I do Like to Fancy Myself the San Diego Temple

We went out with MP again this week a few times. She and her nonmember friend that we love took us to Applebee's. We also taught her other friend and she wasn't feeling well and this lead to a lengthy and far too detailed conversation about being constipated! I'm telling you, these 55 plussers are another breed. We met two new contacts as well.  If we just had four more MP's, we would be the busiest stateside missionaries in the church. She made us sing a few times and it was actually beautiful. I finally have a companion that can sing! We made people tear up with our song three times that day and we are scheduled to sing in sacrament meeting next week.

Our ZTM for the month was really great. I was asked to give a training on the balance between following the Spirit, being ourselves, and being dignified. It's something I feel very passionately about because too many missionaries conform to some unwritten standard that no one actually likes! I compared us to temples. We are all different and beautiful and we help people perform saving ordinances, but we all look different. Some of us have laundry facilities, some have cafeterias, and some have the bare necessities. But we can all help people and we are all loved by those who we help. So everyone just needs to stop trying to be the San Diego Temple and embrace that they're the Chicago Temple or the St. Paul Temple! I do like to fancy myself the San Diego Temple though....I also told them that they need to think of a three circle Venn Diagram that overlaps. In that magical place is where we are allowed to be ourselves while following the Spirit and being dignified. It is our job to find the sweet spot (and it changes depending on who you are talking to) and then people will respect us and love us.

I had my exchange with Sister Casey this week and during the process I realized that she had goals but no real plans to accomplish them. I helped her go through and study and learn her Area Book so we knew who we could contact. We spent most of the day trying to contact referrals and potential investigators. We also went to their Relief Society birthday dinner and it was cool! They had a throwback theme and Costa Vida style pork salads (which are quickly becoming my favorite food).  After dinner they said that there were props hidden under each table with a decade theme that we had to make a skit for. We did a skit during the depression where a coon dog and his owner are on a coon hunt. It was pretty funny. We got the "most original" award. I felt strongly that Sisters Casey and Moreton needed help with their weekly planning session because I had the sense during the exchange that they were floundering a bit. I asked if I could plan with them on Friday and they agreed. I spent three hours walking them through every step in Preach My Gospel for weekly planning and helping them know what and how we plan. It was mentally exhausting but worth it! THEY KNOW HOW TO PLAN NOW! Sister Moreton was a little bothered that she has been out 14.5 months and finally learned how to plan. I always thought it was self-explanatory, but I'm learning that planning actually isn't an innate skill that everyone is born with.

Sister Merrell thinks a little bit too much like me. She has the craziest ideas. This week we got a box of bread from a member to give to people (long story...basically when this bread company has overstock they give it away...we get some each time and give it to nonmembers, LA's, and other missionaries). The box was a huge diaper box, so Sister M got the idea to cut out this baby's head and taped into the bathroom mirror. I was like what the heck is this. Now the baby head keeps popping up in random places; my food cupboard, the microwave, the medicine cabinet, etc. It's kind of hilarious.

We had to drop a lot of people this week and that is not something I am good at. But Sister Merrell convinced me that they aren't progressing and that they seem to be more attached to missionaries than the gospel. It's true. We dropped Cho Chang and her family and Jamie Lee Curtis. They've all cancelled multiple appointments as well, but I still struggle with it because I worry that their lack of progress is due to a lack of effort or ability on our part. I don't want to be responsible for people not being saved because I'm not good enough at my job. On the other hand though, we had the most productive correlation meeting I've had in this area and I presented our goals and vision for the Aspen ward. Our ward mission leader is on board and got the ward council fired up on Sunday. We have members committed to throw block parties multiple times in the next three weeks, priests signed up to take the lessons from us as they put their papers in, a gospel principles class will be taught in someone's home during the week, the YW are going to use us more often, and we have more service opportunities. Just in this upcoming week we have appointments and hours of service from this one simple meeting! Brother Andes is great!  We are moving along! Work will come I am sure! Unfortunately, I think it's my calling in life to help members and move on before the nonmember work picks up. So I wouldn't be surprised if this is my last transfer in this area.

Quotes of the week:

"I don't care if you're the president of Canada, England, or the Queen Mother's brother! You don't treat a woman that way."-Sassy Elderly Sister Friend

"What is the district leader sister assistant to the mission president doing in such short skirts two days in a row? I can add six inches to that skirt!"-SESF.  First of all, I am just the district leader; I'm not that important enough to warrant that fake but regal sounding title. Second, my skirts are past the knee, but not mid-calf, so she thinks I'm trying to get fresh. She went on to say, "Just because you have those fabulous legs doesn't mean you have to show them! Save 'em for your husband, then you can go boom boom (complete with a demonstrative hip swing)." Ha! Good legs. As if.

"My brother thought RIP meant resurrection in progress."-Sister Merrell

Love,

Sister Poppe

 

 

Creepy Roommate hand from last week

 Toothbrush shanks

I Miss my Little Pakistani

Elder Malm of the 70 and Brother Randall who works in the missionary department came and gave us a seminar entitled Missionary Work in the Digital Age. The church has official protocols and training for online missionary work now so they have to kind of re-wire the brains of the 30 test missions who have been online proselyting and making it up as they go for the last year or so. The conference was absolutely wonderful. The central theme was that we need to be our own filters when we are online. If we can't control ourselves as missionaries, we will never be able to control ourselves in the real world. We touched on technology addiction, the positives of sharing the gospel online, taking ownership of our online conduct, and then went over some training materials. The most profound statement though had to do with the real reason iPads are being introduced into missions. They help in a small way with missionary work, but the real reason we are using technology is because the Quorum of the Twelve believe that technology abuse is such a huge problem that they want to teach the rising generation how to better use it. By giving us iPads for 18-24 months we are being trained on how to use it as the Lord would have us use it, and we are building our own firewalls in our hearts that then won't fail in the real world. The hope is that this will curb the gaming addictions, pornography habits, and overuse of social media in our generation and generations to come. It was so powerful to hear all of that. I really felt that that was true. We have so much potential and so much of it is wasted. I know I've wasted too much time on social media. I probably would have graduated with a much higher GPA if Twitter and Facebook wouldn't have always been open on my desktop.  As a part of this, we are off Facebook for a couple of months. This will take place in every mission that has already been online proselyting. This will help us re-center ourselves on our purpose, and it also gives the church enough time to finish the online proselyting manual that is in its final stages.

I asked President Jenkins the next day at MLC if we aren't doing any online proselyting or if we just aren't doing Facebook because others and I were wondering if we could blog. He said he wasn't sure and kind of went back and forth for about ten seconds and said, "if you fulfill your missionary purpose by blogging then you can. Well, no. I think they want us to do nothing online for a few months. So we won't do anything online until we get the go ahead. But you're a fantastic blogger. Especially when you write about mission fun runs...I'll always remember that. Sister Poppe, you can blog because you bring people closer to Christ." So I got special permission to blog during our online fast! I feel like I go through this cycle where I am terrified of PKJ for like two months and then I will feel comfortable around him because he compliments me and I'm good for like a month and then get re-terrified of him. So we're friends again right now...maybe we can ride this friend wave for my last five months. But in all seriousness I have never felt very close to a church leader in my life until my mission (with the exception of my last singles ward bishop...even though he was only my bishop for a semester he truly loved me and we got close. Probably because he finished my mission papers). I love President and Sister Jenkins and will always feel blessed that I have gotten to serve under the best mission president and wife in the church. They see so much more potential in me than I ever will and they love me for who I am, which I haven't always felt from church leaders.

Sister Rasheed is hilarious. She abandoned her companion at our conference to sit with me (even after I told her she should sit with her companion so her feelings didn't get hurt). She said, "I tell Sister Smith that Sister Poppe and me have fun all the times. We laugh, we have fun, Sister Poppe say funny things...and Sister Smith just say, 'well I'm not funny.' So I don't know." She is doing well though. AND the mission got 11 cars taken away and her new area is small so they're getting put on bikes! So it's a good thing I taught her how to ride one! I miss my little Pakistani. I do enjoy Sister Merrell though too.

We had MLC on Wednesday and it was a good day to be me! Two flattering comments were made throughout the day. Sister Jenkins came up to me before the meeting started and whispered to me while she side hugged me, "Sister Poppe, you are one of my very favorite people. I don't get to see you often enough." I replied with, "I can come up with some problems if you want so I have to visit you (she talks with all the missionaries who struggle with mental health)." She asked me to please do that. Then at lunch I sat by a sister who is in my old area and she said, "I serve in the Salt River Stake where literally everybody still asks if you know Sister Poppe and then they talk about how much they love her. And we are just like, but we are your missionaries now and they don't care."

MP was on fire this week! She set up a lesson with her neighbor and we are now teaching her. She also took us around her neighborhood to deliver invites to our stake 25 year anniversary party we had on Saturday. We have three new contacts now. One of which told us he is a minister for the Church of Jesus Christ, which is a branch off the 1840 Mormon tree. They still use the Book of Mormon too. I really want to go back and talk to him to satisfy my selfish curiosity, but it wouldn't be a productive use of my time.

 Shindig 25

Sister Moreton told me this week that she hates that I'm good at correcting people without actually correcting them. She said I have a way of phrasing things just right so people feel guilty and then want to just change themselves on their own. She said she cried 7 times during district meeting this week and that she hates that I have a gift for making her feel guilty. I'm practicing for parenthood; I'm not much of a yeller and yelling doesn't change much anyway. Guilt delivered from someone who loves you, on the other hand, is corrosive.

On Saturday we were enlisted to help with our huge stake party. The Kimball East Stake turned 25 and they spent months planning this huge event called Shindig 25. We had an hour to fill before our services were required for the rest of the day, so we spent time contacting people in the apartment complex in our area. We stopped by a member couple we didn't know and visited with them at the end of our open hour. As we approached our car I couldn't find our keys anywhere. I took everything out of my purse and they were nowhere. We re-traced our steps and asked the roaming maintenance man if he had seen any and went to the front office.  Nothing. At this point we were convinced they had been left at our last visit, but the couple had followed us out and were leaving for the afternoon, so we knew they weren't home.  We tried anyway and finally dejectedly decided to just walk to the stake center and figure this out later because we were already 15 minutes late and we had about 3/4 of a mile to walk. We had prayed a few times already, but I said a prayer in my heart that someone would see us and offer us a ride and that I would be able to not fret about our keys all night. Someone did see us and offers us a ride, and I completely put the keys out of my mind! We texted the couple and asked if they would check their couch for our keys when they got home and they must have because a few hours into the party the elders approached us and said that some members had dropped our keys off. It was a miracle. I have been more scatter brained in my mission than at any other point in my life and I hate it.

The party was a success though! They expected 1600 people and they ended up serving over 2500 people food and had more on top of that that didn't eat. There were less actives and nonmembers there too! It was a lot of fun to just mingle and talk to people for five hours straight. I love talking to people!

I'm a very jumpy person. Everything scares me and makes me scream. I try to keep this under wraps so people don't intentionally scare me.  Well, my roommates found out inadvertently and now they love to scare me. One night this week my companion hid behind my clothes in the closet and when I walked in she just stuck her arms through my hanging clothing and I screamed and freaked out because I thought it was a murderer. Then last night they all conspired against me. Sister Merrell was hiding underneath my bed and as I was praying she just stuck her arm up and grazed me. I assumed it was just Sister Moreton getting into her bed (because our beds touch it isn't uncommon for us to bump into each other as we pray or get into bed each night). Then my arm was grazed again so I peeked open my eyes in the dark and didn't see Sister Moreton anywhere. As I tried to convince myself that there wasn't a concealed spirit sent from Satan to torment me in my midst, I saw this white arm ascend from my bed and I lost it! I screamed and flailed around my bed and shouted mean things when I heard my roommates laughing and was subsequently convinced that the only part Satan played in this prank was planting an evil desire in my roommates' hearts. As things settled down I told them that I needed to finish my prayer and apologize for so rudely screaming in my Heavenly Father's ear. They told me I was being dramatic again and then they left me alone. Fifteen minutes later Sister Merrell whispered, "Poppe...are you okay?" I assured her I was and then she said in a relieved tone that she was glad because she was worried I wouldn't forgive them. I let her know that I am incapable of holding a grudge and that I can see how scaring me would be someone's favorite hobby.

We are already seeing the work pick up in this area and I am so grateful! We are scouting out less actives to work with and are stopping by people's homes and visiting with them if we don't know them. We received more referrals this week than ever before. Though none of them have panned out it is still great to see that people trust us and are willing to send us to visit other people.

G2G. My companion is homesick for the ghetto so we're going to make toothbrush shanks.

Love,

Sister Poppe

Because we aren't on Facebook anymore I have to get creative when I want to send funny iMessages to my district. It's harder to find pictures when you literally can't be on the internet unless you're on LDS.org or Family Search. I sent this picture of Great Grandma Kleinman that I found on Family Search to Sister Moreton with a caption that just said, "Girl Please!".  It was hilarious. That picture makes its way into conversation at least once a day. Someone will make the face and say, "Girl Please!" or they'll flash the picture during a silent moment or something.

 

Shindig 25!

Blessings and Miracles!

Last Monday after we emailed and purchased our groceries, we went to this little gold mine city tourist attraction thing in Apache Junction. It was really cool. Admission is free, but everything else has a cost, so we just roamed around and looked in all the little shops. It was an easy, breezy (beautiful Cover Girl?) type of day. We took a lot of pictures and I bought a little cactus!

As much as I love people and am generally very extroverted, I need like 12 minutes a day where I am alone. Typically that comes during my shower. The other night Sister Moreton came into the bathroom while I was showering to talk. Shortly thereafter Sister Rasheed followed, and then Sister Casey wasn't far behind. Our entire district was in our tiny bathroom chatting me up and I was like, "are you people serious?  I know we are close, but I just want 12 minutes!" They were all like, "Poppe, we just want to talk to you. We love you. We miss you. Blah, blah, blah." I felt like a mother. These children can't even entertain themselves for 12 minutes! The next night Sister Moreton started to come into the bathroom and I heard Sister Rasheed yell, "No! You no disturb my companion tonight." It was hilarious!

There is a couple in the Brimhall Ward that joined the church about a year and a half or two years ago. They're older and we stop by to visit them semi-regularly. They're funny and remind me so much of grandma and grandpa Poppe. That's probably why I love them so much.  She always gets us treat bags ready before we leave. And by treat bags I mean grocery sacks full of candy, cookies, and cans of pops.

We had a lesson with the grandparents of the missionary in Argentina this week (We'll call them Mr. and Mrs. Evita). We had left our phone number for them and the ink had smudged and so the lady wasn't dialing the correct number. This was a tender mercy, because she was calling us to cancel. Since we didn't know, we showed up and they let us in anyway and really enjoyed the visit. They are quickly growing to love us and now openly invite us back to visit. We will have to come up with clever ways to share gospel messages with them and to help them come closer to Christ. They invited us to their retirement community's choir concert in a month and I agreed to go. Hopefully if I have a new companion she is okay with that. I guess they're quite a good group.  The husband is even in quartet, so he has got to be talented.

The sister I replaced had been trying to convince the grandma and granddaughter that we are teaching to be baptized before she left. The grandma has a lot of interest but is acting like she is only taking the lessons for the granddaughter. The granddaughter is ready to be baptized and is a great girl. She is 11 and has been coming to church with a friend for a year and a half. The grandma would never agree to let her be baptized but she wouldn't disagree either. We planned a lesson on WHAT baptism is and HOW it is done and presented that and immediately the grandma finally told us her concern. The granddaughter could be sent back to live with her mom at any point if her mom gets her act together and the grandma is concerned that if she gets baptized and moves in with her mom that she won't go to church and then the granddaughter will be excommunicated. We reassured her that people aren't excommunicated that easily and continued to talk her through that concern. At the end she said, "Well, it is time to get baptized then! I didn't know all of that. Thank you!" They are going to pray about a date and tell us on Wednesday what they are thinking!  I really think the biggest thing that leads to success in missionary work is just listening and loving. I don't think they had ever actually been taught WHY we are baptized, HOW it happens, and WHAT someone feels when they are ready to be baptized (Mosiah 18:7-11...my favorite verses on baptism). The grandma has been coming to sacrament meeting now though and she is reading the Book of Mormon. We're friends because she's another Iowa transplant. Blessings and miracles!

I don't know why all of the meetings I have always end up bunched in one week. This week was a meeting heavy week. We had Zone Conference, MLC. high council leadership breakfast, and DLC. That also meant I ate HORRIBLY this week. Whenever we have meetings we are given a meal by members. And the members always want to fatten us up for some reason.  We talked a lot about faith and how to recognize statements of faith verses lies Satan tells us. I believe Satan more often than I should, so it was a good week of meetings for me.

We had a RS hike in Brimhall on Saturday that Cho Chang wanted to go to, so we went with her. It was the Wind Cave hike that we did last summer that I thought was awful. It was much better this time, partially because I am in better shape and partially because I wasn't trying to keep up with fit elders. It was actually really enjoyable!  It was steep at parts, but I wasn't the slowest person this time, so I could go at my own pace and stop and wait for others to catch up. We also had the opportunity to talk about the word of wisdom while we hiked and then had breakfast at the end.

Love,

Sister Poppe

 I'm not sure what these have to do with gold mining, but they were fabulous, 

so naturally I was drawn to them.

"Are you trapped in jail or are you go-go dancers?"-Man on the porch behind us

Oh hey. Just contemplating life with the Superstitions behind me.

District 1085

 Wind Caves Hike

I made my own freshly squeezed orange juice. People are giving us oranges by the ton and I finally decided to try juicing. It was so delicious! It takes about a thousand and seven oranges to fill a large Mason jar, but it was great.

Sister Rasheed tried her hand at juicing after I finished my Mason jar. 

The Death Plague is Over!

Hello!

We had a good week on the whole!

I was feeling better on Monday and then things took a nose dive again on Tuesday. Finally on Friday I went to the doctor. He said I had the flu the week before and that it turned into a sinus infection. He said I had a fever and he asked if I had all week. I don't know? What missionary has a thermometer? I told him I had felt warm all week but I wasn't sure. He said he thinks I've probably had a low grade fever on and off for a week. He gave me some good antibiotics and I am actually feeling good for real now!

The family with six kids was a bust. They ignored us when we went for our return appointment and the neighbors we took with said they have never actually been serious about investigating the church. They smoke pot and just want welfare benefits. So that was discouraging!

Cho Chang is doing really well though and we had a miracle with her nephew that lives with her! We stopped by to visit them on Sunday because they missed church and they are going out of town this week so we won't be able to see her. The nephew has always been silent and stand off-ish when we have been there. They were about to do this raw egg challenge though when I got there and they asked if I wanted to try eating a raw egg with them. Of course I didn't want to because that business is disgusting, but I had the immediate thought, "if I do this, this teenager will respect me." So I said, "Sure! We don't have the opportunity to eat weird things serving a state-side mission...this may be as weird as it ever gets for me." And then I tried to choke down a raw egg and actually ended up like gagging and spitting half of it out and looking like a hot mess. It was actually kind of funny. We were all laughing and then when it got silent he said that he has been reading parts of the Gospel Principles manual in his spare time. We talked about that and he said he is enjoying it a lot more than Of Mice and Men and that he likes it in general. I asked him if he would read a Book of Mormon and he said he would and the entire atmosphere changed. I think this is a kid that could really take a lot from the gospel and that a part of him wants to. I am really excited to work with them some more. Cho Chang said the live in babysitter they will have while she and her boyfriend (who we just found out is a boyfriend of 10 years, NOT a husband) are in St. Louis was investigating the church at one point and that we had her permission to come over and visit the boys while she was gone. I am really excited!

Find. Find. Find. was our motto this week. We did find 2 new investigators, but we have to find 13 more THIS WEEK if we are going to meet our January goals. I'm kind of nervous, but I also know we have done all we can do and if it doesn't pan out then it isn't in the Lord's timetable for us to find 20 investigators this month.

I did do a special fast yesterday that we would find 13 people this week. Sister Rasheed fasted with me as well, and we added in that her English will quickly improve.

Please pray to help our finding efforts! We need it.

Love,

Sister Poppe

Another 50 cent corn dog day was upon us and I received a FB message from Nug Nug saying that she needed to find me to get me a corn dog. I met her in our area right before it was time to return to our apartment that night. She left a Laurel class presidency meeting early and when she left every one said to tell me hello. She reassured me that everyone still loves me more than any other missionary and that they still hope I get transferred back. I don't think I will ever connect with an area as well as I did in that one. I really think that I was sent to this mission for that area and to help them and love them in a way that missionaries never had. I wasn't sent for nonmembers in that area which is typically the case. They will always be such special people to me.

We got a couch! And took selfies!

Cleaning and disinfecting our new couch. #blessings

Our apartment is tiny and this is a huge sectional. It only fit one way in 

our living room, so we have to jump over it to be able to sit on it.

Sister Rasheed LOVES this picture and I'm like, "sister, I look like Shrek and you look like Donkey." I then had to find a picture of Shrek and Donkey to show her. 

When life is discouraging and you are literally fighting like dragons to find people to teach the gospel to and no one is interested, you make brownies at 9:30 at night with Reese's in them and eat them out of the pan with a fork with your roomie friends.

Sometimes companionship study ends with a 3 minute companionship nap

"Sister, make a shark face!" And she obeyed immediately.

Our entire district lives in the same apartment, #1085. We refer to ourselves 

as District 1085. It feels like a 90's boy band and I love it.

"Make model faces"-me "SISTER RASHEED! THAT IS NOT 

A MODEL FACE"-Sister Moreton

Sister Rasheed wanted a crazy pic

Sister love