Annie's Final Email from the MTC....before all the travel drama!

My District!  LOLZ!  Love em

i have legit zero time this week but here is a real quick update!!!!

-the temple was so amazing today. i will give you more deets when i have more time but basically i had such a special experience learning about Grandpa Daines and i think it could have caused me a lot of anxiety and stress but i heard about it in the temple and the new temple president and he really helped me feel peaceful and calm and ok about everything. it was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life and just really helped me to know how much God is looking out for me in specific and what an amazing blessing that is. 

-momma i loved that postagram SO MUCH!!! it was the coolest thing ever!! all my friends who are reading this on my blog---- GET POSTAGRAM AND SEND IT TO ME!! or whatever its called. it just made my whole day. also loved that pic of me and daniel lolol. what a freak. 

- the temple dedication was last week! it was SO amazing and beautiful. i love the temple. i love the MTC. i loved that i got to be at the MTC while dedicating a temple. what a GREAT time to be in the Provo MTC!! Heavenly Father loves me so much. 

- The Sunday Devotional was Grandpa Daines' friend Merril J. Bateman who actually went on his mission to London!! so I got to talk to him and shake his hand afterward! he gave a gerally great devotional. 

-dad: to answer your question: WHAT HAVENT I LEARNED?!?!?!?! i am learning so much,,, more than i can put in an email... but the biggest things that come to mind right now are how much God loves us, how wonderful missionary work is, and how blessed I am to be here. I heard a devo from elder Holland about how to work hard and have no regrets and dont miss this amazing amazing opportunity. it's not my time, its the Lord's time, and I need to leave everything else at home. 

- DONT SEND ANY OTHER LETTERS OR PACKAGES TO THE MTC!!!!!!!!!!!!! seriously you have no idea how much they mean to me and how happy they make me, but i dont want to miss anything!! so from now on send everything to the mission address!!!! please!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU I LOVE YOU ALL YOU ALL MEAN SO MUCH TO ME

-also im in choir for the Easter Devotional this sunday!!! i am SO lucky! i am so so so so so so excited to spend easter in the MTC. seriously it is gonna be so amazing and i am like 40% convinced that Elder Holland is gonna be the speaker. im convinced. 

- daddy! we sang brightly beams our fathers mercy one day and it totally made me think of you because i forgot it was your favorite song! until we sang it and i almost started crying because i thoought of you on your mission and how hard it was! but it is a beautifl song. also-- SO STOKED THAT CLARA IS LIVING IN 1109 STOVER. THE LEGACY LIVES ON!!!!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!!! carl you are gonna love freshman year so much its gonna be the best time of your life. ill start praying about your roomate right now:))))

LOVE YOU ALL SO MUCH. 

sorry if this is an annoying/overload email. oh well. what else would we expect from sister daines ;) ;) ;)

p.s.  

I GOT TO SEE MADELINE ROSE WILLAMSEN COMING HOME FROM A TEMPLE WALK!!!!!!!! seriously cannot express my happiness enough. this girl was the second person in the entire world to know i was going on a mission and i am so thankful for her perfect example. seriously she is everything i want to be as a sister missionary. i love you maddiegirl!!!!!!!! such a huge blessing!!! 

Well, Sister Daines finally made it to Jolly old England!  On Tuesday, she woke up at some ridiculously early hour (4:00 am?) and got ready and trecked by herself throughout the MTC campus, reporting to missionary travel.  They put her on a shuttle and dropped her off at the train which goes from Provo to SLC.  She had to transfer from the train to a light rail (or something?) to get out to the airport. When she got to the airport, she was prevented from checking in at the kiosks, because HER FLIGHT DID NOT EXIST!  Somehow, missionary travel had booked her on a direct flight (which does not exist) from SLC to Heathrow.  So she was rerouted through Dallas.  Upon arrival in Dallas, she called us and explained the saga, telling us that she "knew she had said this before, but REALLY....when she gets home from her mission she is NEVER flying alone again!"

As luck and the missionary travel department would have it, her flight in Dallas was so delayed that she missed her Heathrow connecting flight out of Atlanta.  Although stressed and anxious, she handled herself like a sweet champion.  How do I know this?  A member from Aaron's mission (who knows Aaron because he baptized one of their workers at their pizza place in Kamas called me to say that she had been sitting waiting for her flight when a woman by her said "Look at that lovely young woman over there.  She is certainly dealing with all these delays and problems in such a happy and capable way."  When Sister Littledike looked up, she saw a missionary nametag on said young woman and approached her to offer her some support and comfort.  Annie was so grateful to Sister Littledike for her kindness (and for the use of her cell phone!)  We talked with Annie and she seemed in good spirits when she got on her plane to Minneapolis so that she could fly to Heathrow from Minnesota.

Things seem like they went as planned after that, since we received the following two emails from the London, England Mission:
Dear Family,

Today, we are so grateful that your wonderful missionary arrived safely in the England London Mission. 

We will be sending you two pictures of your Missionary.  One will be with President and Sister Stevens and the other with their first Companion.  We will mail these pictures to you.

Thank you for your support.  We will love and take good care of your great Missionary.

Kind regards,

England London Mission

and then 30 minutes later this one:  

From: Karen Tuttle <karenjt1124@gmail.com> Date: March 30, 2016 at 12:41:06 PM PDT To: rdaines@gmail.com Subject: Sister Daines has arrived in Canterbury I have met your daughter who is serving with us in Canterbury. I am Sister Tuttle. My husband and I are YSA couple serving here as well. We are so excited to have her here serving with Sister Johannes. We will take good care of you. You may imagine how thrilled we all were to see her smiling face and know she was received in such a loving  and happy way.  The icing on the cake was late that night when I received the following text from Sister Littledike which read:  "Sister Daines this is Sister Littledike.  I just had to share.  I got a message from a dear friend serving a mission in England.  Guess where and guess who just came to their mission.  Bro and Sis Tuttle are wonderful people from Kamas!  They have already met your daughter and they already love her."  Blog Administrator over and out!  :) So I truly feel that the Lord is watching over our little Annie Daines.  :)   I know she is looking forward to this conference weekend and we will pass on any word we receive from her. Hopefully this is the last  post from the "Blog administrator" for the remainder of the mission.  LOL

Hi!!!!!!

Ok to start off this letter, before i begin my "fire hose of electronic enthusiasm" as dad calls it, i am going to follow in the footsteps of miss carla m. daines. aka im going to tell you a really corny and dumb joke. (the elders in my district tell me the STUPIDEST jokes every day so im writing them down so i can use one every week lololol get pumped everyone) 

why'd the farmer win an award? ---cause he was out-standing in his field!! 

lolllllll.....mtc humor. 

ok! so!! i wrote down things that made me laugh in a little notebook this week so i could know what to email you and so that i could remember what i even did this week so here it is! its just gonna be a random assortment of junk but oh well :) :) :) :) 

1. dont know why i took this pic but i think its cause i got the memory cards dad bought me so thanks robbie! also this is my tiny desk that i sit in for 9 hours every day! 

 2. thank you for the cute cookie and note jez!!!!

-have i mentioned that the MTC is the greatest place and that i am having SO much fun? seriously i have never been so consistently happy or so consistently anxiety-free in my entire life. not only do i love every day i love every single hour. SERIOUS!!! its a hashtag blessing!! so thank you for all of your prayers. you have no idea how much they mean to me. 

-aaron: 4 square is SO fun but im terrible. but i play every day. gym time is the BEST!! its such a blast!! im also becoming knock out queen and i play with this spanish speaking district and im holdin my own with all the elders so thank you robbie for your tutelage.

-i eat really healthy food every single day! i think thats part of why im so happy!!! so thank you again to robbie!!! but yeah i really really love eating so healthy here! 

-aunt julie daines: thank you so much for that lotion! i use it every single day and i LOVE it and it always makes me think of our sweet family and that beautiful night right before i checked into the mtc where i just felt so much love from all of you so thank you so much aunt julie!! seriously it smells so good and it keeps my hands from getting too dry in this utah madness! 

-carls my district LOVES your corny jokes almost as much as i do!! i love them so much they make my day every single time. i smile so big and lol and make my comp listen to every single one of them. also....

Thank you Aunt Laurie!!!

-all of your letters/dearelders/ packages make my days SO much brighter. seriously you guys thank you SO much. you have no idea how happy they make me!!!!!!!! im sorry i dont have time to respond to everyone because your day is so scheduled out as a missionary but if you are reading this and you have sent me a letter or package or dearelder please know how much it means to me! keep em coming!!! thank you thank you thank you

-i run out of room in my gratitude journal every single day

-sister watson and i have the same birthday!! what are the odds of that??? but dont send me any presents!! because i think it will make her feel bad. cause shes a really sweet and sensitive little bird so i really dont want to hurt her feelings. so dont even worry about sending me presents!! your prayers and letters are presents enough! WAY more than enough!!! 

-our district president is named President Lords and he is the BEST man ever. he reminds me a lot a lot of dad. even his handwriting is really similar to dads. hes so wise and he gave such an amazing talk our first week and he is just SO amazing. 

6.  Elder Chappell wrote this on the board because i am always yelling it at the elders lolololololol

-thank you fam for praying for my mtc companion. seriously she is so perfect for me and i am so thankful every day that you prayed about it. maybe start praying for my trainer? haha jk. (but seriously.) im getting nervous cause how can i ever surpass sister watson????

-have i mentioned how grateful i am that i am in the provo mtc? it is so fun here and i get to see people i know all the time and i get to meet so many cool people and i already have so many sweet friends here and i just LOVE being in the provo mtc. also,,,, english??!?! i lucked out!!! i have no idea how much harder it would be if i was learning japanese or something! im so so so blessed

Add 7. my cute pic with london england!! but then sister tooley made fun of me!!! LOL. (also sister tooley is legit the greatest shes so funny and sassy and keeps me in check i love her. she is my ruby neff!!!! cause she not my comp, but she lives on my floor. i love her!!!) 

- our district leader, elder harris, does this really really high girly voice and one time he said "sister daines" in a girly voice and i thought it was straight up a chick and i turned around and saw it was a huge man and i almost peed my pants laughing so hard. also he sings all of the hymns in a really high falsetto soprano. why elder harris. why. hahhahah sike it makes me laugh every time!!

- MAD SHOUT OUT TO: jezlyn for the cookie, erica and michael for the treats, aunt laurie for the rolls!! makes my day!! 

- one night sister watson was feeling kind of sick and tired and we were singing an opening hymn to try to bring the spirit during personal study (my idea....... sometimes the elders struggle with focusing lolz) and somebody picked the song scatter sunshine which i have never heard before.. but anyway it was SO bad and the tempo was SO slow and none of us knew what we were doing and sister watson starting laughing so hard/ hated the song so much that she CRIED. OUR SONG WAS SO BAD THAT IT MADE MY COMPANION CRY!!! LOLZ!!!!!!

- ok thats all i think for this week! thank you all for everything. you seriously all mean so much to me and i am sending up prayers left and right for all of ya. i am so thankful to be here! i am so blessed and i have already learned more than all three of my semesters at BYU. i love being a missionary!!!!! 


love you all!!!

xoxoxooxox, sister daines









4. happy saint pattys day!!!! this is my aunt mary outfit cause she bought me this shirt and i think she has the same skirt!! (suck it first quarter!!!) 













5.  i got to see sweet Lauren Hafen from Jerusalem!!!! Thank you for coming to find me!!!! It made me so happy!!!

First week in the MTC!

HI MY BEST FRIENDS!!!

Ok first of all, carl if you thought i was boring after coming home from college then you are gonna HATE post-mission Annie lololol. I am already so much less clever and funny. But who cares!! Cause I'm so much less anxious and stressed out!!!


Ok seriously you guys the MTC is the best. its the BEST! it's exactly like the dorms except that i sleep more and procrastinate less at the MTC. also theres a little bit of time-i-spend-watching-netflix  discrepancy between the two haha. but the soap is the same as the byu soap im pretty sure and all the buildings look the same and it is just like being back in good ol stover.

Ok, first day was seriously awesome. the good thing about it is that the second you guys got back in the car they just get you GOIN. like it is packed! but it was great cause it helped me stay busy and not feel sorry for myself at all. i had the sweetest host sister and actually everyone i met was just sweet and nice and tried hard to lift me up. ok then i met my comp! her name is Sister Watson (lol yes as in John Watson and Sherlock) and she is from Canada and she is really sweet and i love to serve her and help her not feel so nervous because the BIGGEST MIRACLE OF THE CENTURY is that i am defs the less anxious one in the companionship!! like probably the least anxious in the whole district!! seriously you guys who have i become?? ok yeah but shes uber sweet and really easy to please and i love being her comp. i think its really good for both of us and really helpful for both of us. my district is just a hot mess of little 18 year olds. (elders, amirite ruthie???) haha no i really love each of them a lot and they are total total TOTAL sweeties. just sweeties who need to be reminded to work sometimes ;)

class is so great. its long, but i love it because for the first time in my life i feel like i am completely and totally in tune with the spirit so i am just learning SO much. like for example sister watson and i on our second day were asked to give the relief society lesson. so they just gave us the topic of doing the Lord's will and said take it away! so i just prayed about it and within minutes i had SO many good ideas and scriptures that i wanted to use and it was just awesome.

OK ENOUGH BORING STUFF.

here are some funny (ish??) things:

i fell asleep in the temple this morning (no surprise there, im still somewhat myself amiritie fam?) and i had a dream that i checked my facebook and then i woke up and i was SO mad at mysel cause i was like SISTER DAINES WHAT ARE YOU DOING QUIT BREAKING THE RULES. but crisis averted cause it was just a wee dream. i also had a dream that cammie called me but at least in my dream i was like "swerve. cant answer that shniz". so im learning right? :)

i cant think of anything else thats funny. #whoops.

oh!!! except's mom white hot book of rage!! mom seriously i was smiling SO big when i read that! its hilarious and adorable and actually oddly inspiring!!!!!!!!! i loved it mom! seriously the best gift i have ever gotten. thank you lady!!!!

oh and there is this elder in my district who is from severe county, utah, and is literally the biggest farm boy/ for lack of a better word hick/ he is so funny and talks with SUCH a low voice and he kind of reminds me of uncle Rico / mom you would love him he would crack you up. hes going to california and the only time i ever hear him talk about emotions is when he says how terrible california is. LOLZ.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo,

Sister Daines


just gonna leave you with some things i tell myself when there are a plethora of different colored hairs on my sheets/ my roomates remind me to not whistle disney songs :) :) :)
(which seriously the germ/ hair thing does not even bother me at all anymore! clarey belle a mission is gonna be so good for you haha. but yeah basically nothing bothers me anymore!! but if i ever feel the tiniest bit sad:

- He whom the Lord calls, He qualifies (aka you can do this sister Daines because God wants you to be here and is not gonna leave you high and dry)
-God did not give us the spirit of fear, but of faith
-if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear
-fear is NOT from God
(those ones mean dont be freaked out or anxious because those feelings are not coming from Heavenly Father!! if i am feeling anxious i just work and prepare and do a little more planning and studying and i feel so much better!!)

ok im seriously done now. sorry for all the long boring stuff! im just so happy and want to tell all my homeiezzz out there!! next week i will write down funnier stuff so i can send it to you guys i promise!

Note from blog admin (Ruthie D.)  

Annie's MTC address (until March 30) is

Sister Annie Daines
MAR 30 ENG-LON
2005 North 900 East Unit 14
Provo, UT 84602