Hey everyone!

These past weeks have been good and interesting. Last week we were able to set up a baptisimal date with Tuarii! It was crazy because we had to call his parents and get them both to say yes. His dad was really cool and chill about it but his mom wasn't as easy to convince. I have come to realize in my time here that people have the mindset "my parents are this religion, so why should I change" And in this case for Tuarii's mom it was, "well I am this religion and my kids will stay this religion". Anyway, we got her to say yes, and in the end all was good. Then we come back later in the week to teach another lesson and at the end of the lesson we talk to him about his baptism and suddenly he has changed his mind and doesn't feel ready for baptism. So in the end, no baptisimal date for Tuarii yet but we are not giving up on him.

Some other good news though. This week we started teaching the children of the recent convert, Teoo. Their names are Noarii (10 yr old boy) and Ivee (9 yr old girl). And some other good news, we were able to set up a baptisimal date for each of them after lesson 1! Ivee has already read all of 1 Néphi on her own and is very eager to learn more about the gospel. It was just so nice to have that happen right after the whole Tuarii incident. I know that that was an answer to my prayers and was given to us only because of the grace of the Lord. I really am seeing the blessings of hard work and faith in the Lord.

And the language is coming along. I got my first semi-compliment this week on how my French was improving so that was motivational. Recently I have been focusing on French a lot more than Tahitian because honestly French is 100% necessary here while Tahitian is just super cool to speak. Its coming along though and I can definitely see progress.

Oh and we started teaching another man this week who already believes the church is true and wants to be baptised! Great stuff right! The only thing is he isn't married because his GF doesn't want to get married and we think its because if they do get married he will get baptised. So again my testimony of opposition in all things has been strengthened. Its good though. Also another thing that might be holding them back from marriage is just how big of a deal marriage is here. There is a marriage that will be happening this week in the next city over, Auti, and they are building this massive building just for this marriage. I saw probably 50 people working on constructing this building and I also saw a pile of like 1000 coconuts. We even had a lesson pushed to next week because they said they were too busy because of the marriage all this week. Evidently it is a week long thing. So yeah, marriage roadblocks, not cool.

Anyway thats my little update for this week. Like always next week will be a whole different story. But until then Faaitotio e maiti i te maitai, e e mea roa to'u here no outou i o ra.

Elder Rose

Send letters to:

Elder Cody Tiler Rose

Tahiti Papeete Mission

The Church of Latter Day Saints

B.P. 93 Mormon Mission

Papeete, Tahiti 98714

French Polynesia

Letters take 6-8 weeks (use 4-6 stamps)

Packages take 12 weeks

Elder Rose's e-mail address: cody.rose@myldsmail.net

 And this week I got to work in a taro field whaddup! In the first picture we are laying out dried banana tree leaves to protect the taro from the harsh sun.

In the second picture is the finished product, topped with coconut tree fronds.