Hello family!

Well I will just get to it. Im not going to lie, my email feels so
much emptier without michelle :( or my grandparents, but i am sure i
will get used to it just fine when i get the first letters and so on.
whenever i start getting the letters, i will still be shooting in a
little message here to them like i usually do!

Mom, thank you for saying that! haha im happy to be your missionary
son sort of deal. thats sweet that theres a crater with my name! do
they have other names of us, like michelle or you guys? also, that is
sweet that you joined a tennis league. you are gonna whoop. i feel
like i get alot of my competitiveness from you, which just means that
i know you are very very competitive when it comes down to brass tax,
so dont get too mad! although saying that makes me a hypocrite
sometimes. about sister bushman, if i were you i would just be a good
friend to her, i know that its probably an obligatory feeling to try
and help her, but just be a good friend to her! theres a perfect
conference talk this past conference that talks about the choices our
kids make, and how parents need to react and handle that, it was by a
70 and i dont remember his name, but it was on sunday i am pretty
sure. that is still awesome that you know how to sign, for some reason
im always hearing people talking about sign language down here, so i
can tell them that my mom knows how to sign, and its just sweet to
know that you are bi lingual! thank you for setting up the
missionties, i am getting real excited to get the first one!
especially because i always got michelle´s letters right now, so now
im just dying for one like i usually am, just more so haha.

Dad, im sorry that you have a bad cold, and that its just making the
days difficult because you gotta keep going. one of the many lessons
ive learned on the mission (or just bad experiences) is being sick and
not being able to change all the things that you have to do. i guess
im growing up more haha. that fire is crazy! i saw the picture mom
sent me, right next to our house! i also feel bad for that lady, how
she lost 5 of her 6 cats. while its not actually that sad, she will at
least appreciate the one cat that lived much better. how did the fire
start? and are they going to build a new house there now or what?
already starting, how im going to come home and some things are going
to be different. also, its hilarious how 6 different townships were
there. at least theyre all on the ball, i just didnt even know that
whitehall was close to us? well i knew, but like half an hour close,
right? ive never been there. Its hockey time, well it sounds to me
like basically everything is going how it should. home ice advantage
back to the devils, and the penguins are going down the drain. but i
want them to bring it to 7 games, to just have both of them be worn
out. fleury is weak. also, the kings have always been sort of good,
and even though i like the canucks, itd be sweet to see the kings beat
them, well not see for me, hear! but still haha. about the old
testament, i agree. exactly what you said. i think one of the
differences between the old testament and the book of mormon is that
the old testament tells it how it is, in all the detail. the book of
mormon says things like abominations, priestcrafts, very
general-but-still-get-the-jist sort of thing. and so i think the book
of mormon profets had revelation when they were writing and resuming,
that maybe we didnt need all the details, just the doctrine and
examples/stories.

Ok so now errething else

Well first of all we are less than one month from the mothers day
call! transfers are next monday, and there is basically from what ive
heard a 95 percent chance ill stay here with my trainee, because thats
normally how it runs. so it will likely be here, and it wont the the
same number as last time, but it will be the same sort of setup, since
that worked great! im so excited to talk to you guys for the SECOND OF
FOUR TIMES, its already getting up to the halfway mark, are you
kidding me??

Next, i thought michelle or any of you would appreciate that i ate
this week, for the first time in the almost 9 months on the mission,
peppers again. like acuall cooked peppers and all! its so wierd
because i got here thinking id be eating alot of spicy stuff or things
like that, but most brazilians dont even like spicy food, which is a
downer, but it was good to have that again. i cant wait to have the
green chilis down there in albuquerque when i get back, in like a nice
breakfast burrito, or on a pizza, mm aanyways

So this week we have had an investigator of ours named leandro. his
story is both amazing, and sad. well weve been teaching him for about
three weeks now, and he had a smoking problem, cigarettes and all. So
he had managed to stop for 2 whole weeks! and then this last friday me
and my companion went out on visits with our bishop, and we went to
his house, and invited him for baptism this last sunday! so it was
great and all, but then, something bad happened. it was almost like
satan was waiting to really tempt him until he had a baptismal date,
because after 2 weeks of quitting, the day after the invite and
subsuquently he day before his baptism, he couldnt keep it up and
smoked just one cigarette. it was frustrating for me to see how satan
just messes with people. like i have always known about temptation and
everything, but i just got so frustrated with temptation because it
seemed like satan was almost messing with him, i cant even describe
how i felt! but anyways, so we made a new plan with a goal for this
wednesday, and as of how he is going strong, hes praying more and
reading more of the LDM, and so like many other times in my life i can
see through this example that sometimes we have these weaknesses or
shortcomings, but they are to make us strong through the experience
and growth that we go through. like leandro, he is reading and praying
and thus growing so much more now after he temporarily fell short!

so this week i have been missing home ALOT. it hasnt affected my work
or anything, but im just excited for the small things when i get back,
and this week i had been thinking about the small things alot, like
going to costco, sunday after nooons just taking it easy, being
reunited and sealed for eternity with michelle ;) but i think at this
point i have learned on the mission how to appreciate and cherish
those memories and futures, and not have it make me want to be here
less for the 2 years that i am here right now. so yepp!!

also, i had a dream last night that dad sold the pilot, because he
said in the dream that he never really bought it in the first place,
and then we bought that station wagon we had when i was 11 and the
back seats faced backwards. wierd, right? so, are you thinkging of
selling the pilot?

this week was also good because we had a ward council meeting, and set
up a huge program from the first presidency to get the ward working
with us more. it was funny because even though this is only my second
area, i still had experience from my first area on how a ward mission
plan works because of how they had one, so i got to use that to help.
but it was really sweet, all the leaders were there, and we got to get
them excited about helping out the missionaries! an idea that i came
up with that i think is going to work out well is that not only will
the home teachers visit once a month, but every pair will be obligated
to also go on splits with the missionaries once a month, to visit
investigators as well as less actives. i think its going to work out
great!

ok well i gotta go now, but i love all of you to death! ill keep you
in my prayers, im sooo excited to get my first letter form mission
ties, and i will tlak to you all next week. bye!!!

Elder Hoskin

ps, i forgot my memory card adaptor :( so no photos this week, but
next will be double because i have some from this week still. ok bye!!