Hello Everybody,

Well this week has been a great week, just a side note i am getting tired of those little red squiggly lines that are in word, when youve spelled a word wrong, appearing in all of my words that are in english. But i will Live!

Grandma and Grandpa, thank you very much for that email. I love hearing about how you guys have just made it last straight into eternity, I really have gained a testimony in the past 13 months of how a marriage needs to be for eternity, and to be for eternity it needs to have the spirit. So thank you grandparents, you are a great example to me! it sounds like island park is finally getting the yearly snow, its unbelievable to me that i was there a year ago, and there was snow, because here its just hot hot hot. happy anniversary! also thank you for the references in doctrine and covenants, doctrine and covenants has lots of motivational scriptures for missionaries, or even just the members in general.

Mom, im all better now, so dont worry. But i never want to be sick away from home (or america) again. Nephi was truly a great prophet, i think when Mormon was abridging the book of mormon, he didnt have a problem finding the best parts from the time of Nephi. Im sorry that its been hard preparing for seminary. Just know that you are fulfilling your calling, and will recieve blessings. Our ward here in marilia has alot of people in very imortant callings who do not want to do anything, and it is making it very hard for the ward to grow. So know that you are doing your part! Elder Bednar said that the promptings of the holy ghost and the workings of him in our life are rarely seen, or noticed, only the rare, large promptings we actually recognize. Its important to remember that if you cant see it all the time, the spirit will work through your service to whom it is necessary. im sorry to hear about seeing a new doctor, back to the blessings i remember in Mosiah that it says we recieve blessings both spiritually and physically, so just remember that righteousness will bring health as well. Also, abby, 11 vials of blood sounds terrible, but its over now!

Dad, although im sure it was a terrible experience, it is nice to hear that you also went through being sick, it feels less like something awful and more just like something that will happen on the mission. Im interested to hear about this joe paterno thing, but i will save it for later then. That stinks that you have to travel, but at least its much less frequent! I got your package this week!! it was amazing, thank you very much for the pants, the journal, and most especially the binder full of talks! ive already read the first 3 on the atonement, one of Neal A Maxwell, and they are really very good. After time, it would be sweet to get more (once ive read all of these) like you said, because talks i cannot get on my own, and are one of my favorite sources of learning things spiritually. That is sweet that you are going to the basketball games, are they any good now? and is the girls team still winning every single game?

ok so onto the family letter!

Well the first news is that i am not going anywhere for transfers. Or my companion, we are just staying completely normal, it will be the first time on my mission that this is the case! So i am excited, i have grown to like him alot, and we work really well together to be honest. So that is the good news, i wanted to not move because i wanted a normal p-day today. Did you know that before it was called p-day, or preparation day, is was called diversion day? because its a day that you ´ need to not think about missionary work ´´ (quote from the brazil area doctor). Just a fun fact, i enjoy spending my time just writing michelle :)

Second thing, that is way fun that the whole family is going to island park!! and even more great that you guys will get to see michelle! wow, i am just so happy for this to happen, its great because you guys already know eachother, and everything! ahh get used to it mom and dad, because one day you guys will fly out to island park and meet up with me and michelle, married for eternity, and will just be great! I hope it all works out, i know michelle is very busy, but i am excited for you guys! also jealous haha, but thats ok because....

this friday was my half a year!! officially one fourth of the way doen with my mission, areyou kidding me? already? i only have a year and a half (already less than that) before my mission is over. It is unbelieveable how the time has gone by, and everyone keeps telling me that the first 6 months are the hardest, and after the first 6 months it really starts to go fast. so we´ll just keep going! i definitely feel satisfied with my mission up to now, i dont have any regrets, feelings of ´oh, i wasted that time´ and i just hope that i can say the same thing after 2 years. we´ll see!

just so you know, i have been really tempted to listen to normal music, right now, as im on the computer and the internet. you all know how much i like music, and it has been almost killing me this week! but i will resist, i just thought you´d like to know that i am still normal zach.

so this week we have been working with this woman named nirce (near-see). She lives with her daughter who is 20, she is like 45, and she just showed up to church on sunday. we had never talked to her before, and she said that a friend of hers (in another marilia ward) kept inviting her to go to church, and she kept on saying, when i have time sunday mornings, i will go, over and over and over. well she just woke up early 2 sundays ago, thought to herself ´i have time today´ and just went to church! so we passed by her house on tuesday to teach her, and it was once again one of the most spiritual lessons ive ever taught. we taught her about the restoration, and we had 2 members with us, one was livia ( the young woman we baptized who is awesome, and just wants to be a missionary with us) and another member named bruno, and they bore their testimonies, and we invited her to be baptized, and she accepted, it was just perfect! she drank coffee, but stopped before we even taught her, and is on her way to being a very strong member. its just a very good story for her! she is amazing, and i thought youd appreciate a happy story

so i was thinking during a moment this week about my testimony, about our testimonies. i was thinking about how we dont gain a testimony in a commandment until we live it, or we dont gain a testimony in something unless we exercise faith in that thing and develop our belief. Well i came to the conclusion that before my mission i didnt ahve a testimony in missionary work (or at least a strong one) specifically, because simply said i never did missionary type things before it. now, i definitely have it, but for michelle who is considering a mission, or anyone, i think it would really help to do missionary type things, even just talking with nonmembers aboutthe gospel, and thus gain a testimony of missionary work through seeing the benifits, before the mission, or just in general. just a thought.

well ihave to go now, but just know that everything is ok! i love hearing that everything is going well, that everyone is getting along in life, i am too, six months into the mission and we are all just doing great! i love you guys, and i will talk to you next week!

also, on a side note, the picture i sent is one of me and my old district leader. his 2 years are up tomorrow, and will fly home, and actually go to byui. michelle, aif you see him around maybe talk to him! because i got to know him real well, and he´d probably be able to tell you more things about me, our district, who knows, but that photo is me and him!

i love you guys, have a fantastic week, and i will talk to you again soon!!

ps: i dont know why, but this transfer is only 5 weeks, not 6. and i will get an email for letters or packages soon for you guys, although i dont need anything, but just to know :)

Hello my family!!

Well every week i have something new to say, but first off i will start with the responses to everyone´s emails and such as usual.

Grandma and grandpa, im glad to hear that you liked that chapter in the teachings of george albert smith! While i think that charity is the trait i will need to develop the most on the mission, i think that really everyone should focus on charity. Also, i am glad to hear that island park got a good foot of snow. Im sorry to hear about that guy trash talking mormons, people will truly get what theyve chosen like you said, its just every choice has consequences. Have mormons been against every political candidate whose not a member? most definitely not, people just need to leave everything out of politics and goverment thats not politics and goverment.

Dad, i am so sorry to hear about Joe Paterno. I never really considered the possibility of him dying while i was on the mission, probably because he seemed like he would live forever. It will also be interesting to see who will take his place afterwards. i have a hockey question that arose in your email, are the winnipeg jerseys cool? i am so glad to hear that the flowers thing worked out with michelle! also, thats interesting that you were able to ski while still recuperating with your shoulder. But this next week will most likely be better, i am sure of it!

Mom, your probably right about the hot and cold, it is so ridiculously hot here! My body is just aching for winter, but it never came.. hello jenny! thats sweet that Mr Hessler remembers me, truth is i remember him as well, did you tell him im in brazil right now? I wanted to watch that devotional by boyd k packer, but we arent allowed :( . im sorry that your diet has been a hassle lately, you just gotta stick to it i think!

ok well now to everything else like usual!

well first off i came to the discovery that my mission here in londrina is just a brazilian version of our general region in pennsylvania, just let me explain. Well pittsburgh and londrina are about the same size, population wise, and they both have rivers running through them. they are the second biggest cities in their respecive state (it only gets more real) im in the city of Marilia right now, i fairly nice sized but still small city that is 4 hours out of londrina, and is full of factories of chocolate. sound like somehwere in PA? hershey!!! and last but not least, here in my mission we have falls de iguacu, that border paraguay, and are the falls that everyone goes to down here. well about the same amount of driving is from londrina to iguacu, as is from pittsburgh to niagra falls, which borders canada! from all of this i decided that im seriously just living in the same place, but another country.

while this seems pretty insignificant, i got the first holes in my socks this week! but dont worry! not only do i have 6 pairs in reserve that you guys sent me, but i also fixed the wholes with my very weak sowing skills, but ive already used them once and they worked out just great, so im going to try to make them last as long as possible

We had to go to the doctors again this week for my companion, beginning the physical therapy on his back, and this throat has been inflamed for a week also. but he´s getting better, and that is actually nothing compared to my lil trip to the doctors that i will explain, now!

Well i dont know what i ate, but i got really really sick the end of this week (i am still feeling the effects). i started feeling just sick in general, not too bad around thursday. then after lunch on saturday, we came back to the house and i threw up 3 different times, had the whole body ache/chills thing, a massive migrane, and i will be honest with you, the worst diahreea (spelling?) of my entire life. it was literally heck. and so i thought i was just going to sleep and get better the next day, but i woke up during the night going into sunday and threw up again, and had diahrea again. then i went to church, managed to make it through the meetings, and i was not improving, so sister tavares mandated that i go to the hospital, which i did. i went there, got a blood test done, got to take medicine through an IV for the first time in my life, and the test came back that they didnt find anything wrong with me! so the rest of sunday i was just suffering the same, today all my symptoms are gone minus frequenting the bathroom alot, and i hope that i will be all better by tomorrow. but i am fine now! it was just really miserable :(. aaanyways

so the girl that we baptized named livia, who is 16 or so years old, is basically awesome. if i never had baptized any more people on the mission other than her, my mission would still be a success, she is just so spiritually strong! she has been going to all the activities and everything, and get this, she asked if she could go out with us proselyting one day haha! so we got a man over 18 years (its a rule) and brought her along with us, and she was talking with people in the street and helping us door to door, ahh it was just an amazing experience! also, she asked questions about the garments, and even though shes only been baptized for 2 weeks we explained (only as much as we could, it being sacred and all) about the garments, and about temples and temple work, and she is going to go on the next temple trip in march! the first person i have helped who is going to go start doing work in the temple! it had just been a really great experience helping her live this gospel.

i have new news about packages, that doesnt matter now because no one needs to or is sending any, but just for future sake! they changed the rules on packages, now all packages need to be sent to our actual home address, not the mission office. this means that i will get future packages much faster! i will not give my address right now, becaus ei dont know for sure if i will stay here this week, seing as how transfers are the next monday, but i will keep you updated! also, they will never hold a package to pay tax if the claimed value is under 50 dollars, so just keep that in mind. also, about packages being broken into. i heard that if you put stickers on the packages, religious stickers or pictures for some reason they tend to open the packages alot less haha! but just get creative next time you send one.

i had interviews this week! it went really well, my mission president is a really nice guy, and he only wants what is best for me, so i am thankful for it!

i have to go now, but i hope that you guys have a great week! i will try to send some photos here, and i have 2 videos for michelle as well!!!! i love you guys so much, i hope you all have a great week!

Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family!!

Well i just want to start off by telling you all thank you for everything like usual, so here it goes.

Grandma and grandpa, thank you for the email! Im sorry to hear that there is not alot of snow up there in idaho, but it sounds like everything is ok. i liked the part where you said where things are good when you two are together, i am excited to be married to someone where that kind of love will always be around for eternity! so thank you!

Dad, im glad to hear that you got to teach and really look into the restoration. The first lesson that we always teach everybody is simply called the restoration, just showing how important it really is. i have in my study journal a list of 8 topics that came from the restoration happening, and now define our church, and you basically named alot of them during those list of topics that you mentioned. that movie sounds like it is a good one, but the truth is if we use our dvd players for anything other than the 2 instructional dvds we have, we lose our dvd priveleges as well as our computer privileges for some time. so i would hold back on the movie! haha

Mom, truth is i didnt end up emailing till the afternoon, so it worked out with the whole email in the morning thing. I like the comparison you made to the children of israel, and Nephi. We cant rely on other peoples testimonies, we really need to rely on our own if we want to endure to the end. I have seen this on the mission, in my area specifically even. There is a family here who was baptised and became really really good friends with the elders here, but after the elders left 6 months ago the family went inactive. The entire process was good for the family, but now that family needs to develop more personal testimoniies of the church to be able to gain the desire to return. I also liked your bit on desire! If our desires are pure, and we have faith they´ll be granted unto us, like it says in enos 1:12.

ok now to the family email! well i hope everyone had a good week.

This week has been difficult for me. My companion went to londrina monday until wednesday night for his knee problems, and so i was stuck in a trio FOR 3 DAYS. ive learned that you gain a testimony of something in the church by living that commandment, and i can say with confidence that trios are not ordained in missionary work. it simply sucked. and alot of missionaries have told me that they always just talk good and happy go lucky to their family at home, to keep them from worrying, but i like to honestly tell you guys how it is, because being fake is just a lack of respect. so yes, it was hard, and to be honest i have been way excited with missionary energy, until this trio happened, and the rest of the week was me trying to get it back. but like usual, your letters, videos, and emails have brought me right back up to being unbelievabely happy, so thank you!

first of all, did you guys know that cashews are only nuts of what is actually a fruit? here its switched, they dont have cashews the nut, but they have cashew juice, which at first i thought was going to be nasty, but is actually delicious. sorry, just a side note.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!! the plans above are what im going to do to celebrate your birthday, as well as one other thing. this friday, the birthday of my future spouse, is interviews with president tavares! the first time for me on the mission, so it is going to be interesting. i hear that people get very nervous about it, and that would make sense, but its all calm with me, i think its just going to be a good time.

this week weather wise has been a huge blessing! im in one of the hottest areas in our mission during the summer, but this week all it has done is rain during the night, and stay overcast during the day. so ive gotten to actually wear a sweater two days this week because it was a little bit cold! i always love an excuse to wear a sweater, and it made this week livable, and was great for it being winter here

i have been studying in the teachings of george albert smith book that everyone gets for classes during church. that book is sooo good! when i get home i want to study all the books in the series, i dont know if your teachers are using it or not, but its a great resource

i had a very nice spiritual experience with a lesson in that book this week. the chapter was about loving one another, and before sunday i studied it and all so that the hour would be better. and it was amazing. i think that one thing that i need to develop here is just charity, and helping those around me. i will never lose my john galt capitalism, but that doesnt mean that i cant help people out as well. it was a great class, i felt the spirit so strongly, and its just one of those experiences that i can already tell has had an effect on my daily misisonary work, and will continue to have effect.

i am keeping strong in reading the bible! 4 chapters a day and i will be done in a year. the old testament is downright ridiculous, but i am trying anything possible to take something from it to learn. not so much in genesis, that book is good because of the creation, noah, abraham, things like that, but im also starting in ezra and contining, and there is just ridiculous. but its been good, i love the new testemant, jesus christ was the perfect teacher

SO about packages, i got 2 packages this week!! i got one from uncle matt, thank you very much for the ´ugly´ ties (i think theyre sweet), and joseph, thank you for your package!! haha its already in use, just for you to know. but i didnt get the 2 form mom and dad and i didnt get michelles, but President always brings packages around to interviews, so i will most likely get all three when he comes here on friday. so all is well!

we had a ´bible bash´ this week. i was making a street contact, and this guys started off on us and our religion, and at first we were trying to just be courteous and continue, i was honestly trying not to get mad! but then he told me (and my companion) that we were not children of god, he specifically said that, then called us ´ creatures´. so i just about lost it, and proceeded to ´burn him´ as missonaries say. it went on for about 15 minutes, and through just asking him questions about his belief his own logic came to the conclusion that jesus christ was not a child of god, and then i gave him a scripture to read in the bible and we just left. i tried not to get mad! but it was an.. experience, i think all missionaries have it at least a couple of times in their mission. but anyway!!

This week i also got sick, which could be one of the other reasons why this week wasnt quite the best. but i feel mostly better today! it was that kind of chills where you just always feel sickly cold, and want to curl up in bed. but all is well now.

Felipe and livia were confirmed this week, which was a nice experience! Felipe is on track to get the aaronic priesthood, i bought a tie for him last monday, and gave it to him as a present this sunday. he has started calling me his ´pai branco´ or ´ white dad´ haha. he is really a great kid, and we bought a shirt for him today, so i think hes going to recieve the priesthood before the transfer is over.

Well thats all i got for this week! thank you all for being a wonderful support. this week was just more of a reminder that i absolutely need you guys, your support, thank you very, very much. Michelle, once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i love you :) i hope that its great, and i cant wait to get to celebrate with you again! i love you guys, until next week!

Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family!!!!

Well i want to start off before i respond to each one that your guys´s emails this week were great! so thank you for them all, here we go!

First off, grandma and grandpa, thank you for the email! im sorry to hear that theres not alot of now up in island park, but i am happy to hear that my dads going to be able to come out and see you guys! it sounds like i am going to miss alot of politics on the mission as well. and i love doctrine and covenants, so thats great that you are reading it. thank you!

dad, that devils game sounds like it was a great time. i am a little down that i wasnt there, but there will always be hockey, so when i come back we can just make up for it. but thats sweet that you got to see them live! i think the last time i saw them live was the florida panthers game with matt trigger in new jersey probably 10 or 11 years back, if you dont include seeing scott gomez at the penguins canadiens game i was at a year or 2 back. but it sounds sweet! and those pictures were good also, im glad to hear they are doing well, and i am rooting for them all the way out here. also, thats sweet that you take the t and bus to work. does this mean i get the ford once im home off the mission? hahaha just joking, but seriously thats sweet, i dont know why but ive always wanted to be in a position where i can just take the t to work. i hope your shoulder continues to recover well!

mom, its true that we all miss eachother very very much, and things are sort of back to normal now, but i still miss you all! that wont go away, but its part of the mission i guess. its true, michelles hair is the best hear on earth, but this is the case for 2 reasons: a, she really knows how to take care of it well and 2, she has the best hair on earth. :) im glad to hear that brother (XX) is back and that the ward is having a good spiritual experience with that story! i remember thinking (debbie downer) that he probably wasnt going to make it when i heard about the accident, but all is well! like the hymn, that i often sing to myself when i am missing home. the children of israel are always giving grief, just because its almost like they dont learn! but technically we are the children of isreal now (sorry jewish friends) with the whole abrahamic covenant, so i shouldnt talk bad about us. abby, my facebook is undeleted now! you should just change your password or set your settings to more private. and jenny, im glad your expanding your talents!

ok now onto the family email:

well first of all i will explain the pictures. do you remember the picture of our baptism last week, with karen being baptized, and her cousins livia and filipe just there to support her? well this sunday was the other way around, filipe and livia were baptized yesterday!! it was a really great baptismal service, they are both really strong and have great testimonies. filipe will recieve the priesthood as a deacon soon enough, and livia is alreay in with the young women, we gave her the progress booklets and everything this week even before she was baptized, so its just been great here!! her, karen, and their other cousin tamydis who is also an investigator read the book of mormon and the strength for youth every night. its just amazing to see how peoples lives are improved with the gospel. so thats the happies news for this week! also, karen was confirmed during church, so yesterday waws just full of good experiences.

oh, and also, the other picture is one that we just took all artsy when we were walking to the doctor. now im just going to go in chronilogical order of how i took notes on things to tlak about this week.

well first off, i have found one of the things that i really really miss thats not here in brazil, other than my family and michelle of course :), and that is gatorade. they only sell the tiny bottles of gatorade that are way overpriced because of importing, and seeing the price this week just made me sad/miss it. but there is always water i guess...

we had a service project this week, basically just helping construction and building a house. the soil here is literally reddish purple because its so fertile, its sweet but at the same time when you are dirty, you are really dirty. but it was good! i like service projects alot, especially when it comes tobuildings and things like that.

we had a activity at the church this week where we talked about peer pressure and things like that, and it made me remember a story that ive always had. do you remember in bethlehem, pa, whenever i was at a friends house about to watch a movie (i was like 11), and they rented the movie scream, that horror film, so i called you guys and faked sick to leave?? haha! i forgot all about that, do you guys remember? i told that story to my companion and he just laughed at me, so i figured you guys would appreciate it.

i have read the ´beware of pride´ talk that michelle sent me about 4 times now. i am pretty much 1000 percent sure that that is my favorite talk ever given in the church. i always here how we have to choose, god or satan, theres no middle ground. and its true! and i think that in our lives, we have to make a choice that really parallels god and satan, and that is pride and charity. pride is starting to seem to me like the root of everything bad. i just love that talk! and i am going to apply to my mission slash life as much as i possibly can. thank you, for being such aa great support and sending things like that to help me out!

ps mom, i sent the voter registration in the mail to pittsburgh pa. i am officially a republican, i almost considered putting independant, but then i justthought ´who am i kidding´ and just put republican down. thank you, john galt.

another spiritual thing that hass really made an impact on me this week has been what i now think is my favorite book of scripture, and that is the book of enos. i have always really had my belief in everything religious anchored on prayer, and that book is just amazing. theres to many promises, revelations, and examples of what we can ahve in our lives.

my companion has been going to the doctor ALOT this week for this knee slash back, literally everyday minus one weve taken the bus downtown and used alot of time for his doctor. today he is going to londrina, a 4 hour bus ride, to get a specialist consult on his knee. so i will stay here in a trio with the other 2 in our house. im not going to lie, im not excited for it, but i guess ill just have to bear through it.

also, you should know i went to the doctor for my eyes this week. they have been red for 6 weeks now if i dont use eyedrops and werent healing. so i went there and she said that its becaus eopf the wind, and dirt, and sun. and so she gave me some crazy drops and told me that with these, my eyes will become accustomed to everything and get better. so we will see!

this week has been really good, mostly because of the baptisms and your guyss emails letters, and videos!! i lovve you all, i hope you have a great week, and i will talk to you next monday!