Hold the Ccino

Hello,

Okay. Wow. I decided this will probably be long because it is my last one. I'm not exactly sure how I feel. It's weird. It hasn't even hit me yet. This time tomorrow I'll be home. I've broken down my last week by day. It was a miracle week though. We found more investigators this week than I've ever found in a week my entire mission. We found 10 and met our goal to find 10 of them. I feel good leaving this area now. Preach My Gospel says to leave an area better than you found it. I came into this area when it was doing so well that I was afraid that I would never be able to leave it better than I found it. I don't know if it is better, but it definitely isn't worse and there is work to do for the sisters who will be here. Sister Childs is staying and she is training a new missionary! I'm so excited for her.

Monday: We went shopping last P-day so I could buy a few normal human clothes and some Birkenstock's. I can't wait to have a pedicure and some sandals on my feet! I had lunch with a member from my first area as well. We then had the Cheesecake Factory for dinner with the mission nurse and her husband. She said we're besties. So sweet! They even said that we HAD to get a piece of cheesecake. Dream come true. We had a lesson at Legacy with our elderly friends. Our following is quickly growing! We were able to teach them the first lesson. We prayed that there would be a way and I was able to bridge from the Revolutionary War into the Restoration. It went well and they all commented on the beauty of the message and how they felt. Though we may never get them on this side, they'll be primed and prepped for baptism in the Spirit World. We had one last lesson with the Oreo Mouth Family. Then we had a miracle on our way out of their home. We street contacted a woman with so much potential! I am so excited for the sisters to work with her when I leave. She loves Christ and definitely has His light in her countenance. She will be wonderful for the new trainee to teach. 

The cute old people who come and listen to our 

FHE messages on Monday evenings.

Tuesday: We were supposed to help the Bohemian move out of the complex on Tuesday. We showed up with a whole crew of missionaries and she wouldn't answer the door (she was in denial that she had been evicted). We went in anyway and just started packing stuff. We could only do so much before we had to leave. This will all come back into play on Friday/Saturday. We continued with our finding goal and found a few new investigators! We had dinner at Nando's with one of my favorite families, and then went to the VC to watch Meet the Mormons with Diva and her family. That night I was praying about some doctrine that I had questions about and I was a little riled up. I literally fell asleep during my prayer and was out for an hour. I woke up on my knees an hour later and wasn't upset anymore. I think that Heavenly Father put me to sleep so I would stop talking to him and so that I would just wake up and feel peace and know that my question and confusion wasn't that big of a deal after all.

Wednesday: I had my last ZTM and it went well. We did service that day for the United Way's Read on Mesa program again. We helped them sort their storage and organize it better. It was a lot of fun! It was the first day that I started having weird feelings about going home though too. Sister Child's had some cross contamination gluten at dinner that night and I was worried we would have to go home before we met our goal of finding a new investigator that day. I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to lead us directly to someone. A part-member family came to mind and we contacted them and they invited us back. BAM! 3 new investigators! We had a lesson at 8 with the woman we found on Monday. She couldn't meet with us, but we shared a brief doorstep lesson with her. She was so kind. We had two people with us that are leaving on missions in the next month. We told her that and she softened even more and said we could come in for a minute. I testified of the Living Christ, gave it to her and invited her to read it. I had prayed all day that the Spirit would be working on her. I used to pray that the Spirit would help me and a few weeks ago I remembered that President said he started praying that the Spirit would soften people's hearts and prepare them instead of praying that the Spirit would help him teach well. So I started doing that. My last week. Wow. Where was that 18 months ago?  But it worked. Her heart was definitely prepared. It was a warm moment in her home. We went home half an hour early that night and Sister Childs took medicine and went straight to bed. I planned the next day while she was asleep and it was FULL. 

 Last ZTM

2 cool coyote’s man!

Thursday: At 3 am on Thursday morning I woke Sister Childs up by sharing important shark facts in my sleep. Apparently I sat up and said something along the lines of, "You need to know this about sharks..." and then she couldn't remember what I actually shared. But I had a sense of urgency in my voice. I helped that elder with his college essays.

Sister Childs bought me this sweet shark that swims. 

We filled up the bathtub and took him for a spin.

We had lunch at Cafe 8 with some members. My notes aren't as great for Thursday. I went to leave a parking lot and realized I missed the entrance. I thought there was another one at the end of the lot. There wasn't. I was going to have Sister Childs get out of the car to back me up. She told me just to drive off the curb. So I did. YOLO. Then I was paranoid all night that something would fall off the bottom of our car. I will never drive off another curb. I promise. I had been struggling with eating on and off for a week and a half because of nerves. Sister Childs finally convinced me to get a blessing. One of my favorite members gave me one. He is so sweet. He started the blessing by saying, "....I give you a father's blessing," instead of a blessing of counsel and comfort. It was sweet and good for me. I felt more peace throughout the rest of the week. Though I did have my breakdown that night. I don't even know what came over me. Satan was just super strong in my head after that blessing. When we got home that night I started crying at the sight of a screenshot I took of a FB post announcing that Blue Bell is coming back on the market finally.

 The FB post that put me into tears.

My roommates knew that I wouldn't cry tears of joy over that, so they pried and I just started crying and sharing. Basically I started having all these fears that I hadn't served hard enough and that the Lord wouldn't be pleased with my work and that I was a failure. We talked for quite a bit and then they sent me to bed at 11:45. I woke up the next day feeling fine and realized that I was completely listening to Satan the night before. I have been far from perfect as a missionary, but I do think I at least met some of Heavenly Father's expectations. I'm glad the breakdown is out of the way. Hopefully I don't cry when I'm home now.

Friday: We helped the Citrus Heights stake prepare for their annual clothing exchange. I found a brand new shirt with the $55 tag still on it and snagged it. I'm currently wearing it and look quite fancy. I found some great things for Swaggy B and a few other things I am bringing home for the real world. We had lunch at the Iowa cafe!

 Iowa Cafe!

Our pool party was cancelled and we were sad because we invited a lot of nonmembers. I was frustrated because I was convinced that was how we would find new investigators that night. I wanted to cry again, but didn't. I prayed and just asked for strength. Any other day it would have been fine, but after 18 months I just couldn't handle that. It worked out and we actually had some good miracles because of the cancelled party. We met a new girl and the Spirit really was strong. It might be a hard long road, but I really feel that she will be baptized. We lit a shirt on fire that night. Sister Childs' last bishop hates the U of A so he said that he would buy her an ASU shirt to replace it if she would burn it. So we burned it with him and he replaced it. We ran into the Bohemian in the parking lot that night and she begged for more help moving the next day. We told her we were booked but we could send elders.

Saturday: We served at a funeral Saturday morning which made it impossible for us to help the Bohemian move. During our service we got a million texts from her and the elders. Basically she left to get a truck and never came back and after two hours they left her stuff on the curb because they didn't know what to do. She was furious that they left her stuff. I was furious that it wasn't planned better and that she didn't have a truck after she promised she would. Basically after a few more hours I just called the Elder's Quorum President and got him involved. There were a lot of un-Christ like thoughts I had and a lot of anger and frustration I had to mask but it ended up being taken care of. Luckily all of our appointments cancelled in the afternoon, including dinner. So we helped with this fiasco from 1:30 until 6:30. Then we showered and ran to the VC to have a lesson with Diva and her family. That was a calming, peaceful experience after my day of annoyance. It was definitely not the way I thought I would spend my last full proselyting day as a missionary. I learned a lot though. Really, I did. Like that I am not as patient as I thought I had become. I also learned that I really have been blessed with common sense and problem solving abilities and because of that I am used to help others. I can't be as frustrated with them. The Bohemian told us two times she was completely at a loss for what to do that day and she prayed and within minutes I called and resolved her problems. So it was stressful for me, but I definitely think I was placed there to help her. She would probably still be lost and have all her stuff on the curb if we wouldn't have helped her.

Moving disaster pics

Sunday: I was called up to give a short 5 minute testimony about my mission in Fairway Groves. It was a good day. I received a lot of love. A few families in the FG Ward threw me a going away party. It was so sweet. I love them so much. People complimented me all day and were far more generous with their words than I have earned.

Today: I took a cactus pic. Finished packing. Now I'm emailing. At 3:00 I report to the mission office and then we leave for the mission home at 3:30 for our farewell testimony meeting and dinner. We sleep at a member's home and then tomorrow morning bright and early we are picked up to make our flights. I leave at 7:15 AM. It's still hard to grasp. Like when Grandma Kelly died and I didn't cry until the funeral because I couldn't wrap my head around it until it was literally happening. 

 

Selfie in front of our spirit cacti. They look like missionary cacti. 

Also we had been caught in a Monsoon previously, 

that's why my hair is a disaster.

I should probably include some sentimental thoughts about my mission, but I did those on my blog already. Read that post if you want more details! http://poppesplates.blogspot.com/2015/08/6-things-i-learned-in-azmm.html

Unrelated to my week, but very much related to my almost status as an RM is my desire to hold literally all of the babies. Either hide your babies or embrace it, because I'm coming off a very long dry spell.

 Jayden and I are tight. He is adorable.

Love,

Sister Poppe

PS:  2 things to add before I sign off for the day.

1: Sister Smith is having a ward added to the two she is over and guess which ward it is....GRANDMA'S. SHE WILL BE THE MISSIONARY IN THE WARD I AM MOVING INTO. I am literally SOOOO happy I could die. 

2: Funny story from a few minutes ago. We stopped by Walmart so I could get a jump drive super-fast to get all the pictures off of my iPad with. We decided to hit up Starbucks on our way home to get some Frappe's. Swaggy B was ordering and was just repeating what I said word for word so it went like this:

"Two chocolaty chocolate chip Frappuccino’s. Hold the ccino."-me

"Two chocolaty chocolate chip Frappuccino’s. Hold the ccino...(with a weird look at me that said, "what does that even mean?"). -Swaggy B

…long pause

"Hahahahahaha"-lady doing the drive thru

"Hahahaha"-us

"I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have laughed like that. But what does that mean? Hold the ccino?"-lady doing the drive thru

"Ummm...it just means no coffee."-Swaggy B

"Thanks ladies, you made my day. That was hilarious. I'm going to use that from now on. Hold the ccino."-lady at the drive thru.

WOW. Could we have been more Mormon?

 My re-enactment of this historic pop culture moment.

Swaggy B and I. I picked that shirt out for her and she wore
it in memory of me today. It reminds her of the Soppe Hit,
Panting Bird.

Another casual conversation between KJ and I. I think sometimes
that he worries that I need more love or something because he has
responded to more of my emails in the last six months than he ever
responds to anybody's. I try to not be needy, but maybe I am.
Who knows. Or he just likes to harass me via email occasionally.

President always includes something about the departing
missionaries in his weekly email to the mission. Usually it
happens the Monday after they leave, but I had the pleasure
of reading it before I left because it was earlier than normal.

Poppe is my Clean Cut Anne of Green Gables

We went to an elderly FHE on Monday and it was literally like YSA but with old married people. But it was fun and people were all in similar life situations and almost no one could hear each other. A 92 and 97 year old couple went off and created it on their own. That will be me at 92. You're never too old for a social function!

Sister Merrell and I actually had a rough week. Our roommates have had a few miracle baptisms this month and we were really happy for them, but it kind of put us into a crisis of worth. We work just as hard as them and we haven't been seeing that manifest in results. After a few days we finally had a good chat about our feelings and realized that Satan was just making us feel useless. We also realized that we are both the oldest child and only daughter in our family so some of our self-worth flaws and the pressures we impose on ourselves were also at play. I found out during all of this that Lavender Brown and her daughter were getting baptized. Those are the second and third baptisms my first area has had since I left and it made me wonder a lot last week why I wasn't good enough at what I do. I left and Thunder Mountain had their first baptism in two years! After a lot of pondering and studying I was at peace. I didn't baptize Lavender and her daughter, but I contacted them and taught them and did a lot of the ground work that lead to her decision to be baptized.  I also realized that so much of missionary work is timing. Many missionaries taught Lavender over the years, we were just the missionaries to initiate the last contact that would lead to baptism. That will probably happen a lot with people I've contacted down the road. Missionary work is just a long process with many interruptions a lot of the time. I've come to peace with the fact that I'm just not a baptizer. I don't really know what I am. But I'm something. It's also helped that the Lord has placed a lot of people in our path with inspired statements. People who didn't even know we were struggling have said exactly what we needed to hear. We were asked to fill in for some visiting teaching and the lesson this month was on patience. A member told us to read a talk about faith and trials of our faith. A few people randomly told us they appreciate us. We are on the Lord's errand.  I think I decided that Satan and I were besties in the PME for a bit before he started acting out, that's why he tries so hard to win me over to his side all. the. time. The man won't give it a rest!

I don't know if you've ever checked out the LDS Pamphlet app, but it is out of this world awesome! They're the missionary pamphlets on steroids! The church also released a new video for Easter that talks about Christ's role in our lives now as the risen Savior. It is moving and my favorite video they've released thus far. You can find it in multiple places, but you can find it at www.helives.mormon.org. Everyone please watch it. It reminds us all that some of the most important things happened after Christ's death, not during. I'm grateful that Christ died for my sins, but I'm even more grateful that he lives to support me and love me. I can rely on a living Christ. I can only appreciate a dead savior. #becausehelives

The Women's Broadcast was powerful. The only problem was that it was all about the importance of the family, so it made us all suuuuuper trunky. I wanted to hang out with my mom, dad, brothers, cousins, grandparents, future babies, basically everyone I can't hang out with or shouldn't be thinking about extensively. My mind wandered a lot and we were all getting slightly teary-eyed. I was like, "Poppe! Get it together! You have 4.5 months left. That's half a pregnancy. Not that long. Seriously. Half a pregnancy! Bad analogy. STOP THINKING ABOUT YOUR UNBORN BABIES." Bonnie L. Oscarson's talk was spot on. She hit it out of the park. The YW presidency talks are always my favorite. I was sad that my favorite woman leader and LDS role model, Neill F. Marriott, didn't speak, but she can't be a rock star at every conference I guess.

We went to the Easter Pageant with individuals a few nights. It's fun to see people from my old area there and to have an amazing production be a lesson with our investigators. We are blessed to have so many opportunities in Mesa!

Sassy Sister Friend Quotes:

"Here is a banana for each of you. Eat it. You need potassium so your bodies can produce beautiful magnificent children."

"You'll be blessed for serving a mission. Your womb will be blessed."

"You are like my clean cut Laura Ingalls, and Poppe is my clean cut Anne of Green Gables."

Love,

Sister Poppe

P.S. I had to write the missionary piece of the Aspen Relief Society Newsletter again and this is what I whipped up. I was only given about half an hour’s notice, so it isn't my finest piece.

"Imagine with me for a moment that your boss gave you a $100 dollar bill and she told you to go and give it to anyone who would take it.  There are no strings attached or criteria the recipient must meet. You simply need to find anyone who will take the money from your hands.  You're financially set and have enough Benjamin's to keep you going so it isn't hard for you to want to share it with another person. You know it will bless their life and that they will be grateful for the random boost in income. Your boss also promised you that she would supply you with as many $100 bills as could be given away. As you begin to seek out someone to give the money to will you stop if the first, second, third, or fourteenth person doesn't accept your gift or see the value in it? Probably not. You have $100! Who cares if someone was foolish enough to reject such a prize? They're the one that is missing out on the blessing.

Missionary work is much like trying to give someone a $100 bill. Even if people reject your offer you can still bless someone's life. Many people will reject the gospel because of skepticism, pride, fear, or apathy and that's okay. Someday someone will take the $100 bill and will treat you as if you gave them a million dollar bill for the rest of their life. Your success doesn't diminish (or increase) based on the number of $100 bills you hand out; it is entirely reliant upon your dedication to invite others to take the treasure you want to give them. The March 2015 New Era had an article that encouraged readers by reminding them that, "Your success is not measured by their response; it is measured by your commitment to share [the gospel]."

Maybe you've neglected to try to hand out your $100 bill and you don't know how to start or you feel you've missed a lot of great opportunities and now you just don't know what to do. Make the resolve and start. Invite someone to watch Meet the Mormons in your living room. Invite a friend to eat a plate of cookies you made them and to read the pass along card taped to the cling wrap. Show your neighbor the #becausehelives video. Simply invite a friend to dinner and ask if you can start the meal with a prayer. Don't forsake the small opportunities to share the gospel just because you missed the big ones. You might have to hand out your $100 bill $1 at a time."

I met my doppleganger this week! She looked more like me in 

person than in this picture. It was almost like the Parent Trap!

I convinced the elders we were doing service with that I was 

responsible enough to use a hedge trimmer. It was the most 

                               exciting thing I've ever done as service! 

Baptismal Covenant and a Kit Kat Bar

Hey!

The Death plague soldiers on. I seriously haven't been this sick since August 2009. I continued to try to do as much as I could until Thursday. I called Sister Jenkins to ask if I could skip our sister training leader meeting and she told me to not only skip the meeting, but to rest for 48 hours. We did end up going out a little on Thursday evening and all night Friday despite my quarantine orders, but I rested a lot during the day. Some sisters showed up after the meeting I missed and gave me a card that Sister Jenkins had all the sister training leaders sign, hot cocoa mix, and some poppy seed almond pound cake. I felt so loved and was shocked that Sister Jenkins took the time to make me, one of 240 missionaries, feel individually loved. I also missed a meeting with the high councilman over missionary work in our stake so he sent breakfast over with my zone leader after the meeting. A lady in one of our wards made me more homemade soup and others brought me tissues and medicine. I've never felt more pathetic in my life. It was humbling to accept so much charity from people.  Especially because I knew if I was at home I would have just taken care of myself. I wasn't incapable; people just wanted to serve me.  I'm still raspy and my nose is runny, but on the whole I am about 87% better. I did finally ask for a blessing on Friday night and that helped a lot.

Through all of this we found a new couple to teach and that was a miracle! They have six children as well. Our first lesson with them is on Thursday. They have had lessons in the past and we just re-contacted them this week. I heard somewhere once that it takes, on average, 7 meaningful interactions with missionaries and/or members of the church before people become seriously interested in baptism. I don't know if that is true, but it sounds about right. They have a lot of promise and I can't help but think about the positive impact baptizing this one family would have on so many people in the future.

Our new investigator, Cho Chang, came to church on Sunday with her two sons! It was such a pleasant surprise! She told us she wasn't going to come and then she ended up changing her mind. I've been praying so hard for her since we met. Every night I ask Heavenly Father to protect her from Satan. I know that she has a desire for the truth and I know that Satan will try her even more because of that. Her sons loved primary and she enjoyed everything as well. She committed to come next week again. The hard part will actually be sitting her down and having lessons. She loves church, but she is busy and it is hard getting her to schedule things.

We now live with Sister Moreton (my bestie) and Sister Casey (her new trainee from the MTC)! I LOVE IT! We party so hard every night in the hour we have between missionary work and bed.

We spent so much time trying to find this week in one of our wards and EVERYBODY didn't have any interest in learning anything at all. Agency is literally the worst. Why can't everyone just want to be Mormon already?

I had a great week though and felt very guided by the Spirit. Even when things weren't successful I knew we were doing what we needed to do. I am confident that we will continue to find people to teach. I know that sometimes we just have to go through dead periods as a trial and then things brighten up. It's always darkest before the dawn.  Thanks Florence and the Machine for your true lyrics.

Love,

Sister Poppe

We helped the Activity Days girls learn about the sacrament on Wednesday. I told them to think of a Kit-Kat bar when they can't remember their baptismal covenant. K-keep the commandments, A-always remember Him, T-take upon ourselves His name. The girls we saw throughout the week after the activity all remembered KAT and recited it to us!

"Sister. Tonight I your doctor. You need my steam." Sister Rasheed's boiled 

water with Vick's Vapor Rub in it actually worked wonders.

I think more people need to tease their hair and pose like Simba on Pride Rock

Post Lion King Photo Shoot pic. I had just drawn a scar on my 

face to be Scar and it doubled really well as a rock star look.