New Year New Me

NEW NEW NEW READ ALL ABOUT IT!!

wow so much happened this week! Let's get right into it

RECAP:

☆Wow 2025 HOW is that possible?? You guys I legit feel like it was just 2020 and we were going thru covid

☆lots and lots of "widows" or "viudas" on new years eve where men dress up as women with wigs and wear dresses, they stop traffic just to dance and beg for cents. Legitimately the weirdest thing I've ever seen. Don't even ask me why its a tradition here but all I know is that we had to be in our houses at 7:30 and I didn't get in my house until 9:30 jkjk there's a valid reason, I wasn't disobedient!

☆went to Santo domingo (the furthest area for the hermanas in the coast) (basically I dream of going there cuz its legit jungle and I'm obsessed just a little bit) and IT WAS SO SO COOL! I got to go there for our leadership conference and learned a ton about how we can be better as leaders! Pictures below!

☆a guy called us from jail asking about how he can come closer to God, wanted us to go visit him in jail

- the 5 hour bus ride to Santo Domingo, windiest roads I've ever been on, and had pot holes every 5 seconds so we actually just swerved and my zone leader and I actually almost vomited but the scenery was beautiful! Drove thru jungles the whole time

☆we're teaching a 23 yr old guy thats speaks spanish, english, Ukrainian, and russian who wants to be a pilot

☆we're teaching a girl named Shakira

☆BAPTISM FOR JAYSBELI!!! Next Tuesday is comin a little too fast but I'm SO excited!!! We have 3 more fechas bautismales just waitingggg to happen but they just have to attend church next Sunday! I'll keep you updated

SPIRITUAL!

At this point I only have less than a year left in my mission BUT this year 2025 we've got some big things comin! New year new me right?

We had a devotional with our President and his wife the other day and they talked a lot about change. Change of our hearts and how we can be changed through Him. This morning I was studying a BYU talk about the Atonement that I really loved. There was a quote that said, "The peace of God, which passeth all understanding an inner calm and comfort born of the Spirit that is a gift of God to all of his children, an assurance and serenity within a person’s heart". And that really spoke to me because my main goal in the little time I have left here, is give everything over to my Savior. And with the peace that we can always find is in His Atonement. 

There's a quote by C.S. Lewis that says, "Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, so much of our talents and money, and so much of your work. I want YOU. All of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man, but to kill it. No half measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and another there; rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart shall become your heart."

I think you might understand a little bit of why I love that quote so much haha. But really that is my goal. My one and only goal for this year so I can solely focus on that and only that. I want to be a different person at the end of this year. I want to reflect Christ in every action I make, every word I say, and every thought in my mind. I cannot WAIT to see what 2025 holds!!! I invite you all to join me in this goal, make everything centered around your Savior Jesus Christ, the only person in the world who truly knows and understand you. I testify that if we can do this with Him and His Atonement, we will change. Our will, will become His and our hearts shall become His. 

Thought it would be fun to switch it up and put my pictures here!! All of them are in my Google photos!

Les amo mucho have an amazing week!

Xoxo

Hermana Jones