#Preachitgirl: Ain’t Nobody Got Time For Trolls!

We had another productive week! I feel so blessed that we have had a lot to do the last month or so because I do not handle down time well.

We started off our week with the Tony Hawk mom. She invited us over last P-Day to make crafts and bake banana bread. It was so nice to be in a kitchen again. I made bread for us, the Tony Hawk family, the Cheesecake Factory mom, and another lady in the ward who we love.

So last week I had a random email from a guy named Trevor Wolfe (I'm not even giving him the dignity of changing his name because as you will see, he is a Troll). He said that he has been trying to get a Book of Mormon from Mormon.org but he hasn't ever had one delivered. He asked if I could help him out. Okay, first of all I have no clue how this guy got my personal missionary email address (though I think that the mission addresses are so easy to come up with because most missionary's just have their first.lastname@myldsmail.net that he probably just saw me on Facebook or something and took a guess and it worked). Second of all, I find it highly unlikely that if he has requested a Book of Mormon multiple times that he hasn't received one yet. Mormon.org Book of Mormon requests are sent to missionaries via text messages and they deliver the Book of Mormons. Those are GOLDEN referrals because people are actually interested and have sought out the gospel on their own. There is no way that missionaries haven't been by his house if they received a Mormon.org referral. But I decided that it wasn't my place to decide whether this guy was worthy of the gospel or not, so I responded and asked for his information and told him we would get a Book of Mormon to his home. I also told him a little bit about missionary work and about companions and signed Sister Dumas' name on the email as well so that he knew there were two of us communicating with him. He gave me his Facebook address as well, so I added him there and he messaged me right away and wanted to have an online lesson. Most people don't even know that missionaries can do online lessons so that was pretty fishy as well. As Sister Dumas and I Facebook crept him we saw that he is a born again Christian who has spent time in Utah preaching to Mormons. He's also on a crusade against Jehovah Witnesses. I Facebook messaged him and basically told him that we would love to teach him if he is genuinely interested in learning the truth, but that if he just wants some Mormons to fight with that I personally don't have time for that. I told him that I saw his Facebook page information and that I wasn't wasting time talking to a guy who was just going to twist my words and try and convince me that I was going to Hell. He said that he was genuinely interested in learning more so we set up a lesson with him. We taught him the Restoration lesson via FaceTime and it was so stupid. He didn't try and fight with us; he played the part of an interested person, but I could tell he was probing for information. I can read people pretty well and I knew he was acting innocent. He was probably recording our lesson and we will probably end up in some YouTube video misquoted or something. I did have a few moments though where the Spirit told me to not say things though, so that was good. In one instance he asked what things set Mormons apart from other Christian religions and we said really just the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets. The temple came to my mind and immediately I was prompted to not even bring it up. I know without a doubt that he wanted us to bring up the temple and that he had some sinister plans with that. So I didn't mention the temple. After our lesson I told Sister Dumas this and she said that she couldn't think of anything different which shocked her during the lesson because she always brings up temple marriages when people ask that question and she was stumped as to why she couldn't think of anything to say. After I shared with her my experience she said that she knows she couldn't think of anything to say because she wasn't supposed to bring up temples. I'm glad we were both cautious and onboard with that whole situation because it could have been way worse. He hasn't contacted us since, and we aren't going to do anything more with him because he's an Anti-Mormon troll who picked the wrong people to try and manipulate into giving him the information he wanted. We were confident in everything we said and testified strongly at the end. Take that back to Satan and see what he'll have you do with it T Wolfe!

We went to the temple and it was great! As you know, I ran into Whitney and Jessica. It was cool; I saw a wedding being photographed on the front steps as we were getting ready to leave and as I walked out I heard someone yell "AMANDA!" I haven't heard my first name in a long time so I kind of just assumed that a member of the wedding party had my same name. I looked up and saw Jessica snapping pics and Whitney waving at me! I ran over and hugged them and then we had to go to a meeting at the VC. I saw them after our meeting; it was a nice little tender mercy.

We had a RS activity this week about serving and loving our husbands. It was based on a book called "The Husband Project" and it is supposed to help your marriage. They said that they were going to tailor the presentation so that you could apply it to anyone, not just a husband, but it was still pretty husband oriented. Sister D and I sat at the naughty table and were distracted half the time by the women we were with. They were hilarious, but they're so disruptive! We aren't allowed to sit by them in any real church setting because you add Sister D and I to their already loud group and it just gets worse. I liked the core message of the evening though. Basically if you're having problems with your spouse or a child or a friend, serve them. If you serve them and choose to not let little things bother you, you will grow to love them. I've found that to be true on a mission with my companions and will definitely use that in marriage!

We have two new members in the "Sisters Poppe and Dumas Youth Fan Club". They're hilarious girls. They are Bryce's age. I found Bryce a wife. She is 17, hilarious, a little weird, and wears RayBans. Clearly she will fit in with our family and will be a perfect helpmeet for Bryce. I've got his back. She is actually the girl who called you on Sunday, mom. She said, "Hey, can I call your mom and just tell her you're awesome and stuff?" Don't be surprised if you get a few random picture messages here and there from that one. She's a riot. The other girl is hilarious too. Her whole family is funny; they are the ones we ate dinner with last week where the youngest daughter said we were fun because we don't talk about grandma stuff. These two girls are compiling a list of reasons I shouldn't be transferred and they are going to give it to the mission president this Sunday when he comes to speak in sacrament meeting. We'll see how that goes!

Mom's note: random picture showed up just yesterday saying, "corndog day".

We had a member of the second quorum of the 70 come and speak with us yesterday and it was really good! He talked about the basics of the gospel and using our personalities in our missions. His wife was hilarious and spent her entire time talking about the fact that we were sent to our mission for a reason. We have experiences in life and characteristics that make us perfect for someone and that is why we are here, so we can't hide those things. We need to be ourselves and we need to let our uniqueness shine. I loved it!

Sister D got her visa! She heads out on September 9th! So the likelihood of me staying in this area for another transfer went from 2% to much higher. I wouldn't be surprised if I'm transferred and I wouldn't be surprised if I stay. If I do stay I will have spent 6 of the 12 transfers of my mission here; I would be okay with that though! If I get transferred I have to make people love me again and start a new youth fan club. Too much work.

Quotes of the Week:

"You need a haircut. It's getting straggly on the ends. Like 4 or 5 inches so it's all the same. It's all over the place."-Hazel our assisted living friend to Sister D. I don't think Hazel understands layers are supposed to make your hair multiple lengths.

"What is central to the Plan of Salvation."-Me

"Central. That means middle. Okay. The holding tank!"-Harry
"Ummm...what?"-Sister D
"I think he means Spirit Prison."-Me in a whisper
"Spirit Prison, Harry?"-Sister D
"Yeah!" Hahahahahaha's
"Okay, well no. That isn't it. The atonement is central to the plan of salvation."-Me

"What's a dispensation?"-Me

"Your attitude."-Harry
"Harry! No! We go over this every time. A disposition is your attitude. What is a dispensation?"-Me
"Something with a time."-Harry
"Yes, that's the start. It's a period of time when there's a prophet on the Earth, Harry."-Sister D "A dispensation is when dis prophet is on da Earth."-Me
"I can't even handle you. Did you really just say that?"-Sister D
"Hey! See, now I will remember that!"-Harry

I was planning on giving you an update on our investigators, but this letter is already long so that will have to wait until a time when my letter is shorter!

LOVE!!!!!!

Sister Poppe

P.S. I don't even know why I wrote LOVE!!!!! so obnoxiously.