(This week, Elder Hoskin sent 3 voice recordings. It may take you a while to read.)
Hello Family!
It is Sunday, the 28th of April, Elder Hoskin speaking.
So, its Sunday, as opposed to Monday, about 5:00 in the
afternoon. What is Elder Hoskin
doing at home, when he should be out doing missionary work? Well, me and my companion live with two
other missionaries that also work in our branch. And one of them has Dangue. I am not sure what disease this means in English, but, it’s
a mosquito-transmitted disease, and you are basically bed-ridden. You have to stay in your bed for two
weeks. Because, your entire body
hurts, and is sore, and you can’t do anything. So, this missionary, he got it, he actually had it for a
week already, but, he didn’t know so he walked around sick for a week. But, now Sister Tavares called me, and
was like, ‘Hey! He is staying home now.
Every day you need to rotate who is staying home with him. ‘ So today was the first day, and today I
decided to stay home with him.
And, so, yeah, that’s why I’m home. I have been home all day doing my favorite thing, other than
preaching the gospel, and that is, of course, studying. And, I have some really cool
experiences to share with you guys.
I have a lot to talk about today.
I might send two sound clips, cause that’s just how much time I have on
my hands right now.
I have been studying since 8:00 in the morning, if you don’t
include lunch. Yes, that’s right,
I did not go to church today.
Sister Tavares did not allow us to go to church. But, I actually listened to it by
telephone, isn’t that weird?
Today, Something happened in church that I have never seen happen before
in my entire life. You have stake
conference, general conference, ward conference, here they have regional
conference. I guess it only
happens once every five years. It
was this whole region of Brazil. I
heard there were 51 stakes, and 13 districts that were involved. And so, it was a transmission just like
general conference, but, from Sao Paulo.
And so, the people who spoke was the presiding bishop, a missionary
couple, who I think are mission presidents now, and then, Elder Richard G
Scott. And so, my companion, who
went with the sick missionary’s companion to church, he called me on the phone
(cause we have unlimited missionary credits between missionary phones), he
called, and just put the phone next to one of the TV’s in the chapel. And so, I just listened to it for two
hours, it was 10 – 12:00. So, I
got to hear Elder Scott speak. That
was really cool. Why was it
cool? Because Elder Scott, he
spoke in Portuguese. Apparently,
he knows how. I think he was a
mission president. I thought he
was a mission president in Argentina, but one way or another, he knows how to
speak Portuguese. So he spoke in
Portuguese and that was pretty awesome, hearing an apostle speak another
language. So, that was cool.
So this week, first of all, a quick shout-out to Joseph, I
need you to go on my facebook and accept everybody from Brazil again. Just because, its been a while, but
that’s okay. Its not
important. Okay, lets keep
going.
So there is a golden truth that me and my companion have put
into practice this week. It’s a
truth that I learned from the beginning of my mission. Its about missionary work. And, everyone says, ‘oh, the mission is
so hard… you walk so much… its so hot….’. But the truth is, the more you teach, the less you
walk, and the less you stay in the sun.
And, so, one thing that I have always tried to do, putting this into
perspective, is that the more you try to teach people, among other blessings
and good things that happen, you stay out of the sun, and you walk less. (chuckles) Me and my companion on Tuesday, we were like, ‘okay, we are
going to knock this huge street.’
It was a really long street, but it wasn’t like an avenue, it was like a
normal road. Almost like
Broadmoor, you know? So, we
started to knock it, and it took us about 2 ½ hours to knock 100 yards. Because, people were letting us in. And so, 2 ½ hours of the afternoon,
which is the hottest and most difficult time to be out, we just spent indoors just
teaching. And, that was one of the
better days in regards to being able to teach like that, cause, we taught a lot
of people, and I wasn’t even tired that day. It was really good.
So, we have this guy, (here we go) his name is Klebber. He went to church last week. I might have talked about him, I might
have not. I found him with Elder
Petersen, two weeks ago. And, he
basically is awesome. He got a
response about the Book of Mormon, he believes that its true. He is the head of his family, He’s got two kids. One of them is 14, the other one is 1,
and his wife. And, the whole
family has now accepted the gospel.
So, it’s a complete family.
It’s the best thing that could ever happen on the mission. The only thing is, that, he smokes one
pack a day. So, we are
really trying to help him smoke less.
And, he has actually gotten down to 8, I think one day he had 7
cigarettes a day. So, he is
already improving. He said he is
praying two or three times a day.
And, he use to go weeks without praying. I can really tell how the gospel is having a good effect on
his life. Aslo, the Book of
Mormon. And, it’s a really,
really, really happy story.
Whatever happens with him, you guys are going to meet him. They don’t speak English at all. But you guys will meet him. He is totally awesome.
Um, Transfers happened. My companion and me stayed together. Yeah, that’s basically all there is
about transfers. I might stay here
till the end of my mission. After
this I have two more transfers, so I could. We will see.
So, I have cried a lot this week. That’s weird for me to say. But, I’ll tell you, I had some weird experiences. First of all, Wednesday night, I woke
up in the middle of the night, and I was just sobbing. I just woke up, and I had been sobbing
in my sleep. And, I remember what
the dream was, but, I just don’t want to talk about it. But, I woke up, and I could feel my
eyes were full of tears, and, I
could tell I had already been crying and stuff, and I felt my pillow, and my
pillow was wet. And, I know that
it wasn’t drool, cause it was kind of like cold. It was weird.
But, my pillow was wet cause I was crying so much. I was crying in my sleep. That has never happened to me before in
my entire life. That was really
kind of weird. I woke up, and I
was like, what the heck? After
that I had a really, really,…. Landmark experience. I guess that’s the way you would say it, in regards to my
testimony of the Atonement and missionary work. But, I’m going to talk about that in the next sound clip,
cause this one has already been 7 minutes long. So, hold on.
So, like I was saying,
on Friday, we were just knocking on some doors, and we found this guy,
at like 2:00 in the afternoon. His
name is Wenseslau (?). He is 77
years old. He lives by
himself. His wife passed away
about three years ago. We started
talking to him, getting to know him before we started teaching him, you
know? And, his biggest difficulty
in life is that he feels so alone.
He says, he is just alone.
No one comes to visit him,
he doesn’t have family here.
He was going to one church, but no one visits him from that church. And, so, he goes sometimes. He just felt really, really alone. And, I knew we had to teach him the
second lesson about the plan of salvation. Just tell him, how its possible for him to live with his
wife again for eternity cause he was really missing her. So, we taught him the plan of
salvation. And, we just tried as
hard as we could to help him understand how he could have a family for
eternity. He understood! We asked if he understood, and he
responded with what we said. He
was actually a pretty smart guy.
He understood a lot for having 77 years. So, we taught him.
But, he didn’t want to make the commitment to go to church. He said, “No, if God wants me to, He
will prepare a way.” We were like,
‘No, but, its right here! This is
our message, we are trying to get you to come to church.’ And, he just didn’t want to make the
commitment to go to church. And, I
have had so many rejections before on the mission, you know? Every one does. But there was something different about
this one. I think its just my
testimony that has been growing these last 21 months. But, I just got so sad. I got devastated.
I was thinking in my head, ‘ if he doesn’t accept it right now, he might
never be able to see his wife again.
Ever. Because, after we
teach him, we are giving him his free-agency, you know? And if he doesn’t change his behavior,
or change the way he feels about the gospel in the spirit world, it might be
the same sort of way. And, I
started to go nuts in my head. I
started to freak out. If he
doesn’t accept it right now, if we don’t find some way for him to be able to
come to church right now, he may never see his wife again. He doesn’t even have kids, its just him
and his wife. They never had kids,
and so I got really, really sad. I
was basically begging him to come to church. My companion could tell there was something
different. At the end of the
lesson we asked him if he could get us some water real quick. Then, I looked over to my companion,
and I was like, ‘Elder, if we don’t help him right now to come to church, he
is gonna be condemned.’ And, my companion started
laughing. He thought I was just
joking around. I said, ‘No,
seriously! If we don’t help him
right now, he may never live with his wife again.’ My companion, kept chuckling cause he thought I was just
joking. And, I got mad, I was
like, “why are you mad right now?”
Its his salvation! If we
don’t actually help him right now, he may never be able to live with Heavenly
Father again, or his wife.
It was so intense. My
companion could already tell I was getting different, you know. I begged him. I wrote down the address of the church, I wrote down the
time, I have him a pamphlet; I was like, “please! Please! Are you going to come to church at
least once?” I just begged him. I get freaked out thinking about it
right now. When we left his house,
my companion had to call President Tavares about something else that was
happening in our zone. So, we sat
down on the curb for him to call him, and I started crying. I just lost it. I tried my best, and I couldn’t do
it. I got so caught up in him
specifically, that I just started crying.
It was nuts. And, I
remember I felt bad for, like, an hour afterwards. And, that’s totally all because of my testimony. If I would have had one week on the
mission, I don’t think I would have even blinked. But, there’s things that have changed inside me, in these
last 21 months. You can’t really
tell your progress, you know? But,
when I think about who I was, before the mission, I can tell, that at least
there is something different inside me.
I’m a different person. I
guess I am greatful for it. But,
just thinking about it make me emotional, that guy. I am never going to be able to forget about that old man,
because, I just felt like that was it.
It was really intense.
And, so basically that’s how my week’s been going. Let me
think of what else there is. Today, like I said, I have been studying from 8 in the
morning to right now. And, boy do
I love to study. I just read a BYU
speeches talk called, “Jesus Christ, gifts and expectations.” By Ezra Taft Benson. Its from 1974. It was absolutely ridiculous. I read it, and my mind was blown, like,
30 times. Its right before
Christmas, the 10th of December. So, he starts talking about, first, all the gifts that
Christ gave us. Or, some of the
gifts that Christ gave us. And
then, he talks about some of the gifts that we can give Christ. The way he described it, I felt like it
was being a light unto my mind. I
feel like the spirit taught me, you know?
Like, when the spirit teaches you and you don’t forget: its part of who you are. He talks about all the different
gifts. He gave us His life as a
model, he gave us a prophet. He
talks about the importance of a prophet, like Thomas S. Monson today. He talks about how Christ gave us His
church: the importance of His church.
He talks about how Christ gave us the scriptures. How Christ gave us the constitution of
the United States. That was really
something that I hadn’t learned that much about before. And then, our gifts to Christ, how we
can sacrifice everything . And,
one thing I have tried to do, is sacrifice everything to the Lord. In these last couple of months, I have
been able to realize, especially after the whole Michelle thing, that the word
sacrifice makes it sound like a bad thing. Like, you are going to have to give this up, which stinks to
give up. But, the truth is, its
good to sacrifice. It feels good
to give sacrifice. Like he said in
this talk, there is a Brigham Young quote. Brigham Young was like, ‘I enjoy it! I enjoy giving
everything I have to the Lord, because I know that he’s just going to give me
better. And, that’s totally how I
have been starting to feel these last couple of months. You just try to give everything that
you can to Him. All your strength,
all your focus, all your sins.
Its difficult in the beginning, but then it gets good. And, its just a really, really great
talk. There was a quote by Boyd K
Packer that just knocked my socks off.
Let me find that quote.
“I
am not ashamed to say that I want to be good. And I have found in my life, that
is has been critically important that this was established between me and
the Lord. So that I knew, that He
knew, which way I committed my agency. I went before Him and said, ‘I am not
neutral, and you can do with me
what you want. If you need my
vote, its there. I don’t care what
you do with
me, and you don’t have to take anything from me, because I give it to you. Everything. All I own, all that I am. ‘ “
And so, I love this talk. You should definitely look up this talk. Mom, Dad, Joseph, I know dad likes to
read talks, this one is totally important to read.
So that’s been how my weeks going. Yeah, this is the third sound clip. But, I have the time so I can send it
to you guys. Also, I already have
the Mother’s day call set up. I
will have it at my mission leaders house.
The family that’s really excited to meet you guys. They are the best family ever. So, you guys can see them and stuff
before you meet them in person.
That will be cool, but they already have it set up.
Yeah, so what else has happened this week? I am going to Londrina again
tomorrow. Its funny cause
when I say it in Portugues its “Londrina” , and when I say it in English its,
“Londrina”. (He just rolled his R
in the first one.) But, I am going
there tomorrow for a leaders council again. Its almost every two weeks that we have them from now to
July. But, things are going really
well.
I am really trying to love my companion. I have seen some parallels. I am trying to find out how every
single thing on the mission, is in preparation for the next life, right? One thing they really stressed on us
here in Brazil is: Lock your Heart.
A talk by, I think it was Spencer W. Kimball. Where its important to not look for relationships, or think
about who you are going to marry
on your mission, and all that stuff. So, missionaries are like, ‘well, what about if it just
happens naturally? What do you
do?” People are always questioning
it, you know. I was thinking about
his, just let me get to my point, I am trying to make my point about how I am
trying to love my companion more.
I was thinking about this, the commitment we have on the mission to
dedicate everything to the Lord.
And, that means we can’t think about things like relationships, with
girls, or who we are going to marry…stuff like that, you know? Think about it, it’s the exact
same commitment you make whenever you get married. One day I am going to be married, and I am going to have to
have the same commitment that I have right now to the Lord, to not even open up
a little bit, to anything, to a relationship with anyone. That’s how it’s a preparation for us on
the mission. Its like, as long as
you can completely dedicate yourself to the Lord, then, you will be able to
completely dedicate yourself to your wife.
But, then, also, I am trying to love my companion more. So, I also think about my companion, he
is my companion on the mission.
He’s my best friend, we work together and all that. And, I have a lot of really, really
good friends on the mission who are not my companion. I have a lot. I
am going to be rooming with them at BYUI, We are going to be going to
conference together, stuff like that. Or, at least trying. We will see how that works. But, he’s a really good person, I have never fought with him
before or anything. But, we are
not like the best of friends. So,
I think about that too, in this parallel.
One day your are going to be married to your wife, and she’s going to have to be your best
friend. Because, if she’s not,
whenever there is difficulties, or whenever you want to have fun, or enjoy
life, you will look to your other friends as a source, and you won’t be as
close to your wife. So, I need to
be best friends with my companion as possible. I don’t know, maybe I’m going nuts. Maybe you think I’m going nuts. I’m just trying to apply everything in
my mission. But, I don’t really
think about that too much, if its about marriage. And, right now, its mission time. I am just trying to think of how to help him more. How I can love him more.
So that’s basically all I had this week. I hope everything is going well for you
guys, everything is going well for me.
Its getting colder, and I like the cold. What else…. That’s basically it.
Let me know the exact days we are going to be in every city
when you are coming out to Brazil.
Once I know the exact days, I can start officially notifying the people,
like, ‘hey! Can we come by your house, and have lunch with you guys on this
day?’ Cause there are people who
want to give you guys lunch. They
are like, “Oh! When your parents
come, pass by here, we will make lunch.
We will meet them and stuff”
It just requires us to have the right planning.
I hope everything is going well with Joseph and Alayna and
Desmond as well. I really enjoy
the photos you guys sent me of Desmond.
I can’t wait to meet him, he’s a good lookin’ guy, I won’t like, he’s
pretty sharp. There’s one photo
you sent me, I am pretty sure he’s like a Russel Crowe baby. He looks like Russel Crowe. Just want you to know that. For me it’s a good thing, I don’t know
about you guys, but I watched Cinderella Man.
I hope everything is going well with Abby and Jenny as
well. Thinking about it right now,
I am really glad High School is over for me. But, I am sure it’s a good experience for them.
I love you guys.
I know I never really say that when I was younger, but now days I just
say it whenever I mean it. Instead
of like never saying it.
So, I hope everything is going well with you guys, grandma
and grandpa. Be sure to tell them,
if you didn’t tell them last week, they don’t need to use mission ties anymore,
they can go ahead and email me. And, you guys can get rid of mission
ties and save some money.
And, also, you guys don’t need to send me a birthday
package. You don’t need to send me
one, its all good. We are already
in the home stretch, if you know what I mean, in regards to getting things from
America.
Yeah, so I love you guys, have a great week, and I will talk
to you next week.
Bye!
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