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Episode 38: Matt & Cole Breckenridge - Kiribati - Marshall Islands
60 Plays8 days ago
Two brothers, Matt and Cole Breckenridge, each got called to the islands — one to Kiribati, the other to the Marshall Islands. Though they served years apart, their experiences on remote outer islands created stories neither of them will ever forget.
#MarshallIslandsMajuroMission #MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #MarshallIslands #Kiribati #Majuro #Ebeye #Tarawa #Lae #Butaritari #Tabiteuea #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia
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Transcript
Introduction of the Breckenridge Brothers
00:00:00
Darin Tingey
All right, we are on with another episode of the Islands Podcast. Today, we've got the Breckenridge brothers, which i I was excited to say that. I think it's sick because these two brothers served in the same mission, a little bit different experiences, but same mission.
00:00:12
Cole B
so
00:00:18
Darin Tingey
So we got Matt and Cole Breckenridge. Matt, how about you go first? Give a little intro on you.
Mission Experiences in the Marshall Islands
00:00:24
Matthew
Yeah, so I got called to serve actually in the Marshall Islands Margero Mission Kitabas region. So that was actually the call that I got.
00:00:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah. What year was that? Okay.
00:00:35
Matthew
That was in 2017. So I got called in 2017 and i went to the Kitabas region, which is now it's the Marshall Islands Kitabas mission. So I went to Kitabas and I served from September of 2017 until July
00:00:51
Matthew
Yeah. so I mean, I guess that's a, that's the little intro for that one.
00:00:53
Darin Tingey
Okay.
Matt's Background and Education
00:00:55
Matthew
So
00:00:56
Darin Tingey
and And you're living in Utah now
00:00:59
Darin Tingey
and
00:01:12
Matthew
yeah, went to BYU, graduated business management, and kind of, I think it was, Right as I was graduating, Cole, correct me if I'm wrong.
Cole's Mission and Educational Pursuits
00:01:22
Matthew
I think as I was graduating, that's when Cole got his mission call, right? Because I think you're over 20, 23 to 25.
00:01:27
Cole B
okay
00:01:29
Matthew
So yeah, so I was basically graduating, right? All of sudden, Cole was doing that kind of stuff.
00:01:35
Darin Tingey
Okay, very cool. So Matt, you and I served at the same time.
00:01:39
Matthew
Mm-hmm.
00:01:39
Darin Tingey
I think I was just a year ahead of you. So we spent overlapped a year.
00:01:44
Matthew
Mm-hmm.
00:01:44
Darin Tingey
And then Cole, give a little little intro for you.
00:01:49
Cole B
got called, started July, 2023, came back May, 2025. yeah,
00:01:56
Darin Tingey
Did you also leave from Missouri?
00:01:56
Cole B
yeah i was, no, I grew up of Missouri for most of my life. So born in Arizona, but then grew up in Missouri like that. And then once I got to high school, like basically right whenever I went to high school is whenever we moved to Texas. So I tell everyone I'm from Texas, I'm from San Antonio.
00:02:13
Cole B
that's where I left, but I grew up a lot in Missouri.
00:02:14
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:02:16
Cole B
So.
00:02:17
Darin Tingey
Okay, cool. And now you're BYU currently?
00:02:18
Cole B
Nah.
00:02:21
Cole B
Yes. IBIU studying chemical engineering.
00:02:25
Darin Tingey
Very cool. All right. And I did obviously didn't serve with you, but I got to see you while you're on your mission, which is another cool cool thing.
00:02:32
Cole B
Yes.
Language Challenges and Learning Methods
00:02:35
Cole B
Yeah.
00:02:36
Darin Tingey
And I remember Matt cold being, asking me like a question right before I left because that's where I saw you.
00:02:42
Darin Tingey
He was like, Yo, which language is harder, Marshallese or Kitabas? And I was like, Marshallese.
00:02:47
Cole B
perfect
00:02:48
Darin Tingey
He's just like, yes, I can't wait to tell Matt that.
00:02:53
Darin Tingey
Do you remember me asking me that, Cole?
00:02:55
Cole B
I'm sure I did. i feel like I probably asked you that in front of the stake building, probably.
00:02:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:03:03
Cole B
That's probably when i asked you, and you were like, yeah, Marcia's hard. I was like, let's go, let's go. i knew it was hard.
00:03:10
Cole B
okay okay, but like, preface, my parents were always dogging on me for Matthew being fluent and like... three months. So whenever I was at like a year and was like, I still don't know anything.
00:03:22
Cole B
was like, come on. You at least got to throw me a bone here.
00:03:24
Cole B
So you're like, yeah, you're just like the goat missionary flew not through us. I was like, bro, come on. There's gotta be something about this. There's like no way that we're brothers. And he's like that much better than Like, come on.
00:03:34
Darin Tingey
Matt, did the language just come to you super easily?
00:03:39
Matthew
I would say my parents definitely, I think as all parents do, over exaggerate a little bit, right? They try to hype up for your kids. So I wouldn't say like fluent in three months, but I would say like probably between like the four and six month mark, I felt confident to like, if someone said, hey, go teach a lesson or go do a whole day and just like you're leading and all that kind of stuff, like I could do it.
00:03:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:04:17
Matthew
no one really speaks English out there. So if I want to learn something, it's basically writing down every single freaking thing. And then at the end of the day, asking my companion, okay, so I kind of know like 20 words that were said today.
00:04:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:04:29
Matthew
And now here are like the 40 that I didn't know. And so that was something that helped me out.
00:04:32
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:04:34
Cole B
Thank you.
00:04:35
Matthew
And there was also one family that we went and did service for like every Tuesday and Thursday. and they weren't a member. They were Catholic and stuff, but they loved the missionaries and stuff.
00:04:46
Matthew
And they kind of adopted me as like their son because they could tell I was like struggling and like trying to figure out what the heck is going on. And I would actually practice with like the mom and like the dad because they actually like spoke like decent English, like enough to kind of like...
00:04:59
Darin Tingey
huh
00:05:01
Matthew
say, oh, hey, here's what this word is or describe stuff.
00:05:03
Matthew
And so I would say because of that, I got kickstarted and jumpstarted probably with my language skills. I mean, I do have to agree. i do think martialese is probably harder just from what Cole says and talks.
00:05:03
Cole B
yes
00:05:17
Matthew
I'm like, I have no idea what the freak that is. And also, you know, Kitabas only has like 13 letters in the alphabet, right?
00:05:20
Darin Tingey
Mumbling.
00:05:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:24
Matthew
So I would say there's a lot less language it's a lot less complex, but you do have to know what people are talking about, like the situation.
00:05:32
Cole B
Thanks.
00:05:34
Matthew
sos you really have to be situationally aware of the Kitavus language. So I think there's a give and take, but yeah, I would think between four to six months was probably like where I felt good.
00:05:40
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:05:44
Matthew
Obviously, like by month, I would say probably like month 13 15 or that's where i was like, okay, I'm not really learning a lot of words. So I would say that was probably like where i was like, cool.
00:05:56
Matthew
Now I really feel like I'm pretty fluent in that. So.
00:06:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think the advantage of Kitabas, at least during our time, there were so many more Outer Islands open in Kitabas than there were in the Marshalls, especially when Cole served post-COVID.
00:06:04
Cole B
Thank you.
00:06:14
Matthew
Mm-hmm.
Immersion and Fluency in Mission Languages
00:06:29
Darin Tingey
And, but no, it's still so impressive, like how quickly you were able to pick it up. I think starting on the outer island, like you said, has made a huge impact, which is, I think all those missionaries were always lucky that they got to start on an outer island. Some, some feel otherwise, but Cole, at what point did you think that you, like you felt comfortable with Marshallese?
00:06:50
Cole B
I think like 18 months.
00:06:51
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:06:52
Cole B
Yeah.
00:06:53
Darin Tingey
And is that while you were on Lai? Yeah.
00:06:56
Cole B
was like right after I got off live that I was like, okay, I know it's like i know what's up, you know?
00:06:58
Darin Tingey
Right after, okay.
00:07:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:07:02
Cole B
Even though I was still like learning a lot of stuff, but i felt like comfortable when I got off a lie.
00:07:07
Darin Tingey
Would you say it was harder on you speaking or understanding?
00:07:16
Cole B
I would say, I think understanding was harder because I could definitely like say things. I could say things to people would understand what I was saying, but I wasn't confident in it. Until after going to Bi, but I mean, part of that was because like, whenever I got there, the guy that was there, just had like, I absolutely love the guy now and I loved him a lot. He was his companion. i was like super excited to be his companion.
00:07:38
Cole B
He had like a, like a mystique around him that like nobody could figure out what like his past was like. Like he wouldn't talk about life for the mission, just like the most serious missionary out there. So I was like, all right, was all right, my plan is, and I'd already want to do this like some of my other companions. This was like, I'm just going to only speak Marshallese. And I was like, I know if I only speak Marshallese that this guy is like, I know that he'll open up and he'll like start telling me everything like nobody else knows about him, you know?
00:08:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:01
Cole B
So as soon as I touched down and lie, I just went like, like i said what's up to Caden. And then as soon as I saw Luke, I was like, all right, I'll only speak Marshallese. didn't even say that in English. i just started speaking to him Marshallese and I just didn't stop. And he was like asking me Marshallese. He was like, and he had not been out near as long as I had, but he like knew it really well because his first companion was Marshallese. And like, he was just an absolute grinder.
00:08:25
Cole B
he was like asking me, he was like, so like, are you serious about this? Like, we're just only going Marshallese. I was like, Yeah, bro. You're like, this kind of hard. And I was like, yeah, yeah bro. But like, it's worth it. So for like the first probably week, maybe two weeks, was like pretty quiet in our apartment. Cause like, I like to talk a lot, obviously, but like, i would struggle to like say all the things I wanted to say. Cause I just wanted like my speaking to match how fast I was thinking.
00:08:49
Cole B
And so, like after like a week or two, we got to like very comfortable where like we could pretty much just talk about anything at like regular speed.
00:08:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:08:56
Cole B
And then said that the whole time I was there and it helps a lot with like being able to like communicate.
00:08:58
Matthew
Thank you.
00:09:01
Cole B
It helped me like feel better because I felt like I was able to communicate at the speed that I thought at, which felt really good. but the like understanding it was definitely a lot harder than speaking it because you know how it is. Like they just mumble a ton.
00:09:16
Cole B
And so I just like, grinded so hard trying to understand like the words that they were saying and just getting better and like trying to force myself to not understand
00:09:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:09:26
Cole B
do like the nod your head and like fake that you understand because like they do it a ton and I know that we learned it from them how to do it better and so I had to just like force myself like not do that and like ask you like anytime that there was any word that I wasn't sure on i just feel like instead of pretending that I know it I was like every single time that I do that i was like i'm just gonna I'm just gonna ask them and so I found out after like a week I had like
00:09:33
Darin Tingey
yeah Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:46
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:09:48
Cole B
I think like two or 300 words written down after a week that like I had learned in the first week that I like committed to doing that. And so like, I looked over at my companion and getting, he'd been there way less time than I had.
00:09:55
Matthew
Thank you.
00:09:58
Cole B
And I was like, dude, how do you understand all this stuff that they're saying? And he was like, I don't, I just nod my head. i was like, oh my gosh. So I was like, all right, that's it. I was like, you're doing the same thing.
00:10:08
Cole B
I was like, you're writing down every word you don't know either. So then, this is like, right before we had three baptisms, like on the same day. It was really cool. But I forgot my phone in my pocket whenever we' were doing the baptism.
00:10:22
Cole B
So I went to go witness this baptism and just went to the water with it, destroyed my phone somewhere out there.
00:10:25
Darin Tingey
Oh, no.
00:10:28
Cole B
And it's me and him sharing a phone now. So then every time that like I need to know a word, I'm like i'm like smacking my companion. like, yeah, give me the phone, give me the phone. And like, I would keep handing the phone back to him because I want to like unhook myself from the phone.
00:10:39
Cole B
So was like, I'm going to keep it with me. not going keep donpa or anything. So I would just like... Literally, I think after like three or four days or like 200 words So i'd hit him like three like 200 times in a few days. It's like write down words And then after that he's like, all right, maybe maybe I should do that So then like the rest of the time we were there, were just constantly like, okay What was that word? What was that? What was that word? And I realized like there were so many words that like sounded similar and I just assumed that I knew or thought I did on context and I was just completely wrong and I was going back to like Conversations that I had like months previous. I was like, oh Yeah, I had no idea what was going on. They definitely did not understand what I was saying because it did not relate at all. I was like, dang, like, that was bad. Yeah.
00:11:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I remember doing that like six months, you're feeling good. And then at a year, you feel really good. And you look back you're like, wow, I knew nothing in six months, but I felt really good.
00:11:27
Cole B
yeah
00:11:28
Darin Tingey
And a language fast, that's what I would call what you did online where you didn't speak English, a language fast. Those are really impactful and really hard to do. so that props to you for being dedicated to do it because i remember my president, President Larkin, always talked about it.
00:11:43
Darin Tingey
And I think I did it for like maybe a day. Matt, you could probably remember those.
00:11:46
Cole B
Yeah.
00:11:48
Darin Tingey
And Matt, is weird to hear that Cole pulled out his phone to write down his words? That's weird to me.
00:11:56
Matthew
I feel like it's not weird because i think I, I mean, i mean i remember him telling us that story on like a P day or whatever, you know? And like my dad was like, oh yeah, got to get him his phone. And I was like, oh yeah, I guess that's right.
00:12:10
Matthew
Cause like, I mean, when I came to the kid of this, like we had the brick phone and I want to say first,
00:12:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:12:19
Matthew
Well, my first area was out of Ireland and we didn't even have phones. it was literally just me and him. And then it was, okay, hopefully you can email P-Day on a Monday. And where I was at, if it was cloudy or rainy, there was really no service.
00:12:34
Matthew
So it was like, well, I guess you don't get to email today and you just move on and It is what it is.
00:12:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:12:40
Matthew
So it's definitely a lot different because I actually went back in 2025 and a lot of them have like Starlink now and stuff like that. And I'm just like, i was like, bro, how?
00:12:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Crazy.
00:12:50
Matthew
Like this makes it so much easier than, you know, for communication wise. Right. But I mean, I'm honestly glad I didn't have it because
00:12:57
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:12:59
Matthew
I don't know. I was kind of there just like, you know, do the work and all that kind of stuff. And I feel like if I did have like the capability that FaceTime and do all that stuff, you know, every Monday or don't even know if it's, I think it's more than every Monday now or whatever.
00:13:12
Matthew
i don't even know what the rules are anymore. I would kind of be like, who knows, maybe I'm taking advantage of or whatever. But no, it was, it was fun to try to learn how to text on a Nokia brick, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
00:13:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:13:22
Matthew
So it was good. I can say I'm well versed in that. So.
00:13:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. I want to take take a step back now, just going back to mission calls real quick. and Matt, when you got yours, did you know anything about the mission?
00:13:34
Cole B
Thank you.
00:13:39
Matthew
So funny enough, I did because i don't know if you ever met him, but Caleb Barker, Elder Barker, I don't know if you met him.
00:13:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. I know Caleb.
00:13:45
Matthew
So we actually grew up together Missouri, actually. and so we actually have the same birthday as well.
00:13:48
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:13:53
Matthew
He's just a year older than me. And so i actually knew about the mission because of him. Like he had a blog and stuff and his parents would post about it. And like we were in different wards, but I i knew him like we did school together.
00:14:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:06
Matthew
we did some stuff together. And so when I opened it up, like literally my first feeling, because like remember would tell my dad, and I'd be like, Kayla's mission sounds so freaking wild, but like kind of cool, you know, because he was talking about.
00:14:18
Matthew
And at the time I had no idea what he was really talking about, but now I do. I know what eriss he was talking about. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this makes a lot more sense now. But I was talking about it with, I remember talking about it with him in the car and I was like, that's just a crazy mission.
00:14:29
Matthew
Like that'd be a crazy one to go to.
00:14:31
Cole B
it's
00:14:32
Matthew
Because like for me, like I really wanted to go to like, Germany or Austria just because I wanted to learn German because that's kind of our heritage type stuff. That's where my grandmother's from or our grandmother's from or I wanted to go to South Korea because that's where our dad went and stuff and I was like, I think that'd be kind of fun to learn those languages and stuff. But then reading the call, the first initial feeling was, I think this is where Caleb Barker is and I immediately went to the computer and looked it up and I was like, holy crap, this is the same mission And I did it differently.
00:15:04
Matthew
i actually opened up my call like by myself so I could like have feelings like by myself and stuff.
00:15:07
Darin Tingey
and Okay.
00:15:10
Matthew
And then I resealed it and opened it up the next day for other people. So I already told my my dad and stuff that. I was like, hey, i kind of want to open up by myself to like have those feelings and like just kind of like take it all in.
00:15:23
Matthew
you know i was like And then maybe the next day we can have something. And he was like, that's what you want to do, like go for it. So like when I was opening up the letter, i was making sure there was no tears, nothing, because I was like, I don't want someone to find out that I've hoodwinked everyone, because they're like, oh my gosh, I can't be with, like, could you imagine?
00:15:41
Matthew
i'm like, I could imagine. That would be my guess.
00:15:42
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:15:43
Matthew
that Like I knew before ahead of time. So that's kind of my experience. So like I knew a little bit about it. And then before even went, actually went and talked with his parents and was like, okay, what do I need to pack?
00:15:57
Matthew
And so
00:15:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:15:59
Matthew
So, which was helpful because then Cole knew what to pack. So, like, Cole's getup, which was, like, the Columbia white shirts, which is a fly fishing shirt.
00:16:06
Cole B
Thank you.
00:16:07
Matthew
he had the Columbia pants, which are fly fishing pants. That's what I had. So, I didn't have, like, the standard, like, missionary thing. Like, I had, like, ventilation flaps in the back of my shirt and all this kind of stuff.
00:16:17
Darin Tingey
Oh yeah. Wow.
00:16:18
Matthew
And everyone, like, thought, like... Then when I came the mission, they're like, wait, you're like going like fly fishing. like, dude, it's hot as heck here. And I want to make sure I'm as comfortable as possible. It's a white shirt.
00:16:28
Matthew
That's all they say in the handbook is get a white shirt. They don't say you can't have vents. It doesn't say you can't be Columbia sponsored.
00:16:31
Darin Tingey
True.
00:16:34
Matthew
It just says get a white shirt. And so that's that's kind of what I did. But yeah, that was kind of my experience with opening my call. so
00:16:42
Darin Tingey
That's cool. Caleb and I were in the MTC together, which was, which was cool. So I know, I know Caleb. And then I, I had golf pants. That's what I brought was the, I did.
00:16:51
Cole B
you
00:16:52
Matthew
Yeah.
00:16:54
Darin Tingey
I should have got the shirts like you did. That sounds, that sounds amazing. Cool.
00:16:58
Matthew
Let's just say well there were some missionaries that were like, hey, when you leave, if you don't want to bring those back, give them to me.
00:16:58
Darin Tingey
Cool.
00:17:03
Matthew
And I think I literally gave away all of them except for one shirt.
00:17:04
Darin Tingey
just
00:17:06
Matthew
So...
00:17:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's great. Cole, what was it like for you opening your call given that it was the same mission as your brother?
00:17:16
Cole B
it was like low-key pretty sad because I read it and it was like Marshall Island's kid of his mission. And then because my dad read it first, because I wanted my dad to read it and tell me if it was cool or not.
00:17:26
Cole B
Because I don't have any, or like from back home, don't have any member friends except for one. She's on a mission right Super cool. But all my other friends, not members or anything. And so I only wanted to do like, it's not like, you everyone's just going to be excited, like missions, all this and that, you know, I just wanted it to, i was like, I'll open it in front of a bunch of people.
00:17:43
Cole B
if it's like a cool place. I was like, if it's not, then I'll just like open it on my own and I'll just kind of tell people, you know, and like, it's fine.
00:17:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:17:49
Cole B
Like I wasn't going to be embarrassed, but like, like, I know that if I open it in front of a bunch of people and it's like Pocatello, Idaho, then I know that I'm going to be disappointed and I can't hide it, you know? So was like, all right, dad, you open it up first.
00:18:00
Darin Tingey
Sure.
00:18:02
Cole B
And then, you let me know if it's cool or not. i was like, if it's cool, then i was like, don't tell me where it is or anything. Just like, let me know if it's cool or not. And then we'll, we'll do an opening. And by the time it came to me, like they just did online openings.
00:18:14
Cole B
Like they don't send, at least, I don't know, maybe this isn't to some people, but like us, they didn't send a letter or anything. It was just, it's just online. You just open your call online.
00:18:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:18:20
Cole B
So he printed it out and he put it in a, in a letter so he could have the experience of opening the letter and reading it out. front of people. And yeah, reading it was crazy. I was like, dang, same mission. And then because he had already read it, my dad was like, no, no, no, no keep reading it.
00:18:33
Cole B
Like you need to keep reading it. And then i was like, oh, Marsha Lee speaking. I was like, oh, what the heck? It's like, no. It's like, that's cool, but like, what? Like, there's no way. And then I was talking to my dad after, and was saying that, like, whenever he read it the first time, he he just, like, thought that there was a typo. He thought that he, like, opened the wrong call. So he, like, went back out and was, like, making sure they didn't, like, click on, like, Matthew's record or anything. he was like, okay, there's just, like, no way.
00:18:59
Cole B
And it's the same mission. And so he like clicked and he was like, no, no, no, is the right one. And then he like kept reading it. And then he was like, oh, okay. And then saw that it was like actually a different call. So he like knew that he needed to tell me like, no, no, no, you need to keep reading it.
00:19:12
Cole B
Like, it's not the same.
00:19:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:14
Cole B
Like you need to keep reading it. was like, all right.
00:19:18
Darin Tingey
Same, but different.
00:19:20
Cole B
Yeah.
00:19:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Which is cool. I mean, you guys i' both have the same mission, but different sides of the mission. I'm sure you guys were comparing and contrasting throughout the entire time that you were out, Cole, which they're very different.
00:19:29
Cole B
That's
00:19:33
Cole B
true.
00:19:34
Darin Tingey
It's weird how similar the Marshall Islands and Kitabas are, but how different they are at the same time. Uh, and I'm glad Cole, you got to serve on the best Island in the mission, uh, which is lie. It's all.
00:19:45
Cole B
That's true. that's true
00:19:48
Darin Tingey
Uh, let's okay. Matt, run me through just quickly, your areas and then we can, uh, I know you had a lot, so I just want to hear them and then we can, we can touch on where you want to, where you want to start.
00:19:56
Matthew
Yeah.
00:20:00
Matthew
Okay, yeah, I'll go in chronological order.
00:20:01
Cole B
Thank you.
00:20:02
Matthew
And I won't do like first word, second word. just tell the areas. And, you know, I ever listened to it, they're either from Kiribati or Marshalls serving people.
00:20:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:11
Matthew
They know, right? So so first area was Butaritari, which is Ibuk.
00:20:12
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:20:16
Matthew
And then I went to Tamayku. And then after Tamayku, I served in Abaclaw and Tabatoawea, which is in Tarawaita, so North Tarawa. Then after that, I was in Chalareke. And then after that, I was in Tab North and Tab South.
00:20:29
Matthew
Tab South I did for like a week. We got like permission to like go pick like a group leader out there and stuff.
00:20:32
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:20:35
Matthew
So I claimed it as both, but really it was Tab North.
00:20:36
Darin Tingey
Cool.
00:20:38
Matthew
Then after that, I served in Nabena and Kainabe, which is back on North Ottawa.
00:20:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:44
Matthew
And then after that, I was in Beso. And then after Beso, I went to Bikinibu and then came home.
00:20:49
Cole B
Thank you.
00:20:51
Darin Tingey
So you had two official Outer Islands, or two slash three, and then north
00:20:52
Matthew
I like.
00:20:56
Matthew
it depends It depends on who you ask. If it's President Larkin, he said I had three. If you ask other missionaries, it's two.
00:21:00
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:21:03
Matthew
Because, I mean, Tarahueeta, I would say, isn't an outer island, but kind of what I did in my experiences, I guess, could be. And at the end of it a lot of people were actually jealous that I was in Tarahueeta, so I'm glad I had that experience.
00:21:15
Matthew
So i would say, yeah, you can give me three. Like, you know, not like three different islands.
00:21:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:21:19
Cole B
Thank you.
00:21:21
Matthew
or I could see the main island from, like, the shore But yeah, so kind of like three.
00:21:24
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:21:25
Matthew
I think I like eight or nine areas in total or something like that. So I got to.
00:21:29
Darin Tingey
I mean, I served on Mayena and you could see Tarawa from a certain point of Mayena too.
00:21:29
Matthew
Yeah.
00:21:33
Darin Tingey
I mean, it's kind of the same, a little little different, but yeah, I got you.
00:21:34
Matthew
Yeah. yeah
00:21:38
Darin Tingey
Okay, cool. So what was it like starting on that on the outer island? Yeah.
00:21:42
Matthew
I mean, it it was nice because Caleb Barker actually picked me up from the airport because he was the AP at the time. So like that was nice to like get into a country and it's like, oh, there's a familiar face.
00:21:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah, cool.
00:21:55
Matthew
like I just saw your parents like literally like two weeks ago and like, Well, not two weeks ago, I wass an MPC, but you know, it's like, okay, thank goodness, familiar face, right? And we go into the, Chattareke, like, little chapel thing, and they they start calling everyone's people and trainers, and you know, everyone has their trainer and stuff, and I'm the last one called, and they're like, okay, and we have one person going to an outer island, and I was like, well, I guess that's me, and I was like, okay. Like, you're gonna get your trainer tomorrow, and I'm like, okay, and you're going to, like, butaridari, which is, like, ebook, and
00:22:28
Matthew
Little did I know that's a very coveted island in the mission. I didn't know that, like, a young island like that is, like, very coveted.
00:22:36
Cole B
Thank you.
00:22:36
Matthew
I came to find out later, and after my whole mission experience, I'm glad I started there first. It was amazing. had a two-story booyah, which is, like, you know, the two-story, like, what it's
00:22:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's cool.
00:22:46
Matthew
Got bananas all the time, got my motos, got the auto bin, like it was amazing. But when they told me I was going ebook, I was like, okay, like, I'm already freaked out that there's wooden houses right by the airport.
00:23:01
Matthew
Like, this is like non-America, so like, what the heck's going on? And so, just a whirlwind of a night, and the next day, i think it really hit me whenever... other Barker dropped me back off at the airport and i was like, okay, so when they call who daddy daddy, that's, you gotta listen, but you gotta go on that plane.
00:23:18
Matthew
And I'm like, okay. i'm like, I really hope I can understand what the heck they're saying. Cause it's kid of this. I don't know.
00:23:23
Cole B
it's
00:23:24
Matthew
They call me. And then of course I'm the only white guy in the plane.
00:23:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:23:28
Matthew
I don't know anyone's saying, and I'm like, and it's a, you know, a 12 seater otter is what it is, right? The plane. And you're just like, okay. So I think that's probably the smallest thing I'd been in at the time.
00:23:40
Matthew
And I'm like, at that moment, I kind of was like, man, Heavenly Father, what the heck am I doing here? Like... can I really do two years here? Cause I was like, this is probably the most wild experience, probably the most out of place I will feel for probably a long time.
00:23:55
Matthew
And just getting there, like my companion was Fijian. Right. And so, you know, I was like, not nervous cause we'd had poly friends in the past, but you know, it's, you know, there's some different cultures and different aspects and things like that. And he was only 12 weeks.
00:24:09
Matthew
he was only out 12 weeks. So he and I were both brand new.
00:24:11
Darin Tingey
Oh, wow. Yeah.
00:24:13
Matthew
I mean, and his language was really great. And he helped me out a lot. But yeah, like just that feeling of going out and like all my intake of like the 12, I had like, I think 11 of us or there's 11 or 12 of us, 11 of us, I think.
00:24:27
Matthew
Seven and four.
00:24:27
Darin Tingey
was he Was Udall and Bowen, you were the one after?
00:24:31
Matthew
I was the one out. I had like Brock Payne, Jacob Roberts, those kind of guys.
00:24:32
Darin Tingey
okay cool. Okay.
00:24:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:37
Matthew
But they all were on Taddlewatt like together with each other.
00:24:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:41
Matthew
So like, you know, they could see each other on P days or do whatever. And like I was in a trio in the MTC with Brock and Jacob. And they actually went to Kain Neve together.
00:24:52
Matthew
So they at least, you know, had, you know, if something was hard, right, they could, you know, talk about things like that. But no i just had it by myself. And so... That was definitely challenging, I would say, because I was like, do I really feel like I'm good enough or up to it? Right. Like, and, you know, usually in the outer islands, right, you stay there for like three or four transfers, you know, and you don't get to see anyone. So it was like, man, this is crazy. But thankfully, we had a mission tour like three weeks in. And i actually got taken off like at one transfer because I actually was pretty allergic to mosquitoes.
00:25:26
Matthew
It got better throughout the, throughout the mission and it was fine.
00:25:26
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:25:29
Matthew
But yeah, like I had like some pretty much allergic reactions to it.
00:25:32
Cole B
Thank you.
00:25:33
Matthew
And funny enough, I actually am allergic to moccasin and cephalosporin, which technically from sister Shumway who was the mission nurse. and I don't know how you got called here because we're not supposed to have any missionaries that have those allergies on the mission. And I was like, Oh,
00:25:48
Matthew
And she asked me, are you sure you put that on your application? And I was like, yeah, my mom makes me put that on every application ever. So she was like, cool. So she's like, anytime you need anything, do not go to the hospital in Kitabas.
00:26:00
Matthew
You come to me or the mission nurse because we're not letting you do anything like that.
00:26:02
Cole B
Thank
00:26:04
Matthew
And I was like, okay. So long story short, that was kind of a lot of a whirlwind of of a first first transfer, first outer island experience and stuff like that.
00:26:07
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:26:12
Matthew
so
00:26:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I was going to say, I don't know how that you got called to cannabis, man. There's a million mosquitoes there. At night, the mosquitoes would just wake up. I remember just being so scared every evening because you could just hear the mosquitoes wake up from Bucanicae and just like the forest and just just come at you.
00:26:30
Cole B
Okay.
00:26:31
Darin Tingey
And if you didn't have like five moon tigers lit next to you or but you're screwed and you're getting eaten alive.
00:26:35
Matthew
Orabunna, you are done.
00:26:40
Matthew
Yeah, and even if you have a bunga, if you don't wrap it right with your kie, like if there's just a little slit, you know, all of a sudden, next thing you know, in the morning, you see like a massacre on your bunga and you're like, oh my gosh, I just killed like 17 mosquitoes and that's all my blood. Like, okay, where the heck did they bite me, you know?
00:26:57
Matthew
So yeah, it was, a especially in Butaritari, like it, you know, would rain and do a lot more stuff up there than in other places.
00:26:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:27:03
Cole B
Thank you.
00:27:03
Matthew
So like the mosquitoes were pretty prevalent there. So yeah.
00:27:07
Darin Tingey
Did you any mangoes or any cool fruit up in Butar Dari?
00:27:11
Matthew
Oh, yeah. Basically, all the fruit that Kitubus has to offer was up there. And so, yeah, it's like mangoes, bananas, coconuts. We had like papaya as well.
00:27:22
Matthew
I didn't like papaya.
00:27:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:27:23
Matthew
That stuff was very bland. Yeah.
00:27:26
Darin Tingey
The taro, yeah.
00:27:27
Matthew
the Yeah, the taro, yeah, it was very bland, but, and that's the one thing, too, that a lot of, i don't know if it's a tradition thing, but, like, whenever you leave Butari-Dari, they always give you a stock of bananas to take back, like, the main island and stuff, so...
00:27:27
Darin Tingey
Popeye, yeah.
00:27:36
Cole B
Thank you.
00:27:42
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:27:42
Matthew
I was able to take like a stock back and it was nice because one of my companions when I got back off he was like dude you're bringing a whole stock and I was like yeah he goes we can have those was like yeah dude like go for and he was like so stoked he goes I've always wanted like bananas from Duddy Duddy and stuff and I was like hey go for you was at Elder Murray that was my companion after for that and so he was like dude this is f freaking sweet and I was like I aim to please you know like so it was good stuff
00:28:01
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah.
00:28:08
Cole B
Thank you.
00:28:09
Darin Tingey
i had a I had a big stock of bananas in my yena that we just kept in our house. And I ate those. I ate so many. I just straight pooped bananas for a weeks because I just ate so many of them.
00:28:19
Matthew
Well, that's awesome. They're only like, you know, yay big, you know, and they're sweet and they're just like, you know, you can have like three or four of them and you just feel healthier and you're like, okay, I feel good.
00:28:24
Darin Tingey
So good.
00:28:30
Matthew
You know, it's not like, let me get some crackers. Let me, you know, Forge for breakfast because, you know, and I don't know how it is in Marshall's, but Kitabas, you know, I think breakfast is by the wayside for them.
00:28:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:42
Matthew
they're They're definitely more of a like lunch and dinner people for sure. Breakfast is kind of like a, hey, kind of fill fill yourself with something, but lunch and dinner, we really go hard in the paint. so
00:28:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah. cole what would you say we in the Marshalls we eat for breakfast every morning?
00:28:57
Cole B
Depends on where you are. i mean, if you're on Maduro, you can eat whatever you want. If you're in E-Buy, you don't eat whatever you want. You eat... I'm trying to remember what we had every morning. what did we have?
00:29:07
Darin Tingey
I feel like pancakes is a pretty common one.
00:29:10
Cole B
Oh yeah.
00:29:12
Darin Tingey
They make a lot of pancakes.
00:29:12
Cole B
That's a classic. Honestly, I wish I had gotten on the... I've been in more places that were on the Namu Namu grind and the Pandog grind. Because those... We actually made some of those today. Me and my my roommate.
00:29:25
Cole B
Because he also served in the marshals.
00:29:25
Darin Tingey
nice.
00:29:27
Cole B
So he made some Namu Namus then we turned them into Pandogs. And those were gas. wish I had to be more on that grind when I was there.
00:29:32
Darin Tingey
Explain what that is.
00:29:33
Cole B
But Namu Namu?
00:29:34
Darin Tingey
Explain what that is. Yeah.
00:29:35
Cole B
It's... I honestly don't know how to cook it as well as he does, but it's like a really simple, form it's like a greasier and thicker crepe.
00:29:44
Cole B
It's not like a pancake, because it's really like floppy. It's like very malleable, but it's a lot thicker than a crepe, and it's little bit greasier, but it tastes way better.
00:29:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:29:51
Matthew
Okay.
00:29:53
Cole B
like flour, oil, whatever oil can your hands on, little bit of salt, some water, We threw some butter in it because we felt like it. And then remember what the last thing was.
00:30:04
Cole B
Was just those? Wait. might been just Oh, and some sugar. That's right. throw a bit of sugar in it, and then you throw as much water as you need just to get the right consistency. And then you oil up your pan, and then you slap your nominom on there. And then I think... i think you just grease it up.
00:30:29
Cole B
Whenever, we're like, on lye...
00:30:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Super healthy in the marsh islands. Yeah.
00:30:32
Cole B
Yeah, it really just depended on where you were.
00:30:34
Cole B
if you're, like... or depending on how long it had been since the last boat got there. If it had been a since the last boat got there, you're eating a pack of Oreos and ramen, or you're eating just Oreos or just ramen, depending on how bad it's getting.
00:30:46
Cole B
If it's not, then you're eating nutrition crackers, nutrition crackers and a pack of ramen with some water, and it's pretty good.
00:30:49
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:30:52
Matthew
it.
00:30:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it all depended on when the food boat was there. When the food boat had just got there, it was great. There's everything. You can buy everything. And then slowly everything dwindles away and everyone's eating the bare minimum for breakfast, whatever they have left of flour or rice or whatever.
00:31:08
Darin Tingey
so
00:31:10
Cole B
yeah
00:31:11
Darin Tingey
And Cole, what mad experience in Butaritari of a green island? That's like the only green island Kitabas compared to the Marshalls. Marshalls is so green, so green.
00:31:22
Darin Tingey
And then you go to Kitabas, and it's dry.
00:31:22
Cole B
yeah
00:31:24
Darin Tingey
It's crazy.
00:31:26
Matthew
It's dry. I think, I mean, that's why, like I said, like, I didn't realize how lucky I was to go to boot dat-dati and stuff because it was like, this is actually like, when someone says, oh, did you go to like an island with fruit and vegetables and, you know, people think of Hawaii and stuff. It's like, eh, closest one to that would be boot dat-dati.
00:31:44
Matthew
But like seeing your pictures, cool that you posted, I was like, this is an outer island?
00:31:48
Cole B
It's
00:31:48
Matthew
I'm like, this thing is f freaking green as heck. Or even like your main island was like super green and all this kind of stuff.
00:31:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:31:53
Matthew
And I was like, that's definitely not Kitavis, you know? And I did forget to mention the one thing, the the two things that I liked the most was the Supreme Noodles. i don't know if you ever had those.
00:32:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:04
Matthew
Darren Supreme was the best.
00:32:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:32:06
Matthew
And then I really love pan ni meh, which is basically breadfruit that you basically oil up, you fry it and it tastes like a chip. It tastes like French fries basically.
00:32:16
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:32:17
Matthew
And you get some ketchup. That's the best meal. You can eat it whenever you want. But pan ni meh is probably one of my favorites.
00:32:24
Cole B
Thank
00:32:25
Matthew
Like just easy things to get easy, like easy things.
00:32:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah. okay
00:32:28
Matthew
Now, if it's like the specialty foods, different story, but definitely like the bread, fruit, chips, the panime, that's, that's some good stuff.
00:32:37
Darin Tingey
Penny Mays is good. And it's funny how they cut it differently in the marshals they do in Kitabas. In Kitabas, it's like a circle. They'll sometimes cut it in half. In the marshals, they use like a shell to make these made chips.
00:32:45
Matthew
Yeah.
00:32:48
Matthew
Uh-huh.
00:32:50
Darin Tingey
And they they're like cut them in long, skinny. Yeah.
00:32:53
Cole B
It's a potato peeler. like you just like peel the You just peel the breadfruit and then those the peels is what you use to fry it
00:32:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:33:01
Darin Tingey
That's what they fry. Yeah. So it's like, it's funny.
00:33:03
Darin Tingey
It's like the same thing, but just cut a different way. it and yeah, really unique.
00:33:06
Matthew
Interesting.
00:33:09
Darin Tingey
Cole, run us through your areas. I know you really want us focus on live, but let's hear your other areas that you were in.
00:33:16
Cole B
So started in Pocatello, Idaho before I went to the Marshalls.
00:33:21
Darin Tingey
Wait, really?
00:33:21
Cole B
Shout out Pokey. Yeah.
00:33:22
Darin Tingey
no way.
00:33:24
Cole B
Yeah.
00:33:25
Darin Tingey
You'd say you did go to Pocatello. That's awesome.
00:33:27
Cole B
It was really funny because i was like, this is literally the one place that I said as a joke. And then they were like, all right, you're not going out there yet. Let's see where you're going. Open it.
00:33:38
Cole B
Pocatello, Idaho. And I just popped off. I was like, let's go, baby. You already know we want to be there.
00:33:41
Darin Tingey
yeah a
00:33:42
Cole B
Let's go.
00:33:44
Darin Tingey
That's good.
00:33:44
Cole B
So then I served in Highland there, and it's just like the area like right around the Pocatello Temple. So, you know, of course, there's tons of work to do there next to the temple, you know, within max distance, a half mile from it radius, you know.
00:33:56
Cole B
So many baptisms happening there. You know how it is. And then went to Marshall, served in Delap, Uluga, Then went to Long Island. I was in the office. Went to E-Buy Lai.
00:34:08
Cole B
Came back. Went back to Dell Lab. Went back to Long Island. And then went to Agilthaga to finish up.
00:34:14
Darin Tingey
Okay. So your, your beginning besides Pocatello, but beginning in the mission was a little bit different than your brothers, obviously, where you started on Maduro in the city side of Maduro.
00:34:29
Darin Tingey
Was that kind of a lot different than you expected it to be given where Matt had served?
00:34:36
Cole B
Yeah, for sure.
00:34:37
Matthew
Thank you.
00:34:37
Cole B
We had electricity and stuff and, you know, stores and whatever.
00:34:42
Darin Tingey
You're this is lot.
00:34:42
Cole B
was like...
00:34:43
Darin Tingey
Did you think it was like nicer than you expected?
00:34:46
Cole B
It was just way more, like, depressing than I expected, honestly. was was like, dang, these people are sad, low-key.
00:34:50
Darin Tingey
to Expand. to why do you Why would you say that?
00:34:57
Cole B
there's just something about it, man. Something about Maduro kills your soul. Like, everybody's soul is just dead in Maduro. It feels bad. And, like, everybody that's there is just waiting to go to America or go back to the Outer Islands. Like, nobody actually wants to be there.
00:35:08
Cole B
You can feel it when you're there. You can feel that, like, no one actually wants to be there. When they're there, you're, like, everyone is just there for, like, either because they're a politician and they want to like, you know, embezzle money or because they're related to a politician that's embezzling money or they're, like, there for high school and they're just waiting to go to America or go back home.
00:35:27
Cole B
You just, you know the vibe.
00:35:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:29
Cole B
You're like, yeah, don't want actually no one actually wants to be here. But, like, any other island you're on, people are like, yeah, dude, life is sick.
00:35:32
Matthew
okay
00:35:36
Cole B
Which is crazy, you know? Even on, like, Ibai. Ibai's, like, also a city, but, you know, people are, like, actually happy to be there, you know? Like, people, like, plan to stay there and, like, live there, you know? But Maduro's like,
00:35:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Maduro is an interesting place. I will say that everyone, a lot of people in the Marsh Islands, but maybe more in Maduro will say how great America is, right?
00:35:56
Darin Tingey
America is so amazing.
00:35:57
Cole B
So, I'm going to start question.
00:35:58
Darin Tingey
Best country in the world.
00:35:58
Cole B
going to start with the question.
00:35:59
Darin Tingey
Like they want to go to America.
00:35:59
Cole B
to start with the first to start to start the first
00:36:02
Darin Tingey
Flip side, Kitabas.
00:36:02
Cole B
to start first
00:36:03
Darin Tingey
Kitabas people say Kitabas is the best country in the world. Like there's nothing better than Kitabas. So it's an interesting dynamic. And I think it is that way because so many people from the Marsh Islands leave to the States.
00:36:14
Darin Tingey
And so, yeah, like you said, a lot of people in Majuro are just saving up money to leave to the States. Very few claim it as their home for the long term.
00:36:26
Darin Tingey
there I mean, there are... there are a a handful of people there that have been there forever and they won't leave. But I will agree with you. And I think a lot of that has changed post COVID too.
00:36:37
Darin Tingey
Once, once they lifted the borders, a lot of people left like thousands of people left the Marshall Islands.
00:36:38
Cole B
Yeah.
00:36:43
Darin Tingey
But yeah, that I agree. and Even as a missionary, i didn't want to be on Maduro. I always wanted to be, get send me to Ebi, send me to the outer islands. And did you, did you have very many outer islands open at the time when you got there or was there none?
00:36:51
Cole B
Unless you're in
00:36:56
Cole B
There were none. Lai opened up right before I went there.
00:36:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:36:59
Cole B
And then I think they opened up Millie recently. And they may have opened up Wood J at some point recently.
00:37:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:37:05
Cole B
And then... Or Millie opened up while i was there, sorry. And then Wood J was like a little... Just a little after I left. And they may have Jailwood open. There were other places that like... don't know. i had a lot of lot of disagreements. I was like, I don't get why we're not opening these. Because they would always just say we don't have enough missionaries. But I was like...
00:37:22
Cole B
we have five sets of missionaries in a single ward and this word is not how to baptize them in a year.
00:37:22
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:37:27
Cole B
I'm like, i don't think we like, don't have enough missionaries here. Like, what are we, what are we doing? Yeah. had a lot of, lot of disagreements, a lot of inner turmoil over that.
00:37:37
Cole B
I was like, what are we doing, man? What are we doing? But you know, it's life. This is what it is.
00:37:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i felt I felt similarly when I was first started because Kiribati had a bunch of Outer Islands open and Marshalls had like one or two when I started. And so i was pushing my president like, hey, we need to open these.
00:37:55
Darin Tingey
It's a little bit different now because I think you were there when the new housing standards came out, which are really annoying because it basically means like no Outer Islands can be open in both sides of the mission.
00:38:01
Cole B
Yeah.
00:38:06
Darin Tingey
Like you need to have AC, running water, a working toilet, you know, all this stuff. And I'm just like, okay, that's just not going to happen.
00:38:13
Matthew
I don't know.
00:38:13
Cole B
It's not happening, bro. Yeah.
00:38:14
Darin Tingey
All right.
00:38:15
Matthew
I feel like that kind of ruins like and almost like the charm, like kind of ruins the mission a little bit.
00:38:15
Cole B
Yeah.
00:38:21
Matthew
Cause like, I mean, I think the mission, like housing centers is great, right? want people to be safe and healthy and things like that.
00:38:27
Cole B
Thank you.
00:38:27
Matthew
But also, you know, I think that's where, you know, in the church, right? We teach spirit and letter of the law, you know, and it's like, okay, I like letter of the law, but let's use some spirit of the law when it comes to,
00:38:38
Matthew
Kitavis, because i know there's some mission stories and some things I did on the mission that definitely would be not okay in and other missions, you know, but like I had to do some of
00:38:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:38:50
Darin Tingey
Like swimming, you know, we just kind of had to do it. I'm just teasing.
00:38:52
Matthew
well Well, one of my well one one of my areas, and and and Caleb can, and i I think we all did, but
00:38:56
Darin Tingey
I swam, so
00:38:58
Cole B
this is whoa
00:39:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:39:02
Cole B
hold on hold on
00:39:03
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:39:04
Matthew
de paul but one of my areas, I had to go to district meeting, and I had to go through the different channels and different islands, and so if it was high tide, but sometimes it goes up to here to your chest, right?
00:39:16
Matthew
And you're like, I don't have any other way to get there other than using my two feet and walking.
00:39:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:39:21
Matthew
So it's like, this is what, you know, this is what the mission wants.
00:39:24
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:39:25
Matthew
And so how am going able to do that? Right. And so I do remember Cole telling me that. And and I, when I went back in 2025 to Kitabas, there was a lot of elders who were like, wait, what, what, which ones did you serve on?
00:39:36
Matthew
And I was like, oh, I did these three and stuff. They're like, dude, that hasn't been opening ever because of, you know, this, this, and this. And I was like, dang, that sucks because like, you know, there is actually decent amount of work.
00:39:47
Matthew
And I feel like when you go to outer islands, you not only learn more about yourself, but you also learn a lot about the gospel. Especially on the Kitabas side, because people look up to you and people really ask for your opinion.
00:39:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:40:01
Matthew
And and I think that's probably like the outer islands, I'd say is where I probably... grew probably stronger in my testimony of the church was probably out in the outer islands than just being in like the, you know, in the regular stuff. And granted, did I have a lot of baptisms on the outer islands compared to like in Ottawa?
00:40:21
Cole B
Thank you.
00:40:21
Matthew
No, like, you know, from a percentage standpoint, right. But, you know, I did have baptisms, you know, out in the outer islands and stuff, which was great, but
00:40:25
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:40:31
Matthew
it was nice and rewarding and things like that. So when Cole finally did get to go to an outer island, i was really happy for him. Cause like, Oh sweet. Like he finally gets to understand like, you know, what the outer island feels like, you know all that kind of stuff.
00:40:43
Matthew
So hopefully things are getting better and stuff, but yeah, I wish, and I think we all share the same sentiment, no matter which side we were on. I think all of us would prefer to be outer island and, you know, kind of away from like the main city.
00:40:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
00:40:57
Matthew
So,
00:40:58
Cole B
Thank you.
00:40:58
Darin Tingey
yeah you get the real culture. I actually had more baptisms on outer islands than I did on the main island. I think I had one baptism on Maduro, which was crazy. Cole, so you talk about Maduro being depressing.
00:41:13
Darin Tingey
Did you feel happier when you went to Ebi? And then did I'm assuming you felt even happier when you went to Lai?
00:41:19
Cole B
Yeah, I think there was only like, there were like three months where I was like happy on Maduro of like the, I don't know, however many months I like spent there. Or even then, of like, i wasn't necessarily happy. were just like, I got by and it like wasn't as bad as it was previously.
00:41:32
Cole B
But like a lot was just like, it was like easy living, you know? It was like where it was just, it was so much fun every day. was just awesome. And then, i don't know, come back to Maduro, I met like, like the one area, like the other that I went back to, I met this guy who just like,
00:41:47
Cole B
It was like the weirdest experience because like this guy, we would have lessons with him and they'd be like three hours because he would just yap and he would just talk. And like, he was, it was so funny because my companion at that time had been out for like three months. So we like hardly knew anything. And he wasn't like the hardest grinder or anything. So he like hadn't learned like a ton yet. And like, he hadn't learned a lot from his previous companions either.
00:42:08
Cole B
So i was going like only Marshallese with him, just like forcing him to learn a bunch. And then we found this guy and we were just like, a couple times a week we were talking to him for like literally three hours straight and it wasn't like us talking with him it's just like him talking for like hours of like just random things and i'd like throw a couple questions at him he'd throw some hard questions at us and we'd answer and have like some like deep questions answered and like he was like actually interested but on top of that he was like also a yapper and it was like just so interesting to see someone with like almost someone that had like accepted
00:42:41
Cole B
where they were. Like, he, like, fully accepted that, like, he'd be the Marshallese guy living in the Marshall Islands, but that he was, like, living in Maduro. So he was, like, a huge gamer. he like, loved gaming and stuff, loved, like, going online, like, looking at, like, what's happening in the world, but also liked living in Maduro.
00:42:55
Cole B
And he was like, yeah, i like having the amenities that we have here, but, like, i don't have to worry too much about life.
00:42:55
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:42:59
Cole B
Like, it's pretty it's pretty light. it was just very interesting to talk to him because he like, one of the first people that I'd met at Maduro was just like happy in their like situation. And he was just like so fun to talk to.
00:43:09
Cole B
And then went to the next area. I'm like, we ended up finding like a ton of people that were like that. And it was just like, like that one, just that one little area on the island where there were actually like a decent amount of people that were like actually happy with like where their lives were at. And it was just like so much fun to just like, yeah, but those people,
00:43:24
Cole B
But i mean, besides those people, I mean, the only people that were like happy with like where they were at in life were people on like eBuy and Lye and stuff, you know, like people that were just like, yeah, I'm like in a good situation right now, you know? I mean, a lot of them obviously still like looking for the gospel, you know, maybe looking for something more, but it wasn't like, it was like killing them to not have that issue. It just like, they're like, yeah, I'm like happy where I'm at, but I could see how it could get a little better, you know? Like I can see how a change would be good in my life, but like I'm kind of, I'm kind of good where I'm at, you know?
00:43:50
Darin Tingey
yeah what was the uh what were your impressions of lie when you first got there
00:43:56
Cole B
I know. I was like, I just thought it was beautiful, honestly. And And then my companion, like before I got there, he'd been there for a few weeks and he had like already asked everybody if they like wanted to take lessons or something. And so like I got there and I was talking with him and I didn't know that he'd done that. So I was just like talking with everybody because basically because every area was so small and so few people, I just like,
00:44:18
Cole B
refused to ask people if they wanted to have lessons like i would not ask them i would make them ask us and like a lot of people did it's just we would talk to them enough and have enough conversations that they would eventually just ask us to have lessons but until they asked us i would not do it and it would shock like so many people because i would have like a whole one hour conversation with people and then like wouldn't i would just leave i'd be like well conversation's kind of over i'd be like all right have a good day let us know if you need anything they'd be like oh
00:44:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:45:07
Cole B
I like that. I kind of like what y'all are about right now, you know? And so i I did the same thing in line. And then after like two weeks, Luke, he like, he told me, he was like, yeah, I actually yeah already asked everybody here. i treated it like a normal area. And I just like asked everybody if they wanted to have lessons already. And I was like, oh, okay. i was like, well, we're never doing that again. So, and then we just had like the longest conversation. He was like not much of a talker. He was more of like a go, go, go guy.
00:45:31
Cole B
but I'm just like a super yapper, as you can kind of tell.
00:45:32
Darin Tingey
Thank you.
00:45:34
Cole B
And so like, we would just go he'd be like, all right, what's the plan for this time? And I'd be like, all right, we're going to go talk with this person about literally anything for an hour. And he'd be like, okay.
00:45:45
Cole B
Like after like a few, like few days, maybe like a week or two, he's like, you just like i used' like, all right, well, it's nothing else was going on. So I guess we'll do that. And then we could just talked to people for like hour, two hours, three hours about like,
00:45:56
Cole B
anything and everything. And i was, I was having so much fun. Cause like, i don't know, even though there was a lot less stuff to do online, just felt like people thought more about what was going on in their life, which is like kind of what I was missing with a lot of people. I imagine like a lot of them were really just like in the flow of like work and stuff. And not a lot of them were like thinking about the things that were actually happening around them.
00:46:18
Cole B
And so whenever I did find people that would think about the things that are happening around, them like people in line, I think it has something to do with like being in like a middle ground of like, there's so little going on that you think about every little thing that's going on.
00:46:27
Matthew
Thank you.
00:46:29
Cole B
Cause you could ask them like, what do you think about? Like, like you could probably ask someone like, where do you think that coconut came from? And they would give you a whole exposition of like, Oh, let me give you a guess of like how it rolled, like what tree is probably coming from, like who owns that tree, what land it is.
00:46:44
Cole B
Like they would like, think about that stuff.
00:46:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah, very simple life.
00:46:47
Cole B
And then you get somewhere like eBay and it's like, there's so much going on that they have so many things to think about. And like you ask them about anything and they're like, okay, yeah, I'll talk with you about that for two minutes.
00:46:59
Cole B
But then I've also got another thing that I'm talking about five minutes and another thing going to Cause like I've talked 350 people today. So I've got so many different things to tell you. And so you have like those two things that are on like the opposite end of like, you've got so much stuff going on that they can just talk about anything for a couple of minutes and so few things going on.
00:47:15
Cole B
let's talk about one or two things for 20 minutes.
00:47:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:47:18
Cole B
And then there's like, at least in a lot of, People imagine it just was like in that middle ground of like a few things happened, but it was like just enough to like kind of fill your day.
00:47:29
Cole B
you didn't have to think that deeply about anything, but it also wasn't so much stuff that you had a lot of things to talk about, you know?
00:47:36
Darin Tingey
Outer islands are great because there is not much going on. It's pretty laid back and especially on Lai when there's probably between 200 and 300 people, maybe less than that at certain times. And you talk to everyone twice a day.
00:47:51
Darin Tingey
No joke. you You literally talk to everyone twice a day. And everyone on the island has spoken to missionaries because missionaries have been there since the 80s, maybe earlier.
00:47:59
Cole B
Yes. Yes. Yes.
00:48:01
Darin Tingey
And so everyone knows who you are. It's not a question of who are those white guys over there or those guys in white shirts and ties. They know who you are. And they probably have had the missionary lessons before.
00:48:12
Darin Tingey
So I think your approach was great. I i felt like I did a similar approach in the sense of I just tried to build friendships, which just seems like what you did. You cared to sit down and just chat with them.
00:48:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:48:32
Cole B
Yes. Yes.
00:48:34
Darin Tingey
Matt, let's let's go back to post-Buttari Tari, back to Main Island.
00:48:40
Cole B
and
00:48:41
Darin Tingey
You're probably like
00:48:43
Darin Tingey
happy and sad to be back in the Main Island, but I don't know. I'm i'm gent i'm making an assumption here, right? Because you got to start on a new book, which is really cool, but you also probably missed...
00:48:52
Matthew
Yeah.
00:48:54
Darin Tingey
that intro that your other mission buddies had of being by each other and talking, but then probably missing the out around a little bit.
00:48:58
Matthew
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
00:49:02
Darin Tingey
What was that like?
00:49:02
Matthew
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, coming back, I was like happy to like not have like mosquitoes all the time. So I was like, nice.
00:49:09
Cole B
So.
00:49:10
Matthew
cause I was into my coup and I was able to, be with present to Mena and his wife and his family. were like, did a lot of work and he he worked in Moroni and stuff and he was awesome. i loved him.
00:49:22
Matthew
and I got Elder Murray, which Elder Murray is really cool because he actually trained my trainer. So that was kind of fun to like have all that kind of going on.
00:49:29
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:49:32
Darin Tingey
I know who your trainer is then. Yeah. I'm picturing him. I can't, i don't remember his name, but I'm picturing him. I know exactly.
00:49:37
Cole B
Thank you.
00:49:37
Darin Tingey
I've met him before.
00:49:38
Matthew
other, other Robo Vakalali, other Robo.
00:49:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:49:41
Matthew
So yeah. and so, I was happy. i mean, I was sad because I missed a baptism by a week. Like they were going to do it like the next week.
00:49:51
Matthew
And so, I mean, do I still count that as my person? Yes, I do.
00:49:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah, absolutely.
00:49:55
Matthew
Because we we taught them pretty much every lesson and did and did the interview with them. I actually was supposed to go back a week earlier than i was supposed to.
00:50:06
Matthew
But the plane in my ticket never showed up.
00:50:09
Cole B
Thank you.
00:50:09
Matthew
So that kind of sucked because was supposed to go to my kin that week and they said, Oh no. Like, so I was supposed to go up Monday morning to my kin and Sunday night they said, Oh, we just got, you know, one of the guys was like, Hey, we just got told by the, agent guy that actually one of you is supposed to be on a plane tomorrow back to the main island. And i was like, Oh, well that's, that's for me.
00:50:31
Matthew
And so we got all ready. We got there. And then they're like, hey, so actually the plane's not coming today and they just moved your ticket to next week. But the plane to my kin had already left.
00:50:42
Matthew
And so we were like, you've got to be kidding me because we wanted to do that.
00:50:45
Darin Tingey
No.
00:50:46
Matthew
So that kind sucked.
00:50:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:50:47
Matthew
But then going back to the main island though, it's definitely a change of pace. Like everything was a lot closer. Like in Putari Tari, like my first Sunday,
00:50:58
Matthew
I want to say I probably bike 20 or 30 miles.
00:50:58
Cole B
Thank you.
00:51:00
Matthew
I don't really know. Like there's not mile markers on the freaking island, but I literally went from like the southernmost point of Butaritari to the northernmost point, then back to almost the southernmost point because that's where our that's where our village was.
00:51:16
Matthew
So like that was my first Sunday and it's one speed bikes, it's dirt roads. My companion loves to bike. He's a fast biker.
00:51:25
Matthew
I was in pretty good shape, but I was like, I'm going to doing this every Sunday. And it was like five or six different services.
00:51:31
Cole B
it's
00:51:32
Matthew
We had two bigger services.
00:51:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:51:35
Matthew
And then we had like four different like families would stop off to. And that was basically you go there, give them the sacrament. You do a couple of spiritual thoughts. So basically I was given like four talks minimum, like every week.
00:51:49
Matthew
So that's also probably why I got decent at the language stuff, because I had to make sure I could give something, right? And like, you know, my companion does five, 10 minutes, I need to do about five, 10 minutes.
00:51:57
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:52:01
Matthew
And so, you know, that's, that's kind of what we did, right? And, but but that was really cool to like do all that kind of stuff. But then going to the main island, it was, okay, let's see how many lessons you can get.
00:52:13
Matthew
Because in ebook, I think I probably would average between maybe two to four lessons a day, maybe, depending on the day and depending on where they were at, right?
00:52:14
Cole B
it's
00:52:21
Matthew
If you do the far villages, it might be only that one for the day because you're like, well, our whole day is going to be biking and doing the lessons. So, be you know, that's what the need is,
00:52:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:32
Matthew
But then I go to Tomayaku and like one of the days I think we had 11 or 12 lessons in one day. and like, they were like 30 minute lessons.
00:52:37
Darin Tingey
Dang.
00:52:39
Matthew
They were, you know, nice and to the point, you know, what they needed. But when we were walking, like we didn't really have bikes. Like, I mean, we had some bikes, but like my companion was like, Hey, like we'll work we'll do bikes, but maybe we might walk. And so,
00:52:54
Matthew
We did some biking walking and stuff, but it just like a change of pace. Like you said, everyone on Outer Island is kind of laid back. It's almost like they get to know you like super, super well.
00:53:05
Matthew
Granted, in Kitabas, they kind of all know you super well.
00:53:06
Cole B
Thank you.
00:53:08
Matthew
But like Outer Island was just nice because everyone knows. Okay, especially for me, was only white guy. They're like, I know who Elder Bruck is because he's the white guy. And it's like, cool.
00:53:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:53:16
Matthew
Whereas like on the main island, there's lots of white guys. And you're like, think I know who this is, but not.
00:53:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:53:21
Matthew
And... but But it was good because i got to kind of experience that kind of almost like recharge and refresh. I mean, i had a lot of Bekanako when I was there and stuff.
00:53:33
Matthew
I think I got Giardia in Butaritari or in Tomaiku. So I was pretty sick for like two or three days during one of the transfers.
00:53:39
Darin Tingey
a
00:53:41
Matthew
And I was like... I was very thankful that a I was in a house to have, you know a regular toilet seat.
00:53:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:53:46
Cole B
Thank you.
00:53:47
Matthew
That was kind of nice, you know. it's But like, yeah, it was definitely a change of pace, but it was good. And like, you know, we had a chapel. There was more than just 20 people at a church service, right?
00:53:59
Matthew
There was actually like, you know, 80 or 90, I think, whenever we were there, maybe 100. And like, there was like young men's, young women's, elders quorum, Relief Society.
00:54:04
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:54:07
Matthew
And it was like, oh, okay. So like, cool it's not just branches and groups you know it's like these are actually big wards and stuff like that so it was it was really nice it was it was a good kind of reset for me but it definitely you know i definitely would pick outer island over main island probably any day of the week so
00:54:15
Cole B
It's just a little bit.
00:54:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah. Tell me about a cool conversion story that you had.
00:54:33
Matthew
I'd say probably one of the coolest ones I had was on the main island actually and it was in Beso actually which is I think the most populated part of Tarawak.
00:54:44
Darin Tingey
It's got to be.
00:54:45
Cole B
Thank you.
00:54:45
Matthew
probably
00:54:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's got to be.
00:54:46
Matthew
probably I mean it's I don't know how that many people live on that square footage of land that's all I'm gonna say about that it is
00:54:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
00:54:55
Darin Tingey
yeah it's the e-buy version of Kitabas.
00:54:58
Matthew
Okay, yeah, so if that's what it is, that's what it is. But I was with an elder called Elder Sablon. don't know if you ever met him at all. But he was from Vanuatu.
00:55:08
Matthew
Super dope guy. It was his last transfer. We whitewashed the area. And we had this brick house.
00:55:15
Cole B
Yes.
00:55:16
Matthew
and Everyone knew where we lived and stuff. And it was like a Sunday. we just gotten back from church. We were kind of eating some some lunch and stuff. And was around 2 o'clock. And...
00:55:27
Matthew
this person just knocks at our door and we're we're like, I don't think it's our zone leaders. I don't think it's anyone else. Like, I wonder who it is. And I don't know if this was your experience in Marshall's, but when people drink, they think they're all Mormon or they all think that, you know, they've sinned and they want to convert.
00:55:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah. yeah
00:55:50
Darin Tingey
They confess to you and they want to, yeah.
00:55:50
Matthew
so exactly.
00:55:52
Matthew
It's like, I know we're not in a confessional, but okay. You know, and okay, whatever. So the guy knocks our door and he goes, Hey elders. I just want to ask for some lessons.
00:56:03
Matthew
And we're like, okay, like, like, where do you live? Cause you know, that depends on, you know, are you based? So one, two or three, like, where did it come from?
00:56:10
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:56:11
Matthew
Because obviously like, Seems like you're all there, but maybe you're not, right?
00:56:15
Cole B
I'm.
00:56:16
Matthew
And he goes, I live behind the sports complex in Bezo. My name is Kamaraya. Come to my house at like six o'clock. And we looked at our calendar.
00:56:26
Matthew
and And for that one, we were free. Because usually six or 6.30 is kind of when when when you stop kind of proselyting there because the sun goes down.
00:56:30
Darin Tingey
Having dinner or something.
00:56:35
Matthew
But we're like, okay, like, hey, if you want it at six, we'll So we end up going and he's a little surprised to see us. And he goes, Hey elders, like, how are you guys?
00:56:45
Matthew
We're like, Oh, like you said to come back at six. Is this a good time? and he goes, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:56:48
Cole B
Thank
00:57:06
Matthew
like, how did you guys find this and stuff? We're like, oh, like, your husband came to came to our door and wanted lessons and stuff. And she's like, oh, really? And we're like, yeah. he goes She was like, that's interesting because she was a member and less very less active, like, very less active, but she had records.
00:57:23
Matthew
And she was like, he's always like,
00:57:24
Cole B
Thank
00:57:26
Matthew
drinking. He's always, you know, doing things he's not supposed to. I never thought he would want elders or missionaries in his life. And we we're like, oh, okay. And later on, we found out he actually was drinking whenever he came to our door.
00:57:39
Matthew
But he was like, you guys showed up. And he's like, that kind of made me feel like, oh, maybe the Lord knows more about me than what I think, you know, like what I need.
00:57:49
Cole B
so
00:57:49
Matthew
And so long story short, we ended up baptizing him And we ended up baptizing his nine-year-old son because it's his son was there, Sone.
Cultural Connections and Conversion Stories
00:58:00
Matthew
And then I didn't end up getting to see that their eight-year-old daughter get baptized because I was actually back home in August of 2019. But what we did is we did a messenger call and he actually was the one that baptized her. So that was like really cool.
00:58:15
Darin Tingey
Very cool.
00:58:16
Matthew
And then i think he baptized the other daughter as well. And so actually went back and
00:58:22
Matthew
Saw them and everything. And I had one of my going away dinners with them. They also made me a Kie. And then also when I turned 21 and I wasn't on the mission, i turned 21.
00:58:33
Matthew
They actually made me a key because in Kitabas, when you're 21, you get a key to your life. And so it has, you know, Kateki Roy, your 21st birthday, Matthew Breckenridge.
00:58:45
Darin Tingey
Thank you.
00:58:45
Matthew
And one of my old companions brought it to me. They gave it to him when he left in October. And so he had it for a whole month before I even you know knew about it and stuff.
00:58:54
Matthew
And so that was just a really cool conversion story for me because it was like, you know you never know what people are going through. you never know kind of anything that people are going through.
00:59:06
Matthew
And just because people aren't you know maybe following like the rules or the teachings that we teach doesn't mean that you know they're bad people or things like that.
00:59:16
Matthew
right like you know We're trying to have people come to Christ.
00:59:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:59:19
Matthew
And it was just so cool that even though it probably was a mistake and he probably would have never, like, honestly, we probably would have never even gone to his house because it was just in a weird place. Like just all these stars aligned to where, you know, he asked us, we were free and all this kind of stuff. And it was like, cool. This is a really cool thing. And, I think when I went back in 2025, his son actually,
00:59:42
Matthew
his son actually was in Moroni High School, which is like the LDS school out there and everything.
00:59:45
Cole B
Thank you.
00:59:49
Matthew
And so that was like super fun and super cool to see that he was still active and doing some stuff. And so the cool thing about Kamaraya too is his his brother is Nab And for those people who listen to Kid Abyss songs and stuff, Nab Z does a lot of like songs and everything.
01:00:08
Matthew
And so that's kind of, really cool. So, and Kamurai also sings and he has like a lot of, he has a lot of stuff that, that he does.
01:00:18
Cole B
so
01:00:19
Matthew
And so was really cool to kind of like be with him and everything like that. So yeah, that's kind of, uh, kind of what happened there for that conversion story.
01:00:28
Matthew
up.
01:00:29
Darin Tingey
Cole,
01:00:31
Cole B
think,
01:00:33
Darin Tingey
No, I think that's super cool story, Matt, because majority of people that come to the missionaries when they're drunk and say they want discussions, like never turn out, almost never. So the fact that that one did is actually kind of crazy and like just meant to be.
01:00:50
Matthew
Yeah, I know my companion, he was a little skeptical because he was like, dude, I think he's drinking. And I was like, yeah, but i just feel like we should go and just try. Like, worst case scenario is, hey, el we don't want you over.
01:01:04
Matthew
Right? Like, that's like the worst case scenario that happens, right? Because most the time in Kitabits, like, they'll believe you.
01:01:07
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:09
Matthew
Like, they trust the missionaries probably almost too much, maybe, you know?
01:01:11
Cole B
Thank you.
01:01:13
Matthew
Like, they think we're like the best things since sliced bread, you know? Whatever we say goes, just because that's their culture, right? Like, anyone who's a Catholic priest, a Kamisu, you know, missionary, you know, basically anyone who's like of a theological importance, right?
01:01:29
Matthew
They think is like the best, right? Just because that's what their belief is in God and things like that. And so I was like, let's go and do it. And yeah, I mean, that was definitely probably one of the only experiences that I had with people who were drunk to, you know,
01:01:42
Cole B
it's
01:01:45
Matthew
be open and willing because, you know, probably three or four weeks later, you know, we had someone who said, you know, who drunk and in the street, you know, late at night at eight or nine o'clock at night. it was like elders, I've been baptized. I want to come back to church and all this kind of stuff. And you're like, if you, even if you haven't baptized, I don't know if what you're saying is true. And, you know, when asking them,
01:02:04
Matthew
Where do you live? I live in Beso. You know me. You know who I am. I'll show up to church on Sunday. And you're like, okay, like sounds good. And then you'd never see him, right? So definitely very interesting story for sure.
01:02:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And they probably spoke in English while they were drunk too. That's typical.
01:02:18
Matthew
Yes, they did. They loved to speak in English. loved to speak in English.
01:02:22
Darin Tingey
So good. Cole, tell me about some baptisms or success you had on Ly.
01:02:29
Darin Tingey
Did you have baptism on Ly or...
01:02:30
Cole B
There's one guy, he's here in Utah now.
01:02:31
Matthew
Thank
01:02:32
Cole B
Yeah, I went to, there were there were a few baptisms, but the one that he has most fun is like, There's this guy named JJ and
01:02:40
Darin Tingey
you
01:02:41
Cole B
e I guess like a week or two before I got there, like he had talked to my companion and he was like, yeah, I'm absolutely not interested in the missionaries.
01:02:50
Cole B
And he was like, u it I can't remember exactly what he said, but I think said don't know, maybe like come back and talk to me in two weeks or something, but he was just like smoking, you know, doing the classics, you know not whatever.
01:03:01
Cole B
And so we like went to talk to him after two weeks and like my opinion had absolutely no faith that anything was going to come out of it. But I had never met this guy. had No what's going on. He was like, yep, I want to take the lessons. Yep. That sounds great. Yep. I'm going to stop smoking. We're like, oh, okay. And then like a couple weeks later, we found out like he had just started dating this RM and he was just like, yeah, I'm ready to be Mormon now, man.
01:03:23
Cole B
Ready to be Mormon.
01:03:24
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:24
Cole B
Like got to be Mormon for her. And we were like, all right, sweet. He was like, she's not going to date me. unless you know we can get married in simple so you know gotta make it happen so we ended up talking to him we're like all right maybe let's like wait a little bit for you to get married you know like maybe let's do it next week and he was like can I just get like married tonight and we're like hold on what like during one of our lessons you we were like you want to get married tonight and he was like yeah i want to get married tonight like what do I have to do and we were like all right. We're like, all right, all right, right.
01:03:55
Cole B
We'll give you a compromise. We're like, you can get married tomorrow night and we'll plan it today. And was like, all right, yeah, that sounds good. So then we just immediately start running around everywhere, telling everyone, like, all right, Bishop, up we need you to be there.
01:04:05
Cole B
We need this to happen. If you guys want to, like, make food or whatever, all right, wedding tomorrow night, and we're just, like, going around trying to get this thing planned in, like, less than 24 hours. Because he was like, I just want to get married so bad.
01:04:16
Cole B
And we're like, all right, whatever. if she's cool with it and you're cool with it, we don't care. Get married, man.
01:04:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:04:21
Cole B
That's awesome. So we you know, got it all done. And, uh, Got him married. And then like couple months later, might've been about a month later, he got baptized. And then we were talking about how like, was like, my goal, my goal is getting sealed in the temple. Like going to happen. So he moved out to Utah because his now wife at that point,
01:04:44
Cole B
She came back to Utah and he was like, he was so sad when she left for like a week. He so sad. And then like, without even saying anything else, he just like hopped on a boat, like one of the boats came in and he just like hopped on that boat and like dipped out to Maduro.
01:04:58
Cole B
And like the next day, like a the day after the boat left at church, we werere like, yo, where's JJ? Like he didn't pull to church today. And they're like, yeah, he took the boat at midnight last night. We're like, what?
01:05:09
Cole B
What? Yeah, he's in Maduro right now. We're like,
01:05:12
Matthew
Thank
01:05:12
Cole B
all right, cool, i guess. They're like, yeah, he's getting to Utah. Like, cool.
01:05:17
Darin Tingey
No way.
01:05:17
Cole B
So he goes out to Bountiful and last October, he got sealed to his wife and me and my companion that like he got married and baptized with. We went to his ceiling because he he like came down from Canada because he'd just gotten back.
01:05:28
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
01:05:30
Cole B
And so I drove up, he drove down and yeah, we were there at the ceiling. It was so crazy. was like, it was so surreal.
01:05:37
Darin Tingey
Who did he marry?
01:05:38
Cole B
He married Merida Nebo.
01:05:42
Darin Tingey
Okay, yeah.
01:05:43
Cole B
Which you may have known because she... I think she's about 30. She's not a young RM. She's about 30. So she would have been like a very recent RM when you were there.
01:05:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the is is her dad Rickson Nebo? Do you know? It's okay if you don't. I mean, the Nebo name is is a lie name, so there's a lot of Nebos.
01:06:05
Cole B
a
01:06:06
Darin Tingey
but
01:06:06
Cole B
Yeah. No, she's related to the Alex's.
01:06:09
Darin Tingey
Okay, so...
01:06:09
Cole B
and She's related to the Phillips. Sorry. The Phillipses.
01:06:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Beeman Phillips. Okay.
01:06:14
Cole B
Sorry.
01:06:14
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:06:15
Matthew
Thank you.
01:06:16
Cole B
married a sorry her her original Her name is married to Nebo now. Her name then was married to Phillips.
01:06:20
Darin Tingey
allla
01:06:20
Cole B
She's one of the Phillips kids.
01:06:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:21
Cole B
Sorry.
01:06:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah, she's Beeman's daughter. I think she's Beeman Phillips' daughter.
01:06:25
Cole B
Yeah. Yeah.
01:06:26
Darin Tingey
Beeman was the Bishop of Lye when I got there in 20...
01:06:26
Cole B
Yeah.
01:06:31
Darin Tingey
Right before Christmas 2017. And Beeman's the man. He moved... He moved to Utah. I think he is eventually is going to move back to Lye.
01:06:40
Darin Tingey
He says he will, but he was the bishop for a long time, and he moved to Utah because he he was saying, i have a bunch of inactive kids in utah and I need to go make them active again.
01:06:52
Cole B
Okay.
01:06:53
Darin Tingey
And honestly, I think he's had success. I think a lot of them are getting back into the temple and stuff like that, which you got to experience one of his kids getting married and and then sealed in the temple, which is so cool. I mean, God just has his timing for each one of his kids, for each one of of us. And I'll lie where you've had missionaries forever. It's just a certain matter of time. A certain elder comes and That's what happens. So was that the the other two that got baptized the same day that JJ got baptized was one of them, Nika
01:07:26
Cole B
Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:28
Darin Tingey
Bishop's daughter, Bishop Dodd booking.
01:07:28
Cole B
Nika.
01:07:31
Cole B
Pokan.
01:07:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Bishop booking's daughter.
01:07:33
Cole B
Yeah. Yeah.
01:07:33
Darin Tingey
Right. Did you teach her?
01:07:35
Cole B
yeah
01:07:36
Darin Tingey
So was she single at the time or was she married somebody? Yeah.
01:07:41
Cole B
she was married when she got baptized her husband uh do you remember jigere the rm who went to the philippines one of the arms that went to the philippines
01:07:52
Darin Tingey
Is his last name Zebedee? right. It's okay. Continue.
01:07:55
Cole B
i just knew him was jigere remember his last name yeah he yeah they got married but that was like unrelated
01:07:56
Darin Tingey
Anyway. Okay. So he got married. They got married.
01:08:03
Cole B
that like genuinely unrelated. Nico was just like, yeah, it's just like time. I've had my fun. It's time for me to get baptized now. And we're like, Oh, cool. Sweet.
01:08:12
Cole B
And then she got married to him.
01:08:13
Darin Tingey
So what's...
01:08:13
Cole B
And then he was like, all right, it's time for me to like be a good priest to hold her again.
01:08:14
Matthew
Thank you.
01:08:17
Cole B
We're like, okay, cool. Sounds good.
01:08:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah. I think that's pretty typical in the islands, right? They come back from their mission, they backslide, they don't really care. And then they end up, you know, getting a girl pregnant or whatever.
01:08:31
Cole B
With a kid. Yeah.
01:08:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah. And then they're like, all right, let's get married. And then I'll like be active in the church again, you know, like, and it like blows our minds, but it's just like their timing and it works.
01:08:34
Cole B
Alright. Alright, time to lock in again. Yeah. Oh,
01:08:42
Darin Tingey
Uh, so I asked about Nika because I taught her on Maduro
01:08:47
Cole B
yeah. Yeah.
01:08:48
Darin Tingey
which was really cool. I taught her before I went to Lai. So it was fun to go teaching from her to then her dad became Bishop while I was on Lai.
01:08:52
Cole B
in
01:08:57
Darin Tingey
And she was, was getting a different guy for a long time before that.
01:08:57
Cole B
yeah
01:09:01
Darin Tingey
Anyway, I remember seeing those pictures and I thought it was really cool.
01:09:01
Cole B
you
01:09:03
Darin Tingey
Cause I was like, I taught that girl like 10 years ago and now to see, and you got to be a part of her baptism, which is really cool.
01:09:07
Cole B
good
01:09:10
Darin Tingey
So Matt, tell me about some other outer islands or, I know you were on tab.
Life on Outer Islands and Cultural Immersion
01:09:19
Darin Tingey
That's a unique, a unique space. And, or if you want to talk about, uh, either one, I'd like to hear more about.
01:09:26
Matthew
I mean, i like to, my claim to fame is I've served on all the tabs. I've been on tab north, tab south, and Tabithawea in North Tarawa.
01:09:35
Darin Tingey
That's funny.
01:09:39
Cole B
So, I'm sorry.
01:09:40
Matthew
Tab north was cool because at the time we had four elders actually on there. So that was actually really fun to have like four elders on an outer island. like
01:09:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's so sick. I'm jealous.
01:09:50
Matthew
Yeah, so it's awesome. So we actually split up the island where I was more in the northern part of Tab North, and then the other two were in the southern part of Tab North. But I remember getting in on a Thursday, I think, and we're talking, and one of the guys that I served with in the MPC, his name was Elder Loma Loma or Jaben, and He was like, yeah, me and Elder Wright are going to go to Tab South like probably tomorrow because we need to choose a group leader for them and kind of just check in and and do do things for them down there.
01:10:28
Matthew
I'm like, okay, that sounds really cool and stuff. I was like, that'd be sick if we could go together and stuff.
01:10:30
Cole B
Thank you.
01:10:33
Matthew
And he was like, that would be pretty sick. And so we my companion was Elder Hogan, and Elder Hogan and Elder Wright were in the same MTC group, and they had already kind of served together prior because they had to wait almost a whole transfer get out to Tab North.
01:10:50
Matthew
But we kind of went to and were like, hey, would it be okay if this time me and Loma Loma go out there because he was getting transferred out like legit, like I think the next Thursday or something like that.
01:11:02
Matthew
like he He was getting transferred out.
01:11:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:11:03
Matthew
I was like, Would it be okay if we go out there? And Elder Wright, he was a nice guy.
01:11:09
Cole B
Thank you.
01:11:09
Matthew
and was like, yeah, like that can work. Thankfully, he actually got sick. Well, not thankfully, but he did get sick actually, like i think Friday night.
01:11:18
Darin Tingey
Hmm.
01:11:19
Matthew
And so he was like, I'm really glad I didn't go because i would have just been like a bump on the log and just like terrible. Bad thing is we missed a baptism on Saturday because the plane didn't come from Tab South.
01:11:30
Matthew
So we actually missed a baptism because our plane didn't come. So oops.
01:11:34
Darin Tingey
Classic.
01:11:35
Darin Tingey
Classic.
01:11:36
Matthew
but, but we got, but that means that we got to, church out there in tab South.
01:11:40
Cole B
Thank you.
01:11:40
Matthew
And then the plane was supposed to come Sunday. it didn't come. And like, it's going to come Monday. And we're like, okay, if it doesn't come Monday, we're just going to walk back to tab North because between I'm worth and tab South, there are 21 islands. And during low tide, it's low enough to where you can walk in between all of them and get to tab North.
01:12:03
Matthew
And so we're like, okay,
01:12:03
Darin Tingey
Now, before you continue before you continue, did you think that you could walk through all of them or did you actually know the people who had done it?
01:12:11
Matthew
We actually know people who've done it and they literally had told us, like that was like one of the things like, and the reason why I know it can be done is because I think on Island number 12 or 13 from tab North, there actually are people that live on those islands.
01:12:13
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:12:26
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:12:27
Matthew
And so they're like some like, some of the members were like, yeah, like the elders actually went out there like a couple of times, like on a boat, of course, like instead of walking it but they're like, Yeah, they did try to teach people out there.
01:12:37
Cole B
Thank you.
01:12:38
Matthew
so And we asked them, we're like, are you sure that we can make it through, all the way through? And they're like, yeah, that's one of the things Tab North is known for. And we're like, okay.
01:12:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:12:48
Matthew
like cause Because we knew we can't just keep waiting for this plane because he has to be back by Thursday.
01:12:51
Darin Tingey
Okay. yeah
01:13:03
Darin Tingey
okay
01:13:05
Darin Tingey
I was going to say that might have been the craziest thing you'd ever do because that's pretty far.
01:13:05
Matthew
But that was...
01:13:08
Cole B
Thank you.
01:13:10
Darin Tingey
It's it's not like it's like a bunch of close ones.
01:13:12
Matthew
No, it's a whole day thing.
01:13:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:14
Matthew
It's a whole day thing. And the fun thing about Tab South at the time was it didn't have internet service. So I think in that moment, I probably was the farthest, I felt the farthest away from civilization. Like, even if I wanted to contact like 911 or my parents or, you know, so mission president, if something went wrong, I legit couldn't.
01:13:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:35
Matthew
It was like, okay, this is kind of how it felt like probably when Joseph Smith sent some of, you know, some of his people out to Hawaii, in Tahiti, right?
01:13:40
Cole B
Okay.
01:13:45
Matthew
Like, hey, I'll see you in like 24 months, like, or 36 months. Like, good luck, dude. And it's like, okay like,
01:13:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:13:54
Matthew
their letters get there, you know, 10, 12 months afterwards, you know, and it's like, yeah, I hope they're okay you know? So that was probably the closest experience I had to kind of like that experience of,
01:14:05
Matthew
Even if I wanted to, I couldn't, you know? And so that was like a really fun experience on Tab South, but Tab North was awesome. We had a Suirai there. So that was like their kiddos independence day.
01:14:16
Matthew
And that's freaking awesome in the outer islands.
01:14:18
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:19
Matthew
I'm going to be honest. We didn't really teach at all because and everyone was celebrating.
01:14:23
Cole B
Yes.
01:14:23
Darin Tingey
No.
01:14:25
Matthew
But the cool thing though, is we got invited to a ton of stuff and we were always part of like the Iroh or like the people who were like, higher up, like honored guests, right?
01:14:36
Matthew
And the cool thing was is every time we were there, they would always have someone either open or close in prayer, whether that's like the Catholic, the Coliseum, or us.
01:14:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:46
Matthew
And then depending on what it was share spiritual thought, right? So it was kind of fun to do all those those Botox, those parties, because even though, yes, we weren't really like giving a lesson, you know, we were still being representatives of the church, right? And I think sometimes as missionaries, maybe as members of the church, we kind of forget that we're called to be representatives, right?
01:15:11
Matthew
of the church, right? And so there's a lot of ways you can represent the church.
01:15:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:15:13
Cole B
Okay.
01:15:14
Matthew
That doesn't just mean lessons, right? It can just be being a good example or as in Cole's case, right? Just going around and talking and being a friend or being there for someone, one right?
01:15:25
Matthew
that's a good representative of the church, right? And so so for me, i i think Kitabas was probably the perfect mission for me because yes, there were rules, but they weren't rules like here in the States.
01:15:37
Matthew
You could kind of do a lot of spirit of law stuff, but also like there's a lot of ways you could go teach and do things. And so that was super fun. I also got really good at playing sorry on Tab North.
01:15:50
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah, yeah.
01:15:51
Matthew
Me mean and Elder Wright, we actually, when we would go to dinners and doing stuff, we'd play all the old couples and actually beat them.
01:16:01
Matthew
And so because we started doing that, every time we went to dinner with someone, it got around in the ward that we were really good.
01:16:03
Cole B
Thank you.
01:16:08
Matthew
And so anytime we did that, they're always like, hey, before you leave, you have to play us in Sari. Otherwise, you can't leave or we won't invite you back. And we're like...
01:16:16
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:16:17
Matthew
okay, like, I think we can do that. I think we can play a game or two, you know? And so, Tab North was super fun. is It definitely helped me grow even more as a person.
01:16:28
Matthew
And Tab South was dope, too. So, I mean, those Outer Islands were great. had baptisms on those ones, too. think we baptized, like, one of the baptisms was...
01:16:39
Matthew
I think a group of three, the other one was a group of two. so that was kind of fun to have multiple, right? Instead of just, you know, one single and and stuff like that.
01:16:46
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:16:49
Matthew
Right. And so it was just cool to see like the church grow and and things like that. And so now I love to have North and to have South. Like, I don't know if I could choose between which is my favorite island.
01:17:01
Matthew
like them for different things. Like we thought it that I love cause it's my first one. great people, things like that. But did I understand what was going on? Not really. But for Tab ten North, I felt like I knew what was going on.
01:17:09
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:17:11
Matthew
i knew the language. I had those connections. So it's almost like I really wish I could have like started somewhere else and then done Butari Tari and then done Tab North in the same thing, you know, but, you know, it was all for my benefit, things like that.
01:17:26
Matthew
But no, Tab North was, it was super fun.
01:17:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:17:30
Matthew
It was great.
01:17:31
Darin Tingey
Sounds like you got good at counting cards because that's what they do for sorry. i swear all I'd always get beat, just destroyed because these old ladies would count cards and they could remember every order of the cards, which was crazy.
01:17:49
Matthew
Yeah, that was something I was good at. And when I went back in 2025, I played with, I went, I was back into my coo with President Tomenna's family.
01:17:52
Cole B
This is
01:17:57
Matthew
And his son actually was an MTC the same time that I was. And I actually gave them and a letter from him. Actually, I brought one to them from MTC.
01:18:04
Darin Tingey
Oh, cool.
01:18:05
Matthew
But he was there. So I only had met him in MTC, had never seen him, right, until all of a sudden getting back. And it's like, oh, dude. I do know you, but now you have you're married to have a kid.
01:18:15
Matthew
Anyways, played with him, and he was with a different missionary, and I was with someone else, with one of my buddies.
01:18:21
Cole B
Thank you.
01:18:22
Matthew
And... we kind of were doing stuff and usually when you're pretty good counting cards, you can kind of just tell them like, Hey, I know you need like a 10 or I know you need an eight to kill me, but you don't have it. But look what I have in my hand. And I just show them the card and you play it, you know?
01:18:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:18:35
Matthew
So I was starting to do that.
01:18:36
Matthew
and he goes, he goes, wait, wait, wait, wait. So you're actually really good at this game. i was like, I'm pretty decent. And he was like, you can't lie like that to me, man. He goes, I thought you were going to clean your clock.
01:18:46
Matthew
Cause it's been a long time since you've been here. And I was like, I played a lot of sorry, but I say it's a good, uh, good conversation starter and it's a good way to, you know, you know, maybe spread the gospel, talk about the gospel here and there while, uh, you know, being a little competitive.
01:18:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah. That's.
01:18:58
Cole B
Okay.
01:18:59
Matthew
So,
01:19:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah, absolutely. that That's impressive. Kiddows people love all those fun games like that and checkers and what an Ironberg.
01:19:07
Matthew
And the cards and everything. And it was like, if you could do that with them and talk with them, they really open up their hearts. Like, cool. Like, you actually care about us. You care about the culture. Because for them Kitabas, culture and feeling appreciated and wanted was huge for them. And if you you didn't, then sometimes it was like, a I don't know if I want to tell you or want to be as open with you as, you know,
01:19:32
Matthew
I need to be, you know, and all that kind of stuff.
01:19:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:35
Matthew
And that's kind of how they were with like the church too, right? Like if we didn't tell them, you know, if we didn't explain things right or didn't say, Hey, maybe look at this, you know, some of them would be like, don't feel it.
01:19:45
Matthew
Right. Or so it was just a, it was a fun time. So,
01:19:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i I also got to experience Surai on an outer island, which was way cool. Again, I probably had a few week-long bodakis where we didn't do any work.
01:19:59
Darin Tingey
It was just being there as representative, embracing the culture. And I think people really, really respected us for that. Yeah.
01:20:06
Matthew
Yeah. And if you say no, right, then they're like, they don't, it's almost like a, not a death sentence, but they're like, but like, you you kind of need to do this for us.
01:20:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:14
Matthew
And it's like, you know what? Okay. Like, sounds good, you know? And so, but then it's cool because that's what all the Catholic people, the Kamasuit people know who you are after the Sura'i. And they're like, elders, how are you?
01:20:25
Matthew
Like, what's up?
01:20:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:25
Matthew
like So it's almost like a great way to like, plant some seeds.
01:20:30
Cole B
Thanks.
01:20:31
Matthew
you know like Doesn't mean they're gonna grow right then and there, but seeds are planted, you know so
01:20:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:20:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the networking is
Celebrations, Food, and Personal Growth
01:20:37
Darin Tingey
great. Cole. i you and I also have a similar experience on lie where you got to serve, uh, be on lie when it was Christmas, which Christmas is the biggest celebration in the marsh islands. I got to experience that. And I know you did too. Tell me about Christmas on lie.
01:20:56
Cole B
everybody's got their beats. Everyone's doing their dances. And, uh, while we were there, the state president, president Jelligay from Eli, he pulled up with a boat, brought a whole bunch of stuff, brought brought his own dance crew. They did their dances.
01:21:09
Cole B
We did our dances with our ward and, you know, everybody's like challenging each other to have better beats and stuff. you know, each church got their own beats and, or, you know, their own dances, you know, their own crews. And,
01:21:22
Cole B
We got to do so many dances, got to do so much, so much fun stuff.
01:21:23
Darin Tingey
Thank you.
01:21:27
Cole B
with President Jell-K there, I mean, it was just like, I mean, the amount of hype was crazy because we were like, oh my gosh, there's like people coming from E-Buy, like, is it to be phraing There's going be so many people here. There's so much food, so much food, so much fun. were just helping people. And yeah, it was really awesome. I mean, it was just, it was so much fun. We were so connected with everybody. yeah.
01:21:46
Cole B
I honestly think like part of the reason it was so much fun is like we had talked to the leaders of all the other churches and like we were, uh, we were like close with not the, the one of the leader BOTU. We had talked to him a few times and he was like nicely listening. We talked to their deacon and like, we were super chill with him too. Cause he told us a bunch of stories and stuff. But, the Protestant reverend, we were like pretty tight with cause we'd done a bunch of service with them and like talk to him a fair amount of times. And like, he'd ask us questions about the gospel and stuff. And like, we'd shared it with him. And I mean, we were, we were close.
01:22:19
Cole B
so having Christmas and having everyone like do Christmas this together, I mean, it just, it was so much fun. it was crazy.
01:22:27
Darin Tingey
Did you go watch the other beats of the different, of the other two churches?
01:22:30
Cole B
Oh yeah.
01:22:31
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:22:31
Cole B
Oh yeah. Well, we, they like planned everything out. So everyone would be doing beats at different times. it's that way everyone could go to all the beats.
01:22:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:22:38
Cole B
So Batuu started, they were first and then, You know, our, our church was in the middle of the day and then Protestant was the last one.
01:22:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I think that's so cool about Lai that they, even though there's three distinct churches that everyone goes to, they're really just one big family on that island.
01:22:56
Darin Tingey
And so they're very cordial on going to each of the celebrations, whatever it may be, whether it's, you know, the Christmas beats, each one's doing whatever.
01:22:56
Cole B
yeah. yeah
01:23:09
Darin Tingey
uh, you know, a death or a wedding, you know, or baptism. I even, people came out for the baptism, which I thought was really cool, but they're just like one big family.
01:23:20
Darin Tingey
And it's just so unique on on an island but and lies just so just one of a kind. So, and I remember like but looking at the people in like the Protestant beat. and I was like,
01:23:34
Darin Tingey
those are Those are our kids. Those are our youth that come to our church. And the youth just kind of just do the beats of all the churches.
01:23:40
Cole B
Oh yeah.
01:23:42
Darin Tingey
That's the deal of all.
01:23:42
Cole B
You do anything.
01:23:43
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:23:43
Cole B
They do anything and everything.
01:23:45
Darin Tingey
And the whole month of December, i mean, i don't know how long were you there? Were you there before December? Okay, because I got there two days before Christmas. So I had two days to learn the beat. But as you know, the whole month, every night, it's beat night.
01:24:00
Cole B
Yeah, we were practicing until 10, 30 or 11 every night, which like we knew we weren't supposed to. But like our bishop was there, and we were like, it's we're technically in our backyard.
01:24:06
Darin Tingey
You lived right there.
01:24:10
Cole B
And also, we can't sleep anyway because they're blasting beat music outside. So like there's literally no difference on whether or not we're in our house or doing the beat because either way, we're not sleeping.
01:24:15
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:24:20
Cole B
Yeah.
01:24:22
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:24:22
Cole B
that was That was the thing with my companion. I explained it to him because he was doing the beats with us and then what another guy came in like in the middle of like December and I was explaining it to the guy before because the guy before was like a lot more on the rules and I was like, i was like listen, we're not going to be sleeping anyway. like We're just going to the beats. We're just going to have to. like It just is what it is. and Then the next guy came and he was like, not as much on the rules. I was like,
01:24:44
Cole B
listen, like as soon as it's over, we got to go to bed. Like we got to be done. Like they're, they're always watching like us being out here is fine. And they respect that. But as soon as it's over, we got to be inside the house and act a little bit like party poopers.
01:24:55
Darin Tingey
true
01:24:57
Cole B
Cause that's what they expect from us. Like, that's what they want to see. Like, they want us to be a little bit of party poopers because that's how you maintain respect, you know? It's like just being a little bit of like, we can't have too much fun. Like, we want to have a lot of fun, but like, can't have all the fun. And like, as soon as you put like a little bit of limit on fun, then it's like, okay, yeah, they like you, but now they respect you, which is a lot more important than like them just liking you, you know?
01:25:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, there was an exception to the rule in the month of December for BEAT.
01:25:21
Cole B
Yeah.
01:25:24
Darin Tingey
And they the everyone knows the rules for the missionaries out there.
01:25:25
Cole B
Yeah.
01:25:28
Darin Tingey
Even the non-members, they all know the rules. like you know You're supposed to be doing X, Y, Z all the time. So they keep you accountable. And they'll and they'll tell other people, you know oh we had a bad missionary who did this. you know They know and they'll remember it forever. But December, there's an exception.
01:25:45
Darin Tingey
And when I was there, were you there for New Year's as well?
01:25:46
Cole B
Oh, yeah.
01:25:49
Cole B
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
01:25:50
Darin Tingey
did Did you guys do a new big New Year's celebration at all? or
01:25:55
Cole B
Yeah, I'm trying to write It's all like blended together now. like That whole week just blended together because President Angelica was there with all the people.
01:25:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:26:01
Cole B
and there were the whole like That whole week was just like a week of party, basically.
01:26:04
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:26:05
Cole B
and it's just It all like blends together. Yeah.
01:26:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the the senator for Lai came out when I was there, and he brought a big boat with all the kids that were on school in E-Buy. They brought him to Lai, and they all everyone did their beats again, and they did they brought fireworks, and a lot of people on Lai had never seen fireworks, and it was like the coolest thing for them.
01:26:18
Cole B
yeah
01:26:28
Darin Tingey
But our we we did beat until like 1 a.m., it was it was like all right elders you should probably go home now like okay all right fine we'll go home but everyone was celebrating and it was you know it was okay it was totally fun uh i love that you served online i could go talk about life for hours but uh last few questions for you guys uh the typical questions cole we'll start with you favorite area
01:26:33
Cole B
Yeah.
01:26:41
Cole B
yeah
01:27:00
Darin Tingey
Favorite thing about the Marsh Islands? Sorry, favorite food, favorite area, and favorite thing about the Marsh Islands?
01:27:07
Cole B
Uh, favorite food...
01:27:09
Cole B
I know it It's not Lugur. It's not Lugur. What is it? I'm trying to remember what it is. I, like, I always have, like, my answer for it just to, like, so probably shark.
01:27:19
Cole B
They don't eat it very often, but whenever they do have it, shark is delicious.
01:27:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah?
01:27:22
Darin Tingey
Really?
01:27:23
Darin Tingey
that's That's a hot take.
01:27:24
Cole B
Oh, yeah.
01:27:25
Darin Tingey
i think that's a hot take.
01:27:26
Cole B
I love shark. Delicious.
01:27:30
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:27:31
Cole B
And then favorite area, live for sure. Favorite thing about the Marshall Islands. Whenever people are like...
01:27:39
Cole B
My favorite thing... Probably ability that they have to not not worry about stuff. like They're just like the most anti-anxious people on the planet.
01:27:50
Cole B
It's so awesome.
01:27:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:27:52
Darin Tingey
yeah yeah more
01:27:52
Cole B
is's like a good It's a good detox for me.
01:27:54
Cole B
Game on mood.
01:27:54
Darin Tingey
Things will happen. yeahmon more Things will happen.
01:27:57
Cole B
Yeah.
01:27:58
Darin Tingey
If life's good, you know it'll happen. Whatever. your on killlan on ages like god's you know God's will.
01:28:01
Cole B
Yeah.
01:28:04
Cole B
Yeah. the
01:28:07
Darin Tingey
That's awesome. Matt, what about you Favorite food? Favorite area? Favorite thing about Kiribati?
01:28:14
Matthew
I'll save the hardest one for last, which is probably like the area because I like them all for each thing, you know.
01:28:18
Darin Tingey
and Okay.
01:28:20
Matthew
But favorite food was Tian, sea turtle. That was my favorite.
01:28:26
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:27
Darin Tingey
Dion. Yep. Yeah.
01:28:29
Matthew
Peeta, please don't come after me. But I say sea turtle is probably my favorite. And then Penny Mae.
01:28:36
Cole B
Yes.
01:28:37
Matthew
if If those two were at the same dinner...
01:28:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:40
Matthew
that was like, I don't know what it would be in comparison to like in the States. I don't know. Maybe you go into like In-N-Out or something being from like East Coast. I don't know. Right. Like if you give me Penny May and Tian like,
01:28:54
Matthew
let me know when when that, like, I'll put your name in for the dinner calendar every week. Like, just let me know, you know, probably part my favorite food. Favorite thing about the mission was probably the people and culture.
01:29:04
Cole B
so
01:29:07
Matthew
Those are my two favorite things. Like, I'll be honest, Kitabas is not tourist attraction. it's just not like, and you don't go there on vacation.
01:29:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:17
Matthew
you're kind of there for people and the culture. And I think once you buy into both, it makes the mission just like that much better. and so for me, I love the culture and I love the people and not even just like their culture, but even like church culture, I wish, um, was a little bit more like they didn't take things like too seriously. Like,
01:29:38
Matthew
They all wanted to build a design together and do things together and stuff. And it was definitely like, yeah are there were some judgmental people, yes. But it was a different type of love and different type of judgment.
01:29:48
Cole B
Okay.
01:29:50
Matthew
They're more like a, hey, like we want you here. like And they're all family too. So I think that makes a little different too. like They're all like family at some point, right?
01:29:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:58
Matthew
So I think that's the best part, culture and the people. And then my favorite area... That's just super hard for me because I feel like each one, but I would say, gosh.
01:30:06
Darin Tingey
Gotta choose one. Gotta choose the one.
01:30:13
Matthew
Comes to experience wise, I'd say tab north, tab south.
01:30:13
Cole B
okay
01:30:16
Matthew
Comes to growing the church baptisms, teaching wise, I'd say beso.
01:30:22
Darin Tingey
Okay. Let's say you could go back to one place. Where would you go back to?
01:30:29
Matthew
I feel like I would have to say Tad North, Tad South because that's the people that I spent, I talked with a lot, right?
01:30:32
Darin Tingey
Dang.
01:30:36
Matthew
But also, I never got to say goodbye to them. And so I got pulled off and I thought I was going back out and they told me I wasn't when I was on Tarawa.
01:30:40
Cole B
so
01:30:45
Darin Tingey
dang
01:30:46
Matthew
So I never got to say goodbye. So that's probably the area I'd go back to. and it's an outer island, right? Like if you told me can go to anyone, no matter the cost, no matter the time, I'm going to Tad North, Tad South.
01:30:56
Matthew
So.
01:30:57
Darin Tingey
All right. Fair enough. Fair enough. Well, cool guys. You guys had really unique, different experiences, but similar experiences at the same time. just I think it's so cool. You guys have to serve in the same mission. I always wanted to serve in the same mission as my dad or my brother. It didn't happen.
01:31:16
Darin Tingey
so cool that you guys got to see both sides of the mission and talk about it, talk about the the differences and similarities and uh no really cool and we got a a solid two for one on the podcast today so i'm happy about that but thanks for coming on and this was another great episode of alan's podcast
01:31:35
Matthew
Appreciate it.