Transcript
Simone: All right, we're back with another episode of the Islands Podcast. I am your temporary host, Simone Lee, and I have the absolute pleasure and privilege of interviewing none other than Darren Tingey.
Simone: Darren, welcome to the podcast.
Darin Tingey: Thank you, man You crushed that. I think you should be the full-time host, honestly.
Simone: Thank you.
Simone: I learned from the best.
Darin Tingey: That's awesome. Great intro.
Simone: Well, thanks, Darren. Okay, so welcome. i know you've told me that a lot of people are really keen to hear your story. I'm really keen to hear all about your mission and your experience.
Simone: So let's get into it. Talk to me a little bit about, i guess, where you live now and like your family situation first.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And just just as I wanted to touch on, i did a little intro to my story at the very beginning of this podcast, episode one.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And... episode one and I've been wanting to do a longer form podcast. I'm glad we're doing it because i feel like I have a lot of stories. i apologize to those that I've already heard my stories or have I have shared my stories throughout other podcasts.
Darin Tingey: But hopefully a little more in depth and everyone can kind of know my my mission story. So yeah, I'm originally from Arizona, from Mesa to be specific, phoeni Phoenix area, born and raised
Simone: OK.
Darin Tingey: did a BYU summer semester before my mission and then, studied finance at BYU after the mission, moved to DC for a couple of years.
Darin Tingey: And then, uh, now back in Utah, uh, married and have a one year old son. So his name's Teddy.
Simone: What's his name?
Simone: Oh,
Simone: Did you always want to go on a mission?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I did.
Simone: OK.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: there
Simone: Did you feel a bit of pressure to go?
Darin Tingey: No, I didn't feel pressure to go. The only time I felt pressure was all of my friends got their mission calls.
Simone: right.
Darin Tingey: when are you going to get your call? And I was like, dude, you'll know when I get my call, I promise you but I wanted to do a summer semester at BYU before heading out just a little bit of exposure away from home before going on the mission.
Darin Tingey: So
Simone: Which I think that's really smart because that gives you that lived experience when you go and actually meet people, even if it was for just a semester, you have experience living away from home and going through what you went through, no doubt. And then to come on the mission and bring that, I think makes you more valuable.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I would agree. I would encourage everyone to to do some time away from home before going on a mission. Because mission is already one big culture shock and a change of pace in life.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And coming straight from home without any exposure to anything else might be difficult for a lot of kids.
Simone: Yeah, absolutely. Okay, well, let's get stuck in. Talk to me about, I guess, when you got your mission call, and then when you go through through to the MTC.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, so I got my mission call the last day of senior year graduation day. i I went to the lake with my friends because we didn't have like school on that day.
Simone: Hmm.
Darin Tingey: and then I came home and i was like, I'll just check the mailbox maybe and I'll just check it. And I go and sure enough, it's in there. And I grab it and I run inside to my house.
Darin Tingey: And I'm like, guys, I got my mission call. And no one's there. was like, what where's my family?
Darin Tingey: But I had everyone over in a few hours, and I opened before graduation that night and I really wanted to go Spanish-speaking.
Darin Tingey: So I shared this before.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: So I opened it, and I read it as Marshall Islands Mahuro Mission because the J is pronounced with an H in Spanish. I really wanted to go Spanish-speaking.
Simone: Yes.
Darin Tingey: And then obviously everyone freaks out like, oh, my gosh, where where is that? Yeah. And there was only one guy there, one of my priest quorum leaders.
Darin Tingey: And he was like, I know Elder Openshaw who served in that mission. Openshaw served on the Kiribati side. he His story has been shared in a where his family died in a plane crash while he was on his mission.
Simone: Oh, okay. It's coming back. Yeah. It's sounding kind of familiar. Right.
Darin Tingey: So he was before our time just a little bit.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But yeah, he was the only one that he who knew that served there. And then I came later to find out that a kid from my stake had also served in Kitabas as well.
Darin Tingey: Elder Stone, Alema Stone, which anyway, was cool. So yeah, that was my mission call. And I was supposed to go in September fourteenth So that would have been after my summer semester.
Simone: yep
Darin Tingey: And then while I was in, while I was in my summer semester, my stake president called me. He's like, hey you got moved up a week. You're going September 7th. And I was like, Oh, okay. I was fine with that.
Simone: That's right. that's just love the That's the staggering, right?
Darin Tingey: Yep. Yeah. The staggering. so I went into MTC
Darin Tingey: but I got there late that day and I walk into class and they had already done their first language training.
Darin Tingey: And I felt so far behind, even just one day,
Simone: Wait, why were you late?
Simone: Oh.
Darin Tingey: you
Darin Tingey: the other confusing thing was when I walked into the class, I walk in and there's like 12 elders and one sister and they're like, yeah, there was 13 of us.
Simone: 12? 12? That's great.
Darin Tingey: it a big intake.
Simone: That's huge.
Simone: Oh,
Darin Tingey: we we're speaking Marshallese. There was one elder going stateside, Marshallese speaking. And, he was hoping that someone else was going stateside and he was so sad when he, uh,
Simone: my.
Simone: is it us Is it just Oklahoma that has the Marshallese speaking mission?
Darin Tingey: No, there's there's other places.
Simone: Or there other places?
Darin Tingey: all There's like Spokane is a big one, Hawaii, Honolulu mission.
Simone: Oh. Oh, OK. Right. OK.
Darin Tingey: Yeah,
Simone: I feel like I only ever hear about Oklahoma.
Darin Tingey: yeah he was going to Iowa. So there was, yeah, there Arkansas, Oklahoma, Iowa, sometimes Dallas.
Simone: Oh, wow.
Darin Tingey: It's like random pockets of Marshallese people in the States. So they'll get, every now and then they'll call one or two missionaries to go over there.
Simone: I guess that would make sense because, i mean, you you can tell me as well, I think a lot of Marshallese people would move from the Marshall Islands to America.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. The Arkansas is probably the biggest, the biggest concentration of marshes people.
Darin Tingey: And then the other pockets like, like Spokane's probably the second biggest, Spokane, Washington.
Simone: Okay, keep going with, sorry, keep going with your MTC.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, MTC, I hated the MTC.
Simone: Really?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Why?
Darin Tingey: I was way too strict in the MTC. So that wasn't good for me. I shouldn't have done that.
Darin Tingey: I should have just had fun.
Simone: Like, what do you mean you're way too strict? Can you so elaborate on that a bit more?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, well, I think part of it was my companion, to be honest.
Simone: Okay.
Simone: Yeah. Oh.
Darin Tingey: I have been more relaxed, but I don't know how you can be relaxed when he just leaves and you don't know where he went. Or we went to the temple our last P-Day and...
Darin Tingey: After he we were all taking pictures together as an intake at the temple, and he thought it'd be so cool to belly flop in the fountain in front of the Provo temple in his full suit.
Darin Tingey: And the looks on the people's faces as they're walking by, just jaw on the floor, just like, oh my gosh, what did the elder just do? And I was so pissed at him.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: i was so mad.
Simone: that
Simone: I can imagine. You know, yeah that would be very frustrating. And I guess you don't go on your mission to have to babysit someone else almost, and kind of correct their behavior.
Simone: you're You're there trying to work or prepare yourself to serve your own mission, and all of a sudden you're having to babysit someone who kind of just seems to be taking it lightly. that Yeah.
Darin Tingey: growing up, I always saw missionaries as these perfect beings, you know, which is so far from the truth, so far from the truth.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But you think that you're going to feel different when you get set apart as a missionary. I did not. I felt the exact same person, but I thought I should feel like Superman.
Darin Tingey: My view of what a missionary was was skewed in a too perfectionate way that I felt like I needed to be that.
Simone: Yes.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: yet
Darin Tingey: it was just kind of a rude awakening. So I really did not like the ndc I was so happy to leave.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: Super happy to leave. But i I like my intake overall. bunch of good good dudes and good sisters, good group. but just I hated being in a classroom all day and then having to worry about my comp who would run off when I wasn't looking.
Simone: that's totally fair enough that honestly that sounds like a nightmare
Darin Tingey: that comp,
Darin Tingey: he choked out an elder on an outer Island, threatened to kill him. he eventually got sent home for pulling a knife on another elder. And I was spilling the tea, which i don't know.
Darin Tingey: Some people can disagree with, but yeah, yeah, I won't.
Simone: We're jumping. We're jumping.
Darin Tingey: But anyway, that just shows you kind of what I was dealing with a little bit.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then he came back like after he got sent home, he came back not as a missionary
Darin Tingey: And like, dude, ruining the work because they all know he was a former elder. Anyway, I'm a crazy
Simone: yeah you know Do you know, i just want to say though, like, I think it's so important to share these types of realities of missionary service, because I think I was similar to you in terms of when I went to serve my mission, I had this idealized view of what a mission would be like, of what missionaries were like, thinking that it was, you know, everyone was very by the book, let's say, and then coming into the mission and the reality, it's far from it
Simone: And so I think that kind of blindsides you almost.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, and I don't share these things to be like, look at me. I was such a perfect elder because I was far from that.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But it was just a difficult it was really difficult.
Simone: Yeah, sure.
Darin Tingey: And this elder and I, we still communicate.
Darin Tingey: We've actually become closer friends and talked decent amount post-mission.
Darin Tingey: Love the kid to death. I still have a good relationship with him, surprisingly.
Simone: Hmm, okay.
Darin Tingey: But...
Simone: That is shocking, actually.
Darin Tingey: a
Simone: were your teachers in the MTC?
Darin Tingey: Sherman and Tonini.
Simone: then you leave the MTC, you and your 13 other kind of elders and sisters. Because Because I really enjoy the logistics of kind of like getting from a to B.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: So did you all go leave Provo and then travel down to... Would you have gone to LA? Or did you go...
Darin Tingey: Yes. We flew salt lake to
Simone: Oh, that's, yeah.
Darin Tingey: weve I think we flew Salt Lake straight to Hawaii, straight to Honolulu, and then stayed the night in a hotel right by the airport.
Simone: That makes sense. Yeah.
Simone: Yes.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: then the next morning we woke up and went to the airport super early, and there's a bunch of Marshallese people there with their coolers.
Darin Tingey: Marshallese people, they pack their stuff in coolers. Usually they're bringing food back and forth.
Simone: like, cooler, like a, like chilli bin, like an ice box thing.
Darin Tingey: Like an ice chest... Icebox, whatever you call it.
Simone: I don't know.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Simone: different
Darin Tingey: But you know, like in Kitabas, they have like the big cracker bins that they carry their stuff in, like on planes and stuff. or
Simone: Okay, yep, yep.
Darin Tingey: the barina, like the big breakfast cracker.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: you know what I'm talking about?
Simone: yes, yes. Yep.
Darin Tingey: that's how they carry a lot of their stuff.
Simone: Yes.
Darin Tingey: Okay, for Marshall's people, it's like big coolers, big ice chests. Yeah. So they have like a ton of those. So there was a bunch of Marshalls bringing them to the Marsh Islands, which is kind of funny.
Simone: So then you get off the plane and kind of what's, what are your first impressions? What are your first thoughts? What's going through your head?
Darin Tingey: First thoughts, really hot. Like humidity hits you like a ton of bricks. Your shirt's immediately sticking to you, trying to pull it off.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And i don't know, just kind of shows like just shocked of like, I'm on these tiny, I'm on this tiny island and The APs there to pick us up, president, zone leaders, because, I mean, there's 13 of us, so they had to have, know, couple vans.
Simone: ask
Darin Tingey: And I can't remember if it was in that first ride. I don't think it was, but I remember hopping with the zone leaders. I think it was later that night, and the zone leader just, like, starts bumping tunes. And I'm like, what?
Darin Tingey: No joke, my first day.
Simone: Were they like Nasha Lee's tunes?
Darin Tingey: I don't think it was the first ride because I don't think he'd do that. But it was later that night.
Simone: yeah.
Darin Tingey: Anyway, so we we all go to President's House, and I'm really surprised how nice President's House was. It was like American home almost. i was like, wow, it's really nice house.
Darin Tingey: And you know we did meet your find out where you're going and meet your trainer, and I was surprised. one of two elders not starting on the main island of Maduro.
Darin Tingey: So everyone was starting on Maduro and I was, I was going to Ebi.
Simone: Okay, yeah.
Simone: Okay, yeah.
Simone: What's, sorry, what's the main island? Oh, Majuro is the main island.
Simone: Got you. Okay, yeah.
Simone: Hmm.
Darin Tingey: So I was going, I got, I found I was going to Ebi.
Simone: Hmm.
Darin Tingey: I actually found out in the airport because we ran into one of the sisters that was going home, Sister Clark. I just remembered that. She was going home and in the Honolulu airport. We ran into her and she was like, Elder Tingey, I know you're going to Ebai, which was sick. but
Darin Tingey: And then another elder was going to Outer Island.
Simone: sorry, did Clark train Pakku?
Darin Tingey: Yes. Yes.
Simone: I was like, that sounds familiar. Okay, okay, that makes sense, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And I think she had just come off of e-buy recently.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: And so she had told me, she's like, you're going to e-buy.
Simone: Yeah,
Darin Tingey: And i was like, cool. I don't know anything about it. i was like,
Simone: I don't know what that is.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, where's that? Cool. But I was really excited to go to another island not starting on the main island for a few reasons. one, I thought it was cool to go to another island.
Darin Tingey: And two, it was kind of good to get away from my MTC group just because of, –
Simone: Just being real. Just keeping it real.
Darin Tingey: I was so strict and kind of an annoying. elder in the MTC.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So it was a good like break from them.
Darin Tingey: But that meant I was on Maduro for two days until I actually got to fly out to Ebi.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: the transfer ahead of me, which was
Simone: Wow.
Darin Tingey: Elder Sheffield in them, they had like 12 as well.
Simone: Are you...
Darin Tingey: And so every elder was training for them. And then when our intake came in, they basically got all paired together and then their trainers trained us. So it was kind of wild.
Simone: Hmm.
Simone: So who was your trainer?
Darin Tingey: so my trainer was elder Masur from Vanuatu. so I didn't meet him until I E-Bai.
Simone: Oh, okay.
Darin Tingey: But quickly before E-Buy, like I said, go I'm going out to zone leaders and a kid from my intake who was being trained by zone leader.
Simone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: And we're driving in the evening because car and he's bumping tunes. and And I'm like, oh, okay. You know, interesting. Interesting. And we we went to a chem-em the first or second night and a chem-em is a first birthday party, which is a really big deal, both in Kitabat and the Marsh Islands.
Simone: yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And like classic like start on island time. So like nothing even happens until 10 p.m. And so we actually stayed out till like midnight, my first or second night at this party.
Simone: No way. Yeah.
Simone: that's crazy
Simone: what were you gonna say to him you know like him being the zone leader what were you gonna say you're gonna tell him like yeah exactly like that's such an awkward position to be put in
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. No, I didn't say anything.
Darin Tingey: the zone leader and this other elder, they had told us night one or night two, and they said, this is the Ambebe mission. And Ambebe means your choice.
Darin Tingey: That's what it means in Marshallese. Your choice. This is the your choice mission.
Darin Tingey: however you want to do it, you know? And that was the culture at the time.
Simone: Yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: So, but yeah, anyway, go to, I fly to e-buy, you actually land on Kwajalein Atoll, which is where the U.S. Army base is, in the very south part of Kwajalein Atoll.
Simone: Right, yep.
Darin Tingey: You fly into there, and then you have to go through security, and then they take you to the dock. And there were some elders there waiting for me.
Darin Tingey: the intake There were three elders from the intake above me. And I, sorry, I forgot to mention, in the MTC, we overlapped one week with the intake above us, just timing.
Simone: Right, yep.
Darin Tingey: So I actually had met them. So they were there to pick me up at the dock.
Simone: OK, cool.
Darin Tingey: And then we took the ferry over. My trainer was not at the dock. He didn't want to come pick me up, I guess. So he...
Simone: Oh. All
Darin Tingey: i think it was P-Day, so they were playing ball or something like that. He didn't want to come waste his P-Day.
Simone: Priorities. How big is Kwajalein?
Darin Tingey: yeah I'm like, dude, it was a ferry boat ride. It wasn't that long, but okay.
Simone: how how big is k quadjala Can you compare it?
Darin Tingey: Oh, gosh.
Simone: like Is it comparable to say like Darawa or is it much smaller?
Darin Tingey: No, it's smaller.
Simone: okay, sure. It's like quite small.
Darin Tingey: imagine... the land area of where Bondriki airport is to, is it to Mike who's that other little village right there?
Simone: Yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Just that area.
Simone: small. Okay, right.
Darin Tingey: It's not big at all.
Simone: Sure.
Darin Tingey: The actual atoll is huge, but that the Kwajalein Island where you land isn't very big.
Simone: so jump to the theory Right, yeah.
Darin Tingey: And he buys even smaller.
Simone: OK, I'm just looking at the map. Oh, yeah, it looks quite thin, like long and thin.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, eBuy is a quarter mile wide by and a mile long, and it's got 13,000 people it or something like that. It's crazy.
Simone: That is crazy.
Darin Tingey: So we rode the ferry over and one of the elders pointed to one of the other islands. was like, that's Ebi. And I looked at it. It was this cool island with trees all over it. like, that looks sick. And he's like, just kidding. And we turned the corner in the ferry and you see this other island with no trees on it at all. And it's just a concrete, concrete, uh, island with shacks all over it and he's like, that's Ebi. Not, you know, at first I'm like, that's not what an island, that's not thought this mission was going to be, but,
Darin Tingey: eBuy turns out to be the best place ever. So I was happy about it.
Simone: Really? yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Super hot.
Simone: So that you said there were no trees, like so there's nothing kind of protecting you naturally?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, on eBuy, there's a few trees, but there's not much there because they've just cut them all down to build little shacks.
Simone: Yeah. That makes sense.
Darin Tingey: Because i everyone, people move to eBuy because they want to go work on Kwajalein.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Oh, okay, right.
Darin Tingey: They go work on the army base. So yeah, it was super sunny.
Darin Tingey: i had to go get sunglasses immediately because I couldn't see anything.
Simone: I think that's actually an important part to bring up for anyone who's going to go serve. And either Kitabas or Marshall sunglasses are so important. I remember getting to Kitabas as well and just not thinking too much of it.
Darin Tingey: Oh yeah.
Simone: And then all of a sudden, like, it's so bright. It's actually quite dangerous, I think, for your eyesight.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it was so bright.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: A president would let us wear hats.
Simone: And sunscreen.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, sunscreen. Yeah, i actually, certain type of sunscreen, the smell reminds me of Lye, the Outer Island, because I wore all the time there.
Simone: Sunscreen.
Simone: is that like a good memory or a bad memory to bring back good and you're back there oh man okay so did when you finally arrived to ebay did your trainer then come and greet you
Darin Tingey: Yeah, no, it's a great memory. if every time I put it on, I just, I close my eyes, and I'm just like, I'm back. I'm back.
Darin Tingey: Uh, no,
Simone: know
Darin Tingey: he was playing basketball. he was from Vanuatu and he didn't really speak any English.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: so there was three sets of elders and one set of sisters. sister Paku was one of the sisters there. and then there was a senior couple, the Ricks.
Simone: then
Darin Tingey: so there was, I guess, uh, eight missionaries plus senior couple on the Island.
Simone: it
Darin Tingey: And again, this is a tiny Island. So there was three, the three sets of elders, each set of elder covered award. There's three wards that had just been made. They, they quadrillion stake had just been made a stake two weeks before I got there.
Simone: Okay, and Quadulin included Quadulin and eBi.
Darin Tingey: So they had a,
Darin Tingey: Yeah, Kwajalein Steak. So Ebi's in the Kwajalein Atoll. So that's why it's called Kwajalein Steak.
Simone: Yes. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So you've got three wards from Ebi.
Simone: Got
Darin Tingey: You've got the ward that was on Kwaj itself. And the way they made that award, because it's not that big, because it's a bunch of expats that are working there, they included all the Outer Island groups in that award.
Simone: Hmm.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: So they attended the bishop of the that the American bishop on Quaj was the bishop over all the Outer Islands besides Lai. And Lai was a ward as well. So five wards total made up the Quajalent stake.
Simone: Oh,
Simone: wow. That's so interesting. Okay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. So each, each elders, uh, covered award and then the sisters covered the whole island. They got to just do everything.
Simone: Right. Yeah. And where were you living?
Darin Tingey: I lived at a triple J, which above triple J, triple J is a store.
Simone: there like a school?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. It's a grocery store. There's grocery store. And then the part that I lived over was a little fast food place, I guess.
Darin Tingey: We lived up there. The nice apartments when you first walk in but then you quickly realize it's not nice at all.
Darin Tingey: built with really cheap material it looks like an american apartment but the walls are super thin the water often ran out and didn't work uh or and when water went out man that place got gross real quick be out for like a couple days
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Oh, gosh. What? How?
Darin Tingey: Ibai, I mean, there's so many people living there and they just run off of rainwater. So if they, if it stops raining, then anyway, there's, there's not a lot of water to go around.
Simone: Oh, gosh.
Darin Tingey: So the, the joke is Ibai chatulu, which means Ibai is people that don't shower because not a lot of water.
Simone: Oh, right, because they can't shower because there's no water.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah.
Simone: So would you go for like, sorry, would you go for like days like not showering?
Darin Tingey: There was a time that, yeah, couple days.
Simone: Right, right, right, right.
Darin Tingey: Well, and you had to think about, like, toilets, too, not flushing.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah. That's really...
Darin Tingey: You don't want to think about that, but four elders to an apartment there, and that was not fun. Yeah.
Simone: So then... What would you do Like if the toilet's not flushing, like where would you just go and bucket and like bury it or?
Darin Tingey: No, like I remember one, he just he either held it or he was just on top. It was so gross. You don't want to, you don't want to envision that.
Simone: don't, I'm going to
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: But I'm doing it for the people.
Darin Tingey: We have event. Yeah.
Simone: asking people.
Darin Tingey: It's yeah.
Simone: and That's disgusting.
Darin Tingey: That toilet was, had to be cleaned out after couple of days. It was gross.
Simone: oh man that is gross you poor thing
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I lived at Triple J for for one transfer or two. And then the last transfer, I was on eBay for three transfers.
Darin Tingey: We moved down south and I lived behind another little store called DIY.
Darin Tingey: Oh, eBay is awesome.
Darin Tingey: is kind of, it's different than Outer Island culture. Even though majority of these people have, cut they came from Outer Island to live on E-Buy.
Darin Tingey: lot of kids there going to high school because didn't have Outer Island, they didn't have high schools on some of the Outer Islands. So they'd go to E-Buy. So culturally, people were super happy even though they were
Darin Tingey: materially poor.
Darin Tingey: Or they'd live in a shack and you walk in, they'd be a huge flat screen TV with an Xbox. Like that didn't make any sense, but they sometimes add that.
Simone: the juxtaposition yeah
Darin Tingey: It was so random. Everyone's always outside hanging out. kid Tons of kids, so many kids. You walk down the street and they're just screaming at you, which means white boy, white boy, you know, just screaming at you.
Simone: Hmm.
Darin Tingey: i i loved it though it was so great the people were awesome my one of my favorite things was in marshlands they say in the morning they just say morning morning you know they just morning morning morning they just adopted that from english i loved doing that and then in the evening it was the same thing was like night good night night night and for some reason i just loved doing that every day And I would walk home. I didn't know language very much, so I'd just be singing in American songs.
Darin Tingey: And the song, the Charlie Puth's One Call Away song was really big at the time, and all the kids kind of knew it.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: So I remember walking home one night, and it the moonlit street, and all these kids hanging off my arms, and we were just singing One Call Away as we're walking home. And it was just so fun.
Darin Tingey: So many kids. You played with so many kids all day. They taught you the language.
Simone: yeah how How was it, like, I guess, arriving at e-bye not knowing or knowing very, very little Marshallese and having to, I guess, learn that?
Darin Tingey: I mean, it was hard. It was difficult, especially with my companion not speaking English. So trying to learn. Paku made me say the prayer my very first night there. Thanks, Paku.
Darin Tingey: But It was good. is i I was happy to be on EBI because I felt I learned the language faster than I would have on Majuro.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Sure.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But, you know, my companion not speaking English, we eventually had emergency transfer, three weeks in.
Simone: Tell me.
Simone: Give me the tea, Tingy.
Darin Tingey: He... i kind of was, shocked. and i And part of me thinks it was him and this other elder's, like, plan to get off the island because they'd been there for a while and they were kind of ready to get off.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: But... He had told, my companion had told one of the families that we would be there for family home evening. It was one family, that the, the Bellew family, which is great to missionaries. And they we saw them earlier in the day. coming to FHE? We're like, yeah, we'll be there tonight.
Darin Tingey: Cool. And then E-Bi was so just a small island that elders, missionaries would go to different family movie meetings, even if it wasn't in our area or ward, because the areas are so small, you kind of just like go around the whole island.
Darin Tingey: Anyway, so there was another FHE happening that we had walked over to and not in our area. And all the other missionaries were there. And I was like, oh, are we not going to ours in our ward?
Darin Tingey: Like we just told them we're going to be there.
Simone: Yeah. What?
Darin Tingey: And he's pissed and my companion storms off and walks as fast as he can to that other house. Doesn't say a word to me. We have FHU with that family.
Darin Tingey: Doesn't say a word to me all night.
Darin Tingey: And that was like one thing. And then can't remember if it was that night or another night. something happened. And I think he just misunderstood what I had said. Cause I didn't, I don't, i didn't say anything mean or off putting or anything like that, but I'm walking out of our little room and there's couple of us in there.
Simone: Oh, gosh.
Darin Tingey: And, and he just, I just hear this loud, loud bang. And I turn around and he had punched his, head he had punched a hole in the wall. He just like so angry, just boom, right in the wall.
Darin Tingey: And I guess he was pissed off at me for something. And i don' I honestly don't know what it was. It was probably just a cumulative tingy actions. But then the the district leader who he was just like, oh, yeah, yeah like his other Mahonga.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: Mahonga was like, yeah, like I'll just be comps with him. And anyway, he kind of orchestrated an emergency transfer and then for them both to get pulled off island. And It was kind of crazy, but I was super happy about it because then I got my next companion who ended up being my, one my favorite companions. And he just got pulled off of an outer Island for being accused of doing something stupid. And so he was, he was kind of in a bad spot in his mission and I was in a bad spot only being there for a few weeks. And then we just bonded over it.
Darin Tingey: And, he taught me to be a little more laid back and whatnot.
Darin Tingey: So elder ski, elder Kalinowski.
Simone: like that's a That's a full on three weeks that you're on eBuy.
Darin Tingey: Crazy.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, Ibai was great. I mean, was my favorite place. We taught English at the Catholic school. We i had...
Simone: Wait, you're allowed to teach at the Catholic school?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, we taught English there. One of the members was... I think Larkin actually set that up because he was former Catholic.
Simone: That makes sense.
Darin Tingey: So he went and was like, Hey, can my missionaries, you know, teach there.
Simone: that might
Darin Tingey: But we had, you know, taught in the Catholic school. We had success. we had a few baptisms with some youth that were awesome.
Darin Tingey: some other cool things that happened on e-buy. I was there for Christmas. So we did, we did a beat, which is the Marshallese dancing, which was so fun. That was highlight for sure. and then the other cool thing, which I think is the coolest thing that I was even there for it. The, one of the chiefs had died while I was there, which is a big deal. So
Darin Tingey: We didn't do work for like a week plus because there was a huge funeral and everyone, people flew in from the States and from all over the Marshall Islands to this huge funeral.
Simone: Wow. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: They invited over the army generals from Quadge and there was a big funeral for it. And then after that, there was a coronation of the new chief that they called a Cairo choice.
Darin Tingey: And that was another big, so like week long celebration. I got to see another chief become a big-time chief.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: and that's one of the coolest cultural things that I ever got to see. and i was super happy. I was on eBuy for it. so
Simone: That is very cool. To be able to witness that as part of your mission experience, that's incredible. Culturally, that's amazing.
Darin Tingey: I had a lot of good cultural stuff on mission, especially in Kitabas too, but we'll get to that.
Simone: Yeah, yeah. We'll get there. We'll get there.
Simone: Okay, yeah.
Darin Tingey: But I was ready to leave after after that.
Simone: Okay, yeah. So what was next after ebay
Darin Tingey: So then I went to, i got transferred to Maduro.
Simone: okay that's right island yeah you're sad sad or excited
Darin Tingey: i was a little sad I was going to Maduro. So main island, like, Sad. i mean, I just, for some reason, Maduro in my head was lame.
Darin Tingey: Cause like that was the main Island, you know?
Simone: you're
Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah That's what it felt like.
Simone: like i'm too special i'm too special to maduro
Darin Tingey: Seriously, I was, oh man, I'm so arrogant and cocky for that. But yeah, I was like, all right, cool. I'll go to Maduro for, you know, hopefully just a little bit and like get to meet some other missionaries. Cause I hadn't met anybody just the E-Buy crew, which was a lot of fun. The E-Buy crew was awesome.
Simone: a
Darin Tingey: Tight knit. So I got transferred to Maduro to Ajitagi, which is in the countryside. It's the super skinny part.
Simone: I'm just looking at it now.
Darin Tingey: So if you're looking on a map, there's the airport and then go west.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, west. West of it.
Simone: Lagoon Road? No, I mean the whole thing is Lagoon Road.
Darin Tingey: There's only one road.
Simone: but
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Oh wait, found the airport, found the airport. Go which way? Left or right?
Darin Tingey: Left.
Simone: Left.
Darin Tingey: It's the super skinny. Just the just like, yeah.
Simone: Oh, I think... Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Let's
Darin Tingey: So that was my area. Like that, Ajitake is crazy. There's some spots where it's just wide enough for the road. And most of it you could throw a rock, you know, from one side to the ocean to to the next.
Simone: hear the other...
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Isn't that super special, though? like no I don't know too many other people who would have that experience to share that. On one side is the ocean, on the other side is the lagoon.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it was really cool.
Simone: like had that when I was in Paereke. Yeah, that's so cool.
Darin Tingey: So I lived there in a little chapel house next to the chapel, and I'd wake up every morning and just go put my feet on the lagoon and watch the sunrise.
Simone: Oh, yeah.
Darin Tingey: It was great. Trust
Simone: Just your feet?
Darin Tingey: my feet, Sister Lee.
Darin Tingey: No, when I was on Main Island, I never got the water. Outer islands, I got in the water. I'll be the first one to admit that.
Simone: Did you go? Dang, I feel like I'm... I wish I could go back and go in the water because I didn't go in the water. i was like so good in tissues.
Darin Tingey: Oh, you're too good. yeah
Simone: I know.
Darin Tingey: oh
Simone: Dang it.
Darin Tingey: It was, yeah, no.
Darin Tingey: i Some people judge me for that, but I don't know. On Outer Island, I feel like I had a good excuse, but that's just me making it.
Simone: what's it but What's the saying?
Darin Tingey: The excuse, I mean, like you're getting it in and out of boats.
Simone: Your choice. to this
Darin Tingey: You're helping people fish, you know,
Simone: Sometimes you fall.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. There's also nothing to do on P-Day on an outer island besides explore and maybe get in the water.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I didn't swim a ton. It was more of wait in the water and enjoy it.
Simone: Yeah. Just like sitting there.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it was great.
Simone: chilling. Yeah, I bet.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Simone: Was the water clean? Like, was it really clean water?
Darin Tingey: on the outer islands it was.
Simone: Yeah, I bet.
Darin Tingey: Ibai and Maduro, a lot of trash in the water.
Simone: Picturous. Yeah, similar to Kerevis.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. When I feel also on in Tarawa, I feel like everyone just going to the bathroom in the ocean too, right there.
Simone: Ugh.
Simone: Oh.
Darin Tingey: yeah.
Simone: That's what I was going to ask because my experience is that like everyone goes, they do, they go to the bathroom on the beaches and any kind wind load when it's low tide, that's when they go do their business, tide comes in takes it out takes it out, quotation marks, but I don't think it does.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Darin Tingey: Yep. Right.
Simone: Okay.
Darin Tingey: Maduro and Ebi, no. I'd say people use a a toilet.
Simone: Oh, wow.
Darin Tingey: But yeah, but the Outer Islands, they definitely go to the bathroom on the beach.
Simone: Very fast. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Right, okay, sure. That makes sense.
Darin Tingey: So yeah, I was only on matt and was just talking for a transfer. i was with one of my, my companion was, one of the elders that I was in the MTC with.
Simone: Okay.
Darin Tingey: So was kind of fun.
Simone: Oh, fun.
Darin Tingey: You know, after only three transfers, you know, we were paired together, Elder Hanson.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Uh, and I was also, he went to Kitabist with me.
Simone: Henson? Did he? Yes, I loved him.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: He was cool.
Darin Tingey: yeah Yeah.
Simone: Okay, okay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: I'm piecing it all together now, yeah.
Darin Tingey: He's great. yeah Yeah, so we ended up being companions in Ajitaki. And I remember my first day with him, i wake up and he's making muffins.
Darin Tingey: And I was like, wow, this is great. you know
Simone: Oh, yeah.
Darin Tingey: And the other companionship in Ajitaki was Elder Peterson and another elder. And there was a time during that transfer that we spent the night over at the other house with Peterson.
Darin Tingey: And like, he's making us cinnamon rolls and stuff. So I've got these two chefs in bakers and I'm like, this is great.
Simone: Okay. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: he, but it was a lot of fun. i was just talking you we didn't have much success as far as teaching wise.
Simone: but okay
Darin Tingey: There was just, it was weird going from E-Buy to countryside of Maduro because E-Buy is like, there's a million people. You could have 10 plus lessons a day, no problem. And then you talk, he's like, the houses are very spread apart. not a lot of people.
Darin Tingey: And so our work was mainly trying to, either reactivate or just honestly talk to people, just talk, talk to people, ride our bikes.
Simone: Fine. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It was so long. We had these cruises, beach cruisers as bikes. I got hit by a Chinese lady in her car one time. That was crazy. Yeah.
Simone: Wait, wait, wait, so many questions.
Darin Tingey: I didn't get nailed, but I'm riding down the street, you know, on a cruiser, the handlebars, a little, she totally clipped me with her light.
Simone: like clip you yeah
Darin Tingey: And I was so mad. Totally nailed And I flagged her down. And then she's like, oh, no English. And I was like, BS. I know you speak English.
Darin Tingey: There's no way.
Simone: i feel like i could say this because i am chinese but she's living up to some stereotypes it's not fair i can't
Simone: when you said she was chinese was like oh it's my people it's always my people anyway well yeah my mom is maori or new zealand maori no she's maori like native new zealander and then my father is chinese white i'm like a quarter chinese yeah yeah mehow
Darin Tingey: I didn't know you're Chinese. You're part Chinese.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: No way. Okay. I did not know that. That's so funny. nick
Simone: tell me what the main like religion is on the island.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. In the Marsh Islands, it's mostly Protestants. So, it's funny because in Kitabas, there's a ton of Catholics, but the Marsh Islands, there's not that many Catholics.
Simone: Oh, okay. Yeah.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's mostly Protestant or Assembly of God.
Simone: Oh, okay.
Darin Tingey: But Protestant dominates. Protestant dominates in the in the Marsh Islands.
Simone: Right, yeah. and And when you're in like, at Ajil Taki, do you feel that it was difficult to find people to to to teach because they were already like affiliated with the church?
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yes, and the difficulty with Ajitaki is getting people to church because it's so spread out. So most of them would just go to the church that was closest to their house.
Simone: Got you, okay.
Simone: Yeah, convenience.
Darin Tingey: there was a van that would go pick people up for our church, but... Other churches had that too. It was really whatever church you live closest to, that's what you're going to most of the time.
Darin Tingey: Peterson had great success, you know, just because God was with Peterson at every step of the way. Yeah.
Simone: God was very with Peterson, absolutely.
Darin Tingey: He didn't get in the water. Good man. Yeah.
Simone: That might be why.
Darin Tingey: yeah
Simone: That might be why, Aratiki.
Darin Tingey: But yeah, no, it was... I just talking was talking, it was good. But that's...
Darin Tingey: I was there for a transfer, maybe a little more. i guess one quick story from Ajatagi before talking about Kitabas is Elder Hansen and I would...
Simone: Yes.
Darin Tingey: You know, we were riding our beach cruises everywhere. And sometimes we'd go explore these abandoned mansions because there's random mansions in Ajatagi.
Simone: Just as you do, as you do.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And they were abandoned. And anyway, but there was this one dog that we'd pass by every day that would chase after just like a mean dog.
Darin Tingey: It chases every time.
Simone: gosh.
Darin Tingey: And sometimes I'd remember that the dog was coming up and I'd ride faster than Hanson and then whistle at the dog so that like, here you come get in. But yeah,
Darin Tingey: sir
Simone: You know, you have to make your own fun.
Darin Tingey: but Yeah, exactly. You got to have fun on the mission. But we finally got sick of it. So I was like, all right, I'm gonna pick up some rocks and you're going to go ahead of me and whistle at it and so that's exactly what we did. He went out.
Darin Tingey: He went ahead of me. He whistled. That dog came running out. And I threw one rock and nailed it. And it cried and whimpered and ran off. And it never chased us again.
Darin Tingey: No joke. It never chased us again.
Simone: oh
Darin Tingey: It was actually wild.
Simone: That's your miracle Ajantaki story. No baptisms, but you got the dog.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Exactly. That's good.
Simone: That's hilarious.
Darin Tingey: But... Yeah. I just thought he's where I found i was going to kid of us.
Simone: Talk to me about that. I'm going to perk up now.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Not that I wasn't perky before, but when I hear my my homeland, my motherland, I get this one.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. You're a little biased towards kid of this, but it's okay.
Simone: What? Slightly, somewhat.
Darin Tingey: So we all go down in his van, the four of us that just, yeah, just the four of us from, from the West zone.
Simone: How many of you? Four, okay.
Darin Tingey: So Peterson, his companion, and then me and Hanson. And i just thought it was a normal catch-up because the president would come in and interview us and scold us for a few days and then go back to get of us.
Simone: You've moved on from that, right? because You've resolved your issues.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. If you remember, if you guys have listened to the episode of the present Larkin, we've talked about this, but it's okay. I mean, it did feel like that. It did feel like that where he would, he'd be in Kitabas for weeks and then he'd come to the marsh islands like two days and just tell us why y'all need to be like the Kitabas missionaries.
Darin Tingey: And then he'd go back to Kitabas.
Simone: yeah yeah
Darin Tingey: And I was like, dude, it's not, not the same.
Simone: yeah i guess in all seriousness like it's funny to listen to but i think if i tried to put myself in your shoes that would be hard you know already feeling like you don't have a relationship with your mission president and for him to come in and just kind of like it would suck
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. Why aren't you guys like these missionaries? Why aren't you?
Simone: Why don't you guys like Cecily from Get Best of the Home?
Darin Tingey: and yeah Sister she is amazing. Yeah. That's what it felt like though.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So we were the little brother of the mission. That's okay. Okay. Uh, but president, yeah, he calls us in and one at a time and he goes in there and tells me he's like, Hey, I'm losing 20 missionaries in Kitabas this summer and I'm going to send six of you over there.
Darin Tingey: and I want you to be one of them. i was like, wow. He's like, how did that does that sound? i was like, sounds great. You know, I get to go to Kitabas. This is cool. it's a new adventure.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I, I had kind of dreamed of doing that, but and didn't think it actually happened.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: And I was like, will I come back? And he's like, i don't know. you might just be in kid of us. But I was like, well, i want to come back. he's yeah i don't know uh he's like don't tell anybody don't tell anybody i talked to you about this we're gonna work on the visas and then get you over as soon as possible i don't know when that will be like cool come out of the interview we all hop in the car after everyone does an interview and then we start driving home and it's like
Simone: and No one's talking?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, no one's saying anything. We're like, so what President talked to you about? And Peterson and Hanson were like...
Darin Tingey: talk to me about Kitabas. And they didn't say I'm going to Kitabas, just talk about Kitabas.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And like, yeah, me too.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: you know And then it was like, all a sudden, are you going to Kitabas? yeah, I'm going to Kitabas.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: You go to Kitabas? No way. So three out of the four of us were going to Kitabas. And the other elder's like, what the heck? Why was this a normal catch up?
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So it was fun. And we found out there's, you know, six of us and it was fun that three of us were in Agitagi altogether. so
Simone: Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: we we got our Kitabas Book of Mormons and started studying Kitabas right away, which is kind of a weird, weird thing.
Simone: When was that? Like what timeline wise, when, what month and year was this?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. So this was around April 29, sorry, 2017.
Simone: Okay.
Darin Tingey: i sorry twenty seventeen Yeah.
Simone: And we, so you must have?
Darin Tingey: So I was about six months into my, yeah, six months being in the field, not including MTC time.
Simone: Yeah. i was going to say four transfers.
Simone: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: so I felt it was a little early cause I felt comfortable with Marshallese, but not like, wow, I'm amazing at Marshallese.
Simone: Yeah. here
Darin Tingey: so was a little sad about that. I'm like, I don't want to lose my martialese, but I also need to learn Kiribati.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: And so, know there's another Kiribati sister, and there was a Kiribati sister on the Marshall Island side, so we talked to her, and she tried to help us learn phrases. and
Simone: what was her name?
Darin Tingey: Oh, gosh.
Darin Tingey: Tatonga. think...
Simone: Oh, probably need...
Darin Tingey: i think
Simone: Oh, Eni, Eni, Eni Tātoma from Nani Kai?
Darin Tingey: Maybe. I think she was... I thought she was from Christmas Island, but I can't remember.
Simone: Oh, from Tātoma. Oh, okay, okay. Sorry, so sorry, we digress.
Darin Tingey: No, yeah, you're good. She was great. She was awesome. And then, you know, all the missionaries found out we were going to Kitabas,
Simone: was Was there jealousy?
Darin Tingey: Oh, yeah, for sure.
Simone: okay. Right, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, for sure jealousy. And there was one elder who was, supposed to be one of the six.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: And... And then president changes mind last minute.
Simone: Oof.
Darin Tingey: And the APs were dumb enough to tell that elder, like, Hey, you were actually one of the six and then president changed it.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And it honestly messed with his mind after that.
Darin Tingey: So yeah, we ended up going to Kiribati couple weeks later. And we said goodbye to everybody.
Simone: All right. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: We said, probably never going to see you guys.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: say goodbye to Paku. You know, see it you know i love we keep talking about Paku. Paku is one of sister Simone's best friends.
Darin Tingey: This is why we keep referencing her for those listening.
Simone: And I was in the MTC with her. She was my MTC companion, which is why.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And Paco and I actually surprisingly served a lot of our missions together because I was with her in E-Buy and then I was with her in Ajitaki.
Simone: Oh, crazy.
Darin Tingey: she She was in Long Island, but we're in the same district.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then again was with her in Long Island.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: So kind of crazy.
Simone: That is crazy.
Simone: Okay, so you you did you all travel over together? Obviously.
Darin Tingey: Yes, we did.
Simone: Yeah. Did you travel as president or did you travel by yourselves?
Darin Tingey: We did.
Darin Tingey: President did not come with us, i don't think. He sent...
Simone: Another cross for a million list.
Darin Tingey: Gosh, I can't remember. i can't remember. i remember him sending us from the Marshall Islands.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: him being there when we left the Marshall Islands, but I don't think he came with us, actually.
Simone: Okay. Right.
Simone: Oh, okay, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Surprisingly. So he sent us... And that, you know, it was a rainy day in the and everyone came to the airport to say goodbye to us. And I remember taking off, leaving Maduro and just seeing the skinny, tiny Maduro.
Simone: Hmm. Hmm.
Darin Tingey: And it was just wider and the lagoon was really shallow and it was really dry.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: and it was sunny when we got there. it was like rainy in the Marjohns when we left and it was like really sunny. That's what i remember.
Simone: I'm just looking at the map there. That's so interesting. Like when you say it was it was different, like did you, obviously it's a totally different country, it's a totally different culture and people, but I guess what were some of, other than what you've shared, what were some other things, I guess, or first impressions when you've like landed?
Simone: Even, i guess, even your interactions with missionaries.
Darin Tingey: and
Darin Tingey: yeah the so we landed on a sunday we flew on sunday and the missionaries took us straight to moroni high school to go to church so some of my first impressions were like whoa there's like
Simone: Okay, yep.
Simone: I, yeah.
Darin Tingey: One, everyone drives on the wrong side of the road here. So
Simone: The right one.
Darin Tingey: is that threw me off. I remember being in with Hoskins and Powell and they were driving.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Oh, that's good. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: they were the zone leaders. I was in their van and I got a fat headache just driving from the airport to Marona High School because all the speed bumps and it was so hot.
Simone: Oh, gosh.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And
Simone: Was it hotter than Marshall's? Or same?
Darin Tingey: it was hotter because it was less rain.
Simone: Got you. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: see. Yeah, so him driving on the wrong side road threw me off, left side of the road. Hoskins kept turning around, and he was, in what I thought was the driver's seat, and Powell was actually driving.
Darin Tingey: was like, bro, watch the road, you know? But he wasn't. I remember there was, a ton of motorcycles that they don't have as many, they don't have that many motorcycles in the Marsh Islands, which is really unique, because Kiribus, they're everywhere.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Tereberebe. And I remember there's a lot more people on way more people, a lot more people. And they were living in, a lot of them, there were stick cuts, a lot of stick cuts.
Darin Tingey: That was really unique.
Simone: Were the stick hats and Kiruba similar to what you'd see in the marshals?
Darin Tingey: No, the Marshalls, their homes were definitely a lot, quote-unquote, nicer. Yeah, I put quotation marks because, like, i don't know if I actually, sometimes I think the stick huts were nicer because airflow and whatnot.
Darin Tingey: It's like... But there was more... In the Marshall there's more, cement or cinder block houses, and there's more corrugated metal houses, shacks.
Simone: Got
Simone: yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So...
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I don't know. It kind kind of depends on how you look at it, of what's nicer. But I'd say if, from a foreigner looking at both of those, you would say the homes in the Marsh Islands were nicer than they were in Kitabos.
Simone: Okay. Yep. Right.
Darin Tingey: And there would, that could be, surprisingly, be, some nice homes in the Marsh Islands. And I think it either, one some of the chief's homes or, their family lived in America and sent them money. Yeah.
Simone: Right. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But yeah, there's just way more people, way more missionaries. The missionaries, i I thought the missionaries spoke more fluently in Kiribati.
Simone: Oh, yes.
Darin Tingey: Even though I i didn't know Kiribati at the time, they just seemed more comfortable talking to the locals than in the Marshall Islands. And my retrospective view that to view is that One, I mean, Kiribati is an easier language than the Marsh Islands.
Darin Tingey: But two two, missionaries served on outer islands more in Kiribati.
Simone: Okay, debatable, but...
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And so their language was a lot better than it was in the Marsh Islands at the time. So anyway, those were kind of my first impressions.
Simone: Right, yeah. Yeah, and so you go to Aether to Moroni for Chert.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah, that was cool. You know, like singing it.
Simone: Such a strong ward as well.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, there were so many people there. and that they had like The Islands Awards weren't that weren't that strong, and it was just
Simone: Yeah. hate
Simone: and
Darin Tingey: Yeah, tons of missionaries, tons of people. It was cool to see the high school. That was a cool thing. there was before my When I got my mission call, there was this senior couple that had served in Kitabas at Marona High School that my mom wanted me to meet with.
Darin Tingey: And I was like, Mom, I'm never going to Kitabas. I am going to the Marshall Islands.
Simone: Yes.
Darin Tingey: And the only reason I knew that is actually because I met Elder Dale the night of graduation. He went to different high school of mine, or a different high school of me.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: and i met him that night. that's the got my mission call and so he told me all about it like oh like what's him mission call but you're going to this country I'm to this country we're never going to see each other that's how I knew it and so i was like mom I'm never going to go there I don't need to meet these people and now my mom's like I told you you should have met with them
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: but it was cool Morona high school was cool I I was jealous that we didn't have that in the marsh islands
Simone: yeah and then what happened after that after did who because did you were were you on the island for long
Darin Tingey: No, so flew in on Sunday and I flew to Myana on Tuesday. So they told us, they told us so the APs,
Simone: oh
Darin Tingey: on Sunday after church told us where we were going and we were basically all going to outer islands.
Simone: Right, yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I stayed in Boota with the zone leaders, with Hoskins and Powell and Christensen.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I remember sleeping there in that puerta house and it was just like, there was actually a bunch of us elders there. And we were just sleeping on the ground, you know, on the on the leaf mat.
Darin Tingey: And I slept on the ground a little bit in Ebi, but not anything like this.
Simone: Right. Like what we're talking are we talking like cement floors sleeping on the ground?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Simone: Yes.
Darin Tingey: So anyway, it's kind of fun. And then we had P-Day on Monday, P-Day was fun because I got to see more of Tarawa and meet more missionaries. And we did P-Day at Moroni High School.
Darin Tingey: And we played basketball, which was super fun.
Simone: le
Darin Tingey: But one thing I remember is there was a girl from EBI that was going to Morona High School. So I had met her. i had met her on EBI. And then I got to see her again Kitabas at Morona High School.
Darin Tingey: So it was like I i knew someone in Kitabas and she was Marshallese.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So I got to go speak Marshallese with her that P-Day at Morona High School, which was really cool.
Simone: Almost like a piece of home, eh?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. And she was there when I came off of, when I came off of my Anna too, and I got to see you her again.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And it was funny because by that point we could both speak Kitabas. And And now we could communicate in Kitabas as a well, which was really funny, but.
Simone: Yeah. I know we're jumping, but when you were talking to talking to were you both like flicking between the two?
Darin Tingey: Oh yeah, just whatever word you know whatever word was easier in whatever language, that's what we did.
Simone: you
Darin Tingey: So fun.
Simone: That's so cool. Yeah. And sorry, did you you said you did you fly out to Myena? Oh, I'm just going to stay.
Darin Tingey: I did, yeah, I flew.
Simone: Yep.
Darin Tingey: Quickest flight ever. So mine is just south of Tarawa, like 10 minutes.
Simone: How long is that flight?
Simone: but
Darin Tingey: You go up and then you go down, you know?
Simone: Easy. Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: i But yeah, it was like, my companion is already out there, other Tui, Tui Kulavatu. remember landing. I was super pumped because it's my first outer island. I was like, man, what are the odds that my first outer islands in Kiribati?
Darin Tingey: So I land and I remember the elder coming and getting on the plane was like, whoa, your shirt's so white.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Like, can I touch it? Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, like that's the only thing he said to me. And then he got out he got on the plane and and I met Elder Tui. And Tui was awesome. i remember like another culture shock again from being on Outer Island in Kiribati. It like, okay, now like theirs everyone's in a stick hut.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: And i remember sitting, we were in the our landlord's truck, kind of like a cargo truck driving back to the village that we stayed in. And there was a lady rubbing coconut husk on her leg, making the rope, you know?
Simone: Right, yeah.
Darin Tingey: forget what the rope's called in Kitabas. And I was just like, whoa, people here make the rope, you know, from the coconut husks, you know?
Simone: They're like hearty here.
Darin Tingey: Like this is Outer Island, you know? Like this is Outer Island.
Simone: Yeah. Ibuki.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, this is Ibuk. And we got to our house and i we lived in a stick hut, you know, just right on the water, which was so cool.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I thought that was the coolest thing ever. And Tui was the man. Tui's super fun guy. we got along at the beginning and then not so much later on.
Simone: Really? I didn't know that.
Darin Tingey: hey Yeah. And it's because of me, because I was just the worst.
Simone: you know, I think I think I think I have a kindred spirit in me because I think I also was the worst.
Darin Tingey: That's a common theme.
Simone: you're preaching to the converted.
Darin Tingey: Yes. Yeah. I just, I don't know what it was. i think i it was just my pride a little bit because I'm here.
Simone: Right, yeah.
Darin Tingey: I am into my mission for eight months or whatever it was. And i was just kind of being trained again, which is a weird thing.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And he, you know, he wanted me me to be his son. And he was like my, you know, and I was like, yeah, like I get you on that.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: i already know how to be a missionary.
Simone: Right. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: i just need you to teach me how to do it in Kiribati.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Which was a difficult thing for both of us.
Simone: Sure, yeah.
Darin Tingey: I just hated feeling like a brand new missionary and, but that's, I don't know.
Darin Tingey: So that was definitely some of the things that were hard for us. I've since apologized to him for being the worst missionary to him, but we had some fun times. No, we had a lot of fun.
Darin Tingey: We had a lot of fun.
Simone: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: and he, everyone loved him there. Like he, he was great. We did church in four different villages. So we lived in kind of the, met the center of Mayanna.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And Mayanna is pretty long.
Simone: Yeah, I'm just looking at it now. what Do you know what part you lived in? Te Ora?
Darin Tingey: So you see where it kind of curves?
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: You know, it kind of curves. were like on the inside of that curve on the lagoon side.
Simone: No one?
Darin Tingey: So our our main village was called dora t o o r a Tora, Tora.
Simone: Oh yeah, I can see it there.
Darin Tingey: So we'd wake up, ride our bikes an hour and a half down to Bubute, which is the biggest village. down south of, yeah, it was so long.
Simone: An hour and half just to get down, that's crazy.
Darin Tingey: That was our Sunday.
Simone: it's good
Darin Tingey: was like, do we do church there? And then we'd ride back and do Tabangsua, which was the council village, the government village.
Simone: I can see
Darin Tingey: We did church there. And then we passed our home village of Dora to go north. blanking on the name of it. Tabanga, maybe?
Simone: it. y bong ay yeah
Darin Tingey: And we did church at Tabanga, and then we finished in Tora. And then there was one other family who, older couple that were sick. And we'd finish every Sunday at their house doing church for them, and then they'd feed us dinner.
Simone: so Oh yeah, I was gonna just ask like what time was this like around dinner time by the time you're done?
Darin Tingey: oh
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: E-Buy, we got fed too much. you'd walk down the street and eat at 10 houses. They just wanted to give you their food.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And, uh, as you talk, I, like, never ate with anybody.
Simone: Wow.
Darin Tingey: And then, and then my...
Simone: It's really adding to the isolation vibe of Agile's hot DA. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. And then my Anna, we ate a decent amount with people. Uh, Uh, our, our, we lived with a family that were members kind of, some of them inactive, some of them active.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Uh, they would feed us a lot. He was a really good fisherman. So we'd have, we, he'd often have us over for dinner.
Simone: What was the difference in, I guess, coming from Marshalls to Kiribati and being on Kiribati Outer Island, the difference in, I guess, food? Was there a big difference for you?
Darin Tingey: Well, in the Marsh Islands, we have more cargo, or American cargo, and then Kitabas is Australian or Fijian or other Asian ones, but different Asian ones than the Asian ones in the Marsh Islands for some reason.
Simone: Right.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I don't know why. and then it's hard to compare because i was really just on the Outer Island in Kitabas.
Simone: Okay, yeah.
Darin Tingey: But food-wise, I had more, on the island you have a lot of fish, lot tons of fish, rice.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I'd say though, in general, I had, for food, they do more options in Kiribati than they would in the Marshalls.
Simone: Right. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Marshalls, they just kind of hand you a plate with food already on it, a stack of rice and some meat.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: In Kiribati, you had different bowls and you could pick whatever food you wanted.
Simone: like yeah almost like buffet style.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: So we did a ton of parties in Mayana, like so many parties. They love their parties on Mayana. And we lived right next to the village Meneve. So if there was ever a party in our village, man, we were there. And I remember like two two or three weeks being in Kiribati. And, you know, I didn't have any language training before that.
Darin Tingey: Other two, he made me stand up and give a speech.
Simone: Oh my gosh.
Darin Tingey: In Kitabas, man. I mean, it's so basic, but I was so scared.
Simone: i
Darin Tingey: I was like, dude, I've only been here for three weeks. I've only studied the language for three weeks.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Come on. But it was just baptism by fire.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I think it was actually a better way to learn the language was just to be in it. I didn't talk for like a month, it felt like. Just listened.
Simone: Right.
Darin Tingey: And he was, Tui was with me for two months. And then I got another elder with me for the next two months. And... It was good for my language because I got another elder that was in the MTC with me, actually, on the Kitabas, but he was Kitabas side, Elder Otto.
Simone: Oh, okay. Who was that? Oh, yep, yep.
Darin Tingey: And first thing he said to me when he got to end, I was like, I hate Outer Islands. was like, sick, dude.
Simone: Great.
Darin Tingey: Like, yeah welcome.
Simone: Great.
Darin Tingey: Welcome.
Simone: That's just what I needed to hear. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Welcome to the Outer Island. See, nobody hates it, but he was really shy. So he never spoke the language, which was really good for me because then I had to speak, I had to lead.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: i did, I led church, you know, and I'd only been there for two months and just like gifted tongues is real. Like I wasn't amazing at all, but I was very confident for only being there for two months.
Simone: yeah i mean essentially you got what you wanted right like you wanted to i guess be more independent as a missionary like versus when you were with aldotui and possibly feeling i guess some frustration at being babied a little bit almost do you feel yeah yeah do you feel that
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Yeah. That's true. i didn't think about that.
Simone: that in having, i guess, being put without an auto and then being the one to take lead, to have to talk and step up essentially, do you feel like that helped your language increase
Darin Tingey: Oh, yeah.
Simone: exponentially?
Darin Tingey: Ton.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Ton. just being on Outer Island and like, that's already one big level. And then to have to lead and, show him the island and to talk to everybody.
Simone: Hmm.
Darin Tingey: I was the one doing everything. he was still like, she was he was a super shy guy, so he didn't want to speak.
Simone: yeah yeah
Darin Tingey: And so I spoke, I did majority of everything and it just helped my language a ton, which I was super, super grateful for. Like it was hard at the time, but like it just, I learned Kitabas way faster than I learned Marshallese.
Simone: i was gonna ask that yeah yeah
Darin Tingey: in part yeah Part of that's like already having learned one language. I feel like the next one's easier. But it just it just clicked a lot faster. Now, I've lost my Kitabus a lot faster than I have my Marshallese, but that's because I didn't stay Kitabus as long.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: But yeah, language is...
Darin Tingey: Language came fast. I'd say like going to all those those parties that they threw and like just, yeah, giving my midoro, like having to just like just be in the culture and just learn it.
Simone: giving your middle hmm
Darin Tingey: It just was huge. And I got to see a lot of cool cultural things on Kiribati. I mentioned this earlier. Like, I hit it perfect.
Darin Tingey: I hit Kittabus perfect timing. Okay?
Simone: Yeah. Yeah. Oh,
Simone: my gosh. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: it was the anniversary of the village. And so there was a huge week long party and that was super fun. Got to be part of that.
Darin Tingey: the North side of the village versus the South side and they're doing dancing and singing and games.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Oh, cool.
Darin Tingey: And you know, all the old ladies wanted to dance with the elders.
Darin Tingey: they wanted to grab you and shake you and kiss you whatever, which is so fun.
Simone: man. Did you get up and dance? Did that ever like, oh, man, I hated.
Darin Tingey: oh yeah. Oh yeah. Got up and danced a ton.
Simone: That's
Darin Tingey: It was so fun. That's my favorite thing.
Simone: where you come out to shine.
Darin Tingey: yeah Exactly. Exactly. And anyway, so I hit that. That was a super fun party. I was there for the Tsurai, the Kiribati Independence Day.
Darin Tingey: Again, another huge celebration.
Simone: Yes.
Darin Tingey: And then there was another big celebration for Mayanna. And I can't remember if it was another big anniversary for the island.
Darin Tingey: But there was a huge party and the president of Kitabas came, Dona Sanamau, and his wife came. And so like I was there with this huge party and I got to shake the president's hand.
Simone: That's crazy. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And know you guys all did that at the other party, but like...
Simone: Did you get photo? I can't
Darin Tingey: i But I got to do it. And I was like, man, I literally hit Kiribati perfectly. i got to do my own village. I got to do like Kiribati in general.
Darin Tingey: And I got to do my island. I hit every big party that I can imagine happens in Kiribati.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And i was like, that is the coolest thing ever that I got to experience that.
Simone: And I also think just for context, like for people who haven't served in like a nation like Kiribati or the Marshalls, like these are big things for these these people who their whole world is, you know, just surviving basically. And so to have these big celebrations, it doesn't sound like very fun or or whatever, but when you're living it, it's exciting. It's like the most excitement you'll have for a long time.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. I get, I get, I'm trying to think of what you can compare it to just like, imagine your whole neighborhood having Christmas together for a week, you know, like spending all day with each other all day and having every meal and dancing, singing.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Simone: Like volleyball, no doubt.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Do you guys? Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Oh yeah.
Simone: Volley's huge.
Darin Tingey: We played volleyball, volleyball and soccer.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Marshall, Marshall Island is basketball and volleyball and kiddo was soccer and volleyball.
Simone: All right. Okay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. But yeah, huge celebration. So fun. Gosh. Gosh. Another interesting thing about Kiribati that I, like an impression, was that like money grows on trees.
Simone: and
Darin Tingey: And you go to the store.
Simone: william
Darin Tingey: Little kids would get coconuts and go buy candy at the store. I thought that was pretty cool. Money literally grows on trees here.
Simone: Yeah, that's interesting.
Darin Tingey: falls from the sky.
Darin Tingey: Oh my gosh.
Simone: but Wait, isn't Mayanna known for rats? No. yeah
Darin Tingey: Mayanna's known for the keve, the lies.
Simone: Yes, yes. you gave it I think Kitabas in general is known for rats.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, Kiribus is crazy with the rats. And I still don't 100% know, but it seems like they like to think of think of them as, I don't know if they're reincarnated people or whatever, but
Simone: The ancestor gay is mine.
Darin Tingey: they just, there's rats everywhere. We had a rat live in our house and they get into everything. you couldn't keep any food at your house because the rats would get it. But I just remember being at people's houses during dinner and there's rats running around and they just like laughing. They're just dying laughing at my reaction because there's rats everywhere. i'm like, what's going on? and feeding the rats, but they don't kill the rats. You don't, don't ever do that.
Darin Tingey: It's bad for their culture. Yeah. I just thought it was crazy that there like so many rats and they just treated them like pets. Like rats are disgusting.
Darin Tingey: There was a bunch there was rats in Ebi, like huge rats, but I mean, they tried to kill them there.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah, they didn't like worship him like in Kitabas.
Darin Tingey: that was, yeah, they didn't, yeah, no joke, they were like pets. I didn't understand it. Yeah. Ugh, gross.
Simone: To be fair, I can't really remember the rats.
Darin Tingey: Uh,
Simone: Like, I think we only had one rat when I was in the Ata, oh my gosh, can't even talk, Ata House. But that's about it. Otherwise, I don't really remember them. Because I just think they're like, chill, like, they don't bother you.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, but like when you're sleeping and you just hear it crawling back and forth.
Simone: Yeah, okay, so in the houses I stayed and we didn't have rats, but in Aether there was a rat, but I slept in the room and I closed the door.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, there you go.
Darin Tingey: that
Simone: I don't know, but yeah, anyways.
Darin Tingey: That's, yeah, if you had to sleep with them, sleep with them running around, it's the worst.
Simone: Anyways, we're gonna go, sweet and gross.
Simone: yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Anyway, i got really sick on my Anna.
Simone: Yeah, i was gonna say, did you, what was sickness like for you being in the outer island?
Darin Tingey: So like when I first got to my, the mission in general, like on eBay, I got sick, but nothing crazy.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Just, you know, your stomach's getting used to it.
Simone: Yeah. When you say sick, like what you, what mean? Like, like vomiting, diarrhea.
Darin Tingey: Usually like the, mostly diarrhea. And then when I got,
Simone: yeah, we all have
Darin Tingey: Like diarrhea, I remember not being able to go out for a few days because I'm like I can't.
Simone: that. It wasn't bad.
Darin Tingey: i I can't. why Yeah, it was bad.
Simone: Not your normal diarrhea.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, which is something that i remember her sister Larkin being like don't eat the food or maybe as a senior couple don't eat the food or drink the water that the locals give you.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Oh man.
Darin Tingey: what are we supposed to eat and drink?
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Which is BS, like just eat and drink it all. Yeah.
Simone: Yeah, absolutely.
Darin Tingey: But I remember on my Anna, I don't even know if I got sick really initially, but I remember one night it was coming out both ends and I was miserable.
Darin Tingey: I was miserable. oh And thankfully, our little toilet bathroom area
Simone: Yeah,
Simone: yeah. Oh,
Darin Tingey: was a cement slab with, a stick roof and walls.
Simone: Oh.
Darin Tingey: Sorry for those listening.
Simone: No.
Darin Tingey: But I got really sick for three weeks.
Simone: Oh, whoa, that's Asia's.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, for for three weeks, I basically – I can't say it, but I basically peed out of my butt for three weeks what what it was.
Simone: Just say it.
Darin Tingey: Sorry again, but that's just the reality of it.
Simone: This is the reality. This is the hard-hitting journalism we need.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. a This is outer Island. Like no solid for three weeks.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I like can't, I have no energy and I, but like, I'm, have to go out and do work or I, I'll just try it.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I remember we'd ride bikes and then I'd run into the forest. The Baconi guy just running. Yeah.
Simone: Like running for your life.
Darin Tingey: Oh my gosh. Yeah. It was the worst. I was so sick. And i remember my land, the guy, the, our host landlord, everyone, i remember him taking me on his motorcycle the different nurses on the Island, trying to find some sort of, medicine for me. Cause it got to the point where I was bedridden, I guess.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: bed on my leaf and stick bed. and i couldn't go out. And I remember him telling me there was a guy in the village that we had usually had dinner with.
Darin Tingey: He'd be like, Hey, do you want, then money bong to rub your your, rub your belly? he, he's the best belly rubber in the village.
Simone: yeah, yeah,
Darin Tingey: and he was being dead serious. And I was like, how does he know that that money bongs the like, how does he have this reputation that he's the best belly rubber in the village?
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I don't know. But it was awesome. I didn't have him do it. I should have. But.
Simone: Oh, I thought you were going say, yeah, I got him to do it.
Darin Tingey: He would have done it. He liked me, but it was just like a funny thing. And just remember, write I was like I can't tell the mission nurse that I'm so sick because you only get so many outer islands and I did not want to get taken off.
Simone: We scared. Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And somehow, you know, I made it through, but yeah.
Simone: That's
Darin Tingey: Yeah, I don't know. like Again, it was like three weeks.
Simone: crazy.
Darin Tingey: And the last week, Tui was getting transferred off. And so he wanted to go say bye to everybody. But I was like, dude, I'm so sick. I cannot leave this house.
Darin Tingey: And so he was like, all right, I'm going anyway. So he just took a youth with him and went across the village, which I was fine with. He went all over the island to say goodbye.
Simone: yeah, yeah.
Darin Tingey: It's like you're never going to see people again in your life.
Simone: Yeah, fair enough.
Darin Tingey: while I just slept. and But the the other crazy thing is, Tui ended up breaking both of our bikes before he left. and And when he went off he got transferred off, he accidentally took our phone with him.
Simone: Oh my
Darin Tingey: So we didn't have a phone, we didn't have bikes, and I was still pretty sick. Yeah.
Simone: No wonder Outer Auto hated Outer Islands.
Darin Tingey: yeah yeah
Simone: a This is what he walks into.
Darin Tingey: It was bad. Thankfully i wrote down the AP's number previously and was able to borrow someone's phone, but man, that was crazy.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: My Anna was so fun though. We did picnics with members. We had some really good baptisms. I think we baptized two adults, a couple youth, and then some primary ageist kids.
Simone: Oh, that's good. Yeah.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: when it it got dark, just the moonlight, just riding my bike an hour home. that was just so fun. Just, i don't know, just crazy once in a lifetime experiences of living on an outer island in Kiribati.
Simone: Absolutely. And like, can you, like, I remember being on an outer island as well and just how clear the sky is at nighttime.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, so cool.
Simone: Like you don't get that. Yeah, like I think we both live in big cities now, but you could never do that and have that that same experience. It's just, it's special.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: It's a memory.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's it's so cool. It's like, I'll never experience it again. Anyway.
Simone: no you won't.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, i was there for four, four and a half months.
Simone: It's a long time. There's three transfers.
Darin Tingey: And then, yeah, it was kind of weird because it was like, kind of admit, I was with TUI for two months and then Otto for two months. the transfers were kind of funky, but we got pulled off together.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So they took us both off when we left and I flew back to Tharaw on a Tuesday.
Simone: Oh, okay.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I had told presidents, I knew a kid from my high school and steak was actually coming to kid of us, the next transfer elder Udall.
Simone: What was that?
Simone: Udall.
Darin Tingey: And then there.
Simone: Oh, U-D-A-L-L.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, yeah, we grew up together.
Simone: I remember him because I'd look at his badge and I'd be like, Udall?
Darin Tingey: So it's funny, when he got his mission call, I was still in the Marshall Islands and so I emailed him, i was like, yeah, dude, i'm I'm never gonna see you, you're on the Kitabas side.
Simone: Right. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then i got transferred to Kitabas, like, bro, I'm gonna probably see you.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And I would just tell him all about the Kitabas.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And then, anyway, I had messaged president, hey, like got Elder Udall coming in and Elder Bowen, who I also knew, he grew up with my cousin, so we knew each other before the mission too.
Darin Tingey: I would love to train one of them in Kiribati. was oh, yeah, I'll consider it. And so i and I fly on Tuesday. I go to Boota. And then I meet with President on Wednesday.
Darin Tingey: And he's like, I've got another assignment for you. I'm like, sweet. you know Maybe we thought it well for a little bit.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: get to meet some missionaries or maybe another Outer Island or Christmas It would be so sick.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: and he's like, I'm sending you back to the Marshall Islands. And I was like, what? dude, you just sent me here four, four and a half months ago. what do you mean I'm going back?
Darin Tingey: I was like, all right, that's pretty cool. You know, at least I get to go do that back in the marsh islands, but he, oh yeah, i was super bummed.
Simone: Yeah. We a bit bummed, Laura.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I wanted to spend a year in kid abyss before I went back to the marsh islands.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: If I could time it perfectly. So i i i was i was pretty sad about it, but the Elder Ross was one of the missionaries that was with me from the marshals that went to Kiribati.
Simone: heard about it. Yeah. I've heard
Darin Tingey: He also was going back to the marshals with me. So that was cool.
Simone: about it. Okay. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But it was hey, you're going back to Marshall Islands and you're going back on Friday. So like, was like Wednesday, we met President he's like, now you're going back. So was crazy.
Simone: fast.
Darin Tingey: We spent a little time with Peterson and Ata, that's where I met you.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah, was going to say, is that where we met?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, so we met two days before, or a day before I went back to the Marshalls.
Simone: Oh. Right, okay.
Simone: Yeah,
Darin Tingey: Anyway, so it was kind of sucky to leave Kyrgyz so fast, so abruptly.
Simone: that's nice. Yeah, that's nice. Oh.
Darin Tingey: And I was like, all right, well, I'm not going to see Elder Udall, just like I told him. wasn't not going to see him. i was I was pretty sad about it.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: More confused, but... I later found out that like some stuff had happened in the Marshall side and some missionaries got sent home and...
Simone: Can you say what stuff happened?
Darin Tingey: I'm trying to think of my timeline because thank goodness I was like off island every time missionaries got sent home. Gosh. Oh, it was it had to do with the co-ed sleepovers that was happening on the Marshall Island side.
Simone: Oh, do you want to give a bit of a background?
Darin Tingey: yeah Yeah, we'll give a quick background and then we'll head on.
Simone: yeah Yeah, you don't have to mention your names, but I think yeah it's important to understand the context around what's going on, you know?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. So, and president don't kill me for sharing all this. it So before i had left the Marshall Islands to go to Kiribati, on the other side of Madre on the east zone or city side, there had been sleepovers between elders and sisters.
Darin Tingey: like more like all the time.
Simone: That's crazy.
Darin Tingey: They were all always getting together every evening.
Simone: That's
Darin Tingey: Who knows what was going on there? But the whole zone on that side knew about it.
Simone: Aren't they yet?
Darin Tingey: And we had kind of heard whisperings of it on the West zone, but we were like, listen, it's that zone. they can figure it out.
Darin Tingey: Like they Peterson was like, is there stuff to deal with? Anyway, so as we get transferred to Kitabas, It kind of all comes crashing down on the Marshall side where the president finds out the APs find out.
Darin Tingey: And it's like the whole zone on that side. And so president interviews everybody and long story short, those that were truthful about it got to stay.
Simone: That's
Darin Tingey: And those that lied about it were sent home, including one of the elders that came with us to Kiribati. So, and he was kind of the ringleader of it all.
Darin Tingey: yeah. So anyway, so mission has gone home and the mission needed a little change.
Darin Tingey: they needed some reinforcements in the Marsh Islands. So we got sent back. Yeah.
Simone: Yes.
Simone: but but
Darin Tingey: I i was just another another body there.
Simone: Another cog in the wheel.
Darin Tingey: Exactly. So I got transferred back to Maduro to Long Island. That's where president wanted to do the Kitabas branch because it was kind of centrally located in Maduro.
Simone: Okay.
Darin Tingey: And it was cool. I mean, I won't spend a lot of time on Maduro because want to talk about Lai.
Simone: Yeah, sure.
Darin Tingey: But... I started a kid of a branch there. it was weird going back and speaking Marshallese and kid of us. Like, again, I had to like relearn Marshallese again.
Simone: Yeah. Whoa, that's pretty
Darin Tingey: That was a weird thing to hear again. just hearing the Marshallese sound, that was really weird.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: And then I was still trying to keep up with my kid of us because I was running the kid of us branch. So
Darin Tingey: anyway, I would president, let me go anywhere I wanted to on Madro as long as there's Mark kid with people there.
Simone: that's pretty cool
Darin Tingey: Yeah. so I got to, i there's a decent amount of, there's actually surprisingly a large amount of kiddos people in the marsh islands. And I got to meet basically all of them. and got to build a relationship with them.
Darin Tingey: And we started doing church and kiddos. It wasn't crazy huge success, but we'd have couple families coming and I did it for three transfers.
Darin Tingey: And by the end of the three transfers, I was like, president, I'm going crazy. I need to either go back to Kitabas or go to an outer island. Like, I, no joke was going crazy, partly because I was speaking Marshallese and Kitabas every day and trying to learn more of those languages at the same time, which was really difficult.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: And like i like the first the first church we had it for the Kiribati branch, we did it right after the Marshallese Award. And the Marshallese Bishop was one presiding and president was there. So I was conducting in Kiribati and then I would, when someone else was talking, I'd translate it to either English for president or Marshallese for the bishop.
Darin Tingey: And then like Bishop wanted to speak.
Simone: Dang.
Darin Tingey: so now I was translated from Marshallese to Kitapis. And then President wanted to speak. So I was translated from English to Kitapis. I was like, dude, this is nuts. And you know, i wasn't amazing at all of that translating and stuff, but it was just, know, I did that for three transfers.
Simone: if
Simone: That's exhausting.
Darin Tingey: So four and a half months and I was so exhausted. Anyway, so by the end of that time, which was, it was the kid was branched treated me so well. I was kind of like a branch president and they just like treated me so well.
Simone: yes
Darin Tingey: They threw me a big party for my birthday and And we always did like activities together and it was just super fun that I got to like keep going with that culture.
Simone: and
Darin Tingey: And then two days before Christmas, I get transferred to lie.
Simone: christmas this is 2017
Darin Tingey: yeah, two days before Christmas 2017, it's my last Christmas, I get transferred to Lai.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Lai is the best island in the whole mission.
Simone: Okay.
Darin Tingey: So i'm just saying.
Simone: Would you, is it comparable to say how missionaries feel in Kiribati about Christmas Island?
Simone: Was it just your as your bias?
Darin Tingey: mate Yeah, but like better. i mean, it's just like, just imagine ward on an outer island that's
Simone: Okay. Oh, all right.
Darin Tingey: like this small outer Island. So lie has like fewer than 300 people, sometimes fewer than 200 people.
Simone: Whoa.
Darin Tingey: And they have a ward, they have three churches on the Island.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: So there's Protestant, there's a break off of Protestant called part two and there's the LDS church. And they're all located on different parts of the Island. The Island's tiny.
Darin Tingey: everyone there is related.
Simone: well crazy incestual no no no okay right yeah yeah part of a bigger family like they've married into it stuff
Darin Tingey: They're all were like one big family.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I mean, it's just like, they're all, it's just, they're all related. I I don't even know how to say that. like there's There's one big family, which is cool. Cause even though the three different churches have their different activities, everyone kind of goes to everything, for the most part.
Darin Tingey: So I got there two days before Christmas. Again, Christmas is the biggest celebration in the Marshall Islands.
Simone: Cool.
Darin Tingey: So we go right into beat that first night and the next night. and then we had Christmas Day, which is a huge celebration. And each church did their own celebrate, did the different dances.
Darin Tingey: Everyone went to everything on the island and it was so fun. and i was so pumped to be there because my companion and reopened the island. It hadn't had missionaries for like a year.
Simone: Oh, okay.
Darin Tingey: Again, they the great thing about being on this outer island is that they had a ward. So unlike in Kitabas and in Long Island, I was running church. I no longer had to run church and it was the best thing ever. Yeah.
Simone: It was like the break you needed.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it was so Yeah.
Simone: But also to like come in to come into ward that's already able to run itself and you are able to then just focus on you know, the work on finding people, teaching people, teaching lessons. I think that would be not, not less stressful because missionary work is stressful, but I think just another weight off your shoulders without having to run an actual like
Darin Tingey: yeah
Simone: sacrament meeting or church and take on that responsibility as well
Darin Tingey: Yeah, 100%. Because most the time, as a missionary, you're worrying about your investigators and who you're teaching.
Simone: yeah yeah getting them there yeah yeah check check
Darin Tingey: But when you're running church, now you're thinking about all the members and like getting in there, making sure they're active, like including them, and you're investigating on top of that.
Darin Tingey: So it's yeah it's exhausting. and And I did it for like...
Darin Tingey: seven, eight months straight just being on my Anna and then, and and then in long Island doing the kiddo's ranch.
Simone: yeah yeah
Darin Tingey: So I was like really exhausted. So I can't imagine any Bishop that does it for five, seven years or whatever. Gosh.
Simone: wait sorry sorry i know i know you want to talk about lie but just kind of touching on what you've shared in terms of like burnout i guess did you feel like after that eight months of mayena long island Did you feel close, would you say, to burnout? Did you feel like you it was just too much at one point?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, at the at the end of Long Island, i was i was pretty burnt out.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: i need That's why I said I needed, i was like, I literally told President and said, I need to go either back to Kitabas.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: For some reason, my mind, like like I didn't have enough Kitabas time and like i I just needed it.
Simone: That was safe. Yeah. Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: And or I was like, or I need to go to an outer island in the Marsh Islands.
Simone: Right. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Partly because i when I didn't like Maduro as much, as you know, as I said that previously, I wanted to be on a different island. I wanted to be on an outer island or something. And anyway, thankfully, President, let me go an outer island. And Lai, like Lai was, I mean,
Darin Tingey: Everyone wanted to go open an island that hadn't had missionaries ever. That's a cool thing. But I'm actually super happy I went to Lai because I was so exhausted from the other stuff that it was actually perfect.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: It was like the out-island life and culture, but I didn't have to worry too much about church.
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: They already had a strong ward.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: they had Almost all of them were temple-endowed. And then, yeah, I know, crazy, right?
Simone: It's crazy.
Darin Tingey: This tiny island in the Pacific, fewer than 300 people, and like they've been to the temple. It's just crazy.
Simone: Crazy.
Darin Tingey: Lye the coolest place.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah, it sounds it sounds special and I'm not just saying that, but the what you're describing at the moment, it makes me feel like, man, it sounds like a special place.
Darin Tingey: It is. God has touched and blessed that island. I'm convinced Jesus is visiting that island first when he comes again. Yeah.
Simone: And you'll be there, out thinking. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I'll be there. That's where my summer home will be. Liza's just a beautiful island that's a really small at Seoul in... we We would go to the other islands within the atoll for picnics with people, or I'd pay like 20 bucks to do, to take the young men crab hunting on one of the other islands.
Darin Tingey: Or we would go collect coconuts with people for their for their work and our service. We'd sometimes get in the water, you know. Yeah.
Simone: just accidentally never intentional of course
Darin Tingey: Yeah. Let's see. I saw funerals there. That's another cultural thing that would, you know, the whole island would be shut, know, doing that for three days or more.
Simone: oh yeah
Simone: Is that the funeral?
Darin Tingey: Yeah. at a For a funeral.
Simone: How did they bury? like oh what What was the funeral process? Because I remember seeing my first funeral in Kerebus and I was shocked.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: was shocked.
Darin Tingey: Marshall's, I do it in three, like three tranches, I guess, or whatever you want to call it. Three different days.
Simone: Okay.
Darin Tingey: First day is like the viewing and you go and you know the body's there and everyone brings like either something to give to the family, like soap or or just a dollar.
Simone: Yeah.
Simone: Yeah. nice
Simone: yeah
Darin Tingey: They give them money or something. And then the next day,
Darin Tingey: can't remember second day a burial. I think second day is the burial. And then the third day is like
Darin Tingey: kind of like the beautification slash ceremony of that.
Simone: in
Darin Tingey: I can't, I think that's how it is. might've been missing a step, but know it's a three step thing.
Simone: how are their bodies like like bear like okay i'll share in cannabis the what i saw was that the body right like the person passed away and almost the next day they had to be buried because it's so hot so what why i remember the body was like on mats like looking very like well presented and stuff as much as you can but they had stuffed some kind of cotton in their nose and they had taped like the mouth closed using like almost like a bandage.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: In the nose, yeah.
Darin Tingey: Uh-huh.
Simone: So for me, that was so interesting coming from the West, a Western country to see that and thinking so different, so different.
Darin Tingey: Yes.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. No, it's similar. Sometimes they put them, if it was nice enough, sometimes they had a casket that they put them in sometimes.
Simone: Oh, okay. Whoa.
Darin Tingey: that I think they'd like get it from... Gosh. I'm trying to remember if that was lady. one of the ladies died on island, and I think they like made her a casket.
Darin Tingey: Other people died, and then they flew them in to be buried on the outer island. And those that were flown in, they were in more of a
Simone: Oh,
Darin Tingey: They were buried casket and there was a glass thing over the face. So you can still see the face because there was glass right there.
Simone: okay. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, it's kind of funky. We had quite a few funerals though. I think only one where the lady was on island.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: I met her before she had died. And then the other ones were like people that they flew in from other islands or even from the States to be buried on the outer island, which is crazy.
Simone: And what's like, what's the life expectancy?
Darin Tingey: sixties, I think.
Simone: Yeah. yeah
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: And what are they, you know how, and you know how like in Kitabas, diabetes is a huge, a huge thing.
Darin Tingey: They start looking pretty old in their forties.
Simone: And a lot of people are amputees. They've had like arms cut off, legs cut off, all that kind of stuff from diabetes.
Darin Tingey: Mm-hmm.
Simone: Is that similar in the Marshall Islands as well?
Darin Tingey: Yeah, same thing. Same thing and thyroid cancer from radiation from the atomic bombs that were the bomb testing and stuff.
Simone: Wow.
Darin Tingey: Like there's still some of that. Yeah.
Simone: I didn't know that. I did not know that.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: will you Were you ever at risk as a missionary?
Darin Tingey: Bikini Atoll.
Darin Tingey: No, we...
Simone: Surely not. I mean, they wouldn't send you, eh? You'd hope.
Darin Tingey: Elder, you're going to Bikini Atoll.
Simone: Oh!
Darin Tingey: Yeah, no. Yeah.
Simone: Bikini bottom. SpongeBob.
Darin Tingey: Yeah, Bikini Bottom, where's SpongeBob? Yeah, that's where it comes from.
Simone: Oh, this is crazy.
Darin Tingey: comes from the Marshall Islands.
Simone: This is crazy.
Darin Tingey: Your mind is blown.
Simone: i
Darin Tingey: That's why all the fish can talk, because there's radiation.
Simone: Wow. 10 years later, I'm finding this out.
Darin Tingey: Yeah. yeah And that's what the swimsuit, the bikini, is named after as well.
Simone: That's good.
Darin Tingey: Bikini asshole.
Simone: Oh, okay.
Darin Tingey: Yeah.
Simone: Okay. That's so interesting.
Darin Tingey: Crazy.
Simone: Sorry.
Darin Tingey: No, you're good.
Simone: I've taken you off on a tangent.
Darin Tingey: No, but I mean, the outer islands of Marsh Islands are really cool. Like, was weird. Like, i didn't... In Kitabas, I had access to a phone to email home.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But I lived in a stick hut. In the Marsh Islands, I lived in, like, a nicer home.
Simone: Yeah.
Darin Tingey: But we had no internet and no phone. There was one phone on the island, and there was, like, a phone operator there. And she'd only sit there in the evenings. The phone ran off of solar.
Darin Tingey: And...
Darin Tingey: She'd sit there in the evening and someone would call in be like, hey, can I talk to Junior? She'd be like, yeah, call back in five minutes. Hang up the phone. She'd tell her daughter, go get Junior.
Darin Tingey: She'd hop on her little bike, go get Junior, and in Junior would come back and sit and wait for that person to call again. So whenever we're like the missionaries, APs wanted to call us, we just kind of knew Monday evenings or whatever, we'd go sit by the phone and wait for them to call us. And usually after about 20 minutes of the phone working, it would die because the battery was bad.
Darin Tingey: airport.
Simone: Post office.
Darin Tingey: Post office. Yeah. And the plane only came maybe twice a month. And the food boat came maybe once every three months. I never felt like I was starving though.
Darin Tingey: Cause then people would feed us all time.
Simone: Yeah. Yeah.
Darin Tingey: They'd go fishing. We'd go fishing with them. Good crab hunting. Like I said, we didn't, we did it at camp out with the elders quorum where
Simone: Oh.
Darin Tingey: we did it We went fishing all day with the elders quorum and the young men.
Simone: Hmm.
Darin Tingey: And then that night, we stayed on one of the different islands within the atoll.
Simone: Oh.
Darin Tingey: And we camped out under the stars there. And we had a fireside. And then that night, we went crab hunting. It was the coolest thing of my life. i was like, I'm on this outer island. I'm on camp out with the elders quorum and young men.
Darin Tingey: and I was like, this is the coolest thing ever. was like... yeah that was, I mean, that's one of my favorite things about live, just the people and just being able to do those cool outer island experiences missionary.
