Hola Familia,

                This has been one of the best weeks ever! on our second day here in the MTC we started teaching full 45 min lessons IN SPANISH to an "investigator" named Carlos. We continued to teach Carlos everyday this week...and what an amazing experience! I'm AM NOT going to say that it was easy because it definitely wasn't, but I have learned more about myself just in this one experience than I ever have before! Our first lesson with him was going to be about the plan of salvation and that's what my comp and I prepared for...but...that is not what we ended up teaching! From the bits and pieces of what I understood from Carlos when we went in to teach him, he needed to just simply know that God loved him! He needed to know that he was a Son of a loving Father in Heaven. He seemed to really appreciate our message even though is was really hard to communicate in spanish with him! On Tuesday night we taught him again and this was going to make our 4th lesson with Carlos. My comp and I felt very prepared and were excited to teach him about the Book of Mormon. We sat down ready to teach and as soon as Carlos started speaking to us everything we had prepared for went out the window! I could not remember how to say a single thing in spanish, and my poor comp, Bless her heart, has never taken any spanish class in her life, so literally everything here at the MTC including the language is new to her. I do most of the talking in our lessons and I did not know how to teach Carlos that night! I ended up just bearing my testimony of the Truthfulness of the BOM and my companion tried to do the dame. I left that Lesson feeling completely defeated. I could literally feel the power of satan after that awful lesson, telling me that I wasn't good enough and that I would never be able to learn this language and bring people closer to Christ. My comp and I prayed to Heavenly Father afterwards to please help us feel comforted in knowing that we tried our best. I know now more than I ever have before the power of prayer! We went back to our classroom feeling totally lost and confused and really sad, but I felt prompted to read a poem that I found in my suitcase that Bryce must have slipped in there before I left. It was called "The Race" or somthing like that and it talks about this boy who is running in a track race and is in first place, but trips up and falls several times, causing others to pass him, therefore, put into last place. every time he fell he looked up at his dad standing in the crowd and he could here him say "Get up and finish that race." Feeling humiliated that he had fallen so many times, the boy did not want to get up, but he also did want to give up. He stood up and finished that race with only a few bumps and bruises and got more support from his loved ones than the first place winner did because he never gave up! What an answer to my prayer! My comp and I fell, but we knew and we could feel that our Father in Heaven was standing in the crowd saying "Get up and finish that race". He knows that what we are doing is not easy. Teaching full lessons in spanish our first week here is not an easy task and Heavenly Father could see that we did our best to prepare to help Carlos come unto Christ, even though we felt like failures. He lifted us up! I am going to apply this concept my entire mission, not just my first week in the MTC! When I fall Heavenly Father will always be there telling me to "Get up and finish that race". I love it here! The spirit is so strong all the time! I can also see why it is so easy to gain weight here! Haha! Literally all you do is eat and sit in class all day everyday. We have 45 min of gym time everyday but other than that you are either in the Cafeteria or a classroom studying your brains out! I'm not complaining though because I wouldn't want it any other! My Comp is Hermana Humphreys and she is from Layton Utah and then the other two girls that are going to Nicaragua as well are Hermana Ashcraft and Hermana Cones! They are awesome sisters and we are all best friends already! Luckily Ice cream in only served on wednesdays and sundays or else I would be a thousand ponds by now! We have service every tuesday morning. Our assignment is the bathroom on the third floor of our biulding. By the way, My residence room is on the fourth floor, which happens to be the top floor of our building, with no elevator...soooo you can imagine how fun it was carrying my billion pound suitcases up for 4 flight of stairs. La Lucha es real!!! Anyways I really love it here and I am so lucky to be able to have this experience! I think everyday about how greatful I am to be a servant of the Lord and to be worthy enough to Preach his Gospel (I'm giving myself a pat on the back)! I hope all is well at home! I keep all of you in my prayers everyday! Love you!

Hermana Dickey  

Hola! 

WOW!! A lot has happened in just two days! I love the CCM (MTC in spanish) but boy is it very overwhelming for a new comer! When I arrived and walked through the gates on Wednesday I received my tag, a thousand pounds of books, and went straight to my first spanish class! My teacher, Hermana Avery, is very nice and she is an awesome teacher, but NO ONE is aloud to speak english, not even the teacher. Soooo, it's a little confusing to know exactly what we are doing sometimes and it is VERY frustrating! But we all know how to pray in spanish now and introduce ourselves as missionaries and we are working on learning how to bear our testimonies in spanish because when all else fails, bear your testimony of the truthfulness of this gospel. My companion, Hermana Humphrey's, is great and she is also going to the Nicaragua Managua north mission! In fact all the sisters in my district (two sets of sisters, Hermana Humphrey's and I included) are all going to the Nicaragua Managua North mission AND we are all roommates! That is truly the tender mercies of the Lord! We have lots of fun together and we try to speak spanish to each other as much as possible. I am still trying to get used to being called "Hermana". Also the biggest challenge for me is not saying "you guys" as a universal term! Haha! As missionaries you have to call everyone Elders or Sisters and that has been a challenge for me! I really do love the MTC though! Everyone is so friendly all the time! My STL's (sister training Zone leaders) are amazing! They are like my big sisters! We play basketball and volleyball during gym time together and they always stop by our residence room at night and just make sure we are doing ok and handling everything well! I got my first calling in our Zone! I will be the Branch music coordinator until they reassign all of the callings when the STL's and Zone leaders and the first district leave next week! I am very sad about that because I have gotten to know all of those people really well! This morning we got to go to the temple as a zone and do a session. It was a whole different experience being there with a bunch of missionaries and the Provo temple is so pretty! Tonight Hermana Humphrey's and I are required to give our first lesson...IN SPANISH!!! We are teaching the plan of salvation to an "investigator" named Carlos, who is really just a teacher here at the MTC who speaks spanish! We are really nervous and very scared since we don't know spanish hardly at all yet! I mean we have only been here for one whole day...how could we! The Hermanas in my zone say it will get easier as the weeks go by so I trust them. We just have to pray to our Father in Heaven for comfort and guidance...and for the gift of tongues...PLEASE!! I hope all is well back at home and everyone is doing great! Especially those who had finals this week! My zone has a motto here that we will pass down to all Missionaries as they come to the MTC for spanish speaking missions, "La lucha es real"...The struggle is real!! That phrase bounces around our classrooms and residence halls! It's really funny actually! We say it joking though because we do know this work is hard and that learning the language is hard, but it is the most important thing we can be doing with our lives and I already have come to a greater appreciation for missionaries and the work that we do, especially if we are required to learn a language! I love being a Missionary, I put the subject of this email as "My favorite Accessory" because when I get to wear my name tag with Hermana Dickey written on it, I know that I am a servant of the Lord. It reminds me to think like one, act like one, speak like one, and work hard like one. I love you all and I already miss you. I keep you in my thoughts and prayers constantly! I hope you have a wonderful weekend and a wonderful week next week!

Love, Hermana Dickey 

SHE MADE IT!!
Kara made it to the MTC safe and sound yesterday with the help of some loving family members.  Tears were shed by all but she kept saying, "I'm really excited even though you can't tell right now."  What a sweet girl.  Her loving attitude and outgoing personality will definitely be missed here, but we know that she is on the Lord's errand and therefore is in His hands.  We love you Kara! xoxo