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