Hello! 

Dad, i think that america has so many good traditions, that its easier to do activites with the youth or in general in church. for example, you made wreaths, and i dont even know what people here would do as a christmas activity. i didnt get to see that christmas devotional, but im sure it was great! here in this city, there are a ton of christmas lights, which was not happening there in marilia, so that a good thing. about the only sign i have of christmas here! yes, that was my companion in the picture i sent. that sounds like the temple was wonderful! we will totally do that once im home. 

momma, i didnt see the devotional, but i read a talk by elder eyring a couple of weeks ago called gifts of love, that talked about how to give a gift with love, and talked about christs gift to us and all that, so yeah ahah. that is truly a universal truth, and axiom as ayn rand calls it. people think capitalism means big business, and taking over an industry. but its really justy making something for yourself. thats why wee need practice, nothing is or should be free. just like if you were to practice and become a tennis pro, or i was to design and build my own house by myself, we can also look back on years of activity in the church (or in my case, the mission) and see the testimony we have developed, and how we are progressing. i have a quote by Elder Maxwell that is one of my favorites. he says that in a mortal world, we are immortals commanded to live immortal principles. woo!

so, this week was one of the craziest weeks on the mission. let me start out with some inital things to say so that mom or no one gets scared. i am completely unharmed, as well as my companion, or the people we were in the car with, or anyone else. 

but! yesterday, i got into one of the more serious car accidents of my life. let me explain!

so i got to church 9 am on sunday, and got a call from the missionaries in cianorte, one of the outlying cities that is part of our zone. they had a baptism that was arranged for the branch president to do the interview, because of the distance from us, but that same morning one hour before church his wife went into labor, and had the baby. so, because of this, we had to find a way to interview the baptismal candidate.

so there was an older couple who were in the other ward who shares the same ward building as us, who knew the woman being baptized and were going to drive up there to see the baptism. so we asked them for a ride, and traveled the hour and a half with them by car up there. the baptism went really well, it was all spiritual, i did the interview (ps, i am doing tons of interviews lately! just this weekend i had 7, i am getting proficient at it), and all went really well.

so we ate lunch there, and started on home like 2:30.the car ride was just like the one out there, and about halfway home it started to rain alot, and the woman who was driving was sort of driving fast. anyways, we are on the highway, and we get to a part where we are like 10 minutes out of Maringá, and there is a semi truck that is in front of us, going really slowly because its a semi truck. so there were like 8 or 9 cars behind it, including us, and the woman who is driving the car decides to drive on that part of the road that is on the side of the road, its not really the street, but still is asphalt. where when you pull over, you stay. 

so she went on that in an effort to pass some cars, and eventually the semi truck, and she did that 2 times, each time it went well, she passed one or two cars, whatever. so she does it a third time (my companion is sleeping) and while she is side by side with a car going in the same direction, we see up ahead a part of the side of the road that is wayy raised up, like a huge bump. 

so we all start sort of freaking out as we see it, and she cant pull back into the road because shes side by side with a car. so we go over it, and you hear this horrible noise right underneath the car, and then once we pass it the car starts turning lightly in the direction of the field slash ditch on the right side of the road, and she yanks at the steering wheel to correct herself. as she does this, we stop curving to the right (the field), and fly to the left, where we cross both lanes of highway, in doing this, we hit another car that is coming in the opposite direction of the side of their car, and then pass, continue drifting accross the highway to the right, drift off the road, and into a ditch, where a tree stops the momentum of the car (see the other picture,of that silver car in the grass. i was seated inthe back with my companion)

and so thats basically how it happened. i am completely fine, and i know that i was protected by the lord. when we went in to the ditch, i felt the feeling like we were going to roll, the car i mean, but the tree that was there stopped us from doing so. the car was really small, and i am tall, and so the car not rolling really was a life saving blessing.

so i called President and Sister tavares afterwards to tell them about everything that went down. president tavares told me this "Elder Hoskin, i promise you that your life was saved, and the others with you, only because you and your companion are following the rules of the mission and the commandments. it is because of this that you were protected" crazy, right?! the more i think of it, there are so many small details that if they would have been changed my only fractions of seconds or things like that, it would have been a whole lot worse. if it was delayed a half a second, we would have hit the car going in the opposite direction head on, ect. but i am ok! i know the lord protects me. so that was a nice experience, what matters is that we baptized.

onto the next great part, so monday night my companion was opening his journal, and he opened it, and there was a bug that jumped onto his hand, without him realizing. he then went to casually itch his eye, and the bug released some sort of liquid directly into his eye. he said that it burned like nothing else before in his life, and he started screaming, literally doing anything to wash it or get the pain out, he was going nuts! so i called Sister tavares, and then called a member (this was 10 oclock at night), and we went to the hospital, where the doctors washed out his eye for like 20 minutes. well, it literally burned the skin around his eye, and luckily they washed his eye. his vision was blurry for about 2 days, and now its almost all better. he couldnt go out in the sun for 3 days, and even after has had to use sunglassed for a week, and has a burn mark on the skin around his eye. crazy, right?

third part of the week, the assistants to the president are working in all the zones on the mission, so this week was our turn here. the entire week, i worked in my area only sunday night 6pm to 9pm. all the other time, i was either in the hospital with my companion, traveling and getting into a car accident, or in other areas in our zone, helping missionaries, interviewing investigators for baptism and all that. it has been one of the craziest weeks on the mission! 

whats important is that im okay, and doing well. i love you guys, have a great week! and dont get worried, its all done. on monday morning last week, i prayed for mountains like elder eyring did, and oh how they came! i love you guys! have a great week, and until next week!

Elder Hoskin