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