Time for transfers again

Yeah transfers are on monday, we'll see where i end up! This transfer went so fast! If i end up in a place with no email i'm sorry! I'll do my best to keep you up to date! Anyway sorry been a couple weeks again. I'll try to cover some important stuff for you all if you care to read if not that's okay you are busy and i understand! :) But i love to get all your emails and mail! I hope you all know that! Sorry if i'm not always able to respond! I do my best! I was in a little earthquake. Just studying on my bed then i just started moving and i looked at a waterbottle and the water in it was moving! Just a small thing nothing big at all just a little wobble and i was like wooo this is fun! haha No worries. I'm fine. So over the last 2 transfers been way hard to stay motivated and focused because of my companion and i guess i kinda almost forgot what it was like to be a real missionary but we did this family home evening with this family, just a guy his wife and their little daughter. They really made an impact on my life for the long run. Just made me see the importance of the gospel! But coming out of it brought back the feelings for what i am here for. it was just what i needed! Oh challenge for you all. Something i'm doing too. I was thinkin the other day how i can liken the scriptures to myself. Well I'm named after jacob and aaron from the book of mormon. I decided i'm going to read their accounts and get all i can from it! Disect every sentence. They were amazing missionaries so i thought if i could be like the i'll be successful. I'm only in jacob 3 right now but what has stuck out so far is jacob 1:19 read it. I've never really thought of the work that way. Kind of an eye opener to me! So figure out a way to liken the scriptures to you and act on it! You'll get more from the scriptures and the lord will bless you abundantly! I got bit by a small dog that actually surprisingly bit pretty hard. Stupid little thing. I got it unstuck and it bit me. We've actually done some missionary work over the last couple weeks. Getting referals (not doing much with them) but getting them, taught a few lessons. and a little kid is getting baptized on friday! Thats exciting! We gave a blessing to an old sick man named Feongoi Tupou. People wonder why i can't remember the name of who is feeding us today. You see why. I said the closing prayer in sacrament. Okay so kinda cool. I want you if you can to get your hands on a duty to god booklet (the new one for boys) and look at the pictures. There is a kid in a red sweater and a guy in a blue jacket that looks really familiar if you can tell me who it is in next email i'll be proud of you! We had a power outage for a few hours one night. Right at the time i needed light to write in my journal haha. I gave a blind man my flipflops. To see the joy that brought him was pretty crazy! It really made my day to see my small act of kindness made someone so happy. He was already such a cheerful guy but it made him more happy. Never met him before and probably never will again. But I loved the feeling i got from doing that. I got a new haircut today. Different kinda style. Not to bad. Anyway that's really about it! Sorry not more exciting! Hopefully i'll get to email next week! I love you and miss you all! Thanks for all you do!
Love,
Elder Rose

It's been a minute!

Hey everyone! Sorry it's been awhile! I gotta lot to cover but not alot of time so i'll try to do my best to cover it all! Want to start with challenge for the week! I read about christ and his ministery in the bible and reading jesus the christ! After i read the bible account i just took time to let it sit and ponder it! It was a neat feeling. I want you guys to do that same thing! Now i'll give you some highlights! Since last email given 3 blessings to sick people. My comp helped me for one time! How to teach a principle and it was so helpful! I was grateful for that! Oh what was sept 11 like there in the states? Anything wierd? I got lots of mail from jenna, katie adams, grandma hamblin, grandma and grandpa nielson, and landon! It was good! That was a great day! I got to ride my bike in a hurricane! It was fun! Not a bad hurricane but bad enough to be one! It was way sweet! No worries i'm safe! we actually did some work a day and tried to go find people to teach. Well just talked to ward mission leaders and asked them to find for us. But hey it was something. I can say that over the last 3 weeks i've been blessed and i can actually understand more now! I'm so grateful! It's been a blessing! Thanks for all of your prayers and support! On monday we district leaders and zone leaders had a meeting with a member of the 70. Elder pearson. He asked what we thought the mission needed. We told him. It was a great meeting. Taught us how to be great leaders. Then the next day all the missionaries came and we had a conference with him. He talked about everything we told him. It was soo good! Lots of stuff on obedience. One thing i wanted to share in the email that i remember i wanted to share. If you feel you have little faith, the way to build that is by obedience. Your faith will grow if you are obedient. Trust that. Show your faith and be obedient! I left the meeting a changed person. He gave an elder an apostolic blessing. That was sweet. My comp during the whole meeting just kept his head down and tried not to listen. I could see why if i was him, sadly, as amazing as that meeting was, he didn't change. If a 70 couldnt change him, i don't know what i could do to do it. That's really about it though. There is more i wanted to do but kinda out of time. Maybe next week if i have time. I love you all. Thank you for all you do. You all help me sooo much! Thank you all! I'm doing well here and hope you all are too! I know that this church and gospel are true and joseph smith through the power of god restored it to the earth. I pray for you all daily. I'm so thankful for you.
Love,
Elder Rose

Yup yup, it's me!

Hey everyone! Gonna make this one quick sorry! Here we go! You are all dying to know how the open house went. It went good i talked for almost 7 minutes but that is okay cause we started 23 minutes late anyway waiting for my mission president haha. But went good. After pretty much being sick from the frustration and everything i felt it all ended up okay. I even understood my president tell everyone after in his talk it was a miracle i could do what i did after only 6 months of being in tonga, i think that was the only thing i understood him say but it was just comforting so that's good. On saturday I got to baptize Ileine. It was awesome! There was actually another girl we baptized too! Her name was Fuatapu (haha forbidden fruit is what that means) So as of now i'm at 12 baptisms. 8 in kolonga/afa and by the end of this transfer i think we'll have at least....12. So thatd be cool. I hope so at least if someone decides they want to work. he was sick this last week but basically milking that to it's fullest. but life is going on. On sunday we were supposed to talk but comp was sick so we stayed home! I started reading jesus the christ it's really good! and then on tuesday i conducted our district meeting in our house cause comp was sick but it went good. Kinda fun haha. And then last thoughts, Happy birthday to Griff, Mom, and Tracy! I hope you all have a good one! I love and miss you all! Thank you for everything and all the love and support as always! You all make me want to keep going and work harder! I love you!
Love,
Elder Rose

I don't remember English being so hard to learn...

Hey there everyone! As always i hope you are all doing well. Things are going here in Tonga. Another transfer here we come. Number 5. I got to stay in my area which i was way excited about. Same comp, which i can't say i was just as excited about but oh well. anyway here are the highlights of the week. Last thursday after i emailed i read the whole our search for happiness book. That's way good! I encourage all of you to read that and our heritage! haha i also got to see a byu vs usu football game from 2009 while we ate at bishops house that night! Holy cow i didn't know i missed that too haha. It was fun to see it! I only saw the last quarter. BYU won. on sunday i got some letters. one from jenna from march 15, 2 from grandma and grandpa neilson from march 21 and april 19, one from merrit sent july 19 and one from grandma hamblin sent april 14. It is always nice to get letters! we did Nisi's confirmation on sunday, it was really good. Took some pictures with her and her family after church. Monday was transfers and well you already know what happened. not much tuesday, wednesday i read the whole august liahona. and we talked to the bishop about the open house on friday (today). yesterday was pday we played volleyball and i got some emailing done but not all so hence why i'm doing this now haha. and then today this morning we got a call and finally told what to do at the open house. The topic is missionary work. They expect me to do a half hour. Hahah funny joke. so i'm pretty worried about that, i'll just do what i can and hope it goes well. Ah man. I'm struggling so bad trying to learn this language. Still don't really understand anything and sometimes feel like i'm about as far as i was when i left the mtc, but i'm trying. It just is really frustrating. and having a comp that doesn't help isn't very encouraging either. anyway. Hope that you are all doing good. Those of you that have had to learn another language, any suggestions on how to comprehend and listen and improve your vocabulary i'm open to suggestions. Some good news is we have a baptism on saturday! Ileine, Sounds like Elaine. She is the sister of Meliane who i baptized at the beginning of the month and the step daughter of Venisi who i baptized last week! Last week when i told her we might be moving she was said cause she wanted me to baptize her just like the others in her family. When we saw her again and told her we were staying she was like so you are baptizing me? i said yeah and she smiled and gave me a high five haha. she was excited and i'm excited to help complete their family. And i think we actually have 2 other baptisms for people who have lost records. That happens alot here! Honestly we could have like 7 baptisms this transfer but my comp doesn't always like to work as you can see by the days there wasn't much highlight about missionary work and all the time i have to read but luckily we get lots of referrals and people are ready to listen!  Well thank you all for all you do for me! Sorry this is kinda short! You are all in my prayers constantly! I can feel of all your love to me through your letters and email and prayers thank you! You all keep doing your best and I'll keep doing mine! I love you and miss you all!

Man, another transfer gone by

Hey everyone! It's been a couple weeks! First off thanks for all the emails! I loved them! They mean alot to me! They were very good thank you! Since we last talked. I've read D&C, Pearl of Great Price, and Our Heritage from cover to cover. They were all a very big growing experience for me! I learned alot reading through them! Like the third prophet died in kaysville which happens to be where my home is. and the first primary was started in farmington which is the town over. Those are good books! I'll go over some quick highlights over the last couple weeks! Well i've completed 7 months on the mission. Um...wow that's fast haha as usual. Last Pday was full of a zone conference from 10-5:30. Got to play some basketball! Man it was good! First like competition basketball i've played since i've been here, which is was tongan style so more like streetball but felt good to break some ankles again and make tongans laugh at making some look like they don't know what just happened ;) realized that the basketball court really is a sanctuary where i can just let go of my stresses and relax and have fun. It was much needed. Made a post mission plan of what i want to do with my life. First time i've every really done that in at least some detail. Got kevins package he sent april 8th, went through tongan post may 7 but for some reason i didn't get it til  august 13. haha but it was all in one piece, everything in it. i got some letters on the 14th, Dear elders from ken sent mar 17, merrit may 23 and 2 other letters sent in march from other mission friends haha. But the big update over the last 2 weeks was definitely yesterday. my 10th baptism of the mission. A lady we taught a little while back but just barely was able to do her baptism. From the beginning she's been the person that i think has been the most ready out of all 10 so far. Well yesterday morning we got to do her baptism. I really felt the spirit there. Of course it helped that she was crying cause when other people cry, kinda get's to me, haha a quick thought, once i bore my testimony in church back home and i got a little emotional and my bishop said jake i didn't know you were a softy haha, so i guess i'm a softy. anyway, back to the main story. She was crying the whole program, we took a picture together before the actually ordinance. Everything went pretty much perfect. I think it was the first time we didn't have to worry or have problems with the baptism font haha. But i got in the font, offered my hand to help her down the steps, like i do with every lady we baptize, but she was the first one to actually take it, good thing too because she kinda slipped but didn't fall and baptize herself before i could because i helped her stay up. But then we explained how to do everything and then said everything good and baptized Venisi Kautai. After she came up out of the water she stood for a second and just looked really happy. I went in the bathroom to change and i guess i just really took the time to feel the spirit and think of the great work that had just happened. i almost cried. But just seeing so much joy from someone because of the gospel was amazing. You could just see it in her tear filled eyes. The feeling i had of just bringing another precious soul unto Christ and this church was undescribable at that moment. I could almost just say i felt the lords happiness. It was just a very awesome experience. Then later in the day we went to a birthday of a 1 yr old (you should see these first birthday celebrations they are crazy, you'd think the jazz won the championship or something ;)) but venisi was there and when we left we said by to her and she shook my hand and did the tongan kiss on the cheek thing and said "thank you, God bless you" it was one of the most sincere thank you's that one could possibly here. It was touching to me. She will be a great saint. Well i think that's about it on highlights for the last week! A couple other things. First off a question came up. Someone asked. If we lived with God in the spirit world how do we live with him in the celestial kingdom? Is it the same place? If anyone has any answers for the i'd like to hear! Last thing, challenge for the week. I encourage you to give some more. On your next tithing slip, donate some to every cause on the slip if you feel you are able if not, that's okay just do what you can. But that's the challenge for the week! Sorry this wasn't longer but i  hope you all enjoyed it. It's a rainy day here in Tonga. It was raining way hard earlier. Don't think i've seen it rain that hard ever. Anyway i hope you are all well! I love you all and miss you so much! Thanks for all the support and help you give to me! 

Love,
Elder Rose

It's been a minute.

Hey everyone! Loved all your emails! Sorry wasnt' able to do this last week! I yet again dont have lots of time so this will be quick again. Definitely been a hard transfer but we are doin good still. Just trusting the lord and doing my best! That's what life is about right! It was quite the relief for me to get to read some emails today! Really needed it! A couple highlights from the past weeks! I've had 3 baptisms and expecting a couple more this transfer. Some people are committed just need to figure out the date they'll do it. had to speak in sacrament some more which went alright. got a few new scars on my right foot, had some spankings from the tongan missionaries and spanked some in return haha. I got a package from dad and grandma and grandpa rose. That was awesome! It was missent to sydney austrailia but i got it now! Thank you for that! Met DJ Rose. He keeps trying to figure out if we are family haha his last name really is rose and he's a popular DJ out here. I've had to teach a lesson in district meeting. Just tryin my best everyday. This language is still such a struggle but, i'm doin what i can. It's really hard to hear and comprehend. I can read and comprehend pretty well but listening is totally different. any advice on how to improve that would be nice. Good luck to my buddies Casey tanner and Mike mac on thier missions! They are both in the MTC. Way proud of them! Congratulations to my sister cortnie. I will be an Uncle again! Well the thing or challenge i guess this week for you is I want you to really think about what the purpose of life is. Think hard about it. If you need help you can find it in Joshua 24:15 in the Bible or Alma 34:32 in the Book of Mormon. Just think about life and take a step back and see what your purpose is and your goals in life are. Are they inline with Gods? Just something i thought about. Really can help you improve your life if you do i promise. Well hope that helped you all. Thank you all so much for all the love and support. Hopefuly my next area i can email more consistent and get more time. I love you all and miss you like crazy! A mission is definitely one of the most amazing, unforgettable, molding (for the better), life changing (for the better), hard (for the better) experiences. You find out alot about who you truely are. I know God lives and is real and loves us. I read a scripture last night in DC it's when joseph smith is in jail and he's praying. God talks to him and says my son your tribulation will be but a small moment and if you endure it well thou wilt be exalted on high. I was just thinking, well, if life is hard, straight through all the way, life is but a small moment compared to forever. Just kinda motivation to always just do your best even when it's hard and easy to just do the wrong thing. We can know if we do our best and just endure it well, we will be happy forever. If you get persecuted for doing the right thing, so what, if you really believe in God, you can know he's pleased with you and your joy will be greater than those who persecute you. Just do your best everyone. I love you all!
Love Elder Rose

Patience, patience, patience

Hey everyone. Sorry i'm a bit late. In this new area i wont always have access to internet and had to come to a different town to get it so sorry about that and on thursday i got real busy. This email is gonna be a bit different and probably kinda short. This email I'm going to focus on all the life lessons i've learned this past week. Instead of sayin all the complaints i could say i'm just gonna keep this positive like i've been trying to do here. So first lesson. Impatience is selfishness. My companion was doing something that i thought wasn't as productive as we could but i couldn't come up with anything better than i just wanted to get home so i could get my package. That's lesson one. Impatience always comes through our own selfishness and not putting others first. Second. Esteem thy brother. My comp is a bit different from the ones i've had and doesn't neccissarily like to keep to the rules per say. Well i was getting frustrated and was reading DC i think it was 38 24-25 and it said esteem thy brother. Looked up esteem and it said also love and respect. So that's what i've been working on lately! Third lesson. I really have found joy in this gospel and hope you have too! This mission sometimes can get spiritually draining but i took refuge in the ensign with the conference talks. Read the whole magazine. Man, we are lucky to have all those talks. So reflecting back over this past week i've realized how much i've grown over the last 7 months. I realized how many things i took for granted such as church and seminary, i could have gotten so much more out of it before the mission. I really regret not doing that. If only i were a wiser teenager. But now i look at my future and see how many things i'll be doing differently. How much more my life will be influenced and lived by the gospel and fulfilling my callings in church better. There are lots of stuff i reflect on and can see change and i'm truely blessed to be here on the mission. I love it! Well i'll throw in some quick updates. After i emailed last i got some mail. One dear elder from jenna sent mar 11. one letter from grandma and grandpa neilson sent mar 14 a dear elder from merrit sent apr 4 and a couple others! oh and i also got a package from grandma and grandpa neilson sent kinda recently with some cereal! It was awesome, too bad i got it with lots of missionaries around and when they see you have a package you open it in front of everyone and share haha so lets say cereal lasted about 10 minutes if that. Real quick, since i don't have alot of time this week sorry if i don't email you personally! I read all the emails though! Thank you they mean alot! Had to speak again in church on sunday, the bishop asked us right before sacrament. So i just shared a spiritual thought and my testimony and that was it! There is a reference to my name in DC 49 24! On thursday we had interveiws with president. Those went good. I like talking to him, after that we had a baptism! His name is tevita it went good except the font was a bit difficult. Wish i had time to explain the difficulties with it ahaha but it was good. And another update, today is my 200th day on the mission! So that's about all for this week sorry it was short! I hope you enjoyed it though! If anyone has any update on if isaac is doing his papers i would like to know cause i never hear from him! Thanks for all the love and support! I love you all!
Elder Rose

Jake sent pictures!!

Another transfer in the bag.

Hey everyone hope you're all well! I gotta start makin these emails a tad shorter so i'm sorry! 7/8 We went to a birthday of a couple kids in the ward. It was good! we got some delicious sherbet ice cream It was great! 7/9 Not alot happened. Caroline was still in Vava'u so we never really got to progress with her. it was sad. I was really looking forward to see where she would progress too. 7/10 We ran into a guy from cali that asked what we were doin. She said we were on a mission. And he was like what's that like? We said just sharing a message. and he was like what's the message so we told him basically christs church has been restored. He was pretty interesting. He started throwing all these scriptures at us from the bible and everything and we were just like wow haha. it was a interesting experience. We told him what the book of mormon was about and he was like oh. We didn't want to bash with him cause we'd never see him again so we just let him talk and say what he wanted. Then we wanted to gather in a circle for a prayer right out there in the open outside with his 2 buddies and us. We were just like alright (not many people were outside so we accepted) but we both wanted to say, doesn't the bible say not to pray inpublic? But we figured his intentions were probably good. He even threw som specific verses in his prayer too. It was odd wish i could explain better haha. well we went to church and gave our talks. They went well. It was on m russle ballards talk in conference about finding joy in loving service. I just read a few paragraphs from that and read about how members are missionaries to and told everyone we need their help finding people, they know where the people who are ready live and we use alot of time on people not ready so their help would be grand. and i did a little object lesson with them haha. It was good all in all. Everyone after asked if our fafanga was able and made sure we could eat. Funny how they do that after you ask for some help haha. well that night we got a call from zl's and said Makasini and I were both leaving Kolomotu'a. I had been there since April so like 3 months there with Makasini. I didnt sleep real well that night. All i knew is we were leaving. We don't know where or who our comps will be until we are actually like, there and moved. I also finished my first missionary journal! 7/11 we got ready cleaned the house and waited to get picked up. the zone leaders came to get me. Said bye to the family next door and to Makasini. Man it was going to be weird without him. I loved my  time with him in Kolomotu'a. well my new companion is elder Langi. Tongan from here. Speaks good english though cause they have to at school. We are on the very east side in Niutoua. I'm lucky to be able to be emailing right now. There is like no where to internet so i got lucky that the stake center here a couple towns over has it and we could get on. I was really worried i wasn't going to be able to. I love emailing so much and it means alot to hear from everyone and i just always look forward to it. But there will be a time to come when i won't get to for awhile. So if I don't get to at any time, i'm sorry, i'm not dead, there just is no email. But that doesn't mean you cant still email me. I'll write letters when i don't have email. I just got lucky this time! Anyway got to my area and we get to have bikes! We went for a ride, my chain came off, langi cut in front of me and i ran into him and hopped off the bike haha. No injuries. then on the way back his bike didn't work, he couldn't peddle. in my area there is this thing called the Ha'amonga. You might be able to google it. It's like stonehedge. No one really knows how it got here. They are rocks from fiji. It's pretty sweet. And i'm right by the ocean, man i love it. It's so pretty! I'm out in like a jungle area too. They call it the bush. Just lots of trees and stuff! I was really worred abou this transfer and was having a hard time this day. But i'm good now. 7/12 a much better day. and went quick! lots of the day i spent reading the liahona in tongan. Our district meeting got cancelled. yet again my comp is the district leader. So far all of my comps have been. I decided i really love reading these magazines. So that's the challenge for this week. Read the church magazines. They have some great stuff! I got a haircut! It's a 4 on my whole head. I look like a soldier. but i think it looks pretty decent! 7/13 we fixed the bike! we rode i swear it was the whole island but it wasnt'. needless to say my butt is sore! right now we have 3 in our companion ship because one is waiting for his companion to come from another island. Well that's about all! I love and miss you all! Thank you for your support!
Love Elder Rose 

That was a fast 6 months.

Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing well! Thanks for all the emails! Just want to tell my buddy Mike Mac Happy birthday! Well here are highlights of the week! 7/1 happy july! We visted Finau Moana, she's doing good. Still hasn't come back to church but we go and make sure everything is good with her and invite her to come. But she's still doing good even though her husband left her. We also visted Fa Holani. She's also good. I met her boyfriend for the first time. She's still trying to finish her divorce so she can marry this guy. I thought about giving her like 20 bucks to help pay for one of her papers. It's 20 bucks a paper and work out here so far i heard a good paying job is 3.50 an hour. So i can see why that's not easy to do. Then we went to the baptism of Seini's daughter. It was good. It's good to see Seini get back into church. Then that night started a comp exchange with Elder Thompson. 7/2 We spent all day trying to find this house we heard had people interested. Well asking around everyone was giving us different directions. We'd go to where we were told and then the next person would say it's right by where we just came from and so after doing that half the day we just gave up. Had dinner and then that night visited and shared a spiritual thought with 3 families. one with the tu'ivais. Semisi's family. That went good. Well a moment you all want to hear. Every missionary has this moment. Well in our area there is this house with a fence around it....and they have 2 dogs. one just like normal dog and another one that i'm pretty sure is on steriods or something cause it's one of the biggest dogs i've ever seen. One side is open all the time and there is another side with a gate that is always shut. Well, thompson and i were walking on that gated side that we always walk past. Well it was dark and i told thompson about this huge dog at this house we were gonna walk past that allways comes up to the fence to bark at us with the other one. Well, we come up to it and they start barking, and we walk past the gate that seems closed but...it wasn't. The big huge dog came out like right next to me and barking and i was like trying to walk away from it, running over thompson while i was at it, who was trying to pick up a rock, well it almost ate my hand but we kept walking and were gonna just be on our way well we were about to go up the other side that is always open cause the dog is never there. Well a car past before we got there and that beast went and started barking at that car! Needless to say we went around the whole block to avoid going that way haha. It was fun. well then we visited another house that had been less active and just reminded them of church and then we went to seini's house and shared a message with her. Thompson made her promise to go to church and told me to tell him if she didn't. 7/3What a grand day this was.. well we went to ward 3 and in priesthood opening excersices they start saying how the month changed so they are now feeding missionaries at night. Well some people were like they never come and sit and complain about us and basically embarrass the heck out of us when we haven't missed going to a feeding yet. And the guy that said it was our fafanga that day. We weren't really happy. We needed to vent to each other. And we'll just say i didn't go bear my testimony. Well Seini did which was awesome to see her do all on her own and trying to come back to church. Well after sacrament one of the bishopric come up and he was part of the whole thing saying we don't show up to fafanga, well when we went to his house he didn't even know he was supposed to and we knew that and so we just said we were visiting people so we wouldn't embarrass them, anyway he comes up after sacrament and asks if we'll speak next week on service. Did he think that would make my day? Cause it didn't. I don't know tongan well enough at all to do that. But us being missionaries of course accepted and didn't show how frustrated we were with everyone. So i get to talk. I'll tell ya how that goes next week. 7/4 Happy fourth of july here! Realized i missed that and really liked going to fireworks with everyone haha. Nothing to exciting. I ate octopus again. It was good. 7/5 Happy fourth of july to you all! Hope it was just fantastic! We had district meeting. The AP's came and i did the spiritual thought. The meeting went 45 minutes longer then supposed to haha. I knew it would as soon as Elder Taumalolo (AP) stood up to speak. Well then we walked alot. To sopu then to Hofoa then to Puke and in puke we taught lesson 4 to 3 kids with Elder Tafea and Unga. Then Makasini interviewed them all and passed for baptism. Then walked all the way back to kolomotu'a for fafanga and ate with a family we love. And i shared a spiritual thought with them about prayer. They said they'd been slackin on that so they'll do better. Then at home i got a package from mom! With some candy and a tape. Got here quick! Sent June 23 got here July 4! Since i seem to be getting most of her mail here is the address she sends to:
Elder Jacob Aaron Rose
Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission
P.O. Box 58
Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga
South Pacific
Hope that helps! oh and it was my 6 month mark this day! 7/6 We were wanting to teach caroline, She was still in Vava'u, puts a damper on our progress with her. We did a baptismal interview for Unga and Tafea and that's about all for that day! Then today 7/7 we woke up and there was a tsunami warning, nothing happened. We went and ate and played a little volleyball in Hofoa and i got a dear elder letter from kevin sent march 21. haha I guess dear elder does send them out? Who knew? anywho, That's about all! thanks for everything from you all! It's been a great 6 months here and look forward to the 18 left! I'll keep working hard and you all keep doing your best in all you do everyday! Love you and miss you all!
Elder Rose

Trying to come up with a subject week after week is hard. But fun?

Landon i just wanted you to see the subject line you don't need to read this email except this first line haha. Kinda an inside joke i got with Landon, i mean Elder Egan. Well everyone i hope this email finds you all well and happy! Cause this life is about experiencing joy! So why not make the best of it even in hard times! Stay postive! Things will always get better! Well to start off first congrats to cortnie, my step sister, she was engaged last week. That proves miracles really do happen from missions. ;) just kidding cortnie you know i love you! You had to expect a line like that from me! That really is good for her! Well last thursday 6/23, gave a missionary a haircut! I did a good job haha. First haircut complete! Man, a baptism had to be delayed cause one of the tongan missionaries didn't fill the font, he made up that someone else was doing it. That should never happen. It wasn't to good. but the baptism eventually happened. 6/24 we talked to the lady in charge of visiting teaching. no one is really doing their home or visiting teaching to the less active so we are trying to help get that going again. Then we just tried to set up our baptism all day for saturday. Then we interviewed misi that night. well the zone leaders did. Everything was good except he told them he didn't want to get baptised the next day. We were like huh? What? That kid was Pau (certain) I only know how to explain that in tongan really. like he was sure to get baptized. 6/25 what a busy day. woke up at 630 run to misi's and talk to him. Ask him why he doesn't want to be baptized, he said he just didn't want to, we both bore testimony and tried to help him see how important it was. We asked him again, still he said no. We told him he had his agency but we asked him to pray about it and we'll come back at 1030. We went home and we both said an out loud prayer to god. he works in mysterious ways. after we prayed we did some study. I came across 2 ne 21. That's a cool chapter. All symbolism from joseph smith but also the pioneers. In like verse 15 it says they were spoiled of the east and headed west towards moad. Well i was thinking, just thoughts, might not be true but these were my thoughts. Well wasn't the first temple operating st. george temple? And at that time it was probably called like moab territory or something. I dunno just my thoughts. I'd like to hear feedback. i just thought it was cool. Then we tried to figure out what the 7 streams represent! well then we went to misi's house at 1030 our plan was kinda to talk to his parents to see if they knew anything. we talked to his mom, after like one minute he comes out quickly and interupts "Missionaries, i will be baptized today, Right now?" haha we were like well that's awesome but we'll do it at 530 tonight. Well our prayers were answered and this is how. After we left that morning he told his mom we were coming back and she asked why, he said cause he told us no to baptism, well last week he went with his oldest brother who is catholic and was bound to scare him of getting baptized or something and just told him not too. Well his mom was mad and she gave him a good whap/slap. Well i guess if ya can't listen to the small prompting of the spirit ya listen to the loud prompting of mama's hand haha. he really did want to be baptized he was just scared. well we had a miracle happen. We had to get him to agree to baptism before we could tell anyone so once he did we had a busy day and were worried about filling the font. So right after we left we went to the font, it was already filled! Wow we are really wondering how it happened but that made us way less busy cause it takes a few hours to fill! That was so nice! Then we went around all day telling and inviting people and gettin it all set up. well we went back to the font after we did, at like 330 just to make sure it was still filled. Some kids had gotten in it and put bread and rocks and wrappers in it. We cleaned out the wrappers and bread best we could and pushed all the rocks to the side without getting in it. Then we went home to wait for our ZLs. Well there is always a new experience with me as makasini says. They came over and we got invited to a 1 yr old birthday at 5 so we were gonna go show for a sec then go to our baptism. I didn't want to take my baptism pants and towel and extra shirt so i asked if the ZLs could bring it at like 515. They stayed at our house and said they would. Well we leave show up to the Birthday for a sec and then go to the church, 530 comes around and everyone is there except the ZLs. We were thinking wow they fell asleep. So we went to the bishops house and called them. I guess i closed the door to our house when we left. It locks from the outside. Im just used to doing it when we leave so they were locked in. Well our neighbor who had come to the baptism took us back to get them out. we get them and the stuff and the rest of the baptism went smooth! It was good! I baptised Semisi Falefa Tu'ivai. he was all smiles. And caroline, the white lady, showed up just in time to see it. It was cool. 6/26 well we waited for misi to show up to church, he came the class before sacrament. We gave him one of the ties grandma sent me in the MTC to wear. He liked it haha. Well we were filling out his record during sacrament and we get his birthday 7/25/2002. Do the math. Makasini turns to me and is like rose, if i did the math right we just pulled a super 8. I count it up. MISI ISN"T 9 TIL NEXT MONTH! dang it haha doesn't count as a convert baptism, but we found that out right before we have to go up on stage to do the confirmation. Well we didn't stop it we did the confirmation and all was good. Nothing is wrong it just doesn't count as a convert. They said he was nine. Oh well we just get to hear that we pulled a super 8 the rest of our mission haha. But he's a good kid. He'll be like the first tongan prophet! Then we went to carolines that night. Talked to her for awhile. She loves the plan of salvation and we talked to her all about that. She loves reading the BOM already in Mosaiah. But, she has a hard time believing it, joseph smith, and jesus christ. She thinks joseph smith wrote the BOM. So we tried to just talk to her about it. And we are going to try to watch the JS movie with her. She left to Vava'u and doesn't come back til monday. We've been praying she'll be touched. We also asked her to pray and she agreed to. Hopefully we can baptize her before this transfer is over next week and we might move. We'll see. She's way ready and very well educated about the religion. I hope she feels it's right. 6/27 It was the rainiest day so far. We couldn't do anything all day it was raining so bad. We came to a members house and did our wash and stuck around there basically all day. 6/28 we had district meeting again. It was just like usual. we tried doing a baptismal interview for the longolongo elders but it wasn't able both times we went. we went to havelu to have fafanga with the havelu elders. we went and the guy gave maka 20, uasila'a 20 and me and hyer 50 to split! That guy was loaded! So we got some pizza! We also did a comp exchange with the havelu elders. Maka stayed there with hyer and uasila'a came to kolomotu'a with me. I was way worried just cause he is tongan from here and didn't know if i'd understand him. well it actually went really well. I was able to understand alot of what he said and he's really funny and cool! 6/29 uasila'a and i visited a few houses. Uasila'a talked to both of them for a long time. One of the houses we went to i asked uasila'a to share a spiritual thought to this less active guy. he said okay. Wel they talked forever and i saw Uasila'a wasn't going to so it was silent for a sec and i asked if i could share. So i did. It went well, shared alma 37:37. Well after that Uasila'a and him talked alot longer haha. Man we were there way longer then i expected! Nothin else to exciting happened. We exchanged comps back that night. it was good. then today 6/30 We got the opportunity to again go to the temple. It went really well! Was able to understand more than last time which was good! It seemed almost like instead of it sounding like it talked faster than the speed of light it sounded slower to me. I hope that someone just didn't slow it down and iwas able to really just pick up more. I am still tryin! It's all i can do and it will come eventually! But then also today we interviewed someone for longolongo elders. Ofa Maile, She was one of my first investigators if you remember said she'd get baptized but not til her husband comes back. Well she is gettin interviewed on saturday! That's way awesome! Hopefully it helps her husband come back! Well that is about all i think! Thanks for all you all do for me! I'm very thankful! I am thankful to be here as well! it's an amazing experience. I love and miss you all! 
Love,
Elder Rose

Hello there across the seas!

Pretty sure you are all not on tonga so therefore hello across the seas! Well it's that time again for an email from me! 6/16 after i emailed you that day we taught misi lesson 4! That went well. He's a really receptive 9 yr old and remembers everything we teach him! It's sweet! 6/17 Well we talked to Halaevalu and invited her to church i shared DC 38 7 with her! Then we were gonna teach misi but he was with his friends so we invited all the friends too! haha we taught 7 kids. 2 who aren't baptized and after one said he really wanted to but we need to talk to his parents! Then we talked to a lady named Faholani. We talked awhile. She was telling us about her life. We invited her to church. She said she would come! Shes a less active. Then we visited Finau again and asked her to come to church. She said she promises too. Her husband left. He was always drunk and stuff. I feel bad for these ladys. Their husbands stink!! Then we visited manase and his wife! They both said they would come to church too! 6/18 we did service! We made a garden for these people to grow manioke and taro. i got 3 blisters in like 10 minutes. Man that was hard work and in america that work would be way easier! haha. But it was really good! blisters were fun to have haha. We were gonna teach misi but he wasn't home so we talked to his grandpa who is wesleyan. Talked awhile! Then we went to a ladys house we heard there was a white girl interested in the church. Well we met her. She's an anthropologist from chicago. She is really interested in mormonism because it's the fastest growing church and she wondered why they get so much crap. We talked to her for a long time about life and answered questions she had. Just trying to talk. She has had the discussions before so we are trying to have a different approach with her. but i asked her to read the BOM and gave her one. She was way down to read it. She's really interested but not interested to be a member. Haha something i never thought of that she thought why we were fastest growing was cause we have nice churches and the way we dress. Somethin i never thought about. I like talking to her. Honestly i think she could be baptized. We'll see were it goes though. 6/19 we went to get semisi so he would come to church. Well he wasn't home he went to a funeral in popua. We went with AP's again to teach at another church. That went good. Taumalolo asked me to teach some parts this time. I felt like i did alright. He said i did good too so that was nice. Just taught lesson 1. Then we went to havelu so maka could do a baptismal interview. The 2 kids were supposedly taught but they didn't know anything in the interview. 1 kid was pretty good so maka passed him for baptism but said the girl wasn't ready. The bishop was way mad. Said they were his kids and been taught. It was a big mess for a bit and i may have wanted to tell that bishop what i was thinking but i didn't, partly cause i don't know how to in tongan haha. but everything turned out alright. so at church that white girl came to church and halaevalu! Halaevalu seemed so happy! It was awesome! I mean she seems happy at home but she seemed to have a glow and almost a freedom. It was awesome. Way good to see her there! And we heard that misi's family, who has been inactive, all went! Sweet! But the others we invited didn't show up but we'll try again next week! 6/20 man june is flyin by! We went to manase's house. They said they weren't able to go to church. But we talked to his wife about faith and alot of other stuff and it turned out really good. I told him some stuff in tongan that i have never said before in tongan, it wasn't perfect tongan but they understood. Manase said they understood and felt my spirit. Guess that's all that matters! 6/21 We had district meeting. i did our report! It went good. Felt confident with it and that it all made sense! Then after we all went to a house and ate! We went to havelu to reinterview that girl but we couldnt' find the elders there so it didn't work out then walked all the way to tofoa and we got to watch the joseph smith movie in english. the zone leaders put it on for people to come see! Everything understands english around town so it was good. Man i just love that movie. I wish they gave us a copy to show to people! it's so powerful! I love watching it. I felt the spirit strongly there! We got home and maka had been feeling sick so i gave him some stuff to help him. 6/22 maka was sick but the AP's called and said one of them was coming to observe our comp study and then going with us to visit our investigators and then we had a meeting with president the other district leader in the zone and the zone leaders. So maka was a man and just fought through it and no one even could tell he was sick. Comp study went really good. All in tongan and i understood and then we went to visit misi but he wasn't home but visited his family for a minute and they said they really enjoyed church and then we visted that anthropologist and talked to her again. Man, she's already in 2 nephi! She said she's really enjoying reading and it's really interesting and can see where we get our teachings from. I told her our first visit you can get all our teachings from the bible and the book of mormon and she's seeing that. She grew up protastant. She came to tonga cause she heard that like 50% are mormon haha. I think it'd be cool if she got baptized and i think she's ready to. We still are going to fast and pray about it though so we know what to do! Then we went to the meeting. It was really good! I understood alot of it and i was able to say some things. I had to say the opening prayer and we all bore testimony at the end but while prez was talking i said some other stuff. After the meeting he said i'm doing really good and my tongan is really good. So that was a major confidence boost. I hope to just be able to keep the confidence for awhile and not fall into a slump again and just keep progressing! It felt really good! I'm trying to talk to people more and maka more in tongan. He's just an awesome guy. I feel so blessed to have had him for 2 transfers. He's a major help to me. thats for sure! It's awesome. Well then we went to havelu and did the interview. the girl seemed more ready so those 2 kids are gettin baptized today (thursday). And then it's still morning here so not anything exciting has happened yet! So that's all! Till next week! I love you all and so grateful for you and your prayers, love and support! Means the world to me! I am so lucky to be out here on a mission to just serve the lord and bring happiness to people. It's truely amazing. This gospel is true. I know it is. I know Jesus is the Christ and came and redeemed our sins. I know this is the only true church on the earth. I know we will meet God again after this life and we must prepare to meet him. The time soon cometh. I konw Joseph Smith was a true prophet and he restored this gospel and saw God the Father and Jesus Christ and he did translate the Book of Mormom which is true. I know that we are Gods children and he blesses us when we do as he says. I know that because of my service out here my family is blessed. Because they are it makes being out here totally worth it even if they are the only ones who recieve the blessings but they definitely aren't. I am sooooo blessed it is crazy and i'm eternally grateful for my loving father in heaven who loves and cares about me and all of us. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen. I love you all! Til next week! 

Gotta make this one quick!

Hey everyone! Not alot of time to email this week so i'm gonna try to keep it quick! Friday was like christmas! I got 3 packages. All from mom. Some tapes and candy and garments and journal! We got to meet up with my MTC teacher brother payne who visited here. It was cool seein him again. I realized Isaac can turn in his papers this month. That's freakin cool if he does. I'd like to hear from him! saturday did a comp exchange. I was with elder tafea. We walked aton trying to find this house and we finally did but no one was home. it sucked haha. But we went to a baptism of the wife and daughter of the guy who was baptized in like march by the mission prez. The Spirit was so strong! Then we had a FHE with a less active family that night. sunday some of the people we invited to church showed up! IT was really good too see. But we didn't get the chance to talk to them cause we had to leave early cause the AP's needed us to help them teach. I went with elder taumalolo and he did probably the most boring lesson i've ever seen. There are like 5 investigators teaching them all at once and he just did it all on the chalk board and did it like a school lesson. Pretty sure no one felt the spirit really. I saw like 2 of them nodding off. Hopefully they felt something during it though that helps them! Monday. Can't believe we are already almost half way done with the transfer! Way fast! We gave a blessing that morning to bishop whose leg was hurting him from diabetes. He ended up in a wheel chair. (today though we saw him standing up walking around. HOpefully that is just a good sign that the blessing helped!) We taught a 9 year old lesson 1. It went really good. then we had an FHE with his family. Tuesday. We had district meeting. Went pretty good! just like normal. We taught misi lesson 2. Another good thing. He's getting baptized next saturday! I saw while i was eating dinner that night that the Mavs won the championship. Good for them. I wanted miami to win but i'm glad mavs did over the lakers. Take that anyday! Then we had a good comp inventory that night. Wednesday. I got a package from Jenna! It was pretty dang sweet! All this packages were sent in may SO they all got here really fast! I wonder where all the other ones are? HOpefully they come soon? We taught Misi lesson 3. I tried to just wing what i was teaching and not have anything just memorized. It went okay. Not real smooth. I was reallyjumbled together. But good thing maka cleared it up for me. Then me and Elder tafea went to set up an appointment while maka and unga went to another house we had planned to go to at the same time. we got the appointment for saturday which is 2 investigators that are basically for sure baptisms which is good! That's really all the highlights for this week! SOrry it was quick! I love you and miss you all and very thankful for all the support and love and mail and prayers and everything from you! I am so thankful to be out here being a missionary it is so awesome! A truely amazing experience! I feel so blessed to do so! Til next week! 
Love,
Elder Rose

Well well well what do we have here?

It's another email from Elder Rose who is doing the most amazing thing ever! He is sharing the gospel with people in Tonga! Yup he's pretty lucky! Hello everyone! Hope all is going wel for you all! First off thanks for all the love and support and emails! I don't think you know what they mean to me as a missionary especially when i know it's hard to take the time to write sometimes! So thank you! Well been a busy week kinda. Hope i can keep this relatively short! I just wanna say that dang, i ate good this week. Members were nice! But I'll go into detail i'm sure as i think i wrote those down as highlights to email haha. Well i'll get started. 6/3 (think i emailed about this day in the last email but oh well) Hahah wow look first thing i have to talk about is food! I got freakin blueberry pancakes for breakfast again! Same lady! Holy moly i miss american breakfast, Even if it's just cereal. All you who don't start your day with food are taking that for granted. I have to wait all day to eat some times. We looked for dean to teach him and his mom but couldn't find him. I think he doesn't really have a desire to be baptized. But we're still going to try talkin to his mom if they are still around and not back in Australia. I started to do wash, yup you guessed it, i broke our bucket. Oops! my bad! We got to go to the 'uta with Peni (pronounced Benny) the 'uta is the bush. Or i guess it's really a farm kinda thing! They had an orange tree and i climbed that and we knocked down oranges and we got some cocoanuts to drink and i think that's about it. I shot a video there. You'll all see someday i hope! That night i think i killed like 22 flies in our house. Crazy things. 6/4 We had pancakes eggs and my favorite, real american ham! K so we visited 9 houses. You say wow 9 houses. Well let me tell ya, that's an all day job and walk here in tonga. It was crazy, and all the houses are way far apart. All the ones we visited and actually got to talk to we just invited to church, all of them are just inactive or less active so we just invited them and tried to let them know it is important! That night i felt bad cause at all the houses i didn't really talk. I never really saw an opportunity and didn't really understand but i still felt bad. That night after planning maka said i know you like going to the houses but it's hard when i am the one just having to keep conversations going and you are tuned out. He just asked if i would just try a little more. He expects more of me. But I totally agreed with him and just told him i'd try harder. It's nice to know he just cares and has the confidence in me and just cares that i try. I agreed and just told him thanks for caring and pushing me and i'll try! 6/5 5months done! Wow! We went to church. No one we invited came, dang. We ate way good! Got spaghetti! I ate so much i almost threw up like 4 times. Almost asked to leave the house so i could throw up but i held it down thank good ness! 6/6 we looked for deans again. Couldn't find it. We visited Tevita Akauolas ( the guy we've been trying to teach with ZL's) we can't teach him right  now cause he's got issues goin on with family but we decided to work on his wife and reactivate her. We just asked her to read some of a pamphlet and scriptures that talk about eternal families. She was real interested. Then we visted more houses. Got into every house we tried that day! It was sweet! and set up appoints for all of them! We visited this one lady who i swear is the oldest looking homo sapien i have ever seen. Ya know EEZMA on emperors new groove? Yup like that but older. haha we talked to her forever! But it was hard she was just talking alot and talking about everyones weaknesses. We read Ether 12 27 with her. and got another appointment set! We ate pizza! Then went to a family home evening! It went good! They actually gave us 2 people to teach too! One is just a 9 yr old but hey anyone is welcome and important in our church! 6/7 We had district meeting which was pretty good. Didn't understand everything like last time but that's okay. Chin up right? Well we visited a less active members house and we talked to her awhile and then i didn't really know what people were talking about but i tried to just think of a spiritual thought i could share. At the end i shared DC 38:7 with her. It went good! Then we went to a couple more houses. Taught Josephine (already baptized) half of lesson 4 and then had to leave to another appt. We rush to the appt but the kid already had left so we didn't get to meet with him. Then went to Finau's house and we set up an appointment with her. We got 30 bucks for fafanga so we bought a big pizza. You take 5 dollar pizza for granted. 30 bucks is like the cheapest here. It was good. Then we did a comp exchange. I went with the ZL Thompson. I love that guy. Me and him are way alike. It was cool being with him! we visited missionaries in the zone to just check on them. Me and him talked til 3 that night. 6/8 needless to say, didn't quite wake up on time haha. This day we just moved the ZL's from Hofoa to Tofoa. and we did a baptismal interview. Got another haircut. Man, if i get a decent haircut the first time around after one person this mission i'll be surprised! It took 2 people and it still is pretty....just great to say the least... (sarcsm intented) Then that night we vilo hoa'd back. Then today, 6/9 My MTC teacher payne came to Tonga. Didn't get to see him today. Hopefuly i get to before he goes to Vava'u! Then we went to Hofoa and Pday'd eat and Volleyball! Then sittin here emailing Vuka Sanft called, The one who dropped off the package for me there. I was first to know about her new baby! haha pretty sweet! Well that is all! I love you and miss you all! Thank you for everything! This Gospel is true for anyone who doubts it is. I know without a doubt it is. 
Love
Elder Rose

Time for another email from Tonga!

Heylo family and friends! I got a little more busy on thursday than i expected so didn't get a chance to write this email so that is what i'm doing now! Well it has been 5 complete months now and workin on 6. Crazy huh? I sure think so! Time is going quick! Man people here always ask me about what i think of everything that happens in america. Haha I don't know what's goin on in america. Like when osama died and i guess some tornados hit michigan? or massachussetts? i dunno. It's funny though cause they think i watch news and have a newspaper or something haha. Well i guess i'll get into the highlights of the week! Hope you enjoy and i don't bore you! Well 5/27, not too many highlights really. I actually bought some bread, jam, and peanut butter and had a pb&j. That was pretty much amazing! familiar tastes i don't get alot are always way nice! And we got a LAN line telephone installed in our unit! All the missionary houses are getting them! Finally, they help so much with appointments and if you need the zone leaders or anything it's just nice to know we can get ahold of them and not have to ask people for their phones and use their credit on their phone. So that was the highlights that day. 5/28 I read the book of mormon in tongan, instead of saying that i'll just abbreviate tohi a molomona which is TAM everything i say that. So read TAM alot and did some laundry. I actually saw Shumway, for those who don't know him he is a white guy that's like the best tongan speaker ever, better than tongans, he has been mission and temple prez here. Saw him in a baseball cap and church clothes haha. Funny get up but cool to see him. Didn't talk just saw him. So that was cool. We hadn't been able to go out and walk alot cause of Maka's ankle but did what we could. We got to eat a big pizza that night about from Little Italy, we ate with the family next door. 5/29 transfers were comin up. I told maka i think we'll both stay and he'll be district leader. He said no because he's never been in an area for 3 transfers and i said there is a first for everything. I really just wanted to stay with him cause we have fun, work hard, and i learn aton from him. I was praying what i said was true. Well we went to church and then had fafanga. Then we practiced taught a kid in english going to houston on his mission next month to kinda help him see how it was done. Then that night we were walking to Finau's house (less active) and on the way some people called out to us. We went and talked to them. It was 6 or 7 WHITE PEOPLE FROM BYU haha. They are here trying to help improve prostetics and stuff. Lot's of people are missing a limb from diabetes. But a few of them has been on missions already and it was really weird and cool to talk to RM's while on my mission, not to mention they were all jealous i was on my mission here haha. But it was cool talking to people in english that were white from my same area. They new some people i knew too! Then we went to Finau's house and shared a spiritual though with her and her kids and her nephew. Her nephew has a sad story, he was baptized when he was thirteen by his uncle but he didn't really understand anything and then his dad found out and told him he can't do the mormon thing and he liked being mormon but today he drinks kava and smokes but we think we are going to just kinda let him know what he did at baptism and the covenants he made with god so he kinda realizes what happens and he can live a better life. We'll see how that all goes! we were supposed to get a call that night from the ZL's to see if we were stayin or transfering. We were up til 1 waiting for that call that never came. 5/30 Transfer day! And we still had no idea what we were doin for transfers. We called the ZL's and they said they were headed to the office to figure out what transfers were to happen. We waited awhile for them to call back. They did and maka answered and when he hung up he said.. TOE NOFO!! meaning we are both staying again! I was way excited! and we got different zone leader who is way cool with the one cool one we already had so i was more excited! Then found out Elder Fale got transfered out of the zone. I was a little relieved to have a break from his negativity towards me. Well it was rainy that day and the new ZL came by with our old one. It's gonna be a good transfer! Haha maka is also district leader. Man i just called it! haha. We cleaned up the house that day and did some study. By the end of that day, i guess transfers still weren't done and people were runnin around doing stuff and moving missionaries all night. It was a mess. Hopefully our president realizes he needs to find a better way to do transfers. 5/31 Man it was a dog and bug day. Lots of dogs chasing us and bugs always surrounding us and eatin us up! Don't know what the deal was! I swear some dogs just came out of thin air to bark at us. We had District meeting. Oh man it was glorious. I understood basically everything that was said! It was so awesome! To feel involved and i was even able to put in my 2 sense in tongan and it was just very uplifting to know i'm progressing some! I felt really blessed! It was a good district meeting too. Then we went around visiting less actives! That's what most the work is in our area! It's really hard, you'd think it'd be easy cause mostly all of them are part member families, one problem, the member is always less active so we can't really work on the non member.. we visited about 6 less active houses and set up appointments and chatted with them all for awhile to get to know them. Some of them lie and say they are strong in church and go every sunday and we are like we don't see you, and it's hard not to see you if you did go because there are only like 40 members in the ward haha. So we set up some times to meet with people. These one people have an albino baby. She is 2. She is way funny. Just speaking tongan. Really clearly and good! But she's funny. We shared a spiritual thought with one of the people we met with who is a member but not active and the husband isn't a member. Just shared alma 37 37 with her. Then we were able to teach Dean that night. We taught him and it was a really intense one. We really were pushing him to make the choice to get baptized. The only things stoping him he said was his mom wouldn't let him unless he knew everything, his mom is a member and so is her boyfriend but they are both inactive and aren't living the best lives. It's sad. But it was really intense and we just bore testimony to him and told him importance and that we'd help anyway we could and we'll even talk to him mom with him and all. He comitted to baptism saturday if it was possible. We teach him in english, he is from austrailia, but been here the last like 3 years and going back soon. Well it was a really good lesson and we decided to fast for him and everything. Set up another appt to meet with him the next day and talk. ended the night with pizza with the ZL's and new office elders. I got a really nice complment from thompson who has been the zone leader the whole time i've been here. Just said my language is really good and i'm understanding alot and just doin good. Better than some people who have been here longer. It was nice to hear that. 6/1 did some service. raked up our neighbors yard of all the rotten breadfruit on their ground. Started our fast for Dean, his situation and some other things. We went to a less active house and they worked on maka's ankle to try to make it better. It's crazy what they do. Just rubbing it and moving it around being way rough with it. I woulda cried. He almost did but didn't! Then we prepared a thought to share with one of the less actives we had an appointment with about the wise man and the foolish man. haha i came up with sentences in tongan out of nowhere to share, maka was surprised! Well we go to meet with this guy but he wasn't home. So we went to his neighbor, another part member but less active family. we set an appointment with him to meet on sunday. Then went to visit 3 other houses but all the people were not able to meet with us. Then we waited that night to teach dean which we were fasting for but... he never showed up. It was really discouraging. 6/2 We got to go to the temple! It was really nice! Love the temple. Understood a little more than last time. and everything i said i had to in tongan, they didnt offer to let me do it in english this time haha it was hard, i just made sounds i thought i heard. The lord knows the intent though and it was true! But the whole time I just thought, how am i supposed to learn a language? and I just realized what an act of faith it is. I don't know how to study a language, i just do what i think might help and leave the rest to the lord to help me. So far it's worked. I just hope i can keep picking it up. I have felt really good about the language progress this past week. I'm just trying to speak more with maka in tongan and everything. It will eventually come! Well we had to go with the zl's to look for some elders who went into town, we aren't supposed to go into town, if they were caught then that's not a good thing. never found them. Then we had some way good pizza from a guy who moved here from italy. We destroyed 2 huge delicious pizzas, the 4 of us. Then that night most of our district went to this house that asked us to come for their sons birthday and do a spiritual thought. It was really fun actually ate alot and then just danced around and laughed with the family. I made a fool of myself dancing like i usually do haha. But it's fun to make them laugh. Tongans like when white people do stupid stuff like that. 6/3 Got to have freakin breakfast made for us! It was so good! The lady made us blueberry pancakes! It was heavenly! I loved it! Then we went to find dean cause we were going to talk to his mom! We found him, he said he talked to her and i think he was lying cause he was like no, well yeah actually she said she wants me baptized in austrailia. I dunno what to do with him. We'll keep just trying to teach him i guess! Then we were doin some wash but our bucket broke. Stunk cause i was washing all my church shirts and so i didn't have a dry one. I just rinsed one and put it by our fan to dry a little. Then we went to the bush and helped Peni get some oranges and stuff. The bush is like peoples farms. it was fun! If i get a flashdrive and memory card soon you'll be able to see some pics cause i can send my one home which is almost full which started off being able to hold like 2000 pics! haha. Well we finished wash that night. borrowed a bucket from Peni. And then we helped D with his phone and came home! and today the 4th we got breakfast again! Same lady! Pancakes with ham and eggs! Oh dang so good! Well that's all for the week! Hope you enjoyed! Love and miss you all!
Love,
Elder Rose

What? another one done already?

Hello everyone! Can't believe another transfer has already gone by. I don't believe i've been with Elder makasini already 6 weeks. I hope i get to do another transfer with him he's been way way awesome! He's taught me alot. Well i'll get started on the week i suppose! Starting last p day. 5/19 Nothing to exciting happened really. Just the normal volley ball and eat. Me and maka sini have grown alot together and i saw him mature alot over this transfer. Well trying to sleep that night was a joke. lightning and thunder was crazy! Pretty sure that the fence in the front of our house was struck. It was so crazy and so crazy loud! Holy moly never heard it so loud and close as i did that day! The next day we had zone conference 5/20 it was from 10-4 well on the way there elder fale (my trainer) said my language hadn't improved. Thanks man. You didn't help me at all you have no reason to talk and i felt alot better about my language. But then i still didn't understand much in the meeting so it just got me more down. Also found out this mission is full of a bunch of gossip girls it's dumb how much is said behind each others backs to other missionaries. But then we got to watch the talk elder holland gave to us my first devotional in the MTC. It was SO good to rehear that talk. It is way good! You can probably find it online. He gave it 1/11/11 it is so good. I took notes on it again and it was just amazing! I love his talks. I also got another letter from chet. yet again it was sent to boroko new guinea first! haha at least i got it right? He wrote it 3/18. I came across a scripture this day that just brough me alot of comfort Alma 37:37. I'll let you read it. It was a comforting mission scripture. We ended our meeting with hearing the finishing missionaries testimony and a recent convert. Told us his whole story. Its way cool. He was way against the church but because his son got interested. He read the Book of Mormon out of curiosity and wanted to be baptized ASAP. Pretty cool. 5/21 This was a really cool day that at first i thought was going to be a waste because of the rain. Well we went out and stopped at bishops cause it was raining. He fed us and we waited for the rain to stop. it finally did. Then we went to a members house and talked to them til the rain stopped again. we headed back home to make another plan and come up with what we were gonna do. I started reading the bible and maka took a little nap while we waited for the rain to stop again. Well I woke up 30 minutes later. I didn't know i fell asleep haha. Workin hard i guess. But it was time for fafanga so we went there. They just gave us money and so as we were walkin back we decided to stop by a house where a guy named Tevita Akauola lives. We've tried teaching him this whole transfer but he's never been home. Well we were gonna stop by to see if we could just set an appointment with the zone leaders cause apparently he didn't understand last time so we needed extra help but he was there and they made it seem like they were ready to hear a lesson. Well we took advantage of the chance. We only taught him the first and second principle. They were surprised when we finished somewhat quick but we needed the zone leaders to help teach so we just did a little something. He seemed really interested though. Little background. He is wesleyan and his wife is a member of our church but she just follows him. They just had a baby and want to baptize that baby wesleyan this saturday we found out. More about that later. well we finished up there and then started to walk to a ladys house we'd been planning to go see that was inactive. on our way there we ran into her nephew who we also wanted to talk to and invite him to church. So we did that when we saw him. Then we stopped by a house we had an appointment with but cancelled cause of our zone conference. They were good. Then we went to this ladys house we were plannin. her name is Finau Moana. Anyway we show up and she said she was just praying for us or someone to come. her baby was sick and she wanted her baby to have a blessing. Talk about the lord guiding us there through the rain that i thought was gonna be a waste! Here, you don't really go out in rain cause you get soaked and dont want to go into peoples houses and get it all wet. But anyway we gave her baby a blessing and answered questions she had about the Book of mormon and the God head. She understood after that. I'm confused why she didn't know though because she was married in the temple her first marriage and her husband now is wesleyan. But if she went through the temple you'd think she'd know all that but oh well she knows now haha. She was way nice though. We asked if we could do a FHE with her on monday and she said yes and we invited her to church. It felt really cool to experience physical proof of being a tool in the lords hands to help the ones in need. 5/22 we went to church today. In sacrament for the first ward we go too, the counselor came and asked me to give the opening prayer. I said yes and was scared. I felt my prayers really improved this transfer but i was still scared. well i said it. Man. What a bad prayer. I'm glad God is merciful cause that prayer was as good as well, i dunno, but no good haha. I think i thanked for 2 things and asked 2 blessings. I got nervous what can i say? Mind went blank. Then in Sacrament meeting Mele, Fina & Vala spoke. They live in the house next to us. They spoke cause they are moving to San Fransisco. Then after church we waited for the ZL's so we could go teach Tevita the rest of lesson 1. It went really good. We all took part. I talked about how to pray to know the truth. I felt everything i said came out smooth and made sense. Tevita seemed to have enjoyed the lesson too which is good. Another appointment with him for wednesday at 6. Then we went back and finished church with our other ward. Then we went to our fafanga. Pretty funny we were eating and a really old episode of music and the spoken word popped up on their TV. Made me laugh. Then we had a bishops conference that night with the bishops from our wards and all the leaders of the groups. They were talking about how to do missionary work and bring the less active back. Some decided to do it in their groups. Some decided by families and what not. Then we went to visit Finau to see if the FHE was able for monday. She said it was but her husband won't come (he hates mormons. But he married one?) 5/23 We woke up and got some breakfast from the house we had our fafanga the day before. This time the Wiggles was on. Made me teary eyed for a sec cause it made me miss ty and brooke. Then played basketball with makasini. After that we came and studied and marked up lots of scriptures. Then we went and visited a member a little ways away on our way to our teaching appointment. She was good. Served a mission here in Tonga in 06. Then we went to our appointment with Josephine. We read Ether 12 with her. My favorite chapter. We just explained each verse as we read them. It was good. Then we went to our FHE with Finau. It was really good. I shared the spiritual thought and we did an activity with her about listening to prophets. She really enjoyed it. We finished and she asked us to stay for dinner. So we did. Chicken in noodles. It was good. We also got to talk to viliami. Turns out he was baptized at 13 by his uncle but his dad said no more and made him wesleyan. he's probably 24 now and still likes mormonism and everything. hopefully one day his dad won't hate him and he can be a mormon again. Then we went and had FHE with the family next door to our house. The Tu'ihalangingie's. They are awesome. I just thanked them for all their help to me. We also answered a question of a girl there. She has a friend that asked why we have the book of moses if its just the same as genisis. I said it's cause it has the Joseph smith translations in it and we found a scripture: 1 nephi 13: 29 says how the bible has lost truths that need to be restored. There ya go! 5/24 played ball again. I beat Makasini both times in 21. He made it to 10 one game and not even double digits the other. Felt really good. Man i miss playin real games. I think this volleyball is helpin my jump though. I can grab rim better here and it's not even on a wood floor that gives you lift. Just cement. Hopefully that continues haha. Dunk when i get back. Then we had District meeting. It was really good. I had to practice teach the intro to the Book of mormom in tongan. Never have before but it went okay. Then we did testimony meeting for elder vaka in the district who finishes this transfer. I didn't think i'd see some of the elders cry that i did. It was a good spirit there. Then we all went to eat at Lomios house after. On the way there. Elder fale again asked how my language was. i said good comin slowly but surely. He was like i think it's worse than last transfer. Man this dude is crazy. He is jealous or somethin to see the progress i made this transfer that i never made with him. But he made me so mad. If i'm so bad why doesn't he try helpin me. I hope he goes to a new area so i can have a break from him bein so negative to his son he trained.. anyway that didn't do anything to make my day great. But i talked to maka and as always he cheered me up. Then we went home and read and studied. Then we went to visit some people who just moved in who are supposedly less active. The lady there seemed way into herself. Then we went to fafanga. It was at Tevitas house who we taught. He wasn't their but some people were. Tevitas wifes sister talked to us. Told us he want's to baptize the baby wesleyan. Moroni 8 here we come. Then after that we went to the house next to us and i took a pic with the whole family before some went to america and before and if i get transfered. 5/25 again beat makasini in 2 out of 2 games in 21. Then we ate next door and helped them build thier garden they are doing. Then we studied. Practiced alot for our lesson with Tevita. I was just plannin on teachin the creation principle which is just one sentance. Well we call the ZLs and they say they cant come so we are teachin with fale and unga. I had to pick up another principle. Hard to memorize something with that short of notice. We went to the church and i was able to memorize all i needed to in about 20 minutes. So thankful for God and his help. I wasn't lookin forward to teachin with fale but said a special prayer that i could loose that feeling and to help us be able to teach and tevita would understand. Well time came to go teach. Tevita wasn't there. He had left. He's done that before too. Kinda stunk. I wanted to teach. I felt good. But it's okay. We went to the church and were able to teach dean who we were supposed to teach last week but he never showed. So we talked to him at the church and just talked about joseph smith and the book of mormon. I think he'll choose to get baptized. But he's goin back to australia next week so he won't with us. Then we went to D's house and talked to him. Then today 5/26 Not too much happened. Just like a normal Pday. Just played volleyball alot and some touch rugby. My comp rolled his ankle pretty bad but he's, in his words, "beasting" through it. Walkin all over. He's a tough guy. I love him hes dang awesome. Oh also got a package from landon today that he sent march 31! pretty cool i get one from him the day he entered the MTC best of luck to him. He'll be awesome! Well I think that's about all for the week. If at anytime you just have the urge of "hey i think i'll send jake a package" then something i thought would be good out here is like poptarts and a bag of fruitloops or something. If any of you happen to get that urge. I know it's expensive and not a need. Also, if you send packages. Pictures of jesus on them help the missionaries not go through it before it gets to me haha. They'd feel guilty for stealing in front of jesus. Or something gospel related. For future consideration. Anyway I'm very thankful for all your love and support! Means alot to me! I'll keep on workin hard and you do the same! I love being a missionary serving here in tonga. I'm so blessed to have this experience. I love the gospel and know its true. Til next week! Which i might be in a new area! I'll keep ya updated!
Love,
Elder Rose

It's the hard times we learn from right?

Hello again family and friends! Man these weeks go by fast i don't realize it's time to write you all again til the day i get to which is good! But i always look forward to it! 5/13 Not alot happened, we helped build an umu, underground firepit oven, and helped prepare the meal for the fathers and sons they did here. 5/14 We got some Ta'ovala stuff called Tangai for a lady to weave elder Makasini a new Ta'ovala. Also the nurse came cause Makasini hurt his ribs and we didn't know if it was cracked. She said it was probably just bruised which is good. That night we tied together some of the Tangai for the Ta'ovala to help the lady out. 5/15 Man, woke up an hour after i fell asleep to puke my guts out. Everything I ate on the 14th. Chunkiest puke i ever had. It hurt. Then woke up again 4 hours later to do the same thing! I wasn't feelin well. Puke, diarhea and a headache. The neighbors said that that had been going around and lucky me got to hop on the band wagon! So needless to say another great day in bed! Wasn't to great. But felt a little better by the end of the night. 5/16 I woke up feelin good. Did the morning program. Jogged down to the ocean to watch the sunrise but we were a little early to see it actually come up before we went to play basketbally. Then we went around all day lookin for referrals and just people to teach in general. We went to 1 house for referrals and there was a kid there who goes to our ward fixing his bike. he's from australia but been living here the last 2.5 years. Anyway we talked to the lady and she said this kid wasn't baptized yet. He's probably 14 or so. So we talked to him and his parents are members he just didnt know if he wanted to be baptized. So we spent a few hours talkin to him while helping him fix his bike and set up a time to talk gospel for the next day. We walked around to the bishops house and asked for the lisi mamalohi, the less actives list, he gave us 9! Good start we thought haha. While we were going around Makasini said people said even though i dont talk alot when i do, in tongan, i sound good like i've been speaking it a long time. That really helped me. it's good to hear that sometimes. It helped motivate me to talk more. So we went to a few more houses trying to find people. One of the older ladies in the ward we talked to for a bit. She is missing a leg due to diabetes. That is killer out here. Then we bought a pizza and ate it with the family next to our house then had family home evening with them. Instantly felt the spirit. It was cool. Peni, the man of the house, asked me to do the poupou Fakalaumalie, or the spiritual thought. I didn't have anything prepared for that but was able to whip somethin together and the family is really good in english so i did as much as i could in tongan then what i couldn't in english. I shared DC 38 v 7 with them. I like that one it's a comfort scripture on the mission. Then me and makasini had comp inventory which was good. We both agreed we would just try harder and be as obedient as we could. We hadn't had much success in the area so that's why. 5/17 Hey guess what? Woke up sick again! Everything the same as before without the throw up. But I still did all i could. I woke up on time and went to the basketball court so makasini could play but i watched. Makasini played for bout 20 minutes then said 10 more and we'll go. Until people came i didn't want them to feel they wasted their time. I said i was exhausted played for the past 40 minutes but they were like come on play. SO i did. Hard to hold back bodily fluids that like to forcibly come out while playing basketball. I didn't feel good still when we were done. I went home and napped during study time and asked makasini for a blessing. I bought a sprite to drink cause out here they said that would help. Makasini blessed me in tongan. All i really understood is that i'd have strength to do my work throughout the day. Then i napped the rest of study time and after study time i woke up and got ready. I felt like i could go out. We went to our district meeting which after the long walk there i didn't feel the best again but finished up my sprite and it helped. I was asked to recite the purpose and read the motto. I did and then we did reports and watched a clip from "The District 2" about the power of the book of mormon. It has a part of Jeffery R Hollands Book of Mormon talk from like 2 conferences ago. It's really powerful and strong. I liked it. I was asked what i saw in the clip and a started in english and maka said try in tongan and i did and i was able to say half of what i wanted to in tongan and everyone understood and i said the rest in english. After the meeting we walked to our appointment we set up from the day before but the kid wasn't there. We walked around to a few more houses asking for referrals. Then went home and i cleaned while maka slept. then went to fafanga and came back home. We decided we'd fast the next day. so i studied language a bit then went to bed. 5/18 This was a really good day but very hard. I think it was the hardest time i ever had fasting. I woke up hungry cause i wasn't able to eat much at the fafanga the night before because my stomach was small from being sick. So it was hard really being hungry all day. But it was good. First off we did our morning program and studied some language. Then we did lots a walkin! We went to a guy named lucky's house to teach him but he wasn't home. Then we went to see what was going on with that wesleyan guy who i found out is really the preacher for the church of tonga. But we went there and his wife said he was sick. So we set up a time to come back on friday at 2. Then she gave us a referal for her neighbor. We went down the street to a house that we got refered to by bishop. We talked to a guy named viliami but said they didn't have time to talk cause they were leaving so we set up to come back in the evening, that didn't work out eventually and you'll see why. Then we walked over to the church and sat for a minute and got out of the sun. Why is it that food comes up on fast sundays. For some reason we kept talking about fruit and these stories maka had in vava'u about all the pinapples. needless to say my mouth was watering a little haha. Then we went across the street and talked to a member in the ward and asked her if she knew where anyone lived on the list we'd got from bishop. She told us the one she kenw. We headed that way and came to a guy named manase vilingia who i thought was a strong member cause when i'd seen him before he was happy and always smilin and telling me to keep smiling and it'll help in the work. Well i guess he is pretty inactive haha. so we visited him for awhile. I didn't say much. It's cool though. This day i was able to understand more than i ever had whenever we talked to anyone. And if i can even pick out one word i hear a couple of times in a conversation between makasini and whoever. I feel like that is progress and i was able to do this alot this day and ask makasini later the meaning. I really felt the lord helped me in my purpose. Then after we were deciding if we should go to D's or go home. I said lets just go to D's since we are out. Well we got there and were told he just left to Peni's ( peni is the guy at the house whose property our house is on). Maka said i was stupid for choosing this. haha just kidding but we were like dang shoulda just gone home. So then we go home and D wasn't there. that's okay though it wasn't a must to see him. We took a little break and tied some tangai together for maka's ta'ovala. I decided something i miss i didn't know i would is scouts and mutual. It was way fun and maka and i talked about alot of good times we had. I'm really glad i was also pushed to get my eagle! Thank you! I really hope i am involved with the youth in my church calling. I also thought that i can't wait to go to scout camp with my own son. It will be cool to do! Then we hard our longest walk of the day over to josephine and taught her lesson 3. For the first time I saw her make eye contact for longer than .3 seconds! And she answered more! Still nothing more than one word but more than silence! It was good. She always seems happy to see us too which is good. Then the lovely and waited for time came to go to fafanga to eat. We were hopin to eat good. It was another long walk to our fafanga so by the time we got there maka and i were just drained. Maka explained it as he couldn't hold a smile on his face anymoe. It was a tiring experience. So we get to the house and they had forgotten about us. Well they gave one of the kids money to go to the store to buy us something but they said oh you should walk with him. We were thinkin walk more? Let alone backtrack from where we just came? Man we might not make it there. But we did and then the member that was supposed to feed us pulled up and picked us up. We got the money from the kid and they took us to a restaurant we go to quite a bit. I got chicken nuggets which is a new item there and maka got curry chicken. Still not as good as a home made meal but we would take anything at that point. so then they dropped us off at home and maka and i broke our fast and we ate. It was glorious. It was a very good experience though. We felt blessed by the lord and know he loves and cares about us and know he appreciated our sacrifice and faith. It was hard. Well after we ate there was a visitor next door. it was the sister of Peni. She lives on another island and maka knew here when he worked on that island. So we got stuck talking to her. So we didn't make it to meet with Viliami. But we will probably do that tomorrow. Then after that we went to D's. He's funny. He helped Makasini with some really good scriptures for lessons. Then we came home. All in all it was a very tough physically day but definitely a faith and testimony builder that fasting and prayer with a purpose works. Oh, on the way to fafanga i was able to memorize a spiritual thought seriously in like 3 minutes. It was really cool how fast i was able to, not by my self could i do that though. Only with help from the lord. Too bad i didn't get to share it! well we have two teachings set for friday, one with that church of tonga minister and we find out today we have zone conference, we have to reschedule. I wish things out here were a little more thought out and planned out better. I don't like rescheduling especially after it took so long to get the appointment. But it will all work out. Hopefully we can help this guy. Okay one last story for you all. So there was a guy out here whose son died. He went to the temple to pray. Well he was in the celestial room and he was kneeling. A worker came up to him and kindly told him that no one is allowed to kneel but they are more than welcome to sit and pray. Well he took major offence to this. He got some people together and on TV he told about everything that goes on in the temple. I Mean EVERYTHING. It's crazy. He wanted to destroy the church but all it is doing is helping the work. People here ask about it and we just say its sacred and there are covenants we make with god that we cant reveal. So they say well how do i do that and yeah. Gets them really interested. This guy wanted to talk to the supervisor to ask why he couldn't kneel. That guy happened to be D. The guy in our ward. But crazy huh? Hopefully that guy figures it out and comes back and realizes honestly how stupid he was for doing that. Well i think that's it for this time! I hope you enjoyed and i didnt bore you to death! I love you and miss you all and pray for your safety every day! Thank you for everything you all do for me!
Love, 
Elder Rose