Elder & Sister Knowles

   Week B30 Transfer 12 Week 2  May 8-14

             There is sunshine in my soul today

Preaching:  Very simple this week.  Look up Hymn #123, read it and let up know your thoughts on it.  Maybe, even sing it for your opening hymn for FHE.

Sunday Mother's Day:  It was an interesting start for church.  Karen, Linda and JoAnna all cancelled.  Joyce Johnson didn’t cancel, but was running late.  Art missed the turn for the church so we were very late.  Skyway A called to see where we were at, since Joyce was to sit in the foyer with Tasha’s handicapped daughter so Tasha could attend the meeting.  As soon as the twins, Princes Joy, Donny and Reymark found out that Joyce was in the foyer with the handicapped young lady, they were all out there, too.  Art had to round them all up and make them go back in the chapel and sit down. (The twins thought it would be okay to play a little basketball during the meeting.)  Ric, MaryAnn and her boyfriend/husband and Sister Fabon were all at church so that was a plus.  Art taught the Gospel Principles class/plus youth class and Joyce taught her primary class.  After taking Joyce, Eric, Reymark and Eleazar home we stopped at our place to pickup a few presents and then walked them down to the Acosta’s.  We had a present for Richel and Sun Shine.  We had already given Estrella and MaryAnn a present when we dropped off Reymark and Eleazar.  We came home and Joyce opened her gifts.  Thank you for all the wonderful Mother’s Day/birthday presents.  At 4:00 Skyway A came over and used our computer to Skype home while we finished preparing dinner for everyone.  At 5:00 the Elder Sisters, Karen and Skyway B came to eat.  After dinner, Skyway B skyped.  We had to juggle the computer, I pad, and phone so we could take the calls when our own kids called, as the Elders phoned home.  It all worked out.  We hope everyone had a good Mother's Day, we did.

Monday birthday for Joyce: 

We got up and waited for the Sisters to call. We went to Seattle and celebrated Joyce’s birthday.  Art made a waffle with the new waffle maker!  After stopping at Wal-Mart for a few things we picked up the Sisters and drove back to our place so we could catch the link (light rail train) into Seattle.  Sister Chamberlain had been cutting Elders hair so that is why we didn’t leave earlier.  She is the zone barber.  We had a great time in Seattle and it was legal this time with the new policy.  First, we went to the Columbia Tower, the highest building in Seattle, and took lots of pictures.  They have a bunch of eating places in the bottom level so we ate there.  We were not sure if we had the time to go to the waterfront and ride the Ferris wheel.  Sister Chamberlain had to get home to do another elder’s haircut, so after a debate we decided to ride the link close to the Great Wheel and then walk there and go for a ride.  Sister Chamberlain was not sure if she could make it back up the stairs so we hired a bike cab and they took us to the Stadium Station where we could catch the link home.  (Sister Beck doesn’t like her picture taken so that why she not in some of them).  At 5:30 we started our rounds to pick up for FHE and celebrated Sister’s Knowles birthday.  The kids and several called to sing to Joyce, even the Eaton's.  Thank you very much!

Tuesday: 

Our plans were to go to the temple early with the Elder Sisters but plans can change.  We taught a lesson with Skyway A/B, (they are a three-some now, Elder Murphy had to go home) at Tasha in the morning.  It went pretty well. She has lots of questions, but most have come from her reading the Book of Mormon so that is good.  After lunch we taught Ric Acosta again with Skyway A/B.  It should be Skyway B/A since Rick is in the B area.  It went okay considering the language problem.  Richel translated when needed.  The best part was when Ric said the closing prayer.  One of those tender mercies again.  He is scheduled for baptism on the 28th if all goes well.  Please keep him in all of your prayers!  We would certainly appreciate it.  After the lesson we picked up the Sisters and finally made it to the temple.  It was so nice to be at the temple and remember all the things we have been studying in our institute class that we go to on Friday mornings.  On the way home we stopped at the McDonalds where Richel works so we could show her some support.  We had the correct McDonalds, but she didn’t work today, so we went to Wendy’s instead.  They have better salads.

Wednesday:  Northwest Harvest was first thing in the morning with the sister missionaries.  We did dried beans.  After, we did lunch as always, (but this week it is lots of salads,) and some shopping at Trader Joes for the diet.  We made a quick stop at the Acosta’s to help Ric set up a family history account but he had left for work.  Estrella needed Joyce to help refill a couple of prescriptions so it worked out okay.  We also got to hold the baby for a bit. Jane and Apollo, from the Filipino Cultural Center, came over for supper at 5:00.  We have been trying to have Jane over for some time now so we could give her a Book of Mormon.  We had a good visit and they invited us to some up coming Filipino cultural events that we plan to check out. We may even volunteer at them.  Jane is going to take some pictures of the Manilla Temple when she goes there in two weeks.  We tried Jack Fruit for the first time.  It was not too bad, and Jane committed to read the Book of Mormon when she is in the Philippines.  It was a wonderful evening.    

Thursday:  Our 10:00 appointment cancelled so we were able to catch up on a few errands and some paper work.  We needed to print off some names for the Acostas to take to the temple, but after we were all done we only had one we could print, a grandfather.  We still needed more info on the others.   Then, right before we left, we got permission for the other grandfather!  Our afternoon appointment cancelled so we made a trip to the bank, post office, and Sam’s club.  Then the afternoon appointment was on again.  She cancelled because she wasn’t allowed to leave Hope Place, then they kicked her out, so she was free to come to the lesson.  We wondered if they kicked her out because she was listening to the missionaries.  She had been warned several times to be careful around us. But, we found out later she failed one of her breathalyzer  tests for alcohol.   After the lesson, we picked up Michele, Eleazar and Reymark and drove to the temple for baptisms.  It was the first time there for all three of them and they had a good experience.  Especially since Eleazar got to be baptized for his grandfather on the Acosta side, and Reymark got to be baptized for his grandfather on the Baccus side - tender mercies!   Afterwards, we took a few pictures with all those from the ward who were there.  We had more adults than youth, but for Skyway it was good to have the five youth that we did have there.  Since we had the Acostas with us, we stayed and took a few more pictures with them and the gorgeous rhododendrons that are out this time of year.  Then, we stopped at McDonalds on the way home to see if Richel was working, but no luck again.  We are hoping that the Acostas that went to the temple will talk to the others and maybe they will want to go next time.  They need to at least come to church more often so they can get recommend.

Friday:  Just a quick note, this diet is killing us, at least Art.  We had Zone conference most of the day, from 09:30 until 4:00.  We got home around 5:30.  It was the Eaton’s last Zone Conference before they go home.  They have been having them all week and we got to be the last.  We picked up the Elder Sisters and drove to the Kent Stake Center.  It was a great zone conference.  We were combined with the Kent zone so we got to see a few of the missionaries that we never see since they were transferred.  Most of the conference was on repentance, which is always a timely message.  In the evening we prepared lessons for Sunday, Art for Sunday school and Joyce for primary.

Saturday: The primary was having an activity day so we stated off by picking up the Acostas: Michell and Princes Joy; and we thought the twins, until Josh called and said he would bring them.  Only Rubi came, Ruth thought she had to wear a dress so she wouldn’t come.  Joyce and Michell helped with the activities and Arts big contribution was fixing the copier for Sister Chamberlain.  The activity was fun, on memorizing the Articles of Faith for an ice cream sundae, (which we resisted:)  The rain is back for a few days which is needed.  Sister Knowles is making  sacks of sun shine to take to different people we are working with. (Thank you Sarah for the idea). We made a trip to the store for more yellow things after we had spent some time reading, with Joyce Johnson.  She is doing very good reading the Book of Mormon on her own.  We had rearranged our plans, and cancelled some, so we could go to a 6:00 appointment with the elders only to have it cancel.  That’s missionary work.  It did give Joyce some time to work on the sun shine sacks.  All the elders came over in the evening and we gave Karen a blessing.  She wanted to walk, but it was getting late so we just walked around the Othello Park instead of driving to Seward Park.  Othello Park is not the safest after dark, but there was still some light so we were okay.  As you can see it was a busy week and next week is looking like more of the same.  Hope you all have a good coming week and we love you all.  Joyce and Art