good life skills.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: And it also taught me some you know Christ-like attributes that I really needed. And you know if anyone's listening this far and has decided to go on a mission or if they have their mission to kitty-bass,

Gage Dowdle: or even Marshall's shirts similar. It's one of the best experiences for anyone. And it will definitely shape you and your testimony if you let it.

Gage Dowdle: And I think that was the best decision at the time of my life. And I definitely needed it. Although it's over, I'm not i'm not going to... I'm planning on not you know looking back and be like, oh, I miss that all the time.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: It's good to have it sometimes, but...

Darin Tingey: There

Gage Dowdle: Too much can be distracting and I'm ready to use those experiences to move forward in life. And yeah, I'm starting school next month and I'm excited to use those experiences for my mission to, you know, move forward.

Gage Dowdle: And I even want to be an MTC teacher. So hopefully that will go well and I want to continue my kiddie best, you know, and help the next generation of missionaries.

Darin Tingey: you go

Darin Tingey: There you go. So where are you going to school?

Gage Dowdle: BYU Provo.

Darin Tingey: Nice. Let's go. That's where went. Go Cougs. one So I have my final three questions, but one question i just thought of that i want to ask you before I asked is final threes.

Darin Tingey: With your new mission president, does he spend equal amount of time in Kivibus versus Marshalls, or does he favor one over the other?

Gage Dowdle: yeah so yes logistically I think he spends the same amount of time especially because he's there for the start of every transfer which is every three weeks so he has to be back and forth but he has even said himself he likes Kitty Bess more

Darin Tingey: Of course. Of course.

Gage Dowdle: he even goes to Christmas all the time like once every six months

Darin Tingey: Of course. That's always how it is. the dan Mission president always has a favorite favorite child. I think it's been a long time since the Marshalls have been the favorite of the mission president.

Darin Tingey: That's okay. Yeah, I understand it. Like, as far as like culturally, I think Kitabas people like their culture more and they're more willing to like keep it and really hold on to it.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah

Darin Tingey: And they're very prideful. Like Kitabas is the best country in the world. You know, they they love Kitabas. And because of that, their culture is so strong and there's a lot of people there versus the Marshalls.

Darin Tingey: It's like so many people have left to the States.

Gage Dowdle: yeah

Darin Tingey: which has really hurt their culture. And so it's just, it's just hard because a lot of people are just leaving all the time. And you can't blame them to like, you know, find, look for better or different opportunities in life.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: Who knows they're, you know, it's all perspective, if it's a better opportunity or not. Right. Well, you know, I think living in the islands is a pretty simple life and they they love it. Like the marshals, these people love it, especially on the outer islands. I feel like on the outer islands, marshals, people will love marsh islands. On the mainland, it's less so. But because of that, I think the mission president ends up just feeling like, oh, like the work is doing really well here in Kitabas compared to the marshals.

Darin Tingey: This is like, you have more people here, right? Like you just, it's just a numbers game at that point. So.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, for sure.

Darin Tingey: Well, cool. Let's end on the three questions.

Gage Dowdle: All right, perfect.

Darin Tingey: I'll ask three questions. So first was, what's your favorite area?

Gage Dowdle: Medique was beautiful. It's probably the most beautiful island out of all of them. So that was cool, you know. physically to see, but my best spiritual growth was when became zone leader at Nani Kai.

Darin Tingey: We have to choose one.

Gage Dowdle: I'd probably say Medicaid.

Darin Tingey: right, good answer. Good answer. What was your favorite food?

Gage Dowdle: My favorite food was the Mei, which is the breadfruit. In any form, you know, as soup, as fried, as boiled even.

Darin Tingey: Really?

Gage Dowdle: If it's just boiled, I'll grab that and eat that. Like, it's so good.

Darin Tingey: The soup and he made soup and he made really good.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: I mean, so is the panty man like bread fruit general.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: And you first look you like that's not that good.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: I feel think like it is a little bit of required taste, but it can be done really well.

Gage Dowdle: Oh, yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Yep.

Darin Tingey: And then last question is just what what was your favorite thing about kid of this?

Gage Dowdle: My favorite thing about Kitty Bass is how everyone is so willing to talk to you and they're not, you know, you say hi to them and it's part of the culture. It's rude to not say hi back.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: You're spoken to and it's rude to not speak back. That's my favorite thing and I wish that we're back in America. lot of times I'll, you know, smile at someone, say hi and just, you know, they walk on by.

Gage Dowdle: It kind of hurts.

Darin Tingey: Yeah.

Gage Dowdle: Coming straight from Kitty Bass, that is offensive.

Darin Tingey: yeah yeah

Gage Dowdle: And I also like how they share food and they're just all about food. That's a love language. And also going back from Kitty Vest, you know, I try to share food with like my siblings and my friends. they like, no, I'm good. It's like, oh, that hurts.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. I'm trying to share this with you. Please take it.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah, please. Or when I take their food, they're like why'd you take it? It's like, well, what do you mean? We're sharing.

Darin Tingey: it's like in the States, you know, let's say your friend is, say you're growing up and your friend's over and it's around dinner time and your parents are like, oh, you know, Gage, stay for dinner. And you're like, like the polite thing to to do is, so the polite thing to say is stay for dinner.

Darin Tingey: Do they actually mean it? Most of the time they don't, they're just being polite.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: And on the receiving end, you would typically just say, know I'm okay. Thanks. Thanks so much.

Gage Dowdle: Yeah.

Darin Tingey: You know? And, and then like, that's usually the end of it. So I'd always tell people, I remember explaining this to people in the, in kiddoition and the Marshall Islands, like, yeah, like they have to ask you probably three times before you,

Gage Dowdle: yeah

Darin Tingey: should say yes. And then it's like, okay to say yes. Like that. I think that's American culture typically, right? Oh, stay for dinner. No, I'm okay. No, it's okay. Like, no, we want you to stay for dinner.

Darin Tingey: Like, oh, okay.

Gage Dowdle: yeah exactly and no yeah and give us they don't even ask they just put the plate front you like eat it's like what I I just ate no I don't care eat exactly

Darin Tingey: Like Austin. this is but The kid would be like, actually mean it. Here, have some food.

Darin Tingey: Yeah. they're eating They're eating it here, elder. You can have my plate.

Gage Dowdle: yeah yeah yeah yeah do you want some yeah exactly

Darin Tingey: No, yeah, they're the kids who are great for that, which is awesome. Well, Gage, I'm super pumped that we did this podcast right when you got home so we could hear all the updates on the mission, all your stories are fresh.

Darin Tingey: This was another great episode of the Islanders Podcast.