#Preachitgirl: Cows or Llamas?

Happy Birthday Week to Me!!! (and Hitler???) AND GRANDMA!

I forgot to tell you about a signature Amanda moment from last week that I'm sure you'll love:

"That is a super skinny cow!"-Me
"That's because it's a llama."-Sister Smith

Then this week Sister Smith received a letter from her sister in which her sister said how hard she laughed when she read that conversation in Sister Smith's weekly email last week. Now her family probably thinks I'm uneducated! They don't know I've just struggled with proper animal identification my entire life. She did say that she'll tell them this week that I am cultured and not dumb just to clear up any misconceptions.

We had a lesson with the guy I told you about last week that came up to the truck window while we were praying. He will heretofore be called Mikky D because he asked if we could have the lesson at McDonalds. It was kind of strange, but it worked for him. The lesson went really well. He is old and has health problems, so our challenge will be helping him feel the Spirit to the point that he wants to make the effort to change his life at this late stage of the game. He is very open though and has a deep love for Christ.

"Sister. I don't know how I feel about teaching a lesson at McDonalds."-SS

"They do it on the District 1, so we're fine."-SP

"Oh! You're right. We can totally teach at McDonalds."-SS

"This probably makes us even better missionaries. We're following the District with exactness."-SP

"We need a picture!"-SS

We are teaching the 8 year old brother of a member right now and because the parents aren't members, he is considered a convert if he gets baptized. We are really excited about that and hope to put him on date for May. He remembers so much of what he learns in Primary and really wants to be baptized. He is a great kid. Normally I would be uncomfortable at the idea of baptizing a young kid whose parents aren't involved in the church, but he is so on board and his sister does a good job of getting him to church. I think this will really bless his life.

The Fairway Groves ward mission leader is amazing. He is always trying his hardest to magnify his calling. He invited his neighbor to go to the VC last night and she accepted so he told us to meet them there. We shared a good lesson about Christ and temples (because she had a lot of questions about temples). She is very open and interested and said she won't look anything up online because it is disrespectful. We hope to take her back to the VC to watch Meet the Mormons and JSPR (Joseph Smith movie)

Sister Smith had two exchanges this week, so that meant I had two exchanges this week since I am her other half. The first one I was with Sister Rasheed! We were excited to be together again. We had a good day. We started by doing service at a place called A New Leaf. I'm not 100% certain what they do there, but I would assume they help people turn over a new leaf. Just a hunch. We painted a cinder block fence and I rather enjoyed that. We found a new investigator from a member referral! She is open and somewhat interested, but is also very devoted to her current church. We had two good lessons with other investigators and had a member with us for the evening. Our ward mission leader's family took us out to eat for my birthday because he is going to be out of town this week. They took us to Matta's and it was a lot of fun. Their children are the most adorable kids you've ever seen. I wouldn't be surprised if they're on Pinterest. The wife's sister actually served her mission in MN and served in our ward! Her name was Sister Pitts. I remember the name, but not much about her. She remembered our family (which I'm not sure is a good thing...). I know I went out with the sisters once in high school, but I don't remember who the second sister was...maybe it was her!

Service!

My second exchange was with a sister named Sister Solipo. I really like her! She came out the transfer before me. We had a lot of fun just talking with each other while we walked between apartments and such. We had a hard time finding people home, but such are Saturdays in missionary work. We did help a lady move. She was interesting and had a TON of stuff. It was overwhelming.

So many people that we are teaching have had deaths happen in their life last week. It made us so aware of Satan and how he will try us when we are progressing in the gospel. We are giving them a week off to mourn and we will make them cookies and take them over with a Plan of Salvation pamphlet so they will know we're here and we care, but so they can also not feel pushed around by us.

D&C58:28 stuck out to me in my studies this week. Read it and figure out how it applies to you!

The primary president in Fairway Groves found out my birthday is this week so she asked me to come into Primary so the kids could sing to me. So I did that yesterday and it was so cute! When she introduced me, the ward mission leader's son (who took us to dinner) started loudly saying, "THAT IS MY MISSIONARY! THAT IS MY MISSIONARY!" It was cute. Obvi we're besties.

Random quote:

"I like the sisters better because they talk about Jesus more than the elders do."-adolescent at our dinner appointment.

As you can see, my ambition with emailing each week is waning. I can't wait to just talk to people and not type to people! It gets exhausting. Sorry I'm lame!

Love,

Sister Poppe