Ia Ora Na tatou! Its been a while but here is my update of the past couple weeks.

So no crazy baptism stories but we have definitely been making some progress here in Rurutu. We challenged our investigator Taae to live the word of wisdom for a week and he gladly accepted the challenge. At the end of the week we asked him how it went and his response was an enthuastic "Maita'i roa!" (very good). So that was really cool, and we have been talking to him about picking a baptisimal date, so we think sometime this week he will pick a date. Also Noarii and Ivee, the 10yr old and 9yr old kids we teach, keep changing their minds on baptism. They decided on the 28th of December over a month ago and now that we are getting close to it they are kind of freaking out. Also their parents are starting to sound a bit reluctant also about their baptisms. So we have some problems to sort out with all of that this week but if all works out well we should have 2 baptisms this Saturday. Cool stuff! So thats my update of major progress with our investigators.

And on Friday the 13th we packed some of our bags and headed off to Tahiti for 4 days for the mission Christmas. It was really weird just being in Tahiti because I'm so used to being on this small island with barely 2000 people on it. And not only that, for the first time in nearly 3 months I was able to see other missionaries, which was awesome, (And during our time in Tahiti we stayed in a church house in Pirae with 4 other missionaries) so that was Friday. On Saturday morning I got to go to the temple in Papeete with all the other missionaries (about 30) who are serving on islands other than Tahiti and that was so amazing. Then after that we walked into downtown Papeete for a bit to eat at a McDonalds (which is actually really expensive compared to America and is considered really good food). After that we got to go watch a baptisimal service which was really cool too.

Monday was the mission Christmas. We started off by practicing singing for a celebration that we will all be attending sometime in May (The celebration is the 160th anniversary of the arrival of the gospel to French Polynesia). Its a pretty big deal though because there will be some major general authorities there and from what we have heard Neal L. Anderson will be there also. So we practiced for that for like an hour then after that we all ate a huge lunch, which was awesome because the food was all American based. So there was turkey and stuffing and just awesome American junk food that I can really be proud of. Then after that all the zones were supposed to have already prepared a skit to preform in front of all the missionaries. And seeing as which we are in Rurutu and no one contacts us about anything, it was a nice surprise. So we quickly threw together a skit with all the missionaries in the Australes. After all of that we got some messages from our mission president and the assistants to the president, just some faaitoitos. And then we got to talk with everyone, which was really cool because I got to catch up with my MTC district and exchange crazy stories. So that was our mission Christmas, which I am extremely grateful for. I know it was definitely not easy to get 130 missionaries from all over Tahiti and from like 10 different far out islands to one place. 

And now we are back in Rurutu! This week we will find out about transfers. One of us will likely be transferred but we have no idea who it will be because we both got here at the same time. Oh, and yesterday was a first for me, I helped to teach a gospel doctrine class in ALL TAHITIAN! That is one of the benefits of being here on Rurutu, the ability to really practice and use Tahitian, because on Tahiti people really prefer to speak French so people rarely speak Tahitian there.

So there's my little update of the past couple weeks. This week should be pretty interesting too. I'll write back again next Monday to fill everyone in. And joyeuse Noel, merry Christmas to everyone! I hope everyone has an excellent week celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

And from Rurutu, peace out.  

Elder Rose

Here is a picture of the Papeete temple

On our way to a faatamaaraa (on Tahiti, not Rurutu) in the back of a van, it really is the way to travel everywhere in French Polynesia.

And just for fun you can compare the McDonalds prices in Tahiti to the prices in America. To convert to USD move the decimal point two places to the left.

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 3-4 stamps)

Packages take 12 weeks

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