Elder & Sister Knowles

                    Week 27   July 5-July 11

                 Take me out to the ballgame

Sunday:   Today was so fun to have Jacob, Lara, and Mariah with us at church.  We picked up our usual people, so they drove on their own and met us there.  Mary came to church with us and wanted to sing a song when she bore her testimony, but the Bishop stopped her.  She can be a handful some days. We may need to give her another lesson on reverence.  She wants to go visit everyone during the meetings or play with the kids, so she wheels her chair around and is very disruptive.  Mary fell in love with Mariah, especially when she figured out that Mariah was our granddaughter, and Mariah, as young as she is, was very nice to her.  It was very sweet.    Today we find out who is being transferred.  We already know that Elder Ludlow and Sister Keele will be leaving and going home.  Elder Lapolienen sent us a text to tell us he was being transferred so we will miss him, also Elder Pagett.  We will have to wait until Wednesday to find out who else in our zone was transferred.  Ruth and Rubi stayed for primary and Joshua stayed for young mens, so those were pluses.  Also Eleazar came to church and stayed the whole block and Ezekiel received the Priesthood so it was a pretty good day.  After church we drove to beautiful Snoqualmie Falls with Jacob, Lara and Mariah.  We took some gorgeous pictures.

Monday:   We were thankful for Preparation Day!  We went with Jake, Lara and Mariah into Seattle on the train, then rode the bus to the zoo.  On the bus a young lady overheard Jake talking to Jared on the phone about going to the zoo.  She told us she had a membership and could get us in for half price, so we got off the bus with her and she went to the zoo with us. It saved us a lot of money and it is always nice to make a new friend.  After we got in she left to go meet her boyfriend, but we ran into her again so we talked a bit and gave her a pass along card with our number.  It’s encouraging to know there are still lots of nice people around when all we hear about is the bad in the world. Also one of those tender mercies. It is the best zoo we have ever been to, and so fun to be there with a cute little two year old granddaughter!  We were there for several hours and only saw part of it.  We also ran into a set of sister missionaries from the Seattle Mission.  They were in the right mission, we were not. There was an artist there that would draw a cartoon picture of you for $30.00 apiece.  Art wouldn’t pay that price because he said Fritz draws him all the time for free.  After the zoo we rode the bus to Pikes Market and ate at the Crab Pot.  Someone in the ward told us it was a good place to eat and they were right.  We also found the famous gum wall.  We rode the train home and got ready for a lesson at our house with the Skyway B elders.  They brought Jerimiah (a young man they started teaching) over for a lesson and to watch a video.  We think they wanted to use our place because of the internet for the video.  Anyway it was a good lesson.  Jacob and Lara took Mariah to Seward Park.  They didn’t think that she would be a very good asset at a missionary meetingJ

Tuesday:  At 9:00 we needed to have Joyce Johnson at a doctor’s appointment for Eric.  That meant getting to drive into Seattle with the rush hour traffic.  Art couldn’t find a parking place so he dropped everyone off and drove around until he could find a spot.  Eric was fine, but Joyce J. ended up going to the E.R. because of dizziness and a racing heart.  They ran a bunch of test and after several hours let us take her home.  Everything checked out okay.  Since we had waited so long we had time to figure out exactly where we were at in Seattle so we took a different route home that was much easier than the freeway and with less traffic.  While we were gone, Anj, Beau and the kids arrived and rode the train into Seattle with Jake, Lara. And Mariah.  They got home about the same time we did.  Jake, Lara and Mariah packed and headed back to I.F.  Anj, Beau, Braeden, and Lexxi unpacked and we went to our A.R.P. meeting with nobody showing up for it again. Our D.L called to give us an assignment for the meeting tomorrow and let us know who is gone and who is new in the zone.  Elder Lapolienen is still in our zone and our district so we will see him at least once a week.

Wednesday:  Anj and Beau got up early and drove to the zoo.  Beau wanted to experience rush hour traffic.  They bought Seattle passes for five attractions and spent the day in Seattle going to three of them.  They went to the zoo, the Discover Center, and on an Argosy Tour aboard a ship on Puget Sound.  We attended our meetings.  We had an excellent district meeting on the Sabbath Day and met all the new Elders and Sisters in our zone.  We had to run several errands for the English class and find an address for later in the evening. We picked up Tesloach to take him to Young Mens.  They were going on a bike ride and the trail was the address we were looking for.  We thought we were in the right place, but ended up missing the right place by one parking lot.  None of the leaders from our ward showed up so, we stayed to take Tesloach home.  It was such a nice evening we decided to walk the trail while we waited.  The Tiffany Park ward invited Tesloach on their campout this weekend, so we will make arrangement to get him picked up and permission from his father.  They are going caving to the Ape Caves at Mt. St. Helens, so will be a great experience for Tesloach.

Thursday:  We took another p-day since our meeting with our mission leader got cancelled.  We all loaded in the Lowther’s van and drove to Mount Rainier for the day, by way of Enumclaw, where we stopped for a picture by the oxen and logger.  There are fires in British Columbia, so it was very hazy and Mt. Rainier was hard to see, so, after driving to the Sunrise Visitor Center and looking around for a while, we drove to another entrance called Stevens Canyon Entrance and hiked an ancient forest called the Grove of Patriarchs.  The trees are 1000 years old and we could not get our arms around them, even when we all linked together.  There was a cool swinging bridge over the river and the kids even had fun playing on the logs in the river.  On the way home we stopped at Auburn to deliver some tickets and a lady in our ward called us with a gospel question.  It’s nice to know that we are always needed. 

  

Friday: Early in the morning, we rode the Link into Seattle and went to underground Seattle with the Lowthers.  It was pretty cool.  We left them so they could tour some more on their own, using their Seattle passes, and see the Space Needle and the Aquarium.   We came back to Skyway so we could take Tesloach to a campout with the Tiffany Park ward.  It will be fun for him to see the Mt. St. Helens caves, and those scout leaders are so nice to him!  We went back to Seattle and rode the Ferris wheel, ate ice cream, checked out the gum wall, then went to Safeco Field for the ballgame.  It was (Mormon) L.D.S. night so we all got LDS Night/Mariner t-shirts with our tickets, which was cool!  The Bensens met us there, as we had gotten them tickets, as well.  It was a beautiful night, but the Mariners lost 7-3.  Nothing can beat a $10.00 drink at a ballgame and being there with your kids, grandkids, and friends.

Saturday:  Another easy day.  The Lowthers packed up and we all went to the Family Fun Center.  We tried the batting cages, go carts and the trampoline.  Joyce and Alexxis did the Screaming Swing.  We had one last time together for lunch and the Lowther’s headed for home. We called Soveth to see when was a good time to come see him.  He said to come right then so we drove up to the Temple and found they were having a big ceremony.  A famous Monk was about to arrive from Cambodia.  They wanted us to stay but we were on our way to pick up Tesloach from his campout so we had to leave.  They are so nice to us.  Tesloach had a great time.  The leaders and boys were very good to him, which answered our prayers!

Preaching for the week is from Ether 2 and 3 in the Book of Mormon: When the brother of Jared was building the ship, he was very obedient to the Lord and followed instructions, however, he still had questions and concerns.  He had questions about:  1.   Light in the barges, 2. Steering the barges, and 3. Air in the barges.  This shows us that as we obey, we still have questions and we need to ask the Lord for help in prayer.  The Lord answered the last question first, (showing that he doesn’t always answer our inquiries in order.)  He told the brother of Jared to make a hole in the top and also in the bottom of the barges and to stop the holes when water came in, but the one on top could be unstopped at times of smooth sailing and they could get air.  Question number 2 was answered by the Lord as the Lord would take care of the steering of the barges with winds, waves, and floods that would get them to the Promised Land.  Sometimes the Lord just takes care of things for us…  Question number 1 about light had to be repeated by the brother of Jared, showing that sometimes we have to pray for things over and over again.  Then, the Lord asked the brother of Jared what he wanted to do.  The brother of Jared had done his homework, he was humble, and prepared the stones that he needed the Lord to touch.  The brother of Jared asked the Lord for help in this hard obstacle of getting light into the barges, and the Lord was merciful and did answer him by touching the stones. 

From these three questions we learn that the Lord answers our concerns in three ways when we pray to Heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ.  He gives us instructions, He takes care of some things for us, and other times, He gives it back to us by asking us to work it out with His help.  May we all be like the brother of Jared, pray and obey!

Love, Elder and Sister Knowles