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

Reply

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