Fancy Sock Club

Hello,

Two times this week JJ texted me and terrified me. The first was early on in the week. She basically just said, "Sisters. I would like to go out teaching with the two of you this week sometime. Let me know when works. I just..." and we never got the second page. So we were freaking out. I was like, "great! She's going to come and evaluate me and see if I was worthwhile the 18 months I was here." After we responded and said that we had good lessons on Tuesday or Thursday we got the second page that just said, "...want to go out with the infamous Sister Poppe before she dies :)". Heart attack for nothing! But then I was nervous because clearly I've been built up to more than I am if I am infamous. She came out with us Thursday evening and we had a great lesson with diva. We were supposed to have a lesson with a less active woman after that with the RS president, but the woman cancelled on our way over. She had had a rough week. It was the anniversary of her divorce and her mother is dying. I said we would stop by anyway just to share our love. So we all went by and sang her a quick song and said we loved her. The RS president left and Sister Jenkins stayed with us for our last hour. We tried to contact a few people but no one was home. We had about 25 minutes left of the night and I said a prayer in my heart that went like this, "Heavenly Father. Look. I can't let this woman think that I'm an awful missionary. I can't help that our appointment fell through and all of our back-ups weren't home. I need you to place someone in my path to talk to so she doesn't think I'm bad at this." Then I just started walking aimlessly, but with confidence. We were still in the apartment complex, so I just acted like we were walking to another door. We were talking and after about 5 minutes I saw a guy with some wording on his shirt, so I called out, "Hey! What does your shirt say?" He answered, "If it don't touch my soul I don't listen to it." I said, "That's pretty good. Can I tell you about something that touches my soul?"  By this point we were already right next to him. He agreed and we spent 25 minutes talking to him. We invited him to church and he agreed to come (but he didn't actually end up coming). It was a really productive conversation. It was, hands down, my best street contact of my mission. As we walked back to JJ's car I prayed in my heart a prayer of gratitude. She thanked us for the fun evening and complimented our teaching skills and such. She was impressed with our street contact. Sister Childs asked me after JJ left what my plan was when I was just walking so I told her. She said that she just kept thinking, "I have no clue where she is going, but she seems to know what she is doing, so I'll just follow." Clearly I didn't. But it worked out. The Lord hears our prayers! Even if they're based on our vain desires to be appreciated by our mission president's wife.

The second time JJ texted me she just said, "Sister P. Please call me when you can." WOW. THAT IS WORSE THAN A BOY SAYING, "We need to talk." So I called and she just asked if I would help another elder leaving with me next week to write his college admission essays. So I have a time set up on Tuesday to meet with him and edit his work and help him construct good answers.

Birds are still dumb here. I hit another one this week. Sister Childs has consigned me to hell for murder.

Our baptism went so well! We were able to get a lot of ward involvement and we did nothing. That is a successful baptism. When the missionaries don't do anything. Our mission president hates it when missionaries conduct or give a talk or sing at their own baptism. The only thing we did was teach the message while Diva was changing, but that is required. That is the only part in the program missionaries should do. JJ and KJ came and they complimented us more than once for our spot on service. We even had a primary choir sing the special musical number. There were about 10 kids. That was an answer to prayer too. Diva really wanted us to sing, so we said we would and then last minute we decided we shouldn't. Good thing too, because the primary kids brought the Spirit and KJ and JJ came and thought it was so wonderful we had no part in the program. They said our teaching about the Book of Mormon while she was changing was so wonderful and the Mormon Message we showed was exactly perfect. They compliment me too much. Seriously. It makes me uncomfortable. They were even complimenting Sister Childs and I to the family after the baptism. Diva's dad was telling them how great we are and KJ was telling him how great we were and I was glad I wasn't actually standing there, I could only hear them from across the room where I was putting the hymn books away at. This weeks goal from Sister Childs is for me to accept compliments better. In particular any of them that have to do with complimenting my appearance. 

The bishop of VP has a son with Down's Syndrome. He is 14 and he is just so funny! Every time he sees me he says, "you're cute," with a flirty face and a wink and sometimes a little finger gun point. Well this week he came up to me and told me I'm cute and then said, "you're tense," and then rubbed my shoulders! It was hilarious. He has a 16 year old brother who was laughing and I had to tell him thanks, but no thanks because I'm a missionary. Then on Sunday he tried to do it again. His mom is always like, "this kid is the biggest flirt we have!" He's a sweet kid though.

"I see you as General Young Women's president...maybe Relief Society president. Never Primary though."-Swaggy B

"What does that mean? I could totally be Primary president. Watch me!"-Me

"I know you could be. You could be president of literally anything. You're president of our apartment. In fact, I'm going to start calling you President Poppe instead of Sister Poppe."-Swaggy B

She then went on to tell me why I would be perfect in the role of YW president and only wonderful at the Primary president gig.


Love,

Sister Poppe

18 months baby!

Shark week party dinner was a success. A less active, nonmember, and a 

daughter of a part member family were all in attendance. Now if only 

everyone did that when they invited the missionaries over real missionary 

work might actually happen!

 Diva saw her outfit at the store and said, "Mom that is a Sister Poppe 

outfit! I want it." So her mom bought it for her and she happened to 

wear it the same day I wore something very similar. Her mom said 

that she was also looking at the boat shoes because she wanted 

some like mine but they didn't have any in her size. Imitation 

really is the highest form of flattery.

We played gospel jeopardy with diva and her cousin and then two 

other girls we are teaching. The one doesn't live in our boundaries,

but she's been at a few lessons. So we're not really teaching her, but 

we kind of are just because she doesn't have the best home life and 

she is always at this member’s house hanging out with the other girl 

we are teaching. She can't be baptized because her parents aren't 

together and the dad is active and the mom isn't a member and she 

won't allow her to be baptized. So we do some good lessons with 

them to try and help them keep the faith until they're old enough 

to make their own decisions.

We made a cupcake Mesa temple for diva's family. No missionary time 

was wasted, don't worry. We did it during our free time in the evening

and such. I painted the grass and the sky and did the palm trees.

I also baked the cupcakes. Sister Childs did the temple. 

She's more artistic than I am.

 

Diva's baptism! 

Her brother was blessed the next day in sacrament meeting as well.

 The men of the Fairway Groves Ward Council always wear 

fancy socks and we decided to wear fancy socks as well on 

Sunday. Brother Eagleston got away before we got a picture, 

but here are the rest of the fancy sock club.

 I was using my iPad camera as a mirror during Sunday school to 

fix my hair and Sister Childs kept acting like we were taking selfies. 

So when I fixed my hair we finally took a selfie. A member leaned 

over and was like, "Sunday School Selfies....niiiiiiice." I thought we 

were pretty sly, but she saw us. She thought it was funny though.

 

Satan Doesn't Even Have Sinuses

Hello,

We went to Legacy on Monday (the assisted living home) and we finally shared a lesson with the people we have been talking to over the last few weeks. We ended up sharing the Word of Wisdom by chance (we were offered a beer by an old man). It is so great. Old people really want to share the gospel too. So the members that were there started helping and we heard them still talking about the gospel ten minutes later when we walked back by. It is so cute and inspiring. Really, they aren't too old to make life changes! Here are a few good quotes from the evening:

"There's too many womens around ya, Ed. Better be careful."-worker

"Nuns were the world's worst. They should all go to hell."-Ed

"I've had experience with the nuns too....Wacko!"-Ed...ten minutes later. Still on Nuns.

We had a lesson with Bambi this week that was so powerful. Her daughter-in-law couldn't get her printer to work to print off family names to take to the temple. She tried three different printers in some other homes and they never worked. During this process she called Bambi to ask if she wanted to come do baptisms with her for her first time and Bambi said she would love to. Immediately after she agreed the printer worked and she was able to print them off after over an hour of trying. We were all a little teary-eyed as Bambi told us that because of that she got to do the work for her mom in the temple that day and she thinks the printers didn't work because her mom wanted her to do the work and not her daughter-in-law to do it. She then went on to tell us that she finally found a job after months of looking and it is respectable and administrative--exactly what she was looking for. She accepted a calling as the assistant secretary in the Primary as well. She is an exceptional woman. I love her so much.

We showed up to teach the girl we are helping prepare for a mission and she had Sonic drinks waiting for us...at 9 am. I'm telling you, Mesa has its perks!

I remember being kind of mean and judgmental in high school toward the missionaries for being naive. I felt like they lingered too long on people that seemed hopeless and that they were wasting time with people who would never commit. I get it now though. I realized that I've done that my whole mission and in large part it is because you're truly blessed to love people the way the Savior does. He never turns his back on any of us, so why would we turn our backs on people that are progressing, even if it is ever so slightly? I repented for my thoughts and can empathize with them now for just hoping if they persist long enough people will feel the Spirit and change their lives.

I had the word key written down and I have no clue why. So something must have happened with a key this week that I don't remember.

So I've kind of had this fake sinus infection for two weeks. I haven't paid much attention to it because I know it's mainly just my allergies. The longer I'm in AZ the worse my allergies get. But last week I had a fever one day and I keep having head aches and it's annoying. I'm still not really letting it slow us down at all; I just want your sympathy, parents. I talked to the mission nurse (mainly to appease Sister Childs) and she confirmed that I'm already taking everything I need to take and there isn't much I can do unless it gets to the point that it's bad enough that I think a prescription will help (it isn't that bad yet). So just pray that my sinuses stop being the worst in America. I actually woke up the other day and was annoyed about it and was like, "why do I have the sinuses of Satan?" Then I realized Satan doesn't even have sinuses because he doesn't have a body and then I realized I'm still better than he is; even with the nasal cavities of a two year old.

We are borrowing a guitar from a member and using it all the time in teaching appointments to bring the spirit. We can sing a few hymns (and a little Cold Play and T-Swift---okay, tangent, my heart is softening to her and I don't understand it. I heard one of her new songs at crossfit the other day and I actually really liked it. I'm working on swallowing my pride and possibly embracing her. I did the same with Miley Cyrus before my mission so I guess it can work.). We have one recent convert with a nonmember wife that we have been working with that was really softened by our musical production the other night. She's always been kind, but she hugs us now and came to church on Sunday. USING YOUR TALENTS LEADS TO MIRACLES. Who knew?

Sister Childs is exactly the kind of companion I needed for my last transfer. She doesn't shy away from the fact that I'm going home and she finds the most constructive ways for me to talk about it. We were setting goals and she was like, "What do you need to work on for the real world? That should be your goal." It's true. I don't need to focus a ton of my energy on street contacting, etc. at this point. I can still improve in those areas, but I can work on skills that will benefit me as a missionary and not as a missionary too. So all transfer long she has made me tell her I love her because I really struggle with that. I was telling her that I need to get over my fear of emotions before I have kids so that my children aren't afraid to talk about their feelings like I am. So she makes me tell her I love her and now she's added in the stipulation that I have to tell her why I love her every day. It was so uncomfortable at first, but after a few weeks I am getting much better at it and it isn't as weird any more for me to talk about these things. It still isn't instinctual, but I don't feel as stupid or vulnerable when I do it anymore. As missionaries we do a lot of role playing and practice teaching. I've kind of fallen out of the habit the last few months. I did it a lot when I was training Sister Dawson and even more when I was with Sister Rasheed, but when I started having older companions in the mission it kind of fizzled. Well, Sister Childs and I have never practiced teaching once (with the exception of district meetings and zone training meetings). Out of the blue she said, "Sister. We need to do a role play. We're going to role play you sharing your feelings with a boy. Right now." I was like, "Where in the world did this come from?!?" She responded with, "You've only ever shared your feelings with a boy in writing. You need to get better at doing it in person. We're practicing. Go. I'll be a boy." And we did it. She is so insightful and real. She isn't like, "Don't think about home." She's like, "Think about home constructively. I'm going to help you. You already probably won't be awkward when you get home---well you won't be any more awkward than you were before your mission--but let's make sure you're not awkward when you get home." It's good for me. Except I realized today when we were shopping that I'm not sure I'm quite ready for pants. I think I'm going to wear dresses for a bit longer after I get home. It's weird that that is what will be awkward for me. I'm not worried about music--I love when we hear apostate music at restaurants and the mall and such. But I genuinely feel under dressed when I'm in pants. We went to the mall and I bought three dresses and a swimming suit. No pants. The dresses are all cute though and I'm excited to wear them (none of them are long enough for the mission...so I guess I am slightly scandalous).

Diva is doing great. She had her baptismal interview on Saturday and then we took her to a service so she could get ideas for hers. She loves us so much. She drew us the cutest drawings at the pioneer day activity on Friday. Her mom told me that she has been talking a lot lately about me leaving in a few weeks and how sad she is. So I told her that I'm moving back and it made her day. I'm so excited for her baptism this Saturday! Her family talked to the bishop on Sunday too about preparing for the temple. They're going to go through as soon as they can and I can't wait to go with them.

We got to attend a sealing at the Gilbert Temple on Friday and it was beautiful. I forgot how exquisite that temple is. Oh my, it was so beautiful. I sat in the wedding party waiting room off of the sealing room and just marveled at the beauty and the peaceful feelings and thoughts I was having. 

President Jenkins sent the following to us in his email today as an indicator of our excellence:

"As you know, there are 21 missions in the North America Southwest Area. I receive some comparative monthly statistics for numbers of convert baptisms, converts advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood, converts endowed, and prospective elders advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood. As 'full-purpose' missionaries, you have a tremendous influence as you work with leaders and members in these statistical categories. You are to be complimented on your successful efforts and the results we are observing. 

For example, in the month of June 2015, the AMM was #2 in the number of convert baptisms. 25 more converts were advanced to the Melchizedek Priesthood and 31 more converts were endowed in June 2015 than in June 2014. In both of those categories, we were the #1 mission in the Area----we had the highest increase of all 21 missions!! These are indicators that we are doing so much better in our retention efforts. We are getting people the necessary 'endure-to-the-end' ordinances along the path of membership---especially temple ordinances." 

Pretty great, eh!

Love,

Sister Poppe

New Shark Earrings! It's the little things.

Throwback picture I just got from Swaggy B. This is Sister Smith 

and I with our shovels heading to service. We stopped by to pick up 

shovels from a member and were given salsa and Naked as well. 

This is what missionary work in Mesa looks like.

The founder of Gold Canyon Candle Company lives in our roommates' area. 

They invited us to help them with some service for her charity foundation. 

There was going to be a benefit so we helped stuff gift bags and such. 

I got to put together the last of the silent auction baskets and 

I was quite proud of my achievement!

I can be artistic when I want to be. 

This is KJ and JJ riding a shark.

 I want to get it on a t-shirt.

We all four helped at the Vista Peaks ward Pioneer Day party and 

picked up Coldstone with a gift card a member gave 

me a few months back on our way home.

One of Diva's pieces of art work she gave me.

We had a lesson with Diva at the Visitors' Center 

and the sky was beautiful.

We got to leave the mission boundaries to go to the sealing in Gilbert.

 I'm telling you, Gilbert is fancy. I just felt less humble driving over 

there. It was nice to see how the other half lives. Not that I'm even in 

the ghetto here in East Mesa. But somehow it is still more magical 

over there. Probably because they have grass. Anyway, we took a 

selfie to commemorate crossing the 60.

These are all the sisters who taught the woman being sealed 

and their companions in front of the Gilbert Temple.