Letter 18

08/10/10
Zone: Chapecó
Area: Pato Branco
Pato Branco is enormous and also includes a few other cities here in the state of Paraná, but I doubt I will ever be able to teach anyone in those cities as just teaching here in this one will be difficult. So many people!Pato Branco is a Branch but actually has about the same frequency as the last ward I served in. The last ward was struggling whereas this Branch is really strong. They are about to get a chapel, we are just faulting a few more baptisms and active members.I am as always still learning a lot. It seems at every new turn God has something else in store for me to learn what and how to do things.My new companion, Elder Neves, is a funny guy. We play chess quite a bit but he has only won twice. It is quite entertaining to see him get all worked up. He is a Brazilian from a city called Natal in the northern region of the country. Where it is extremely hot, he always makes racist jokes about his own skin color. Talks about how he turned black because it was too hot where he grew up that it tanned him perminantly while he was in the womb. All sorts of funny stuff. When we play chess he is always the black pieces and talks about how their day has arrived to relieve the oppression of the dirty rotten whites.At any rate, still working hard here. We are seeing some sucess and trying to do all the things asked of us by President. It is hard to believe that I have been gone for almost a year.As I said before, write me a letter and I will write back!! Hope all is well with everyone.
Elder Jacob L Holdaway