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

MY BEST FRIEND IS LEAVING: November 22, 2010

Dear Family,

Elder Oldroyd is getting transferred to Rurutu tomorrow.   He is the best and coolest Elder that there ever was.   If you ever get a chance to see him say thanks!

Yesterday we had zone conference with President Hinckley's son.  He gave us some great instructions. He told us that it is very important to work with  less active members.  There was a mission that worked just with these members  and their baptisms also skyrocketed.  He didn't really explain how that worked, but it did. So, maybe we should all give some of these members  some cookies or invite them to FHE.   It was super cool listening to Elder Hinckley speak.   It was just like listening to his Dad.   Also we got to ride back with him in the car and hear lots of cool stories about his Dad and what it was like being the son of the prophet.   His dad was called to be an apostle while he was on his mission, so he said that they had some pretty powerful lessons about how the church was organized the same way it was with Jesus.  

Also, I royally crashed on my bike.   Let's just say it hurt and also don't do stupid things. 

 Missionary work is awesome and super difficult.  I've learned alot and I feel like I've been here only a few weeks because there is so much more to do and learn.   The time is short.   Happy Thanksgiving. 

Love yall

Love Elder Cosby

ONE LEARNS A LOT ON A MISSION: November 15, 2010

Sent by Elder Oldroyd's Mom:  Elder Cosby and Elder Oldroyd

Hey Family,

I love you.  Sorry I didn't have a chance to email last week.  We almost didn't have a chance this week also.  That's just the way it is here.  I told president to call y'all the instant I died or went to the hospital, so don't worry if I don't send emails for a while   I also told him to call if I don't love you anymore, so that's not a reason either.  I don't have any time to write, but if anyone is thinking of sending me stuff, I really really want flash cards, ties, and white shirts. Stay cool.   I love you guys and thank you Sam And Heather family for the package.

The mission is good and hard and one learns a lot on a mission.

Love,  Elder Cosby

THIS IS THE GREATEST ISLAND IN THE WORLD: November 1, 2010

                                                 Tahiti is an island in the South Pacific Ocean


Dear Family,

We just got back from the most amazing boat ride in the world.  We went out to this little island off the coast and you could see all of Tahiti almost.  The water is so clear it's almost not there!  Our neighbors would pull  these huge beautiful conch shells out of the ocean,  stick their fingers down in there and pull out the slug thing and we ate them with lime on them.  It was awesome and pretty good. 

This weekend we will have 5 baptisms, 2 of which will be the first family that I taught from beginning to end.  Sara is one who will be getting baptized next Saturday.  She is super super awesome and she stopped smoking in one week after smoking 26 cigarettes a day. I feel like I just got on my mission and I've already been gone 6 months almost. Love Yall,

Love Elder Cosby