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

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

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

Post Temple Trip Photo shoot

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

Happy Valentine's Day!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Love,

Sister Poppe

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

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

District 1085 with their berries!  

 

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

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

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

 

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

Blessings and Miracles!

Last Monday after we emailed and purchased our groceries, we went to this little gold mine city tourist attraction thing in Apache Junction. It was really cool. Admission is free, but everything else has a cost, so we just roamed around and looked in all the little shops. It was an easy, breezy (beautiful Cover Girl?) type of day. We took a lot of pictures and I bought a little cactus!

As much as I love people and am generally very extroverted, I need like 12 minutes a day where I am alone. Typically that comes during my shower. The other night Sister Moreton came into the bathroom while I was showering to talk. Shortly thereafter Sister Rasheed followed, and then Sister Casey wasn't far behind. Our entire district was in our tiny bathroom chatting me up and I was like, "are you people serious?  I know we are close, but I just want 12 minutes!" They were all like, "Poppe, we just want to talk to you. We love you. We miss you. Blah, blah, blah." I felt like a mother. These children can't even entertain themselves for 12 minutes! The next night Sister Moreton started to come into the bathroom and I heard Sister Rasheed yell, "No! You no disturb my companion tonight." It was hilarious!

There is a couple in the Brimhall Ward that joined the church about a year and a half or two years ago. They're older and we stop by to visit them semi-regularly. They're funny and remind me so much of grandma and grandpa Poppe. That's probably why I love them so much.  She always gets us treat bags ready before we leave. And by treat bags I mean grocery sacks full of candy, cookies, and cans of pops.

We had a lesson with the grandparents of the missionary in Argentina this week (We'll call them Mr. and Mrs. Evita). We had left our phone number for them and the ink had smudged and so the lady wasn't dialing the correct number. This was a tender mercy, because she was calling us to cancel. Since we didn't know, we showed up and they let us in anyway and really enjoyed the visit. They are quickly growing to love us and now openly invite us back to visit. We will have to come up with clever ways to share gospel messages with them and to help them come closer to Christ. They invited us to their retirement community's choir concert in a month and I agreed to go. Hopefully if I have a new companion she is okay with that. I guess they're quite a good group.  The husband is even in quartet, so he has got to be talented.

The sister I replaced had been trying to convince the grandma and granddaughter that we are teaching to be baptized before she left. The grandma has a lot of interest but is acting like she is only taking the lessons for the granddaughter. The granddaughter is ready to be baptized and is a great girl. She is 11 and has been coming to church with a friend for a year and a half. The grandma would never agree to let her be baptized but she wouldn't disagree either. We planned a lesson on WHAT baptism is and HOW it is done and presented that and immediately the grandma finally told us her concern. The granddaughter could be sent back to live with her mom at any point if her mom gets her act together and the grandma is concerned that if she gets baptized and moves in with her mom that she won't go to church and then the granddaughter will be excommunicated. We reassured her that people aren't excommunicated that easily and continued to talk her through that concern. At the end she said, "Well, it is time to get baptized then! I didn't know all of that. Thank you!" They are going to pray about a date and tell us on Wednesday what they are thinking!  I really think the biggest thing that leads to success in missionary work is just listening and loving. I don't think they had ever actually been taught WHY we are baptized, HOW it happens, and WHAT someone feels when they are ready to be baptized (Mosiah 18:7-11...my favorite verses on baptism). The grandma has been coming to sacrament meeting now though and she is reading the Book of Mormon. We're friends because she's another Iowa transplant. Blessings and miracles!

I don't know why all of the meetings I have always end up bunched in one week. This week was a meeting heavy week. We had Zone Conference, MLC. high council leadership breakfast, and DLC. That also meant I ate HORRIBLY this week. Whenever we have meetings we are given a meal by members. And the members always want to fatten us up for some reason.  We talked a lot about faith and how to recognize statements of faith verses lies Satan tells us. I believe Satan more often than I should, so it was a good week of meetings for me.

We had a RS hike in Brimhall on Saturday that Cho Chang wanted to go to, so we went with her. It was the Wind Cave hike that we did last summer that I thought was awful. It was much better this time, partially because I am in better shape and partially because I wasn't trying to keep up with fit elders. It was actually really enjoyable!  It was steep at parts, but I wasn't the slowest person this time, so I could go at my own pace and stop and wait for others to catch up. We also had the opportunity to talk about the word of wisdom while we hiked and then had breakfast at the end.

Love,

Sister Poppe

 I'm not sure what these have to do with gold mining, but they were fabulous, 

so naturally I was drawn to them.

"Are you trapped in jail or are you go-go dancers?"-Man on the porch behind us

Oh hey. Just contemplating life with the Superstitions behind me.

District 1085

 Wind Caves Hike

I made my own freshly squeezed orange juice. People are giving us oranges by the ton and I finally decided to try juicing. It was so delicious! It takes about a thousand and seven oranges to fill a large Mason jar, but it was great.

Sister Rasheed tried her hand at juicing after I finished my Mason jar. 

Heavenly Father's Approved Blessings List

Our sister training leaders this transfer are Spanish sisters, so instead of doing an all day exchange (because one of us would have to spend a day doing Spanish work then), we did an evening with them in our area. We did a blitz, which is just when you try and visit as many people as possible who aren't members. We already had a lesson scheduled, so I went to that for part of the evening and Sister D2 spent her whole evening finding people to teach in Twin Knolls. She found 3 investigators, and I found 3 in Thunder Mountain as well! To be counted as a new investigator, you just have to have been taught a principle, commit to an invitation (read the Book of Mormon, come to church, etc.), and schedule a return appointment. So while we had 6 new investigators in one evening, they didn't all pan out. People weren't home when we went back, but that is pretty normal. To get 1 baptism a month you're supposed to aim for 16 new investigators. We've never had that many in a month, but things are looking better already for November! It's amazing how much more you can get done when you split up and cover twice as much area in just 2.5 hours. I was so proud of Sister D2. Her personality is such that she is better at finding than other things in missionary work, and I didn't realize that until Monday evening. She gets down to business, whereas I talk a lot. I only made it to 2 houses beyond my one hour lesson that night, but she hit up 7 houses and a few street contacts. She's so good at it! If I had my way, I would outsource all my finding and just teach people 24/7. Oh yeah, that's also the Lord's way too...but somehow it never happens.

I was asked by an elderly lady this week if Sister Dawson was my sister or my baby. (Insert Emoji face with slanty eyes and lowered eyebrows).  *mom's note:  Sorry, I don't have emoji's on my computer, only my phone.  You will just have to imagine it.

There's a less active lady that we have been asked to visit on and off my entire mission and we are never able to contact her because she won't answer her door.  We were asked to stop by again this week and I was annoyed but then felt like we should try so I could be a good example to my companion.  I was kind of negative and made the comment that it was a waste of time because she wouldn't answer the door on our way to dinner that night. We were eating across the street from her so we were going to just give it a shot after dinner because it was close and wouldn't take any of our miles. At dinner the wife mentioned that if you ever wanted to visited the less active lady you just had to go around to their backyard and knock on the back door because they answer that one because they figure only friends know to go to that one.  So after dinner we tried the front door and she didn't answer. I was like whatever!  Let's just be creepers and let ourselves into her back yard and do this.  So we did and she answered and talked to us for about ten minutes! I knew her whole back story, but acted dumb and she talked to us about all of her drama (of all the people I've met she is the first one who I can understand why she wants to avoid our ward). I invited her to attend the ward that meets at 1:00 in our building so that she wouldn't see the people she doesn't want to see. She also asked about what she could do to save her brother who died. We told her we could come back and teach her about the Plan of Salvation and baptisms for the dead.  She took our number and said she'd call us.  I prayed for her before we left and it was actually a really good little meeting. #miracle

I don't know if you remember Ron Weasley, but he was my very first lesson out in the field. We taught him my first night in my area. He goes to Montana for the summer, and he was finally back last week so we stopped by.  He remembered me and even gave me a hug.  We shared a message and talked with him outside for about half an hour and invited him to church.  I know he still isn't ready for a commitment, but it was good to stop by and check in with him. He said he was going to see Meet the Mormons that weekend. He's a nice guy; I hope he comes around eventually.  He did say that he read my Facebook posts all summer.

The women at the nursing home were sure on something on Saturday.  There were two fights while we were there and a lot of sass.  I had four women trying to talk to me at the same time while Sister D2 was at the piano and all of them would get mad if I diverted my attention to someone else.  I've come to learn more and more that volunteering at the assisted living home is a lot like working with the six year olds at camp.

We were taken care of pretty well this week as far as meals go. We were taken to Smashburger one evening just because the family feeding us remembered that I loved it. Another night we had Barro's pizza and then on Saturday a sweet single sister took us to a great place called Red, White, and Brew. Dad also randomly mailed me a crisp Hamilton so I treated myself to Pete's Fish and Chips after the temple on Thursday.

Some friendly advice: never feed missionaries lasagna. They'll lie and say they love it and eat it and want to die. They just really don't want it. I can promise you that I will never eat lasagna, spaghetti, or goulash ever again in my life. I already didn't like those things and now I despise them. Heaven help me when I get sent to a poor area and have it more than I already do.

We had a fun ward progressive dinner on Friday night.  It was amazing how many people actually came!  It was only for adults, and every one was assigned a home to eat dinner at, and then every one met at the RS president's house for dessert. I really enjoyed the opportunity to be around the members and talk about real things. They enjoyed it too.  They finally understand that we will be real people around nonmembers!  It was amazing to realize how close I've actually become with these people.  So many couples approached me just to talk at the dessert party. Who ever wants to talk to missionaries? But so many people felt the need to come up and talk with us; it made us feel really loved.

While I was sitting in the most useless ward council meeting of my life, I had a wonderful thought. Bishopric's should wear matching ties every Sunday. Not super matchy matchy, but at least ties from the same family of colors. Think of how that would automatically invite the Spirit! #GQbishopric

I am starting an official competition that will run from today until December 1st. I am asking for Christmas music! You can send complete albums or create a customized mix. Whoever sends me the best Christmas CD will be rewarded with an AZ postcard, a certificate, the pride of winning, an official announcement in my letter home, and one blessing from Heavenly Father's approved blessings list*. Entries will be judged based on my musical taste, and my musical taste alone, so think Sister Poppe when you start burning! Bonus points will be given for creative mix names. Please send all entries to:

 

Sister Amanda Poppe

2525 N 32nd St.

Mesa, AZ 85213.

 

Bonus points will also be given if you include Reese's Christmas Trees in the parcel. Every participant will receive a gratitude shoutout and, as customary, general blessings from Heav'.

Regards,

Sister P

*Heavenly Father's Approved Blessings List has actually never been published, though it is likely that blessings could include one, or any combination of the following:

1. An extraordinarily wonderful day

2. The opportunity to star on a game show  

3. A new puppy (Betsy, this one is for you) 

4. A Get Out of Ebola Free Card

 5. A wink from a handsome stranger

6: A vacation

7. An onion ring in your French fries (this blessing brought to you by Sister Krueger)  

8. Hearing your favorite song on the radio twice in one day  

9. A five dollar bill on the ground  

10. A new friend

 

I HAD MY HUMP DAY.

 

IT'S DOWN HILL FROM HERE PEEPS. 

We made a pizookie to celebrate.

 

The sun shone down upon us gloriously as we left the temple; 

the heavens smiled at our service.

 

Target had their hats 20% off today so we were trying them on in preparation

for Christmas lights.  Unfortunately we both settled for a more conservative

and professional look.

 

#thuglyfe 

 

My companion gets a kick out of my "laughing" pictures. 

I just think they're so great.

 

 

 

Twenty Abnormally Small Teeth

We had an amazing week of good lessons, experiences, and random happenings. For this letter, I'm going to organize it by people, because I think that will be easier.

A Portrait of Mesa: A Week's Journey Told Through Her Citizenry

1. Harry and the Tony Hawk Boys: We teach these guys on the same night each week. It just so happened that this week we felt that they all needed to hear the same thing--how to recognize personal revelation as revelation. We planned two similar lessons on the topic and they were both spot on. The lessons were spiritual and lead to each person making their own personal insights. Since all of these guys can't be baptized for one reason or another, their progress has slowed lately.  I know that the lessons we shared with them jump started them again and helped them slog a little further through the mud.

2. Sister M and Professor Trelawny:  One of the members in Thunder Mountain talked to a random stranger about the church and then invited the stranger to church on Sunday. We were so shocked! Seriously, we never would have pegged this member as a go get 'em missionary type.  She said she just felt prompted to talk to her and it worked! We taught Professor Trelawny a lesson and had dinner with her with Sister and Brother M on Wednesday and it went well. She was very open and got teary-eyed when I explained and testified of the atonement.

3. Sister W: A sister in Twin Knolls was talking to her downtrodden neighbor and shared the gospel and the neighbor is interested. We set up an appointment with her for this week! We are so excited.  #membermissionariesarethebest

4. Lavender Brown: We keep records of individuals who have been taught by missionaries before and sometimes we review those records and try to identify people who are ready to hear the gospel again. One name stuck out to me a few weeks ago and we finally had the time to stop by this week. We were invited in and the wife proceeded to talk to us for over an hour. It was so surreal. Sometimes I realize that I'm sitting on a perfect stranger's couch and am hearing all about their life. It really is crazy sometimes how open people are! This lady didn't know us from Eve and she didn't hesitate to let us into her living room and into her heart all in the same hour. We set up a return appointment for this week.

5 Brother Meal Coordinator: I had a conversation with the Twin Knolls missionary meal coordinator's wife last Sunday about Sister Dumas getting her visa and leaving and about how I could very well be transferred too because I've been here for 5 transfers. This conversation evolved and somehow became Sisters Dumas and Poppe are for sure both leaving in a week. Our meal coordinator asked us who our favorite families to eat with are and we figured he just wanted to know for future reference. We told him and he proceeded to text all of them and tell them our last week in the area had arrived and that we have requested to eat our last week of dinners with them. It was very kind of him to schedule all of that. He said he has never had the meal calendar filled so quickly because everyone was eager to feed us one last time. This is all great, except we don't know if I'm actually being transferred or not yet! People are planning to take us out to eat, and are asking what our favorite desserts are, and are telling us to block out a little extra time for dinner because they have something special planned, and all this crazy stuff.  I'm a little afraid I won't be transferred and that this will be one of those awkward situations, like when a couple calls off their wedding two days before it's supposed to happen and they already have all these Williams-Sonoma gift cards and pottery barn bins and stuff. It will definitely be an amazing week though!

6. Piano Kid: One of the employees of the assisted living home has a teenage son who pops in to see her at the end of her shift sometimes.  The boy plays the piano and is very quiet. I was playing on Saturday and he sat next to me and asked if I would teach him to play the song I was playing. He plays by ear and is really very good. He has never had lessons and knows nothing about music theory. It breaks my heart that he has never had lessons. I don't think he has the most stable home life. I sat with him for about 20 minutes and showed him how to play the first four measures and talked to him about school, my mission, and music. At the end of our conversation he said, "Thanks for showing me that, I really like talking to you. You're really nice."  It made me so sad; I don't think he gets talked to very much. I gave him a few more piano tips and told him about the piano tutorials on YouTube for that song that I've seen before.

7: Assisted Living Friends: I don't even know how it happened, but we got some of the assisted living home residents to hiss with us like cats on Wednesday. They even made claws with their hands.  It was hilarious.

8: Sister D and J-Money (aka Jeff, my friend, who is white, who I have never called J-Money until today. It just felt right #thuglyfe):  Through a series of events Sister Dumas saw Jeff on my Facebook and was like, "I know that kid." We ended up figuring out that they were in the same social dance class at BYU and that he was companions with her cousin on his mission. It's crazy how small the Mormon world is!

9. President and Sister Jenkins: Prezzy J and Sister J Jenks came to speak in Thunder Mountain's sacrament meeting yesterday. President Jenkins ended his talk by saying that he doesn't believe the members of that ward don't know how to do missionary work because a vast majority of them are RM's or have sent children on missions. He loving encouraged them to get their act together. He told them he knows that Sister Dumas and I love the ward and are working hard so they should figure out a way to resurrect within themselves the skills to be missionaries. It was so spot on.

10: Charlie Weasley: A family in the ward recently had the wife's brother move in with them. He has come to church pretty regularly for 6 weeks or so. We have talked to the family a few times about where Charlie is at and such and on Sunday they invited us over to teach Charlie! He has already expressed interest in baptism! I don't even know where all these people keep coming from! So many blessings! It's probably because we have transfers in a week; all these amazing things are happening just in time for me to leave.

11: Nug Nug and the Favorite: The two young women in our ward that I mentioned joined our fan club last week are affectionately called Nug Nug and the Favorite (as per their individual requests). They took us out for 50 cent corn dogs at Sonic to celebrate Sister Dumas' one year mark. I ate 6 corn dogs and a small shake as a challenge. I literally thought I was going to die after corn dog number 3, but the champion inside of me wouldn't let me give up and I completed the challenge.  Sister Dumas is a pansy and didn't win like I did. She did tell me how proud of me she was though for finishing. That's true companionship love right there.

(l-r) The Favorite, Sis. Poppe, Sis. Dumas, Nug Nug

On a random note, August 27th marked 11 years since braces were put on my teeth. I'm still grateful that you, dad, and two dental insurance agencies loved me enough to contribute thousands of dollars to the perfecting of my 20 abnormally small teeth. Seriously though, my teeth are beautiful. Thank you.

The Church is True!

Sister Poppe

We baked cookies on our dashboard on Sunday during church.  7 hours later they were just a little doughy in the middle and quite delicious. #112degrees

It Was Most Definitely a Dinosaur Raised From the Dead

We went on a little hike with the Memorial Day Gun family for FHE on Monday. There's a little mountain hill thing that is only like a quarter of a mile hike that the husband has been wanting to climb, so we went with them and got froyo after. 'Twas a good evening for building member trust.

Post Mini-Mountain Hike

Some quotes from the week:

"Sister Poppe has the voice of an angel. When she sits next to me and sings in our pew I cry."-The middle Tony Hawk son

That boy competed in the X-Games and he likes to hear me sing, what is this? I'm not cool enough for sk8ers to like me.

"Did you hear that?"-Sister Dumas

"Yeah, I think it was a chicken."-Sister Poppe
(In the most serious voice I have ever heard in my life)"It was most definitely a dinosaur raised from the dead."-Sister Dumas

So apparently Bryce had to read a postcard I sent him in front of his entire platoon. I don't even remember what I wrote, but I received five letters in the mail on the same day from random boys in Bryce's platoon thanking me for my entertaining postcard that brightened their day. I'm assuming the same drill sergeant that made Bryce read the postcard made the boys write me thank you notes. My companion and I had a good laugh at my plethora of letters from the army that day. 

(Mom’s note:   Amanda should be getting 46 more letters as Bryce’s drill sergeant did make the whole platoon write her letters.  I suggested she divvy up all the letters amongst all the missionaries in her zone so all the boys will get a response.)

I had an exchange this week with my sister training leader, Sister Avanesjan, in her area. It was a super short exchange, not a normal 24 hour one. She is German and a visitor center sister. I really like her. We had a good street contact. The guy wasn't interested, but we talked to him for 15 minutes. I told her at the beginning of our exchange that I'm awful at street contacting and that in our wards we don't have the opportunity to do them very often because it's illegal in the gated communities to proselyte and our other community’s people are never in their driveways or front yards. I said I needed to work on it and I got the opportunity after dinner. She said I'm not awful at it; in fact I'm good at it because I'm not awkward and I can talk about anything. I just get really nervous, so I take that as being awful at it. We also had a really good lesson with an investigator about the priesthood and his concerns. I enjoyed teaching him and answering his questions with Sister A. She said that most sisters don't jump in and teach on exchanges that aren't in their areas because they're too nervous so she was grateful that I actually opened my mouth.

While I was on my exchange, Sister Avanesjan asked if I am a clean person because the sisters we live with called the mission president's wife to complain about Sister Dumas and I and our cleaning habits. I was infuriated! I told Sister A about our apartment and the note we left and everything. I explained that the sisters probably called to complain about my note, not about my cleanliness but that Sister Jenkins may have been confused.  Sister A said, "I told Sister Jenkins that given your personality I would assume that you are actually the cleanest sister in the mission but I would watch you during our exchange to see if you were clean. I've watched you and you seem tidy, but I've never seen your apartment so I figured I would just ask if you're clean and I'm glad I did. I'll call her tomorrow and set the story straight." So she must have called her, because Sister Jenkins called us and asked about our apartment and I just told her how gross it is and that we have talked to the sisters about it more than once.  She called the other sisters and then called us back and said the most beautiful words I've ever heard, "Sister Poppe, I talked to your roommates and I think things are going to be clean from now on. I know it's hard when people have different ideas of what clean is, but from what I've gathered they aren't following the mission guidelines for cleanliness so I talked to them about that and told them they need to follow the cleaning rules. They said they were hurt by the note you left them, but I said that you had talked to them and that in my opinion a note was just the next logical step to try and solve the problem. I sure do appreciate you and your companion's cleanliness and overall hard work, I love you two. Have a great day!" I didn't even get reprimanded for my note! But seriously, is this 4th grade? Who calls the mission president's wife to tattle on another sister because she left a "hurtful note"? It all backfired on them and I am further affirmed in my correctness.  I AM ALWAYS RIGHT.   #owned.  The other sisters have been overly nice since the phone call.

We had a relief society craft night this week that we took an investigator to. The Tony Hawk mom is in charge of activities, so she told us that we could make one of the necklaces for free (they cost 8 dollars). We decided we were going to make missionary necklaces to remember our missions by. Mine turned out super cute! I included a picture, but in case you can't read it, one charm says "sister", another says "AZMM '14-'15", and the last one says "3 Nephi 5:13", which is our mission's scripture.

 

We had a tense lesson with the Hobbit Hole Family about the Word of Wisdom. The father is all about drugs being used for their natural purposes and went on this rant about pharmaceutical companies using drug extracts to get people addicted to prescriptions so they can make money and how pure coca leaves are better for you than prescription pain killers and on and on and on. At one point in time the AZ and US Constitutions were getting thrown around and I about lost it. I quoted part of the 4th article of the Constitution about states' rights to make laws as justification for states having laws prohibiting drugs and then I had to stop myself because missionaries aren't allowed to enter into political discussions.  I would have gone into the rights of the government to create federal laws as well under the interstate trade and commerce clauses but I didn't. Oh man.  Their incorrect interpretations of the Constitution were really grinding my gears.

Things ended on a positive note though. The family said that they do love us and that they are grateful that we enlighten them and listen to their concerns even when they go on rants. The grandpa also asked for a blessing to help him quit drinking and we took a male member with us so he gave him a blessing right then and there in the living room.

We got adventurous and taught some of the ladies at the nursing home how to play Mexican Train. Hazel was being sassy with me because I won two times in a row and she couldn't see the colors on her dominos. The lady is hilarious I love her. Sue tried to run away and said "If I try hard enough I can get into that room they won't let me in (that room being outside; she was trying to get out the front door). If you keep trying you have to make it through! Now let's go. Let's take turns."  She was more impassioned in her delivery than Martin Luther King Jr.

in any of his speeches. It was actually kind of sad; I never want to get old.  Ever.  Just twinkle me like the 3 Nephites.

One of our 18 year old male friends invited us to mission prep. We went and it was actually a great experience. The mission prep class in this stake is crazy awesome! The kids who go regularly are so prepared.  They have a different RM teach a chapter of Preach My Gospel each week; it is a well-run class.

Reese's Puffs were on sale 2 for $5 so that was a little tender mercy #treatyoself.

I baked some Nutella chocolate chip cookies. Baking without a Kitchenaid is so medieval. #spoiledkidcantuseawoodenspoon

Tony Hawk fam is doing well. Harry is getting a little discouraged; he thought he would be baptized by now. I pray for him every day and one of these days both of our prayers will be answered!

I've been studying up on the second coming and it is really interesting, the institute manuals provide good information; check 'em out!

XOXO,

Sister Poppe

                                                    Beautiful Arizona sunset