Weekly Update July 23, 2014

Elder Bly, Ofa, Br. Arthur, Elder Rosier

G'day Friends and Family,

Today is the last preparation day of my mission, so this will be the last email I send updating you all on what's been going on here.  To be honest, it was a pretty typical week.  We were able to see Zeth again.  It's kinda hard to teach him.  He has the shortest attention span of anyone I've ever taught.  But we had a good lesson with him on how studying the Book of Mormon will help him achieve the goals he has to better his life.  We saw the Turners as well.  One of the families in the ward invited them to come to their home for a big dinner.  It was a really good night.  The Turners are being welcomed by ward members with open arms.  We were blessed to see them at church again this Sunday.  That's been 3 weeks in a row for them, and this time they stayed for the whole block.  They all seem really happy to be here.  It was initially a big step for them to attend, but they seem more and more comfortable each week they come.

On Friday we went around to Ofa's to try and catch up with him.  Unfortunately, he wasn't home when we came around.  We were able to give his mum a Book of Mormon in Tongan, and she said she'd start reading it that night.

We're now about half-way through my last week as a missionary.  It's a very strange feeling.  I keep thinking that I'll find myself waking up in one of my previous areas, looking at my companion and saying, "I had the strangest dream that I was about to go home."  But it's not a dream.  It's reality.

I started going around and saying goodbyes yesterday.  I went around Capalaba ward to see different people I miss from over there.  I still have a few more to go and see.  Yesterday we dropped in on Paul.  We had a good chat with him.  He's doing well.  His faith is still very strong that he'll have the opportunity to come to the Church one day.  I sure miss teaching him.

I would really like to thank everyone for their love and support.  I know I couldn't have made it through this experience if it wasn't for my family and friends back home.  I love you all.  Thank you for your prayers, love, letters, sacrifice, and encouragement.  To be honest, this has been the best experience of my life.  I almost don't want to come home.  But I will, because if I don't, my mother will kill me.

I love you all,
Elder Ross Rosier

Weekly Update July 14, 2014

Hello everybody!

Sorry to have left you all with such a cliff hanger last week.  I was barely able to hit "send" before the computer shut off.

This week was a really long week.  I'm really not sure why it felt that way since Elder Bly and I were able to get a lot done.  I guess time's just slowing down before I leave.  No complaints on that!  Time has been going by way too quickly over the last few months.

We were able to see Zeth again this week.  Since I didn't get to say much about him,  I'll fill you in on the details.  We met Zeth last Saturday while we were tracting in a neighborhood nearby the chapel.  He's a really friendly, very talkative Maori who's from South Auckland.  He's from Otara, the same suburb that Elder 'Iongi is from.  He pretty much grew up in the gangs there, and ran with the Bloods for a long time. Needless to say, he's got a lot of stories he likes to tell.  He came to Australia about 11 years ago to get out of the gang life and try to start over.  Though he left the gang, the gang has never really left him.  When we go to visit him, he's always wearing something red, and his house is completely decked out with red.  Zeth has a few really close friends who are the nephews of one of the members in our ward:  Brother Otene.  A couple years ago, Zeth was doing some work for brother Otene, and Brother Otene talked with him a bit about the church.  He even brought Zeth one time to sacrament meeting.  He also gave Zeth a Book of Mormon.  Zeth had just found the Book of Mormon Brother Otene gave him a couple days before we knocked on his door.  He is really looking for better things in his life, and when we came around, invited us back right away.  We met with him again this week and challenged him to read his Book of Mormon.  It will be interesting to see what happens with him because it is really hard to get him to sit still and stay on topic!

Yesterday after sacrament meeting, Ofa was ordained to be a priest.  He's doing really well, and is very excited about the gospel.  We're still trying to get in and teach his mum.  She's still keen to get baptized, but she knows she cannot be baptized unless she and her partner get married or separate.  I think she's waiting to work that out before she has the discussions.

Well, I hope everyone has a great week.  I love you all!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update July 7, 2014

G'day everyone!

It was a long week for Elder Bly and I.  We were both battling bad colds.  I just about completely lost my voice one day this week.  Fortunately, we were able to see a few miracles as we did our best to push through.

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.  I really miss that celebration.

Our biggest miracles this week came on Saturday and Sunday.  We were blessed to have the Turners finally attend church with us on Sunday, and they really had a great time.  We were very excited to see them come, as they've been a bit nervous since they don't know anyone in the ward.

On Saturday we found a new guy to teach.  His name is Zeth.  He grew up in South Auckland, and has had a rough past.  He was highly involved in gang activity for most of his life.  He's affiliated with the Bloods.

I wish I had more time to write about it, but I'm down to 30 seconds.

Love you all!
Elder Rosier

This photo was published on the mission blog.  It was taken when President and Sister Henderson came to the Cleveland zone for interviews and flat inspection.

Weekly Update June 30, 2014

Hello again everyone!

It's only been a few short days since I last wrote, and not too much has happened.  However, we were blessed to witness Ofa be baptized this weekend!  And what a spiritual experience it was!  Ofa was grinning from ear to ear as he walked out of the font.

I think the best part of the baptism happened during the feed we had afterward.  While we were eating, Ofa's mum got up and spoke to us all.  She talked about her experiences with the Mormon church she's had through out her life.  She grew up in Tonga in a Methodist family that always studied the Bible together.  For a while she attended Liahona College in Tonga, which is a church-run school.  That was her first exposure to the church.  When she came to Australia, the only church-going family she had here were aunts and uncles who were LDS.  They were a great support to her, and a wonderful example.  She has felt for a very long time that the church is true, but has been scared to join because of her family's tradition in the Methodist faith.  For anyone reading this that knows anything about the pacific cultures, they'd know that everyone in Tonga is either Mormon or Methodist, and the families are always very strong in their faith.  Hence why she feels nervous to go against the family tradition.  But she's always pushed family members who are looking for faith or help in their life to the LDS church, though.  That's one of the reasons why Ofa approached us.  As she witnessed her son's baptism, you could tell she was touched by the spirit, and, during her speech, announced that she is going to join the church.  This is such a wonderful miracle!  I have great faith that Ofa's example will be instrumental in bring most of--if not all--his family into the gospel.

We had a really awesome experience this morning.  I believe I've mentioned before that our mission has had a goal to achieve 100 baptisms this month.  This is a fete that has never been accomplished before in Australia, and likely happens very rarely in the Pacific area.  I mention that because the challenge came from Elder James J. Hamula, who is the Area President.  We had a mission-wide conference call this morning with President Henderson.  He spoke for a while about a few things before finally announcing the number we achieved.  We could already tell we had achieved our goal, because he couldn't hide the excitement in his voice.  He told us we hit 105 baptisms in June!  After the president's remarks came a big surprise: Elder Hamula came on the phone to congratulate us on achieving our goal and to tell us how proud he was of us for working so diligently.  It was a great experience to start the day off receiving praise from a general authority!

Anyway, I am really grateful for the Lord's blessings and tender mercies.  What a great month Elder Bly and I had.  I hope we'll be able to match this last month of my mission to it.

Love you all!
Elder Rosier

Weekly Update June 26, 2014

Hello again everyone!

It's been a little bit of a wait since I last wrote.  We had our temple p-day this week, so p-day was moved to today (Thursday).  I was a bit sad when I came to the realization that this was my last zone temple trip.  I cannot believe how fast the time has gone.  Where did it all go?

Over the last week and a half, we've spent a lot of time tracting and teaching Ofa.  I'm not sure if I mentioned the hiccup we have experienced with Ofa or not, so I'll write about it again.  Ofa was recently arrested for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.  Despite that, we weren't able to catch up with him for a week, we were able to find out he had been studying the Book of Mormon and praying.  We have been blessed to watch him progress like I have never witnessed an investigator progress before.  After teaching him the Plan of Salvation, we moved up his baptismal date from the 19th of July to the 28th of June.  However, because of his recent arrest, we weren't sure if he would be able to be baptized.  We called President Henderson, who informed us that if he was facing charges, he couldn't be baptized.  We were very sad to hear that.  When we told Ofa, he was very understanding with it.  However, he then updated us on his situation.  His lawyer had been able to prove out of the court that Ofa couldn't have stolen the vehicle, and the charges would be dropped if he could provide information on the guy he purchased the vehicle off of.  We told Ofa that if he's cleared of the charges, that we would probably be able to baptize him.  Well, on Sunday Ofa informed us that he contacted his lawyer and found out all charges have been dropped.  We told him we'd ask the mission presided if we could baptize him.  On Monday (the 23rd) we had our interviews with President Henderson.  Both Elder Bly and I explained Ofa's situation in our interviews, and his response was, "baptize him as soon as possible!"  So this Saturday we will be witnessing Ofa's baptism!

We had a really awesome experience with Ofa when we called him to tell him he was on for baptism.  Elder Bly called him and asked if he wanted to still be baptized on Saturday.  Ofa told him he had prayed the night before that it would be able to be this weekend.  Gotta love miracles :)

Well, that's about all I've got for this week.  Looking forward to updating you all about the baptism.

Elder Rosier

These are pictures from Harrison's baptism on June 14th.

Weekly Update June 17, 2014

Hello again!

This was a great week for Elder Bly and me.  I believe I mentioned in my email last week about Harrison telling us that he wanted to be baptized on Saturday the 14th, and that we were excited but not too sure if it would go through.  Well, it did!  And we were blessed to have Harrison's baptism on this past Saturday!

Another big blessing we witnessed this week was having Ofa come to church for the first time.  He had a really good experience, and was able to meet up with some friends that he has who are members of our ward.  It was really great to see that he has some good friends in the ward.  We had a couple really good lessons with him this week, in which we bumped up his baptismal date to the 28th of June.  I wish you all could have seen the look on his face as we taught him the Plan of Salvation.  Because Ofa's grown up his whole life not believing in God, he's never really had much of a belief (or hope) that there's anything more to life than our brief time here in mortality.  It was really awesome to teach him about where he came from, and that our life will continue on after we die.  You could really see him fill with hope as we taught him.  He also really enjoyed learning about the potential for our families to be eternal.  It was a great experience.

Today is the start of the last transfer of my mission.  Elder Bly and I are still together in Cleveland.  I'm really looking forward to these last six weeks.  We have a lot of really good things going for us here, so I'm excited to see what happens with the other investigators we've been teaching.

Before I end this, I would like to wish a happy Father's Day to my dad and my grandfather.  I am truly grateful for the righteous example that they have both been in my life.  I am grateful for the man who my father is.  I know no man greater than he is.  I am also grateful for my grandpa.  I feel blessed to be following in his footsteps as a missionary in Australia.  Happy Father's day!

Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update June 10, 2014

G'day everyone!

Sorry that this week's email is a day late. Yesterday the Queenslanders celebrated the Queen's birthday, so it was a public holiday and everyone got another day off of work.  So for us it was a working day.

This was a rather hard week for Elder Bly and I.  We were unable to get into contact with any of our investigators this week.  It was really frustrating!  So what do you do when you don't have anybody to teach?  Look for new people!  And search we did.  All week.  We had a bit of success on Monday and Tuesday, but we didn't have any luck the rest of the week, until Saturday.  I think that the Lord decided to humble Elder Bly and I this week.

Towards the end of the week I was feeling a bit stressed, and slightly discouraged.  Fortunately the Lord decided to bless us on Sunday evening with a miracle.  We went by Ofa's aunt's place to invite his aunt and cousin to come to an activity at our ward mission leader's home.  We found Ofa there watching a movie with his cousin.  We were able to catch up with him.  Turned out that he'd had some trouble with the law.  The day after he had his birthday, he was arrested for being in possession of a stolen vehicle.  He had purchased it about four months ago, and wasn't aware that it was stolen.  Unfortunately he's being charged despite not knowing.  However, he's still been studying the Book of Mormon and praying.  He told us his feelings on church and baptism haven't changed.  It's still what he wants.

Yesterday night we had a lesson with Harrison.  At the end of the lesson we asked him if he was ready to be baptized next week.  He said he wants to be baptized on this Saturday, and was rather adamant about it.  We're only 60% sure the baptism will be this week, but excited for it anyway!

Well, that's all for now.  I love you all very much.  Thanks again for the love and support!

Elder Rosier

This photograph was posted on the mission blog on Monday and was part of a number of pictures posted under "mission tour". I'm not sure when or where it was taken, but I believe it is related to the tour Ross wrote about a couple of weeks ago.

Weekly Update June 4, 2014

Hello again everyone!

Great week again for Elder Bly and myself as we worked here in Cleveland.  We've been continuing to see a lot of miracles and reap a lot of blessings.  I apologize that this email is a bit late, but today was our temple p-day.  I always enjoy going to the temple.

We were able to go and see Ofa only once this week.  He's progressing really well.  He sends us text messages when he has questions for us.  He told us he reads the Book of Mormon for 30-60 minutes a day so that he's able to understand what he reads.  He's struggling a bit with the Old English, but who didn't the first time they read the Book of Mormon.  He was unable to attend church this Sunday because he was stuck out in Ipswich after a family party.  Apparently, nobody there was sober enough to give him a lift.

We had a good lesson with the Turner family this week.  I really enjoy teaching them.  They're always really engaged and attentive.  We've had to drop the baptismal dates we had for Leon and Ernie, but for a good reason.  The mum, Aria, is having her father come over from New Zealand to visit towards the end of June.  She's not sure exactly when he's coming, but asked that we wait to find out so he will be able to attend the baptism.  It's been 9 years since they last saw him.

I think the biggest miracle Elder Bly and I experienced this week occurred on Sunday evening.  We went around to visit a potential investigator we met last week (or the week before.  I'm not sure which) who had already rescheduled meeting with us.  So I'm sure you can imagine we weren't 100% certain it was going to be much of anything other than "sorry boys, I'm really not that interested."  The fella is a big Samoan-Moari guy named Niu (pronounced "new"), and we did think there was a possibility of him turning out to be a less-active member.  Fortunately, we were wrong on both counts.  Niu grew up in New Zealand attending a Samoan Methodist church.  He's been over here for the last 3 years with his family.  Niu told us that he does have some friends and family that are LDS.  He wants his children to learn about the gospel, and he wants for it to be a part of his family's life.  He mentioned that because of some things that have been going on with his family back home, he's decided he's not too keen on having the family church be the Methodist faith.  Long story short, he wants us to come around and teach the family.  We're pretty excited about this!
Anyways, that's us for this week.  Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update May 26, 2014

In last week's letter, Ross mentioned a visit from Elder & Sister Hamula.  This is a picture of them with the Southern Zone--the zone Ross is in.

G'day everyone!

Hope everyone had a wonderful week!  We sure did!

Elder Bly and I were able to witness a multitude of miracles this week.  I think it has been the best week of my mission, as far as what we accomplished is concerned.  The Lord was definitely with us as we were out and about this week.

On Monday night we decided to drop in on the Turners to invite Isaac, Sydney, and Leon to come to mutual on Tuesday night.  As we were talking with everyone, I felt like we should ask if they would like to meet one of the youth leaders.  They said yes, so I said we would call the Young Women's president, and see if she could come over.  So we left, and called Sister Otene (that's pronounced oh-ten-aye) to see if she could come.  She said she would, and 30 minutes later arrived.  It was really great having her meet the kids.  The Otene family is just wonderful.  They would really do anything for us.  Tuesday night was youth, and Isaac, Sydney, and Leon all came and had a blast.  It was great to see them make fast friends with the other youth in the ward.

We saw them again on Thursday night with the sister missionaries, and one of the YSA advisers.  We taught the restoration to the whole family, including Dallas' boyfriend, Ernie.  I may have mentioned in past emails that Ernie might have already been baptized in the church.  We found out that there was no record of his baptism.  At the end of the lesson, we invited Ernie and Leon to be baptized, and they both accepted.  When we started the lesson with the family, I asked if they had read the Book of Mormon together once a week as we had previously committed them to do.  Not only had they done that, but they had been reading together every night before they ate dinner!  I am just thrilled to see that this family is committed to embrace (or re-embrace) the gospel together!  We are excited to see them again this week to help get Ernie and Leon ready to be baptized on the 14th of June.

Wednesday was another fantastic day.  We had Charlton Otene come out with us for a few hours.  We went to an appointment we had with Brittany and her sister.  We'd made the appointment with the sister when we called a couple days before, and arrived to find out Brittany was the only one home, and had not been told we were coming.  However, she was happy to see us, and invited us in.  When we saw her last we just talked with her about God.  Who He is, what He does for us.  Talked about who Jesus is, as well.  We taught her the discussion on the restoration to teach about the Book of Mormon.  We told her that it would be through studying the Book of Mormon and praying that she would be able to find out if God really does exist.  After talking about that she said, "I'll have to see if the Book of Mormon is online so I can read it."  After a quick chuckle, I pulled one out of my bag and told her, "We actually brought this one for you."  She was really grateful for it.  We committed her to read and pray to know it is was true, and to find out if God exists.  We asked if she knew how to pray.  She said no, so we taught her, and asked if she would like to give it a try right then and there.  Now, I've probably extended that invitation more than a dozen times, and every time it's been turned down right away.  Brittany, however, accepted it and said her first-ever prayer right there with us.  It was a really cool experience!

On Wednesday night, Elder Bly and I went and visited a less-active Tongan lady named Ofa, and her son, Jimmy.  When we arrived there, we found that Ofa's nephew was there visiting.  Ofa's nephew's name is Ofa as well.  Actually, his name is Feofa'akiakakau, but he goes by Ofa for short. (Wouldn't you?) This was the second time we met him.  He came to the Capalaba ward musical fireside at the end of last transfer with Jimmy.  He's a cool guy.  He isn't religious, but enjoyed talking with us each time we've met him.  On Thursday morning, I woke up to text messages from him talking about how he doesn't know who he is anymore, and really feels the need for a change in is life.  His mum and auntie both told him to give church a try, so he had a lot of questions for us.

On Saturday I went on trade-offs with Elder Nelson, one of our Zone Leaders.  He came to Cleveland to work with me.  It was a long day full of tracting.  However, in the evening we had an appointment to see Ofa at his auntie's place.  We talked with him for a while.  Testified about God.  He's never been against the idea of God, but never grew up around religion of any kind.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon, and gave him a copy to read.  We taught him how to pray, and encouraged him to do so.  He mentioned that when he was little he lived with a Mormon uncle of his, who told him he was baptized.  We took his details to give to our ward clerk to see if he had a record.

Sunday night we dropped in on the clerk, and he checked to see if Ofa had a record.  There wasn't one.  After we left the clerk's house, Elder Bly said he thought we should go to Ofa (the auntie) and Jimmy's to see if Ofa might be there.  He was.  We sat down with him and talked with him a bit more about the church.  He said to us that he's the type of person who goes into something 100% or not at all.  He told us that he feels like he needs to give church and baptism a go.  We mentioned to him we had no record of him being baptized.  He said, "Alright, I'll get baptized then." We have set a date for him to be baptized on 19th of July.

I feel so blessed right now.  I cannot begin to describe how in awe I feel about the miracles we were blessed with this week.  I'm looking forward to working with all of these people and helping them come unto Christ.

I love you all.  Have a great week!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update May 19, 2014

Hello once again!

It was a pretty full-on week for Elder Bly and myself.  We were blessed to meet a lot of new people, and find a few who invited us to come back.  This coming week is going to be packed full of teaching appointments.  I am very excited.  Our teaching pool has just been expanding dramatically.  What a blessing.

We were able to teach Harrison a couple of times this week.  We taught him the ten commandments, and were having a hard time getting him to be engaged in the lesson.  Then Elder Bly told him that if he memorized all ten commandments, he could shoot me in the head with a Nerf gun.  That got his attention! And he passed the test at the end of the lesson.....and I became a martyr for the faith.  Good to know my comp is so willing to sacrifice my life.  I wonder how willing he is to lay down his own.......

We were unable to see both the Turner family (that's the one with the four kids I talked about last week) and Brittany this week.  However, we have appointments with them this week.  Looking forward to that.

The biggest highlight of this week was the mission tour.  Elder Hamula of the Seventy--the Pacific Area President--came to visit our mission.  He seemed to be very impressed with our mission, and commented that he feels like our mission is soon to accomplish things never before seen in Australia.  It is going to be an exciting time to serve in the ABM.  I am looking forward to these last few months.  I admit I'm a bit jealous of the younger missionaries that will be here to see things that us older missionaries would have just dreamed about.

I hope that everyone has a great week.  Until next week,

Elder Rosier

Just a side note: Ross indicated that Harrison's baptism has been moved to June 21st to accommodate relatives that will be visiting Australia from Singapore.

Weekly Update May 12, 2014

We had a good chat with Ross for Mother's Day. He looked wonderful, and as always, was very happy, positive, and upbeat.

Hello and Happy Mother's Day to everyone!

I was informed that I forgot to send an update to everyone last week.  My apologies.  Last P-Day was transfers.  Since Elder 'Iongi has finished his mission, I was blessed to receive a new companion.  My new companion is Elder Bly.  He is from Las Vegas, and has been out for nine months.  I served around him in a previous zone.  He's a good guy, and I've enjoyed serving with him so far.

We have been blessed to witness a lot of miracles in Cleveland this week.  We have a family we were introduced to in our ward that is less-active.  It is a single mother with four teenage children: Dallas, Isaac, Sydney, and Leon.  The mother and three of the children are members.  The youngest, Leon, is not baptized.  The oldest daughter also has a boyfriend that lives with the family.  His name is Ernie.  We have been over to their place to teach them twice.  Last time we went over we had a really good lesson with them about the Holy Ghost and the Book of Mormon.  The family was really engaged in the lesson.  I think it was probably the best teaching appointment I've experienced on my mission.  This family is really looking to understand the gospel and make it a part of their life.  Dallas told us that her boyfriend was baptized as a member of the church when he was little.  However, when we had the ward clerk look up his records, we were unable to find one.  It seems he must not have been baptized into our church.  Ernie is really keen to learn about the Book of Mormon, so this is a real blessing and miracle for Elder Bly and me.

Another miracle we experienced this week came when we went to the first appointment we had set up with a twenty-something year-old girl named Brittany, whom we met tracting last week.  Though she set up a time for us to come back and share a message with her, I wasn't too optimistic that she would really be interested.  However, we found her home and waiting for us and had a good lesson with her.  These two blessings were timed just perfectly, because on the first day Elder Bly and I were together, we dropped one of our two investigators.  However, we have been very fruitful in our efforts to find new people to teach.  I am feeling very blessed.

I hope that all the mothers out there enjoyed their Mother's Day.  I love my mother will all my heart. I am proud to admit that I'm a "mama's boy".  I wouldn't be half the man I am today if it wasn't for the effort, sacrifice, and love of my angel mother.  Mum, I hope you understand that we all love you for what you have done for us.  Words cannot really express it.

I love you all!
Til next week!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update May 1, 2014

Hello again everybody!

I am sorry that there was no letter last week.  We had a few things stand in the way of us emailing last week. I'll be sure to include the highlights from the last two weeks.

14-20 April 2014

This week had a major unexpected event: I had vertigo! It was not fun.  I woke up on Tuesday morning feeling a bit dizzy.  I figured I'd be able to push through it, so I did.  We were able to get a lot done during the day, but in the evening I'd had enough.  I knew I needed to rest, so I had Elder 'Iongi call our ward mission leader and cancel splits, and we went back to the house so I could rest.  I figured I would be alright in the morning.  However, I was WRONG!  When I woke up the next morning, I could hardly see straight.  Everything was moving, and I felt like I was going to fall over every time I stood up.  We went to the doctor, and I was diagnosed with a viral infection in my inner ear.  The doctor gave me a prescription for some tablets. Fortunately with the tablets and some rest I was feeling just good enough to attend our interviews with the mission president the next day.  That's all I had for energy on Thursday.  By Friday I was alright.  On Saturday I was able to go on trade offs with the Zone Leaders.  I went to their area with Elder Huka, who is from California.  He's a great guy.  Both of our Zone Leaders are awesome.  I had a good time in their area.  There are four Elders in that ward, and the four of us spent most of the day working together.  It was a good experience.

(In Ross' letter to me, he indicated that he and Elder 'Iongi had spent most of their P-Day at the hospital waiting to give a member a blessing.  That is why he was unable to send home an update for that week.)

21-27 April 2014

Pretty slow week for Elder 'Iongi and I.  Spent most of the week finding because our teaching pool isn't very big at the moment.  We dropped Belinda.  Apparently she has a carer.  The carer told us that she doesn't understand what she's getting herself into, so we're not allowed to visit.  I'm not too sure how honest or accurate that is, but we aren't going to risk a legal issue.  This week Elder DeMille came down with some horrible bug.  He was vomiting throughout the night and had diarrhea pretty bad.  He was down the next day.  I stayed home with him on one of the evenings he was sick, and caught it from him.  Mine wasn't nearly as bad.  I got sick on Friday; I had a massive headache, and a mild fever.  Through the night and part of the next day I had really bad diarrhea.  On Saturday I got my hands on some really good anti-diarrhea meds and I was back to work a few hours later.  Elder Tarati and Elder 'Iongi have both caught it to some extent.  One of the sisters in our district also came down with the same bug.  We're all better now.

So far this week has been really good.  Elder 'Iongi pushed hard on Monday and Tuesday.  We spent yesterday saying goodbye to some people in Capalaba.  On Monday we did go see Paul Groundwater so 'Iongi could say goodbye.  I do miss meeting with that man.  Elder 'Iongi left to the mission home today.  He'll be home this time tomorrow.  I really enjoyed serving with him. Hopefully my next companion will be a good one.  I will be in a three-way companionship with Tarati and DeMille until the transfer meeting on Tuesday.

Love you all very much!  Until next time,

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update April 14, 2014

G'day everyone!

I'd like to start out by saying that I really enjoyed this last general conference.  Crazy to think that I will be home for the next one.  The talks I enjoyed the most were Jeffrey R. Holland, Dallin H. Oaks (in priesthood), and David A. Bednar.  I had a rather pleasant surprise as I attended conference this weekend: two of the families in Darling Heights ward showed up for our conference who were down here visiting family.  It was great to be able to catch up with them!

Our week was a good one for Elder 'Iongi and me.  We were blessed with a mini-missionary, "Elder" Lewis Worth.  The mini-mission is a program they do here (I'm not sure if they do it anywhere else in the world) where 16-18 year-old youth go and spend a week serving with a companionship serving in a ward in a different stake.  Elder Worth was from the Burleigh Heads ward in Gold Coast stake.  We really enjoyed having him around and giving him a taste of missionary life, especially since he's planning to put his papers in very soon.  I wish we could have given him a better experience, though.  We had a lot of appointments fall-through this week, so we spent most of our time tracting and talking to people we came in contact with on the street.  Despite having a week of the stuff nobody likes doing, Elder Worth had a great time.  That's good!  Because if he enjoyed the nitty-gritty part of being a missionary, then he'll love his experience on his own mission.

We went to our appointment with Belinda this week.  When we arrived, she asked us to leave.  Didn't even say hello.  We're going to try once more with her before we drop her.  We were a bit surprised at what happened.  When we called her a few days prior to confirm, she was all good with us coming.  I have to wonder what happened.  I have two thoughts: either she doesn't really have a desire to learn the gospel, or the JWs came around, saw the stuff we left with her, and scared her off from meeting with us.  Hopefully, we'll have better luck next time.

Well, that's all for this week.  I love you all!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update April 7, 2014

Hello again everyone!

What a week for Elder 'Iongi and I!  Heaps of big things happening to us in Cleveland!  We were blessed with a couple of miracles this week:

On Wednesday evenings we go on splits with the ward missionaries.  Brother Owen, our ward mission leader, asks that we set up the appointments for that night with investigators, less-active members, or member families in general.  Not knowing who our investigators are, and not knowing who the less-actives in the ward are, Elder 'Iongi and I started cold-calling members to set up visits with them to discuss the ward mission plan.  We randomly selected a few families, and set up a couple appointments.  Elder 'Iongi went with a ward missionary--Brother Fitzpatrick--to visit the Smith family.  After they shared the ward mission plan with their family, Sister Smith told them that her oldest son, Harrison, is 10 years old and unbaptized, but wants to be baptized now.  She asked us to teach him and baptize him.  We went around on Friday and taught him about baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and set a date for him to be baptized.  He'll be baptized on 10 May.  We had to set it so far away because Harrison is going to Singapore for 2 weeks to see his cousin get baptized.  He is pretty excited and so is his mum.

On Friday Elder 'Iongi and I were tracting.  The last house we stopped at we found a woman named Belinda.  Belinda thought we were J-Dubs, and said she was already studying with two JWs.  We told her we were from another church and asked if she would like to hear our message.  She said no.  As we were turning around to walk away, she asked us, "is there life after death?"  We told her that there certainly is.  She asked us why so-and-so and so-and-so were telling her there isn't one.  We said that it's because they are misinformed.  We had a lesson with her about what happens when we die.  She then asked us if she could get baptized the next week.  We told her we need to teach her more before she gets baptized.  We are seeing her this Friday, and hope to set a date with her.  We aren't 100% sure she's committed to have the discussions, so we didn't set a date with her when we met with her.  However, if she's read the pamphlet and chapter from the Book of Mormon we gave her, we'll discuss baptism.

Another small miracle we've experienced this week is discovering how willing to work with us this ward is.  The Cleveland ward is very fired-up about missionary work.  They're very excited to have Elders in the ward again.  We are being treated like royalty (not really, but it's the best way I could think to describe how we're being treated).  I hope this is the ward I finish my missionary service in.

Well, I think that's us for this week.  I love you all.  Thank you for the love and support.

Elder Rosier

When I visited Ross' Facebook page this week I found a message from a sister he knew in Deception Bay. She wanted to thank Ross for his missionary service and let him know that she and another family member were recently baptized!  Kathy

Weekly Update March 31, 2014

Hello again everyone!

This was a very long week for Elder 'Iongi and I! Nothing slows time down like throwing you into a new area where you know nobody in the ward and have no idea who you're suppose to be teaching. Fortunately, we're up for the challenge.

The first major obstacle we had to get over this week was the area book we received from the sisters.  For those of you who don't know what an "area book" is, it is the book that missionaries keep all of their records from time and all eternity in.  This includes the teaching records of the investigators.  Obviously, this is the first place you look for your teaching pool when you come into an area.  The obstacle we've had to tackle was this: the area book was unorganized, and the sisters we took over from didn't keep the last three months worth of records in the area book.  So now we have no idea who we are teaching.  Fortunately, one of our investigators came to church on Sunday.  Her name is Lynne.  We don't know anything about her, but we are seeing her this week.  I am grateful that the other sisters in the ward pointer her out to us.

The second obstacle we have to overcome is not knowing any of our members.  We're tackling this one this transfer.  That will be taken care of as we meet with the members and talk to them at church.

I am liking the Clevland ward.  It's a much larger ward than Capalaba.  It's also much more social.  The members are really friendly, and I look forward to working with them. (Ross told me in my letter that the Capalaba ward was formed out of the Clevland ward.)

Aside from going over the records and meeting members, we spent most of our time tracting this week.  We found a lot of people who have invited us back.  No doubt in a few weeks we'll have much to do.

I love you all!
Elder Rosier

Weekly Update March 25, 2014

Hello once again, friends and family!

Today is our transfer day.  It's been a bit of a shock.  Elder 'Iongi and I are still together.  I will be finishing him off.  We have both been "transferred" to a new ward.  We are in the Clevland ward now.  The swapped us with two of the sister missionaries serving in the Clevland ward, so now Capalaba and Clevland wards each have a set of Elders and a set of Sisters.  I am excited for the new areas, but gutted that I didn't find out until today that I was being moved.  We have formed some really good relationships with many people here in the Capalaba ward, people who were really helping us out.  I am sad to be transferred so suddenly.

That's really the biggest highlight from this week.  Elder 'Iongi and I had a rather generic week.  We were able to have lessons with Maria and Amy.  They're both reading the Book of Mormon and praying.  I think that they'll do well with the sister missionaries working with them.  It will be interesting whitewashing an area now.  That's not an experience I've had on my mission.  I hope that we're able to work well alongside the members in the Clevland ward.

We took Paul his large-print Book of Mormon this week.  He was very grateful for it.  He said he'll read it for sure.  He wants to start in 3rd Nephi because that's where Jesus Christ appears to the Nephites.  I hope that he is able to continue to feel the spirit testify to him that the church is true.  Fortunately, one of the sister missionaries coming to the area is American. That will be good when it comes to working with Linda.  She does love the American missionaries she's met, even if she's not too fond of the church.

I hope you all have a good week.  I love you all!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update March 17, 2014

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

To be honest, not a whole lot has been going on since I last wrote on Thursday.  Elder 'Iongi and I have spent most of the last few days focused on tracting and looking for new people to teach.  Our teaching pool isn't progressing at the moment, so we're hard at work looking for more to teach.  We've been fortunate that we're still welcome to visit Paul.  Linda enjoys us visiting, but doesn't want us to teach anything.  We'll be making occasional social visits to them in hopes that perhaps that will be the key to softening her heart.  We'll see how that goes.

The temperatures are (finally) starting to cool off a bit as it's starting to turn into "autumn" here in Brisbane. They claim to have four seasons here, but in reality they have two:  Hot summer and cool summer.  I have been fortunate to spend the remainder of the summer near the coast where it is cool.  I am looking forward to some actual cold this winter back home.

We are starting the last week of the transfer today.  I am a bit anxious for Sunday to roll around to find out who is getting transferred, and who is staying.  I have a hunch I might be being transfered, since Elder 'Iongi and I have been together for two transfers already, and he is finishing at the end of the next one.  I doubt he'll be transferred to a new area for this last 6 weeks.  It could happen though.  We'll see.

I hope you all have a good week!

Love,
Elder Rosier

Weekly Update March 13, 2014

G'day all

We had a good week here in Capalaba.  It was another week with a lot of teaching opportunities.  I enjoy teaching so much more than tracting!  I am sure all missionaries feel that way.

I was able to spend Saturday on trade-off with Elder Brown, one of our Zone Leaders.  I enjoyed spending the day with this mountain of a man.  Elder Brown's a big Moari boy, about my height, and weighs 50 to 60 kgs (110 to 132 lbs) more than I do.  He's a kind hearted guy, though.  We were able to have a successful day finding and teaching.

Tuesday this week was our Zone Conference.  We spend the day at the chapel on the temple grounds in the city.  I really enjoy learning from President Henderson.  He's a very inspiring man. (Today they had a temple trip and a P day.)

Last night, Elder 'Iongi and I experienced a setback with Paul: He cannot meet with us anymore.  His wife is very against it at the moment. Paul still plans to read the Book of Mormon though.  He told us that he feels that if God wants him to join the "Latter-day Saints' church" that he will provide a way for it.  I find that faith very inspiring.

I love you all very much.  Have a great week!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update March 3, 2014

Hello again everybody,

I cannot get over how fast the weeks are going by.  Seems like yesterday I was sending my last letter home to you.

This week was pretty similar to last.  Elder 'Iongi and I have been working very hard to find new people to teach, which we have found some success in.  We have a good teaching pool, and have been able to teach a lot over the past two weeks.  Hopefully, we will start to see progression in our investigators in the near future.

We had dinner at a member's home last night with Paul, his wife, Linda, and son, Andrew.  It was a very good experience.  The two families were able to get along very well.  We shared a message about how we find direction from studying the scriptures.  The member family invited them to come back for a potluck they are having at the end of the month.  I do hope that experiences like this will soften Linda's heart.

Thank you all, once again for the love and support.  Have a great week!

Elder Rosier

This is the picture Ross promised us a few weeks ago about this favorite service project, where they cleaned up dead palm fronds from a sister's yard and got to set them on fire. That's Ross on the right. They certainly sent the right missionary for the job.

This is a picture of Ross with Elder 'Iongi. I'm so glad for their companionship--they've developed such a wonderful working relationship.

Ross sent the following pictures without any explanation.  It looks like he and Elder 'Iongi went on an adventure with some youth. The one thing I know for sure is that it is killing Ross not to get into the water. He has mentioned more than once to us how much he misses swimming on a hot day. He is hoping our stake president will meet him here at the house when he gets home, so that he can be quickly released and jump in the pool!

Weekly Update February 24, 2014

G'day friends and family!

What a fast week this was!

Elder 'Iongi and I were hard at work this week as we worked to follow-up with many of the potential investigators we have found over the last few weeks.  We taught a lot of lesson, but unfortunately, not many people were interested in learning much more.  I guess that's what happens.  Everybody has their agency.

We are continuing to work closely with Paul.  I must say that he has been my favorite investigator I've had on my mission.  He's a goofy guy, but has a big heart.  He is very Christ-like.  He tries very hard to live his life in a manner that he feels Christ would be happy with.   I wish more people in the world were like that.  I enjoy teaching him.  The questions he asks us really challenge the knowledge of the gospel I have gained over the last 19 months.....and 20 years before that!  I almost feel like I've been prepared over my mission to teach him.  I wouldn't be surprised if Elder 'Iongi felt the same way.  We are still trying to find a way for his wife's heart to soften.  We have come to find that some members in our ward know them, and they would like to get involved in teaching.  This will be a big help to us since we'll now have fellowship with us who they relate to.

This week Elder 'Iongi's bike broke down.  We spent most of the week walking everywhere in our area.  That's normally not an issue, but this week was exceptionally hot.  I wonder if God's trying to teach us a lesson in humility or gratitude here......no dramas.  He'll be getting it fixed this week, so we should be alright.

Well, I reckon that's all for this week.  It was all pretty generic, for the most part.  I love you all. Thanks again for your love and support.

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update February 17, 2014

Hello again everyone!

This week was also pretty generic. We spent much time following-up on those whom we found last week, without much success.

The highlight of our week this week was a breakthrough we had with Paul.  When we met with him on Wednesday, he told us that he is at a point where the only way he'll be able to know for certain is to pray and ask God.  We've been telling him for a long time that was the only way, but he's fought against it, always looking for some fault in what we say, something he disagrees with.  He admitted that he can find no fault in what we teach him.  That it in no way goes against anything he believes in.  We took the opportunity to invite him to come to the baptism that the other two elders in our ward--Elders Huntington and Tarati--had on Saturday.  He attended, and really enjoyed himself.  He loved the simplicity of the baptism, and said it was beautiful.  He was also welcomed right away by the ward members, particularly the bishop and his wife.  We also found out that one of the recent converts in our ward knows him!  The stake president was also there, and had a long chat with Paul.  He committed Paul to come to church the next day.  He said he would.

Unfortunately, Paul didn't attend yesterday.  He is experiencing a lot of resistance from his wife.  We aren't really sure about what to do about her, other than pray for her heart to soften.  We know that Paul really felt something special at the baptism.  He admitted to it.  Be he doesn't want to cause conflict in his family.  I hope we're able to figure out what to do.  I'm sure we will.

Other than that, there isn't much to report on for this week.  I hope everybody has a good week. I love your all!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update February 11, 2014

Hello again, friends and family!

It was a very generic week for Elder 'Iongi and I.  Unfortunately, we suffered a few setbacks.  The saddest one for us was our investigator, Amy, moved.  She went up the Sunshine Coast in search of work, and may not be back.  We will find out in a few weeks.  Other than that, the only "setbacks"we had were a number of appointments that fell-through.

On Saturday I had the opportunity to go on an exchange with Elder Tarati, our French-Polynesian trainee in Capalaba ward.  It has been a long time since I went on an exchange with a missionary who doesn't speak English very well.  I had a good time with him.  His language skill has been improving heaps over the weeks, and he has great faith that Heavenly Father can help him overcome his weakness in the language.   I must admit that he is the most confident greenie I have ever met.

Yesterday the four of us in Capalaba ward--Elders 'Iongi, Huntington, Tarati, and I--had the most exciting service project I have ever participated in as a missionary.  We went to an elderly lady's home to clean up the dead palm frons that were all over her property.  That was a bit boring.....up until she asked us to burn them :)  That was rather exciting!  I will send some photos of it home next week.

Today is transfers.  Elder "Iongi and I are still together.  In fact, there were no changes in Capalaba ward.

That's about it for this week.

Love you all very much!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update February 3, 2014

Hello again friends and family!

What a fast week this one was!  I cannot believe how quickly the time goes by these days.

Elder 'Iongi and I had an interesting week this week.  We had found a lot of potential investigators over the last 2 weeks, so we spent this week following up with them, trying to find out who was genuinely interested.  As a result of our week, we reported four new investigators this week, the most I've ever reported in a week.   One of our new investigators is a 19-year-old girl named Amy.  Amy is someone we found tracting two weeks ago.  We met up with her this week and taught her about the restoration.  Amy doesn't have much of a religious background, but she did take religious classes in primary school.  She said that God has never played much of a role in her life, but she's always wondered if there's really a god out there.  After we taught about the restoration and gave her a Book of Mormon, she got really excited and said she would start reading it right away.  We saw her again three days later, and she had already been reading.  We're looking forward to continue teaching her.

This week is the last week of the transfer.  We hope to be able to get a baptismal date with Maria this week.  We will also be following-up with members whom we have left challenges with.  I really hope to be able to see the members becoming more and more excited about missionary work in this ward.  They have come a long way since I first arrived here.  It is a good ward, and I enjoy serving here.

I hope you all have a good week.

Love,
Elder Rosier

Weekly Update January 28, 2014

G'day everyone!

What a fast week this one has been! A lot of good things happened to Elder 'Iongi and myself this week.  We did more finding this week than we have done all transfer, so far.  However, we were able to find a couple really solid potentials we will be seeing this week.  We had a couple lessons with our investigator, Paul, this week.  The second time we visited him he told us that he had just been diagnosed as pre-diabetic, and may already have diabetes.  After a bit of conversation about nutrition and exercise and things along those lines, we introduced the Word of Wisdom to him.  As we read from D&C 89, he would have us stop and ask questions, or sometimes just comment that he agreed with what it said.  The thing that surprised me was when we mentioned drinking tea or coffee, he admitted that was good advice!  Paul is a religious coffee drinker!  He said he can see that being a good thing because then you "aren't chained to your morning coffee."

On Wednesday evening, we (the missionaries in the Sunshine Coast, Brisbane North, Brisbane, and Cleveland Stakes) were invited to attend a "cluster meeting" that President Henderson, the mission president, was speaking at.  The cluster meeting consists of the ward councils and bishoprics of multiple stakes, and are presided over by an area authority.  There was much talk about the missionaries and the members working together.  I really enjoyed the meeting, and we received a lot of really good information we can use when we go out to challenge our members to work with us in some way.  When President Henderson began his talk, a thunderstorm hit Brisbane, and when he started speaking, you could hear the thunder in the background!  It was really cool!  I really drove home the authority that man speaks with!  Ever since this meeting, Elder 'Iongi and I have been out committing the families in our area to form Family Mission plans.  We hope to be able to work with them to accomplish the goals they set as families.  I really feel this is going to help both members and missionaries to work effectively together.

This past Sunday was Australia Day.  Our ward had a barbie yesterday (Monday) to celebrate, since it was a public holiday.  Australia Day is the celebration of Captain Cook discovering Australia.  However, the indigenous community does not celebrate Australia Day.  They have a different name for it: Invasion Day.  I think that pretty much sums up their feelings on it all.  Just thought that would be a fun fact about Oz.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Rosier

Weekly Update January 20, 2014

Hello everyone!

I am terribly sorry that there was no update last week.  I forgot to write it and when my time on the internet at the library had ended, it hit me that I failed to send one.

These last two weeks have been good  Not too much out of the ordinary. Missionary work as usual, I reckon.  Here are a few highlights for the week I failed to write you about:

Elder'Iongi and I went and followed up with a potential (investigator) we had.  We were most of the way through teaching the first discussion with him when his mum came out, Bible loaded. After a bit of a conversation where we were inclined to--as President Langeland always put it--correct their false doctrine, I was able to get a commitment from both of them to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.  We went and followed up this past Saturday, only to discover that they hadn't done it, and the mum had told her son she didn't want him to investigate our church.

We had our second visit with Maria.  She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She didn't really feel like she's getting an answer yet, but will keep praying and reading.

This week was really good.  We visited with Paul a couple of times, and shared a message with him about keeping positive.  He recognizes the need to make prayer and scripture study a bigger part of his life.  We are encouraging him to read from the Book of Mormon.  He has nothing against it, bue he is afraid that his wife doesn't want him to read it.  We have tea with them tonight.  His wife's heart seems to be softening.  She is from Boston, and is really happy that there is a missionary from America coming to visit.

We taught Maria about the Plan of Salvation yesterday (Sunday(.  We first followed up about her reading and praying.  She said that she is feeling something different in her life since she began studying the Book of Mormon.  We also met her mum.  She said she is completely supportive of her to learn about the church, and get baptized if she wants to.  Apparently, her parents--Maria's grandparents--are members of the church.  Maria didn't know that until she told us!

I hope everyone has a great week!  Love you all!

Elder Rosier


The mission blog posted an article this week entitled "Flat Inspections and Interviews" and posted pictures of missionaries with the mission president and his wife. I noticed that the missionaries in Ross' zone, however, were taken in the church. Ross said that they got a call five minutes before expecting their arrival, for them to come to the church for their meetings. Ross was sort of disappointed because, "they had spent heaps of time cleaning their flat!" I'm thinking, that was probably a good thing!

Weekly Update January 7, 2014

Happy New Year!

Hope everybody had a great new year's eve and day! As I mentioned in my last year's Eve, so I am starting 2014 in a new area.

The first week here was really good. I am enjoying serving with Elder 'Iongi. We spent much of this week finding people to teach, and visiting the less-active members in the ward. We have had much success this week with people who we have talked with on the street and at the bus station. Hopefully I'll have much to report on in the coming weeks regarding those whom we found.

We have two progressing investigators here. One is a man named Paul who is Catholic. His wife is from the states. He joined the Catholic church when he married his wife. When I met him for the first time this week, we had a rather long (and deep, I might add) discussion on the apostasy, how it started, what caused it, and how/why the restoration of the gospel occurred. Thank you, James E. Talmage, for teaching me about that subject in depth. Fortunately, that was really good for Paul, as I was able to address some of the concerns he had both about our church and the Catholic chruch. He was mostly concerned about the claim to authority by both churches. Elder 'Iongi feels that now that we're over that obstacle with him that we'll be able to help him progress.

Our other investigator is a girl named Maria. She has met with missionaries in the past. On Sunday we went over the restoration with her. She said she will get baptized if she gets a witness that he Book of Mormon is true. We are seeing her tomorrow, so hopefully we'll be able to set a date with her.

Well, that's us here in Capalaba. I hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Rosier