Hello family! Another week has gone by, and i am proud to say that this week was much better than the last week, much much better, so that is an improvement! our usual supermarket and place to email was closed unexpectedly, so we freaked out and walked through alot of downtown londrina to find another place to email. well i didnt really freak out, it was just other missionaries, i actually liked it alot because we got to go through downtown londrina, walk past all the busiest parts and shops, and just enjoy londrina. well i did. and we found a place! so now i am here :)

ok so thank you family for the email! the first thing i want to say is that the emails are in no way a waste of time, i love them very much, and they help me out during the week! so keep em coming just like this.

im glad to hear that penn state won again, it sounds like i am missing out on a good season, but maybe the more penn state fans as missionaries, the better, if that makes any sense. we are!!

my homesickness is still around, its not going anywhere, but thats just part of being a missionary i think. it got better this week, i think the more competent of a missionary i become through language and such the more i will feel like i am needed and belong here, and the more i´ll be willing to wait for things in america, although i will always miss michelle, and i will always miss you guys, and i will always miss america.

its true, my companion does some things that i do not approve of, but i thought about it during this week and i decided, exactly like you said, so just be patient and do what i know is right, and be an example. also, because im able to talk more, im taking more action to keep things going, like starting the message at appointments, ect ect.

well first of all, this week as i have previously said was much much better than last week. the weather was gorgeous here, and i like it alot here when the weather is nice. it makes me think ´i can do this for 2 years´althogh its significantly less than 2 years already, so enough of that, already 1/4 of a year down! (ps right now justin beiber is playing in this internet cafe, are you kidding me?) but the weather here is great, and let me explain why. well apparently because there is so much wind and not huge mountains here, (although its fertile soil) it gets really cool at night, every night even in the summer, and heats up in the day. so in the morning i wake up all cold to mid or high 60s temperature, which is my favorite temperature, and put on my columbia fleece for a few hours, eat some granola cereal, and just get to start off my day right. it also never gets higher than 80 ot 85 right now, and were not quite in the heat of summer yet but its not going to get much worse, so that is good!

ive been practicing the paino more, and i can play a few hymns! guitar class really helped me out alot, and whatever skill i have or dont have when i return, i will definitely build on and practice so that i can play music for my young wife michelle, and my family and whoever! its more versatile than guitar, and ill play both, but still its exciting for me! im glad i bought a simplified hymn book while i was stil in the MTC

christmas music has been all ive been listening to on the ipod, im just getting pumped for a winter that will never come, but it still makes me happy! also i hear that around christmas we do lots and lots of fun stuff as a mission with sister and president tavares, so im excited for that, but most of all to be able to talk to you guys!!

dad, and uncle matt if he is interested, i just want you guys to know that ive seen not just one, but TWO people wearing LT chargers jerseys thinking that they are sweet. haha lt isnt even on the team anymore, but i just thought you guysd appreciate that the chargers fanbase reaches the farmlands of londrina

another shoutout to dad, and joseph mostly, but of course to everyone, in a training that we had by president tavares this past week, we watched a clip of band of brothers, when theyre taking carentan. like a full 5 minute clip of the action sequence, i was like what the heck! band of brothers on the mission??! haha i loved it, and it made me proud of america, very much so

at this point in my mission, a month into the actual field, ive had 3 people ask me if i am german, before they ask if im american or anything, they ask if i am from germany. what?! this does not bode well for the previous paragraph, but i always settle it and proclaim my aleigance, to the flag, of the united states of america. my hair is getting pretty long, good thing its curly, because you cant really tell, and the longer i can keep it the better. there are some missionaries with suprisingly longer hair than i thought allowed, so im going to be able to have it a good length while im here

we also watched the story of john tanner, the video, and i love that story! i encourage all to watch the video the church has on it, and the principles of sacrafice, consecration, and just immense faith that he had, it inspired me, and im sure it will inspire all of you!

another thing about brazilians from this week, i had something that was interesting last night at an FHE. direct translation, its official name is ´bread and meat´they just slab a hunk of meat, ridiculous amounts of miracle whip, and pasta sauce on bread, and just go for it. it made me feel disgusting to eat, mostly all the miracle whip, but anyways...

so one of the missionaries who was an A P in my house got transfered to iguacu falls, and he got replaced my an elder pope. and last night, during the middle of the night, i was scared beyond anything before, seriously ever. he has once and a while basically a mix between night terrors and sleepwalking, he was running around screaming and joker laughing through the house, and then he came back to the room and started slamming things on the floor, and pounding his chest and screaming, and i was just laying in my bed motionless with fear, we all were, and after literally 20 minutes of this, with parts where he would just stand there, motionless and silent, he just got into bed and kept sleeping. it was so scary, i am scared to sleep tonight haha! it was nuts, i cant even describe to you what it was like.

i hope you like the pictures! just some more landscape, and a banana pizza that we made, and my little living space where i study and literally do everything in the house other than sleep, so enjoy! i´ll try to get more of actually me for next time, i promise

anyways i hope this email was good, i love you guys so much! plewase keep me in your prayers, because youre always in mine, and michelle i hope you get my letters, and i get yours next week, family i hope that you all do okay this week, dad i will pray for your surgery, i love you all so much! have a great week, and know that i am being the best missionary i can be, your missionary! with love, talk to you next week!

-Elder zachary paul hoskin

now onto my week, well first of all i want to make a shot out to boo, max, abby and jenny be saying that here in brazil there are more stray dogs than i have ever seen in my life. even just dogs for that matter, literally every house has at least one dog, every street has a roaming dog, and very often i see stray dogs running in packs of 4 or 5, i mean what the heck?? haha its just a wierd thing that i thought you all should know

MArriage MArriage marriage!!! we have two couples who we are teaching who now have not only baptismal dates, but are getting lawfully married the day before as well! its very exciting for me, since im so excited for marriage. both of the couples are really nice, and i theyre going to be married the very end of this month or into november, since we have to plan for the weddings. im glad that i get two transfers here then!

we are baptizing someone this sunday! his name is john, and he is a 15 year old boy. he has a book of mormon, recieved an answer to his prayers that the book of mormon is true, and reads every part of the BOM that we leave for him when we teach. he is really a great investigator! he came to church for the first time yesterday and liked it alot, so were going to have a baptismal service next week after church for him. he has been asking lots of questions about a mission and how to go on once, ect, and he seems really interested in being a missionary! which is crazy exciting for me because if my first baptism is someone who is going to eventually be a missionary, that will be incredible!

so a funny story from yesterday, we picked john up from his house to go to church with him (on foot of course) because he didnt know where it was. and we got about halfway there, wearing our suits because its church, and it just literally started to pour rain, like bad hard pittsburgh sort of rain! and we didnt have an umbrella or my jacket or anything, so we ran there and they hadnt even opened the gate around the church yet. so i literally got soaked in my suit from head to toe, just completely drenched. i was miserable for about 4 minutes, then once i realized (once inside the church building) that my camera and portuguese scriptures were unharmed, i accepted it and it was fine. but it was nuts! i guess my first crazy mission experience, because it was like 2nd coming type of rain. but a member drove us home to our house real quick to change our clothes, so it ended up being ok

i bore my testimony in church, in portuguese! for the first time since conference was last week. it was nerve wrecking, but it went well i think! one thing that happened during church that was incredible to me that i didnt relly think about was this. i couldnt understand most of th people bearing testimonies for many reasons, but i still felt the spirit. which was a testimony builder to me because through that i knew that even though i couldnd personally understand what they were saying, the spirit was there, so incredible!

my portuguese is improving, my district leader and people in my apartment tell me that i already speak better than many americans who have been in the field for 4 or 5 months, but i dont let it get to my head, because i know through my patriarchal blessing its one of the gifts god has given me, speaking and teaching, and so i know that since those are being helped with that i need to focus on the doctrine. which is exacly what im doing, i study scriptures hard every morning, and im beginning to memorize them so that i can p ull them out to help investigators.

sunday afternoon tracking, the song ´sunday bloody sunday´was in my head the entire time. because yesterday tracting was literally the least sucessfull day weve ever had. NO ONE was in there house, or NO ONE wanted to recieve us. and i was curious why? then we stopped by a members house for water, and i realized that two of the big 4 in brazilian soccer were playing, and thats why nobobdy was around to listen to us. sunday bloody sunday. the world stops for soccer here! when someone scores a goal, you can hear screaming in all the houses around you. but just so dad knows, our official brazilian club team, i have decided, is a team called... palmieras? something like that, i dont know right now exactly how to spell it, but their colors are green and white, and i like theyre logo, so theyre our team. i cant say i like them for any other reason because i dont watch any soccer out here of course, but they are our team!

one of the american missionaries (one of my zone leaders) in my house has all these jeffry r holland talks, and he is such a great speaker. i bought an 8 by 10 picture of him in the sao paulo distribution center, and he currently hangs over my desk at home. speaking in plainness! i just love it

the jacket that we bought for rain and winter has worked out beautifully yesterday. i broke it out after we changed into dry clothes, and its completely waterproof, and without the liner it doesnt make me super hot. it was a great buy, thank you outlet malls! that was so much fun going there as a family, me mom dad abby jenny michelle, i wish joseph and alayna could have been there but in the future they will be!

so we made a goal for next week, in order to try and help reactivate members, to have a family home evening every night of the week next week, with a different family each night, and each family will invite an inactive family that they know. i think its going to work out well! we have people alrady commited, and its going to help the members here, brazil has alot of inacticvity problems, i mean who doesnt, but brazil is especially bad. so were doing more than just trying to get baptisms! which i love

and now, i go to buy myself some food, so i have to get off email. know that i am eating healthy! and am making smart choices. also, im the only missionary in my apartment who really works out in the mirning, im sure its because the mission has worn down on them, but i dont really ever see myself stopping. im following all the rules to exactness! and its helping all of us, i know it.

i love you guys, so much! thank you for being everything that i care about, my wonderful family, my amazing girlfriend and everything she does for me. you are all such an amazing support, it is incredible! i dont know how i can repay you guys for all you do for me, other than always email, try to be the best missionary i can be, and when i get home be the best son, brother, and husband humanely possible! i love you guys so much, have a fantastic week, i will work hard and hopefully have a good one too. the next time we email, i´ll have had my first baptism, and already be halfway through my first transfer! (even though you have 2 transfers with your trainer) its still incredible to think. i love you guys! talk to you soon :) bye!

OOOOLA familia!!

Hello everybody, this is your missionary Elder hoskin, first email from the field! before i go into lots of details about everything so far, i want to go over some logistical details

first of all, in response to packages, joseph i never got your package and i hope that it will get forwarded out to the field. michelle, (my love :) ) send the package that you wanna send to the mission home address i gave you in londrina! send it there in a USPS flat rate box and i will get it in about nine days. its the londrina address, the only one i gave you guys thats not the MTC, and so long to the MTC!

k here we go!

so tuesday i had to wake up at 330 in the morning, and go to the airport and catch a flight to londrina. oh and ps, the weight limits were very generous, so i got rid of my 3rd little suit case. i just trashed it! then i flew in just as the sun was rising. londrina is a beautiful city! i am here all safe and sound, no problems or anything. the city is smaller, like pittsburgh, and means ´little london´ but its really nice! so as soon as we got off of the plane president and sister tavares were waiting for us, they are extremely nice people! hes so excited about everything, which i like very much because he motivates me. in the Mtc i kept hearing that its not about the nuymbers, and stuff like that. but basically he as a mission president has two things that our mission stresses; exact obedience, and baptisms. i like the exact obedience part! it means i dont have to deal as much with brazilians who are slackers, because everyone here seems to be really good at that kind of stuff. i´ll have to get used to focusing on baptismal numbers, but im a missionary, thats my job, and it doesnt meant we cant have great conversions along the way.

So we spent the morning slash early afternoon at the mission home, and that was nice although i was very tired, lots of orientations and such. they have an apartment on this high rise building overlooking a lake, and i look outside and guess what the first thing i see is?? someone doing crew on the lake! haha i heard that. so that was good being at the mission home, then we got assigned our areas and trainers

i am assigned to the ouro branco A area, and my trainer is a brazilian named elder espirito santo! so translated, my area is named ´white gold´´ and my trainers name in english is elder holy ghost! hahaha. but the area that im in is actually part of the city of londrina, which is what i wanted, i mean there are plenty of other areas not in londrina but i like being in this city. being in the city means that i go downtown every tuesday for distric meeting. while downtown, we send letters and check the mail for the mailing address of the mission home that i gave you guys before i left. thats why packages will be so acessible! and also, i was afraid of when slash if i was going to mail letters to michelle, but i already mailed one on thursday, because we were down there! and my p day is on monday, peculiar, but our district meetings will always be on tuesdays, so tuesday is when we mail letters since we´l be downtown by the post office. so im even sending another one tomorrow! what great news. also, im at an internet cafe right now emailing, so theres not going to be problems with that either

Anyways, so after we got assigned our areas and such, me and my new companion got on a public bus with my two big bags and took a bus for 20 minutes to our apartment. i am thankful that i didnt have a third at that point. so then we got to our apartment. im in an apartment with a total of 6 missionaries including myself, 2 are zone leaders, 2 are secretaries, and 2 are me and my trainer. the apartment is by far the worst living conditions i have ever lived in in my entire life. we have a gross washer and lots of clothes lines, squeegees for the showers to make the water go down the drain, and i have no personal space except for a tiny desk. im not angry about it, i guess its just the life of a missionary. i did hear from them though this is one of the dirtieset apartments in the mission. i have a tiny closet where i hang my suits, shirts, and towel, and literally everything else i either keep on my desk, in my everyday backpack or store in my luggage. thats just the way its gonna be at least for now because i dont want to leave things in the bathroom to get all dirty. but i digress, its ok and i can tough it out.

so the first day we just got right down to it! we went out and taught a family that was currently investigators, and did some contacting. so far weve had good success if you ask me, weve gotten lots of new investigators and taught lessons, we work hard and thats the way i like it. its really a great experience to see how the gospel changes peoples lives. i cant speak very much at all, its so different out here, but i am learning quickly! i know more gospel related things than regular right now, so i help teach the lessons half and half, and my companion does alot of the initial street contacting. he is teaching me alot though, about the language and everything, so that is good!

i love getting all these emails from family. i dont usually have time to respond to them each individually, but i am going to try!

so overall things have been pretty good here. ive been so tired at nights, but im starting to grind into the routine so thats making it better. some nights i have hardly remembered getting into bed after saying my nightly prayers. theres lots of american missionaries, 2 living in my apartment, and everyone is friendly. its just like if i have a happy and friendly attitude towards everyone, it´ll be reciprocated. ive already done ALOT of walking, WALKING WALKING WALKING WALKING, but i like the exercise. im usually bathed in sweat towards the end of the day, but i like feeling like ive done work, like a capitalist hahah

im even getting pretty tan, not ridiculously, i dont think i´ll turn black here, it has its ovecast days, but its true that right now i am going into summer, because the seasons are all messed up, so its going to get hot! my companion told me though that it will never really get about mid to high 80s here, so its not going to be bad at all. just lots of sun, then again walking all day really makes it feel hotter

so back to lunch at memnbers houses. mom, everything you heard on missionary moms is absolutely true. NOBODY eats a real breakfast or dinner here! and its always lunch appoiintments with members, its totally the biggest meal of the day. so im trying to figure out how to cope with that. in the beginning i would cram at lunch because i was soooo hungry, but that doesnt work because im still hungry towards the night, and have just over eaten. so i have started to get wise. im going to eat lunch regularly, and live off of the things that i buy here, and more specially at night clif bars, and things of that nature. so i will need more as time goes on! becasue for lack of a better term i basically live off of those things. i have one a day at night, and it holds me over well.

but the food here is really good! every meal, beans and rice, beans and rice, with some other stuff with it which makes it fine, i dont think im going to have a problem with the repitition

so thoughts about being a missionary now that i am officially in the field; i can do this. for the next 21 and a half months, i can do this. its hard work, and its sort of a survival type deal, but i know this is what i am supposed to do, and there are no doubts in my life. i know that me and michelle are getting married 100 percent, so i dont get extremely stressed over that, just over being able to stay in contact because thats whats important to me. but since ive been out here ive gotten so excited for her to go on a mission, i think she is going to love it if slash when she goes! other thoughts, i know that i can be an instrument in the hands of god. everyone has things that they repent for in life, and since ive been a missionary ive made sure that everything i do wrong gets repented for, so that i can be a missionary. well david a bednar said that you can know you are fully forgiven if the spirit is with you and working through you. and i have seen that constantly since being out here, so yes! the spirit i felt in conference yesterday and saturday was so strong, i was so edified and i am so glad. also other thought, from seeing missionaries out here and seeing myself, i once again know that the only thing thats going to change about me is an increase in testimony and spiritual knowledge. this mission is going to do wonders for me and michelles family, i know it. and thoughts like that keep me going! i am a missionary family, i am actually doing the lords work now, not just some classroom in the MTC. and i want you to know that when i feel really tired or sweaty or worn out that i like that feeling, because i know that i have been doing work. doing the lords work.

ok im going to go respond to other emails like grandma and grandpa and joseph and alayna if i have time. make sure that they get this forwarded email though! i love you all so much, and i will write next week. youre the greatest, and im doing just fine out here. talk to you next week! bye :)

-Elder Zachary Paul Hoskin

let me start off by saying that i am sorry for the emails as theyve been getting sent so far. they are not great quality because im in the CTM and are crunched for 30 minutes, so this will be the last short slash unorganized one you get from me. i am sorry..

tell michelle i said thank you!!! so much. i sucessfully got clear pictures of all her letters, and will read and respond to them instantly, tonight. so the whole turnaround will be much quicker. also, they are clearer for the camera when in attachments, so can you send them as attachments??

i just saw luke bushman for like 2 minutes, im sad to hear that he was a little wavery but i think he will be ok, im going to get oppertunities to talk to him before i leave the mtc next tuesday

WAIT WHAT???

yeah thats right! im leaving next tuesday, its getting so close and i am getting so excited! its going to be great to actually finally be out there, i am so sick of the MTC it is ridiculous, and im even getting sick of my district and companion, which i thought would never happen. im just ready to go!

im glad to hear that penn state beat temple, at least thats a consistent :)

im going to have a new address, but the thing is the address michelle has is the mission address (which you could use) but with that address i can only get mail every transfer. so i woud hold off on the tangible mail until i find out my actual apartment number where im living a week from today, and then if you want to send something you can send it straight there! but dont forget that packages must always be sent to the mission home, and always do it USPS.

ok back to business :) so here we go for my week! i went proselyting on monday for the first time! actuall missionary work, it was really exciting, i wasnt even too nervous after the first person. they gave each companionship 5 book of mormons to hand out, and we handed out 4. im glad we didnt hand all of them out though, because it was totally a quality sort of thing, the 4 people really seemed interested, and we could have given the others to other people but they would have just thrown them away or something.

But it was an awesome experience! i totally loved it. i hear that in brazil you barely go proselyting though, you do most of your contacts of member referrals, which they seem to get a ton of from ward members in brazil, and youre just supposed to talk to at least 10 people a day while your walking from referral appointment to referral appointment

but anyways, back to proselyting! yes, we handed out 4 book or mormons, but the real fun was just getting rejected. i got rejected by so many people, ahahahaha. and some people would be like ´no time´or ´not interested´but i had this one rejection that was the best of all. so there was this mid 20s woman walking down the street about to cross by us, so as we approached her i put out my hand and was like óla como vai? and she didnt even blink, otr flinch, or show any sign that i was even alive, she just completely straight faced me! total rejection, and as soon as it happened i looked over to my companion and i was like ´elder, i just got roasted´haha! because i did. but i dont get down when people reject me, so thats going to be benificial when im constantly getting rejected

i keep hearing that my mission president is really strict, and im actually excited for that! i heard missiion presidents can either be like a father or a boss, and i really hope my guys a boss, because i wanna work work work until i come home

i love you guys, and until next time!

I´m sorry that this letter is coming a day early, but they switched our p-days a day early for this week because tomorrow is brazilian independance day, and none of the stores would be open. im sorry :( i was hoping that you guys would have sent your weekley email by now, but i understand.

i hope you were able to get my last email! i hope everything´s okay, i will try to see if they´ll let me just read your email tomorrow, so send it!!

IMPORTANT NOTE: monday august 12th (I think Zach meant Sept. 12th) is the last day that you should send a letter to the MTC. after that, send them to the mission office until i am able to email you my very specific and correct address in londrina. so please keep that in mind!

this week has been a good, big week for me. i´ve come to the conclusion through my own prayers, the guidance of michelle, and just my general feelings that i need to be more humble. this doesnt necessarily mean that i am cocky, i dont boast or whatnot, but the part about being humble that i need to focus on is going to be primarily loving correction. i guess i dont take it that well when people tell me i am doing something the wrong way, but i am trying to improve. secondarily is submitting to the will of the lord. i already do this, but both will allow me to be a better missionary, both will allow me to know that the lord is delivering me and michelle through this, and both will likely be one of my biggest personal challenges on my mission. so hopefully i can follow through, i think its been going well so far.

this week just has been another week of progress, i´ve been improving my portuguese and my doctrinal teaching abilities, so that is good. only three weeks left in the MTC from today! im really excited to go out, i just wanna get on the ball already and hopefully start rolling.

theres not much to write about this week, nothing too crazy happened other than the new companion, and me just missing everybody. i´ve really started to miss everything more this week, michelle of course i miss so much, and its sooo hard. and my family too, i really miss you guys, and i cant wait for us all to be together once im home. also america, i miss america, and all of the cheap, great food products. they really dont have anything here.

i like to think of it like the quote from the count of monte cristo, where he´s talking about being the captain of your own ship, and when those storms and torrents come for you to say ´do your worst, for i shall do mine´´ i am such a nerd but i like the idea of that, all that we can do is just face it with as much strength as we can.

elder zachary paul hoskin

this week has been good, i continue to improve and like you said dad, i am ready to get out of the MTC! not in the language necessarily, but mentally this is getting repetative. Wade stinnet got here on wednesday, he was the only american that week, visa problems have started to come back again alot so every week about 17 american missionaries are leaving the MTC, and only one or 2 have been arriving weekley since my group of 6 got here

I developed a cold this past week, this place is like a cruise ship where everyone is stuck in here together, and just pass around everything. 4 of the 6 in my district are sick, as well as our instructor. But i lost my voice on monday, and am just starting to really get it back today.

The sao paulo temple is closed for cleaning for the next couple of weeks, so we got to take a road trip today to the campinas brazil temple. its out of the city and about an hour and a half away, so it was nice to take that drive. The highways and trees actually seem alot like pennsylvania, just very wooded with almost similar forests. I saw an applebees! and a pizza hut. i guess i underestimated cultural imperialism.

hings have been going well with my district, we are improving i think. I teach my district during district meeting every sunday for about an hour, and our branch president sat in on it. I was somewhat nervous about the whole thing, but he said it was one of the best overall district meetings he´s ever been to, so it raised my spirits!

I got to shake a 70´s hand last night, he was portuguese so i dont remember his name really or how to spell it, but i talked to him and he told me that his son served in pittsburgh, and that pittsburgh was a beautiful city, so that was good

there were a bumch of argentinians that got here 2 or so weeks ago, and theyve been having conflicts with the brazilians here. One argentinian and one brazilian got into a huge argument over soccer, and it ended up with the brazilian taking the argentinians name tag, spitting on it, then throwing it on the ground, hahaha. im not sure what happened to them , but i cant imagine it was good.

im pulling what i think is a spencer w kimball. I take a notepad that fits into my shirt pocket and a pen everywhere i go, and all of the thoughts i get into my head that are worth sharing in letters i immediately write down, its making my letters much better in my opinion!

Ive been having really crazy dreams lately, some of them i can remember because i keep that forementioned notepad by my bed when i sleep.

this saturday is the one month mark! i can do 23 more of these, with it going exactly how it is right now, with support and everything, i can do 23 of these. Also, i hear everything gets better in the mission field, more time to write, to email, and i´ll actually be doing the lords work too, which makes it very productive

I´ve been missing america alot this week, the landscapes and the people and the roads and just general not smog of everything, im serious when i say im going to get off the plane and kiss the ground.. but thats still plenty of time away!

I have to go now, but know that i am doing well and i am glad that you guys are all doing well, i pray for my family and michelle in every single prayer, i promise, and i think that it helps. I love you all so much, and i send you all a letter every week consistently, so however long the mail takes know theres always one being sent.

I had a great experience at the temple today, i was able to bring in my wallet patriarchal blessing and read it in the celestial room, it was a great experience.

in my patriarchal blessing i rtead today how i have the gift of teaching and speaking. I think that is being fulfilled. today marks three weeks that i have been here in the MTC, and i have taught the last 3 lessons completely in portuguese. I wouldnt call myself fluent, but many of the phrases or parts of portuguese i can say without really thinking, so i am on the way there! i am totally ahead of the curve, and i really think its a great blessing. my teacher told me no one else he´s taught before has been able to give lessons in all portuguese this early.

so this week has been overall a very sucessfull week. Im really applying myself to be an organized missonary, like in a great lesson my instyructor gave. I plan my day, i am at meetings exactly when i am supposed to be, i even scrub the collars on my white shirts and iron all my clothes, like a boss! applying myself to be organized really allows me to focus on learning during class, michelle when i write journals slash letters, and i dont have to worry about anything else like that.

ive really built a solid friendship with one elder richardson, who is not my companion but is in my district. Me and him are pretty similar, and have a large desire to just do whats best, so it has all been good. i talked to president clark yesterday, just casually, and he told me that he is very impressed when he sees me in devotionals and at our branch (he showed up one sunday) because im alwasy happy, and very attentive. I just want you guys to know your missionary is kicking butt!

i heard recently that the south brazil missions are difficult in regards to baptisms, and the north is really easy. I think all of brazil in general is easier to baptize than other countries, usually, but ive decided that for me, its not about baptisms, its about conversions. And so i like that me going south makes it harder, because i dont want to just baptize people lightly.

All of my district has decided that i am really patriotic. I am surprised theyve been able to point it out, since im often humming the national anthem, and have hung up the american flag i brought over my bed where i sleep, and whenever the food is remotely american i say how much i love the meal today. I miss america! i havent broken out the peanut butter yet, im waiting for when i desperately need it, and then i will combine with the oreos that michelle graciously gave me.

-elder zachary paul hoskin