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