I am Elder Jake Rose, and I am currently serving in the Tonga Nuka'alofa mission. I left to the MTC January 5, 2011 and will arrive back to my home in Utah in two quick years.
This is my story and the stories of the people of Tonga.





Elder Jacob Aaron Rose

Tonga Nuku'alofa Mission

P.O. Box 58

Nuku'alofa, Tongatapu, Tonga

South Pacific

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

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

Sunday, September 18, 2011

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!