ISLAND LANGUAGES

French is the language of government/schools and Tahitian the language of the natives of French Polynesia.

ELDER COSBY'S ADDRESS

ELDER SETH LORENZO COSBY
Tahiti Papeete Mission
L'Eglise de Jesus-Christ des Saints des Derniers Jours,
Mission Mormone, BP93
(for pkgs add: Cours de L'Union Sacree)
Papeete Tahiti 98714
Polynesie Francaise
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Unto the Islands of the Sea

Send forth the elders of my church unto the nations which are afar off, unto the islands of the sea; send forth unto foreign lands; call upon all nations . . . -------------------------------------------Doctrine & Covenants 133:8
Bonjour! [bon-ZHOOR]:French-------------------------IaOrana! [ee-ah oh-RAH-na]:Tahitian-------------------------Hello!
Bienvenue! [bee-ahn-vuh-new]:French-----------------------Maeva! [mah-AY-vah]:Tahitian-----------------------Welcome!

28.6.10

I KNOW THAT GOD CAN DO ALL THINGS: July 2, 2010


Dear Family,  

 I am still here hopefully only until July 22.  We will see. I finally have somthing exciting to say besides we had an awesome devotional and that is that I sprainged my foot pretty bad. i was going up for an awesome layup and got fouled hard and landed on the side of my foot and it instantly blew up like a ballon but it is getting much better each day and i made it.



I think we are all good here not much need for things right now. Tell Nick I will miss him and I talk about him and Joseph all the time here and if you want to tell everyone that I can now read the Buka A Moromona pretty well so they don't think im am retarded feel free, and here is my Testimony about language:


Ua ite au, E nehenehe ia te Atua i te mau mea atoa
Ua ite au, E nehenehe ia vau i te mau mea atoa ma te tauturu o te Atua
no te mea ua hi'ohia to'na rima e vau a tamata ai ia haapii mai

Je sais que Dieu peux faire toute choses
Je sais que Je peux faire toute choses avec l'aide de Dieu
Je sais cela parce que J'ai vu le main de Dieu pendant esseyant aprender les langue

I know that God can do all things
I know that i can do all things with the help of God
I know this because I have seen his hand while trying to learn these languages

Be impressed cause that is  pretty complex stuff in those languages.  Also, my spelling in French is really bad.  Thanks for everything
Love, Elder cosby

MISSIONARY TRAINING CENTER: MY DISTRICT



E
Elder Smith.  My fave missionary in my district.  He speaks French with me.  
We are learning a lot and working very hard together.


Elder Crump.  A very good missionary.  Works hard.



Elder Nash.  Good missionary.  Tall!  In my District.



Elder Kaulukukui.  (In shades behind Elder Smith).  He is my companion.  Also was my good buddy at BYU-Hawaii.  Super awesome.


My Teacher.  No, this is not a picture of my teacher.  It's a picture of my shoe, but I lost the tassle from my shoe and my teacher made me a new one.  She is awesome.  

PICTURES FROM THE MTC: ELDERS OFISRAEL

Elder Curtis in front (an awesome missionary going to Reunion Island), then Crump, then Smith.
Elder Curtis is one of my favorite missionaries.  He left just a litle bit ago.  He helped me learn a lot and helped me be a good boy.
Elders Nash,  Kalukukui, me, McTernan,  Smith, Prester.  Elder McTernan is an awesome missionary that was just recently converted.  His parents are both pastors and doctors of theology but still support him.  He is a good man going to Switzerland.  Elder Prester is the funniest person ever and awesome.  He is one of our zone leaders going to the Democratic Republic of  the Congo.

I LOVE TO SEE THE TEMPLE: June 2010

My MTC District in front of the Provo Temple:  L-R  Elder Crump, Elder Nash, Elder Smith, Elder Kaulukukui, Me

25.6.10

THE FIRST PRESIDENCY AND APOSTLES: June 25, 2010

Dear Family,


Tonight is the night when the First Presidency and the Apostles are all going to be here for the mission president's conference and I'm thinking that it might be the most amazing devotional I have gone to or ever will go to..   All is going well..    It is getting very very hot here.. only a few days after I complained about it being cold..   Me and Elder Smith ( the one who sleep talks in French) are speaking only French and Tahitian now switching off every other day and if I am aloud to say I think we are getting pretty amazing at French and kind of amazing at Tahitian..


Just to let you know I am in good hands here..   My teachers are the best as well as my branch presidency..   I know this because a couple of my teachers left on vacation and stuff and we had subs (which was interesting because they didnt know Tahitian) and they were mean and strict and stuff..   Again not much is going on besides eating, studying,  basketball and sleeping..


An elder just came in to our zone from Wales and I'm 96% sure that he is Ron Weasly..  [Ed. note: Ron Weasley is one of the characters in the Harry Potter book series if you are over 70 and haven't read the books:)    He might be one of the funniest people I know..  We have him read our letters out loud to us so they sound more interesting and he always gives us the choice of him using his accent or his "Queen's accent,"  which turned out to be a very high pitched British woman accent..   I hope all is going well with everyone..  I feel like now that I have learned how to most efficiently use my time and love studying and things and am starting to learn the languages that the time is going by really fast..   I only have 4 more weeks here..   


 Ua here au ia outou means I love you.


Love Elder Cosby.


P.S.  Mom:  I feel awesome that you don't know what I'm saying.  Faaitoito means be diligent!



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22.6.10

TEACHING IN TAHITIAN, SLEEP TALKING IN FRENCH: June 18, 2010



Dear Family,

All is well in the MTC. I am still kicking trash in Basketball in gym time.  Also, I think I saw Jacob in the Gym time orientation video playing basketball and also pretending like he was hurt, but it's hard to tell.   The languges are coming along well. I contacted a guy and then taught an entire lesson with my companion in Tahitian this week after only a few days of practice.  It was pretty amazing. 

 Last night Elder Smith was sleep talking in French and very clearly said: "J'aime ton visage, mais Je le battre."  which means, "I love your face, but I hit it."  I was laughing so hard I had to leave the room so I didnt wake anyone up.  I didn't get back to bed for awhile so I'm super tired.   Only 5 weeks left.  I am ready to leave. 

Ua herehia outou e au.     Love, Elder Cosby

Elder Smith, sleep talker. 

11.6.10

MORONI TURNED THE DRUNKS INTO BIRDS: June 11, 2010


Dear Family,

So our teacher decided that the MTC was too easy for us and we knew enough French so we started Tahitian 2 weeks early..Sorry bout this keyboard but two periods come up each time I press it ..so Tahitian is very difficult.  When I translate verses from Te Buka A Moromona they come out like Moroni turned the drunks into birds and things like that, but we just started so hopefully things get better..  All the words have like 20 meanings and you can do a lot of things with each word..  Maa=food  Tamaa=to eat   Tamaaraa=meal and faatamaaraa=dinner appointment, which my teacher said was a very important word..

I've realized that I've never really used my brain too much in life because trying to learn Tahitian makes my head hurt..  I have never thought so much that my head hurt so that is pretty awesome..  But I feel like I have muscles on my brain now..  I am halfway done iwth the MTC now and that makes me very happy..  I feel like I'm kind of starting over cause of Tahitian..It feels nice to feel like I have no idea what I am doing again..  This week Elder Robert Hales talked to us.. That was an awesome experience.. For some reason it is cold here again and I don't like it..  Hope all is going well with everyone..

Je t'aime..  Ua here au ia outou..  Faaitoito..  Love..

Elder Cosby

THE HARDER I WORK THE BETTER IT IS: June 4, 2010


Dear Family,

It snowed here, at the end of May!  I took a picture  of it snowing and one of my comps took one of me hating the snow in front of a tree that fell down.

This past week I have been studying, eating, sleeping, and playing basketball.  It was fun.  Me and my district have been trying to speak only French the past couple of days.  I think I am going to speak only French this week.

Thank you for the packages, they were awesome.  I am doing great.  Before I kind of hated the MTC but this past week has been awesome.  I found that the
harder I work and am focused the better it is and the more the Lord helps me because sometimes I get super tired or tired of studying but this week has been awesome.

Faaitoito, Love,
Elder Cosby