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!

One Month to Womanacious

I prayed before transfers that I would be given a low maintenance companion that would be easy to work with. Having trained Sister Dawson and then immediately being Sister Rasheed's companion made me quite exhausted and dangerously close to being burnt out. I just need a breather transfer where I can take a step back and not feel the weight of responsibility that comes with being asked to mold a missionary into someone more like you. My prayers were answered and I have been given a companion that is so chill and ready to just be a missionary. I love Sister Merrell! She reminds me of a good friend from camp, Kaity Brien. She can do an AMAZING Smeagol impersonation. Literally, I think she actually starred in the Hobbit. She is also the only person I've ever met who has an evil laugh that can rival mine. We laugh together and it is the creepiest thing ever. We also teach the gospel and stuff too...

We are going to focus on building the wards up (much like I did in my first area), and doing more service in addition to our normal proselyting efforts. I had a great idea this week, but I'll wait to tell you about it when I know if it will pan out or not. 

I had my first situation in which I had to turn someone in to the mission president for misconduct. It wasn't fun, but it was necessary. I knew a sister wasn't using her iPad appropriately and I found out I have the authority to do random iPad checks, so I did one! Sure enough there was incriminating evidence so I confiscated the iPad and had a conversation with my zone leaders and President Jenkins. When all was said and done there were no hard feelings and President Jenkins called and said that my correction and subsequent information I passed along to him helped him have a conversation with the individual that lead to repentance and a greater desire to serve the Lord. To quote him, he said, "you saved her mission...leadership is a thankless position, Sister Poppe, but you did what is required of you as a district leader and I appreciate that. You were aware enough to know there was a problem and then you actually dealt with it instead of avoiding it. I am proud of you for making the hard decision to do something that was needed even though it was uncomfortable and required you to put your friendship on the line. I don't think your relationship will be endangered either. Thank you again." It was hard, but so worth it because two missionaries are more focused and better examples now. The sister and I hugged it out after she was talked to by PKJ and all is well!

We created a sticker chart about a month ago to track health related goals on. We have a column for water consumption and one for fruit and veggies as well. We tally mark for each water bottle and serving of fruits and vegetables we ingest, and then if we meet our goal, we get a sticker for the day in each column! This is in accordance with Sister Moreton's and my goal to leave this mission in better physical condition than we currently are. We came up with motivational weight loss program names for each month of our mission we have left. They are six months to sexy, five months to foxy, four months to flirty, three months to thriving, two months to trippin', one month to womanacious (I decided it was better to replicate the "w" sound than the o of one). No "w" words could quite encapsulate what I want to be when I get home, so I made one up. After I said it, it took Sister Casey about five minutes to fess up that she didn't know that word and asked what it meant. I laughed and said I made it up and she said, "here I thought it was another one of your big words! You have all this education so I thought I was dumb and didn't know the word and you just made it up!" It reminded me of when I would make words up in high school and people always assumed they were real so I just got away with saying whatever and people just thought I was super smart. 

I know you're wondering what exactly womanacious means. I consulted the 2015 AP Dictionary and was given the following definition:

Womanacious: Adjective. Denotes a strong, beautiful woman. Best female version of yourself. Synonyms: shebeast and diva with class. 

I'm trademarking womanacious so Beyoncé can't steal it to write a song. It sounds like something she would do. "My divas with class be so womanacious. Shebeast for days in every single nation. Wa-wa-wa-wa! Wa-wa-wa-wa! womanacious." I'm on to you, B!

Our zone did service for the United Way on Saturday. We helped clean up used books to give to children in 5 at risk elementary schools in Mesa. AZ has some of the lowest reading test scores in the nation, so a few programs have abounded to help kids from low income districts have books in their homes so they practice reading outside of class. It has helped and the kids love that they have books to call their own. It was rewarding because I feel so passionately about children's literacy. We had stations and the lady put me in charge of quality control. I think everyone wished they would have put someone less OCD in charge of approving the final product. I was always on the sticker removal team...they weren't up to par! By the middle of the service though their abilities were improved and I complimented their advances.

 United Way book cleaning and packaging.

MP invited us over to help her with her latest missionary endeavor. She framed the pictures from her old Greg Olson calendars of Christ and wanted us to find scriptures to accompany each picture. She is going to give them to her neighbors with our phone number. We met one of her neighbors and he was appreciative and nice. MP is a little over the top, but she is an amazing missionary! Seriously. I love working with her because she actually does missionary work and is helping so many people learn line upon line. I am excited to see what this leads to.

When I gave my sacrament meeting talk in Aspen in January I said something along the lines of, "I don't know why Heavenly Father assigned me to labor in this mission. With all of the personal connections I have it is the least logical place I could have been sent, but I know there is a reason I am here." A member who had us over for dinner said that she has been meaning to tell me for weeks that when I said that I was sent here for a reason she felt so strongly that it was true and Heavenly Father has a clear purpose for me here in Mesa. She said that typically people say things and she can feel of their spirit, but she has never felt the spirit so strongly testify of truth in sacrament meeting like that. So that was cool! Now if only I could figure out why I am here!

We had a chili cook off in Aspen and it was a success! We talked with so many members and just had a great time. We did Minute to Win it games and I actually won the one I was called up to participate in! So did Sister Merrell. Probably because the Lord is on our side. It was kind of cute, one of the priests came up to us after the meal and asked how we fight homesickness on our missions. He is putting his papers in and is worried. In talking with him I finally asked, "are you worried about leaving a girl or a family?" He finally fessed up to being concerned about the girlfriend, not his mom. I can read 18 year old male brains better than my own.

Sister Rasheed is cute. She has called me once and messaged me another time. She won't admit it, but I think she misses me :)

Xoxo,

Sister Poppe

 Sister Simmons left for home last week. The Sassy Sisters Club 

will be dropping like flies from here until August. 

Gillespie leaves in April, Moreton in June, 

and me in August. #tear

Sassy Sisters Club with a sassy pose.

 Sister Andes, our ward mission leader's wife, 

saying goodbye to Sister Rasheed.

 

HAPPY ONE YEAR MISSIONIVERSARY TO ME!

Greetings!

MIRACLES:

1) My music pimp (MP) called us Tuesday and asked to go with her to visit her friend. We have visited her before and over the course of three visits she has gone from being scared of missionaries to absolutely adoring us and wanting us to come by all the time. We agreed, but when we arrived MP said we had to stop somewhere else first. We stopped by a part-member couple in the neighborhood and talked with them. MP went in and talked about colonoscopies for ten minutes and I was really fretting. But then the nonmember wife said we could come back again next week! Such is the work in a 55+ community I guess. We did have a great lesson with her friend after that and one later that night with another one of her friends. The lady is a little crazy, but she is a great missionary! She set up three lessons for us that day and they were all member present because she came along.  Miracle! 

2) On the 31st we still needed to find 29 investigators as a mission to meet our goal of 1,500 total new investigators for the month. I really felt like we could find two that day to help finish out our goal. I knew either way we would meet our goal because during the last week of the month we had all really kicked it into gear. We found over 400 people in just three days. But I wanted to help in the final sprint. By 8:10 that night we still hadn't found a single one. I felt impressed earlier in the day to stop by an older couple's home that we had contacted before. Their son is a member and they have a grandson on a mission in Argentina. AND they are originally from Iowa, so we had already bonded over that. The husband said he would never join, but I just felt that we should stop by. I prayed in the car that we would be able to love them and show them we care and then somehow share a message and set up a return appointment. When we arrived the wife was complaining about a head ache and it didn't seem like they would let us in. I told Sister Rasheed to pray in her heart that we would get in. We did! I turned on the Amanda Poppe charm and spent 45 minutes talking to them about their family. I then helped the wife with her Facebook because she didn't know what she was doing. I was waiting to be directed by the Spirit as to when and what to share when the wife asked if I would read her grandson's most recent email. It was all about temples and the importance of the family. I read it allowed and agreed with his statements. It was 9:15 and we had to leave in about 8 minutes at the latest to make curfew. We were wrapping up and I wasn't sure how to secure a return appointment to make these two turn from potential to new investigators when the following popped into my mind and out of my mouth, "Jim. I know you said we would never convert you, but can we at least teach you what your grandson is teaching in Argentina? We teach the same lessons, only in English. He mentioned the Family Proclamation in the email we read together. Can we stop by on Thursday after dinner to bring you a copy and talk with you about it?" He and his wife agreed and liked that idea! We literally got two new investigators with only five proselyting minutes to spare in January. MIRRRRRACCCCLLLLE #miracles4dayz

3) Cho Chang came to church with her nephew and two sons! During Sunday school she leaned over and asked me how to pay tithing. When I told her that only members pay tithing she asked if it took a year to become a member. I told her she could become a member in a few weeks if she really wanted to and that we would talk about baptism this week! How exciting! She is so prepared! She signed up to feed us during RS and is going with us on a RS hike this Saturday. Her kids are enjoying primary and scouts and I think her nephew enjoyed Young Men's. We told her about mutual and hope that he will start going to that. The coolest thing about all of this is that when missionaries talked to her two years ago she wasn't interested or ready. We saw her name in our area book and felt strongly that we needed to visit and we did and now she is asking us about baptism instead of the other way around. We will have to jump over the huge live in boyfriend of ten years hurdle. Maybe I'll get to help plan a wedding! That was my dream when I came out on a mission.

HAPPY ONE YEAR MISSIONIVERSARY TO ME! Thanks for the box full of compliments and the gift card, mom! It's like you know my language of love is words of affirmation or something. We went to Smashburger with a member from my last area for lunch, and for dinner I requested grilled cheese sandwiches and fruit salad with our ward mission leader and his wife. They thought I was crazy, but it had been over a year since I had had it! I said we could have steak next time. We also had a music practice for a fireside I'm singing in this Sunday. Elder Sweeten is in our quarter, so we spent time reminiscing about the MTC together and congratulating each other on making it a year. I don't think I ever told you, but we actually got dropped off at the exact same time at the MTC. We met each other as we picked up our name tags and said at the same time, "Arizona Mesa Mission" when we were asked which mission we were checking in with. We looked at each other, smiled, and became besties instantaneously. We were both not the happiest to be there that day and formed an instant bond in that line.  It probably helped that he would whisper sing "Wrecking Ball" together at meals and in the gym. We both wondered if we would be strong enough to be good missionaries. Now he is a zone leader and I'm a sister district leader, we have both trained new missionaries, and we are doing so well and love our missions! We did a celebratory little dance, commended each other's fortitude, and made bets on who would get married first. I do have a leg up with my six month earlier release date.

As we ended our month of finding I realized that I learned more from the month of January than any other month of my mission. I wrote the following to my mission president in his weekly email:

"This will likely end up being quite a bit longer than my typical emails, but I wanted to share with you the thoughts I had at the conclusion of our month of intense finding.

I have always believed there is something to learn in every situation if we open ourselves up to the opportunity. As we discussed the underlying goals of Miracle March in MLC and what that could do for each individual missionary I knew that the first quarter of 2015 would be a growing season for me. One of my strengths, that often turns into a flaw, is my tendency to try to anticipate any and every possible outcome. This is great when I'm planning something important or when I am in charge of an event. It is not as great though when I try to anticipate what the Lord is going to teach me. I have a pretty low success rate for trying to read His mind and I often waste too much time trying to quickly learn the lesson I think He is going to teach me so I can move on to the next stage of life. In January I believed full heartedly that my area would find 20 investigators so that we would contribute in perfect proportion to the mission’s goal to find 1,500 people. I never doubted that it would happen. I figured that there would be a trial of my faith and that we wouldn't really start finding until at least the middle of the month. I know that the Lord can do absolutely anything and so I didn't doubt the possibility of finding all 20 people in the last week of the month alone. It wasn't ideal; especially because my OCD would have preferred that we found an even 5 people a week, but it was still very possible. Because of that, I anticipated that the Lord was going to teach me that he can do anything. I did my part by talking with more people than I have ever talked to during my mission, by planning as well as I could by the Spirit, and finding ways to sacrifice and consecrate my efforts. I continued throughout the month to do all of these things even when there wasn't a correlation between my (and when I say I and my throughout this letter, I mean we; Sister Rasheed was doing all of these things as well) diligence and new investigators. I didn't let myself get discouraged and I didn't take our lack of success as an excuse to forsake the better habits we had picked up. With only a handful of days left in the month I actually learned what the Lord wanted me to learn. I already have a testimony of obedience and the Lord being all powerful. I didn't need to learn that. It was foolish of me to think that He would have me learn something that I already had strong beliefs about. What I have always struggled with is the law of consecration and the idea of a Zion Society. You can chalk it up to my typically conservative ideals, my hatred of socialism and the inherent similarities, my belief that everyone should be able to solve their own problems, and my tendency to think that asking for help is nearly a sin. As we got daily updates about the miracles that were happening in the last week of the month I realized that whether we found 20 people or not, as a mission we were going to hit our goal.  I always knew we would, but I figured that every missionary would help meet that goal by the Lord strengthening them to find 10 investigators per ward. It never crossed my mind that we would meet that goal by others finding more, some finding less, and some finding next to none.  I pondered on that and realized that it didn't bother me...and that was unusual. I did spend a few days before this realization beating myself up for not "pulling my own weight", but I finally reached a point where I learned something. We had a collective goal as a mission and we all wanted to meet it. We worked, sacrificed, obeyed, prayed, fasted, and generally lived our lives to a higher standard than we had been living before. We purified ourselves and steeled ourselves against the adversary. We employed our talents and abilities. We repented and then we repented some more. Each day we evaluated and grew. We truly fought like dragons. My fire breathing effort only yielded 11 new investigators, but I exerted all the effort I could.  There were others that worked harder than I did and still some that worked less than me, but at the end of the day I believe that we all worked as hard as we could and the Lord recognizes that and accepts that. That is what the law of consecration is; working your hardest and allowing your effort to be enough. 10 people don't necessarily each give 10%, 10 people give everything and they still reach 100%. I don't have ill feelings toward others who may have put forth a tangibly smaller effort than I, because I know that it was still all they could give, just as I hope those that did more than I can recognize that though my 100% was less than theirs, it was still 100% of my abilities. The goal was always 1,500 investigators AS A MISSION.

The goal was never 20 new investigators for Sisters Poppe and Rasheed, 20 for Sisters Moreton and Casey, etc.  It was an ideal means to an end and a solid idea, but it was never the larger goal. I learned that my best is enough. I learned that the Lord strengthens others to make up for your weaknesses. I learned that perfect symmetry isn't the way the Lord does things. I learned to not resent others because their talents are more or less than mine. I learned that the Millennium won't be as Stalin-esque as I originally believed. I learned that though I gave my all I still need to progress, because 100% in January won't cut it in February because we can't remain stagnant. I learned what the Lord wanted me to learn."

You know you're rubbing off on your companion in a bad way when she says, "What is this?!" in an annoyed tone when someone doesn't turn left right away on a green arrow. Then later in the week when she says, "This is not good!" when someone cuts you off at a stoplight you know that you're the companion that gave the foreigner slight road rage. On a more positive language note, I've started picking one or two things a week to consistently correct in her vocabulary. It has helped me not be overwhelmed by all the things I think I should teach her, and has also helped her make permanent changes in her speaking. I correct her every single time she makes a mistake in regards to the pre-selected phrases for the week. She had been saying, "so many stuffs," "so much things," and "I think so no," a lot. It is comical, but I decided that last week we would change those to, "so many things," "so much stuff," and "I don't think so." It worked and she says them correctly about 95% of the time now.

Funny Sister R line of the week:

As I was taking my blanket off, my skirt went up to my mid-thigh and Sister R patted my leg and said, "oh! Good strong leg sister. Good, good leg." She has never said anything about my legs ever and that was the second time this week she did. If we are in our apartment there is a 90% chance I'm just walking around in a shirt and my garments so it isn't like she doesn't see my legs either. It was hilarious.

It was a very productive week for us and I felt blessed to teach more than we ever have as a companionship. We taught 13 member lessons, 10 nonmember lessons, and 2 less active lessons. I really hope to continue to teach in some way or another for the rest of my life because it truly is a thrill for me. Unfortunately that will probably just turn into me just forcing my kids to do flash cards and stuff and they will hate me until they're 18 and smart and accepted at Yale.

Make good decisions and remember who you are.

Love,

Sister Poppe

 Me with my trusty screwdriver

“‘Poppe, I miss you’ many, MANY time!”

Family! Hello.

Winter is already over here. It's a little sad, because boot wearing weather is quickly ending, but it's nice to not have to wear a coat anymore.

I met a sister who asked if I was related to a Margie Kleinman who worked at the Family History Library years ago and I told her that she is my grandma! There is also a sister in one of my wards that is Grandpa Harold's cousin. She hugs me every week now and calls me cousin.

I was struck with my annual The-Seasons-are-Changing-Death-Plague on Friday. I played a fun game with myself throughout the weekend called, "does this part of my body ache because I'm sick or from the weights I've been lifting." I also created a litmus test for illness that helps you know if you're too sick to work or not. If you're sick, but not sick enough that you wouldn't cancel a hot date with a boy you like, then you're not too sick to work. If you would cancel the date, then you know you're too sick to do missionary work. I stuck it out on Friday because I wouldn't have cancelled a date with Peeta Mellark. I also knew that I could push myself through three hours of finding (which was very unsuccessful) and that if I did we would see blessings down the road. Diligence is hard enough when you have an entire evening with no appointments, but when you add in a sore throat, sinus head ache, and inner ear pain, it is even more of a struggle. I also worked extra hard because I knew Saturday would be rough and that I would likely be down for the count. Sure enough, I woke up Saturday morning and felt like I had been hit by a train and like I could sleep for 27 days straight. We cancelled our early appointment and I slept in and rested so I would be able to go out that afternoon for an appointment I didn't think we should cancel. I also knew I needed to rest on Saturday because we were speaking in both sacrament meetings on Sunday and had four appointments set up, so I needed to be fresh.  I like to act like I am good enough at planning that I can schedule in an illness only when it is convenient. I'm not. I still felt awful the rest of the weekend, but we did what we needed to and skipped what wasn't completely important. I sounded like Elder Packer in my first sacrament meeting talk, but by our second sacrament meeting my voice was a little stronger and things went well. Our dinner appointment decided to scrap their plans to make Chinese food and made me homemade chicken noodle soup instead after they heard me struggle through my sacrament meeting talk. That was definitely a tender mercy amidst the trial of my illness. If avoiding Chinese food was the sole reason I have been cursed with this disease, then I will take it. Two appointments fell through and a member at our second forced me to go home and cancel our fourth, so we only had two that evening and was home by 7:45. It is hard being sick because I just feel so guilty. I know I can't control it, but I wasn't sent to Mesa to spend so many hours in our apartment. I will be grateful when I'm not coughing nonstop and when I don't sound like Bonnie Tyler anymore.  #totaleclipseofmyvocalchords #holdingoutforacoughdrop

Sick selfies. 

The sharks and Canadian diva helped build my morale. 

 

People did enjoy my sacrament meeting talk though. I spoke on faith being a principle of action. Because we all knew Sister Rasheed wouldn't speak as long as I would, I had a lot of time to fill. I shared a few scriptures from the Book of Mormon, a few personal stories, and points from a fireside by Gene R. Cook. The bishop in Aspen said that he believes that the members really got to know my heart through my talk and that they are going to be so much more eager to help now that they know more about the missionaries in their ward.  I hope that is the case!

Despite being bound to our apartment for a portion of our week, we actually had a lot of success. We have a new investigator who has a few children, step children, a husband, and a nephew who are all somewhat open to learning more. She is the most on board, but I have a feeling with time they will all become interested. They're all nice to us when we come over, so that is a good sign. We taught 13 member lessons this week and 7 nonmember lessons.  That is a little over 3 times more than our average number of lessons per week in December.  What a blessing! We are still trying to find more investigators. Our one ward felt somewhat guilty that we found new people to teach without their help. That coupled with our sacrament meeting talks has motivated them to re-focus their efforts. We still need to find 7 new investigators in Brimhall and all 10 in Aspen, so prayers are still appreciated. We have quite a few part member families and unbaptized children ages 9 and over in our wards, so with the help of members, I think we could find people in that category alone. While we were finding on Friday we met an interesting lady who has some crazy beliefs. She shared them with us and ultimately tried to convert us to her way of thinking. When we left Sister Rasheed said, "Sister! You strong. You listen, listen, listen, and ask questions and don't get bothered by her. You patient." I think a lot of her beliefs were interesting, but not valid, clearly. There were so many contradictions that were just not even worthy of my time. For example she believes that Eve didn't partake of any fruit, instead that is symbolic of Satan seducing her and her partaking of his fruit. From that, Cane was conceived and from there Satan's angels were able to come to Earth through him. But she believes they don't have bodies. They're only spirits. But somehow they can produce off spring with humans. That are born but don't have bodes...? But she is entitled to her beliefs and it brings her peace, I guess.

There is a member in Brimhall who lives in the retirement community (did I ever tell you that there is a huge retirement community in both of our ward boundaries and that there are a million elderly people here?) who basically wants to be my best friend. She calls us at least once a week to help her with her missionary work. The only problem is that her missionary work involves her giving us something to drop off to less active members or to nonmembers in her neighborhood. This would be okay if it got us in the door, but it never does and she sends us back to the same places. She doesn't quite understand that it would be far more beneficial for her to come with us or for her to invite her friends to her home while we are there. She also found out a few weeks ago that I sing and play the piano and now she is always pimping out my services. She's a slave driver who makes me come over and practice awful church songs from the 90's and then go and perform them for people. The old people love it though and it is softening one lady's heart in particular. She just loves my voice and thinks I am the most accomplished young woman. She invited us back whenever we wanted, so we have made steps in the positive direction with her. My pimp is a ward missionary so she told the ward mission leader that I needed to sing in sacrament meeting. They conspired and were going to throw me under the bus and just call me up after the intermediate hymn to sing a few verses of something before the ward mission leader spoke on Sunday. Luckily I sounded like a chain smoker with a cat scratching sand paper in my throat so that plan was abandoned.

Fun Culture Fact: when people sneeze in Pakistan they believe it's because someone misses them (kind of like how we believe someone is thinking of you if your nose itches). I sneeze at least two times a day, and when my allergies are acting up I sneeze more. Usually my sneezes are pretty small, but they've been bigger lately because of nature and stuff. Sister Rasheed says things like, "Sister! Who miss you?" Or "Oh sister, someone miss you big!" On Saturday after a large sneeze she said, "Sister! You sneeze big this week and week last many time. Someone special miss you big. They say, 'Poppe, I miss you' many MANY time!" It is one of my fondest wishes that you all could hear her speak in her cute little Pakistani accent. She says the funniest things all the time. I told her a few weeks ago that she is more than welcome to visit me in America whenever she wants to in life. I overheard her telling another sister, "Sister. I excited. Sister Poppe tell me I come to America after she married and stay in her house and visit and eat her food. I excited!" I think it is funny that, "come visit whenever you want," turned into "after I'm married come stay in my house and eat my food." Clearly I would let her stay with me and would let her eat my food, but I never actually said those words.  hahaha.

It's already the end of another transfer! Wednesday will be the start of the next one and Sister Rasheed and I are both staying here! They combined two areas into one and took a companionship of sisters out so our district is only four sisters now, which is tiny. I'm not sure why they just didn't put us in with some elders and unmake me district leader, but I'll do whatever I'm asked to do. Six more weeks!

Love,

Sister Poppe

The last Sistrict Meeting of the transfer.

I'm glad that the term Sistrict was born.

 

Costco Sized Amount of Faith

Busy week! I don't have a ton of time! Sorry! Also, sorry for all the !!!!! Who am I?

Sister Rasheed is crazy when it comes to New Year's Resolutions, or as she calls them, 2015 big goals. We spent a lot of time brainstorming what our big goals were going to be, while we drove to appointments and such. We then ceremoniously wrote them down on New Year's Eve.  Here are some of the highlights from this week's big goals conversations:

1. "Sister you make other 2015 big goal. You go home August and make goal to pray for husband in October. Marriage 2015 you BIG goal!"-R

"Sister. I'm a missionary most of 2015. I don't have enough time to find a husband after I'm a missionary and before 2015 ends."-P

"SISTER. You just pray."-R

As funny as it was, it was even cuter that she was sincere. She has the biggest testimony of prayer. She said she didn't have one until her mom helped her develop one. Her mom sounds like an amazing lady who has a Costco sized amount of faith.

2. Last P-day I bought a jump rope, scale, and resistance bands for my big goal to lose 5 pounds a month in 2015. I was jumping rope in the living room the day I bought it and Sister Rasheed looked at our roommate and said, "she practice for 2015 big goal."

We tried to contact some people on NYE but we weren't having much success. People were just partying, so we eventually gave up and spent the last hour and a half of our evening at a member's home. They invited us to their party. It was actually really good because there were a lot of members in our ward at the event so I talked with them and learned more about them.

On New Year's Day we had a mission wide activity. Each zone had 25 minutes to come up with a theme based on a bible story they were given. Some were really hilarious. We did Shadrack, Mishack, and Abednego (seriously I have no clue how to spell those names and don't care to look them up). I was Abednego and two other sisters were the other two. We were sassy and I rapped:

We ain't bowing down to no idols

We would rather take a knife to our vitals.
We only worship the one true God
Anything else is outright fraud!
To the Lord only, we will Pray
Queen French Fry, you be cray cray!

Sister Fry was Queen French Fry, so that is why that is there. It was pretty funny and a good modern retelling of the story.

We are on a finding kick in our area! We have to find 20 new investigators this month. To put that into perspective, we found 1 in December. I found a lady when I was on exchanges and she has three children. We are going back tomorrow and I pray that this whole family will be interested. She lost her husband this year so she really is open to something that can help her. Please pray for us to be able to meet our goal. Also, we had MLC this week and PKJ said that we have to be willing to work hard enough to pick up the slack if other missionaries don't find enough people. That was nerve wracking! But I have to be prepared to find 40 people if the sisters in my district don't find people. I have faith that they will, but it was the first time I truly felt like I had to make up for other people as their leader.

Meet the Mormons is in the VC now, so we took an investigator to see it on Wednesday. It was fun! Go see it if you haven't!

I also set up a TON of member lessons for this week so I can talk to members about member missionary work and how to help us find people to teach. We are also speaking in both of our wards' sacrament meetings this week.

I'm happy and healthy and ready for 2015!

Love,

Sister Poppe

Twenty Abnormally Small Teeth

We had an amazing week of good lessons, experiences, and random happenings. For this letter, I'm going to organize it by people, because I think that will be easier.

A Portrait of Mesa: A Week's Journey Told Through Her Citizenry

1. Harry and the Tony Hawk Boys: We teach these guys on the same night each week. It just so happened that this week we felt that they all needed to hear the same thing--how to recognize personal revelation as revelation. We planned two similar lessons on the topic and they were both spot on. The lessons were spiritual and lead to each person making their own personal insights. Since all of these guys can't be baptized for one reason or another, their progress has slowed lately.  I know that the lessons we shared with them jump started them again and helped them slog a little further through the mud.

2. Sister M and Professor Trelawny:  One of the members in Thunder Mountain talked to a random stranger about the church and then invited the stranger to church on Sunday. We were so shocked! Seriously, we never would have pegged this member as a go get 'em missionary type.  She said she just felt prompted to talk to her and it worked! We taught Professor Trelawny a lesson and had dinner with her with Sister and Brother M on Wednesday and it went well. She was very open and got teary-eyed when I explained and testified of the atonement.

3. Sister W: A sister in Twin Knolls was talking to her downtrodden neighbor and shared the gospel and the neighbor is interested. We set up an appointment with her for this week! We are so excited.  #membermissionariesarethebest

4. Lavender Brown: We keep records of individuals who have been taught by missionaries before and sometimes we review those records and try to identify people who are ready to hear the gospel again. One name stuck out to me a few weeks ago and we finally had the time to stop by this week. We were invited in and the wife proceeded to talk to us for over an hour. It was so surreal. Sometimes I realize that I'm sitting on a perfect stranger's couch and am hearing all about their life. It really is crazy sometimes how open people are! This lady didn't know us from Eve and she didn't hesitate to let us into her living room and into her heart all in the same hour. We set up a return appointment for this week.

5 Brother Meal Coordinator: I had a conversation with the Twin Knolls missionary meal coordinator's wife last Sunday about Sister Dumas getting her visa and leaving and about how I could very well be transferred too because I've been here for 5 transfers. This conversation evolved and somehow became Sisters Dumas and Poppe are for sure both leaving in a week. Our meal coordinator asked us who our favorite families to eat with are and we figured he just wanted to know for future reference. We told him and he proceeded to text all of them and tell them our last week in the area had arrived and that we have requested to eat our last week of dinners with them. It was very kind of him to schedule all of that. He said he has never had the meal calendar filled so quickly because everyone was eager to feed us one last time. This is all great, except we don't know if I'm actually being transferred or not yet! People are planning to take us out to eat, and are asking what our favorite desserts are, and are telling us to block out a little extra time for dinner because they have something special planned, and all this crazy stuff.  I'm a little afraid I won't be transferred and that this will be one of those awkward situations, like when a couple calls off their wedding two days before it's supposed to happen and they already have all these Williams-Sonoma gift cards and pottery barn bins and stuff. It will definitely be an amazing week though!

6. Piano Kid: One of the employees of the assisted living home has a teenage son who pops in to see her at the end of her shift sometimes.  The boy plays the piano and is very quiet. I was playing on Saturday and he sat next to me and asked if I would teach him to play the song I was playing. He plays by ear and is really very good. He has never had lessons and knows nothing about music theory. It breaks my heart that he has never had lessons. I don't think he has the most stable home life. I sat with him for about 20 minutes and showed him how to play the first four measures and talked to him about school, my mission, and music. At the end of our conversation he said, "Thanks for showing me that, I really like talking to you. You're really nice."  It made me so sad; I don't think he gets talked to very much. I gave him a few more piano tips and told him about the piano tutorials on YouTube for that song that I've seen before.

7: Assisted Living Friends: I don't even know how it happened, but we got some of the assisted living home residents to hiss with us like cats on Wednesday. They even made claws with their hands.  It was hilarious.

8: Sister D and J-Money (aka Jeff, my friend, who is white, who I have never called J-Money until today. It just felt right #thuglyfe):  Through a series of events Sister Dumas saw Jeff on my Facebook and was like, "I know that kid." We ended up figuring out that they were in the same social dance class at BYU and that he was companions with her cousin on his mission. It's crazy how small the Mormon world is!

9. President and Sister Jenkins: Prezzy J and Sister J Jenks came to speak in Thunder Mountain's sacrament meeting yesterday. President Jenkins ended his talk by saying that he doesn't believe the members of that ward don't know how to do missionary work because a vast majority of them are RM's or have sent children on missions. He loving encouraged them to get their act together. He told them he knows that Sister Dumas and I love the ward and are working hard so they should figure out a way to resurrect within themselves the skills to be missionaries. It was so spot on.

10: Charlie Weasley: A family in the ward recently had the wife's brother move in with them. He has come to church pretty regularly for 6 weeks or so. We have talked to the family a few times about where Charlie is at and such and on Sunday they invited us over to teach Charlie! He has already expressed interest in baptism! I don't even know where all these people keep coming from! So many blessings! It's probably because we have transfers in a week; all these amazing things are happening just in time for me to leave.

11: Nug Nug and the Favorite: The two young women in our ward that I mentioned joined our fan club last week are affectionately called Nug Nug and the Favorite (as per their individual requests). They took us out for 50 cent corn dogs at Sonic to celebrate Sister Dumas' one year mark. I ate 6 corn dogs and a small shake as a challenge. I literally thought I was going to die after corn dog number 3, but the champion inside of me wouldn't let me give up and I completed the challenge.  Sister Dumas is a pansy and didn't win like I did. She did tell me how proud of me she was though for finishing. That's true companionship love right there.

(l-r) The Favorite, Sis. Poppe, Sis. Dumas, Nug Nug

On a random note, August 27th marked 11 years since braces were put on my teeth. I'm still grateful that you, dad, and two dental insurance agencies loved me enough to contribute thousands of dollars to the perfecting of my 20 abnormally small teeth. Seriously though, my teeth are beautiful. Thank you.

The Church is True!

Sister Poppe

We baked cookies on our dashboard on Sunday during church.  7 hours later they were just a little doughy in the middle and quite delicious. #112degrees