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Episode #2: Stephen Sheffield - Marshall Islands & Kiribati - Wotje, Majuro, Onotoa, Tarawa, Makin, Butaritari

The Islands Podcast

60 Plays28 days ago

Stephen Sheffield served in the Marshall Islands/Kiribati mission from 2016-2018. He had a rare experience and served in both the Marshall Islands and Kiribati. Stephen served on the islands in this order: Wotje -> Majuro -> Onotoa -> Tarawa -> Butaritari & Makin -> Tarawa -> Majuro. In this episode we talk about the outer islands of Wotje, Butaritari, and Makin as well as the different experiences he had in the two countries of Kiribati and the Marshall Islands. There was too much to unpack here and not enough time!

#MarshallIslands/KiribatiMission #MarshallIslands #Kiribati #Wotje #Majuro #Onotoa #Tarawa #Butaritari #Makin #The.Islands.Podcast #theIslands

Transcript

Introduction and Guest Background

00:00:01

Darin Tingey

All right, here we go. This is the second episode of the islands podcast with our first guest, Steven Sheffield. I might just refer to you as Sheffield because on our mission, that's what I called you.

00:00:11

Stephen Sheffield

How's it going?

00:00:14

Darin Tingey

And that's probably what I've worn on the mission. And as you as, uh, but Sheffield's from Pleasant Grove, right?

00:00:17

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that'll work. That'll work.

00:00:23

Stephen Sheffield

So I'm from Lyndon.

00:00:24

Darin Tingey

Landon.

00:00:25

Stephen Sheffield

Basically, it's like like miniature Pleasant Grove slash Orem. But I went to Pleasant Grove High School.

00:00:31

Darin Tingey

And you played you played tennis there, right?

00:00:33

Stephen Sheffield

I did play tennis there. Yeah, not that, I mean, making the tennis team isn't a huge deal, just to be clear. but but But I did play tennis there. but

Mission Call and Initial Reactions

00:00:44

Darin Tingey

And you graduated high school in 2016, right? And then when did you get your mission call to the Marshall Islands Majura mission at the time?

00:00:45

Stephen Sheffield

and Yeah, that's correct.

00:00:56

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, the time. um I think it would have been in March of 2016, either February or March. I think March though. I'm pretty sure because I think I had some friends who got it before me.

00:01:10

Stephen Sheffield

in January, February, and I think mine came a little later.

00:01:14

Darin Tingey

And then you were, what, you said you were going to go to the Marshall Islands, Madro, marshally speaking.

00:01:21

Stephen Sheffield

That is exactly what it said, yeah. that I'm sure I think I butchered it. I still have the video of me reading it, and i don't I don't remember what I said, but I remember watching it back after my mission and, like, feeling a little ah little bit of pain at what I said, how bad I said it, but it's all right.

00:01:38

Darin Tingey

I wanted to go Spanish speaking, so I said majaro, because the J was like an H sound.

00:01:43

Stephen Sheffield

and Hey, still, yeah, fair enough. I thought I was going to go Spanish speaking, honestly, but I was obviously, obviously pumped to go where I went. So.

00:01:54

Darin Tingey

So you were summer of 2016 to 2018 and then after you went to BYU.

Post-Mission Journey and BYU Connection

00:02:01

Stephen Sheffield

Went to BYU. Um, I, uh, went to BYU majored in neuroscience and then, um, yeah.

00:02:14

Stephen Sheffield

About it was I now I'm in medical school, so I'm living in Houston.

00:02:14

Darin Tingey

Now you're in medical school.

00:02:19

Stephen Sheffield

ah Going to school in Houston about I've got a year, year and a half in so. Two and a half to go and then whatever I do for residency and.

00:02:25

Darin Tingey

nice Nice.

00:02:30

Stephen Sheffield

I have zero idea what I want to do so. We'll see, but.

00:02:36

Darin Tingey

Good man. And in Sheffield and I hung out a lot at BYU because I married a girl that went to high school with him. And we just hung out because her friends from the mission, which is a great time.

00:02:47

Stephen Sheffield

No.

00:02:47

Darin Tingey

ah Wish you were back in Utah with us so we could hang out, but happy you're doing that. um So let's go back to

MTC Experience and Language Challenges

00:02:57

Darin Tingey

MTC.

00:02:57

Darin Tingey

So you entered MTC in July, what, July, August?

00:03:00

Stephen Sheffield

ah think I think I entered it on August 3rd, I'm pretty sure. It's like a really, the only reason I remember is it was the same day, I think the day after my my first nephew was born and so i never got to meet him and his birthday is august 1st or 2nd so i'm pretty sure august 3rd yeah oh

00:03:18

Darin Tingey

And how many, how many were in your intake?

00:03:22

Stephen Sheffield

my goodness i think it was 12 was it 13 i think we had 12 elders and then one one sister yeah yeah sister tatona and then all the rest of us were from

00:03:31

Darin Tingey

And now sister Tatonga, right? From Kiribati.

00:03:39

Stephen Sheffield

the rest of the 12 of us, all the 12 elders, we're all from the US. um I guess I better say for Elder Robinson, Elder Robinson, if you're watching this, Elder Robinson is also from, is also from Britain.

00:03:55

Stephen Sheffield

I'll get i'll give him that he's from both.

00:03:55

Darin Tingey

That's right. There we go.

00:03:57

Stephen Sheffield

So if you're watching this, you can't be mad at me. um but But then we were all from the US.

Mission Assignments and Surprises

00:04:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, and then I think 10 of us We're going to the Marshall Islands and two of them, one going to Hawaii, one going to, I want to say, I mean, it was either Spokane or like Bentonville, Arkansas, I think are the two state missions.

00:04:19

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:04:20

Stephen Sheffield

So, but 10 of us that went to the Marshall Islands, I think.

00:04:26

Darin Tingey

I think that's right. ah If you were like me, you were thrown off by like the two people going to the States.

00:04:27

Stephen Sheffield

Sounds right.

00:04:33

Darin Tingey

Because I remember I walked in, and I was the intake after you. And I walk in and they're like, are you going to the Marshall Islands? I'm like, well, yeah, like, why would else would I be in this room?

00:04:42

Stephen Sheffield

we all yeah but yeah I actually had a friend, like a close high school friend as well, who served in Bentonville, Arkansas, either Spanish or English speaking.

00:04:43

Darin Tingey

Yeah. And there was like, one kid out of Covington was going to Iowa, Marshall is speaking, and he's like, no. ah And I was like, whoa, there was, I had no idea there was like, marshally speaking missions or missionaries in the States, so.

00:05:05

Stephen Sheffield

And he emailed me when he got out. They're like, dude, what the heck? Like, why are there? He's like, there's like Marshallese missionaries in my house. Like, oh, yeah. So. Yeah, it's kind of a cool, a niche mission.

00:05:16

Darin Tingey

but And then your teacher, yeah, it is crazy.

00:05:20

Stephen Sheffield

For them to go out there.

00:05:21

Darin Tingey

Who were your teachers in the MTC?

00:05:24

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, man. Oh, I should remember their names.

00:05:27

Darin Tingey

Sherman, Sherman, I'm assuming.

00:05:29

Stephen Sheffield

It was Sherman. Yeah. Brother Sherman and then brother.

00:05:37

Stephen Sheffield

I don't remember his name. He was, it was, oh, Brother Totini. The Totini? Tonini.

00:05:42

Darin Tingey

tonii Tonini, Tonini.

00:05:43

Stephen Sheffield

Tonini. That's it. Sorry, Brother Tonini. But he came at the end. He replaced, he replaced Brother, I don't remember his name. He's great.

00:05:53

Stephen Sheffield

He served in Spokane. His white guy had glasses, brown hair.

00:05:58

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:05:58

Stephen Sheffield

um But then we got like the very end. We had Brother Tonini. And then Sherman was throughout the entire thing.

00:06:04

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Yeah. I had Sherman and Tony knee shirt, both of which served both in the Marshall islands and kid of us. Well, Sherman Sherman was AP.

00:06:11

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that's true.

00:06:12

Darin Tingey

So he he went back and forth. I don't think he officially served in cannabis, but yeah.

00:06:16

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, but Sherman also seems like he can learn a language in about 10 days. so

Mission Adventures and Challenges

00:06:22

Stephen Sheffield

So I'm sure he was fine.

00:06:22

Darin Tingey

and Hearing, hearing their stories in the MTC, were you like, maybe I'll go marshall and say I'm a kid of us.

00:06:30

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I mean, I guess I thought about it, but I think they also told us that that was kind of just like a rare, like didn't really happen thing. And because it used to be that APs, APs would go back and forth.

00:06:44

Stephen Sheffield

But then by the time President Larkin had came, right, that was that was done. They were just the Marshall Islands APs and the Kitty Bess APs, which honestly is probably the move.

00:06:50

Darin Tingey

Yep.

00:06:54

Stephen Sheffield

um So I guess I like thought it crossed my mind, but I didn't think it was like a real possibility while I was in the MTC.

00:06:55

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:07:04

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it wasn't until, if you don't mind me getting into this, it wasn't until ah um I was serving in Long Island.

00:07:04

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:07:08

Darin Tingey

That worked.

00:07:15

Stephen Sheffield

And I think I also kind of felt maybe even like a slight spiritual draw towards Kitty Bess as well. um And we I was with Elder Anderson, we were living in the Long Island Chapel House, but they discovered like black mold in it.

00:07:30

Stephen Sheffield

So they kicked us out and we lived, we had to live with the, not had to, we got to live with the APs.

00:07:36

Darin Tingey

Right.

00:07:37

Stephen Sheffield

Elder Helgenberger and Elder Bird for like four weeks or something. And I don't remember which one of them like, I used to make jokes that they should send me to Kitty Best just cause I wanted to go to both places.

00:07:49

Stephen Sheffield

I mean, cause our mission covered both.

00:07:50

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:07:52

Stephen Sheffield

And then um one time Elder Bird made a little hint that it was maybe a possibility. And so I would always like, like make jokes about it and then one time I came home we'd asked them to grab us more Book of Mormons and I came home and they had a stack of Book of Mormons and then there was like 15 Marshallese Book of Mormons and on the very top was one Kitty Best Book of Mormons.

00:08:14

Darin Tingey

No way.

00:08:15

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah it was like two weeks before like like President Larkin told me uh but I was like the and I went out I was like what is this and they were like I don't know they like what if they like wouldn't confirm it they're just being they're just being funny so that's kind of

00:08:18

Darin Tingey

Everything went down. Yeah.

00:08:31

Stephen Sheffield

Um, yeah, it's kind of when I, when I figured it out.

00:08:31

Darin Tingey

ah Okay.

00:08:35

Darin Tingey

Yeah, I was, when I was, when I was in MTC, I was like, dude, that's the dream.

00:08:35

Stephen Sheffield

um

00:08:39

Darin Tingey

Like, Marshall Islands, go to Kiribati, go back and then finish in the Marshall Islands. Like, that's the dream. Like that, that's what I want to do. And I said that, but like wishful thinking, I was like, there's no way it happens, but like on the off chances it does, it'd be so sweet.

00:08:48

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:08:51

Stephen Sheffield

yeah

00:08:55

Darin Tingey

And do you remember when my intake ah came in the MTC? Cause we overlapped one week. because I think President Larkin wasn't going to be on island for when my intake got there unless they moved us up. So like, I was supposed to go to MTC September 14, and they moved it up a week. Like, hey, you're actually coming in the seventh, and then we overlapped with you guys for a week. I remember that.

00:09:16

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I remember too, I remember us having like, we had at least a few like joint lessons. And they were like trying to have us teach you guys like, acting like we knew anything we knew nothing.

00:09:26

Stephen Sheffield

It's like the classic MTC like you get there and anybody who's been there for two weeks is like, Oh, like, let me show you around this place like they like

00:09:31

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:09:35

Stephen Sheffield

like they know everything but but yeah that was yeah i remember when you guys came in a lot of fun

00:09:37

Darin Tingey

So good.

Cultural Immersion and First Impressions

00:09:44

Darin Tingey

And then okay, so to get to the Marshall Islands, you fly to Hawaii, spend the night in Hawaii. Did you guys have like your last like American meal? Did you guys get McDonald's?

00:09:54

Stephen Sheffield

yeah we got mcdonald i actually i i still remember walking with elder ross to go to mcdonald and i got a i got a deep fried apple pie and it

00:10:05

Darin Tingey

Nice.

00:10:05

Stephen Sheffield

Really blew me away. Yeah, it was great. And so that was that was it Yeah Um

00:10:11

Darin Tingey

We were not smart. We were like, oh, we're gonna let's go get some island food. You know, like, let's, let's really go get it. We regretted that later. We were like, we should have just had American food while we could. ah and So you fly into Madro the next day.

00:10:26

Darin Tingey

Did you try and speak to any Marshall's people on the flight or no?

00:10:31

Stephen Sheffield

I don't remember if I did. I do remember Elder Johnson asking a lady if he could help her with um help her with her bag.

00:10:42

Darin Tingey

Her cooler.

00:10:44

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I'm sure it was, a cooler, honestly. and And Elder Johnson, who was probably the best Marshallese speaker in our like in our MTC group,

00:10:55

Stephen Sheffield

when we were going to the Marshall Islands. And I remember for him asking her that, and her not really sure what he was saying. And I remember thinking, like all right, well, if she's not going to understand Elder Johnston, like like i don't stand I don't stand a chance.

00:11:10

Stephen Sheffield

I'd probably just like shut my mouth from then on out.

00:11:13

Darin Tingey

That's so good. That's awesome. They're like, oh shoot, here we go. I remember that too. I remember seeing all of them in the in the airport and I like try and speak and I'm like, oh shoot, I don't know anything.

00:11:23

Stephen Sheffield

You're like, oh, like I guys suck at this. Yeah.

00:11:25

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:11:25

Stephen Sheffield

And I remember when we got there, getting off the plane with a, it was just like hotter than I thought it was going to be. It's like so humid.

00:11:32

Darin Tingey

Yep.

00:11:33

Stephen Sheffield

And I turned around and Elder Till was right behind me. And I turned around and he had just had like deeds. And he said like, dude, he was like, oh man, this is going to be like, we were like four steps out of the plane.

00:11:47

Darin Tingey

It hits you. It just hits you.

00:11:48

Stephen Sheffield

It is so hard.

00:11:49

Darin Tingey

I already stepped out.

00:11:50

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:11:51

Darin Tingey

And then was president there and like the AP zone leaders to pick you guys up.

00:11:55

Stephen Sheffield

I think zone President Larkin, no, he was not there. um He met us at the mission home. But the APs were, I don't remember who were the APs at the time, but they were there.

00:12:06

Darin Tingey

weren't they Elder Hunter, Elder Hunter and Elder PD.

00:12:11

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, nice. Nice, it was Elder Hunter and Elder PD. And then the zone leaders were there too, because there was a, is it Elder Hartenstein? Is that a heart-fixing wall?

00:12:22

Darin Tingey

Harp fixing, Harp fixing, and i Bradley was Brad.

00:12:30

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so yeah, they were also there to pick us up. And then um there was also an elder who from Vanuatu who whose flight had been delayed to go home for like two weeks.

00:12:41

Stephen Sheffield

So he was hanging out.

00:12:41

Darin Tingey

ah Poor guy.

00:12:43

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I know. And so then they took us to the mission home and then President Larkin came in ah into the mission home and yeah, it was the first time meeting him.

00:12:48

Darin Tingey

Nice.

00:12:52

Darin Tingey

what What was first impressions of like landing, mission home, missionaries? like What was first impressions like?

00:13:00

Stephen Sheffield

I remember being stoked that because I asked more than one time and more than one person in the MTC, like, are we really going to need to wear closed toed shoes on our mission? And I was told like, like, absolutely, yes, like you will have to wear closed toed shoes.

00:13:17

Stephen Sheffield

That's just that's just what the rule is. And then we got there and all the missionaries were wearing flip flops. And then when President Larkin walked in with flip flops, I was like, OK, we're going to even said like,

00:13:28

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:13:29

Stephen Sheffield

He's like, take those shoes off, put on some flip-flops. I was like, all right, cool.

00:13:34

Darin Tingey

Yeah, thank goodness.

00:13:34

Stephen Sheffield

So yeah, I was pretty excited. So first impressions, really hot. Didn't know what anybody was saying. It sounded way more like gibberish than anything I'd heard.

00:13:45

Stephen Sheffield

And then just excited to get the missionaries with the flip-flops. They'd rolled their pants. And I was i mean i know that that kind of that kind of became Kind of became changed a little bit later, but at the time at the time that was that was the move, so.

00:13:59

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:14:05

Darin Tingey

Did you see Madra through like, uh, when you're on the plane, did you see it in the, on that window?

00:14:11

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I mean, it was hard to see it, but the yeah because the the landing strip is like the runway is nothing. I think maybe you know this.

00:14:16

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:14:18

Stephen Sheffield

I'm not sure. Is it totally almost totally manmade?

00:14:21

Darin Tingey

Yeah. They built it out further. Yeah.

00:14:23

Stephen Sheffield

OK, because it's like.

00:14:23

Darin Tingey

Wide. Yeah.

00:14:26

Stephen Sheffield

Because even in in like Kitty Bess, you have some like you have some like land on either side. But the the landing in the Marshall Islands is like just literally just the just the strip.

00:14:31

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:14:37

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:14:39

Stephen Sheffield

There's nothing else.

00:14:40

Darin Tingey

I just remember seeing it. I was like, oh my gosh. Like I knew it was gonna be skinny, but like I didn't realize it was that skinny.

00:14:42

Stephen Sheffield

so but and

00:14:45

Darin Tingey

Like you blink on the plane, you miss it. It's like so tiny.

00:14:49

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, you could like mean you throw a rock from the middle of the road into the ocean on both sides.

00:14:50

Darin Tingey

Um.

00:14:55

Stephen Sheffield

And I can't throw that far either. So that's just like.

Life on Wiche Island

00:14:59

Darin Tingey

So then you, so you're at the mission home and they told you where you're going there that day, right? They're like, you're going and you were going to an outer island, right?

00:15:04

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, yeah, I was. Yeah, so I was going to Wiche, so I was like I felt so lucky because um I think. Maybe Elder Wakefield was also going to to lie, I think.

00:15:19

Darin Tingey

Yep.

00:15:19

Stephen Sheffield

um

00:15:20

Stephen Sheffield

And we were companions in the MTC, so they must have just like randomly selected a companionship and were like, we'll send them to outer islands, I guess. But I remember being stoked to start on an outer island.

00:15:31

Stephen Sheffield

Just because I'd heard like, that's what in the MTC you heard like, like all the, or all the teachers, they kind of say like, yeah, like the like outer islands are the coolest.

00:15:32

Darin Tingey

Yeah, it's rare.

00:15:42

Stephen Sheffield

They're the best. They're the, so I was super excited.

00:15:46

Darin Tingey

And what day did you fly out to which end?

00:15:48

Stephen Sheffield

yeah i was in I was still in Majuro for like probably like another week and a half, two weeks.

00:15:56

Darin Tingey

Wow.

00:15:56

Stephen Sheffield

So I lived with um i lived with Helgenberger and Elder Peterson and then Bradley and Johnson. and

00:16:08

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:16:09

Stephen Sheffield

There was also other missionaries around during that time too, or maybe I'm thinking of mission tour because I came back off of which a permission tour.

00:16:15

Darin Tingey

Yep.

00:16:15

Stephen Sheffield

So I'm probably confusing those some too, but I do know for the first week and a half or so, um, I was with Helgenberger and Peterson. And so we'd go on splits a lot where I would go with Peterson, which is amazing because Peterson was probably like five weeks out on his mission, but he's, he's Peterson.

00:16:31

Darin Tingey

Yep, yep.

00:16:35

Stephen Sheffield

So.

00:16:36

Darin Tingey

Yeah, he's the man.

00:16:37

Stephen Sheffield

He was yeah you was fine. Yeah. yeah

00:16:40

Darin Tingey

So you flat to which a I forget, who was your companion? Who was your trainer on?

00:16:43

Stephen Sheffield

it was So my trainer was Elder Naamak from Vanuatu.

00:16:44

Darin Tingey

What's that? Yeah.

00:16:48

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:16:48

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, really, really, really awesome guy.

00:16:52

Darin Tingey

So you get there.

00:16:53

Stephen Sheffield

I think it was Polson, I'm pretty sure.

00:16:53

Darin Tingey

Who's your replace? Who'd you replace from? which yeah Okay.

00:16:58

Stephen Sheffield

Another Polson was coming off.

00:16:58

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:17:00

Darin Tingey

And you ah you, so for those who don't know, you flat on a little dinky plane air Marshall. ah Nicknamed Air Maybe because it may or may not go to the island. Did it go straight from Madro to Wiche?

00:17:15

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I had no, I had no, I guess you'd like layovers.

00:17:18

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:17:19

Stephen Sheffield

I had no layovers.

00:17:21

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:17:21

Stephen Sheffield

So I just went, I just went straight to Wiche. And Wiche you land in, I guess I can't speak to what the landing is like in the other Marshall Islands, Outer Islands, because Wiche was the only one I'd ever been on.

00:17:33

Stephen Sheffield

But um it's just this field, like it's like, it's just this huge, it's just grass that they mow.

00:17:41

Darin Tingey

Yep.

00:17:41

Stephen Sheffield

And so you just land in the middle of like this field. It was pretty cool. And so I remember getting off and seeing Nama convulsing. And paulsson and that was I think that's when it like really hit me.

00:17:50

Darin Tingey

Said I had a pulse then.

00:17:54

Stephen Sheffield

um Like, oh, man, like what have i like what have I got myself into? You know what I mean? like Like, what is happening here?

00:18:02

Darin Tingey

Yeah, I'm on this, I'm on this tiny island in the Middle Pacific. I just landed on a grass strip.

00:18:08

Stephen Sheffield

Just landed on a grass strip.

00:18:08

Darin Tingey

I've never, I haven't met any of these guys out here that I'm going to be with. One, but and I don't know if namuk spoke English or not, but okay.

00:18:16

Stephen Sheffield

He did. His English was quite good. Naumak's English was.

00:18:19

Darin Tingey

Cause I was also originally trained by Elder Masur, who was from Vanuatu as well.

00:18:20

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:18:23

Stephen Sheffield

Right.

00:18:23

Darin Tingey

And he didn't speak and any English at all.

00:18:25

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, no, yeah. but Elder Naumak's English was quite good. um But still, it was just like.

00:18:32

Darin Tingey

And then you were out.

00:18:35

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I mean, there were no other missionaries around me from the US, so I it was just kind of like a and I traveled outside of the US s a few times back in high school, but that was. I mean, just a new, like very new experience.

00:18:49

Darin Tingey

Yeah, and what was what was first impressions of what you and what was what you like? where And where was the airport in relation to where you lived and where the town center was?

00:19:01

Stephen Sheffield

Super close, so which a I mean, which a is not very well, I should which is actually like relatively big, I think for outer islands, but the actual area of land where people live, or I should like a lot of people live where the vast majority of people live is not that big.

00:19:18

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:19:18

Stephen Sheffield

So we didn't have bikes, we didn't have. um We just walked everywhere, so you literally only had to walk probably two minutes to get from the airport to the house.

00:19:26

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:19:29

Stephen Sheffield

um But yeah, it was just, it was cool. Just taking like these little, these little back paths. And then also Wiche is like a, was a camp during World War II, like a Japanese camp, if I'm not mistaken.

00:19:44

Stephen Sheffield

I'm basing that also off of my memory, but also I have a bunch of photos of like these old canteens that were once full, these huge, huge metal bins that have Japanese characters all over them.

00:19:44

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Now, yes.

00:19:57

Stephen Sheffield

And so there's just like there's random cement everywhere and there's just like there's cement, but it's old and grass is broken through it. And so there's just these little paths going through the like going through trees and then these random blocks of cement and these random like old structures that cement structures that are just dying. But it's super just really, really beautiful. It's kind of like if if like nature, I mean, it's just like Pacific nature taking over

00:20:28

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:20:28

Stephen Sheffield

what once was, like, built or, right, it was.

00:20:31

Darin Tingey

Yeah, it it was a Japanese base. Yeah, that's it was just crazy. And don't they find like bombs and huge like ah artillery shells still there, which is crazy.

00:20:40

Stephen Sheffield

yeah Yeah, I actually have, I have a few bullets, a few bullets that I found in the sand. um They're not with me here in Houston, they're back, they're back in Utah, but I have a few bullets that I found in the sand while at Wiche.

00:20:58

Stephen Sheffield

And they have like ah but like some huge turrets out on the beach that are just rusted over and destroyed. and Yeah, really, really cool.

00:21:05

Darin Tingey

So cool. And if you had to estimate, I just Googled it right now, but if you had to estimate how many people live on which day, how many did you say?

00:21:14

Stephen Sheffield

900 would be my guess.

00:21:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah, that's pretty close.

00:21:17

Stephen Sheffield

What's that?

00:21:19

Darin Tingey

And according to the 2021 census 816.

Missionary Work and Community Engagement

00:21:24

Darin Tingey

So yeah, three, a little over three square miles, which is crazy.

00:21:24

Stephen Sheffield

right Nice. Not bad.

00:21:31

Darin Tingey

Um,

00:21:34

Darin Tingey

And let's see,

00:21:39

Darin Tingey

which is on the.

00:21:43

Darin Tingey

graphcha Yeah. ratta chain Right.

00:21:45

Stephen Sheffield

I couldn't even tell you. That's embarrassing, but...

00:21:47

Darin Tingey

Yeah. it's It's on the, no, it's on the, uh, it's on the sunrise chain. So the East chain, which, which they speak a little bit different.

00:21:54

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:21:57

Darin Tingey

Everyone says like, Oh, they speak different, but like, it's not that different.

00:22:00

Stephen Sheffield

ah

00:22:02

Darin Tingey

You know?

00:22:02

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that's kind of... Yeah, I feel like that's true throughout the mission.

00:22:11

Darin Tingey

I am the evening kid of us.

00:22:13

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, even in Kiribati, I think there's a little like, I mean, it's hard for me to know because I just spent like three, I spent much more time in Kiribati. So it's hard for me to.

00:22:22

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:22:24

Stephen Sheffield

But like in Kiribati, you could notice the difference. I'm like, certainly Kiribati people could really notice a difference because they're a million times better at the language than I was.

00:22:31

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:22:33

Stephen Sheffield

But um I felt like you could tell some difference in the Marshall Islands. I probably also just wasn't around long enough to and notice the difference. But

00:22:44

Darin Tingey

Yeah. I mean, yeah, so like Wuche is, I mean, it's next to Ligiyeb kind of and Malolap, but like, we didn't have any missionaries on the Radak chain besides in Madro or no, Milly, like the south part of the chain.

00:23:01

Darin Tingey

I feel like everything was on the, the Relik side, um, which was interesting.

00:23:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, and I think when when we got there, I don't know about, probably when you guys got there too, it was just a few weeks later. I think the only outer islands that were open were Wuche, Jalowich, and Lai, am I wrong?

00:23:18

Stephen Sheffield

Or is that, there were a lot there were a lot shut down for various reasons.

00:23:20

Darin Tingey

No, that's right.

00:23:26

Stephen Sheffield

Some complicated, some not so not some not so complicated.

00:23:27

Darin Tingey

ah

00:23:30

Stephen Sheffield

but

00:23:31

Darin Tingey

Well, yeah, um, story for another time.

00:23:34

Stephen Sheffield

yeah Yeah, yeah.

00:23:37

Darin Tingey

But yeah, you know, when I, so let's see, you were on which day for a few weeks and you came back from mission tour. Um, And then you were on Madro for another what, week, two weeks, and then back out to Wichet, right?

00:23:52

Stephen Sheffield

About a week and then Wiche again. So I ended up being three three transfers on Wiche total.

00:23:55

Darin Tingey

And then, okay. And you had um Namak for the first one or two?

00:24:05

Stephen Sheffield

Two, first two.

00:24:07

Darin Tingey

First two, and then Elder Ras came out with you, right?

00:24:10

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. And then other Ross who was in the MTC with me. So that was a lot of fun.

00:24:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Yeah, because Ross was on eBuy with me, and I remember him going out there.

00:24:15

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. Uh-huh.

00:24:19

Darin Tingey

And I think, let's see, you were on Wiche, and then Dunn went out to lie with Wakefield, and then they closed Djalovic, because they they brought off Uichu and Kalanowski.

00:24:20

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that was.

00:24:31

Darin Tingey

I'll just key off for a little bit, if you remember that. um So Wiche, and Wiche also has a high school.

00:24:39

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that sounds right.

00:24:41

Darin Tingey

Wiche has a high school. What was that like?

00:24:44

Stephen Sheffield

That was fun. I mean, we didn't do a ton with the high school. um there were There was, though, um two of the members of like our unit and in Wuche were high school teachers, and they were actually both from Kitty Bess,

00:25:03

Stephen Sheffield

oddly enough. So there were two kitty-best people who were teaching at this school in which they both spoke English perfectly because obviously I didn't know any kitty-best and they didn't speak much Marshallese.

00:25:04

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:25:12

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:25:17

Stephen Sheffield

So in one of the houses we would go and do Laundriette every week which is a lot of fun and they'd often like make banana bread or something which for those who don't know the banana bread in the Marshall Islands is crazy.

00:25:33

Darin Tingey

So good.

00:25:33

Stephen Sheffield

i mean it's kind of If you've ever had banana bread in Hawaii, it's the same thing. Just the little bananas make all the difference.

00:25:38

Darin Tingey

Yes, they're so sweet.

00:25:41

Stephen Sheffield

It's so sweet. And then kind of a fun part of that story. So we became close friends with that family. And then ah later on my mission, when I was in Kitty Bess, it was a P-Day.

00:25:53

Stephen Sheffield

And we were at like the mall. I mean, it's a mall. but like um

00:25:56

Darin Tingey

A store.

00:25:58

Stephen Sheffield

it was mostly shut down, but there were some restaurants in there and like a ah few clothing stores. And so, and I was leaving and I ran into him and he was like, oh, oh, there's Sheffield?

00:26:08

Stephen Sheffield

And I was like, no way, like, and I was like, good I can kind of speak to you best now when we talked.

00:26:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:26:15

Stephen Sheffield

And it was it was a ton of fun. But that so as far as the high school goes, um I think I'm sure we I think we taught some of the kids at the high school, but tried really not to just because it seemed like, uh, I mean, like, what are you going to do?

00:26:32

Stephen Sheffield

Like they're not with their family. It's just them. And like, so I think we kind of felt like, well, we don't really want to teach high school kids if we can avoid it.

00:26:35

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:26:40

Stephen Sheffield

I think there was one who was like very adamant and interested. So we taught him some lessons, but, um, yeah, for the most part, we didn't do a ton with the high school.

00:26:52

Darin Tingey

Yeah, because all these kids come in from the outer islands around Wuche to go to high school there.

00:26:56

Stephen Sheffield

Mhm.

00:26:57

Darin Tingey

There's high schools on Wuche, Jalowitz, those are two outer islands, and then Ibi and Majuro, which were the two main islands.

00:27:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:27:05

Darin Tingey

So you guys got all those like, ah yeah, Ligia, Malola, probably all those closer islands, Iluq. But

00:27:15

Stephen Sheffield

But it was it was cool in the sense I remember like, because there was a basketball court as well in which a um. And so you'd have like high schoolers playing basketball and like fun things like that that I think added some to just like, yeah it was just a cool cool place.

00:27:30

Darin Tingey

Yeah. How many members?

00:27:34

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, not very many. I mean, the members the members there are awesome, but there must have been maybe 15 to 20. We just held we held church in our house.

00:27:43

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:27:44

Stephen Sheffield

um But I guess 15 to 20 for an island of 800 people is a decent amount.

00:27:49

Darin Tingey

Yeah, that's good.

00:27:50

Stephen Sheffield

so um Yeah, we just held church in our house and started 25 minutes late every time, which was great.

00:27:59

Darin Tingey

Would you have to go, would you have to go tell them like, Hey churches, we're going to start church now?

00:28:05

Stephen Sheffield

No, so they ah they would just, everybody would just come.

00:28:07

Darin Tingey

it's

00:28:08

Stephen Sheffield

And a lot of outer islands, i was I mean, the only, that which is the only outer island I was on in the Marshalls, but in Kitty Bess, a lot of the outer islands you would like bike.

00:28:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:28:17

Stephen Sheffield

And I think a lot of the marshals is like this, too, where you hold church and then you have to bike somewhere and then hold church and then you bike.

00:28:18

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:28:24

Stephen Sheffield

But which it was small enough that we didn't have to go and tell people and everybody would just come.

00:28:30

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:28:31

Stephen Sheffield

So it was a. Yeah.

00:28:34

Darin Tingey

And P-Day, what was P-Day like? Did you guys do a lot of fishing?

00:28:38

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, we did some fishing. We would play basketball. There was a guy in a. Down in, ah I think it's called Munlo Mar. Is like this little little piece of which a.

00:28:49

Stephen Sheffield

I'm like down right next to the beach and there was just the families there that. That we would see the most and hang out with the most and there was a member there named ronald avenue he ended up serving a mission.

00:29:01

Stephen Sheffield

um And he.

00:29:02

Darin Tingey

No way.

00:29:03

Stephen Sheffield

ah So we would hang out a lot with him. um I'm sure that him and elder nama kind of just had to drag me around for the first like however long like I had no idea what was happening sure I was a bit annoying as well.

00:29:17

Stephen Sheffield

I mean that's just like Probably sick probably just like a Bit just came from the MTC missionary and you know we all we all did it we all did it you can I can say it now um but uh

00:29:18

Darin Tingey

Probably sick. Probably a little sick too. Yeah.

00:29:37

Stephen Sheffield

But we did a ton with them. So a lot of, ah we hung out a lot with Ronald. We played basketball occasionally. I remember that was my first time eating turtle.

00:29:48

Stephen Sheffield

We helped like um down in Mon Lomar. We helped like cut open the turtle shell, helped cook the turtles.

00:29:53

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:29:57

Stephen Sheffield

And then also I remember skinning a dog one P-Day. That was a that wasn't really interesting, ah

00:30:01

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:30:06

Stephen Sheffield

It was like the one mean dog on the island and all the like all the island, all the boys on the island were like, no, we're done with it. So they just killed it.

00:30:12

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:30:14

Stephen Sheffield

They just killed it and they hung it on a tree and and then skinned it and ah we ate it. So that was that was something I remember killing.

00:30:23

Darin Tingey

They chase it down. Did they chase it down and like beat it?

00:30:25

Stephen Sheffield

No, it was actually no, it was actually it was like almost sadder than that day because it was. it trusted some of the boys. So they just like call it over.

00:30:33

Darin Tingey

ah

00:30:35

Stephen Sheffield

And they just like, put the rope around it and then lifted it up. But it was a mean dog. Like it would it would go after other people. So I think I think the people in Mon Lomar were just like, let's just let's get this thing out of here.

00:30:42

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:30:47

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:30:47

Stephen Sheffield

um I remember hooking.

00:30:48

Darin Tingey

Was it good?

00:30:51

Stephen Sheffield

It was fine. It wasn't like it wasn't like good, but it wasn't bad.

00:30:55

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:30:57

Stephen Sheffield

You know, like I wouldn't order it at a restaurant. But

00:31:02

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:31:03

Stephen Sheffield

it wasn't it It wasn't as odd as I thought it was going to be.

00:31:06

Darin Tingey

It's like chicken.

00:31:06

Stephen Sheffield

I mean, it's just like it was just meat, you know, once it's once it's cooked, it's just kind of like, oh, meat. It was good.

00:31:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:31:14

Stephen Sheffield

um We killed it. We did a lot of pigs as well. They had ah like an old Japanese water concrete water container. that was just like permanently in the ground.

00:31:25

Stephen Sheffield

And so they would they would pour water and stuff in there and we just really muddy and they would just like throw pigs in there and drop food down. like And so I remember occasionally we would do this is great.

00:31:33

Darin Tingey

but

00:31:34

Stephen Sheffield

They had this big long hook, like a pole, like an eight foot long pole with just this huge metal hook on the end. And they would call the pigs. And then they would call the pigs to like where the hole was, and then they would just like hook them in the face and then lift them up through the hole.

00:31:50

Stephen Sheffield

And then someone would be like holding like holding the pig on this rod as the other person like sounds really brutal as the other person but had a knife and was trying to kill the pig yeah and pigs are i'm sure you know that like pigs i didn't know pigs were loud until i saw them almost dying and it was like oh my goodness like they just yell is yelling yell and yelling yelling

00:31:58

Darin Tingey

Yeah, stabbing the heart. Yeah.

00:32:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Screaming and they're probably trying to catch the blood too to eat, to eat the blood. I remember they didn't lie. They like killed it and caught the blood and they they loved it.

00:32:24

Darin Tingey

And a pig was usually a bigger occasion, right? It was usually yeah some sort of celebration, birthday party or house, ah blessing of a new house or something like that.

00:32:28

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:32:37

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I think there were some birthday birthdays while we were there and then also. ah I was on which a for Christmas as well, so that could have been one of the instances as well.

00:32:46

Darin Tingey

Are you there for Christmas? That's awesome.

00:32:49

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:32:50

Darin Tingey

Did you do beat?

00:32:53

Stephen Sheffield

I don't think we.

00:32:53

Darin Tingey

Did you guys dance?

00:32:55

Stephen Sheffield

I don't I don't think we like we like. Not we did avoid Christmas party and we like I mean we did a unit Christmas party and we danced but it wasn't like a so yes, but no in this like it wasn't like an organized beat.

00:33:09

Stephen Sheffield

You know what I mean?

00:33:10

Darin Tingey

Yeah. OK.

00:33:12

Stephen Sheffield

But we danced like we just had a fun like get together and dance.

Cultural Celebrations and Community Generosity

00:33:16

Darin Tingey

Yeah, I think Christmas in the March Islands is probably their best celebration. They like go all out, dance, beat. like Every church is doing their beat, which is basically like lion dancing.

00:33:28

Darin Tingey

like When you think of island dancing, you don't think of beat. You don't think of beat at all.

00:33:31

Stephen Sheffield

yeah I know, it's like, no, not at all.

00:33:34

Darin Tingey

But at the same time, it's so awesome. It's so cool.

00:33:37

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, it's, it's, yeah.

00:33:39

Darin Tingey

Uh, and, and everywhere church, like the whole December, like every night, everyone's just doing their beat and then Christmas day, they all go around, do their own dances from the churches and throw candy.

00:33:49

Darin Tingey

And it's a good time. That's definitely the best celebration in Marshall Islands.

00:33:52

Stephen Sheffield

And I love toe. And everybody, everybody always just says like, like, Merry Christmas in English. It's the,

00:34:00

Darin Tingey

i think

00:34:01

Stephen Sheffield

That's the the best part like there's no there's no I mean, I'm sure there is like a translation But that's like everybody would just knock on doors and say like like Merry merry Christmas was funny Yeah morning morning, yeah I Forgot about that.

00:34:11

Darin Tingey

Yeah, maybe Christmas or and in the morning, everyone said morning, morning, morning, you know, at night, at night, night, good night, night.

00:34:24

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah

00:34:25

Darin Tingey

The best is when they would, there'd be an English word that they would say, and I couldn't figure out what they're saying, like, what are you saying? And they're like, Sam, i'm like, Oh, that's an English word. And, and I tell him, I go, you know, that's an English word, right?

00:34:38

Darin Tingey

And like, no, it's not. It's Marshallese. And I'm like,

00:34:40

Stephen Sheffield

and like We've had this forever.

00:34:42

Darin Tingey

Yeah, I'm like, no, dude that's a, that's an English word that they adopt.

00:34:45

Stephen Sheffield

I know, but it also made me but also made me like feel for them.

00:34:47

Darin Tingey

So funny.

00:34:51

Stephen Sheffield

you know where're like Because like when they're saying an English word and I can't understand it, I'm like, think how much think how much they're struggling to understand me trying to say like like all my Marshallese words.

00:34:59

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:35:05

Darin Tingey

Gosh.

00:35:05

Stephen Sheffield

But fish and rice, we also got a, like a ship came out while we were there to drop off.

00:35:05

Darin Tingey

And, and, uh, what'd you guys eat on? What's a fish and rice, spam and rice.

00:35:15

Stephen Sheffield

I'm not sure exactly what the like government program is, but they essentially dropped off like rations for every household.

00:35:22

Darin Tingey

Oh nice.

00:35:22

Stephen Sheffield

So based on how many people were in your house, we got, um, we got like some canned, some canned fruit. We got some tuna and just like some other like assorted foods.

00:35:35

Darin Tingey

Christmas man.

00:35:35

Stephen Sheffield

that were that were really good. And that and that happened it happened right before I came, and then it happened once while I was there. so we But we ate a lot of fish, a lot of rice, and then there was actually like a relatively well-stocked store on Wuche. I mean, not well-stocked when you compare it to like Majuro, but compared to other outer islands, I think it was well-stocked.

00:36:02

Darin Tingey

That's probably because they had the high school there too. They probably had a lot more food.

00:36:04

Stephen Sheffield

Sure.

00:36:07

Darin Tingey

Was it an actual store or was it like somebody's house?

00:36:12

Stephen Sheffield

It was both.

00:36:14

Darin Tingey

Yeah, they lived in the back.

00:36:14

Stephen Sheffield

It was like, yeah, exactly.

00:36:15

Darin Tingey

They lived in the back.

00:36:16

Stephen Sheffield

It was, but it was a more separate store than like most. And there were actually two.

00:36:21

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:36:21

Stephen Sheffield

So there were kind of two stores. Um, yeah, so we would buy like, I think there were like, every once in a while, while they had them, they would run out as well.

00:36:32

Stephen Sheffield

They had like the Malaysian version of Cheetos or whatever. And we would occasionally buy those, you know, like whatever, whatever snack.

00:36:38

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Love it.

00:36:41

Stephen Sheffield

Maybe things called UFOs. Did you ever eat UFOs?

00:36:43

Darin Tingey

No, I never had them.

00:36:45

Stephen Sheffield

It's just like this. This, it's like a Funyan, but it's shaped like a UFO. It's, they were fine. They were good. Supposed to be like hamburger flavored.

00:36:55

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:36:55

Stephen Sheffield

but Yeah. So that and fish and rice.

00:36:57

Darin Tingey

I've done that. Yeah. Okay. Did you you ever hear the stories before you went on the mission? Like you're gonna have to fish for your food, man. Like

00:37:08

Stephen Sheffield

Sometimes I spill.

00:37:09

Darin Tingey

I remember hearing those, and I'm like, I never had to fish for my food once. Yes, we fished and we ate it for our food, but like I was never going starving.

00:37:15

Stephen Sheffield

Never.

00:37:21

Darin Tingey

Even if like like online, I remember like the food, like silly dwindling. like ah People ran out of rice and flour, which was like the essentials. But like you still had endless amounts of fish in the ocean, coconuts, breadfruit,

00:37:37

Darin Tingey

pumpkin, papaya.

00:37:37

Stephen Sheffield

yeah

00:37:38

Darin Tingey

So it's like I never felt like I was starving or I had to fish for my food or I wasn't gonna eat that day.

00:37:45

Stephen Sheffield

No, I agree. I would never, even now, I think back, like I've heard stories of like, like, Oh, I know somebody who served there. And, um, and like, I've heard that you have to like, like you help, like you help the locals by climbing coconut trees.

00:38:02

Stephen Sheffield

I'm like, what are you talking about?

00:38:04

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:38:04

Stephen Sheffield

I'm like every, I'm like every seven year old in the entire country climbs coconut trees better than I do.

00:38:11

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:38:12

Stephen Sheffield

You know what I mean? Like,

00:38:14

Darin Tingey

I feel like half those stories were like, everyone's parents being proud of their son in the Marshall Islands and Kidderbase and like telling the people in the reward like, yeah, our son had to fish for his food last week.

00:38:14

Stephen Sheffield

Like, yeah, exactly.

00:38:28

Darin Tingey

We haven't heard from him for months, you know, i'm like, okay.

00:38:32

Stephen Sheffield

yeah Like, all right, let it, yeah, it's, but no, I'd say the same.

00:38:34

Darin Tingey

It's it's all right.

00:38:35

Stephen Sheffield

And then also I also don't know if you felt this way, like, like in both the Marshall Islands and in Kitty Bess. like, people are so respectful to just like anything religious that like, like, it would have been hard to go hungry, because people were like even like non members, if we were like walking around, and you like stopped by or walked by someone's house, they might be like, Hey, do you want like, you want lunch?

00:38:51

Darin Tingey

yeah yeah yeah they're like eating their fish and rice and they're like oh here elder eat it and you're like okay like sure thanks

00:39:01

Stephen Sheffield

Do you know what I mean? Like people were so nice. And just like generally respectful of anybody religious. That wasn't really an issue.

00:39:15

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I know. and you and And you can say like, oh, it's

Living Conditions and Infrastructure Challenges

00:39:20

Stephen Sheffield

okay. But then the and if they say like, I think the rule we were told and it's i it's a great rule is like, if you if if you if you're about to say no for a third time, like, don't like just, it's okay.

00:39:31

Stephen Sheffield

Just like don't say no.

00:39:31

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:39:32

Stephen Sheffield

Just be like, thank you so much. Because like, they're trying to be respectful and nice and

00:39:35

Darin Tingey

yeah but I would always, I would always explain to the Marsh's people like yeah in the States, like you may be at your friend's house and they're about to have dinner.

00:39:47

Darin Tingey

And they might say, Hey, do you want to stay for dinner? But you have to just say thanks, but no thanks because they actually don't want you to stay for dinner.

00:39:58

Stephen Sheffield

ah

00:39:58

Darin Tingey

They're just being polite.

00:39:59

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:40:01

Darin Tingey

But in the Marshall Islands, when you actually offer it, they actually mean it. Like here you go, you can have this.

00:40:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, they're so nice. They're so nice. Yeah.

00:40:11

Darin Tingey

And and so your house was was a pretty nice on which a Okay Yeah

00:40:16

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it was um it was like a concrete house. um So it was nice. The downside is that it was really hot um because it was concrete. We also had a lot of centipedes.

00:40:28

Stephen Sheffield

Which was a downside that's so that's something that's something which is known for is these big centipedes they're like this long. um I got I might still hold the record for most bites I got a I think three so not that many but. One on the elbow one on my neck while I was asleep. One also.

00:40:50

Darin Tingey

Oh my gosh.

00:40:50

Stephen Sheffield

tell you exactly where, but I got i got a underneath the garments bite um while I was with Elder Ross.

00:40:55

Darin Tingey

Oh gosh.

00:40:57

Stephen Sheffield

So that was a while while I was sleeping.

00:40:57

Darin Tingey

but

00:40:59

Stephen Sheffield

um

00:41:02

Stephen Sheffield

But the house, besides the centipedes, the house was pretty nice. Yeah.

00:41:08

Darin Tingey

And did you guys have running water?

00:41:12

Stephen Sheffield

We did. We did a running water.

00:41:13

Darin Tingey

Wow.

00:41:14

Stephen Sheffield

There was even an a there was even an AC unit. But um it didn't work while I was there. so But some houses on which they had AC.

00:41:21

Darin Tingey

The, when we say running water, was it like the pontoon? He was like pumped it up to the top and it came down or was it like legit? Like, wow.

00:41:30

Stephen Sheffield

No, there was a well outside with the pump. um And it would occasionally work. It occasionally would not work. But we also had a pontoon, which is where we would like get where we would what we would drink from.

00:41:38

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:41:44

Stephen Sheffield

because the

00:41:44

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:41:45

Stephen Sheffield

I mean, we had like one of those filters on our running water, but it had probably been there for like seven years. So rather than drinking the well water through like this old filter, we figured it was probably better to drink out of the pontoon, which for anybody listening, pontoon is just rainwater. It's just a huge rain, these huge tubs that collect rain. so

00:42:08

Darin Tingey

And I don't know how you felt about this, but I felt like it rained way more in the marsh islands than it did in Kiribati, like way more.

00:42:15

Stephen Sheffield

ah Yeah, I think so even in maybe my last area in Kiribati was um I was on Butaritari and Makin and that That rained it was pretty comparable those rain which makes sense because they're like on the northern end of Kiribati But um, but yeah which a rain more I think than any of the rest of my areas I think that was probably the heaviest rain.

00:42:22

Darin Tingey

Okay.

00:42:30

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Yeah.

00:42:36

Stephen Sheffield

It was also the greenest. It was a really really green place. So I

00:42:39

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah, I definitely felt like the marsh aunts, at least what I experienced, the marsh aunts were a lot more green than in Kiribati.

00:42:48

Stephen Sheffield

I think for the most part, that's true. so

00:42:51

Darin Tingey

And were the bugs bad on what say mosquitoes?

00:42:55

Stephen Sheffield

we They must not have been terrible because we didn't have mosquito nets. We just lit one of those like, like is that a, is that a, yeah.

00:43:03

Darin Tingey

The moon tiger. You're gonna say the moon tiger.

00:43:06

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I was going to say, but it the moon tie guy, I can't remember. is that that's That's what they say in Kitty Bess, right?

00:43:10

Darin Tingey

um yeah that's a a about it's

00:43:13

Stephen Sheffield

what do they What do they call it and in Marshallese?

00:43:15

Darin Tingey

I don't even know because we didn't use them either, but they're just in English.

00:43:18

Stephen Sheffield

it like like to cut Is it like the or something?

00:43:19

Darin Tingey

It's a mosquito coil.

00:43:23

Stephen Sheffield

It might be like the cononym, something like that.

00:43:23

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah, you're right. That's impressive.

00:43:26

Stephen Sheffield

But i I'm not sure if that is true. I could be wrong.

00:43:31

Darin Tingey

I think you're right. No, that's right.

00:43:33

Stephen Sheffield

But um yeah, we would light one of those before we went to bed. And we'd be good.

00:43:38

Darin Tingey

i think I think you and I were both on Outer Islands and the Marshall Islands when it was not mosquito season, because when I went back this summer, I was like, hey, but

00:43:45

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, cool. Oh, is it terrible?

Transition to Kiribati and New Assignments

00:43:48

Darin Tingey

I'm going to go and lie.

00:43:48

Darin Tingey

And they're like, oh, dude, the bugs are insane right now.

00:43:48

Stephen Sheffield

two

00:43:51

Darin Tingey

And I was like, because I was on Myena in the summer in Kiribati and like, man, the bugs were so bad.

00:44:00

Darin Tingey

OK, so we spent a lot of time on which day, but that's OK, because I want to spend time on the Outer Islands because those are the most fun, in my opinion.

00:44:02

Stephen Sheffield

yeah yeah

00:44:07

Darin Tingey

but You get transferred to Long Island. You're in Long Island for how many transfers?

00:44:11

Stephen Sheffield

I think just one transfer, if I remember right.

00:44:13

Darin Tingey

Just one. Okay. Because I was on eBuy for two and then Madro for one.

00:44:15

Stephen Sheffield

how

00:44:21

Darin Tingey

So yeah, that would have made and what have made sense.

00:44:21

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so it would have been because it would have been my fourth your third transfer, right? So yeah.

00:44:25

Darin Tingey

Yeah. and And before we get to transfer to Kidibus, so you're with Elder Anderson, who was from my intake. You were in Long Island. Tell us about your massive foot that you got because because I remember if you've ever, if anyone's ever seen the other side of heaven, you remember in that movie, there's like this guy in Tonga and his foot looks like an elephant foot.

00:44:39

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

00:44:53

Darin Tingey

And that was you, man.

00:44:54

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it was pretty bad. I got like to just what I thought was a mosquito bite and then it turned into like it was like a little like pustural like just like this. Like had a little bit of pus in it and I popped it like an idiot. um Maybe I shouldn't have. I don't know. um But it's like slowly grew and grew and I actually still have this scar. So I have a scar on my ankle that's like ah this big around.

00:45:17

Stephen Sheffield

um from this sore and it would just like bleed out pus. And so I finally, it was so gross.

00:45:22

Darin Tingey

Oh.

00:45:24

Stephen Sheffield

And my foot was enormous. It looked like a foot long from subway, just like so big and fat and gross. And then I went to a, I don't remember who told me, it was one of the senior couples was like, yeah, you should probably soak it in like, like poor hydrogen peroxide on it.

00:45:41

Stephen Sheffield

And I was like, I don't know. Like, Not that I really knew anything, but I was also like, I don't know if you guys really know either.

00:45:47

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah.

00:45:48

Stephen Sheffield

And so I ended up going to Dr. Ackley. So there's a like in the Marshall Islands, who was Bishop of the time of the like Dela border or something. Is that right?

00:45:57

Darin Tingey

Ooh la ga, ooh la ga.

00:45:58

Stephen Sheffield

look award And she, uh, and I walked into his house and he was like, Like, please tell me you have not been putting hydrogen peroxide on this. I was like, I have not.

00:46:08

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:46:09

Stephen Sheffield

And he was like, thank goodness. He's like that when I was like, okay.

00:46:11

Darin Tingey

but

00:46:12

Stephen Sheffield

And so he, uh, he gave me antibiotics and then I would soak my foot every three times a day in, uh, in water with like a little bit of bleach in it until it went away.

00:46:23

Stephen Sheffield

And it took about five days. And he said, like, do not walk on this thing. Like you just sit, like you just stay sitting, stay laying down for five days, take antibiotics. And then the only time you're sitting is when you're soaking it.

00:46:35

Stephen Sheffield

And so Anderson and I were in this tiny chapel house for just like five days, which, um, yeah, it was the small house.

00:46:39

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:46:45

Stephen Sheffield

So we were, we were, yeah, yeah it's a, it's a little place.

00:46:46

Darin Tingey

I lived in that shop. I know.

00:46:50

Stephen Sheffield

And so, uh, it was fine. I think we just kind of like read and hung out for those five days talked. So, um, but yeah, I finally went away. It was pretty gross.

00:47:01

Darin Tingey

That's crazy.

00:47:02

Stephen Sheffield

i wish like I wish I had a picture of it right right now, but it was it was pretty nasty.

00:47:06

Darin Tingey

I remember it. I remember saying I was like, Oh my goodness, dude. Like, that's crazy.

00:47:11

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that unfortunately was not my only... I had my fair share of of foot ah foot problems throughout my mission. I still do, actually. I still have foot issues.

00:47:21

Darin Tingey

She got that checked out.

00:47:22

Stephen Sheffield

Maybe it's a... I know. Maybe it's a curse from my mission, but...

00:47:27

Darin Tingey

And then we, so we talked a little bit about how you kind of kept bugging the APs about Kidovus. They put the Book of Mormon on. And then what was the day you found you found out? Did president just say, Hey, I want to meet with you and Elder Anderson. You guys want to come in?

00:47:43

Stephen Sheffield

It was, yeah, it was just, a it was just, yeah, he he just said, I mean, and we at that time, we had the mold in the chapel house, we were living at the AP's house, which is right next to the mission office. And they'd already given me that hint. And so then Elder Helgenberger and Bird came back and said, like,

00:48:02

Stephen Sheffield

Hey, President Larkin wants to meet with you, Elder Sheffield. And and then I was like, OK, I got it. But i like really had to go and I really had to go in there acting like I didn't know what was going to happen because I don't think they were supposed to tell me or like even indicate to me.

00:48:08

Darin Tingey

Really?

00:48:14

Darin Tingey

Right.

00:48:17

Darin Tingey

yeah

00:48:19

Stephen Sheffield

And then he just said, like hey, we have a lot of missionaries going home from Kitty Bess. And I've been talking with like Helgenberger and Bird. um And like we brought up your name, like dude would you would you be interested in going to Kitty Bess?

00:48:34

Stephen Sheffield

And I said, like yeah, i would be I would be very interested in that. um And i was just I was pumped to go. I think part of the reason as well is ah is that I'd served on the outer island in the Marshall Islands, and there were only two open at the time.

00:48:43

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:48:50

Stephen Sheffield

And so I figured, like I'm not going to get to go out to another outer island in the Marshall Islands. And so then when I was sent to Kitty Bess, I was like, well, That'll be ah like one more at least, right?

00:48:59

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:48:59

Stephen Sheffield

um And I think President Larkin told me not to tell anybody, even Elder Anderson, but Elder Anderson also, he just knew, like I left and he looked at me and went like, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I mean, there was no way he wasn't going to know.

00:49:10

Darin Tingey

yeah It's happening.

00:49:14

Stephen Sheffield

And so then we left, it was just a few weeks after that, right? I mean, it was probably around the same time that it happened for you, right? Did you have a similar

00:49:24

Darin Tingey

Yeah, so I was, so I was other, I was companion to Elder Hansen in Azerothoggy and Elder Peterson was with Elder Robinson also in Azerothoggy.

00:49:36

Darin Tingey

So Peterson picked us up. He's like, Hey, president wants to meet with all of us. Like, okay, whatever. Like he's on island. I guess he wants to meet with us. So we go into, we, none of us had any idea by the way.

00:49:47

Darin Tingey

No, no one had any idea.

00:49:49

Stephen Sheffield

I know that's crazy.

00:49:51

Darin Tingey

So we go in and like one at a time come out or whatever. I remember going in, he's like, oh, the Tingy, I'm losing 20 missionaries in July in Kiribati.

00:50:01

Darin Tingey

And I'm going to send six of you to over there to help out with it. And I was like, wow. guyss like And I don't remember him asking if I'd be interested or like he just told me I was going.

00:50:13

Stephen Sheffield

He's like, this is what's happening.

00:50:15

Darin Tingey

Yeah, it's just like, yeah I'm going to send you to Kiribati and I'm like, wow, like, let's go. Like I've been wanting this, this is sick. And I, I think I asked him like, who who else was he sending? He's like, I can't tell you yet. Like, I don't know. But, uh, we all come out one by one and then we all get in the car.

00:50:33

Darin Tingey

And you know three of us three out of the four of us were going to Kidovus. And so we were all like looking at each other, like, what'd you guys talk about? you know like What'd you talk about?

00:50:43

Stephen Sheffield

yeah Yeah, like yeah

00:50:46

Darin Tingey

And on the hands, it's like, I'm going to Kidovus. And I was like, no way, me too. And Elder Robinson's like, me too. And Elder Robinson's like, dude, it was just like a ketchup for me.

00:50:59

Stephen Sheffield

No, I forgot about that.

00:51:00

Darin Tingey

dead

00:51:00

Stephen Sheffield

I guess that's true. I think President Larkin also interviewed Elder Anderson with like, with I think the hope of like, this is going to mask that anything funky is going on.

00:51:10

Darin Tingey

Yes, yes.

00:51:10

Stephen Sheffield

Like, but yeah, that's so funny.

00:51:14

Darin Tingey

So we didn't know, we knew us three, we didn't know anybody else, and then and then ended up being you, Elder Ras, and Elder Mahanga, which is crazy they brought Elder Ras, because then that means Elder Ras was only on Wuche for two transfers.

00:51:22

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:51:26

Darin Tingey

um

00:51:27

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. Yeah, he wasn't there very long. I guess that's true.

00:51:30

Darin Tingey

And, and I remember I was thinking like, dang, dude, Sheffield and Ross got an outer island in the Marshall Islands before we got into kid abyss, man.

00:51:30

Stephen Sheffield

I mean.

00:51:38

Stephen Sheffield

but but Yeah, that was a lucky.

00:51:40

Darin Tingey

Like the odds, the odds of us, any of us getting a Marshall Islands out around was like very slim at that point.

00:51:41

Stephen Sheffield

ah

00:51:48

Stephen Sheffield

And then I even remember having the hope of like, hopefully since he wants us to learn the language quickly when we get to. When we get to Kitty Best, he'll just send us to outer islands.

00:52:00

Stephen Sheffield

I was like, that oh, we'll see, I guess.

00:52:00

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:52:02

Stephen Sheffield

But I mean, that's what ended up happening. So that was a.

00:52:04

Darin Tingey

Yeah, that's what happened. I remember, so we get there, so we fly to Kiribati.

Adapting to Kiribati Culture and Environment

00:52:10

Darin Tingey

I remember everyone like saying goodbye, like never going to see you again type of deal.

00:52:14

Darin Tingey

Like everyone say goodbye. We get on the plane. It was just an hour ride to Air Nauru. When you flew into Tarawa, like what was your impression? Cause my impression was like, oh my gosh, Tarawa was like so much bigger than Majuro.

00:52:28

Darin Tingey

Like wider, the lagoon is like super shallow and

00:52:29

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. I thought the exact same thing.

00:52:36

Darin Tingey

I was like, whoa, like, and and not a screen. I was like, this is so weird.

00:52:41

Stephen Sheffield

I also I think.

00:52:41

Darin Tingey

And then landing. Go ahead.

00:52:44

Stephen Sheffield

I was going to say, I also think one of my first impressions was that I realized because the Marshall Islands, right, is like kind of associated with the US and Kitty Bess is more like associated with Australia.

00:52:57

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:52:57

Stephen Sheffield

And I thought it was interesting that you could do like even just in the infrastructure, like how the roads are built. Like you could kind of tell that that was the case. Do you know what I mean?

00:53:05

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:53:05

Stephen Sheffield

Like, like the roads don't really look like U.S. roads. I mean, they they have like really nice on top of there's a really, really nice road, but it just looks like something like like you would find maybe in Australia or so it's like the infrastructure just looked different than the Marshall Islands as well.

00:53:23

Darin Tingey

and speed bumps every 20 feet, oh my gosh.

00:53:25

Stephen Sheffield

Oh yeah, that that is a really, that is one really obnoxious thing about that road. Like I get it. I get why they have them. I just don't like it.

00:53:33

Darin Tingey

So, I think i got ah I got a headache driving from the airport to the mission home or to Moroni High School, because it was this huge speed bumps. And then I i freaked out because it was Elder Powell and Hoskins. Hoskins kept turning around and talking to us and he was in what would be the driver's seat in in the Marsh Islands, but since it's Australia, they are like ah they drop on the left side, and I was like freaking out every time he turned around.

00:53:55

Stephen Sheffield

like What yeah dude So I remember because I was so excited to go like I said, I mean and don't give me I know

00:54:01

Darin Tingey

I was like, bro, watch the road. ah did um So we went we went to Marona High School, yeah kind of walked me through that.

00:54:19

Stephen Sheffield

I know in our mission, there's been there's kind of a funny thing we should address it. of there There's sometimes there's sometimes this funny thing of like, Marshall Islands versus kitty best, right?

00:54:24

Darin Tingey

Yeah, we need to go for it.

00:54:31

Darin Tingey

100% not sometimes there always is.

00:54:31

Stephen Sheffield

They're both awesome. that Yeah, they're both awesome. And so I remember, though, like, I did think I felt like interesting going to kitty best and even maybe like, like a slight like, I just felt like the next part of my mission, that's where it should be, like just kind of like a spiritual feeling.

00:54:49

Stephen Sheffield

And then, so I was so excited. And I remember though, going and sitting in church, it was on a Sunday and people were speaking.

00:54:55

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:54:56

Stephen Sheffield

And then it hit me like, Oh my goodness. Like, like I have to do this again. Like, and it wasn't in the same fear I had going to the Marshall Islands of like, am I even going to be able to learn this language?

00:55:01

Darin Tingey

Start all over.

00:55:08

Stephen Sheffield

I mean, granted, I still had so much Marshallese to learn, but by the time we left, like I could talk to people. I was comfortable enough. Do you know what I mean?

00:55:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

00:55:17

Stephen Sheffield

But so when I when we met the kitty best, I was like, I mean, I know I'm going to get it at some point. But then sitting there, I was like, Oh, my goodness, I forgot how how bad it is to like, be sitting here and not knowing anything that's being said and just being so out of the loop.

00:55:33

Stephen Sheffield

um And our first

00:55:35

Darin Tingey

No, I totally get that because because we were so used to like seeing these Islanders and being able to talk to them. And now here we were seeing the Islanders and we couldn't say a word because we didn't know a single word.

00:55:44

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. Nothing. Nothing. Yeah.

00:55:47

Darin Tingey

No MTC training, nothing.

00:55:50

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. So it was just, that was ah that was another wake up call, I guess, of just like, oh my goodness. But it was great.

00:56:01

Stephen Sheffield

So that was kind of my, those were kind of my first impressions of Kitty Bess.

00:56:05

Darin Tingey

And then I remember we met, so Sunday, like you said, we went to church at Marona High School. And then we met with the, they got a new AP and a new zone leader.

00:56:12

Stephen Sheffield

Right.

00:56:16

Darin Tingey

ah And then I think there we got told what items we were going to. So I was going to Myanna, you were going, where were you going? I can't remember.

00:56:28

Stephen Sheffield

yeah this is the i got switched around um yeah with without without any name drops i uh um but uh i was gonna go to abamame so um that's what that's yeah um i was gonna go to abamame but i was in um brota

00:56:33

Darin Tingey

Okay. All right. It's all right. Let's talk about it. Let's talk about it. Hey, no hard feelings anymore. It's all right. Let's let's talk about it.

00:56:49

Darin Tingey

Oh, yes. Yes, you were.

00:56:58

Stephen Sheffield

for like a few weeks before I left Abaneman. And then um the missionaries who went out to Onotoa had to come home.

00:57:05

Darin Tingey

Yep.

00:57:06

Stephen Sheffield

um And it was then that I got switched to Onotoa. So i I got called.

00:57:14

Darin Tingey

So you were, let's see, you spent the night in Bota with me then, right? I think it was you and I that went to Bota.

00:57:20

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:57:22

Darin Tingey

I was there, I flew out Tuesdays. I was there for two nights with you.

00:57:26

Stephen Sheffield

And so I ended up being there for about a week and a half, or maybe two weeks, because I was going to go to Abamame and like a week. But then like the missionaries had to come off of Onotoa. And so we got delayed another week so they could get us our flights or figure out whatever they needed to. And then um Elder Barker, who was going to be my companion. um I mean, he was my companion, but he, we were going to go to Abamame together and then they delayed us out a week and had us go to Onotoa instead.

00:57:55

Darin Tingey

So, okay. I didn't, I didn't realize this because were there two sets of elders on Abamame because Ross went out there with Dale.

00:58:03

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, i think I think there were going to be. i um I don't remember exactly, but I think that was kind of the plan. And then and then that's when the switch this which happened.

00:58:12

Darin Tingey

Gotcha. Okay.

00:58:17

Darin Tingey

And I didn't realize that switch was that fast that the elders, those others got pulled off and then it all changed up.

00:58:23

Stephen Sheffield

It was quick. Yeah, it was like the first E-Day.

00:58:24

Darin Tingey

I didn't realize it was that fast. Wow. Okay.

00:58:27

Stephen Sheffield

That first P-Day is when I found out that they were coming off. And then it would have been a day or two later when um I was notified by, I think, Hoskins that I was going to Onotoa instead of Abamame.

00:58:43

Darin Tingey

Wow. Okay. So.

00:58:45

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:58:47

Darin Tingey

That yeah, I didn't realize that because I was on, I went to Miami so fast and I just, I kind of heard about it when I got back, but I didn't realize it was is that fast. Okay. So Ross, Ross and Dale went to Alabama.

00:58:55

Stephen Sheffield

That was really quick.

00:58:59

Darin Tingey

You went to Ono Toa with Barker, who was in the MTC with me.

00:59:02

Stephen Sheffield

with Barker. Yeah. So he was the, he was one like MTC group behind me. Um, but obviously, I mean, he, and Barker was like excellent at the language for how long he'd been out.

00:59:16

Stephen Sheffield

I mean, he's still just excellent for just in general, but for how long he'd been out, he was like very good at the language.

00:59:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Yeah. He's the man.

00:59:24

Stephen Sheffield

And so, uh, um, he was like my kitty best trainer and yeah.

00:59:31

Darin Tingey

Let's see. And then, ah yeah, it's all right. We can say names. So the Muhammad had originally gone to Arnaud Toa. And then, ah Peterson, do you know where he went?

00:59:38

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

00:59:42

Darin Tingey

Oh, he went to Tab South, right? With Elder Jackson.

00:59:44

Stephen Sheffield

He did.

00:59:47

Darin Tingey

yeah but to m a x And then, where did Hanson go?

00:59:47

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, he did.

00:59:55

Darin Tingey

Yeah,

00:59:55

Stephen Sheffield

I don't remember where Hanson. I think it was Taro Aeta. I think you're right.

00:59:58

Darin Tingey

I think he went to North Toa. Yeah.

01:00:00

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. Yeah, I think that sounds right.

01:00:02

Darin Tingey

Okay. So, so first of all, I'm sure you your thoughts of like that. Well, we can talk about it later, but like way more traditional, especially staying in Bota where there's like dirt roads. There's not really any very many dirt roads in.

01:00:16

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, well, and what does kind of the start of North Ottawa?

01:00:17

Darin Tingey

and

01:00:19

Stephen Sheffield

So it's like a little bit.

01:00:20

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:00:21

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:00:23

Darin Tingey

Okay. And then you fly same thing. Dinky little plane to Onotoa. Did you have any layovers on the way there?

01:00:30

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, we actually stopped in Tab. It was either I think it was Tab South, but it could have been Tab North.

01:00:35

Darin Tingey

wow

01:00:36

Stephen Sheffield

Barker would probably remember because I was trying to figure out what anything meant at that point in time.

01:00:36

Darin Tingey

That's pretty cool.

01:00:41

Stephen Sheffield

But I think we stopped in Tab South and got off the plane for like 30 seconds so we could say like, yeah, we went to Tab South. I mean, who cares? And then that was our only layover. And then we went to, we went to Onotoa.

01:00:57

Darin Tingey

And what was Onato like?

01:00:58

Stephen Sheffield

My first impression of, I mean, Onotoa was awesome. My first impression of it was like, this place is dry.

01:01:05

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:01:06

Stephen Sheffield

Because Onotoa is, um I think it's the, like in order of like islands going to the south, I think the only islands further south than Onotoa are like Beru and then um like, ah what are those last two?

01:01:25

Stephen Sheffield

It's that like Arore, Amena and Arore.

01:01:25

Darin Tingey

so men the menna so and and I'm looking at the map right now.

01:01:30

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:01:30

Darin Tingey

So, Peru's actually northeast of it. So, Onotoa is like...

01:01:33

Stephen Sheffield

Oh it is.

01:01:34

Darin Tingey

Yeah, Onotoa, and then it goes to Menanarude.

01:01:35

Stephen Sheffield

Oh so Onotoa is the furthest.

01:01:38

Darin Tingey

Yeah, besides the Menanarude, yeah.

01:01:40

Stephen Sheffield

Okay, so then it was the furthest south of the island. And so it was like much more dry than Wuche was, which I think took me by surprise. And it was also way like way more.

01:01:49

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:01:53

Stephen Sheffield

And I like I said, I only was on the one outer island in um in the Marshall Islands. But like, something that's interesting, like the difference that like one difference between them is I feel like the outer islands in the kitty best tend to be a little more populated.

01:02:06

Stephen Sheffield

Is that is that accurate?

01:02:07

Darin Tingey

Way more populated. Yeah.

01:02:08

Stephen Sheffield

So So like, like Ono Toa, it took me by surprise because it was like much more populated.

01:02:10

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:02:15

Stephen Sheffield

It just felt like more of like, like there were like several different like, like villages, right? um I mean, they call them like Kawas, but like several different villages. Whereas in, um in Wuche, it really felt like there were like, kind of different villages.

01:02:31

Stephen Sheffield

And there was one called London that was far away. But Ono Toa was just like this really long, like you would from tip to tip, you would bike for hours.

01:02:40

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:02:40

Stephen Sheffield

with like long stretches in between of really no homes. And so that took me by surprise.

01:02:47

Darin Tingey

Did it did anutto also feel like wider than like which chair um or was it skinnies?

01:02:54

Stephen Sheffield

No, so which is, which is really wide, surprisingly.

01:02:58

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:02:58

Stephen Sheffield

So, so Onotoa felt longer but skinnier.

01:03:02

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:03:04

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:03:05

Darin Tingey

And

01:03:08

Darin Tingey

it's I think one thing that's kind of interesting with what I noticed in the Marshall Islands, at least what I saw in the Marshall Islands versus Kiribati, is like the islands in Kiribati, they all connected.

01:03:18

Darin Tingey

like oh not does If you look at it, you said it's like one big island that all connects, versus like Marshall Islands, it was like I feel like all the islands, and they didn't all connect.

01:03:23

Stephen Sheffield

and

01:03:28

Darin Tingey

like you had to

01:03:28

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it was like a plunk here and then here and then yeah.

01:03:32

Darin Tingey

Yeah, which, which I'm like, okay, it's probably easier to populate one that connects, but also kiddos people just don't have the access to like the United States, like the Marshallese people do, they can just come to the US for kiddos, they, they can't really go anywhere, besides maybe Australia or Fiji, but even then they don't, they don't leave.

01:03:37

Stephen Sheffield

For sure.

01:03:50

Stephen Sheffield

Well, and like, yeah, and I do think Yeah, I think there is a little bit more of like a staying culture in Kiribati where people tend to want to stay at their like in like their island.

01:04:06

Stephen Sheffield

right i mean They might move to Tarawa, but there is like

01:04:06

Darin Tingey

Mm hmm.

01:04:10

Stephen Sheffield

At least something night like something I feel like I noticed there was just more like a desire to like, like, you're like, Oh, like I'm from Onotoa, like I want to stay in Onotoa. Like that's like where I'm from. And like a little less desire to move to the main island and exactly why that difference exists. And maybe people who served on other islands in Marshall Islands would tell me like, no, that's the exact same. But I did feel like.

01:04:33

Stephen Sheffield

in Ono Toa, like the outer islands I was on in Kiribati were very much like that. Like people wanted to live there. They like really wanted, this is their home, this is like their heritage.

01:04:42

Darin Tingey

Yeah. Yeah. They're a lot more patriotic and Kiribati than they are in the Marshall Islands.

01:04:48

Stephen Sheffield

I think that's probably true. Yeah, like the, and there' there's like a ah pride for each of, like their island, like their specific island as well.

01:04:49

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:04:54

Darin Tingey

Mm hmm.

01:04:56

Stephen Sheffield

They're like, no, like, like my our my island is the best and this is why it's the best, you know?

01:05:01

Darin Tingey

Even their own village, right? Like this is my village.

01:05:03

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, like this is like, which I mean, like, is great.

01:05:05

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:05:08

Stephen Sheffield

Like I did the same like, like I love Linden. And that's like, you know what I mean? Like, I feel like we kind of something similar in the US as well.

01:05:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:05:15

Stephen Sheffield

So Yeah.

01:05:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah, no, I felt like in Kiribati, everyone's like, Kiribati is the best country in the world. Like, we are the best, right? We love Kiribati. Kiribati the beautiful, right? Kiribati the Boboto. And then, and then the Marshall Islands, like, yeah, they like the Marshall Islands, but they're like, America's so great. Like,

01:05:36

Darin Tingey

My family lives in this state, like they love it. I might go, I'll probably eventually move there. And you're like, I'd always be like, listen, the marshlands is so great, you should stay here. But like, you can't, you can't blame them for trying to get ah for a better, a better life.

01:05:48

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:05:51

Darin Tingey

Whether it's a better life, it's all relative. But no, I felt that. So on a thought, um I just googled it. At least in 2020, population was 1400.

01:06:02

Darin Tingey

So about about 600 more than in which a

01:06:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, yeah, I mean like almost almost double or I get yeah, not quite, but like.

01:06:10

Darin Tingey

Yeah, almost double.

01:06:11

Stephen Sheffield

But it was it was pretty. Yeah, it just felt bigger than what they did. Um, we did a lot of biking, a ton of biking on Sundays. That was where like one of the areas where we would like bike, do church, bike, do church bike.

01:06:25

Stephen Sheffield

You know what I mean?

01:06:26

Darin Tingey

How many villages did you do church in?

01:06:28

Stephen Sheffield

I think we did three.

01:06:29

Darin Tingey

Yeah, in Mayana, we did four in Mayana.

01:06:30

Stephen Sheffield

I think we did three. There was one.

01:06:33

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:06:33

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. So probably, so and there was one that was like the real big one. And then there was one that was just with like one family.

01:06:40

Darin Tingey

Mm-hmm.

01:06:41

Stephen Sheffield

that kind of lived in the middle, like near the high

Teaching and Community Engagement in Kiribati

01:06:44

Stephen Sheffield

school. There was also a high school on Onotoa.

01:06:44

Darin Tingey

Oh, no way.

01:06:46

Stephen Sheffield

um

01:06:49

Stephen Sheffield

It's actually where I got my, there's like these really sought after kiddie best dictionaries that they don't make anymore.

01:06:52

Darin Tingey

I have one.

01:06:55

Stephen Sheffield

yeah Yeah. And there were some in like, like in the high school at Ono Otoa and we would teach we would teach at the school we would teach an English class um Elder Barker and I would and then also like they they even told us like yeah you teach religion too it's fine so we would do like religion in English and we would just like go it was fun and then I think I asked the like the principal like hey do you guys have any of those extra books and he said like

01:07:05

Darin Tingey

Nice.

01:07:20

Stephen Sheffield

you could I felt a little bad. I think I asked him. I could kind of tell he was like, oh, I don't really want to give you a book. But I didn't ask again.

01:07:26

Darin Tingey

ah

01:07:27

Stephen Sheffield

and and But it looked like then he was like, yeah, it's not a big deal. So he's like, yeah, you can have a book. And I was like, thanks.

01:07:31

Darin Tingey

You booboo seed him?

01:07:33

Stephen Sheffield

I didn't even boo boo see. Yeah. So I just asked, I literally asked, like, which maybe is like the same. Yeah. So like the boo boo see culture, right? Is like, if you boo boo see, like, like ask for something,

01:07:47

Stephen Sheffield

it's like you're asking for it but really you're like you're kind of pressuring you're like putting on the pressure yeah you're like give it to me so i think i intentionally avoided saying the term vuvuzi i think i literally just asked like do you guys have any more of these books like i've really like i like would really love to have one i'm trying to learn kitty vest like and i think

01:07:52

Darin Tingey

like give it to me? Yeah.

01:08:07

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:08:10

Stephen Sheffield

So it was probably about as strong of a non-booboo scene as I could give without booboo scene, but it is what it is. I still have the book, so I can't regret it too much.

01:08:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:08:21

Darin Tingey

That's awesome. I i have to shout out shout out Elder Hoskins because he gave me his he was kind enough to when I when I first got there because I was going to my Anna and he is sort of my Anna.

01:08:26

Stephen Sheffield

ah

01:08:30

Darin Tingey

He's like, listen, you're gonna I'm finishing my mission. Here you go. And ah Yeah, it was it was perfect He's the man What was Yeah, yeah

01:08:37

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, he's he's he gave me his pocket knife, actually. He had a really awesome pocket knife that before he said, I'm not going to be on any other outer islands. Here you go. And he just gave it to me. So yeah, he's a nice fellow. Also, ah I was going to say, I'm sure Elder Barker, because I think I hadn't been there for very long when I asked for that dictionary. So I'm sure I put Elder Barker in a really awkward situation who probably had to like help translate what I was trying to say. And he was like, but yeah.

01:09:06

Darin Tingey

So, um, you talk about teaching religion in school. So, uh, is, uh, what it's called.

01:09:12

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:09:14

Darin Tingey

It's, it's, it's basically seminary. It's basically just like seminary at a school.

01:09:17

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:09:19

Darin Tingey

So we, I remember we did it consistently at one school on manna, but then like once every three weeks at a different school, uh, did you, how many schools did you guys, would you guys do that at just one?

01:09:31

Stephen Sheffield

Just the one. I did one. Yeah, one in Onoto. I also did like Tiacan Diaro and in Butaritari as well.

01:09:39

Darin Tingey

Yeah, which is pretty cool.

01:09:39

Stephen Sheffield

But there's not a high school there. Yeah. It was it was really cool and it felt it was cool because it didn't feel like. I don't know how to explain it it almost felt like a world religions class like not really but like the goal wasn't necessarily to like convert to like all these high school kids because like we talked about earlier there away from families that's going to be like messy but like I feel like the goal is just to be like hey look this is like.

01:09:57

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:10:06

Stephen Sheffield

Like this is kind of what we believe and a lot of the kids would come to like ours one week and then go to like like Protestants and Catholics would do it as well. So they would like rotate.

01:10:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:10:14

Stephen Sheffield

They would like rotate classes. So it was kind of cool that it was like it almost felt like a hey, just so you guys know the difference between these religions. Like this is what. Yeah, it was cool.

01:10:25

Stephen Sheffield

I really enjoyed that.

01:10:26

Darin Tingey

yeah when We only had a few kids that were like actually members of the church. The rest were all just like, I want to go like listen to these white guys. you know like

01:10:34

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, we did. did you guys we did get an unfortunate amount of like 17 year old girls that would like just like um oh you have actually now that i yeah i'm trying to remember if the high school might even be a middle school so maybe they were like i don't know but like there were a lot of a lot more girls in the class and look neither not

01:10:42

Darin Tingey

We didn't have a high school, we didn't have a high school so we didn't have that.

01:11:01

Stephen Sheffield

I'm sure we're just like, oh, look, like white guys.

01:11:04

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah.

01:11:04

Stephen Sheffield

But we only went to one.

01:11:06

Darin Tingey

Dude, so good. And then, um so how many schools were there roughly?

01:11:13

Stephen Sheffield

um ye I think it was now that i we're talking about it, I think it was a junior high.

01:11:14

Darin Tingey

But one high school and then where a bunch of primary schools are like a couple of them.

01:11:20

Stephen Sheffield

um But there were quite a few like primary schools. um I'm not sure how many. We never did like

01:11:27

Darin Tingey

And did they... Go ahead.

01:11:30

Stephen Sheffield

I was saying we never did like Tiacan Teato at any of the primary schools in Ononotoa, just the middle school.

01:11:34

Darin Tingey

Okay. So how how many members roughly would you say? fornata

01:11:40

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, probably about 20 as well. Pretty similar, I think, to Wuche. The main...

01:11:46

Darin Tingey

And, go ahead.

01:11:49

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, no, go for it.

01:11:51

Darin Tingey

I was just gonna say, so 20 members, was the work difficult on Onethoa? Was it easier? Was it?

01:11:56

Stephen Sheffield

The work was pretty difficult on Ononotoa, and again,

01:11:59

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:12:00

Stephen Sheffield

Elder Barker probably took the brunt of that. um But we were like whitewashing it, right? um Because we replaced both missionaries. and so and the the area book was like kept relatively well, but also like area books.

01:12:18

Stephen Sheffield

It's just hard because it's been there for years and there isn't really a great place to keep it and papers are falling out. So the missionaries had done like a relatively good job at keeping it, but it was just like hard to pick through it all.

01:12:28

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:12:29

Stephen Sheffield

And then one of the struggles just in both like Marshall Islands and Kitty Bess with the area book is like people move around so much that like There's not really an address anyway.

01:12:40

Stephen Sheffield

And then when there is an address, even from like six months ago, it's like, when they're like, they live next to this thing, you like go and they're like, Oh, he's gone now.

01:12:50

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:12:50

Stephen Sheffield

And it's like, Oh, okay.

01:12:53

Darin Tingey

Yeah, unless they're like established families that have been there for a while, like it's going to change so much.

01:12:59

Stephen Sheffield

Exactly.

Transfers and Companions in Kiribati

01:13:00

Stephen Sheffield

Exactly.

01:13:00

Darin Tingey

Uh, and, and how long were you on Onato?

01:13:05

Stephen Sheffield

It was. Was it just one transfer? I think I was on one with OFPRO, just one transfer.

01:13:10

Darin Tingey

No way. One transfer.

01:13:12

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I think I was just there for six weeks um because um I think they wanted a, I mean, really, I think there were just like people moving.

01:13:14

Darin Tingey

That's quick.

01:13:17

Darin Tingey

and it Yeah, go ahead. Tell me.

01:13:25

Stephen Sheffield

And then I think they, I'm pretty sure President Larkin wanted Elder Barker to be zone leader. And so.

01:13:30

Darin Tingey

Hmm.

01:13:32

Stephen Sheffield

And so it was like, so we got taken off, but also a though like the work there was just really hard. Like there wasn't a lot going on. And so I think that was part of it is like, look, there's just not a ton happening there.

01:13:43

Stephen Sheffield

Um, and so like, let's take these guys off.

01:13:43

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:13:45

Stephen Sheffield

And so I was just there for one transfer.

01:13:48

Darin Tingey

Because I know it was like pretty Protestant, right? The southern islands are very Protestant.

01:13:51

Stephen Sheffield

Very, very, very.

01:13:52

Darin Tingey

And then and then the northern islands are very Catholic.

01:13:53

Stephen Sheffield

Yep.

01:13:56

Stephen Sheffield

Yes.

01:13:57

Darin Tingey

And the middle, middle is kind of all

01:13:57

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. In the middle. Yeah, so it's kind of fun because I got to see the furthest southern islands and then also the furthest, my other outer islands are the two furthest northern islands in Cribes.

01:14:07

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:14:08

Stephen Sheffield

So it was kind of, it was an interesting, pretty interesting difference.

01:14:12

Darin Tingey

So you got from Onotoa back to Tarawa and where are you transferred to.

01:14:15

Stephen Sheffield

Back to Tarawa. I'm transferred to Beso. So I was transferred to Beso with Elder Barons. And it was funny because Elder Barker was in Beso. And he, I mean, he like before he came to Onotoa, Beso was where he was trained.

01:14:29

Darin Tingey

Hmm.

01:14:29

Stephen Sheffield

and then he went to Tarawaita and then he came to Onotoa. But he was like, man, if we're like, I just hope I'm not going back to Be so like he enjoyed his time there. But I think he just like it felt I mean, Be so is like the Be so is like the city of like, it's just this really crowded, like, everything is packed together.

01:14:49

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:14:52

Stephen Sheffield

It's not very pretty. It's just like this. It's like the city of Kiribati. And so He was like, I hope I don't go back there. And he told me that a few times then we got back and they were like, Oh, elder Sheffield, you're going to base. So, and bar, I know the record's like, you're gonna love it. So I tried to like, trying to like backtrack, but I honestly, like to this day base. So I was there for a very long time. And I like, I love base. So like that is maybe the most fun I like ever had. It was just like,

01:15:25

Stephen Sheffield

just this really crowded. We didn't have bikes. So you would just walk everywhere and you would run into so many people.

01:15:29

Darin Tingey

I heard.

01:15:32

Stephen Sheffield

And like there was always something happening in base. So I really loved base.

01:15:38

Darin Tingey

I never went to Beiso when I was on Tarawa, because i I think I was on Tarawa for a total of five days, but from what it sounds like, I liken it to Ibi in the Marshall Islands, which you didn't get the experience, but but same thing, like so crowded, like very poor, so many people, and it's just like so fun, always something going on there.

01:15:43

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. I never went to. Yeah.

01:15:59

Darin Tingey

and the you know there's probably So many people, it so many missionaries, so you're all just kind of like there, together, having a good time.

01:16:08

Stephen Sheffield

So fun. Yeah, one of like like just a good illustration of it is I remember walking home one time And there were like, there were like 60 kids, like ages like six to 11, like lined up on the side of the path. And they were all holding like, it started like a week earlier. There was like a kid holding like a piece of rolled up cardboard and he was like hitting another kid with it. And I don't know if like word just got around, but there was like, it was like these 60 kids and they like literally built two teams and they each had like, they all had like these cardboard, just like cudgels. I don't even know what you'd call them.

01:16:42

Stephen Sheffield

And then they were just like yelling and they'd even just, he they'd yell like, God, they, for cardboard, they say like, costbo right.

01:16:49

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:16:50

Stephen Sheffield

And they, uh, and they were just like, like slamming each other with, which is a ton of fun. So they were just like, like, it was like a cardboard war. Like a big nerf battle, basically, except it was just all cardboard.

01:17:00

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:17:03

Stephen Sheffield

And so like crap like that was just like always going down in base, which was fun.

01:17:07

Darin Tingey

That's so fun. And so you've been there for a long time. How how how many transfers?

01:17:12

Stephen Sheffield

Ooh, was it four or five? I so I served. um I served in two, I served in Bezo first ward and Bezo second ward. um And so I was in first ward with Elder Barons.

01:17:27

Stephen Sheffield

And then I was transferred to second ward with, um

01:17:30

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:17:34

Stephen Sheffield

oh, when was I with Elder Otto? I think he was, I don't remember the order of, I was with Barron's, Otto, Butcher and Sangapulu during that, uh, during my base-o time.

01:17:46

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah.

01:17:47

Stephen Sheffield

And I think I was with Otto. Yeah, that's what it was. I was with Barron's and then Elder Otto in base-o one. And then I was with Elder Sangapulu and then Elder Butcher in base-o two.

01:18:00

Stephen Sheffield

So I think it was either four, I think it was four transfers.

01:18:00

Darin Tingey

So you got...

01:18:04

Stephen Sheffield

I think I was two transfers in each.

01:18:04

Darin Tingey

Okay. You got Elder Otto right after he was companions with me.

01:18:08

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:18:11

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, off of Mayana.

01:18:11

Darin Tingey

Elder Otto said, yep, yep.

01:18:14

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, that's right. And then Barons went home. So Barons was in his last, I was his last companion.

01:18:21

Darin Tingey

Okay. And then from Beso, you got transferred to Butaradari and Makken, or no?

01:18:27

Stephen Sheffield

No, from Baso I went to, I went to Bandrayabe.

01:18:31

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:18:32

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, i was I was with Elder.

01:18:32

Darin Tingey

What's remind me where boundary is.

01:18:35

Stephen Sheffield

It's like, it's, um Trying to think like exactly how to describe it. It's near Ambo, so like it is. It's like where the mission office is.

01:18:47

Stephen Sheffield

The mission office is in. um I don't remember if the mission office is technically in Ambo, where Bon Vallebe. It's in one of the two, though, but they're right next to each other.

01:18:54

Darin Tingey

It's yeah, it's past eight. They're like towards base. Oh, right.

01:19:00

Stephen Sheffield

Yes, yeah, it's in between eight.

01:19:00

Darin Tingey

Like, almost to Beto?

01:19:03

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, close, you still you would still have to go through um like Bayadifi. um

01:19:08

Darin Tingey

and Okay.

01:19:09

Stephen Sheffield

But yeah, I think it's Bezo and then Beiriki and then Bandrayabe and then Ambo is my memory.

01:19:12

Darin Tingey

Just shows you how much time I spent on Tarawa, man.

01:19:14

Stephen Sheffield

There could be one other in the mix.

01:19:19

Darin Tingey

I don't think it went...

01:19:19

Stephen Sheffield

I know.

01:19:20

Darin Tingey

I went to the mission office once, that was it, and... But yeah. So, and then, okay, so you're there for a transfer, too?

01:19:25

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so. I was there for two transfers, one with Elder Winnig and then one with Elder Pratt.

01:19:36

Darin Tingey

Awesome, great elders, that's awesome.

01:19:38

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I mean, honestly, i as far as companions go, like

01:19:44

Darin Tingey

You some good ones.

01:19:44

Stephen Sheffield

lucked out pretty big. like All my companions were great, which means, what does that say?

01:19:51

Darin Tingey

Which means you were the bad one.

01:19:52

Stephen Sheffield

I mean, maybe, yeah, maybe I'm the bad one, exactly.

01:19:57

Darin Tingey

Gosh, so I want you over for another hour plus, because I want to talk about buter tere makin, but we can briefly touch on it, maybe we'll bring you back on another time, to talk about it. but ah

01:20:06

Stephen Sheffield

and whatever whatever you want to do.

01:20:07

Darin Tingey

both at that

01:20:08

Stephen Sheffield

I'm not in like a, sheet whatever you want to do is fine.

01:20:08

Darin Tingey

but But let's talk, let's talk about it.

01:20:10

Stephen Sheffield

Like do whatever.

01:20:12

Darin Tingey

So from there, you go to brutality.

01:20:13

Stephen Sheffield

Okay, let's go. Yeah, this is actually a funny, ah like a funny story. So there was a, I had made like joke after joke as well, that I wanted to go like to Blutaritari.

01:20:26

Darin Tingey

This guy getting his way by just whispering in the APs ear.

01:20:29

Stephen Sheffield

And, and I think that's the key.

01:20:30

Darin Tingey

This is where I want to go.

01:20:33

Stephen Sheffield

You never, You just gotta to live with them never be one but you live you live next to him.

01:20:38

Darin Tingey

That's right. that's right

01:20:40

Stephen Sheffield

And so i ah i would make jokes that like i wanted to go to put that he thought in my kid and i think i even had like an interview with president larkin.

01:20:47

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:20:49

Stephen Sheffield

Where he was he just like a catch up and he was saying like yeah. like what kind of like what areas have you served and i told him and he's like yeah what kind of areas did you enjoy and i i was like i'm just gonna shoot my shot like whatever and so i think i literally just said like yeah i loved like like onotoa and wuche like or i liked all my areas but like i would love to and i think i literally just was like i'd love to go to another outer island and he was like okay like i'll like i'll note it down we'll see like what happens i was like okay and i was like oh we'll see and so a little while later um i i was told early before transfers because of the way that transfers worked, um that I was leaving before transfers to go to Butaritari.

01:21:00

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:21:19

Darin Tingey

You dog.

01:21:33

Stephen Sheffield

And they were like, you cannot tell anybody. Like, only you and Elder Pratt can know. And so um we would travel down sometimes and do district meeting in Beso, where Elder Fulbrook was, I think, like district leader at the time.

01:21:48

Stephen Sheffield

And so we traveled down there. Me and Pratt did. And I think they asked, like, It was like, hey, are there any like updates with transfers? um And I had just said like, oh, because I mean, because we live with the APs, like maybe we'd know.

01:22:02

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:22:02

Stephen Sheffield

And and I was like, yeah, the only thing we know is that like, I'm going to Bhutari Tari and everybody and everybody was like, haha like, like, yeah because I'd made that joke like 100 times.

01:22:12

Darin Tingey

ah

01:22:14

Stephen Sheffield

That's everybody was like, yeah, right. OK. And then I was gone by the next district meeting and I was and then I replaced Elder Rongo.

01:22:19

Darin Tingey

That's awesome.

01:22:22

Stephen Sheffield

on Butaritari and he was in my place and everybody was like what the heck like so yeah I did get to go to Butaritari thank you to I think it was probably Elder Murray and Elder Barker who really who really pushed for me to go there so thanks to them yeah uh

01:22:35

Darin Tingey

Let's go.

01:22:37

Darin Tingey

And who was your companion on Puter Tari?

01:22:40

Stephen Sheffield

first companion was Elder Clark did you ever meet Elder Clark yeah he's a lot of fun really awesome guy um

01:22:43

Darin Tingey

Okay. I don't think so.

01:22:49

Stephen Sheffield

So he was my first companion. I was with him for a transfer or two. And then um Elder Puliani replaced him.

01:22:58

Darin Tingey

Yep.

01:22:59

Stephen Sheffield

And I was also kind of interested. I was on Bhutaritari and Makin at the same time. We would go back and forth between the two.

01:23:05

Darin Tingey

Yeah, tell me about how that how that works because Butaritari is pretty big, at least like on the map. And then Makien is just north of it, pretty small.

01:23:17

Darin Tingey

Let's

Mission Work and Personal Stories in Butaritari

01:23:18

Darin Tingey

see what the population is.

01:23:18

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so. Yeah, my kin is really little. um Yeah, let me know what you find out. That is interesting.

01:23:27

Darin Tingey

What is your guess? What is your guess?

01:23:29

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, I actually just looked it up as well. Sorry, I cheated. it's like nineteen It says it's 1,000.

01:23:34

Darin Tingey

Butaritari... It says 3,000.

01:23:37

Stephen Sheffield

My kin says it's 19.14. That surprises me.

01:23:41

Darin Tingey

Wow, that's so it's actually pretty, that's bigger than Onotoa.

01:23:42

Stephen Sheffield

but

01:23:45

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, but I'm trying to think of that. I mean, maybe that's right. That seems shocking to me, though. um There's also some confusion because if I'm not mistaken, I think Bhutari Tari and Ma Kin used to be called Ma Kin.

01:23:59

Darin Tingey

Hmm.

01:24:00

Stephen Sheffield

Not by Kiribati people, but by non-Kiribati people. like I think it was all just seen as Ma Kin from like an outsider's perspective.

01:24:04

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:24:09

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:24:10

Stephen Sheffield

um But yeah, we would go we would switch about every two weeks. So the reason it was like that is Ma Kin at least what was like a smaller population. And Makin is like the most Catholic of all of the islands. So it was like historically missionary work in Makin had been very, very difficult. Like a lot of people, it was they were less likely to want to talk to you. The Catholic Church was extremely strong there. um And so there hadn't been missionaries on there for a while. But we were told like, just go there every few weeks and just like see what's up.

01:24:44

Stephen Sheffield

um And so we would boat back and forth about every two weeks.

01:24:47

Darin Tingey

That's so sweet.

01:24:48

Stephen Sheffield

And we ended up just kind of like there's a member in Makin named Neipapada who is hilarious like this really old lady um who is she's so funny and she she's been like a longtime member of the church.

01:25:03

Stephen Sheffield

There's a really fascinating conversion story of like this this dream where like the like mother Mary came and led her to the temple that she'd never seen and just like this really wild incredible story and so she was like just this really stalwart member and we got there and she said like when we first met her she's like my daughter and her husband finally decided that they want to take lessons like I like and so we met them and they were they were awesome they like

01:25:14

Darin Tingey

Wow.

01:25:32

Stephen Sheffield

They weren't just like, we're going to join the church because like we've already decided. They just like wanted to hear and wanted to listen. And they ended up like, but so we taught them for a very long time.

01:25:44

Stephen Sheffield

um And they ended up getting baptized. But it was it was this weird thing because we were like couldn't just leave them. So we ended up going to Machin every two weeks because they were like like the people we were teaching who were progressing the best.

01:25:54

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:25:59

Stephen Sheffield

And like and so We're like, we have to go back and forth. And so there was less work on Makin for sure. But at the same time, like that like that couple was such like a like such a reason to go back there.

01:26:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah. They were just, they were prepared and ready and, and yeah.

01:26:15

Stephen Sheffield

um

01:26:17

Stephen Sheffield

They were prepared and ready. And yeah, they were.

01:26:20

Darin Tingey

time

01:26:20

Stephen Sheffield

And the one thing about Makin as well is that because the Catholic Church is so strong, mo like the members in Makin are just seriously incredible. like they are Like, because they would have some persecution.

01:26:33

Stephen Sheffield

they I mean, persecution, Kiribati in general is a nice place, right? Like, people are nice. um And so, like, but more persecution than you would have in maybe almost any other island, except like Tamana and Arora, obviously.

01:26:39

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:26:49

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:26:49

Stephen Sheffield

But like, but they were like very, very strong members of the church and super, super close knit. And we'd only have one church, like the island was small enough that we only had one meeting.

01:27:00

Stephen Sheffield

and So much fun. So I, I loved Makian. I love Bhutari Thari too, but it was about maybe 45 minutes, something like that.

01:27:06

Darin Tingey

how how How long was the boat ride from Putaritari to Maquen?

01:27:14

Darin Tingey

That's not bad.

01:27:14

Stephen Sheffield

And there was a member, a member in Bhutari Thari who would take us back and forth, whose son, whose son was on a mission.

01:27:20

Darin Tingey

Oh, wow.

01:27:24

Stephen Sheffield

But he he ah he told us when I first met him, like I have zero interest in joining the church. He's like, but I want to have you guys over for dinner because my son's on a mission and I I want to get to know like what you guys do. And I was like, OK. And so he would we would just pay for gas and he would do it for free.

01:27:38

Stephen Sheffield

We would just go and buy the gas and bring it to him. And then he would boat us there and back. So nice.

01:27:43

Darin Tingey

That's awesome.

01:27:44

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:27:44

Darin Tingey

I'm surprised you guys don't have enough gas to do that. Like sometimes those islands don't have enough gas.

01:27:49

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so. That was cool, though.

01:27:52

Darin Tingey

And where did you guys, where did you guys stay on Bhutarikari? I'm looking at the map right now.

01:27:58

Stephen Sheffield

Oh man, I would have to, I would have to look at the map here, remember the name of the, like the Kawa.

01:28:00

Darin Tingey

Was it, was it more on the middle of the island or kind of more northern or more?

01:28:08

Stephen Sheffield

Uh, it was close to the middle, but I think closer to the southern end, if I remember right. Let me find it on a.

01:28:18

Darin Tingey

Again, like I'm looking at the map of Buteratari, and like it's all like connected. but i mean There's look there's like one in the middle.

01:28:24

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so Butaritari is very, very long.

01:28:25

Darin Tingey

There's two parts.

01:28:28

Stephen Sheffield

We like, oh man, this map isn't giving me the names of the villages. But um yeah, we stayed pretty close. Like if you see on there, you can see the ah like the airfield.

01:28:41

Stephen Sheffield

And we we were like a 10 minute bike ride ah from the airfield.

01:28:45

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:28:47

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so we we were actually pretty close to the middle now that I'm looking at it because we were we were

01:28:48

Darin Tingey

this

01:28:53

Stephen Sheffield

I guess like east of the airfield.

01:28:58

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, east of the airfield and then for church we would ah we didn't there weren't really any members at the like very eastern end but there were at the um the western end.

01:28:59

Darin Tingey

Okay. Okay.

01:29:11

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:29:13

Stephen Sheffield

So unless I have that backwards but I'm pretty sure I don't.

01:29:14

Darin Tingey

And was it just you and your companion out there? Cause I know at some points they started putting more than two mission, uh, more than one set of elders on, I think I'm boot early daddy.

01:29:26

Stephen Sheffield

Wouldn't surprise me. Butaritari is huge. so like um But no, when I was there, it was just the two of us.

01:29:29

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:29:33

Stephen Sheffield

So the the two of us were covering both islands, which was a lot of fun. um It also made it work hard in some ways. But it was it was a lot of fun.

01:29:41

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:29:44

Stephen Sheffield

and

01:29:46

Darin Tingey

A lot of success on or not so much.

01:29:49

Stephen Sheffield

um not Not much, honestly. like A lot more on makin, honestly.

01:29:53

Darin Tingey

Hmm.

01:29:55

Stephen Sheffield

um And I think the reason for that is just that, like we taught people in Bhutari Thari, I didn't see, I know of some people we taught that ended up getting baptized later.

01:30:07

Stephen Sheffield

um but on bo But on Makin, because it was just such like a tight-knit group, like the members, the members were honestly incredible at like, like people would come to church um and member, like they would stay because members would just like bring them in.

01:30:20

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:30:24

Stephen Sheffield

And then we there was also quite a bit of lesson like like less active work on Bhutaritari, or sorry, on Makin. A fun ah fun story is I remember like running into this guy on in Makin, and he said, like oh, you guys are the elders. How was Thomas S. Monson doing? I was like, what the heck?

01:30:48

Stephen Sheffield

And I was like, oh, he's actually like passed away. like There's another prophet now. And he's like, yeah, i was like ah like i was a member like like I was a member of your church.

01:30:52

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:30:55

Stephen Sheffield

I got baptized. I was going to go on a mission. And I was like, dude, what?

01:30:58

Darin Tingey

No way.

01:30:59

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. and like this And he's like, yeah, I ended up like, like I started dating this other member. um She had gotten pregnant. He couldn't go on a mission. and just so like And then they moved out to Makin, because that's where he was from.

01:31:13

Stephen Sheffield

um And they were now going to like the Catholic Church. and And he was like, just come over for dinner sometime. like I can't go back to church. like like Our families are Catholic. like It just won't happen.

01:31:23

Stephen Sheffield

like um And so we went over and we talked with them.

01:31:24

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:31:28

Stephen Sheffield

And maybe this is wrong. um' But they I asked, do you guys want this Book of Mormon? And he was like, no, we're OK. And i think i have like I remember having that kind of a feeling, like dude, just just leave the Book of Mormon.

01:31:40

Stephen Sheffield

Just act like you forgot it. And I slid it under a pillow. And I just left it. and then And then I ran into him two days later walking like another time. And he was like, he's like, dude, you left that Book of Mormon.

01:31:52

Stephen Sheffield

And he's like, I started reading it. I'm coming back to church.

01:31:55

Darin Tingey

No way.

01:31:56

Stephen Sheffield

He's like, yeah, I was like, what? And he said, like, he he was really funny, really incredible guy. And he would always say like, yeah, because this church is, he would always say in English, like, like this church is worldwide, baby, like worldwide, baby is what he would say.

01:32:11

Stephen Sheffield

And so we ended up, they were able

01:32:12

Darin Tingey

And the Catholic Church does it. The Catholic Church does it.

01:32:14

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I know that's another that's another funny part. I'm like, well, but he uh They ended up getting we were able to they we were able to help them get like a marriage license and they got married They had a kid they had um one kid and then she was pregnant um and they got married and they like very quickly were like taken in by the unit there in Macan and um Yeah, so much fun

01:32:19

Darin Tingey

ah

01:32:41

Darin Tingey

That's awesome. i and And you mentioned the the story of the dream. I felt like that was a big thing and the islands is like, even on the Marshall Islands side and Kiribati side, they very much paid attention to their dreams and their dreams very affected their their faith, which I thought was really cool. Cause I feel like in our culture in America, we don't really do that as much.

01:33:02

Darin Tingey

um

01:33:02

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I agree. And like I myself have never had like a dream like that. But it is.

01:33:08

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:33:08

Stephen Sheffield

It's cool. like

01:33:10

Darin Tingey

It's probably because we just don't really believe in it as much ah culturally.

01:33:13

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:33:15

Darin Tingey

And so we probably just don't have them, you know?

01:33:18

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it could be.

01:33:18

Darin Tingey

ah And then from, so actually, let me ask you this, Bhutari Thari is known for their beautiful women. Did they actually do they actually have more beautiful women there?

01:33:28

Stephen Sheffield

ah

01:33:32

Stephen Sheffield

Well, it depends. It's.

01:33:35

Darin Tingey

Mission, put your mission goggles back on really quick.

01:33:38

Stephen Sheffield

All right, let me know they are. So the reason they're known for more beautiful women is because the women are lighter skinned.

01:33:46

Darin Tingey

Mmm, interesting.

01:33:47

Stephen Sheffield

That's like that's the reason they're known for it, right? Because like, and there's like this fascination in Kitty Bass and kind of in the Marshall Islands, it's just like, like white people in general.

01:33:56

Darin Tingey

Yep.

01:33:58

Stephen Sheffield

right? So I don't know if the the women in Bhutari Thari were any better looking, or necessarily like, like, I think it was just like, like, I think they were just had lighter skin.

01:34:09

Stephen Sheffield

So kitty best people like said like, Oh, like that means that means good looking like that in there like, like, right?

01:34:11

Darin Tingey

That's interesting.

01:34:19

Darin Tingey

That's fine.

01:34:21

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it was kind of funny.

01:34:21

Darin Tingey

Cause the Southern islands are like really dark, right?

01:34:24

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I mean, the further south you go, I think the darker generally.

01:34:24

Darin Tingey

Like, which would agree.

01:34:27

Stephen Sheffield

But like, I wouldn't say, I mean, I even looking back now, like, without mission, al I think generally, like, I think, like, could you best people are like, pretty, like, are pretty people, like, I think they have like a really like a pretty look to them, like a really pretty look.

01:34:43

Stephen Sheffield

But I wouldn't say that, like, this island was more pretty than that island. I'm not even saying that just to be like, like,

01:34:50

Darin Tingey

yeah interesting

01:34:51

Stephen Sheffield

kitty best politically correct or whatever I just like but genuine genuinely I wouldn't say that I think it just is because they're lighter skinned they got that reputation once like they started seeing white people they were like oh with because they're lighter skinned up north that means like yeah it's funny

01:35:10

Darin Tingey

They're prettier. It is interesting like which islands are like lighter skin, darker skin, because like in the Marshall Islands, Wijai, which is close to life, they're super dark.

01:35:22

Darin Tingey

and And you're like, I don't understand why that island is so much darker than Lai than other islands.

01:35:22

Stephen Sheffield

Really?

01:35:29

Darin Tingey

And same thing with the Kidabas, like why is it the further south south I go, the darker they get that it just I don't know. It's it's kind of funky. And it put that in my kid are really close to the southern tip of the Marshall Islands.

01:35:41

Stephen Sheffield

Very close, yeah.

01:35:42

Darin Tingey

um And so it culturally like Marshall Islands and kid abyss culture is super different language is different. And Like even sometimes their way of life, like their houses are different.

01:35:57

Stephen Sheffield

Definitely.

01:35:57

Darin Tingey

Like traditional houses, even even like ah a hat, a thatch house in the Marsh Islands is different than in Kiribati, which is so interesting. And they look so different.

01:36:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, it is kind of odd.

01:36:06

Darin Tingey

They look different too. I remember coming back from Kiribati to the Marsh Islands and I could tell right away who in Madro was Kiribati and who was Marshallese.

01:36:14

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, for sure.

01:36:14

Darin Tingey

You could just tell.

01:36:15

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, there's there's definitely there's definitely a different look.

01:36:15

Darin Tingey

You could just tell so fast.

01:36:19

Darin Tingey

But if you hadn't served in Kiribati, you wouldn't have known. Like I don't think I would have known.

01:36:22

Stephen Sheffield

Yes. Agreed.

01:36:23

Darin Tingey

ah Okay, so and then what was my kin known for I forgot Interesting Okay So a lot of mosquitoes

01:36:26

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:36:30

Stephen Sheffield

Oh, Makin is known for like having a lot of lakes. Like, like, they say like nae nae like it like it's nae nae, which is just like, I mean, not like literally lakes, like puddles, I should say, like a lot of like, it's just puddly. Um, there were a lot of mosquitoes. One of the worst nights of my life was ah Elder Puli and Elder because the house in Makin is also a is just like a cement block.

01:36:59

Darin Tingey

Oh dude, those are so hot.

01:37:00

Stephen Sheffield

but It gets so hot and so and it was also like loaded with mosquitoes so we would just like like one of the like the moon tigers every night. but we We got home and we were out of the pool and I were and then the store was obviously closed.

01:37:16

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:37:17

Stephen Sheffield

because we just come back from dinner. And so we were like, oh my heck, there's like not like, there's no escaping the mosquitoes right now. And we didn't have any way to hang up our mosquito nets. And so we were going to go sleep on the beach because it was windy.

01:37:30

Stephen Sheffield

And then we got there and it was high tide.

01:37:30

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:37:31

Stephen Sheffield

So we couldn't sleep on the beach. And we came back and we had to pull because we had like these little metal beds that you would like lay like ah the mat, like the key on, right?

01:37:39

Darin Tingey

Yep.

01:37:41

Stephen Sheffield

And there was like this much room underneath it. And so i we took like our mosquito nets and pulled them over the top and then weighed them down with books. And each slept on the concrete like underneath underneath those like those beds. And it worked, but I was i think I had like my arm against it. And so I woke up with my arm just being like decked with mosquito bites.

01:38:05

Darin Tingey

Every evening on my Anna, I got scared. Cause like the sun would go down and you heard the mosquitoes just wake up and like come from the forest.

01:38:14

Stephen Sheffield

Like you know Yeah, yeah it was Did

01:38:16

Darin Tingey

And you're like, Oh my gosh, like here it comes. And I just got absolutely wrecked every night. And we lived in a, we lived in a stick hut. So like there were, you know, there, they were coming in.

01:38:27

Stephen Sheffield

you guys wait so did you guys have you guys had nuts did they Gotcha, yeah that deminits

01:38:32

Darin Tingey

We had nets. i Well, I honestly didn't use my net because it was so hot.

01:38:40

Darin Tingey

So I would, but like everyone in the village use their nets, everybody, but I would just like get like two two moon die guys and just light them up like right next to me.

01:38:48

Stephen Sheffield

I just hope it would cover it.

01:38:50

Darin Tingey

Yeah, but I would get rekt dude. I'd say like, if anyone that is listening to this and like getting about to go on their mission to the Marsh Islands or Kedibus, like bring, uh,

01:39:03

Darin Tingey

rash and bite cream like for the mosquitoes.

01:39:08

Stephen Sheffield

yeah

01:39:08

Darin Tingey

That was huge.

01:39:11

Stephen Sheffield

and Also, I know that you do get used to it. I don't know. Like mosquito bites started, stopped lasting as long.

01:39:15

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:39:19

Stephen Sheffield

Like by the end of my mission, a mosquito bite would go away faster. I don't have no idea what like the, like the scientific reason behind that is, but it's a thing like.

01:39:29

Darin Tingey

Yeah, I mean the kiddos will and the the island people live with it every day. So I guess you can get used to it.

01:39:33

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:39:38

Darin Tingey

And let's go jump back to Onator really quick. What was Onator known for?

01:39:42

Stephen Sheffield

ah They're known for wrestling. Yeah, like the bowman is what they call it.

01:39:45

Darin Tingey

Interesting.

01:39:46

Stephen Sheffield

So like, they're also just kind of known for being like, like, they're just kind of known for being like, this like, like guys, guys, like, that's kind of like, like that vibe, like, like they can, like, they're the handyman, they're the wrestlers, they're like the, I don't know if that makes sense.

01:39:46

Darin Tingey

oh Yes, yes.

01:39:57

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:40:03

Darin Tingey

They're the manly men. the the manly men

01:40:05

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, they're like, they're just like, they're just like, they're men, like, that's just, that's like their thing. So that was kind of cool. Um, I obviously never did any wrestling. I would have gotten eaten alive.

01:40:14

Darin Tingey

They're the manly men.

01:40:15

Stephen Sheffield

Um, but there were missionaries who did like elder Graham. I know when he was out there, did like a wrestling thing, which is cool.

01:40:22

Darin Tingey

That's so fun.

01:40:22

Stephen Sheffield

Yes.

01:40:23

Darin Tingey

That's so cool. And then um after Bhutar Tarimakin, back to Tarawa.

01:40:30

Stephen Sheffield

Back to Tatawa for, I was back, went back to base. Um, actually for, I think two weeks. And then I had also thrown a Hail Mary to

Final Reflections and Mission Conclusion

01:40:43

Darin Tingey

Did.

01:40:44

Stephen Sheffield

that um I was like, hey, I think I sent an email with to President Larkin just saying like, hey, if there's any way I could go back to kitty or to the Marshall Islands for like my last two weeks, that'd be awesome.

01:40:55

Stephen Sheffield

And he was traveling back and he said like, yeah, okay, like you can hop on the plane and I'll go like, and I was like, great. And so I ended up um going back to Long Island. where I had served for my last two weeks um of my mission. um A lot of fun. I guess I should say, when I was back in Kitty Bess, when I was back in Bay, so I was with Elder Shainer, which was a ton of fun as well. um And then I went to back to the Marshall Islands, to Long Island. And um I was going to be with Elder Johnson from my group.

01:41:32

Darin Tingey

Yep.

01:41:32

Stephen Sheffield

um And I even remember, I remembered thinking like, I hope that, I hope that president Larkin doesn't think that like, like oh older Sheffield can still speak Marshallese just fine. Cause my Marshallese, I was, it was rough.

01:41:44

Darin Tingey

I remember when you coming back and you're like, I don't remember any of this.

01:41:45

Stephen Sheffield

And so yeah, I was, I mean, cause I'd been, I'd been in Kiribati for like a year and a half at that point.

01:41:52

Darin Tingey

Yeah, it's a long time.

01:41:52

Stephen Sheffield

Um, and.

01:41:56

Stephen Sheffield

And so then Elder Johnson got moved and I was, he he made me comp companions with Elder Kanga, I think is his name, right? We were only companions for, really nice guys.

01:42:04

Darin Tingey

It's right. Yup. From Kidovus.

01:42:06

Stephen Sheffield

Well, he's from Kitty Best. And so I think the understanding of like, yeah, and you can like help this guy learn Marshallese and like, and I was like, Oh my goodness.

01:42:08

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:42:14

Stephen Sheffield

And I got back and I also, they had me give a talk in church that was like, I was like struggling to, to give that talk. But, um,

01:42:25

Darin Tingey

Did you go to the Kidovus branch?

01:42:27

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, we also did do that and one of my ah oh, yeah, that's your that's your thing, huh?

01:42:33

Darin Tingey

That's my baby, yeah.

01:42:34

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah That's your thing.

01:42:34

Darin Tingey

I started that when I came back from Kidovus.

01:42:37

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so I did we did go to the kitty best branch and one of the teachers at which a at that point in time was now living In maguro and she was part of the kitty best branch.

01:42:46

Darin Tingey

Bonnie.

01:42:47

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, so I saw her again. Um Oh

01:42:51

Darin Tingey

She lives on eBuy now. When I just went back in August, her her and her family live on eBuy. She's a teacher on eBuy.

01:42:55

Stephen Sheffield

and

01:42:58

Stephen Sheffield

Okay, cool. So it was fun. And then there were some Kiddy Best people I met while I was in Long Island the first time. There was a guy named, I think his name was Benny. And I went back and saw him.

01:43:10

Stephen Sheffield

And I was like, guess what, man, I think I said it in Kiddy Best. And he was like, what the heck? Like, dude. And so we were able to talk in Kiddy Best, which was a ton of fun.

01:43:14

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:43:18

Stephen Sheffield

Being with Elder Kanga was fun. We got it we had a car as well just because it was like you president larkin basically just said like if there are any kitty best people that want lessons like you guys have that too right like then you just drive like no matter where it is it on like like on the island just drive to them so we had a car and i think the first time i drove it

01:43:26

Darin Tingey

Yep.

01:43:40

Stephen Sheffield

like literally Like literally on accident, I pulled out and was driving on the left side of the road with Elder Kanga.

01:43:44

Darin Tingey

but my side Yeah.

01:43:47

Stephen Sheffield

And so he didn't say anything because it didn't even occur to him. And then we ah we were driving in a car was coming that way. And and we and he was like, oh. And I like swerved to there.

01:43:57

Stephen Sheffield

it I mean, it wasn't that close, but it was just it was funny.

01:44:01

Darin Tingey

Yeah. i yeah and i and I remember being in Long Island after I came back from Kidabus, starting the Kidabus branch, and he was like, yeah, you can go anywhere on Madro.

01:44:02

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:44:10

Darin Tingey

I'm like, anywhere? He's like, anywhere. I'm like, sweet.

01:44:12

Stephen Sheffield

It's so awesome.

01:44:13

Darin Tingey

So we got a car, we went to Laura, because there were some Kidabus people in Laura. And like, president was like convinced that every Kidabus person on Madro was going to come to church because it was in the Kidabus language.

01:44:27

Darin Tingey

And I was like, listen, like as much as they want to hear church in their language, they're not going to come if they're not members, right? like They're still like either very Catholic or very Protestant.

01:44:38

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:44:40

Darin Tingey

I mean, we eventually did have some success. like there were some Kidbus baptisms. But ah I think the most the the best thing I got out of that was like, I got to meet every Kidbus person on Madro.

01:44:54

Darin Tingey

And so I would be like walking, ah like I'd be at the grocery store in Della, and they'd be like, Oh, you speak Kidbus and then they're like talking talking to me in Kidbus again, you know,

01:44:58

Stephen Sheffield

ah

01:45:02

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah. supposed yeah

01:45:05

Darin Tingey

uh which was a good time but it was like at first just like trying to speak kiddabus and marshales and go back and forth and like separate them my brain was like so hard at first do um were you happy that you finished in the marshlands or were you kind of like uh maybe i should just finish in kiddabus

01:45:13

Stephen Sheffield

It's hard. So hard. um I was really both. um I was happy in the sense of like, it was fun to go back to Long Island.

01:45:31

Stephen Sheffield

Is it Bishop Levi? Is that the name of the bishop who's there? He was so nice.

01:45:34

Darin Tingey

He yeah, he just got released just barely like and two months ago.

01:45:36

Stephen Sheffield

and Wow, that is a long time.

01:45:40

Darin Tingey

Yeah ah and Yeah

01:45:41

Stephen Sheffield

and So he was my he was the bishop when I was there the first time, and it was fun to see him again and talk with him again. um and Then it was really fun to see like all of you guys again and everybody from my group.

01:45:52

Stephen Sheffield

um It was a hard last two weeks in the sense of like my Marshallese language just was nowhere near as good as my Kitty Bess language.

01:46:01

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:46:01

Stephen Sheffield

So that was hard. And then also I did feel like, which I was fine with. I was like, I'm here for two weeks. Um, I did feel like to a lot of the other missionaries, I was just like automatically like, like just like this trader.

01:46:13

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:46:14

Stephen Sheffield

You know what I mean?

01:46:14

Darin Tingey

Yeah, totally.

01:46:15

Stephen Sheffield

Cause like. Because I had, it and it was known too, because like, when I had six months left in my mission, I was asked, like, do you want to go back to Marshall Islands or do you want to stay in Kitty Bess?

01:46:27

Stephen Sheffield

And I'd been in Kitty Bess for a year. And I was like, you know what, I'm going to stay here. And I think it was known as well that I had made that decision. And so when I came back, I did also feel like I'm like, yeah, like to a lot of these people, it's like, this is like, this is like the traitor of the Marshall Islands.

01:46:35

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:46:43

Stephen Sheffield

Like he, He left the kitty vest. He stayed in kitty vest. Like how could he do this?

01:46:47

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:46:49

Stephen Sheffield

Which, and again, like I said, I even knew before I came back, like when I asked him to come back to the Marshall Islands, I was like, yeah, that's what, that's going to be the case. But I don't like it's fine. Like, um, I knew it was going to happen.

01:46:59

Darin Tingey

Yeah, you knew it was going to happen. And especially, I mean, like, and like, especially guys in your intake and like, Elder Johnson, or I'm going to have him on as well. But like, he was basically told by the APs that he was going to go to Kiribati and then last minute president, like change it up and sell the Ross.

01:47:14

Stephen Sheffield

hold the fast one.

01:47:16

Darin Tingey

and And I think yeah i mean that best with him mentally, I think, as it would any of us, right? It's like getting told you're going to Outer Island and you're pumped about it.

01:47:22

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, for sure.

01:47:25

Darin Tingey

And then you're like, actually, never mind.

01:47:25

Stephen Sheffield

And then all of a sudden it's like the rugs pulled out. Yeah, I think no doubt and but it was I'm happy I did it because it was a lot of fun to see.

01:47:29

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:47:35

Stephen Sheffield

Like, and there's still several people from my intake that I'm like very close with, right? um Like, particularly, like, like I've

01:47:41

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:47:45

Stephen Sheffield

talk with, at least it's been a while now since I've talked with Teal, but like we were very close in the MTC and on the mission and it was just like fun to see him again as well and just like go home with them, like that who I came here with and it's fun to see you again, Ross again, I mean everybody, but like, um yeah.

01:47:50

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:48:04

Darin Tingey

Yeah, i think like I think like the thing of like you and almost like feeling like a traitor type of deal was like, okay, the people the people that got sent to Kiribati, we all came back eventually.

01:48:12

Stephen Sheffield

hu

01:48:16

Darin Tingey

I mean, Ross and I didn't have a choice. Like it was like, hey, stuff happened in the Marshall Islands.

01:48:19

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:48:23

Darin Tingey

We need you guys back.

01:48:24

Stephen Sheffield

To go back.

01:48:24

Darin Tingey

Like we don't we just don't have enough missionaries here that like, that I don't know how to say that, but like,

01:48:33

Stephen Sheffield

Got it.

01:48:35

Darin Tingey

Like we need some more stability, some more missionaries here. We need you guys to come back. And like, and the way, like I didn't, I wasn't asked, like I was just told. And and I was super sad about that. Cause I wanted to spend like a little bit longer in Kiribati. I wanted to meet some more missionaries there. I wanted to spend some time on Tarawa.

01:48:54

Darin Tingey

Or I was like, man, if I go to Christmas, I'd be sick. um But like, in the end, like, having the kid bus branch for three transfers made it all worth it to me.

01:48:57

Stephen Sheffield

Right.

01:49:06

Darin Tingey

And then I got to go to an outer island in the Marshall Islands, which was amazing, my favorite island. But like, I came back, Ross came back, then Peterson came back to be AP.

01:49:17

Darin Tingey

I think he was also told to come back.

01:49:17

Stephen Sheffield

And no, so that's Oh, okay.

01:49:19

Darin Tingey

I'm not sure if he was asked.

01:49:21

Stephen Sheffield

So that's where That's funny. Yeah. So no, the story is that we were both asked and Peterson Peterson decided to go back and then I decided to stay in Kitty Bess.

01:49:29

Darin Tingey

Ah.

01:49:33

Stephen Sheffield

So I thought as well.

01:49:33

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:49:34

Stephen Sheffield

So maybe I'm wrong. I thought that that was known. And that was like part of like the like, look, like Peterson, like Peterson chose the Marshall Islands. Sheffield chose Kitty Bess. Like that's the, which again, I don't regret what I did at all.

01:49:48

Darin Tingey

Yeah, sure.

01:49:49

Stephen Sheffield

yeah I have like, I have like zero and I loved like, I loved with that it that he I loved my kin.

01:49:50

Darin Tingey

Yeah, you see that.

01:49:57

Stephen Sheffield

And to this day, I mean, right, ah like, obviously, like my kitty bass is still better than my Marshallese, like with, ah I still like, I stay in contact with people from kitty bass better.

01:50:02

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:50:07

Darin Tingey

Sure.

01:50:07

Stephen Sheffield

um And like, it's just like a bigger, probably a bigger part of my life, just because I was there for, I was there for three times as long. And so I

01:50:17

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:50:19

Stephen Sheffield

But yeah, so Peterson was also asked. um

01:50:21

Darin Tingey

I think the difference though was like Peterson was going back and like he was becoming AP and like president and president was like, I'm sure he was a little pressured. Like, Hey, yes, you have the choice, but like, I need you to come back and be AP.

01:50:31

Stephen Sheffield

That could be true.

01:50:36

Stephen Sheffield

I'm sure that that could be true. I even remember having this conversation with Peterson at a when after we'd both been asked at a P day and I said like Peterson, you know, like like if you go back like.

01:50:43

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:50:48

Darin Tingey

Yeah. It's going to be AP.

01:50:48

Stephen Sheffield

you're gonna be AP. Like, don't you want to go to another outer island? And he was like, I mean, Peterson, he was kind of yet but he was like, I mean, I think he said like, I like I kind of want to go where I most needed or something along and like credit to him.

01:50:53

Darin Tingey

He kind of got screwed.

01:51:03

Stephen Sheffield

Like, I mean, he is like a absolute like, is he's just a great guy.

01:51:03

Darin Tingey

Yeah. is He's a saint. He's the man.

01:51:10

Stephen Sheffield

And so and so I think he probably I maybe you're right, like maybe felt some pressure to a Maybe not. He also really loved the Marshall Islands. I mean, I did too, but...

01:51:21

Stephen Sheffield

um Yeah.

01:51:23

Darin Tingey

he He, he also, um, yeah.

01:51:27

Stephen Sheffield

He'd been there longer than me too. Like he was in the Marshall Islands longer than I was before coming to Kitty Best.

01:51:32

Darin Tingey

Yeah. And I will say we did need him. We did need him on the Marshall Islands side. Yeah. So for like, for those who don't know, like, or, or maybe they're going on their mission to the Marshall Islands, kid was like Marshall Islands.

01:51:43

Darin Tingey

We only had like 30 to 40 missionaries max, like 40 at the max. And, um, I think like a little bit of like the Marshall Islands versus kid of us feel was like, okay, kid of us had like 80 to a hundred, maybe max a hundred at the most.

01:51:57

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, yeah i don't I don't know if it ever hit 100, but it was certainly a lot more than the Marshall Islands.

01:51:59

Darin Tingey

And.

01:52:03

Stephen Sheffield

There was just more places where you could put them.

01:52:04

Darin Tingey

Yeah, there's more people. And so that for that reason, more outer islands were open. And like in our mission, like you wanted to go to an outer island. And so like president didn't open outer islands as much in the Marshall Islands because there wasn't many people.

01:52:19

Darin Tingey

And probably because let's be honest, like the missionaries were a little more rough in the Marshall Islands, a little more disobedience.

01:52:25

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, there was some.

01:52:28

Darin Tingey

But eventually he did. Eventually, we had seven open at one time, which was the most ever in the Marshall Islands, at least during my during our time.

01:52:34

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah.

01:52:36

Stephen Sheffield

Probably still is.

01:52:37

Darin Tingey

um Yeah. And it took President a while to get there, but I think it was good he realized like how much better it was for the mission versus shoving everybody on Madro.

01:52:47

Darin Tingey

That was like the worst thing ever.

01:52:48

Stephen Sheffield

Like all the drama can happen.

01:52:50

Darin Tingey

Yeah. um And so like that was kind of like the thing. It was like, oh, Kiribati is a little more traditional, more island-like that you would think. But also missionaries get trusted more to go to outer islands and stuff. And I think like once we had the outer islands open more in the marsh islands, it was less. So about like this versus that. But then also president favored Kiribati more because the work was better. There was more missionaries there. And and big frankly, because he was trying to get a temple there, which he did.

01:53:18

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, and getting a temple in the Marshall Islands is getting the temple in the Marshall Islands is almost impossible just because it's limited by the population of the Marshall Islands, right?

01:53:19

Darin Tingey

Which, I mean, that was his goal.

01:53:28

Darin Tingey

That's right, that's right.

01:53:29

Stephen Sheffield

Which is a real big bummer because the work in the Marshall Islands is also like very solid. There are a lot of members, but I think it's just as it's just a smaller country.

01:53:37

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah. So I was happy you came back because I got to see you. And and I think like, you and I and like Peterson and Hanson and Ross kind of have like a little bit of like a closer knit, tight knit thing because big because we got transferred there and and back and like got to experience both and and kind of got put through the wringer, starting our missions over again.

01:53:49

Stephen Sheffield

For sure.

01:54:00

Darin Tingey

And like we we could talk about the differences between Kiribati Marshall Islands.

01:54:02

Stephen Sheffield

Oh.

01:54:07

Darin Tingey

I don't know about you, but I but i thought Kiribati was a lot easier of a language to learn than Marshallese, but

01:54:12

Stephen Sheffield

I agree. i I don't know how much of it is because I'd learned Marshallese. Does that make sense?

01:54:18

Darin Tingey

Fair.

01:54:19

Stephen Sheffield

But I do think even even objectively looking back, I do think Kitty Bess is a slightly less complicated language than Marshallese.

01:54:19

Darin Tingey

Yeah, no, totally.

01:54:27

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah.

01:54:27

Stephen Sheffield

So I would guess it's a little bit easier to learn.

01:54:30

Darin Tingey

And it sounds easier in the ear versus like, marshals is like mumbling back of your throat, like slurring, cannabis is like a lot more enunciating.

01:54:36

Stephen Sheffield

Agreed.

01:54:39

Stephen Sheffield

It's like like sharper noises.

01:54:41

Darin Tingey

Yeah, yeah, dude.

01:54:42

Stephen Sheffield

Like a lot of K's and T's and.

01:54:44

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:54:44

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, but yeah, I. Yeah, ultimately, I was I was pretty happy I came back and like, I got to see the people that I wanted to see and that I knew would also want to see me.

01:54:55

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:54:55

Stephen Sheffield

And then I felt like that's like, like really all I cared about.

01:54:59

Stephen Sheffield

You know what I mean? I was like, I just want to see like, the people I want to see again before I go home. So that's a that's such a hard question.

01:55:04

Darin Tingey

All right. Last question. What was your favorite Island?

01:55:12

Darin Tingey

Favorite Island.

01:55:12

Stephen Sheffield

Um, the island as a whole, like the whole thing.

01:55:17

Darin Tingey

Yep.

01:55:19

Stephen Sheffield

Um, I think I got a, I think I got to give it to my kin.

01:55:24

Darin Tingey

Okay.

01:55:25

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah, I think, I think they got to give it to my kin. I just had so much fun. Like the members were so incredible. Um, we played, like did so much tight knit things.

01:55:35

Stephen Sheffield

And I felt like, I think of my kin, I felt like work was slow. But like work was like would really, really last. like People who were interested and people who came back with like this such this strong support from the members, like I just felt like it was like i don't know like like lasting like a much more like lasting conversion experience um for me.

01:55:45

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:55:53

Darin Tingey

Yeah.

01:56:01

Stephen Sheffield

And I kind of I kind of liked the smallness like how small the island was like just being able to like be everywhere so quickly and seeing the same people all the time so.

01:56:05

Darin Tingey

yeah

01:56:12

Stephen Sheffield

I guess I gotta give it to my kin yeah.

01:56:13

Darin Tingey

That's awesome, man. Well, Steve, it's been two hours. Thanks so much for being on.

01:56:17

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah sorry to.

01:56:18

Darin Tingey

Well, I could talk to you. No, I could talk about it for hours. So thanks for being on. And this is another great episode of that one's podcast. Thanks so much, Steve.

01:56:28

Stephen Sheffield

Yeah thanks man.

01:56:30

Darin Tingey

Bye.