Elder & Sister Knowles

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