Hermana Stevenson: To bring to others the joy of the gospel

It’s been another hot, fast week here in Guadalupe. Sorry for the same lame start to all my emails haha..but wow it's been hot! Something funny that i don't think I’ve shared yet is that Hna Mancilla is from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, where it's like a million degrees and 100% humidity. So at night, she gets kinda cold so she sleeps in pajama pants, a long sleeved shirt, and two blankets. Then I’m in shorts and a t-shirt, and usually not even sheets. And I’m STILL HOT....haha anyways, our water went out again, which made for more shower-less days, but it's back now. Also, something funny happened on Tuesday. So to go to any of the other little pueblitos (towns) here in Guadalupe (Chepen, Pueblo Nuevo, Pacasmayo...), you have to get a car because there are no taxis and you have to wait for the car to fill up with people before it'll leave. So we were sitting in a car waiting for more people so we could go to Pueblo Nuevo for our district meeting, and there's this guy who goes around selling potatoes, yelling "papitas! papitas!" Anyways, he saw me and came up to the car and said, "When I was a boy I had green eyes like yours and then the sun burned them!"and then he just went on his way again. Then we saw him yesterday and he said "oh how I miss my green eyes..."hahaha it's hilarious! Perks of being a gringa here is that you get lots of interesting comments like that.

So Tito was supposed to get baptized this coming Saturday, but didn't show up to church yesterday. We called him and found out he was on his way to Cajamarca for a family emergency and won't get back until Saturday or Sunday....so we'll be postponing his baptism. Something always happens when we're about to have someone be baptized. Twice with Carla, and now with Tito. It’s frustrating, but we'll keep praying for him.

We have started teaching a super great, prepared family that we contacted last week. They’re really nice and receptive (and talkative) but we're super excited to see them progress! They’re married (MIRACLE) and the husband was studying to be a priest, so possibly some interesting questions from him, but at least they have a good Christian background.

We had intercambios (exchanges) on Friday, and i went to San Pedro with Hna Delgado!! #reunited. The highlight was that we were at a member’s house, and their little dog got SUPER excited to see us and peed all over Hna Delgado's leg! Oh my heck, I was DYING I was laughing so hard!!!! It was so funny and Hna Delgado and I had a great time together.

It’s so hard to be away from home this Christmas season, but I literally have THE BEST MOM IN THE WHOLE WORLD who sent us Christmas decorations and treats!! So at least we're a little bit festive. It will be hard these next few weeks, but I love the mission more every day, even though every single day it is hard. I’ve been making my way through the new conference Ensign and I read Elder Nelson's talk about joy. He said that the reason missionaries leave their homes is to bring joy to the people of the world. And that is why I’m here! To bring to others the joy of the gospel, and because I love my Heavenly Father. I hope everyone has a great week, I love you all!!!