Dec 5, 2011: LA ORA NA

Hey Family, 
Everything is going great.  So I did a split with the Elders of Mahina.  It lasted 2 days... and then president said a week... and now he just told me to stay here.  So now I am serving with Elder Teupoorautoa (which means "The many kinds of heads in stores. . .") in Mahina, where my first companion Elder Punu is from.   Elder Punu is getting married soon.   Also at night you see the light from the Mahina lighthouse go over the house. My companion really likes fighting because apparently he was a pro boxer before his mission, so on P days we go to the house of the biggest scariest man ever and practice kicking him.   He is at least 350 pounds and does flying,  jumping,  spinning kicks.   His name  means  "Clean river eel."   I'm glad he is my friend.   They also tried to convince me to practice kicking stuff, so I did.  It wasn't that great.  


 They also gave all of the Elders DVD players to watch Preach my Gospel videos for comp study.   It's weird.   We had a first lesson with a young man named Revatua, which means "Skyback"  . He is 9 years old and super super smart and he has a lot of faith. He helps me to understand what it means to have to become like a little child.   My companion showed him a picture of Jesus calming the sea and asked him "Can you do that?" He said,  "Hold on, I'll try."   It was raining outside and we were just under a little gazeebo thing, so he hopped up from his chair and looked at the rain for a few seconds, held his hand up like Jesus in the picture and waited.  After about 15 seconds he came back disappointed and said,  "I can't.". Revatua has a lot of faith
Love Y'all,
Love, Elder Cosby

Nov 21, 2011: URCHIN

Dear Family,

There is a guy that I call Urchin who comes to our house every night.  Apparently he has been coming for a long time and has received the lessons several times.  He claims to be homeless, but apparently he lives down the street at his brothers house.  He is really nice.  We have actually become really good friends. It's nice to come home almost every night to see Urchin's warm welcoming crooked smile bathed in the light of our car's headlights. We are also teaching a young man who before was terrified of his father but when we asked him to pray to be able to talk to his parents minutes later he was excited to ask them to allow him to be baptised.   He is a good kid.  

Love, Elder Cosby

Nov 7: I HAVE WEIRD FRIENDS

Dear Family,
All is well even though an Elder showed me a scripture telling me that we aren't supposed to say that. We have been doing a lot of door to door contacting these days because I'm super tired of being in the car. After being accepted by a family that wants their son to go on a mission after talking to us, and then having a French guy explaining to us in very great detail that we come from monkeys;  we came across a group drunk guys. Carl tried to preach to us, Will wanted to join us for polygamy and was very dissapointed when he found out it wasn't true all while Aito was screaming AMERICA ...CALIFORNIA at the top of his lungs, then as we were leaving Tetutahi he  tried talking in English and got mad at himself because he wasn't able to get a single word out, so instead caught me in a death bear hug and we laughed together for several bonding and scary minutes.   Tera'i and Raimanu just smiled. Also me and my companion go to Moorea to do baptismal interviews ,  so we drive our car onto the ferry for an hour and a half boat ride to Moorea and then come back.  It's hard to contact people on the boat because everyone pulls out their ukeleles and plays together.   I'm thankful to be serving here in Tahiti.  The people are really faithful and charitable. Love y'all
Love, Elder Cosby

Oct 31, 2011: IN ARUE

Dear Family, 
I'm really gone from Bora now. I am now in Arue with Elder Ferrin and we are in car . . .  stick shift. I have to learn how to drive stick. Me and Ferrin have had many bonding experiences as the car stalls through busy intersections asnd huge lines of cars are behind us. Ferrin just laughs. I get super tired from being in a car.  We also have a choir practice for a missionary program that we will do for Christmas.   The biggest hospital in Tahiti is in our area, so we get called almost every day to go and give blessings there.  We even started to do lessons in the hospital rooms.   Last night we ate with a super super french familly and they fed us by courses.  The course before dessert was stinky cheese and the stinky chesse is really stinky.  It might be worse than fafaru.  Elder Ferrin is from Salt Lake City, Utah and is close to ending his mission.  He is a great guy and an awesome missionary.  I am really glad to have the chance to serve with him.  Happy Halloween!  Love y'all.
Love, Elder Cosby

October 24, 2011: I'M STILL HERE

Dear Family,

They called me and told me I wasn't leaving till this Tuesday. so I'm still here, which is a blessing because I got to see some baptisms that I thought I wasn't gonna be here for. but I don't wanna buy more email time that I'm not gonna be able to use next week,  so . . . 

Love y'all

Love, Elder Cosby

Oct 17: I LOVE THIS ISLAND AND THE PEOPLE.. . . IT REALLY IS PARADISE HERE . . you can smell the tiare. . . food falls from the sky and jumps out of the ocean

Dear Family,

I got a call the other day from president telling me it is time for me to go.  I will now be serving in Arue on Tahiti. He just said I would be leaving some time this week, so I'm pretty sure that this will be my last email from BoraBora. 

 I love this island and the people here. I think I might know every single person in my side of the island.   I feel like I've lived here for years when our bishop asks us where people live. 

It really is paradise here.   As you're riding your bike you can smell the tiare and the pua (flowers).  These flowers smell so good there are several songs writen about them and vanilla flowers.  Food falls from the sky and jumps out of the ocean.  I love it here and I'm super gonna miss it.  

The Spirit of the Lord is strong here in BoraBora.  When you look around I don't think that it is possible to be atheist.   The people here are a people of faith.

Love yall

Love Elder Cosby

Oct 10: NO EMAIL FROM SETH

Oct 3: THE GOSPEL IS TRUE. Let us go help our friends to change.

Picture taken by an old family friend of Elder Cosby's Dad's family who was vacationing in Bora Bora .

Dear Family,

Conference was great. We waked up super early to get there. It wasn't the same watching it in French.  So far on my mission I have managed to get to watch it in English until now.   You don't get to hear the voices of the leaders.    But it was still great.   We were giving a lesson to a new convert family and this story came out.   The father Nicolas made his children promise that they would always go to church but one day the two older boys snuck away to one of the smaller islands and skipped church.   And when the father came back from church and found them he knelt down with them and they all prayed together until they felt like they were forgiven.   This is my new favorite story because of the loving discipline of the children. The gospel is true.  It changes people.  Let go help our friends to change. 

Love Yall

Love Elder Cosby

Happy Birthday Mother. I hope it was great.  Thanks for being such a great mother.   I'm sure as all your sons have told you one learns to better appreciate his mother on his mission  and how well he was raised by her.  This is the same for me.   The years of diligent family prayer and family scripture study have helped me more than I can explain on my mission.   And it helps me to be a good missionary knowing that that is what you want me to do even though your aren't here to say it because it has been ingrained in my soul.   Thank you so much.  

Love ya

Love Elder Cosby

I HOPE I GET SICK SOON. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE: September 26, 211

Dear Family,
Things are going great here.  I finally have money again so I can email. Things are super super expensive here.  I wonder how people live here. We have a new investigator named Fabrito who is a Tahitian doctor.  I hope I get sick soon.   He tells us all kinds of operations and medicines that he has made.   Evidently he has cured diabetes,  hemorroids and kidney stones.  All you have to do is jump in a boiling pot of exotic plants!   Who would have guessed.  He lives super high up in the jungle of the mountains and everytime we speed down the mountain me and my companion get hit by the grapefruits on his grapefruit tree and my companion falls off his bike.  I hope General Conference works here because the Relief Society session didn't work from what I have heard.  The gospel is true.  I've seen it change so many lives here and it's amazing also to see the difference that the gospel brings into the lives of childern.  We have a young boy 10 years old that we teach and he prayed and read the Book of Mormon every day for several weeks to know if it was true and according to him received an answer in a verse he read.  I forgot the verse but it was a wonderful experience.

Love yall

Love Elder Cosby

September 19, 2011: R U ALIVE?

Sent from Mom's mobile device September 12:  R U ALIVE?

Elder Cosby's response:  Yup

Sept 12, 2011: NO EMAIL FROM SETH

Sent from Mom's mobile device:  R U ALIVE?

Sep 5, 2011: THANKS MA

Thanks Ma!

August 29, 2011: NO EMAIL

Aug 22, 2011: I WAS SORE FOR 4 DAYS, BUT IT WAS AWESOME!

Dear Family,

 Things are going very well. Elder Raihauti broke his second bike wheel.  He is just too giant and the poor wheel can't take it.  The work is going great.  We had a baptism this week of two kids whose Mom is a member but the Dad is not.  Sadly the farther didn't come to the baptism.  Last week the email place was closed because it was a holiday. It  is always a holiday here. But last week we went on the most difficult hike I have ever been on in my life . . . to a place called the centipede hole  (apoo o viri).  Basically, it is a climb up a sheer cliff to a big cave and you use ropes to get up.   I was sore for 4 days,  but it was awesome.   The guy that took us there went with his wife and his 4 year old son and took him up on his back.   I don't know how he did it.  Our new stake president is rallying the troops for missionary work.   I have never gotten so many member references ever.   It's amazing to me how much things have changed thanks to him.  He keeps on saying that there will be a stake in BoraBora in 3 years and I think it's gonna happen.   Well we are gonna go to a hotel and eat so I'll tell y'all if it's worth it to stay in a BoraBora bungalo.  

Love y'all

Love, Elder Cosby

Aug 15 2011: No EMAIL

Aug 8, 2011: THE EMAIL TIMER

Dear Mom,


I am very well right now everything is going great read my other email


Other email:  The email timer randomly added an hour to my time so I guess I'll give the 8 dollars to the homeless guy that always waits for us outside the store on Mondays.


Love, Elder Cosby

August 8, 2011: MIRICLES

Dear Family,

 After the heiva everything has gone awesome.   Our hard work during the yearly Apostasy in BoraBora has paid off.  We tripled everything that we do: lessons and new people and everything this week.  I am super happy and healthy too.   I think last week it was food poisoning due to some chicken I ate but the next day we were up and running ready to see a week full of miricles.   Miricle number one:  We went to share a lesson with a member who has a friend named Rehia who took the lessons a very long time ago but moved and now is back and when we were there she had invited her friend Abby who is super super interested in the Gosple.   Number 2:   Abby is the girlfriend of an old investerigator who was going to be baptised about 8 months ago and was the reason this guy didn't get baptised.  Now they are going to take the lessons together.   Number 3: After eating with one of the ward missionaries we committed him to find an investigator for us.   That night he almost crashed into Rehia and her boyfriend who was stopping her from getting baptised because he smokes and does bad stuff and won't get married.    This good brother talked to the boyfriend and figured out that he wants to change but finds it difficult to talk to the missionaries so now he, with the Ward mission leader, will start helping this man to change.   I heard a talk that in our days the Lord shows us his hand by the way the gosple reaches every corner of the earth.  I testify that that is true and that every one of us can participate and watch the Lord work miricles in the lives around us if we will just open our mouths and share our testimonies.

Love, Elder Cosby

PS I want y'alls T shirt sizes

Mom to Elder Cosby:  I love how you spell miracles miricles

Elder Cosby to Mom:  That is how they spell it here.

O BABYLON, O BABYLON, WE BID THEE FAREWELL: Aug

Dear Family,

This morning they broke the big heiva hut.  We were gonna go sing "Ye elders of Isreal"  (O Babylon, O Babylon, we bid thee farewell) while they were breaking it, but I got super sick.  But at least that is gone and maybe we will start the work goin' again.  This week we had an activity at the motu, which is a smaller island away from the other island.  It was cool,  but we were stuck on this small island and couldn't leave and couldn't participate in most of the activities, but we fixed several lessons so I was happy.   I'm gonna go before I get sick.

Love, Elder Cosby

July 25, 2011: HEIVA

Dear Family,

It's super super hot in here so I don't think I'll send a big email 'cause I might die. I just read an article in the Ensign or Liahona  where President Monson asked us to pray for places where missionary work is limited, which is here. There are several islands that could have missionaries but don't because of the limit of missionary visas they give out. Honestly for here nothing new has happened because all our lessons keep getting cancelled.  Everyone is at the big Heiva parties all the time. As we were coming here one of our investigators pushed back a lesson that has been pushed back for 2 months, but we are finding new people.   It is really beautiful here.

Love, Elder Cosby

July 18, 2011: BEARING THE GOSPLE AND WEARING A WARRIOR CROWN n

Dear Family,

I'm preaching the good news here.  I don't have much time 'cause we are flying to Raiatea in a few minutes to a zone conference. Im thankful to be a missionary.  I love my mission.   This week we visited Nicolas and his family and they bore testimony to us about the truthfulness of the gosple they had just entered into and it was a great experience. New favorite investigator:  He's not actually an investigater 'cause he was married and baptized the weekend before I got here but anyways his name is Bryan.  I saw pictures of his wedding and he was wearing a warrior flower crown. I don't know how to explain it but it was awesome. He went and bought a bike so he could come with us to do missionary work. I'm honored to have him on my team.

Love y'all

Love Elder Cosby 

Note from Mom:  I love how you spell gospel gosple.  I know you are typing fast.  Do you know how long it is taking me to edit these?

Note from Seth:  That's how they spell it here.  Be grateful it's not my handwriting.

JUL 11, 2011 TAUTU

Dear Family,

 Nothing has happened really cause no one is ever home, but I saw Tautu. Tautu spray paints his name all over everything in Bora. One day we were riding in a member's truck when he said, "That's the richest man in Bora and he pointed to what was clearly a homeless man in dirty pants and a T shirt with a walking stick and one of those big orange things that we put water in for scout things walking down the side of the road.  But apparently he really is the richest man in Bora because everything that he puts his name on is his because he is the great great grandson of some king of something. So Tautu walks around the island and spray paints his name on everything. and in his orange bucket he has the papers for the rights to the land he owns and supposedly sometimes he just gives out land for free.  When he wants to go to the other little islands around Bora he puts his clothes in his orange bucket and uses it a a floaty and swims.  Tautu says never ever sell land. Happy marriage to Jacob and Lauren next week.

Love, Elder Cosby 

JUL 4: I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN AND SEE THE MIRICLES

Dear Family,

Everything is going great. It is July, which is vacation for everyone here and the start of "Heiva," a huge month long party.  It's cool.  They are all making huge parade floats out of plants right outside but it makes my life hard. No one wants to talk with us when they are partying so as a result we had 15  lessons cancelled this week. That's a record.   But after the trials comes the blessings. We had a baptism fixed for a familly of 5 (the familly that Elder Smith contacted by crushing their dog on his bike), but the mother said that she wasn't ready because her Dad is protestant and kept saying mean things about the church, so we thought that either we would have to push the baptism back or only baptize 3 of this family.  So we decided to fast and right after we started our fast Nicolas, the Dad, said: "What a joy it would be for me if you decided to be baptized with us."  After the fast Olyvia, the Mother, had totally changed,  Also,  we found out that their daughter which we thought was 7 according to what the other missionaries told us, was actually  8. So we had a wonderful baptisimal service this Saturday in which Nicolas bore such a moving testimony that one of his friends that he had invited who happens to be the father of another investigator and not a member had to stand up and bear his testimony also. The field is white already to harvest even though we don't realize it. The Lord just asks us to work hard so that he can bless us with success. Being a missionary is really to  just have a front row seat to see the work of the Lord, but we have to pay attention to be able to see the miricles.  Also, we changed our mission President. President Smith was an amazing president and I will never forget him.  Our new president is President Sinjoux who is from Tahiti.  That is all. Love y'all!

Love, Elder Cosby

Response from Mom:  I love how you spell miracles miricles.

Response from Elder Cosby:  That's how they spell it here.

June 27, 2011: I HAD THE CHICKEN POX

Dear Family,
Sorry it has been a while.  2 weeks ago it was a holiday, so everything was closed and this last week I had Chiken Pox so I was forbidden to leave the house for 8 days.  It was terrible.  I studied a lot of scriptures. Members came to babysit me while my companion went out and worked.   I just received a new companion, Elder Raihauti, who is Tahitian but he comes from Utah.  He is awesome!  I'm glad to be with him.  He just came from the MTC and everyone thinks that he understands Tahitian because of his name and he smiles and nods. Someone is waithing for us so I won't write a lot, but everything is going awesome.  The Lord always watches over his work and if one is ready he gets to see the Lord's hand in the work.   Go to the temple a lot and do a lot of missionary work and you will be happy!

Love,  Elder Cosby

I was happy to hear from about 1,000 Tahitians that the mavs won.

Go Mavs!

WHERE IS MY SON? June 14, 2011

No letter this week.  Perhaps the  internet on Bora is not cool this week.

I'M HERE SERVING ON BORABORA: June 6, 2011

Dear Family,
 I'm here serving on BoraBora. I was really sad to leave all my friends in Paea, but I'm super excited to be here. Elder Smith left this morning, so I only had 1 week to learn this area and I am with Elder Sovalini. It really is as beautiful as they say. It is a super tiny island, 30 kilometers around.  The problem here is that none of our investigators can come to church because they all work on Sundays at the hotels. The airport is on a smaller island off the coast, so when you fly in you hop on a boat and boat on to Bora and you can see the whole island. We also have a family that we teach that Smith found as he was speeding down the mountain on his bike and destroyed their dog after which the owner said that luckily he didn't hit her because she is made of metal and then Smith asked if they wanted the lessons and now they are all getting baptized. Sorry I can't write alot because the internet here is not cool and it keeps on going out, but it's beautiful and indescribable. I love my mission.

Love y'all

Love Elder Cosby C

Bora Bora is an island in the Leeward group of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an overseas collecivity of France in the Pacific Ocean.  The island, located about 140 miles (230 kilometers) northwest of Papeete, is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef.  In the center of the island are the remnants of an extinct volcano rising to two peaks: Mount Pahia and Mount Otemann.  Bora Bora is a major international tourist destination, famous for its aqua-centric luxury resorts. Produce of the island is mostly limitied to what can be obtained from the sea and the plentiful coconut trees.  According to a census performed in 2008, the permanent population of Bora Bora is 8,800.

IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES : May 30, 2011

Dear Family,

It was the best of times. .At three-thirty today I am getting on a plane to serve on Bora Bora with my best friend and favorite missionary, Elder Smith. The work here in Paea is going awesome. We had twice as many investigators at church than before. We got a new Ward mission leader and he is awesome. We went to go visit one of our contacts with him and he laughed and said, "I know him well.  We boxed together back in the day."   Another reference we went to he taught them how to prune and get alot of fruit from their lychee tree. There is not much Ceasar doesn't do. He gives us references all the time and he comes and gets all of our investigators for church when the other people won't. We have several baptisms fixed and alot of progressing investigators. I'm loving the work here and I could stay here the rest of my life.

It was the worst of times... I'm not gonna be here for any of that. I am leaving.  A centipede bit my hand while I was sleeping and it was literally the worst pain I have had in my entire life and my hand super swelled up   It still hurts where he bit me. My bike is super super broken and it's gonna be expensive to fix. 

I'm happy though.  I feel like I did my job in Paea and I'm super excited to go to Bora.  I really really love the members and investigators here and I really appreciate all of the things that they have done for me and my companions and I will miss them a lot,  but President told me that the Lord wants me to leave and I am down with that. I love my mission.  I love the Lord and I am happy.  Love Y'all

Love Elder Cosby

I'M FAT: May 24, 2011

Dear Family,
I am super fat now. I have gained 11 kilos. I don't know really how much it is but I know it's alot 'cause if a Tahitian says Wow! concerning weight that means in English "Goodness Gracious Great Balls of Fire!" but after reading a little scriptures I found that God loves us no matter how big we are and now I'm happy. We changed our PDay today because we are going to a museum and it's not open Monday. I'm super excited to go regardless of how terrible Norbert, our driver, says it is.  We had a really good experience the other day.  We had a lesson with Heimata who before told us that she couldn't pray because she knew that if she prayed she would have to get baptized. So we finished all of lesson 2 and everything was good until I asked them to come to church.   After about 5 minutes of silence she told us she was super mad at us because she wanted to come to church the last Sunday but she couldn't because she was too mad. She was mad because she prayed and she didn't get a response, so she prayed again and in her prayer for some reason she said in her prayer that she knew  that the Book of Mormon was true and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. After that she called us and left messages that we had to come see her immediately or as soon as possible but the problem is that I don't know how to check messages on our phone. So she waited an entire week and finally we came and she saId "I'm super mad, but the Book of Mormon is true and I wanna get baptized."  She said that she wanted to separate from her boyfriend who isn't divorced. and then after all that she said that she wouldn't be able to go to church because they were going to some other island or something, and the whole time I was super hungry because I'm fat now and we were an hour late for our dinner. The gospel is true and it makes people wanna change and do good things.  I like that.
Love, Elder Cosby

I'M PRETTY SURE I'M GONNA COME BACK AND LIVE HERE: May 16, 2011

Dear Family,
This weekend Artos got baptised and that was a nice treat. He used to be a super bad guy and now he's a super good guy and I'm really proud of him. This past week 4 people came to church and asked us if they could start the lessons.  One of them told her friends that she didn't want the lessons anymore because she wanted to be baptized right then.  Another one named Heimata told us that she can't pray about Joseph Smith because if she does she will have to get baptized and she is not ready for that. I decided that of all the problems she could have that one is not so bad. That was also a nice treat. Also the other night our neighbors gave us a guitar and ukulele concert in which I sang to them for the first time "Home on the Range" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas and they played right along note for note just as good Tahitians do. That was also a nice treat. It was a very sweet week. I love it here.  I'm pretty sure I'm gonna come back and live here.
Love y'all
Love, Elder Cosby

MISSIONS ARE AWESOME AND IMPORTANT AND LIFE-CHANGING AND INDESCRIBABLE: May 9, 2011

Hey Family, 
It was great to talk to y'all yesterday. I pretty much shared everything I had to say though. everything is going great. Arthos is preparing for his baptism Saturday.  He is super awesome. He has only a few teeth. He used to drink alot and never come home, but after his wife went to the temple he has changed  and now he is gonna get baptized if he can really stop smoking.  Mom keeps telling me to write more and describe people, so I am going to describe all the missionaries around me. Elder Saxton is my companion and he is super super tiny and his hands are super tiny and it's really noticable because he uses his hands a super lot when he talks.  A little girl asked him if he puts makeup on because it is true he has very long eyelashes and I feel like he is in a state of perpetual surprise because that is just the way his face is.  I'm super happy to be his companion. Elder B is another Elder in one of the neighboring areas. He is super skinny and tall and he has never ever smiled.  I'm super glad I'm not his companion.  Elder B's companion is Elder H.  He looks exactly what one would think a gorilla would look like if he started walking on two legs and got shaved.  I think Darwin may have been on to somthing.   I have to play basketball with him after this. I am scared.   There are some things that just can't be described in words like these elders and investigators   Yall'll just have to wait to get some pictures. Well the guy that is giving us a ride is leaving and I don't want to walk. Love y'all
Love Elder Cosby

Missions are awesome and important and life changing and indescribable!

MOTHERS' DAY CALL: May 8, 2011

Elder Cosby's Mother's Note: We were in Nebraska at Elder Cosby's brother's home on Mother's Day.    Mission protocol in his mission is for parents to initiate a call on the designated day.  It was 5:30 am in Tahiti. 11:30 in Nebraska.  Elder Cosby's companion sleepily passed the phone to Elder Cosby.  I asked him if he wanted us to call him when we got home at 11:30 that night to talk or if he wanted to talk now while we were at Jon's house so he could say hi to him.  He very sleepily said, "I wanna talk to my brother too, just let me wake up."


We put the phone on speakerphone on the living room floor in Jon's house and asked our missionary questions and listened to his stories.  What a beautiful spirit filled the room as he spoke of the  people he loved and the beautiful island culture he was experiencing.  He bore his testimony of the gospel and spoke of his love for the Savior and the work he was doing.  I asked him to sing to me in Tahitian.  He said, "What?"  and I said just a line or two, just start something out, don't you sing in Tahitian in church?  You don't have to sing a whole hymn, just a line or two.  So, he said, ok, just one line, and started, probably rather reluctantly (who likes to sing impromptu solos to an audience on the phone?) to sing in the beautiful language of the French Polynesian islands . . . and then he sang another line, and then he became more confident and sang strongly, all the way through the song to the end.  We all recognized it immediately from the tune.  One of the most memorable and special mothers' day gifts I will ever have I am sure was hearing my son, whose voice I had so longed to hear during twinges of anxiousness and uncertainty during the previous weeks of tsunami storms and weeks with no communication arriving from him . . . to hear him sing so movingly in a language of  many vowels and gentle grace a beloved song, one of the first songs our children learn to  sing, full of  gospel truth.


He sang, "I Am a Child of God"

I'M NOT DEAD, EVERYTHING WAS JUST CLOSED FOR EASTER: May 2, 2011

 Dear Family,
So I'm not dead, everything was just closed for Easter,  but everything is going great and I love y'all. That's all that is really important since my time runs out on this computer super soon.

Who is Kelan marrying?  That's all pretty exciting stuff.   Who ever said that old people are boring. Thanks for the updates,  tell Joseph not to get too into this band thing if he's not reading his scriptures and getting good grades.

Thanks for the update Mom. Keep having an exciting diligent life. It shows.  Not many moms can say that they had 6 eagle scouts and 5 boys on missions. (One to go) Thank you so much for what you have done for our family and also the things that you have shared with other families in your callings. I'm trying to live up to the family name that rests over my heart at all times to show my thanks for the things that I learned and the things that I didn't want to learn but apply in my life as a missionary. There are thousands of people here who are very grateful for your example. Thank you so much from me and the thousands of others all over the world that you have brightened with the gospel light. I love you.
Love, Elder Cosby

THE STARS AT NIGHT ARE BIG AND BRIGHT: April 18, 2011

Howdy,

I love my mission. I'm not coming home, but I will call y'all on mothers' day.  I don't know exactly what day that is or time or stuff . . . The investigator of the month is Atos. His wife (a member) had a dream that he would baptize his son and ever since they have been non stop praying and reading the scriptures and fasting to help him stop drinking and smoking which he has done over the course of just a few weeks.  He has learned to love the scriptures and his family, which has led him to be able to completely stop sinning in only a few months. I love Atos. He is one of my best friends.  I am glad to be here and be able to teach him.

Love yall

Love,  Elder Cosby

I BELONG TO THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST: April 11, 2011

Dear Family, 

I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ really means alot more than I realized. It means we believe in miracles and revelations and all of those kinds of things.  Me and my companion have been seeing alot of miracles this week. Me and Saxton have been having new investigators falling from the sky.   The most awesome thing is that all of them are Tahitian lessons,  so I am really actually starting to become fluent in Tahitian.   3 of our heaven sent investigators said before we even started the lessons that they wanted to get baptized.  I'm starting to understand what "the feild is white already to harvest" means.  I really like teaching the gospel.  People are so happy when you tell them gospel truths.  I'm happy when i tell people gospel truths. The mission is awesome. Everyone should go on a mission 4 or 5 times.

Love yall

Love, Elder Cosby

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME: April 4, 2011

Dear Family,

After a 3 week vacation, I'm  back in my home in Paea, after being disappointed from not receiving my companion Wednesday because the airplane was broken Wednesday.  I got him late Thursday night. His name is Elder Saxton from Idaho. He worked on his Grandpas mink farm before his mission where his heart became stone cold from killing and skinning thousands of minks, but luckily the warm welcome of the Tahitian sun and people melted his heart and burned his face so that we could get to work right away-- two red-faced warriors.  Elder Saxton is super awesome!  He already is starting to understand and he can speak pretty well and everyone loves that he is a farmer as long as you don't try to explain to them what a mink is and confuse them. I don't even know what a mink is. I tried to get the people here to feed him fafaru his first day but they refused to give us fafaru at night saying that it was "too heavy," but instead they gave us sea urchin crawfish (they are like 2 feet long here), clam, and taro. Luckily Saxton has a strong stomach.
Love y'all
Love, Elder Cosby

TOO BAD ALL THE BOOKS HERE ARE IN FRENCH! March 28, 2011

Dear Family,,
 Everything is  going really well.  I'm getting my companion tomorrow so everything will be
 normal, but I will have to get used to having a companion since I got used to
 not having a companion.  He's a new guy straight from America I don't know who
 yet, that's all President told me, but Elder Punu is gonna be a grandpa right
 before he leaves and I'm going to see how difficult it was for him to train
 me. We went to a bookstore and I saw a bunch of books about tahiti fishes
and plants and cooking that I wanted to buy, but they were super duper
expensive so I just bought a map.
 Love you
 Love, Elder Cosbys

SORRY AGAIN: March 28, 2011

Dear Family,

Sorry I haven't been able to write very much during these past couple weeks, but everything is going super good. So we baptized Norma and Jean-Daniel,  and over the course of the lessons they changed a lot.  Our zone leader thought we were messing with him when we told him how much.

Also, I haven't had a companion for 3 weeks and not much work has gotten done in my area.  I hope my new companion says, "It's like you haven't done anything here for the past couple of months, what's the deal?" So I can laugh and say, "Exactly,"  but actually these past three weeks were really cool because I did a lot of splits with the ward missionaries and pretty much that means here the former missionaries.  I learned alot from them, but this last week they all went to BYUH so I had no one to help me with my work and both of the zone leaders got sick, so I learned alot about scriptures and languages. I hope more exciting things happen next week so I can write y'all exciting things, but sitting in the back of the zone leaders car all day is the opposite of exciting. 
Love y'all

Love Elder CosbyC

SORRY : March 21, 2011

Dear Family, 
Sorry that I have no time to write again,  but I love y'all and I'm  gonna get a companion on the 29th.  Everything is going good.  The gospel is true.  I love y'all.

Love, Elder Cosby

SPRING BREAK AND TSUNAMIS: March 14, 2011

Dear Family,  
Well I just wrote y'all an awesome email but the computer is terrible
and I lost it but I gotta go so I can't rewrite it,  but just know that I
love y'all.  I safely hid from the tsunami in "the jungle" and saw miracles.

From our Mothers' Day phone conversation:  The island area where Elder Cosby is serving did not experience the devastating destruction that Japan did from the tsunami as it's full force did pass by the island of Tahiti, but they were in a severe weather alert and experienced high winds and other exciting/unsettling weather patterns.

IN A PICKLE: March 7, 2011

 Dear Family,
So I forgot my planner where I usually write reminders of what I should write y'all so sorry if this email is boring. So my companion  is getting transferred early so I am going to live with the zone leaders while trying to do my lessons and things in my area with ward missionaries and leaders because we don't get new missionaries until the end of the month to replace my companion so I'm gonna have to do that for three weeks. I'm gonna be all alone for three weeks, but it's all good, I was actually praying to change companions but I wasn't expecting that kind of response. On the bright side of things,  our stake conference got cancelled so they decided to give us talks in all of our wards. One of the things I remember from the MTC is a guy told us is that when you can tell a joke in the language, you know that you are awesome in that language.  I proved him wrong.  I don't really speak Tahitian and I totally cracked a joke in my talk and everyone just died laughing and we have got a whole bunch of references since. 
 Love y'all 

Love Elder Cosby  
er Cosby

P.S.

Dad,  you are 100% right about island warrior spirits that need to be channeled.  It is super cool to see how everyone has different strengths and weaknesses.  Here their strength is charity and love and forgiveness to a degree unheard of in America.  I'm really thankful to be serving here and get to see what real charity is. It will bless my life forever,  the examples of my companions.

Mom, the coin I sent the Activity Day Girls that they asked about is 1 pacific frank, which  is about 1 cent.  I'm pretty sure I sent her like 1, 2 or 5 cents if it's the super light one.

SPEAKING OF TEMPLES: February 28, 2011

Dear Family, 

 I went to the temple this week for the first time in Tahiti. The temple is the same here as home but just in French.  I was kinda hoping that there would be some kind of tribal ceremony and torch and tribal design decorations.  Unfortunately this wasn't the case. Although a little disappointed going to the temple was an awesome experience as always. Go to the temple,  It will be awesome for you. Speaking of temples,  the temple president came to our ward and spoke.  He brought his daughter and her friend and asked me to translate for them.  The temple president's wife doesn't really speak French so I got kinda lost in one of her stories . . .  I think they caught on when she said amen in the middle of my story. That is all.  Love y'all

Love Elder Cosby

THINGS ARE GOING GREAT: February 21, 2011

Dear Family,

  I really like my mission and I really like Tahiti. I like hugging drunk guys, especially Taniela and William. I like it when our investigators run and hide from us and we chase them down. I like eating too much and then literally having to run away covering my plate so that I don't die while a fat Tahitian guy yells at me trying to serve me more cake. . 

I also like how we get awesome new investigators all the time that want to be baptised.  The only problem is that they aren't married with their concubines so they can't be baptised. One of our invistigators  said, "I read the Book of Mormon and it makes me happy. The Book of Mormon is true and it really does make us happy.  Love y'all

Love,

Elder Cosby

SEND ME SOME LAWNMOWERS:: Feb 14, 2011

Dear Family, 
   Everyone here mows their entire lawn with a weed wacker, which takes anywhere from 7 hours to an entire day. It's not good for missionary work. It's the perfect excuse.  We ask do you want to be saved? and they say, "No,  in between weedwackin' my lawn and eating I have no time for the gospel," and I have no response because it is really true. 


On the other hand the work with those who don't mow their lawns is going great. We baptized Tevahinepoekivariki, the little girl aho came and asked us to baptise her.  Try saying that name in front of the ward.   Reading Tikitikitimbo and Rikitikitavi really helped for my mission.   Although in all of the pictures she looked super unhappy it was a great experience.  Almost all of the inactive members in her neighborhood have started coming to church again.   One good example is really powerful.  


Also, I had to give a talk about missionary work and in preparing my talk I realized that President Monson talks a lot about missionary work. He is trying to prepare us for the marvelous work that is coming forth among us. I hope we are ready 'cause if not we will miss it and it will pass us by.  There are a lot of miracles to be seen and blessings to be had in missionay work. Love Y'all 
Love Elder Cosby

BE LIKE LITTLE CHILDREN: February 7, 2011

Dear Family, 

 I made a lot of bad decisions this week. It all started when I agreed to eat dog . . .and then I thought of all the dogs I've seen in Tahiti and I just couldn't continue . . .  all my excitement for trying new foods left me. It's too bad that that family told all the other people that I will eat weird stuff because the next day the family set out only cooked bananas and shrimp fafaru on the table.   If you remember what fafaru is the only way I can describe it is fish soaked in juice that smells like . . . the only way I can describe it is terrible gas.   But this time it was shrimp.  Too bad that didn't change the fact that it was soaked in stink juice.   It was hard but I ate an entire bowl.   After that he filled up some bowls for us to take home which my companion put in the fridge.   So now every time I open the fridge it smells like flatulence.

 We are teaching a little girl right now that came to a Young Women's activity and decided that day that she wanted to get baptized. Thanks to her example several of the  less active members in the surrounding area have started coming back to church. I like teaching little kids.  They are smarter,  nicer, and have way more faith than adults. No wonder we are told to be like little children.

Lovey'all

Love,

Elder Cosby

PEOPLE OF FAITH: February 1, 2011

Dear Family,
     
When Elder Anderson talked to us he talked about how the people of Polynesia are a people of faith and that we need to use that. Also he said,  "Don't live your mission without miracles." Me and my companion have been taking that advice and I don't think a day has gone by without a miracle or a prayer that has gone unanswered.   We prayed for a baptism and one of our inverstigators called and said that they wanted to get baptized that night.   She didn't want to get baptized because her dad is a Catholic Priest, but for some reason she decided she wanted to get baptized and she was so excited that she couldn't wait.   We prayed for more investigators and a girl who went to a Young Women's activity came and asked us if she could get baptized.   I'm starting to understand how to really do missionary work.   After that Elder Anderson said "And after don't live your life without miracles!  Never forget that the true church is a church of miracle."
        On a more serious note I am visibly bigger.  I'm no longer medium.  I am large.  Maybe by the end of my mission I will be fat and I will be happy too.  What are you supposed to do in a country where working with the members depends directly on how much you eat at their house?   That is all for today.
Love Yall!
Love Elder Cosby (Fat and Happy)

WORK HARDER: January 25,2010

Dear Family,  
     Everything is going well. I eat a lot here in Paea. One of our investigators invites us over and we think we are going to do a lesson but he just wants us to eat.  He says no lesson today eat.   So I eat. Elder Anderson came and talked with the missionaries yesterday.   To make a long story short, he told us to work harder. Missions are awesome.   There are so many opportunities to learn,  it's easy to see why the prophet tells every young man to go on a mission.   Elder Anderson speaks French so he did the stake conference and our missionary conference in French.  He also speaks Spanish and Portugese. Thats all.
Love Yall, 
Love Elder Cosby

I LOVE MY NEW AREA: January 18, 2011

Dear Family,

I just wanted you guys to know my new fruits I ate.   There is Corausol (sorry, I don't know how to spell things in French or Tahitian or what they are called in English.)  Anyway,  it's a spiky fruit and it's super sweet.   Also I ate eye of dragon which is a tiny fruit.  When you crack open the shell it looks like an eye and you eat the white part.  It's super good.  Also I ate passion fruit and guava and that was super good. 

We went to the Bellevedere.  I forgot how to spell it but it's a restauraunt which it super high up in the mountain.  It is about 45 minutes in a car away from anything.   We didn't go to eat, but we just looked at the view, which was awesome. 

I'm loving my new area.  I eat so much I am 73 kilos now.   Elder Penehata is super awesome.  All of our investigators are so open and love him.  He does a good job. 

Next week Elder Anderson is coming.   I'm super lucky.  I get to see him 3 times,  because he is coming to our Stake Conference because we are splitting the Stake.  Also he is coming to talk to the missionaries,  and he is also coming to  our missionary prep class in which I teach English.  The stake of Paea has 40 missionaries out right now. That's it.   I love y'all.

Love,  Elder Cosby

TAHITIANS ARE RUTHLESS WHEN IT COMES TO HANDSHAKES: JAN 11, 2011

Dear Family, 

All is well. My new house is the size of my bedroom at home. Also, we have 2 of the most poweful ceiling fans in the world with the most powerful floor fan in the world also. There is always a small tornado goin' on in our house. We went on a hike Monday with some members and at the end of the hike was an awesome pool thing with a rock waterslide. They were all telling me to go down the waterslide because if not I walked all that way for nothing. I agreed with them and told them that I didn't want to ruin my hair, but I got some cool pictures. I super crashed on my bike. My companion was showing me our area which consists of riding around on our bikes really fast and him pointing at houses and saying "a member lives there". We turned on a dirt gravel road thing and my bike decided to slide out from under me. Luckily I did a sweet ninja rool thing and wasn't badly hurt. The problem is that it's my hands that got messed up and Tahitians are ruthless when it comes to handshakes. Thats all I have for today.  I will try to be less boring next time   Love yall

Love Elder Cosby 

HERE IN PAEA ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF THE ISLAND: JAN 6, 2011

Dear Family,

I  am here in Paea on the opposite side of the island. I went from the biggest sector on the island to the smallest.  3 wards, 3 kilometers, 2 elders, lots of food.   The first thing one of the ward members said to me was. "We like to give the missionaries food but we don't like to give them investigators.  My companion now is Elder Penehata from Borabora.  Leaving a sector that you actually know people and understand them and have friends and people that are almost baptized is hard, but I guess that is part of the mission.  I don't have much to say since I talked to y'all at Christmas. but the rest of Christmas was awesome for us.  We did fireworks that  night and explored some of the island.  My Papa Elder Punu is in my district now so I get to see him alot and also the sister of one of the people we baptized in Tiarei is in my district also.

Love, Elder Cosby

SKY KING: DEC 13, 2010

Dear Family,

    I've chosen my favorite investigator. His name is Raiarii (Sky King). He's 18 and the other day we saw him on the way to church. We asked him what he was doing and he said he was going to chuch. We were at the side of the road about 10 minutes from church by bike and he was in shorts, flip flops, and a long sleeve churchish shirt.  After asking how he was getting there, he laughed and said that he was running.   I can tell you how many people won't go to church because they don't have pants or a tie or shoes or transport or a friend there. Raiarii has none of those but for some reason he still goes, even though his friend that is a member has stopped going to church. I  think next week we should all run to church in flip flops.  I'm excited to call for Christmas.   From what I've heard I will call y'all and then y'all will call be back on the same number.  That is all I know.  I'm not sure what time yet or anything like that, but I will let you know as much as I can before. All is well here in Hitiaa and Tiarei. Merry Christmas!  It's about 90 degrees here.  .I hope everything is cool with y'all.  Love y'all

Love Elder Cosby

EMPHECHE PAS LES ENFANTS: DEC 6, 2010

Dear Family,

This week has been great.  After months of teaching the most terrible children in the world we have gotten somewhere.  These children have member parents and live in a little shack across the river from our bishop.  In this house are 30 people and we had a family home evening with the entire family and almost all of them came to church on Sunday. One of the couples is getting married and there are a lot of changes going on in the family, but the most amazing thing to me is that the kids are no longer terrible.  I've been finding out that even little kids can get powerful impressions from the Spirit and also change, thanks to the gospel and also thanks a little bit to the candy we've been giving them.  This little ward is growing so fast thanks to the members here in Hitiaa.  It's awesome to be a spectator of the Lord's work.  I'm excited to be able to talk to ya'll soon for Christmas.  I'm not sure exactly how that works but I will let you know.  Love Y'all.

Love, Elder Cosby

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THERE ARE ALOT MORE STARS IN TAHITI THAN AMERICA: Dec 6, 2010

Dear Family,

A few days after Thanksgiving a good friend of mine, Elder Redding, told me that Thanksgiving had come and gone without our noticing.  I hope everyone played football and ate stuffing 'cause you never know when you could lose that stuff.  I'm not letting Christmas pass me by though I've started to sing very loudly Christmas songs on our bike rides.   If only the people on the street could understand my words we would have alot more investigators.   The other day my rain jacket decided to stop being waterproof but it's ok 'cause the members here are awesome and bought me another one.   I guess you're not supposed to wash rain jackets in the washer.  There are alot more stars in Tahiti than in America.   We have an autistic neighbor who comes over every night and tells us to clean our house better.   He walks around our house and points at stuff and says "that's dirty" "clean it".   I never imagined I would have someone coming to my house on my mission and telling me to clean it.   Yesterday one of our investigators, Ringo,  told us that he didn't want the lessons anymore just after we had gotten him married in preparation for baptism.   But he told us he would talk to us later after church.   When we talked him later he told us that he couldn't do the lessons during the week anymore because he had found a job like we had promised him he would if he got married.   We told him it was cool to do the lessons on Sunday and then he bore his testimony to us for about an hour in Tahitian- French mix, which is super hard to understand.   That just goes to show that there are blessings waiting for us.  That's all I got for today.  Keep being awesome.  Love y'all

Love,  Elder Cosby