Elder & Sister Knowles

                                                                                                                                                      Week B40 Feb.29-Mar. 6             

     “Devoted disciples of Jesus Christ always have been and  always will be valiant missionaries”     David A Bednar

Preaching:  Pres. Ezra Taft Benson taught:  "It is not just that the Book of Mormon teaches us truth, though it indeed does that. It is not just that the Book of Mormon bears testimony of Christ, though it indeed does that, too. But there is something more. There is a power in the book which will begin to flow into your lives the moment you begin a serious study of the book. You will find greater power to resist temptation. You will find the power to avoid deception. You will find the power to stay on the strait and narrow path. The scriptures are called “the words of life” (D&C 84:85), and nowhere is that more true than it is of the Book of Mormon. When you begin to hunger and thirst after those words, you will find life in greater and greater abundance."

Monday p-day?????:  Rain, rain go away.  By the time we went out it did go away and was a pretty nice day.  We missed the bus again for Eldrex, but we did walk Estrella to the school for her English class.  We ran into Angel at the school and visited with her for a bit.  Skyway B is teaching her two kids and we are trying to get her back to church.  We left there and walked to the Filipino Center to check on the visa registration, but nothing is scheduled yet.  On the way back home we stopped at the  women's clinic that we had helped with and Joyce visited with Tara for a while.  They are going to be moving soon and will need more help.  She would also like us to start an ARP class in their building.  We will have to see what Social Services has to say.  There is such a need to have those types of social services close to a bus route and in this part of town.  We’re just not sure if we have the time.  She even talked about doing a parenting class.  In the evening we transported Debra and Margarita to FHE.  Margarita wasn’t off work until 7:00 so we made several trips back and forth. We do like to help Margarita whenever we can because she is such a hard worker and is always so thankful to us. She walks to and from church every Sunday, rain or shine, and she lives quite far from the church.  She is cute, she says, “Well, at least going home it is mostly downhill.”  We ran everybody home after FHE then made a stop at the R.S. Pres. home for a Bishops order we need to pick up tomorrow. We did manage to get most of the laundry done, make some soup, and Joyce got her hair cut, in between the visits and FHE.  Next Monday we are going to plan a road trip (with the phones turned off) so we can get away and have a real p-day.  

Tuesday District meetings:  We had a very confusing morning.  Our meeting has been starting at 10:30, it was changed to 12:00 and they forgot to tell us.  We got a call from the Zone Leaders about Northwest Harvest.  Somehow we became the go to people  between Northwest Harvest and the missionaries. They want us to serve there more and President Eaton approved it.  In fact Katie (the volunteer coordinator) is the ones who asked him if the missionaries could serve there more often.  After a few e-mails back and forth we got it worked out, we hope.  We had to leave our meeting early to go and teach English.  We tried to cancel, but Sara doesn’t understand enough English to get the message so we went and taught her.  Joyce worked with Sara and Art helped another man who came in looking for help to fill out some papers.  He had just passed his citizenship test and was on his way to the swearing in ceremony.  The building we should have been is was locked so we were in a different building which put Art in a place where he could help this man.  Heaven Father loves all his children and helps them out when they need it.  Sara and Joyce played “Go Fish” for the lesson.  Sara is still learning letters and sounds.  She wants us to help her find a job now, we think.  After the lesson we drove to the Bishops Storehouse to pick up an order.  They had closed, (we thought they were open longer and we did get into rush hour traffic) but they were there for a meeting so they let us fill the order.  Another tender mercy.  We had Karen with us and she missed her dinner time so we took her out to dinner.  We just got home in time to meet with the Elders (Skyway B) and go over the ward roster.  We only got six sheets done so we are going to divide it up and just give them a list to visit.  Lots of wind, rain and cold, plus a little hail today.

Wednesday:  Northwest Harvest today with the Sisters packaging rice.  It was a workout.  We changed out clothes and drove to Kent for a meeting with President McKinney.  There is a new couple in the mission.  Elder and Sister Draney from Star Valley, WY.  Emily, they know your parents and he said he either taught you or coached you!  After the meeting we did our usual lunch with everyone.  There is a new Cafe Rio in Kent.  We took the Elder Sisters home and then did some shopping and finally got Art’s prescriptions filled, (most of them).  The Skyway B Elders came over and we made a visit in our building, but there was a “Do not Disturb” sign on the door so we didn’t knock.  We were going to take Joanna to Auburn until she canceled because of too much homework.  That was okay with us because we were tired.  We did some companion studying, which we are lacks in and then called it a day.  

Thursday:  Karen needed us to help her with a bus pass early in the morning. We taught Sara English and played “GO FISH” again along with making up chains for words for her to read. We get words from her on subjects she knows about, and then teach her to sound out the words.   Art was going to play “Don’t Eat Pete” with her kids, but they stayed home.  Sara did ask if she could take some candy home to them.  (Tuesday we gave her Tootsie Pops for her kids).  After the lesson we (Joyce) read the Book of Mormon with Joyce Johnson.  Joyce is so sincere in her reading and our discussions, as she cannot go to church every Sunday because of work.  She is worried about a lot of things, but reading and studying seems to give her peace.  We rode the bus to the NAAM to have a tour for ward members and a meeting to discuss how to use the museum and family history center for a missionary tool.  We only had six come, but we didn’t expect a lot and we had wonderful tour, with a lot of insight from ward members that have grown up in Seattle.  Thank goodness for the Elder Sisters, they gave us a ride home so we didn’t have to ride the bus home.

Friday:  We had a very good institute class and went to lunch afterwards.  Joyce worked on a project she is doing and Art worked on a project he is doing.  The Elders did come by to use our key to check on an investigator so we gave them the ward info that Art has done so far.

Saturday:  Joyce spent the day with Karen at a R.S. Birthday Party Meeting in Bellevue.   It was awesome and some notes are included at the end of the letter.  The woman who founded Mothers Without Borders was the keynote speaker on service, and then we worked on service projects until the luncheon.  You would not believe her optimism with all the trials she has gone through just this year alone!  Art worked on the ward roster, (it’s done!), fixed lunch for the Skyway B Elders and went teaching with them.  After Joyce got home we walked down to the Acostas to check on rides for church tomorrow.  The Bensons stopped by to visit and the Elders came back over to use our key for an appointment they had.  We also received a positive text from one of our friends from the Filipino Center about coming to dinner and getting a Book of Mormon.  We had almost given up, so that was exciting. Now that the roster is done we will start knocking on doors next week.   Between us and Skyway B we should have our half of the ward done soon.  Spring is here in Seattle so it will be nice to get out and see all the blossoms, just hope it doesn’t start raining.

Sunday:  We got an early start so we could get everyone picked up and still get to church on time.  All the Holly House Acosta’s came to church except Mary Ann, she may be going into labor.  This was Eldrex’s first time ever at church and he did great.  We had Eldrex, Estrella, Princes Joy and the wheel chair with us and the rest went with Sun Shine and they also had Ivar with them.  Ivar is a young man we have worked with before, who is starting to come back some.  We still picked up Karen and Debra so we had a car full.  During class, Sunshine, Richel, Ivar, Remark, and Eleazar all wanted to come into Joyce’s Primary lesson, so Brother Munson and Brother Jackson joined them again.  Brother Munson said that when Joshua and the twins get back from the Philippines, he will start having Priesthood lessons with them.  But for now, it is fun having them in class to listen to Book of Mormon lessons and mark scriptures with Princes Joy, Donni, and Eldrex.  Margarita wanted a ride home so the Elder Sisters took Debra home for us.  Several investigator were at church.  One family, that Skyway B is teaching, came the second hour for Primary but couldn’t find Joyce’s class, so they left.  Next week Art is going to sit in the foyer during Sunday School so that won’t happen again.  Its hard to believe somebody didn’t help them.   After church we came home and waited for the kids to call.  Thank heaven for face time. We are trying to make plans for tomorrow because it’s Sister Larson’s last day as Sister Beck is coming sometime tomorrow.  We want to do something fun with Sister Larson, plus go out to lunch one last time.  After several nice days in a row, the rain, cold and wind were back this morning, but by afternoon the sun was shining.

                                               Joyce’s notes from Saturday:

The Voice of Love, not Fear:  by Sister Kathy Miner  

  When people are scared, they dig in their heels and won’t go any farther.  They cannot see what is ahead because of fear of the unknown. They are comfortable in their own circumstances, even if it is a better life ahead, they are afraid to try.  Satan wants us to live in that fear and insecurity.  But, our Savior will always meet us at the point of our affliction and take us in His arms, and whisper, through the Spirit, “I’ve got this.”  …”Our Savior has our backs!”   This power of love will be the force to welcome in His Second Coming.  We must have love for our brothers and our sisters.  

Satan wants us to be insecure and whispers words of insecurity to our minds.  He tells us to think, “I don’t know how to do this.  I have nothing to offer.”  Satan wants us to see weakness in others and wants us to criticize others as we find faults.  That way fear and insecurity can have hold on us.  

It is hard to follow Celestial Road Signs in a Telestial World, but we can do it as we understand that love and fear are two opposing forces.  It started with the War in Heaven and is still God versus Satan.  This life is our school where we must learn, grow and make choices based on our love of the Savior and His atonement for us.  

Light is more powerful than darkness.  We have only 90 seconds to choose to get rid of the unwanted dark houseguests of Negativity, Fear, and Insecurity.  In this 90 seconds, you have the power to change darkness for powerful light.  Get rid of dark, negative thoughts when they come into your mind.  We are children of light, children of our Heavenly Father. He knows us by name and the world is desperate for our light, hope, love, compassion, and empathy.  If you think that your effort is too small, you cannot help those in the world that desperately need you.  Have faith that Heavenly Father knows you and He will put people in your path to help you.  Heavenly Father will also put you in people’s paths to help them.  Then, you can share love, peace, joy, gratitude, patience, grace, wisdom, courage, forgiveness and strength with them that need you.  

Know that you are enough.  Crowd out thoughts of insecurity with love.   Sowing contention is not hard and is what Satan wants.  Sowing love is Christlike.   Know that you are surrounded by people who love you and whom you love.  

Hope all is well and have a good week.  We Love You, Joyce and Art