Saturday's Warriors is a Heap of False Doctrine

We played more laser tag last Monday as a going away event for an elder that leaves tomorrow. There were a lot of kids there and they were awful human beings. They are sneaky and mean and have exceptionally perfect aim. I never want kids now. Thanks birthday party full of 9 year olds for dashing my dreams, ruining my plans, and stripping me of my desire to fulfill my divine potential. Beasts anyway.

Speaking of beasts, Sister Rasheed and I received Nerf guns in the mail this week from Michael and I'm a little ashamed to say that they changed me from a respectable almost 24 year old into a savage straight out of Pocahontas. I left a welt on Sister Moreton's hand. It was kind of hilarious. Sister Casey and I also attacked our zone leader and his companion when they came by our apartment to leave medicine for Sister Rasheed (she was pretty sick this week). I walk around with my gun between my skirt and my shirt on my back like I'm a shady drug dealer because things have gotten heated and I'm always a little afraid someone will steal my weapon and attack me with it. And I slept with it under my pillow more than one night so I could attack Sister Moreton at 10:29 pm and at 6:15 am when we wake up. Sister Rasheed is crazy too. She will yell, "KILL!" or just shriek and then attack. We have had more than our fair share of battles this week.

Sister Rasheed and I practiced our best gun poses as to intimidate our enemies.

 

The welt I left on Sister Moreton's hand during a surprise attack.

Sister Moreton was feeling under the weather as well this week, so Sister Casey and I spent a lot of time together while our companions stayed at home. It was a great opportunity to get to know her better and to work with her more closely. I had scheduled time to help a sister who broke her pelvis pick and juice her citrus this week. When we arrived she didn't answer her door, so I just went around to the gate and went in back and started working on the trees. It was nice. It gave Sister Casey and me a few hours to talk. This is her first transfer so she had a lot of pent up frustration and confusion that we talked through and we just talked about our pre-mission lives to get to know each other better. After a few hours the lady called to apologize because she had been sleeping and she wanted to re-schedule and I told her I was in her backyard. She came out and thanked us for just going to work and was amazed at how strong we are (we hefted a garbage bin full of bad citrus and dumped it into her bin that the garbage man empties...we are pretty BA). Sister Casey accompanied me on our lessons that evening too. We taught the grandma and granddaughter and we did a special missionary prep lesson with the priests for mutual. I then went with her to her ward's correlation and we came home and spent our last free half an hour before bed juicing citrus together. 

When our companions were sick we ordered a pizza to eat before 

our citrus picking adventure...we had to spend $20 to use our coupon, 

so we bought the biggest pizza they had and then ate it all week.

Let me just clear up some false doctrine that has been getting on my nerves. We didn't pick our parents before this life and we didn't pick our children. Saturday's Warriors is a heap of false doctrine and too many people believe it. The sisters I live with asked for my help finding a scripture to prepare a lesson for their investigator about how we picked our children and I very quickly set them straight. Here is a quote about that from Joseph Fielding Smith, “We have no scriptural justification, however, for the belief that we had the privilege of choosing our parents and our life companions in the spirit world. This belief has been advocated by some, and it is possible that in some instances it is true, but it would require too great a stretch of the imagination to believe it to be so in all, or even in the majority of cases. Most likely we came where those in authority decided to send us. Our agency may not have been exercised to the extent of making choice of parents and posterity”. To add my own witness, if we picked our families, Tina Fey would be my sister.  Disproved. Please stop the spreading of this fairy tale doctrine. Thanks.

I was asked to write the missionary thought for the RS newsletter this month in Aspen and this is what I penned:  "One of the greatest pitfalls of the natural man is the tendency to look for an easy solution. Get rich fast. Lose ten pounds in one weekend with this berry derived active ingredient that has an unnecessarily long name. Hair extensions. As seen on TV products promise to give us the results we desire with a fraction of the work, but they rarely mention that you will get a result that is a fraction of the quality as well. Missionary work is not exempt from this mentality. Effective missionary work is much like successful weight loss (we've all been there, ladies), a lifestyle change will have far more reaching and lasting consequences than a crash diet or hair brained health scheme. There isn't an easy solution to missionary work, only a permanent paradigm shift will lead to continued success in your missionary efforts. Luckily, it is easier than dieting (you don't have to give up cheesecake or eat broccoli to be a good missionary)!  Can I get an Amen!

One tip that Clayton M. Christensen offers in The Power of Everyday Missionaries is to use Mormon lingo in every conversation. We can present the same information in many ways; some sentences are better set up to facilitate a relaxed missionary opportunity. Did you spend a year and a half in Mexico in your 20's, or did you serve a full time mission for the Mormon Church? Is your daughter at college, or is she studying full time at Brigham Young University? Are you tired because you had a garage sale this weekend, or because the young women in your ward had a fundraising yard sale for girl's camp on your lawn? Brother Christensen suggests that we speak with our terminology because one word can lead to more opportunities and questions. In this way we aren't begging people to learn about Jesus Christ, we're just inviting them to ask about our lives. This will open more doors and lead to many more miracles over the long run than any "quick" solution to bring people into the fold ever will. The promise to all who share the gospel (in whatever small or large way) listed in D&C 84:85 is true, "...it shall be given you in the very hour that portion that shall be meted unto every man." I've seen that to be true both as a full time missionary and as a member missionary and testify that the Lord will fill our mouths if we show our faith by opening them."

We have transfers this Wednesday. I am staying here and Sister Rasheed is being transferred. My new companion will be Sister Merrell. Fun fact, she came out with Sister Dawson and Sister Rasheed. I also day trained a sister that came out with them that had to go home for medical reasons. I will have been a companion with 4 of the 5 sisters that came out in that transfer in some way, shape, or form. I am excited to work in a different way and to be able to conquer this area! I prayed that I would get a companion that has been out awhile and that would need less direction. I have loved training in the past and loved being with Sister Rasheed, but I'm kind of ready to just work and not worry about shaping someone else for at least 6 weeks. 

Love,

Sister Poppe

I'm Tired of Hearing From Me, That's for Sure!

We had ZTM this week and Sister Rasheed and I gave a training on how to recognize the Spirit and how to rely on it. We gave a short training and then spent most of our time facilitating role playing scenarios for the other missionaries to practice. One of the elders that gave a training said that it was his last ZTM before he goes home and the first one he has given a training at. I've lost count of the number of ZTM's I've had to prepare trainings for and I keep thinking that I will get new zone leaders and they won't ask me to prepare anything. That has yet to be the case and I am sure people are getting tired of hearing from me. I'm tired of hearing from me, that's for sure! Between always giving trainings and being the one who does 93% of the talking in our companionship (outside of our apartment, inside we are probably a 60/40 split) I am genuinely tired of my own voice.

We went to the temple last week and then we got to go again this morning because they had special hours today (they usually aren't open on Mondays...or they only are at like 5 am or something...I don't know...either way we could go today and normally we can't). It was so nice to go twice in one transfer let alone twice in one week!

Post Temple Trip Photo shoot

For the life of me I can't remember what I did last year on Valentine's Day. This year we visited a nursing home with the Brimhall RS and the Activity Days girls, we made cookies and cards with our district and delivered them to single women, and we visited with widows. It was really lovely to surprise those women with a visit they weren't expecting on a day they thought they wouldn't feel love. We had a short party with our roommates during lunch and in the time we had that evening after planning as well. We played MASH and talked about girly love things like wedding colors, qualities of a good husband, and other things focused missionaries probably shouldn't talk about.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brother and Sister Evita's member son was in town this weekend. We knew he was coming and all week I was trying to dream up a way we could stop by to visit while he was there because I figured that could only go somewhere good. On Friday night we got a phone call from him asking if we would come over the next day to help them pick their citrus and juice it. We excitedly accepted the invite and went over the next morning and had a splendid time. We met their son and his two kids that aren't on missions. I climbed an orange tree to get some of the higher up fruit (I know the thought of me climbing a tree is terrifying to you mother. I didn't die! Missionary blessings! I didn't get stuck either like that one time in Tasha's tree as a kid) and it was fun. We chatted with them for a while and they stocked us up with more juice and we were on our merry little way. Sister Evita said that when their crazy February ends she wants to have us over for dinner.  They are softening! We are even Facebook friends.

I received an iMessage from Sister Dawson yesterday about Lavender Brown and her family that was very exciting. Sister D2 said that Lavender, her husband, and her children are all considered progressing investigators now! This is so amazing! All the service we did for her and all the times we continued to teach Lavender after the ward council expressed concerns that it wasn't going to go anywhere were inspired. It is so fulfilling to see that our persistence and faith in the face of a lot of doubt have led to miracles for that family. I hope to see that family sealed one day. Sister D2 also said that Harry's bankruptcy is completely filed and now he just has to take a class and do some other things and everything should be finished this summer. They actually are planning on a July or August baptism right before I go home.

I feel blessed to see the fruits of my labors now even though I felt like I wasn't doing enough when I was in that area. Recently I've been feeling really down on myself and I've been dwelling on my imperfections and have felt like I haven't done much on my mission because I haven't seen the "success" that other missionaries have.  Something about hitting my one year mark made me reflect a lot on my service. But I have made a small difference in a few people's lives and to those people it seemed like so much more.

There is a part member family in Aspen that everyone always says we need to visit. The husband is inactive and the wife isn't a member.  The husband has an extremely active family, so they have a lot of member interaction. I didn't want to force our message upon them so we haven't stopped by. I heard through the grapevine though that their daughter is selling Girl Scout cookies, so I decided to stop by and just buy a box. I talked to their Daisy about her petals and about working at a GS camp and my cookie selling days. I talked to the mom about her cookie selling days and how much those little cookies have increased in price. Then we left. We didn't share a message. We didn't pray. We didn't invite them to church. We probably shocked them. I hope it opens some doors. Honestly working at camp for so long has made me sick of GS cookies, but I knew it was an in so I took it. I'll let my roommates eat them or something.

Let's end with some funny quotes from this week:

"Sister, I think peanut butter is your life!" Sister Rasheed doesn't realize that in college I went through literally 4 times as much peanut butter as I do now. I've scaled it back considerably!

I will make up weird little songs as I do mundane tasks and this week I overheard Sister Rasheed singing, "Where is my cute little tiny little lip gloss? Where are you?" Another Sister Poppe habit she has picked up on that probably isn't on the list of things PKJ was hoping I would teach her.

Love,

Sister Poppe

Sister Rasheed wanted to match, so we did on Friday and Saturday

Mom, I swear you are in a secret underground competition to see 
who the best missionary mother is. My roommates all love you 
because of the things you send. Thanks for the Shari's Berries!

District 1085 with their berries!  

 

 My "do what I am telling you to do right now!" 
face isn't flattering...I'll have to remember that.

We loved our V-day box. Thanks mom and dad! (Also, I didn't 
leave my house with my hair like that just so you know).

We went to play laser tag at Golfland last P-day and we matched!

 

Elder Holzer's mom sent the entire zone a V-day package. 
She sent the elders matching ties and the sisters matching scarves. 
This is a post ZTM selfie.

Blessings and Miracles!

Last Monday after we emailed and purchased our groceries, we went to this little gold mine city tourist attraction thing in Apache Junction. It was really cool. Admission is free, but everything else has a cost, so we just roamed around and looked in all the little shops. It was an easy, breezy (beautiful Cover Girl?) type of day. We took a lot of pictures and I bought a little cactus!

As much as I love people and am generally very extroverted, I need like 12 minutes a day where I am alone. Typically that comes during my shower. The other night Sister Moreton came into the bathroom while I was showering to talk. Shortly thereafter Sister Rasheed followed, and then Sister Casey wasn't far behind. Our entire district was in our tiny bathroom chatting me up and I was like, "are you people serious?  I know we are close, but I just want 12 minutes!" They were all like, "Poppe, we just want to talk to you. We love you. We miss you. Blah, blah, blah." I felt like a mother. These children can't even entertain themselves for 12 minutes! The next night Sister Moreton started to come into the bathroom and I heard Sister Rasheed yell, "No! You no disturb my companion tonight." It was hilarious!

There is a couple in the Brimhall Ward that joined the church about a year and a half or two years ago. They're older and we stop by to visit them semi-regularly. They're funny and remind me so much of grandma and grandpa Poppe. That's probably why I love them so much.  She always gets us treat bags ready before we leave. And by treat bags I mean grocery sacks full of candy, cookies, and cans of pops.

We had a lesson with the grandparents of the missionary in Argentina this week (We'll call them Mr. and Mrs. Evita). We had left our phone number for them and the ink had smudged and so the lady wasn't dialing the correct number. This was a tender mercy, because she was calling us to cancel. Since we didn't know, we showed up and they let us in anyway and really enjoyed the visit. They are quickly growing to love us and now openly invite us back to visit. We will have to come up with clever ways to share gospel messages with them and to help them come closer to Christ. They invited us to their retirement community's choir concert in a month and I agreed to go. Hopefully if I have a new companion she is okay with that. I guess they're quite a good group.  The husband is even in quartet, so he has got to be talented.

The sister I replaced had been trying to convince the grandma and granddaughter that we are teaching to be baptized before she left. The grandma has a lot of interest but is acting like she is only taking the lessons for the granddaughter. The granddaughter is ready to be baptized and is a great girl. She is 11 and has been coming to church with a friend for a year and a half. The grandma would never agree to let her be baptized but she wouldn't disagree either. We planned a lesson on WHAT baptism is and HOW it is done and presented that and immediately the grandma finally told us her concern. The granddaughter could be sent back to live with her mom at any point if her mom gets her act together and the grandma is concerned that if she gets baptized and moves in with her mom that she won't go to church and then the granddaughter will be excommunicated. We reassured her that people aren't excommunicated that easily and continued to talk her through that concern. At the end she said, "Well, it is time to get baptized then! I didn't know all of that. Thank you!" They are going to pray about a date and tell us on Wednesday what they are thinking!  I really think the biggest thing that leads to success in missionary work is just listening and loving. I don't think they had ever actually been taught WHY we are baptized, HOW it happens, and WHAT someone feels when they are ready to be baptized (Mosiah 18:7-11...my favorite verses on baptism). The grandma has been coming to sacrament meeting now though and she is reading the Book of Mormon. We're friends because she's another Iowa transplant. Blessings and miracles!

I don't know why all of the meetings I have always end up bunched in one week. This week was a meeting heavy week. We had Zone Conference, MLC. high council leadership breakfast, and DLC. That also meant I ate HORRIBLY this week. Whenever we have meetings we are given a meal by members. And the members always want to fatten us up for some reason.  We talked a lot about faith and how to recognize statements of faith verses lies Satan tells us. I believe Satan more often than I should, so it was a good week of meetings for me.

We had a RS hike in Brimhall on Saturday that Cho Chang wanted to go to, so we went with her. It was the Wind Cave hike that we did last summer that I thought was awful. It was much better this time, partially because I am in better shape and partially because I wasn't trying to keep up with fit elders. It was actually really enjoyable!  It was steep at parts, but I wasn't the slowest person this time, so I could go at my own pace and stop and wait for others to catch up. We also had the opportunity to talk about the word of wisdom while we hiked and then had breakfast at the end.

Love,

Sister Poppe

 I'm not sure what these have to do with gold mining, but they were fabulous, 

so naturally I was drawn to them.

"Are you trapped in jail or are you go-go dancers?"-Man on the porch behind us

Oh hey. Just contemplating life with the Superstitions behind me.

District 1085

 Wind Caves Hike

I made my own freshly squeezed orange juice. People are giving us oranges by the ton and I finally decided to try juicing. It was so delicious! It takes about a thousand and seven oranges to fill a large Mason jar, but it was great.

Sister Rasheed tried her hand at juicing after I finished my Mason jar. 

HAPPY ONE YEAR MISSIONIVERSARY TO ME!

Greetings!

MIRACLES:

1) My music pimp (MP) called us Tuesday and asked to go with her to visit her friend. We have visited her before and over the course of three visits she has gone from being scared of missionaries to absolutely adoring us and wanting us to come by all the time. We agreed, but when we arrived MP said we had to stop somewhere else first. We stopped by a part-member couple in the neighborhood and talked with them. MP went in and talked about colonoscopies for ten minutes and I was really fretting. But then the nonmember wife said we could come back again next week! Such is the work in a 55+ community I guess. We did have a great lesson with her friend after that and one later that night with another one of her friends. The lady is a little crazy, but she is a great missionary! She set up three lessons for us that day and they were all member present because she came along.  Miracle! 

2) On the 31st we still needed to find 29 investigators as a mission to meet our goal of 1,500 total new investigators for the month. I really felt like we could find two that day to help finish out our goal. I knew either way we would meet our goal because during the last week of the month we had all really kicked it into gear. We found over 400 people in just three days. But I wanted to help in the final sprint. By 8:10 that night we still hadn't found a single one. I felt impressed earlier in the day to stop by an older couple's home that we had contacted before. Their son is a member and they have a grandson on a mission in Argentina. AND they are originally from Iowa, so we had already bonded over that. The husband said he would never join, but I just felt that we should stop by. I prayed in the car that we would be able to love them and show them we care and then somehow share a message and set up a return appointment. When we arrived the wife was complaining about a head ache and it didn't seem like they would let us in. I told Sister Rasheed to pray in her heart that we would get in. We did! I turned on the Amanda Poppe charm and spent 45 minutes talking to them about their family. I then helped the wife with her Facebook because she didn't know what she was doing. I was waiting to be directed by the Spirit as to when and what to share when the wife asked if I would read her grandson's most recent email. It was all about temples and the importance of the family. I read it allowed and agreed with his statements. It was 9:15 and we had to leave in about 8 minutes at the latest to make curfew. We were wrapping up and I wasn't sure how to secure a return appointment to make these two turn from potential to new investigators when the following popped into my mind and out of my mouth, "Jim. I know you said we would never convert you, but can we at least teach you what your grandson is teaching in Argentina? We teach the same lessons, only in English. He mentioned the Family Proclamation in the email we read together. Can we stop by on Thursday after dinner to bring you a copy and talk with you about it?" He and his wife agreed and liked that idea! We literally got two new investigators with only five proselyting minutes to spare in January. MIRRRRRACCCCLLLLE #miracles4dayz

3) Cho Chang came to church with her nephew and two sons! During Sunday school she leaned over and asked me how to pay tithing. When I told her that only members pay tithing she asked if it took a year to become a member. I told her she could become a member in a few weeks if she really wanted to and that we would talk about baptism this week! How exciting! She is so prepared! She signed up to feed us during RS and is going with us on a RS hike this Saturday. Her kids are enjoying primary and scouts and I think her nephew enjoyed Young Men's. We told her about mutual and hope that he will start going to that. The coolest thing about all of this is that when missionaries talked to her two years ago she wasn't interested or ready. We saw her name in our area book and felt strongly that we needed to visit and we did and now she is asking us about baptism instead of the other way around. We will have to jump over the huge live in boyfriend of ten years hurdle. Maybe I'll get to help plan a wedding! That was my dream when I came out on a mission.

HAPPY ONE YEAR MISSIONIVERSARY TO ME! Thanks for the box full of compliments and the gift card, mom! It's like you know my language of love is words of affirmation or something. We went to Smashburger with a member from my last area for lunch, and for dinner I requested grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit salad with our ward mission leader and his wife. They thought I was crazy, but it had been over a year since I had had it! I said we could have steak next time. We also had a music practice for a fireside I'm singing in this Sunday. Elder Sweeten is in our quarter, so we spent time reminiscing about the MTC together and congratulating each other on making it a year. I don't think I ever told you, but we actually got dropped off at the exact same time at the MTC. We met each other as we picked up our name tags and said at the same time, "Arizona Mesa Mission" when we were asked which mission we were checking in with. We looked at each other, smiled, and became besties instantaneously. We were both not the happiest to be there that day and formed an instant bond in that line.  It probably helped that he would whisper sing "Wrecking Ball" together at meals and in the gym. We both wondered if we would be strong enough to be good missionaries. Now he is a zone leader and I'm a sister district leader, we have both trained new missionaries, and we are doing so well and love our missions! We did a celebratory little dance, commended each other's fortitude, and made bets on who would get married first. I do have a leg up with my six month earlier release date.

As we ended our month of finding I realized that I learned more from the month of January than any other month of my mission. I wrote the following to my mission president in his weekly email:

"This will likely end up being quite a bit longer than my typical emails, but I wanted to share with you the thoughts I had at the conclusion of our month of intense finding.

I have always believed there is something to learn in every situation if we open ourselves up to the opportunity. As we discussed the underlying goals of Miracle March in MLC and what that could do for each individual missionary I knew that the first quarter of 2015 would be a growing season for me. One of my strengths, that often turns into a flaw, is my tendency to try to anticipate any and every possible outcome. This is great when I'm planning something important or when I am in charge of an event. It is not as great though when I try to anticipate what the Lord is going to teach me. I have a pretty low success rate for trying to read His mind and I often waste too much time trying to quickly learn the lesson I think He is going to teach me so I can move on to the next stage of life. In January I believed full heartedly that my area would find 20 investigators so that we would contribute in perfect proportion to the mission’s goal to find 1,500 people. I never doubted that it would happen. I figured that there would be a trial of my faith and that we wouldn't really start finding until at least the middle of the month. I know that the Lord can do absolutely anything and so I didn't doubt the possibility of finding all 20 people in the last week of the month alone. It wasn't ideal; especially because my OCD would have preferred that we found an even 5 people a week, but it was still very possible. Because of that, I anticipated that the Lord was going to teach me that he can do anything. I did my part by talking with more people than I have ever talked to during my mission, by planning as well as I could by the Spirit, and finding ways to sacrifice and consecrate my efforts. I continued throughout the month to do all of these things even when there wasn't a correlation between my (and when I say I and my throughout this letter, I mean we; Sister Rasheed was doing all of these things as well) diligence and new investigators. I didn't let myself get discouraged and I didn't take our lack of success as an excuse to forsake the better habits we had picked up. With only a handful of days left in the month I actually learned what the Lord wanted me to learn. I already have a testimony of obedience and the Lord being all powerful. I didn't need to learn that. It was foolish of me to think that He would have me learn something that I already had strong beliefs about. What I have always struggled with is the law of consecration and the idea of a Zion Society. You can chalk it up to my typically conservative ideals, my hatred of socialism and the inherent similarities, my belief that everyone should be able to solve their own problems, and my tendency to think that asking for help is nearly a sin. As we got daily updates about the miracles that were happening in the last week of the month I realized that whether we found 20 people or not, as a mission we were going to hit our goal.  I always knew we would, but I figured that every missionary would help meet that goal by the Lord strengthening them to find 10 investigators per ward. It never crossed my mind that we would meet that goal by others finding more, some finding less, and some finding next to none.  I pondered on that and realized that it didn't bother me...and that was unusual. I did spend a few days before this realization beating myself up for not "pulling my own weight", but I finally reached a point where I learned something. We had a collective goal as a mission and we all wanted to meet it. We worked, sacrificed, obeyed, prayed, fasted, and generally lived our lives to a higher standard than we had been living before. We purified ourselves and steeled ourselves against the adversary. We employed our talents and abilities. We repented and then we repented some more. Each day we evaluated and grew. We truly fought like dragons. My fire breathing effort only yielded 11 new investigators, but I exerted all the effort I could.  There were others that worked harder than I did and still some that worked less than me, but at the end of the day I believe that we all worked as hard as we could and the Lord recognizes that and accepts that. That is what the law of consecration is; working your hardest and allowing your effort to be enough. 10 people don't necessarily each give 10%, 10 people give everything and they still reach 100%. I don't have ill feelings toward others who may have put forth a tangibly smaller effort than I, because I know that it was still all they could give, just as I hope those that did more than I can recognize that though my 100% was less than theirs, it was still 100% of my abilities. The goal was always 1,500 investigators AS A MISSION.

The goal was never 20 new investigators for Sisters Poppe and Rasheed, 20 for Sisters Moreton and Casey, etc.  It was an ideal means to an end and a solid idea, but it was never the larger goal. I learned that my best is enough. I learned that the Lord strengthens others to make up for your weaknesses. I learned that perfect symmetry isn't the way the Lord does things. I learned to not resent others because their talents are more or less than mine. I learned that the Millennium won't be as Stalin-esque as I originally believed. I learned that though I gave my all I still need to progress, because 100% in January won't cut it in February because we can't remain stagnant. I learned what the Lord wanted me to learn."

You know you're rubbing off on your companion in a bad way when she says, "What is this?!" in an annoyed tone when someone doesn't turn left right away on a green arrow. Then later in the week when she says, "This is not good!" when someone cuts you off at a stoplight you know that you're the companion that gave the foreigner slight road rage. On a more positive language note, I've started picking one or two things a week to consistently correct in her vocabulary. It has helped me not be overwhelmed by all the things I think I should teach her, and has also helped her make permanent changes in her speaking. I correct her every single time she makes a mistake in regards to the pre-selected phrases for the week. She had been saying, "so many stuffs," "so much things," and "I think so no," a lot. It is comical, but I decided that last week we would change those to, "so many things," "so much stuff," and "I don't think so." It worked and she says them correctly about 95% of the time now.

Funny Sister R line of the week:

As I was taking my blanket off, my skirt went up to my mid-thigh and Sister R patted my leg and said, "oh! Good strong leg sister. Good, good leg." She has never said anything about my legs ever and that was the second time this week she did. If we are in our apartment there is a 90% chance I'm just walking around in a shirt and my garments so it isn't like she doesn't see my legs either. It was hilarious.

It was a very productive week for us and I felt blessed to teach more than we ever have as a companionship. We taught 13 member lessons, 10 nonmember lessons, and 2 less active lessons. I really hope to continue to teach in some way or another for the rest of my life because it truly is a thrill for me. Unfortunately that will probably just turn into me just forcing my kids to do flash cards and stuff and they will hate me until they're 18 and smart and accepted at Yale.

Make good decisions and remember who you are.

Love,

Sister Poppe

 Me with my trusty screwdriver