Hello,
Two times this week JJ texted me and terrified me. The first was early on in the week. She basically just said, "Sisters. I would like to go out teaching with the two of you this week sometime. Let me know when works. I just..." and we never got the second page. So we were freaking out. I was like, "great! She's going to come and evaluate me and see if I was worthwhile the 18 months I was here." After we responded and said that we had good lessons on Tuesday or Thursday we got the second page that just said, "...want to go out with the infamous Sister Poppe before she dies :)". Heart attack for nothing! But then I was nervous because clearly I've been built up to more than I am if I am infamous. She came out with us Thursday evening and we had a great lesson with diva. We were supposed to have a lesson with a less active woman after that with the RS president, but the woman cancelled on our way over. She had had a rough week. It was the anniversary of her divorce and her mother is dying. I said we would stop by anyway just to share our love. So we all went by and sang her a quick song and said we loved her. The RS president left and Sister Jenkins stayed with us for our last hour. We tried to contact a few people but no one was home. We had about 25 minutes left of the night and I said a prayer in my heart that went like this, "Heavenly Father. Look. I can't let this woman think that I'm an awful missionary. I can't help that our appointment fell through and all of our back-ups weren't home. I need you to place someone in my path to talk to so she doesn't think I'm bad at this." Then I just started walking aimlessly, but with confidence. We were still in the apartment complex, so I just acted like we were walking to another door. We were talking and after about 5 minutes I saw a guy with some wording on his shirt, so I called out, "Hey! What does your shirt say?" He answered, "If it don't touch my soul I don't listen to it." I said, "That's pretty good. Can I tell you about something that touches my soul?" By this point we were already right next to him. He agreed and we spent 25 minutes talking to him. We invited him to church and he agreed to come (but he didn't actually end up coming). It was a really productive conversation. It was, hands down, my best street contact of my mission. As we walked back to JJ's car I prayed in my heart a prayer of gratitude. She thanked us for the fun evening and complimented our teaching skills and such. She was impressed with our street contact. Sister Childs asked me after JJ left what my plan was when I was just walking so I told her. She said that she just kept thinking, "I have no clue where she is going, but she seems to know what she is doing, so I'll just follow." Clearly I didn't. But it worked out. The Lord hears our prayers! Even if they're based on our vain desires to be appreciated by our mission president's wife.
Two times this week JJ texted me and terrified me. The first was early on in the week. She basically just said, "Sisters. I would like to go out teaching with the two of you this week sometime. Let me know when works. I just..." and we never got the second page. So we were freaking out. I was like, "great! She's going to come and evaluate me and see if I was worthwhile the 18 months I was here." After we responded and said that we had good lessons on Tuesday or Thursday we got the second page that just said, "...want to go out with the infamous Sister Poppe before she dies :)". Heart attack for nothing! But then I was nervous because clearly I've been built up to more than I am if I am infamous. She came out with us Thursday evening and we had a great lesson with diva. We were supposed to have a lesson with a less active woman after that with the RS president, but the woman cancelled on our way over. She had had a rough week. It was the anniversary of her divorce and her mother is dying. I said we would stop by anyway just to share our love. So we all went by and sang her a quick song and said we loved her. The RS president left and Sister Jenkins stayed with us for our last hour. We tried to contact a few people but no one was home. We had about 25 minutes left of the night and I said a prayer in my heart that went like this, "Heavenly Father. Look. I can't let this woman think that I'm an awful missionary. I can't help that our appointment fell through and all of our back-ups weren't home. I need you to place someone in my path to talk to so she doesn't think I'm bad at this." Then I just started walking aimlessly, but with confidence. We were still in the apartment complex, so I just acted like we were walking to another door. We were talking and after about 5 minutes I saw a guy with some wording on his shirt, so I called out, "Hey! What does your shirt say?" He answered, "If it don't touch my soul I don't listen to it." I said, "That's pretty good. Can I tell you about something that touches my soul?" By this point we were already right next to him. He agreed and we spent 25 minutes talking to him. We invited him to church and he agreed to come (but he didn't actually end up coming). It was a really productive conversation. It was, hands down, my best street contact of my mission. As we walked back to JJ's car I prayed in my heart a prayer of gratitude. She thanked us for the fun evening and complimented our teaching skills and such. She was impressed with our street contact. Sister Childs asked me after JJ left what my plan was when I was just walking so I told her. She said that she just kept thinking, "I have no clue where she is going, but she seems to know what she is doing, so I'll just follow." Clearly I didn't. But it worked out. The Lord hears our prayers! Even if they're based on our vain desires to be appreciated by our mission president's wife.
The second time JJ texted me she just said, "Sister P.
Please call me when you can." WOW. THAT IS WORSE THAN A BOY SAYING,
"We need to talk." So I called and she just asked if I would help
another elder leaving with me next week to write his college admission essays.
So I have a time set up on Tuesday to meet with him and edit his work and help
him construct good answers.
Birds are still dumb here. I hit another one this week. Sister Childs has consigned me to hell for murder.
Our baptism went so well! We were able to get a lot of ward involvement and we did nothing. That is a successful baptism. When the missionaries don't do anything. Our mission president hates it when missionaries conduct or give a talk or sing at their own baptism. The only thing we did was teach the message while Diva was changing, but that is required. That is the only part in the program missionaries should do. JJ and KJ came and they complimented us more than once for our spot on service. We even had a primary choir sing the special musical number. There were about 10 kids. That was an answer to prayer too. Diva really wanted us to sing, so we said we would and then last minute we decided we shouldn't. Good thing too, because the primary kids brought the Spirit and KJ and JJ came and thought it was so wonderful we had no part in the program. They said our teaching about the Book of Mormon while she was changing was so wonderful and the Mormon Message we showed was exactly perfect. They compliment me too much. Seriously. It makes me uncomfortable. They were even complimenting Sister Childs and I to the family after the baptism. Diva's dad was telling them how great we are and KJ was telling him how great we were and I was glad I wasn't actually standing there, I could only hear them from across the room where I was putting the hymn books away at. This weeks goal from Sister Childs is for me to accept compliments better. In particular any of them that have to do with complimenting my appearance.
Birds are still dumb here. I hit another one this week. Sister Childs has consigned me to hell for murder.
Our baptism went so well! We were able to get a lot of ward involvement and we did nothing. That is a successful baptism. When the missionaries don't do anything. Our mission president hates it when missionaries conduct or give a talk or sing at their own baptism. The only thing we did was teach the message while Diva was changing, but that is required. That is the only part in the program missionaries should do. JJ and KJ came and they complimented us more than once for our spot on service. We even had a primary choir sing the special musical number. There were about 10 kids. That was an answer to prayer too. Diva really wanted us to sing, so we said we would and then last minute we decided we shouldn't. Good thing too, because the primary kids brought the Spirit and KJ and JJ came and thought it was so wonderful we had no part in the program. They said our teaching about the Book of Mormon while she was changing was so wonderful and the Mormon Message we showed was exactly perfect. They compliment me too much. Seriously. It makes me uncomfortable. They were even complimenting Sister Childs and I to the family after the baptism. Diva's dad was telling them how great we are and KJ was telling him how great we were and I was glad I wasn't actually standing there, I could only hear them from across the room where I was putting the hymn books away at. This weeks goal from Sister Childs is for me to accept compliments better. In particular any of them that have to do with complimenting my appearance.
The bishop of VP has a son with Down's Syndrome. He is 14
and he is just so funny! Every time he sees me he says, "you're
cute," with a flirty face and a wink and sometimes a little finger gun point.
Well this week he came up to me and told me I'm cute and then said,
"you're tense," and then rubbed my shoulders! It was hilarious. He
has a 16 year old brother who was laughing and I had to tell him thanks, but no
thanks because I'm a missionary. Then on Sunday he tried to do it again. His
mom is always like, "this kid is the biggest flirt we have!" He's a
sweet kid though.
"I see you as General Young Women's president...maybe Relief Society president. Never Primary though."-Swaggy B
"What does that mean? I could totally be Primary president. Watch me!"-Me
"I see you as General Young Women's president...maybe Relief Society president. Never Primary though."-Swaggy B
"What does that mean? I could totally be Primary president. Watch me!"-Me
"I know you could be. You could be president of
literally anything. You're president of our apartment. In fact, I'm going to
start calling you President Poppe instead of Sister Poppe."-Swaggy B
She then went on to tell me why
I would be perfect in the role of YW president and only wonderful at the
Primary president gig.
Love,
Sister Poppe
Love,
Sister Poppe
18 months baby!
Shark week party dinner was a success. A less
active, nonmember, and a
daughter of a part member family were all in
attendance. Now if only
everyone did that when they invited the missionaries over
real missionary
work might actually happen!
Diva saw her outfit at the store and said, "Mom that
is a Sister Poppe
outfit! I want it." So her mom bought it for her and she
happened to
wear it the same day I wore something very similar. Her mom said
that she was also looking at the boat shoes because she wanted
some like mine
but they didn't have any in her size. Imitation
really is the highest form of
flattery.
We played gospel jeopardy with diva and her cousin and
then two
other girls we are teaching. The one doesn't live in our boundaries,
but she's been at a few lessons. So we're not really teaching her, but
we kind
of are just because she doesn't have the best home life and
she is always at
this member’s house hanging out with the other girl
we are teaching. She can't
be baptized because her parents aren't
together and the dad is active and the
mom isn't a member and she
won't allow her to be baptized. So we do some good
lessons with
them to try and help them keep the faith until they're old enough
to make their own decisions.
We made a cupcake Mesa temple for diva's family. No
missionary time
was wasted, don't worry. We did it during our free time in the
evening
and such. I painted the grass and the sky and did the palm trees.
I
also baked the cupcakes. Sister Childs did the temple.
She's more artistic than
I am.
Diva's baptism!
Her brother was blessed the next day in
sacrament meeting as well.
The men of the Fairway Groves Ward Council always wear
fancy socks and we decided to wear fancy socks as well on
Sunday. Brother
Eagleston got away before we got a picture,
but here are the rest of the fancy
sock club.
I was using my iPad camera as a mirror during Sunday school
to
fix my hair and Sister Childs kept acting like we were taking selfies.
So
when I fixed my hair we finally took a selfie. A member leaned
over and was
like, "Sunday School Selfies....niiiiiiice." I thought we
were pretty
sly, but she saw us. She thought it was funny though.
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