I cannot think of one funny thing to say up here

You guys! I am so bad with jokes and not at all funny!!! Hahaha i am very sorry that i cannot think of one clever thing to say! but here are some great things that happened this week!

"Me in a graveyard, duh!"

first of all let's get the spiritual things out of the way first because there were SO MANY AMAZING THINGS.

1. we had institute graduation and we went with Jade, our cool investigator, and this woman named Hannah got up and talked about how we make choices. and all of our small choices lead back to the one big choice that we have to make. IDK it was a lot more profound when she said it!! but it just hit me so hard!!

2. we are teaching this one guy who used to be addicted to Heroin (it's ok... we are working on it!! lolzies!!!) but he is so incredible and he is on date to be baptised after one lesson. WAYHO. WAT. but anyway-- the cool amazing thing is that when we were walking out of the chapel after our first lesson we asked him who he knew who would want to hear our message and he goes '' maybe after I am baptised we can teach my dad and my step mom all of this stuff''. SHALOM RUPERT YES WE CAN TEACH YOUR DAD!!!

"Me and Sis Lawlz!"

3. WE LEFT OUR PHONE ON THE BUS AND SIS LAWLZ WAS SO STRESSED OUT BUT WE PRAYED SO HARD AND THEN A HOMELESS MAN FOUND IT, CALLED THE ELDERS IN OUR AREA, AND GAVE IT BACK TO THEM!! WHAT THE HECK!!!!! GOD EVEN CARES ABOUT HIS MISSIONARIES' CELL PHONES!!!!!!!!! seriously you guys. the homeless man walks up to the elders and goes ''i found this and was going to sell it for 20 quid but then something told me i should really do the right thing with this phone'' YES FRIEND THAT SOMETHING WAS THE HOLY SPIRIT!!! AHHH SO COOL. but anyways. miracles all around. 

what else happened this week!? seriously it was so insane and so cool. ahh you guys i just feel like i am already at the point on my mission where too much is happening every week so i just can't say anything! sorry bout it. i am the worst haha!!!!!!!

"And this was our view!!!!"

"We walked literally an hour and a half to a dinner appointment be WE GOT DINNER!!!!"

"Shalom!!! Love life!"

heres a dumb joke for the week.

what do you call a woman with one leg?


EILEEN!

lolzies. that one is courtesy of my district leader, Elder Jackson. he laughed so hard when he told us that one he almost threw up. seriously it was so funny. ok i  love you all so much!!!!

heres an inspirational quote to end this email:

''Im not even a little remotely interested in religion''-from a woman in whitstable who was SO MAD that we knocked on her door!! lolzies!!!!!! so i complimented her son's star wars shirt and then she slammed the door shut. who can blame her *shrug emoji*

hahah!! love you all!! please go teaching with the missionaries in your home ward this week!!! they really need you! probably! unless you live in utah! lol subtweet at aaron daines!!!!!! hahah!!!

xoxoxo sister daines

HI! TimeFlies (like those white boy rappers but also time is going really fast! get it??!?)

HI all of my loves!!! I miss you all!!! this week was so crazy and so good and we saw so many miracles! 

also here is my last picture ever with SJ. RIP SJ. pour one out (one smoothie.,. that is...) for the fallen Trainer! 

Ok so sister johannes is gone-zo! lolzies see ya lady!! sike she is the bomb and she will be missed so dang much. but sister lawler is so cool! she is a beast and is such a good missionary! LAWL! (lawlz because her name is lawler,,, get it! lawl!)  

 this week was insane in the membrane. we saw about a million and a half missionaries at euston central station and then we went to king's cross (i always want to call it grand central but i know thats not what it is... shalom sister daines you are in JOLLY OLD ENGLAND NOW!!) anwyway..... went to kings cross, got my new trainer/mom/bff, went back to canterbury! 

we saw danielle this week, the woman that i told you guys about on skype who lost her baby, she is so amazing. she was for sure the highlight of my whole week because she is just SO strong and such an amazing example to me and builds my faith every single time i see her. i love her SO much and i love to be in her home because her kids are just nuts and all over the place like a certain other family of 5 that i know ;) ;) ;) 

but she is just so incredible and i really look up to her and want to be more like her in how strong and resilient she is. 

also, JADE CAME TO CHURCH!!!! i feel so, so, so, so close to that woman. words cannot express how much i love her and how much i want her to be baptized. she is so wonderful and she really just wants to do the right thing so much. i have never seen someone so willing to change their whole life.. like SHALOM she woke up for church on sunday and told us.. girls! i woke up and didn't have tea! and i went clubbing and only drank soda!!! what the heck she is amazing!! anyway. i really look up to her and love her and am so proud of her. 

Maureen, the old woman that we found, had a hard time with the word of wisdom this week :( 

we were walking home one night and we were walking past her house and we just really really really really felt like we should swing by, even though she likes us to call her beforehand. but we walked to her house and as we were walking up she was coming in from walking her dog, coco, (you go, glen coco) but anyway she admitted that she had been having a hard time with cigarettes and depression and cutting off so drastically. but it was really, really good that we were able to see her. it was definitely inspired. so i am so thankful that we were able to see her before it got too bad. but i love her so much and we made sure that she came to church this week so that she could feel the spirit. so keep her in your prayers!! i will attach a picture of my new companion and i walking her dog before church so that she could come. 

I LOVE YOU ALL!! this week something that i really learned is that i am so lucky to be on a mission. i was reading in  1 Timothy 1:12 this morning during studies and i learned that i am so lucky to be on a mission. and that i am so lucky that Christ trusts me enough to enable me every day and that He counts me worthy enough to be His missionary. how thankful I am that Christ trusts me enough with this portion of His vineyard and His children. i am working so hard to make sure that I can keep being worthy of that and to not let Him down, but the great thing about the gospel is that we get credit for trying! and that He enables us every single day and lifts us up. we are so so so lucky!! 

I LOVE YOU ALL. 

Good bye to my favorite trainer and future sister leader!!!

P-day in Dover with Sis. J. 

THE BAD THING HAPPENED!!!!!!! SISTER JOHANNES IS MOVING!!! AFTER ONLY
6 SHORT WEEKS!!!!!! She is going to be a sister training leader in
Watford! WAT!!!!! I am so sad!!! I know she is such an amazing
missionary and she is going to be such a great example to so many but
I am so sad!!! But isok!! It's gonna be ok! Happy birthday SJ you have
to move.  😭😢😪😥😓

But it's ok because apparently my follow up trainer is a beast named
sister Lawler. LAWLZ.

Editor's note:  (We received the following note --as well as the picture above from Sister Tuttle, who is serving with her husband in the Canterbury ward--) Sister Tuttle says:   "Sister Lawler will be wonderful for her. They did a GAP training today and it was like they had been working together for weeks. We love your daughter like one of our own."

Ok this week was so amazing because Jade agreed to be baptised!! SO
COOL. she is legitimately the coolest and most beautiful woman I've
ever met and she is SO cool and nice and we just stopped her a few
weeks ago and just introduced ourselves and our message and now she is
going to be baptised!! I know every single missionary says this but I
am SO amazed at her progression and growth and commitment to the
gospel. I am floored by it. She has built my testimony so much. I'll
send a pic of her.

Jade is the one in the middle and Maria is on the left-- she will be on date soon!!! And that is cute SJ's birthday dinner.. We had smoothies caus those are her fave foods! That little nug. üçπ

 My district leader is leaving.  Also v sad.  He's gonna be a Zone Leader in Hyde Park.  That lucky lad.  I will miss him too.  Our  District went to Dover and saw the Dover War Tunnels and the white cliffs of Dover! 

 An old less active woman in our ward KNITTED ME A HAT!!! i am so in love with her!!! it seriously made me so happy. i look like a straight baller in it too so that dont hurt! 

HI!! ok to start off this week's letter i will grace you all with a joke straight from sister joahnnes' brain (yikes, i know right??) hahah just kidding little friend! to be fair it was literally 6:29 am when she said this and we were laying on the floor trying to pump ourselves up to do our exercises (so probably like 6:33 because hashtag we said our prayers first duh) but anway. it went something like this:
''sister! you're the bees knees!! but i'm the squirrels pearls''

LIKE WHAT?!?! how has no one thought of that before?!?! amazing. hahaha so that is our new mantra. aside from isok. also it reminded me of nancy and verl the squirrel. s/o to those two.

 this is me pretending to be a princess of some sorts when my necklace got stuck on my head while we were getting dressed for institute. im sure its cultural appropriation of some sort. dont tell plz. 

oh! also mom!! i see these cherry trees all the time and i ALWAYS think of grandpa glazier so i had to include a pic! and tell you how much little stuff reminds me of you and of grandpa glazier!!!! 

but anyway, here's what you missed on ''GLEE!'' sike. heres what you missed on ''the life of sister daines aside from the fact that she has to wear three pairs of tights and its only april so she is toast when december comes but isok lets not worry about that quite yet'':

no one mistook me as being pregnant (yet) but the fist counselor in the bishopric made a crack about it when i went to go get a sweet from the bowl in the RS room. i thought i couldn't sink any lower when a drunk man thought i was pregnant.. SIKE! i could!!! a member of the bishopric directly  tellsyou to stop gaining weight!! hashtag canterbury fails am i right friends!?! im just telling myself the Lord is reminding me not to be vain and care about what i look like so i have decided to embrace the weight gain ;) ;) ;) (which apparently is a glaring problem in everyones eyes but mine!!!)

oh yeah!!!! we went to a community garden!!! that was the highlight of my whole flipping week! and we got to take home some oregano! for freeeee!!!!!!!!! life is so good! i love whitstable! and canterbury! 

it was the queen;s birthday so i thought of mom when she said ''its the queen's birthday'' in a truly horrible english accent. hahah!! everyone we meet on the street tells me i have a horrible english accent. little do those fools know its just a FINDING tactic so that i can ROPE THEM INTO LISTENING TO OUR MESSAGE!!! and then the Spirit punches them in the face with spiritual knowledge and then they are baptized. that's basically how it goes;)




something cool i learned this week was from Sister Johannes' old stake president who came to visit her on sunday!! he was so awesome. anyway he was talking about how we are just vessels for the spirit and the spirit just moves through us to get to the person. so sometimes in lessons when we bear testimony or pray or something and we don't feel the spirit and we're like wait a second, what was different ((which is something i had kind of been worrying about)) but he said that in order for the spirit to move through us the person has to be willing to accept it and be in a place to feel the spirit. so as long as we are living worthily to have the spirit testify through us and we are opening our mouths, its ok if we dont feel the spirit every single time we testify! its because the person wasn't willing to accept it!! so that was pretty cool to think about.

also im already out of time what the heck but i just wanted to say s/o to peter ghallager on his cute wedding invitation! it's on our fridge in our flat and it is so happy and brings me so much joy! also i love that its gonna be at our house!! so jealous!!!! actually only a little bit jealous!! i love being here! i love you all thank you so much for your prayers and for legit everything you do for me!!!


sister daines xx

WADDUP HOMIES!

Sister j bought a smoothie maker last week!!! best decision of our collective lives. (i guess that would be called a blender... lol. i swear my english is getting worse every single day that i am in this country. and they speak english!!!)

i cant think of anything clever to call this. im already toast its been like three weeks! oh well what else could we have expected out of sister daines lolzies. ok so many funny things this week! but i cant tell you all of them, but just know that life is SO good and i am so blessed! i am growing and learning every day but lemme tell ya, i know BASICALLY NOTHING about being a missionary!! isok. im learning. ahh i just love it! uncle richard was so dang right. i dont know what everyone was freaking out for-- missions are FUN and so good!!!! 

So this week we went into the library to talk to one of our potential investigators who works there (it also happened to be the biggest rain storm of the century with thunder and lightning and pouring rain for 4 hours....soincidence?  Yes!!  hahaha we promise we are not lame-os who hide from the rain!! we went finding in that storm for straight up 4 hours! it was the best part of my week. God always blesses us for finding in the rain!!!) ok but anyway, we were talking to this PI Jose from florida and at one point his friend who was there straight up looks at me and goes ''so you're an expecting mother?'' and i was like ''what??'' and he goes ''yeah, youre pregnant right?'' and then gestures to my stomach!!! LOL!!!!!!!!!! I AM GETTING SO FAT A MAN ACTUALLY ASKED ME IF I WAS LEGIT PREGNANT!! hahahhahah!!! it was the funniest thing of my whole life i couldnt even be offended i was just laughing so hard. hahah what the heck is my life?!?!  

ok the best thing ever: we were teaching this man named George (we had to drop him because he straight up refused to read the bom or pray about it.. so sad! he needs to soften his heart!) anwyay, he is this super old english man with a really strong religious background. so we had our third lesson with him in the chapel and he shakes my comps hand and then he shakes my hand and goes ''hello.. daines'' and then KISSED MY HAND! i wanted to die!!! slash laugh!! slash throw up out of nervousness!! it was so weird and so funny!! anyway. poor georgie. he felt the spirit he just wouldnt act on it! so sad. im learning that people can use their agency and then sometimes they use it the exact wrong way!! but isok, isok. 

biggest part of my whole week!!!!!!!!! SISTER JOHANNES CUT MY HAIR OFF. no im not kidding. clarey belle dont be mad at me!!!! but we just got home one night and she was like ''we should really just get your haircut'' (cause i keep telling all these hairdresser ladies i want to cut my hair off so that we can trick them into meeting with us but it doesnt work) anyway, i was like, sister johannes! lets do it!! so at 10pm in the middle of our flat she just chopped my hair off with kitchen scissors!! lol!!!! mom dont be mad!!! i think it looks so good!! haha i told her she should drop out of BYU and be a hairdresser! 

this is my hair pre-haircut... i was mad because it kept getting so tangled!! 

Me getting ready to have my hair cut off with kitchen scissors!

The haircut deed is done!

ok also we taught primary on sunday (and relief society but that wasn't nearly as fun lolz.. dont tell aunt mary i said that... sike please do she would laugh) but ANWAY it was SO fun and just a blast and i though of/tried to channel ruthie the entire time. mom you would have been so proud we just taught those little kiddos about choosing the dang right! we were so dang bold! anyway. it was a blast and it made me think of my momma:))))) 

I love you all more than you will ever flipping know!!! your prayers and letters and emails mean the world to me!!! there are so many scriptures i want to tell you to read but i think just all of alma is a good place to start ;) cause if its in alma then i have probs highlighted it and put a sticky note next to it that says ''ME! I NEED TO BE MORE LIKE THIS!!!'' or something. lolz!! i love being a missionary i love you all i love england i love life!!!!!!!

xxxxx, sister daines. or, if you're an 85 year old man named george, then its just daines. 

Week 2 in England!

my loves!!! pday is amazing!!! technology is amazing!!! ok so this week im emailing you from the chapel and i love it and it is SO sunny and it has been really warm and not even rainy this week! im sfb. (so flippin blessed). the chapel is right next to our flat like legit a 4 minute walk so thats amazing. ok but i apologize! because i forgot something SO important in the last email. it was the joke! doi!!! here it is.

did you hear about the kidnapping at that school?!??!??!

its ok......
he woke up.

lolzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. im hysterical.

ok this week was once again amazing! seriously guys i cannot convey to you how much Heavenly Father is blessing me and helping me be so happy and not homesick. in the words of my bff from jerusalem: 'God Loves Me!!!!!' so true. preach kenzie payton.

ok this week some things i wrote down to tell you:
-i have never had so much belief in miracles than i have on my mission. Ether 12 has taught me so much because i know that if i have faith in miracles then they WILL happen! seriously. its amazing. i have seen so many straight up miracles in this week alone and im sure many more will come. being a missionary is SO DOPE.

-we have a washing machine in our flat!!! we are so blessed!!!!!! i forgot to tell you that last week. LIFE IS SO GOOD!!! seriously Heavenly Father loves His sister missionaries so much.

-RAFA WAS BAPTIZED. it was incredible. ill send pics. she's this investigator sister johannes has been teaching and she progresses so much and was baptized and i just love her. shes 19 and from sao paolo brazil!! s/o to sis oldroyd! but anyway shes amazing and has such a wonderful light about her.

rafa!!!!! love that woman. we are the 3 best friends. (They just mock me all the time and tell me that i am the strangest person they have ever met and i say TRUUUUUUU)

-one night after call-ins our zone leaders called us and just played us breaking free from High School Musical on speaker for like 3 minutes. i was dying. they are so awesome and so funny. Elder Steuer is from germany dad so i always think of you and the funny euro guys you had to deal with on your mission. LOLZ he makes me lol.

-last pday i was so sad! because i just love you all so much! and because we met this AMAZING and kind woman named Maureen who was so old and lonely and sickly and ill and she was so sweet and she just reminded me of my sweet kind grans (not the sick and ill and lonely part) and i just thought about if my grans were all alone and so i cried after we met her. in the middle of town centre. it was so embarrassing but also looking back hilarious and classic sister daines because i WOULD cry about meeting a sweet kind old lady. but she is gonna come to church next week and she is going to meet with us and gain a testimony and feel so much love from the members of this ward! and also i was totally fine after that. that legit was the only sad day in England thus far. i love life.

We met this amazing old english lady named annie and she was SO amazing!  Just two old Annie's looking disapprovingly at Sis Johannes.   

-we met an investigator who is studying italian at the uni of kent and so he made us tiramisu for our first lesson with him. it was so nice and homemade and delicious!! (because we cancelled our dinner time to meet with him-- we are so busy and have so many appointments!!!!) but anyway it was so kind! but halfway through he was like 'oh yeah i didnt put that much wine in because i know mormons arent into all that stuff' and i thought he was joking! but nope. turns out he was serious and thats why dad never wanted us to eat tiramisu! lolz!!!!!!  it was seriously so funny sister johannes and i were laughing so hard. but we talked to some lady in our ward and she said the alcohol cooks out so hopefully we are in the clear. LOL!!!

THIS ONE IS FOR DAD!!!!! i love wagamamas!!! and you!!! i love you even more than wagamamas daddy!!!! didnt eat there tho cause it was like 10 pounds so IM NOT ABOUT THAT LYFE. 

-i always try to make sister johannes give me bites of her food and she says 'isok' like... 'umm... im fine. make youself your own dang food sister daines' hahahah she is SO good to me and puts up with so much (as you all can imagine lololol) seriously i am so blessed to have her. she is the BEST.
all day long when i get nervous or worried or annoyed about something she says 'isok, isok, isok'. so that has been the theme of my mission thus far. i will tell you when we talk on skype ;)



-i fell asleep during a weekly planning prayer LOL. those things are LONG. i promise i didnt try to though!!! lol!!

-ELDER HOLLANDS TALK WAS SO GOOD. seriously it was so amazing. i almost cried. i want every single person in the entire world to hear that conference talk. it truly was so amazing and inspiring. it changed my whole life. i seriously just love that man so much and i pray for him and his brethren all the time. something my testimony has really been strengthened in is what a legit miracle it is that we are able to hear from living prophets. like we are so lucky!! seriously i just love this gospel so much. we are so blessed.

-ok another thing i learned from sister johannes is that she said one day 'sister daines, on your mission you learn to love every single person you interact with. sometimes you don't like them, but you still love them.'
THAT IS SO TRUE. i truly love every single person i have met. honestly. its amazing because with everything about ,missionary work i have no room in my heart for anything but love for everyone. sometimes i feel annoyance but i am working on pushing that one out of my heart haha.

-also sister johannes told me to buy this cream to put on my face cause it helps with acne but it also helps with dryness... turns out its nappy cream. thats right folks. literally putting baby diaper cream on my face every night. YIKES. lol too bad it works so well so i still use it. ;) ;) ;)

i have never been more of a human disaster than on my mission but i have never been happier either. truly. i am so happy every single day. life is so amazing and God is so amazing and Elder and Sister Tuttle help us every day and feed us and take us grocery shopping (which you know makes me love them like 10000000x more than anyone else!!! but shhh!!!) and sister johannes is SO amazing and helps me be such a better teacher. she is such a good friend to me. did i tell you that we were at byu at the same time??? what are the odds???? we also had that same psych 101 class with crazy dr. flom but we both slept through it all the time so we never met!! lol!!!!!

I love you all more than i can convey. serious. pray for you all the time and love you all the time and youre just all amazing.

xoxox,

Sister Daines!!!!!  :D :D :D :D :D

A FEW CLASSIC SHOTS OF ANNIE--COURTESY OF HER COMPANION 

fell asleep during dinner on the floor. that was the lowest of the low points. SIKE i loved it it was a very refreshing 15 minute nap. but lol cause i look like a weird burrito 

We were walking to the church one day and sister johannes said look! this sign is for you!!! hahah that little brat. 

Tales From Canterbury

ITS THE CUTEST TOWN IN THE ENTIRE WORLD. you are going to straight DIE when you see it. its so adorable. ok first of all!!

First day with Sister Johannes!!

-my trainer is the greatest woman in the world and SUCH a blessing!!! seriously she could not be more perfect for me! thank you so so so much for praying about it because it REALLY worked. she went to BYU at the same time as me so we have a ton of mutual friends!! (s/o all the cute guys that I pined over fresh year. jk. kinda). anyway!! she is the greatest and we have WAY too much fun together and she teaches me SO much!! and helps me be such a better missionary!! and she is always telling me to slow down! and just not be weird and she is always helping me be more normal in street contacting and ahh she is just such a great missionary!!! momma she wants you so send her clothes cause she thinks you're so cute and she's jelly of all the clothes you get me. I love both of you so much!!

The front door of our flat on London Street

-the second I hopped off the train in Canterbury the first man I talked to said "cheers, love" and I DIED. I love the English people. ps its English not British cause they are from England and very prideful about being English not British. apparently. lolz I am learning.

-LIANA!! THANK YOU SO SO SO SO MUCH for that sweet and perfect care package!! it helped me feel so much love and happiness my first day in the field. so thank you!!

-sister Johannes makes me listen to this Arnold Schwarzenegger motivational speech every morning. so weird. I die laughing.

-I eat so many biscuits every dang day! I am already gonna get so fat! oh well! who cares!! I need to not be prideful about my appearance! lolz!!!

-my new address is
30 London Road
Canterbury Kent CT2 8LN
London, England UK

Our District Leader--he knows the Sweats

I should be here for the next 12 weeks!! unless something cray cray happens!! so keep your fingies crossed that I get to stay here cause it is the BEST area and our flat is so close to church and to town and it is SO CUTE and SO English and it is two stories so getting my bags up was a doozie lol. but elder and sister tuttle helped me so much! they are seriously angels. they are a senior couple and they are sent right from heaven. I love them.

Having fun with Sister Johananes

-ok conference was AMAZING. daddy I loved Elder Christoffersons talk cause it reminded me so much of you and what an amazing and basically perfect dad you are. seriously conference was so amazing. and I only have two more general conference left on my mission and then I go home!!  crazy! and so sad. I loved conference

-there are so many miracles in the field. I love it. I love sister Johannes and I love Canterbury and I love you all so much!! I think about you all the time and pray about you all the time but I am trying to do that less because my mind needs to be centered on my mission;)

I love you!! !


sister daines