Monday, May 11, 2015

                                          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



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