Alright everyone, not much time for emailing this week but I'll see what I can do.

 

So some things that I have come to realize in my time here. These people can eat so much food and do not understand how or why anyone else would not be able eat as much as them. Also they think that the more I eat the stronger I will get, which is definitely false. I have learned also that I am able to eat a lot more food than I thought I could. Sometimes I will start a meal thinking "oh my goodness how am I going to finish all of this" and by the end of the meal I always have a stronger testimony that God answers prayers, no matter how small they are (and no matter how small my stomach is).

Some other cool things that happened this week. Elder Ollerton and I were able to teach an old Tahitian man the first lesson (Joseph Smith story). So I had practiced the lesson a bit beforehand and it went a little rough but I learned pretty much all that I wanted to say. So I get into the lesson and then we get to my part. I was able to say all that I had practiced without really any problems. It was just a really neat experience and I know that I was being helped out during that lesson.

 

Something else kind of fun that happened this week, we decided to do some tracting in Avera. And we decided to walk there, straight over the mountain. One of the reasons that we decided to walk rather than take our bikes, I still am using a members bike and the brakes don't really work. So we figured out that the walk over the 1200ft mountain took about an hour and a half. So while we were in Avera we were able to contact about 9 people (contacting here is difficult, the LDS Church here is pretty well known and people don't have the best view of it) but out of those we were able to set up one lesson for next Friday so we will be taking our bikes that time because my bike gets here tomorrow (Tuesday).

 

Something else that happened this week. Elder Ollerton and I were thinking of ways that we could get the members to work with us more and we were able to come up with the idea to get everyone to make a list of people that they think would be ready to receive the gospel and then next week on fast Sunday we were going to have the families pray and fast to choose one person that they would try and introduce the gospel to. So we told everyone about that at church yesterday and were able to commit a couple families to do it for sure but overall I think it will have a good outcome and hopefully we will get some missionary work rolling here. There is so much potential here, we just need the help of the members to get started.

 

And my last weird update for the week. Some people probably wonder what a normal meal would be like here. Here is an example of some normal meals on Rurutu. So for breakfast I usually take a bowl of water and microwave it for about a minute and add some sugar, some powdered milk, and some Milo (French Polynesian equivalent of hot chocolate mix) and then I put some Sao crackers in that to make it almost a cereal type thing. Its easy to make and pretty efficient so I like it. Lunches we usually eat at the house and it usually consists of bananas (because we have like 75 bananas in our fridge now, literally) and maybe like rice and beans. Just whatever leftovers we were given from members. Then dinners usually consist of either raw fish, which is called poisson cru, or a mixture of like rice and peas and chicken called lentielles, or just some other type of fish. But the raw fish actually doesn't taste that bad and I'm pretty sure its ok to eat because I haven't gotten sick from it yet. But yeah, fish is of the essence here!

 

So thats all I have time for this week. Next week will be a whole different story though. Until next time,

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 3-6 weeks (use 4-6 stamps)

Packages take 6-8 weeks

 

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

 

Heres a picture of me chilling with some bananas during our walk to Avera.

 

And here is a picture of our city we live in, Moerai

                                                                  The starfruit we eat.

                                                                  Our missionary house

Today at 8:38 PM

Bonjour tout le monde!

 

This week has been really good. And just full of crazy expériences but I only have time to write about a few of them.

 

Ok so first off there are a ton of people here who speak Tahitian (some even speak this crazy dialect of it called Rurutu where they don't pronounce the F's or the H's). It is just such a blessing to be able to serve and learn Tahitian here. Already I have had some instances where I can't understand like ANY Tahitian but then just like a minute later I can understand almost everything that people are saying. I had this cool experience last week where I couldn't really understand much Tahitian so I prayed about it and for about 30 minutes I only spake Tahitian and after that I could understand significantly more. It really is amazing how when we go out of our way to show our dedication to the Lord we are blessed for it. Already I have been able to see that here.

 

Something else that was pretty cool. We do a lot of OLBing here (Ouvrir le bouche or open the mouth) where we just go around to people and talk to them about the gospel and invite them to take lessons from us. So one day we were walking aroung looking for some OLB opportunities and we decided to go into this dirt road/neighborhood type thing. I was feeling really good about this road, so when we get to the first house we yell our "Ia ora na!" like 3 times, no response. So we move on to the next house. Again nothing. This happens like two more times and by this time I was just thinking "why were we supposed to come down here". So then we go down the road a little further and see this man working on his faapu (farm). So we get up to him and Elder Ollerton starts talking to him in Tahitian and after like a 20 minute conversation in we invited him to take a lesson and he accepted, so now we have a lesson with him this week. It was just really neat how it worked out.

 

This week we also discovered that the top half of our island is super beautiful but not the most fun to bike on. The city on the other side of the island takes about an hour to get to by bike because of how steep the hills are. Because we were both on borrowed bikes (from some members until our bikes would arrive on the boat) the brakes weren't that good. So we had to walk our bikes all the way up and all the way back down the mountain but I got some really cool pictures out of it, I will see if I can send them. But it was just a fun experience. My legs felt like jelly after that day to say the least though.

 

Also something else funny that happened. So on Saturday we bike over to a city about 30 minutes away and on the way back from our lesson we are walking our bikes up this hill and we see what looks like tourists pass us and we wave of course and of course they give us some funny looks and reluctlantly wave back, but as we are continuing up the mountain we see their car stopped and they are taking pictures of the "horizon behind us" (they just wanted to get pictures of us but pretended to be taking pictures of the horizon) and when we get closer to the car one of the girls asks if she can take a picture with us. So she got a picture with two funny looking misisonaries all covered in sweat and wearing helmets. It was just weird to be so amuzing to someone.

And finally on saturday all of our stuff got here! Except my bike, its on the next boat which will be here in about a week. So that was nice, I just kind of wish I had my bike to traverse all of this difficult terrain but no biggie.

 

So yeah, those are my stories for the week. If anyone has any questions about the island or just anything that they want to know they can e-mail me and I will respond in my blog letter. Faaitoito everyone!

Elder Rose

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

 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 2-3 weeks (use 4-6 stamps)

Packages take 4-6 weeks

Ia Ora Na everyone! 

First off, sorry if there are any weird spelling errors, I'm typing on a french keyboard...

But I finally made it out to the field! My companion is Elder Ollerton and he has been out for almost a year now and he is a super awesome teacher and is pretty much fluent in Tahitian and is fluent in French so I am very happy about that.  

I got assigned to an island about 250 miles south of Tahiti called Rurutu where they speak mostly Tahitian and a little French. The biggest surprise to me about this assignment was that this island has been closed to missionaries for about 2 years and Elder Ollerton and I have been assigned to re-open it. And we are the only two missionaries on this island for now which is kind of weird but really cool.

We are in the city called Moerai. We have a single branch with about 120 people in it. The members here are super awesome though and have already been helping us out so much with finding people and just doing missionary work. Our first lesson we taught was with a 15 year old boy named Tuarii we were able to set up a baptisimal date for him already, he just has to ask his parents and make sure that they are ok with it. Anyway, the work here is great and the members are so great. I can already tell this is going to be a very enjoyable stay for me no matter how long I am here for (which could be anywhere from 3 months to 9 months). I have been studying Tahitian like crazy. Its really hard to understand right now for me but I'm just going to keep working on it. I would eventually like to be better at Tahitian than French because I think that would be super cool and we have so many opportunities to teach in Tahitian here.

OK funny story for the week. When Elder Ollerton and I were flying out here to Rurutu we first stopped on an island called Rimatara (which we didn't know until later). So we actually end up getting off on this small island and we were really confused because we had heard that Rurutu was a lot bigger and so we get into the airport and someone walks up to us and in English says "what are you doing here?" and we said "we have been assigned to this island" (thinking that we had been assigned to that island) and she seemed kind of confused and said "my family and I are the only members on the whole island". She quickly informed us that we were on the wrong island and we were able to board the plane before it took off. And something else kind of funny. Our luggage is being shipped here on a boat and it doesn't get here for like another week and a half but luckily I packed most of the things I needed.

Anyway, to summarize this island. It is small but beautiful island filled with about 2000 amazing people and I feel so blessed to be able to serve here. And it looks exactly like the island from Jurassic park, that's a good way to describe it.

That's about all I have time for this week but I will definitely have some more crazy stories for next week. 

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 2-3 weeks  (4-5 stamps)

Packages take 4-6 weeks

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

Elder Ollerton and I

Personal study is hard when the sun is in your eyes

Wooah week 10 done! This is officially my last week ever being in the MTC as a missionary!

This week has been very good and bittersweet. So we had our last devotional in the Mariott Center on Tuesday (they will now just be in the MTC gym) and it was a really good talk on just missionary work. I can't remember everything that he said but I just remember after the devotional everyone in our district was just ready to go like right then. And then on Thursday we had our last TRC ever! We taught a 20 minute lesson in Tahitian but it was really cool because we taught a native Tahitian that just randomly happened to stop by the MTC and we were able to teach him (he was here early because he is going to conference this weekend). It was just really neat to hear Tahitian come from a native tongue. I didn't understand everything he said, but I definitely am able to pick up on more than I was able to last week even.

And on Thursday we got our travel plans! Our whole district was freaking out because we agreed to open them in the classroom, and Elder Twede (our district leader and also the mail retriever) was taking a while to walk back to the classroom. So eventually he gets to the class and he starts handing everyone's travel plans back and of course with my last name starting with an R I got my plans second to last (right in front of Elder Twede) but the whole time he was passing them out I was just thinking "oh my goodness, they don't have my visa yet. I don't have my travel plans". But I got it so it was all good! But here's the news: So we officially leave the MTC Monday October 7th at 7:30AM, we leave SL at 11:30 and get to LA at 12:30, we leave from LA at 4:30 and get to Tahiti at 10:00PM (Tahiti time which is 4 hrs behind UT time)! Its real!! So that was very good.

And then on Saturday all the sisters in our district were singing in the general relief society meeting so all the elders in our district just got some elder time which was good. And on Saturday night we got taught by Soeur Buswell and she told us so many funny and cool stories about Tahiti. It was just a really good day all around and I think everyone in the district is just ready to go. On Sunday we had our mission conference meeting where basically we have another two hour devotional in the middle of the day. This mission conference was so good though, I got so much out of it spiritually and they talked a ton about how we can be really successful missionaries and after all the devotionals on Sunday I really just felt so good about everything. It has been a good week and I am excited to just make it through this week and prepare the best I can to leave.

Anyway, thats all I have time for this week!

 Until next week (In Tahiti hopefully),

Elder Rose

Semain neuf est finis (week 9 is done)! Where did the time go? This week felt like it was two days long. I really think time works differently in the MTC sometimes. 

This week was pretty normal. Devotional on Tuesday we got to hear from Elder Schwitzer of the 70. His talk was about missionary work and how we can become better missionaries. Its cool how all the themes of the MTC seem to be the same, whether its my personal study or a devotional, it always seems to get the same message across. This Wednesday was fun because I got to see Sister Hanks arrive at the MTC and I also got to see our whole new French district (we got about 20 new elders and 3 sisters) get here. It was so crazy just to think I was in their shoes just nine weeks ago. It also really helped me to realize how far I have come in French, just watching them study what seemed to me to be easy French principles and grammar. My time here is such a blessing though and I am so glad I have been able to be here for this long. Also on Friday I got to see my old BYU-I roommate Elder Madeux which was great just to catch up with him.

Thursday was an interesting day though. We started out the day with Tahitian instruction from Frere Roney and at the end of his instruction he taught our district about fifteen minute lesson just summarizing the first lesson (in Tahitian of course). So I'm just sitting there during the lesson desperately trying to understand anything that I can and honestly I only understood about five words during the whole lesson. So I decided to fast for lunch, because we had TRC in Tahitian later that day. So TRC rolls around and we find out that we were supposed to prepare 40 minute lessons rather than a 20 minute lesson that we had prepared. Anyway long story short we go into TRC knowing we have to make a 40 minute lesson out of this 20 minute lesson. I'm not really sure how it happened, (it really always seems to happen this way) but the lesson lasted almost exactly 40 minutes and I honestly didn't even have to look down at the lines that we had prepared for half of the things that I wanted to say. It was a little rough but I was able to get a point across and bear testimony all in Tahitian and without hardly looking at my notes. I know the gift of tongues is real because that wasn't me that was able to do that. I am just so grateful for all of the amazing things I have learned about the gospel and missionary work and even about myself here. I know that with faith in the lord we can do anything. One of my favorite scriptures is definitely Moroni 7:33 because I have really felt the power of faith during my time here. 

Something else crazy that will happen this week... we get our travel plans on Friday! Finally! Its so close but it feels so far away. It almost feels like I have been called to serve in the MTC speaking French and Tahitian but our time is almost done here. The Tahitian districts are starting to get pretty creative on how to not go crazy here, so things are fun but I am definitely ready for some travel plans. Anyway those were the highlights of the week. Next week will be a different story though. Thanks to everyone who reads this! You're all awesome! Jusqua la semain prochain, faaitoito! (until next week, take (courage, health, goodness))

Elder Rose

Ia ora na mau taata! Bonjour tout le monde! Week 8 done! I'm a little short on time this week so this may be shorter than usual. 

This week has been really good for me, with the languages and spiritually. We didn't have any general authorities come this week but something interesting that happened was they fit all the missionaries that are staying on the main campus into the MTC gym for devotional this week! This is impressive because in the past they have had to use three overflow rooms that fit about 500 missionaries each.  So there have been a lot of missionaries that have already left for the mission field while I have been here. And it was crazy because all the elders going to France (that got here when we were about three weeks into our stay) left this morning.  Our hallway is nearly empty now which is almost eerie. We only have three more weeks now though so we are all just doing our best to be prepared as possible when we get out to Tahiti finally. 

I'm just so grateful for my time here in the MTC. There is really no place in the world like the MTC and I have learned more here about French and Tahitian and also just about myself than I have in my whole life. And I think 12 weeks is definitely a good amount of time to learn two languages also.

Oh so something interesting we did this week. Our teacher, Soeur Buswell, had us practice street contacting with her in French. So she pretended to be some random person and we really had no idea how it was going to go down. So she gives us about three minutes to prepare our approaches and guess which companionship gets picked to go first. Yep. So Elder Edwards and I start to attempt to contact her with our poorly thought out approach and boom. About twenty seconds in, I ask if I can share a spiritual thought and she just walks away. It was harsh. I was shocked really. It was really humbling though. We were so nervous we forgot to even introduce ourselves. We learned a lot from it though and tried again a little later and again got denied. I didn't feel as bad though after I watched every other companionship get denied too. Our main problem was that we weren't being quick enough to the catch so she just lost interest. English missionaries have it so easy! Anyway, moral of that story, we are all greenies and still have a ways to go. 

And last cool thing that happened. We taught in TRC again on Thursday, this time in Tahitian. Yeah, that was very humbling also. I understood maybe like three words he said in the whole twenty minute lesson. I have been working very hard on learning Tahitian but its difficult when we have to keep improving our French at the same time too. This is really good for time management though. I would really appreciate like an extra three hours in the day with all the things we have to learn. I know that I can do it though with the help of the Lord and the gift of tongues. Speaking Tahitian really makes me appreciate French that much more and I really realize how far I have come. I went from barely being able to say hello to roughly being able to teach (very basically) any lesson from PMG. I know the Lord has been helping me learn these languages and that the gift of tongues is real. Thanks to everyone who keeps me in your prayers. When things get tough I just remember that and I honestly feel lifted. Its an amazing feeling. 

Oh and one last good scripture I came across this week Romans 8:18. It helped when I was feeling down about struggling with the languages. I know that everything in our lives happens for a reason, good and bad. I know that God has a plan for each and every one of us and that he loves us. It helped me to read this and know that in the end it was all for the good. That this would all pay off. Anyway I'm out of time now but I'll write again next week! Faaitoito! Je vous aime! Merci pour tout les gens que ce lire! Until next week

Elder Rose  

Just got here from France because he already knew French. Lucky!