Hello family!!

Well i will start off apologizing for the stortness of last weeks
letter, this week its going to be a normal one, because theres nothing
screwing it up. but here we go!

Mom, im glad you liked the pictures! truth is that it wasnt valentines
day, but a zone conference, and so we got matching ties.. haha. isiah
sounds like its very difficult, which of course it is. in seminary, do
you guys use the chapters in the book of mormon from isiah to compare?
i also want to keep reading the whole old testament, but i took a
breather since were reading the book of mormon as a mission, the same
chapters on the same days, and im also reading with michelle, but
after we finish as a mission i will get back into it. i glad to hear
that abby seems to be getting along well! i really think that her and
jenny are going to be a ton different once i return, but i will just
have to get used to it i guess :) . that dream is hilarious! share it
with michelle, i think she would appreciate it.

Dad, he is pretty cool, and at the same time sort of a nerd ahah. but
i will explain more about him down the email. im excited to get to
that part in Jesus the Christ! i am reading it right now, rather
slowly because i only can in my spare time, and thus i am about to
start the chapter on the sermon on the mount. That book is one of (if
not the) closest book thats not scripture that makes me feel the
spirit. and i just love reading it! Also, that song is one of my
favorites! i remember in the ctm we sang it for a devotional, and i
copied down the lyrics in my study journal because they are great
lyrics. theyre right there with the spiritual thoughts, with quotes,
haha i think we felt the same way about it. i didnt even think about
how you wont have a crazy tax season with this new job! that is just
great, like you said especially for conference. To the saddest of all,
i am sorry the tarheels ended up losing in the elite eight. i dont
have any other info, so dont laugh if i dont know how the season went
for these teams, but how was butler this year? theres always going to
be next year for UNC, because no matter what they always have good
players, even that black guy who never played, and just stood there
pointing angrily at the other bench the other year. do you remember
him?

ok so onto errethang that happened this week!

Well for starters for joseph, i would like you clear up that i have
nothing to do with the ab ripper cd not being there ahah. i did not
bring it to brazil, nor did i move it out of its place. the last time
i used ab ripper was when i borrowed it from one of my friends in
rexburg, so i hope you find it!

o something has been bothering me since i have been here in the
mission. here, there is absolutely no sort of guideline or rule for
caffiene. and there, many people go caffiene free. here coffee and
black tea are still in the word of wisdom, but im talking more of the
caffeine sort of thing. so why is it different in 2 parts of the world
when its the same church? maybe people in america just choose not to
drink caffiene? but i am just confused, and would maybe appreciate
your input on why this is the case

So training has been going really well, we are improving every day and
thus week in how we work and all, its going great! Elder glover still
is having alot of language problems, but thats the way it always is
for americans in the beginning. But one thing that is awesome about
him is that i have literally never seen a missionary who has as big of
a love towards our investigators, or even just anyone, like he does.
Its almost unbelievable! he is helping me so much develop that christ
like kind of love because with him i feel that love he has for our
investigators, or more crazily anyone, and it helps me to develop
that. but he is great. also, i sent a picture of me and him in another
email, so thats elder glover!

General conference this week!! WOO!! so we get a letter from the
president every week, and as soon as i opened it to copy it to a word
document and print it out, i saw that he said that we can watch all of
the sessions of conference. SO i will be able to! i am way excited,
and also it will be in english. i could have understood it in
portuguese, but its just better in english, its nice to have that
taste of home. i have been preparing this past week, and now this one,
to be ready for all the talks, so i sure am really excited.itll be
crazy to think how the last general conference was just my first week
on the mission. i am going to do the same thing, watch it and think of
how you guys, my family and future wife, are watching the exact same
thing at the exact same time! i am so excited, i hope that you guys
are too

one thing that has been going on this week is that i have rarely had
the amount of spiritual experiences that i have had this week with
Elder GLover. WE have had so many lessons that are just so spirutual,
it has been great to see that this week. we have found alot of new
investigators, many of whom were at church last week, so we are going
to try everything we can to get them all to general conference this
week! we may even have a baptism in between sessions.

another fun thing that happened this week was that we got to 2nd hour,
and there was no one to teach gospel principles, so i ended up just
teaching on the fly! i really enjoyed teaching sunday school, and i
hope its something that im able to do when i get back, it went really
well in portuguese, and i think that as of now it could even be better
in english, so i hope i maybe get that sort of calling in the future.

i love all of you guys! it sounds like things are waming up there,
right as things are getting cold here. i eagerly await your package
mom and dad, but thank you all for the letters and videos and emails!
i am going to keep praying, and doing my best. when i think of this
time apart from michelle as each day to prepare better for my
marriage, it makes every day that much more meaningful.

i love all of you! have a wonderful week, and i will try to take more
photos, and i will talk to you next week! bye!! i llvoe you all!

Hello family!! i hope everyone is doing well

grandma and grandpa, thats sweet that you are down there in navada! my
new companion whom im training, he is from las vegas.down here in
brazil the coldest itll ever get is usually in the 40s, but there are
several areas on my mission that get down to like 35 sometimes. so not
terribly cold! but after this double summer that ive had, i will
accept anything when it comes to cold. thats sweet that theyre having
some games in pittsburgh this year for march madness, thats wonderful
news about josh and britney too!! a little girl! im so excited for
them and you guys, im sure its going to be just bliss!

mom, the weather in pittsburgh sounds perfect right now, no bugs, 50s
or 60s, i want that weather where i live in the future. i sorry i
havent sent you a picture in a while! i will do everything i can to
send you them weekley now, also i have some for us this week, just not
one of me and my new companion quite yet. but i will send some today,
and get on it! hha thank you for sending the package! i am way excited
to get it. michelle seemed in one of her videos like its going to be
ridiculously awesome, but she didnt spoil anything, she only got me
more and more anxious! isaiah is, alot to say the least. did you know
in byu they have a religion class just for isaias?

dad, its nice to hear that you got back to home after training and
all. now its just time for the real work, but im sure itll be fine. i
wish i could play tennis! that sounds like it was alot of fun, mom is
taking lessons? whenever im home and me and michelle are married, we
can have doubles teams with each of the couples! i think itd be alot
of fun. it sounds like your talk went really really well! im glad to
hear it, you always do give very good talks. im sorry to hear that
your last in the brackets, but you know as well as i do that the real
winners get the points at the end.

MIchelle!! thank you for the photos, im not lying when i say that i
completely forgot about st patricks day :( but im glad you had fun!

so onto the family letter!

well to start off, this week was one of the best weeks on the mission,
the first photo that i sent was of a complete family that we baptized
this week! ll 5 of them, it was absolutely great to se them make the
changes in their lives to be able to come unto the gospel. the
baptismal service was awesome as well, we had almost 50 people there!

training has been reall sweet, alot of stress on the firstday, but i
am getting the hang of it. my companions name is elder glover, from
las vegas, nevada. he speaks basiclly nothing, but he is learning alot
and we are both learning together!!

i like being the senior now because im not with a lazy companion, and
if i am in the future then i cn decided how we will do things. its
just nice to have a little of control like that, hahaha

weve had some good experiences this week. we were walking down a
street one night, and i got the impression that we needed to go back.
so we turned round, i knocked on only one house that made an
impression, and we found a woman who really was having alot of
difficulties in her life, and said she was looking for peace, and so
we are teaching her now, and it was totally guided by the spirit!! it
was a great experience

just to answer michelles qestion, yes there is daylight savings time
here. it already happened, and i was very thankful for the hour of
sleep that i got extra.

training has been an interesting experience. ill tell the truth now, i
wasnt trained in the program that were supposed to because my first
companion was a slaker. so i have been doing the training with him,
and have been getting to revise things that i sort of learned the hard
way hahah, but it has been great! we study until noon now, which cuts
our work time, but i completely accept it.

i hope that everyone is doing well this week, i had to fill out a
survey for missionaries so my time is cut short, but i hope that you
enjoy the pictures and such, im sorry this letter is so short but i
didnt have enough time for things, i promise i will write alot more
next week, it was just way rushed today! oh also, i ordered some new
garments online today, because its getting cold and my other ones are
almost yellow, just for the heads up.

i love all of you, and i hope that you guys have a wonderful week. im
praying for you guys, and i know that were all going to be a family
forever!! until next week. tchau!!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hokin

Hello Family!!

Well i have some exciting news, but before that i will respond to everyone´s emails

Grandma and Grandpa, that is really sweet that you are going down to nevada for a month and a half. its nice to hear how you guys are still so close to them after sharing the gospel with them and everything! Its nice to hear that idaho got to have a caucus! i really hope that i can vote this time around, i dont know if itll just be counted after the fact, but still its good to vote. thank you for the emails!

Mom, speaking of 6th ward, the missionary that was training here in my house ended up being in the mtc group of zach caine! small world. im fine with the answer to moving being ´no´ because i honestly would like more coming home and not having everything completely different haha, but whatever works. i like what you said about priestcraft. i watched a devotional in the MTC by Elder Bednar, and he said that any missionary that works to try and draw attention to himself in any way, is commiting the sin of ´priestcraft´. he said some other things like unto that, and it was just really good. a good pointer to keep in check is that you (as a missionary) will never convert a person. only the holy ghost will.

Dad, is charlotte nice right now? it sounds like the derricks are hanging in there! one thing that people need to remember is that the church is always true, its always the only true church on earth, but sometimes the people in it arent. basically, we just need to remember why we will go to church, for God and Jesus christ. that baptism sounded like a nice experience, i cannot believe he already is 8 years old!!! thats just crazy, now it feels like ive been out here longer. thats great that the devils are doing well, itd be nice if the penguins went back into another 20 year slump, but oh well. i completely forgot about college basketball, go tarheels! let me know how it works out. i will not do it, but how many missionaries in the world do you think are filling out brackets right now?? i hope not too many.

So onto everything else

Well ill start with the most interesting, transfers! i will be staying in palmital (city of marilia) for 2 more transfers because.... i am going to train! WOO! im going to train a new missionary, and thus become a senior companion from now on as well. im really excited! i have to leave on a bus today at 2 pm for londrina, where ill stay the night, and then the next day go to the mission presidents house to find out who exactly im training, and then return to here. its going to be sweet i think. im honestly really excited, and i think its going to work out really well! i will let you know how it goes

this means that i will be here in marilia for my birthday, for the mothers day call, for easter, general conference, and when i leave here after 2 short transfers i will have 11 months, almost a year already! can you believe it?! things are just moving along for sure

so this week the assistants to the president showed up in marilia, and i got to spend a day with them in a division. one of them is an elder who i lived with in ouro branco (since the assistants live there) and it was really nice to see him. we found 2 people out of the blue almost to be baptized that week!

the first was the son of a recent convert. he was baptized 1 year ago by elders, and he said that he was baptized because the missionaries insisted (mom, priestcraft?). so he admitted that he didnt have a testimony or anything. but we have been working with him for the time that he has been here, and his testimony has grown now, and he brings his whole family to church, and his son diego wanted to be baptized also and all, and its just a nice story of conversion!

the other is a young woman named tamyris, who is the sister of livia, the young woman who we baptized my 3rd week in this city. she has been there for all the lessons and everything, but has had difficulties going to church. but she ended up finally going, and since she is only 19, they are going to call her as a yound womans leader to be able to be there with her sister and more people in her sort of group, because our relief society has almost only people over 40. so she has been a good story too!

we had another activity this saturday, it was a talent show. people from all over the stake showed up, including our investigators, and it actually went really well! i got to do something absolutely ridiculous. there was a young woman (i dont know how this happened in brazil) who, when we got there, was desperately trying to find someone to sing a song that she was going to play on the guitar. what song? last kiss by pearljam. and who knows all the words? i do hahaha! so i ended up singing in the talent show while she played, and it actually went really well. haha it was ridiculous. but the whole thing went real well

so im sad to see elder borges go, he is a really goos missionary. but i am really glad to stay in this ward! ive gotten to know the people here really really well, and its going to be easier because of this to have a new missionary here and help him get into the mission. ahh im soo excited!!

so since i am staying here, do you think that you guys could send a package with some things for me, both of which i need and possibly want? all it is is really an institute manual for the book of mormon, a jump rope (one of those with the plastic chord, because i already ´made´ a jump rope but it got destroyed) maybe even some classical music cds? that black light jacket i have with the grey hood and pockets in front (its hanging up in my bedroom closet) and, if theres room, easter candy, because im sad that i wont be around for the themed easter candy, but if you cant thats fine! i understand its sort of a burden. but if you feel like doing it, just send it as soon as possible beacuse itll come right to my house instead of the mission. i will give the address here for you to mail

So here it is progressively getting little and a little bit colder, and i am loving it. as of now, the mornings and nights are nice and cool, but the day with the sun is still ridiculous. but its a good change! when i leave here in may it will be ´winter´ until august or september, and before you know it im basically off the mission haha!

i get to have 2 four hour bus rides with this whole training thing, which means that i get towrite michelle haha! i hope i wont get carsick, but i doubt it, and regardless it is worth it. also, at least one of the videos is already sent michelle! so mom and dad forward is toher ( i hope you have been in the past too, im sure you have) and i willtry to get the second one as well

so ihave to go now, but i love you guys! im way excited to be a trainer slash senior (ps ami spelling train right? i know train is like trains plains and automobiles, but i dont know if the verb is the same. let me know!) thank you all for everything! and i will talk to you next week, and let you know how it is going. i love you guys, have a great week, general conference is coming up, talk to you later!! bye!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello family!

Lets get right to it

Grandma and grandpa, its ok that you didnt write last week! i completely understand :) . it sounds like you guys are really enjoying the winter up there in idaho! winter is slowly coming here (wont be anywhere near in america) but i am still excited for some time of not hot. its always sad to hear about games that are won (or lost) by the refs. i hope aunt chris is doing ok as well! its nice to hear that all the family is staying together and such.

Dad, i know what you mean with the missionaries who have been out more than a year. its so easy to tell the difference of the two haha. it sounds like there is alot of training involved in your work, is this the way it normally is with jobs, or does your work now require more training than others? you hit the nail on the head about that new jason bourne movie, that actor is sweet and no doubt that the movie will be sweeter. but its just one of the things i will get to see when i come back. one hockey question, are the islanders bad this year again? i cant remember who is christian etzie, but that is great that you are doing home teaching. we had a training in elders quorum about home teaching today, and after reading a bunch of those talks you sent me on priesthood, all i really need to say is that you are doing what you need to! im glad to hear the girls are doing well.

mom, i remember your perpetual sleepovers. they were always bittersweet for the lack of dad. other question, are you guys thinking of moving? thats sweet about your testimony meeting! good testimony meetings are some of the most spiritual times. its funny because in our ward we have about 8 young women, and if one of them goes up immediately all of them go haha. the girls are getting older! haha i hope that they are still generally the same whenever i get home, as a matter of fact that goes for everyone, but i can get used to whatever. i liked your part on a testimony of christ, the truth is our example is our testimony of christ, and if you life a life as much like christ as possible, you will be remembered for your testimony of him in a way kind of obscure. but you can also just write it down :) i already read about ester and job! they are somewhat interesting, especially job. some scriptures of his are ridiculous, but it will be good.

now onto what happened this week!

well to start out right off the bat, mothers day call is already around the corner. i think that its in may here, i will confirm, but none the less its only one or two months away!

i have a question for michelle, when should i start mailing letters to new mexico in regards to school ending? just try to figure out the timing, and let me know love!

i have officially been in brazil for 9 different months, can you believe it? just lacking april, may, june, and already a year. its ridiculous, but not in a bad way.

so for spiritual news, i think i am going to baptize the oldest person i will ever baptize this week. we found a woman named madelena, who is about 74 years old. she is the aunt of a member of another ward. her husband and her were recieving the missionaries 5 years ago, and he failed the baptismal interview 3 times. on the 4th time, he passed, but didnt want to get baptized more. she was going to with him. a year later, he passed away, and she moved to live with her sisters here in palmital. so we found her this week, and she told us ´i dont want to get baptized without my husband´ and so i explained to her alll about baptisms for the dead, and how that works, and she is going to be baptized this week, and when the ward goes to the temple in april they will bring his name and do his temple work! its just another great story, ive already gotten to see so many great things on the mission. what a blessing!

this week was alot of reactivation work, we have been passing alot of less actives this week, and it paid off when many showed up to church. its the wards responsability to help new members, but i think that when it comes to less active they somewhat need the missionaries as well to remind them of how it was hearing the lessons and such. woo!

i got to bear my testimony this fast and testimony meeting. i just went up there and bore it, but it ended up being one of the hardest testimonies i have ever given. i have been studying the book of jacob this week somewhat. its one of the clearest books in the book of mormon, and talks alot about pride, adultery, ect. so i also studied up and found that scripture in i think its 3 nephi 18 12 where it talks about how its better to take up your cross than go to hell, and so i bore testimony about how the major sins we cant have embarassment for people as we take the steps of repentance with god. i talked about how if we dont repent, and dont think that we need to repent for everything we do, then we are saying that jesus christ isnt important, and his infinite atoning sacrafice isnt important for us. it was a tesimony pretty harsh. but you know how the spirit will put words into your mouth? well i never planned to say exactly what i said, i know it was the spirit, and so i guess somoeone or some people eneded to hear it.

but anyways, it was a good testimony meeting! one of the less actives who returned yesterday gave a great testemony that we can all apply. she talked about how she is here (at church) not for because of the people, or because of the missionaries passing her house, she is here because she has a promise with God. WOOSH! it was really powerful, and i appreciated it alot haha

continuing on dad, about those books, i dont think that you can send them to me, no matter how much i am dying to read them. i have been almost hurting this week because i cant read the doctrine of salvation, but when i get home i will read all of them! so just save them for me. also, i probably will be asking for a little package next week. next week is transfers, and whether or not i stay or go i will know what address you need to send it to now. the only thing i need right now is the institute manual for the book of mormon, i will think of the rest after. could you do that for me? also, its not very big because theyre so cheap, but i will probably order garments next week as well. i can do that all on my own here in brazil, so no need to wonder about that.

so a kitten no bigger than my hand was following us 3 days ago. she was all black with light blue eyes, and was meowing almost like crying at us for 3 blocks! completely alone :( im not going to lie, being here has made me basically hate animals, but that kitten just looked so lost and lonely. so what did i, a freaking softie, do? i brought it come, because there was a huge storm coming and it would have tied. it stayed with us for one night, and the next day i found a member to give it to. am i a softie or what? what didnt help is that i read in the liahona days before that animals have spirits, so the descision was basically clear. i will likelypost a picture.

everything with the dentist went well, he worked out my tooth, and i also had a tooth that had a white spot on it, and he took that away too. my teeth are looking good! but it all worked out, just for you to know.

So everyting is going well here, i am really missing things like music and movies, but its going to be fine because ill come home, and instead of waiting for movies and albums to come out, ill have 2 years of pure new to listen and watch and catch up, so thats good!

im really getting to be friends with a member here called wilian. he knows almost everything about the gospel, and all me and him do is ask eachother questions about doctrine and brainstorm and such. he is a great guy. he learned everything on his mission, because his president let them study the doctrine of salvation/anything, and hea also taught them alot of things. but its nice having a close friend in the ward!

well thats about it for this week. i love you guys! thank you for the letters, emails, videos, iloved every single part of every one! i will talk to you all next week, bye!!

-Elder Zachary PAul hoskin