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Episode 18: Cody Sias - Kiribati & Marshall Islands - Tarawa, Kiritimati, Fanning, Majuro, Outer Islands as AP
65 Plays18 days ago
Cody Sias served in the islands from 2012-2014 and started his mission on the Kiribati side of the mission. After only 36 days on the main island of Tarawa, Cody was transferred to Kiritimati Island where his stay was so long that he was lucky enough to catch a ship to Tabuaeran (Fanning Island) not only once, but twice! One of those trips almost ended badly for a senior missionary, but prayers were answered and miracles were beheld once again in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific Ocean.
After a year and a half in Kiribati, Cody was transferred to the Marshall Islands where he would finish his last 7 months as AP. Lucky for him, he and his companion convinced the mission president there were some adventures to be had in the outer islands of Kiribati.
#MarshallIslandsKiribatiMission #Kiribati #Tarawa #Kiritimati #Tabuaeran #Fanning #Majuro #TheIslandsPodcast #theislands #PacificIslands #PacificIslanders #Micronesia #islandculture
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Transcript
Introduction to Cody Sias
00:00:01
Darin Tingey
All right, we're on with another episode of the islands podcast today. Got a great guest Cody Sias elder Sias give ah background on you Cody and then we'll go from there.
00:00:17
Cody
right, sounds good. Thanks for having me.
Cody's Early Life and Mission Call
00:00:19
Cody
ah Yeah, I'm from Minnesota. I moved around quite a bit as a kid, but I call Minnesota home. I now live in Chandler, Arizona, where my wife's from. So after a few years at BYU-Idaho, we moved down here.
00:00:37
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:00:38
Cody
Yeah, I
00:00:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you married Arizona girl, you're gonna you knew you were going there.
00:00:42
Cody
Yeah, yeah, you know, we we did one winter in Idaho after getting married, and she said, that's enough of that. So we moved down here, and I miss the snow, but after nine years, the desert's kind of grown on me a little bit.
00:00:59
Cody
A
Mission Training and Challenges
00:01:00
Cody
little bit, so...
00:01:00
Darin Tingey
And
00:01:03
Darin Tingey
nice and Cody, you served in the mission from 2012 to right?
00:01:12
Cody
Correct. Yep. I came in right, I think I was the last intake before the age change happened.
00:01:14
Darin Tingey
so when
00:01:22
Cody
So I remember um sitting on my couch watching General Conference like the week before going into the MTC when when they made the announcement that the age change was dropping to 18 and 19 for sisters.
00:01:35
Cody
I was like, dang it. Like I could have i i could gone a whole year earlier, but It was is good. I think I got to go a year of college and work for the summer before going on the mission. I think that really helped prep me for the mission. i don't know if I would have been ready right out of high school.
00:01:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:01:56
Cody
So, you know, god God has a plan. But at the time, I remember being like, man, that's that's unlucky on my part.
00:02:06
Darin Tingey
Did, that when you got your call, Did it say that you were going to be speaking Kitabas or did it say English?
00:02:14
Cody
It's a Kitabas, yep. It's a Marshall Islands Maduro mission. So I read it speaking the Kitabas language. So that that was that was a fun one.
00:02:23
Darin Tingey
ah Okay.
00:02:25
Cody
I was working, trying to save up money for the mission in Montana. So i was like on my own, just like got got my call. And I read it on my own because that was what one of my best friends said he did. was like, oh, that sounds cool. Like a good spiritual moment like myself. And then I'll call the family and read it to them. So I did that. And yeah, it was kind of unique, you know, to be alone. I see all these people reading their calls and have like every extended family member they could think of there. i'm like, it's just me in a basement.
00:02:59
Darin Tingey
yeah reading off some place that never heard of probably like okay
00:03:01
Cody
So yeah. Yeah, i'd I'd heard of the Marshall Islands. I just remembered it from like a random social studies lesson in like eighth grade. I was like, okay, i i know where that is, but I have no idea what kiddivis is. That must just be what they speak there.
00:03:19
Cody
Yeah, it does.
00:03:20
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:03:21
Cody
So, that yeah, that was kind of a fun thing. know, as I told family about it, everyone's doing all this crazy research. My grandpa's like, they don't have a written language. How are you going to teach people? And i was like, I don't know.
00:03:33
Cody
sure
00:03:35
Darin Tingey
Asking you all the questions that you have no idea until you get home, really.
Missionary Experiences and Adjustments
00:03:39
Cody
exactly like it's a shark sanctuary you better not go in the water and all all this all this fun stuff so it just got me more and more excited
00:03:48
Darin Tingey
That's awesome. And so when you went to the MTC, did were there other missionaries there with you?
00:03:53
Cody
yeah i had a a decently large intake um for the kitabus side we had i wrote i wrote this down i was thinking uh all week The Kitipasite I remembered really easily, but I was struggling to remember the Marshall Islands elders because they were india just a classroom next door to us.
00:04:18
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:04:18
Cody
So we like considered ourselves probably the same intake even though we were like in a different classroom. So in the MTC, it was me, Elder Klatt, Elder Lee. who Elder Lee had some back like spine issues. He had like bone.
00:04:35
Cody
a bulging disc on one side and compressed on the other something.
00:04:38
Darin Tingey
Gosh.
00:04:39
Cody
So he actually never made it out of the MTC. Like when we left, he, for Kitabas, he just went home.
00:04:47
Darin Tingey
Oh, dang.
00:04:48
Cody
um So that was kind of sad. And then we had Elder Copeland, Elder Lopez, Sister Tautioli, and Sister Apinehru. Sister Tautioli is from Utah, and Sister Apinehru was from, I want to say, American Samoa.
00:05:04
Cody
But yeah, so we had we had a a decent sized class.
00:05:06
Darin Tingey
Yeah, decent group.
00:05:08
Cody
And then in the Marshall Islands side, we had Sister Dongo and Sister Huni, Elder Woods, Elder Parkinson, Elder Schmidt, Elder Holman, Elder Foote, and Elder Sherman, who is a often referred to person on the pod.
00:05:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah, Sherman. he's you know I think he taught in the MTC for like two years after he was a missionary, maybe more, two years plus.
00:05:36
Cody
that's I didn't even know he taught in the MTC. that that's That's awesome. He he was is good. i I had to pat myself on the back a little bit because I you know i helped him learn some of his kitabits.
00:05:49
Cody
So it was kind of nice to hear you talking about how good he was at the language and stuff.
00:05:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:05:55
Cody
Okay. yeah i did I did something. i mean, he's he's super smart and, I mean, I helped by I answered his questions when he was teaching himself kitabas mainly.
00:06:06
Darin Tingey
Sure. i think So when I was in the MCC, he taught martial arts, but I know he at sometimes did teach on the kid of his side too.
00:06:13
Cody
He was really, yeah, really diligent with his kitabas studies when we were together.
00:06:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:06:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:06:20
Cody
So it was, and I was like, I'm, yeah, I will get to it later, but he was like crucial for me in trying to learn martialese at the end of the mission.
00:06:31
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:06:31
Cody
and, you know, I'd like to say its stuck with me, but. Yeah. moloca luck ah oninokaji modules
00:06:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah. All right, dude. All right. We got it.
00:06:42
Cody
yeah yeah
00:06:44
Darin Tingey
That's me with my kid. I'm like, uh, it's just like people speak to me.
00:06:47
Cody
yeah
00:06:51
Darin Tingey
like, I know what you're saying, but having a hard time speaking back to you right now. Um, but okay.
00:06:55
Cody
Yeah, yeah.
00:06:58
Darin Tingey
So good MTC group. That's a, yeah, that's a pretty big group where I'm, I would have guessed that some of those Marshallese weren't all going to the Marshall Islands.
00:07:06
Cody
No, they all went Marshall Islands.
00:07:06
Darin Tingey
Maybe they were. Wow, impressive.
00:07:08
Cody
Yeah.
00:07:10
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:07:10
Cody
Yeah, we we we flooded the mission when we came. It was is good.
00:07:14
Darin Tingey
So you get there, your mission president is who when you got?
00:07:18
Cody
president President Shaw, when we got there.
00:07:21
Darin Tingey
Okay, and, and um you had President Shah for how long?
00:07:28
Cody
oh Oh, you know, is he left when I was on Christmas. So I don't really know. I only met him twice.
00:07:41
Cody
um
00:07:42
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's, that's pretty standard for the mesh.
00:07:43
Cody
It's been it's been mentioned it' been mentioned before that President Sean spent most of his time in the Marshall Islands.
00:07:51
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:07:51
Cody
um And so when I got there, um so I'll go back a little bit. Because I learned Kitabits in the MTC, I was the second Kitabits language intake.
00:08:05
Cody
um We were the first Marshallese language intake.
00:08:09
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:08:10
Cody
So yeah, Sherman's group, they were the first ones ever learn in the MTC. um And we
00:08:19
Cody
were there for 10 weeks.
00:08:22
Darin Tingey
Dang. 10 weeks of MTC.
00:08:23
Cody
Yeah. Yeah, we ran that place by the end.
00:08:24
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
00:08:26
Cody
We knew everything. Like, it was was crazy. And they, like, ran out of teaching material really, like, I mean, maybe between week six and eight.
00:08:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah. well
00:08:39
Cody
So we were, like, just teaching ourselves and, like, going over lessons and just, I mean, bored out of our gourd, trying to be diligent, but, like, is that i I broke my ankle in the MTC or so the doctor said.
00:08:54
Darin Tingey
No.
00:08:55
Cody
So like that at least livened it up a little bit, got us off the campus to go to the doctor and stuff.
00:09:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:09:01
Cody
But it's like, yeah, Elder Lee's back problems.
00:09:01
Darin Tingey
See the outside of world.
00:09:04
Cody
Like we were in, me, Klatt and Lee were in like a trio. So we got to go to like the hospital with him So, but yeah, the MTC was, was a struggle.
00:09:15
Cody
And so we,
00:09:16
Darin Tingey
weeks is insane. i I struggled at six weeks in MTC and I still think now they should just be like three weeks and then send them out.
00:09:24
Cody
Yeah, well, and i' i've actually I'm on a Discord group with um a missionary who's preparing for to go out to our mission. And he they have him on like a pre-MTC language training thing.
00:09:32
Darin Tingey
Oh
00:09:37
Darin Tingey
my goodness.
00:09:38
Cody
i was like, oh my gosh, that'd be amazing. like Where was that?
00:09:43
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:09:44
Cody
Yeah, that's pretty cool to to see that they've stepped up their game a lot. I feel like elders have to be coming in so much more prepared than we were.
00:09:53
Darin Tingey
ah Or at least I think they are, you know, and then they get up there they're like, that's not what I practice.
00:09:57
Cody
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. That's not what we said.
00:10:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:10:03
Cody
Yeah. But ah so we we got to MTC and right before Christmas. It was like it December 20th because I remember my first night.
00:10:15
Cody
but There's that whole thing about on 12, 21, 12 or something like that. there's like That's when the Mayan calendar ended.
00:10:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah, world's ending.
00:10:27
Cody
And so, yeah, so they're like, oh it's the end of the world. so I remember, like, my first time, I was like, well, I made it to the mission. So if the world ends, I got Celestial Kingdom, like, unlocked.
00:10:39
Cody
Like, I'm good. And so I'll always remember that was my first time them and in the mission. And then, uh, Yeah, they brought in a bunch of, like, all the Outer Islands came in for Christmas.
00:10:52
Cody
President Shah was there. had this huge thing. So it's just, like, chaos. We get to the mission. and Everyone goes out to their areas. But, like, no one did missionary work, it felt like, for, like, four days because we had all these extra companionships in.
00:11:06
Cody
It's just, like, I don't know.
00:11:07
Darin Tingey
Everyone's just hanging out. Yeah.
00:11:08
Cody
Yeah, yeah.
00:11:09
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:11:10
Cody
ah Yeah, just chaos and chaos.
Missionary Life on Christmas Island
00:11:13
Cody
we would like go on all these crazy splits cause you people Oh, I was in this area like three months ago.
00:11:20
Cody
Let's go. want to visit this person. Cause I'm like, this isn't my area anymore. So we, uh, we were just doing all that.
00:11:24
Darin Tingey
right
00:11:27
Cody
And I got so sick right away. So it kind of helps cause like I couldn't like leave the house basically. so we had all, you know, it worked out.
00:11:37
Darin Tingey
Where, where was your first area?
00:11:39
Cody
Basel first.
00:11:41
Darin Tingey
Okay, so you were on that the end of the island.
00:11:44
Cody
Yep, yep. i got to I got the whole tour all the way down you know from the airport. We're just dropping missionaries off as we go. stopped in Stopped at Moroni and Atha.
00:11:57
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:11:58
Cody
Did our little spiel with missionaries and the senior couple there.
00:11:58
Darin Tingey
Classic.
00:12:03
Cody
And then continued down.
00:12:05
Darin Tingey
How many missionaries roughly were in Kiribati at the time that you got there?
00:12:10
Cody
I want to say...
00:12:14
Darin Tingey
Oh, wow, that's pretty, that's a lot, yeah.
00:12:17
Cody
I'm pretty sure for the majority of my mission, we had like 100 to missionaries in the mission. And it was like 80-40 split about.
00:12:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that sounds about right. That's kind of how it was for mine too.
00:12:33
Cody
um i'm pretty I'm pretty sure it was, i mean, because we had Beso first, Beso second, Beso third. Sometimes they were to you know, companionships in Beso second.
00:12:47
Cody
Then you had, me pull up the map. Yeah, you had Bairiki, you had Bandrebe,
00:12:59
Cody
we had Eta first, or we had Eta second elders and Eta second sisters. We had Eta first, and you know, Pekinabu, you know we At one point we had
00:13:13
Cody
two companionships in Bikinabu, like two or three in Tomaiku. We had Bonariki had a companion ship bothta had ah companionship. a companionship. I mean, we had tons of missionaries on on island.
00:13:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Well, I knew like
00:13:28
Darin Tingey
maybe a couple of years before you, like, Kittabas didn't have as many, least that's what I've heard. And then it kind of ramped up as the work continued on, but it, um,
00:13:37
Cody
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it it definitely did. yeah I think under President Weir, it grew even more.
00:13:48
Cody
President Shah didn't have very many Outer Islands open. It kind of was ah a joke at the time that like they would send you know problematic elders out to the Outer Islands, like go shun them away, like humble them, which...
00:14:08
Cody
know sometimes worked and sometimes closed an island. So, you yeah.
00:14:11
Darin Tingey
Right. ah That's gotta be frustrating as an elder. I'd be like, yo, like send me that's, that's where want to go. I'll go to the outer islands.
00:14:19
Cody
Yeah. yeah So, when I got there, we had Taroyata, Abayang, Merake, Butaritari,
00:14:36
Cody
Abememe, Mayana
00:14:41
Cody
Tab was one and Aranuka.
00:14:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:14:47
Cody
I think that was all the ones that were open.
00:14:50
Darin Tingey
I mean, not bad though. Like not bad for.
00:14:53
Cody
Yeah, yeah, and then I know Abimimic closed for a little while because there was some stuff went down.
00:15:07
Darin Tingey
yeah again, not not our out of the ordinary there.
00:15:11
Cody
Yeah, yeah.
00:15:13
Darin Tingey
It's is's always interesting, though, to see, at least to hear, you different mission presidents being more comfortable opening Outer Islands or less comfortable. Or like even my mission president, at least on the Marshall side, it took him a while to finally open up the Outer Islands on the Marshall side.
00:15:34
Darin Tingey
like it was It wasn't towards the end of my mission that he started opening them all up.
00:15:37
Cody
Yeah, i was kind of surprised to hear that um because when I was there, president were i mean we had a lot of Marshall Outers open. I mean, basically, everyone like everyone I can think of was open at one time or another.
00:15:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah, well
00:15:53
Darin Tingey
yeah and that's what I've heard about Ware as well, is that he really was pro-Outer Island. So so let's let's talk about your intro to Kiribati. You're in Baso. What was what was your the beginning of your mission like?
00:16:09
Cody
Yeah, so it was it was crazy. Like, you know, you're just thrown into, like, the city of Kitabas, which, I mean, yeah, back back in 2012, the internet isn't what it is now, right? So I'm, like, trying to look up pictures. I'm, like, getting these super, you know, outer islands, you know, just beautiful photos of, like, beaches and lagoons.
00:16:34
Cody
And I was like, okay, okay. And then you go to Basso, especially, you know, Beso first and Beso second, it's just like packed. I mean, like,
00:16:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:48
Cody
just it's a it's hard to explain how tightly packed the houses are. Like, you like I forget who you were talking to before, but they were talking about how you like walk through someone's house to get to the next house.
00:17:05
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:17:05
Cody
And I mean, that's just how it was. And it was, i mean, it just blew my mind that people lived that way.
00:17:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah, just so many people packed in a tight space. Not not very much to their name.
00:17:19
Cody
Yeah. But so my trainer was Elder Whippy, Elder Josh Whippy.
00:17:26
Darin Tingey
hey
00:17:26
Cody
adam
00:17:27
Darin Tingey
let's go.
00:17:27
Cody
And he had just come off of Arunuka. um He was pretty, still pretty young in the mission at the time. um and he has great English him and his brother both have great English his Kitabas was decent like he could be a senior companion and like lead the lessons and stuff but like I remember thinking like oh that's right Kitabas language training is really new
00:18:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:18:03
Cody
I remember there were times where he was like, I don't know this word. I'd be like, oh, wait, I learned that. I had that in notebook somewhere. And so I remember thinking like, man, this would have been so much harder four months ago, you know, like before the language training.
00:18:19
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:18:22
Cody
So, yeah. is It was good. i remember her he he taught me a a lesson, which is pretty funny. was like, hey, Elder Sias, you don't want to be in leadership.
00:18:38
Cody
like You don't get to do the fun, cool missionary stuff once you get put into leadership. I'll teach you a lesson my trainer taught me.
00:18:43
Darin Tingey
so
00:18:46
Cody
Don't teach more than 19 lessons in a week. 19 means you're working. Once you hit 20, then they started looking at you for leadership. And I was just like, I thought that was really funny, but ah he was right.
00:19:01
Cody
Cause I was in leadership my entire mission, basically.
00:19:03
Darin Tingey
ah You didn't listen to him.
00:19:05
Cody
and i I was like, I mean, we can teach literally anyone we want to like 19. We can have that by Wednesday. Like, uh, and so, but he he was right.
00:19:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah. 19
00:19:19
Cody
Um,
00:19:19
Darin Tingey
is honestly a ton, but i mean, like, kid again, Kid Bus is blown up and you're in Bezo, so like a million people.
00:19:25
Cody
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you walk by someone and you're like, Hey, do you mind if we come back? And you have we talk to these people, can we come back by and talk them? I mean, they say yes, whether they want you to or not.
00:19:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:19:35
Cody
I mean, they'll still say yes.
00:19:35
Darin Tingey
Right. Boom. Lesson counted.
00:19:38
Cody
Yeah. We'll talk to them. Um, so yeah, no.
00:19:42
Darin Tingey
i was I was in the mission when, I was like couple months in my mission when they church switched that and we no longer kept track of how many lessons we taught, which was so weird.
00:19:42
Cody
it
00:19:52
Cody
Oh, really?
00:19:53
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Yeah, it was a weird, it was a weird shift, but it was good one.
00:19:55
Cody
Yeah,
00:19:58
Cody
yeah I always like, know, I'd hear some missionaries talk about like, I'd like talk to this guy on the bus for like two minutes and, you know, count that as a lesson. And there was, know, the bishop was in seat behind me.
00:20:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:10
Cody
So there's a member present. was like, I i mean, no, So I always try to like if we opened it close with the prayer and shared a you know verse or something, shared a gospel doctrine point, like that would be a lesson.
00:20:19
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:24
Cody
So I try to make them a little more meaningful. But I know there were i mean there were missionaries you know trying to break records and do numbers. Yeah. and i Yeah, I here yeah remember hearing...
00:20:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the numbers game, it's like at some at some point, it just gets rid of like the whole purpose.
00:20:40
Cody
It's like, yeah, I mean, the spirit's not there right now.
00:20:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:20:42
Cody
Like, you're you're not there to convert. You're doing other stuff. I remember hearing missionaries seeing back-to-back teaching to different people. They're, like, counting individual lessons.
00:20:53
Cody
Like, um you know, let's maybe not do that one.
00:20:56
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha ha ha.
00:20:58
Cody
ah But, yeah, so I was there for a really short time, actually. i wish my camera was going to show you. I have one Book of Mormon I used my entire missions.
00:21:10
Cody
Every time I reread it, I marked it a different color. But on the back in the back like blank pages, I listed out the names of the people I baptized, and my companion in that that area, and how long I was there.
00:21:27
Cody
So in Bezo first, I was only there for 36 days.
00:21:28
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:21:33
Darin Tingey
Oh, wow.
00:21:34
Cody
So there's emergency transfer. And I was like, we just had all these baptisms. I know, um I want say it was Powell, but he was talking about um Elder Tkongwee.
00:21:49
Cody
um I actually baptized him when I was in Beso.
00:21:52
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:21:54
Cody
yeahperna bernard te conngly Yeah,
00:21:54
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
00:21:57
Cody
Yeah, I saw the photo of him. was like, hey, I know him.
00:22:01
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
00:22:01
Cody
Yeah, so yeah, it was cool. But I mean, we had we had a ton of success in Basso. I was there for 36 days and we had, I mean, it's a long list, it's double digits.
00:22:14
Darin Tingey
Dang.
00:22:15
Cody
lots Lots of baptisms. um And then bunch a bunch of them like got baptized like the week I i left, like right before, or right after I left. I was really bummed when I was told was being yeah emergency transferred.
00:22:25
Darin Tingey
That's cool.
00:22:30
Cody
But then got sent to Christmas. Um, well, so in base, so base was like my refiner's fire. It like, uh, not in a spiritual way in like a physical way.
00:22:42
Cody
It like my immune system just got pummeled. I, I went, um, I'm kind of like a, ah bigger guy I play I was like a lineman in high school I entered the mission I lost weight in college just being a poor college student and I was down to 220 and when I entered the mission field and within 36 days I left like 190 yeah I mean I it's crazy I look back at those pictures of me I'm like that is insane i'll I'll never be that skinny again I mean
00:22:53
Darin Tingey
ah hu
00:23:07
Darin Tingey
No way!
00:23:16
Cody
Yeah, so he – Beso really you knocked me down.
00:23:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, got sick a lot.
00:23:24
Cody
oh But, and yeah. and I mean, maybe that was part of why they chose me to go to Christmas, get me out of Beso and get a little healthier. But –
00:23:36
Darin Tingey
See, we're 36 days in Tarawa and then you're like, hey, you're going to Christmas.
Travel and Life on Remote Islands
00:23:40
Cody
Yeah, yeah. One of the elders on on Christmas was having like a mental mental breakdown, so they had to bring him back to Tarawa.
00:23:51
Cody
So I went and finished my training with Elder Butterfield.
00:23:51
Darin Tingey
Good, nice.
00:23:54
Cody
He's from Utah.
00:23:58
Cody
he he's He's such a funny guy. I loved my time with Elder Butterfield. He's he's awesome. He would always say like he was not good at kid at this.
00:24:11
Cody
like he just yeah he he has like kind of a nasally tone to his voice and it just really like struggled he struggled with pronunciation getting the right like don't know i feel like utahns often have a hard time with the ng sound and and i remember him struggling with that and like just uh
00:24:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:24:34
Cody
he But he was is such a good sport. He always makes fun of himself, which kiddos people always love. Like they just, it's so fun.
00:24:40
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:24:41
Cody
So, I mean, we we had such a blast.
00:24:45
Darin Tingey
So where like was like every missionary like jealous of you? Like, man, kid just got here, and he just got a Christmas Island. Like, you probably flew to Fiji. Did you find a Fiji?
00:24:53
Cody
Well, I got like emergency transferred out. So i was like, no one knew I was like leaving. Like I was just like in and out. And then all of a sudden, yeah, I'm like, okay, so like, how do I get to Christmas? i'm like, well, here's your ticket to Fiji.
00:25:07
Cody
You're there for two days and then you'll go. was like, oh, I was just in Fiji. Like I just came from Fiji.
00:25:13
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:25:13
Cody
Cause that's how, what we flew out of the MTC, we flew LAX to Fiji.
00:25:18
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:25:18
Cody
We overnighted just like in the airport. I'm pretty sure. And then, flew the rest the way. So yeah, now if we flew back to Fiji, spent two days there and then, uh,
00:25:32
Cody
fond on to Christmas.
00:25:32
Darin Tingey
And then to Kittimus. So where and and where would I what are in Christmas?
00:25:37
Cody
So when I got to Christmas, it was one companionship of elders and one companionship of sisters. And the sisters did London, which is like the more, it's it's like the beso of Christmas, which, you know, it's it's not like beso at all, but it's it's a more city part.
00:25:53
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:25:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:25:59
Cody
And then the elders, we,
00:25:59
Darin Tingey
Yep.
00:26:02
Cody
handled Tabakea and Banana.
00:26:07
Darin Tingey
Gotcha.
00:26:08
Cody
And we would do that like every other day. We would just, you know, we lived in Tabakea. That's where the church building was. And we would then on, you know, Thursdays and Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, I think we would go up to Banana. We'd hop on a truck and catch a ride up there.
00:26:25
Darin Tingey
Was there a senior couple on the island as well?
00:26:28
Cody
There was, when I got there, we had the Maybes. They were awesome. They're super, super great.
00:26:34
Darin Tingey
Did they live in Tabake as well?
00:26:37
Cody
Yep. they they's So at the church building in Tabakea, there's two chapel houses. And they lived in one. The sisters lived in the other. Then we lived in a big stick house behind both of those, which used to be like the church building before.
00:26:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:26:56
Cody
Because
00:26:57
Darin Tingey
That's awesome.
00:26:59
Cody
they have... They had two big mania bays. One of them was in like disrepair, was being used for storage or something. And then there's our house with a courtyard between the the three buildings. And then in front of those, they built like the big big chapel.
00:27:15
Darin Tingey
so was P-Day like you guys would all just like kind of hang out together?
00:27:21
Cody
Yeah, yeah, we would ah you usually do laundry and stuff, go find, you know, there's a really strong young single adult-like group there.
00:27:35
Cody
So we would do fun stuff with them. we would go hang out with investigators. We would, you know, they always played volleyball.
00:27:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:27:44
Cody
Yeah, I mean, we we would go, like, fishing for Ikari. I was doing something fun. It was a great, great time. I love Christmas.
00:27:53
Darin Tingey
And did you guys have internet on Christmas?
00:27:57
Cody
We
00:27:59
Cody
technically did. It was pretty shoddy.
00:28:01
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:28:03
Cody
It was in a home.
00:28:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:05
Cody
So, I mean, power in general. There was like one or two big generators that would just go out pretty regularly. So, my mom...
00:28:18
Cody
really struggled. but
00:28:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:28:21
Cody
like On Beso, I had internet you know every week. It was really reliable. Tons of internet cafes. and then Christmas is not as not as good.
00:28:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Did, um, and, and what was like, uh, as far as church at the time, like when you were there, how many, wards or branches or groups were there?
00:28:45
Cody
Tabakea had one London had one and then Banana had one branch.
00:28:53
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:28:54
Cody
It was bunch of branches. And then there was technically a they ah ah group, what's a smaller than a branch?
00:28:56
Darin Tingey
Gotcha.
00:29:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah, group. Yeah.
00:29:03
Cody
Over on, like across the lagoon from London and in Paris or in in Poland.
00:29:10
Darin Tingey
In Paris or Poland. Yeah.
00:29:14
Cody
But the only way to get there is you have to take a road that goes like around the entire island, which for anyone who hasn't been to Christmas, it's way different than every other atoll.
00:29:28
Cody
It's like it's still an atoll, but it's got this like weird long like elbow to it. And where the it's like it's a wildlife preserve. it's like a bird wildlife preserve.
00:29:42
Cody
And so the road like just goes along the perimeter of the islands. You have to drive like all day to get over there.
00:29:49
Darin Tingey
Yes, take forever.
00:29:51
Cody
Yeah, it took a long time. we i only went over there one time, and we know held sacrament meeting for the group out there. was like an old man and maybe his two daughters. I don't even remember.
00:30:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah, not ah not a whole ton. Yeah, i mean, like Christmas is huge if you look at it, but if you're like...
00:30:11
Cody
Yeah.
00:30:13
Cody
it's It's massive. I mean, just to go up to Banana was like a two-hour drive.
00:30:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy.
00:30:22
Cody
ah We biked it one time. We're like, yeah, we're never doing that again. It's just okay like it's a waste of time.
00:30:25
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha.
00:30:27
Cody
But we had so much work in Banana. We're like, we have to go up there, but we have to like catch a truck or you know get the bus.
00:30:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah. What was your, what was your favorite memory of Christmas?
00:30:42
Cody
I was there for a long time. was there for 195 days. So, like, i have I have so many memories.
00:30:47
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:30:51
Cody
I was lucky enough, I got go up to Fanning Island twice when i was there.
00:30:55
Darin Tingey
Okay. Very cool.
00:30:57
Cody
So, like, that that's probably, like, my favorite memory is, like, being able to so the sailing vessel that come down. It's called the Kwai. and We would hop on that because Fanning Island didn't have a – an airport yet.
00:31:14
Cody
And so the only way to get up there is I heard you talking to someone. They got to go up there and they flew on a plane. i was like, whoa, and took a 24 hour boat ride, like on a sailing ship where we just laid on the deck of the ship.
00:31:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:31:31
Cody
i
00:31:31
Darin Tingey
That's so cool.
00:31:32
Cody
Like an old school pirate ship almost made out
00:31:34
Darin Tingey
So there was no, was there no missionaries there at the time? Like you guys went out there to go like scope it out or or what?
00:31:40
Cody
Yeah, there are no missionaries. um The elders from Christmas would go up there when the Kauai would come, and the Kauai only came like every six months. It would come from Hawaii, stop in Christmas, it'd make a trip up to Fanning and come back to Christmas, and then it'd go down to like the Cook or Solomon Islands, and then back up to Hawaii.
00:32:02
Cody
And made that voyage yeah i made that voyage twice a year.
00:32:03
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:32:07
Cody
So most elders only got to do that trip once. If was there long enough, I got to do it twice.
00:32:12
Darin Tingey
That's sick. So how long would you guys stay in fanning?
00:32:13
Cody
and
00:32:14
Darin Tingey
Just like a day, like couple days or?
00:32:16
Cody
Just a couple days. Yeah, so the branch was the branch is so awesome up there. they They would go and they would just like find their neighbors, invite them to church, prepare them for the elders, teach them all the lessons.
00:32:30
Cody
And we'd come in and we're like, How's Swanta Malory? How's Swanta Isaac? Do you know who Joseph Smith is? do you have a Testament of the prophet? Like what? Like we basically come in, do baptismal interviews, teach them a few lessons, make sure they actually like know what they're talking about.
00:32:44
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:32:46
Cody
And we would just do these big group baptisms.
00:32:48
Darin Tingey
No way. That is so cool.
00:32:49
Cody
It was awesome. They had this guy, his name is More. He was a non-member who they only had, for some reason, they only had,
00:33:01
Cody
um English translations of the Doctrine and Covenants and like the,
00:33:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:33:13
Cody
like the, the, yeah, but the, the church lessons, what is that called?
00:33:14
Darin Tingey
Parker Price.
00:33:20
Cody
The lesson a manual for like Sunday school.
00:33:24
Darin Tingey
Okay, yeah. the The DNC came out when I was there in Kitabas.
00:33:25
Cody
And he,
00:33:28
Cody
Yeah, we didn't we didn't have a Bible either translated. So we used the KPC Bible.
00:33:31
Darin Tingey
Really?
00:33:34
Cody
don't know, did ah do the missionaries have the they black zipper ones?
00:33:35
Darin Tingey
Oh, no, yeah, yeah, yeah. We had like the, it was like a red, was like a red, like blue cover, red.
00:33:42
Cody
Okay, I have one of those. There's the highly sought after black zipper ones that I was able to score.
00:33:48
Darin Tingey
love
00:33:50
Cody
Those were those are sweet. so um But yeah, so More was a seaman, a retired seaman.
00:33:52
Darin Tingey
Bye, bye.
00:33:57
Cody
and had fluent English and he would, he's not a member of the church when we got there, but he would translate all the lessons for them. And like, he like wrote them out like into kid of us.
00:34:07
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:34:10
Cody
So then they could have them for Sunday school. And so when we got there, like he knew the gospel frontwards and backwards, he knew everything. and he's like, I've been doing this for years.
00:34:22
Cody
I think it's pretty cool. Can I get baptized? And we're like, dude, Man, yes, you can. And so we baptized him and his wife and his two daughters.
00:34:33
Cody
and I mean, yeah, we baptized a bunch of people.
00:34:34
Darin Tingey
No way.
00:34:38
Cody
it was awesome. And Fanning's beautiful. I mean, it's so green and, like, the the lagoon is just that, like, perfect crystal blue.
00:34:50
Cody
Like, it's it's awesome up there.
00:34:52
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:34:54
Cody
They have Norwegian cruise lines. stops there and they actually stopped there when we were there once and yeah yeah I'm sitting on Booyah talking to this guy all of sudden see this like you know Asian tourist walk by I'm like what was that and then there's two more and then ah a white family walks was like what is going on right now and I go out there's like a whole parade of these yeah cruise ship tourists like on the island walking around blew my mind but fantasy
00:35:02
Darin Tingey
No way. Is this big cruise boat?
00:35:10
Darin Tingey
What?
00:35:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:35:26
Darin Tingey
All the kids are like, that's cool. Uh-huh.
00:35:30
Cody
Yeah, yeah, but they come regular enough that they ah they make all these super cool, like, binding kitabas for them to buy. So others that get to go to Fanning always end up with, like, really cool, like, daggers made out of shark teeth and, like, just super cool stuff, like the old, like, kitabas armor and kitabas, like, weapons that they used to make back in ancient days.
00:35:39
Darin Tingey
that's cool
00:35:55
Cody
They they make them and sell them to the cruise line tourists, so...
00:35:59
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and Fanning Island's pretty well known for its fishing too. like i was working in D.C.
00:36:03
Cody
Yeah.
00:36:05
Darin Tingey
and one of my bosses was a big fisherman. He's like, oh, Kitabas? I want to go out to Christmas Island and to Fanning. This was big time on my bucket list for the bonefish, for the Ikari.
00:36:15
Cody
Bone fishing. Yeah.
00:36:20
Darin Tingey
I didn't really realize how big of a deal it was and how well known it was.
00:36:25
Cody
Yeah, it's super well known. I took a ton of Spanish. in ah high school and college and I thought for sure was going Spanish speak. All my friends went to Spanish speaking.
00:36:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah, same.
00:36:35
Cody
And I tried to use it multiple times with all the Spanish fishermen that would come. We get lots of Spaniards.
00:36:41
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
00:36:43
Cody
And I was always so frustrated because like I knew exactly what they were saying. and But it just kept coming. When I would speak, it just came out in Kitabas. It was so confusing to them.
00:36:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's coming out.
00:36:54
Cody
like Why am i but this white guy speaking, trying to talk to us if He only knows Kitavis for some reason. That doesn't make sense. But, yeah, so i love I love going up to Fanning. i love Christmas. I love i love Banana.
00:37:11
Cody
i mean, I was there for a long time. I had lot a lot of success there.
00:37:16
Darin Tingey
So and ah let me let me ask again about this like boat that you were on. like how How big is this boat? It's gotnna be pretty big for it to go from Hawaii to Christmas to Fanning and all over.
00:37:28
Cody
Yeah, right.
00:37:28
Darin Tingey
like How many people were on it?
00:37:30
Cody
So there's, there's a I mean, it it has a big, like it runs off of a sail and it has an engine, but it's got these big sails on it. I mean, think like think like a pirate ship.
00:37:44
Cody
it's It's like that. It's like a galleon.
00:37:46
Darin Tingey
OK. OK.
00:37:47
Cody
It's a big ship. But they would have like all the storage down below was used for food and stuff. And so we would, us and whoever else,
00:37:58
Cody
paid for a ticket, just laid on like the top deck under like a big tarp.
00:38:05
Darin Tingey
ah car
00:38:05
Cody
And it was so packed, like there was nowhere to like go. You could like kinda get up and walk around, but like you pretty much had go back to your spot. They probably feel like 30 people like crowded on it.
00:38:18
Cody
And it' it was a 24 hour voyage.
00:38:18
Darin Tingey
Oh wow. Did
00:38:23
Cody
It was crazy, dude.
00:38:23
Darin Tingey
you get sick?
00:38:25
Cody
is I got super sick. ah The first time I went, the second time I took a ton of Dramamine, but the first time I got, I got really sick. I had to basically just lay down the whole, whole time.
00:38:42
Cody
but I got to go,
00:38:45
Cody
my, my, that my second trip up was on my birthday. We left, uh, the day, the afternoon before um, ah or like the evening before my birthday, we're on the ship my entire, but like the entire 24 hours of my birthday and arrive the next morning. So my entire birthday is just like spent laying down on a ship.
00:39:06
Darin Tingey
In the middle of the ocean. That's so cool.
00:39:08
Cody
ah
00:39:09
Darin Tingey
Did that would the senior couples ever go? or The sisters?
00:39:12
Cody
So no, the sisters never went. The second trip I went, um the Maybes went home and we got the Andersons who came in and they were awesome too.
00:39:23
Cody
And Elder Anderson, He was so gung-ho. He was like all about like trying to fit into the kid of his culture. wanted to be with the people.
00:39:33
Cody
And it's funny, like the maybes were like, you know, at the end of their mission.
00:39:34
Darin Tingey
Ha ha ha.
00:39:37
Cody
So they're like, they're content. Like they're like we've done the, we've done the botakis.
00:39:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah, we've seen it all. Yeah.
00:39:42
Cody
We've done all that. Like, we're okay. We're just going to like enjoy like as much as we can. yeah weve we know our limits. The Andersons didn't know their limits yet. and so Elder Anderson was like, I want to come with you guys on this.
00:39:57
Cody
and i I was like, it's it's kind of rough. like I'm not going to lie. like It's very Outer Island, Fanning is. it's easy as like He was used to Christmas, which is like the least Outer Island of all, ah even over Ottawa, because they have the connection to Hawaii.
00:40:15
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:40:16
Cody
like You can get
00:40:16
Darin Tingey
American cargo, internet.
00:40:18
Cody
Yeah, like I would have like McRibs in the freezer. Like I had like all sorts of, yeah, I was like Christmas is where it's at for food.
00:40:23
Darin Tingey
Whoa.
00:40:28
Cody
um But tried to warn him and he was like, no, I want to go, I want to go. Okay. He got so sick and I was training Elder Mark. So I should go back. Elder Butterfield finished my training and then he went in to be zone leader i trained elder bontemann for several months and then i got other marks elder um elder marks is from idaho up north sandpoint i think um but so elder marks gotta go with me the second time and he got really sick too when we got to fanning and uh i mean i like literally thought
00:41:12
Cody
Elder Anderson might die. Like, he was so ill. He couldn't keep anything down. was super dehydrated. He, like, he just couldn't, I mean, he couldn't move without needing to, like, urgently go to the bathroom.
00:41:18
Darin Tingey
Oh no.
00:41:24
Cody
Like, it was it was bad. And then we went we went to leave eventually, and they told us that we, like, weren't on the manifest to go back.
00:41:40
Cody
And we're like
00:41:40
Darin Tingey
No.
00:41:42
Cody
Yeah, I was like, yeah that that can't be because this guy's going to die here. like We need to get him back to Christmas. I'm like, ah.
00:41:50
Cody
If we have time, we will come up and make a second trip.
00:41:54
Darin Tingey
No.
00:41:54
Cody
Yeah. and Well, and i was like, I called, I radioed down to Christmas. was like, make them make time. When they get there, don't care what you have to do, get them to come back up.
00:42:08
Cody
And they they did. They came back up and basically made like a special trip for us.
00:42:13
Darin Tingey
That's a miracle.
00:42:14
Cody
Yeah. Yeah, but then we were stuck there. It was 24 hours later, 24 hours back. So we were stuck there another two days. And like i like I was trying to convince him because he didn't want – he's like, I don't want to eat anything that's kiddivis. Like,
00:42:31
Cody
Like, cause that's what, that's what's killing me. was like, know, like you need to eat like these coconuts, like drink the coconut. That's going to like, I promise that's going to help you.
00:42:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah. the best thing.
00:42:40
Cody
Like, sure. Don't eat the fish and rice or whatever. like don't drink the water. You know, like I get that drink, like just live off of these coconuts and it'll, it'll help you. And eventually he like, you know, accepted that.
00:42:54
Cody
and But it was, it was scary there for a while.
00:42:58
Darin Tingey
How old was he?
00:42:58
Cody
Yeah.
00:42:58
Darin Tingey
Was he older guy?
00:43:00
Cody
Yeah, he's older. 60s, 70s maybe.
00:43:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:43:04
Cody
I mean, theyre yeah.
00:43:06
Darin Tingey
This dude's gonna on Fanning Island.
00:43:07
Cody
i was I was like legit worried about him
00:43:11
Darin Tingey
Did you guys ever make it up to Daraina, Washington Island?
00:43:15
Cody
him. you know, there's only one elder that I ever knew that I believe went up there. guess, I mean, he didn't go alone. He had his companion. But I'm pretty sure, you ever can get Elder Falk, I'm pretty sure he made it up to Taraina.
00:43:32
Darin Tingey
Okay. Yeah.
00:43:34
Cody
I don't know how he did that. Because the Kauai, like, they run a tight schedule. So I don't know how he had the time to go up there. Maybe maybe the Kauai went up there randomly.
00:43:43
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:43:43
Cody
But, ah yeah, so I never made it up there. i really wanted to. um By the end of the mission, they were talking about putting like a companionship of Elders on Fanning and a companionship on Taraina.
00:43:58
Cody
And they were just like... Their transfer would be when the Kauai came. So i was like, That doesn't surprise me at all.
00:44:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah, they I mean, it's since happened. Like when I was there, that both islands were open and they were booming.
00:44:14
Cody
Like, Fanning Island was so ready. I mean... so may so many people were ready for the church. like I was like, I wish we could stay here. We could have 70 baptisms, but like we're only here for a day.
00:44:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:44:28
Cody
I
00:44:29
Darin Tingey
You should have just stayed. Oh, we missed it back in six months.
00:44:33
Cody
i
00:44:33
Darin Tingey
ah
00:44:33
Cody
i thought about it, man. I thought about it. by
00:44:37
Darin Tingey
And then... Yeah.
00:44:38
Cody
So we went back and everything everything was good. Everyone survived. But
00:44:45
Darin Tingey
and then
00:44:45
Cody
and so some of my Some of my favorite memories from the mission are on Christmas. and It makes me really sad because if I go back to the mission to like visit, I have to make two different trips.
00:44:56
Cody
like cause It's just not like going to Abayang where it's like, well, I'm in Tarawa.
00:44:57
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:45:03
Cody
I'm going to hop out to Abayang real quick. it's like no's It's a complete different trip. Yeah.
00:45:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah, I mean, you could probably, I think they now have a flight from Tarawa to Christmas. So you i I think they have a flight, direct flight now, because, and I'll send you this lady's Facebook profile.
00:45:15
Cody
Oh really, they fly direct now?
00:45:25
Cody
that's ah That could be a game changer.
00:45:26
Darin Tingey
she's ah She's a pilot there, and she posts like videos of her flying, and she flies to Christmas and Teraina and Taboiren. um So you could you could do it.
00:45:41
Darin Tingey
and It might be some crazy scheduling. And I can't remember if Erenauru also app flies to direct from Tarawa to Christmas. I think they do now. So you can maybe make a work and then come home through Christmas to Hawaii and then go home that way.
00:45:51
Cody
Okay.
00:45:55
Cody
Yeah. I'll have to look at that. It might be some crazy finagling, but I'd love to make that work. Cause yeah, I mean, I spent, I spent like nine months there. Like that was the majority, the majority of my like proselyting mission was done there.
00:46:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:46:12
Cody
So that's cause yeah.
00:46:12
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm. ye
00:46:14
Cody
So after Elder Butterfield left, I got Elder Bontemann. and was made district leader. So like right after my 12 week program, basically i got made district leader and it was just, it was downhill from there.
00:46:27
Cody
ah So I trained other Bonteman who is such a blessing. He's from, he grew up in Baso, third I think is like where his home was. he's i want to say his family is from Medicaid.
00:46:42
Cody
But he he was such a goofball. He was so funny and just like he was great to like learn the language from because i both of my trainers like weren't like phenomenal at the language. were good enough to like teach lessons but they couldn't really like help my vocabulary a ton.
00:47:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah, and then you get to be with the Kiribati out there.
00:47:02
Cody
So again, I came to myself and it was like really nice.
00:47:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's sweet.
00:47:06
Cody
And he was a good guy. He was so funny. Like, I loved all the the funny kiddivist things I learned from him. Like, like farting is, like like, pretty offensive. At least it was to him.
00:47:19
Cody
I thought that was so funny. I was still, like, you know recovering from being sick in Baso. And so he just, like, was always so offended by me. And I loved, like, he always wore these, like, really big, like,
00:47:28
Darin Tingey
The Sing.
00:47:33
Cody
To me, they seem like black woman sunglasses, like big bedazzled glasses. He's oh, these are my style. Dude, you look goofy, man.
00:47:42
Darin Tingey
Right.
00:47:45
Cody
he's just He's just so funny. and But I learned a ton from him in the language and the culture. you know Like him being from Medicaid, but they kind push the limit on what's like culturally acceptable to say.
00:47:57
Darin Tingey
right
00:47:57
Cody
So I was like, i was I learned how to like joke with people really well and like ah pushing the boundary a little bit, but like not knowing where the boundary was. Like, cause there was, there's a limit, you know, before you're like, yeah.
00:48:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah, they're like, who is this guy?
00:48:12
Cody
ah yeah
00:48:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:48:14
Cody
Yeah. But he he was great. And then when Elder Marks came, he came with another elder that was being trained. So Elder Boltzmann became a trainer right after I trained him.
00:48:27
Cody
And so then me and Elder Marks did Banana full time and Elder Bontemann and Elder Memea, I'm pretty sure, were...
00:48:39
Darin Tingey
So you added another companionship to to to Christmas, okay.
00:48:40
Cody
ah careful Yeah, and so then we had like a full, like a real yeah district. it was six missionaries, but... I mean, bit business was booming. We were... we were doing tons of work up there. was great. i mean It was really, really a good time.
00:49:00
Darin Tingey
So were you leading church in Banana at the time?
00:49:03
Cody
No, no. They had a branch president. Tom was his name. his awesome had He He owned the first store when you entered Banana. and His family great.
00:49:16
Cody
They had a really strong branch up there. We had like 30 thirty regularly to the church.
00:49:24
Darin Tingey
Dang, that's great.
00:49:25
Cody
I mean, it was really, really strong. And, yeah.
00:49:31
Darin Tingey
It's such a relief as a missionary too to like have a branch president running it. Like they might not be perfect in running it. Church might not start on time. Things might go wrong, but like like having someone else that's like technically in charge is like so nice.
00:49:47
Cody
yeah and And, I mean, he, want to say him and his wife both went to BYUI um ah I think.
00:49:56
Darin Tingey
BYUI or BYUHawaii?
00:49:58
Cody
Sorry, BYU-Hawaii.
00:50:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah, okay.
00:50:00
Cody
Yeah.
00:50:03
Cody
And there's ah there's a guy. wanna say i want to say his name was Bota. He's a school teacher. Really big guy, bald, um young guy, super smart, though.
00:50:20
Cody
like Very smart. He could he could like have a conversation in English like really well. I don't know if he served an English-speaking mission or what, but he he was there.
00:50:34
Cody
i also ran into him on Tarawa later on, but he he was like just really strong. and so They had like really strong members of the church there that like you could have four or five different branch presidents from the elders quorum.
00:50:48
Cody
Like they're just strong. It felt, it felt really good.
00:50:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, that's so clutch.
00:50:53
Cody
And it's why we felt like we could, we didn't have to be there full time at first.
00:50:53
Darin Tingey
So nice to have.
00:50:57
Cody
Like we could bounce back and forth because we knew they're good up here.
00:50:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:51:03
Cody
But yeah, we had lots of work up there. it was great.
00:51:07
Darin Tingey
So you said you were on Christmas for seven months.
00:51:08
Cody
Tons of. Yep.
00:51:13
Cody
yep
00:51:15
Darin Tingey
So it's probably pretty hard to leave the island when you got transferred off.
00:51:16
Cody
Yeah, sir
00:51:19
Cody
it was super hard, especially since I knew I was coming to be a zone leader.
00:51:25
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:51:25
Cody
Yeah. So Elder Decker, he and I met when I was super sick in Beso for Christmas. He had just come in from Tarawaieta, and he was really sick. So him and I just got like paired together and Beso for ah few days and you know kind of like trauma bonded on that. So...
00:51:45
Cody
He was zone leader with Elder Butterfield at the time. he's hey, Elder Butterfields.
00:51:52
Cody
I think he was going to an outer island to finish his mission.
00:51:56
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:51:57
Cody
But he was getting transferred out. And he's like, you're coming in. You're going come in and be my my companion to be zone leader. I was I'd love to be your companion, but i don't want to leave. Like, sure, I have to. Yeah, yeah, you're going to come in.
00:52:13
Cody
And right before I left, President Shaw came and visited the second time i ever saw him. I think he just stayed for like the layover. I think he might have been going home.
00:52:27
Darin Tingey
sort of ha Through Christmas to Hawaii?
00:52:29
Cody
yeah Yeah, or he was like maybe just stopped in Christmas to go back to the Marshalls. I don't remember.
00:52:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:52:36
Cody
right He was there for like four hours. he came He came out with us on a lesson. interviewed us individually. Like, you guys are doing great.
00:52:48
Cody
Pleasure to see you again, Elder Esaias. And was like, yep, yeah.
00:52:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah, what was your name again?
00:52:53
Cody
I was like, yep, I've been here almost a year now. And, you know, and then then they left and I never saw him again. So, I mean, i I was in his presence for like four hours of my mission.
00:53:12
Cody
It was just crazy. So, Then I, yeah, so then I left Christmas and Elder Puleku swapped me.
00:53:25
Cody
he He rotated with me.
00:53:28
Darin Tingey
So when you came back to Tarawa, was president where there?
00:53:33
Cody
No, he wasn't there yet. So President Shah must have just been going back to Marshall's because it a few months later that President Weir came in.
00:53:38
Darin Tingey
and
00:53:41
Cody
And, uh, Then, yeah, I went and I served in ETA first with Elder Decker for the next 192 days.
00:53:50
Darin Tingey
Okay.
00:53:55
Darin Tingey
That's a long time too. Another like six-ish months or whatever, seven months.
00:53:57
Cody
Yeah. i I had four areas in my mission.
00:54:02
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
00:54:04
Cody
Yeah. And one of them was 36 days. so
00:54:08
Darin Tingey
That's wild.
00:54:09
Cody
Yeah, it's kind of kind of unique. Yeah, so I went to 8th of 1st with Elder Decker, and, i mean, it was, that was probably like, I mean, we were both peak peak mission. Like, I was just about a year, he was just over a year, and we just went bananas. We were, like, averaging, like, 36 lessons a week, you know, multiple baptisms every week.
00:54:38
Cody
every Every Saturday, is like I think there was like two people baptized every Saturday or something like we were
00:54:45
Darin Tingey
Dude, it's crushing it how many
00:54:45
Cody
We just went crazy.
00:54:48
Darin Tingey
How many of those like baptisms were Moroni High School students?
00:54:56
Cody
oh More than I would have preferred.
00:55:04
Cody
There were... a very unnecessary amount of nine-year-olds that would like are from strong families too. I'm like, she's been to church every year for the last four years.
00:55:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah, they didn't get baptized in their eight.
00:55:15
Cody
Why does she not get ba that bad? But we always try to turn those into like, okay, well, your grandma who's not a member is going to sit on this lesson too.
00:55:25
Cody
Like, this is, this is silly. Like, come on.
00:55:29
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
00:55:29
Cody
We're, so we did a, we did a good job of trying to optimize those a little bit, but, uh,
00:55:36
Cody
Yeah, i was it was good. the The frustrating thing for me was like it could have been even better. But like as a zone leader, so much of your energy goes towards the missionaries and like helping the missionaries with stuff. So like while the missionary work like was so good while we were together, i think ah like a lot of our like best work was like with the missionaries themselves.
00:56:06
Cody
We had a lot of just issues pop up, a lot of sister issues. like ah Like we had some just – we had one sister that just was really struggling with – she was a a native.
00:56:26
Cody
and yeah It's never really come up in – at least in all the episodes I've listened to, like the – what's it called? Tabunea? I was called the, ah like the black magic,
00:56:37
Cody
um
00:56:38
Darin Tingey
Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:56:38
Cody
here to there um, cultural superstitions and stuff.
00:56:45
Darin Tingey
Totally.
00:56:46
Cody
Yeah. So I, I dealt with a lot of that on the mission.
00:56:50
Darin Tingey
Really?
00:56:51
Cody
Uh, yeah, I,
00:56:52
Darin Tingey
From missionaries or members or like your people?
00:56:56
Cody
both, both. Yeah. I, um, had to perform a ah few different, like, exorcism like things I mean exorcism always makes me think of like the exorcist and like crazy like horror movie stuff and it was never that sketchy but like I definitely dealt with some like evil spirit stuff on the mission yeah it doesn't get talked about a ton ah but like I and like I think a lot of that is culture based
00:57:07
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:57:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it's real. It's real for sure.
00:57:33
Cody
you Because we we we talk about, and this is one thing that like I would, this sister who had like some recurring stuff, was like, you have a body, and therefore you are more powerful than any evil spirit. like It's a gift from Christ, right? And you can like call Christ and banish you know evil spirits. and That's like so powerful.
00:57:57
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:57:58
Cody
And man so any strength they have, like you have to give them, right? And I think in our you know American culture, right, where do you hear about that sort of stuff happening?
00:58:11
Cody
You're talking like skinwalkers. You're talking like people who in their culture like really fundamentally believe in that stuff and like give it strength, which a kid with people totally do.
00:58:19
Darin Tingey
yeah
00:58:21
Cody
And a lot Polynesian cultures totally do. Like every poly I talked to on the mission had ghost stories from like their life. I'm like, you talk to any white person,
00:58:32
Cody
it's like, oh yeah, I know a native guy who has a ghost story.
00:58:36
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
00:58:37
Cody
it's never It's never like, oh yeah, I had a you know great grandma. I mean, you have some like the Annabelle doll and some crazy weird stuff. But yeah, culturally we're like, ghost ghosts aren't real.
00:58:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah, culturally, we don't really we don't really believe in black magic.
00:58:49
Cody
Like it's a joke. It's not real. you know we're We're all always taught that. But I mean, it's it's very real to them and their culture. And yeah there's so many members that still have like the their oil that they like hang up at the peak of their, you know, bouillies and stuff.
00:59:04
Darin Tingey
Hmm.
00:59:07
Cody
they're like, you got to take that down. That's, you can't have that up. It's not, do you believe in Christ?
00:59:12
Darin Tingey
I feel like when, like, an I
00:59:14
Cody
Do you believe that he'll protect you? That you don't need that.
00:59:17
Darin Tingey
feel like my experience, my experience with Enkidibus was like, oh, like, you know, you're sick or that person's sick because someone did black magic or something on them.
00:59:17
Cody
Like, so I dealt with all.
00:59:28
Cody
Yeah. Yeah.
00:59:29
Darin Tingey
You know, I was like, what? Yeah.
00:59:31
Cody
Yeah. 100%. mean, it was like one of the jokes, right? But when you sneeze, what they say, like, saki signna demani like I'm not the only man. like Stop doing your ah your you know love potion on me or whatever.
00:59:47
Cody
That's like the joke, but they really believe it.
00:59:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah.
00:59:51
Cody
So, yeah, I dealt with a lot of that as a zone leader and as a, you know, I had one in One that I had to do for on a member in Banana, ah one on a missionary in Beso in my first 36 days, and then a few when was a zonator.
01:00:13
Cody
So that that was crazy.
01:00:13
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
01:00:16
Cody
and you know So I think you know helping with that sort of stuff and and just you know protecting the missionaries you know was was some of the like more important work that I did. like Well, know baptism stuff were important too.
01:00:31
Cody
It just like felt like at that point my mission, like that was the easy work. i could I felt like I can convert or I can help the Spirit convert anybody you know that I come in contact with.
01:00:46
Cody
But like protecting the missionaries and helping the missionaries continue...
Leadership Roles and Responsibilities
01:00:52
Cody
Like that was the more pressing and more difficult task at hand.
01:00:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah, probably pretty exhausting too.
01:00:58
Cody
so
01:01:00
Darin Tingey
you're probably like, man, like we just dealt with these missionaries. I'm go deal with these ones.
01:01:04
Cody
Yeah.
01:01:05
Darin Tingey
So
01:01:06
Cody
Yeah. Well, it's like, yeah, we just had nine lessons today, and now we have to run up to Tamiku to do deal with this. and Oh, there's a fight breaking out down in, you know.
01:01:17
Darin Tingey
we gotta figure out the emergency transfer.
01:01:19
Cody
Oh, yeah, yeah, this elder ran away from his companion up in Taroyeta.
01:01:19
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:01:24
Cody
Got to go get him and get him back.
01:01:26
Darin Tingey
gosh
01:01:27
Cody
All sorts of fun fun stuff like that.
01:01:30
Darin Tingey
I could probably make a whole other podcast about like stories like that from our mission. There's just so many, so many of them.
01:01:39
Cody
it's It's too, too much. It's so much, and I mean...
01:01:46
Cody
it's a bunch of 19 year old guys and girls like I but it's like come on
01:01:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:01:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah, it felt like like, I remember sending like emails to my brother brother-in-law i' being like, yo, was this normal in your mission? They're like, what What is going on over there? And I was like, yeah, like, i didn't think it was normal either.
01:02:06
Cody
I didn't think that was normal yeah yeah okay
01:02:09
Darin Tingey
But just wanted to make you just confirm.
01:02:11
Cody
Yeah, yeah, that was, and like, don't know, i had I had a little bit of a hard time. you know, i was I consider myself like a really obedient missionary. Like, I try to stay by, you know, as as close to by the book as I could.
01:02:29
Cody
But i I felt like i was able to find a way to like do that and still have fun, like enjoy my mission and not be like too hard-nosed.
01:02:34
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:02:37
Cody
And i would get frustrated with missionaries that like, like active disobedience and just be like, Oh, we're just trying to like relax. It's like, okay, I'm relaxed.
01:02:49
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:02:50
Cody
I'm not listening to JLo on the portable DVD player. yeah Yeah. There's a difference here. Like you, you can have fun within the, within the rules.
01:03:01
Cody
Like, don't know.
01:03:03
Darin Tingey
Absolutely, and you should, and you should have fun.
01:03:05
Cody
I mean, sure. Like it's, it's the best. I mean, it's the best time. Like,
01:03:10
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:10
Cody
your're honor You're on an island just doing the Lord's work. like It's such a fun time. and But I get frustrated when it's like, oh we haven't had like any lessons this week.
01:03:18
Darin Tingey
Absolutely.
01:03:22
Cody
Work's been really hard. it's like, I know why you haven't been having any lessons. There's only one way you don't have lessons on this mission. like Because you're not trying.
01:03:30
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:32
Cody
there's only like I accidentally have lessons sometimes. Like...
01:03:36
Darin Tingey
Literally, everyone will tell you, yes, they're interested in studying and listen to some.
01:03:40
Cody
Yeah, I could go to the head of the Catholic Church and have a lesson right now.
01:03:46
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:03:46
Cody
Like, I don't know. So I had a really hard time with that. And ah that that was one thing that, you know, luckily Elder Decker, if you listen to this, he'll, he, he ah and I think a lot of the Polynesian elders kind of butted heads because he's very like blunt and he'll just like tell you straight up like what he thinks and they didn't like that a whole lot you know because you know the polys are they're more relaxed than us you know white guys and thong and uh so he he would just like call them out on stuff that's like you know maybe in the gray area he's like ah
01:04:17
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:04:23
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:04:32
Cody
no you're being dumb don't do that and they they didn't like that as much. So it was...
01:04:40
Darin Tingey
I quickly learned that I to chill out a little bit in that sense. I also was like a lot smaller than all of them.
01:04:50
Darin Tingey
So I had to be careful there too.
01:04:52
Cody
Yeah, yeah, there's an elder, it's Elder Maddy.
01:04:52
Darin Tingey
Because...
01:04:57
Cody
he He was confronted by his Tongan companion at the time for being Bakkantaos, i don't know I don't know what it was that set him off, but he got lifted up against the wall and he had to help with that.
01:05:11
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:05:12
Cody
but So yeah, there's definitely a ah you know cultural
01:05:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:05:17
Cody
ah barrier there a little bit. So I think it's good for everyone. It helps teach a little more discipline to some of the islanders that never really had had to have like a ton of discipline in their lives because culturally it just wasn't really required.
01:05:33
Cody
It helps the guys that maybe to you know too strict in their lives relax a little bit and breathe and learn how to kind of go with the flow.
01:05:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:05:43
Cody
So it was really good.
01:05:43
Darin Tingey
Absolutely. Absolutely.
01:05:45
Cody
I love being able to kind of balance between you know
01:05:51
Cody
Companions that had like similar culture to me and companions that you know were from the islands, I was able to kind of pick up on some of that and learn learn to live both ways and find that balance.
01:06:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:02
Cody
After Elder Decker elder decker went AP and Elder Puleku, who replaced me on Christmas, came in. and i kind of ah This was when I probably had to like check myself the most and like humble myself, I think.
01:06:22
Cody
Because in Christmas, right when I left, like it was flourishing, it was booming. And then I'm getting like these reports in as only because they reported their stats to me every week.
01:06:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:33
Cody
And like, we're just like falling off. I was like, man, you killed my baby. What do you mean? Have you talked to this guy? Oh, i don't even know who that guy is.
01:06:45
Cody
What what do you mean? You've been coming to church for like three months. And I was just like, I was like heartbroken.
01:06:48
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:06:51
Cody
And then he came in, I was like, I can't have this guy be my companion. He's going to kill another area. Like, I like haven't forgiven him for what he did to Christmas. And now, like, out there President, how how's he going to be a zone leader? He's like, he killed my district. like So I remember, like, thinking that. And ah was like, oh, this isn't healthy.
01:07:13
Cody
gonna be Like, i can't I can't live with him and have these thoughts. So I had to, like, really, you know, repent of that. And like, okay, maybe there's, you
01:07:18
Darin Tingey
Thank you.
01:07:21
Cody
maybe there's something else going on. Maybe you know i need to learn here. Maybe i supposed to help him, you know whatever. so we We had some good success still in Aita.
01:07:32
Cody
It definitely slowed down a little bit, um but we we had some good success. definitely came in a little more lax. he definitely came in a little more lax Then Elder Decker left, um you know, going AP, right?
01:07:49
Cody
You kind of expect <unk> he's pretty hard-nosed, you know, straight shooter.
01:07:51
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:07:54
Cody
Elder Puleku came in, I remember him listening had a little Snoop Dogg going. was like, okay, so this is, okay.
01:08:05
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:08:08
Cody
I don't want to make this like a toxic, like companionship, so I'll roll with the punches and you know see see if we can find some middle ground in here. And we were able to. It was good.
01:08:21
Cody
we We were able to become really close. and He's from New Zealand, so that was fun. He had an interesting past. I don't know if you ever get New Zealanders on your podcast.
01:08:32
Cody
but yeah Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:08:33
Darin Tingey
I already, yeah, had one, Elder Ellis. You should listen to it a couple, last.
01:08:37
Cody
um But he had kind of a ah colored...
01:08:38
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:08:42
Cody
paths and had a come to Jesus moment. He never thought he'd serve a mission and ended up. so It was cool to like realize, oh, you come from like a different background than me. like That kind of explains more.
01:08:53
Cody
It kind of opened my eyes.
01:08:54
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:08:55
Cody
so It helped me see him in a different way. and It was really good for me, I think.
01:09:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah, definitely. And so from there, not to cut you short on Atha, but you go you get called up to be Big Dog AP, right?
01:09:09
Cody
Yeah.
01:09:13
Cody
Yeah, so President Weir was in by then, and yeah, I get the call. um Elder Decker called me again, like just like he did when he told me I was going come his companion. He's like, hey, guess what?
01:09:25
Cody
They're be my companion again, least until I die. Because he was, I think, like a month out maybe or something, a few weeks from from going home.
01:09:28
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:09:32
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:09:35
Cody
And so was like, oh, wait, like up to Marshalls? Because at that point, um there was a missionary from Kitabas, a missionary from Marshalls, our APs, and they lived in Majuro and stayed in Majuro like all the time. there's I'd only met one Marshallese AP that come down once.
01:09:57
Darin Tingey
Really? So they really want to travel between the two.
01:09:59
Cody
they They didn't travel like at all. Yeah. And so I was like, man, like I'm leaving Kitabas.
01:10:06
Darin Tingey
We pretty sad to leave Kiribus?
01:10:08
Cody
Like I've never like,
01:10:08
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:10:09
Cody
Like I'm looking at like the calendar, I'm like, I only got like seven months left.
01:10:13
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you're like, I'm donezo.
01:10:14
Cody
Like, um I mean, if I come back, like maybe for one area, like one, don't three months max, like we're probably not even that. So I was like, man, okay, cool. So I was like really bummed.
01:10:31
Cody
ed And Decker's like really hyped me He's like, I got Sherman here, you know, from the MTC, right? was like, yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking back like a year I was like, yeah, I remember Sherman.
01:10:40
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:10:42
Cody
He was cool. ah Okay. So I flew up there. Damn, man, was it different.
01:10:51
Darin Tingey
ah Well, I want to know, like, like, even like flying into Maduro, like, what did you think? Like, because it's like totally different from Tarawa, like, just like, even from the plane, like this, the view.
01:11:03
Cody
Yeah, yeah. i remember thinking, I'm like, i feel like I'm going to like the ghetto of Hawaii. like like I can see the difference here.
01:11:14
Cody
and I forget who it was, but almost like the infrastructure is different. like You can tell one's like supported by Australia and one's supported by America.
01:11:22
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:11:23
Cody
like It just looks different.
01:11:25
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:11:26
Cody
I remember being like, wow, this is crazy. It's so much greener here.
01:11:33
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:11:33
Cody
are the like tin buildings where all the stick buildings like everything's like block like even kind of like the poorer houses were like still like the nice house unthought of like I'm like waiting for like the Baso area to pop up i was like no it's like I mean like dumpy downtown Honolulu I was just like it was wild and they're like oh yeah just wait
01:11:39
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:11:50
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:12:05
Cody
And so, I mean, other their their goal was to get me to gain all my weight back. And so they're like, I mean, all these restaurants.
01:12:15
Cody
i mean again I'm getting pizza at whatever that second story flamingo place is at the pool table and stuff.
01:12:23
Darin Tingey
Yeah, good memory, nice.
01:12:25
Cody
ah I was like, that really good Hawaiian pizza, I remember. I was like, oh, man, we went to this restaurant another appreciate it's of those two story we got a burger and a Mountain Dew
01:12:39
Darin Tingey
Yup. I mean, and burgers, like, you gotta, like, if you're coming straight from the States, that burger's not as good, but if you're coming from Kitabasova, like, oh, this burger's great.
01:12:40
Cody
a
01:12:47
Cody
coming from kidtu yeah from yeah from a year and half of Kitabas I was like this is there's there's a picture of me like biting into that burger and like you would think I was like in heaven like I'm like as yeah it was good But um yeah, so i lived in I lived in Long Island, like right next the Mission office.
01:13:07
Darin Tingey
Logical. Yep. yeah
01:13:08
Cody
Yep. And Elder Sherman at the time was like managing, like he's doing the office elder stuff. I didn't really do anything because I didn't know Marshallese yet. And I'm like,
01:13:25
Cody
So I'm like starting over completely, trying to learn martialese, just like chilling and killlling in the office while he's like doing office work.
01:13:28
Darin Tingey
I know the feeling.
01:13:33
Cody
And Elder Decker's just like hanging out with me, basically. um And we taught seminary. That was like the majority of my teaching was just the seminary kids in Long Island.
01:13:42
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:13:48
Cody
And...
01:13:48
Darin Tingey
Interesting.
01:13:50
Cody
we would we had a few Kitabas people that we would go teach. actually I did have two baptisms there, which I'm like proud of with like how little teaching I did.
01:14:02
Darin Tingey
That's awesome. Yeah.
01:14:04
Cody
um One was through seminary, and there was a a young girl whose sisters were, um I think they were half Kitabas, or they lived in the Marshalls for like a long time, like couple generations.
01:14:20
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:14:20
Cody
um But they had to sister that, or cousin, their families are all so messed up. But she just moved up, so she spoke Kitabas mainly. So we taught her and got her baptized. And then and note there's a lady who's from Kitabas
01:14:39
Cody
that we taught. And she's a kid.
01:14:40
Darin Tingey
I'm sure it was like pretty fun for you to be like, oh, there's kids, there's people here. Like, yeah, we can teach them.
01:14:43
Cody
Yeah. Yeah. So like, I was so excited. Like anytime we find kidnapis people, like, yes, I can talk to someone finally.
01:14:49
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:14:49
Cody
And, uh, like don't sound like an idiot. Like I know, like I'm a, I'm a grown adult that can talk. And, uh, so it was good. Um, man, I forget his name.
01:15:02
Cody
It was like Tom. it was, uh, I want to say he was Marshallese but his wife was Kitabas.
01:15:11
Darin Tingey
and ka
01:15:12
Cody
I think they lived in Uluga maybe. But what I remember most is she would make pineapple um tang.
01:15:29
Cody
and was like ice cold. And it was the most refreshing thing I've ever had in my entire life to this day.
Language and Cultural Experiences
01:15:34
Cody
i was like, when I'm like really hot here in Arizona, I'm like, what I would do with a glass of that pineapple tan.
01:15:42
Cody
But it was, was so good. So we did that. I mean, for three months and eventually elder Decker went home.
01:15:50
Darin Tingey
How was his martialese?
01:15:51
Cody
Um, he learned some, it wasn't great.
01:15:52
Darin Tingey
Did he learn? Yeah. Yeah.
01:15:57
Cody
Um, but Jiddick would.
01:16:01
Darin Tingey
yeah go
01:16:02
Cody
But it was okay. um But yeah, I mean, he was basically just an office elder.
01:16:10
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:16:10
Cody
And then, and then with you know, loved love to goof around with the kids and stuff and do seminary because he could do that in Kitabas because so many of them were Kitabas speaking.
01:16:21
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:16:24
Cody
But i was like, I'm not doing this for seven months. And so I got, me and me and Sherman got in President's ear and we're like, hey, I think you could put some other elders here to do office work.
01:16:41
Cody
I think i think our our skills could be used better other places. And there there had been an experiment when I was zone leader of some traveling zone leaders and a kid beside to go visit the Outer Islands and check in on them and make sure they're doing good.
01:16:57
Cody
And that just kind of got abused a little bit. Like it just wasn't like productive.
01:17:04
Darin Tingey
sorry
01:17:04
Cody
Um, and there was like no one, like they didn't report to anyone really. Cause president wasn't around all the time. And it just wasn't great. Elder Boltzmann was one of them at one point. And he was just like, what, like, why am I doing this? Like, what we doing?
01:17:17
Cody
I don't feel like I'm doing mission. We're just like tourists.
01:17:20
Darin Tingey
Yeah, the round.
01:17:20
Cody
And I live here. Like, like I don't want to be a tourist.
01:17:21
Darin Tingey
shut down do the
01:17:24
Cody
So like, it just wasn't great. And, uh, So we, i don't know how much influence we had or if President Weir was already thinking about it because he was trying to open up so many islands, but he did, he had us become like traveling APs. So for my last four months, we we would fly back and forth between Kittvis Marshals and visit Outer Islands and like Onotoa,
01:17:56
Cody
got opened up so we went out there and we're we've got to be there when they did like a big mass baptism and i gotta spend like know like four days there i think three or four days on onotoa and we went to went to mayana went to abeyang went butaritari and makin went to
01:18:03
Darin Tingey
Cool.
01:18:22
Cody
think that was all the outers I got to go. Oh, we took a boat up to Tarabayata.
01:18:27
Darin Tingey
So cool, you got to just go see all those islands. Like that is like, I'm so jealous of that.
01:18:31
Cody
Yeah. hey It was awesome. and Most of them were just like short day trips. we would We would charter. There was a guy, don't even know where he's from, Samimitang, had a little plane.
01:18:47
Cody
that President Weir was working with him to try to get him like a bigger plane he ah using President Weir's connections um with planes.
01:18:58
Cody
I don't know if you know what President Weir did before the mission.
01:19:01
Darin Tingey
He sold like helicopters, right?
01:19:03
Cody
He's from helicopters on like jets, like the crown princes of like Kuwait and Qatar and stuff. so
01:19:08
Darin Tingey
So sick.
01:19:10
Cody
Crazy stories. i have the He shared the craziest stories. He's like the most fascinating man alive. Um, but yeah, so he's like trying to work a deal to get like a good, reliable pilot and plane for kid of us.
01:19:26
Cody
Um, but in the meantime, we just chartered his five, his little like five person, uh, I hope played and we would just island hop on that thing, which was super sketchy, but it was, it was cool.
01:19:33
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:19:38
Cody
So we got to go see a lot of islands doing that.
01:19:41
Darin Tingey
Did you, did you see any outers in the Marshall side?
01:19:41
Cody
Um,
01:19:45
Cody
I never did. i never got to, i i wanted to but it just never, never worked out.
01:19:52
Darin Tingey
It's probably because Marshall's was so unreliable on their planes, man.
01:19:57
Cody
Yeah.
01:19:57
Darin Tingey
Air maybe.
01:19:58
Cody
That probably, that probably was it. Um, and, and they were like, well, I think, I think that back, I got to go out to e by, so yeah, got, I got experience quadrillion and e by, and that was pretty cool.
01:20:03
Darin Tingey
And it was like live was like once every two weeks, you know, like it wasn't.
01:20:10
Darin Tingey
All right.
01:20:16
Darin Tingey
There's your base of the marsh islands.
01:20:18
Cody
Yeah, yeah, that I was like, ah, I know this feel. Except that was like even more concrete.
01:20:22
Darin Tingey
Yeah,
01:20:26
Darin Tingey
yeah it's a concrete jungle.
01:20:26
Cody
It was like, was like Baso if like the ground was concrete too. It was weird.
01:20:31
Darin Tingey
Dude, I know I couldn't walk around ebaugh without sunglasses. My eyes like the sun were fucked up the concrete. and I like couldn't see.
01:20:38
Cody
Yeah, it was weird. They abandoned like structures. You're seeing kids like climbing like two stories in the air on these like abandoned archways. What is place?
01:20:48
Cody
It was crazy. um ah yeah so that That was the only... it's not really an outer island, but the only other island than Majirajah we'll see.
01:20:58
Darin Tingey
yeah Yeah, the but but President Ware was opening them like all the ones in the marshals at the time, right? He seemed was pretty pro-Outer Island.
01:21:05
Cody
Yeah, ah which they... Wutje, Jalewicz, Likia, Ply, Ujai, Mili. I'm pretty sure...
01:21:15
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:21:16
Cody
I forget who was trying to remember where Foot went, but i'm pretty sure Foot opened up Mili.
01:21:22
Darin Tingey
I'm surprised he had missionaries on Ligia.
01:21:25
Cody
Yep.
01:21:26
Darin Tingey
That's awesome.
01:21:27
Cody
Yeah. I think Lop Lop... I mean, we... Like... The majority of it. He was trying to open up, like, all of them. That he, like... could reliably get missionaries too. Because some of the like further ones... There's one with an R, isn't there?
01:21:42
Darin Tingey
Romalap?
01:21:44
Cody
Yeah. yeah um I think we might have had some on there too.
01:21:49
Darin Tingey
did
01:21:50
Cody
he he opened like everything at one point.
01:21:52
Darin Tingey
If I were the mission president of our mission, I would open up every outer island I could.
01:21:58
Cody
let me Let me look him up. Because I'm pretty sure...
01:22:01
Darin Tingey
i mean,
01:22:04
Darin Tingey
I'd be surprised they had Romalap
01:22:08
Darin Tingey
But yeah, because like there's so many like in the Marshall Islands, there's like way more outer islands than there is in Kiribati. There's just not many people.
01:22:15
Cody
Yeah.
01:22:16
Darin Tingey
There's not many people out out there. There's like some of these islands like lie, like it's tiny island.
01:22:19
Cody
Yeah.
01:22:22
Darin Tingey
It's like freaking blessed from God, though. It's got less than 300 people.
01:22:26
Cody
Arno.
01:22:30
Cody
Yeah, Likyap.
01:22:32
Cody
Um. Ujjayi Lai. KwaZulu.
01:22:39
Darin Tingey
Yeah, you probably.
01:22:41
Cody
Yeah, I mean, I want to say Killy and Abon.
01:22:45
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah, definitely everyone had missionaries there. i know that. Kille would be, it hasn't been open forever.
01:22:49
Cody
Yeah.
01:22:52
Darin Tingey
And that's like, that needs to have missionaries on it.
01:22:57
Cody
Yeah, I mean, we had so many open. Yeah, and then in in the Marshall side, we we had, I think, everything except for Tamena and Arure. Yeah.
01:23:10
Darin Tingey
On the Kiribati side. Yeah.
01:23:12
Cody
Yeah.
01:23:14
Darin Tingey
Yeah, i I wouldn't doubt that. Man, so cool. that like I love the president where it was like pro out around. I think... Yeah.
01:23:23
Cody
i mean, he even put, um he was, he, when I was there, we put sisters on Abayon for the first time.
01:23:33
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:23:34
Cody
ah sister Sister McDonald. I remember because so Sister Tatioli, who was in my intake, trained Sister McDonald on Christmas when I was there.
01:23:47
Cody
And then Sister Tatioli, I think she ended up with her, Sister McDonald again later on in Buota.
01:23:54
Darin Tingey
the
01:23:56
Cody
They were the first sister. At least Sister Tatioli was the first sister in Buota ever, if not like in in a really long time. Because i again, that's like almost the book.
01:24:04
Darin Tingey
Right.
01:24:07
Darin Tingey
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
01:24:10
Cody
And then um remember she here when Sister McDonald went out there, she's like, that's you know that's my kid.
01:24:10
Darin Tingey
most
01:24:16
Cody
like I trained her for outers. She's ready. So yeah, i know I'm pretty sure Sister McDonald that went out to Abayong with her companion.
01:24:26
Darin Tingey
so cool
01:24:27
Cody
yeah Yeah, Mr. President, he was going off. It was great. was awesome.
01:24:34
Darin Tingey
yeah think um like outer island like i think there's one like really good for missionaries to just like really nail the language to like just get such a unique experience that kind of learned the culture and uh little bit
01:24:52
Cody
know I was always so jealous that I like i never like got that true outer experience. was like, I see it. i was like, man, what I would do with that.
01:25:01
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:25:02
Cody
I begged for my last like three months, I begged President Weir. He kept telling me, like tell me where you want to die. I'll send you. i was like, any outer or back to Christmas. and I died as an AP. I never got it.
01:25:16
Cody
I did get it.
01:25:17
Darin Tingey
Did you get to at least finish in Kiribati?
01:25:20
Cody
Uh, no, no, I flew home.
01:25:21
Darin Tingey
You went straight?
01:25:22
Cody
I flew home from Marshall's. Yeah.
01:25:23
Darin Tingey
No way. That's kind of sad.
01:25:25
Cody
Yeah. So it was, it was, it was sad, know, a lot of jumbo butt chick, you know, until the end of my mission.
01:25:31
Darin Tingey
Mm-hmm.
01:25:34
Cody
Um, but it was, it was kind of cool when, uh, you know, Sherman and I were traveling so much, we would have to fly through Hawaii.
01:25:44
Darin Tingey
is
01:25:44
Cody
ae and we got to spend a P day in Hawaii. um And that was that's pretty awesome. There's a sister, blanking on her name, but her family worked at the,
01:26:00
Cody
want to say at the hotel, like right next to the airport in Honolulu.
01:26:05
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:26:06
Cody
And she like let them know that we were coming and they sent a car to pick us up. They picked us up from the airport, took us to a restaurant. We got like meatloaf at like a diner.
01:26:17
Cody
And then, uh, took us to our hotel. the next day we took, uh, for P-Day, we were told the only place you can't go is Waikiki. We're like, okay, we won't go to Waikiki.
01:26:29
Cody
And so we went up to BYU, Hawaii and found like all these ah RMs that were there. we found, um, yeah, we, we found, uh, a bunch of, you know, guys that we'd served with and hung out with them and then came, came back and
01:26:37
Darin Tingey
That's so sick.
01:26:46
Darin Tingey
just Just a day in America during the Mish.
01:26:47
Cody
go
01:26:49
Cody
Yeah, and yeah. No, I mean, I had, i you know, on the mission, I think I spent probably like a week in Hawaii and a week in Fiji just traveling.
01:26:57
Darin Tingey
Yeah. Just hanging out. Wow, that's awesome. So what... um then kind of as we finish up here, um I'm curious. and I'm going to ask you the question for for both. But one, what was favorite area?
01:27:15
Darin Tingey
And then like, what was your favorite thing about Kiribati? What was your favorite thing about the Marsh Islands? And your favorite food from both both sides?
01:27:24
Cody
Okay, so it's it's impossible for me to pick between Eta Christmas. they're so special Both of them are so special to me. I was there for almost identical times, like 195, 192 days.
01:27:36
Cody
so
01:27:36
Darin Tingey
That's crazy.
01:27:38
Cody
Eta was really awesome. um
01:27:41
Cody
The food there was so good. the banana bread and chocolate cake that I ate there and
01:27:49
Darin Tingey
Ooh.
01:27:50
Cody
I mean, it's so good. that The award in Ata is phenomenal. They feed you so well. ate so much food.
01:27:58
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:27:58
Cody
That that ah was one thing about Elder Decker, too, is he ate so slow that, like, in Kinnabas, right, they have like, the three-plate rule thing, and he but he would eat so slow on purpose because he didn't want to get full.
01:28:12
Cody
and that i and like i just I'm a fast eater, so I would eat so many plates of food because he just like would make it look like he was eating even though he wasn't. i'm like down my plate and They're like heaping more food on my plate. I just ate so much.
01:28:26
Cody
and They feed you every lesson, so I'm like eating like seven meals a day.
01:28:29
Darin Tingey
Yeah, so much.
01:28:30
Cody
I'm just like dying.
01:28:31
Darin Tingey
So much.
01:28:32
Cody
It took me a long time to able go to sleep after the mission without being full.
01:28:37
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:28:38
Cody
It took me forever.
01:28:38
Darin Tingey
Or thinking, or you're probably like, when I came home, I was like, man, I don't feel like I'm full unless my stomach hurts.
01:28:46
Cody
Yeah, unless it's less my stomach line is tearing, I'm not full yet.
01:28:46
Darin Tingey
Like once.
01:28:49
Darin Tingey
Exactly. Okay.
01:28:51
Cody
Yeah, yeah. So but I'll say Ata probably just because, yeah, just, yeah.
01:28:52
Darin Tingey
Okay.
01:28:59
Cody
And then my favorite thing about each one, Kitabas Moshas.
01:29:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah, yeah, what was it? Yeah, like, whether that's culture or just your favorite thing.
01:29:08
Cody
My favorite thing about Kitabas is I think it's their sense of humor. They're the funniest people.
01:29:16
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:16
Cody
and and like, they're so goofy. Like, the unaine are just, like, hilarious. And, like, the kids are so funny. Like, they just come up and crack these, like, obscure jokes.
01:29:30
Cody
Their wordplay is so good. love their their puns. Like, ah in Kiribati, they would always hit me with the eyes pillow instead of metanina. Like,
01:29:42
Cody
They just they love to do those funny like funny translations.
01:29:47
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:47
Cody
i We always joke with people like, I'm messing with the money, buy like sleep Sleep well, like sleep in the well.
01:29:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:29:55
Cody
mr the board
01:29:55
Darin Tingey
Mr. The Money Bot. I hadn't heard that one. That's pretty good.
01:29:59
Cody
Yeah, they they're just so funny and just like so joyous.
01:30:04
Darin Tingey
Definitely.
01:30:04
Cody
Marshall's, man. i I love listening to Marshallese. I think it's the funniest sounding language. I always say, whenever I describe it, it might be a little offensive, don't know, but I always thought they sound and look like Ewoks a little bit.
01:30:19
Darin Tingey
Matt, let's hear
01:30:26
Cody
Like, they're just like, they're so squat, and they're just, i don't know, they're just, it's such an alien sounding language, and I don't know.
01:30:34
Darin Tingey
it.
01:30:37
Darin Tingey
is. The first time your ears hear that, it's like, you're like, what the heck?
01:30:37
Cody
don't know.
01:30:41
Darin Tingey
Like so high-pitched, back in the throat.
01:30:41
Cody
Well, well most of my yeah most of my exposure was you know my seminary kids. So it's like whiny teenager, you know, martial arts. It's booty.
01:30:59
Cody
It's like, yeah, it's just like, oh, and I love the, I could never roll my R's until I practiced a warra, like warra.
01:30:59
Darin Tingey
but
01:31:08
Darin Tingey
la Yeah. la yeah
01:31:12
Cody
Yeah, like I love – yeah, I loved when I like started to get kind of good at martialese. I love speaking. its It's like a fun language. It's like – I don't know.
01:31:23
Cody
It just sounds – it just sounds so weird.
01:31:26
Darin Tingey
Which one was harder, do you think?
01:31:28
Cody
Oh, not even a competition. Martialese is so much harder. So – I mean, Kitabas has 13 letters.
01:31:35
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:36
Cody
It's all like sounds babies can make. Like –
01:31:41
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:31:41
Cody
for anar where marshes sounds sounds babies make but it's not like voice sounds
01:31:47
Darin Tingey
ah but No real pronunciation to it.
01:31:51
Cody
like yeah yeah it's just gurgling clicking like king yeah so yeah it was forget i think it might have been your conversation with teta where she was saying like
01:31:51
Darin Tingey
Just to kind of.
01:31:55
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:32:07
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:32:08
Cody
Maybe not. But and yeah, because you guys were talking about kiddos. Someone was... Oh, no, it was because she was talking about how to pronounce kiddos stuff. And like you need to like stop pronouncing it like so perfectly in order to get it to like sound right.
01:32:21
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:32:23
Cody
And you got start kind of like blending your words. And that's how I was able to like kind of get more Marshallese was like I'm trying to pronounce like each sound and you can't because then you're not pronouncing the word, right? it's like It's like a phrase. Like you...
01:32:38
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:32:38
Cody
The sounds have flow into each other or else ah it's impossible to speak. So that that was that was fun. and it was It was a good challenge. I like languages, so that was all fun.
01:32:51
Darin Tingey
Good. And yeah, what was the what was the favorite food on on either side?
01:32:52
Cody
but Also, the food was
01:32:58
Darin Tingey
You said I think you said on Kitabas you said the banana bread. Maybe I wasn't your favorite.
01:33:01
Cody
Well, I ate a ton of it. My fa my favorite thing was... um
01:33:10
Cody
want to say her name. She doesn't live in Kitabase, anymore. She moved to New Zealand. So I can't even get in if I go back. But had a convert whose mom made this really, really good tuna.
01:33:24
Cody
And it was like she cubed it and put it in like coconut milk with like onion and tomato and cucumber.
01:33:32
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:33:33
Cody
And it served it over rice. And oh, my gosh, dude. It was so good. It was so fresh. I love the fish. I love seafood.
01:33:45
Cody
I loved it all. it was all like I was so happy. The thing i the only thing I like hated in Kittabas was the little red sausages.
01:33:53
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:33:53
Cody
They were so grainy. I couldn't stand them. and Everyone had them.
01:33:57
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:33:58
Cody
I couldn't stand them. Everything else was just awesome.
01:34:02
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:03
Cody
then In Marshall's, i may it had to be that that pineapple tang.
01:34:08
Darin Tingey
Pineapple tangs.
01:34:08
Cody
as I don't think I had at so many restaurants because we didn't like teach people.
01:34:12
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:18
Cody
So I didn't like get to eat with the, with the like locals a whole ton.
01:34:21
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:34:24
Cody
few people made me some fish. there There was a Chinese restaurant just down the street from the mission office. don't know. I saw the,
01:34:36
Cody
Same side of the street as mission office. It's a white building.
01:34:39
Darin Tingey
Yep.
01:34:39
Cody
I swear they were doing something illegal in the back, like an illegal card game or something.
01:34:43
Darin Tingey
I know exactly what you're talking about.
01:34:43
Cody
Yeah.
01:34:44
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:34:45
Cody
yeah but they had this, like, sizzling, like a sizzling pork or sizzling beef. I would always do it. It's so good.
01:34:56
Cody
You know, like the platter is just like they had to cover it because it splashy.
01:34:56
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:35:00
Cody
That was so good.
01:35:00
Darin Tingey
Yeah. The Chinese restaurants are good in Marshall Islands.
01:35:03
Cody
yeah i love I love the restaurants in Kitabas too.
01:35:04
Darin Tingey
That's
01:35:06
Cody
like I love a half-cooked fish on fried rice.
Reflections and Future Plans
01:35:12
Cody
yeah I'd probably die now if I ate what ate there, but I would go out with a smile if I got to eat it again.
01:35:23
Cody
I love the food out there. I love i loved it all.
01:35:27
Darin Tingey
Yeah, well, you had ah you had a pretty incredible mission and I, I'm jealous you got to go to all those outer islands as AP.
01:35:38
Darin Tingey
I told you like, that's the only reason I'd ever want to be AP is like, just to be able jumbo.
01:35:42
Cody
Yeah, it was yeah it's fun. I loved listening to Cannon's mission where he got to go on that special assignment. That was pretty that ah was like one that was like, I feel that. like i did I did some of that stuff.
01:35:51
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:35:53
Cody
I didn't have to like go out and meet people and try to find housing. like I just got to kind of check in and have, hey, show me like the cool so spots here and stuff. Yeah.
01:36:03
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:36:04
Cody
a
01:36:04
Darin Tingey
So cool. So cool.
01:36:06
Cody
but
01:36:06
Darin Tingey
Well, um and I'm glad I found you on Facebook. I literally just found you scrolling Sherman's photos. so this is great.
01:36:15
Cody
Yeah, no, I'm glad you reached out. it's It's been awesome to listen. I love hearing about the mission again. I talked to Elder Decker, Sherman a little bit, Elder Monson, you know ah a bunch of a bunch of the missionaries, all ward.
01:36:28
Cody
I love chatting with them so all still. And just great to hear from some of the the young bloods, hear how the missions change.
01:36:35
Darin Tingey
That's right.
01:36:36
Cody
I mean, we we barely had a road and now you guys have a billion speed bumps. Our speed bumps went into into the earth.
01:36:40
Darin Tingey
Oh my gosh.
01:36:43
Cody
thanks
01:36:44
Darin Tingey
Right, all the potholes. Yeah.
01:36:46
Cody
Yeah, and the broken vans I saw because they just snapped their axles in those potholes. And now you've got a full-on road. And I'm excited for the temple.
01:36:54
Darin Tingey
Yeah.
01:36:57
Cody
Definitely going to do it my best to get back there for that. And I'm excited to see how Kiribati de Boboto is has changed.
01:37:01
Darin Tingey
yeah
01:37:05
Cody
It's going to be awesome.
01:37:07
Darin Tingey
It's probably changed a lot, but also still the same. so Well, great, Cody.
01:37:10
Cody
Yeah.
01:37:13
Darin Tingey
Thanks for coming on. This was another great episode of Dadlin's Podcast.
01:37:17
Cody
Yeah, thanks.