Hello my family!!

Well every week i have something new to say, but first off i will start with the responses to everyone´s emails and such as usual.

Grandma and grandpa, im glad to hear that you liked that chapter in the teachings of george albert smith! While i think that charity is the trait i will need to develop the most on the mission, i think that really everyone should focus on charity. Also, i am glad to hear that island park got a good foot of snow. Im sorry to hear about that guy trash talking mormons, people will truly get what theyve chosen like you said, its just every choice has consequences. Have mormons been against every political candidate whose not a member? most definitely not, people just need to leave everything out of politics and goverment thats not politics and goverment.

Dad, i am so sorry to hear about Joe Paterno. I never really considered the possibility of him dying while i was on the mission, probably because he seemed like he would live forever. It will also be interesting to see who will take his place afterwards. i have a hockey question that arose in your email, are the winnipeg jerseys cool? i am so glad to hear that the flowers thing worked out with michelle! also, thats interesting that you were able to ski while still recuperating with your shoulder. But this next week will most likely be better, i am sure of it!

Mom, your probably right about the hot and cold, it is so ridiculously hot here! My body is just aching for winter, but it never came.. hello jenny! thats sweet that Mr Hessler remembers me, truth is i remember him as well, did you tell him im in brazil right now? I wanted to watch that devotional by boyd k packer, but we arent allowed :( . im sorry that your diet has been a hassle lately, you just gotta stick to it i think!

ok well now to everything else like usual!

well first off i came to the discovery that my mission here in londrina is just a brazilian version of our general region in pennsylvania, just let me explain. Well pittsburgh and londrina are about the same size, population wise, and they both have rivers running through them. they are the second biggest cities in their respecive state (it only gets more real) im in the city of Marilia right now, i fairly nice sized but still small city that is 4 hours out of londrina, and is full of factories of chocolate. sound like somehwere in PA? hershey!!! and last but not least, here in my mission we have falls de iguacu, that border paraguay, and are the falls that everyone goes to down here. well about the same amount of driving is from londrina to iguacu, as is from pittsburgh to niagra falls, which borders canada! from all of this i decided that im seriously just living in the same place, but another country.

while this seems pretty insignificant, i got the first holes in my socks this week! but dont worry! not only do i have 6 pairs in reserve that you guys sent me, but i also fixed the wholes with my very weak sowing skills, but ive already used them once and they worked out just great, so im going to try to make them last as long as possible

We had to go to the doctors again this week for my companion, beginning the physical therapy on his back, and this throat has been inflamed for a week also. but he´s getting better, and that is actually nothing compared to my lil trip to the doctors that i will explain, now!

Well i dont know what i ate, but i got really really sick the end of this week (i am still feeling the effects). i started feeling just sick in general, not too bad around thursday. then after lunch on saturday, we came back to the house and i threw up 3 different times, had the whole body ache/chills thing, a massive migrane, and i will be honest with you, the worst diahreea (spelling?) of my entire life. it was literally heck. and so i thought i was just going to sleep and get better the next day, but i woke up during the night going into sunday and threw up again, and had diahrea again. then i went to church, managed to make it through the meetings, and i was not improving, so sister tavares mandated that i go to the hospital, which i did. i went there, got a blood test done, got to take medicine through an IV for the first time in my life, and the test came back that they didnt find anything wrong with me! so the rest of sunday i was just suffering the same, today all my symptoms are gone minus frequenting the bathroom alot, and i hope that i will be all better by tomorrow. but i am fine now! it was just really miserable :(. aaanyways

so the girl that we baptized named livia, who is 16 or so years old, is basically awesome. if i never had baptized any more people on the mission other than her, my mission would still be a success, she is just so spiritually strong! she has been going to all the activities and everything, and get this, she asked if she could go out with us proselyting one day haha! so we got a man over 18 years (its a rule) and brought her along with us, and she was talking with people in the street and helping us door to door, ahh it was just an amazing experience! also, she asked questions about the garments, and even though shes only been baptized for 2 weeks we explained (only as much as we could, it being sacred and all) about the garments, and about temples and temple work, and she is going to go on the next temple trip in march! the first person i have helped who is going to go start doing work in the temple! it had just been a really great experience helping her live this gospel.

i have new news about packages, that doesnt matter now because no one needs to or is sending any, but just for future sake! they changed the rules on packages, now all packages need to be sent to our actual home address, not the mission office. this means that i will get future packages much faster! i will not give my address right now, becaus ei dont know for sure if i will stay here this week, seing as how transfers are the next monday, but i will keep you updated! also, they will never hold a package to pay tax if the claimed value is under 50 dollars, so just keep that in mind. also, about packages being broken into. i heard that if you put stickers on the packages, religious stickers or pictures for some reason they tend to open the packages alot less haha! but just get creative next time you send one.

i had interviews this week! it went really well, my mission president is a really nice guy, and he only wants what is best for me, so i am thankful for it!

i have to go now, but i hope that you guys have a great week! i will try to send some photos here, and i have 2 videos for michelle as well!!!! i love you guys so much, i hope you all have a great week!

Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family!!

Well i just want to start off by telling you all thank you for everything like usual, so here it goes.

Grandma and grandpa, thank you for the email! Im sorry to hear that there is not alot of snow up there in idaho, but it sounds like everything is ok. i liked the part where you said where things are good when you two are together, i am excited to be married to someone where that kind of love will always be around for eternity! so thank you!

Dad, im glad to hear that you got to teach and really look into the restoration. The first lesson that we always teach everybody is simply called the restoration, just showing how important it really is. i have in my study journal a list of 8 topics that came from the restoration happening, and now define our church, and you basically named alot of them during those list of topics that you mentioned. that movie sounds like it is a good one, but the truth is if we use our dvd players for anything other than the 2 instructional dvds we have, we lose our dvd priveleges as well as our computer privileges for some time. so i would hold back on the movie! haha

Mom, truth is i didnt end up emailing till the afternoon, so it worked out with the whole email in the morning thing. I like the comparison you made to the children of israel, and Nephi. We cant rely on other peoples testimonies, we really need to rely on our own if we want to endure to the end. I have seen this on the mission, in my area specifically even. There is a family here who was baptised and became really really good friends with the elders here, but after the elders left 6 months ago the family went inactive. The entire process was good for the family, but now that family needs to develop more personal testimoniies of the church to be able to gain the desire to return. I also liked your bit on desire! If our desires are pure, and we have faith they´ll be granted unto us, like it says in enos 1:12.

ok now to the family email! well i hope everyone had a good week.

This week has been difficult for me. My companion went to londrina monday until wednesday night for his knee problems, and so i was stuck in a trio FOR 3 DAYS. ive learned that you gain a testimony of something in the church by living that commandment, and i can say with confidence that trios are not ordained in missionary work. it simply sucked. and alot of missionaries have told me that they always just talk good and happy go lucky to their family at home, to keep them from worrying, but i like to honestly tell you guys how it is, because being fake is just a lack of respect. so yes, it was hard, and to be honest i have been way excited with missionary energy, until this trio happened, and the rest of the week was me trying to get it back. but like usual, your letters, videos, and emails have brought me right back up to being unbelievabely happy, so thank you!

first of all, did you guys know that cashews are only nuts of what is actually a fruit? here its switched, they dont have cashews the nut, but they have cashew juice, which at first i thought was going to be nasty, but is actually delicious. sorry, just a side note.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MICHELLE!!! the plans above are what im going to do to celebrate your birthday, as well as one other thing. this friday, the birthday of my future spouse, is interviews with president tavares! the first time for me on the mission, so it is going to be interesting. i hear that people get very nervous about it, and that would make sense, but its all calm with me, i think its just going to be a good time.

this week weather wise has been a huge blessing! im in one of the hottest areas in our mission during the summer, but this week all it has done is rain during the night, and stay overcast during the day. so ive gotten to actually wear a sweater two days this week because it was a little bit cold! i always love an excuse to wear a sweater, and it made this week livable, and was great for it being winter here

i have been studying in the teachings of george albert smith book that everyone gets for classes during church. that book is sooo good! when i get home i want to study all the books in the series, i dont know if your teachers are using it or not, but its a great resource

i had a very nice spiritual experience with a lesson in that book this week. the chapter was about loving one another, and before sunday i studied it and all so that the hour would be better. and it was amazing. i think that one thing that i need to develop here is just charity, and helping those around me. i will never lose my john galt capitalism, but that doesnt mean that i cant help people out as well. it was a great class, i felt the spirit so strongly, and its just one of those experiences that i can already tell has had an effect on my daily misisonary work, and will continue to have effect.

i am keeping strong in reading the bible! 4 chapters a day and i will be done in a year. the old testament is downright ridiculous, but i am trying anything possible to take something from it to learn. not so much in genesis, that book is good because of the creation, noah, abraham, things like that, but im also starting in ezra and contining, and there is just ridiculous. but its been good, i love the new testemant, jesus christ was the perfect teacher

SO about packages, i got 2 packages this week!! i got one from uncle matt, thank you very much for the ´ugly´ ties (i think theyre sweet), and joseph, thank you for your package!! haha its already in use, just for you to know. but i didnt get the 2 form mom and dad and i didnt get michelles, but President always brings packages around to interviews, so i will most likely get all three when he comes here on friday. so all is well!

we had a ´bible bash´ this week. i was making a street contact, and this guys started off on us and our religion, and at first we were trying to just be courteous and continue, i was honestly trying not to get mad! but then he told me (and my companion) that we were not children of god, he specifically said that, then called us ´ creatures´. so i just about lost it, and proceeded to ´burn him´ as missonaries say. it went on for about 15 minutes, and through just asking him questions about his belief his own logic came to the conclusion that jesus christ was not a child of god, and then i gave him a scripture to read in the bible and we just left. i tried not to get mad! but it was an.. experience, i think all missionaries have it at least a couple of times in their mission. but anyway!!

This week i also got sick, which could be one of the other reasons why this week wasnt quite the best. but i feel mostly better today! it was that kind of chills where you just always feel sickly cold, and want to curl up in bed. but all is well now.

Felipe and livia were confirmed this week, which was a nice experience! Felipe is on track to get the aaronic priesthood, i bought a tie for him last monday, and gave it to him as a present this sunday. he has started calling me his ´pai branco´ or ´ white dad´ haha. he is really a great kid, and we bought a shirt for him today, so i think hes going to recieve the priesthood before the transfer is over.

Well thats all i got for this week! thank you all for being a wonderful support. this week was just more of a reminder that i absolutely need you guys, your support, thank you very, very much. Michelle, once again, HAPPY BIRTHDAY! i love you :) i hope that its great, and i cant wait to get to celebrate with you again! i love you guys, until next week!

Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family!!!!

Well i want to start off before i respond to each one that your guys´s emails this week were great! so thank you for them all, here we go!

First off, grandma and grandpa, thank you for the email! im sorry to hear that theres not alot of now up in island park, but i am happy to hear that my dads going to be able to come out and see you guys! it sounds like i am going to miss alot of politics on the mission as well. and i love doctrine and covenants, so thats great that you are reading it. thank you!

dad, that devils game sounds like it was a great time. i am a little down that i wasnt there, but there will always be hockey, so when i come back we can just make up for it. but thats sweet that you got to see them live! i think the last time i saw them live was the florida panthers game with matt trigger in new jersey probably 10 or 11 years back, if you dont include seeing scott gomez at the penguins canadiens game i was at a year or 2 back. but it sounds sweet! and those pictures were good also, im glad to hear they are doing well, and i am rooting for them all the way out here. also, thats sweet that you take the t and bus to work. does this mean i get the ford once im home off the mission? hahaha just joking, but seriously thats sweet, i dont know why but ive always wanted to be in a position where i can just take the t to work. i hope your shoulder continues to recover well!

mom, its true that we all miss eachother very very much, and things are sort of back to normal now, but i still miss you all! that wont go away, but its part of the mission i guess. its true, michelles hair is the best hear on earth, but this is the case for 2 reasons: a, she really knows how to take care of it well and 2, she has the best hair on earth. :) im glad to hear that brother (XX) is back and that the ward is having a good spiritual experience with that story! i remember thinking (debbie downer) that he probably wasnt going to make it when i heard about the accident, but all is well! like the hymn, that i often sing to myself when i am missing home. the children of israel are always giving grief, just because its almost like they dont learn! but technically we are the children of isreal now (sorry jewish friends) with the whole abrahamic covenant, so i shouldnt talk bad about us. abby, my facebook is undeleted now! you should just change your password or set your settings to more private. and jenny, im glad your expanding your talents!

ok now onto the family email:

well first of all i will explain the pictures. do you remember the picture of our baptism last week, with karen being baptized, and her cousins livia and filipe just there to support her? well this sunday was the other way around, filipe and livia were baptized yesterday!! it was a really great baptismal service, they are both really strong and have great testimonies. filipe will recieve the priesthood as a deacon soon enough, and livia is alreay in with the young women, we gave her the progress booklets and everything this week even before she was baptized, so its just been great here!! her, karen, and their other cousin tamydis who is also an investigator read the book of mormon and the strength for youth every night. its just amazing to see how peoples lives are improved with the gospel. so thats the happies news for this week! also, karen was confirmed during church, so yesterday waws just full of good experiences.

oh, and also, the other picture is one that we just took all artsy when we were walking to the doctor. now im just going to go in chronilogical order of how i took notes on things to tlak about this week.

well first off, i have found one of the things that i really really miss thats not here in brazil, other than my family and michelle of course :), and that is gatorade. they only sell the tiny bottles of gatorade that are way overpriced because of importing, and seeing the price this week just made me sad/miss it. but there is always water i guess...

we had a service project this week, basically just helping construction and building a house. the soil here is literally reddish purple because its so fertile, its sweet but at the same time when you are dirty, you are really dirty. but it was good! i like service projects alot, especially when it comes tobuildings and things like that.

we had a activity at the church this week where we talked about peer pressure and things like that, and it made me remember a story that ive always had. do you remember in bethlehem, pa, whenever i was at a friends house about to watch a movie (i was like 11), and they rented the movie scream, that horror film, so i called you guys and faked sick to leave?? haha! i forgot all about that, do you guys remember? i told that story to my companion and he just laughed at me, so i figured you guys would appreciate it.

i have read the ´beware of pride´ talk that michelle sent me about 4 times now. i am pretty much 1000 percent sure that that is my favorite talk ever given in the church. i always here how we have to choose, god or satan, theres no middle ground. and its true! and i think that in our lives, we have to make a choice that really parallels god and satan, and that is pride and charity. pride is starting to seem to me like the root of everything bad. i just love that talk! and i am going to apply to my mission slash life as much as i possibly can. thank you, for being such aa great support and sending things like that to help me out!

ps mom, i sent the voter registration in the mail to pittsburgh pa. i am officially a republican, i almost considered putting independant, but then i justthought ´who am i kidding´ and just put republican down. thank you, john galt.

another spiritual thing that hass really made an impact on me this week has been what i now think is my favorite book of scripture, and that is the book of enos. i have always really had my belief in everything religious anchored on prayer, and that book is just amazing. theres to many promises, revelations, and examples of what we can ahve in our lives.

my companion has been going to the doctor ALOT this week for this knee slash back, literally everyday minus one weve taken the bus downtown and used alot of time for his doctor. today he is going to londrina, a 4 hour bus ride, to get a specialist consult on his knee. so i will stay here in a trio with the other 2 in our house. im not going to lie, im not excited for it, but i guess ill just have to bear through it.

also, you should know i went to the doctor for my eyes this week. they have been red for 6 weeks now if i dont use eyedrops and werent healing. so i went there and she said that its becaus eopf the wind, and dirt, and sun. and so she gave me some crazy drops and told me that with these, my eyes will become accustomed to everything and get better. so we will see!

this week has been really good, mostly because of the baptisms and your guyss emails letters, and videos!! i lovve you all, i hope you have a great week, and i will talk to you next monday!

Hello Family!!!

Well it was absolutely amazing talking to you guys yesterday on the phone, i just loved it so much! Hearing all of your voices, being able to talk and get a response right then, as opposedto waiting a week, you know how it is! it was a great experience.

Dad, thank you for the inspriing words yesterday! also, i am glad to hear that the devils are doing well, and that you got to go to the bushmans to eat some tenderloin. We will need to go to some hockey games when i get back, just so i can get caught up on everything haha, it will be sweet! im glad to hear that work is nice and tranquil, just a little question, are you making bank??? hahah!!!

Mom, i do honesly hate the fact that there are ´snakes´ here, it just makes me miss michelle more because there wouldnt be any snakes if me and her were just already married, living together, and only us! But, thats in the future, so i will just patiently wait. When you said yougot a bosch mixer, i thought you were saying that you got another dog, haha. At first i was like WHATT!? Because 2 is enough i think, but thats sweet that you have the mixer for your heaven bread.

ok now onto the family letter!

i really dont have much to say than i said yesterday, but i can clear up that package question michelle. just send the package to the exact same address as before, itsa rule that it has to be sent there, but if you guys who are sending packages send them today or in the next 2 days it will likely get here before the next leadership conference, and so i will get them in 2 weeks as opposed to 1 month and a half!

so christmas was awesome only because i got to talk to you guys! we stayed in that house all day, and it was like 1000 degrees, but all was good because we got to talk. today i have felt sick the entire day, i dont know why, i think its something i ate though because 2 others in our house are feeling sick as well, uggg not fun. But regardless, things are going well!

Well one thing that i didnt mmention in the call yesterday is that we seriously have one of the most beautiful church buildings i have ever seen. it is like in between a chapel and a temple, its huge and just awesome! itook some photos that i will send. also, the other photos that i will try to send are as follows;

one is me eating the half a watermelon i bought while we wereliving in the secretaries house during the whole robber thing

second is me with elder de jesus, who was an awesome companion. while pretty short, he is nonetheless a stud

and third is me with a cow, hahah i was laughing ebcause the cow kept walking along the fence with me, trying to play, and it was just entertaining haha

other missionaries were on the phone for almost 2 hours! and i heard that everyone does this on the mission, literally everyone, so i think we may talk for more time on mothers day ;), especially if i hear that president is ok with it. because everyone does it!

Marilia is a nice city, people are alot more receptive of the missionaries here. i think its going to be a good transfer of work, the city itself is actually sort of ugly, but only because its poorer here, so i dont know that to say haha.

i was at wal mart the other day! it basically had nothing american, and while this may be impossible to comprehend, it was lesser quality of things than the wal marts in america, haha it wasridiculous, but what can we expect

i have a goal this year to read the bible,my portuguese bible has a calendar type deal for ´ read the bible in 2 years´ with a chapter each day, but i just will do both years at the same time. it should be fun, and also a headache during the old testament!

i dont have much more to say today, also i dont have much more time. so i will leave you with this!! i love you guys so much, thank you for that call yesterday, the emails today, michelle my sweetheart thankyou for the letter! and i will talk to you all next week! also im going to try to put the pictures on now. so thank you ! i love you! byeee

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Hello Family!

Well once again its mayhem here because of transfers and such today, but the emails will continue.

First off Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for the email! i am glad tohear that Alysa will be home for Christmas, and i want to wish you a merry christmas as well. I got your package! and as requested, i will wait until christmas to actually open it, i hope i can wait.. but i will i promise! thank you :)

Dad, thank you for the email as well! im glad to hear that you are starting work today, im sure it will be great. also, the christmas party is a perfect way to get to know everyone there, so i am excited for you! im glad to hear the devils are doing well, and also i am extremely excited for the CHRISTMAS CALL!!!!!!!!!!! i will write down those times and try to coordinate it as best as i can, to fit everyones schedule but we will have to see.

ok now to the family letter!!

well first off i want to spill the beans that i am being transfered! to an area called marilia (ma-dee-lee-uh). its in sao paulo, so its going to be extrmely hot, and i hear that depending on the area the ward is going to be amazing, so that is good. i still dont know my companion, or my specific area, but i am leaving on a bus tomorrow at 5 oclock, so i will be emailing you again this week about the specifics for the christmas call. thank you for the information dad, i will use it to try and make it go as smooth as possible. but i am excited! i hear that it is different in são paulo than it is in parana (londrina), people are alot more happier up there, and are just excited, so i am excited to go! i will also scribble some first impressions when i send the next email.

onto this week, well we had christmas conference! there were 98 missionaries there, so basically half of the mission, and it was really good even though it was really only a zone conference, no celebrations really, but there was a white elephant sort of deal! i was literally the last person picked, out of 98 misisonaries, in a random drawing, so i got to choose any present to swap with. and i chose a harmonica, because it was sweet and i love music, only to remember that instruments are not allowed in the mission, so i just gave it to a missionary named elder dewey, who left for home today after 2 years. but it was good! i learned alot. also, every meeting starts with the preach my gospel purpose in english and portuguese, and 2 missionaries, one in english one in portuguese. well i was called to give it in portuguese, it was a little nerve wrecking but it went well! so no complaints

i also got the letter that you guys sent with the voting registration. i will try to mail that as quickly as possible! thank you for it. also thank you for the letter from joe, he didnt give a return address since you guys sent it for him, so unless i hear differently i will just mail a letter in response to our house, and you guys can find him and give it to him, no big deal.

we have a really great baptism story! another baptism for us, but its going to be this saturday after i leave. her name is fernanda, and she is 17 years old. and she had been to church different times, but never had a book of mormon, so we gave her a book of mormon during a lesson with other people as well, and she had to leave early so she left before us, and then we ended up leaving only a few minutes after, and she was in the street walking and reading at the same time, already just going at it to read! and so we invited her to pray about it and everything, and she recieved a response that the book of mormon is true, and now will be baptized this saturday! she is a great story of the power of the book of mormon, and her family has been intersted too, and now i think whoever is here will be able to work with them as well.

about counting baptisms, i have decided to not count. the place in preach my gospel where we write the names of people baptized and confirmed i just covered with a picture of the copenhangen temple. i dont want to count, or make a deal like some other missionaries do about how many people ive baptized, so im just going to do the best i can and be satisfied with it. woo!

well time is cut short today, i am very sorry for that, but i will email again this week! i love you guys, very much, and i am so excited to call! so until later this week, bye!!

Hello Family!!

Well Before i do ANYTHING, i am going to straighten out the whole phone call thing possibly being not on christmas christmas. Well president tavares saw how clearly the transfer could mess things up for alot of people, so he has said that everyone who will be transfered is allowed to email their families again during the week, after the transfer to set up the call for christmas. so woo!! all is well with that.

now to the letter letter!

well first off i will start with something more spiritual. i dont know what it was, but last tuesday or wednesday its almost like something clicked. as a missionary i am always doing spritual things, reading and studying spiritual things, just trying to increase my knowledge and feel the spirit. well i dont know what happened, but last tuesday or wednesday something clicked, and since then i have seriously been feeling the spirit basically constantly throughout the day. Literally throughout the entire day! not just in lessons, or prayers, or study, but just walking down the street, doing anything. and it has made me happier, more excited, and is helping me more during my lessons, portuguese, everything! its incredible. the holy ghost really is the constant companion, and it has grown my testimony alot this past week.

to be honest i have been studying alot, conference talks and scriptures, and ive really been expanding in what i can just whip out during lessons or when talking with people. also, ive been practicing my language by reading ´our search for happiness´ in portuguese out loud, and in the MTC i would read in portuguese and barely understand, have to look up words constantly process it, but now with this excercise i can just read portuguese, just read like normal, and understand. its amazing!

onto other things, we had a really successfull family home evening with our christmas couple, who are planning on getting married and baptized those days. we sat them with this family in church who has a daughter and a son, each of them mid 20´s and married, and so they all got to being friends, and we set up a family home evening this week, and iut was a huge success! me and elder pope (an american misisonary with the night terrors, i was on a division) taught the message as the plan of salvation, or the 2nd lesson missionaries teach. it was really really good, they understood and accepted all of it, and bruno (the guy) has tattoos and looks all tough, but he loves his future wife so much, and he was like ´ i told her before we met you guys that i wanted to be with her for more than just ´until death to we part´´ it was just so spiritual slash amazing! and afterwards he was already making casual jokes in reference to what we taught, like he´s been a member alrady for years. Elder pope was saying how they should move to his side of ouro branco, since thats where he works, so they can stay in better contact, and bruno was just like ´ no, our side of ouro branco is like the celestial side, and yours is like telestial´ haha! it was just great. and members were bearing their testimonies, everyone was doing their part and we were all progressing in the gospel, it was as of now a highligh of my mission, just to see how that night was exactly how our missions are supposed to work. it was great!

i have really been mission your homemade bread mom, i just thought you would appreciate knowing that they dont really care that much about good bread here, and its all like a wal mart loaf, but worse, i think your homemade bread will be one of the first things i want whenever i am back!

so ive counted 6 times now weve entered the home of somebody, anybody, and the whole family is watching the american tv show ´ everybody hates chris´ that comedy thats normally on the basic cable. haha! everyone in brazil loves specially that show, and im not sure why, ive never seen them watch other shows from the USA except for that, except for we entered a members home yesterday to find that the dad and his two over 20´s sons were watching high school musical three. haha. it was still in english, but just had subtitles.

aanyways, i have been having problems with my eyes lately. not in vision, or pain, but they have been partially red in the same place for 3 weeks now. 2 weeks ago i got eye drops that were a knockoff brand, and they sort of helped, didnt do that much. but this past week i bought the good stuff, and now the problem is completely gone. first, i think that brand and off brand really is a difference here, as opposed to most things in the US. and second, i think it was a mix of being tired, and my large eyes being exposed to the sun ALL THE TIME, and that just puts wear on them. but its better now, so no worries

i got to work in a trio for the first time friday, me my companion and that elder pope. i thought it was going to be bad because i have alwasy heard how trios are never good, but it was actually a big success! we had alot of fun (and still did work) and our lessons were really good, way effective, it was just a success! ive been thinking alot about my missionary (michelle Mink 2013 :) ) and i am excited for when we are both back to help out the missionaries in our ward if they need someone to host an FHE, or anything, and also i am so excited for you to experience a mission too michelle!!!! hey, i love you! oh ps, that picture you sent me..... HAWT. whaat?

there is this thing here called terere (pronounced tededeyy) that is like a bunch of herbs, and you put it in a cup, then pour juice of your preferred flavor, and you drink it through this fancy straw thats metal and has a filter, and its sort of like tea but not, becaquse you are just getting a rich herby taste with the juice. when i first tried it, i didnt like it, but after bieng here longer its actually really good! oh also, another thing, here everyone believes that caffeine is not a problem, coffee and black tea are not allowed, but any other tea and and soda with caffiene is fine. why is it different here than it is there? which is right??

well its about time for me to go now. im so excited for the christmas call! joseph, write me back! i love you all so much, and the next email i could be telling you that i am getting transfered, but we will see! its exciting, to be honest i want a new area, here where i started and stunk, and had my first trainer, i just want a clean slate in another area. but we will see! i love you all so much! have a great week, i am praying for you, working hard, never slacking, michelle my belle i am sending you letters every single week, about the address if you are going to stay in the same apartment i will just keep sending them there during your 2 weeks off, and you´ll return to alot of letters!

i love you all, have a great week and enjoy the time you have together! only one more sunday until we get to call on the phone, and i can try to speak correct english! i love you guys, until next week, goodbye!!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

Dear family, Hello!!

Grandma and Grandpa, thank you very much for your email! i am glad to hear that everything is coming along fine, also i am very excited to recieve your package! i promise i will try my best not open it until christmas, this will probably be easy because everyone always trys to take things from other missionaries who are just opening packages, and i cam open it in peace. so thank you!

ok now for the main letter! thank you everyeon for your emails, seriously much appreciated, i feel more and more like im at home for the holidays when i can read all of your emails at once, like were all sitting in my living room just chatting about our week.. but anyways

so we returned back to our house after the craziness, wow that week in the house of the secretaries was crazy. 10 people living in an apartment apartment, it was so crammed but also stress free and fun for me, because unlike everyone else i organized and kept everything in my suitcases. lots of missionaries lost stuff, ´took´ small things, and other madness ebcause of a lack of organization, but my stuff was all kept safe. in fact, i lost the locks on my suitcases, so i couldnt access my things all week, i only used the 3 sets of clothes that i already had in my dirty laundy bag, but it ended up just being for my benifit (also, we used some power tool to cut through the locks two days ago, so now i can acess my stuff). but being with the secretaries was fun, everyone thinks that this next transfer (december 20th) im going to be called as the next secretary. to be honest, i have had that feeling as well, but who really knows? we will only see. but we moved back to the house just fine, and i am all settled in with my own personal space again, which i very much missed.

the phone call is only 3 weeks away!!! i think that it is only going to be a phonecall, i hear that skype here is terrible and when missionaries try to skype, it always cuts out and is fuzzy, and the call gets lost. so basically we can try to skype, or have the assurance of a solid hour on the phone, and i think were just going to try for a phone! its going to be crazy this year, anbd let me explain why. what normally happens is that brazilians cant call the us from their phones, but americans can the other way around. so the p day before christmas i will send you the number of the phone of the member who you will call, and we will coordinate times, and then you guys will call and i will be there to answer. now this is the thing, transfers are the monday before christmas, so if i am transfered i will not know the number that you need to call,since i´ll be going to a different area. crazy right!!! well if that happens one of two things will and can occur. one is that i get permission to send you another email only coordinating the phone call after the transfer, and all is well on christmas. or the other, is that i email you the stuff the monday after christmas, and we call that day. i have heard missionaries sometimes do either when this situation arises. but also, i could not be transfered, and all will be just peachy. but as we coordinate here with the ward, i will keep you and us as updated as i can!

i think i am officially fluent in portuguese! my companion told me that i have reached that point, and thinking about it i agree. i talk and talk and talk now in portuguese without thinking about it in my head like a translation, i think that constitutues fluent, but that is exciting if you ask me! it will be interesting to see how my portuguese will keep improving, because it of course can always improve. i also dont want to waste any time on the phone call displaying my portuguese, but maybe just a sentance to prove im actually doing it haha...

our brazilian soccer team dad, corintians, are the national champions! they won yesterday, and are the hoskin brazil club team, their emblem is and an anchor and 2 oars, like crew, and they are just sweet. look them up dad! i already bought that one jersey of theirs, and someone else gave me another, now i have a black and a white, haha but all of londrina was going nuts when they won, i thought of pittsburgh after the superbowl, and also of how everyuone will just get drunk, and it will be harder to find people to teach last night, and truth be told it was, but my companion was sick last night, so we had to go b ack to the house anyways

we have a couple who are basically elect! they were at church this week and we have a marriage/baptismal date set for christmas (night time, dont worry ;) ) so i am really excited for them. they werent showing up to church yesterday during first hour, so i did something i had never done before all by myself. i got a member to drive me to their house (my companion stayed, he was talking with president tavares, this was allowed because i was with a priesthood holder) and we drove to their house, and i was nervous because i didnt have my trainer, but i knocked on the door, woke them all up and brought them all to church! i felt like i was a missionary for sure, it was pretty sweet. also, we got another young couple to sit with them at chruch, and now theyre all friends and were going to have FHE´s combined and everything, its great! really shows how working with the ward is so much more successfull than choosing not to.

i have to go now, but thank you all so much for everything that you do! my week wasnt that interesting to be honest, but i will continue to write you michelle! as always : D, and cherish all your guys´ emails, i love you all, and i hope you have a good week! youre all in my prayers, im thankful for the oppertunity we have to all be a family, talk to you next week! bye!!

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin