Week 20 May17-23

Our greatest glory lies not in never falling but in getting up every time we fall… Confucius

Here is our preaching:  “One of God’s greatest gifts to us is the joy of trying again, for no failure ever need be final.”  Thomas S. Monson  “Even if we have been a conscious, deliberate sinner or have repeatedly faced failure and disappointment, the moment we decide to try again the Atonement of Christ can help us.  And we need to remember that it is not the Holy Ghost that tells us we’re so far gone that we might as well give up.”  Elder Runland  We have seen this work so many times since we have been here, and we know that it can change people’s lives.

Sunday:  We had a great day at church.  Renee Smith (the lady we met at the bus stop) went with us and Ruth, Rubi, Raymark, and Princes Joy all stayed for Primary.  We stopped by to pick up Mary but she had fallen and couldn’t go.   The elder sisters had us over for supper with Anna (she is an eternal investigator they work with).  After supper we all went to the mission devotional in Auburn.  Since we had Anna with us we could sit in the soft seats.  It was very good, as usual.  The missionary choir is great and this time it was extra special because Elder Nowlin and his wife are going home in July so it is the last time he will direct the choir in the song, “Gethsemane.”  Plus, we have worked with several of the missionaries in the choir, so we are pretty proud when they do well.  They have to sacrifice part of their P-day to practice.

Monday:  We had a good day today.  We had planned to go with the elder sister to the Rodadenrum Gardens but we both ended up with too many other things going on. It seems like those who need help wait until Monday to ask us.  I think it because they get what they need from the Bishop on Sunday. They are doing apartment inspection this week so we cleaned the apartment and the pick-up and went shopping for dinner tomorrow night.  We are having Renee, Fely, and Skyway B elders over for a short lesson and dinner.  

Anna, Joyce and Dale

 At 6:00 we went to FHE and there was a good turnout.  Several less active members and Renee Smith went with us.  It is a good non-threatening environment where we visit and have a short lesson and eat.  Thelma and Horace had birthdays so we celebrated those and had cake and ice cream.  Neither one has any family close by so it was special for them.

Tuesday:  Renee called Joyce early in the morning to see if Joyce wanted to go walk with her. She said she had a lot of questions.  Our district meeting is the first thing on Tuesday.  More role playing about member missionary work which we aren’t involved with.  The good part is that we get to be the members and the young missionaries have to do the role playing.  It was a good meeting.  Since it is the last meeting before transfers it means we may not see some of the elders and sisters for a while if they get transferred out of our zone.  Elder Bagley is going home so for sure we won’t see him for a while.  We had to hurry from there to go teach Joyce Johnson a lesson and then meet her husband (Thomas) at the employment office.  The missionaries at the employment office were having a meeting so we were there longer than planned, so we had to hurry home, by way Grocery Outlet, to get ready for dinner. 

Our District

Art had a lady stop him in the parking lot and ask where the church was and what time it started.  He was feeling pretty good about being so helpful until Joyce told him that he had given her the wrong time for church.  Oh well, she will be late for Sacrament meeting, but early for Sunday School.  For some reason Art has been confused about the time for church the past few weeks.  The dinner went well with Renee, Fely and the elders with a lesson after dinner.  We had to hurry to our ARP meeting and Renee asked if she could go with us.  It was a very good meeting also. 

Wednesday:  We started the day at Northwest Harvest like we do every Wednesday.  Today was with the elders. We boxed apples.   We had the elder sisters with us so after the project we went to Applebees for lunch.  We had a gift certificate to use there.  Sister Swatic said we could plant some garden in her floor beds so while we were in work cloths we took care of that.  We weed them for her so we decided we might as well have something to weed around.   We then walked up to the Buddhist Temple to visit Sovet.  He had been texting to see when we were going to visit him.  When we got there they were all sleeping so we dropped off the fruit we had and walked home.  It worked out ok since we were running behind.  Skyway A wanted Joyce to teach Ruth and Rubi with them at 6:00 and we needed some prep time.  When we got there, their brother hadn’t told them about the appointment so they taught him a lesson about reading the Book of Mormon every day.  Ruth and Rubi showed up at the end of the lesson and promised they would be to primary on Sunday.  They really like Joyce.  We hurried from there to meet with Skyway B elders to teach (to listen to Elder Palo teach in Tagalog) the Acosta family. Only part on them knew about the appointment so they were late which worked out good since the elders were also late.  They are such a fun family to visit.  Several of them have not joined the church yet.  Richel had fallen down some stairs and Maryann has been sick for two weeks so we talked about Priesthood Blessings and they both asked for one. Our day filled up fast and we had several things we wanted to get done, but didn’t make it.  We will have to try and fit them in tomorrow.

Ray Mark, Princes Joy, Elder Lappalien, and Rachel

Thursday:  We stated off at W.W today with ok results, then a quick trip to Sam’s Club for gas and a few groceries.  On the way home we stopped and delivered a Vietnamese Book of Mormon to a lady we had contacted a few weeks ago.  Then it was time to hit the streets.  We rode the train to the area we wanted to work in and when we got off the train, a man stopped us when he saw our name tags.  He had lived in Utah for 4 years and was glad to see us.  He wasn’t a member but he liked Mormons.  We visited for a while and gave him a card with our # in case he wants the missionaries to come see him.  We are not sure where he lives but we know when he rides the train home from work, so we will follow up later.  The first door we knocked on was answered by a very rude lady.  We won’t be going back to her place again.  She happened to be the only person we found at home.  One address had the house torn down and a new foundation being worked on.  Pretty sure the members we were looking for have moved. One of the problems we have is most of the apartments are gated so we can’t get in and there are a lot of apartments to check on.  We stopped at a small Fish & Chips place to get a quick bite and ended up talking to the owner for quite a while. He was so nice to us and gave us extra fish and fries and drinks.  We had a meeting at 7:00 we needed to go to, but all this talking was making us run late.  We could catch a bus close to where we were at so we thought that would be the quickest way to our meeting.  We had to change buses three different times and everything was going well until we got on the last bus.  When it turned and headed into West Seattle we knew we were in trouble.  We got off and walked back to the bus stop and then figured out that we should have went another 50 feet to a second stop and caught a different bus.  By now we were 45 minutes late so we just walked the rest of the way and got there just in time for the closing prayer.   It was a good learning experience.   We now know what bus to take to get to West Seattle, (to bad it’s out of the mission). The elder sisters gave us a ride home so no more buses today.

Friday:

watering the garden

We went to the institute class, in Auburn, first thing in the morning.  While in Auburn, we made a trip to the mall so Joyce could buy some new ear rings.  We were going to help a member at 12:00 until she reschelded for 4:00.  In between class and the 4:00 appointment the housing coordinators came over and brought us some more chairs and cleaning supplies.  We don’t have enough chairs when we have all the elders and an investigator over to eat.    At 4:00 we picked up Joyce Johnson and took her back to the mall, in Auburn. This was during rush hour so it took a long time.  Here is a question for you.  Why do they call it rush hour when all you do is sit in traffic, plus it lasts from 3-6, not a hour?  We knew Joyce needed a ride somewhere but we had a hard time understanding her over the phone.  Language is a problem for us.  We go from talking to someone from Ghana, to the Philippines, Cambodia, Viet Nam, China, Thialand a few East Africains, that we can’t even pronounce what they speak, and then throw in a little Spanish.  Almost forgot, the English that they speak down on Rainier Ave is also hard to understand!  Anyway, Joyce Johnson and Joyce had a great time shopping.  Art sat on the couch. 

Saturday:  We helped clean a members home and then went to a meeting.  When we got there the door was locked so we checked to find we had the wrong day.  The meeting is next week.  We were still in our work cloths and smelled bad so we went home and changed. The pick-up smelt so bad we had to stop and buy some air freshener. After showering and changing we went and taught Mary Hurley a lesson.  She isn’t doing well and won’t be going to church tomorrow.  At 4:00 we went to Wally’s Chowder House, on Puget Sound, for a dinner with most of the senior missionaries. It was for a going home party for the Nowlins. 

Puget Sound

After diner, we walked out on the pier and took a few pictures.  This place is out of the mission, but the senior office missionaries got permission for us to go there. Most of them live in the Seattle area. We got home just in time to meet the Skyway B elders and have a lesson with Renee in our apartment.  She is going to start reading the Book of Mormon with Joyce.  Love you all, Art and Joyce

Cleanest car in the Zone, Skyway B

member support missionaries

Joyce and Eric Johnson 

Spanish Elders and Elder and Sister Masseys( Housing)

Elder and Sister Nowlin (family history and mission nurce)

Sister Kakamuri and Stucki( employment office sisters)

Elder and Sister Milam (office)

Elder and Sister Young ( office ) They are from Rexburg

Planting the gardern 

more stairs 

Art and Bro. Holiday

Horace,Thelma, Joyce and Renee

  Week 19  May 10-16                                                                                               Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Happy Birthday

Sunday:  We struck out with two of our members that we take to church, but Mary did come to church today.  A lot of members thought Mother’s Day was a good reason to stay home.  Several of the members and investigators that did come to church, left right after Sacrament meeting.  All of Joyce’s primary class left, so no class for her, but that was good for Art so Joyce could take care of Mary.  She really enjoyed Sacrament meeting, clapping several times.  When they handed out the Mother’s Day gifts she wanted two, and then would ask for more.  She got mad at Art for treating her like a little kid, so he told her to stop acting like one and he wouldn’t treat her that way.  She was mad because he wouldn’t let her go into the Bishops office and get candy like all the primary kids do.  Joyce was a little down after church because all her class had left after Sacrament Meeting, (it is a problem the missionaries have been working on since they are all recent converts or investigators).   When we got home the Skyway Elders called to tell her happy Birthday and happy Mother’s Day, then the kids called (most of them) so that brightened her day.  Then, Joyce remembered a tender mercy, Ruth and Rubi left, so Joyce went to Sunday school and Relief Society and who should come and sit by her, but Joyce Johnson!  She had come without Thomas, who was working.  Sister Johnson never comes to church, except last week, when Art blessed the baby, so it was such a wonderful surprise when she showed up! 

Monday:  We had to go into Seattle for some business so we rode the train and walked around a bit.  That evening for FHE we brought a cake so we could celebrate Joyce’s birthday.  Art had the lesson so we played Jeopardy with church question (or answers).  That’s what you do for an easy lesson and it was fun for everyone.  

Tuesday:  We had our district meetings in the morning.  We thought we had plenty of time to get there when the D.L.s called and asked us to come early.  A set of sisters was sick so they changed things around at the last minute.  We made it on time, but the Spanish Elders were very late.  They got stuck at a road construction site and they can’t speed because of the black box. All the missionaries sure complain about them, but we think it’s a good thing.  Joyce wanted to return her shoes and we needed to take a Book of Mormon to the clerks at the shoe store because they said they would read the Book of Mormon last time we were there, so we went to the mall.  We ended up keeping her shoes and each of us buying another pair.  We thought we had a Book of Mormon for both clerks, but one was a Bible, which turned out good since the one clerk didn’t know much about the Bible either.   She noticed them in Joyce’s bag and asked if we had brought them for her, so it worked out and we get to make another trip back to the mall with another Book of Mormon.  The mall has a nice food court so we went there for lunch.  We also went shopping for the ward activity on Saturday.  In the evening we had our ARP meeting at 7 and a lesson with the Acosta’s at 8 p.m., both of which went very well!

Wednesday:  We picked up the elder sisters and went to Northwest Harvest for our service project, all sisters and no elders this week.  We boxed pinto beans with a group of 8^th graders. Some of them have a hard time following instructions or they think they know everything.  Oh well, we got it done.  There was only light rain so we went out and knocked on a few door.  We rode the train up from our place then walked back knocking on doors as we went.  One place the Bishop asked us to check on wouldn’t answer the door.  We could hear the TV inside. We were standing on the steps deciding where to go next when a lady came out to smoke.  She was pretty surprised to find us still there.  She hurried back inside and sent her mother out to talk to us.  We didn’t know why the bishop wanted us to check on them, but it became quite clear after talking to her a bit.  She said she would be to church on Sunday, just like the last time we talked to her.  We did find the Dangs home which is a nice family we have been trying to visit for a long time.  We thought about riding the train home, but it was a nice evening so we decided to walk.  It was a lot farther than we thought.  We got home just in time to go to our meeting with the Bishop at 8:30.

Thursday:    We needed to get our area book up to date so we worked on that most of the morning and cleaned the apartment.  The Skyway B elders needed some information we had so they came over and we worked on coordinating our efforts, after we made them lunch.  It was a very nice day so we were back on the streets knocking on doors again with a little success.  Whenever one person answers the door that counts as a success.  At 6:00 we had a lesson with Ruth and Rudi and Skyway A elders.  We decided the lessons go much better with them if Joyce teaches. The elders have a hard time with 9 year olds.  After the lesson we went to our meeting with all the missionaries at the Ward Mission Leaders home at 7 p.m. 

Friday:  We attended the institute class and went to lunch with the Bensons.  Joyce needed to exchange her shoes so we went back to the mall.  The clerk (Marissa) we needed to give the Book of Mormon to wasn’t there, but the other clerk (Rachel) saw it in Joyce’s bag, and asked if it was for Marissa so she said she would give it to her.  Joyce ended up keeping the shoes, but we will need to come back and follow up to see if they have any questions.  There are two other clerks there so we are going to bring them a Book of Mormon also, so they won’t feel left out, but we are not buying anymore shoes.  We needed to do some more shopping for the ward activity tomorrow so that took most of the day, plus checking on some things on the computer we have put off way too long.

Ward Party Masaya

Saturday:   We went to W.W. in the morning since we had missed it on Thursday.  On the way home we had to make a stop for more things for the activity tonight.  We bought some fruit so we could drop it off at the Johnsons.  As we were driving home we could see black smoke pouring up into the sky and we heard all the sirens.  Two houses across the park from us were on fire.  There were flames coming out the roof on both houses and the side of one home was all in flames.  Eight firetruck and a bunch of other outfits came, plus tons of people.  They got the fire out but both homes looked pretty bad.  We hear so many sirens around here that we don’t pay too much attention to them, even when they are on our street, but this was a real fire that got our attention.   We did the ward taxi service to our ward activity in the evening.  Not a great turn out but those who were there had a good time.   Lots of snack food and we played “Minute to Win It” games.  Elder Palo used our phone to call home since he wasn’t able to call on Mother’s Day.  He wanted to talk to his sister who just got her mission call.   He had permission from the President to try today.  When it is Sunday here, it is Monday in the Philippines and his family is at work.  He had trouble tonight because they were all in church when he called, but he finally got hold of them and talked quite a long time. 

Hope Mom is getting stronger every day.  We’ve had Scottie and Taylor on our mind all day and hope all is well. Kumusta

Preaching for the week comes from Elder Renlund’s talk in conference:  Nelson Mandela deflected accolades by saying, “I’m no saint, unless you think a saint is a sinner who keeps trying.”  The invitation to all of us is to repent and keep on trying.  “If we don’t try, we’re just latter day sinners; if we don’t persevere, we’re latter day quitters, and if we don’t

allow others to try, we’re just latter day hypocrites.”  Even though we are called, “Latter Day Saints,” we know we are not perfect.  We loved the story from Shakespeare in the talk about the older brother who attempts to have the younger brother killed.  Yet, the younger brother saves his wicked, older brother’s life.  When the older brother is approached and asked, “Was’t you that did so oft contrive to kill your brother?”  The older brother replied, “Twas I; but tis not I:  I do not shame to tell you what I was, since my conversion so sweetly tastes, being the thing I am.”  We hope that you are becoming what you are meant to be through repentance and by taking the sacrament.  

That has been our week.  It seems like it was slow, but we sure are tired or we are getting older.  Hope all is well with all of you.

 Love Joyce and Art

Northwest Harvest

Mary

 Maganda Othello Park out our front door

                                          Week 18

Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.

Sunday: All of the members that we give rides to church backed out.  This helped because we had a 10:30 meeting to help plan our part for the ward activity for next Saturday.  Art was blessings Brother and Sister Johnson’s baby (Eric Asmoas Johnson) so we wanted to be early.  Church went well, with several investigators there.  The ward started a Gospel Principles class in Tagalog, but the family it was started for wasn’t there.  Several others did attend.    We came home after church so the kids could call us.

Monday P-Day:  The elders were getting haircuts so we had to go over to the senior sister’s place.  It was such a nice day and rain is forecasted for the week, so we went for a drive with the sisters.  Flaming Geyser State Park is not too far away so decided to check it out.  It is also on the way to the Mission office and we needed to stop there.  The park is very nice but the geyser is kind of a dud we thought at first.  Then, a guy came with a lighter.  You have to light it yourself (it emits methane gas) it burns for 10 seconds and is only 9 inches high. We are used to Yellowstone geysers.  There was a nice short hike that we went on to bacteria mats, but the water was cold, so there were none of the wonderful colors that we get at Yellowstone.  We know, we’re spoiled!  The Sisters had never been to Enumclaw so we drove there to see the cool statue of the logger and oxen, and they took us out to lunch!

  Monday evening is the ward FHE so we hurried home for that, but all the members that we give rides to backed out so there was really was no reason to hurry home.  We did have a good time there anyway.

Tuesday:  Zone conference is this week so we didn’t have our Tuesday district meetings. We needed to get the brakes fixed on the pick-up so we dropped it off and rode the bus into Renton for Joyce’s Chiropractor appointment.  She is going to see if he can make her knee and hip feel a little better.  It was cold and rainy most of the day so we worked on some more paper work we needed to get caught up on.  Area books are so fun to keep up.  In the evening was our ARP meeting with a good turn out there as we talked about the atonement and used some of President Uchtdorfs talk from conference.   We are glad we were able to get it stared in the Skyway building and hope it keeps growing. 

Wednesday:  We had our service project at Northwest Harvest first thing with the elders.  The regular volunteers are getting used to us so they are friendlier with us.  We did pasta again, which is a pain, 3,600 pounds of it.  It was a sunny day so we hit the streets after lunch.  We met one very rude person, but the next two were very nice.  One of the addresses was wrong, but the nice lady there talked to us and said we could bring her by a Book of Mormon (in Vietnamese) so we will do that later this week.  We met the Skyway B elders at 7:00 to teach at the Acosta’s and on the way there we talked to a very nice man who was working in his yard.  We learned to call the Rodadenrums, Rodies, if we want to sound like we are from Seattle.  Sister Acota was glad to hear about the class in Tagalog.  The lesson went well and we think the girls will try to go to the temple next week to do baptisms. Not sure though, since we don’t understand all that is said.  Went from there to our meeting with the Bishop.  We rode again with the Elders, and Joyce said that this was the last time…scary!

Thursday:  It was a beautiful day today.  We needed to go into downtown Seattle so we bought a train ticket.  Lucky we bought an all-day pass because when we arrived downtown to get off the train we found we had left the address that we needed in the apartment.  After a trip back home we finally found the place we needed to go.  Since we were downtown we decided to walk around a bit.  The first Thursday of the month is free museum day so we went to the Seattle Art Museum.  We walked around China Town, also.

People will see our name badges so we always get a chance to talk when we are out around people.  We even got a package in the mail today.  Thank you, Nancy and Jerry!  At 6:00 we taught Ruth, Rubi and Joshua a lesson about the temple with the Skyway A elders.  The ward has a youth temple trip planned and we want Joshua to go with his cousins, the Ascotas.  We had to hurry from that meeting to our meeting with all the missionaries at the Ward Mission Leader home.  We got a bunch of new members to visit that have just moved in.  This should keep us out of trouble for a while.

Friday:   Today was our Zone Conference with the Renton and Kent Zones.  It is always good to hear from the Mission President, President Eaton, and his wife.  An Elder from Salt Lake talked about a new system that they installed in all the mission cars that will monitor how the missionaries drive. I guess the church spent enough money on car repairs last year to build two temples.  These devices will keep the missionaries more accountable for the privilege of driving.  The conference was mostly about the atonement and being more consistent with finding.  We love being with the young missionaries even though a lot of the missionary training isn’t for what we do.  We still try to apply the teaching when we can since we are all missionaries.  On the way home we stopped at the mall to shop for Joyce’s birthday.  We had the “elder” sisters with us.  We both bought some better walking shoes and Joyce bought some clothes.  We used our new finding skills and gave away a Book of Mormon and two pass along cards.  We didn’t have a book of Mormon with us so we will need to go back to the Mall so we can give it to the clerk.  The Skyway B elders needed us to go teach with them so we went there after dropping the sisters off.  It was a good lesson with a Filipino sister, Milagros Fabon.  She had lots of questions and we talked a lot about forgiveness.  She wanted a blessing, since she is going to the Philippines for a few weeks.

Saturday:  Happy Birthday Joyce:  We had a service project to day just down the street from us.  They are converting an old Mini-Mart into a free prenatal care clinic.   We were supposed to paint, but they needed other things done first.  Joyce cleaned under the cupboards, (at least a half inch of black yuck) and Art tore up the floor in two bathrooms and grinded the cement on the floors.  The elders cleaned, (including the ceiling and lights,) painted, helped Art, moved cabinets, hung insulation, cleaned windows, lined cupboards, and hung sheetrock.  The whole project is being done with volunteers and donated material.  A sister in our ward, Tara Mudaliar, is in charge, so we are sure we will be back there again. 

 One of the good things is that Joyce found $10.66 while cleaning under the cabinets!  Happy Birthday!  We were going to spend 4 hours there but we ended up staying longer.  It’s going to be an Advil night.  Joyce wanted to go to Borrachinis for her birthday so we rode the train there but it was closed so we ended up at Taco Time. Our plan is to stop at Borrachinis on Monday and pick up a cake for FHE so we can celebrate Joyce’s birthday there.  They make really good cakes that are famous all over Seattle.  The elders have only had the new car system for a day and they are complaining about it already.  They say it takes away their agency.  We say it will save the church money and keep them safer!  Thanks for all the birthday wishes!  The good thing about the day being over is I won’t be as homesick tomorrow as I was today, but it was good hearing from everyone.  Thank you!

Here is a little preaching:  We wanted to talk a little be about the project we did.  The place was very dirty and rundown.   As everyone worked it is slowly become a nice place that will serve many instead of a rundown dirty place. Just as the building changed, the message of the restoration and the atonement of Christ will also change people for the better.  It was interesting to see the elders in work cloths then change into missionary cloths as many had to leave to go teach (Saturdays are prime time for teaching).  They were changing the looks of a building, then going out to change people’s lives.  We are all like the building, a work in progress.  As we apply the atonement in our lives, we will become what Heavenly Fathers want us to be, like him. Romans 12:2……  We know that the gospel plan is true and this is the true church of Jesus Christ.   Love Joyce and Art

flaming geyser