Oi familia!! :) 

Glad to hear  things with Mom are better and you are all home now! Last P day was a bit rough for me after hearing about that but with faith, hope and prayer the Lord truly blesses us!! :) But tell all my lazy brothers haha to help Mom out more haha :p I can't talk because I didn't do as much as I should have either before I left... I am glad Heavenly Father has a great heart and is willing to forgive us of our stupid mistakes :) Being on a mission I have realized so many things I want to be better at and work on so I pray I will take these things I am learning now back home and some day into my future family! :) 

So yesterday we had 6 of our investigators come to church which we were super excited about because sometimes it is hard to even have one show up. After there are a sufficient amount of members here they will build a chapel but the people here are so great because they come to church and attend church in a tiny house with no air conditioning. The people that are being baptized here have so much faith and will be taking on callings and much responsibility with so little time as a member. We are hoping Josue will be baptized next week, he is so awesome and during church he read like 30 pages of the gospel principals book so we gave it to him to take home. He has such faith and is such a great Dad with his little girl. He is very interested in the church but his wife has a lot of doubts but is still wanting to learn :) Also, we have another family but they are not married so we are hoping to set a date for them to be married this week :) They have the cutest little boy! :) Lessons are great and teaching is getting easier and easier.. I can have very casual conversations now with my trainer and this week since it is my last 2 weeks of training I will be senior companion and will lead all of our lessons... so good luck for me haha :) In my companionship with Sister Sowa before we switched leading lessons so it probably won't be much different.

So you asked about P days and what we do... Well sometimes we shop for a new skirt, we buy groceries, we watch Disney movies (we can in our mission) last week we watched Lion King- I thought about Mark lol! We write cards and eat food and just relax :) But today with some of the young women that were recently baptized we are going to have a shaving cream and water war :) I am pretty excited :) And I will be sure to take photos! :) I never have time to send photos... so I will next week but my email will be shorter... Oh and on Wednesdays we always take a bus for an hour and half to go to our district meetings... we leave our house at 6 or 6¨30 am... So I am always a little more tired on Wednesdays but it is fun to practice teaching with our district and socialize a bit. I think I may have talked about that last week... I can't remember! Well got to go, but love you lots!! :) I am always praying for you all!! :) Remember to have faith and hope in all things!! :) Smile :)

Muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)

I don't have a lot of time since it is not P day but I got permission to check my email. Thanks for the pics of the cruise- MOM. And I am super glad everything is okay with her heart and that all is well now because I was pretty worried about her needing surgery or something crazy...Hopefully this won't cause any more problems and it was just a one time thing! But like you said prayer is real and the power of the priesthood is such an amazing gift we have in this gospel! Oh and I already received my package!! thanks MOM :) had some funny pics in my photo album lol... I was surprised to receive it so fast! Sis Sowa still hasn't received hers and her mom has sent 3 all before mine... seriously putting Mary on the packages really works because her mom didn't and I think that might be the problem is that people stole them... but thanks for all the goodies and love!! :) As always I will continue to pray for all of you!! Take care and Mom no more heart attacks! :p Have a great week!! :) Love and miss you lots!! :)

Muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)

So I don't know how to really start this email. I am crying at the computer because I was expecting to only hear good news about the cruise and not that Mom had had an heart attack. I am glad that you all had fun on the cruise and that it was relaxing! You all deserved a relaxing trip away from everyone! That is great you got to spend time with the Hoyts and Robinsons also. I am glad that Mom was able to make a joke about it all and say she had so much fun on the cruise that she had a heart attack lol... Way to be optimistic Mom :) and good thing it was after the cruise! She has permission to be a slacker with my blog lol...I will definitely keep you all in my prayers, especially Mom and ask for permission to check my email for information. If something really serious happens or I need to know you can contact my Mission President. I don't know what all to say but I am definitely in a bit of shock and hope it is a minor problem... and not something that will cause more problems. I will work super super hard because I know the more I work and am obedient the more blessed I will be here but also the more blessed you will all be as well. 

So this week, Wendleson was baptized. He is 14 and the brother of Geymeson. He was also baptized in the sea and next week as well we will have another baptism for Eduarda, a 14 year old girl, she is so sweet but very shy. We had a family in our other area here in Paracuru baptized 3 weeks ago and Eduarda is friends with them. We have the Paracuru area split into 2 divisions but this family is so great and I love them and they are already feeding us lunch as members :) Then yesterday Diasis was confirmed. He is the best, he is 40ish and he has such a desire to do good in the world and to become the best he can be! He is so sweet and gave me a book of poems of people in Paracuru that he wanted me to have. The people are just so great! We found new families this week but our problem is getting people to come to church. This week was a bit disappointing because only 1 of our investigators came to church. It is heartbreaking when you work so hard and the people say they will come and then Sunday rolls around, and no one shows :( but I know as we keep working hard and having faith we will continue to have progress and baptisms here :) I have learned so much here already and I only have 3 months in so I am excited for my knowledge , understanding and testimony to grow as I continue on in this journey! :) The language is getting better and working with Sister Alcantara my Brazilian trainer has really helped me to understand the language and to speak better. It is really funny though because like every lesson we teach, people ask her if she is learning Portuguese because she has a bit of a Gringo accent haha... she says before she taught with me no one said this haha so she is picking up my American accent a little lol... My accent is a little stronger I think because in MO we say some words different already and I probably have a little bit of a southern accent to my voice.... It is funny though because she is like I am from Brazil and people think I am learning Portuguese hahahha... Oh and also this week we came home one night ad Sister Sowa and I had dead baby birds sitting on our beds... We took pictures and I know you all are dying to see so I will try to send those soon. But it was so sad and pretty gross! It is because we have birds in our apartment sometimes... they get in through a little hole and they had a nest in our rafters and I guess the babies fell on our beds... poor birdies! It was funny though because Sister Sowa was freaking out about her having a dead bird on her bed and I was laughing and then I entered my room and I had one too haha.. karma lol! Hopefully we won't have more haha! Well I need to get going!! I will be praying for you lots and if you really need to get in touch with me talk to my mission President but I pray nothing will get that serious!! I love you all so much and I am so grateful for this opportunity to serve the Lord and to have the gospel in my life!! We truly have much happiness because of this and are so lucky!! :) I am praying for you all!! :) Love you lots!! :) Tell mom I hope she feels better but to keep being optimistic :) and have faith :)

Muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)

Oi!! :)

I loved the photos!! :) Thanks for sending those!! :) Everyone looks great!! Tell Grandma Happy Late Bday for me when you all return from your cruise!! Tell the Hoyts and Robinsons hello as well! 

So yesterday we had 2 baptisms in the ocean! Geymeson was baptized, the 17 year old boy! :) And Diasis was baptized! :) He is so great and has a huge testimony and he said when Thomas S Monson spoke at conference he knew he was a prophet and wanted to cry! :) He is just so great and he is already giving us references and tells everyone they need a Book of Mormon and need to read it. He is a missionary already! :)

 So this week I started working with Sister Alcantara and she is now my companion, we only have 4 weeks left and I miss working with Sister Sowa but I love working with Sister Alcantara also!! I am understanding a lot more and we can have real conversations and talk as we walk so it has been a blessing! In 2 weeks we have interviews with President Souza and we have to teach him so I hope I do okay! I am a bit nervous but I am sure it will be fine! Oh so funny story, the other day we were teaching a lady and I accidentally said Joseph Smith is our Redeemer instead of a restorer of our church. My trainer smiled and laughed and just gave me this look and I immediately realized what I said. The language is getting better though :) And I am starting to have pretty good regular conversations too and my knowledge is expanding! :) Another funny thing is people here call Sister Twitchell and I dolls lol... because they say look like baby dolls haha! 

Well, I don't have a ton of time to write today but this week was great and an awesome thing about his week was Sister Alcantara and I taught a group of 20 young men the Restoration. They were about to go play soccer and I was like look 20 new people to teach joking around, but she was like seriously we are going to teach them. Not going to lie I was a bit nervous to talk to such a big crowd so she talked most of the time plus speaking in Portuguese really loud is more difficult lol but it was an awesome expereince and who knows maybe they will all be missionaries one day!! :) Oh also on Saturday was the Day for Kids. This is a holiday they have in Brazil! All kids were out eating candy and just having festas on the street. We took some funny pics looking like babies lol! Well I will write more next week but I hope you all had an amazing cruise :) I pray for all of you often and am grateful for your examples and you do for me!! :) Love you lots!! Tell everyone hello for me and remember to count your many blessings and to smile even in the hard times!! :)

Muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)

Oi familia e amigos!! :)

Como esta?? I will keep Mindy in my prayers! I hope everything is okay
with her. I hope you all get over your colds as well soon!! That is
exciting you and Dad will be going on your cruise in less than a
week!! I am so jealous but I am living in another country experiencing
life in a new way so my life is pretty sweet!! :) I do want to go on
another cruise when I return though :) This email will probably not be
super long because I don't have a ton of time today. So we have 2
baptisms this next week with Geymeson and Wendleson. They are both
brothers. Geymeson is 17 years and Wendleson is 14. We thought
Geymeson would be baptized yesterday but I think he wanted to wait and
do it with his brother. We hope the week after this their other
brother Emerson and cousin Nicole will be baptized. They still need to
attend church twice so they are a week behind Geymeson and Wendleson.
They are all ready for baptism though and they have so much faith and
are so awesome!! We will eat lunch today at their house! :) Emerson is
making the food for us!! They are so sweet!! Nicole's mom also is
always buying Sister Sowa and I things for our hair or jewelry and
they like to feed us a lot too. They are all so great!! So earlier
when I was sending this it wouldnt work and it didnt save the whole
thing in the draft so this will be even shorter.Sorry :/ But things
were good this week I will fill you in with the rest next week because
I ony have like 5 minutes! But Conference was great, a bit different
because we were at a member's house and there were about 15 or 20 of us
so I was pretty sweaty haha and trying to focus and pay attention in
Portuguese was pretty difficult but I still took quite a bit of notes
and enjoyed the talks. I cant remember everything I had written about
earlier in my email... but our baptisms next week will be in the ocean
so i am super excited for that! :) Oh so a cool experience Sister
Sowa and I had was we were teaching a lady and I felt impressed to
share a scripture with her and I started reading this scripture in 
Nephi about enduring to the end and Sister Sowa had wanted to share
the same scripture and had flipped to the same page in the Book of
Mormon. It was pretty sweet! Teaching is getting easier and the
language is coming along but I try not to think about it alot and just
try my best and let the Lord do the rest. I want to finish the Book of
Mormon in Portuguese before I am done with training so I have 5 weeks
to finish. I have faith I can and I hope I will be almost fluent by
the time I finish. I really want to just work hard on everything and
be better every day. Each day I try to find a new thing I am grateful
for and something I need to work on.

Well I dont have much time but know I love you all so much and am so
grateful for everything you all do and this opportunity I have to be
here and serve the Lord! No time but much love!! :):)

Sister Mattei :)