Poppe is my Clean Cut Anne of Green Gables

We went to an elderly FHE on Monday and it was literally like YSA but with old married people. But it was fun and people were all in similar life situations and almost no one could hear each other. A 92 and 97 year old couple went off and created it on their own. That will be me at 92. You're never too old for a social function!

Sister Merrell and I actually had a rough week. Our roommates have had a few miracle baptisms this month and we were really happy for them, but it kind of put us into a crisis of worth. We work just as hard as them and we haven't been seeing that manifest in results. After a few days we finally had a good chat about our feelings and realized that Satan was just making us feel useless. We also realized that we are both the oldest child and only daughter in our family so some of our self-worth flaws and the pressures we impose on ourselves were also at play. I found out during all of this that Lavender Brown and her daughter were getting baptized. Those are the second and third baptisms my first area has had since I left and it made me wonder a lot last week why I wasn't good enough at what I do. I left and Thunder Mountain had their first baptism in two years! After a lot of pondering and studying I was at peace. I didn't baptize Lavender and her daughter, but I contacted them and taught them and did a lot of the ground work that lead to her decision to be baptized.  I also realized that so much of missionary work is timing. Many missionaries taught Lavender over the years, we were just the missionaries to initiate the last contact that would lead to baptism. That will probably happen a lot with people I've contacted down the road. Missionary work is just a long process with many interruptions a lot of the time. I've come to peace with the fact that I'm just not a baptizer. I don't really know what I am. But I'm something. It's also helped that the Lord has placed a lot of people in our path with inspired statements. People who didn't even know we were struggling have said exactly what we needed to hear. We were asked to fill in for some visiting teaching and the lesson this month was on patience. A member told us to read a talk about faith and trials of our faith. A few people randomly told us they appreciate us. We are on the Lord's errand.  I think I decided that Satan and I were besties in the PME for a bit before he started acting out, that's why he tries so hard to win me over to his side all. the. time. The man won't give it a rest!

I don't know if you've ever checked out the LDS Pamphlet app, but it is out of this world awesome! They're the missionary pamphlets on steroids! The church also released a new video for Easter that talks about Christ's role in our lives now as the risen Savior. It is moving and my favorite video they've released thus far. You can find it in multiple places, but you can find it at www.helives.mormon.org. Everyone please watch it. It reminds us all that some of the most important things happened after Christ's death, not during. I'm grateful that Christ died for my sins, but I'm even more grateful that he lives to support me and love me. I can rely on a living Christ. I can only appreciate a dead savior. #becausehelives

The Women's Broadcast was powerful. The only problem was that it was all about the importance of the family, so it made us all suuuuuper trunky. I wanted to hang out with my mom, dad, brothers, cousins, grandparents, future babies, basically everyone I can't hang out with or shouldn't be thinking about extensively. My mind wandered a lot and we were all getting slightly teary-eyed. I was like, "Poppe! Get it together! You have 4.5 months left. That's half a pregnancy. Not that long. Seriously. Half a pregnancy! Bad analogy. STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR UNBORN BABIES." Bonnie L. Oscarson's talk was spot on. She hit it out of the park. The YW presidency talks are always my favorite. I was sad that my favorite woman leader and LDS role model, Neill F. Marriott, didn't speak, but she can't be a rock star at every conference I guess.

We went to the Easter Pageant with individuals a few nights. It's fun to see people from my old area there and to have an amazing production be a lesson with our investigators. We are blessed to have so many opportunities in Mesa!

Sassy Sister Friend Quotes:

"Here is a banana for each of you. Eat it. You need potassium so your bodies can produce beautiful magnificent children."

"You'll be blessed for serving a mission. Your womb will be blessed."

"You are like my clean cut Laura Ingalls, and Poppe is my clean cut Anne of Green Gables."

Love,

Sister Poppe

P.S. I had to write the missionary piece of the Aspen Relief Society Newsletter again and this is what I whipped up. I was only given about half an hour’s notice, so it isn't my finest piece.

"Imagine with me for a moment that your boss gave you a $100 dollar bill and she told you to go and give it to anyone who would take it.  There are no strings attached or criteria the recipient must meet. You simply need to find anyone who will take the money from your hands.  You're financially set and have enough Benjamin's to keep you going so it isn't hard for you to want to share it with another person. You know it will bless their life and that they will be grateful for the random boost in income. Your boss also promised you that she would supply you with as many $100 bills as could be given away. As you begin to seek out someone to give the money to will you stop if the first, second, third, or fourteenth person doesn't accept your gift or see the value in it? Probably not. You have $100! Who cares if someone was foolish enough to reject such a prize? They're the one that is missing out on the blessing.

Missionary work is much like trying to give someone a $100 bill. Even if people reject your offer you can still bless someone's life. Many people will reject the gospel because of skepticism, pride, fear, or apathy and that's okay. Someday someone will take the $100 bill and will treat you as if you gave them a million dollar bill for the rest of their life. Your success doesn't diminish (or increase) based on the number of $100 bills you hand out; it is entirely reliant upon your dedication to invite others to take the treasure you want to give them. The March 2015 New Era had an article that encouraged readers by reminding them that, "Your success is not measured by their response; it is measured by your commitment to share [the gospel]."

Maybe you've neglected to try to hand out your $100 bill and you don't know how to start or you feel you've missed a lot of great opportunities and now you just don't know what to do. Make the resolve and start. Invite someone to watch Meet the Mormons in your living room. Invite a friend to eat a plate of cookies you made them and to read the pass along card taped to the cling wrap. Show your neighbor the #becausehelives video. Simply invite a friend to dinner and ask if you can start the meal with a prayer. Don't forsake the small opportunities to share the gospel just because you missed the big ones. You might have to hand out your $100 bill $1 at a time."

I met my doppleganger this week! She looked more like me in 

person than in this picture. It was almost like the Parent Trap!

I convinced the elders we were doing service with that I was 

responsible enough to use a hedge trimmer. It was the most 

                               exciting thing I've ever done as service!