Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 🎉2019🎉

Dear ALL!

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! 

Catch-Up Email :-)

Dear friends and family,

I'm SO sorry for slacking on my emails. The fact that I haven't written in a while, however, does not mean I haven't seen miracles. It means the exact opposite! There are so many miracles that I get overwhelmed and run out of time thinking about them all. hahahha.

We got to participate in the Salvation Army Thanksgiving service project to feed the poor and homeless. It was a wonderful experience. I truly felt like I was serving the Savior! "When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, Ye are only in the service of your God" (Mosiah 2:17). One cute comment was by this old southern man that said, "my goodness, you people are the best!!" 

Another major highlight was that we all had the privilege of meeting Elder Holland. He came to the Visitors' Center for the annual lighting ceremony of the Festival of Lights. Although he is a spiritual giant, he was a little shorter than I expected! Haha. It was incredible meeting him.

We also started talking with the cutest lady from Bolivia at the Festival of Lights and she said she actually met with missionaries for about 8 months back in her country. She asked if there was any way that she could get in contact with Spanish missionaries again, and we were like OF COURSE! So we got her information and it turns out she is in our ward boundaries! She was in the Elders area but requested to be taught by sisters and our President gave us permission to teach her. She has so much faith and was able to make it church yesterday as well. Such a MIRACLE!!!

Also, I attached a little positive thinking activity that is found in Adjusting to Missionary Life and I think it applies to everyone. :) I love that book so much. "Seek ye out of the best books words of wisdom" (D&C 109:7). I highly encourage everyone to use it during any adjusting period in their life! 

I promise I have had the best few weeks. I can't tell it all, but I love it and I love all of you! 

Hermana Hayes 

9,000 Words

Dear Everyone, 

A picture is worth a thousand words.  Please enjoy this 9,000-word email. 

1. I'm obsessed with fall. 

2, 3. We just got a new exhibit at the Visitors' Center called the "prayer wall" and it is SO cute!!! Before there was a "Special Witness Wall" with the modern-day prophet and apostles but after a long survey was done throughout all the Visitors' Centers throughout the world, the greatest need for those walking in was a connection with God. Thus the prayer wall was born! :) 

4. My shoes lasted just long enough to last the summer. Winter is coming 

5, 7, 8. This wonderful woman was baptized in Indiana!!! ♥️♥️ She. Was. SO HAPPY! She ordered a Book of Mormon online in September. Despite her health challenges, (she was the one that popped her hip out over the phone a month or so ago hahaha) she was determined to make it to church and be baptized. I was able to watch her baptism via Skype and then call her afterward to congratulate her. When I asked her how she felt, she just cried and said, "I just feel SO good." Definitely the highlight of the week. 

6. Sweet members that visited us at the Visitors' Center  

9. We just found out today that I will be going back to the Spanish program this week. So here is our last picture together! Another English transfer short-lived.  But I wouldn't have traded it for the world. 

I can't complain, Brothers and Sisters. I love this great work no matter where I am. 

Here is one of my favorite scriptures from the testimony that Alma gives of Jesus Christ in the Book of Mormon that I read this week:

"[H]e cannot walk in crooked paths; neither doth he vary from that which he hath said; neither hath he a shadow of turning from the right to the left, or from that which is right to that which is wrong; therefore, his course is one eternal round."

Jesus Christ can't be wrong. It's impossible! When we trust in Him, we can't go wrong either. He is perfect, and I love Him for it. 

Have a wonderful week!! ♥️

Hermana Hayes