Happy Valentine's Day

Querida familia y amigos,

I just want to start off by saying that I love you all so much!!!! I'm so grateful for the emails, Valentine's day wishes, and prayers. Every time we get a referral,  someone lets us in their door, or we are fed by a member, I always attribute it to your many prayers. 

In preparation for the Zone Conference we had last week, we were asked to study the talk "Improving Your Personal Prayers" by Elder Kevin W. Pearson. In it, he asks the question, "What would listening to your personal prayers reveal about you and your relationship with Heavenly Father?" 

Are we mechanical? Do we doze off?...Maybe even fall asleep? 

"If we do not take the time to humble ourselves and carefully consider that we are about to call upon God the Eternal Father in the name of Jesus Christ, we will miss the very essence of the divine pattern established to bless us."

I've thought a lot about prayer this week and I LOVE what one of my cute friend's recent converts said, "You can't prank call God." It's so TRUE!!! Are you calling to speak with God? Are you leaving Him a message? Or did you dial on accident? 

I know God loves us and WANTS us to communicate with Him!! He wants to bless us with the things that we need. We just need to ask. :) 

Hermana Hayes 

Fotos:

1 & 2: First time translating from English to SPANISH at a monthly event we have at the Visitors Center called "Why I Believe". Converts of the month volunteer to speak and share their conversion story! A slideshow is also put together of all the converts that month. SO FUN!!!!

3 & 5: Last time going to the temple before it closes for 2 years with cute Hermana Chavez. She is the best. She and her husband and two kids were baptized 2 years ago and sealed in the Seattle temple last year! Her husband is our current ward mission leader and they. are. AMAZING!

4 & 6: Our Zone Conference Valentine's day lunch ♥️

5: Feeling at home!

6: Our recent convert Nora  OooooOoooh she is seriously so funny.

If you couldn't guess, I have loved this week. :) 

Pictures!

Pictures!

Love

Dear friends and family,

I am officially at a loss with words. There are a lot of words I could use to describe my week, but none could ever accurately paint the picture or express how I feel. I can list off events or experiences that I have had, but the emotions of the mission are impossible to express...

But if I had to pick a word to put it all in one, that word would be "love".

Love for God, love for the Savior, love for the scriptures, love for temples, love for my companions, love for the beautiful people of Washington DC, love for my mission parents, love for the food, love for cold, humidity, wind, and rain, love for dresses and skirts, love for sore legs and prayers on our knees...love love LOVE!! 

Just when I thought my heart couldn't take any more love or it might EXPLODE, we received a referral for a less-active in the ward that had recently moved here from Honduras. I won't use his name for the sake of privacy, but listen to his words and tell me you don't love him:

"Sisters, thank you so much for visiting me. I was visited by missionaries about 3 years ago when I was baptized. I want to be who I was 3 years ago. I want to repent, baptize my family, and prepare to serve a mission...but what I'd love the most is to see my three little sisters serve one themselves." 

In Preach My Gospel it says, "As your understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ grows, your desire to share the gospel will increase. You will feel, as Lehi did, the 'great ... importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth'". 

The determination and sincerity in his voice was yet another testimony to me that the Atonement of Jesus Christ changes lives. There is no doubt in my mind that this man has experienced the purifying, cleansing, and redeeming power of the Atonement. His desire to spread the good news of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ left the impression so deeply planted in the heart of the reality of a Savior who atoned for the sins of the world. 

"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him NOT. 

Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

All we, like sheep, have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all.

He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb so he opened not his mouth.

He was taken from prison and from judgment; and who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the land of the living; for the transgressions of my people was he stricken.

And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no evil, neither was any deceit in his mouth.

Yet IT PLEASED THE LORD to bruise Him..." Mosiah 14:3-10

... And this because of the unconditional love burning in his heart for every human soul. 

I love Jesus Christ, and I say it in His holy name, Amen. 

Hermana Hayes