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

 

 

 

 

 

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!

A Worthy Goal

I had a moment last week when I realized I am not the woman that my Heavenly Father believes I can be.  I have talents and blessings that I am not utilizing.  I have been progressing academically since I began college, as well as professionally.  I do not doubt that I have paved a path that will lead to a successful career and future if I wish it to.  By the standards of the world I am doing life the right way.  That being said, I have spent the last school year being spiritually stagnant.  I haven’t pushed myself to grow further in the light of Christ and I became content with my humble testimony.  It’s time that changes.  While reading my patriarchal blessing last week I realized I need to start actively working toward becoming the valiant woman of Christ I am ordained to be.  I have been blessed with the ability to be a light to those who wander in darkness—something I don’t do often enough.  Boats are crashing on the shore because my lighthouse bulb hasn’t been shinning very brightly lately.  I set a goal to spend half an hour a day studying Preach My Gospel because I want to be prepared to be a missionary, whether that be for 18 months out in the field, or just in every day settings where people may ask me questions about my faith.  I also think there are things I can learn from this text that will help me grow as a person.  As I study Preach My Gospel and my scriptures I will be posting insights on this blog for surfers of the World Wide Web (or, let's be real...just my mom) to read.  I’m doing this for multiple reasons.  First, I’m trying to get more comfortable with the idea of sharing my faith.  I group faith in the broader category of emotions, and I am awful at sharing my emotions—I would rather pull my arm hairs out individually with tweezers than tell someone I love them, cry in front of another human, or admit openly that I care about someone and miss them.  It’s not that I don’t have faith or that I don’t love people (trust me, I love a lot of people—some who don’t even know that I do), I have just always struggled with communicating deeper emotions (and not because I was abused as a child—I come from a loving family, it really just stems from my larger fear of rejection and my fear of depending upon other people...wow, talk about a therapeutic tangent).  Second, I’m trying to keep myself accountable to my goal.  If I say I’ll blog about something then I’m more likely to actually do it.  Third, I hope that people who are struggling with their faith (of any religion, whether they be Mormon or not) stumble upon this and recognize that no one is perfect and we all have to take a step back sometimes and evaluate where we are spiritually.  I really enjoy blogging, but have been struggling with finding a meaningful topic to write about lately.  I will continue to rant when I want to about every topic under the sun on my personal blog and updating individuals on my life, but this blog will be dedicated to my deeper thoughts and spiritual insights and progression.