I hope you had the happiest holidays celebrating the most wonderful time of the year. I can't believe 2018 has come to a close.
I got thinking that anytime anyone mentions anything that happened in 2018, I'll only have memories from my mission. What a sacred, exciting, glorious year it has been. I've never felt more emotions in my entire life than in the last year. It was without a doubt the best year of my life so far. 
I'm looking forward to 2019 and how many more blessings the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bring to my life and the lives of those around me. I am SO EXCITED to do "Come, Follow Me" because I know it is a manual inspired (and basically written) by God. I'm so grateful for modern-day revelation!
And most of all I am eternally grateful for my older brother Jesus Christ who was with me in 2018 and in years past and who will be with me in 2019 and every year after that!
In 3 Nephi 18:35 He says, "And ye see that I have commanded that none of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might feel and see..."
It is a commandment to feel and to see the Atonement of Jesus Christ work in our lives! My hope and prayer is that despite all the emotions and feelings we may have, that we may make the time to feel the prints of the wounds in the Savior's hands and feet. He loves us!
That's my simple testimony, everyone! I'm honored to be a missionary and carry His name everywhere I go.
I also am SO SAD that I didn't even get a picture of my favorite tree ever at the Visitors' Center. It was covered in pure red lights and it was brighter than any of the rest. All of the lights on the tree made me think of Jesus Christ of course, but I liked to call the red one "The Atonement Tree." I didn't just think of Christ's life when I saw it, but I thought of what He did for me in the garden of Gethsemane. I know it's only because of Him that I can return to live with God and my familia forever! And I share it in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.
Hermana Hayes
1. Connie and Kevin work at the Visitors' Center and they are two of my favorite people in the world.
2. I was SO happy to see Hermana Alvarado and her family from the Glenmont ward!
3. Blanca wanted us to have a cute door for Christmas. Hahaha.
4 and 5. Celebrating Hermana Martell's birthday with empanadas and tres leches from the yummiest panadería by where we live.
6. Sister Rosas and Sister Blandon with cute Fibi.
7. Francisco, one of the people Sister Martell and I taught in Glenmont came to the Visitors' Center and brought us both king-sized blankets. Haha!
