week 7 (5/25/2015)

Hola!!!

This week was good! 

A boy named Aquiles was baptized, his family is the family that is working towards being sealed in the temple and we have been working with to reactivate. It was amazing!! His dad was able to baptize him. The next step is to prep them to be sealed for all eternity. We are working with their older son right now to try to help him prepare to be able to sealed as well. This gospel is amazing I love the hope these things bring us. And I love seeing the change in their lives because of this gospel!! 

Today we had a Zone activity, and we were able to play soccer for about 3 hours, it was soooooo good. haha I missed playing! 

This Sunday 5 of our Investigators were able to go to church, they are amazing!!! 4 of them are family and every time we walk to church activities they pick us flowers.. pretty soon we are going to have a garden hahaha. 

Things are going really good here! The language is coming slowly but surely everyday, and the homesickness is a little less everyday which is the greatest blessing, to be able to really focus on why I'm here. I am so grateful for the blessings of this gospel and that I know that this life isn't the end!!! Never forget to pray and read your scriptures, they help us fight this war of life!! 

I love you all!! Miss you all a ton! Thank you for all of your prayers, I sincerely know every one helps. 

Happy Birthday Mikayla Last week!!! Happy Birthday Old Man Uncle Bill!!! ;) I know you missed me this memorial weekend throwing water on you! I hope Britt helped me out there :) Happy Birthday Kayden!!!!! 

and Happy Memorial day to all! Thank you to all those who have served and are serving our country. 

Love you all!!!!!!!! Stay strong :)

Week 6 (5/18/2015)

 This week was great!
 Mothers day was Friday here. I would like to say happy late mothers day to all the mothers of my life, my own amazing mom and my grandmas and aunts and cousins and all the moms you guys are the best and make all the difference in our lives. Being away from my mom has helped me appreciate her so much more! I know us kids don't always express it well but we LOVE YOU and are so grateful for everything you do for us.

The "4th of July" was this weekend in Paraguay. That made things a little hard because people were either not home, or were drunk... haha but it was a good week all in all. We got to visit an investigator with a member from the branch this week and it made all the difference! 

This week, I learned a great lesson about how important the spirit is.  We are always trying to live worthy of having the spirit with us because without His guidance we can't do anything in this work, but I was reminded how essential His presence is. We had a weird day, we were struggling a little and weren´t communicating well. There was slight tension and I was extremely distracted,  the spirit wasn't there with us. When we went to lessons, it was like being back at my first week here. I could understand next to nothing, and when I tried to speak they couldn't understand what I was saying and I couldn't remember the words. It was so hard and humbling. But it was a great lesson and testament to me of the power of prayer and the spirit in this work. Without the Lord with us, we can't accomplish anything here. 

I would just like to thank everyone for your prayers on our behalf and again I would like to testify that I know every single one matters and helps us. I miss you all! and I hope you all have a great week! Keep on keeping on :) 

Love, Hermana Speakman 

ps here's a picture of the Book of Mormon in the languages I'm attempting to learn! Guarani, Portuguese, and Spanish     

Week 5 (5/11/2015)

Hello again everyone! 
This week was great!  I got to skype with my family on Sunday, made me miss home a little lot but it was great to see their faces!!

On Monday, we had the opportunity to have FHE with a family that feeds us on Tuesdays.  We taught them a lesson and at the end Anderson (the grandson) was going to say the prayer to close the lesson and to bless the food. So he gave a nice prayer to close the meeting, but forgot to bless the food, so hermana Dora the grandma, said she would say it, she was slightly irritated because she was ready to eat,  she gave a nice long 5 min prayer blessing everyone in the room. But she forgot the reason she was praying and once again the food was not blessed hahaha. By this time her husband was exasperated and said he would say it and he made sure to bless the food first thing then continue on his prayer hahahaha it was a great laugh for all. This is also the family that enjoys making fun of me because I thought every dog in Paraguay was named Neki ha. They are great. 

On Tuesday, the leaders of the Hermanas came down to go on splits with us, they arrived at 530 in the morning, I tried really hard not to be angry,  just kidding but every second of sleep matters. We had a great day of work with them, it was a nice change of pace and learning experience. We also had something called Noche Wasy which is like a family home evening for the ward.  It was at Hermana Doras house. We brought some investigators with us, Stephanie who is 12 years old, her brother Anthony who is 9 and their cousin Rueben 9 and his sister who is 8. We got to the Wasy and it was mostly just old people talking, they are hilarious but the little kids were losing interest, I didn't know what to do, so we started to play a game called shoot bang kill. It was great because it held their interest until the others arrived, then we had an amazing spiritual thought and devoured delicious food as well.

On Wednesday, we had lunch at Hermana Bascilicias home.  She is a tiny Paraguayan woman about 55 years old. She has been helping me learn guarani and is amazing. On Wednesday we were talking about an incident that happened Tuesday night, a woman was brutalized not far from her house, and she, like all the members here, was concerned for our safety. So this tiny woman began to teach us what we need to do to defend ourselves from the men of Paraguay. I will not be going in to detail the lessons that were taught, but she encouraged us to kill them if we can. Don't worry we wont be doing that but it was hilarious. 

Yesterday, was a huge rain storm so not many people went to church, I also got to give a talk..... in Spanish.... for 15 minutes. I think I blacked out.  Just kidding it went pretty well, it was really hard but I know that Heavenly Father is helping me learn this language and I know without his help I would be so lost. I'm so grateful to be here as well! Its so different but amazing in its own special way. 

I love you all! Hope you have a great week!! Thank you for your prayers and for your emails! I love every single one! 

Happy Birthday Uncle Brad this week!!! And congrats Gordon on your mission call!!!!! You're going to be great! 

Che Pohayhu!!!!

Love Hermana Speakman 

week 4 (5/4/2015)

Hello everyone! This week was great! 

We traveled to Asuncion and were able to go through the temple, it really was like being in a whole new world! The spirit was amazing there. We had a nice long 8 hour bus ride there, we got there at 5am then had to catch a Collectivo, which is another bus that is very um.... scary haha the streets are straight up rocks, (i have attached a photo of the streets), you have to stand the whole time if there isn't space, and there wasn't space, and the rocks do not make for a very smooth ride haha. I almost smothered a few people, don't worry though, my abs of steel helped me stay upright hahaha jk I wish. I was killing people left and right. But we survived and so did they and that's all that matters right.   

After our trip to Asuncion, we arrived back in Pedro Juan at 930, and our awesome branch president picked us up and gave us a ride home. The members here are so amazing I love them they are always so willing to help, and they are really enthusiastic about missionary work as well! Its incredible. 

Yesterday we had a huge rain storm and the power went out and the streets flooded, I got pictures before the storm really hit. The power went out during testimony meeting, but the members just got right up opened the blinds and we kept on going, it was amazing. Afterwards, we returned home, usually we have lunch but they cancelled so we returned home to try to scavenge up some food, we didn't have any because we were in Asuncion Monday and that's when we go grocery shopping, so we were a little sad hahaha but, the sister whose home we live and was talking to us when we got home, asked what we were doing for lunch, when we told her we were going to eat at home she asked what we were going to eat..... hahahha we said, "oh just some food we have in the fridge", she feeds us on Thursdays, so we didn't want her to cook for us again, and she said, I'm going to get something together and bring it over" and she did! Within 30 min we had a warm delicious meal in-front of us, there is a picture attached, the bread is not corn bread, idk what it is but i think it has onions in it, its really good actually! Its a Paraguayan specialty and is my companions favorite. The members are amazing and so loving here!! 

The other day we were teaching the family who is prepping to be sealed in the temple and the husband is prepping to be able to baptize his son, it was about 7pm, we didn't return to the house for dinner, so we were hungry haha and they just brought food right now, they taught us a new Paraguayan sandwich, bread, dulce de leche (which is like caramel), and nuts hahah so weird but so good!!! 

Another fun fact about here, there are random large bones everywhere... what from, no idea but they are everywhere! 

Tip for anyone who wants to travel to Paraguay, here they shout Neki! at their dogs, this is not their name, this means go away in Guarani. hahaha Yes, I learned this lesson the hard way. There are quite a few members who now when they see me enjoy pretending to call their dogs Neki and die of laughter hahahaha its ok, no shame here hahaha. 

The people of Paraguay are so humble and so willing to listen to a message about God. Here there are no door bells, and we don't knock on doors, we stand away from the doors and clap. Then wait for permission to enter. The great thing about here is usually they are all sitting outside on their chairs sipping terreare (not sure if that's how you spell it) because its so hot. When we walk up and ask to share a message they go and get a chair for us and sometimes when they have no more they will give us their chair and get a bucket to sit on and offer us some of their drink, we aren't allowed to drink it while on the mission, but the people are great!! 

The picture of the bottle and the spigot is my water purification process because one time of vomiting and dying all day is sufficient for a life time. haha Also I'm too lazy to lug huge jugs of water 3 miles back home. 

Being here has taught me so many lessons already in this short time! Days feel like weeks, weeks feel like days and months feel like years haha. Don't ask me how butI  have never been able to accomplish so much on so little energy.  I know that it is because this truly is the work of the Lord and your prayers, every single one helps and I know that He hears every prayer and He will help us always.

 So please pray for me as well because I made the mistake of offering to pray in front of the branch president and he now knows my Spanish is a little more than nothing, so he's going to ask me to speak soon..... hahaha 

I love you all and I'm so grateful for all of you!! I Hope all is well!

 Shout out to Uncle Ike, Happy Birthday last week!!!! Sorry I was away from my calender and missed it!! Aunt Jamie Happy Birthday Yesterday! Mallory, Blakely and Briggs Happy Birthday this Saturday! And Happy Mothers day to everyone!!! Thank you for your examples to me! I love you all!! 

Love, Hermana Speakman 

ps excuse my terrible grammar there is not enough time haha