If You Yell, “Robin’s Daughter,” at me, I Will Respond

This transfer has just been six weeks of ups and downs. This week was no exception! We woke up Thursday morning and had no water in our apartment. We called and woke up our ward mission leader's wife and asked if we could use her shower. She said we could, but said that her whole family had already showered so she didn't know how hot the water would be. We ran over there and the freezing cold water coupled with the fact that I had a 7:45 am meeting to get to deterred me from washing my hair. THANK YOU DRY SHAMPOO FOR BEING INVENTED. But I still feel like I looked disgusting the majority of the day. As it turned out, Sister Merrell had hot water in the upstairs shower, I was the only one that bathed in a stream of chilly water straight from the upper regions of the Canadian Tundra. We went on to have a stake service project cancelled and no water for the majority of the day. At least we had the Easter Pageant to go to that night to help brighten our day!

 Sunburns

 Easter Pageant Extravaganza!

The Easter Pageant was great this week. We went every night and had eventful things happen each day. I ran into so many people from my first area and it was wonderful. I will always love those people...and they still love me! It really helped cheer me up. Seeing different people every night was such a tender mercy. I ran into the Memorial Day Gun Family and they were so happy to see me. It made me glad, because the last night we saw them they were upset about something and I was a little sad that I left them on a bad night. We also saw Al Fox Carraway one night! I didn't approach her because I'm sure she gets tired of people doing that, but it was cool to see her in real life!  On Friday we went down and saved seats all day because we only do weekly planning on Friday afternoons anyway. We rescheduled some things to fill the morning and then did our studies and planning and lunch break on the temple grounds so we could have awesome seats for the show that night. We all got the worst sunburns though because we weren't quite ready for the full force summer sun to be out in April.  At this point in my life I'm already about 98% guaranteed I'll have skin cancer so I just embrace it. We did see the Larsen family one night as well and they recognized me right away because I look just like you, mom! I'm always taken slightly aback when people just shout at me, "ROBIN'S DAUGHTER!" I always respond though, so I guess it works.

Birthday Month started this week!!!!! Sister Moreton treated me to Smashburger to kick it off. When our food was brought to us the waiter said, "and I know which one is yours....I always recognize your order.  A cheeseburger with only cheddar cheese and an egg, and sweet potato Smashfries. I remember my regulars." So that was embarrassing. I only go like twice a month! I've really scaled it back since Dumas left!

 Kick off to birthday month at Smashburger!

At dinner the other night I saw a lady crying outside of the restaurant and I really felt like we needed to comfort her. We went out there and talked with her and gave her an Easter pass along card.  She is from Brazil and is sad because she is alone here in America.  She said there was nothing we could do for her to help so I offered her a hug and she said that would be great. My mission has turned me into a hugger. I literally hug every one that is female all the time.  I don't even know who I am anymore. At least hugs aren't awkward for me anymore! Look how much I've grown.

Sister Moreton has given me a new nickname that she is rather proud of; Scandala Amandala because I'm so scandalous. I hardly think I'm scandalous because I'm not on par with Li-Lo, Miley, or the Kardashians, but I guess by missionary standards I have a slightly elevated scandal level. I mean if we're talking about scandalous Amanda's, Amanda Bynes should take the cake for that one, not innocent sister missionary me. It did remind me of a nickname dad would make up for me though.

I was impressed during conference that I have truly been blessed with the truth on Earth and how much peace that brings. Nothing of the future should ever concern me or trouble me because everything will always be alright. I will always know how to make myself happy because I have been given the principles that lead to joy. Even in the troubling times that will inevitably arise I know that in the eternal scheme of things everything will be happy if I just do the simple things I've been asked to do. It's so simple and yet we all make it hard sometimes. I don't know why that hit me so hard, probably because I tend to worry too much about the things in the future I can't plan for or control, but it was a simple truth that I know but that was brought to my remembrance rather strongly this weekend.

Our mission has shrunk from 255 missionaries to about 200 and will stay around 200 for as long as possible. Now that the initial boom of missionaries has come and gone our mission has stabilized. As such, a lot of areas were added to or split up with transfers. Our wards were separated and added to two other areas (we actually suggested that because our area has so many snowbirds that the already slow work will slow even more in the next week and a half). Sister Merrell and I were so excited to find out we are being transferred! I'm headed to the Alta Mesa Stake to be companions with a sister named Sister Smith. I was also released as sister district leader because all sistrics were disbanded. Sister Smith has been out about 9 months and is a sister training leader so it will be an adjustment to go back to being junior companion, but it will be so good for me. I didn't realize how worn down I had become in this area until this week when I was looking at pictures of Sister Dumas and I in my first area and I realized I looked so happy and that I hadn't been that happy in a while. I have slowly died in this area and I'm ready for a fresh start and for the opportunity to only have to focus on me. I only have three transfers left and I want them to be the best of my mission! A lot of sisters were released from their leadership callings and many of us were placed with new or newer sister leaders, so I'm not surprised I was put with Sister Smith. I'm sure there is a lot we can learn from one another. I can't emphasize how excited I am. I really gave it my all in my current area and things just always seemed to fall apart shortly after we got them going and I don't know that I could have handled much more of that. Im sure when I look back on my mission I will be grateful for the hard lessons I learned in this area, but for now I'm happy to just be able to walk away and heal a little bit. I'm also moving back to the first apartment complex I lived in! The first shall be last, and the last shall be first because I'll probably die in my new area.

 The death of Sistrict 1085.

I look forward to telling you of the new adventures in my new area!

Love,

Sister Poppe

 

After a strenuous afternoon of weeding in the heat MP demanded that we 

come inside and take a break. She is working on her art skills so she wanted 

to see how we could draw. I insisted that I can't draw and she insisted that I try. 

This "Ghost Baby Alice" was born. Sister Merrell on the other hand is really good!

My French toast from no shower water morning. 

My 7:45 meeting was cancelled last minute. Thus I had

to make my own breakfast. They were delicious!

Sister Moreton bought me consolation Reese's Puffs on 

no water day to help ease my first world problem pain.

The granddaughter we are teaching went to the Easter Pageant with us 

and the family that introduced her to the church. It was so fun! 

I love those girls so much! In the first picture Laina Lou was 

"fixing my hair"

The finished product.

No water. Hot mess hair. No clean bowls. 

Reese's Puffs in a Mason Jar.

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

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.