Elder & Sister Knowles

        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