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.

 

Baptismal Covenant and a Kit Kat Bar

Hey!

The Death plague soldiers on. I seriously haven't been this sick since August 2009. I continued to try to do as much as I could until Thursday. I called Sister Jenkins to ask if I could skip our sister training leader meeting and she told me to not only skip the meeting, but to rest for 48 hours. We did end up going out a little on Thursday evening and all night Friday despite my quarantine orders, but I rested a lot during the day. Some sisters showed up after the meeting I missed and gave me a card that Sister Jenkins had all the sister training leaders sign, hot cocoa mix, and some poppy seed almond pound cake. I felt so loved and was shocked that Sister Jenkins took the time to make me, one of 240 missionaries, feel individually loved. I also missed a meeting with the high councilman over missionary work in our stake so he sent breakfast over with my zone leader after the meeting. A lady in one of our wards made me more homemade soup and others brought me tissues and medicine. I've never felt more pathetic in my life. It was humbling to accept so much charity from people.  Especially because I knew if I was at home I would have just taken care of myself. I wasn't incapable; people just wanted to serve me.  I'm still raspy and my nose is runny, but on the whole I am about 87% better. I did finally ask for a blessing on Friday night and that helped a lot.

Through all of this we found a new couple to teach and that was a miracle! They have six children as well. Our first lesson with them is on Thursday. They have had lessons in the past and we just re-contacted them this week. I heard somewhere once that it takes, on average, 7 meaningful interactions with missionaries and/or members of the church before people become seriously interested in baptism. I don't know if that is true, but it sounds about right. They have a lot of promise and I can't help but think about the positive impact baptizing this one family would have on so many people in the future.

Our new investigator, Cho Chang, came to church on Sunday with her two sons! It was such a pleasant surprise! She told us she wasn't going to come and then she ended up changing her mind. I've been praying so hard for her since we met. Every night I ask Heavenly Father to protect her from Satan. I know that she has a desire for the truth and I know that Satan will try her even more because of that. Her sons loved primary and she enjoyed everything as well. She committed to come next week again. The hard part will actually be sitting her down and having lessons. She loves church, but she is busy and it is hard getting her to schedule things.

We now live with Sister Moreton (my bestie) and Sister Casey (her new trainee from the MTC)! I LOVE IT! We party so hard every night in the hour we have between missionary work and bed.

We spent so much time trying to find this week in one of our wards and EVERYBODY didn't have any interest in learning anything at all. Agency is literally the worst. Why can't everyone just want to be Mormon already?

I had a great week though and felt very guided by the Spirit. Even when things weren't successful I knew we were doing what we needed to do. I am confident that we will continue to find people to teach. I know that sometimes we just have to go through dead periods as a trial and then things brighten up. It's always darkest before the dawn.  Thanks Florence and the Machine for your true lyrics.

Love,

Sister Poppe

We helped the Activity Days girls learn about the sacrament on Wednesday. I told them to think of a Kit-Kat bar when they can't remember their baptismal covenant. K-keep the commandments, A-always remember Him, T-take upon ourselves His name. The girls we saw throughout the week after the activity all remembered KAT and recited it to us!

"Sister. Tonight I your doctor. You need my steam." Sister Rasheed's boiled 

water with Vick's Vapor Rub in it actually worked wonders.

I think more people need to tease their hair and pose like Simba on Pride Rock

Post Lion King Photo Shoot pic. I had just drawn a scar on my 

face to be Scar and it doubled really well as a rock star look.

What is the CK Lounge?

Sister D2 got her iPad last week and is officially online proselyting now. She used her first hashtag in her life last week as per my loving instruction. It was a #proudmommoment for me.

Let me break down Thursday for you. It was easily the most emotionally taxing day of my mission. I kid you not we spent 80% of the day listening to people speak.

1. We started off our day with a district meeting. I gave a short 10% training on time management skills and how to use our time wisely after our missions. I gave everybody a Reese's Pumpkin for their participation.

2. Lavender Brown spent over an hour and a half talking to us about her life and problems before we were able to give her any of our planned lesson. We listened kindly and when I noticed an opportunity to segue into our lesson I jumped on it. She really just needs someone to listen to her. I decided that we will view all of our lessons with her as first a service opportunity and when we have spent enough time just listening to her, we will transition into lesson time.

3. We stopped by a random guy's house that had been given a Book of Mormon to see if he was interested in learning more.  I had never met him before and didn't know what to expect, though I figured he would basically say he wasn't interested and we would go on our way.  He invited us in and then spent an hour going off on Ebola in the US and railing on Obama, Obamacare, Indians, Isis, illegals, and told us about the murders that have happened in this area before and told us to be careful.  He said that downtown Mesa isn't fit for young ladies like us and that we should never go there.  Then he went off on credit card fraud and retirement funds. SO MANY ISSUES AND I HAD NO TISSUES.

4. After a failed attempt to contact a potential investigator we stopped by a member's home because Sister D2 had to use the bathroom and couldn't hold it until we got home. It was about 8:47 at this point so we were just going to use the bathroom and then go home for the night, but the member's talked to us about missionary work and stuff until 9:05. I was so tired and just wanted to not talk to human beings anymore. Finally, we left and embarked on our 12 minute drive home.

5. When we finally arrived home I treated myself to a much earned spoonful of Nutella. A Celestial payment indeed.

Speaking of Celestial, one of the elders in my district calls the Celestial Kingdom the CK Lounge and I think that is hilarious. I've incorporated it into my vernacular. Feel free to do the same.

It never does get old playing piano for the elderly residents at Heritage Village. They're so appreciative and sometimes they even tear up. They don't even care that I'm just an average pianist; they adore the way that my songs break up the monotony of their day. Especially Phil. He loves it and even prayed for us before we left on Wednesday because he was so full of gratitude.

We had to turn over an investigator to the elders serving in her area this week. It was sad, but better for her. She needs young friends, so a single's ward is a better fit for her. Not to mention we aren't even the sisters over her family ward...all in all we had no right to her.

A member of our ward has been inviting her to church and we have taught her two lessons so it was time to let go. Sister D2 asked if we could just teach her anyway and I set her straight right away about the importance of boundaries to a missionary. I shared my story with her about the stupid elders who taught and baptized the girl from our area in June and how I wasn't going to be that kind of missionary. I know we will be blessed for our obedience and someone will come along.  Additionally, I've worked harder the last three weeks than I have ever before in my mission, so we should be getting blessed for our diligence as well. For the first time since I've been training we got home before 9:15 the other night. It was glorious to walk into our apartment at 8:57 instead of our average 9:18. I'm going to collapse when I get home in August; I'm literally always tired.

I want to invite all of you reading this to have the local missionaries in your home. I don't care if you're super active, not a member, less active, the bishop, or half dead. A missionary's job is to invite others to come unto Christ. We have been very blessed the last few months to be in many homes with a variety of people. It helps the time go faster and makes us feel useful when we can discuss religion with others. I want every missionary in the world to be busy.  SO INVITE THEM OVER. AND MAIL ME REESE'S PUMPKINS...............and a nice note, because I demand affection. Amanda does mean "worthy of love" after all.

Thanks to Betsy, nice stranger Catherine, and mom and dad for the response to my shameless plea for love and PB chocolate treats. A few elders in my district are shocked that I've received three Reese's parcels and two of them aren't even from my family. One elder said, "Wow, everyone must really know that you love Reese's Pumpkins," and his companion said, "How do you get people to send you so many things?" I told them it is because I've spent my entire life being such a good friend that people want to mail me my favorite candy.  Really it's just because I promised people blessings for spending 10 bucks on sugar and postage. I have been sharing them though; I'm not hoarding all of my goods. It is a true act of Christlike sharing.

General Conference was great!  Saturday morning we watched it with our district at a member's home in another ward that the sisters cover.  I cooked made to order omelets for every member of my district (except Sister D2 because she didn't want one) and the other sisters made French toast. We watched the afternoon session at the church and had Lavender Brown watch it in a member's home.  She ended up opening up to the member about things she is going through and the member told her she should get a blessing  We called around (right after the priesthood session, so it was pretty hard to find someone) and found someone to give her a blessing.  On Sunday we watched both sessions with Harry and his fiancé and her daughter.  It was nice to watch it in his home.  During the afternoon session I had a great experience!  The girl who we turned over to the other elders messaged me and basically in a nut shell said she believes in God now, has been praying, is thinking strongly about baptism, and wants to be a member of the church.  We talked a lot about her concerns and she said, "You make me want to be Mormon." It made me feel so good to feel like I may have impacted someone in a positive way!

General Conference Observations:

1) D. Todd Christofferson sounds like Alex Trebek.

2) When are jewel tones going to die?
3) When will we get PowerPoint presentations during conference?
4) I loved Elder Holland's talk because I have been thinking about service a lot lately. Before my mission I didn't like the idea of helping people who could help themselves, but now I realize that far too often we don't understand all that people are going through. Additionally, we will always be blessed for serving others, even if they don't "deserve" it. I'm sure Christ fed some people loaves and fishes that didn't deserve it. If we can help someone, then we are in the service of our Lord and that is what matters. Now go forth to serve!
5) Thanks to Elder Klebingnat's comments about our bodies being temples and getting into shape, our mission president is going to think that Satan's 5K is an even better idea than he already thinks it is. C'mon Seventies, throw me a bone here! Don't endorse exercise, this is 'Merica; endorse Smashburger.
6) There were a lot of flashy ties. The 12 embraced iPads and now they're accepting modern fashion. What is next? Maybe the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will move into a more fashionable era?

Hobbit Hole Family conspiracies for this week include: Barrack Obama eliminating the 22nd amendment and becoming a dictator, Satan pamphlets being distributed in schools, and blood moons landing on Jewish holidays this year, thus ushering in the Second Coming of Christ.

Well, that is about it!  It was clearly a busy week and there is a lot I'm skimping on in the interest of time!

Love,

Sister Poppe

   District Photo Shoot!  Notice how the elders were instructed to

      re-create our sisters only picture.Somehow I don't think that

     Elder Owens fully captures my essence.

                                      

Cookie Dough Creation lesson with a family in TK

                                

   Library volunteers take a break for a selfie

       Though the weather is still warm, fashion is no respecter of persons. 

      It is boot season, folks!

                                    

Harry's dog in his Halloween costume. 

                                                      

Hahaha.  He hates it.

  

We hiked a little hill this morning.