Elder & Sister Knowles

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