this week has been good, i continue to improve and like you said dad, i am ready to get out of the MTC! not in the language necessarily, but mentally this is getting repetative. Wade stinnet got here on wednesday, he was the only american that week, visa problems have started to come back again alot so every week about 17 american missionaries are leaving the MTC, and only one or 2 have been arriving weekley since my group of 6 got here

I developed a cold this past week, this place is like a cruise ship where everyone is stuck in here together, and just pass around everything. 4 of the 6 in my district are sick, as well as our instructor. But i lost my voice on monday, and am just starting to really get it back today.

The sao paulo temple is closed for cleaning for the next couple of weeks, so we got to take a road trip today to the campinas brazil temple. its out of the city and about an hour and a half away, so it was nice to take that drive. The highways and trees actually seem alot like pennsylvania, just very wooded with almost similar forests. I saw an applebees! and a pizza hut. i guess i underestimated cultural imperialism.

hings have been going well with my district, we are improving i think. I teach my district during district meeting every sunday for about an hour, and our branch president sat in on it. I was somewhat nervous about the whole thing, but he said it was one of the best overall district meetings he´s ever been to, so it raised my spirits!

I got to shake a 70´s hand last night, he was portuguese so i dont remember his name really or how to spell it, but i talked to him and he told me that his son served in pittsburgh, and that pittsburgh was a beautiful city, so that was good

there were a bumch of argentinians that got here 2 or so weeks ago, and theyve been having conflicts with the brazilians here. One argentinian and one brazilian got into a huge argument over soccer, and it ended up with the brazilian taking the argentinians name tag, spitting on it, then throwing it on the ground, hahaha. im not sure what happened to them , but i cant imagine it was good.

im pulling what i think is a spencer w kimball. I take a notepad that fits into my shirt pocket and a pen everywhere i go, and all of the thoughts i get into my head that are worth sharing in letters i immediately write down, its making my letters much better in my opinion!

Ive been having really crazy dreams lately, some of them i can remember because i keep that forementioned notepad by my bed when i sleep.

this saturday is the one month mark! i can do 23 more of these, with it going exactly how it is right now, with support and everything, i can do 23 of these. Also, i hear everything gets better in the mission field, more time to write, to email, and i´ll actually be doing the lords work too, which makes it very productive

I´ve been missing america alot this week, the landscapes and the people and the roads and just general not smog of everything, im serious when i say im going to get off the plane and kiss the ground.. but thats still plenty of time away!

I have to go now, but know that i am doing well and i am glad that you guys are all doing well, i pray for my family and michelle in every single prayer, i promise, and i think that it helps. I love you all so much, and i send you all a letter every week consistently, so however long the mail takes know theres always one being sent.

I had a great experience at the temple today, i was able to bring in my wallet patriarchal blessing and read it in the celestial room, it was a great experience.

in my patriarchal blessing i rtead today how i have the gift of teaching and speaking. I think that is being fulfilled. today marks three weeks that i have been here in the MTC, and i have taught the last 3 lessons completely in portuguese. I wouldnt call myself fluent, but many of the phrases or parts of portuguese i can say without really thinking, so i am on the way there! i am totally ahead of the curve, and i really think its a great blessing. my teacher told me no one else he´s taught before has been able to give lessons in all portuguese this early.

so this week has been overall a very sucessfull week. Im really applying myself to be an organized missonary, like in a great lesson my instyructor gave. I plan my day, i am at meetings exactly when i am supposed to be, i even scrub the collars on my white shirts and iron all my clothes, like a boss! applying myself to be organized really allows me to focus on learning during class, michelle when i write journals slash letters, and i dont have to worry about anything else like that.

ive really built a solid friendship with one elder richardson, who is not my companion but is in my district. Me and him are pretty similar, and have a large desire to just do whats best, so it has all been good. i talked to president clark yesterday, just casually, and he told me that he is very impressed when he sees me in devotionals and at our branch (he showed up one sunday) because im alwasy happy, and very attentive. I just want you guys to know your missionary is kicking butt!

i heard recently that the south brazil missions are difficult in regards to baptisms, and the north is really easy. I think all of brazil in general is easier to baptize than other countries, usually, but ive decided that for me, its not about baptisms, its about conversions. And so i like that me going south makes it harder, because i dont want to just baptize people lightly.

All of my district has decided that i am really patriotic. I am surprised theyve been able to point it out, since im often humming the national anthem, and have hung up the american flag i brought over my bed where i sleep, and whenever the food is remotely american i say how much i love the meal today. I miss america! i havent broken out the peanut butter yet, im waiting for when i desperately need it, and then i will combine with the oreos that michelle graciously gave me.

-elder zachary paul hoskin

Aug. 1 - Aug 8 in MTC

Please continue to send your letters! both michelle and family. Nothing feels better right now than a nice letter, emails are also great but anything possible would be nice.

things have been alright here, My district is doing very well, i was able to have personal interviews with them and all as part of the leadership thing, and we are all well motivated, and arent punks. so we are working hard and learning alot. We´ve seen another district that is full of people who arent motivated, and by just being around them i am very thankful for the people in my district. I am working very hard. I am in the same classroom, minus 45 minutes for lunch and 45 minutes for dinner, from 7:30 am in the morning until 9:30 at night. We ahd one schedule, but they gave the entire MTC a new one after a week of being here, so its more intense.

i have developed a good companionship with my companion, elder chamberlain from philadelphia, and also especially elder richardson, who is in my district and is just a great missionary.

the food here has been alright, its getting somewhat repetitive but i still enjoy it. the internet has been strange here all day so its been a hassle/worry about email, but im able to do it now. Ive been practicing teaching lessons to fake investigators, with a mix of portuguese and english, so that is going well.

Elder Zachary Hoskin enters the Sao Paulo Brazil MTC

On July 27, Zachary entered the MTC in Sao Paulo. Here are a few exerpts from his first email to us: I have a companion named elder chamberlain, he is from Philidelphia! We are representing the east coast, everyone out here is from washington or oregon basically, becaus eof the visa problems through the LA consulate. there were 6 of us who arrived on july 27th, and there was supposed to be 30. that is the way it is almost every week here, so it really is a huge blessing that i was able to get my visa. I am picking up portuguese very well! my teacher said that i have a very good accent, or lack thereof. french is seriously helping me out, alot, so thats also good. My teacher is studying french right now, so i am actually also teaching him a little bit of french. Which is sweet! they called me to be the district leader two days ago, so thats what i am. Everyone in my district thought it was going to be me, beacause they always make a big deal about who is going to be the district leader whenever a new batch of muissionaries show up. so i got that calling, and i think that i am up for it. It will give me plenty of good experience in the field. one thing that i have noticed is that i can focus alot more on my portuguese becasue the preach my gospel and the doctrines around it, which are pretty basic, i already have a great grasp of. rosetta stone really helped me in that my pronounciation, like i said before with my teacher saying i dont have an accent, is good for the different combos of letters. this morning i went through a session in the Sao Paulo Temple. It was great! It was truly beautiful, and i learned more like people always say they do. I had the older movie this time, which i actually liked alot better. I havent had trouble waking up, although i have had some ´trouble´going to sleep. I put it in quotes like that because whenever i lay in bed, as im falling asleep, i just think of michelle, so it keeps my up a little bit but i like doing it, im never going to forget her, or lose contact with her, and im very excited. I am the only person in my distric with a girlfriend. they were all skeptical, as usual, until i briefly explained out situation, saying how michelle is going to also go on a mission. And they all thought that was really sweet. the classes are really long, which is a pain. they were about 3.5 hours each, but noow theyre just coming out with a new schedule, and theyre going to be about 4.5 hours long a piece. Lots of work! I´ve met many brazilians, which has actually been fun. We have been playing volleyball, and i have basically been doing well with my height and all which is nice. theres a board in the mail office that has every missionary on it, with all their missions and what week theyre in, and i am literally the only one on there going to Londrina brazil. Everyone in my district is going to Rio di ganereo (sp?) and my companion is going way north to fortaleza. so that will be interesting to see whose in my mission, if its alot of brazilians or not. Every time i tell any of the brazilians im going there, they tell me that its going to be cold. Im sure their version of cold is different from my version, but it is very nice to know that its not going to be the same temperature all year round. Also, one of the senior couple sisters told me its very temperate, i~ll get all 4 seasons, and that londrina has the nicest people shes met in brazil, and that its a city of about 300 thousand but it still has a small town feel. Im excited! i met one of the branch presidents within my mission on the plan ride out there, so maybe i´ll run into him again. my mission is pretty small area wise compared to some others, but not nearly as small as the big city missions, which are very dense. I am very Excited to go! Ok, it says that i have 5 minutes left until it closes unsaved, so i will wrap it up. I love you guys, my family and michelle!, and i will get to do this every tuesday! Ps i just went to a brazilian BBQ outside of the MTC and i ate wild boar, and also had a couple of chicken hearts, and they were completely delicious! Among other foods. it has been good here. I am really grateful that i´ve been able to email this and all of that.