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