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