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
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