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 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
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