let me start off by saying that i am sorry for the emails as theyve been getting sent so far. they are not great quality because im in the CTM and are crunched for 30 minutes, so this will be the last short slash unorganized one you get from me. i am sorry..

tell michelle i said thank you!!! so much. i sucessfully got clear pictures of all her letters, and will read and respond to them instantly, tonight. so the whole turnaround will be much quicker. also, they are clearer for the camera when in attachments, so can you send them as attachments??

i just saw luke bushman for like 2 minutes, im sad to hear that he was a little wavery but i think he will be ok, im going to get oppertunities to talk to him before i leave the mtc next tuesday

WAIT WHAT???

yeah thats right! im leaving next tuesday, its getting so close and i am getting so excited! its going to be great to actually finally be out there, i am so sick of the MTC it is ridiculous, and im even getting sick of my district and companion, which i thought would never happen. im just ready to go!

im glad to hear that penn state beat temple, at least thats a consistent :)

im going to have a new address, but the thing is the address michelle has is the mission address (which you could use) but with that address i can only get mail every transfer. so i woud hold off on the tangible mail until i find out my actual apartment number where im living a week from today, and then if you want to send something you can send it straight there! but dont forget that packages must always be sent to the mission home, and always do it USPS.

ok back to business :) so here we go for my week! i went proselyting on monday for the first time! actuall missionary work, it was really exciting, i wasnt even too nervous after the first person. they gave each companionship 5 book of mormons to hand out, and we handed out 4. im glad we didnt hand all of them out though, because it was totally a quality sort of thing, the 4 people really seemed interested, and we could have given the others to other people but they would have just thrown them away or something.

But it was an awesome experience! i totally loved it. i hear that in brazil you barely go proselyting though, you do most of your contacts of member referrals, which they seem to get a ton of from ward members in brazil, and youre just supposed to talk to at least 10 people a day while your walking from referral appointment to referral appointment

but anyways, back to proselyting! yes, we handed out 4 book or mormons, but the real fun was just getting rejected. i got rejected by so many people, ahahahaha. and some people would be like ´no time´or ´not interested´but i had this one rejection that was the best of all. so there was this mid 20s woman walking down the street about to cross by us, so as we approached her i put out my hand and was like óla como vai? and she didnt even blink, otr flinch, or show any sign that i was even alive, she just completely straight faced me! total rejection, and as soon as it happened i looked over to my companion and i was like ´elder, i just got roasted´haha! because i did. but i dont get down when people reject me, so thats going to be benificial when im constantly getting rejected

i keep hearing that my mission president is really strict, and im actually excited for that! i heard missiion presidents can either be like a father or a boss, and i really hope my guys a boss, because i wanna work work work until i come home

i love you guys, and until next time!

I´m sorry that this letter is coming a day early, but they switched our p-days a day early for this week because tomorrow is brazilian independance day, and none of the stores would be open. im sorry :( i was hoping that you guys would have sent your weekley email by now, but i understand.

i hope you were able to get my last email! i hope everything´s okay, i will try to see if they´ll let me just read your email tomorrow, so send it!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: monday august 12th (I think Zach meant Sept. 12th) is the last day that you should send a letter to the MTC. after that, send them to the mission office until i am able to email you my very specific and correct address in londrina. so please keep that in mind!

this week has been a good, big week for me. i´ve come to the conclusion through my own prayers, the guidance of michelle, and just my general feelings that i need to be more humble. this doesnt necessarily mean that i am cocky, i dont boast or whatnot, but the part about being humble that i need to focus on is going to be primarily loving correction. i guess i dont take it that well when people tell me i am doing something the wrong way, but i am trying to improve. secondarily is submitting to the will of the lord. i already do this, but both will allow me to be a better missionary, both will allow me to know that the lord is delivering me and michelle through this, and both will likely be one of my biggest personal challenges on my mission. so hopefully i can follow through, i think its been going well so far.

this week just has been another week of progress, i´ve been improving my portuguese and my doctrinal teaching abilities, so that is good. only three weeks left in the MTC from today! im really excited to go out, i just wanna get on the ball already and hopefully start rolling.

theres not much to write about this week, nothing too crazy happened other than the new companion, and me just missing everybody. i´ve really started to miss everything more this week, michelle of course i miss so much, and its sooo hard. and my family too, i really miss you guys, and i cant wait for us all to be together once im home. also america, i miss america, and all of the cheap, great food products. they really dont have anything here.

i like to think of it like the quote from the count of monte cristo, where he´s talking about being the captain of your own ship, and when those storms and torrents come for you to say ´do your worst, for i shall do mine´´ i am such a nerd but i like the idea of that, all that we can do is just face it with as much strength as we can.

elder zachary paul hoskin