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!