The Gift of Interpretation of Tongues

Recently, I was asked by the Church Translation Department to share with them an experience I had while translating. I figured some of you might enjoy this story that I wrote for them:

I have been a member of the Marshallese translation team since 2005. For many years, our responsibility for interpreting General Conference broadcasts also included preparing the translations we were assigned to present. I found this to be a wonderful experience being able to really study, digest and memorize the various speeches that would be shared.

One problem we had with this system was if one of our team members was unable to present at the meeting, then we would have to scramble to translate their talk at the last minute to cover for them. And so it was with the 2007 Saturday Morning Session of General Conference. One of our other team members slid off the road while traveling to the Conference Center because of some ice. He was scheduled to present for President Monson, who was the concluding speaker that morning. He had finished translating the talk, but was unable to transmit it to us because he was in the middle of the mountains without Internet service.

My team leader asked myself and a couple I baptized on my mission to cover for him. The three of us quickly got to work translating the 20 minute long talk. It was very difficult, with poetry and other literary constructions that were difficult to properly convey in our target language. We worked and worked during the entire session and only got about half of the talk finished before my friend was to begin presenting it. We printed off what we had and sent him into the translation booth while his wife and I feebly tried to complete the final half.

I remember praying like mad for the Lord to enlighten our minds and give us the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues so we could complete the talk. I knew that we were working on an important message that the Lord wanted President Monson to share with the church. We had toiled and used our combined efforts to try to do the task ourselves, but we were completely inadequate for the task without the Lord's assistance.

 Rick Nang and Brian work on a translation at the last minute.

My fingers were a blaze on my laptop computer, jamming out phrases as quickly as they came into my mind. Within only a few minutes, the two of us were able to finish the rest of the talk, rush off to the printer to get a hard copy, and then bring it into the translation booth. We arrived just in time as our friend reached the end of our previously prepared materials seconds after I handed him the finished talk. He was able to seamlessly continue, and no one would ever know that he was doing a cold reading. He gave a wonderful presentation of the talk, and President Monson's message was conveyed in its entirety.

Fatigue after the translation is done. 

I marveled while listening to the words as they were spoken at the miracle I was witnessing. In only a few minutes, this sister and I had been able to duplicate the amount of work all three of us had previously accomplished in the space of an hour and a half. We truly had been blessed with the Gift of Interpretation of Tongues to not only translate the talk, but to do it in an incredibly rapid space of time. It reminded me of how quickly Joseph Smith had been able to translate the Book of Mormon. The Spirit witnessed to me there that President Monson truly is an apostle and prophet of the Lord and that he was actually sharing the words of God in his talk.

I don't know who it was that we were translating that message for, but I know it was God's will that it be shared. Perhaps the three of us were the ones who needed to hear the message and to go through that experience, to strengthen our own personal testimonies. I may never know for sure. But there is one thing that I am certain of: If we put our faith in Christ, we can receive power to do all things that are expedient in him. Moroni 7:33.

- Brian K. Tanner, April 2011.

Marshallese in Recent Church Publications

A number of Marshallese friends of mine were featured in recent church publications.

Maggie Nang and Marie Aini from West Valley were the cover story from March 2011's New Era. I baptized Maggie and her family in Hawaii (she's in a picture on page 10). She's the one who taught me to play the ukulele for the first time. Marie is her cousin, and they all now live in West Valley. Jen became good friends with Marie's Grandma Aini when we were living in Spokane.

Marie's dad, Jally Aini, and brother were one of the random pictures in last November's Conference Report in the Ensign. They were on page 55.

Lastly, this month's Ensign featured various vignettes from the Marshall Islands. One of the stories was about the Kaminaga family. I loved meeting them in Hawai'i while they were attending BYU-H. I'm vocally very jealous of the awesome job she now has working for the Marshallese mission to the UN. Lydia is always posting comments on Facebook about all of the exciting places around the world she goes to in order to reduce nuclear arms numbers. Talk about dream job.

The article also featured Ernest Mea and Gary Zakious on page 35, both of whom I met here in Utah. Gary was present for some of my more wild translation experiences at General Conference. I helped to translate for Ernest Mea when he first came to the MTC to prepare for his mission to Hawai'i. He now attends LDSBC in Salt Lake City and wants to become a Marshallese lawyer and politician. I've loved mentoring him and encouraging him to keep working hard in school.

It's neat for me to see some of these wonderful people's stories being shared with a wider audience. There are a lot of universal truths we can learn from diversity.

UMA Marshallese Education Classes

A few weeks ago, Jen and I stayed up very late into the night because we were unable to sleep. We were talking about many of the serious problems the Marshallese community faces here in Utah, and how many people that we know and love are facing tough times right now.

And then a series of ideas began to come to us of how to help. Along with the new ideas came an impression to write down all of our thoughts so we wouldn’t forget them in the morning. I’ve experienced revelation like this before, and I’ve come to recognize it as the Spirit guiding our thoughts and conversation to answer our prayers.

One of these revealed ideas was for the Utah Marshallese Association to host a series of education classes to help teach responsible adult behavior. Our proposed list of classes includes:

• Financial and credit responsibility
• Sexual education
• Healthy lifestyle management
• American citizenship and naturalization classes
• College enrollment
• Crime and fire prevention

One example of how these classes can help is with sexual education. Over the past two decades, Marshallese people have one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Marshallese women typically begin having children while teenagers, which can greatly inhibit their educational and work opportunities. By limiting their educational experiences, Marshallese women are limited in their ability to teach their children while raising them.

Adultery and extramarital relationships are also a big problem. Up in Spokane, Jen and I were amazed at how almost every family had a pastor who was having affairs with their wives’ sisters. Often these couples do not legally divorce, even if they have been separated for years and have multiple children with subsequent partners. This widespread adultery prevents their posterity from enjoying the full blessings of the law of chastity.

By teaching a Marshallese language class on the blessings of the law of chastity and dangers of unprotected sex, hopefully we can cut eliminate adultery and decrease the number of teenage pregnancies.

We are very excited for this and the other UMA classes. UMA is currently negotiating with West Valley City to use their City Hall for our forum. If you have other suggestions or ideas for this program, be sure to let me know!

The Land of Eb

During the last few months of my mission, my mission president sent me and my various other Marshallese companions to remote areas on the outer islands where Marshallese people were being found. Where on O’ahu we had a branch and other units, the outer Hawaiian islands only had a handful of Marshallese members. Most of them were inactive, which made things even more difficult.

Marshallese Elders on the Big Island, Spring 2004: Elders Austin Lowe, Bryan Boaz, Brian Tanner, and Steve Lutz.

My last area was in Kealakekua, on the south western edge of the Big Island (Where Captain Cook was killed). Just before I arrived there, a huge community of Marshallese was discovered in Ocean View, near the southern tip of the island. Ocean View is the world’s largest residential subdivision, located between two lava fields. The land is cheap, and a two hour drive from  civilization in any direction. As missionaries, we would joke that Marshallese elders who were sent there were “banished.” I was never personally “banished” there, but most of my other Marshallese companions were.

 

Map from Coldwell Banker

I recently discovered that some students from the University of Nations are making a film called The Land of Eb about Marshallese living in Ocean View. “Eb” is a Marshallese word for “dance”.


The Land of Eb from Andrew Williamson on Vimeo.


As a side note, the University of Nations is a Christian university in Kona, and is similar to a evangelical version of BYU. Their campus includes a youth ministry training, similar to the MTC, if the MTC was designed for missionaries to tract only Provo and Utah County. These guys caused a lot of headaches for us as missionaries, but I appreciate their efforts to teach the islanders filmmaking skills while making this documentary. This looks like a really interesting film.

Coincidentally, all of those Marshallese Elders who went to the Big Island in 2004 with me were groomsmen at mine and Jennifer's wedding.

Former Hawaiian-Marshallse Elders and convert at the Tanner Wedding, June 2008: Rick Nang, Steve Lutz, Bryan Boaz and Austin Lowe

Marshallese-English Online Dictionary

Before going to law school, I graduated with a BA in linguistics from BYU. I was motivated to study linguistics after learning Marshallese, Tongan and Hawaiian while an LDS missionary in Hawai’i.

I learned Marshallese in part by using University of Hawai’i Professor Byron W. Bender’s Marshallese-English Dictionary (MED) and Spoken Marshallese. These language learning tools were not only extremely helpful in wrestling with the language, but also instilled within me an interest in the definition of words. This interest comes into play every day at law school because the law is all about defining the meaning of words (For example, was it murder? Manslaughter? Or an accident?).

This morning I found out that Professor Bender has finished converting his MED dictionary for the internet, creating the new Marshallese-English Online Dictionary (MOD). The nerdy linguist within me is extremely excited to have the whole dictionary on my computer.

On a related note, while at BYU, I worked as a research assistant for Dr. Cynthia Hallen who was writing her own online dictionary based on words used in Emily Dickinson poems. I also  started a project convert Noah Webster’s 1844 dictionary to a digitized, electronic format. This dictionary is important to LDS scholars because this would be the definition of words used by Joseph Smith when he translated the Book of Mormon and received the revelations in the Doctrine and Covenants. This exciting project is also nearing completion.

Anyway, I’m excited. Nerdy, but excited.

Marshallese Militia

Jen and I moved to Salt Lake City this last weekend, which was a pretty wild ordeal considering I’m in my finals period of law school. We had so many interesting miracles happen which helped make the move easier for us.

The plan was to load up a moving van on Friday night and then drive it to SLC the next morning to complete the move. The move was very difficult because of the steep hill in our backyard that we had to climb on the way up. We were blessed with help from my brother and his fiancé, as well as some neighbors from the ward, but it was still a grueling experience and we were up late moving heavy boxes of law books.

Saturday morning, I woke up all sore and tired. Reflecting on our move the night before, I was not excited to move everything all over again.

And then a miracle happened. Just as Jen and I got our new key to our apartment, Batrick Boaz (older brother of one of my mission companions and president of the Utah Marshallese Association - UMA) and Rick Nang (a brother I baptized on my mission) showed up with two vans full of ten other Marshallese young men. Their Marshallese Militia organized themselves, grabbed our stuff in the van, and moved it up three flights of stairs as if it was nothing. One teenager even carried up our 80 lbs punching bag by himself with no difficulty.

It took the Marshallese Militia in 40 minutes to empty the van, which had taken us six hours to fill up the night before. They finished just when John, Melinda and my dad arrived with the pizza to help. It was amazing, and Jen and I even got to have an unexpected nap in our new place because we finished so quickly. In a way, it was a miracle to help give me strength when I didn’t think I could keep going like we had the night before.

So I’ve learned my lesson. If I ever need to move again, I’m definitely calling that Marshallese Militia again.

Rocket Island

For my International Law class, I'm required to write a 20 page paper on an international law topic of my choosing. I've been interested in doing something about the United States of America's relationship with the Marshall Islands. Here's an interesting video on the topic that I found on YouTube about this very topic.

General Conference Oct. 2009

Once again, I participated in translating for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint's General Conference. In years past, this was always a really exciting experience wherein I would often be called on to save conference at the last minute. Having not translated for Conference since last year, I was feeling a little rusty and I don't think I did the best job.

What made things nice/frustrating this time was the talks were translated in the Marshall Islands and then sent to us. Normally the process would work wherein they would just send us the English text of the talk and then I would translate it myself. This would often be really stressful in finding time to translate. With law school this year, it was nice not having to worry about translating the talks myself, but it was frustrating waiting for the talks to come. One didn't come at all, so I ended up translating it myself late Friday night. It would have been nice to have gotten a heads up that it wasn't coming.

The other bad thing about not translating the talks myself was I didn't prepare as carefully as normal. Usually I would practice the talks over and over again until I could perform them really clearly and with enthusiasm. This time I found myself struggling to keep up with the speakers because I didn't have the text memorized like before. Especially difficult was translating for Elder Tad Callister during the Saturday Afternoon session who spoke at a rate of 179 words per minute. He basically gave a 14 minute talk in 9 minutes. I could barely breathe when he finished. I was talking so fast that I was gasping for air.

I also interpreted for Elder Whitney Clayton and the closing prayer during the Saturday morning session. You can listen to the Marshallese audio archives can be found here.

What did make this session different was I spent some time with Batrick Boaz, the older brother of Bryan Boaz, the missionary who taught me Marshallese. He recently formally organized a Marshallese group called Utah Marshallese Association, or UMA for short (Uma means kiss in Marshallese). Batrick was elected president of the new non-profit organization, and I offered to help him draft the organization's charter and by laws. UMA's goals are to help improve Marshallese access to economic, educational, health and other resources in the State of Utah. Their approach is based on the welfare program of the LDS church, but is involved in helping Marshallese of several different churches. This group will be a big blessing to Marshallese in Utah, and I was grateful in helping to give Batrick suggestions on the organization and structure from using my legal and church experience.

Over all, it was great seeing my Utah Marshallese friends again. Being around Rick and Margaret Nang and Steve Lutz again is always a blast and makes me happy.

Marshallese Health Care in Hawai'i

The State of Hawai'i is seeking to save 15 million dollars by removing dialysis and chemotherapy treatments from their state health plans. This proposed plan is specifically targeting the Marshallese people who rely heavily on the state health care plans. As part of the Compact agreement with the U.S. and the Marshall Islands, Marshallese are guaranteed access to these services. The Compact agreement requires the federal government to provide money to states to cover resulting costs. Hawai'i claims the Marshallese are costing them 100 million dollars worth of health care costs for these treatments. They also claim the federal government is not providing them enough money to care for these people. However, if the new plan goes into effect, several hundred very sick people who have come to America seeking treatment will die within the next few months.

A law suit filed on behalf of the Marshallese was able to obtain a temporary injunction against the state to have them postpone implementing their plan until after the state legislature can review the policy. Within a few weeks the injunction may no longer be able to protect the Marshallese. For more information on this issue, check out this.

Return to Provo

I returned to Provo, UT last week. It is really strange for me to be here again. Just under a year ago, I left Provo without any intention to ever return. I left to begin law school in Washington, but also because I felt my eternal progression would not continue if I did not leave.

For one thing, I was burned out by the Utah dating scene. I had tried to develop knowledge, wisdom, kindness, charity and other talents to better myself, but felt unsuccessful in finding the lasting meaningful relationships I was really looking for. At the time, I had the impression that I would never get married if I stayed in Utah. And so under intense pressure from many of my friends to not leave, I packed up my car and went off into the unknown, trusting that God would lead me to where I needed to be to find the fulfillment I was seeking.

My theme for leaving was "Gone" by Pearl Jam:

No more upset mornings
No more trying evenings
This American Dream I am disbelieving
When the gas in my tank feels like money in the bank
Gonna blow it all this time, take me one last ride
For the lights of this city, they only look good when I'm speeding
I wanna leave em all behind me cause this time I'm gone
Long gone,
This time I'm letting go of it all
So long,
This time I'm gone

In the far off distance
As my taillights fade
No one thinks to witness but they will someday
Feel like a question is forming
And the answer's far
I will be what I could be
Once I get out of this town

For the lights of this city
They have lost all feeling
Gonna leave em all behind me cause this time I'm gone
Long gone,
This time I'm letting go of it all
So long,
Long gone, I'm letting go of it all
Yeah, This time I'm gone

If nothing is everything
If nothing is everything I'll have it all
If nothing is everything then I will have it all

This song really resonated with me, and I felt that I really could be all that I could be once I left Provo. My thought at the time was that I would go to Washington and rock whatever ward I ended up in. I wanted a new start, to show them what the folks in Provo were going to miss.

But then something miraculous happened. On the way to Washington, I had one of the greatest adventures of my life with my best friend, Jennifer, and suddenly I discovered everything that was missing in my life. Hidden reservoirs of joy, happiness, laughter, excitement, love, etc. all appeared to me. The day I left Utah, I became a new person; a better person. My prompting to leave immediately provided what I was missing. And as the months unfolded, I found more than I could ever imagine finding.


It is strange to be back in Provo because I am not the same person I was before. Everything is the same, yet it is not. Many of the same people are still here. The buildings on BYU campus are exactly the same as when I left. Traffic is still crazy. The Honor Code still rules the student body.

Yet I am very different than the person who left a year ago. I truly feel that I became more like the man I want to be while living in Washington. I am an engaged to be married in three weeks to the most beautiful girl in the world. I completed my first year of law school. I had an important calling working with members of the stake presidency, high councilmen, and multiple bishoprics. Any one of these would be enough to spur major changes in anyone, yet here I had all of them combined in the space of a few short months.

I feel deja vous from the time I returned from my mission. I feel like a superhero in disguise, just another face in the congregation/crowd. Yet I think this time I'm not doing a very good job to hide my secret identity.

While it is bittersweet to leave Washington and the many wonderful missionaries, law students and Marshallese people I met there, it is wonderful being reunited with Jen, and hopefully to stay. I am trying to transfer down here to BYU or the U so we can be together in the fall. Regardless of where we end up, I know that God will use us to create good around us.

I feel great and exciting things are coming our way, and I am excited to face these adventures with my best friend.

Weirdest Church Calling

I arguably have one of the weirdest church callings ever. For the past five months or so, I've been serving for my church as the "Marshallese Program Director" for Spokane and Eastern Washington. My responsibilities are working with the local Stake Presidency, bishoprics, missionaries, etc. to create a sustainable church program to fellowship the Marshallese people in eastern Washington. I'm sort of like a pseudo-Bishop/High Councilman/Ward Mission Leader/Sunday School President.

There are several thousand Marshallese people here in Spokane and they are the second largest minority group in town. Being a very faithful and humble people, many of them are joining the church. The Spokane Stake Presidency views the large number of baptisms from one ethnic group as grounds for starting a new branch or separate church congregation. Having spoken Marshallese for several years, and having a lot of insights from working with them as a missionary, my job to set up a program to eventually establish a branch.

Basically, this has set up my life to be a lot of crazy fun working with the Marshallese people while balancing law school. It has been wonderful being in their homes and enjoying life with them. But most of all, it has been wonderful to help so many of them come unto Christ through the principals and ordinances of the gospel.

Another perk is working with two Elders who are specifically called to work with the Marshallese. I've been working to help teach them Marshallese and give cultural insights to help them with a foreign mission in America. At times it really does feel like I'm a missionary again, and it's hard to not want to give up my study time to go out visiting investigators with them.

The true highlight though has been being able to work so closely with Jen on this program. She was living here in Spokane for a few months and was also called to work with the Marshallese in the region, which made it feel like we were missionary companions together. It was great. Not everyone gets to go on a couple's mission before they actually get married. She has had so many good ideas and plans that, if this program does prove to be sustainable, will be in a large part because of her.

One quick story happened back in February when Necinta, a recent convert, gave birth to a baby. The daughter, Lindsay Skyla Anton, was named after the ward mission leader's wife and the missionary who baptized her mother. Jen and I visited her in the hospital a few hours after the baby was born with flowers and diapers. I helped fill out the birth certificate form while Jen took pictures of the mother and newborn. 

Seeing Jen hold a newborn was a wonderful sight. I love her. That was a sacred moment for me that I would not trade for all the world.

What is the weirdest thing you have ever been asked to do for a church calling?

Utah Marshallese Christmas Peet 2008 - West Valley Chapter

The guys of the West Valley Chapter giving one awesome Christmas Peet performance. Every year on Christmas, the Marshallese people will throw the biggest party of the year to celebrate the birth of Christ with songs and dances about his life to honor him. They will often practice for months in advance to coordinate everything, and the results are awesome. This video features my Marshallese brother, Dustin Nang, who is wearing a Santa hat in the lower left corner.

Blessings and Bubu - UPDATE

Just for a quick update on this story, the missionaries and Bubu both keep telling me about more Marshallese people who want to get baptized. While I was having lunch with the Elders, Bubu and Handy yesterday alone, Bubu got a phone call from a lady named Nejinta. I'd met her the same night I met Bubu at the same party, and she had also asked me to give her child a blessing that same night. I went by and taught her a lesson a few days later with the missionaries, but haven't seen her since. Anyway, Neginta called Bubu yesterday because she'd just found out that she was going to get baptized and was asking if she could get baptized too. Crazy.

Oh, and Paul Ceaser, Handy's grandson, is going to get baptized with Bubu, also by me. This is getting a little out of control.

Paul and Brian after church

Let's hope it stays like this!

Blessings and Bubu

So a few weeks ago, we had a big crazy Marshallese birthday party here in Spokane for a baby (which coincidentally enough was the same day as Handy and Phillip Ceasers' birthdays). Marshallese first birthday parties (Kemem) are always wild, and provide lots of quality entertainment. My favorite part is at the end of the party, everyone forms a procession line to go greet the child, who by this point is usually screaming his/her head off at all of the scary strangers. Upon greeting the child, you of course have to give the baby money.

A Kemem in Hawai'i

Marshallese children, of course, are running wild everywhere during the whole party.


While sitting at a table with Handy, she introduced me to Bernice Rolfo, or as I call her, "Bubu" or "grandmother." She is an older woman, who was feeling very weak and in a lot of pain that night because of her dialysis treatments.

We hadn't been talking long before she asked me if I could give her a blessing, which caught me by surprise. This was a common request I got while I was a missionary, but I wasn't dressed like a missionary or anything, so it was surprising that she would recognize me as one who could give a Priesthood blessing.

I gave her a blessing not long after that once we had some privacy, and she later told me that all of her pain immediately left her body. She was able to rest that night in peace.

After that, Bubu and I became really good friends, and she adopted me as her grandson. She went trick-or-treating with me and Paul on Halloween, and was demanding earlier that day that Jen needed to come to Spokane so she could meet her (only a few hours later Jen sprung her trap on me). She was overjoyed to meet her and has two pictures of us proudly displayed in a frame that says "World's Best Mom" in her front room.

A few weeks ago I was taking Handy to church when I asked Bubu if she'd like to come too. She did, and brought two other granddaughters with her, which made everyone really excited. She began meeting with the missionaries and has since decided to get baptized next week. When the missionaries were talking to her about it, she got really excited when they told her I could baptize her. Her granddaughters also got really excited about this and are close to baptism themselves.

I've had a lot of experiences lately to give blessings to people who have asked me for help. It has been really humbling for me to realize that a lot of people here recognize me as one who has authority from God. It makes me really grateful to be here to help these people like this in my small way.

Going to that party also made me somewhat of a celebrity among the Marshallese here in Spokane. Everyone the missionaries talk to claims to know me know, which makes missionary work a lot easier for them. I think this is pretty crazy...Who'd ever thought I'd be a Marshallese superstar?

Handy's grandson, Joyle, and Brian playing at the Kemem

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a great day for me. School got out at noon, my homework was all done for the weekend and I was allowed me to spend the rest of the day playing. I went trick-or-treating with Paul and Handy Ceaser, which was a blast. I realized trick-or-treating is a lot like tracting like an LDS missionary, except you get more candy. Paul made off like a bandit with about four pounds of candy, including several king-sized candy bars.

After dropping them off at their home around 10:00 pm, I started driving home when Jen called me. She told me that her brother had called her after a friend of his living here in Spokane called him. His friend is another first-year law student, and has supposedly been stalking and spying on me for a few months now for Jen’s brother. Jen told me that the girl had gotten really drunk that night and was stranded in a park down town and needed a ride home. Being the perpetual super hero that I am, and probably against my better judgment, I told her that I’d go try to save my stalker from Halloween mischief.

With hordes of wild Halloween spooks lining the streets of down town, I really didn’t want to have to get out and search for the girl on foot. At first I figured if I just drove around I could find her and shout for her to come get a ride. I spied a figure dressed all in black, just like Jen had described to me sitting on a bench some 20 yards into the park from the road.

Shouting and hollering at her to come get a ride, the black figure finally heard me, raised their arms into the air and began shouting back in a drunken drawl, “Whose callin’ me?!” Getting frustrated, I realized I wouldn’t be giving the girl a ride unless I got out on foot to find her.

Parking on the road, and muttering to myself about the hero going to save the world, I approached the figure on foot. Up close, the figure appeared to be wearing a black hat, mask, cape and coat which completely covered their body, so it was extremely hard to make out any features. On the figures chest was a small neighborhood watch sign with a black figure being crossed out on it. Somewhere from deep within my memory, I recalled how this sign had scared me as a child, so I initiated conversation with the person with some trepidation.

The Neighborhood Watcher

“Hey, are you Anne?” I ask, thinking to myself that I probably didn’t really want to talk to this person after all.

The figure in black replies in a drunken drawl, “Hey man, you gotta light?” What is it with this park and weirdos asking me for cigarettes?

“I’m afraid I don’t. Are you Anne?”

“You don’t gotta light?”

Getting frustrated, I repeat, “I don’t.”

The black figure then caught me off guard by saying, “You’re really cute.”

Stunned, and unable to discern if the figure in black was actually a boy or girl, I was extremely creeped out. I couldn’t say anything.

“Yeah, you’re really cute.”

Annoyed, I asked a different question. “Do you know Scott Perlmutter?”

“Yeah…yeah I do” was the reply, which made me think, “Finally, we’re getting somewhere!”

The figure continued, “He’s actually my brother.” And immediately the figure cast off the hat, mask and cape to reveal not some creepy drunk person, but my lovely girlfriend, Jennifer! She jumps into my arms and I just stand there for a moment in amazement before saying, “Ok, you win!” She giggles and we kiss and it was beautiful…she made it up to me for having scared the tar out of me!

The Neighborhood Watcher unmasked

You see, with Jen living in Provo, UT, and I living in Spokane, it’s rather difficult for us to see each other on a regular basis. Jen had only come her one time before, and that was when I was first moving here, so seeing her here again was quite a surprise, and especially since she filmed it too.

Now, to my credit, I’d been suspecting she was going to do something like this for a while now. She’d been telling me about how she was going to go to a salsa congress this weekend for months now, so I knew that she was going out of town this weekend. I’d suspected that she was really coming up here, and kept dropping hints that I knew her true intentions, but she was eventually able to convince me that she wasn’t coming about two days before she came.

Enjoying Grandma Perlmutter's Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken at Brian's Apartment

The surprise was wonderful and we ended up having a great weekend together. Jen knows how I love surprises, and this was the best surprise anyone could ever hope for.

Brian and Jen along the Spokane River

She told me that she’d used the money she would have spent to go to her favorite salsa congress in San Francisco to come here, which was a big sacrifice for her. I was amazed that she would do such a thing for me. It really meant a lot to me to know that she cares more about me than salsa dancing, which is one of her great loves in her life. Knowing this gives me an awesome sense of responsibility to take care of her and our love and to make sure I live worthy of this love in every way.

Jen brings so much joy to my life. Not a day goes by that she does not make me laugh or smile. It’s impossible for me to talk with her and not do so. Seeing her smile makes my heart sing. Because of her, it’s hard for me to have a bad day or be too stressed about my schoolwork. She balances me with her personality and spirit and I love how she is always able to make my fears go away.

Brian and Jen along the Spokane River

For these, and many other reasons, I love Jen Perlmutter!

October Conference

The October General Conference was quite successful and I was even able to avoid going crazy during the weekend helping translate into Marshallese. This was mostly because I tried to avoid being the "fireman" this time and putting out all of the fires that sprang up. Instead, I was able to spend more time watching conference with Jennifer instead, which was wonderful! It was really neat to realize that our first experience going to church together as a couple was to the Saturday Morning session of Conference in the Conference Center!


Anyway, you can access the Marshallese audio archive for this session here. I did Elder Causse's talk from Saturday afternoon, which begins about 50 minutes into the program. Enjoy!

Summer Jambo #1: Spokane, WA

This summer I find myself in a unique situation where I am planning to go on a number of Jambos (a Marshallese concept for a random vacation, usually with little or no planning, and usually involves crashing with relatives/friends for free). I have been needing to go check out a few law schools, so I was able to go to Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA last week with my brother, Daniel. Daniel had helped re-activate Dean Howard, a man from Texas, who was planning to go to the temple to be sealed to his family there in Spokane, so we thought this was a great excuse to go. Cheap plane tickets were purchased, a good discount on a hotel room arranged, and within two weeks from finding out about the temple sealing, we were stepping off the plane to Washington.

Much to my mother's dismay (she always knows when I'm going to do something stupid/dangerous), I thought it would be more fun to ride public transportation than get a rental car. Upon going to the bus stop at the airport, we found our hotel had a courtesy shuttle that we could ride for free. Fifteen minutes later we entered our room, took a glance out the window to see our view of the Spokane river, then immediately left for adventure.

Daniel and I had four goals for our trip:

1. Visit the Gonzaga Law School.
2. Attend the Spokane Temple with Dean Howard.
3. Find the Spokane LDS Institute.
4. Find Handy Ceaser/the Marshallese Community.

Handy Ceaser is a Marshallese woman I first met when she was living in downtown Honolulu. She had been baptized about the same time I began learning Marshallese, so when I met her a few months later, I was pretty fluent at the language. I was one of the first missionaries she'd met who could actually speak her language, so she became quite fond of me. A master at weaving amimono handicraft, she would always give me amazing flowers and ties and whatnot for my mother and girlfriends.

Daniel displaying some of Handy Ceaser's Handiwork

Despite my Marshallese language skills, Daniel has long been Handy's favorite. Shortly after he graduated from high school, we went on a family trip to Hawai'i where Handy taught us how to create amimono flowers. Daniel quickly picked up the skill because she gave him hands on help, but I was unable to work very quickly because she just told me what to do verbally. Never having learned words like twist, pull, or fold, I got lost, and Daniel won her endearing love.

Handy is also infamous for calling me in the middle of the night. Never fail, she would call me at 3:30 at least once every six months. This would often make me laugh, so it wasn't ever annoying to me. The weird thing is she would always ask for Daniel when she would call, even when he was on his mission to Texas.

Handy, being a professional grandmother, would make frequent jambos to visit all of her grandchildren, scattered across the Marshall Islands, Hawai'i, Arkansas, etc. She moved in with a daughter in Spokane about a year ago and was attending a community college there to improve her English, so Daniel and I thought this would be a great opportunity to see her again.

Have you seen me?

Unfortunately, because Handy moves around so frequently, and has a hard time keeping the same telephone number in service for longer than two months at a time, we had no way of knowing where to find her. The Nangs, a Marshallese family I baptized in Hawai'i that has since moved to Utah, gave me the phone number for their uncle Bein (strangely enough, Bein was one of my childhood nicknames...who knew it was a Marshallese name?), but that turned out to also be disconnected. Thus, we were forced to use our own ingenuity to try and find Handy. Hearing how large the Spokane Marshallese community supposedly was, we had high hopes of making contact with someone from the islands there.

The Wendy's across the street from GU where we found the Marshallese girl

The very first place Daniel and I went to after leaving our hotel was Wendy's. We'd been in the store two minutes before I noticed a Marshallese girl working in the kitchen! We couldn't believe our luck! We found a Micronesian in the very first place we went! Daniel said the odds were mind boggling, and I couldn't help but laugh at our good fortune. Unfortunately, she was busy working with a headset on, so she didn't hear our "Yokwe" greeting. Not wanting to cause a scene, we ended up leaving, but with high hopes that we would eventually be able to find Handy.

After that side adventure, we got down to the main business of checking out the campus.

Situated on the Spokane River, Gonzaga was named after a Jesuit Priest from the 1500's.

We had a lot of fun touring the university, even though we didn't have a map or anything to show us where to go.

Eventually we found the law school. It was hard to miss because the fire alarm was blaring and there were two fire trucks parked in front. Someone must have warned them that we were coming! Daniel's hypothesis was that the local Yellow-bellied Marmots, or Rock Chucks, were to blame.

Some people would see this as a bad omen, but I found this whole scenario pretty funny. It also provided a great opportunity to size up the student body and teachers. None of them looked too shady, and besides a few cigarettes, the majority of them could all have fit in on BYU campus without getting busted by the honor code police.

Once the firemen got the alarm turned off, we were able to go inside. A great rush came at me when I walked in the doors, and I felt really cool. It was a good feeling, especially when I walked into the courtroom the students use to give cheap legal assistance to local people. I just couldn't stop smiling and felt great. I like it when I receive confirmation from the Spirit about decisions.

Having found the law school, we then turned our sights on finding the local institute. My hope was that I'd find a bulletin board or something where people looking for roommates could post openings. We eventually found the institute, but it was abandoned. There was a note on the wall indicating that Institute graduation was that evening, so we had the luck to show up on one of the few days when no one would be around. Oh well, better luck next time, eh?

Daniel and I hit a few more fast food restaurants that night, looking for more Marshallese people, but our luck had run out. We didn't see any more for the rest of the jambo.

The next morning, Daniel and I decided to wake up early and go to morning mass before going to the temple. Daniel had been telling me about different things he'd learned in a Christian history class about the Catholic Mass, so we thought it'd be fun to attend there while visiting on campus.

Coo-coo for Coco Puffs. Anyone paying $4.50 for cold cereal would have to be bwebwe. Note the pinky in the air and the fancy tie.

We had a quick breakfast in the snooty hotel restaurant (Daniel had coco-puffs in a fine china bowl) before rushing off to church. We were the only ones dressed up, besides the deacon and priest that is, so we stood out pretty sharply. That and we didn't join in performing the mass ceremony.

I couldn't help laugh quietly to myself when the deacon began his short talk by giving the Catholic version of "So the Bishop asked me to speak the other day..." and a "I didn't get to prepare much so what's going to come is going to be pretty awful..." It wasn't too bad overall, a little light on the personal application parts, but not too bad.
At the end of the ceremony, the priest gave an invitation to any who wished to join the parish to come forward (i.e. to be baptized), and he made a B-line towards us once the meeting was over to personally invite us. Upon learning we were visiting from Provo, he immediately asked if we were missionaries. Daniel and I looked at each other and shared a glance before telling him we weren't. Besides, I was wearing tan pants! Missionaries can't wear tan pants!

Daniel and Dean Howard at the Spokane Temple.

Not long after than, Dean Howard's nephew picked the two of us up and gave us a ride to the Spokane Temple. He gave us some pretty funny looks when we told him we'd just left Mass and that I was part Tongan, but we soon hit it off. Our time in the temple was neat, and Dean was sealed to his 87 year-old mother and deceased father and wife.

Dorthy, I don't think we're in Texas any more. Daniel and Dean, two lost Texans at the Spokane Temple.

Afterwards, the three of us sat in front of the temple talking, which was a great experience. We were then kidnapped by the family and forced to eat five pizzas because they thought we were so funny.

From Left to Right: Dean's Sister, Dean's Mother (Bubu), Dean Howard, Daniel Tanner, and Sister Skinfil, Dean's Niece.

The rest of our stay was pretty uneventful, besides the occasional run-in with hordes of yellow-bellied marmots. We returned safely the next day, having successfully survived going on vacation without a rental car or having our feet fall off from walking everywhere.

Happy Family at the Graduation Party, from left to right: Valarie Tanner, Dustin Nang, Brian Tanner, and Kathy Nang (Bubu).

Now, while we were unsuccessful in finding Handy Ceaser in Spokane, there was still a sense of successfully re-uniting with long lost Marshallese family members, for there was a big graduation party that night in West Valley/Magna for Dustin Nang, my little brother.

Grandma and Grandpa! For some reason, Kathy always calls me Jimma (grandpa) when I call her Bubu (grandma).

I brought my mom to the party, where who did we find, but Kathy Nang! Kathy was the one who first introduced me to her son Rick's family in Hawai'i and facilitated their baptism. Kathy remained living in Hawai'i while the rest of her family came here to Utah, so it was a pleasant surprise to see her there.

Mona! Anella Boaz forces more food upon my poor mother. We'd already been eating for an hour by this point, but the food kept coming. Note the fish in the right corner that I'd picked clean by my very own fingers.

My mom had never been to a Marshallese party before, so she was unprepared for the huge outpouring of food they presented her. She was a good sport and ate some, even though she'd already had dinner, and didn't even flinch when I started eating an entire grilled fish with my fingers (imported from the Marshall Islands, it was exquisite!).

Momma and Bubu Nang.

There was a lot of laughter, and it was the perfect ending to my first jambo of the summer.

The Spokane Temple.

Missionary Moments - Power of Love

The Following is an article from the LDS Church News, 4-26-2008:

Lisa Chavez was raised a member of another church. However, as she grew older, she came to consider herself non-denominational. Her good friend Melinda Silverman was a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who often tried to interest her in religion.

The one thing Lisa knew from her religious rearing was "Mormons were bad."

Several years ago, Lisa had a 3-year-old son who lay desperately ill in a hospital. In desperation, she asked Melinda for help. Her friend sent missionaries to the hospital; they gave the boy a blessing. Within 30 minutes, the little boy had regained strength and was running around. The family was astonished.

Out of gratitude, Lisa agreed to invite the missionaries to her home for a meal. Afterward, the missionaries made an appointment and began teaching her the gospel, but it was evident that lifelong traditions and prejudices were hard to shake. Over the course of several discussions, the conversations became a difference of ideologies and often ended in an impasse.

During a moment of quiet in one discussion, Elder Roman Matthew from the Marshall Islands spoke. He hadn't said much on previous occasions because of his limited language skills. Mustering courage and speaking in halting English, he bore his testimony. Lisa rejected his testimony and said he was misguided.

A tear began to roll down Elder Matthew's cheek, then another down the other cheek.

Lisa softened and apologized. "You haven't hurt my feelings," he said in response to her apology. "I love you."

Elder Matthew spreading the good word in Colorado.

Several nights later, she decided she would listen again, this time, with the desire to learn. A testimony blossomed and she was baptized about four weeks later. Her husband soon followed in baptism, as well as her mother, who hadn't attended a church in years.

Lisa now resides in the Pueblo West 2nd Ward, Pueblo Colorado Stake, and eagerly seeks opportunities to share her testimony. — Shaun D. Stahle

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Photo of Roman Matthew's Baptism: Elder Bryan Boaz, Zach Mizutani, Roman Matthew, Matson Matthew, and Elder Brian Tanner.

Roman Matthew was one of the first Marshallese people I met in Hawai'i. Considering that my companion and I were nearly killed when we got lost going to his home and accidentally entered the restricted section of Pearl Harbor, it was a memorable experience for me being able to meet him for the first time. He helped me learn Marshallese and was later baptized by his older brother Matson. Since then, I have been adopted by the Matthew family.

Two of the neatest experiences of my life were being able to take care of both Matson and Roman when they came to Utah before entering the MTC. One of the most memorable experiences was when I left him unattended for a few minutes in the Cougar Eat on BYU campus and found him a few minutes later eating vanilla ice cream in 20 degree weather! Here's a kid who's never experienced cold like this before, and I found him chowing down on vanilla ice cream! His mother would have killed me had she known I let him do that.

Not long after he entered the MTC, "Elder Matthew the Second" experienced several severe headaches and even blacked out once. He ended up staying in Utah for a little while longer to make sure he was healthy enough to continue on his mission to Colorado. His sister, Mala, and I couldn't help but think these headaches were really ice cream headaches caused from too much ice cream consumption...

The church news article took place in Pueblo, CO, which was his first area. Contrary to what this article says, he speaks English perfectly after having lived in Hawai'i for many years and graduating from high school there. Similar to other Marshallese people, he's shy at times, and no greenies really talk very much in their first area anyway...well...the normal greenies that is.

Elder Roman Matthew and a piggy friend.

After much success, "Elder Matthew the Second" finished a highly successful mission at the end of February of this year. He had an hour layover in the Salt Lake City airport which his mother asked me and several other Marshallese people in the area to try and see him. Several Marshallese guys all work at the airport, including Bryan Boaz, my companion who helped teach him, so we had a pretty good chance of being able to see him. I had planned to go, but had talked myself out of trying to see him because I didn't think there would be any chance for Bryan to find him, get him out of the secure area of the airport to met to chat, and then get him back through security and onto the plane in the space of an hour.

Just as I was pulling up to work the next morning, I got a phone call from Bryan Boaz who asked me, "Guess who I have with me?" I nearly choked...ROMAN? What on earth was he still doing in Utah the next day?! Apparently Roman had been having so much fun "bwebwenato/talkin' story" with the guys in the airport that he'd missed his plane home. Who misses their plane coming home from their mission? My mother would have killed me...his mother had practice already when Matson was delayed getting home due to a huge typhoon, but still...

Bryan had found Roman still at the airport the next morning when he went to work. Not knowing any of our phone numbers, he had spent the night in the airport. Wanting to correct that mistake, Bryan had wisked him home, fed him breakfast and shower.

Cassidy Matthew, Brian Tanner, Elder Roman Matthew, Abija Bano and Bryan Boaz in the SLC airport, Feb. 2008.

It was a miracle that one of the missionaries that had baptized him found him while going to work in the airport that morning. The coincidence is too baffling for me to explain otherwise. Bryan had answered Mama Matthew's prayers and had performed the work of an angel in saving him. Elder Roman Matthew was able to have a farewell party after all, seeing four missionaries that he'd known in Hawai'i.

My mother found the church news article that began this post last Saturday and went ballistic. My father and her were telling everyone in my home ward about this, and everyone was so excited to see an article about someone that had been baptized by someone they know in the church news. I just think that it was interesting that this article was titled the Power of Love, because really, that's what makes the Marshallese people so amazing to me. When we are filled with "iakwe/aloha/love," we cannot be surprised when Missionary Moments happen everywhere we go.