Monday, April 27, 2015

Week 3 (4/27/2015)

Hello all! 
This week has been great! 
We have been focusing a lot of work on less active members and helping them out. We have been teaching a family who have been returning to the church, their son died about 4 weeks ago but their testimony has only grown stronger its amazing. They are prepping for the temple so they can all be sealed together and the father has been prepping to be worthy to hold the priesthood so he can baptize his son! its amazing!! The ward has been so loving and so good with them as well. I love the people here they are amazing. 
We have been teaching an investigator who's boyfriend is inactive, her son was recently baptized and she wants to be baptized as well but cannot be until they are married. She wants to wait to be married until he has his life together and he has been changing so much its amazing. They are prepping to be married and hoping to be sealed together. Seeing the light and the hope in the families eyes when we teach about the principle of eternal families is honestly one of the most rewarding things. We were also able to teach them about family prayer, and since they have been praying together there is a noticeable difference in the family its phenomenal. I was able to bear testimony of the change it has had within my own family as well. 
One of our recent converts just received the Priesthood this Sunday! he was pretty nervous and didn't really care at the same time, he didn't understand the purpose. But we were able to teach him the weeks leading up to it how important and amazing the priesthood is and his whole attitude changed. I was able to share how grateful I am for the priesthood in my home, and for the blessings I was able to receive while in the CCM as well as before leaving and my testimony about its power. 
We have been teaching a lot of inactive members and members about the Book of Mormon, it was crazy for us to find that very few understood the importance of this book in our lives and in our religion. We firmly believe this is why many are less active, because they don't have testimonies, so we have been trying to help them gain testimonies for themselves. 
This week was also crazy because we got a phone call from the mission presidents office, the presidents secretary asked to speak to me and said he had some good news and some bad news. My heart dropped I thought something had happened to someone in my family, luckily it was nothing near that! My finger prints were rejected again so yesterday we had to travel here to Asuncion, all night, it was the worst haha we got here at 5 am this morning, walked a while finally caught a super scary bus packed full of people and made it to the office at 7. My finger prints have been taken and sent and hopefully everything works out! :) If not, its all in the plan right! 
On Tuesday this week we had lunch at a members house and it was phenomenal, but I had a slightly traumatizing moment when her grand daughter walked in the room with the leg (not cooked, freshly cut off the chicken talons still intact, and still bleeding a little with the bone showing) of the chicken we were eating, and began to touch her brother with it and play with it, not phased in the slightest. I thought i was going to be sick hahaha. 
Also, here there are tons of dogs everywhere, and they always want to fight us, but as soon as we bend over to pick up a rock they take off as fast as lightening. We were at a less active members home talking about how we carry around rods of wood with us because as soon as the dogs see it they walk casually away trying to pretend they weren't planning on attacking us and sharing their diseases. And he comes out with two Squash racquets, and tells us they are for us hahahha so we walked home with our racquets to defend our lives against the druggies and dogs of Paraguay. It was great! 
I would like to thank everyone for their love and support, I really appreciate you all, this week has been a little hectic with the travels so time is short but I love you all and I miss you! Stay safe, never give up! Thank you all for being so amazing. 

Love, Hermana Speakman 



Wednesday, April 22, 2015

2 week 4/20/15

Well,l I don't have much time! But this week was good! 
We have been trying to work a lot with inactive members helping them remember their faith and build it up again. I know that God hears our prayers and he always answers! 
The people of this Branch are the best! I love them! I cant really communicate with them but they are so kind and loving and they feed us every day lunch (lunch is the big meal here).  The members have been helping me learn Guarani and Spanish. 
The other day it rained really hard and flooded the streets, it was crazy, our streets are mostly just rock. which kills the feet ha, but they have to be to prevent flooding. Also our area is one of the only areas that has a ton of hills, lucky us right. 
I learned that Part of Brazil is our district so this week we will be working there! I'm stoked. 
I hope all is well. I miss you all! 

Happy Birthday yesterday Aunt Raquel! and happy Birthday Brock today!!!! 

Che Pohayhu (I love you all in Guarani) 
Never forget to pray always! He always listens!!!! 
I am including some pictures of my apartment, some Paraguayan food, and a photo of the Book of Mormon translated in the Guarani language.  







Tuesday, April 14, 2015

Week 7-8 now in Paraguay

Hey Everyone! 
Crazy that it has already been a week since I`ve been here in Paraguay, and also that its only been a week haha Sometimes the days feel like years but the weeks fly. 


I am in Pedro Juan, which is right on the border of Brazil! It`s amazing! As soon as I heard this area existed I wanted to come here and I got it! My companion is awesome. she is Latina, from Colombia. She speaks next to no english which is really hard sometimes but also an amazing blessing because I am learning so much spanish faster than I thought possible. Also its a blessing she is from Colombia because they speak the kind of spanish you learn in school, so its a lot easier to understand. She is amazing and I can understand nearly everything that is spoken in Spanish.  Now the problem is speaking it. One step at a time though right! 

Leaving the CCM was really hard, but I think that is also a blessing in disguise because I made some amazing friends there and we are all out here doing this crazy hard amazing work together. Sometimes I feel alone but as soon as I pray everything feels a little lighter. When I used to listen to the talk given by President Hinkley about his fathers advice when he decided he wanted to go home, and all his father said was lose yourself and go to work, I thought to myself thats horrible! Thats all the words of comfort his father gave his son who was struggling. But I now know that is literally the best advice he could have given. The mornings are especially hard for me, but as soon as we hit the streets and start talking to people and serving others the burden is lifted and I feel so much better.
The people of our ward are AMAZING they provide us with lunch every day.  Lunch is their big meal, and the food is porette (guarani for delicious). 
The past few nights we have had to run home to make it home before curfew. The streets are either rocky or dirt.  This is a crazy experience but I love it here. 
Our house is owned by members who sit outside of their house (directly in front of ours, we share a yard, back for them front yard for us) and make sure we make it home. 
We have had some crazy gigantic cockroaches in our apartment, my companion tried to kill them while I hid hahahaha She mostly just screamed and sprayed them with lysol, once they took flight we both dipped lol. 
This week was fast  and testimony meeting, it was amazing we went 20 min over and we had 80 people at church which has been our mission goal for a while! The spirit was so strong there and the people are so kind. 
Getting to Pedro Juan (my assigned area), we had to take a 8 hour bus ride, yes it was as horrible as it sounds lol but we made it safe and sound. 
I am going to try to teach english lessons which will be fun! 

I just want to thank you all for your prayers, I wouldn't be able to do it without your support and His help. 
I love you all! And i miss you loads! 

Special shout out to Taggart Happy Birthday ya loser.. miss you! hope it was amazing even if it was without me :) 

Love you All!!
Love, Hermana Speakman. 

                        President and Sister McMullin and my new companion sister Moreno

Wednesday, April 1, 2015

Week 5 (3/27-4/2)

Hey! 
This past week has been basically the same haha which is pretty nice. 
We went proselyting again this past Saturday to a new area, it was really good! We met a nice old lady named Olga who called us angels and cried while talking to us. Its really frustrating not being able to fluently communicate with everyone or even understand them, but things are getting better especially with prayer.
 Its crazy to think we are going to be in Paraguay this time next week! Also there is an elder here from Paraguay who has been trying to teach us guarani, "ENGH" (literally a grunt like being punched in the stomach) is water. So add learning Guarani to your prayer list for me please lol. But I'm super stoked to learn it, its giong to be awesome. 
This week has been fun, I've been playing soccer agian which is a huge blessing, also the food is on point here haha. Im really excited to experience the culture shock in Paraguay! Not so excited for the heat. But I know I am here for a reason, just hoping I can live up to it. 
My companions are awesome and I am so happy to have them. Also my next email day will not be this upcoming monday but the next monday and from here on out only mondays! I love being here, but I know I couldn't do it without all of your prayers and support! Thank you all for everything and I love you all!! 
Love, Hermana Speakman
 
Shout out to Aunt Lynette, Happy Birthday Old woman! Dont worry im always smiling just for you :) Happy Bday Alia on the 25th! And Aunt Kim this Saturday XOXOX!! I hope you all had/have fantastic days! Love you loads
 
Cita de la semana por districto Ammón: "Why do we fall bruce? ..... So we can learn to pick ourselves back up." -Bruce Wayne Sr.