Hello, hello Family! :) Another week has flown by here in Brazil! Seems like the time just flies by faster and faster... soon I will be heading home!! I am super happy yall got my card and pictures :) Raquel told me and she said you were very happy with the letters and the recording you asked me to do haha! Raquel is very, very sweet, seriously, an angel lol I don't think she has ever done anything wrong in her life lol! She learns something and then she does it! Like last week we had General Conference and she had family and friends who were traveling and taking a trip and they invited her and she told them she couldn't go because that week at church was something really special and a rare opportunity! She is willing to make whatever sacrifices she needs to to be better and do what is right! Yesterday she bore her testimony and our bishop at the end was telling her how impressed he was with how strong of a testimony she already has. Oh and we have been teaching her sister, Emilia who has a date to be baptized May 18 :) I love her family, everyone is just super sweet and welcoming!

So for the last 2 weeks we have been teaching a man, Wellington, who doesn't believe in God... he is super stubborn about his beliefs but a really good guy with a really good heart! He treats his wife like a queen... which is how it should be lol but you can just tell he is an awesome guy and has a lot of potential. So yesterday we got him and his wife Fatima to come to church. The first 2 hours were normal and nothing too special but we told him that sacrament meeting would be different, and it was! :) All the testimonies borne were awesome and the spirit was super strong, and then at the end we sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives and that was like icing on the cake :) During that song now, I almost always have tears in my eyes! At the end he told us he liked it and smiled and patted us on the back... tomorrow we have a lesson with him, so I hope he felt what everyone else felt. He will probably be someone we will work with for a long time but he has a lot of potential and every time we teach him, even as stubborn as he is, I always feel good about our lesson at the end! We're just waiting on a miracle to happen :) He says it's impossible for him to have faith but that's just a myth made up in his mind! His wife Fatima is Catholic and she is super sweet! :)

Also Brenna, a 9 year old who loves coming to church with us, bore her testimony yesterday! It was very sweet and simple! :) But overall this week was super good and we have 3 dates set for baptism. Some are a little farther off but Laudiceia who I talked about last week has a date set for the 27th of April! I will fill you all in more next week with everything :)

So some funny things that happened this week...

We passed a dog in the road who was chasing its tail literally for 5 minutes straight, we just stopped and laughed! Oh yall should see some of the dogs that live here in the roads... it's super sad... they are pathetic... Todd would cry! I feel bad for them.

So we knocked on a door and a man started screaming super loud... we couldn't even understand him hahaha but he kept going for like 2 minutes... we didn't know whether to stay or leave... hahaha we were a little scared and were about to leave until he opened the door and saw 2 young women in skirts and dresses and then immediately changed his voice and attitude haha it's super funny how people react when they open the door and see us...

Oh and something annoying and sad that happened this week was we found a young girl, 17 years old who was super receptive and had super good questions for us and was just interested to learn more... so we returned 2 days later and she had done some searching on the internet about Mormons and she read things that weren't true and that we have a different God than other churches... blah blah blah... things that are absolutely not true :/ and she was firm that she didn't want more with us... so we just bore our testimony and told her that these are just things that people say... and that people will deny us just like they denied Christ many years ago... I have hope one day she will search again and find truth and know that those things she read are lies and that the true church is really here on earth... it is super sad to see how Satan works with people when they truly have an interest to learn more and find truth... Oh how he is terrible... just be grateful for the knowledge we already have and for the opportunity to continue learning each and every day..

Well no time but I miss and love yall lots!! :) Have an amazing week!! :) I enjoyed all the photos! The place Nicole and Greg will have their ring ceremony is super pretty!! Oh and tell Becky Congrats for me!! Her baby boy is super cute :)

Muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)