BOM DIA!! :) Thanks for all the pics you sent! Looks like your vacation was pretty relaxing! :) Looks like everyone had a ton of fun too.... looks like when I get back we will have to take a little trip or adventure to make up for this vacation without me haha :p and I was super jealous Mark and Tre' went sky diving! That is on my bucket list for when I return :) Tell Mark and Emma Congrats! :) I can't believe he is engaged!! The video was super sweet and I liked the idea! :)

So like always I have very little time but I will update you a bit because tomorrow I will be transferred! I will be in the area Aguanambi and I will probably end my mission there. I am still Sister Training Leader and will be with a Sister from Argentina who still I have not met. She arrived in Brazil 3 months ago. I am excited to meet new people and see a new area but I am very sad to leave the people here in Conjunto Ceara. I will prolly cry tonight. Raquel cried last night :( She is super sweet! The people here are amazing! Not many people were baptized this transfer but we met a lot of people who now have a baptism date for the next transfer :) Matheus and Leandra had a date to be baptized yesterday but he is 12 and she is 17 and his Mom said he needs to wait another month to assure he is ready and her mom said she has to wait until she is 20 to leave the Catholic church... so Matheus will be baptized soon and Leandra I hope when she turns 18 next year. She is super sweet and really wanted to be baptized but her Mom didn't sign and is very active in the Catholic church. So as you can see this week was a lil tough and sad but it is the Lord's will and in the end everything will work out :) Sometimes we might just plant seeds and then others will see the plant grow :)

I am very grateful for the time I had in this area because I met people who I truly love and will miss a lot! I stay in areas for a long time and get to know people super well and then it makes it harder to leave the area. Next week i will give you a good update on my new area and my companion. Oh but before I close this week we had a very spiritual experience. We are teaching a woman named Fatima. She is super sweet and she told us she was super lost when it came to religion and where to find truth. We taught her about the restoration and she said a prayer at the end of the lesson and she began to cry because she said she had finally found the truth and was super happy to not be lost anymore. It was very sweet. she went to church with us yesterday and she loved it! :) I hope I will hear good news soon that she was baptized :)

Well no time left but love and miss y'all lots! Have an amazing week and tell everyone hello for me!! Keep busy and always smile!! :)

Com muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)

So first of all Feliz Aniversario!! Parabens Mom!! Woo you are even older now lol! I hope this week you will have a wonderful birthday! You're welcome Dad, in case you forgot Mom's birthday is this week :p just kidding.... you have FaceBook to remind you ;) Looks and sounds like y'all all had a wonderful trip!! I am glad Granny and Pop Pop and Steph enjoyed themselves as well. I can't believe everyone is back in school already, summer passed by super fast! Woah and Thomas is in seminary now... he is already in high school that is nuts!

So to answer Dad's questions:

The language is good, yes I still have my American accent but I think for me it is almost impossible to lose... I haven't figured out how to change my voice haha but the people understand me well... it is like In the US when you speak with Hispanics or other foreigners who speak English. Usually you can tell they are from another country or speak another language but can understand them fine. It is the same thing. I wanted a Brazilian accent... I will keep trying haha but the people here tell me they like my accent. I don't really know why because I don't think the American accent is anything super pretty... but hey if they like it tudo bom :)

So on P days.... to tell you the truth we don't do anything super fun or special because our president is pretty strict with us. We can't go to zoos, museums, mountains..... he is new so maybe he will come around but I am not so sure.... he is super nice just very bold about some things. So usually we shop a lil bit in our area, sleep, write letters, joke around in the house, eat food haha.... I would like to go to the mountains before I leave but I will have to get permission from our President so I will just have to wait and see....

So a lil bit about this week.....

This week was good. My companion Sister Lara is awesome! We have luck to attract people super strange in the streets so we spend the whole day cracking up and just saying... what is our life? haha... we have weird experiences almost every day. There is a man who always sees us in the street and has to shake our hand and then he gives us a huge teethless smile haha, then we have drunk people, last week we were teaching with one of the young men in our ward and then a drunk man we know started kissing his hand and giving him hugs... it was super funny.... anyway I could go on and on telling strange stories haha!

So we are hoping for 2 baptisms this next week! :) Matheus and Leandra. please pray for them. They are awesome! Our lessons with them are super spiritual and Leandra has super good questions. I like when people have questions because it shows they are truly interested! She is 17. Matheus is 12 and he is the grandson of a member. They are both super receptive! :)

This week will probably be my last week in Conjunto Ceara. We have transfers next Tuesday. I will miss everyone here so much! President always keeps me in areas for a super long time and then I get super close with everyone and it's sad to leave in the end! The members and people we are teaching are awesome and I am super happy to have met everyone I have here! I will return to Brazil one day :) I gotta save my money because I have made promises to return and I would really like to! Maybe I will bring y'all with me! Well I have no time but love y'all lots!! have a great week and Mom have an amazing birthday, you deserve it! You are an awesome Mom #1 and you do so much for us all! I am super grateful for all you have taught me! :) LOVE YOU!! :) oh you should be receiving a card super soon if not today! 

Com amor,

Sister Mattei :)

Well.... I enjoyed the pictures :) Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves and relaxing a little! Tell Granny, Pop Pop and Steph that I say hi and love and miss them! So today I am super short on time because we had to take a 30 min survey.... so a real quick update...

Francisco was confirmed a member yesterday :) He is super happy!

We went to a Primary activity this week with some of our investigators and it was super cute... each ward represented a different country and they sang in foreign languages, did a dance and ate food from their country. One of the wards was the US and they did a super cute dance... it was a country/pop song called Hey Brother, Hey Sister... it's new I think but it made me miss y'all and country music a lot haha! Sister Zambrana and I taught our primary how to sing I am a Child of God in English! They performed super well!

Oh and Dad will be happy to know me and my companion have been sleeping in a hammock out on our balcony all this week!! It is pretty sweet!! hammocks are super comfortable!! :)

Well no time but love and miss yall! Enjoy your vacation! :)

Sister Mattei :)

Hello!! BOM DIA!! :)

So I already sent one email to Mom so this email will be a bit shorter. So good news is that Francisco was baptized yesterday! It was a super special day for him and he was super happy!! Erick baptized him. We sang a children"s hymn. Yup you heard me I sang haha :p Seriously I wish I had a ton of time just to tell you about everything... the spiritual and the funny!! I guess some things just have to wait until I get back! I will send photos in a letter soon! I thought yall were in Branson this week... so have a great vacation this week :) I am just a lilttle jealous! :p So.....

Yesterday, we had 3 investigators at church so we were super happy :) We are hoping to have 3 or 4 baptisms on August 17th!! We have conference with our New president on Wednesday. We already had interviews with him and he is strict but he is super nice and he truly wants us to baptize people who will be faithful and active members in the church. I completely agree with his opinion because there are so many less actives here in Ceara. It is super sad... when a mission president just talks about baptism and numbers all the time... missionaries will baptize just to baptize not because the people are truly converted to the gospel. Missionaries work super hard to have baptisms and then it is super sad to see them as less actives... so President Bonini is more about helping them understand the importance of enduring to the end and going to the temple after baptism and having an eternal family. We need more active members in the church, not more less actives... and sure it happens... people have strong testimonies of the church but they stop nourishing their seed with (scripture study, church, prayer..) and then that tree that was once there starts to die and dwindle.

I think one of the hardest parts of missionary work is helping the convert realize they can do it on their own and with the members and that they don't need the missionaries to bring them to church. It is a tough change but I feel it is something super important for the new members to understand because we won't be here forever and they have to be converted to the gospel not the missionaries. So now that I talked forever, I don't have much time left but I am always praying for y'all!! :) I hope' you all keep on enjoying your summer break!! :) Love and miss y'all lots!! :)

Com muito amor,

Sister Mattei :)