Elder & Sister Knowles

                                                                                    Week 16   April 19-25

        It is not easy to be a Latter-day Saint. It was not meant to be easy.

                                                                                Elder Q.L.Cook

 Here is our preaching: The standards established by revelation are contained in the scriptures through

 the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The principles of gospel life we follow

 are based on doctrine and the standards accord with the principles.  We are

 bound to the standards by the covenents as administered through the

 ordinances of the gospel by those who have received priesthood authority and

 keys of authority.  We do not set the standards, but we are commanded to teach

 them and maintain them.  Boyd K. Packer

Your assignment for the week is to memorize Jacob 6:12, even the little ones can do this one!

Sunday:  It was Stake Conference today and it was broadcast in the Skyway building so we didn’t have to go to the Stake Center.  Every time they moved the camera we would lose the feed so somebody called them and told them to stop moving the camera.  One of the notes from conference was to open up your home to single members of the church and let them feel of your love and activities, if you cannot open up your home, open up your pew in the chapel and have them sit by you. 50% of the people in our stake are single.  Several members asked where Joyce was last Sunday since she wasn’t in R.S. with Mary (she was teaching Primary).  They said Mary was very disruptive.  We asked the senior sister that was with Mary and she told us that Mary was no different than other times.  Some members just aren’t use to her yet.  The senior sisters had us over for dinner then we all went together to the Mission Devotional in Puyallup.

Monday P-Day:  The Skyway B elders needed us to meet them at the senior sister’s place so they could get their hair cut.  Sister Chamberlain cuts their hair but they have to have three elders present when they are around sister missionaries so they always invite Art along.  Since it was p-day and the weather was good, we drove to Mount Rainier and went on a small hike. 

Most of the park is still closed because of the snow so our choices were limited.  The 10 day forecast is rain every day so today might be are last good day for a while.  We were going to figure out the bus ride, to the church, in West Seattle, but we can do that in the rain.  The Mission President wants us to see if it is easier for members, who ride the bus, to go there instead of the Skyway building.  The hike we found to do at Mt. Rainier was called, “The Grove of the Patriarchs.  It is a hike where the Ohanapecosh River surrounds an island where some of the Douglas fir trees are more than a thousand years old and there are also Western Red Cedar Trees.  The trees were over 200 feet tall and so wide around that you could not get your arms even halfway around them.  Needless to say, we were in our heighth of glory when we discovered this forest!

Tuesday:  No two days are ever the same is Skyway.  We started with a district meeting in the morning with President Eaton and his wife showing up unexpected.  It is always nice to see them.  More role playing on using the Book of Mormon.  Our appointment at the Buddhist Temple was cancelled so we went out and knocked on doors.  One lady told us we had the wrong place then as we were walking away she came back out and invited us in to her home.  She said the person we were looking for did live there. We think they are cousins. We talked for a bit and Art tried out his Tagalog, magandong gabi.  She laughed and said it should be magandong  tanghali.  Good afternoon instead of good evening.  The member wasn’t too excited to have us there but the lady that invited us in said we could come back and she would take a Book of Mormon in Tagalog.  It was raining (Seattle Spit) most of the time we were walking.  A young Chinese girl answered a door and invited us in.  She was less active but very nice to us, not the way less actives treat us. When we were leaving she noticed Joyce’s coat was wet so she got a towel and wiped it off for her.  Our A.R.P. meeting was at 7:00 and it went very well.

  When you use the atonement as the source for addition recovery, the spirit is very strong.  Each week we have a few new people show up.  We had to hurry from that meeting to the Acostas for a lesson.  This is where we don’t understand much of what is said but they are such great lessons.  We even learned a few new words, adobo, obe, maraming salamath and mu sa rap .  They always feed us after the lessons and we feel such a warmth that radiates when Elder Palo teaches. 

Wednesday: On Wednesdays we always do service at Northwest Harvest.  The Elders and Sister now split up and each goes every other week, but we go every week.  We boxed up 6,000 pounds of dried beans.  The senior sisters (they like to be called the elder sisters) and Skyway B rode with us. Northwest is not far from WinCo so we made a quick stop there and then took the elders (sisters and Skyway B) out to lunch at Ivers, down along Lake Washington.  At 4:00 we met with Skyway A elders to teach Ruth and Rubi.  Ruth is getting baptized this Friday so it was mostly just a review.  In the evening we had our meeting with the Bishop.

Thursday:  Thursday is our W.W. day.  We took care of that which was good for Joyce and not for Art.  He shouldn’t have had the fries at Ivers the day before.  The Bishop had given us a food order that we needed to fill and then deliver so we ran to the Bishop Store House and then met Skyway B elders so they could help us with the food and teach a lesson.  It went well and the member committed to go to church on Sunday if we pick him up. It rained all day so we went back home and worked on a few phone calls we needed to make and some e-mails we needed to send out.  Art has to speak on Sunday so he worked on his talk.  Joyce has to play the piano at the baptism so she practiced and we made Emily’s peanut butter rice crispy bars and Rachel’s “pretzel recipe” with Rollo’s and, M&Ms, between everything that we were doing. The pretzels and rice crispy bars are for the baptism.

Friday:  We hate to say it but we were kind of lazy today. We started off with the institute class and then went to breakfast with the Bensons. 

Ruth's baptism

It was pouring rain so we went back home and Joyce worked on practicing the piano (keyboard) and getting ready for the baptism and Art worked on his talk.  We needed to go to the baptism early so we could runoff the music and set up for the refreshments so that took up most of the afternoon and the evening.  The baptism went well with a good turnout.  The ward is very supporting of the new converts.

Saturday: We did another tour at the Museum today.  The tour was for Mount Zions Baptist church in Bremerton, WA.  We were told it would be around 15 people, then maybe 30, but when we arrived there were 47 plus they came early and were waiting for us.  Our plan was to tag team the tour but we had to divide the group and each take a tour.  Large groups are a challenge to keep their attention.  Mostly it went well.  Our appointment to teach with Skyway B Elders didn’t happen so we went and made a few visit that we needed to do.  In the evening, we attended the Stake Dance.  Our ward was in charge and they asked us to help out. 

We helped with setting up decorations and the refreshments.  Art thought his job was to sample everything before, during and after it was served.  With clean up and taking members home it made for a late night, around 12:30.  That is the latest we have been up for a long time.  Thank heaven for tomorrow being Sunday, except for Art having (getting) to talk in church. Love you Art and Joyce