Hola Mundo!!

Well this week ended up being very successful! We found a house to live...well maybe, we contacted as many people as we could and now have a ton of people progressing, AND, we baptized a super cute 12 year old girl named Emily yesterday before church! So I would say it was pretty great!

Saturday was supposed to be the Baptism of Emily but when we went by for her with the Elders on thursday to have her interview she wasn't home. So we went back by on friday to talk to her and she was home...but her mom talked to us and explained to us that she didn't feel Emily was ready and needed to wait a little longer. I left the lesson very sad that day because Emily has been going to church for months and also seminary. She was so ready but obviously we have to have permission from the parents before we could baptize her. So her date passed on sayurday...but saturday we brought the Elders with us to talk to the mom and needless to say...thanks to the spirit in the lesson...Emilys mom finally said yes and we baptized her on Sunday before sacrament meeting and THE ENTIE WARD WAS THERE!!! I have never seen a baptism attendance like that since I have started my mission! It was so great!

On thursday my comp (who is literally the best companion I could have asked for) and I were walking around contacting and we decided to talk to this old woman that was sitting in a rocking chair in her doorway. I started asking questions to get to know her. One of them was who she lived with in her home. She answered and said..."I am 96 years old and I live by myself...AND I can even see without glasses"!!! I wanted to laugh so hard because she said that she could see without glasses with so much pride and confidence! She is literally adorable! Needless to say I am a little ashamed that I am almost 20 years old and already have glasses. We have another appointment with her tomorrow so we will see what happens! 

In other news...I am doing really geat and I LOVE my new companion! We work great together and I am almost positive that this girl came pre-trained! She has no fear to just try and speak what she knows...we also have so much fun together! It is very rare when one of us isn´t cracking a joke or laughing at something. Honestly we are having so much more success because we are making the work fun too! So I am not sure if you all remember but about 2 months ago President asked me to put together a choir of 50 missionaries between the North mission and the South Mission for a meeting we will be having at the end of August. Well I now have all of the missionaries to sing and the music picked out...but we only get the 2 mondays before the meeting to practice and that makes me a littlw nervous...but I am sure it will all work out! I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the last few weeks of summer vacation!

Hermana Dickey

I hope she's sleeping?

Another week has come and gone folks and I can not believe it! I have 1 whole year left in the mission and that is literally freaking me out! It was almost a year ago when I opened my call...Before I know it I will be on an airplane coming home. If my first 6 months has gone by this fast I can only imagina how fast the next ones will go!

So to catch you up on the life of Hermana Dickey... My companion Hermana Nicholls has been sick this week so Tuesday we were in the house almost all day. That was really tough for me because first of all it was VERY boring and second of all I wanted to be out teaching. She needed that day to feel better though and she did. Wednesday President Collado and Hermana Collado came to our house so that Hermana Collado could inspect it and so Preidente could have interviews with us. The Interviews went great and Hermana Collado was very pleased at how clean our house was...but she wants us to find a better house to live in because our house right now is VERY small and she thinks we could find something better. So needless to say we will be house hunting this week as we work. We have aleady found a couple possibilities, but I have to go see what the houses look like on the inside first befor I committ to anything. We will see.

So miracle of the week! Saturday we were supposed to baptize a mother and her daughter...but long story short it fell through. I felt really bad because my comp was really looking forward to her first baptism...BUT...that gave us more time to contact and find some new people. I decided to go to an area we hadn`t really contacted much and see if we could find some really cool people there. People who have been prepared by the Lord to listen to the Missionaries. After yelling "Buenas" (ecause you don`t knock on doors here) at a million doors, talking to every peson we walked past in the street and even running away from crazy, mean dogs...we finally found "The chosen ones". We found A woman named Vanessa and her family. Turns out that the family had just moved back to Nicaragua about 2 months ago from Florida and most of the family speaks perfect English! We taught them a lesson on sunday night with our Ward Mission leader Lehi, who also speaks English, and Vanessa loved what we had to teach! Hermana Nicholls gave a really powerful testimony in English and it was a great lesson! She is very excited to keep visiting with us and she told us she had been praying ever since she had mover back here to Nicaraga that she could find people who speak English for her son becuase her son was born in the states and learned English before spanish! She said he was sad that he couldn`t speak english with anyone anymore! Heavenly Father works in mysterious ways!

Another great story of this week! My companion and I had planned to go visit a less avtive woman in our area who just turned 95 years old and who is confounded to a wheel chair. Everyday she sits in her doorway smiling at people who walk by, talking to people who take the time to visit her, and sleeps. Well this particular we decided to visit her around 3. When we passed by to talk to her we found her sitting in her doorway, head tilted all the back, mouth open...Totally knocked out. My comp and I just walked away slowly and as we did my companion said "I hope shes not dead"!! She was generally concerned for this 95 year old woman and it was so funny! I laughed for so long!! The things you experience on the mission! Haha! All in all this week was a successfull week even though our baptism fell. I love this Gospel so much and I am so grateful for the priviledge I have to be a missionary. Something I told my companion the other day because she asked me how I am always so positive and so happy all the time...I told her that, If you can learn to give your whole being over to the service of the Lord, to truly give to him all that you are and all that you want to be...he will bless you beyond measue and you will see so many more miracles. That is not an easy lesson to learn but I can truly testify because I have experienced it. If we can all learn to trust in the Lord...to turn ourselves over to him...he will make weak things become strong and her will bear us up...help us rise to our potential and he will open the windows of heaven and pour out blessings that we will not have room enough to recieve them. I love this Gospel and more importantly I love the Savior Jesus Christ. I am so grateful the Atonement and through it we all have to chance to repent and come unto Him. I hope you all have a great week! 

Love Hermana Dickey

Latina or Americana???


Drum roll please.....Hermana Dickey is indeed training an Americana!!! Heavenly Father really does answer prayers! My new companions name is Hermana Nicholls and she is from Tuscan Arizona. She currently has one whole week in the mission down and has not broken down one time! She is one tough cookie because this week we walked A LOT! I am so glad to be able to speak a little more english and it is way easier training someone who speaks your native language! She has had her first plate of Gallopinto and is getting used to the cold showers every morning. Haha! Her Spanish is pretty good and she is learning more and more everday! I understand how she feels though becuase when I first started I did not understand a word that anyone said to me. Everytime we go to someones house and the people start talking to her...her eyes just get really big and she looks at me so I can translate for her. It's so funny because I did the exact same thing to my trainer! She always tells me how bad she feels that I have to translate everything for her, but I just tell her not to worry about it because one day you will understand the language and speak it without it realizing it! That has happened to me just within the last 6 weeks with Hermana Ramos. Even though she was a tough companion, speaking spanish all day everday really helped me.

This past week was probably one of my greatest weeks and I know we worked hard because I had never been so excited to see my bed in my whole life until last week! We had a really great experience with an investigtor named Marlena and her sister Lea just a few days ago. We showed up at Marlenas house on Thursday and we had planned to teach her the first couple of principles of Lesson 2 (The Plan of Salvation). She invited us in to her house and her sister ended up being there too. We started with a hymn and a prayer like always and then started at the beginning of the lesson. I got about halfway through the first principle in the lesson and I could not feel the spirit at all. I could feel that Marlena and her sister Lea were bored and something just wasn´t working. I gave my comp a few minutes to share her testimony of how Christ knows us personally and as she did I just said a little prayer in my heart asking heavenly father to help us...to help us feel the spirit. Immidiately I felt that we needed to invite them to be baptized. So my comp finished her testimony and I shifted the lesson into baptism and shared some scriptures in 2 Nefi 31. Immidiately the spirit was there and they asked questions and shared thier thoughts, answers and scriptures just started coming to my mind. I felt prompted to also share our experience of how we found Marlena with her. One day we were walking down the street contacting doors and talking to people in the street. We were not having much success and it was starting to get really frustrating. We came to another street that we had contacted a billion times, but decided to contact again. I told Hermana Ramos (my old comp) before we started down that street that we should pray and ask for giudance....to be guided to someone who is prepared. So right there in the middle of the dirt road in the pouring we prayed. We continued down the street passing house after house not feeling anything. We arrived at the second to last house on the street and both of us at the same time said "That one"! I shared that story with Marlena and Lea and they both had tears streaming down thier faces. I told them It was no coincindence that we felt prompted to talk to her. She responded and told me that she had a really bad perspective of Mormons before we showed up to her door step. She said she felt something with us that she had nevre felt before and liked how it felt. I explained to her that was the Spirit of God testifying to her that the things we are teaching are true and that she can have that feeling forever when she is baptized by water and the spirit. Marlena and her sister both accepted the invitation to be baptized and are really working hard to prepare. This is just a true testimony to me that only the spirit converts people. When we showed up to their house my lesson plan was totally different than what ended up happening. I know when we are obidient and have the desire to work hard and to bring others unto Christ...The Lord will bless us in many ways.

I love this Gospel and I Absolutely love being a missionary! I would not change where I am at in my life EVER! Yes it is tough sometimes...but no one ever said it was easy! Sometimes you have to pass through the tough times to get to the good ones! I know that is true because I have experienced it! Hermana Nicholls and I are going to continue to work hard and this week and see many many more miracles! I hope you are all having a great summer and still not having to much fun without me! Stay safe...La Lucha es real!

Hermana Dickey

Well folks...another change has come and gone and the time just seems to be going faster and faster! I will complete 6 months this month and only have a year left! That´s not fair at all! It seems like just yesterday I was starting my first day in the MTC...totally oblivious to everything that was going on! This weekend we had changes and....Hermana Dickey will be training a newbie!! My companion Hermana Ramos got sent to Puerto Cabeza and I recieve my Hija tomorrow. There are 8 hermanas coming and 3 elders and most of them are American apparently so we will see if I train an American or a Latina....Vamos a ver! Anyways tomorrow I go to the mision home to have a meeting with all of the other missionarys who will be training and then tomorrow afternoon I wil recieve my hija and then...off to the races we go! I am so excited to train!!!

This past week was pretty good. We found a lady named Mary Luz who lives close to our house and she is HILARIOUS!!!! The only sad thing is that we have been totally friendzoned by her...its a little depressing not gonna lie! Everytime we go by for her she says Hola mis chicas and uses Vos with us...that`s when you really know you have been friendzoned. It`s ok though because we are going to work with her more and try to help really understand why we are here as missionaries. I have tried to explain that to her before but I guess it hasn`treally clicked. Yesterday we passed by her house to bring her to church and she was in the process of getting ready when we came to her door. We sat down and waited for her to get dressed and all of the sudden she came flying out of her room yelling VAMOS VAMOS mi Chicas and spraying her perfume all over us and the room...and it was probably the worst smelling perfume I have ever smelt in my life! Haha! And the worst part is all day on sunday people were asking me "Hermana Dickey why do you smell like that"! I just smiled and laughed and asked them how they were doing...I had no response!

I am doing really well over all and I am very excited to train! I will keep you updated on my Hija next week! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Love Hermana Dickey

Soy Nica....

1. When you think your investigator has a pet squirrel because it has a collar and is chained to the fence. Everyday you pass by to teach them the squirrel is fatter and fatter....and then one day Mr. squirrel is gone...Where did it go you might ask? One can only assume!