Sister Sammy Daynes

Flight Plans (Nov. 23, 2016)

We got our flight plans early!!! Our elders surprised us and we freaked out. Flight plans are a huge deal here.

We leave SLC on Dec 6 at 9:40 AM, get to San Fran at 11 am. Leave San Fran at 12:20 pm, get to Taipei at 6:25 PM on Dec 7. Then a 2 hour drive from the airport to the mission home in Taichung. Soooo excited!!!!

Letter #7 - "For The Longest Time" - Billy Joel (Nov. 16, 2016)

I feel like this is the theme song of my entire mission so far. This song has been stuck in my head for weeks and I'm always humming it, but nobody can remember the words. Somebody should send me the lyrics.

Not much to say this week. Just know that I'm alive and well. And I am STILL HERE. I swear I've been here for the longest time.

I really do love the MTC. But this has probably been one of the hardest weeks here. What I do know is that God and the enabling power of Jesus Christ's Atonement is real. When I am at my weakest, He will strengthen me. He will build me up. Last night I was really stressed and was sitting in the hall of our building. Then two random sisters found me in the hall and asked if they could say a prayer with me. I felt so much better afterward. I knew God had sent them. I think that Sisters also have the power to give priesthood blessings, because I felt strongly that the prayer we said was them giving me a blessing. It was amazing.

Some great things have been happening too! Last night Elder Gary E Stevenson of the 12 spoke to us. Nobody was expecting an apostle so that was a nice surprise.

My dear cousin Sister Daynes, who was here in the MTC with me for 3 weeks, just departed to Colorado! I had a picture but can't get it to upload. She is wonderful and it was such a blessing to see her and talk to her all the time.

Also, if you are going on a mission or even relatively thinking about going on one, you need to read a thing called the Ricciardi Letter. IT IS SO GOOD. It changed my thinking in so many ways about a mission and mission life. Go read it!

Much love to you all. God is real and He will love and support you in your afflictions. Wo ai nimen!

Sister Daynes

Letter to my Family -"Gonna make it, gonna make it, gonna make it" -Lucky Day, the Three Amigos (Nov. 2, 2017)

Letter To My Family from the MTC:

Sister McCabe has been teaching me to use the weight machines in the gym and every time we do them I think of Lucky Day in prison. Plus this is sometimes how I feel in getting through the day haha. And through out long 9 weeks.

Have any of you seen the Testaments? Please watch it, it's awesome!

How's BOM reading? ;)

Everyone loved your awesome care packages Mom! Ok so our STLs SiS Loo Sis Clark moved in with us and Sis Loo is generally a pretty grumpy person. So Sis McCabe came up with the idea to use the silly string on her. So one morning after we came back from breakfast (when we're all still exhausted and dead tired) Sis Loo and Sis Clark weren't back yet and we turned off the lights and got the silly string ready. Then when they came in we sprayed them! Sis Loo was mad. I felt kinda bad becauseit's me but all my other roommates didn't feel bad at all lol. She immediately went to the laundry room to wash the silly string off her sweatshirt. But she came back and said "Is this how white girls play pranks?" And that's how we knew she'd forgiven us. It was soooooooooo funny! I'm not sure what you thought we woulduse silly string for but I'm glad we put it to good use!

Also Sis Hoskins gave everyone in the zone one of the halloween stickers you gave us and we all wore them on our nametags on halloween. Twas fun.

By the way Carson, do you know a Vita Sitakema? Former NFL, now ESPN anchor. He gave us a devotional a few weeks ago and it was way good.

Also do we know an Ali Pendegrass? The name sounds super familiar.

Sky, what award did you get in school? (Loved the DearElders this week by the way!! <3)

I SAW SISTER DAYNES!!!!!! I ran up behind her and surprised her in the cafeteria. We're in the same building, she's on the floor above me! Plus I see her around a lot so we get to talk and stuff! It's awesome.

So Sister McCabe and Sister Young were each other for Halloween, and it was legit the funniest thing I've ever seen. Sis Young hated wearing Sis McCabe's clothes, which Sis McCabe thought was hilarious. Sis Loo and Sis Clark are also polar opposites (literally dark and light) so they were each other as well. Sis Hoskins and I didn't switch because she didn't want to wear my clothes lol. Not sure if I should be offended. Still working on not feeling a little left out when she hangs out with Sister Young (or two brand new sisters who just came into the zone and who Sister H and Y have decided are their soulmates). But things are so so so much better than they were that I'm just very grateful.

New letter on its way! Also, remember those family names we took to the temple? Do you guys want to do those names? If not you can send me the initiatories/endowments and I can get them done, at least if they're sent very soon. If you have my ligers shirt that would be sweet too, but don't sweat it if not.

Love you so so so much!

Sister Daynes

Photos from the MTC - sent on Nov. 2, 2017

1) District fun

2) All the new sisters

3) Sis Loo and Sis Clark, switched personalities, and Sis Young and Sis McCabe, switched personalities

4) Sis Young and McCabe. They've come so far.

5) So proud of this shot. I took the picture and it was totally candid. Love all their reactions.

6) One more

Letter #5 - "It's Comforting How Some Things Never Change Do They?" - The Waitress (Nov. 2, 2017)

"The day starts like the rest we've seen, another carbon copy of an old routine..."

The days are blending into each other and this was probably the fastest week of my life. We hit our halfway point on Friday!! Sometimes we forget that we'll actually leave here someday. It seems like a faraway dream. But as always I'm loving it here. I constantly feel as though we have so much to learn and I'll never know enough of the language, but when all the new districts came in I was able to see how far I've come. They'll ask us questions about how to say something and I'll be like "wow, I actually know how to respond to that."

So one morning I come out of the bathroom after getting ready to go to exercise- I usually go on splits with Sister McCabe and we walk to the field- and find that she has LEFT ME. This is super against mission rules so I didn't know what to do! I was all alone since all 10 sisters in our zone had left! Plus I was locked out of my room. So I walk to the front desk all by myself to get a key and then Sister McCabe comes running into the office, super breathless and apologetic. She'd gone to the field with another sister and somehow forgotten me! It was so funny.

We were giving the first lesson to each other in Mandarin one day and I couldn't stop smiling. You know why? Because WE CAN SAY THE ENTIRE FIRST LESSON IN MANDARIN! Our pronounciation is probably terrible and we would have no idea what to say if someone asked us a question, but we can do it! It's incredible how far the Lord has brought us from when we first arrived. With more practice hopefully we can get even better.

We guessed an apostle was coming to speak to us due to the buzzing that was spreading around the MTC. Our choir director told us it would be a big night so there was all kinds of speculation about who it would be. (This is what missionaries talk about in the MTC). My guess was President Nelson and I hit it right on the money! He is amazing. Probably my favorite apostle. We sang "Praise to the Man" and it was so powerful. Our director told us all about Joseph Smith and his life, and the story of W.W. Phelps writing that song. The story is incredible. Joseph Smith was such an amazing man and prophet.

We had a lesson this week where we asked our investigator, Yu Yong Xin, (who is actually our teacher) to pray and ask the Lord if he was there. We told him that prayer was like talking to God as if you were on the phone. So he bowed his head and said "Nihao, Tianfu. (Hello, Heavenly Father)." He prayed to know if ther Lord was there. He was quiet for a really long time. Then he said "Xiexie. Zaijian. (Thank you. Goodbye)." He told us that he'd heard a voice telling him that God was there. He knew that God had answered his prayer! It was so incredible. We left the room and were just jumping up and down, so excited. It was our first lesson where our investigator had made a really big step.

If God loved our fake investigator enough to give him that answer and to let us feel the spirit in that lesson, think what God will do for our investigators in the field? God loves us and wants to hear from us. Just by praying we can receive so much strength and hope.

We also watched the Testaments one night and I cried my eyes out. I hadn't seen it in years and the end is so amazing. If you haven't seen it, it's only like an hour long. I highly recommend it!

Much love to all of you! Hope you have an amazing week!!!

Sister Daynes