It’s been a while but I promise I am still alive and well. I am currently serving at Moorea, that hasn't changed, and my companion is now a Tahitian named Elder Teahuotonga. He is 23 years old and has been on his mission 17 months. Elder Palombo is now serving at the island Raiatea. Elder Tonga (everyone calls him Elder Tonga because his name is long and hard to pronounce) is a good, dedicated missionary that really likes to have a good time. I have laughed harder with him than I have ever laughed on my whole mission. We get along really well and have some good visions for the missionary work here at Moorea. 

And some interesting things that have happened since the last post: we baptized a 14 year old named Tinihau which was a miracle because at first his parents weren't OK with him getting baptized but after about two months of taking lessons he was able to talk to his parents and bear them his testimony which softened their hearts and let him get baptized. So now we are teaching his parents and his sister and they all want to get baptized but don't have a testimony yet. So thanks to Tinihau's testimony and example the rest of his family will join the church, which is a pretty cool miracle. Also this Sunday, June 29th we will get a new mission president. His name is President Bise and he is French but has lived in America for 20 years. It will be interesting to see the difference in leadership through the change of culture. And I want France to win the world cup. And mom, I promise we don't watch the games.

And a shout out to my brother who just got his mission call to the Bolivia, Santa Cruz mission in South America. Super proud of him. Have an excellent week and I love you all.

Elder Rose

Tinihau and his family

And this is my favorite dish in French Polynesia. Sashimi! (Raw red tuna with some magic sauce that tastes great) And local mangos drink. I'm pretty sure this meal exists in heaven.

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 3-4stamps)

Packages take 12 weeks

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

This is Tinihau. He is 15 years old. He was baptised Saturday, June 14th. One of the most powerful testimonies I have ever heard from a new convert. He plans to serve a mission when he turns 18. I love my mission.

 Posin' with a tiki dude

And here is a recent picture of me enjoying a good view at the local Hilton hotel

And we got to take a tour inside the Hilton bungalows on the water. They have a glass window in the floor so we all stood on it for this picture

Some pretty cool things have been happening this week with two of our investigators. So we teach a young couple named Bryan(20) and Raurea(17) and they can't get married because Raurea has to be 18 for them to get married and her birthday is in September. So we started teaching them at the beginning of March and they have progressed so much that they want to stop living together and get baptized now and wait all the way until September to get married and live together.

This is nearly unheard of in French Polynesia. In fact, Bryan told the ward mission director last night that he really wants to go far in this church and he wants to serve a mission. He wants to leave the girl he has been living with for the past 6 months and serve a mission. I have never seen this kind of faith from any of my investigators. Honestly how much they are progressing is shocking me.

I remember the first time I talked to Bryan way back in February and I look at him now and how much he has changed because of this gospel. Its experiences like this that really strengthens my testimony. This church is so true and everyone here in Polynesia can see it. This week I have just felt really in comfort and I have seen many blessings, a lot through our investigators.

All of this is helping me to gain an even stronger testimony. And this week we had our investigator Junior (14) gets baptized. I gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost and it was a really neat experience. His mom really wants to get baptized too but her husband doesn't want her to.  Very sad that one person is holding back someone's salvation. 

Junior and I before the baptism. He was stressing out to bear his testimony after the baptism

This is us with Junior's family. Bryan is the guy crouching right beside me and Raurea is in a green dress right behind me. His mom is in purple behind me also.

Here's a picture of our most recent baptism. She got married right before this baptism and still had all the make-up/hair stuff when she was baptised, which is why she doesn't look to happy in this picture. It all washed off.

This is a mountain near our house. If you look closely you can see Donkey Kong playing the piano

My companion chillin' in front of a totally normal sunset in Moorea.

 

Hey everyone,

It’s been a while since the last blog post but I will try to cover all the important things that have happened since the last post. First off, Elder Tematahotoa got transferred and I am with Elder Palombo right now. We were in the MTC at the same time but he was in the other district that was going to Tahiti. He is great, we are having a blast serving together and it’s nice to be able to speak English again to my companion.

The missionary work here at Paopao has really taken off in the past couple of weeks. Within the last two weeks we set/reset 6 baptismal dates. So we have 6 investigators with baptism dates right now. It’s just so interesting how within the past couple weeks we have been finding so many investigators who progress and want to be baptized. I know that all of these blessings are thanks to our obedience. We will also do a fireside with the members to help them learn how they can do missionary work as members. Overall, we are making some good progression here.

Now for the food. The normal dinner here consists of chicken and rice and maybe some vegetables. But since I have arrived here I have eaten pretty much every variety of raw and cooked fish, chickens that were probably road kill, duck, many species of exotic fruits (mangos), cow heart, dog (tastes like weird chicken), and my least favorite... fafaru. Fafaru is fish that is left out in seawater for anywhere from 1 day to 3 weeks until it is fermented (nonalcoholic). It smells like excrement and it tastes like used baby diapers. I haven't eaten baby diapers but I am sure if I were to eat a used Huggies diaper it would taste exactly the same. Moral of the story, I didn't sleep very well that night. 

And I don't know if it was a big deal in other countries but everyone freaked out about the lunar eclipse. A lot of different religions had big meetings saying that the end of the world is close and stuff like that. Last I remember that happens often? Every couple years. It was cool just to see it here at Tahiti though.

I have had many experiences over the past couple weeks but I will sum them all up by saying that I know  that in the same amount that we put our faith in God, He will always be there to support us according to our level of faith. Alma 38:5.  And I know that the Priesthood is a real power from God given to men who are worthy. I know that the baptism must be done by this Priesthood in order to be valid. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the same church that Jesus established while he was on the Earth. I know that Jesus himself re-established this church through the prophet Joseph Smith. I know these things are true.

Thanks for everyone who reads this. I will try to start writing more regularly. And I hope everyone had a good Easter! Until next time, faaitoito

Elder Rose

A nice boat ride from Tahiti. Check out those muscles. 

P-day activity. Touch the water. I got so many blessings for my obedience that day (I did not go swimming)

Did you know the French government set off a nuclear bomb in the tuamatu islands in 1976?

This is the coolest dog ever. Brings this rock back to your feet every time you kick it.

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 3-4stamps)

Packages take 12 weeks

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