Elder & Sister Knowles

                        Week 48 Nov. 29-Dec. 6

                              Joy to the world    

Sunday: 

We had a new member to pick up for church today.  He just moved in and lives up by the N.A.A.M.  Karen didn’t go so we only had two to pick up.  We did take Clarine home.  The meetings were very good with a few investigators there.  There was a pretty small crowd because of Thanksgiving, we think.  Joyce’s lesson went well.  The Acosta’s all went to her class. It was very cold today with lots of fog. We were late leaving the church because Art had to stay and try to figure out tomorrow. The missionaries need us to go to the D.I. in Federal Way tomorrow and we already have a few things we need to do.  Hopefully we can work it all out. By the time we got everyone home it was almost dark, so it was another early night in.  Josh and Jared called and we found out that Josh cut the end of his finger off with the table saw.

 

Monday p-day? We are trying to straighten out the mail so we walked to the Post office for our zip code.  They didn’t know why, we had a problem, but it shouldn’t happen again.  In the meantime, all the mail for two days should have been returned to sender because we didn’t get it.  We hope that is the case, since we were expecting a package on Saturday.  If you did happen to send us anything hopefully it will be returned to you.  We do want to give a big THANK YOU to those who do send us mail or e-mails.  So after the post office we made a trip to Federal Way to pick up a bed for a part-member family the elders are teaching.  While unloading the bed we saw a young lady (Ravyn) that we have been trying to contact so we were able to talk to her and invite her to FHE. Heavenly Father does bless us and put us in the right place at the right time if we ask and then act.   We picked up Ravyn for FHE and she had invited a friend (Summi) to come with her.  FHE was a celebration for Sister Harrisons birthday, which is on Wednesday.  The girls had a good time and when we took them home we invited then to church on Sunday and they said we could pick them up.  Another small miracle. 

Tuesday District meeting:  We had our meeting in the morning.  It is the last meeting for our District Leader, Elder Green, since he goes home in two weeks.  So does Sister Sonosi, who is also in our District. Joyce and her are very close.  Next week is zone training so we won’t meet in districts.  After the meeting we had to take a few pictures and we needed to visit with some of the other missionaries about our plans tonight.  Joyce is play the piano at a baptism tonight and she needed to know the hymns so she can practice and we need to get ARP covered.  After getting all that taken care of we took Elder Green and Samuelson to lunch and home.  It is Karen’s 50^th birthday today and her daughter and granddaughter came to surprise her.  They are staying with us tonight.  They all came to our apartment after lunch so we could give them a key and they could drop their stuff off.  Karen didn’t know they were coming, but we did so we had to keep it a secret.  After lunch and Joyce practicing we ran a few errands and went out for our anniversary (Taco Time).  Our plan was to go to the baptism early so Joyce could practice, but Skyway A called and asked if we could pick up Christine and take her to the baptism.  We ended up with Bethany, Christine and Helena, Christine’s younger sister.  The baptism was all in Spanish but one of the Hermana’s translated for the girls.  It was a family of three that was baptized.  One of the sons had been baptized the week before.  The Spanish branch is very supportive so there was a large crowd.  Sister Eaton was even there.  She talked to us about the Dailey Dose Program.  They are thinking about getting it started around the mission.

Wednesday:  The morning was spent at Northwest Harvest packaging pasta with the Elders.  5,280 pounds of it.  No cheese, just pasta. We did have a very nice surprise there. One of our favorite Elders was sent home seven months ago.  The rumors were that he would come back in six months, but when that time came he never showed up.  Well he was at Northwest Harvest with his companion, back in the same area he left from.  There had been a mix up with his papers so he was delayed a month.  It was so fun to see him again.   We took the Elder Sisters home then hurried to the Acosta’s so we could take Eldrix to the clinic.  All clinics are the same so most of the afternoon was spent there waiting.  This is the first time Eldrix has been seen by a doctor since coming to the U.S.  The Doctor thinks he may have had a stroke when he was in the coma in the Philippines.  His left side is what doesn’t work and his speech is slow.  She referred them to a child’s clinic in Seattle to see if they can do some physical therapy for him.  She thinks they can get him walking, but never back to normal.  At least we are now getting him some kind of help.  It was Sister Harrisons birthday so we went to a Chinese Buffet before our Bishops meeting.  We rode the bus there, which is a little scary at night but we made it okay. Buffets are not our favorite because we always over eat.  You have to get your monies worth and then some.  We did have one interesting think happen as we were walking to the bus stop.  Art has been praying to have chances to show a little charity.  As we were walking across the lot of a gas station, a man came up and said he would give us $5.00 if we would run our credit card through the machine so he could put air in his bike tire.  We said no and he said he would give us any amount we asked for if we would do it.  The machine would only take a credit card.  Not what Art had in mind to show charity.  Any way we didn’t help.  The whole thing looked a little fishy, but this is Rainier Valley.  Karen’s family has gone so we are home alone again. We did have some guy pounding on the door and yelling at the apartment, next to us, in the middle of the night.  Joyce got up but Art slept through it.

Thursday W.W.  We went to the lecture at W. W. but didn’t weigh because of last nights feast.  The rain is back after the few nice days we have had. Since we never had a chance to get anything for our anniversary we decided to shop a little.  Art got a couple of sweaters, he is always cold, and Joyce got a hat and ear rings.  Our plan was to go home and rest before we had to go out again but no luck there.  Skyway B Elders called because the battery was dead in their car and they were stranded.  We took care of them and then drove Karen to Sam’s Club so she could shop for Christmas.  Her family is coming this weekend and she wants to send their present home with them.  She did her shopping and when we went to check out she had forgotten her money.  Art is learning patience along with the charity.  One of the clerks is in our ward and he let us leave the cart and come back later to pay.  We made a trip home, ate supper and took Karen back to Sam’s to pay for her stuff.  We told her she would have to go to the missionary meeting with us because we weren’t going to make two trips to that end of the ward.  The meeting was very good.  We needed to work out a few details about giving investigators rides to church and them staying for all the meetings when they get a ride.  Also a discussion about a couple of investigators who have baptismal dates, but we not too sure if they are ready.

Friday institute:  Are class was very good.  We had a good discussion on following the gospel and the way the world is going.  We did our usual lunch afterward with the Bensons.  Thomas and Joyce we coming over for dinner so most of the afternoon was taken up cooking and making salads, broccoli and snickers plus cleaning and setting the table.  The plan was for all of us to go to the Nativity Program in Maple Valley, but Thomas needed to go somewhere else so only Joyce went with us.  The Program was okay.  There were tons of people there because of all the children’s choirs.

Saturday:  We rode the bus to the temple with Sister Sanchez.  This time we had recommends that worked.  After the temple we walked to Desert Book and also ate lunch.   It poured rain all day and was cold.  Joyce and Art only had one umbrella between them.  You would think they have been here long enough to know better. After shopping and lunch we walked to the Bellevue Stake Center (it’s by the temple) and looked at the nativity display.  It’s like the one we had went to the night before only fancier.  They also have a Discovery Center there like the one in S.L.C.  It was slow so we were able to dock on there and see what it does.  If you ever get a chance to go, do it.  The Missionaries can take investigators there even though it is out of the mission.  That permission came from Salt Lake, that’s how good it is.

Sunday:  We had a very busy Sunday.  We picked up two members and took three home.  One of them was the new member that live by the N.A.A.M.  so it takes a lot of time.  We also made a stop to pick up Ravyn and her friend, but her mom made her stay home and clean her room.  Most of the Acostas were there so Joyce had a good Primary class.  Richel has moved back with her family and was at church so that was an answer to our prayers.  Just to give you an idea of what our ward is like, we had a sister for El Salvador, then a brother from the Philipines and then a sister from Africa bear their testimonies.  All of them are converts.  After getting everyone home, we picked up the Elder Sisters and went to the Christmas Devotional at the Stake Center. 

Preaching:  In this church it is virtually impossible to find anyone who is not a guide of one kind

 or another to his or her fellow members of the flock.  This is part of a quote by Elder Holland that we really like.  As we studied in the Book of Mormon about Alma the Younger remembering the words of his father we have wondered if we are maybe a little lacks in our attitude of how we are teaching.  We want to have the attitude that what we are teaching may be what somebody remembers then they are struggling or teaching others.  Everyone is an investigator at some point in their life and you need to teach by the spirt so they will feel it.  Also, teaching with love doesn’t hurt.

  Love ya Joyce and Art