And a Poppe in a Pear Tree

Hello!

I had such a wonderful last full week in Twin Knolls and Thunder Mountain! I am being transferred to the Kimball East Stake which isn't too far from where I already am.  It is like 5-10 miles south west I believe. I have two wards again, the Aspen and Brimhall Wards.  I am going to be companions with a sister named Sister Rasheed! She is really neat and I am excited to get to know more about her. She is from Pakistan and entered the MTC the same day as her twin sister who is serving in the Temple Square mission. When I was asked to train originally I met Sister Rasheed because she came out with Sister Dawson. I had the distinct impression that Sister Rasheed was going to be my companion, and then I was called to be Sister Dawson's trainer and not Sister Rasheed's. I forgot about that and just went about life and figured it wasn't a prompting and was just a strange notion I had. I realize now that I was supposed to be Sister Rasheed companion, just not when she was being trained. The prompting just came 3 months before it was actually going to happen.  Anyway, she doesn't know much English, so we will work a lot on that, but she has a tremendous testimony. She is from Islamabad and lives with her family in a Christian area. Due to her circumstances, she doesn't get mail, so I would encourage you all to write her a simple note sometime and send it to her. Her name is Sister Maria Rasheed and her address is the same as mine. I was also called to be a sister district leader! It's a relatively new calling in our mission.  Two transfers ago the mission president created the first all sisters districts in the Arizona Mesa Mission's history and called the first sister district leaders. I will have five other sisters in my district and will be in charge of preparing our weekly training meetings, dealing with any drama that occurs, following up on their goals, doing companion exchanges with all of them once a transfer, and other things that I don't know about yet because I haven't received my handbook. I am really excited for the unique opportunity to be with only sisters and to tailor our trainings to their needs. I read through my patriarchal blessing and have been studying Christlike leadership since PKJ called me on Saturday to ask if I would accept this position. I've really learned a lot by the Spirit on what I need to do to help these sisters in life, not just as missionaries.  It's really cool how much of my patriarchal blessing talks about me helping sisters in the church and how I am able to understand better why that was put in my blessing now.

We had some spot on Thanksgiving feasts this week. Last Sunday was our first dinner and it was with a family in Thunder Mountain. They're some really funny people. I'm telling you, it was basically a Martha Stewart Thanksgiving Extravaganza.  I was so sad that we had two dinners scheduled that night because I could have stayed at that house and gorged on the many delicious options for dayyyyyyyyz. Additionally, they had Diet Dr. Pepper. 10,000 points for Gryffindor! On Tuesday we had Thanksgiving dinner with Hermione's family and that was a lot of fun as well. Of all the people I have met, I will be most sad to leave their family behind. I did learn though that I like yams!  Who knew? On Thanksgiving Day we had a TON of invites and we really didn't commit to any of them except for the one extended by Nug Nug's family. Every one else was like, "sisters! Just drop on by during the day if you have some time!" We planned to stop by everyone’s who invited us, but then we just stayed at Nug Nug's all day. Her mom had planned activities for us and everything! It was so sweet. We made crafts out of pallets (I am not sending a picture because the thing I made is a gift for a member of the family and I don't want it to be spoiled before Christmas!), helped make dinner, and played a three hour long game of Phase 10. I ALMOST WON. We were exhausted because we woke up at 5:15 (more on that later) so after we left their house we just stopped by Kyle and Tammy's briefly and then went home and went to bed. I was in bed and asleep all before 9:00 and it was the thing I was most grateful for that day I think.

During our district meeting the day before Thanksgiving I had this idea come into my mind via the Holy Ghost (we're pretty tight...He is always giving me bomb ideas now).  The church released a Christmas video about Christ that is quite breathtaking. We have been given pass along cards with information about the video (the same ones that were mailed out in the Ensign this month) with the clear instruction from the First Presidency to hand out ten a day. As we were talking about the unique challenges that face us in this area of Mesa an elder was saying that we need to focus on giving ten cards out a day to members and asking them to give them to their friends, which is a valid idea. Well, during this, I thought that we should gift wrap the pass along cards and add bows so they really look like a gift and then hand them out with hot chocolate. I shared this and every one was like WOW YEAH GREAT WOOOHOOO THE CHURCH IS TRUE AND STUFF. Then an elder pointed out that the Turkey Trot was taking place the next day so we should set up a booth there. I didn't think we would be allowed to set up a booth at the actual event with such last notice, but I found out that the route ran right by the stake center and that people were going to be parking at the stake center for the run so we set up shop there.  We woke up at 5:15 to start boiling water and then we set up at 7:30 on the church lawn. We didn't have a ton of success early on, but there was a lot of traffic and I think a ton of people probably read our sign that said #ShareTheGift. Also, when the elder relieved us at 10:00 the race had ended and people were walking back and driving by and they handed out quite a few of our free gifts during that time.  They started just walking up to cars in traffic and giving out the gifts. Overall, I think it had a great impact! Also, our bishop ran by and saw us and LOVED it.  He also said that the 10K was awful and at about mile 4 he thought, "Sister Poppe is right. This is awful. This is Satan's 10K."

Wrapping pass along cards to look like gifts and watching the life

story of Thomas S. Monson and Johnny Lingo

 

We had Sister Tony Hawk mom's wedding on Friday and it was a lot of fun, but also kind of sad because it was the last time I will see the boys. It was really small and simple.

Sister Tony Hawk mom said we should get one last pic together so the boys

 wanted one where they were pointing at me and saying, "The Popsta"

It was supposed to be a nice picture with the Tony Hawk Boys,

but one of them had a different agenda...

 

One of the sisters in our district wrote a song about our district to the tune of the 12 Days of Christmas. The best part is "and a Poppe in a pear tree!" We die every time! 

We were asked to fill in, in Gospel Principles yesterday in Twin Knolls.  The lesson was on the Law of Chastity. I prefaced the lesson with, "I'm sure you've all always wanted to have a lesson about sex and God given to you by a 23 and 19 year old. Buckle up!" It was actually really good. I did most of the talking, partially because we had such late notice we didn't have time to prepare and I'm better at the off the cuff teaching, and partially because it was an awkward topic. What a way to leave a ward though. I went out with a bang!

Saying goodbye in my wards was really hard. On a positive note, everyone wants to see me one last time, so we have 6 lessons scheduled for tonight and 5 for tomorrow! 

The flamingos in Thunder Mountain are a huge success! People LOVE them and think they're hilarious. I hope that I did all I could do to create some good programs in this area before I left and to leave this area better than I found it.

I'm running low on time though, so this will have to do for the week!

Love,

Sister Poppe

 Salt River District album cover pic...I'm not sure why the sisters

  struggled so much with it and why the elders KILLED it so well.

Salt River District

I don't even know

 

 I wasn't paying attention when we parked at the assisted living

 home and drove a little too far forward...the curb will always

bear my mark #markofthepoppebeast

I had mentioned that I wanted hot chocolate in passing one day

during ward council and so our ward mission leader had a fire and

hot chocolate waiting for us when we arrived to our weekly

 meeting with him. How great is he?

Hahahaha Paco hates when we ask Harry to

dress him in his costumes

 

 

 

 

 

What is the CK Lounge?

Sister D2 got her iPad last week and is officially online proselyting now. She used her first hashtag in her life last week as per my loving instruction. It was a #proudmommoment for me.

Let me break down Thursday for you. It was easily the most emotionally taxing day of my mission. I kid you not we spent 80% of the day listening to people speak.

1. We started off our day with a district meeting. I gave a short 10% training on time management skills and how to use our time wisely after our missions. I gave everybody a Reese's Pumpkin for their participation.

2. Lavender Brown spent over an hour and a half talking to us about her life and problems before we were able to give her any of our planned lesson. We listened kindly and when I noticed an opportunity to segue into our lesson I jumped on it. She really just needs someone to listen to her. I decided that we will view all of our lessons with her as first a service opportunity and when we have spent enough time just listening to her, we will transition into lesson time.

3. We stopped by a random guy's house that had been given a Book of Mormon to see if he was interested in learning more.  I had never met him before and didn't know what to expect, though I figured he would basically say he wasn't interested and we would go on our way.  He invited us in and then spent an hour going off on Ebola in the US and railing on Obama, Obamacare, Indians, Isis, illegals, and told us about the murders that have happened in this area before and told us to be careful.  He said that downtown Mesa isn't fit for young ladies like us and that we should never go there.  Then he went off on credit card fraud and retirement funds. SO MANY ISSUES AND I HAD NO TISSUES.

4. After a failed attempt to contact a potential investigator we stopped by a member's home because Sister D2 had to use the bathroom and couldn't hold it until we got home. It was about 8:47 at this point so we were just going to use the bathroom and then go home for the night, but the member's talked to us about missionary work and stuff until 9:05. I was so tired and just wanted to not talk to human beings anymore. Finally, we left and embarked on our 12 minute drive home.

5. When we finally arrived home I treated myself to a much earned spoonful of Nutella. A Celestial payment indeed.

Speaking of Celestial, one of the elders in my district calls the Celestial Kingdom the CK Lounge and I think that is hilarious. I've incorporated it into my vernacular. Feel free to do the same.

It never does get old playing piano for the elderly residents at Heritage Village. They're so appreciative and sometimes they even tear up. They don't even care that I'm just an average pianist; they adore the way that my songs break up the monotony of their day. Especially Phil. He loves it and even prayed for us before we left on Wednesday because he was so full of gratitude.

We had to turn over an investigator to the elders serving in her area this week. It was sad, but better for her. She needs young friends, so a single's ward is a better fit for her. Not to mention we aren't even the sisters over her family ward...all in all we had no right to her.

A member of our ward has been inviting her to church and we have taught her two lessons so it was time to let go. Sister D2 asked if we could just teach her anyway and I set her straight right away about the importance of boundaries to a missionary. I shared my story with her about the stupid elders who taught and baptized the girl from our area in June and how I wasn't going to be that kind of missionary. I know we will be blessed for our obedience and someone will come along.  Additionally, I've worked harder the last three weeks than I have ever before in my mission, so we should be getting blessed for our diligence as well. For the first time since I've been training we got home before 9:15 the other night. It was glorious to walk into our apartment at 8:57 instead of our average 9:18. I'm going to collapse when I get home in August; I'm literally always tired.

I want to invite all of you reading this to have the local missionaries in your home. I don't care if you're super active, not a member, less active, the bishop, or half dead. A missionary's job is to invite others to come unto Christ. We have been very blessed the last few months to be in many homes with a variety of people. It helps the time go faster and makes us feel useful when we can discuss religion with others. I want every missionary in the world to be busy.  SO INVITE THEM OVER. AND MAIL ME REESE'S PUMPKINS...............and a nice note, because I demand affection. Amanda does mean "worthy of love" after all.

Thanks to Betsy, nice stranger Catherine, and mom and dad for the response to my shameless plea for love and PB chocolate treats. A few elders in my district are shocked that I've received three Reese's parcels and two of them aren't even from my family. One elder said, "Wow, everyone must really know that you love Reese's Pumpkins," and his companion said, "How do you get people to send you so many things?" I told them it is because I've spent my entire life being such a good friend that people want to mail me my favorite candy.  Really it's just because I promised people blessings for spending 10 bucks on sugar and postage. I have been sharing them though; I'm not hoarding all of my goods. It is a true act of Christlike sharing.

General Conference was great!  Saturday morning we watched it with our district at a member's home in another ward that the sisters cover.  I cooked made to order omelets for every member of my district (except Sister D2 because she didn't want one) and the other sisters made French toast. We watched the afternoon session at the church and had Lavender Brown watch it in a member's home.  She ended up opening up to the member about things she is going through and the member told her she should get a blessing  We called around (right after the priesthood session, so it was pretty hard to find someone) and found someone to give her a blessing.  On Sunday we watched both sessions with Harry and his fiancé and her daughter.  It was nice to watch it in his home.  During the afternoon session I had a great experience!  The girl who we turned over to the other elders messaged me and basically in a nut shell said she believes in God now, has been praying, is thinking strongly about baptism, and wants to be a member of the church.  We talked a lot about her concerns and she said, "You make me want to be Mormon." It made me feel so good to feel like I may have impacted someone in a positive way!

General Conference Observations:

1) D. Todd Christofferson sounds like Alex Trebek.

2) When are jewel tones going to die?
3) When will we get PowerPoint presentations during conference?
4) I loved Elder Holland's talk because I have been thinking about service a lot lately. Before my mission I didn't like the idea of helping people who could help themselves, but now I realize that far too often we don't understand all that people are going through. Additionally, we will always be blessed for serving others, even if they don't "deserve" it. I'm sure Christ fed some people loaves and fishes that didn't deserve it. If we can help someone, then we are in the service of our Lord and that is what matters. Now go forth to serve!
5) Thanks to Elder Klebingnat's comments about our bodies being temples and getting into shape, our mission president is going to think that Satan's 5K is an even better idea than he already thinks it is. C'mon Seventies, throw me a bone here! Don't endorse exercise, this is 'Merica; endorse Smashburger.
6) There were a lot of flashy ties. The 12 embraced iPads and now they're accepting modern fashion. What is next? Maybe the Mormon Tabernacle Choir will move into a more fashionable era?

Hobbit Hole Family conspiracies for this week include: Barrack Obama eliminating the 22nd amendment and becoming a dictator, Satan pamphlets being distributed in schools, and blood moons landing on Jewish holidays this year, thus ushering in the Second Coming of Christ.

Well, that is about it!  It was clearly a busy week and there is a lot I'm skimping on in the interest of time!

Love,

Sister Poppe

   District Photo Shoot!  Notice how the elders were instructed to

      re-create our sisters only picture.Somehow I don't think that

     Elder Owens fully captures my essence.

                                      

Cookie Dough Creation lesson with a family in TK

                                

   Library volunteers take a break for a selfie

       Though the weather is still warm, fashion is no respecter of persons. 

      It is boot season, folks!

                                    

Harry's dog in his Halloween costume. 

                                                      

Hahaha.  He hates it.

  

We hiked a little hill this morning.

Half Ton Sisters: Their Only Hope is the Resurrection

We had the busiest week I've had since I've been out and it was fantastic! I love not having to worry about filling time. We had quite a few really successful lessons with some active families in the Thunder Mountain ward. We ended every lesson with a family prayer in which we asked the head of the household to pray for missionary opportunities as well as for the faith to act on them when they are provided from heav'. One of the lessons we had was with a single middle aged lady who has never been married.  She was raised in Minnesota, is the oldest of three children with only brothers and went to BYU.  So basically we are probably going to have the same life.  Don't count on grandchildren from me...I'm destined to be single 4 lyfe.

We have an assisted living home in the Thunder Mountain Ward boundaries (it isn't the one we already volunteer at) and a new lady just moved in who is a member. We stopped by and talked to her and learned so much about her. Her faith is absolutely amazing. She joined the church not many years ago and has had a lot of serious health problems in her older years, yet her only concern is making sure that she has completed all of her ordinances and lived true to them before she dies. Her faith is astounding. Her husband was baptized by proxy and she is now praying about whether she should be sealed to him. She has been debating it because they had a pretty rocky relationship before his death, but she wants to do all that is expected of her.  We told her about the Holy Spirit of promise and the Millennium and how being sealed works and she feels a lot better about things now.

Some good quotes from our week:

"You are fun missionaries! Not like the ones we had over for dinner last time. They only talked about granny things. Like how our house is clean." I'm a little sad it took 6 months for us to get into their home for dinner. Their children are hilarious and were potentially cut from the same fabric that I was. It makes my heart happy to meet children with robust personalities.

Harry's opinions on the Biblical practice of stoning women who become pregnant out of wedlock: "They never should have gotten rid of that.  All those young girls get pregnant. They never would have got pregnant if they would be hit with a rock."

Sister D and I gave training on being Christlike in our companionships at our Zone Training Meeting. People loved it! We first talked about the characteristics of a Christlike companionship as a group and then we had an activity in which we had each companionship come up with a hashtag for themselves. Some people came up with some really good ones.  Mine and Sister D's has been #popsndums4lyfe (pronounced dooms, not dumbs) for a long time. We shared that and then I said that when we get half-price Sonic shakes it changes to #fattys4lyfe. Everyone thought that was funny. Seriously though, we're about 3 half-price Sonic shakes away from starring in our own TLC show called "Half Ton Sisters: Their Only Hope is the Resurrection". We shared the scriptures in Alma I talked about last week in which Ammon was so joyous to see his old missionary friends that he fainted.  We challenged everyone to treat their companion in such a way that they will be excited to run into each other 10 years down the road. We also created a getting to know you questionnaire for everyone and handed them out so that each companionship can get to know one another better.

Our zone 

Questionnaire

We went to the YSA stake's production of Rob Gardner's "Joseph Smith the Prophet" (or something like that) on Saturday.  It was actually done really well. They must have auditioned for the choir and stuff, there's no way that choir would have done as well if it would have been a free for all. We took a lady in our ward and her daughter that we thought could use a spiritual performance like that.

We sang with the Twin Knolls Ward Council in Sacrament Meeting yesterday. It was nothing fancy, just a hymn. There was a farewell in that ward as well so the place was packed.  We were in a row alone and all of these youth from other wards came at the same time and sat in our row and the one in front of us.  This was bad. So bad. We can not be allowed to sit by anyone under the age of 30 in any meeting because we get distracted too easily. At one point in time I hissed at Sister Dumas as a YM from the row in front of us was turning around and he saw it and literally thinks we are the weirdest sisters in the world I am sure.  So then like half the row was laughing and I just kept a straight face and acted like I didn't know what was going on, so when the bishop looked over to see what was happening he didn't associate me with the lack of reverence. I already repented though, so it is okay.

 

 

We have a temple trip this week AND a 70 is coming to speak with us on Monday so it will be a spiritually high week I am sure! Because of the 70 coming, my P-day next week will be on Tuesday, just so you know.

I just started 3rd Nephi today in my personal studying and I am excited because Jesus was just born. This is one of the best parts of the Book of Mormon! I love it! I also read about the Plan of Salvation today and it is amazing to me how Heavenly Father thought of literally everything before he sent us here.  We have nothing to worry about if we just follow him.

Much love,

Sister Poppe

 

 

She is the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey

So I have mentioned my bosom sister, Sister Adams quite a few times in my letters home. Just as a reminder, she is the B to my FF, the Amy Poehler to my Tina Fey, the Reese's to my egg. Though I have only known her six short months, she is one of my very favorite people; I think we were probably besties in the PME or something. She ended up having to go home after our second transfer because she was having some serious medical problems. Though she had hopes of returning to the field, Missionary Medical deemed her unfit to return to missionary service. Through all of this, she kept her faith and a kind family from the area she served in offered her a place in their home and lined up a job for her here in Mesa. She moved back a little over a month ago and I finally got to see her last P-Day. It was the most joyous reunion; almost as moving as the Boy Meets World Cast Reunion earlier this year! She came bearing gifts in the form of homemade Kneader's sandwiches. We talked for about an hour and a half and hugged it out and took some pictures before we had to leave to proselyte for the evening. While this was the most touching moment of my week, it wasn't the only sweet reunion I had.

Elder Michaelis (the Uncle Si elder) went home last week because he honorably reached the end of his two year mission. He was the first real missionary friend I have had go home. Up until the end of last transfer, the people going home didn't mean much to me because I didn't know them well. He was in my district for three transfers, so we got pretty tight. He called me President Poppe instead of Sister Poppe at least 57% of the time. On Tuesday morning as we were walking up to the gym, he popped out of the door to greet us! All five of us sisters from my apartment stopped dead in our tracks. My hands leapt to my mouth and I covered my gaping expression as if the bus had just been moved from in front of my very own extreme home makeover. TLC should have been around to tape the moment; we were all so shocked and excited to see him! He brought his parents down from Utah to meet the families he served and taught. We all met his parents and talked with him. He worked out with us Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning.

After this week, I think I can fully relate to the story in which Ammon runs into the sons of Mosiah and Alma after they've been separated, preaching the gospel. He is so excited to see them that he loses his strength! I didn't do that, but I was more excited to see my missionary friends than I ever thought I would be. The people I've served with have come to occupy such a special place in my heart; even if the vast majority of my friends are twerpy elders who are 2-4.5 years younger than me.

One of the Thunder Mountain YW asked me to sing in church with her yesterday. We sang a beautiful medley of Called to Serve and Savior, Redeemer of My Soul. Her mom told me about a month ago that she heard me sing when they sat a row in front of me one Sunday and that I needed to sing in church. I thanked her for her compliments and didn't think much of it until her daughter asked me to sing a duet with her in Sacrament Meeting. The daughter said that she was thinking about what her mom told me and that she wondered if I would be more open to singing if it was a duet with her. She decided to be bold and ask the music coordinator if she could sing and the coordinator penciled her in. She then hunted me down and asked if I would join her and I agreed. The music coordinator told her later that she couldn't find anyone to sing a special musical number in the month of August and that she had prayed that somehow she would be able to find someone so she could fulfill her calling and then the YW approached her! The song was beautiful. I saw a few people in the congregation even tear up. It was an honor to sing with her; she is extremely talented. Her voice matched mine better than anyone else's I've ever sang with. "Sister Poppe! Why did you never tell us you can sing!?!" became the phrase of the day.

We have started teaching the families in Thunder Mountain and it is actually going very well. Between our two wards we already have 15 lessons scheduled for this week. With our community service, daily studies, and a zone training meeting this week, we literally have every hour Monday through Friday already booked solid. Our schedule is crazy; I am so pumped to be busy! We wrote out a four step plan for meeting with the families and our objective in teaching them. The ward mission leader loved it and instituted it as our ward mission plan.

We had a lot of lessons last week too and more already scheduled for next week. The lessons we have done so far have been really good. In every home someone has said that even though what we are teaching is something they know, they've learned something new from what we have taught. We leave every member lesson by praying with the family for missionary opportunities and then we encourage them to pray as a family again about specific people and for the faith to act on missionary opportunities. We also give them ideas for missionary opportunities; the last thing we want is for these people to just give their neighbors Books of Mormon. In the very least, the members seem to like having us in their homes so we feel loved and that is always nice. It really will be a challenge for me to leave this area; I love these people!

We had our first day volunteering at the library this week. It isn't that hard; it's just alphabetizing, but this girl who works at the library is super condescending and is always hovering "in case we do something wrong and need a little help." Puh-leaze. I have a college degree, I can handle the alphabet, and I don't need help.  #Kthanxbye. I'm very Christlike to her on the outside though. She probably just wants to feel important so I let her.

All in all we had a busy, but pretty uneventful week, so I think this about covers it!

Love,

Sister Poppe

                         We received treat bags for no reason 2 days in a row.
                        I kind of feel like an Oscar nominee with my swag bags.

              We invited one of our YM friends to go to a lesson with us and he
             invited another boy from our other ward to come as well. Their third
             friend invited himself when he found out what they were doing so we
              had three boys from three different wards in the stake at one lesson.

                                                  Sue was telling me jokes.

                                                      Perdizzle and Sista P

Sweet Potato Smash Fries Have Natural Healing Powers

Sister Dumas and I were in charge of dropping the shirts we tie-dyed last week off at the screen printer's shop so I offered to just wash everybody's shirts so we would have them in one place and we wouldn't have to round them up. One district tie-dyed socks as well as shirts and put them in the pile to be washed. If anyone knows me well they know how much of a Christlike act of service it was for me to remove the rubber bands from those disgusting cotton contraptions and wash them. Even reminiscing about it makes me want to hurl.

                                  Our hands after preparing 23 tie-dyed shirts
                                    (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!

Ever Heard a Dragon Burp?

Hello from Arizona!

***Heat Advisory Warning*** It's hot here. 110+ from here on out rumor has it; I already want to just die.

On a more positive note, the new family we are teaching is enjoying all that we are teaching to them!  We'll call them the Hobbit Family because a lot of people live in one little house; like a hobbit hole.  So the grandpa of the Hobbit Family was telling us that he had a massive heart attack earlier this year and that the doctors said it was so bad that 99% of people die when they have a similar strength heart attack.  He said he has asked God many times why he was saved and he is starting to believe he was saved so he could learn the gospel from us!  To make the story even more interesting, he had the heart attack on February 11th, the day I landed in Mesa.  My companion said I am not allowed to say I don't know why I was sent to Mesa anymore because it was clearly for this family.  I still don't believe that; they are so receptive that anyone could teach them I am sure, though they do like me.

We had our temple trip for the transfer on Tuesday.  It was nice and peaceful; just what I needed.

We taught a deaf man how to index. Not only is he deaf, he doesn't know sign language because he became deaf in adulthood and never learned, and he is old so he doesn't know computers real well.  It was easily the most challenging thing I have ever done in my life!  I would type out instructions in a Word doc for him to read and then Sister Dumas would pull up the indexing software and demonstrate what I typed.  It took about an hour and I'm still sure he doesn't really know what is going on, but we will go back for a refresher! He was able to do it by himself when we left, but he told us that his brain isn't sticky enough to remember things so we would have to come back and show him some more.  Though it was challenging, it was also one of the most rewarding things I have ever done.  The guy is really sweet and lonely; he lives alone.  He is funny though.  He talks out loud to us and we just type our answers to him; he is amazed at how fast I can type.

Sister D thought it would be funny to dump cold water on me in the shower on Friday night. In her haste to be un-Christlike, she jammed her finger on the bathroom door. #karma Serves her right! On top of that, I dodged all of the cold water and her prank was foiled.

We volunteer at a swanky assisted living home two hours every Wednesday and Saturday now.  The old women are so sassy I can never keep a straight face for very long.  We played BINGO with them on Saturday and the most put together of the elderly women was making the funniest comments!  The other women were all at varying levels of dementia so they weren't really sure what was going on.  Hazel is definitely the queen bee of that joint.

I gave a training on the line between being bold and not bold enough at our district meeting this week.

Here are some entertaining quotes from this week:

"Thanks for picking up the points of the lesson I forgot. I totally forgot we were going to cover temple marriage too. You remember everything; you have the memory of a nomad!"-SD

"A nomad? You literally only made that comparison because we just talked about the three Nephites being nomads this morning...what does having the memory of a nomad even mean?"-SP

"Well. Yeah. I don't know! It's just the first thing that came to my mind! YOU JUST HAVE A GOOD MEMORY."-SD

"What was that noise?"-SD

"I think it was someone dropping the dumpster lid outside."-SP

"Oh. I thought it was a dragon burping."-SD

"...yes, Sister Dumas. It was definitely a dragon burping. I think that is not only highly reasonable, but also extremely likely"-SP

"Well, I mean it was just the first thing that came to my mind when I heard that noise..it just made the most logical sense!"-SD

We stopped by to see Neville this week and he was telling us about his new found popularity.  Apparently there is this app called Mobly that is a social networking app and he and his friends somehow had a picture get a ton of likes on there so they are featured on the popular page.  He has 20,000 followers (probably more by now) and Twitter fan account and stuff now.  It is hilarious.  While we were there he had 4 girls try to Facetime him so we had him answer one of the calls and we were in on it; the girl was so confused.  I told Sister D that we are going to have teenage girls threatening to kill us now because they've seen us with Neville and they are all going to be jealous.  On Sunday Sister D and I wore patriotic attire and Neville's mom did too so she said we needed a picture together. I told her she should post it on Neville's Mobly account and she thought that would be hilarious.  She takes his phone away every night so she said she might consider doing it!

We took Harry to the VC this week to see the movie The Testaments and he loved it.  I had never seen the movie either and I loved it!  It is almost as bad as Twilight; it's so great I could watch it a million times.  It could also be that I've been deprived of entertainment for five months (I hit my five month mark yesterday!).  He took us to DQ afterward; it was a lovely treat.  We have a new ward missionary who went with us too.  She is an RM who has been home for a year and refuses to go to the singles ward.  She is hilarious.  We really enjoyed taking her to lessons with us and riding in her car.

Harry with the sisters at the Mesa visitors center

We are really looking forward to the 4th of July here! We bought some matching accessories for the holiday; I can't wait for you to see the pics!

Have a blessed week!

Sister Poppe

  

Selfie with Harry

Members sent us a pizza!

At the park