Swaggy Lives on, my Friends

Wow. I realized I use that word a lot. As I was looking back through emails I've sent home I was kiiiiiind of embarrassed that I use it so often to start sentences/paragraphs/etc. I'm not sure where I picked it up...though I think it might have been Sister Rasheed. Sister Smith says it all the time now. We've both kind of picked up a lot of habits from each other. Marriage prep, I guess. That's why you have to marry someone that isn't annoying. Inevitably you pick up each other's mannerisms and before you know it you're both annoying. I've learned so much on a mission!

We watched 17 Miracles with the Bohemian and her daughter last Monday for FHE. They were an hour late and it was kind of frustrating at first, but it all worked out and they really enjoyed it. The girls were more involved than ever and have a huge respect for pioneers now. The Bohemian shocked us and came to church on Sunday! It was amazing! I literally gasped and my jaw dropped when she walked in late to sacrament meeting. We are progressing with her!

Sister Smith had a meeting on Tuesday, so I found a member to go out with me for part of the morning so I could be productive in our area. I texted about a million and seven people and finally one person said they could go out with me. We stopped by the TLC family's home and talked with the husband. His wife was at the hospital and had just finished surgery. The sister that came out with me was perfect. She offered to bring over dinner that night AND invited the teenage daughters to mutual. All without me prompting her. I was definitely praying in my heart that she would do those things. It was so nice having a member with me! The RS provided meals the rest of the week and it really softened their hearts. We went back on Saturday to finish up some yard work and then we taught them a lesson. To be honest the lesson could have gone better. The member brought up some deep doctrine. I accidentally asked a question that lead to them asking a question that lead to a member asking more deep doctrine. It was still better than probably 90% of lessons taught about the Plan of Salvation...we're not horrible teachers, but for us it wasn't a good lesson. The wife isn't interested. She is comfortable at her church, but the husband still is. He said he wants to learn more even if his wife doesn't. That's kind of a hard situation, because we want to respect the wife, but we also want to teach him if he wants to learn. We don't want to be the cause of any strife between them. 

That same member went with me to read the Book of Mormon with an investigator and it was such a good conversation. She is the older woman we contacted a few weeks ago that said when it is right she will be baptized. Baby steps. All the time, baby steps.

Lost is doing well! He had his baptismal interview the day they got back from Trek and is all prepared for baptism. The only problem is we got a call this morning and he asked if we could move it back a week because half of his family is going to California now. What the heck! Who just goes to California all the sudden? So now we have to get him re-interviewed and move everything back a week. Which is okay. At least he still wants to be baptized and he is still doing really well. He had a blast at Trek and I guess he was the life of the party. He bore his testimony twice and really got the kids going. We're so proud of him!

Dinner cancelled one night this week so we went to Smashburger. One of my employee friends talked to us about his plans to move to Chicago and he opened up about his addictions. We gave him a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and wrote down the information for the ARP class. At first he was like, "I'm not into religion." Then we told him that we really just wanted him to check out the class and he was very grateful then and said we're just the sweetest girls. That's real life missionary work right there! Anyone can do that. You don't need to be a missionary!

We're working closely with a less active to help him get the Melchizedek Priesthood and that has been so good. For whatever reason he really connects with Sister Smith and I, and is actually working on changing step by step. He told us that he was convinced we wouldn't change him (which we won't...we don't change people) but that we have a way of saying what he needs to hear and that has helped him want to change more than ever. He told the bishop the same thing. We're really praying that we can help him change his poor habits!

We've been looking for ways to bump up our teaching pool. A lot of people are stagnant right now and that is always hard. We are working with more less actives though and that is helping us stay busy. We have a recurring FHE appointment with a couple now (the family with the cute little boy that kissed me with his Oreo mouth) and a few others we meet with weekly. I'm really excited to always do less active work the rest of my life.

My studies were really good this week. I have let myself study less rigidly and more with the Spirit. I always have a study plan and a lot of time that prevents me from studying whatever I am lead to. I don't like to break out of my routine, but I decided this week to just do whatever and it has really been rewarding. I am learning so much more. We had to study the Sabbath Day and the Sacrament for our zone discussion with President this week. It went really well. I have such a different view of the Sabbath now and am ready to keep it holy in a different way when I am home. I haven't respected it enough in my life and I never fully understood the sacrament. Perhaps the greatest thing I took away from my studies was a thought I had while examining the sacrament prayers (it was later confirmed to me in a talk by Elder Holland as actual doctrine): We partake of the bread of the sacrament in symbolism of Christ overcoming physical death and we partake of the water in symbolism of Christ overcoming spiritual death. WOW! SO POWERFUL. I'm really learning the difference between diligent study and diligent reading. I've been shown a lot through personal revelation this week and it has been wonderful.

At our zone discussion (it was in place of our regular interviews with President) President asked me if I would go to Scottsdale to train their missionaries on blogging. They just got iPads and their mission president wants missionaries from our mission to train them because missionaries always will emulate missionaries; whether they be good or bad. Myself, and two other missionaries will be conducting the training in a few weeks! We don't have a set date yet, but I am really honored and excited!

Swaggy lives on my friends. More and more people are starting to say it. I think this is what Gretchen Wieners would have felt like if Fetch would have ever happened. We just have to make sure it doesn't get out of hand so that we don't get in trouble for using slang. We did decide though that we want to open a pop store in Mesa called Swaggy Sips and an ice cream store called Swaggy Scoops. #swaggysoppebusinessplans

A KJ gem for ya: 

"Hellions in sacrament meeting are hellions at home." 

KJ's logic on why you need to train your kids to be reverent not only at church, but at home.

Love,

Sister Poppe

P.S. I forgot to tell you something else in my letter! We switched cars with 

some elders and it has been the worst decision ever. I was never on board 

with it because they wanted to take our Ford Fusion in exchange for a 

Toyota Corolla. We did it though because Sister Smith had a tiny Honda

 Prelude before her mission and has a hard time parking the Fusion. 

Well we got it and the maintenance light was on and we asked about it 

and the elders said they got it checked out and it was nothing. The next 

day the car started making this whistling sound and it was not normal. 

Let's take a flashback to all the times dad was like, "how long has 

your car been making this noise?" and I  never knew the answer because 

I had never even noticed it. Clearly if I notice a noise, it is bad. We 

had a member look at it and he said it was a real problem, so we took 

it into the car dealership and had it fixed. While we were there we 

had a 5 star experience. Talk about swanky (and swaggy)! They gave 

us free donuts, hot chocolate, bottled water, and other small snacks. 

They had a TV (that we couldn't watch) and comfy chairs. They also had a 

free shuttle that took us back to our apartment and then picked us up when 

our car was fixed. It was all so very magical! The only way it could have been 

better is if there were bagels instead of donuts. As Sister Smith said, "this 

place is like Disneyland but for cars." It was fun and we felt a little more 

regal than we are. What does that say about missionary work, that we felt 

regal at a car dealership? Either way, we had fun in the swaggy shuttle 

with our new friend whose name I already forgot. 

 

That's a huge bag of Mexican cheese puffs with 

                                           Abe Lincoln and a laser burger. 

"Sister Smith. Knight me!"-me

"I knight thee as Sister Poppe."-Sister Smith

I realized I lost Sister Smith while we were contacting in this complex 

and as I turned around she said, "NO! Turn back around! 

I'm taking a missionary picture!"

Sister Smith got this random dolphin key chain from her sister and it 

makes obnoxious dolphin noises. He's been our pet named Dahl Phynne 

throughout our companionship. When we were at another sister apartment 

the other day I saw that little statue and asked about it. The sisters said 

another sister left it and they were just going to throw it away. I took it and 

gave it to Sister Smith as a gift and said it is us. I'm the taller one, she's 

the shorter one, and we threw Dahl Phynne in the mix. It's our classy 

kitchen art.  Poppe and Smith and Dahl Phynne for life.

When Sister Smith was sick last week I was bored for about half an hour 

before I could leave with a companion and I wrote a bunch of notes on this 

chicken paper for our roommates. They all are compliments

 that have to do with chickens.