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.

 

What's the Point?

Hey family!

This week was busy again. I am grateful every week that is busy because it is such a blessing to actually be doing things. 

We had an FHE with Oreo Mouth family last week and it went so well. They are an example of people who kind of got out of the habit of going to church but don't have bitter feelings. They are progressing nicely and are actively changing. We had dinner with them last night and what they were planning to make didn't really work out so they bought us Little Caesar's on the Sabbath. Hahaha. The husband was super embarrassed and the wife (the convert of a few years) was like whatever. It was really endearing. We're going over there tonight and they volunteered to do the lesson this time. We're excited to see them do their first FHE lesson ever.

We went to Meet the Mormons at the Visitors' Center with two of our investigators on Tuesday. One of them was Lost and the other was a lady we are working with. She is sweet and quiet and progressing slowly, which is probably why I haven't ever talked about her yet. She really enjoyed it and wants to talk about it in detail tomorrow night. It was Lost's cousin's birthday the next day so our ward mission leader asked if we wanted to go get some ice cream to celebrate or if the boys wanted a late dinner. Lost wanted ice cream but didn't want to say it so he was trying to get me to. I wouldn't because it wasn't my birthday. So he said, "Sister Poppe just said she really wants gelato." We all knew he was lying because that kid loves gelato more than anyone in the world. We didn't get gelato though because that stuff is pricey; instead we just went to the DQ by the temple. It was fun. While we were there Lost said, "Sisters you point a lot (which we do; it is a bad habit we picked up). Sister Smith you always point and say serious things. Sister Poppe points when she is excited and she's like ' OH YEAH AND THIS. YEAH THIS (he is pointing the whole time).' You guys just point." It's true and it is something we have been trying to stop. We need to stop if our investigators are noticing. He is doing really well though. His baptism is this upcoming Saturday and he is excited. We were trying to track him down on Friday to have a lesson with him and we couldn't find him, but in the process we found two new investigators. There are always a million Poly cousins at that house and some of them aren't members. We connected well with the daughter who is a member (but she is LA) and with Lost's brother and their cousin. The brother and cousin aren't members, but we taught them a lesson and set up a return appointment to have FHE with them tonight, so they're new investigators! It was definitely the working of the Lord.

There is a family we have been trying to work with for forever in the Vista Peaks ward. The wife is a member but has been inactive since she was a teenager. The husband had a baptism date but it fell through and the kids aren't baptized either. We FINALLY had a powerful lesson with the parents and they are now actively working toward baptism/the temple. We are so excited! The ward has done so much to soften their hearts. Seriously, all the success we have with finding people to get baptized is always through members. So you all better be doing your jobs!

We have a recent convert who joined the church because of his hunting buddies. His wife isn't super interested, but she has been warming up to us and sits in on lessons and comes to church sometimes. We're to the point now that we can joke about, "when you're a Mormon..." Her husband reminds me of dad a lot. Just a normal guy who likes his truck and his plain pocket t-shirts and doesn't like fancy things, but he is so sweet. He told us the other day when we were talking to him without his wife that he prays for her every day. He prays that they will get to go to the temple together. It was so sweet! He is truly humble.

We've taken to putting Sister Teddy in creepy places to scare our roommates. It is so funny. We'll hide it in their shower or in their beds or other places and they'll scream and it is the most entertaining part of our evening. Well the other night while they were planning in their room we strapped Sister Teddy to the ceiling fan and turned it on and waited for them to come out of their room. When they came out they were like, "what the heck, why are you so weird." And then we shot them with our Nerf guns. I know that you sent out a 22 year old and were expecting a 24 year old to return home, but in a lot of ways I've regressed. It's these 18 and 19 year olds I spend all my time with! My vocabulary has also drastically fallen. There is the residue of intelligence left in me, but overall I am not someone who is prepared to get a real job in a few months. I told my companion today that I have to spend the next 8 weeks re-training myself to use strong vocabulary (luckily my grammar hasn't really left me).

I really wanted Pork Salad the other day and I prayed for it and we had it. It was a tender mercy. Then we had Thai food for a sister's birthday and I didn't really love it and someone came in and paid for us. Miracle again. Nothing is worse than paying for food you don't even like. Then we had Panda Express the next night for dinner and I had to act like I loved it. When will Asian food not be a thing anymore?

The lady that is in my area right now from the nursing home in my first area is officially a new investigator of ours! It is such a miracle and it makes me see how the Lord works in mysterious ways. Who knew that someone I had contact with 7 months ago in a different area would become an investigator now? Heavenly Father did, because he set it up. But no one else did!

We were on exchanges on Saturday and the sisters we were with had a funeral to go to. We decided to just go with them instead of meeting and exchanging back for an hour and then meeting up again to exchange to finish our actual exchange. Throughout the week we were trying to find a way to be productive and to not go to the funeral and to move the exchange and nothing was working. The funeral was at Central Christian--a church that is not super fond of Mormons--so we didn't anticipate seeing anyone we knew. It was for the son of the other sisters' investigator. When we arrived a family from my first area was greeting people. They lit up when they saw me and they all hugged me. It turns out that the mom of the family is the sister of the man that died. The mom that is the investigator in another area is a woman who I have actually taught. She came to my first area to church with her daughter a handful of times and would have dinner with us. We really hit it off, so she was so happy to see me too. As we were there Sister Smith leaned over and said, "I feel good knowing that there is a reason we are here and a reason nothing worked when we tried to reschedule this exchange. You needed to be at this funeral." It was another hand of the Lord moment in my week.

Our lessons with the prospective elder is going really well. I'll call him Tamale from now on because he has red hair like a hot tamale. But I can't call him Hot Tamale because then that sounds like a term of endearment and that would be inappropriate. So he is just Tamale. He cried twice during our lesson on Saturday and vocalized again that somehow we get him to open up and actually change. He is moving in a positive direction and really has his eyes set on the temple.

We were asked to give the lesson in combined YM/YW yesterday in Fairway Groves. They wanted it to be something about the Book of Mormon since the youth were challenged to read the Book of Mormon before school starts. We kind of forgot about it until Saturday night, so I said a prayer that we would be forgiven for not planning something and that the Lord would bless us with an idea that we would be able to pull off easily the next day. We ended up talking about the importance of likening the scriptures to our own lives and then we picked three scripture passages and split the kids into three groups and told them to read the verses and then create a skit in which they likened the scriptures to their lives today. The skits were funny and they really enjoyed it. The leaders thought it was great too. We let them know it was totally Heavenly Father guiding us and that we just did what we were told. I really hope I have a calling in the youth when I'm a real adult. I love the youth so much!

We have a busy Monday-Wednesday already planned and I'm sure the second half of the week will fill up as well. We have the temple on Thursday and it will be peaceful as always. Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Sister Poppe

Sa-RAWR-o zone (except no on other than Sister Smith and I will 

embrace the change from Saguaro to Sa-RAWR-o).

After dinner these little girls just started playing with my hair as
Sister Smith was talking to the mom about something. She snapped
a few candid shots and one of them actually turned out. The girls are
so sweet and love me purely because they think Poppe is a fun word
to say. Sister Smith decided she needs a new last name so that kids
love her as much at dinner as they do me.

Post ZTM watermelon feast.

The family resemblance is striking.

White girls! Frappe's and P-day email time. I love my roommates!