I'm Tired of Hearing From Me, That's for Sure!

We had ZTM this week and Sister Rasheed and I gave a training on how to recognize the Spirit and how to rely on it. We gave a short training and then spent most of our time facilitating role playing scenarios for the other missionaries to practice. One of the elders that gave a training said that it was his last ZTM before he goes home and the first one he has given a training at. I've lost count of the number of ZTM's I've had to prepare trainings for and I keep thinking that I will get new zone leaders and they won't ask me to prepare anything. That has yet to be the case and I am sure people are getting tired of hearing from me. I'm tired of hearing from me, that's for sure! Between always giving trainings and being the one who does 93% of the talking in our companionship (outside of our apartment, inside we are probably a 60/40 split) I am genuinely tired of my own voice.

We went to the temple last week and then we got to go again this morning because they had special hours today (they usually aren't open on Mondays...or they only are at like 5 am or something...I don't know...either way we could go today and normally we can't). It was so nice to go twice in one transfer let alone twice in one week!

Post Temple Trip Photo shoot

For the life of me I can't remember what I did last year on Valentine's Day. This year we visited a nursing home with the Brimhall RS and the Activity Days girls, we made cookies and cards with our district and delivered them to single women, and we visited with widows. It was really lovely to surprise those women with a visit they weren't expecting on a day they thought they wouldn't feel love. We had a short party with our roommates during lunch and in the time we had that evening after planning as well. We played MASH and talked about girly love things like wedding colors, qualities of a good husband, and other things focused missionaries probably shouldn't talk about.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Brother and Sister Evita's member son was in town this weekend. We knew he was coming and all week I was trying to dream up a way we could stop by to visit while he was there because I figured that could only go somewhere good. On Friday night we got a phone call from him asking if we would come over the next day to help them pick their citrus and juice it. We excitedly accepted the invite and went over the next morning and had a splendid time. We met their son and his two kids that aren't on missions. I climbed an orange tree to get some of the higher up fruit (I know the thought of me climbing a tree is terrifying to you mother. I didn't die! Missionary blessings! I didn't get stuck either like that one time in Tasha's tree as a kid) and it was fun. We chatted with them for a while and they stocked us up with more juice and we were on our merry little way. Sister Evita said that when their crazy February ends she wants to have us over for dinner.  They are softening! We are even Facebook friends.

I received an iMessage from Sister Dawson yesterday about Lavender Brown and her family that was very exciting. Sister D2 said that Lavender, her husband, and her children are all considered progressing investigators now! This is so amazing! All the service we did for her and all the times we continued to teach Lavender after the ward council expressed concerns that it wasn't going to go anywhere were inspired. It is so fulfilling to see that our persistence and faith in the face of a lot of doubt have led to miracles for that family. I hope to see that family sealed one day. Sister D2 also said that Harry's bankruptcy is completely filed and now he just has to take a class and do some other things and everything should be finished this summer. They actually are planning on a July or August baptism right before I go home.

I feel blessed to see the fruits of my labors now even though I felt like I wasn't doing enough when I was in that area. Recently I've been feeling really down on myself and I've been dwelling on my imperfections and have felt like I haven't done much on my mission because I haven't seen the "success" that other missionaries have.  Something about hitting my one year mark made me reflect a lot on my service. But I have made a small difference in a few people's lives and to those people it seemed like so much more.

There is a part member family in Aspen that everyone always says we need to visit. The husband is inactive and the wife isn't a member.  The husband has an extremely active family, so they have a lot of member interaction. I didn't want to force our message upon them so we haven't stopped by. I heard through the grapevine though that their daughter is selling Girl Scout cookies, so I decided to stop by and just buy a box. I talked to their Daisy about her petals and about working at a GS camp and my cookie selling days. I talked to the mom about her cookie selling days and how much those little cookies have increased in price. Then we left. We didn't share a message. We didn't pray. We didn't invite them to church. We probably shocked them. I hope it opens some doors. Honestly working at camp for so long has made me sick of GS cookies, but I knew it was an in so I took it. I'll let my roommates eat them or something.

Let's end with some funny quotes from this week:

"Sister, I think peanut butter is your life!" Sister Rasheed doesn't realize that in college I went through literally 4 times as much peanut butter as I do now. I've scaled it back considerably!

I will make up weird little songs as I do mundane tasks and this week I overheard Sister Rasheed singing, "Where is my cute little tiny little lip gloss? Where are you?" Another Sister Poppe habit she has picked up on that probably isn't on the list of things PKJ was hoping I would teach her.

Love,

Sister Poppe

Sister Rasheed wanted to match, so we did on Friday and Saturday

Mom, I swear you are in a secret underground competition to see 
who the best missionary mother is. My roommates all love you 
because of the things you send. Thanks for the Shari's Berries!

District 1085 with their berries!  

 

 My "do what I am telling you to do right now!" 
face isn't flattering...I'll have to remember that.

We loved our V-day box. Thanks mom and dad! (Also, I didn't 
leave my house with my hair like that just so you know).

We went to play laser tag at Golfland last P-day and we matched!

 

Elder Holzer's mom sent the entire zone a V-day package. 
She sent the elders matching ties and the sisters matching scarves. 
This is a post ZTM selfie.