Elder & Sister Knowles

                  Week B42  Feb 15-21

                      “No Problem”

Preaching:  When we had dinner Sunday, for dessert all the kids helped Joyce make Rachel’s famous “Rolo Pretzels!” We applied the recipe to the gospel:  First, work to line a cookie sheet (the sheet means to do Service) with  foil and spray it .  Place the twist pretzels (Pretzels mean Prayer) on the foil and put a Rolo (Rolo means Read the scriptures daily) in the middle of each. Bake in the oven on 350 degrees for exactly (exactly means exactly obedient) 2 minutes and 30 seconds.  When you take them out of the oven and turn the oven off, place a M and M candy (M stands for attending your Meetings each Sunday) in the center of the Rolo.  Then, they must stand  (Stand means to stand for truth and righteousness) for 45 minutes.  This is a recipe for a yummy treat and by following it exactly, it is a recipe for a testimony.

Acostas and missionaries

Monday:  We didn’t get all the Valentines delivered on Sunday so we stopped at the Acostas on the way to a bus stop.  They were excited to see us and we ended up staying longer than planned.  That put us having to run to the bus stop and we weren’t fast enough so we missed it.  We did get a good jog in and had a good view of the bus leaving.  By now we are running too late to be able to catch the next bus, so we walked back home to get the pick-up.  And the bonus was it was all done in the wind and rain.  We had a tour at the museum and since we were running late we also managed to hit every light on MLK red, and there are a lot of them.  It was free day at the museum, because of the holiday, so our tour kept gaining new people.  We started withIt was a fun group.  They were a group that teach girls how to be ladies, so they were all very polite, curious, and courteous. There were around six young women and four advisors, plus the few we picked up along the way. Everyone asked a lot of questions.  Elder Knowles took way too much time on his part so instead of Sister Knowles doing her part we just let them go on their own.  Most of the afternoon we spent working on writing up some notes we had and preparing for FHE.  There was a good crowd at FHE.  Karen even asked a “young man” to come walking with us at Seward Park.  We’ll let you know about that!

Elder Murphy, Reymark and Elder Jones

Tuesday:  Today was supposed to be p-day but our Tuesdays are already booked.  We had the English class first.  Joseph was the only one who showed up.  We knew Sara has been sick.  After the class we picked up Reymark, Princes Joy, Ruth and Rubi for an activity.  They were out of school and wanted to do something.  It wasn’t raining so Joyce took them to the park across from our place and Art stayed home and made pizza for them.  They played on the swings, the zip line, the slide, and Reymark had his basket ball, so they even played that for a bit.  Then, they came in and ate.  We took Reymark and Princes Joy home then stopped at the Hope Mission to pick up a lady for ARP.  She brought another lady with her.  We dropped off Ruth and Rubi (they live close to the church) and then went to the ARP class.  It was a pretty good class.  The second lady isn’t a member so she is not to engaged at times, but the first lady really enjoys it.  The non-member did ask a few questions about the church on the way home.   She asked what beliefs of ours make us different from other religions.  We told her about the Godhead and Prophets, but then we were at Hope Place and time for them to get out.  We just hope that her being at ARP may someday spark more interest in the church. For now we know she’s there to get a meeting in.  We have thought about dropping ARP but we keep picking up new people, so we will keep it going at least for a few more months.  

Coming home from the first day at school

Wednesday District Meetings:  They have finally got it worked out with the mix of Elders and Sisters so we know for sure that we are in Elder Samuelson's District.  Either way Joyce will have to play the piano. She didn’t have to play today.  They were cleaning carpets so we couldn’t use the rooms with pianos, plus we were late.  We walked Eldrex to school for his first day this morning and it took much longer than we had planned.  There were more forms to fill out. They have a temporary wheel chair for him, so after we got him there, we transferred him from his stroller to the wheelchair.  When we left, the teacher already had him out of the wheelchair and he was scooting around on the floor as they did there morning activities on the carpet.  Estrella had a hard time leaving him.  She kept looking in the classroom, but he had a huge smile and was so happy!  We did get to the district meeting in time to do some role playing.  After the meeting we came home so Joyce could help Diane with a book she is writing.   Joyce types, and Diane dictates.  Her life has been hard and very interesting.  It is such a testimony of how our Savior is this for each one of us and how He blesses lives!   At 3:00 we walked back to school to bring Eldrex home and fill out more forms.  Our meeting with the Bishop was canceled, so we stayed home and finished the taxes.  We should have them sent off tomorrow.  The Smiths came down to visit and brought chocolate!  They live on the 4th floor in our building.  The Elders, (Skyway B) came over and wanted us to help them with a visit.  They checked first it see if the referral was for real and when it was the Smiths went back with them and helped them teach the first lesson.  We will try to have her over next week and teach a lesson at our place.  We are booked at night the rest of this week, so it will have to be next week.  The Elders were pretty excited about her.  Art stayed up late to send the taxes off but he was having trouble getting them to send so he went to bed.  Will check on it tomorrow.

Discovery Center

Thursday:  The taxes have been sent and received by Data Tax.  Happy day!   We may have to celebrate today with a diet pepsi.  Now it’s just a matter of waiting for good or bad news. We walked Eldrex to school again and helped fill out more forms.  Now Eldrex is signed up for lunch, they are working on getting him a wheelchair and Estrella may be able to  volunteer when we watch a video with her.  Mr. Westcom did tell us that he tested Eldrex yesterday and he seems to be very smart so he should do well and Mr. Westcom is optimistic about helping Eldrex to walk.  More tender mercies.  The school district should have a bus lined up sometime.  We also found out that Ric’s mother passed away last night so several of the Acostas will be going to the Philippines next week.  This will effect Green house and Holly house Acostas and will slow down the missionary lessons.  She had been sick for several months so it wasn’t unexpected, but Ruth and Rubi are so sad.  Diane came over and Joyce typed up more of her book.  They worked on it until time to go back and pick up Eldrex.  We were a bit late getting to the Acostas and they had already left, which is a good thing.  Tomorrow they will be on their own.  They went out one door as we were going in another so we missed them at school, but we did get some more papers from the teacher.   We did catch up with them on the way home and we did find out that it will be one more week before a bus starts to pick up Eldrex.  We came home, (after a stop for supper, taxes are done), filled out some volunteer apps for the Hope Mission, studied until time for our meeting and made phone calls trying to set up the trip to the Discovery Center tomorrow.  Karen wants us to help at the mission and they need to do a background check on us before we can. Our missionary meeting was very good.  Both sets of Elders wanted us to help them teach tomorrow, but we already have the Discovery Center planned with the Acosta’s.  We worked it out with Skyway B, but not Skyway A.  They use us as a backup when the members can’t go so sometimes it just doesn't work out.  

Sister Knowles, Estrella and Michelle

Apollo, Art, and Jane

Friday institute:  The rain is back in force.  We picked up the Sisters and went to the institute class and then to lunch after.  We are trying to help a young lady in the ward get involved with the young singles and visiting with the Bensons was very helpful.  The class was also very good.  We ran into President Eaton’s parents at the restaurant.  We had to stop on the way home and do some shopping for Sunday and fill up with gas for the trip tonight. On the way home we discussed Captain Moroni and how that  story relates to Joseph’s coat of many colors.  Last week our discussion was about the resurrection.  Sister Chamberlain has had many experience with her husband (he passed away several years ago) that are testimony builders, so the resurrection was a good discussion.  Our trip to the Discovery Center went well.  We had the Sisters and the Munson’s lined up to help transport everyone.  The Green House Acostas didn’t go at the last min. Ruth and Rubi are sick with a fever and coughs, so Joshua didn’t go either.  They are all supposed to fly Wednesday to the Philippines, so we hope they get better quickly.  Eleazar and Richel didn’t go, but all the rest did: Estrella, Michelle, Reymark, Princess Joy and Eldrex in his stroller. Skyway B showed up at the last min. to teach Princes Joy a quick lesson so that put us running late and we also had to contend with the end of the going home traffic, but we made it on time.  The Elder Sisters were able to ride with us and the Munsons so they didn’t have to drive.  We think everyone had a good time.  Its hard to tell with kids and Estrella doesn’t understand some of what is being said.  She did go into the recording booth with Joyce and the children.  She talked a lot.  Michelle translated for Joyce.  She told about her conversion and also about the Philippines growing up and meeting and marrying Ric.  The others also all shared experiences  as Joyce asked questions.  It was all recorded on a jump drive  Joyce took everyone over to the Temple, but the gate was locked so they weren’t able to walk around, but we still took a lot of pictures through the gate.  They wanted to touch the Temple.  Looks like we will plan another trip.  On the way home we stopped for ice cream.  Michele is going to the Philippines in March so we gave her the assignment to gather more info about her family.  We felt good about the whole experience and we are sure it helped the Acostas.

Elders, Bohne, Knowles and Jiao

Saturday:  We walked to the Filipino Cultural Center and spent from 9 A.M. until 4 P.M. there volunteering for the passport renewal program.  It goes for three days but we could only help on Saturday. Skyway B worked there yesterday. Jane had asked us to come and help plus we enjoy going there.  Joyce worked in the copy room and Art worked in the photo room.  Art wasn’t very busy so he had a good discussion with Jane about the church.  She asked a few questions and he answered them until he remembered the talk from conference, then he told her about the restoration.  It’s mostly the first lesson the missionaries teach.  Now we just need to get her a Book of Mormon and some family history sheets.  She said she would accept a Book of Mormon. Michelle posted on face book about how much fun the trip to the Discovery Center was, so we will count that as a success.  We came home, very tired, and Joyce got things ready (a broccoli and cauliflower salad) for tomorrow’s lunch until time to take Joyce J. out to celebrate her passing the citizenship test.  We are going to try to help her get her son and mom here to Washington.  It is another process that is going to take a lot of tender mercies, but we have confidence that it is the right thing to do.  We had a good time, we are very proud of her for passing! Then, we came home and finished getting ready for tomorrow (snickers salad this time, Art’s choice).  It was the first sunny day in a while and we spent most of it indoors.

Sunday: We got up at 6 A.M to put the casserole in the crock pot and get ready for church.  We had a car load for church, Karen, Diane, Joyce, and Eric.  That was good and after one good day, the rain is back.  Lots of flood warnings.  None of Joyce’s class showed up for primary.  Ruth and Rubi were still sick with their coughs.  Several other Acostas weren’t there either, and those that were there, only attended Sacrament meeting and then left.  We were a bit worried about our dinner party that was supposed to be at 1:00, after church.  So, we invited the Sisters and Elders because we had prepared a lot of food.  We said the blessing and were dishiing up when when, Rubi and Irma showed up with Joshua.  Ruth was still too sick to come.   Then, Sunshine brought Michelle and Princes Joy, so six of the Acosta’s showed up!  Sister Knowles did part of her Primary lesson because they are leaving for the Phillipines and won’t be here for three weeks.  The Elders were able to teach the Plan of Salvation to Irma and Princes Joy.  They do such a good job. Irma and Princes Joy seemed to really enjoy the lesson.  They had the Plan of Salvation all sketched out on the White Board with the cutest pictures!  We did have tons of leftovers that we can use for FHE tomorrow.  In the evening we attended the mission devotional in Kent, which was good as always. Karen and the Elder Sister went with us and we were able to see lots of our favorite missionaries.  One small miracle was having Elder Jones (he is a favorite) sing in the mission choir.  We never thought we would see that happen.  It has been a busy week, but productive we hope.  Lots of things we need to follow up on.  Love Joyce and Art

Sister Chamberlain and the Eatons