Training for Satan's 5K

As the temperatures have started to decline I have come to learn that I am officially a pansy. The pansifacation process has been happening since my freshman year of college, but I believe it has finally concluded and I am a full blown disgrace to the Midwest. I wore a cardigan on Tuesday because it was only in the 80's, and I sleep and study in a sweatshirt because the 78 degree AC in our apartment is just a little too cold (meanwhile my companion sleeps with a sheet covering half her T-shirt and basketball short clad body). Despite the chill factor, I still refuse to wear pants to bed though so I guess I'm not as near to frost bite as I think I am. Seriously, something is wrong with me. Heaven help me during my first winter back in Minnesota. There will be no need for you to shout, "close the door, it is winter," anymore mom, because I will probably beat you to it.

Hermione's kids haven't been transitioning into family scripture study and FHE very well, so I asked if she wanted us to do an FHE lesson with her family last Monday evening. She basically said good luck and accepted our invitation. Her kids were pretty cold at first, but by the end of the hour they were all enjoying themselves and participating in gospel jeopardy. That night Hermione texted and said, "Thank you both for just being you!! You have helped us have fun as a family! Can we do this again on next Monday too?? And think of a different game to play? I will make something sweet for you both!! Yes I am bribing you both completely. Haha. :)" When I read that text I truly believed for the first time on my mission that I was sent to Mesa to help someone specific. I have become really close with Hermione's family and believe that my entire mission will be worthwhile if they make it to the temple. Hermione told me two weeks ago that whenever and wherever I get married she is making the trip for the big event. I told her she could hasten the process by just finding someone for me to marry. I just love her so much!

We didn't meet with the Tony Hawk fam the week before last because the boys were out of town, so I was excited to see them this week. When we got there the middle boy said, "Now the party has finally arrived," and the oldest boy said, "Poppe! I've missed you." It warmed my heart.  I forgot to tell you guys something awesome! The middle boy filmed an episode of Ridiculousness a few weeks ago with Rob Dyrdek that will air on MTV sometime. I think he also filmed an episode of Fantasy Factory while he was there. He said something about an episode airing in October and one in January he thought. You guys have to DVR the episodes so I can watch them when I'm home! Tony Hawk boy said that in one of the episodes Rob told him that when he retires the Tony Hawk boy gets to take over his shows. I asked if I get to be on them when that happens and Tony Hawk boy said that I can be his Channel Westcoast (with a less obnoxious laugh, clearly)!

Our ox was in the mire so we went to Target on Friday night and purchased a stupid $6.17 plunger. When sister missionaries are in Target on a Friday evening and they only buy a plunger, everyone knows what's up. It was super embarrassing, but I just owned it. I walked with my head held high and looked all the judgers in the face as I swiped my card at the checkout. Haters gonna hate. Judgers gonna judge. Poppe's gonna pop (those clogs out of the pipes). Our toilet has been having problems, so I think there was some buildup or something going on; it took above and beyond normal plunging efforts to fix it. #selfsufficient #preparingforlifelongloneliness

                   

My biggest triumph of the week.

I miss Sister D. It was so easy to have fun with her and be myself. I hope she is enjoying Brazil.

Sue broke her hip and is in the hospital, so the assisted living home was operating at a less entertaining level this week. We still had a good time serving there though. The residents are just so appreciative of the company we provide.

Update on training for Satan's 5K: it is still awful. I try to be positive about it, but by about minute three I already hate everything in the entire world. Mainly I just hate how much of a hindrance I am. We run outside and someone always has to be the slow one with me so I'm not alone. I really despise feeling inadequate and I get to feel that way every morning for half an hour while I bring up the rear of the sister missionary herd. I'm always glad I ran by the end of my work out because it feels good to start my morning that way, but while I'm puttering down University I want to shoot lasers of hate out of my eyes that are strong enough to slice Hummers in half.

Elder Nelson came to speak to our mission with the Scottsdale Mission on Saturday.  We had approximately 500 missionaries in one stake center!  My roommates and I carpooled to the event and arrived two and a half hours early so we could get good seats in the chapel and not in the overflow.  We ended up in the third row!  I swear to you, Elder Nelson peered into my soul no less than three times.   He was accompanied by Elder Foster of the second quorum of the 70 and Elder Hansen and area 70 in the sixth quorum (who also lives in the stake I am serving in).  They gave such wonderful talks.  When Elder Nelson walked in the room was filled with the Spirit and there was no way I could deny that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ.  It was such an unforgettable experience.  We all got to shake his hand before the meeting officially started.  All three men spoke to us about missionary work.  They talked a lot about training a new missionary and how it is the most important calling in a mission and the one in which the most trust is involved.  It was a unique experience for me since I am actually training this transfer and the words he said applied to me.  He motivated me to be the best trainer I can be so that my mission legacy will be in the missionary I train and down through the ones she trains.  I also felt inspired during the meeting that I need to be better at using the scriptures in my teaching.  I have been told so many times that I am such a wonderful teacher that I rely on my own abilities and don't use the scriptures when I teach.  In every lesson we have had in the past few days I have used at least 2 scriptural passages and it has really enhanced my teaching ability.  Elder Nelson invoked a blessing upon us that we will be hard working, obedient, good member missionaries when we get home, safe, and many other things.  It was a powerful meeting.  Our mission president was asked to tell us one thing and he said, "We love you Arizona Mesa Missionaries.  We love you more than you love us." It was so sincere, I will never doubt that my mission president and his wife love me. It made for a wonderful end to our good week.

Love,

Sister Poppe

Because Nug Nug and J-Fizzle have been featured on my blog, MJ wanted to be as well.  She found me after sacrament meeting so we could get a pic for the blog. I love her whole family; they're a family that I will always remember fondly from my mission.

 

I take all of my training duties seriously; especially the ones that involve me introducing my trainee to AZ cuisine. Our first P-Day included a trip to Backyard Taco and Bahama Bucks. No one can accuse me of not teaching Sister D2 what is important!

I finally used part of my Cheesecake Factory gift card to take Sister D2 out for dessert to celebrate her one week anniversary of being in the mission field.

 

 

 

 

There is an Exspecially Pandemic

Hello!

I had four different companions last week, so that was a little exciting! I was with Sister Dumas until she left on Monday at 4, at which point I spent the next 24 hours with the sisters I live with. We did some service in their area and taught a few member families. The people in their wards liked me, so that was nice. On Tuesday the new missionaries arrived and I was asked to host one of them until Wednesday when transfers were. I spent the evening with Sister Harris from St George.  She knows Brooke! She is a really cool girl. The next morning we went to transfer meeting and I was assigned my new companion, Sister Dawson. She is from Cuna, Idaho which is close to Boise (which I learned is pronounced Boy-see, NOT Boy-zee, like I have always said it.  Who knew?). She is 19 and is pretty quiet, but her goal is to become more outspoken and less shy.  We are definitely going to solve that problem while we are together.  She is very nice and sweet though--kind of what I imagine Kourtney Nyberg is like as a missionary.

I decorated Sister Dawson's desk with green things to welcome her to the mission!

               Sister Dawson and I; I forced her to wear green her entire first week

              because she is a greenie. That's a lie, but it would have been hilarious!

When I went to pick up Sister Harris for our evening together, I met a sister who has been out one or two transfers who said, "Oh my gosh!  You're Sister Poppe!  I'm literally fan-girling right now!  I LOVE YOU SO MUCH." I was like, "ah....ha...ha...um, what? Okay, why?"  Apparently she loves my blog.  I LITERALLY HAVE A ONE MEMBER FAN CLUB.  It was the most flattering moment of my life.

There was a record breaking amount of rain last Monday which left a lot of destruction in West Mesa.  My area wasn't affected; we just had full retention basins for a few days. They had missionaries serve with the clean-up and sand bagging all week.  We got to help on Saturday, but there wasn't much for us to do.  They let us loose in a neighborhood and then told us to just knock on every door and see if people needed help.  We were only able to stay for two hours which was too bad, because right when we were leaving they said that they were going to move us to another neighborhood that was hit really hard.  I wish we could have helped people knock out drywall and stuff! The city administration has been very impressed with our efforts though and people in the community have been too.  It has definitely shed a positive light on missionaries and the church in this area.

We had a new inactive family move into the Twin Knolls ward and we went over to visit them on Saturday.  It turns out that the husband actually served a mission. He also graduated from high school with Uncle Kyle.  I told him that Kyle lives in this stake and he had no clue that he wasn't in Queen Creek anymore.  He said the last time he saw him was at their last class reunion and that they talked quite a bit then.  We invited them to church, but they didn't come. His wife isn't a member, so naturally we would love the opportunity to re-activate the husband and baptize the wife. We won't be too pushy though or anything, so we will see what happens.  I'm hoping they get some good home teachers and that that helps the situation.

Let me tell you. The Thunder Mountain Relief Society knows how to do a Super Saturday lunch right!  We had the most delicious food and Costco desserts. Our one investigator in that ward, Lavender Brown, went to the activity with a member so that was good! She is still pretty non-committal, but at least she is making friends in the ward.

Okay, we have a pandemic in this nation and it is not Ebola. It is the ex-specially pandemic.  I did not know until my mission that so many people in this world say the word especially wrong!  It is especially!  Not exspecially!  THERE IS NO X IN THE WORD ANYWHERE.  Even educated people say it wrong.  Seriously.  It is starting to get to me. I just have to love the people though and hope that somehow they come across my blog and realize that they are saying the word wrong and correct their ways, because I can't correct them or they will think I am that one mean, stuck up, grammar Nazi missionary.

We started a new fitness challenge this transfer and I hate my life every morning now.  We are doing the Couch to 5K app as modified by the mission president's wife. It is awful.  I think it should be inhumane to make people run without music.  Running is already my least favorite activity in the world.  I am out of shape, overweight, and lack in the self-confidence category.  When you add in the fact that my heavy breathing and self-loathing thoughts aren't drowned out by Selena Gomez anymore it makes the whole thing even worse.  We are training for a 5K in November.  As if.  I will not be able to run an entire 5K in that short amount of time.  I did decide though that this is probably a necessary life change for me and I will run 6 days a week the rest of my mission and prepare to run a 5K when I get home.  I think 11 months is adequate time to get my (nonexistent) butt into gear.

XOXO,

Sister Poppe

Nug Nug's sister, J-Fizzle and I on her last Sunday before she heads to France to be a nanny for ten months. Also, my new fab dress that I got on sale for $7.50.

A Reese's a Day Keeps Satan Away! Part II

Huzzah for Israel!

Sister D and I hit up Smashburger on Tuesday to celebrate her last week in America. While we were there we ran into a potential investigator, Nug Nug and her sister, and had a random stranger pay for our lunch. I do believe we were meant to be in that restaurant that afternoon. We went back on Thursday to celebrate for real with our district. The elders beat us there and had someone pay for their lunch, but we were about 10 minutes behind them and didn't have the same luck.

                                                         Smashburger!

Our lessons went well again this week. We are killing it here! The best lesson we had all week was with Harry and his fiancé on Saturday night. She opened up to us and is finally ready to take the bull by the horns and get active in the church again! She cried through the entire lesson. I told her that she has enough time to work everything out so she and Harry can go through the temple at the same time a year after he is baptized. This area is thriving and I am excited to announce that I will be staying for another transfer! I was asked to train one of the five new sisters coming into the mission and I am so honored and excited!  I cannot wait to build her up and make her awesome! Camp counselor me is already coming out and I am ready to just love this girl like it ain't nobody's business. Hopefully she likes me. Tony Hawk mom told me it was an answer to her prayers that I am staying and Harry said that he prayed and told Heavenly Father he was going to stop investigating the church if I left. I thought he was joking at first, but he opened up and said that on top of everything else, the thought of getting two new missionaries was unbearable and he really needed me to stay. His fiancé hugged me when we left and whispered, "I'm so glad you're staying, I knew you would, because you're the strong one." Then she told me she loves me. She also gave me a scarf and one to Sister Dumas as well and said they are for us to remember them by (they gave me mine early since I'm apparently never getting transferred). They're supposed to remind us of hugging them when we wrap them around us.  I almost cried. I am starting to get paranoid that people are going to get tired of me though. By the end of this transfer I will be halfway through my mission and will have spent six of my twelve transfers here. Training a new missionary is a two transfer job in most situations as well, so it is even likely that I may stay here for ANOTHER transfer after my sixth. I'm not letting the horse get ahead of the cart though. We will just have to wait and see what happens.

Sister Dumas and I are going to be in a music video! Our TM ward mission leader wrote a missionary song that has been approved by the church and now he is shooting a music video. He took some footage of us teaching Harry and of us knocking on his door. #celebstatus #redcarpet #whenismyinterviewwithellen

I remember grandma telling us the story, Little Black Sambo when I was a kid, and I always thought she just made it up. Well, we were at a family's home the other night and they had a little match book that said "Sambo's Pancakes" with a (white) boy, some tigers, and pancakes on it and I was like, "HOLD THE PHONE WHERE DID YOU GET THIS? MY GRANDMA USED TO TELL ME A STORY ABOUT A BLACK BOY NAMED SAMBO WHO MADE TIGERS RUN IN A CIRCLE TO MAKE BUTTER FOR HIS PANCAKES." They told me about the restaurant and then brought out a children's book with the same story! And here I thought for 23 years that Grandma Margie made the story up. The restaurant made the match packet kid white and took the adjective "black" out of the restaurant name so it was a little more PC. Because white kids are more likely to have confrontations in the jungle with tigers and have mothers who make pancakes. #obvi

So I did your 10 books challenge, mom. I have to point out that I really did list 10 books that "shaped who I am". These aren't necessarily my favorite books, just ones that have shaped my ideology and perspective in some way. Too many people doing this challenge are just listing favorite books.

Top 10 Books (or Book Series) That Have Shaped My Life:

1. The Standard Works---assorted prophets of God (Truly though, these books have had more of an impact on my lifestyle than anything else I've read. They're not always my favorite to peruse, but they're the most influential.) 2. Harry Potter Series---J.K. Rowling 3. Among the Hidden Series---Margaret Haddox(?) (and thus my fear of big government began at a young age) 4. Cabeza de Vaca's Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America (or something like that)---Cabeza de Vaca (you don't truly understand early Native American/European relations until you've read the journal of this struggling Spanish explorer from the 1600's.) 5. All of Jane Austen's novels 6. Barbarian Nurseries (don't remember the author) 7. Ender's Game Books---Orson Scott Card 8. The Things They Carried---Tim O'Brien (this book has taught me more about being a writer than almost anything else I've read. People love it for the history, which I do too, but really O'Brien's writing style is the thing from this novel that changed me.) 9. American Girl Books (my love for American history stemmed from my veracious reading of these novels in kindergarten and first grade) 10. Night---Elie Weissel (I think I just butchered the spelling of his name...life without Google is hard!)

I was asked to sing in a quartet for a fireside on Sunday. Each month there is one fireside that is intended to uplift investigators. The fireside changes locations each month and all missionaries in the mission are encouraged to bring someone to it. I had never been to one because we always had something else going on the evening it was being presented. I loved the three people I sang with. They were all really talented. Quartets are my favorite groups to sing in because it isn't a solo, but everyone is on their own part so people can still hear each individual. I sang alto. I also made the other missionaries color coordinate their outfits with mine so we would look classy like the MoTab. We looked sharp! We took Harry with us and he really enjoyed it. The stake that hosted the event is the one that my friend Peri moved to after she left the mission so I got to see her too. She said that she and the family she is staying with have been praying that I get transferred to their ward. Best case scenario will be that I finish my tenure in the Salt River Stake and then serve the rest of my mission in their ward. Start praying, people!

Spiritual thought: I started the Book of Mormon again last week, and as I was reading in 1st Nephi 17 I had a thought. Nephi and his family just arrived in Bountiful and they are excited because it is beautiful and has an abundance of food. The Lord has blessed them with a comfortable place to rest and prepare for their journey to the America's. I can't imagine how tempting it was to just stay there; they had everything they needed and more. How often do we make the mistake of making a comfortable pit stop permanent? How often do we shortchange the blessings Heavenly Father wants to give us because we believe we have already been given enough and we don't want to work harder to receive the prize He truly wants to give us? I'm sure I have done it before and at times I'm still tempted to do it. A mission really has blessed my life, but there are days I think, "Eh, seven months of experience is enough. I've received a lot of blessings. I just want to pack up and go home and take a nap. Peace out, Mesa." But there are hidden blessings waiting for me at the finish line of 18 months if only I remember this was never where Heavenly Father intended for me to stop.

In the Reese's world, we all know that the larger holiday shaped candies are more delicious than the average cup (I even wrote a blogpost on this my freshman year of college...it is a valid scientific fact--the ratio of peanut butter to chocolate is higher, resulting in a natural increase of joy experienced by your taste buds ). You have your Halloween pumpkins, Christmas trees, Valentine hearts, and Easter eggs; all delicious, but the eggs more so than the rest. As you probably noticed, half the year is jam packed with Reese's friendly holidays, the other half is dead. Its feast or famine mode, and we are about to leave the six months of nothing for the six months of plenty! We are mere weeks away from Reese's pumpkins being released! October until April--six months of heaven sent abundance. I know that you think this has nothing to do with missionary work, but quite the contrary is true; it has everything to do with missionary work. By mailing me, a servant of The Lord, Reese's special edition holiday treats, you are helping The Lord hasten His work! It's also a fact that white chocolate Reese's don't help with hastening the work, they actually slow missionary work, so don't mail those. I think there is going to be a General Conference talk on this in October, so I will have some apostolic backing shortly. And remember, a Reese's a day keeps Satan away!

I bid you adieu,

Sister Poppe

 

Sharks!

 

Hipster sisters 

 

We had a great week at our many wonderful dinner appointments.  One of the highlights was finally getting a waffle and a dirty Diet Dr. Pepper from the Waffle Love truck!

                                          We helped set up for the wedding.
                            Sister D and I weaved the flowers through the arch.

                               Photo booth pics from the wedding in our ward

 

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

Ain’t Nobody Got Time For Trolls!

We had another productive week! I feel so blessed that we have had a lot to do the last month or so because I do not handle down time well.

We started off our week with the Tony Hawk mom. She invited us over last P-Day to make crafts and bake banana bread. It was so nice to be in a kitchen again. I made bread for us, the Tony Hawk family, the Cheesecake Factory mom, and another lady in the ward who we love.

So last week I had a random email from a guy named Trevor Wolfe (I'm not even giving him the dignity of changing his name because as you will see, he is a Troll). He said that he has been trying to get a Book of Mormon from Mormon.org but he hasn't ever had one delivered.  He asked if I could help him out.  Okay, first of all I have no clue how this guy got my personal missionary email address (though I think that the mission addresses are so easy to come up with because most missionary's just have their first.lastname@myldsmail.net that he probably just saw me on Facebook or something and took a guess and it worked). Second of all, I find it highly unlikely that if he has requested a Book of Mormon multiple times that he hasn't received one yet. Mormon.org Book of Mormon requests are sent to missionaries via text messages and they deliver the Book of Mormons.  Those are GOLDEN referrals because people are actually interested and have sought out the gospel on their own.  There is no way that missionaries haven't been by his house if they received a Mormon.org referral. But I decided that it wasn't my place to decide whether this guy was worthy of the gospel or not, so I responded and asked for his information and told him we would get a Book of Mormon to his home. I also told him a little bit about missionary work and about companions and signed Sister Dumas' name on the email as well so that he knew there were two of us communicating with him. He gave me his Facebook address as well, so I added him there and he messaged me right away and wanted to have an online lesson.  Most people don't even know that missionaries can do online lessons so that was pretty fishy as well.  As Sister Dumas and I Facebook crept him we saw that he is a born again Christian who has spent time in Utah preaching to Mormons.  He's also on a crusade against Jehovah Witnesses.  I Facebook messaged him and basically told him that we would love to teach him if he is genuinely interested in learning the truth, but that if he just wants some Mormons to fight with that I personally don't have time for that.  I told him that I saw his Facebook page information and that I wasn't wasting time talking to a guy who was just going to twist my words and try and convince me that I was going to Hell.  He said that he was genuinely interested in learning more so we set up a lesson with him.  We taught him the Restoration lesson via FaceTime and it was so stupid.  He didn't try and fight with us; he played the part of an interested person, but I could tell he was probing for information.  I can read people pretty well and I knew he was acting innocent.  He was probably recording our lesson and we will probably end up in some YouTube video misquoted or something.  I did have a few moments though where the Spirit told me to not say things though, so that was good.  In one instance he asked what things set Mormons apart from other Christian religions and we said really just the Book of Mormon and modern day prophets.  The temple came to my mind and immediately I was prompted to not even bring it up.  I know without a doubt that he wanted us to bring up the temple and that he had some sinister plans with that.  So I didn't mention the temple.  After our lesson I told Sister Dumas this and she said that she couldn't think of anything different which shocked her during the lesson because she always brings up temple marriages when people ask that question and she was stumped as to why she couldn't think of anything to say.  After I shared with her my experience she said that she knows she couldn't think of anything to say because she wasn't supposed to bring up temples.  I'm glad we were both cautious and onboard with that whole situation because it could have been way worse.  He hasn't contacted us since, and we aren't going to do anything more with him because he's an Anti-Mormon troll who picked the wrong people to try and manipulate into giving him the information he wanted. We were confident in everything we said and testified strongly at the end. Take that back to Satan and see what he'll have you do with it T Wolfe!

We went to the temple and it was great! As you know, I ran into Whitney and Jessica.  It was cool; I saw a wedding being photographed on the front steps as we were getting ready to leave and as I walked out I heard someone yell "AMANDA!"  I haven't heard my first name in a long time so I kind of just assumed that a member of the wedding party had my same name. I looked up and saw Jessica snapping pics and Whitney waving at me!  I ran over and hugged them and then we had to go to a meeting at the VC. I saw them after our meeting; it was a nice little tender mercy.

We had a RS activity this week about serving and loving our husbands.  It was based on a book called "The Husband Project" and it is supposed to help your marriage.  They said that they were going to tailor the presentation so that you could apply it to anyone, not just a husband, but it was still pretty husband oriented.  Sister D and I sat at the naughty table and were distracted half the time by the women we were with.  They were hilarious, but they're so disruptive!  We aren't allowed to sit by them in any real church setting because you add Sister D and I to their already loud group and it just gets worse. I liked the core message of the evening though.  Basically if you're having problems with your spouse or a child or a friend, serve them.  If you serve them and choose to not let little things bother you, you will grow to love them. I've found that to be true on a mission with my companions and will definitely use that in marriage!

We have two new members in the "Sisters Poppe and Dumas Youth Fan Club".  They're hilarious girls.  They are Bryce's age.  I found Bryce a wife.  She is 17, hilarious, a little weird, and wears RayBans.  Clearly she will fit in with our family and will be a perfect helpmeet for Bryce. I've got his back. She is actually the girl who called you on Sunday, mom.  She said, "Hey, can I call your mom and just tell her you're awesome and stuff?" Don't be surprised if you get a few random picture messages here and there from that one. She's a riot. The other girl is hilarious too.  Her whole family is funny; they are the ones we ate dinner with last week where the youngest daughter said we were fun because we don't talk about grandma stuff.  These two girls are compiling a list of reasons I shouldn't be transferred and they are going to give it to the mission president this Sunday when he comes to speak in sacrament meeting. We'll see how that goes!

Mom's note:  random picture showed up just yesterday saying, "corndog day".

We had a member of the second quorum of the 70 come and speak with us yesterday and it was really good!  He talked about the basics of the gospel and using our personalities in our missions.  His wife was hilarious and spent her entire time talking about the fact that we were sent to our mission for a reason.  We have experiences in life and characteristics that make us perfect for someone and that is why we are here, so we can't hide those things.  We need to be ourselves and we need to let our uniqueness shine.  I loved it!

Sister D got her visa! She heads out on September 9th! So the likelihood of me staying in this area for another transfer went from 2% to much higher.  I wouldn't be surprised if I'm transferred and I wouldn't be surprised if I stay.  If I do stay I will have spent 6 of the 12 transfers of my mission here; I would be okay with that though!  If I get transferred I have to make people love me again and start a new youth fan club.  Too much work.

Quotes of the Week:

"You need a haircut. It's getting straggly on the ends. Like 4 or 5 inches so it's all the same. It's all over the place."-Hazel our assisted living friend to Sister D. I don't think Hazel understands layers are supposed to make your hair multiple lengths.

"What is central to the Plan of Salvation."-Me

"Central. That means middle. Okay. The holding tank!"-Harry
"Ummm...what?"-Sister D
"I think he means Spirit Prison."-Me in a whisper
"Spirit Prison, Harry?"-Sister D
 "Yeah!"  Hahahahahaha's
"Okay, well no. That isn't it. The atonement is central to the plan of salvation."-Me

"What's a dispensation?"-Me

"Your attitude."-Harry
"Harry! No! We go over this every time. A disposition is your attitude. What is a dispensation?"-Me
"Something with a time."-Harry
"Yes, that's the start. It's a period of time when there's a prophet on the Earth, Harry."-Sister D "A dispensation is when dis prophet is on da Earth."-Me
"I can't even handle you. Did you really just say that?"-Sister D
"Hey! See, now I will remember that!"-Harry

I was planning on giving you an update on our investigators, but this letter is already long so that will have to wait until a time when my letter is shorter!

LOVE!!!!!!

Sister Poppe

P.S.   I don't even know why I wrote LOVE!!!!! so obnoxiously.

Amanda's sassy elder alter ego 

This is Jean who we help with her crossword puzzles 

Light out from under the bushel

Me and Sister D at the temple

there are no words for this 

Collecting chicken eggs after dinner

Mission farewell, he is going to South America

I Carry a Batman and a Screwdriver in my Purse, of Course I'm Winning.

Last Monday we went with a couple on a drive to Canyon Lake for FHE.  The wife asked us a few weeks ago if they could take us on a scenic drive around sunset to see the beauty of the desert outside of the city and we finally went!  I had never thought the desert was beautiful until we took that drive. We stopped to take pictures of the lake and they turned out stunningly. I also got car sick and was dizzy for three days after the trip whenever I stood up after sitting for extended periods of time, but it was worth it. Also, the lake looked familiar; I think we may have gone boating there with Kim and Dean years ago.

                                             Sunset at Canyon Lake

One of our appointments fell through on Wednesday evening, so we helped the YW help an older lady in the ward pack up her home to move.  There were way too many people in her tiny trailer, so I stayed outside and helped a few of the girls trim a Mesquite tree.  Our loppers didn't work very well, so I started just ripping the thin branches off the tree and the girls helped me.  I had a good time talking to them and getting to know them better. One of the girls was Harry's soon to be step daughter. We actually had a really good conversation about their home and different things. She also said that I'm her favorite missionary and it will be weird when I'm eventually transferred and won't be on their couch three times a week. She said I'm her favorite because she actually respects me because I am intelligent. It made me feel good, because we all know that sometimes I struggle with being labeled as "intelligent" instead of "spiritual".  After the service, we had Italian sodas at the YW president’s house and were attacked with water.  Once we were wet we decided to just join in and have a water fight because we were already wet and we weren't technically swimming or taking part in water sports.

 

The assisted living home we serve at got a piano!  There was a hymnbook and a children's song book and a few other books with songs from the 50's and such there. I decided to just play a hymn on a whim and one of the residents, Phil, asked me to keep playing. I played for an hour and toward the end I started singing the hymns I was playing because he started singing. His father-in-law is the man who owns this particular assisted living home and the piano is actually Phil's late wife’s. It was actually a very tender moment; he was so glad someone was playing his wife's piano and enjoyed hearing the hymns.  I played all the hymns I can play, some of the children's songbook songs, and a few pieces I have memorized that aren't church related. You'll have to mail me my pink binder of sheet music, mom, so I can play some more for Phil. By the end of the hour there were 5-6 elderly people sitting in the room just listening. Hazel told me that I play wonderfully and then she told Sister Dumas and me that she loves us before we left. The sassy old women are starting to show affection for us! As we were leaving I realized that even though the residents are old, and many aren't fully there, playing hymns for them may be a seed that was planted that will be harvested on the other side. I know they felt the Spirit as I played; Phil teared up a few times, and they all were nicer to each other than they ever are.

Our new ward mission leader in Thunder Mountain is really magnifying his calling.  He has emailed a million families in the ward and has set up appointments with them. We're excited to start teaching in that area!  Even if it is active members of the church who already have the gospel.

We set up a family mission plan with a Hispanic family in our ward on Friday night.  While we were there we each received a drawing from their son, lots of hugs, ice cream, and an invitation to come back and teach them how to play the game of Life (they own it and don't know how to play). Their kids LOVE us. They run up and hug us every week and always want us to come over. It makes me wish I was serving in South America a little bit. Hispanic people are just so loving!

We were teaching Harry how to do family history the other night and some of the elders in our stake happened to be teaching an investigator in the family history center at the same time. We are supposed to be home at 9:00 every night, unless we're in a lesson, then we can get home at 9:30.  We wrapped up at 9:00 and told Harry goodbye and headed out to our car.  As we were approaching our car, we saw that the light was on in the elders' car and we decided to check to see if the doors were unlocked because if they were we were going to shut their dome light off.  We also decided to put the Pizza Hut sign on their car.  Their doors were unlocked and somehow we decided to just hide in their car to scare them when they came out. We knew that their lesson had to be almost done because it was already a few minutes after 9:00, so I hid in the backseat and Sister D hid in the front passenger seat. We ended up camping out in the car for FORTY FIVE minutes because they stayed in the church FOREVER. Every time we got close to just leaving we decided against it because we had already invested time in the hot, axe scented vehicle. Finally they came out and they had one of the YM with them that had been out with them all night and we scared them. Their reactions weren't as dramatic as we wanted, but it was still hilarious. We saw the YM at mission prep on Sunday and he was telling other YM about our scandalous exploit! We told him he had to stop or we would make him stop.

We really do enjoy mission prep on the Sundays we can make it! I love working with the youth in general and enjoy every opportunity we have to interact with them. We took two YM out with us to Harry's lesson on Saturday and had them teach the entire thing. One leaves in a few weeks for his mission and the other is a recent convert who is planning on serving next summer when he hits his year mark. It's kind of cool because when I first got into this area the youth never wanted to serve with us, now they all want to go out with us. There is a rivalry between a few of the YM in the Twin Knolls Ward and a few of the YM in the Thunder Mountain Ward about who we like more. They fight over who our favorite YM are, which is hilarious, because none of them wanted anything to do with us three months ago! The boy that is prepping to leave in a few weeks on his mission sat by me in Gospel Principles yesterday and Sister D got mad at him for not sitting by her, so now there is a rivalry between us about who the youth like more. Really it isn't a rivalry; it's a one sided competition in which Sister D tries to win. But I'm winning; I carry a Batman and a screwdriver in my purse, of course I'm winning.

We went to a political fundraiser for dinner on Saturday and it was fun! Our less active member invited us and even introduced us as missionaries during the program. We had dinner and then watched a performance of different island dances.

I don't know what it was about yesterday, but it was love the missionaries day or something. Everybody wanted to love us! We got so many hugs and compliments. The YW who is following me on Twitter that I mentioned last week told me we're now best friends and I told her to make a handshake to prove it, and she did! She is hilarious. She's only 13, but I want Bryce to marry her.

I have started studying from the beginning of the Old Testament Institute manual and it is so enlightening!  I really enjoy learning about basic doctrines in a deeper way. I think it has made my studying more productive and I am learning some really cool things about the pre-existence and stuff.

Things are still going well with our investigators.  We are excited that school starts this week because that means more people will be home more regularly.

XOXO,

Sister Poppe

We are teaching a family how to be missionaries.  The couple wants to leave when their daughter graduates in a year and the daughter wants to serve a mission after she graduates as well. We meet with them every Sunday night and give them a mini MTC experience. I mentioned last week that this is the first summer in at least 15 years I haven't made a S'more, so when we arrived yesterday they had everything for S'mores and we made some over the stove.  I was so excited!

                                                    WE ARE COUSINS!!!

    The Hobbit Hole Family let their desert tortoise inside for us to see this week.