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