Hello Family!!!

Well it was absolutely amazing talking to you guys yesterday on the phone, i just loved it so much! Hearing all of your voices, being able to talk and get a response right then, as opposedto waiting a week, you know how it is! it was a great experience.

Dad, thank you for the inspriing words yesterday! also, i am glad to hear that the devils are doing well, and that you got to go to the bushmans to eat some tenderloin. We will need to go to some hockey games when i get back, just so i can get caught up on everything haha, it will be sweet! im glad to hear that work is nice and tranquil, just a little question, are you making bank??? hahah!!!

Mom, i do honesly hate the fact that there are ´snakes´ here, it just makes me miss michelle more because there wouldnt be any snakes if me and her were just already married, living together, and only us! But, thats in the future, so i will just patiently wait. When you said yougot a bosch mixer, i thought you were saying that you got another dog, haha. At first i was like WHATT!? Because 2 is enough i think, but thats sweet that you have the mixer for your heaven bread.

ok now onto the family letter!

i really dont have much to say than i said yesterday, but i can clear up that package question michelle. just send the package to the exact same address as before, itsa rule that it has to be sent there, but if you guys who are sending packages send them today or in the next 2 days it will likely get here before the next leadership conference, and so i will get them in 2 weeks as opposed to 1 month and a half!

so christmas was awesome only because i got to talk to you guys! we stayed in that house all day, and it was like 1000 degrees, but all was good because we got to talk. today i have felt sick the entire day, i dont know why, i think its something i ate though because 2 others in our house are feeling sick as well, uggg not fun. But regardless, things are going well!

Well one thing that i didnt mmention in the call yesterday is that we seriously have one of the most beautiful church buildings i have ever seen. it is like in between a chapel and a temple, its huge and just awesome! itook some photos that i will send. also, the other photos that i will try to send are as follows;

one is me eating the half a watermelon i bought while we wereliving in the secretaries house during the whole robber thing

second is me with elder de jesus, who was an awesome companion. while pretty short, he is nonetheless a stud

and third is me with a cow, hahah i was laughing ebcause the cow kept walking along the fence with me, trying to play, and it was just entertaining haha

other missionaries were on the phone for almost 2 hours! and i heard that everyone does this on the mission, literally everyone, so i think we may talk for more time on mothers day ;), especially if i hear that president is ok with it. because everyone does it!

Marilia is a nice city, people are alot more receptive of the missionaries here. i think its going to be a good transfer of work, the city itself is actually sort of ugly, but only because its poorer here, so i dont know that to say haha.

i was at wal mart the other day! it basically had nothing american, and while this may be impossible to comprehend, it was lesser quality of things than the wal marts in america, haha it wasridiculous, but what can we expect

i have a goal this year to read the bible,my portuguese bible has a calendar type deal for ´ read the bible in 2 years´ with a chapter each day, but i just will do both years at the same time. it should be fun, and also a headache during the old testament!

i dont have much more to say today, also i dont have much more time. so i will leave you with this!! i love you guys so much, thank you for that call yesterday, the emails today, michelle my sweetheart thankyou for the letter! and i will talk to you all next week! also im going to try to put the pictures on now. so thank you ! i love you! byeee

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family!

Well once again its mayhem here because of transfers and such today, but the emails will continue.

First off Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for the email! i am glad tohear that Alysa will be home for Christmas, and i want to wish you a merry christmas as well. I got your package! and as requested, i will wait until christmas to actually open it, i hope i can wait.. but i will i promise! thank you :)

Dad, thank you for the email as well! im glad to hear that you are starting work today, im sure it will be great. also, the christmas party is a perfect way to get to know everyone there, so i am excited for you! im glad to hear the devils are doing well, and also i am extremely excited for the CHRISTMAS CALL!!!!!!!!!!! i will write down those times and try to coordinate it as best as i can, to fit everyones schedule but we will have to see.

ok now to the family letter!!

well first off i want to spill the beans that i am being transfered! to an area called marilia (ma-dee-lee-uh). its in sao paulo, so its going to be extrmely hot, and i hear that depending on the area the ward is going to be amazing, so that is good. i still dont know my companion, or my specific area, but i am leaving on a bus tomorrow at 5 oclock, so i will be emailing you again this week about the specifics for the christmas call. thank you for the information dad, i will use it to try and make it go as smooth as possible. but i am excited! i hear that it is different in são paulo than it is in parana (londrina), people are alot more happier up there, and are just excited, so i am excited to go! i will also scribble some first impressions when i send the next email.

onto this week, well we had christmas conference! there were 98 missionaries there, so basically half of the mission, and it was really good even though it was really only a zone conference, no celebrations really, but there was a white elephant sort of deal! i was literally the last person picked, out of 98 misisonaries, in a random drawing, so i got to choose any present to swap with. and i chose a harmonica, because it was sweet and i love music, only to remember that instruments are not allowed in the mission, so i just gave it to a missionary named elder dewey, who left for home today after 2 years. but it was good! i learned alot. also, every meeting starts with the preach my gospel purpose in english and portuguese, and 2 missionaries, one in english one in portuguese. well i was called to give it in portuguese, it was a little nerve wrecking but it went well! so no complaints

i also got the letter that you guys sent with the voting registration. i will try to mail that as quickly as possible! thank you for it. also thank you for the letter from joe, he didnt give a return address since you guys sent it for him, so unless i hear differently i will just mail a letter in response to our house, and you guys can find him and give it to him, no big deal.

we have a really great baptism story! another baptism for us, but its going to be this saturday after i leave. her name is fernanda, and she is 17 years old. and she had been to church different times, but never had a book of mormon, so we gave her a book of mormon during a lesson with other people as well, and she had to leave early so she left before us, and then we ended up leaving only a few minutes after, and she was in the street walking and reading at the same time, already just going at it to read! and so we invited her to pray about it and everything, and she recieved a response that the book of mormon is true, and now will be baptized this saturday! she is a great story of the power of the book of mormon, and her family has been intersted too, and now i think whoever is here will be able to work with them as well.

about counting baptisms, i have decided to not count. the place in preach my gospel where we write the names of people baptized and confirmed i just covered with a picture of the copenhangen temple. i dont want to count, or make a deal like some other missionaries do about how many people ive baptized, so im just going to do the best i can and be satisfied with it. woo!

well time is cut short today, i am very sorry for that, but i will email again this week! i love you guys, very much, and i am so excited to call! so until later this week, bye!!

Hello Family!!

Well Before i do ANYTHING, i am going to straighten out the whole phone call thing possibly being not on christmas christmas. Well president tavares saw how clearly the transfer could mess things up for alot of people, so he has said that everyone who will be transfered is allowed to email their families again during the week, after the transfer to set up the call for christmas. so woo!! all is well with that.

now to the letter letter!

well first off i will start with something more spiritual. i dont know what it was, but last tuesday or wednesday its almost like something clicked. as a missionary i am always doing spritual things, reading and studying spiritual things, just trying to increase my knowledge and feel the spirit. well i dont know what happened, but last tuesday or wednesday something clicked, and since then i have seriously been feeling the spirit basically constantly throughout the day. Literally throughout the entire day! not just in lessons, or prayers, or study, but just walking down the street, doing anything. and it has made me happier, more excited, and is helping me more during my lessons, portuguese, everything! its incredible. the holy ghost really is the constant companion, and it has grown my testimony alot this past week.

to be honest i have been studying alot, conference talks and scriptures, and ive really been expanding in what i can just whip out during lessons or when talking with people. also, ive been practicing my language by reading ´our search for happiness´ in portuguese out loud, and in the MTC i would read in portuguese and barely understand, have to look up words constantly process it, but now with this excercise i can just read portuguese, just read like normal, and understand. its amazing!

onto other things, we had a really successfull family home evening with our christmas couple, who are planning on getting married and baptized those days. we sat them with this family in church who has a daughter and a son, each of them mid 20´s and married, and so they all got to being friends, and we set up a family home evening this week, and iut was a huge success! me and elder pope (an american misisonary with the night terrors, i was on a division) taught the message as the plan of salvation, or the 2nd lesson missionaries teach. it was really really good, they understood and accepted all of it, and bruno (the guy) has tattoos and looks all tough, but he loves his future wife so much, and he was like ´ i told her before we met you guys that i wanted to be with her for more than just ´until death to we part´´ it was just so spiritual slash amazing! and afterwards he was already making casual jokes in reference to what we taught, like he´s been a member alrady for years. Elder pope was saying how they should move to his side of ouro branco, since thats where he works, so they can stay in better contact, and bruno was just like ´ no, our side of ouro branco is like the celestial side, and yours is like telestial´ haha! it was just great. and members were bearing their testimonies, everyone was doing their part and we were all progressing in the gospel, it was as of now a highligh of my mission, just to see how that night was exactly how our missions are supposed to work. it was great!

i have really been mission your homemade bread mom, i just thought you would appreciate knowing that they dont really care that much about good bread here, and its all like a wal mart loaf, but worse, i think your homemade bread will be one of the first things i want whenever i am back!

so ive counted 6 times now weve entered the home of somebody, anybody, and the whole family is watching the american tv show ´ everybody hates chris´ that comedy thats normally on the basic cable. haha! everyone in brazil loves specially that show, and im not sure why, ive never seen them watch other shows from the USA except for that, except for we entered a members home yesterday to find that the dad and his two over 20´s sons were watching high school musical three. haha. it was still in english, but just had subtitles.

aanyways, i have been having problems with my eyes lately. not in vision, or pain, but they have been partially red in the same place for 3 weeks now. 2 weeks ago i got eye drops that were a knockoff brand, and they sort of helped, didnt do that much. but this past week i bought the good stuff, and now the problem is completely gone. first, i think that brand and off brand really is a difference here, as opposed to most things in the US. and second, i think it was a mix of being tired, and my large eyes being exposed to the sun ALL THE TIME, and that just puts wear on them. but its better now, so no worries

i got to work in a trio for the first time friday, me my companion and that elder pope. i thought it was going to be bad because i have alwasy heard how trios are never good, but it was actually a big success! we had alot of fun (and still did work) and our lessons were really good, way effective, it was just a success! ive been thinking alot about my missionary (michelle Mink 2013 :) ) and i am excited for when we are both back to help out the missionaries in our ward if they need someone to host an FHE, or anything, and also i am so excited for you to experience a mission too michelle!!!! hey, i love you! oh ps, that picture you sent me..... HAWT. whaat?

there is this thing here called terere (pronounced tededeyy) that is like a bunch of herbs, and you put it in a cup, then pour juice of your preferred flavor, and you drink it through this fancy straw thats metal and has a filter, and its sort of like tea but not, becaquse you are just getting a rich herby taste with the juice. when i first tried it, i didnt like it, but after bieng here longer its actually really good! oh also, another thing, here everyone believes that caffeine is not a problem, coffee and black tea are not allowed, but any other tea and and soda with caffiene is fine. why is it different here than it is there? which is right??

well its about time for me to go now. im so excited for the christmas call! joseph, write me back! i love you all so much, and the next email i could be telling you that i am getting transfered, but we will see! its exciting, to be honest i want a new area, here where i started and stunk, and had my first trainer, i just want a clean slate in another area. but we will see! i love you all so much! have a great week, i am praying for you, working hard, never slacking, michelle my belle i am sending you letters every single week, about the address if you are going to stay in the same apartment i will just keep sending them there during your 2 weeks off, and you´ll return to alot of letters!

i love you all, have a great week and enjoy the time you have together! only one more sunday until we get to call on the phone, and i can try to speak correct english! i love you guys, until next week, goodbye!!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Dear family, Hello!!

Grandma and Grandpa, thank you very much for your email! i am glad to hear that everything is coming along fine, also i am very excited to recieve your package! i promise i will try my best not open it until christmas, this will probably be easy because everyone always trys to take things from other missionaries who are just opening packages, and i cam open it in peace. so thank you!

ok now for the main letter! thank you everyeon for your emails, seriously much appreciated, i feel more and more like im at home for the holidays when i can read all of your emails at once, like were all sitting in my living room just chatting about our week.. but anyways

so we returned back to our house after the craziness, wow that week in the house of the secretaries was crazy. 10 people living in an apartment apartment, it was so crammed but also stress free and fun for me, because unlike everyone else i organized and kept everything in my suitcases. lots of missionaries lost stuff, ´took´ small things, and other madness ebcause of a lack of organization, but my stuff was all kept safe. in fact, i lost the locks on my suitcases, so i couldnt access my things all week, i only used the 3 sets of clothes that i already had in my dirty laundy bag, but it ended up just being for my benifit (also, we used some power tool to cut through the locks two days ago, so now i can acess my stuff). but being with the secretaries was fun, everyone thinks that this next transfer (december 20th) im going to be called as the next secretary. to be honest, i have had that feeling as well, but who really knows? we will only see. but we moved back to the house just fine, and i am all settled in with my own personal space again, which i very much missed.

the phone call is only 3 weeks away!!! i think that it is only going to be a phonecall, i hear that skype here is terrible and when missionaries try to skype, it always cuts out and is fuzzy, and the call gets lost. so basically we can try to skype, or have the assurance of a solid hour on the phone, and i think were just going to try for a phone! its going to be crazy this year, anbd let me explain why. what normally happens is that brazilians cant call the us from their phones, but americans can the other way around. so the p day before christmas i will send you the number of the phone of the member who you will call, and we will coordinate times, and then you guys will call and i will be there to answer. now this is the thing, transfers are the monday before christmas, so if i am transfered i will not know the number that you need to call,since i´ll be going to a different area. crazy right!!! well if that happens one of two things will and can occur. one is that i get permission to send you another email only coordinating the phone call after the transfer, and all is well on christmas. or the other, is that i email you the stuff the monday after christmas, and we call that day. i have heard missionaries sometimes do either when this situation arises. but also, i could not be transfered, and all will be just peachy. but as we coordinate here with the ward, i will keep you and us as updated as i can!

i think i am officially fluent in portuguese! my companion told me that i have reached that point, and thinking about it i agree. i talk and talk and talk now in portuguese without thinking about it in my head like a translation, i think that constitutues fluent, but that is exciting if you ask me! it will be interesting to see how my portuguese will keep improving, because it of course can always improve. i also dont want to waste any time on the phone call displaying my portuguese, but maybe just a sentance to prove im actually doing it haha...

our brazilian soccer team dad, corintians, are the national champions! they won yesterday, and are the hoskin brazil club team, their emblem is and an anchor and 2 oars, like crew, and they are just sweet. look them up dad! i already bought that one jersey of theirs, and someone else gave me another, now i have a black and a white, haha but all of londrina was going nuts when they won, i thought of pittsburgh after the superbowl, and also of how everyuone will just get drunk, and it will be harder to find people to teach last night, and truth be told it was, but my companion was sick last night, so we had to go b ack to the house anyways

we have a couple who are basically elect! they were at church this week and we have a marriage/baptismal date set for christmas (night time, dont worry ;) ) so i am really excited for them. they werent showing up to church yesterday during first hour, so i did something i had never done before all by myself. i got a member to drive me to their house (my companion stayed, he was talking with president tavares, this was allowed because i was with a priesthood holder) and we drove to their house, and i was nervous because i didnt have my trainer, but i knocked on the door, woke them all up and brought them all to church! i felt like i was a missionary for sure, it was pretty sweet. also, we got another young couple to sit with them at chruch, and now theyre all friends and were going to have FHE´s combined and everything, its great! really shows how working with the ward is so much more successfull than choosing not to.

i have to go now, but thank you all so much for everything that you do! my week wasnt that interesting to be honest, but i will continue to write you michelle! as always : D, and cherish all your guys´ emails, i love you all, and i hope you have a good week! youre all in my prayers, im thankful for the oppertunity we have to all be a family, talk to you next week! bye!!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin