Monday, October 26, 2015

week 29 (10/26/2015)

Hey Everyone!! 
I hope you all had a great week! This week we had the opportunity to visit Natalia, a recent convert to the church. We have been trying to help Natalia and her family find the peace that the gospel can bring and the joy that can fill the home. It has been a hard year for this family, with one problem after another after another, and these problems have been taking their tolls on Natalia and her family. 
I got frustrated this week, not understanding why all of these things were happening to her, and why they were all happening the year after her baptism. It was frustrating me because we promise the people that the gospel can bring joy and peace to their lives, that it changes lives and that it has changed our lives. And it seemed to her as though the gospel was changing her life, but in the opposite way. I didn't understand how to explain to her what was happening because I really didn't understand either. After talking to our leaders, they made it so clear and simple to me I was embarrassed to have asked. 
The Gospel CAN bless our lives, the gospel CAN change our lives and it will, IF we keep the commandments. 
We can not make this covenant of baptism and expect everything to be perfect afterwards without an effort on our part, we have to endure to the end keeping the commandments of the lord. I know that this is true, I know this gospel is true that it brings peace and joy and that it brings salvation. 
I hope you all have a great week. I love you all!! Don't forget to keep the commandments even the smallest ones and He will bless you. 
Be strong and of good courage!!!
Love, 
Hermana Speakman 

Monday, October 19, 2015

week 28 (10/19/2015)

Hello everyone! 
This week was a great week, a little exhausting a little hot and a little cold, but at the end of the day, I wouldn't change it! 
This week we had a service project at the house of the Benitez family.... Hermano Benitez works making and selling peanut candy. He has to work all night making the candy then leaves early in the morning to sell it, sleeps a little during the day and then gets to work again making the candy. So when we went to their house on Saturday, Hermano Benitez was sleeping and we were talking with his daughter helping her wash her clothes, when I saw their spicket of water (their only source of water) and underneath was basically a swamp that the little kids and everyone had to walk in to get water. So I asked if they had ever tried making a trench, Diana his daughter said yes, but that her sisters always do it and then only halfway do it and not very well. So I grabbed the shovel and we started to work. We made a nice big trench for the water to flow through, and as I was finishing the trench I had to start digging closer to the spicket... We found a pipe and took care not to hit it and to clear its path way, but unfortunately the other pipe... that actually leads to the water, had not yet be found. And this pipe was found in the worst way possible.... I broke it..... I basically just wanted to find a hole to crawl into to hide when Diana went to ask her dad where the valve is to turn off the water and he came out of his room to see what was going on, stressed, tired and a little upset. He came over to look at what was going on... and as we continued talking and planning how to fix it. He just started to die laughing. 
This man, who only had one way to get water, to bath his children and his grandchildren, to cook his food and his candy that he sells, to drink. Started laughing. I was confused of course, not understanding how he could laugh at something so serious, and he just looked at me and told me "if you take everything in life seriously, you're never going to be happy and look at you, you're covered in mud and its hilarious." 
I know at first he was stressed, he knew how serious it was that we had broken this pipe, but I also learned something from him that day. Even when life gets hard, even when we have hit our bottom and then we get packed down deeper in this hole, there is always something to be happy about, there is always something to laugh at, and there is always something we can do to make things better. 
I love you all! And I hope that you can all keep smiling through the good times and the bad. This life is short, and theres something even better waiting for us :) 
Love, 
Hermana Speakman 

(sorry theres not a picture of my awesome trench, it was night time by the time we fixed everything up haha but next week!) 

Monday, October 12, 2015

week 27 (10/12/2015)



Hello everyone! I hope you all had a great week! Crazy how fast the time flies, feels like i was just writing my last group email.... hahah 
This week Javier Vega was baptized, it was a great experience and I'm so grateful for the opportunity that I have to be here in Yukyry, the people really do change your life. 
This week we had to opportunity to talk with a friend of a family in the ward, her name is Rosio. We were talking with her and explaining the Plan of Salvation. This plan answers 3 big questions, where did we come from? why are we here? and where will we go after this life? We were talking with her about why we are here, and about why we have to pass through so many trials in this life. I did an example, I asked her to picture two different people. The first person always has a smile on their face, they live an easy life they have everything they need they never have any problems and they are always happy. Then, the next person had a rough life. They passed some big trials and some grand difficulties, but were able to overcome them and now they are happy and their life is in better order. Out of the two people, who do you think is really happier? 
She stopped to think for a second, and then responded without the slightest bit of hesitation, the second person.
Sometimes we pass through trials that we just don't understand, and all we want is for them to go away, we ask why? we ask why me? And we want to give up a lot of the time. What we don't realize, is that these times are from the Lord. These times are for us, these times can make us stronger, they can make us better and in the end of it all these times can make us happier if we let them.
I know sometimes life gets hard, but if we look at things from a different point of few if we realize that the Lord really has a plan for us, that it may be that these times are the worst, but at the end of it all. When we make it through we will look back on these times with gratitude, because without passing through the misery, we could never know and appreciate the happiness.
I love you all!! 
I hope you have a great week!! 
Trust in the Lord. 
Don't forget to pray.

with love,
Hermana Speakman


Tuesday, October 6, 2015

week 26 (10/5/2015)

Well short and sweet is how things are going to be today! 
Conference was amazing!  I am truly grateful for the tender mercy that I was able to watch in English and with my companion from the CCM. 
I'm grateful for this church for the way it has shaped and changed my life and for the family that I have thanks to its teachings. 
I'm grateful to know that the Lord is the head of this church and his work can never be hindered by man. I know that life gets hard and sometimes we stumble but I know that everything we go through has a purpose, that without knowing the misery we would never be able to truly appreciate the Joy. 
Here in the mission I have felt a joy I never thought was possible to feel, and I can't imagine how great our joy will be after this life, when we return to His arms.
 I know that He loves every single one of us. Every one, and I am so grateful for the opportunity to be out here on the Mission, I'm grateful that the Lord knows me better than I know myself, that he knows what is best for me and he will always guide us if we just take a leap of faith. Hold strong, hold steady. He is there for you!!! 
I love you all!!! thank you for always being an example to me, thank you for always being there for me and for my family in good times and in bad. And if you didn't get to see the conference, I invite you to watch it, listen to the Prophet of God and our leaders. 
He is always here to guide us, if only we let Him.