I DON'T HAVE A SISTER VOICE PEOPLE!

Hi,

The weather here has been CRAZY BEAUTIFUL. I kid you not, I think it is because of me. The Lord is blessing this poor Minnesota girl for her diligence and letting the weather be beautiful. He has also blessed me to acclimate really well. The whole month of May was just nice. It wasn't hot at all! This week it finally breached 100 degrees and it wasn't bad at all. I am kind of betraying my childhood and my roots because yesterday I even said, "Sister, 106 kind of actually feels nice. It's nice to be warm." WHO AM I?!? Thank you Heavenly Father for making my body think 106 isn't even that bad!

I was praying pretty hard this week for some answers to some questions and was just kind of getting tired (I had been praying for like 18 minutes) and so I just told Heavenly Father I had to go to bed, but that if he would bring a random scripture to my mind I would read it. Keep in mind that I can literally memorize EVERYTHING in this world except for scripture references. So if a scripture came to mind I knew it was going to be a miracle because I only have like 27 references memorized, and that is on a good day. As I stood up from my prayer, Alma 36:3 popped into my mind and it wasn't one of my memorized references. I looked it up and it was all about trusting in the Lord and relying on him. It was perfect and was a reminder that I just need to be patient in his timing. PRAYER WORKS.

We went to the nursing home to sing this week and for some reason we had the giggles uncontrollably. It was SO embarrassing but also SO funny. We would get a few notes in and just start laughing. Once we started we couldn't stop! I was laughing so hard I was crying. The elderly got a kick out of it and it seemed to really brighten their day. It probably feels good to see young people be complete fools. The workers were even dying. Then when we composed ourselves we started singing again (this was literally like our 4th attempt) and halfway through the song my spirit old lady (as dubbed by Sister Smith...because this lady is me in 70 years) started doing this crazy dance. So I started laughing again! Man, we were a hot mess.

Sister Smith had a bad head cold, so I went out with our roommate on Tuesday evening. Everything cancelled, which was the theme of our week, but we still had a good night (and week). We stopped by a LA house that we didn't know and had a great talk with him. He enjoyed our visit and told us that his wife is pregnant (who isn't a member). He said we can stop by after their vacation next week. We also talked to my friend from the care facility from my first area. She was home and it was a good talk with her. We followed up with her neighbors after that and they are going to try harder to get us together with her for dinner or something.

We met with a LA in FG this week and she just broke down with us. It was SUCH a good lesson. She is slowly starting the repentance process and is aware that it will be a long road.

A laurel in VP took us out for lunch and a random stranger ended up paying for us. She has a boy out on a mission, so she wanted to treat us. It was fun and good for her. She doesn't relate well to the girls in YW so because of that people get the impression that she doesn't always care (sounds kind of like me as a teen). She is totally solid and just wants to do her own thing.

We stopped by a kind couple's home the other day. The husband is slowly dying of cancer and because of that the wife doesn't get out much. He's a former 70's brother and they've served many missions. They just asked if we could come by occasionally to lift their spirits. We did and as we left the husband hugged us and sincerely thanked us for our service. After our week of cancellations it was so nice to hear. He went into detail about how our service changes lives and how even strangers are uplifted just by the appearance of us. He hugged us and we left a little teary-eyed and feeling so much love from him and our Heavenly Father.

I had a group of women in VP compliment my talk from last week and then they said the most valued compliment a sister missionary can ever hear, "Sister Poppe. We don't know how to say this...but you don't even sound like a missionary when you speak. You know? You don't have THAT voice. You are so normal!" I DON'T HAVE A SISTER VOICE PEOPLE. HALLELUJAH. THE LORD HEARS PRAYERS. I seriously prayed before my mission that I wouldn't fall into the trap of getting a sister voice while I was out! I worried that maybe I got one but it happened so gradually that I didn't notice and everyone was too kind to tell me that I sounded too sweet to be genuine.

I read a talk by Elder Holland addressed to women about loving ourselves. In it he quotes Halle Berry AND Teen People. This is why he is my General Authority spirit animal.

We taught Lost the law of chastity lesson this week. Boy was that an adventure. There were 4 YM in attendance and we were on exchanges, so my companion was a sister who has only been out about 4 months and had never taught that lesson before. It was all entertaining though.

This quote was in a talk I studied today and I really enjoyed it: “The gods sell us all good things at the price of our labor”-Socrates

My companion said, "swaggy dunk" the other day when she threw her Powerade into the garbage. I asked if that was a real thing or just something she says and she admitted that it was one of her white girl sayings. So now we say swaggy all the time. Swaggy ward council. Swaggy lunch. Swaggy bed time. Swaggy mango cart. Swaggy carwash. Everything is swaggy and everything is funny. We're to the point that we can't write down all the funny things we say in a day because it takes too much work. I hope there is a film strip of our time together waiting in the CK Lounge when I make it there.

Love,

Sister Poppe

My roommates all conspired and got me a Memorial Day gift 

because I love America so much. I got out of the shower and 

this thoughtful gesture greeted me.

I literally set all these rules for my last two transfers so I can lose the 

thousands of pounds I've gained out here before I get home. Seriously 

everyone is giving us more food than ever now. Satan is in the details 

of our lives, I tell ya! He is inspiring these members to give us food. 

I got back from my evening with Sister Brinkerhoff and as we walked 

in with two partial cakes, two small loaves of banana bread, pepsi, 

toilet paper, and bottled water Sister Smith groaned and asked why 

people loved us so much. But seriously! Only in Mesa!

Throwback picture to our baptism two weeks ago. 

Better late than never.

NUG NUG TOOK ME OUT FOR 50 CENT CORN DOG DAY! 

Man I love her. As we left Sister Brinkerhoff said, "Seriously, you 

two are sisters. You look alike, you act alike, you speak alike. You 

are the same person." Mama Nug Nug couldn't come out with us 

because she was getting her hair done, so she called and asked if 

she can take me out to lunch this Thursday because she missed it. 

I love their family so much!

 

Some members bought this mango cart for their kids to sell stuff at the park with. Their 10 and 11 year old sons have wanted one for years, so when they were in Mexico they bought it for them for 1/3 of the price they go for in the US. They accidentally took a video when I was driving the bike instead of a picture, so we just have Sister Smith behind the wheel. 

Target called and asked for their advertisement picture back. 

Seriously, why are we so cute?

"I'm George Washington forging the Delaware."-me

This is the Hunger Games Spear

Hello!

I'm about to share with you a story about dreams coming true (it isn't as good as that one time I finally got to go to Disneyland at the age of 22, but it's still good). I brought this plaid shirt on my mission with the hope that I would be able to chop down a tree (or a cactus) in it and feel like a lumberjack. Dreams come true and prayers are answered! We helped the Memorial Day Gun family cut up a tree they knocked over in their backyard on Monday evening. I even used a hatchet to chop a branch off! We shared a message with them after our service and then somehow got off on a tangent about evil spirits.  Spirits terrify me. Sister D2 and I both had bad dreams that night.  From there we tried to contact some people from our area book that were previously contacted and uninterested. We knocked on a lesbian's door. She was polite, but not interested due to our stance on gay marriage. I complimented her sweater though.

I USED THAT HATCHET TO CHOP A BRANCH OFF #lumberjack

Little Memorial Day Daughter wanted in on a hatchet pic (also, sorry for the awful quality of the pictures.  The $400 iPad still struggles with taking pictures in low light situations).

     Never fear!  The Memorial Day Gun Family had another new weapon I could take a picture with.  This is the Hunger Games Spear.  Or just a spear if you're not me.

We had some cancellations this week and I decided we would use that time to drop by and share brief messages with members so Sister Dawson could get to know people more quickly. We had a good time doing that.  At the last family we visited on Tuesday evening I asked if we could pray with them before we left (as per usual) and the family asked Sister Dawson to pray. The dog, Bisquick, thought that prayer time was a good time to get all up in Sister D2's business. The youngest daughter (she is 12 or 13) saw this so she and Sister Dawson started cracking up as the dog sniffed around and then randomly bolted after peering into Sister D2's soul for a few seconds. Sister D2 struggled through another 15-20 seconds of praying before the mom stopped her because she thought she was getting chocked up and was homesick or something. When everyone was filled in on the dog story the wife told the husband to pray because he would be the only one who could keep a straight face. He prayed and we all giggled through the prayer. It was almost 9:30 so I think we were all just a little too tired. I told Sister D2 that the 8 months of mission blessings I had been storing up were all just taken away because we ruined family prayer. We had a good laugh about it a few times throughout the week though.

We got to watch Meet the Mormons on Wednesday and it was fabulous! I was really impressed with the way it was produced. It really is just an opportunity to "meet" six Mormon families. It isn't preachy at all.  I loved the opening in which people in NYC were interviewed and short clips from pop culture were shared to show the inaccuracies that are associated with Mormons. How many missionaries will be able to tell people that they watched a clip from South Park on their mission, with the mission president in the room, and didn't get in trouble? The best part was the brief bit of Tina Fey in 30 Rock they showed. I knew Tina would find a way into my mission somehow! We will be besties with Amy Poehler and J-Law in the CK lounge. #bestieblessings

The United Way does something called Project Connect in which they partner with local churches to create a fair for homeless people. This month it was in our area and many of the denominations got together to staff the event. They have booths set up for employment opportunities, free flu shots, showers, DES, a haircut, and many other things to help homeless people get back on their feet. Everybody gets a free lunch and a week's bus pass as well as a care package with some necessities.  It's pretty cool. We signed up to help and we were assigned two homeless men to guide through the process. The first guy only really seemed interested in the free lunch and we weren't with him long, but the second guy really took the fair seriously. We did the important things first, such as, talking to the employment specialist, and didn't get to less important things, such as the haircut. A lot of these people just enjoyed having humans to talk to, so we spent time talking to our second friend and he said that we were such a pleasure to spend time with. He just got out of jail for failure to pay child support; he lost his job after the 2008 housing bubble burst and wasn't able to make payments. It was good for me to see that there are homeless people who didn't ask for their situation. It was also nice to see that he isn't willing to settle for his position in life. I don't doubt that he will find a job and slowly get his life together.  It sure made me grateful though for my upbringing and my determination in life. It's sad that so many people are content to live in their circumstances as long as they have the very basic essentials. We weren't allowed to proselyte, but we got a referral anyway. We talked to one of the United Way employees just about real life and she invited us over, but we told her we couldn't come because she wasn't in our area, but that we would send some sisters over.

Good quotes from the library this week from our Friday helper friend who is slightly off:

"Other planets don't have to look like ours. They always show Mars with dirt like our deserts because they think other planets will look like ours. I bet they just take photos of our desert and tell us it's Mars."-Friend

"Is Sister Poppe a nickname, Amanda?"-Friend

"Kind of. Poppe is my last name."-me
"Oh. Poppies are dangerous, Amanda. Cocaine and heroine and stuff."-Friend

Harry told me this week that if he dies I have to take care of his dog, Paco. He said if I'm home and he dies I have to come back and get Paco. I definitely never thought someone would will me their dog while on my mission. #proudgodmother

We are getting closer to Harry possibly being baptized!  The bishop is talking with the stake president to see if they can come up with a solution to get him baptized in November!  This is even better news, because I found out on Saturday that I am staying in this area for one more transfer.  TRANSFER NUMBER SEVEN.  People keep telling me that they just need to transfer my records here because I've been here long enough to basically just be a member of the ward.  People were so kind and loving and excited when they found out I was staying for six more weeks. I really do believe this will be my last transfer here though.  By the end of the transfer I will have been here just shy of ten months.

TONY HAWK MOM IS ENGAGED! CRAZY! She is getting married on November 28th.  I can't even believe it.  I am so happy for her.  He isn't a member, but he has been sitting in on our discussions with the boys.

That about does it!

Love,

Sister Poppe

We made pumpkin pancakes for lunch on Saturday. I put Nutella and peanut butter on mine and added a layer of powdered sugar and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar.  The dish wasn't complete without some pumpkin spice nuts to garnish the dish (compliments of Brandon and Brianna). I almost died after I ate it and felt sick for an hour, but it was so delicious!