Hello family!

Well i just want to start off by saying that for some reason its not letting me upload 2 photos for this week, so i will try to send them off next week if thats ok.

Mom, it sounds like you are really learning alot in the old testament. I have been too! its really an interesting part of scripture to study, i am hoping that when i return from the mission i can study it more in college or something, who knows. Maybe i can just ask you :). it sounds like winter has been pretty soft there haha, not knowing exactly how cold i have been telling people here that it snows alot there and is very cold, because its the truth most of the time! Its great to hear that joe is doing well, i hope he likes my letter, just tell him that he can respond to it with the return address on the back.

Dad, It sounds like that night with michelle and all the family was great! im glad to hear that you guys had a great time, my whole family :) thats also sweet that you got to go toa devotional in that new building, its huge! i remember the first time i can remmeber seeing an apostle was there for the dedication fall semester, when Elder Bednar and Elder Eyring were there, it was really sweet. Thats good that you are doing indexing, i have felt guilt many times here on the mission about that semester in rexburg i had that calling and never did it, but i will make up for it when i get home. the devils just need to get 4th or above, just home ice advantage in the first round and everything will be fine. start those preparations, it will be awesome when you guys come out!

ok so now onto everything else that heppened this week. Well first of all i have sort of made the descision that while waiting for michelle (or together, completely married :) ) i want to change up how i do byu idaho. there i think the rule is that you can take a religion class or go to institute each semeseter, well i think that maybe i just want to do institute! i have been using the manuals here of institute (in portuguese) and it helps me learn things alot more in depth, which is exactly what i like. we will see, just a thought! does anyone know how many days institute is, or how it works in rexburg?

so this week us 4 missionaries here in our ward planned this huge activity for saturday. we told everyone in our ward to bring a friend and such, and it ended up being a huge success! we only had 7 investigators there, but 7 is actually alot, and there were alot of members who showed up as well. we had different things to do, and from the beginning everyone was split up into 3 teams, orande purple and blue. so there were a bumch of activities, where at the end of the day the team who did the best would win a ton of candy. of some of the activities 2 were the most unique i think. the first was that we cut out all fancy 3 sets of the 12 apostles, with 2 of the 70, and each team had to try to first figure out who was the 12, and then arrange them in order! it actually ended up going really well. the last activity was a treasure hunt on the chapel grounds. first of all, our chapel is huge, its the biggest chapel ive ever seen. and so each team had 15 clues that we hid earlier that day around the chapel, and the clues were only scripture references, where each clue they had to go to the scripture and figure out what the clue was. it worked out really well! i spend like an hour looking in the book of mormon for good scriptures that could be a realatively easy clue, and afterwards just went straight to psalms, and it got 80 times easier. but it worked out really well!

and best of all, one of the investigators who we had there her name is vitoria, and we have been teaching her for a while. well after the activity she came up to us and told us how she wanted to be a part of our church and be baptized, so then the next day we had her baptism! she was really happy, and it all went very well, her parents are 100% supportive and they have always wanted to go to our church, so now they are growing in reasons and desire to do so.

so that activity was a huge sucess! and it showed that missionary work isnt just always knocking on doors. we sacraficed alot of our work time thursday to get everything arranged, and while it seemed like ti was making things difficult with ´numbers´ it completely paid off in the end. it was a great lesson to learn

oh one other thing! on a side note, i chipped one of my teeth, just a little its barely noticable unless you are me, so i went to the dentist and have an appointment arranged for tomorrow at 4:30 pm my time. in total its going to cost 160 Reals, which is 93 dollars. the church doesnt pay for dentist work, and its actually really cheap for the whole operation! so i just wanted to give you the heads up, so you would know.

we had zone conference this week. it was really good to learn alot from our mission president. it was about how we shouldnt be afriad to start teaching initially with the book of mormon, things like that. so now i just walk with the book of mormon in hand, and its the first thing i talk about with people! so far its going really well. and the bible is good, but the book of mormon is what separates us from other religions (fullness of the gospel, restoration, revelation, ect) and so it makes sense how we should talk about it initially.

well i have to go now, but i am so glad to hear that everyone had a great time together in rexburg! i love you all, and just keep doing what you are all doing, you guys are great! i love you all, until next week!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family,

well this week has officially started Carnivál, more specifically this friday. trying to teach and find people is difficult, but when is it not? everyone just is drinking and blaring music in the street, i dont know if i already have mentioned but there is a type of music here called ´funk´ its basically electronic music and really really bad/dirty rap mixed together. its not even music! but everyone listens to it here. anyways so its carnival and it will last officially until wednesday, here called grey wednesday. i learned the catholic church started carnival, saying that for these 3 or 4 days, god looks away towards other creations, and thus ´we´ can do whatever we want for those 3 or 4 days without consequence, and afterwards grey wednesday, where he looks back to us, and is a day of mourning for people whove died, and thus appearing to god that weve been doing good the whole time. great and abominable church, whaat?

but i remember hearing about a brazillian missionary years back who said that in some parts of brazil you cant look up without seeing pornography. well im not in são paulo, or Rio de Janeiro, but carnival is still here, and basically i just keep my eyes out of bars and stores when we walk by. but it will pass soon enough!

this week was the birthday of our recent convert livia. she told us a few weeks back that she had never really had a birthday before where she got presents and such, so we teamed up with the young womens leaders and turned the activity night this thursday into what ended in a surprise party for her! it was a great success. Elder Borges and ordered scripture cases for her, and got here a nice set of scriptures, one triplet and one bible. we couldnt find a bible, so i gave her the one that i bought in the são paulo templo, but i got my hands on another bible so all is well. but overall it was a great sucess!

also, youth conference is this weekend for the marília stake, and all 3 of our recent converts ended up going. we also had a baptism there! another yound man named rodrigo, instead of baptising him at the chapel where there was almost no one (seeing as how everyone was gone because of youth conference, and alot of leaders and adults too) we arranged for him to be baptized in a river near the cabin where they were having youth conference, by another youth named naiter who is always going on splits with us. it was a great experience! he got to baptize someone, and rodrigo got to go to youth conference and such, and from what i heard it was a nice spiritual experience, because they had sacrament meeting there as well.

things here have been good, similar to ouro branco i am getting a little tired of our area. weve already knocked doors on almost every street, and when the people you pass by seem familiar, i feel like its time to leave. but we continue on i guess, at least one of us will leave, but we will see! 2 weeks

this week is zone conference with our Mission president, all wednesday. its a good idea by him because hes doing zone conferences during carnival, which is yearly the worst time for missionary work.

My companion has started doing physical therapy 3 times a week, 8 oclock in the morning. this is good because we walk about an hour to get there, so i get a nice walk when its actually cool and not burning hot from 7 to 8, but also i dont have more time to study! but i have been bringing my book of mormon sometimes, so its been ending up ok. its also nice while were there to be in an air conditioned room and all

mom, how is the old testament? i have been steady in my reading of the bible this year, i am reading 4 chapters a day, and so far in the old testament ive read neamias (ensligh spelling?) until job, and all of genesis until exodous. what part are you guys at in the old testament?

So basically everything has been ok here in Palmital (almost named Palmdale), i have been just going nuts talking to everybody, because if i dont work then i get down and if i get down it just makes being here miserable, so the key is work!

it doesnt feel at all like it (obviously) but my birthday is in 3 months! i am going to be 20 years old, not technically a teenager more! its about time haha.. but im already getting older on the mission, and by that i mean i have 7 months here and already have a bunch of missionaries that are ´younger than me´ and it just makes it all go faster and faster.

i once again learned alot this week, the entire mission is reading the book of mormon together, and have been therefore studying it everyday. its crazy how much i have learned here on the misison so far, but also how much of a desire i have to learn more once i return and dont have rules on what i can read (here is just talks, scriptures, jesus the christ, search for happiness, and tyrue to the faith) i want to read those books called the doctrine of salvation, all of the teachings of the presidents that people use for classes, everything! it totally makes sense how when we get more spirutual, we hunger and thirst for things righteous.

well i should go, my hour is almost up. but i love you guys! and i hope that you all have a great time together on this presidents day weekend, i will be praying for you guys as usual. i love you all, and i miss you all very much as well. until next week!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hi family!

well i am going to get right down to the cheesey, i thought going into the holidays that i would feel very homesick, and its true that i did! but little did i think about how the most homesick i would be would be valentines day :(. but, i guess life goes on, technically.... haha

ok!

First of all mom! thats great to hear that you are watching psych, i love that show. are they releasing new seasons? i dont think i need anything as of right now, i will think about it and let you know next week, but i am ok! that stinks to hear about the package that diane sent. just some facts are that they x ray your packages, so if they see anything that you havent hidden, and they want it, they will take it. also, anything over 50 dollars on the claim on the package will be held at the post office until you pay whatever tax they decide, and its always higher than 50 dollars. lastly, if you put pictures or stickers of mary, jesus, things like that, they dont open the packages just out of their free will. but its true! i feel very blessed to not have had this happened to me. the package that you sent with the pants was opened, but they didnt take anything. i think they opened it, saw conference talks and old pants, and thought what the heck? haha but you said you sent a small package a while back, i dont think i ever got it, what wasin it? im excited for you guys to go to idaho! i wish i was there, but only one more year after this year... im sorry to hear that jenny is sick as well. being sick just makes life miserable!

dad, first of all im sorry to hear about all the traveling you will be doing. it just seems like the final push before you dont have to travel very much anymore, so stick to it! and bring skype along with you haha. your idaho schedeul sounds like its going to be a blast, im jealous that you will be around rexburg alot and i wont be at school, but it sounds like its going to be alot of fun, especially seing michelle! about your car, im sorry someone did that to you, did they rob anything? i agree with momwhen she said that maybe its a good time to pray about moving to a different house haha, but the kids in our neighborhood just conitnue to get more and more like idiots, what can we do? about transfers, this transfer is one week shorter than all the others! im not sure why, but once a year, this transfer,it just works out that its only five weeks. so i have 3 more weeks. i am sure that me, or elder borges will leave, because no one stays together 3 transfers in our mission, unless you train someone for 2, sometimes ir works out that you stay for 3. so one of us will go, but who knows? we will have to see.

now for everything else.

well this week has been a week of alot of different things happening. usually i like to have the same routine, it just makes things go faster, but i guess thats just life.

so thursday was the hottest day of my life. i am not exxagerating (how do you spell that?). it was ridiculously hot, and just sun, and eight hours of walking just made it the hottest ever.

me and my companion this transfer have been just carrying our book of mormons and planners with us when we work. its really the only things we use, and it just makes it alot better to not have a backpack or anything. it also feels a good sort of differentthat just the scripturesand my testimony slash faith is all we need to help people!

so thursday was the hottest day, and me as well as im sure everyone in marilia was praying for rain. well the next day it rained more than it ever has here in brazil, just the complete opposite of the day before. i was completely soaked the entire day, and after i accepted it it was actually really refreshing! anyways enough about weather.

well our investigator nirce has a baptismal date marked! in 2 saturdays. she is really great, and we continue to teach her everything we can, first out of preach my gospel, to help her learn more. she has been catholic for 30 years, so things like the trinity take time to explain, and to figure out for her. but all is well

we had something really great happen in our ward at church yesterday. a man showed up to church, and not recognizing him i sat with him through all the meetings and such, and turns out he is an investigator who has never talked with missionaries, and for the past 3 weeks (including stake conference) he has been traveling here to marilia to go to our church. he lives in a small city 30 minutes out of marilia, and he just showed up on his own free will. so we got to teach him what we could after church, gave him a book of mormon, and he´ll come back next week.it was great to see how the lord preparespeople, regardless of ward boundaries, or missionaries, or anything

this week my testimony has grown more than it has in the past 4 months combined, and it grew a ton the past 4 months! it started out with reading patriarchal blessings again, and then after which i studied the atonement and priesthood in the talks dad gaveme, the scriptures, and in other talks that my companion had. i studied it all for a week straight, just those 2 topics. and i learned so much! i learned alot of what people call ´deep doctrine´ but honestly it just makes it all make more sense. my testimony has really grown this past week, and i can truly feel the difference all the time. its really been a great experience

so other than these things this week was basically normal. oh! well because this transfer is only 5 weeks, and we usually recieve money every 2 weeks, we will all recieve the same amount of money for the last 3 weeks, not just too. so i have about 28 dollars (i figured it out with my companion ahah) for each week for the next 3 weeks. i am going to be even more careful with the money, but i would be lying if i didnt say that i will probably use some of the emergency money. but we will see!

were already almost at 7 months, it feels like yesterday that i passed half a year. i know that you are all my family, and i know that me and michelle already know were going to be a family forever as well :) but regardless of this i want to thank you for sticking with me after these 7 months. i have the best family i could have, the best future wife ever possible!! and i am just so glad that we all have eachother. you guys are a wonderful support, and i just want to tell you ugys that i love you, and that i am thankful for you. im learning never to take you guys or anything about us, or other things for granted. i just want to tell you how thankful i am. idont care if i sound needy, or weak, or what, but michelle, family, i literally couldnt do this without you. and i am grateful for you guys. just think about my mission as you guys helping the lords work, because every wonderful letter or email or video i recieve is just you guys behind me, helping me put my shoulder to the wheel. these are and will be the most difficult 2 years of my life in alot of ways. in almost all ways im pretty sure. but all that i am right now is a proof that missionaries need their families to do this work, and i have been blessed with a wonderful family, and even more special here on the mission already knowing and falling in love with whom i know i will spend eternity with. i love you all so much!

i have to go now, please take all my words as literally and genuinely as possible, because i am pleading through this computer as im talking to you, but its hard to show with just words. i love you guys! and until next week, bye! have a great week, and a great valentines day michelle, i absolutely love you! byee!!

Hello Family!

Well this week was a good one, it is so freaking hot here. I now shower twice a day, morning and night, because i come home and all of my clothes are soaked in sweat. But that doesnt mean its not good, all is well! ok here we go

Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for the email! Thats great that you were able to go visit the Matt Hoskin family, miss all of you guys up there in idaho. I think its going to be one of the things ill definitely want to do when i get back, is visit everyone up there. Thats a wonderful story about Grandpa and Dottie Adams, I am glad that you guys are sharing that gospel, and that you are seeing the blessings enter the lives of other people!

Mom, thank you very much for the story about Daniel. To tell you the truth his story has always been my favorite in the old Testament. He was a great example, and i like that story because it just shows that anyone can be the example, and we should never use comparisons to other people as an excuse not to act, and leave it for other people. That testimony sounds like a good one! We didnt have testimony meeting this week because of stake conference, but i appreciate the Ketchum story, its nice to hear how more or less things havent changed there.

Dad, who won the super bowl? Just a guess because no one told me, i think the Patriots. but anyways, its not that interesting to me either, but i cannot believe the whole football season has passed! it doesnt feel like it, it feels like were 2 months away from the first fall game for penn state, or something like that. Im sorry things were very busy in Florida. But im sure it made the time go by at least a little bit faster, and thats the best when youre away from home! haha i have experience on that. The devils seem to be doing very well, i also cannot believe it but its getting closer and closer to playoffs already. It sounds like the presidential candidates are getting pretty ugly. I had a brazilian member ´tell me´ about it the other day. but all he told me was that mitt romney was done for because he said he doesnt like poor people. Well if its not you guys or Fox news, i dont believe it, so im glad to hear that he did well in navada and florida. i liked what you said about seeing the differences in big ways on the mission. its true! the spiritual experiences are much more profound, and alot clearer to see. maybe its just because im progressing spiritually, and im closer to the spirit. who knows.

ok so onto the main letter,

well this week didnt have alot going on, except for just continuing in the work. i had a division with the zone leaders this week, and their house was the dirtiest house i have ever seen or smelled on the mission! its funny because im completely far from home, but each house that i get settled in on the mission i feel like is a mini home, and im always just feeling uncomfertabel whenever i stay in other houses. but thats ok

this week was stake conference, so we had to take a bus 40ish minutes to another ward building. it was actually pretty sweet, because our mission president was there, and we were able to take 2 of our recent converts and 2 investigators with us. it was a semi miracle because everyone in our ward was having transportaton issues getting there, but we were able to!

there was a talk given on family history work that i really really liked. the woman who gave a talk said ´ family history work is the work of the lord. it is service, it is sacrifice, and it is salvation´ and its so true. i think the next time that i go to and through the temple i need to think more about how each baptism, each ordinance is literally the salvation of a son or daughter of god. and we all have a great oppertunity to do this work, and literally help people return to god in one of the most direct ways possible. its truly a blessing for us, and im definitely going to do it whenever i get back!

so an elder who finished his misison her in marilia. elder mccombs, his parents came to pick him up. they got here on monday, and they were at stake conference on sunday. it made me think of how, if michelle serves a mision, how that would be so great for you guys to visit here and pick me up! but i was also thinking that it would be even more amazing if we returned here, when i was married to michelle and all and we could just have a great trip! who knows, but i just really want to come back here with my family after the mission

one other thing that i thought was humurous was that i realized during stake conference that al brazilians pronounce robert d hales as ´ roppert d. hayleys´ haha and people just kept on using his quotes, and i thought is was hiliarious, but i am probably just being dumb.

i dont have alot of time to write today, ive already used up most of my hour, but thats ok because not alot has happened. oh one other thing! well the scriptures in any language are hard to read, just because its all proper and such, and the same goes for portuguese scriptures. but this week was the first week i was honestly able to begin just reading my scriptures in portuguese and not having problems understanding, so thats been something very neat!

also, is there any way you can get joe maloney´s address? i was thinking about writign him back to the letter that he sent me, but i ahve no clue who to address it to or anything. do you have any ideas?

im sorry this email is short, but things will be back to normal next week. i love you guys very much, and i hope that you have a great week! im prating for all of you, and lets all just continue on in life together! like michelle said, time is going by waayyyy fast, basically seven months already. roasted. haha! i love you guys, talk to you next week, bye!!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin