FAFARU AND GOING UP A MOUNTAIN: August 30, 2010

A family home evening with members (the one where I ate Fafaru)

Dear Family,

Last Monday me and Elder Punu taught a Family Home Evening lesson and after the lesson they fed us.   As the dinner was being placed on the table and we were talking to a Brother it began to smell like someone had terrible gas or something of that nature.  I thought maybe the smell would pass but it never did.  And then Nora opened the bucket of Fafaru and I figured out where the smell was coming from.  She told me that if I didn't eat fafaru I didn't come to Tahiti after I told her that if you come to Texas you have to stay on the bull for 30 seconds.  I served myself some fafaru. I kept on searching for the smallest piece,  but as I searched in the big plastic bucket,  I kept on pulling out bigger and bigger pieces, so I gave up.  To make things worse, you eat fafaru with your hands, so my hands smelt like poo as I was eating my other food.  So everything tasted like fafaru.   I couldn't finish it,  so at a well planned moment,  Elder Punu saved me and ate the rest of it for me.  I don't know which was worse, the cockroach in my mouth or the fafaru.  Basically fafaru is rotten fish if you want to know.  


The work is going great here.  The other day Elder Punu said, "We gotta go up this mountain.  I don't know why." Going up a mountain is usually not my favorite thing but we did it anyway.   We stopped next to an elementary school and Elder Punu said we need to wait here,  so we waited for almost 30 minutes just sitting there.  Then a couple walked by and told us that they were former investigators and had moved from Moorea a few years ago and had been looking for the missionaries.  We talked to them for a while and went on our way. The spirit is here in Tahiti that's for sure.

District Meeting

Carlson and Alvarez from Rurutu came and stayed with us for Zone Meeting

Zone meeting

I Love Yall
 Love, Elder Cosby

THE MOST INCREDIBLE VIEW IN THE WORLD: August 23, 2010

Dear Family,
This week was good. We ate at this house with the most incredible view in the world. 

This week we gave a blessing to a very old woman in the hospital.  We had to wear gloves and aprons and masks and things.  It was awesome.  We also ate at this house where we had to hike up the side of this mountain at night and jump over stuff and fight off dogs at every corner.  It was like a haunted house. 


 Here in Tahiti they have the best sandwhiches ever.  They are sandwhiches with steak and fries in them and barbeque sauce.  I really like them.   Also, our investigator Christopher returned to France.  It was sad. Love Y'all. 
Love,
Elder Cosby

HOUSE ON STILTS, INVESTIGATOR FROM FRANCE, & COCKROACHES!: August 16, 2010

Dear Family,

I have never eaten so much meat in my life.  All we eat here is meat and rice or bread.  I super love it.  It is a dream come true.  My whole life I've wanted to go somewhere where I could just eat bread all the time.  Who would've thought it would be my mission to eat bread alot. 

In answer to the many questions asking if I have gotten fat, the answer is you will have to wait 2 years and see. Our new house is awesome.   It has a big garage under it so it is up on stilts, so the wind blows through it real nice and it is always a nice temperature.   But the sad thing about the wind is that there are no mosquitoes.  I was really enjoying killing mosquitoes every morning and night.  The shower has this box next to it and it is a heater thing that we have to light with a match to heat hot water.   It is awesome.  I literally can't complain about anything now because our other house had no hot water. 

I can pretty much understand everyone now except for when old guys speak Tahitian they like to speak really fast and during sacrament meeting I can't concentrate for that long, but I couldn't do that at home either so no surprise there.   Speaking of sacrament meeting, in our first ward this Sunday they surprised us by asking us to bear our testimonies because one of the speakers didn't show up and the theme was missionary work;  after that they surprised us by asking us to sing with some other guys a song in front of everyone, so that was also awesome.  In our other sacrament meeting there is a lady who sings as loud as she can and it is deafening.  I have never heard anyone screetch as enthusiasticly as she does.  Me and Elder Punu can never sing because we are always laughing too hard.  


We have a new investigator from France and he is incredible.  His name is Christopher and he knows nothing about the Bible, but he is incredibly smart and quickly accepts the doctrine.   Towards the end of Elder Punu talking about prophets,  Elder Punu asked Chrstopher if he had any questions and Christopher said, "Yea, just one.  Who is our prophet today?"  That was awesome.  Elder Punu said, "It seems like you have understood this concept well!"  and laughed a little bit and we talked about Thomas S. Monson.

One quick last story before I finish.  In our new house, there were 2 huge cockroaches on our rafter things and Elder Punu wantd to take a picture, so we decided to take a picture that made it look like I was licking them.  When the camera flashed,  a cockroach from somewhere else got offended and attacked me and flew into my mouth and then crawled down my tie.   I almost died.

  One last request:  If you could send me some cool Texas stuff that would be great!  My Tahitians would love it!


By the way, I just looked at Mom's blog and the boardwalk she has a picture of is the exact boardwalk that we ride down every day if you want a visual.

Love,
Elder Cosby

PRUNING BANANA TREES/TEACHING BY CANDLELIGHT: June 9, 2010

Dear Family,
Everything is going good.  This morning we cleaned our house super good (I don't think that the house had ever been cleaned before), and pruned our banana trees.   Elder Villierm used a machete; Elder Punu had a butcher knife;  I was using a tiny knife (I dont know what to call it.)   After we finished cleaning everything, me and Elder Punu found out that we will be moving to a new house for some reason.  So now Elder Villierm and Elder Crump will have a super clean, 3 bedroom house with living room thing and kitchen and bathroom all to themselves.  We went to go see our new house with some guy that works with President Smith and it has brand new floors and a brand new washer and fridge.  It's pretty cool.  Also the shower is incredibly huge.  You could fit probably 16 people in it.  When I get home we should get a shower like that so we can all hang out in it. 

Last Friday, we taught a lesson to my favorite family that has no lights in their house (so we do everything with candles.)   Afterwards, they fed us pies. After 3 pieces of pie and some chocolate crussant things i was just about full from the end of me to my adams apple, but they insisted that I continue to eat.  Usually when I say I'm full people continue to insist,  so I had to keep telling them, "No, really, I can't."  But for some reason they really wanted me to eat, so I ate a third of the next piece and was almost dead.   Then we had a dinner appointment right after, but luckily the family cancelled and just dropped the food off at our house.   I have never been so thankful in my life.  


I have been having problems with mosquitos, so I bought a mosquito racket thing. and since then I've only gotten bit a few times.  I've been keeping track of the mosquitos I kill and I've killed 296. 

  


Also, if you are struggling to think of things you might want to send me for special or not special occasions, here are some awesome ideas:  I need some more grill mate steak seasoning. a lot of goldfish. ties, and black socks. Love Y'all!
Love,   Elder Cosby

EVERY DAY IS BETTER: : JUNE 2, 2010

Dear Family,
     So alot of things are happening. We are teaching alot and it is awesome.  We finally had time to go contacting.  Our  first contact we talked to for like 45 minutes about the church and we are going back.   People wander into our lessons and everyone just listens to us!  I don't know if this is real work. 
     We ate at our DMPs house for dinner Friday, breakfast Saturday (which was leftovers from dinner), and dinner Sunday.  He is awesome and it was some of the best food I have ever eaten.   His wife said "Mange" and  "Tamaa,"  which means eat about 7000 times.  It was awesome and hilarious.  She would walk past and say it under her breath and stuff. 
     Thanks for the prayers Mom.  Every day is better.  Just to let you know my trainer is amazing and the members here love us and take good care of us.


     Dear Isaac,  (Isaac is Elder Cosby's 6 year old nephew):   I will definitely come back after my mission if you want me to come back. I dont know if you really are as strong as me yet.  In Tahiti they feed me strong foods and I eat alot. There are lots of signs in Tahiti. What kind of sign do you want me to take a picture of? {Isaac has seen a  picture of his Uncle Jacob  in front of a sign on his recent mission to Florida  that said "Do Not Feed the Alligators," so he asked Seth what kind of signs were in Tahiti that he was going to take his picture in front of:)   Tahiti is cool.  There is an ocean nearby and the people are really nice. I ride my bike everywhere. I like being on a mission.  I think you will like being on a mission. You are cool.
Love Elder Cosby
P.S. I saw the picture of you riding the Go Cart by your self. That is awesome.

P.S. to Dad  Elder Punu is from Mahina here in Tahiti