Hello!


first off, this week i saw my first monkey. there are so many trees
here, and also here has huge parks, and one day i was simply walking
down the street, and there was a monkey weaving through the trees. i
thought that jenny would be the most happy about this, to this day i
tell people about how she told me in the beginning to find a monkey
for a companion.

so this week we spent 2 days working in the area of the sisters. like
i said previously, there are 5 sisters in the same ward, and so we had
a goal for all of the missionaries to baptize this transfer. so we
started this week working with them in their area! and it actually
worked out really well. we found lots of people, and yesterday they
were able to already baptize, so it was a neat experience. also, that
picture i sent is a giant cathedral in maringá, i heard that its one
of the tallest in brazil, at least. everyone here specifically
references it to the great and spacious building. i told my companion
it cant be, only beacuse there are no windows to mock the righteous
form far off. but you know me, and i love architecture, so i think
that its majestic, taking out the fact its of the catholic church, but
aaanyways haha.

so i have a question for dad. this is not to brag or anything, but
everyone asks me what dads job is, and i never know how to answer.
dad, what is your official job title? it would help out alot haha

so that other picture i took of us and the sisters was a lunch we had
in the house of a member of theirs. all 9 of us! it was alot, ahhah.
annyways, they have a son who is serving the new york, new york
mission! and they got all happy to know that i lived up there in the
northeast. but in their house they have a baby grand piano, and i
thought mom would appreciate that. i thought of mom when i saw it.

so this week was one of the best weeks of work ive ever had on the
mission, which is good seeing on how i passedone year on friday. i
have never been more exhausted in my life at night, more so than crew,
but that is a good sign. anyways, we found a bunch of really good new
investigators who already went to church yesterday, but i will explain
2 of them just to fill you in!

first, there is jeni (jeneee). she is an older woman, like 55, and we
found her knocking doors. her son had already been taught by the
misisonaries a ton, he is living up north, and she had already read
alot of the book of mormon. she was completely open to be taught by
us, and she said on the first contact that she had been looking to be
baptized in the correct church, and now after church she knows that is
our church! she is awesome

next is a man named francisco. he is like 38, a designer for clothes,
and used to live in the same neighborhood where my companion lives up
there in fortaleza. he is awesome, went to church onh sunday, and is
loving the book of mormon. he has been really good on doing what he
says hes going to do, like read the book of mormon, pray, ect, and
that is something somewhat rare here. he is great as well, and has a
date marked for baptism this week as well!

this week i got sick, not sick sick, just a nasty cold. luckily, i
didnt waste any time staying in the house, and now im like 80 percent
better. i consider myself more prepared to work in my career now when
sick, after this week, because it was difficult, but still happened.

so yes, its been one year! who can believe it? we ordered a pizza for
my birthday, which was alright, i never was really into eating food to
celebrate, for me food is food, but it still was nice. i am ready for
the second, woo!

so the olympics are making the mission difficult, not because of
missing it, but because SO MANY PEOPLE WATCH IT here, and dont have
time anymore to hear a message. haha! on a personal note, the best
olympics for me is by far the hockey in the winter olympics, nothing
gets better than hockey and nationalism, so i feel like im not missing
out on much during this one. im grateful its not a winter olympics.

i am going to put all of my photos on DVDs in the near future. its
very safe, because it doest break like a pen drive, and it doesnt get
a virus like a pen drive, and i can just keep it away nice and safe
without being worried that it might get deleted. so im going to make
that happen soon.

exactly on the day that i turned 1 year, i wore a hole in my shoes.
right there on the big toe. first my foot started to get wet, and i
didnt know what was going on, and then i looked and there was a nice
nickel sized whole. woo! i will look for a solution here, but i have
yet to find a shoe my size here.

ok, well thats all i got for this week! i love you guys, have a great week!

Elder Hoskin

Hello all

Mom, you have been cooking a ton then! i miss your cooking, pot pie..
haha! ahh thats sweet that will and leslie are up there, their kids
were near our age group, which was always good. how old is brad? and
is he married yet? thats incredible to me that he has almost finished
his house already! time does fly.. did you guys take a picture of it?
and if you did, can you send it to me? congrats for the grandparents!
50 years is quite alot. if i live to 100, i will have an 81st
anniversary. thank aunt jessica for her comment, its funny because i
have that photo of all of us when they were here in pittsburgh, and so
im always explaining to people here specifically about them. so i get
to remember them alot as well! thank you for the package! i and my
bishop will be very happy.

Dad, i like what you said about the best time on the mission was when
you were with better companions. its completely true! the work goes
alot better, and its alot easier to voice how you feel. basically, it
makes all the difference for me haha. i think that misisonties is
working alright, i will pay more attention to it. like for example, i
havent gotten a letter here yet in maringa,  but i only gave my
address a week ago. so if michelle or the grandparents sent it monday
or tuesday, then its a little spotty, but we will continue to see. the
olympics! haha are you kidding? well that sure is exiting. good thing
theres always the winter olympics. be sure to keep me updated if
anything ridiculous happens, like america wins in the crew
competition. thats cool that you were reading about misison work here
in brazil. its crazy how fast the church is growing here!



family!

well first of all, you guys wanted to know about how my zone is set up
and all, so i will lay that down. well first off, there are 10 zones
in the mission, and so i have 15 missionaries in my zone (makes sense
since there are 160 missionaries). 10 of which are Elders, and 5 are
sisters. and the 5 sisters are all serving in the same ward, one trio
and one pair. isnt that crazy! ive never seen 5 sisters in one ward
before, let alone 4, but our zone is unbelieveable. there are lots of
missionaries who have problems and such in the mission (or anywhere)
but here in our zone there is seriously none of that. no one fights,
or is slacking off, or even the things that people cant control, like
health problems. everyone is wanting to work hard, and it is great! we
have district meeting every tuesday in our chapel (the chapel i go to
right now is in the downtown, like next to the tall buildings and
such) and so we have 2 districts that all go to meet there, and every
week me and my companion switch sitting in on the meetings. but thats
basically how the layout works!

this week i got to go to my first leaders council, where all the zone
leaders in the mission meet and have a conference with president,
every month. it was really good, we got alot of training on
leadership, and alot of statistics and stuff for our zones, as well as
the mission. it seems alot more like a business in these meetings, but
thats just because hes way more forward with us about the facts so
that we can deliver it to the other missionaries a little bit softer,
if you know what i mean. but it was really good! also, on a side note,
he used a clip of the patriot for one of his trainings.. whaat?

so if you remember, i talked about the 84 year old who was baptized
and confirmed last week. well this week i got to see how technology
really is good when used the right way. he has difficulty reading for
long amounts of time and all, and so we set it up with a member and
got the book of mormon in audio for him! these sort of things didnt
exist for people before, and its just one of the ways we can see how
techology isnt necessarily evil. also, on a side note, he told us it
has been more or less 60 years since he has been to londrina, which is
2 hours away! haah he is awesome, he understands everything and is
really smart

this morning i made the dough, and today i will be baking the homemade
cookies for my zone! the dough turned out really well, it took me a
long time to find brown sugar, but other than that and the fact that
chocolate chips dont exist here (i broke up bars) it was a snap.

this week, when it comes to finding new investigators and all, was
really difficult for me and Elder Sena. i know that its a trial for
the lord to see how we handle it. we are still doing really well, and
always wanting to improve. my companion is getting a little bit
trunky, because he has only 3 months left, but i am trying to help him
with that

ps, this is a term that would be good to know for missionary stuff.
trunky. its how you describe someone who is homesick but not like
depressed, if that makes sense. its called trunky because you want to
pack your trunks and go home. its usually applied to people who are
almost at the end of their mission, and who are forced to and thus
think more about home. but! haha anyways

so this friday, i do my one year anniversary!! it is incredible,
literally incredible, to see how time flies. but this past year has
been huge when it comes to preparation spiritually. the best part is,
i do not have any regrets about the first year, from what i see i dont
see wasted time. its like ive gone running for an hour, ( i miss going
running. ahh trunkie! haha) and i have ran a ton, gotten to the half
an hour mark, and am feeling good to go another half an hour. so here
we go!

ok thats all i can for this week! i love you guys, and until next time!

Elder Hoskin

ps, hope you like the photos

Written July 16th:  I thought I already posted this!

Hello Family!

Well all is really really well here in Maringá, but i will explain down below

Also, i have another hour and a half extra of email time, which is
sweet, but i use just about all of it sending info, also we make like
a newspage for all the missionaries in our zone, which takes up some
time. ok lets go!

Mom, i was interested in what you said about being heavenly fathers
son, things like that. but the one fact is that we are all sealed for
eternity, so it gets alright :) but what you said about free agency i
agree with, i think parents are supposed to raise their kids to
understand and use their free agency, hopefully for good. there was a
conference talk this past year where he said that it is better for our
children to make mistakes with choice while they are still in home,
and learn form them, rather than not letting our kids choose anything,
only to go into the world alone and make the wrong choices there, away
from a family system. so it makes sense. im always very happy to hear
that you and michelle are comunicating! ahhh i love my family!! also,
i wil say some interesting and funny things about the pacakge down
below. congrats to grandma and grandpa!!!! 50 years!

dad, i never knew you were a zone leader too! haha i realized when i
got into the mission that we would be talking alot about how your
mission and my mission were afterwards, but that is ok. yes, its alot
of administrative work, but i think its easier here for me because
everything is over the internet and on the computer. ill let you know
about the zone down below. its true that it was sad to leave foz do
iguaçu, but to be honest i already like it here better. i feel like
president just put me there to go to the waterfalls one time, and then
leave. i got here in maringá with a missionary who passed 9 months in
that zone, and never got the chance to go. so i am blessed..? i dont
know about an alien ubduction, maybe they mean when alma was
translated, but i will look into it. it sounds like you are fulfilling
2 callings right now! but im sure its rewarding, always is to talk
about the pioneers. i am reading our heratige this month to comemorate
them. thats very interesting to hear about joe and kristen, he
mentioned she was starting to look into the church! he didnt write me
recently, but in the future who knows. i hope it all works out for him
and her, in regards to the church as well.



vooooooooom

ok yes! so first of all, ill just start out explaining how my journey
was here. well maringá is 2 hours before you get to londrina, coming
from foz do iguacu. but my itinerary for the trip had me going to
londrina, spending the night,  then backtracking the next day to
maringá, which didnt make sense, but i still was going to follow it
normal. then, after 10 hours on the onibus, we got to maringa, and
another missionary only had a passage paid for until the city (he was
getting transfered there) , so he had to get off, but he was alone. so
i thought about it, and i knew that the biggest rule is never be
alone, and so i simply just got off with him, one day early, and
saving money and everything. it honestly made more sense. so i got off
a day early in my area, and we had to find a way to get in contact
with anyone, because we didnt have cell phones. but it all worked out!

my new companion is Elder Sena. i knew him briefly in marília, he was
up in a city close by called Bauru (bow-du). He is the best companion
i have ever had. It is unbelievable. i always wanted to be a zone
leader, primarily because i wanted to have a zone leader as my
companion, and he is just the best. we get along really well, and he
work really hard, and everything goes exactly how it should here in
the mission field. he is from fortaleza, wayy up north, and is
hilarious, he is 26 and he is the ´oldest´misisonary i have been a
companion with, he has 2 more transfers after this one we are in. he
is awesome!

also, Maringá is the best city i have ever been in. better than falls.
like i said before, its confirmed, here has sooo many trees. it is the
cleanest city ive ever been in here in brazil as well. there is one
reason to explain it. everyone here is rich. i am being serious. there
is no poor area here, or in portuguese ´favela´. everyone is doing
fine, and our area in specific especially, and because of this
everything has a quality a little bit higher, the stores, the
buildings, the parks, the cars, but everyone is still really open and
welcoming like all brazilians are! it is incredible. it doesnt matter
if i never get to know anyone here, we are coming here when you guys
come out. the only bad part is the bus here costs a small fortune, but
thats ok. i am also recieving more money than normal, i never got
additional, usually its 120 reals every 2 weeks, but now every 2 weeks
i get an aditional 80. whaat? anyways

also, it is cold here as well. it is even colder than falls was some
days here, which is never heard of but still happening! its greattt.

about this package mom, i have 2 more things to ask of you. can you
send a pair of cheap gym shorts? not one that i already own, just any
you can get cheap at the store, because my companion asked me for one,
since they dont make them here. also, my bishop wanted me to ask you
if you could send him (slash us haha) a package of oreos. he served
his mission in são paulo, and he  misses them from when the american
missionaries had them! here is the address for packages, letters,
errethang!

Elder Hoskin
Rua Pioneiro José Limeira 198
Jardim Paris III
Maringá - PR - Brazil
87083-517

woo! its the bishops house. me and him have instantly got along since
ive gotten here, so he told me to send everything to his house and he
would take care of it! oh by the way, did you know my bishop is 28
years old? and hes already been a bishop for 5 years! this happens
alot here in brazil, with young people getting called as leaders or
bishops. its happening less now that there are people in brazil being
born into the covenant, and theres more of a base of the church, but
it still is sweet!

i had lunch at his house on saturday, and during which he asked me if
i could give  the 3rd talk for 20 minutes the next day on missionary
work. i. was. nervous. beacuse it was the next day. but it worked out
fine! i just went for it, with these 4 topics to follow, and it worked
out. my talk was on how we can work with the spirit to have missionary
experiences as members, and it went 1, importance of having them, 2,
spiritual daily preparation, 3, taking advantage of opportunities, and
4, confiding in the spirit. and it worked out well!

we didnt have a baptism this week, but we had the confirmation of
literally an 84 year old man that was baptized the week before. . he
understands everything, and his daughter and wife of 42  years were
previously baptized. so that was cool!

i think that i have managed to have the lords help, in sucessfully
saying that i love the people of brazil. i got here, and i already
have this worry and care for all the people in the ward who i have
met, and it is nuts to me how that is possible. so quickly. but it is
the spirit!

we have another marriage and baptism sort of deal this week! they will
be married today, 4 oclock again, and married either tomorrow or
saturday. but they are way happy to be being baptized, and their son
of 9 years was already baptized, and we found him at his house reading
the teachings of george albert smith. are you kidding me? haha but
seriously, he is amazing, and is incredibly intellegent.

our ward building shares 2 wards, ours, and another called poineer
park. a man came up to me from that ward, looked at my nametag, and
said ´Elder Hoskin´ 100% perfectly. so i asked, do you study english?
and it turns out he is an old american man, who is from moscow, idaho.
he didnt serve a mission in brazil, but is living here simply because
he married a brazilian haha. he teaches english, has been here 9
years, and from what i hear he is not that good at portuguese because
he doesnt necessarily care that much. hah!

but thats all i can give for now, next week will have photos! i love
you guys, use that address, and have a great week!

Elder hoskin

hello family! well first off i wont be able to send pictures today, my
camera is not with me :( but thats fine because i didnt have any that
were like the falls for this week.

mom, i feel bad for andy murray as well. but, its just not their luck
i guess. i very much liked jennys idea on why cold is better than hot,
i am going to use that for all of the people that are saying that heat
is better than cold here! it was like going back to normal, to put it
normally,with just two of us. but its going to change again! and i
will say why down there. yay for passport papers! the more solid the
plans get, the more excited i get as well. thats great that you guys
got to be able to do sealings! i really would appreciate going to the
temple, but theres always our entire lives afterwards. we should go to
DC as soon as we get back in the states! i liked your story about that
45 year old man. also, props on the teaching abby and jenny spiritual
lessons with that question. i just read that talk from this last
conference again this week, about teaching your kids to comprehend the
gospel, you are awesome! also, i will try not to get sick :)

dad, haha im glad you liked the photos. did the video that i sent
work? fourth of july! america. the first one ive ever had out of the
states. but i think when i get back it will be on a friday..? i am
genuinely sorry about the heat, especially now that i am enjoying the
60s here. but just have the comfort that it will very quickly switch
again, and also when you guys come out it will be just about the
´coldest´ brazil ever gets! so you will not have to suffer here as
well. it is true! the corintians won the libertadores cup, and
everyone here went nuts. the game started at 930, so in my house
trying to go bed you just hear tons of firewords and people going nuts
in the streets haha. but, you know me, and i fell asleep quickly and
never woke up, because i sleep very hard. im sorry to hear about
Parise. this is not good news. at least he is happy? but that is just
me rationalizing the pain. they just need to sign a #2 man now to go
on the second line behind kovylchek (spelling? eesh), and with him
during the PP, and ´all is well´. the sons of mosiah were excellent
missionaries, and its good that you are giving those types of lessons
to help get the young men motivated to serve missions!



also, thank you Alayna for the baby info! i dont know anything, but i
think your baby is going to be born on valentines day. also, i know
its WAYY early, but any sort of name descisions i want to hear!
because hes going to be my first nephew and all, and just because of
that. ok great!


onto everything else!

well first off, yes, i am being trasfered. i only spent 6 weeks here
in Foz do iguaçu, during which i managed to go to the falls and meet a
ton of people. so i am leaving! but to where?

i am going to be a Zone Leader in a City in Maringá now, pronounced
ma-ding-gah! it is a huge city 2 hours outside of londrina, so its
close to where i started the mission, and my companion is going to be
Elder Sena, and i am going to be in an onibus again tomorrow 8 in the
morning until 8 at night! woooh. haha. but it will be  great! i will
have more oppertuinities to learn more. last night, the zone leaders
here were telling me that maybe i could be a zone leader this
transfer, and last night i dont think i ever had more of a feeling of
inadequacy, thinking of the possibility of being one. the lord really
does prepare us, because hes prepared me to know that i cannot do it
without him. but! it is going to be great, and i already know my
companion, and he is really amazing. so yes! i will travel another 2
days to go back up there

i heard earlier in the mission that this city maringá hast the highest
percentage of trees within the city than any other city in brazil. are
you kidding me? that is going to be sweet! because of just hearing
this i have always wanted to go there, so yepp! ok after this news,
onto what happened this week

first off, i thought you would all appreciate that i am starting to
make fresh real fruit juice here, and its turing both relatively
healthy and delicious. healthy because i use minimal sugar, and
healthy because its a fruit. but anyways, this week i made some of the
most delicious pineapple juice that i have ever tasted. it was
delicous! i put both the pineapple and the water i was going to use in
the freezer for a little to get super cold, and it was awesome.

next! i was going to ask, but i will wait to give you guys the address
until next week, but i am in slight need of another little package. i
am completely out of socks that dont have holes. the majourity i have
already sown the holes to last longer than they would have without,
but the socks here are the material of stockings, and they go through
them almost like rubber gloves! so if you would be able to send me
some more socks, i would be extremely grateful. also, if you could
send me some after hours old spice deorderant, and a thing of gold
bond. you dont need to send anything else if you dont want to, because
i am just in lots of need for these things! but i will send you an
address next week, so dont worry about it for now.

i was going to tell you before i got transfered how much i am getting
to know the ward here! everyone is really receptive here, and they
were really willing to help us. but that will continue with my
companion and his new companion, and also when we come back.

i gave a talk in church on sunday! they asked me to give a talk about
missionary work, so i got a little fancy on it, since everyone
normally says the same things (which is important, but still). so i
started off giving my talk about the 7 baths with Naman in 2 kings 5,
and i used that talk with the ´promise of a prophet´ to describe to
them how sometimes the prophets ask things very simple of us, and we
neglect to do it because we treat them lightly, like how naman wanted
some miraculous even to be healed, but he only had to bathe in the
river 7 times. and i talked about how we work together as a ward, and
missionaries, and some of the promises that prophets in our day have
given us if we follow these simple duties, and it turned out really
well! i think it could be used for any sort of topic in which you want
people to follow the council of prophets. woo!

also, we had a service project this week where we bottled tons and
tons of beans and rice, like a food storage for 2 years. all of brazil
is doing the same thing, and the 28th there is going to be a big event
where everyone donates at the same time. it was sweet! there were
about 100 bottles this week that were full of rice and beans, and my
job was to seal the closed caps with tape to keep out the air, and
there was only one roll of masking tape, so i basically went nuts on
it and taped them all! haha

well thats all i got for this week! next week will be interesting,
seeing as how ill be in a different place, but i love you guys! and im
really so grateful for you being my family, and the love of my life,
and im always praying for you guys! have a great week, and talk to you
next time!

Elder Hoskin

Hello family!!!

Dad, im sorry that the heat there is awful. to tell you the truth, i
think we can both be dissapointed, this winter is seeming like a
summer in pittsburgh haha, people in our ward are saying that this is
the hottest winter has been in a while, and that it seems like there
wont even be any real winter this year! but thats ok. yeah spain! haha
my boys. well, even though i missed it it just makes it that much
better for when i come home and they are in the world cup and all,
dynasty? alma 14 is always an interesting chapter, i think that it
takes some serious understanding to accept that whole passage! but
thats swee that you got to teach it


errethang else, first off

AHH congrats Joseph and Alayna! I am soooo excited to come home and
see my little nephew or neice. you guys have to keep me updated on how
the pregnancy is going and all, and whenever you know the name, ect.
WOO!

so! as you can see in the photos, i went to the falls this past
monday, and it was incredible. its one of the 7 natural wonders of the
world! it was crazy to see, and one day i am coming back here with
michelle, because its totally worth it. basically its a 2 mile trail,
where you are on the side of a really steep hill, thats just jungle
and your concrete path, and you can see across perfectly for all of
the falls. i thought it was going to be a get there and there it is in
front of you sort of deal, but its not. its literally 2 miles of huge
waterfalls! so it was really sweet. also, among the photos, i sent you
lastly a video clip of the very last spot, when you take an elevador
to the top at the end. it is completely worth it to see. also, you
will see alot of the missionaries that are in my district.

i did something inever thought i would have to do this week, which was
pay to use the bathroom. 65 cents. what is this, europe? i felt like i
had done something that i never planned on doing, but whetever.

at the falls, i spoke english with some people! i had heard before
about this happening there, and i spoke with an asian member of the
church who lives in hawaii! and also non member just tourists who were
from sydney, austrailia.

also, we had zone conference! i always am a big fan of those, and it
was great to get training. also, every one they celebrate the birthday
of the people who had them since the last one, so one of them was me.
just more birthday blessings continue to roll.

so i had an experience really swee this week. we were in the house of
an investigator family that will also do the whole marry and baptize
thing in these upcoming weeks, and we wanted to watch the restoration
with them. when we got there, their remote had broken, so we couldnt
watch it in anything other than english. so what ended up happening
was that i sat there and translated the whole 20 minute movie! haha
and it was just a neat experience to see how my portuguese has grown.

i am no longer in a trio. Elder Nogeuira left to go to another zone,
because a missioanry went home early, and since we were in 3 it worked
out alright.

being sick on the mission stinks. i got rreally sick this week, so
sick i had to take a charcol pill. like when you burn wood charcol
pill! they were big pills, that were just completely black, but it
made me feel somewhat better.

also, in other news, i had y first baptismal interview this week! as
district leader i have to interview all the baptismal candidates in my
district, and that was a really neat experience! i was a little
nervous, but the spirit always helps with those kinds of things

it is july! wasnt i already in brazil during july? yes. almost 1 year,
this is ridiculous. but! that is ok, things are gointg very very well

ok so another side note, we had to take a vaccine for an epedimic that
was in our state of brazil this week, so i had to take out a chunk of
money to use it, if your looking at what i took out. it was not cheap,
but they made us take them!

well thats all for this week, i spent alot of time putting on photos!
so until next week, i love you guys!

Elder Hoskin