Week 29 July 19-25
Feed Your
Faith and Doubts will Starve
Sunday: We had a good day, but it has gotten hot again. Two of the investigator didn’t come to
church, but three did and also twelve others we have been working with. We
didn’t stop to see if Mary needed a ride since we didn’t have room for her. She has been in the hospital so we figured
she wouldn’t be going anyway. We took
Joyce Johnson, Eric, Tesloach, Karen, and with Elder and Sister Knowles, we had
a full car load. We then had to do more juggling to get a few extras members
home. So, between all of us eight
missionaries we felt it was a pretty successful day. The fun thing was that the Acosta’s were
leaving after their Sunday School Class in Tagalog, because Sister Acosta
doesn’t understand anything in RS. Joyce
invited them all into her Primary Class.
Ruth and Rubi were delighted. It
was a review game and they got prizes, so it was very enjoyable. Sunshine and Richel asked if Primary was
always this much fun and Ruth and Rubi assured her that it was. Even shy Estrella and Michelle were
contributing and getting prizes because Michelle said she was hungry. The mission devotional was in Maple Valley
and we had two investigators there and five others we work with. When you bring
somebody you get to sit in the soft seats.
We could have taken more there but we didn’t have car room. We put four in our back seat – Estrella,
Sunshine, Michelle, and Eleazar, and still left two at home that wanted to go
if we would have had room. We put Karen
Vargis up front with us, so we were full.
The elder sisters had a car load also or we would have called them. We
need it get the members that are active involved more, but that is one of the
problems we need to work on. Too many of
them don’t have cars, and they are looking for a ride themselves. The mission devotional has lots of music and
videos mixed in with recent convert testimonies, and closing remarks by the
host Stake President and President Eaton.
It is only one hour. It is always
very good and spiritual. Because of the
late night, so sorry, we missed our calls from the kids
Monday
P-day: Elder Goodell came over and helped us put the ward
directory onto the Garmin. After we
finished we took all the Elders to lunch (Goodell, Lappalienen, Walters and
Kidwell). Since we were close to the top
of the mission we took them to the overlook on I-90 and took a few
pictures. We had an appointment to teach
English in the afternoon, but Sister Acosta forgot so we worked on things at
the apartment and did some shopping. In
the evening we met both sets of Elders and helped a member move. Luckily she is staying in the ward since she
is very active. Elder Tavo twisted his ankle, so he couldn’t help. We were going to get him some crutches from
the church, but it got too late and we needed to get the Skyway B elders home
before 9:30. Our planning was a little
off. The move was to be one trip and
ended up being two. The amount of furniture
seems to multiple from what they original tell us. Jennifer Amezucua was very nice and not
demanding, like some, so we didn’t mind the extra trip.
Tuesday: Rain in Seattle! We had district meeting in the morning, but first we had to
get the crutches to the Zone Leaders for Elder Tavo. We couldn’t find them
until Art crawled underneath the stage.
We’ll have to clean that suit. The
rain didn’t last long. By 10:00 the sidewalks were dry. Our meeting was good with lots of role
playing, our favorite thing to do. On
the way home we bought some fried chicken for Mary and stopped by to check on
her. She is not doing well and said she won’t be going to church for a
while. We will have to start checking on
her more often. We took Joyce Johnson to where she works on
Mercer Island to drop off a doctor’s note.
Only problem was she lost the note so we had to go to Seattle first and
get a new note from the doc. It all
worked out with just a short trip out of the mission and we can now say we have
been to Mercer Island. Also we leaned
for the second time to not go west on Madison Ave. It takes forever to go three blocks, even
when it’s not rush hour. We stated our
English class at 6:30 and ARP at 7:00, but no one showed for either one. We did have Karen with us for ARP, but she
wanted us to help her with her homework for her Bible study class that she has
to take, so we all worked on that. Karen
and Joyce Johnson both had appointments with the Bishop so we had to do some
juggling for that. Art stayed at the
church so the Bishop wouldn’t be alone and Joyce and the elder sisters went and
picked up Joyce Johnson. Then we had to
get them both home. Karen has to be in
by 10:00 so we took her home first then back to Joyce’s apartment. It made for a long night but we got it
done.
Wednesday: We picked up the elder sisters and went to Northwest Harvest
to work with the younger sister missionaries.
The worse thing there to do is spaghetti and guess what we did, 3500
pounds of it. We then had to hurry home
and change so we could go to Renton for our interview with President and Sister
Eaton. We do that every 12 weeks or
so. We did get some clarification on
driving out of the mission boundaries for some of the service we do. Mostly it was you don’t need to get
permission each time, but don’t abuse it.
They are very aware of the situation in Skyway. Talking to them is really a testimony builder
and a big shot in the arm. Being around
them makes you want to do better. We
have a pretty full day tomorrow and dinner in the evening so we cleaned the
apartment until time for our next appointment, which was picking up Tesloach
and driving him to Y.M. While Tesloach
was at Y.M. we walked to the bus stop so we could see how long it takes to walk
from there to the church. Since it is
close to Ruth and Rubi’s house, we stopped at the 7-11 and bought them a treat
and took it to them. The walk from the
church to the bus stop takes 15 min. and it’s not that much uphill as we were
told. It is easy if someone wants to attend
church. There is the problem, they use
the walk and the bus ride as the excuse for not attending church. The honest
answer would be “I don’t want to attend church”. Our meeting with the Bishop was short, so we
could take Tesloach home. We did find
out that the Skyway B elders want to have a lesson at our place, with Eleazar
before dinner, so it is going to be a challenge it fit everything in tomorrow. We stayed up late getting stuff ready for
dinner tomorrow because we’re not sure if we will have time tomorrow.
Thursday:
We went to W.W. first thing which wasn’t good. It was too much eating when the kids were
here. We had to hurry then to the museum
for our first indexing class, which no one showed up to. That was a good thing since it took us most
of the time trying to load the program on the computers. They have them locked since they are
public. We got it figured out but
haven’t solved the problem of creating e-mail accounts for guests. We need to figure out how they can access
their e-mail because of the locks on the computer. We have a week to solve it. After the museum we made a run to the Bishops
Storehouse in Kent. We had two orders we
needed to fill. One of the members was
with us and we will deliver the second order later. We came home and got ready for our dinner at
6:00 and squeezed in a lesson at 4:00 with Reymark, Eleazar and Skyway B elders
that went very well. This is the first
lesson the Reymark acted serious. They talked about the priesthood and he wants
to be able to pass the sacrament so we are making progress. If Reymark and Eleazar get baptized, that
will give the ward four active Y.M, (three of which are AcostasJ).
Friday:
Today was a day of
changing plans. We had a picnic planned
with both Acosta families, but that fell through because of weather. We spent the morning doing companion study
since we are very lacks in that area. After lunch we rode the train to an area we
needed to work and hit the streets. We
were able to confirm three addresses out of the seven we went to. We had an appointment for 6:45 then the
elders (Skyway A) called to tell us it was changed to 4:00. This was around 3:00 so we had a problem. We
were about as far from a bus stop or the train as we could be, and still had
one more house to find in the area so we hurried as best we could, but because
of waiting for busses, we got to the appointment as the lesson ended. We were always getting to the bus stops right
after the bus had left so we were late. It was with Rubi, so we guess the elders
haven’t given up on her. We had planned
to have a date night until Skyway B called, so we picked up Eleazar and Reymark
and met the elders at the Bishops home for a lesson on temples. They are both
still committed for baptism in two weeks if they can make it to church on
Sunday. Even though it was later than we
had planned we went home and watched “Meet the Mormons” for our date night. Wow, what a dynamic video, wish we would have
watched it sooner.
Saturday:
Today was our “Fight
Hungry with the Mariners” service activity.
We had gotten permission from President Eaton to go out of the mission
to serve there. The elder sister came to
our place and then we walked over to the train station and met Karen there. We all rode to Safeco Field and met the
Bensons. They were actually on the same
train we were on. The game was close to
being sold out with mostly Blue Jay fans.
We have never seen so much blue in one place. Our job was to stand with a bucket or sign
and collect donations. We also had a few
boxes if someone happen to donate food.
We did that for two and a half hours and were grateful for generous
people. The check in and out place was
on the opposite side from the train station, so lots of walking. They had a raffle for all the volunteers and
Art won a prize. A gift certificate to
Starbucks. He told them to give it away
to someone else. Northwest Harvest
Volunteers collected over $5,000 at Safeco Field before the game. Then, there was a donation for $10,000, so it
was good day! We voted and decided to go
into Seattle and find a place to eat.
The streets were packed. We found
out they were having a march to protest raising the parking fees. After our late lunch (or early dinner) we
rode back to our place, visited for a while and called it a day. The Bensons had stayed in Seattle to do some
shopping so they came later to see our apartment. We walked the Bensons back to
the train and made a trip to Safeway for a soda. The security guard (most of the stores around
here have one) stopped us when he saw our name tags, to tell us he is taking
the lessons in Everett and loves it. It
made a nice ending to a long day. We were glad we hadn’t gone to the game. The Mariners blew a three run lead in the top
of the eighth inning and lost eight to six.
Preaching: Our sacrament meeting was about strengthening families
through habits (traditions), listening, talking, and loving. 1.
Habits & Traditions: have consistent
scripture study, prayer, and singing of church songs. President Kimball said, “You need more than
your own wisdom; you need the help of the Lord.
2. Listen with our hearts, as
well as our ears; and ask what are your challenges, your dreams, and your
fears. 3. Talk and consult with one another in a Family
Home Evening setting each week. Be slow
to anger and control your tongue. The
Savior never said, “Go to your room.” He
did say, “Come follow me.” He never
pushes us away. Let us remember that
when mistakes are made. No one should
hear yelling in the home, unless there is a fireJ
4. Love & Kindness: Say, “I love you,” mean it, and demonstrate
it. Show your love by making someone
breakfast. Why is someone your favorite
person? It is because they are nice and
kind. Be affectionate. Bitterness is a poison only you can
drink. You can repent, but sometimes
what you say can leave scars even though you are sorry. Remember what Albert Einstein said about
life, “You never fail until you stop trying.”
We love you
all so very much and are so grateful for you in our lives and for your prayers!
“Elder and
Sister Knowles”
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