I'm Becoming Athletic?

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!!

I'm so done with this emailing every week thing that I'm skipping the pleasantries and jumping into things.

We have been singing to a few elderly people at the rest home in our area and we've made a few friends. One of them is named Polly and she loves us so much. She always tells us we should start a band and that we should be on America's Got Talent and such. She was telling us about how sad she is because most of her family is dead, so we gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet. She said she has been reading it and that she wants to learn more. A few days after that, we got a phone call from a member who said she was emailed about a potential referral. The email was all about Polly! The lady who emailed doesn't live here and didn't know that we've been talking with her already. She just said she knew of a sad, lonely woman who wanted help with family history and would probably be open to learning more about the church. That was our sign that we need to start teaching her and that she is prepared!

We contacted a former investigator couple who had a baptism date at one point in time a few years ago and they didn't follow through. They're older and at first were very skeptical of us. We broke the ice and they're quite enjoyable people. Sister Smith said they had tried contacting them a million times and had even had a doorstep conversation that went nowhere, but now they're ready! Heavenly Father blessed us with a lot of miracles like that this week. I firmly believe that the first 14 months of my mission were a test to see if I really had faith. After I endured every possible form of rejection and lack of tangible success, I am finally being blessed with the miracles that people associate with missionary work.

We're meeting with a lady, who we will call the Bohemian. Because she's pretty edgy and cool. She's had a lot of struggles and trials in the past year or so. She's fallen pretty far and hasn't been very open to our message. She loves us as people though. We finally had a bold talk with her and learned of all of her concerns and she broke down. At the end of it she committed to read the Book of Mormon though!

Our WML's neighbor that we've been teaching loves the trinity. Hardcore loves the trinity. Well, we shook her faith in it a few weeks ago I guess. She said after we left she was so mad at herself because she couldn't remember why she even believed in the trinity. She's been studying a lot since then and is trying to strengthen her testimony in it. Too bad it won't happen, because the trinity isn't even a real thing! With time she will realize the reason her testimony is crumbling is because it isn't true information.

We've had contact with a prospective elder a few times in this area and it hasn't led to much. I made a goal to be bolder during weekly planning on Friday and had the opportunity to do it a few times over the weekend. Our time with him was no exception. He likes me already, so I decided to just tell it like it is. He was saying he doesn't watch the Priesthood Session of conference because he doesn't even have the Melchizedek Priesthood. I told him that the 12 year olds don't either and yet they watch it. He admitted after that he didn't have an excuse. He was kind of getting whiny about something else and I point blank asked him if he wanted to change to be worthy of the MP. He said yes, but he had to change like 17 things. I asked him which thing he was going to change right then and there. He picked one and asked if we would meet with him weekly to help him conquer his demons. We agreed and are really looking forward to it. I shared uplifting things too and prayed before we left. He said that I had a talent for saying exactly what the Spirit wants me to say. To be honest I've struggled my entire life with knowing if I'm actually saying what the Spirit wants me to say or if my brain is just making up thoughts. So it was good to know that maybe I actually am better at following the Spirit than I think I am.

We hid in the bathtub one night this week and scared our roommates and shot them with our Nerf guns. We're getting too creative! It was so funny though.

I gave a talk on obedience on Sunday in Vista Peaks. It went really well. People genuinely complimented me. Sometimes people just say good talk and you know they don't mean it. But I really think these people meant it. I read a lot from 1st Nephi 3-5 and put in my own commentary and then shared a few personal stories from my life. It was good for me to study obedience a lot last week for my talk, because I struggle with that a lot! Not the obedient part, just the not questioning part. I always question things and I need to be better at being obedient out of love.

Man. I KILLED it at zone sports today. You guys wouldn't even have recognized me! We played chair soccer (a game where you have a fold up chair and instead of scoring goals, you want to hit every chair on the other team with a soccer ball before the other team hits your chairs). At one point in the morning I got the ball at the beginning and ran across the court and literally hit all 6 chairs on their team and we won the match in about 45 seconds. I got MVP. We normally don't even do MVP at zone sports, but I got it. I don't even know how it happened. Maybe the Lord is finally answering my 4th grade prayers and I'm becoming athletic? Let's be honest. It was actually just the Celine Dion shirt I was wearing that lead to my success.

The following conversations are real life pieces of dialogue that show that President and Sister Jenkins are randomly treating Sister Smith and I like we are this in love, co-dependent newlywed couple:

After we gave our training at the train the new trainers meeting:

"President, you do know I've never trained, right?"-SS
"Yes. We just didn't want Sister Poppe to get lonely without ya up there with her."-KJ

Sister Smith had an STL meeting and I was out with a member:

"Sister Smith you seem quiet today."-SJ
"Oh (random quiet words)."-SS
"We just need Sister Poppe here by your side, don't we."-SJ

For the record, we are not co-dependent, in love, or newlyweds.

Love,

Sister Poppe

If we could actually sidesaddle ride a shark with a laser coming out of its eye

our teaching appointments would probably increase at least 46%.

We had a FHE lesson with our ward mission leader's family and an 

investigator last week. Their absolutely adorable son left early on the 

lesson and came back with two pictures of Jesus and drug out the stools 

and put the pictures up so that Jesus was at FHE. 

HALLLA Freedom is our favorite license plate in Mesa. Happy Memorial Day!

We recycled my birthday wrapping paper to take our WML a gift on his 

birthday.  He's on a health challenge so we wrapped up almonds and beef

 jerky and tied a floss ribbon around the top to amp up the class factor a bit. 

I don't think anyone has gotten as much use out of that cat wrapping paper 

as we have.  We've turned it into cards, used it for nice notes, and actually

 used it to re-wrap stuff. #recycle #poormishprobs 

When we get home before our roommates we like to pull pranks on them and scare them. A few nights ago we decided to lay out the most random stuff in the living room to make it look like the beginning of a horror film. Then we hid on the porch and shot them with our Nerf guns after they were confused and scared for a bit. **fun tidbit: I'm the proud new owner of that typewriter you see pictured! I mentioned that I've always wanted a typewriter and our new member, Bambi said she was trying to get rid of her mom's and she gave it to me. It's from the 70's...I really want one from the 1800's, but I'll take what I can get. I tried to use it, but it wasn't working. I'm afraid it's a broken 70's typewriter. Also, you can't tell through our creepy movie filter, but we TOTALLY matched that day unintentionally. Lace tops and navy skirts. It happens far too often.

 

 My favorite Samoan

 

A French greenie helping with our swag spirit