What an adventure this has been! I CAN NOT beleive that this is my last letter home and last week in the mission field. Words can not describe the flood of emotions that are going on in my heart right now. It has truly been a blessing and even better stated, an honor to wear this Black name tag and share the message of the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ in the Spanish language for the past year and a half of my life. I have been greatly blessed and am so glad that I accepted the call. 

I got asked very frequently throughout my mission why I was here. Why I gave up everything just to "preach" to people. And do you want to know what my response was everytime...I gave up a lot of things not to just preach to people, but simply to share what I know to be good and true, through the power and gift of the holy ghost...that if they wanted to know as well, all they had to do was ask. That started some very great lesson. Haha! I have learned so much on my mission this letter would be a million pages long if I were to write out all of those things...but thats what journals are for right? But I think the biggest lesson I have learned is how to Trust in the Lord. Not just learn about having trust, but how to trust. The Lord has tested me so much in the mission in so many different ways as he does in our daily lives and I have learned how to truly turn my decisions over to him and do what He would have me do...and I know that is something I will be able to carry over into my life. I feel like one of the biggest challenges for us as mortal beings is to put our Natural man eyes aside and look through the eyes of the Lord. I learned how to frequently ask myslef "What would the Lord have me do?" or "How would my savior act in this situation?" and that is when not only our faith is tested but also when we put our trust in him...and then results are a strengthened testimony, blessings and progress to becoming more like Him. I have had the priviledge to see first hand how the Gospel changes and strengthens people. But do you want to know why? Because they trust. They read the Book of Mormon with real intent. They pray with a desire to recieve answers. They come before the Lord with broken hearts and contrite spirits looking to be healed and reconstructed...and by that faith and trust alone they become converted instead of convinced. I have seen it happen in so many lives, in so many homes of families that are now eternal. It is truly a miracle and a Gift from God to have this Gospel on the earth.

I Love my mission with all my heart. Nicaragua is a very poor, but very blessed country. People reach out to help others before they even help themsleves. The 10 cordobas they were going to use to buy a bag of rice to eat for dinner, they wil willing give to the Lord as their fast offering because of their faith and trust in the Lord. I love this Gospel. I love my savior. I love Nicaragua and His children that live here. I know he lives. I love you all and hope you have a great week! I will see you all next week!

For the last time... Hermana Dickey

Hey everyone!!!

I hope you all had a wonderful week as usual! Congrats to all those High school graduates out there! YOU DID IT!!! I am so excited and proud of all of you! Soooo this week was probably the best week of my mission so you are really going to want to pay attention to this email!! Actually I don't know if I could say it was the best week but it was pretty darn close!

So as you all know by now...here in Matagalpa we are fighting really hard to turn these branches into wards and this District into a stake. It has been a lucha for years...and the day has finally come! Elder Maravilla from the 70 came to our district conference this last weekend to observe...as in what the attendance was like in the meeting. He was also mainly focused on the amount of pristhood holders ordained on sunday and the asistance in the priesthood session. That was the main chalenge for us as a district and Elder Maravilla put us to the test. Last year at this conference there were about 100 bretheren at the priesthood session and on sunday for the general session there were about 300. So our goal as missinaries was to really animate the less actives and mainly sacerdocios to show Elder Maravilla that Matagalpa is worthy of having a stake! We worked together with the members to really get things moving and we were doing really well. FINALLY saturday came! The big day! Test Day! But when we wole up saturday morning we woke up to rain...and I am not just talking a little sprinkle, I mean a full on rain storm! by 8 saturday morning the streets were literally rivers! When we went to go work the water waided up to my knees..andI was on the sidewalk! And you know what it means when it rains here...NO ONE LEAVES THERE HOUSES!!! Literally the streets were empty! I just thought to myself silently how in the world were we going to be able to pull this off when people don't want to leave. After the adult session saturday morning our whole zone gathered around in the gym...got in a big circle and knelt down. We said a prayer together asking the Lord to bless all of the brothers to still have the desire to come and to help the rain let up enough that people would leave their homes. We got up and all scatterd running to our areas to start getting brothers to the church! The meeting started at 6 and we saw a HUGE miracle that day. at 5 oclock satuday afternoon the rain all of the sudden turned into a little drizzle...perfect timeing to get people to the church. The meeting started at 6 and one by one brotheren entered into the sacrament room. by 6 30 it started to pour again...but I will tell you that room was full of 210 brotheren dressed in white shirts and ties! 210!!! All of us sisters arrived around 730 to see how many people had come, we were soaking wet...but when we looked into that room and saw all of those white shirts tears filled our eyes! It was truly a miracle! The Lord had helped us so much because we did and are still doing His will! The next day on sunday in the general session we had an atendance of 628 people! even the gym in the back was full! It was a week full of miracles and Elder Maravilla was VERY impressed! We got authorization to send the papers to salt lake so we will know by the end of this month if MATAGALPA becomes a stake...after years of being a district! I am so extremly blessed to be part if this great work here in Matagalpa and I know the Lord had big things planned not only in Matagalpa but in Nicaragua! One more stake means we are one step closer to a temple!

I LOVE this Gospel! I hope you all have a fantastic week!

Hermana Dickey