Hi Sammy,
Do you like our new bunny? His name is PePe or Sunny.
We got a really cool Mansion for PePe to live in. I call him PePe instead of Sunny.
He is really soft.
I miss you!
Skylar
April Fool's Bailey!!!
PePe!
Sunday, September 3, 2017
Letter from Mom to Sammy (April 2, 2017)
Hi Sammy,
How was your week?
Ours was jam-packed with games:
Jack had 2 baseball games.
Carson had 3 baseball games - a Wood Bat Baseball tournament this weekend. We had to buy Carson a wood bat for the tournament and it actually broke on one of his hits! A $129 bat that he used twice. :(
Bailey had 2 lacrosse games. She is busy because practices are every weekday from 6:00-8:00pm but it's good to be busy in high school!
Thursday evening I had my (last) relief society activity in my calling. I just learned that I'm being released from it. My new calling is assistant nursery leader. I guess I'll start that after conference. It's always an adjustment switching from one calling to another. I was hoping to stay in this calling longer but I guess there's another plan for me. :)
Conference - Conference has been awesome. Where do you guys watch it? It's so nice having a week off to watch it in pjs and on the couch. Skylar helped get the candy ready for the candy bowls - for the candy game.
April Fools Day - Skylar and I "peeped" Bailey's car. I'll send you a photo of it. Dad got Carson by taking out his cereal in his Cap'n Crunch box and replacing it with another bag of crummy Gluten Free cereal. Carson was pretty mad. So that was pretty funny.
I love you babe! You are doing such great things!
love & hugs,
mom
March 12 Letter from Sister Daynes
I know I sent this last week but for some reason I guess it didn't go
through! Well, here it is again!
Does anyone remember Chen Jie Mei, the woman we met at a 7/11 one of
my first weeks in Taiwan? The woman who was so anxious to learn about
the gospel, and who tried to drop us several times but couldn't
because she knew the Book of Mormon was true?
If you don't, that's ok. Basically we've been working with her ever
since I got to Taiwan and she has been very sick for the past month.
We finally met with her again this week and she was able to get a
priesthood blessing, which is a special blessing people can receive
that helps them to be healed. Well after the blessing, we started
talking to her and our bishop helped explain to her a little more
about baptism. He explained that it's something we do to become brand
new people. Our sins are washed away and we become completely clean.
Chen Jie Mei's eyes were lit up the whole time with so much hope and
longing. We asked her if she wanted to be baptized, and she said
yes!!! It's such a miracle. It's been a long time coming, but she is
learning and progressing and this gospel is changing her life for the
better. We love her and are so excited for her.
We also had a miracle this week in the form of a 12-year old boy named
Ryan who came to English class and we set up to teach him a lesson.
During weekly planning we were thinking about numbers for the week and
Sister Greenhalgh kept saying, "We're going to see miracles this week
because of Ryan, I can feel it." We laughed about it because we'd
never met with him so we had no idea if Ryan was going to have any
potential. Well we get to the lesson and it turns out he is so excited
to learn about Christ! Most of his family is Christian, we taught him
about prayer and the Book of Mormon and he has been praying every day
since we met him! He also came to church on Sunday! He also has
tourette syndrome so he twitches really bad, but when he talks it
doesn't bother him at all. He thinks this gospel can help him have
God's strength. He is so special because he is only 12 years old but
is so mature, and is super funny too! We can see big miracles in his
future.
Also, we saw a fire this week. That was interesting. We have an
investigator who is an ambulance driver (Kelvin, if anyone remembers
him) so every time we see an ambulance I look in the fornt window to
see if it's him.
Miracles happen every day here in Taiwan. It's crazy that I'm here and
sometimes it can be overwhelming. I am still slowly working on the
language and sometimes it can be really frustrating when I don't know
what anyone is saying. But I know there are angels bearing me up. And
when we see miracles through people like Chen Jie Mei and Ryan, it's
all worth it. Much love to you all.x
Sister Daynes
E-mail letter from Jack to Sammy (March 12, 2017)
So I am here and I had a good day today so yeah. Dad said he might buy a LEAF security cam set. That would be legit, cuz Max, Jak, Mason and I like to play this game called hide and go Helen. Jack has this manikin head named Helen and we play a game where somebody holds Helen and tries to jumpscare you. It's freaky, but if we had a LEAF system it would be so fun to play with the cameras. So yeah.
Jack. BTW I died. xP (turn head sideways)
LOL powers! :D
Monday, May 29, 2017
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Quick note to my parents - March 5, 2017
The only Disney on Ice ad I have seen anywhere in Taiwan.
Love you both!!!! So glad you're having a great time!
P.S. I wrote this to President this week:
Sister Greenhalgh is awesome. She is so kind and so good at her job. I'm learning a lot from her. I know I was really worried about switching companions, but just like you and the Lord and everyone else told me, everything worked out just fine. Sister Reeve compared her mission to a painting, and she said we need lots of different paintbrushes to complete the entire picture. If Sister Reeve was the big flowy paintbrush that sent color splattering all over the canvas, then Sister Greenhalgh is the black fountain pen that starts to etch a drawing onto the canvas. I love seeing what this canvas is turning out to look like.
Letter #20 - "Goodbye Until Tomorrow"
(Letter sent on Feb. 27, 2017)
It's been a whirlwind of a week. I am still in Yuanlin, but my wonderful companion Sister Reeve has been transferred to Gaoxiong, way down South. I have cried quite a lot this week...this girl absolutely changed my life, turned it upside down and made me into a better person. I love her to death. It's been an incredible 12 weeks.
My new companion is Sister Greenhalgh (pronounced Green-ouch). She was actually my STL last transfer, so I'd been on exchanges with her before! She has two transfers left so it looks like she'll get to finish her mission in Yuanlin. :)
We had a really cool contacting experience this week on our way back from a Sisters conference in Jiayi (down south). We were on a train and as we got on I felt like the man getting on behind me was important, I couldn't say why exactly, it was just a feeling. So we started talking to him and I felt really nervous because we would be on that train for an hour and a half and how would this conversation end, how long would it go on for before he lost interest? But it didn't end. Soon we figure out he speaks nearly FLAWLESS English so it suddenly becomes sooooo much easier for me to talk to him. He told us he believes in an invisible force that is God that supports us, but he's searched in different places before and has never really been sure who God is. We explained that he is a person of flesh and blood and he is our Father. We taught him to pray and although we didnt have a Book of Mormon on hand, we told him about the book and he asked "do you have an app for it?" and looked it up right there on his phone! Everything he said made it sound to me that this man is super prepared. He has been searching for God all his life. He's had hard experiences and has had to build himself up again, all the time relying on this force that he doesn't completely understand that supports him. Everything in his life has been culminating to that moment on the train, when we got to meet him. It was so amazing to be a tool in God's hands to see that moment happen. He lives in Tainan so we won't get to teach him, but it was still incredible. (Also, he is a huge Padres fan. He loves Tony Gwynn and his English name is Kevin Brown, after, you know, Kevin Brown. Call that what you will - I call it a miracle).
-Amusement park with my adorable companion
-All the sisters in the Southern part of the mission at a conference :)
-This morning as we were walking Sister Greenhalgh's luggage to the apartment, our Relief Society President pulled over and insisted we let her load Sister G's bags onto her motorcycle!!!! It was the funniest thing I'd ever seen.P.S. above caption is from "the last five years"
Letter #19 - "Do you have anywhere we can get our picture taken, like a photo store?" -Uncle Rico
Excuse the strange title. See photos for clarification. (Letter sent on Feb. 21, 2017)
If this is my last week in Yuanlin, then I'm so grateful that I was able to serve here. While it's not perfect by any means, Yuanlin has become a bit of a heaven on earth for me. I wish I had the language skills to express to these people how much I love them. They have put a handprint on my heart. We won't know til next week if I'm leaving or staying, but time has gone so fast. Sister reeve and I want to work super hard for our last week. We have so much work to do.
The elders had a baptism Friday night and they realized last minute they had no one to play the piano. Somehow I was called on to play (be proud of me, Mom). I played every song I knew in the hymnbook and was feeling pretty good, but then our ward mission leader said "and now we will sing I am a child of God" which I had never played before!! Uhh... I struggled through it and it was very off key, but everyone told me it was fine. Oh well.
Last thing- one of our english class students came to church on sunday. He's an older man and is a little strange. near the end of sacrament meeting, he turned around in his seat and handed Sister Reeve and I a couple of pictures he took in 1993 of him with his shirt off. We quickly got up and left the chapel because we couldn't hold in our laughter, then started laughing our heads off! It was so ridiculous! So included for your viewing pleasure....
Photos this week also include lots of food and heart shaped pancakes on Valentines Day :)
Also! Next week cuz of transfer changes my P day willl be on tuesday.
Much love!!! sister Daynes
Monday, February 20, 2017
Is watermelon sweet? Dad in Taichung (Feb. 14,2017)
Dad sneaking a selfie with Sammy's companion, Sis. Reeve. (Sammy was in a meeting with her mission president, Pres. Loh)
Dad explaining to Sis. Reeve's parents about his sneaking around in Yuan Lin:
Brother & Sister Reeve,
Hey! I'm the father of Sister Daynes, your daughter's companion. I just wanted to share with you how happy we've been with the first two months (in country) for our daughter. Your daughter seems to be the perfect companion for ours and she's been so positive about the whole experience. Thank you so much! I've been wanting to send your daughter an email thanking her for being so great to Sammy (our daughter) but I don't know her first name. Can you send me her email address?
I also need to apologize to her for putting her in an awkward position this past week. I feel really bad about how everything happened so quickly but I hope it will be a good story some day. You may be hearing from her about the experience and her story may be different but, here's what happened:
I was in Taiwan on a business trip and my wife sent me with a backpack full of goodies for Sammy. I got on a train and headed down to Taichung. I went to the mission office to drop off the package and I spent about a half hour there talking to the missionaries... and a senior couple who would have talked for hours if I'd let them. I should have gone back to Taipei at that point, but I got in a taxi and was curious to see Yuanlin. The only reference point I had was the LDS church so my taxi dropped me off there. My goal was to just cruise around the town, take some photos and then leave without being seen. Thanks to google maps it wasn't difficult to find the church. So, the chapel there was really nice and it looked empty. I started walking around the building and I walked by a window and a girl inside looked surprised to see me. I had been spotted so I hustled around the back of the church trying to figure out what to do. Then, I saw that this girl had come over to another side door and I could tell it was your daughter. She had spotted me and I'm pretty sure she knew who I was (because they knew that I was supposed to be in Taichung that week). Soon, I saw two Elders looking over her shoulder. I wasn't sure what to do so I was kind of waving at them to pay no attention to me... thinking that I could hide or something... but then I waved them over. Sister Reeve and the two elders ran toward me and she said "what are you doing?!!!" And, I explained "I don't want her (Sister Daynes) to know I'm here. Where is she?" And, Sister Reeve explained that Sister Daynes was inside having an interview with the mission president! Oops! Awkward situation! So, I just took a selfie with Sister Reeve and the two elders and I said, "don't tell her that I was here!" and as they ran back in she said, "Okay! you're crazy!" Then I hustled out of the church parking lot, hailed a cab, and went back to the train station. I'm feeling pretty guilty about the whole experience... and I didn't even see my daughter. I put them in an awkward situation and I feel bad about that. The photo, however, is classic. I'm not sure if your daughter or the Elders told my daughter about the encounter but if they do, I hope it will be fine. I probably could have hid outside the church somewhere and tried to get a photo of them but I was kind of spooked because the mission president was there and I didn't want them to get in trouble for my immaturity. My wife thinks I'm crazy but it is pretty funny that I got in there, got a photo with the other three missionaries and wasn't spotted by my daughter (as far as I know). I hope they're not too mad at me.
I'd like to send this photo to your daughter, and leave it up to her if she wants to share with my daughter.
Mike Daynes
Our first e-mail from Sammy after she heard about dad's "phantom visit" to Yuan Lin:
I was in the middle of my interview when I saw you walk past with a big leprechaun grin on your face (I was in the room right next to where Sister Reeve was). I said "Oh my gosh...that looks like my dad. I've been thinking about my dad a lot because he's in Taipei right now...that can't be him. Sorry about that, what were you saying?" The only way I was able to finish the interview is because I convinced myself it couldn't possibly have been you. Then I came out of the room and asked if anybody had seen a waiguoren, Sister Teh said yes, she had seen you running away and was sorry because she likes to talk to waiguoren and would've liked to talk to you. So...then I kind of started freaking out. At first I was giddy, and then we left and went to a 7/11 and I started to cry. I won't lie to you, I cried a lot that day. I couldn't believe you were RIGHT THERE and I hadn't gotten to talk to you. I wasn't so much angry about the fact that you'd shown up as I was about the fact that I hadn't gotten to talk to you.
Our first e-mail from Sammy after she heard about dad's "phantom visit" to Yuan Lin:
I was in the middle of my interview when I saw you walk past with a big leprechaun grin on your face (I was in the room right next to where Sister Reeve was). I said "Oh my gosh...that looks like my dad. I've been thinking about my dad a lot because he's in Taipei right now...that can't be him. Sorry about that, what were you saying?" The only way I was able to finish the interview is because I convinced myself it couldn't possibly have been you. Then I came out of the room and asked if anybody had seen a waiguoren, Sister Teh said yes, she had seen you running away and was sorry because she likes to talk to waiguoren and would've liked to talk to you. So...then I kind of started freaking out. At first I was giddy, and then we left and went to a 7/11 and I started to cry. I won't lie to you, I cried a lot that day. I couldn't believe you were RIGHT THERE and I hadn't gotten to talk to you. I wasn't so much angry about the fact that you'd shown up as I was about the fact that I hadn't gotten to talk to you.
That night when I'd calmed down some Sister Reeve told me she'd seen you and that actually made me feel a lot better. I was glad you'd talked to somebody. I'm very certain that the whole thing was God's arrangement, Shen de ampai. You happened to show up EXACTLY when I was in the interview, and I just so HAPPENED to be facing the window. It was too perfect not to be arranged by God. This leads me to wonder what he wanted me to learn from it, other than to become a walking testimony of the white handbook. Maybe you can shed some light on that for me.
I don't want to make you feel super bad because I know you're just being you. But yes, President Teh does know lol. I'll write him a letter this wek and explain a little. I don't think he faults you, Sister Teh was pretty cool with it. She reasoned that because you're in the country you'd do anything to see your daughter. Its lame you didnt actually see me though. I read the email you wrote to Sister Reeve, it had a lot of the answers to the questions I've been dying to ask you all week. And it was a hard couple of days but I got better as the week went on. If it makes you feel better, I was incredibly upset not because I was mad but because I miss you so impossibly much and wanted to talk to you so so so bad. Anyway yeah I'm going to end this before I cry more. Love you. You really are pretty flippin awesome. :)
Thank you! - Feb. 5, 2017
Story time:
This week we taught a less active family. The dad is the Elders Quorum President but his 2 daughters, aged 12 and 15, are less active. They haven't been to church in who knows how long. They just don't want to get up early and they don't care (even though the church is right down the street from their house). After we visited them, I found myself feeling so grateful for a family where going to church every week wasn't an option. Yes we protested and slept in and were often late, but it was never a question: If you're a Daynes, you go to church. When that isn't emphasized, people fall away from the joy of the gospel.
We invited the family to read the Book of Mormon together every night. Usually when I teach lessons I will just open my mouth and say whatever the flip pops into my head. I just need to trust that God will give me the words. Well, during this lesson I all of a sudden started telling this family about my own family. I told them how "every week I email them and ask them if they're reading the Book of Mormon. Sometimes they don't like to do it, but when they read together, they're happier, the house is more peaceful, and they don't fight as much. I know reading the Book of Mormon will bless your family, because it has blessed mine."
So I just wanted to thank all of you. I'm so so grateful I was able to grow up in the church and that you're all reading together. I know I sound like a broken record, but it really is so important. Share this story with whoever you want.
I love you all so much :)
Love,
Sammy
Letter to my Family - "Time to Change" - Brady Bunch (Jan. 29, 2017)
I'm here! Thanks for all the emails you've been sending, I'm reading through them right now.
Yes of course I heard about the new missionary schedule, I'm a missionary XD We had a big mission conference with half the mission in it. No I didn't meet Elder Pothier. I met Elder Daines tho and he's a pretty nice guy. I told him I spell it the right way. At the end of the broadcast they announced the changes in schedule and every missionary in the room was at the edge of their seats. "What's it gonna be??? What's happening???" We were so scared. They announced that now we're gonna do planning in the morning instead of at night, which means we get to come home and get straight into our PJs instead of having to plan for half an hour!!! Yes!!! We also have free time from 9-10:30 at night now (as opposed to 9:30-10:30) so we can choose to go to bed whenever we want now!!! YAAAAAASSSS an extra hour of sleep!!!!!! Gah I'm so excited. I might actually have some free time now!!! Speaking of which, I sent you all a letter, let me know when you get it.
The morning schedule changed too, now we do planning for 30 mins, personal study for an hour, then leave the house and go proselyting. We get to do our 30-60 mins of comp study and 60 mins of language study basically whenever we want throughout the day. So we have a lot more freedom and we get out of the house earlier. This is awesome because due to the schedule I have cuz I'm in training, sis Reeve and I wouldn't get to leave the house until noon (if we stayed inside for lunch, we won't leave the house until 1). But now we have so much freedom! We also get to leave the house earlier on P days so we get 2 EXTRA HOURS OF TIME!!!! It's heaven. I might start coming to email you all earlier now since we get out of the house at 8, but Sister reeve and I went to the market this morning and bought fruit. It was fun :)
I'll write you some more in a bit :) How y'all been?
Love, Sammy
PHOTOS in Yuan Lin - Sent on Jan. 1, 2017
Christmas day/Christmas Eve Pageant
We went to Narnia (flipping awesomerestaurant)
The district at Narnia plus the bishop and his wife
The Chus again :)
Sunday, February 19, 2017
PHOTOS From Taiwan - Sent on Jan. 1, 2017
ALL the pictures!!!!!!
1) the magical Sister Reeve
2) MY COMP DREW ME!!!!!! (she is an AMAZING artist btw)
3. PEOPLE AT THE MTC: This is Sister Chu!!!!! She just left us to go to the MTC and is going to Brisban, Australia! This girl is amazing. She is so sweet and knows some English so she has been so helpful in translating stuff for me!!!If you're at the MTC take care of her for me. She is so special :)
4.We made a Christmas tree :)
5. Christmas day dinner! We literally threw together everything we have in the kitchen
6. The Chu family!!!!! These peoplehave been so amazing. Brother Chu is the ward mission leader and they take care of us:)
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