Mail please!

I'm good!! Thank you for the box!! The blanket is soo soft, even though it’s the wrong team!! :) But a good taste of home. Stamps are expensive here!! Honestly, I don't remember how it compares to Puyallup, but everyone says it’s a lot! (It's probably the same.) But I like to write letters- especially to receive letters!! HINT HINT!!!

Viva Las Vegas!! Glad to hear the blessing went well and the boys are safe and sound! Heidi emailed me and sent some pictures too. I'm glad Dave got to enjoy little Julia and baby Benjamin. Uncle Griffin is so lucky to have met them!!! They're going to be so old when I get home and finally meet them!!

I'm glad to hear that the fast went well. Of course I remembered!! He's my Davie! I'm glad you both got blessings. I know it is going to help both of y'all!

Sounds like you had an exciting week! I loved seeing the pictures!! That's something I would like: pictures!!! Of people and friends and life and what y'all are doing!

This week has been kind of slow. It was our bike/walk week. We talked and met with more people, but so far still no one is really a progressing 'gator. Well, do you remember Ethan? He was my first lesson and invitation to be baptized. Anyway, he had family problems that sent him to the other side of Arkansas, but he was still interested in the lessons and wanted to be baptized. So we gave him to the missionaries in that area. He's coming back to Hot Springs! We have an appointment with him on Wednesday to see how he is doing and where we are. I'm excited to see how he's been.

Other than that, nothing super interesting has happened. Oh yeah- we might be moving apartments. The new set of elders is living in our complex and President doesn't approve. Since it's bigger (2 bedrooms) the plan is to move all the elders into their apartment and us somewhere else. It potentially should happen this week. We aren't positive, but for the time being the address to send mail is the same but apartment G-18. 200 Lakeland Dr. G-18 Hot Springs, AR 71913. I'll let you know where our new apartment is next week.

Love y'all!!
Sister Pochop

Scripture of the Week: Alma 17:2-3

2  Now these sons of Mosiah were with Alma at the time the angel ^afirst appeared unto him; therefore Alma did rejoice exceedingly to see his brethren; and what added more to his joy, they were still his brethren in the Lord; yea, and they had waxed strong in the knowledge of the truth; for they were men of a sound understanding and they had ^bsearched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God.

3  But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and ^afasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with ^bpower and authority of God.

 

 

Goodness gracious! Has it already been 2 months??‏

Your favorite missionary is doing pretty good! Sister Zent is doing better. So we are doing better.

We are not quite teaching teaching anyone right now. We have a few potential investigators, but we are trying to nail down appointments with them. The few we have are promising, so as long as they don't stand us up it'll be great! By next week, we will have taught an actual lesson with them, so I will go into more detail. I promise!! :)

The apartment is a 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom kinda deal. I'll take pictures and send them your way next Monday. Same with pictures of my town and the people here.
I love the work and always so grateful for the opportunity to be out here doing the Lord's work.

Oftentimes the best way to be a missionary is through our actions and example. People watch us more closely than any other group. People can see your spirit and the light of Christ that is inside you. Someone we potentially will start teaching can automatically tell a Mormon apart. How? Our smile. She (Paige’s friend) said that Mormon's have the kind of smile that is big and genuine. You never know who might need a smile or kind deed. Just be amazing!!! :)

On Tuesday we had a specialized training. It was with my zone and the zone just north of us. We were able to be taught by the APs and President and Sister Wakolo. We talked about knowledge and how important it is. I forgot my notes, so I can't remember everything about it. I promise that I was listening and paying attention!!
We had exchanges after that. Have I explained those yet? It's when the STLs (Sister Training Leaders) and a companionship of sisters in their zone switch companions for a day. (With elders its the Zone Leaders and elders.) Last exchange I went to Bryant and worked with the Sister there. This time, I stayed in Hot Springs and worked with the Sister here. It was a little nerve-wracking. I planned for the day, and I had to remember where everyone lived! Haha, I got to drive too. The funny part of that is that Sister Zent is about a foot taller than me. I sat in the driver's seat and laughed. I felt very short after that. :) Anyway, exchanges went well. Some of our plans had fallen through and we had gotten back from the meeting later than expected, but it was still good. Sister Esplin had said that she learned a lot from the people we had met with. I learned too. It just goes to show that when you have the Lord in charge and the Holy Ghost be the senior companion, nothing really goes wrong.

Thank you much for the pictures and the videos!!! I loved them and they made me laugh and smile!!! I promise to have more pictures soon!

Love,

Sister Pochop

Scripture of the week: D&C 132:3 (Prepare yourself to be worthy to receive revelation and to learn.)

3  Therefore, prepare thy heart to receive and obey the instructions which I am about to give unto you; for all those who have this law revealed unto them must obey the same.

 

Downtown Hot Springs on St. Patrick's Day - Yes, the water is green!

Lake Ouchita

Not a lot of news.....

April 13, 2015

Your favorite missionary is good. We went to a funeral on Saturday. A memorial service actually. It was for a recent converts daughter. She had cerebral palsy and kidney failure. Inevitable, but still sad. We were there for support and comfort, and hopefully he'll be good soon.

Other than that, the work has been kind of slow. With the other set of elders, they are here for reactivation. So it is still Sister Zent and I, Elder Stokes and his new kid, Elder Hanson. The new ones are Elder Hamblin and Heindinger. We are pretty hopeful for great success in the ward.

I don't want to lose the elders!! Do you know why President Eaton is changing it? How is Brother Larsen???? It he okay?? I hope there aren't any lasting consequences. Congrats to Lindsay!! That's exciting for them!! and the Williams!! Give the kids a hug for me!!!

No longer green!

I am no longer a greenie!!! (Well at least on Wednesday, I won't!) 6 weeks in the field FLEW past!! But that's a good thing since "time flies when you're having fun." :) Honestly though, I love my mission!

Since you've been wondering, a rough schedule of a typical day is

   6:30 wake up and exercise

   7:00 eat and get ready for the day

   8:00 personal study

   9:00 companion study

  10:00 12 week study (just for the new missionaries and their trainers)

  11:00 lunch

  12:00 out being a missionary!!! That includes appointments, proselyting, harvesting (this is basically selective tracting.)

    6:00 Dinner

    7:00 back to work

    9:00 in for the night. Daily planning and preparing for bed.

   10:30 lights out.

REPEAT EVERY SINGLE DAY (pretty much)!!!

But it's all good. Every week we have a meeting of a sort. District meeting, zone meeting, specialized training, or transfer meeting. Just more ways to learn and improve and to become the best missionaries we can be.

Speaking of being the best missionaries, awesome news!! Technically I shouldn't know until transfers, but we were all in the car when our ward mission leader got the call. Hot Springs is getting another set of missionaries!!! Our ward will have 3 sets of missionaries. What's crazy is that they will only be working on reactivation! It's an amazing thing to happen here because there are soo many less actives in this ward. Our ward list has about 750 members. Active is only about 170. So they have their work cut out for them! It's also going to mean that we (the other 2 sets of missionaries) get to focus primarily on teaching and finding!! I'm really excited!!

I love General Conference!!! Just think how lucky we are to live in a time that we can hear from Prophets and Apostles!! As a missionary, I talk to people about that a lot. So this Conference meant more to me than ever before, because I have realized the significance and importance of listening to them. The Prophet and the Apostles are called of God. What they teach and talk about is revelation from our loving Heavenly Father. When we listen to, attend, or read the talks later, remember that. They aren't just some old guys that talk about churchy stuff and don't understand what's going on in life. They are men, called of God, that share His teachings. They know and understand the world better than we do. 20 years ago, The Family: A Proclamation to the World was written and published. 20 years ago, there wasn't a huge controversy about the family. But Heavenly Father knew what was going to happen. He revealed the importance of creating that centralized document for the world to His prophet.

I love y'all, and thanks for the prayers offered in my behalf!!

Sister Pochop

Scripture of the Week: Alma 20:4 (the first half)

4  Now Lamoni said unto Ammon: I know, in the ^astrength of the Lord thou canst do all things.

(Book of Mormon | Alma 20:4)