Hello family!

Mom, i completely agree with your kitchen analogy. here are new
streets, all new people i have never talked to before. its a nice
break, so i am glad for it! thank you for the compliment, what makes
this whole mission experience for everyone great is the Lord, and the
blessings from it. did you guys take a picture of jenny´s chalk art? i
think that would be sweet to see. it sounds like abby is getting into
boy mode. youve got one year! but that cake sounds delicious, and i
miss those sort of things that you guys would always make.  congrats
on signing very well, i am excited to see how well you sign when i get
back!

Dad, well first of all i want to say happy birthday!!! and, i am a
freaking sneak. you said you got the package i sent home right? well
that one maroon jersey i bought for you, and put in there as your
birthday present when you got it. so its yours! its a double XL, and i
hope you like it. it is the team of ours here in brazil, the
corintians. happy birthday! it sounds like the devils are doing well
again, all they need to do is win 2 more games, and they will rob the
LA kings. people here are getting more and more into international
soccer, thank you for the update. brazil lost to argentina this past
week 4 to 3, and people were not happy, to say the least. i remember
you saying that you didnt like the threesome you were in. for me i am
liking it alot as of now, i dont really quite know why, but i am. i
like my 2 companions, and i think its mainly because things are going
well here.



Onto everything else now that happened this week,

well first of (chronilogical order) i would like to tell you that i
had the experience of seeing with my own eyes a 10 year food storage
of a member here in our ward. 10 YEARS! it is literally a small
underground compund. its below the earth in their backyard, and it has
everything that you would ever need storaged correctly for 10 years of
preservation. it was ridiculous.

Next, it is getting cold! it got down to the low 30s here this week,
which i was very grateful for. i am loving the cold, although i wasnt
necessarily unhappy before, i was a much happier person this week
because of the cold. i love wearing sweaters, having a uncommonly
toasty bed, everything about winter! so it has been a nice blessing.
also, i heard that the real winter hasnt even started yet, so that is
even better news.

My companion, Elder Mycon, is from Belem, in the state of Para, which
is northeast. up in the northeast is where its like ghana, its hot 12
months of the year. he said that the coldest he ever had in his live
(other than this transfer, and his fridge) wa the low 70s, and he said
in that people would put on sleeves and all. so he is cooooold here!
haha he is just freezing, but i am helping him out with sweaters and
stuff. he seems to be getting used to it. he never saw his breath
before! so that was a neat experience. the only thing different about
here is that they have no house heating systems or cooling, so its
like camping in winter here. so it gets real cold at night, and the
process of the morning when its way cold (like taking a shower, ect)
is difficult. but what i have begun to do is just do more exercises,
and i get warmed up nicely.

we went to a place called 3 fronteirs this week! it is the point where
paraguay, brazil, and argentina meet. its actually a 3 rivers type
deal, but i saw paraguay and argentina! it is a beautiful spot, and i
will be sure to bring you guys here whenver we come to Foz. as of now,
ive only seen america, brazil, paraguay, and argentina haha.

so this ward has a resemblance of 5th ward, for one simple fact. there
are alot of young couples slash families here. there are so many! its
like all the dental students in pittsburgh. but i like it, because
everyone here is down for leaving with the missionaries and all
because theyve all returned from missions recently, and know how it
is. it makes the ward really exciting actually.

so we had a huge spiritual experience this week! i talked last week
about a couple named Celson and Liziane that we are working with, who
will be married and baptized next week. well this week, we were
knocking on some doors (sunday) when we found a woman named sandra. we
talked to her, marked an appointment, and went back on tueday. we
showed up on tuesday, and taught the restoration and all, and it was a
hugely spiritual lesson. it ends up that her and her husband were
going church to church looking for the right one for months, and in
this past month they had stopped going to church alltogether because
they didnt find one. so on saturday night she prayed to God that he
would help her know where she should go to church, and then during
that saturday night she had a dream, and in her dream she dreamed of 3
´personages´ is how she explained it. then the next day, sunday, is
when we showed up at her house, and as soon as she opened the door and
saw us she said she felt different, and knew that we were those three.
so they told us all the things they were passing through and all of
this, and they accepted the invite to be baptized and get married! so
now we have a second couple that we are going to marry and baptize
here. they are so great, they got a response about the book of mormon
the night we gave it to them, and they even went to stake conference
this past week! so it was just another great experience spiritually.
from it, we can learn some things. first, that god knows we are in a
trio. and second, that he prepares people to hear the restored gospel
of jesus christ. it was a wonderful experience!

So yes, we had stake conference this sunday downtown. i actually have
a funny story to go with this now.

So we walk into the chapel and i am super excited, because we have
investigators and President ended up being there and all, and i see a
guy in the hallway talking to another, and he is wearing a tie. one of
the coolest ties ever! (see my picture in the suit to see it). it is
just dark blue with tiny elephants all over it, and i dont know why,
but i wanted that tie. well i shook his hand like i did with everyone
else, and told him i liked his tie. he thought i was joking, and then
i told him i would trade with him that tie (i was wearing that one i
have with angel moroni that we bought in Salt Lake many years ago) and
so he was down to do it, so we went to the bathroom to change, and i
was super excited and all because this tie was sweet! then as we were
changing, i was talking to him getting to know him, and another man
there asked me ´do you know who this is?´ and i told him i didnt,
because i had been here a week and a half. it turns out he was the 1st
conselor in the stake presidency here in Foz de iguaçu! hahaha and i
had no clue until then, so it was sort of hilarious. it was also funny
to see him with my tie up there on the pulpit.

but stake conference was really good, it consisted of both President
Tavares, our mission president, as well as Elder Leal, who was the
mission president here before President Tavares. Now he is called as a
70, and it was interesting to see him because i had heard a bunch
about him, since many missionaries (none now) at the beggining of the
mission talked about how it was with him

but then something else happened that i almost forgot! haha. well
President tavares was giving his talk about the 10 virgins, and
filling our lamp,. and how missionary work and callings fill the oil
in this lamp, all during his talk. so as he was talking about this, he
said now in that moment he was going to make all the missionaries
sweat, saying he was going to call a missionary up to bare a 5 minute
testimony about missionary work, then goes ´Elder Hoskin! Can you
please come up´ haha! so i had to go up there in the middle of stake
conference and bear my testimony to everyone about missionary work.
but it ended up being fine, but i want to share some of what i said
with you guys

well i went in to my testimony of missionary work. and i talked about
how i learned on the mission that we dont get a testimony in a
commandment, or anything, until we live or follow that teaching and
commandment. then i talked about how i didnt have a testimony of
missionary work going into the mission, plainly because i had never
experienced helping others know the church before hand. and i talked
about how i wish now that i would have done more with the missionary
work in my ward, because if i would have i would have had a stronger
testimony going into the mission. then i went on to talk about the
testimony ive gotten on the mission. and i want to share it with you
because its true, and i think we all need to try to help the
missionaries to get a testimony of the gathering of israel, like any
other commandment

but anyways! it was a good experience, and with the switching ties
with the 1st counselor, and being called up to bear my testimony, it
was one of the crazier stake conferences that have happened to me
haha!

ok so thats all i got for this week timewise. i love you guys, and i
miss you, michelle i cant wait to get another letter, and eventually
your package! same goes for my grandparents, i cant wait to hear from
your guys again as well. i love you all, and i hope you have a g reat
week! until next week!

Elder Hoskin

ps, i havent talked to joseph in a while either?