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From: Seraphin Decker <seraphin.decker@myldsmail.net>
Date: November 17, 2014 at 6:10:15 AM PST
To: Robin Decker <robinlynnd@gmail.com>

Oi familia e amigos ! Tudo bem caras ! So I arrived here in Brasil on Monday and so far it's been a pretty cool experience. My first week was full of different things. I won't lie it was tough at times because I'm adjusting and I'm missing all of you but the 3 things that help me get out of bed every morning are: 1. My scriptures 2. Prayer 3. You all. I always find peace in the scriptures and prayer and it helps me remember why I came out here and that all is well, I'll be okay. And you all help me because you're all motivations in your own ways and I love y'all for that. But, anyways, Brasil is pretty awesome, the mornings are for study time and getting ready for the day but we don't really start our day until after lunch. The members feed us lunch every day and that's the big meal here. We eat beans and rice for every meal but there's other things too. It's so good I almost fell out of my chair on the my first day haha. The area I'm in is Jacobina, Bahia. I hope that's right. Every one here is so nice and fun and they all think I'm from here but then I tell them I'm from Las Vegas and they think I'm a star. Portuguese is coming along pretty well, it's not the speaking that's hard though, it's the listening because one sentence sounds like one word. But the Lord is definitely blessing me with the gift of tongues because I'm getting alot better at understanding and speaking with people. Here in Bahia there are HILLS. And the hills have hills ! It doesn't help that it's extremely hot but we're usually not outside much during the middle of the day because of lunch. My trainers name is Elder Oliveira Neto and he's the best. He's from São Paulo and he's an awesome missionary. He's helped me out so much in just this last week and I'm definitely grateful that president is having him train me. He's Brazilian which also means we aren't on time for anything but hey I'm fine with that. It's not just us though, Brasil just moves slow and everyone is just like, "Ohhh tudo bem, everythings good, we're fine". The mission is so awesome though. Elder Oliveira Neto and I live with 2 other missionaries, Elder Alencar who is brazilian and speaks english very well and Elder Ward who is from Florida or something. They're super cool too. We stayed up past our bedtimes and watched The Best 2 Years last night haha. I don't know if y'all remember Elder Pollard but I we're in the same mission and I got to eat lunch with him on Tuesday and it was cool. All the missionaries here are so loving and welcoming, it was sad though I had to say bye to Elder Allison and Adams(they were in my district in the MTC) but I'll definitely run into them sometime. Ummmmmmm, regarding missionary work, all I've done really is bare my testimony and share messages with the members after lunch but every week I'm supposed to do more and more until I'm pretty much the Senior companion. Scary. But it's okay, because I can do all things through Christ. I'm just going to keep trusting in him , doing my part, and everything else will work itself out. Thank you all for your letter, y'all are seriously the best, I'm so lucky to have all of you. I seriously mean that. I can't wait to hear from y'all next week ! 

tchau tchau ! xoxoxoxoxo