Hermana Stevenson: Hola Gringas!

More good news!! To celebrate (early) the fourth of July, I ate McDonalds for the first time in 13 months!!!!! We had permission to go to the mall today, so I took advantage of the food court(: It was fantastic.

And even more good news!! We have a baptism for the 15th!! His name is Maykol (pronounced Michael but with Peruvian spelling) He's 23. Hna Martinez and her trainer were teaching him, and he was super great, but then his family said that if he got baptized, they wouldn't pay for his school...but he came to church yesterday, had a super great talk with the bishop, and decided that his parents can't control his spiritual life. So we had a super great lesson last night and set his baptismal date!

Also, we had intercambios (exchanges) this last week, and hna Lee is my hermana leader again and we got to go together! We had such a fun time together. She is the best. Then on Thursday, we had a lesson with a referral from the capilla abierta (chapel tour). First of all, his name is Napoleon so, he wins. Also, he's like way prepared. He’s attended a lot of other churches, but didn't like them, has completely changed his life and given up bad habits already, and had so many questions for us. He has a Book of Mormon, so we invited him to read it, and we set another appointment for this week. He couldn't come to church yesterday, but we are super excited to see his progress.

We went to Chan Chan last week, which are ruins from the Chimu civilization, not the Incas. The Chimus actually joined with the Spanish to fight the Incas because the Incas were trying to take over everyone.

From Wikipedia: The Chimú culture was centered on Chimor with the capital city of Chan Chan, a large adobe city in the Moche Valley of present-day Trujillo, Peru. The culture arose about 900. The Inca emperor Topa Inca Yupanqui led a campaign which conquered the Chimú around 1470.

Funny story. So yesterday after lunch, hermana O’Brien wasn't feeling super great, and then she started burping, and she literally couldn't stop! It was like hiccups, but worse. It was so funny and we were laughing so hard. I have her permission to tell this story btw.

Also, there's an old guy in the ward that everyone calls Juanito. He was bishop for a long time, then a few years ago his wife died and he started to lose his memory. So he'll introduce himself to you like 3 times in a minute. But he's still really funny. Yesterday at church we were talking to someone, and he passed by us and said, "hola gringas." I don't know why I thought it was so funny, maybe cuz he's old. But I laughed.

Well, I’ll be missing one of my favorite holidays tomorrow. Everyone better enjoy their hamburgers, watermelon, root beer, and fireworks!!!! America is the best! #ProudToBeAnAmerican

"Behold, this is a choice land, and whatsoever nation shall possess it shall be free from bondage, and from captivity, and from all other nations under heaven, if they will but serve the God of the land, who is Jesus Christ, who hath been manifested by the things which we have written." (Ether 2:12)

If a Book of Mormon prophet prophesies about America, you know it's the best. The Book of Mormon is true!