I DON'T HAVE A SISTER VOICE PEOPLE!

Hi,

The weather here has been CRAZY BEAUTIFUL. I kid you not, I think it is because of me. The Lord is blessing this poor Minnesota girl for her diligence and letting the weather be beautiful. He has also blessed me to acclimate really well. The whole month of May was just nice. It wasn't hot at all! This week it finally breached 100 degrees and it wasn't bad at all. I am kind of betraying my childhood and my roots because yesterday I even said, "Sister, 106 kind of actually feels nice. It's nice to be warm." WHO AM I?!? Thank you Heavenly Father for making my body think 106 isn't even that bad!

I was praying pretty hard this week for some answers to some questions and was just kind of getting tired (I had been praying for like 18 minutes) and so I just told Heavenly Father I had to go to bed, but that if he would bring a random scripture to my mind I would read it. Keep in mind that I can literally memorize EVERYTHING in this world except for scripture references. So if a scripture came to mind I knew it was going to be a miracle because I only have like 27 references memorized, and that is on a good day. As I stood up from my prayer, Alma 36:3 popped into my mind and it wasn't one of my memorized references. I looked it up and it was all about trusting in the Lord and relying on him. It was perfect and was a reminder that I just need to be patient in his timing. PRAYER WORKS.

We went to the nursing home to sing this week and for some reason we had the giggles uncontrollably. It was SO embarrassing but also SO funny. We would get a few notes in and just start laughing. Once we started we couldn't stop! I was laughing so hard I was crying. The elderly got a kick out of it and it seemed to really brighten their day. It probably feels good to see young people be complete fools. The workers were even dying. Then when we composed ourselves we started singing again (this was literally like our 4th attempt) and halfway through the song my spirit old lady (as dubbed by Sister Smith...because this lady is me in 70 years) started doing this crazy dance. So I started laughing again! Man, we were a hot mess.

Sister Smith had a bad head cold, so I went out with our roommate on Tuesday evening. Everything cancelled, which was the theme of our week, but we still had a good night (and week). We stopped by a LA house that we didn't know and had a great talk with him. He enjoyed our visit and told us that his wife is pregnant (who isn't a member). He said we can stop by after their vacation next week. We also talked to my friend from the care facility from my first area. She was home and it was a good talk with her. We followed up with her neighbors after that and they are going to try harder to get us together with her for dinner or something.

We met with a LA in FG this week and she just broke down with us. It was SUCH a good lesson. She is slowly starting the repentance process and is aware that it will be a long road.

A laurel in VP took us out for lunch and a random stranger ended up paying for us. She has a boy out on a mission, so she wanted to treat us. It was fun and good for her. She doesn't relate well to the girls in YW so because of that people get the impression that she doesn't always care (sounds kind of like me as a teen). She is totally solid and just wants to do her own thing.

We stopped by a kind couple's home the other day. The husband is slowly dying of cancer and because of that the wife doesn't get out much. He's a former 70's brother and they've served many missions. They just asked if we could come by occasionally to lift their spirits. We did and as we left the husband hugged us and sincerely thanked us for our service. After our week of cancellations it was so nice to hear. He went into detail about how our service changes lives and how even strangers are uplifted just by the appearance of us. He hugged us and we left a little teary-eyed and feeling so much love from him and our Heavenly Father.

I had a group of women in VP compliment my talk from last week and then they said the most valued compliment a sister missionary can ever hear, "Sister Poppe. We don't know how to say this...but you don't even sound like a missionary when you speak. You know? You don't have THAT voice. You are so normal!" I DON'T HAVE A SISTER VOICE PEOPLE. HALLELUJAH. THE LORD HEARS PRAYERS. I seriously prayed before my mission that I wouldn't fall into the trap of getting a sister voice while I was out! I worried that maybe I got one but it happened so gradually that I didn't notice and everyone was too kind to tell me that I sounded too sweet to be genuine.

I read a talk by Elder Holland addressed to women about loving ourselves. In it he quotes Halle Berry AND Teen People. This is why he is my General Authority spirit animal.

We taught Lost the law of chastity lesson this week. Boy was that an adventure. There were 4 YM in attendance and we were on exchanges, so my companion was a sister who has only been out about 4 months and had never taught that lesson before. It was all entertaining though.

This quote was in a talk I studied today and I really enjoyed it: “The gods sell us all good things at the price of our labor”-Socrates

My companion said, "swaggy dunk" the other day when she threw her Powerade into the garbage. I asked if that was a real thing or just something she says and she admitted that it was one of her white girl sayings. So now we say swaggy all the time. Swaggy ward council. Swaggy lunch. Swaggy bed time. Swaggy mango cart. Swaggy carwash. Everything is swaggy and everything is funny. We're to the point that we can't write down all the funny things we say in a day because it takes too much work. I hope there is a film strip of our time together waiting in the CK Lounge when I make it there.

Love,

Sister Poppe

My roommates all conspired and got me a Memorial Day gift 

because I love America so much. I got out of the shower and 

this thoughtful gesture greeted me.

I literally set all these rules for my last two transfers so I can lose the 

thousands of pounds I've gained out here before I get home. Seriously 

everyone is giving us more food than ever now. Satan is in the details 

of our lives, I tell ya! He is inspiring these members to give us food. 

I got back from my evening with Sister Brinkerhoff and as we walked 

in with two partial cakes, two small loaves of banana bread, pepsi, 

toilet paper, and bottled water Sister Smith groaned and asked why 

people loved us so much. But seriously! Only in Mesa!

Throwback picture to our baptism two weeks ago. 

Better late than never.

NUG NUG TOOK ME OUT FOR 50 CENT CORN DOG DAY! 

Man I love her. As we left Sister Brinkerhoff said, "Seriously, you 

two are sisters. You look alike, you act alike, you speak alike. You 

are the same person." Mama Nug Nug couldn't come out with us 

because she was getting her hair done, so she called and asked if 

she can take me out to lunch this Thursday because she missed it. 

I love their family so much!

 

Some members bought this mango cart for their kids to sell stuff at the park with. Their 10 and 11 year old sons have wanted one for years, so when they were in Mexico they bought it for them for 1/3 of the price they go for in the US. They accidentally took a video when I was driving the bike instead of a picture, so we just have Sister Smith behind the wheel. 

Target called and asked for their advertisement picture back. 

Seriously, why are we so cute?

"I'm George Washington forging the Delaware."-me

Half Ton Sisters: Their Only Hope is the Resurrection

We had the busiest week I've had since I've been out and it was fantastic! I love not having to worry about filling time. We had quite a few really successful lessons with some active families in the Thunder Mountain ward. We ended every lesson with a family prayer in which we asked the head of the household to pray for missionary opportunities as well as for the faith to act on them when they are provided from heav'. One of the lessons we had was with a single middle aged lady who has never been married.  She was raised in Minnesota, is the oldest of three children with only brothers and went to BYU.  So basically we are probably going to have the same life.  Don't count on grandchildren from me...I'm destined to be single 4 lyfe.

We have an assisted living home in the Thunder Mountain Ward boundaries (it isn't the one we already volunteer at) and a new lady just moved in who is a member. We stopped by and talked to her and learned so much about her. Her faith is absolutely amazing. She joined the church not many years ago and has had a lot of serious health problems in her older years, yet her only concern is making sure that she has completed all of her ordinances and lived true to them before she dies. Her faith is astounding. Her husband was baptized by proxy and she is now praying about whether she should be sealed to him. She has been debating it because they had a pretty rocky relationship before his death, but she wants to do all that is expected of her.  We told her about the Holy Spirit of promise and the Millennium and how being sealed works and she feels a lot better about things now.

Some good quotes from our week:

"You are fun missionaries! Not like the ones we had over for dinner last time. They only talked about granny things. Like how our house is clean." I'm a little sad it took 6 months for us to get into their home for dinner. Their children are hilarious and were potentially cut from the same fabric that I was. It makes my heart happy to meet children with robust personalities.

Harry's opinions on the Biblical practice of stoning women who become pregnant out of wedlock: "They never should have gotten rid of that.  All those young girls get pregnant. They never would have got pregnant if they would be hit with a rock."

Sister D and I gave training on being Christlike in our companionships at our Zone Training Meeting. People loved it! We first talked about the characteristics of a Christlike companionship as a group and then we had an activity in which we had each companionship come up with a hashtag for themselves. Some people came up with some really good ones.  Mine and Sister D's has been #popsndums4lyfe (pronounced dooms, not dumbs) for a long time. We shared that and then I said that when we get half-price Sonic shakes it changes to #fattys4lyfe. Everyone thought that was funny. Seriously though, we're about 3 half-price Sonic shakes away from starring in our own TLC show called "Half Ton Sisters: Their Only Hope is the Resurrection". We shared the scriptures in Alma I talked about last week in which Ammon was so joyous to see his old missionary friends that he fainted.  We challenged everyone to treat their companion in such a way that they will be excited to run into each other 10 years down the road. We also created a getting to know you questionnaire for everyone and handed them out so that each companionship can get to know one another better.

Our zone 

Questionnaire

We went to the YSA stake's production of Rob Gardner's "Joseph Smith the Prophet" (or something like that) on Saturday.  It was actually done really well. They must have auditioned for the choir and stuff, there's no way that choir would have done as well if it would have been a free for all. We took a lady in our ward and her daughter that we thought could use a spiritual performance like that.

We sang with the Twin Knolls Ward Council in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. It was nothing fancy, just a hymn. There was a farewell in that ward as well so the place was packed.  We were in a row alone and all of these youth from other wards came at the same time and sat in our row and the one in front of us.  This was bad. So bad. We can not be allowed to sit by anyone under the age of 30 in any meeting because we get distracted too easily. At one point in time I hissed at Sister Dumas as a YM from the row in front of us was turning around and he saw it and literally thinks we are the weirdest sisters in the world I am sure.  So then like half the row was laughing and I just kept a straight face and acted like I didn't know what was going on, so when the bishop looked over to see what was happening he didn't associate me with the lack of reverence. I already repented though, so it is okay.

 

 

We have a temple trip this week AND a 70 is coming to speak with us on Monday so it will be a spiritually high week I am sure! Because of the 70 coming, my P-day next week will be on Tuesday, just so you know.

I just started 3rd Nephi today in my personal studying and I am excited because Jesus was just born. This is one of the best parts of the Book of Mormon! I love it! I also read about the Plan of Salvation today and it is amazing to me how Heavenly Father thought of literally everything before he sent us here.  We have nothing to worry about if we just follow him.

Much love,

Sister Poppe

 

 

She is the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey

So I have mentioned my bosom sister, Sister Adams quite a few times in my letters home. Just as a reminder, she is the B to my FF, the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey, the Reese's to my egg. Though I have only known her six short months, she is one of my very favorite people; I think we were probably besties in the PME or something. She ended up having to go home after our second transfer because she was having some serious medical problems. Though she had hopes of returning to the field, Missionary Medical deemed her unfit to return to missionary service. Through all of this, she kept her faith and a kind family from the area she served in offered her a place in their home and lined up a job for her here in Mesa. She moved back a little over a month ago and I finally got to see her last P-Day. It was the most joyous reunion; almost as moving as the Boy Meets World Cast Reunion earlier this year! She came bearing gifts in the form of homemade Kneader's sandwiches. We talked for about an hour and a half and hugged it out and took some pictures before we had to leave to proselyte for the evening. While this was the most touching moment of my week, it wasn't the only sweet reunion I had.

Elder Michaelis (the Uncle Si elder) went home last week because he honorably reached the end of his two year mission. He was the first real missionary friend I have had go home. Up until the end of last transfer, the people going home didn't mean much to me because I didn't know them well. He was in my district for three transfers, so we got pretty tight. He called me President Poppe instead of Sister Poppe at least 57% of the time. On Tuesday morning as we were walking up to the gym, he popped out of the door to greet us! All five of us sisters from my apartment stopped dead in our tracks. My hands leapt to my mouth and I covered my gaping expression as if the bus had just been moved from in front of my very own extreme home makeover. TLC should have been around to tape the moment; we were all so shocked and excited to see him! He brought his parents down from Utah to meet the families he served and taught. We all met his parents and talked with him. He worked out with us Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning.

After this week, I think I can fully relate to the story in which Ammon runs into the sons of Mosiah and Alma after they've been separated, preaching the gospel. He is so excited to see them that he loses his strength! I didn't do that, but I was more excited to see my missionary friends than I ever thought I would be. The people I've served with have come to occupy such a special place in my heart; even if the vast majority of my friends are twerpy elders who are 2-4.5 years younger than me.

One of the Thunder Mountain YW asked me to sing in church with her yesterday. We sang a beautiful medley of Called to Serve and Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. Her mom told me about a month ago that she heard me sing when they sat a row in front of me one Sunday and that I needed to sing in church. I thanked her for her compliments and didn't think much of it until her daughter asked me to sing a duet with her in Sacrament Meeting. The daughter said that she was thinking about what her mom told me and that she wondered if I would be more open to singing if it was a duet with her. She decided to be bold and ask the music coordinator if she could sing and the coordinator penciled her in. She then hunted me down and asked if I would join her and I agreed. The music coordinator told her later that she couldn't find anyone to sing a special musical number in the month of August and that she had prayed that somehow she would be able to find someone so she could fulfill her calling and then the YW approached her! The song was beautiful. I saw a few people in the congregation even tear up. It was an honor to sing with her; she is extremely talented. Her voice matched mine better than anyone else's I've ever sang with. "Sister Poppe! Why did you never tell us you can sing!?!" became the phrase of the day.

We have started teaching the families in Thunder Mountain and it is actually going very well. Between our two wards we already have 15 lessons scheduled for this week. With our community service, daily studies, and a zone training meeting this week, we literally have every hour Monday through Friday already booked solid. Our schedule is crazy; I am so pumped to be busy! We wrote out a four step plan for meeting with the families and our objective in teaching them. The ward mission leader loved it and instituted it as our ward mission plan.

We had a lot of lessons last week too and more already scheduled for next week. The lessons we have done so far have been really good. In every home someone has said that even though what we are teaching is something they know, they've learned something new from what we have taught. We leave every member lesson by praying with the family for missionary opportunities and then we encourage them to pray as a family again about specific people and for the faith to act on missionary opportunities. We also give them ideas for missionary opportunities; the last thing we want is for these people to just give their neighbors Books of Mormon. In the very least, the members seem to like having us in their homes so we feel loved and that is always nice. It really will be a challenge for me to leave this area; I love these people!

We had our first day volunteering at the library this week. It isn't that hard; it's just alphabetizing, but this girl who works at the library is super condescending and is always hovering "in case we do something wrong and need a little help." Puh-leaze. I have a college degree, I can handle the alphabet, and I don't need help.  #Kthanxbye. I'm very Christlike to her on the outside though. She probably just wants to feel important so I let her.

All in all we had a busy, but pretty uneventful week, so I think this about covers it!

Love,

Sister Poppe

                         We received treat bags for no reason 2 days in a row.
                        I kind of feel like an Oscar nominee with my swag bags.

              We invited one of our YM friends to go to a lesson with us and he
             invited another boy from our other ward to come as well. Their third
             friend invited himself when he found out what they were doing so we
              had three boys from three different wards in the stake at one lesson.

                                                  Sue was telling me jokes.

                                                      Perdizzle and Sista P

Master Booshizzle, meet L-Shizzle.

Hey!

I was reading in Alma this week and noticed that Alma does a lot of less active work. It makes me feel validated. He isn't always just preaching and baptizing!  He goes out and re-teaches people and re-commits them to live the word of God.  I never caught on to that before, but early on in the book of Alma, he gives up his judgment seat and goes out to the people to re-activate them in the church.  I absolutely love that.  Less active work is so important and it is done in the Book of Mormon!

Sister Dumas had her exchange with our Sister Training Leader, Sister Dunlop, on Thursday, so I was with Sister Dunlop's companion, Sister Taumawara. Sister T has been out nine months and is from an island off of Fiji called Kiribati. She is a Visitor Center sister currently doing her full field outbound, so she is not only still learning English, but she is learning the ropes of being a full time proselyting missionary. She is so funny. She says "for real" in her funny accent whenever something disappointing happens. During companionship study she wanted to practice teaching for the four lessons we had planned during the day so I told her I would be the investigator and she could be herself. She was struggling through the law of chastity and finally asked if I would just practice teaching so she could observe what I do. This launched us into a two hour long companionship study in which she wrote down what I said verbatim for the law of chastity, word of wisdom, and half of the plan of salvation lessons. She was so cute. I think she hasn't had the opportunity to really learn the lessons in English very well and that a lot of words haven't been defined for her. Like intimacy. She had no clue what that meant. I enjoyed the experience a lot, I have really come to absolutely love teaching in any way, even to other missionaries.

You know you're a missionary when you close your voicemails in the name of Jesus Christ.  I wish I could say that I was on the receiving end of that, but I most definitely left a voice mail that went like this, "Hey!  This is Sister Poppe.  I have your stuff in our car.  We're in the parking lot by the VC, but we're getting ready to head out to lunch, so if you're not here in two minutes we'll have to arrange another time to meet because we're starving.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Ch---oh my gosh.  I am so embarrassed that I just started to close this voicemail like a prayer.  Okay, just call us.  Bye." #realmissionary

We had a temple excursion this week.  That just means that we had a short chapel session with the mission president before our session and that our session had 4 zones in it instead of 1.  We had about 80 missionaries there the day we went.  The other two days there were about 60-70.  It was nice to have peace for a few hours and to see other missionaries.  I ran into my friend Elder Sweeten and we talked about how the people we came out with are dropping like flies!  My best friends, Sisters Clift and Adams, are both home for medical reasons right now.  Sister Adams is going through some pretty serious stuff and may not be able to return, and Sister Clift is losing motivation to return the longer she's home, so that makes me very sad.

There is a man that lives in our apartment complex that has become friends with some of the missionaries.  He likes to talk to Sister Dumas and I while we online proselyte each day.  His last name is Bouchet and he is a substitute teacher.  He told us that he tells his students that his name is Master Booshizzle.  I think he should be friends with L-Shizzle.  He brings Sister Dumas and I a piece of hard candy each day.  I think we're his favorite...mainly because he is a history teacher and I love America, so I'll talk to him about D-Day and stuff.

We think Harry Potter has started smoking again, which is disappointing because he hasn't smoked for almost 6 months.  We are going to talk to him about it on Tuesday.  On a funnier note though, he told us about an experience he had at the grocery store this weekend that was hilarious.  He said that the lady at the cash register got all huffy at him because he came to the express lane and he had more than 15 items.  She said that his pack of water bottles was 32 items alone and that he should learn to read signs...because we all know that water bottles attached by cellophane count as 32 items and not 1.  She complained to him the entire time she rang up his items and then called him a sinner.  Before he paid he said, "You know, you're right.  I am a sinner.  So I should probably repent and I should do it now because if I get hit on the way to my car I would go straight to hell for not repenting." So he proceeded to pray at the cash register out loud and ask for forgiveness and for The Lord to bless the cashier with more patience.  He also went all out and blessed the missionaries, his family, and prayed for a few more things and then ended.  When he was done the other cashiers and people in line all said Amen!  A few people approached him and said that was the best thing they've ever seen and that they couldn't believe how rude that cashier was. We were dying! We also taught him how to index this week and that was entertaining.  He knows nothing about computers.  He was frustrated because he said he was typing numbers and they wouldn't show up...we looked over and he was hitting F2 and F7.  We let him know that those aren't number keys. #babyboomersandcomputers

I don't know if you remember me telling you about the fireside we had set up with the bishop in the Thunder Mountain Ward a few months ago or not, but we had it on Sunday night and it was a success!  The bishop had forgotten about it even though we had mentioned it in ward council and emailed him about it so he was kind of dragging his feet, and the ward publicist didn't do a good job of getting the word out, so on Wednesday we made small fliers and found the addresses of every family in the ward that has at least one active member (I decided that that meant someone with a calling in the home) and posted fliers on their doors.  We had 66 families written down and we ended up getting them on 60 or 61 doors.  It was good practice for my upcoming political career.  We had about 35-40 people come to the fireside and they generated a lot of good ideas.  We opened with a clip about missionary work and then I addressed the audience and kindly told them that we were looking for ideas to move missionary work forward, not for excuses, we know them already.  The bishop then did a good job of facilitating a good discussion. It was a good ending to my week because I had been struggling all week long.  I was feeling like I wasn't making enough of a difference and wondering why I was even out here on a mission because we aren't teaching very many people and I was worried that I was a disappointment to The Lord.  But to see so many people want to do better missionary work was so good.

After the fireside the ward mission leader's wife was talking to me and said that this ward has never been fired up about missionary work and that she knows the only reason people came is because I insisted on a meeting with the bishop and I insisted on the ward members being held accountable and I continued to plan this fireside even though people weren't on board, and then we put up fliers and advertised on our own.  She said that I may not think I am saving souls, but I am because I may have motivated a ward of people to do their part and down the road people will be taught in this area because of my diligence. Her husband also said that he talks to ward members and they respect us and have the highest opinions of us as missionaries and that they recognize that we are working hard even though our numbers don't show that.  Our bishop in our other ward said the same thing to us.  As I was having a discouraged moment this week my companion told me that she is continually amazed at the relationships I have developed in the wards I am in and the way in which I lift the people up.  She quoted something I said in ward council that morning as evidence and said that The Lord knows I can handle not having success and that some people can't handle that.  There is a reason I am in these wards and it is for the members.  I still struggle with everything because at the end of the day we don't have high numbers and I worry that that means I'm not doing my job, but at least the members like me.  I get discouraged because there are sisters in this mission that people associate with being selfless and loving and generous and kind and trusting and I will never be looked at as that type of missionary.  I'm always classified as a go-getter, a problem solver, entertaining, and someone who gets stuff done. One of our ward mission leaders even told me that he pities the man that ever tries to cross me because he will never win. Those are nice characteristics, but I'm also loving and kind and trusting of The Lord, and selfless but no one ever acknowledges those characteristics. Basically there are sisters that are candidates for future general relief society president and are wife material and I'm just a candidate for future president of the world and our culture tells us that it is more desirable to be one of the women that is future general relief society president and wife material than who I am. It's been a rough week.

We also had two really productive ward council meetings yesterday in which names were discussed, assignments were given, and both bishops told the ward councils that they need to fulfill their responsibilities that were assigned so we can do our work as missionaries.  I pray I'm here at least one more transfer so that we can continue to work with these ward councils and help them establish a habit of missionary work.  Transfer planning is this week and we find out if we're being transferred on Saturday.  The OCD part of me wants to stay another transfer because that will mean I served six months in these wards and I like the roundness of that number.  

Sister Dumas' birthday week was fun!  I took her to lunch to get a Chicago hotdog on Saturday and a Sonic shake for her birthday and on Sunday we made lemon bars when we got home because those are her favorite and her mom mailed us a mix.  She is officially not a teenager anymore, so I told her I'm holding her to a higher level of accountability.  Hopefully her driving skills improve exponentially.  Her mom also mailed us money to go and get birthday pedicures today, so I am excited to do that!

While we had exchanges, Sister Dumas found two new people to teach!  We are really excited and hope that everything works out, though at this point I know better than to get my hopes up!  At least I'd like to think I do, but secretly they're already up.

Good luck to Bryce at Basic Training!

That about does it!

Love,

Sister Poppe

Sorry, no pictures this week.

What Would Katniss Do?

You're in France (we'll talk about the fact that your travel email stated that if you die on this trip Brandon gets to raise Bryce instead of me later #what #itisbecauseheismarried #singlechoppedliveroverhere)! I am not even going to hint around. I want a cool postcard sent to me. I told Betsy the same thing for when she is in Africa this summer. In fact, I'm going to extend a blanket invitation to everyone who will be anywhere thrilling during my mission. Really this is more of a blanket expectation than invitation; I expect a postcard from all exciting destinations anyone travels to between now and August 11’ish, 2015. If I don't receive one I will assume you don't love me and you will subsequently be dead to me without the option of resurrection. You can expect a sensational postcard from me in return with desert landscapes, jackalopes, or other desert flora, fauna, or feisty animals (I had to make that start with an F somehow). Blessings from Heav' are also still available for all mail delivered to me. That offer is always redeemable and stackable with other coupons.

I had my exchange for the transfer with Sister Dunlop on Tuesday. She served in my area for seven and a half months and was Sister Gillespie's trainer. We had a good exchange and she told me at the end of the day that it was a blessing to work with me and that I'm one of her favorite sisters in the mission now. I don't know what kind of genetics you and dad contributed to my makeup or how you raised me, but for some reason people really like me here. So thanks for raising me to be me. Maybe I'll never leave AZ because my approval rating is higher here than anywhere else I've lived. Harry Potter's fiancé even told me this week that J-Lo released a new song called I Love Poppy and that it was probably written about me. I have a lot of undeserved admiration and love from people in this mission; even on bad hair days. I'm not used to being "cool", it's kind of awkward. We worked on street contacting during my exchange because I hate it and think I am awful at it (though Sister Dunlop said the awkwardness is only in my head, I'm a natural talker.  Surprise, surprise, eh?). I was bothered for a while that I wasn't sent on a foreign speaking mission because I thought I was smart enough to learn a new language and figured Heavenly Father was doubting my ability to quickly learn a new tongue.  In hindsight I don't think my intelligence was ever a factor in that decision. My only talent in missionary work is connecting with people and talking and that would have been severely hindered if I was trying to converse with people in a language I'm not fluent in; I'm more grateful every day that I am in an English speaking assignment.  We didn't have any immediate success with our talking, but I do believe that we had a miracle with a member's neighbor and that she will be interested eventually. She used to manage a property that missionaries rented when she was in California, and a lot of her friends are members. We will stop by occasionally and talk to her until she solicits our salvation saving services (I don't know why my letter is so alliteration heavy today). We were also invited by some elders to team teach a girl they're meeting with who they are having a hard time connecting with because she's 11 and they're older and weird. She was such an amazing young woman with a great love for God and a strong desire to learn more. I loved her and wish she was ours to always teach.

My missionary portal hasn't been letting me log in for two weeks now.  We use that website to facilitate correspondence with the mission president on a weekly basis. Some techies in SLC are looking into it.  I was beginning to believe I was being sent home and hadn't been informed yet. I know I lit some scarecrows on fire, but I'm not an extremist! I've done nothing to warrant a dishonorable release! I told president last week at zone conference why I didn't email him and just figured I would send a double email the next week. Well last Monday it was still not allowing me to enter, and I've yet to be sent home, so I decided I would hand write my weekly letter and mail it to the mission office. I used a stamp with Dumbledore on it and added a note on the envelope that said, "If the AZMM was Hogwarts, you'd clearly be Dumbledore," with an arrow pointing to the stamp. I really hope he appreciates that as much as he should.

It was my companion's hump day on Wednesday and my four month mark on Thursday, so we went and got Froyo with the gift card her aunt in Gilbert gave us. The employee gave us half off and an extra stamp on our stamp card. I'm going to miss the benefits associated with the black badge when I'm home.

It is getting so hot! The days of double digit temps are over and we've been launched into summer. Along with the double digits, good hair days have flown out the window. My hair is going to remain off my neck indefinitely. In an attempt to stray from my bun and pony tail comfort zone and simultaneously spice up this long summer of drab hairdos, I'm practicing my braiding techniques. Essentially I ask myself every day, What Would Katniss Do? #wwkd And then I do it. Unless it involves killing people with archery equipment, because then my ability to access my missionary portal will be permanently unauthorized and replaced with access to The Arizona State Penitentiary's inmate mail service. Who knows, maybe I'll get so good at braids and fancy up-dos that I'll be qualified to be Mary Crawley's lady's maid by the end of my mission.

Investigators are a lot like men you're interested in. You just want them to like you and marry you and let you have their babies and build you a house and take you to Disneyland (really, is that too much to ask) and just when you think you have their attention and that just maybe they will ask you out, they get distracted by something prettier. We have had two people express a lot of interest and meet with us and then either cancel a lesson and not re-schedule, or ignore our calls this week. C'mon people! I thought I was at least worth the dollar theater and the Taco Bell drive thru by now! I'm going to be all ready for dating when I get home because rejection is practically a prescription I take a daily dose of at this point.

We did some hardcore leg workouts on Wednesday and we were dying on Thursday. We were walking funny; it was like we had a little twerk in our step. We had a lesson with Harry Potter and he mocked us as we walked up to his house and then proceeded to pray that our sore legs would feel better and heal so that we could have strength to work our legs out again the next day. He got too much enjoyment out of watching us get off his couch after the lesson too. We didn't tell them that we felt like Miley when we walked but before we left Harry's fiancé said something about us twerking when we walked and we were like WE KNOW, RIGHT! We had also told Harry he should consider bearing his testimony on Sunday and he had said no but then he said he would get up there and tell everybody about the missionaries who come over and teach him how to twerk and how that is his testimony.  As another visual for our walking, I will share a quote from my companion, "I think this is how they get the zombies to walk this way. They make them work out! I'm serious." We really did look like twerking Walking Dead cast members.

We have a lot of gated communities in our area and we struggle to remember all of the gate codes. We have one subdivision that has a lot of smaller subdivisions in it that doesn't have a ton of members. We have some of the gate codes, but one of the neighborhoods has an inactive family we have been trying to contact and we don't know the gate code there. It is pretty small, so traffic in and out is minimal, but every time we need to go there someone is going in and we piggyback them in, or someone is leaving and we illegally go in the out.  We kind of look like creepers, but Heavenly Father provides every time! It's a never ending tender mercy. #miraclegate

So, I think I must be doing this missionary email thing wrong or something. Every time I get another missionary's letters forwarded to me they're short and all about personal growth and the gospel and touching tales and stuff. I like my letters to be all encompassing, so sorry they're long, worldy, and not quite holy enough. Maybe by my one year mark I will write home letters of a higher spiritual quality.  Just so you know I really am a good missionary when it comes to being spiritual, and we do work hard, it's just more fun to tell you about Froyo and puppies than about unsuccessful door knocks and street rejections. You can just read my journal when I get home or something if you want the spiritual details.

Line of the week comes from Harry Potter. We read through one of the Priesthood Session talks from last conference with him and he asked why we read it. We told him that a lot of the messages apply to women too and because we have to know what to tell our husbands to keep them in line. He reminded us that we need to look for hard workers and guys who aren't into video games when we get home and start the husband hunt. Because when you marry guys who play video games you support them and they call you at work and say (here comes Harry's gem), "What's for dinner? Hurry home so I can go to my friend's house and play the...the EBay show." Hahahaha what? The man cracks us up. He also couldn't remember Sister Dumas' name the same night and he called her Sister Douchener. We laughed so hard that Harry and I were crying.

We also had a little girl (5 or 6 years old) tell us you have to pay your tithing so you don't get fired. She was 1007% serious. That was a contender for quote of the week.

I asked Sister Dumas the other day if she ever used MSN Messenger, to which she responded, "Sister. Of course I never used MSN Messenger in my life! You have to remember we practically grew up in different generations." Excuse me! When did 23 become the new 40? Well we were talking to a teenager we met at the home of an inactive lady and he asked how old we were and we told him. He said something about the three year age difference and I said that Sister D acts like it's so huge but it isn't--even though she never used MSN Messenger. He proceeded to say, "I don't know MSN messenger, but I do like older bands like that...new music is awful." HE THOUGHT MSN MESSENGER WAS A BAND. OKAY, LET ME JUST GO CRAWL IN A HOLE WITH MY WALKMAN AND ALL THE OTHER OLD LADIES IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD WHO WERE BORN BEFORE CLINTON WAS PRESIDENT. #kidsthesedays

We are giving Hermione the new member lessons and this week's was on Word of Wisdom and the Law of Chastity.  She imparted some of her own knowledge about intimacy during the lesson. Let's just say we all learned some new things that lesson...

It's Sister Dumas' birthday week! She turns 20 on Sunday! I'm going to do something special each day this week and I am excited to make her only birthday in the mission memorable.

We ran into Tammy in the foyer at church and they gave us left over Mexican food from her birthday for lunch! It was absolutely delicious.

 

                                            Lunch at Kyle and Tammy's

We gave a short message in jr. and sr. primary and it was so fun. We talked to them for a few minutes about being a missionary and then asked them what they thought they could do to prepare to be one someday. After that we challenged the jr.'s to memorize the Articles of Faith and the sr.'s to study the scriptures by themselves each day.  We were welcomed with lots of excitement. It's amazing the kids that remember you even though the only interaction you've had with them is one meal in their home. It was humbling and a good reminder that kids are always looking to us as an example and they truly idolize missionaries.

Today while we were driving to meet Sister Dumas' aunt for her birthday lunch we had quite the small adventure.  We were stopped at a red light and a Schwan's man turned left from the perpendicular street and one of his doors flung open and a bunch of meet flew out right in the middle of the intersection! The guy stopped a few yards up the road and we jumped out of our car and helped him pick up his products.  There were a bunch of cars stopped while the clean-up was taking place and no one else jumped out to help!  We were shocked.  We got it all picked up really quickly and ran back to our car so traffic could continue to flow.

I have to tell you, I love my companion, but she is an absolutely terrible driver.  She didn't get her license until she was 18 and then promptly went to college and didn't drive there and then came on her mission at 19 and hasn't driven until this transfer.  It's like being the passenger in the car of a teenage girl with her learner's permit.  I have empathy for you now, mom.  I'm going to get an ulcer.  "Are you going to stop at this red light," and "We should probably pick a lane instead of taking up two," are the most common phrases out of my mouth while in the car. Oi.  "Turn your headlights on," is another frequent request.

I'm currently in Alma and it is interesting comparing the evil that was abounding before Christ's birth with the evil that is abounding in the world now as we lead up to the second coming of Christ.

Enjoy your trip!  Send me a postcard!

Love,

Sister Poppe

Sisters with the cheesecake kids!

Our favorites!  Noah and Maya.  Noah finally calls me Sister Poppe
instead of sister missionaries.  He also always asks if he can come to
my house whenever I see him now.  I always tell him my house is boring
but maybe I'll come to his again sometime.

 

We asked a member to take a picture of
us in our Memorial Day outfits and he asked if we wanted him to hang a
flag up and we were so excited that he did and then he asked if we
wanted to hold guns!  I guess it's a violation of the white handbook
to handle firearms, but we found that out after the fact.

 

The Memorial Day gun family has one daughter and she drew
the picture for us.  It's of her with us and her parents.  I enjoy the
fact that she included my companions bump that she always has in her
hair.  My companion and I were arguing about my hair color the other
day and then we received this picture in which I am a blond.  My
companion took that as enough evidence that she wins and that I am a
blond.  We all know I'm a brunette, but I have to let her win
sometimes because she said the other day "You're the only companion
I've had that I'm not always right with.  I NEVER BEAT YOU IN
ARGUMENTS."