Week B46 Jan 18-24

                            Look for the miracles

Preaching:                Slow to Judgement

A lovely little girl was holding two apples with both hands.

Her mom came in and softly asked her little daughter with a smile; my sweetie, could you give your mom one of your apples?

The girl looked up at her mum for some seconds, then she suddenly took a quick bite on one apple, and then quickly on the other.

The mom felt the smile on her face freeze. She tried hard not to reveal her disappointment.

Then the little girl handed one of her bitten apples to her mom, and said: mommy, here you are, this is the sweeter one.

No matter who you are, how experienced you are, and how knowledgeable you think you are, always delay your judgement.

Give others the privilege to explain themselves.

What you see may not be the reality. Never conclude for others.

Which is why we should never only focus on the surface and judge others without understanding them first.

Those who like to pay the bill, do so not because they are loaded but because they value friendship above money.

Those who take the initiative at work, do so not because they are stupid but because they understand the concept of responsibility.

Those who apologize first after a fight, do so not because they are wrong but because they value the people around them.

Those who are willing to help you, do so not because they owe you anything but because they see you as a true friend.

Those who often text you, do so not because they have nothing better to do but because you are in their heart.

Those who take out time to chat with you, does not mean they are jobless or less busy, but they know the importance of keeping in touch. 

One day, all of us will get separated from each other; we will miss our conversations of everything & nothing; the dreams that we had.

Days will pass by, months, years, until this contact becomes rare... One day our children will see our pictures and ask “Who are these people?” And we will smile with invisible tears because a heart is touched with a strong word and we will say: “IT WAS THEM THAT I HAD SOME OF THE BEST DAYS OF MY LIFE WITH”.

Monday Martin Luther King Day:  We had a tour set up for 12:00 and the museum was going to open at 11:00 so we volunteered to go there most of the day.  We rode the bus there and the place was packed.  When it’s free the people come out.  It was so crowded that Stacie said to skip the tour and just walk around and look.   At 12:30 Serinity came and asked if we would try and do a tour for a small group.  We tried but it was very hard with the large crowd.  We hit the main points then told them to walk around on their own.  Since we were up in the top of our area and tours were impossible to do, we decided to leave and make some visits that were close by.  We called Diane Nardi (she used to come to church, but has stopped) to see if she would meet us for lunch at a place where we had visited with the owner and wanted to check up on him.  Diana met us there, but the owner wasn’t working today.  One out of two is good for us.  After eating we started to walk home and then saw a bus that runs close to our place so we got on.  After the bus didn’t turn where we were expecting it to, we checked and found there are two buses with the same # but different routes.  Only Seattle would do this.  Luckily we were able to get off close to the train so we could ride it home.   It was a short stop at home and then to FHE for a going away party for Sister Harrison.  There were a lot there to say good-by.  She will be missed as she goes home on Thursday! She has done a lot of good for the Skyway ward, but it’s nice to know that missionaries do go home, so there is hope for us:)  

Tuesday Temple Day:  Today is the p-day for the missionaries and their yearly temple trip.  The Renton Zone had the 9:00 section so we left early because of the morning traffic.  Even with all the traffic and construction we still made it in plenty of time.  It was special to be in the temple with all the missionaries that we have gotten to know well.  To see them all dressed in white, all the handsome Elders and sweet Sisters, well, it just doesn’t get better than this!   We had a load in our pick-up, and the Elder Sisters each took their car with a load.  After the session, they give the missionaries 1 hour to stay in the celestial room, take picture or visit Desert Book.  They like to do all three so we were a little late in going back to Renton.  We had to go and get our group from inside the store and hurry them along. The weather was nice on the way to the temple, but the rain is back now.   Our English class was at 1:00 and they didn’t leave the store until 12:20.  We were only a few minutes late for our English class.  We don’t have to worry about driving the speed limit like the missionaries do.  The English class was okay.  We lost one student and then picked up another one. Jamal is from Somalia. The two students aren’t on the same level and the lady in charge at Holly Park Library, where we teach, said we were teaching the new student way above where he is at. So, we split up and did some one on one teaching.  We decided we are going to have to come up with two different lesson plans.   After the students left we had a little discussion with the Muslim lady in charge about religion and politics.  She was very nice and reiterated the fact that we are all brothers and sisters, with our common ancestors, Adam and Eve.  We are surely learning to love people of all different colors and nationalities.  What a blessing for us!  In the evening we had the ARP class.  After the class we had to wait while one of the class members talked to the Bishop so we watched a couple of videos on the Mormon Channel with the other person in the class that we needed to transport.  The Bishop needed to give someone a blessing so we stayed while Art helped the Bishop.  It was a great evening. 

Wednesday SLC training:  There was a special broadcast from Salt Lake for missionaries first thing in the morning.  We picked up the sisters and drove to the Stake Center (in the rain of coarse). It was from the church missionary committee.  Elder Anderson: teach repentance, baptize converts by using the Book of Mormon  Elder Bednar: The role of the Holy Ghost in conversion.  Bishop Waddell:  we invite them to act, (action shows faith) they commit, we follow-up.  Sister Oscarson:  How to know what to say  Elder Clayton: working with members  Elder Nelson: working with less active and part member families  Elder Oaks:  He put it all together.  All religions will get us to some kind of glory.  We are so fortunate to be members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.   Our church has the teaching and priesthood authority to get us to the highest degree of glory. We did a lot of note taking and still didn’t get all of it. Sister Harrison wanted help packing so we stopped after the meeting, with the Spanish Elders and packed her car.  They needed Elder Knowles there because there was only one set of missionaries.  We hadn’t eaten yet so we took everyone to lunch.  At 2:00 we had a tour scheduled at the museum with 18  college foreign exchange students.  Small groups are the easiest so we divided them and each took half.  They were from all over the world, many colors and nationalities represented; and we had the best discussions with them.  They were very interesting to talk to.  Then, we worked on English material (thanks Ann) until time for Joyce’s appointment.   We have been here a year and still forget about the traffic in the evening, so we were late to the appointment. After the appointment  we shopped for groceries and attended our meeting with the Bishop.  It’s the last time for Sister Harrison since tomorrow is her official release date.  She is going to visit some sites in Seattle with her family tomorrow and then head home Friday morning. They all want to ride the Big Wheel and see Pike’s Market.  A lady in the ward gave her tickets for the Big Wheel. Two of her sons are here to help drive her home.  

Thursday:  Most Thursdays we go to W.W. but today we are to far behind.  The morning was spent getting ready for our English class and we had a tour at 11:00 at the museum.  The tour was for 50 high school students from Tacoma.  The museum wasn’t expecting us, because no one had signed up for the tour, so they were pretty happy when we showed up. 50 students need to be divided and they were only able to get one other docent.  We divided our tour group, so Art did the Journey Gallery and Joyce did the art exhibit and the exhibit on nuclear power.  High school students are pretty fun because you can get them thinking about things and talking a lot about their feelings.  We had two at our English class, one came, Sarah, that we thought had quit so we weren’t prepared for her. The new student we had on Tuesday didn’t come and he is the one Art had prepared for.   We were glad we had done a lot of preparation in the morning (over prepared) so it was easy to change our plans.  It seems to always work out.  After class we went to the library and checked out a few more books so we can over prepare next week. We figure that by the time we work this all out the class will be over.  The rain wasn’t too bad so we walked to the Acostas from the library to check on the info for Eldrex and school.  As soon as we headed home it started to pour.  There are two construction sites by our place and they are a muddy mess. We feel sorry for the workers there.  We had just enough time for a bite to eat then up to the museum for another tour.  This one was for 7 women from a Relief Home.  They never showed so we left early so we could get to Sam’s Photo lab, before they closed, and pick up an order that had come in.  It was a cup for Sister Harrison with a picture on it.  It came a day earlier than we expected so we were able to get it to her before she leaves tomorrow morning.  The missionary meeting was cancelled for tonight so our last stop was to Joyce Johnson’s.  Joyce reads the Book of Mormon with her and then helps her study for the citizenship test.  We also had a cup for her which she really liked.  

Friday institute: We had a great class today.  Lots of discussion about our Savior, Jesus Christ. Today was a beautiful day, not like yesterday when Sister Harrison was site seeing. She left this morning, so we had Sister Larson and Chamberlain with us.  Sister Larson is Sister Chamberlain’s new companion from Renton Highlands for one month, until her companion gets here from Canada.  After class we went to Dennys as usual and President Eaton’s parents were there, so we got to meet them and visit for a minute.  President Eaton grew up in Auburn where the institute class is.  There were also three Sister missionaries there so we bought their lunch for them.  They were getting the oil changed in their car and decided to come and eat.  We stopped at the Elder Sister’s place and helped Sister Larson with her suit case and then came home.  Joyce wanted to make supper for two ladies in the ward that have new babies.  The afternoon was spent cooking for them, then we couldn’t get ahold of them so we will have to deliver tomorrow.

Saturday:  We had planned to attend W.W. but got the time wrong and they were closed when we got there.   We did get ahold of the two families with the new babies so we delivered the food to them and a small present.  We have a steady rain again today.  We needed to see the Acostas so we walked there in the rain (thanks for the umbrellas Allison) and they weren’t home.  It will have to wait until tomorrow.  Because of the rain we stayed in for the afternoon, and Joyce was able to work on our taxes. At 7 p.m. we got to go be chaperones at the Youth Stake Dance in Renton.  The Skyway ward was in charge and the Young Women’s President asked us to go and help her.  She always has good refreshments so we don’t mind going.  It is the first time that we have been told to watch (during a slow dance) for same gender dancing at a stake dance.   We are pretty sure we haven’t stayed up this late in a long time.  By the time we cleaned up and drove home it was past midnight.  

Sunday:  It was a short night.  We got ready for church and made all of our usual invites to church.  One of our regulars cancelled on us, but we still had a car full with the others we pick up.  We don’t know what we would do if everyone we invite did say yes.  Church was very good, on our ward mission plan and on family history work.  Most of the Acostas were there, so Joyce was a happy girl, and Michelle was sustained as a primary teacher.  She will work with Joyce.  Michelle was very excited to be set a part and be a “real teacher.”  Estrella, Michelle, Donni, Princes Joy, Ruth and Rubi were all there, and then Reymark came in.  He said the opening

prayer for our class and shortly after, the new Young Men’s President came in looking for him.  Brother Munson asked if he could just stay and help me, since Reymark was the only Young man at church.  I was so happy for his help and he helped as we taught them to highlight their  scriptures. Everything is so new and interesting to them!  After church, lunch and a short nap, we went to Seward Park and walked with Karen.  She took a tumble on a wet hill and soaked her Levis, but she still wanted to walk.  Hope she is all right after a hot shower!

     It was a busy week with all the meetings, lessons and tours and the next few weeks will be more of the same.  We don’t seem to be as busy teaching with the Elders now because there isn’t a set working in our area.  Skyway A is suppose to cover both areas, but they are to busy in their own area to be able to do much in ours.  That we hopefully change when we have transfers in a week.  Hope all is well with everyone.  Love Joyce and Art

           Week B47 Jan 11-17

                                             It all works out      

Preaching:  Sister Benson gave us this story and we wanted to pass it along.  Elder Renlund, (a cardiac surgeon), had a man come to Utah to see if he could get some medical help.  The man was in serious condition, and needed a heart transplant.  They waited for a donor heart and it got to the point where the man only had days to live.  A donor heart became available, and the man was able to receive a transplanted heart.  However, his body rejected it and the transplant was not successful.  He was kept alive by machines, waiting for the slim chance that another donor heart would become available.   He started having other problems, and organs started to fail & shut down.  Fortunately, another donor heart become available, and no one else in the West could use this particular heart, and so the man received his second heart transplant.  All was going well with the second transplant, and he was scheduled to be released just 8 days after the surgery.  On the 7^th day, just the day before he would be released from the hospital, Dr. Renlund went into the man’s room at the hospital, and the man was very upset!  Dr. Renlund was thinking of things that could be wrong, and causing the man’s distress and anger.  He asked the man what was wrong, and the man sputtered, “The oatmeal is cold and the milk is warm.”

     This man had been in critical condition, and had almost died 3 times, and yet he was upset about the cold oatmeal.  The man was not grateful for being alive, having the blessings of receiving two donor hearts, surviving the major challenges of two transplants surgeries, the blessings from our Heavenly Father, or that He sent His Son to this earth to Atone for the sins of the world.

      Elder Renlund went on to teach, how often do we see the problems of cold oatmeal in our life, and not appreciate the great blessings-the whole Big picture!  We are all going to have some cold oatmeal in our lives, but we need to remember to see the big picture and count our blessings!  Don’t get stuck and focus only on the cold oatmeal…

Monday:  We let Sister Harrison pick where she wanted to go today since she only has nine days left. This is her last p-day that we can do something.   She chose to go to Snoqualmie Falls, which is just across the mission border.  She wanted to see it before she left Seattle and she is not planning on ever coming back this direction.  The weather was terrible with rain and wind.  We thought we may get some snow since we do get to 1300 feet.  We only stayed at the falls long enough to take a few pictures and then went to the gift shop to warm up.  The wind was blowing so hard it kept turning the umbrellas inside out, which was rather fun! On the way home, we stopped in Maple Valley and ate lunch.  We needed to stop at Wal-Mart on the way home to pick up a few things.  Joyce is planning on putting hearts on the tree (Christmas Tree) so she can leave it up and then change the ornaments each month. Art needed a poster board for his puzzle he is trying to put together.  We are having a bunch over on Sunday and he can’t get it finished by then and we need the table.  It is a hard puzzle, that is keeping him busy, thanks, Allison!  He did get the lego  Space Needle put together that Josh;s family sent; he’s exercising his mind… The rain finally stopped, but was back by the time FHE rolled around.  There wasn’t a real good turnout there.  Sometimes the weather keeps people home.  

Tuesday:  The rain is back in full force and it has turned cold.  At least it is cold for us.   We had our district meeting this morning.  It was a good discussion on teaching with a member present.  Most of the missionaries have the same problem of finding members that will teach with them.  We have a new set of Elders in our district so Art didn’t have to role play as much.  He had to spend some time walking Elder Jones back to other meetings.  He is in a threesome and the other two were in other meetings.  They are very careful about being alone and having at least two Elders together when a sister is around.  After the meeting we had to hurry to our English class.  We still only have Sarah and Joseph attending.  We haven’t heard anymore about the Alaskan fishermen we were expecting.  Joseph and Sarah are on different levels so it is a challenge to teach them together.  Today we worked on long and short vowel sounds, nouns, verbs, adjectives and pronouns.  Joseph can read some, but Sarah not much at all.  After class we got a new library card and checked out some beginner books so we can start reading with Sarah.  Joyce worked on our taxes until time for the ARP class, which only gave her time for a good start.  We only had Karen and the Elder Sister at the class, but it was such a great meeting!  

Wednesday: 

We woke up to lots of rain again.  We were at Northwest Harvest today with the Elders, doing frozen corn on the cob. It really made your hands cold.  Not much was going on in the afternoon so we went to lunch with the Elder Sisters.  Sister Harrison will go home a week from tomorrow so it was her last time at Northwest Harvest.   We stayed in and did some paper work, (Joyce worked on taxes and Art took a nap) until time to pick up the primary girls for achievement days.   Skyway A wanted us to take a family to Bellevue to the Discovery Center.  The Elder Sisters were able to do it since we had Achievement Days.  Achievement Days went well and the girls had a good time.  We did have one problem when we picked up Ravyn.  She had invited three friends and we didn’t have room for them, plus last time she invited a friend they were a bit of a behavioral problem. Since her friends couldn’t come Ravyn decided not to go, but we still had to pick up the 3 others.  Hopefully, next time she will give us a little warning about her friends so we can make arrangements.  The meeting with the Bishop and missionaries was good, but not much is going on in our half of the ward since we no longer have Skyway B.

Thursday W.W.:  The sun was shining today.  We made it to our W.W. meeting then did more shopping for the dinner on Sunday.  We got ready for the English class, walked there, nobody showed up, then walked home.  We’ll have to see what happens next week with the class.  They warned us that sometimes the students don’t show up.  Joseph is from Tanzania and Sarah is from Ethiopia.  We don’t know why they didn’t make it to class. We rode the bus to visit with Joyce Johnson.  Sister Knowles reads the Book of Mormon with her then quizzed her on her citizenship test.  She has study a lot and should do well on it when she takes it in Feb.  It was Richel Acostas birthday today so we walked a card (and present) to her place.  She wasn’t at home so we left it with her dad, Ric.  On the way back home, we ran into Michel and Richel as they were getting off the train.  We were able to visit some and wish Richel a happy birthday.  We had a meeting at the NAAM so we had to skip our missionary meeting.  Our meeting was about all the new things they have going on and the new displays.  It was good for us since we have a tour tomorrow and we haven’t been at the museum for a while.  We had ridden the bus there and one of the other docents, Minnie, gave us a ride home.  She though it was too scary to ride the bus after dark.  

Friday institute:  We had a good institute class about the sacrament, but we had to leave early to get back to the museum on time for a tour.  We got there just a few minutes late and then found out the tour wasn’t for another thirty minutes.  That gave us a little time to brush up on things and plan our attack.  We had 75 students so we divided them into two groups and Joyce did the touring displays and Art did the museum part then we switched groups after 30 minutes.  The groups were still too big and 30 minutes isn’t enough time to cover everything so we just did the best we could.  No other docents would sign up so they were glad to have us at least.  They were fun kids, high school students from Highline.  They were good to discuss and we had good conversation about the displays, art and especially about the new exhibit on nuclear power and the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki.   We stopped at home long enough to grab a bite then picked up the Sisters and drove to the Renton Stake Center for interviews with President and Sister Eaton.  We mostly just visit, but we only get 10 minutes so you can’t say much.  After the interviews we went to dinner with the Sisters, then home and in for the night. Sister Harrison goes home on Thursday so it’s the last time we will get to go out with her.  Joyce has decided to take the tree down so she won’t have to worry about the decorations each month.  She said it would have been fun if she had grandkids to help her.  Now we just need to find a place to store it.

Saturday:  The rain is back.  We spent the morning catching up on a few things that needed doing and cleaning for the dinner tomorrow.  We’re not sure what to do since we may have as many as 20 people and we only have chairs and tables for 12.  Many are a maybe, but we’re praying they all come.  Several are not members that we are trying to work with.  Karen wanted to walk around Seward Park so that got us out of the apartment and onto the bus.  After our walk Karen wanted to take us out for dinner, so we rode the train to Columbia City.  She can only buy cold food with her card so we went to an organic food place and ate in the deli.  We needed to deliver the invitations for the dinner tomorrow so we rode the bus to the green house Acostas,  The Elder Sisters gave us a ride home, (they were on the way to our place to bring us a cake for tomorrow) then we walked to the Holly house Acostas. We came home and spent the rest of the night making a Snickers salad and wrapping potatoes for tomorrow.

Sunday: We  got up at 6 a.m. to make the stroganoff and get ready to leave by 8 to pick up Phillip, Karen and her friend, Diane, so we could get to church by 9.   Church was so good, on using the atonement, that we can never be perfect, but we try and Christ makes up the difference.  I had Estrella, Sunshine, Michelle,to Primary class, as well as my 10 year olds, Ruth and Rubi, and Princes Joy who is 8.  I bribed them with gum for bringing their scriptures so that we could start marking them as we studied the  introduction to the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith history.  They were writing notes in their margins and highlighting as fast as I could write things on the board and we did not get through all of it.  Sunshine said that she loved class and they all said that they learned so much.  I am so glad that we gave them their own scriptures for Christmas and that they will learn how to use them.  I take so much for granted…  We took our people home and then got ready for our dinner party at 1:00.  First Holly house Acosta’s came, then the Elders, then green house Acosta’s came and we had people in the dining room around the table and in the living room around a small table and on the couches and chairs.  It was a delightful party.  We feel so blessed to have them all as our friends.  We ended up with 3 investigators which was good, and 16 people total, so that was good for our small apartment.  The elders gave a short message before they left about the feast we just had and feasting on the words of Christ.  It was good. Then, Joyce took the kids to the park to swing and play on the zip line.  Art entertained the adults at the apartment and especially talked with Irma, Jenefer, and Mary Ann, our investigators, to make them feel comfortable.  We feel like the dinner was a success.  They stayed around and chatted for a long time, even when Joyce got back from the park.  The missionary devotional was in Puyallup, so after visiting with AnJ’s family and Jacob’s family, we picked up the sisters and headed to the devotional.  The investigators that we were to pick up for the Elders cancelled, so we went with just the four of us and it was such a wonderful program that we wished we would have had our carload of investigators come to it.  On well, we have learned that all we as missionaries can do is to invite, and people have their agency. We also got to see some of the missionaries that have been transferred  to that area.  

Love Joyce and Art  

                  Week B48  Jan. 4-10

                                Why are calendars sad?

Preaching: President McKinney gave us some notes he had put together from our meeting with him about mission preparedness. We sent most of it to those we thought might use them but here are a few that we wanted to pass along.  He made his notes after he talked to several missionaries asking them what they wish they had done better to prepare for a mission.  Most of it applies to everyone not just future missionaries.  1. Read the Book of Mormon every day then study it (We have made a commitment to do this so when we are 100 we can say we have read from the Book of Mormon every day for the last 40 years) 2. Develop Christ like attributes  3.  Make the scriptures your stress reliever 4. More thoughtful and purposeful prayers (no soft prayers)  5. Develop social skills: talk to people, be interested in them and ask questions.  One of the great blessing of the gospel is that we can start working  on all these whether you’re 8 or 60 or 80.  Because of the atonement we can succeed.  We know this is true.

Monday p-day:

  We drove to Enumclaw to visit Sister Foster and take her out to lunch.  Enumclaw is a little higher in elevation (900 feet) so they had a little snow on the ground.  Sister Foster is missing the Skyway ward so she enjoyed the visit.   In the evening we attended FHE.  Joyce had to give the lesson, which was on Handel’s Messiah.  A lady was waiting in the parking lot waiting for a friend and one of the members invited her to come and join us so she did and ended up staying the whole time. When her friend came to get her she invited him in but he wouldn’t stay so he left her there.   We invited her to church, but she wouldn’t commit but she is interested in doing some family history.  She was in the parking lot because she thought the church would be a safe place to wait. (We’re not sure there is a safe place in Skyway.)   Her whole story is a little strange and changes.  We think maybe she just wanted to get warm and something to eat.  Time will tell.  We’ll see if she come back or comes to church on Sunday.

Tuesday Zone training:  We went to our zone meeting this morning.  Lots of role playing, and we got some good ideas for helping a few of those we are working with.  The time was moved back an hour so we had to leave early to go teach our English class.  We usually go from 9:00 to 12:00 but they changed to 10:00 to 1:00.  Our English class was our first for the Literary Council.  It was at the East African Cultural Center.

We were expecting five but only one showed up.  They said that’s normal.  People kind of come and go because of their changing schedules.  The Spanish Elders have a man that is interested and they said we could invite him.  We do have to put one more Daily Dose book together for the Spanish Elders, since the Hermana’s took the one for our Zone.  We’re just glad the missionaries are going to use them.  Our 3:00 appointment with Skyway Elders cancelled again.  We think the Elders are going to drop her since she keeps cancelling.  After our first lesson with her we wondered how interested she was.  She seemed to pay more attention to her cats than to the lesson.  Our plan was to teach her in our apartment so she could be more focused on the lesson, but she keeps cancelling. No one showed up to the ARP class which happens once in a while.  Joyce spent the evening making rice bags for a sister missionary (another favorite, she is experiencing terrible headaches) and another  sister we are working with.  Pray for the missionaries.  They work so hard and things don’t always go as planned.  It’s something to do with agency, choose wisely!  Working with them is one of the highlights and blessings of our mission.  Today is the official one year mark for the mission.  We still have a bunch of things we want to get done and we are worried that we may run out of time.  The next three months are already filling up with appointments and we need to get back out knocking on doors and making some visits.  

Wednesday Northwest Harvest: 

We had a fun time doing service today.  At first they wanted all the missionaries to stay and decorate, but one of the worker needed us for another project.  Art was worried he was going to have to color posters.  We ended up doing  three squares.  It’s a bag with three meals in it that they send home with school kids for the weekend.  They needed 120 cases, but we only got 520 bags done in 2 hours, which is better than they hoped for. That’s a little over half of what they need.  An afternoon shift will do the rest.  They kept us all together plus a few of the regulars.  We worked with the sister missionaries.  It will be the last time we get to work with them before transfers  because of a special meeting from SLC that we attend in two weeks.  The Elder Sisters were with us as always on our service day and we needed to drive to Kent for a meeting with President McKinney.  There were two new sister missionaries there. One is serving from her home, Sister Durham, as a Mental Heath Councilor for the mission, and the other, Sister Larson, is going to be Sister Chamberlains companion for a month when Sister Harrison goes home in two weeks.  Sister Beck, Sister Chamberlain’s permanent companion is being delayed because of a Visa problem.  She is from Canada.  We had a good meeting on mission preparation.  After the meeting we went to lunch then home.  We weren’t home long since we needed to take Karen to the E.R. in Renton. Karen was going to take the bus, but wanted Joyce with her for support.  She was worried about letting the doctor give her pain meds, which is an addiction problem for her. Joyce is a big support for her.

With the traffic and the waiting in the hospital all the evening was taken up.  We did get home in time for our meeting with the Bishop at 8:30, but there was no power in Karen’s building so we ended up helping her.  We had to get her a flashlight and more moral support.  We were tired and anyway, we missed the meeting.

Thursday:  We skipped W.W. this morning because we needed to check on school for Eldrex. Plus Art ate a lot of chocolate yesterday.  (Sister Chamberlain had a gift certificate to See’s and it is on the way from Northwest Harvest to the Kent Stake Center). They give free samples and they like us so we each got two samples and everyone gives Art the extra sample. The school turned out to be more than we thought, with a dozen forms to fill out.  We needed a bunch of info from Sister Acosta and we have to send it to the district office.  It took most of the afternoon filling out forms with Estrella and Eleazar helped a lot.  We put it all together and now we needed to find a place to fax it all to the district office as soon as we can get the immunization record.  Our English class was fun.  We have never seen the Alaskan fishermen we were supposed to have, but we do have two from East Africa. They are both a little more advanced than we had planned on so we will have to do some different  lesson plans.  It is rather fun, plus we are learning a lot about other countries.   Our missionary meeting in the evening, went well.  

Friday institute: We had a great class today on Christ and the apostles, and then went to breakfast with the sisters and the Bensons. The fog was terrible but burned off by the time we got back to Skyway.  We did a lot of running around trying to get immunization records and the paper work for Eldrex finished and faxed to the Seattle School District, which we did get done around 5:00.  Sister Acosta sent Joyce home with a cute sweater top for her to wear to church on Sunday.  That was so nice of them, money is so tight for them.  Most of the evening was spent on the phone trying to get tomorrow put together and tying up some loose ends.  

Saturday:  We rode the bus to Bellevue to the temple with Sister Sanchez.  That took up most of the day.  She is so nice and appreciates us very much, so it’s a win win situation.  On the way back to Renton, we got off of the bus early so that we could go  to Staples and  get the copies we needed for the Spanish Elders to teach English in the evening.  We got home  and we put what we could together for them and then they stopped by to pick it up.  The plan is to have the missionaries teach the first 12 English lessons and then we will take over if they want us to.  We just try to help where they need us.

Sunday:  We only needed to pick up Bro. Sprenkler for church. Everyone else either said no or didn’t call us back after we called and left messages. 

Church being at 9 a.m. is hard on people that like to sleep in.  It was our ward conference so there was a big crowd with all the stake people there. We had talks on following the prophets.  Prophets declare their message without fear of criticism because often they are not popular with the world.  We should pray for them, study and listen to their lessons, and follow their council.  Then, we will stand out from the crowd because we dress modestly, do not appreciate or tell off colored jokes, do not use profanity, watch clean media, and have light in our countenances.  By following the prophets we will attract those who would follow Jesus Christ.  We also had lessons on keeping the Sabbath Day holy and receiving personal revelation.  Joyce taught her primary class with 9 Acostas plus Donnie and Jaida.   They had fun popping balloons and answering questions, (but Brother David came to check on them when he heard the noise…:)) The Elder Sisters had us over with the young elders for dinner.  We only have one set now, but it is a threesome (the three amigos).  We had a good time.  

That has been pretty much our week.  Hope all has been well with all of you.

Love Art and Joyce

P.S.  Because their days are numbered:)

        Week B49  Dec. 28 - Jan. 3

         Have I done any good in the world today???

Preaching: Some notes from Wednesday, our Sabbath Day training done by President and Sister Eaton:  The doctrine of the Sabbath Day is faith, which consists of: 1.  The belief in the Sabbath as taught by Ezekiel 20:20 in the Old Testament:  “And hallow my sabbaths; they shall be a sign between me and you, that ye may know that I am the Lord your God.” 2.  The work of sacrificing to come to church, all three meetings, to show your love of the Savior.  The observance of the Sabbath, keeping it a holy day , is a sign between Latter Day Saints and God! 3.  The trust in the Lord of His blessing of eternal life for those who follow His commandments.  We must become His people!  Keeping the Sabbath Day will sanctify us and allow the Holy Ghost to be our constant companion as we become clean through the sacrament each week. The cleansing power of the sacrament keeps us unspotted from the world.  The sacrament is the ordinance most done of any ordinance, so must be important to cleanse us in our repentant process.  It is the time we are cleansed from sin and seek to become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become. It is a very personal ordinance, to take upon us, Christ’s name, and always remember Him, to submit to His will for us, because He can make a lot more out of our lives than we can without Him. Covenants are not stagnant, and the sacrament is a time of re covenanting to the Lord of baptismal covenants.  Teach the why of the sacrament to children and ask them how they can show reverence. 1 Corinthians 11:28   Partake of the sacrament with faith and prepare to be washed clean.  Hunger to partake of the sacrament and to return and report each week during the sacrament, to stay clean and always try hard.  Question:  What will I do to partake of the sacrament with greater faith?  

Monday p-day: 

Joyce had a dentist appointment at 8:30 so that got us going early.  Looks like it will be macaroni  without cheese for the next month or so, with the dentist bill.  We came back to the apartment and Art spent time putting the English material together and Joyce hemmed some dresses for Sister Acosta.  At 1:00 we took Ruth and Rubi to the mall to shop.  Art went to the food court and Joyce and the girls went shopping.  The shopping was a reward and a good way to spend our Preparation Day.  We went to FHE in the evening.  Ravyn and her friend went with us.  Our good deed for the day:  Shopping, sewing, FHE, and English assignment

Tuesday District meetings:  We had our meeting all morning.  We discussed goals and didn’t have to do any role playing.  Great meeting!  We did find out that Elder Davidson is transferring to the office area, so we will only have Skyway A, Elder Jones and John, with Elder Jaio, our Chinese Elder. (They will be a three some to cover the whole ward) but this will only last until transfers in February.  We needed to make another stop at Staples for more material for the English class this week that we are going to teach the Elders and Sisters.  After getting the copies we needed to run to Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart.  Office supplies are cheaper there than at Staples, plus we needed some groceries.  We had a lesson with Ellie (We taught Ellie with the Elders.  She lives in our complex.)  Then drove to dinner with the Elder Sisters at the Munson’s beautiful home.  Brother Munson is the 1st Counselor in the bishopric. and Sister Munson use to be the R.S. President and is currently serving in the stake.   We didn’t know we had gorgeous homes like that in our ward!  It was wonderful food and we got a lot of good insights into this ward.  From there we had to go to the ARP class which was very good.  In between all the running around we did manage to work on the English material and Joyce practiced the piano.  She is getting pretty good.  She has to play at all the district meetings.  Our good deed for the day:  ARP, lessen with Ellie, and helped a lady with her groceries at Wal-Mart.

Wednesday Training on Sabbath Day:  We spent most of the morning in Federal Way at a special training on helping investigators and members keep the Sabbath day holy.  It was from SLC and Elder and Sister Eaton had wonderful insights!  After the meeting we made a quick stop at Beehive Books and More to pick up a few things.  The mission office had called and needed us to sign a form so we made a run to Maple Valley.  The Elder Sisters were with us so we took them to lunch or early dinner. We still had some material to get ready for our class tomorrow so we worked on that when we got home.  In the evening we had our missionary meeting.  Our good deed: Since we were in meetings a lot, our good deed will have to be taking the Elder Sisters with us and buying them lunch.

Thursday W.W.: Our good deed.  Teaching Daily Dose (English Training)  and having a party.

Christmas has taken a toll with watching our weight loss.  It will be a good New Years resolution.  We gave our Daily Dose (English Training) presentation to the missionaries, elders and sisters.  We were expecting eight and 30 showed up.  After a couple of technical problems we got it going.  We aren’t sure how it went, but the cookies were a big hit that went along with the lesson idea on Family Home Evening that we presented.  Most of the rest of the day was spent getting ready for our New Years Eve party.  We had invited the young Elders so we had to be ready by 5:00 during their dinner time.  Since our Elders are now a threesome, (because Elder Davidson was moved to the office,) Skyway A and Elder Jaio  are covering two huge areas.  (We heard our ward is the third largest ward in the U.S.)  Our apartment was way out of the way where they were working so they didn’t come over.  Anyway, at 5:00, the Elder Sisters did come  over with Diane Nardia and Karen came, too.  We ate finger food and played many games.  By 9:30, Sister Chamberlain’s medication for her feet had kicked in so we called it a night and everyone went home.  Diane did call a friend in New York so we could say we had celebrated the New Year. It was weird to be in bed by 10:30 on New Year’s Eve! 

Friday New Years Day: It is hard to do much with the holiday.  Most people don’t want to be bothered.  Karen wanted to go walk around Seward Park and it was a nice day for that. Lots of sunshine and Lake Washington was beautiful.  We did need to visit with Sister Acosta about tomorrow so we walked there after Seward Park.  Sister Acosta got Mary Ann to come and help translate and it is the first time we have seen her in months so that worked out well.  MaryAnn’s baby is due in March.  Most of the rest of the day we spent working on a few projects.  Our good deed:  About all we really did was set up the doctor’s appointment with Estrella Acosta and walk with Karen, but both were needed.  

Saturday:  We had an appointment at 10:00 at the clinic for Eldrex to get his vaccinations. It’s close by so we walked to the Acosta’s, then pushed Eldex in the stroller to the clinic.  Eldrex needs the vaccinations before he can get into school and get some help. We think we have Estrella convinced to let Eldrex start school so we will check that out next week at Dunlap Elementary School.  The doctor thinks that will help him a lot.  Karen wanted to walk around Seward Park So after lunch we rode the bus there and walked.  It has been another sunny day in Seattle. Lake Washington was like glass and Joyce wanted to pull out some water skis, but it is January… Our appointment in the afternoon rescheduled so we rode the bus to Joyce Johnson’s to read with her, then rode to visit Ruth and Rubi.  They weren’t home, but we left them some Swedish Fish candy canes we had.  Their house is on the hill where the wind was blowing so it was very cold plus we hate being in that part of our area when it is dark.  The Elders called on the way home and wanted us to go with them to deliver a Book of Mormon.  They needed our key to get into the complex.  The lady was supposed to be home, but no one answered, so we left the Book of Mormon.   She is the appointment that rescheduled.  Our good deed: Helping the Acostas, reading the Book of Mormon with Joyce Johnson, visits, walking with Karen and working with the Elders.

Sunday:  We had invited Karen, the Elder Sisters, and the Smiths over for dinner after church so we had to get up early to fix it, since we now have early church.  We should have done it last night but we were hungry from fasting and thought going to bed would be the best thing.  We didn’t sleep much at first since our neighbors next door are still celebrating.  We were the taxi service again this morning for church with  Phillip, Karen, Joyce and Eric.  It’s always nice to have a full load.  We even had to make arrangements, for a ride, for someone else with the Elder Sisters, (they do the same as us with giving rides.)  Church had a very good attendance for being early.  The green house Acostas were there, but no Holly house Acostas and there was a good family that the Skyway A Elders have found. After church we all ate dinner and then worked a bit on the ward roster with Brother Smith and Sister Chamberlain.  Brother Smith just went in the Elders Quorum Presidency and he is a doer.  He will be good for the ward.  He has done more with the ward in the last few weeks than has been done in the last six months. After everyone left, Joyce worked on her lesson for FHE tomorrow and Art took a short nap.  He also ate his share of the homemade chocolates that Jake and Lara had sent, thank you very much!   Good deeds:  Rides to church, and dinner.  Things are going very well and January is filling up with commitments.   It even snowed a bit today, but none of it stayed on the ground.  

Love Ya 

Joyce and Art