(and those wretched socks) for washing
When Sister D or I are having a rough day we
console ourselves with food, naturally. She wasn't really digging life on
Tuesday so we hit up our favorite joint, Smashburger for a pick me up. Their
sweet potato smash fries have natural healing powers and understand in a way
that no human can. While we were there I gained a new male admirer. I was
having a good hair day so I guess it wasn't entirely unwarranted, but it was
still awkward, unsolicited attention.
Speaking of admirers and awkwardness, one of
the boys from Bryce's Platoon asked if I was single and okay looking. He went
on to say that if I am he would love a letter. #classy Unfortunately, I am
currently occupied and not open to dating, OH YEAH, AND HE IS 17 SO IT WOULD BE
ILLEGAL. WHO IS THIS KID? Some of the letters I've received have been
entertaining, most are pretty basic, and one was downright rude. I'm writing
all of the boys back, but the rude kid's response addressed his apathy and the
bleak future he has if he continues to "not really care" about
literally everything. He also insulted Bryce to me, so he will get an angry
scribble about that. I still threw in a "Your Heavenly Father" loves
you at the end and a, "Thanks for serving," but he didn't get any
pleasantries like the rest of the soldiers.
I was asked to share a "10%"
training at our district meeting on anything of my choosing. I gave a
presentation about creating a resume. People loved my knowledge and tips.
Everybody took notes and one elder even recorded me. It was a little strange.
People said it was so useful and they were grateful I picked that topic.
We are to a point with the Hobbit Hole Family
that we are supposed to be teaching them different commandments, but at our
lesson I felt like we needed to really focus on something that would invite the
Spirit because we wanted to nail down a definite baptismal date with them and
unfortunately, the 10 commandments and chastity don't usually rouse tender
emotions within individuals. We watched the shorter Restoration movie and had a
discussion about what the Spirit feels like and about knowing if something is
good by its fruits. I asked what fruits they've noticed since they've been
investigating and it lead to a really good heart to heart. I brought up baptism
and Sister D extended the invitation and without hesitating, the wife said
September 27th. She said it came to her
in that instant and she knew that was the day.
Conveniently it is a Saturday and we all could feel that it was the
right day for them. We are so excited for them! It was also a great testimony
builder for the importance of members being at all investigator lessons with
us. After the movie was over, the member we took along jumped in and shared
something that enabled me to easily ask my question about the good fruits of
the church and subsequently lead me to bring up baptism and Sister D to invite
them to be baptized. Sister Dumas and I both didn't know what to say after the
movie to get us to baptism, we just knew that we were inspired to watch the
movie and invite them to be baptized. The member was inspired to speak though
when we were not and that allowed us to reach our goal.
Oh my goodness. Grab a Kleenex because this
story is hilarious and will have you spouting tears of laughter from your eyes.
The Spanish elders over our stake were given a truck to drive and we feel that is
unfair because our area is the most rural of the areas in the stake. There are
a lot of gravel desert roads that are uneven and not maintained that our Toyota
Corolla struggles with. We saw their truck in the church parking lot as we were
leaving for dinner on Thursday and I wanted a closer look at it so we walked
over to peek in it. In the bed of the truck, amongst a Finding Faith in Christ
DVD and some other proselyting materials, was a Pizza Hut sign for a delivery
car. Without hesitating I grabbed it,
justified my actions by claiming that they had an undeserved truck, they didn't
need a Pizza Hut sign, and started walking toward our car. Behind me Sister
Dumas was dying and shouting about how she was going to wet herself, this was
going to be so funny. I plopped the 3-D magnetic triangle on the top of our car
and we got in to head to dinner (after we took a selfie of course). As we left
the parking lot two other elders walked out of the church and were staring at
us with a combination of bewilderment, entertainment, and shock across their
faces. A few minutes later we got a text from two other elders who were in the
church that just said, "TROLLS!!!"
That is Elder Owens' favorite insult. So we knew they had found out
about us taking the sign and that even though they don't drive the truck, they
were somehow linked to this sign. We drove around with it for a few hours;
Harry loved the story at his lesson and enjoyed looking at our missionary car
turned pizza delivery vehicle. We ran into the other sisters in the stake and
they were laughing and told us that actually someone had pranked the elders and
put it on their car. So we laughed even
harder at that because they were acting all hurt that we stole their sign and
they didn't even earn it by stealing it (we don't know how it ended up in the
Spanish truck and in a later discussion with them we found out they didn't even
know it was there)! We kept it on our
car for our ward correlation meeting and the ward members at the meeting died
laughing about it too. Our ward mission leader and his wife already think
Sister D and I are the most hilarious young women, but this topped it all. As
we drove home for the night we saw a Papa Murphy's delivery man and I said,
"Look! It is one of our fellow brethren, a brother in arms!" Sister D
told me to slow down so she could look at him and when he peered into our car
he looked so confused; we weren't in delivery clothes, there were two of us in
the car, and we didn't have pizza in our back seat. We laughed some more at
ourselves and then we texted the elders who called us trolls and asked if they
wanted pizza. We also said about 17 times throughout the evening, "I can't
even handle us! Why are we so funny?" Man, it sure brightened our evening. This was
all so fitting because I had just divulged a few days previously to Sister
Dumas my lawn ornament and political sign stealing career in high school. It
was like the good ole' days. A real #throwbackthursday
Pizza
Huts newest delivery girls. Every pizza
comes with a free pass along card!
We try really hard to have at least one set
lesson every night and Friday was the first night in months that we didn't have
any concrete plans. We came up with a lengthy list of people to visit and just
prayed that we would be able to productively use our time and not get
discouraged. Friday turned out to be full of blessings and wonderful
experiences!
FRIDAY NIGHT MIRACLES:
1. Dinner was a lot of fun with a lady we
didn't know very well in the ward. She was a riot and invited us over to answer
some of her deep doctrine questions whenever we have a night that someone
cancels.
2. We were going to talk to a family in the
ward about fellowshipping the Hobbit Family because they live one street over.
We saw them in their neighbor's driveway and decided to approach them there.
Her neighbor has a son that joined the church and has been asking a lot of
questions. We didn't know this, but we got to meet her and hopefully left a
good taste in her mouth. Their 13 year old son also asked if we wanted cool
survival bracelets and we said yes and he made us each one and gave it to us on
Sunday. #youthfanclub
3. We stopped by a potential investigator's
house and talked to him on his doorstep for a bit. We testified of families
being together forever and set a return appointment. His mom just passed away
so we will teach him the Plan of Salvation.
4. We stopped by a less active couple's house
and they let us in and talked to us for an hour! They own a Hawaiian catering
and dinner show business and they invited us to a dinner and dance show they
are doing on Saturday as a political fundraiser for one of the men in the stake
that is running for the Arizona State Senate. We can actually make it and we
are super excited to see their business in action and to support them!
5. It rained! Which was good because I was
beginning to think that monsoon season was a myth. It still has been a bit of a
letdown, but at least we got some moisture.
We watched 17 Miracles with Harry and it was
so good. Man was it depressing though! He enjoyed it. Mainly he liked that we
stayed with him for two whole hours, but he also enjoyed the film. He likes
pioneer things.
I'm staying in my current area for another
six weeks! Sister Dumas is staying as well. I'm beginning to think I may
actually never be transferred out of here. I don't want to overstay my welcome
and have people get tired of me. Luckily a lot of people expressed excitement
when they found out I was staying. A few said they'd even keep me my entire
mission. Harry told me his prayers were answered because he had been praying
all week that I'd stay. The ward mission leader in Thunder Mountain said he had
been praying I would stay too. He also had to call our mission president about
something this week and while he was on the phone with him I'm pretty sure he
requested that I stay in his ward. He didn't tell me that, but he did say that
he told my mission president exactly what he thinks of me and that it was
positive and that he let him know what he wanted.
I was groped by a mentally challenged middle
aged man three times at the assisted living home on Saturday and had to help
Sue take off and put back on her compression sock. Again. More sock service. It
was so disgusting. That act alone will qualify me for exaltation.
The young woman who asked me about my pet
dinosaur at our missionary YW activity a few weeks ago was making faces at
Sister Dumas and I throughout sacrament meeting yesterday. We were making them
back and then I started digging things out of my purse to one up her faces
with. I waved my little American flag, made my Batman do action moves for her,
showed her a picture of Jesus and mouthed, "He is watching you", and
showed her my screwdriver in a threatening way. After sacrament meeting we
tracked her down in the bathroom and had a good laugh. I also ended up giving
her my Twitter name and she is following me and probably mocking me as I type
this letter. She is a funny, funny kid.
We had dinner with the Cheesecake Factory
family on Sunday. That was fun of course.
My studies are continuing to go well. I've
been dedicating time every day to studying my patriarchal blessing like
scripture by looking up more information on the individual promises and
information listed in my blessing. It's super cool and is making me appreciate
things more.
For example, Joseph's posterity (as in the
one with the fashionable coat) was promised the inheritance of the American
continents, thus many people in North and South America are in the tribes of
Ephraim and Manasseh. I don't hate being a boring Ephraim as much now because I
understand why I am one! I am part of the promise given to Joseph.
Okay. I've written a ton so I'm calling it
quits!
Love,
Sister Poppe
Library
volunteers!
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