Missionary work is 90% spirtual and the other half is physical WEEK 3

 We had an interesting Sunday.  We were asked to pick up a less active member and take her to church.  She is handicapped and in a wheelchair (she was burned in a fire ) and hasn't been to church in a long time.  She would clap whenever they sustained someone and yelled thank you after each speaker.  In R.S. she wanted to sing a solo, answer all the questions, read when they asked for a volunteer, and during S.S. she started talking about how we are reincarnated.  After church she wanted us to take her out for chicken.  We told her if we did they would send us home.  She was pretty upset about that so we are taking her to lunch on Tuesday.  Sunday night we attended a mission devotional where they have new converts ( only a few months or less from their baptism) bear their testimony.  It was really good, and they also have a mission choir sing.  It is pretty impressive to watch and listen to a group of missionaries sing Called to Serve.  The Bensen's (a couple we knew from the temple) were waiting for us so we sat by them.  They are on a church education mission.

     Mon. We were trying to find the D.I. and ended up by the temple in Bellevue.  That is out of our mission so I guess we broke another rule.  The only way we know how to get to Federal Way also takes us out of the mission so we break that rule a lot.  We fed the Elders in our ward Monday night and they showed us how to get there and not go out of the mission.  There were five of them.  It was interesting since we only have four chairs and two bar stools, but we made it work.  We are just getting to know them and two are being transferred tomorrow.  I guess that happens ever 6 weeks so we better get used to it.   One is waiting for a visa so he can go to Taiwan.  I thing he is going to the same mission the Schwieder's (David & Gwen) are in.

 

There are a few Seahawk fans here.   Joyce asked what the 12 was for.  She thought it was just Caden's favorite #

   Tue. We drove to Renton and joined Weight Watchers.  Art is tired of his pants being too tight around the waist.  We took Mary to KFC for lunch.  Did we mention the she is black and very loud.  She is always asking us for money.  When we pulled in to pick her up there were 4 pretty ruff looking guys there, but they were very kind once they found out what we were there for.  We do work in a rough part of Seattle. After lunch we drove to Federal Way to go to the D.I. This time we made it there with only one small detour.  After the D.I. we went to Wal-Mart and while we were shopping a young man came up to us and said he would like the missionaries to come see him and he wanted a Book of Mormon.  They told us in the MTC that this would happen, but we didn't think it would be our 2nd week here.  Won't his friend feel silly when they find out that he contacted the missionaries because they never invited him to hear the message of the restoration.   He said he has friends who are members.  Don't let this happen to you. We sent his information to the mission office so they can send the Elders to him.  Today was the first day that we were able to see Mt. Rainier when we weren't driving so we took a few pictures.  It is impressive when you see it on a clear day.  Don't know how your weather has been, but we had sunshine and 52 degrees today.  When it rains it is cold, in the 30s, but the clear days have been nice.

 

view from the top of our apartment

  Wed.   District meeting today in Skyway.  We had to do more role playing, but we did learn a way to talk to people who are walking their dog or dogs.  I think Seattle is the dog capital of the world.   They just had transfers yesterday so it was a bit unorganized so we fit right in.  We had to run a few errands after the meeting.  We needed to get some cards, refill a few prescriptions and mail some packages.  Lots of waiting in line.  At 4:00 we taught Mary the lesson on the restoration and taught her how to pray.   She really likes Joyce.  I think we are making some progress with her.  This is the first time we have met with her that she didn't ask us for money.  We invited the care giver to sit in with us, but she was cooking dinner and said she would next time.  

     In the evening we had our weekly meeting with the bishop and all the missionaries in the ward.  He gave us a few names to check on after we talk to the ward clerk and find out if they are still in the ward.  Just to give you an idea what our ward is like, there our 91 members serving in callings and 710 without callings.  Some of those no longer are in the ward and that is what we are trying to help with.  The bishops action report was over 20 pages.  

      Thur. Another day of running around trying  to get set up.  We went to the mission office in Maple Valley and picked up a few things that we needed and then did a little shopping in Renton for out apartment.   I think we now have our apartment like we want it except for the shower curtain the leaks onto the floor.  We did our training at the Northwest African American Museum from 6:30 until 9:00 and then home.  We did find a few nice places to eat ethic food and the people in our training group gave us more ideas for places to visit.   They were excited to find out that Joyce was a school teacher since they have a lot of school groups come through and nobody knows what to do with them.  We also found that no one walks to their car alone when it is dark no matter where you are at.  

      We are still trying to get with the ward clerk to check on the ward list, but he doesn't return our calls.  

Seattle at night in the background

Mt. Rainier in the background

Fri.  We started off our day with a trip to the N.A.A.M. (the museum) for a tour of the next exhibit and a meeting with the artist that did the exhibit.  It was on 150 years after the 13th amendment and slavery.  She is kind of an angry lady and the display was kind of dark.  The director told us she was not going to allow the young school kids to see it.  Thank goodness.
    We were able to set up a meeting with our ward mission leader for tomorrow and with our ward clerk on Sunday.  Those two meetings are the ones we have been waiting for so we can get some names of members to go visit.  We also are going to meet the Bensen's tomorrow for lunch.  There are not too many Sr. couples in our mission so we have to stick together.
Sat.  We met with our ward mission leader in the morning and we have a meeting set up with the ward clerk tomorrow, so that now we have been given some names and addresses we can start to visit.  We drove to Auburn and met the Bensen's there and went to lunch with them.  It was cloudy and rainy, but 61 degrees.  

      We are looking for a little help. Not money or anything like that.  We need some stories about when keeping the commandments or a commandment has blessed your life.  If you could email them to us it would be a great help, also remember, those who don't respond may get dropped from the email list. Anyway we love and miss you all. 

                                                                                      Elder and Sister Knowles or Art and Joyce

We do miss the grand kids a little