Week 23 June 7-13
It is in
the giving that we receive.
Sunday: All of the members and investigators that we
give a ride to church, didn’t want to go to church today. The nice weather is taking a toll. Ned and Nina were here and went to church
with us and Sister Baluca was also at church, so that helped. Ruth and Rubi were there for part of church,
but no Raymark. After church we visited with Ned and Nina and the kids that
called us.
Monday: We spent the day with Ned and Nina at Mount
Rainier. It was a perfect day with no
clouds in the sky, in fact Joyce got very sun burned.
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| White River |
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| Enumclaw, Wa. |
Tuesday: We had Zone Training for two and a half hours
the first thing in the morning with lots of role playing. President Eaton is stressing the importance
of keeping the Sabbath Day holy and we understand that the general authorities
are stressing Sabbath Day observance, as well.
We surely have a testimony of the Sabbath Day and the promised blessings
that come from living it. It’s getting
to be almost fun role playing with the “Elder Sisters” each week… In the
afternoon we needed to go to the Buddhist Temple to meet someone there. On the way we saw one of the Monks we know
(Prinze), so we stopped and gave him a ride.
He is getting his GED this week.
The person we were meeting forgot, but we were able to visit with Soveth
and Prinze for a while. Soveth is becoming
a citizen on the 4th of July.
We had to hurry from there and go to the Salvation Army to help serve
dinner. It is hard to hurry in rush hour
traffic. They have had trouble with fighting the past few nights outside the
Salvation Army, and again tonight. It
must be the hot weather or some are drinking too much, (not water). They won’t let anyone in that has been
drinking alcohol, so there is little trouble inside where we serve. We had to leave from there to go to our ARP
meeting. Attendance there has also
dropped off some since nicer weather has arrived, just like church.
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| 2nd grades at the museum |
Wednesday: It should have been our day at Northwest
Harvest with the Elders, but they needed us to help with a tour of 51 second
grades at the museum. They have the glass
flower exhibit there now instead of the cartoons, and needed a few extra people
to keep an eye on things. The students
were divided into 2 groups and then we divided each group again for the tours. Art took one group and Sharon took the other
for the tours and Joyce and the art teacher (Nate) took the groups through the
flower exhibit. We made if through with nothing being broken. The number one question asked was “when do we
eat lunch”. We talked to a lady during their
lunch who is Muslim (Veronica) and she invited us to come to their Cultural Center
when they celebrate Ramadan on the 20th of June.
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| Doing a little yard work |
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| Sister Driggs |
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| Lunch time at NAAM |
Thursday: We went to W.W. the first thing in the
morning and then to the bank. We had a
little time before our lesson in the afternoon, so after we had cleaned the
apartment and got dinner ready, we did a little service for a member that
needed some weeding done. We had Renee,
Fely and the Skyway B elders over for dinner and a lesson in the evening. It went pretty well. Renee has lots of questions about baptism, so
we told her we would have another lesson.
Afterwards we went with the Elders to our meeting with the ward mission
leader, Brother Kigin. Pray for us when
we ride with Elder Lappaleinen…
Friday: Our last Institute class for the summer was
today. After class we went to Denny’s
again with the Bensons. This time we had
a plan. Joyce had folded some money for
a tip, which we put between two pass along cards. She took it with not too much excitement. The tip alone should have been enough, at
least, for a smile, but no reaction. Oh well we tried. We always get the same waitress at Denny’s
each Friday when we go with the Benson’s and she is really shy, but at least
she knows who we are. The rest of the
day we spent on the streets with fair success.
One couple from Laos let us in and we had a good visit. The hot pads really warm people up, (thanks
Phyllis). They haven’t attended church
for two years, but still consider themselves as members, which is not the usual
response we get from most less active members.
The husband speaks fair English which excited the Elders when we told
them. They need a member who speaks that
language (Lao) to help teach an investigator.
He indicated that he would like to go on a mission someday with his
wife, but for now he must work.
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| Fely and Sister Knowles |
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| Waiting to catch bus 48 home |
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| Green Lake |
Saturday: We rode the bus to our ESL training in
Seattle. The Bus had to make several detours because they were having the
Rocken Roll Marathon today and several of the streets were closed off. It’s an
hour ride, then six hours in class, then a 2 hour ride home, so a lot of
sitting! It was a good class and now we
can start our English class. When we
scheduled the class in April, June 13th seemed so far away. Now it’s come and gone and a lot of the plans
we had before stating our English class still aren’t done. Like the saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a
day. Walking to the bus stop we passed a
store that would be a handy man’s dream. Ann would have loved it, Doug would has
thought, great, one more project. On the way home we got off the bus, for a
little break, and walked around a park on Green Lake. The park was packed with people. The Skyway B elders needed us for
appointments, so we cut the walk short and got back on the bus. Graduation for the University of Washington
was going on so lots of traffic and the bus was crowed and had lots of
stops. That’s why the extra hour going
home. We were almost home when the
Elders sent a text to let us know the appointments had cancelled. We should have been disappointed, but it was
nice to go home and eat and relax. The
Elders did come over later looking for something to eat, so we got to visit
with Elder Lapalinin and Elder Palo.
They are such cute young men and are trying so hard to work diligently
and be obedient. We hope the baptism
this Saturday comes about, because they are such humble elders.
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| Skyway A, Ezekiel, and Skyway B |
Preaching for the week comes
from our Institute Class on Isaiah, which went right along with all that we are
being taught about the Sabbath Day.
Isaiah 1:18 states: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the
Lord: though your sins be as scarlet
(the color of fresh blood, so if your sins are new), they shall be white as
snow; though they be red like crimson (darker, reddish brown blood stains – old
sins that need to be resolved) they shall be as wool.” This is where the sacrament comes in, using
the atonement and the repentance process each week at sacrament meeting. We are having such a hard time getting our
new converts to stay for all three meetings at church. So, we loved it when Brother Holiday, our
institute teacher, talked about the Sabbath.
He talked about the sacrament prayers being a pleading prayer for
nourishment of the atonement and to hunger after obedience and
righteousness. His last name, the word,
Holiday, comes from the name “Holy Day.”
In the Jewish Culture, there were festivals associated with their
Sabbaths, and now days our Sabbath, has become Sunday, which has become the
Week End, which is just a worldly festival in a lot of places. We need to plead for what we need on our Holy
Day for the nourishment of the atonement so that we can feast after spiritual
things and gain an appetite for things that are good for us. One more
scripture: Mosiah 2:31 says: “And now,
my brethren, I would that ye should do as ye have hither to done. As ye
have kept my commandments, and also the commandments of my Father, and have prospered, and have been
kept from falling into the hands of your enemies, even so if ye shall keep the commandments of my
son, or the commandments of God which shall be delivered unto you by him, ye shall prosper in the land, and your
enemies shall have no power over you.”
It’s a pretty good blessing that we get by being obedient and attending
all three hours of our meetings on Sunday.
Enough of that. Have a great
week. We pray for you always,
Love Sister and Elder
Knowles
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