Hello family!

Well i got transfered, so i will tell you down below :). First as usual

Grandpa and Grandpa, i didnt get a letter from you guys this week, but
i hope you got my letter! i am also still eagerly awaiting your
package, so as soon as i get that i will be sure to let you know!

mom, i completely forgot that it is memorial day! happy memorial day.
our country is a blessed country. i was talking with elder glover
about this the other day, how god is protecting the land of Josephs
inheratance (america) and to what degree, and i decided that as long
as the church is strong and growing there, then the country will be
preserved to a point where we will always have our safety. also, i
think slash know that the package that i will send will be more
pricey, primarily because its from brazil to the us, and brazil is a
thief. that is awesome that Moses got to bless the sacrament in sign
language. It really is! haha yes, the girls can pick their kids up
from their mission, like i will also do. also, tell dad that i miss
soda, because everything here is coke, which i cant have, or guaraná,
which is good, but not of the red white and blue. that was great to
hear that all that money was raised for that woman! what are the plans
for her, will they remake the top of that house and all?

dad, i cannot believe they are in the stanley cup finals. they are
going to win, because they are playing the kings. the timing is
impecable. i am very glad to hear that you are watching my band of
brothers. that is a great show, and it gives a great story. im glad
for that birthday present that will be around for a while. my stake
had a priesthood training too! but do they usually give return
missionaries big assignments like that? im just wondering. the
barbeque sounds very good, but i am ok with not being there during the
hot. my days of hot are over! For now (see phg below)



ok so onto everything else!

well first of all

I am getting transfered!!

after 6 months of marília, i will be transfered to be a district
leader in iguacu falls! my companion will be a brazilian elder who
came into the field the same time as me, and he was the one brazilian
who i became the closest with, as he helped me with portuguese and
everything! iguaçu falls is THE coldest place on the mission, which is
exactly where im going! so i am freaking STOKED! also, im going to be
a district leader, and we will see how that goes. but basically it
seems like my mission is going to continue to improve every week in
wonderfulness! i will be riding in a bus for about 13 hours by the way

so thats where im getting transfered to! and it is really really
exciting, i will give you the mailing address next week and all. its
going to be a great oppertunity for me to continue to grow, and to
just enjoy preparing myself for an eternal family through helping
others. so lets go!

now onto things that happened this week! well my birthday was great,
cassia and her family had a big barbeque for me and cake and all. it
was just a real nice experience, weve helped the rest of her family
get reactivated, and it was just good. i missed you guys alot,
michelle and the family, but it was alright, we will have so many more
afterwards.

also, after looking for 10 months, i finally found the first bag of
tortilla chips! i thought you would appreciate this, because i came
south of the border only to find none.

also, i think i told you last week that we were playing basketball and
that kids were watching us play. well this week we took literally 18
references from them in the morning, and it helped us alot find new
people to teach! chapter 9 of preach my gospel woo

We have an investigator who is progressing extremely well. Her name is
bruna, and she is the child of a member, while still 24 years old, and
she is reading the book of mormon alot and praying to know the truth.
she really wants an answer, even so much so that she has begun to
follow the word of wisdom in faith and give up coffee to help her get
a response from God. it is amazing to see people affected by the
gospel, who even before their testimony comes, they are already
dedicated to do what they have to to find Christ more.

also dad! just so you know, this week i officially finished all of
those talks that you gave me in the binder. i was very grateful for
all of them, and whenever you want to send another one to me, just go
for it. it helped me alot increase my knowledge about the specific
topics that you sent to me

this week me and my companion (upon discovering chips) made salsa
(because we hadnt found salsa). it ended up pretty good, but i was
wondering. could you (michelle and or mom) send me a recipe to make
homemade salsa? i would be very grateful!

also, for you to know i had the joy of finishing the book of mormon in
portuguese for the 2nd time today! every time its a big increase of
faith, and i love reading all the way through it. also, i will be
starting again tomorrow, so haha yeah. but i feel a significant
increase in my testimony each time i finish it, not just reading some
chapters (although i do through that to). it just is true, isnt it?

well i all out of time today, sorry for my spastic email but im just
excited, and now have alot to do to get transfered, so i will talk to
you next week! i hope you like the photos! i sent a ton. i love you
guys!

Elder Hoskin

Hello Family!

Well!

Grandma and Grandpa, hello! i got another letter of yours this week,
which i was very grateful for. I will be sending another response, did
you get the one that i sent last week? let me know! i miss you guys,
and hope that you are doing well!

Mom, i am glad to hear that the Lord is helping you with sign language
with Moses. It just goes to show that you dont need a missionary
nametag and be in a foreign country to have the spirit gift of
tounges! (or hands :) ) but i am glad to hear that its going well. for
me with portuguese, i recognized the spirit working in my language as
i was actually talking (in the moment) as well as giving me the desire
to keep studying and learn more, like what you are going through right
now. you know now that the lord wants you to help moses, because the
spirit is helping you fulfill that righteous desire of yours to help.
thats sweet what you guys went to last week, i didnt realize it was
LDS. but that is what byui is like in fact, every class or sports
match starts with a prayer, and its a different enviroment that can
only be explained with the spirit/zion. i learned about right brain
left brain in psycology, but i cant remember which one i was. what do
you think? ps it sounds like daiane really needed that book! hahah.
and thank you for the birthday wishes!

dad, aka pappa bear, it is very true that christmas is just around the
corner! is already almost june, fo-get abbaht it. also, belo horizonte
is WAY far away, but if were on a plane i mean it doesnt make much of
a difference. whatever you find works out will be fine. i also got
some interesting news about you coming to get me that i will share
down below. in one sentance, the devils will make it out, keep me
updated. i knew you were a recorder before, i hadnt counted that in,
but that is sweet to hear that you got switched around relatively
often. we will see what happens next week! the busselbergs! i figured
it was alot of college type families. so if the betteriges are moving,
what will happen to the house slash other side?



ok so family stuff now!

well just because its the most recent thing i did, i just would like
to inform you that i got over 120 efy songs in my music library from
another missionary now, so that is a huge blessing, since i am as
usual always looking for music. i dont know how many efy has, but i
have like 10 cds!

well i have started playing basketball in the morning for my exercises
with elder glover. we bought a cheap basketball the last pday, and now
jog 3 minutes to a place where we play every day. so that is alot of
fun. the second day there were 3 kids watching us, and the next grew
to like 10, and now there are literally 15 to 20 kids who are all
waiting for school to start who watch us play basketball. they told us
its because were good, but were not that great (as you know,
especially after 10 months of nothing as well) but i think the fact we
look like americans just makes it seem all the better. but we are
taking all of their references, and will now procede to teach their
families. wooo!!!

so i had probably one of the most catastrophe like lessons this week.
we were teaching the restoration to the guy who made a copy of our key
for us in his house, and we are literally 2 seconds from the first
vision (which is always the most spiritual part) when his friend shows
up at the door and decides to sit in. well because he wasnt there for
the first 15 minutes, i fill him in quickly on what we talked about.
and then he (with a previous knowledge of the church) starts to go on
what was literally a 12 minute rant on how Jesus, God, and the Holy
Ghost are actually all one. he told me this analogy: imagine a dad,
who is at home with his family. at his house, there with his wife and
kids, he is a dad. then he goes off to work, and there he is working,
so there, he is an employee. then after work, he goes to play some
soccer with his friends, and while hes playing soccer, he is a soccer
player. and that was the parallel that he used to go against all the
scriptures talking about being on the fathers business and everything.
then, right as i was about to explain to him as nicely as possible
what we believed, he recieved a phone call that he had to meet his
wife, and then he left before i could say one word to him. it was
ridiculous! and this is not me condemning him or anything, but all i
will say is that satan is real, and he tries very hard to destroy the
work. aanyways

so i got to have interviews with President Tavares this week. it was
the third time, and it was really nice to be able to talk to him and
to talk about my progression as a missionary and everything. he is
exactly the President that i need, and i was very thankful for him! it
was a great experience, and one thing he told me that i would ask if
you agree with is that he said my maturity hasnt grown too much,
because he said i had alot of it when i got here, but he said that the
way i talk about spiritual things showed him that ´my growth on the
mission will be almost totally spiritual´ . i thought it was
interestig

other things, i am asking now if i can send a package home with some
clothes and ties that i will never use anymore, because i dont want to
get them destroyed. its not that big of a box, would i be allowed to
to that?

this week is the last week of training! for Elder Glover. it is nice
to have the whole training thing wrapping up, now we can see what will
happen next with me afterwards.

speaking of which, president told me that they have an itinerary per
se that has a list of guidelines for parents to pick up their kids
from their missions here in our mission. i dont know if its mission
specific or what, but he told me that i need to ask the secretaries to
send it to you as fast as possible. he said its good to get started
now so that its much cheaper and well planned, so look for an email to
this email address this week!

i have been reading in the book of ether this week. i love the book of
ether. the faith of the brother of jared is one of the best examples
that we cant see in the book of mormon. with the 16 stones, he didnt
say i believe you can do this, or youve done greater things before, or
anything like that. he said, you can do this. and the faith he had
made him see christ. and jeffery R holland said that when it talks in
the scripture about how god never appeared to man like that before
(even though he did) he meant in the way he appeared to him. because
he said everyone before him jesus (God of israel) appeared to was on
the lords will, but he said that literally the faith (and priesthood)
of the brother of jared caused jesus to appear to him solely due to
his faith and power from it. whaoaa

ok so thats all for this week, but i love you guys! thank you for the
birthday wishes and all, and i will talk to you next week! love you!

Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello family!

Grandparents, i got your email address now from my dad, so you can be
expecting a letter from me through your email this week about thursday
or friday! i hope you had a great mothers day grandma, and im excited
for you guys to get my letter!

Mom, first off, most defintely michelle is a keeper :) ok well it was
nice to hear that you got to relax on mothers day, like i said in the
call, i have told many women in my ward about how you make a list
(whenever they asked me if i was excited to talk to you) so now i
think they are going to consider doing it in the future haha. thats
sweet that you guys got to see the avengers! im sure it was good, and
although you did just tell me the whole plot, i will still see it at
some point in the future. a funny thing that happened to me right now
in response to that is that when i read it, i thought that i dont even
want to see it until after my mission. before, in earlier months of
the mission, i would have thought ´oh i want to see that!´ or some
sort of thing, but my first response to myself was that i will go
ahead and see it once im back. small detail,. but i think its a big
difference on the mission. i could have talked for 2 more hours as
well, it honestly felt so much more quick than the first time! i
remember the first time i thought half an hour had passed, looked at
my watch, and it was 15 minutes. but that is just fine :) and i would
much rather have michelle go to brazil, because apparently its really
hard for brazilians to understand portugues people. even in
portuguese, but we will see!

dad, i am glad that i am managing to serve how you would like your son
to serve. and also, i have had a kept in fear about not only them
winning the cup, but me never seeing brodeur play again. but, only
hope for the best. so yes, i am excited for you guys to come out! and
yes, if we plan it right we would most likely be able to see one game,
that would be sweet to see a team we like, like england, or spain, or
anything. so as the schedules get closer, give it a look and we´ll
plan it out right. thats so nice to hear about all you did for mom!
also, im grateful for grandma, and i am very glad for all the support
her and grandpa have been giving me on my time out here. why does abby
have a homeschooling conference in virginia? what does that mean? and
that is sweet that you and jenny get to go to the monuments. i cant
call anything, but i was thinking that after we get home and all from
brazil, we go DC (for the temple, and then the sights) and then the
cabin, but its all up to you guys. it was great talking to you on the
phone! and i will indeed avoid drug dealers.



ok onto everything else!

well first of all it was great to talk to you guys yesterday on the
phone. it is incredible how fast the time went by between christmas
call and the mothers day call, i could predict the same for this next.
its crazy to think that the next time we talk (skype?) i will have a
year and five months! but we will all just keep going as we are, and
enjoy it along the way.

the first issue is going to be about the smarter siblings club. in
light of recent events, i, Elder Hoskin, am officially disbanding the
smarter siblings club. i feel like those who are indeed smart know
that its good to include everyone, and in light of that jenny, abby,
joseph, erreone, i am starting the ´freaking family´ club, which will
include all of us, alayna and michelle as well, and will probably just
involve us being really competitive as we already are within our
family when it comes to settlers and such. but jenny, it will be for
the better!

next up, i got embarrassed for the whole reason of me spelling badly.
my only way to rationalize it is saying that i type these emails
really really quic, because i wanna get as much in as possible. but i
will try better! hahahahahaha

next up! thank you mom and dad for the package! i will probably spend
my next p day making balloon animals with my companion, the ones you
sent me, and just fill up the whole room, but we will see. thank you
also very much for those pens. i never have had to use pens so much
before every moment of the day, so i very much need them.

next, i have a question. you said 15 families were moving from our
ward. well are they any families that i know well? i am specifically
worried about one of them being the millets for some reason. Brother
millet was huge for me when it comes to young mens leaders, and i
would be very sad if he left. just let me know who!


i have a question for dad, where and how many months was the longest
area of your mission? i was thinking about how you were telling me
about being here forever, and was just curious. on that note, i am
excited to swap mission conversation type things when i get home
compare and all. and with joseph too, and then even michelle! wooo

so its funny because mom asked me about what we call here snakes, the
people that hit on missionaries. and i thought that you would
appreciate the irony, as last night while we were proselyting, after
the call, we passed by a house of what looked to be a group of drunk
women, and while i will leave the vulgarity out, they invited us to
come in. funny? no. frustrating? yes

so what happened this week in missionary work?? well we have a
complete family that is reading the book of mormon. one thing on the
mission that could just be specifically to here is that most baptisms
a missionary will have will be through incomplete families, or member
references. so usually thats where the most success is. while this is
true, there is still tons of time spent on finding completely new
people. and this family is one of them! i asked her while leaving her
house on friday, ´what are you doing special for mothers day?´and she
was like ´im going to church!´ haha but it was a sweet experience! she
started to really feel the book was true after ether 12, which is a
wonderful chapter of course, so they are a great story of a family
that is just progressing well.

also, we are working with a less active and cassia, the member who you
will meet here in marília, to prepare for the temple. hes now
´active´in church again, and so we are going to teach a big lesson on
eternal marriage, and at the end challenge them to prepare for a
temple marriage. so maybe when i come back with you guys, they will be
married in the temple and all!!

well thats abou all ive got for today, seeing as the call and all. but
i love you guys, and it was GREAT to talk to all of you. i love you!
and lets keep it going! until next week!!

Elder Hoskin

ps, i hope you like the several photos i sent!

Hello family!

Grandma and grandpa, thank you very much for the letter! i got the
second one there today. i am going to write you a nice full letter
today and send it to you, which youll get through the email address
that you usually send me things here. i love you guys, and i am glad
to hear that it is beautiful in the cabin! i cannot wait until we can
all meet back there again after my mission, and just be together
again. it will be a very happy time. i love you guys, and i am
grateful for all the time you take to write me letters, i will respond
today i promise!

mom, thats news that abby got braces! how long is she going to have
them on for? and i remember the expander, it was very painful, but i
loved cranking it because it felt like the whole braces process was
getting along. the faster, the better for that. i remember the mental
health days during school. im not going to lie, they were not only a
help to get a break and take a breather from school, but alot of times
i got sick of the people in school, more often than not for how their
conduct was contrary to our standards. so know that it was more than
just a day off of studying and all. i think it helped me, because
whenever it got to be too much i just wanted to get away from it, and
i think that the days helped me to not just get lazy and accept that
kind of stuff around me. woo mom! well to indexing, i just read the
talk of Elder Bednar on family history and vicarious work, and while
you are very much up in other religious things, its great dad is doing
that because i have been learning this week alot about those sort of
powers we have here on earth, and how it is important. alyssa is
getting married!? what!? tell her and them that i said congrats! im
stoked for her, but am also excited because now i KNOW that i am next
in the hoskin family to be marrried, woo! haha but that is really
exciting news, tell her i said congrats!

Dad, i am very happy to hear about the success the devils are having.
it sounds like the devils are really kicking it up right as i leave
the country, but i am glad for their success. keep me posted. thats
awesome that you got to see President Benson, that is similar to how i
felt about Elder Cook. i think that one of the sweetest parts was that
it was the most specific audience ive ever been in while getting
instructions from an apostle of God, he was telling us what we as our
mission needed to do, and that was a big spiritual experience for me.
i will give the update on the mothers day call in a minuto. im glad
things are going so great, its just what Elder Cook said about how our
loved ones will be blessed more than we will for our missions, so im
glad to hear it!


so this week i have gotten sort of fancy with my flash drive. i pulled
off about 10 talks i thought could really help me out from general
conference in the past few years, put them on my pen drive, and now i
listen to them at night before i go to bed! one of which being jeffery
r holland´s testimony on the book of mormon, which leads me to my next
topic.

so this week, the theme in my personal growth has been the book of
mormon. i know its the word of God, and are the revelations selected
for our benifit in these days, but i came into this week just wanting
to strengthen my testimony in it more, and with fasting and prayer,
and reading it happened! i went up and bore my testimony at church,
and it was probably the most powerful feeling testimony i think ive
ever born. it was a great spiritual experience to draw closer to the
book of mormon, because at the same time we draw closer to christ.

in regards to my flash drive and music, there is a song that the
Mormon Tabernacle Choir does that is now my favorite church/motab
song. it is called ´homeward bound´ and even though i have been
listening to it these entire almost 10 months on the mission, just
recently its become one of the best songs that i like. you can
interpret it for a mission or the plan of salvation, either one that
you would like (although the ladder 2 are comparable also) and its
just really good for inviting the spirit.

this week, for personal reasons, i have been studying alot about the
prophet Elijah. i have been startin there in 1 Reis 17, and using the
portuguese old testament institute manual and everything i can find,
and i can now easily say who my ´favorite´ prophet is. Elijah. He is
the epitamy of faith, which is also the epitamy of magnifying the
priesthood, and i think he is a great example in many many ways to us.
one of the more generally applicable is that when he was challenged by
the priests of baal to see which God was the true God, there was only
him and 450 priests of Baal. its a good lesson because one of us
members can stand against any adversity with the lord on our side.

so i had a crazy mission story this week that was a great spiritual
experience, of how the lord will always prepare a way for people to
come unto the gospel, leaving out the importance of time (1 Nephi
9:6). we found a man 2 days ago through a member reference named
Mauro. so we showed up at his house, taught him, and it ends up he had
the book of mormon already. how? well he told us this story. 12 years
ago, he was sitting on a bus going to work like every other day. and a
missionary sat next to him, and begand to casually converse with him.
then right before the missionary left, he asked mauro if he would like
a present. he accepted, and the missionary gave him the book of
mormon. so this member referencew only had where the street was (´the
street in front of the bigger market´) so we knocked on all of the
doors looking for a mauro, and after over 50 houses (and finding many
other people to teach, side blessings) we found mauro. he had not had
any contact with missionaries since those 12 years ago in that bus,
but he had read the entire book of mormon cover to cover, gotten
married, had a kid, and then we showed up at his house. he accepted
everything we had to teach him, and right now he is in the process of
recieving an answer through prayer, but it is na amazing story about
how the lord will never forget about anyone, and no matter what time
frame he will always provide a way.

so i have to go now, but i love you all! i am super excited to talk to
you on sunday, so just remember 4 oclock, and i love you all, i cant
wait! have a great week

Elder Hoskin