If We Get Bugs I Will Literally Put Them on Your Beds.

So I knocked over a Pringles display at Walmart on accident and that was kind of mortifying. Don't worry, I cleaned up my mess with the assistance of a kind employee named Shelly, another set of sisters that happened to be walking by, and my companion. If there is a spiritual gift to become less clumsy I have definitely not been blessed with it yet.

Sister Poppe's screwdriver strikes for the third time! A screw fell out of a chair at dinner the other night and I whipped out my trusty floral tool and fixed that stool in a jiffy.  I'd like to see people continue to mock me for bringing a screwdriver on a mission.

 

After I fixed the stool at our dinner appointment the family tried to force us to take left over waffles. We literally ran out of the house as the husband chased us with waffles and proceeded to put one under our windshield wiper. We drove to our next appointment with it securely in place and continued throughout our evening with our portable windshield snack. I left it on our windshield overnight in case a squirrel wanted it (now that I think of it, I don't even know if there are squirrels in Arizona, but maybe a roadrunner could have eaten it). No animals even nibbled on it, so I threw the rock hard carbohydrate on top of a bush before we drove off the next day; it was still uneaten that evening. The animals in our apartment complex are clearly snobs who don't appreciate breakfast food.

 

 

We were asked to plan a day in the life of a missionary activity for the Mia Maids and Beehives for Wednesday's mutual, so we did that and it was fun. We had the girls read the first lesson in Preach My Gospel and then they gave us a 10 minute lesson. It was an absolute train wreck, but they have a solid 4-7 years before they are old enough to serve so they'll figure it out. We then talked about the importance of companionship and unity, and talked about things we do to become closer. We played 2 truths and a lie with them as an example of what we do to get to know each other better. We had fun getting to know them and showing them that we are real people. I got a little sassy with them and I think they enjoyed it. One girl was mocking my age and said something about my pet dinosaur and so I asked if she had her training wheels taken off of her bike yet. Two can play that game!

Every other transfer we have one on one interviews with our mission president and his wife. As you may recall, I voluntarily forfeited mine last time we had them scheduled due to a time crunch. I haven't had an interview with president since the day I disembarked the plane in Phoenix, so I didn't really know what to expect. Naturally I was nervous, as I always am when I have to stare people of authority in the eye and talk about my performance, but my nerves were unwarranted.  We had a really good conversation. I realized he knows a lot more of what goes on in the mission than I originally believed. I figured I was lost in the crowd of 250 or so missionaries he is over, but I am not. He told me he is so proud of the missionary I am and he is so pleased with how much I have matured spiritually. He said there is a marked difference in the person I am now and that he hopes I have noticed that change in myself and am proud of it as well. When I came into the mission I had a high level of social maturity and I was just going through the mission, now he said the mission is going through me and I am socially and spiritually mature. I am not one of the missionaries that goes above and beyond to try and impress him when he is in my presence, and I don't suck up to him either, so I was shocked that he had noticed commendable qualities about me. It just goes to show that if you do what is expected of you for the right reasons and don't seek approval, you will still get positively affirmed and you won't annoy people with your brown nosing. We were instructed to read a 2006 BYU devotional called "Your Refined Heavenly Home" in preparation for our interview with Sister Jenkins. President and Sister Jenkins do something really cool that they call 10%. Basically 10% of all instruction they give us is dedicated to information that will be useful after our missions. This devotional was our 10% for interviews and we were going to talk about it with Sister J. I absolutely loved the devotional because it talked about the importance of refinement in appearance, educating ourselves in classical music and literature, using intelligent language, being well rounded and educated, being clean, and living true to the potential we have as spirit children of God by surrounding ourselves with wholesome things.  Basically the talk validated every tendency I have that Brandon and Bryce call snobby! When president asked me about it in passing I told him I loved it because a church official was telling us that we had to be classy. When Sister Jenkins asked if I liked the talk I told her I loved it and she responded with, "I figured you would like this one."  I'm glad that people know I appreciate class. You should read it! It's actually kind of interesting that we were asked to read it because just the day before we were given the assignment I told my companion that I don't want to marry someone that won't take me to the symphony and then we read this talk that told us that we shouldn't settle for spouses who won't do cultural things with us.

The Tony Hawk boys are finally home after their month away for the X-Games and a trip to Utah. We were so excited to see them and they were actually really excited to see us too. We showed up to their house before they did for our lesson because they were running late so we waited on their doorstep. When their car pulled in the youngest boy didn't even wait for it to fully stop before he jumped out and ran over and hugged us. We just really love them. They're growing so much too; they are much more involved in our lessons now and are gaining testimonies of basic gospel principles.

As you saw on Facebook, we went to Rubio's on Tuesday and it filled a hole in my heart that only gourmet chicken tacos could fill. It is the biggest tender mercy that the only area of our mission that dips across the 60 includes a Rubio's. I literally got teary-eyed I was so happy. It was such a stupid little thing, but it really did make me aware of Heavenly Father's love. Plus it was nice to socialize with some of our new friends. Sister Simmons and Moreton are as sassy as Sister D and I and we just really enjoy each other. We created a club called the Sassy Sisters Club and we are getting shirts made. We are quite literally the bluntest sisters in the mission and I'm still unsure how we were all four put in the same zone, but we love it!

Gourmet chicken tacos

                              Sassy Sisters Club                                  

 

In accordance with the Twin Knolls Ward Mission Plan goal, I finished indexing my 500 names this week!

We spent 3.5 hours at the Thunder Mountain Relief Society president's house on Saturday talking through a list of inactive people she had that she knew nothing about. As we sat there and I shared everything I knew I felt like a huge creeper. Simultaneously though, I realized how many people I've talked to in the last five months and it was nice to feel like I had valuable information to share. My companion was bored out of her mind, but it's good that she knows these things so that when I leave some of the information is with her.  #workingwithwardleadership

I couldn't handle the uncleanliness of our kitchen any longer and I am tired of doing the other sisters' dishes, so I wrote a long note encouraging them to clean up after themselves. The phrases "If we get bugs I will literally put them on your beds. Do not cross me," "I could care less if your bedroom looks like a hot mess hoarder disaster, but please keep the common areas clean" and my favorite, "The Spirit won't be here if the kitchen looks like an African slum," made an appearance. I also quoted scripture and posted the mission's standard for cleanliness to help support my case. I then took a leaf from Martin Luther's book and hung my letter and evidence on the outside of our front door so it would greet them when they got home; then it looked like rain so I moved it to the less dramatic refrigerator door.

Sacrament meeting ended a little early so we were called up to talk about being better member missionaries! How fitting since I just wrote a blog post about it.

The Hobbit Family and Harry are still doing well and progressing! We helped Harry with more indexing this week and it was just as comical as the first time. I don't think he will ever be tech savvy. He did surprise us with some Sonic shakes at our lesson on Thursday. If we were a church that gave salvation in exchange for bribes, Harry would be exalted already. He is always being so generous to us!

Generous amounts of love,

Sister Poppe

 

                                         Sister Simmons and I were matching

Nephites

Lamanites

Join the Young Liberty Lovers Club!

Hi peeps,

I had another exchange this week as my companion had her turn with our sister training leader.  It was a fun day.  I went to a different area and was with a sister named Sister White.  We taught the first lesson to a girl in their YSA ward and she cried!  I've never made anyone cry in a lesson, so that was kind of fun.  We had a fun dinner with this cute family.  Their youngest daughters are twins and they made us cards that thanked us for having dinner with them.  They were fun and enjoyed our company.  We also helped out with a YSA service project that involved sewing.  We all know that me at a sewing machine is a complete joke, so I stayed at the practice station all night and just talked to girls in the ward.  I practiced sewing figure eights with a sewing machine and sewing in a straight line. I am a disgrace to the women in my ancestry that can sew.

 

Aunt Tammy's sister is in one of my wards and they own some cows.  They had some meat to get rid of and they gave some to us!  Imagine how happy I was to get some free red meat!  We are sharing some with the elders this week for my birthday grill out.  We have grills in our apartment complex, so we are doing a district lunch on Wednesday.  It will be fun.  Some of the elders said they have never grilled and don't know how to. I thought every man was born with grilling abilities, but I guess I was wrong?  I guess its fine; I don't know how to sew after all.  I said I would grill though so it will not be disastrous.  Speaking of birthday meals, my companion took me to Smash Burger today for my birthday and bought my meal!  It was so nice of her. I told her I will get her some Pete's Fish and Chips with the gift cards you gave me next week (oh yeah, I did get your gift cards and the box you sent and the stuff you left at the mission office!  Thanks!).  A few ladies in one of our wards were saying that they wished they could have us over for dinner more often.  I like these ladies, one is the YW president and the other is the RS president.  Our meal coordinator hadn't scheduled our dinners for the week and the YW president was like, "I just always want to have you guys over for holidays but other people beat me to it!  I want Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas!"  So I asked her what she was doing Wednesday and she said she was busy and asked why and I told her it's my birthday so it's basically a holiday.  The RS president jumped on that so she is feeding us on my birthday and the YW president is on Birthday Eve.  I'm glad that people love us in our wards and want to do nice things for us!  They will make birthday week a success I am sure!  Thanks for all the birthday cards!  As of Saturday I have received 45 cards!  A lady in the mission office asked what someone had to do to get people to love them as much as people love me.  I let her know that half of the cards were from you, mom and that I'm not sure people love me as much as they just fear you so they sent me cards because they were told to.  I also said it helps if you make a big deal about your birthday for two decades, eventually people catch on.

We stopped by this house the other day because we thought it was this guy named Tom's house that we were referred to.  It wasn't.  So we tried to talk to the lady anyway, but she wasn't having it. Later that week we drove by and I saw that her license plate says PAGAN.  #satansfriend No wonder she didn't want to talk to us.  She isn't even on the same team as we are!

Sister G and I worked the pageant Tuesday and Thursday and then went again on Friday night with Harry Potter and his soon to be step son.  After we walked through the visitor's center and looked around we still had an hour to kill.  We had our seats saved, so Harry was like, "Follow me." So we did and he started leading us away from the pageant...I knew immediately where we were going...and I was right!  A block later we were at DQ in line for Blizzard's.  We always ask Harry what he learns from things so he said to us, "What did you guys learn from this?  Oh I know, you guys learned to always follow Harry.  He knows what's up. And he goes towards ice cream."  He is a funny guy.

 

I took my mission driving test this week and passed so I am all ready to take over if Sister Gillespie gets transferred in a few weeks.  They see me rollin', they hatin'.  Seriously though, that Toyota we drive has no giddy up, so I will really just be rollin' and every one behind me will be hatin' and thinking I'm a snowbird that has over stayed her welcome.

 Hermione has taken to giving us life lessons during her lessons.  They're usually pretty funny.  We've created a hashtag #hermioneslifelessons.  Speaking of hashtags, in my attempt to be healthier I created my own motivational hashtag #totesfit815.  Because I want to be totally fit by August 2015 when I get home.  We'll see if it actually happens.  Also, that hashtag doesn't actually serve a purpose, it just makes me feel cool.  I put one on the fridge.  

I want to close with an excerpt from the letter I sent to the mission president this week:

"About a week before you gave us the atonement study guide to use leading up to Easter I decided I wanted to understand the atonement better because I didn't really know it that well.  I realized that I needed to find a way to understand the atonement better (because clearly sinning and then having to repent is not the best way to understand the atonement).  Lo and behold a week later we have this Easter study guide!  As I was reading the daily assignments I learned a lot, but it wasn't until Elder Bednar's talk about the enabling power of the atonement that my prayers were answered.  For the first time I understood how I personally relied on the atonement.  Sure I've been through some hard times where I asked for Christ to comfort me, but I wasn't sure how you were supposed to use the atonement regularly beyond repenting every day.  I'm proud at times and am overly confident in my abilities as well. I have stayed on the straight and narrow for the most part my entire life and attributed it to my personal strength.  It never dawned on me that the enabling power of the atonement is what made it possible for me to continually endure to the end.  It makes a lot of sense though.  I've often said that it is easy for me to make the right choices and always has been; peer pressure has never really been an issue for me.  Now I know why it has been easy!  Because the atonement makes it possible for us to be better and to continually improve!  The natural man will always prevail if we don't rely on the atonement.  I'm sure many people have said that the atonement packet was an answer to their prayers, but it was most definitely an answer to mine as well.  This Easter was the most meaningful one that I have ever had and I am grateful that I can continue to learn about the atonement and how it applies to my life."  In all seriousness, I have never felt closer to the savior than I do now and I understand things in an entirely new way now.  I don't know if you guys saw the Because of Him video that was all over Facebook, but it is beautiful.  I cried the first time I saw it.  We watch it multiple times a day because we love it.

Also, when you get a chance read through Alma 58-62.  They're the war chapters, but just pay attention to Moroni.  He is awesome.  I didn't realize how much he loves liberty.  He may have loved America first, but I love it most.  I think we'll hit it off in the Spirit World.  We'll start a young liberty lovers club or something.  He probably would have voted for Mitt Romney...but maybe not, since the church has no political leanings or whatever. #moroniisalibertarian #iknowit #ilovehim

Happy Birthday Week To Me!

Sister Poppe

                   10.3 pound pizza we had for dinner with Harry Potter.

Ground Between the Millstones

I debated for a long time before I actually decided to write this post. It isn't incredibly insightful, uplifting, or thoughtful and I wanted people to be inspired, uplifted, or leave my blog with a thoughtful message when they visited. I think it's important to be honest and real with myself and others though. Life isn't always perfect and happy, and nothing drives me crazier than when people act like it is. There are always things I am grateful for, but that doesn't mean struggles and trials don't abound. I decided to pen this post because I wanted to come across as human. A lot of what I'll be writing will be inspired moments I experienced, but that doesn't mean I live a carefree life. I experience heartache, sorrow, sadness, and confusion intermixed with gratitude, happiness, excitement, peace, and confidence. Life is like trail mix--a lot of deliciousness with a few stupid raisins.

Sometimes I feel forgotten. Sometimes I feel alone. And sometimes I feel like my mediocrity lowers my value. Truly, how much can one average 22 year old girl do? I may influence a few people's lives for the better, but it's unlikely that I'll ever be an Anne Frank, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Susan B. Anthony. I find myself getting frustrated because so many girls my age in my culture are married and starting families. They're making a valuable contribution to society while I'm just hanging out, doing nothing meaningful with my life--if I'm not meant to be married right now I should at least be saving the world or something. Sometimes I think I could go on a mission, but then I remember I wouldn't be a great missionary and ultimately I probably wouldn't contribute a net gain of goodness to the world compared to if I just continued doing what I'm already doing.

Sometimes I just feel stuck. Like I'm in a basketball game and I just keep pivoting, hoping to find someone to pass the ball to. But there isn't anyone on my team around to help me. Everyone is in the locker room and the other team has crowded me and I can't shoot and have no one to pass to and am just stuck. Moving in a circle with one foot planted in the same spot. Not helping myself or anybody else. Futilely wasting energy trying to solve the problem and score a few points while I wait for the clock to run out of time. It's maddening! Who wants to just waste time waiting for the clock to run out? That's why I'm frustrated. I'm not someone who is content just waiting for the game to end. I want to contribute to the game. I want to contribute to the win. I want to win. I want to be Anne Frank, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Susan B. Anthony, but I don't know how.

I don't have any answers or insights. Tonight I just have frustrations. I just think it's important to know that you can have faith and still have days when you're not happy. Being faithful and striving to be a better disciple of Christ doesn't mean you'll pass each day in complete bliss. A quote from David A. Bednar comes to mind though,

"I do not know why some people learn the lessons of eternity through trial and suffering—while others learn similar lessons through rescue and healing."

He doesn't know, and I don't know. But I am learning something. Hopefully someday I can understand why I learn the lessons of eternity through trial and suffering instead of through rescue and healing. Elder Bednar quoted Elder Orson F. Whitney in the same talk that the previous quote came from,

“No pain that we suffer, no trial that we experience is wasted. It ministers to our education, to the development of such qualities as patience, faith, fortitude and humility. All that we suffer and all that we endure, especially when we endure patiently, builds up our characters, purifies our hearts, expands our souls, and makes us more tender and charitable, more worthy to be called the children of God … and it is through sorrow and suffering, toil and tribulation, that we gain the education that we come here to acquire” (quoted in Spencer W. Kimball, Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 98).

At least I know that crying on my bedroom floor (because crying on your bedroom floor is more fulfilling than crying on your bed) is contributing to my education. Life is hard and far too often I think people try and tell you that as long as you pray, go to church, read your scriptures, etc. that it won't be hard and that you'll always be happy. I'm here to tell you that I do all of those things (heck, I did all of them TODAY) and I'm not happy at the moment. I think what people mean to say is that if you pray, go to church, read your scriptures, etc. then you'll at least know your trials and suffering are happening for a reason. That you're being ground between the millstones for a purpose; to become stronger. To be educated. Earth is just a school. We're all learning how to be eternal beings and that requires more than we imagine.