Elder & Sister Knowles

                Week B26 Transfer 12 Week 6  June 5-11

             Bake the hall in the candle of her brane

Preaching:  Monday Night Family Holme Evening Lesson:  There was as man who was retiring as CEO of his company.  Instead of giving the company to one of his sons, he was going to turn it over to one of the young executives.  He called them all in and gave them each a seed and told them to plant the seed, care for it, and the one that took the best care of the seed would prove himself and become the next CEO of the company.  They each had one year to care for their seeds.  Kevin went home with his seed.  His wife helped him buy potting soil, fertilizer and the best pot to plant his seed in.  They placed the seed in the sunshine and watered the seed.  Each day Kevin watched and cared for his seed.  It never grew.  All the men at work were bragging about how big their seeds had grown and what beautiful plants they had.  Kevin mentioned that his seed had not even sprouted and was ridiculed at work.  The months passed and finally the year was up.  Kevin told his wife that he should not attend the big meeting, as he had no plant to show.  Kevin’s wife encouraged him to go because she knew that Kevin needed to face his boss.  Each man brought his

beautiful plant into the office for the meeting to announce the new CEO of the company.  Who would it be?  The boss entered the room and was amazed at the gorgeous plants.  Kevin had been made fun of and laughed at, so he was at the far end of the room, practically hiding.  The CEO asked where Kevin was, and Kevin came forth, bearing his pot that had a seed in the soil, but no plant.  The CEO clapped Kevin on the back and congratulated him.  He told the men to look at the next CEO of the company.  “Why?”  they all gasped!  The CEO calmly explained that each of the men had been given a boiled seed, that he had made certain that no seed would grow into a plant.  The boss’s intent was to test the integrity of each of the men.  Who could he trust?  He could trust Kevin!

Then, at Family Home Evening we talked about being truly honest in little things.  Did we lie, gossip, or take things that were not ours?  Sister Beck was listening intently and raised her hand.  Sister Chamberlain had just gone home.  Before she left, Sister Beck was watching her pack.  Sister Chamberlain mentioned how she would miss cleaning with the nice yellow clothes that we have that are supplied by our mission.  “Oh, just take one home with you.  We have so many of them,” said Sister Beck.  Sister Chamberlain shook her head and declined, as they cloths belonged to the mission and the apartment.  Well, Sister Beck slipped one into her suitcase and Sister Chamberlain did not know it was there.  It was a funny story as we called Sister Chamberlain and had a laugh after our lesson on integrity.  Sister Chamberlain said, “I wondered how the cloth had gotten into my suitcase.”  Such a little thing, We did get a kick out of the story, but may we always be trustworthy and honest as Sister Chamberlain, and also, Kevin! 

Sunday:  We had a pretty calm Sunday.  It was a sweet testimony meeting, with such heartfelt testimonies.  Not any investigators at church and not any of the less actives we had planned on.  We did take Eldrex, Princes Joy and Karen to church and then all of them and the twins home after.  We waited at home for the kids to call, but only got to talk with Joshua’s family.  Joyce and Karen went and walked at Seward Park.  We are thankful that Christie went to visit Mom and Dad and had a safe ride to Jackson Hole, ward family, Sunshine and Joshua were at church.  Ric, Estrella, Michele, Eleazar and Reymark were also there, plus the twins.  We were also able to see Geraldine when we took Eldrex home which is always a plus.  The weather here is great, just a little hot, also,  FaceTime with Josh and the kids  

Monday p-day: We had a fun day going to Mt. Rainier.  We picked up Karen and the Elder Sisters and headed out.  We made our usual stop at the Enumclaw Library for a picture and bathroom break. It was Sister Stevensen's first time there so we needed a picture. Our plan was to hike the “Grove of the Patriarchs” (the hike we did with the Lowther’s) but the bridge was blocked off, so we had a picnic and then hiked another short hike that was close by. It is a very long drive for one day.  We did stop once to get a picture in the snow and the rivers are running very high now with all the warm weather we have had lately.  FHE is at 6;00 so we had to get home for that.  It was Diane Nardi and Debra M birthday celebration with the usual turnout.  We got to sing to Mariah - Happy Birthday!  THANKS for sending us pictures!  It was a fun day and here are our thankfuls, Allison and her family for cleaning out our stinky freezer that quit! air-conditioning, good friends, beautiful country, safety in driving, bathrooms, lots of friendly people we met (name badges make us stick out), mail, celebrations and pictures of the grandkids and kids, cell phones, clean sheets after a long day of hiking and driving, scriptures to read every night, food at the picnic and FHE.

Tuesday zone training:  A really good zone training.  Not so much role playing but there was some good discussion on teaching with the spirit. Elder Christian goes home on Monday so we bore his testimony and we took one last zone picture before transfers.   After the training we walked to the Acostas and Joyce taught Estrella English and filled out more forms.  We hurried home and rode the Link and the bus into Renton so we could start the SRS class on Financial Management.  We have to run it the next two weeks.  It was another good class with lots of discussion.  We did make a quick stop at the store to get some suckers to help a friend stop smoking and some for us to help us not eat so much. It was such a nice evening that we walked from the bus stop instead of riding the Link home.   Thankfuls: Good leaders, all the missionaries in the zone, the Acostas, Metro system, nice weather, the SRS program, again, protection and safety (you meet some strange people on the bus and we have to cross some busy streets).  This is just a few of our thankfuls.

Wednesday special training:  We picked up the Elder Sisters and went to Federal Way Stake Center for the special training with three other zones.  This is the last time there will be training from the Eatons. It was a very good meeting about marriage and family.  With the four zones there we were able to see lots of missionaries that we know. Some of them will go home on Monday.  We had to take a set home with us so they could get to an appointment.  After dropping them off we went for a quick lunch with the Elder Sister ( Sister Beck looks forward to going out to lunch), then home so we could walk with Karen at

Seward Park.  We think she has stopped smoking now, but still having a hard time.  She said here skin crawls all the time.  She says it is the withdrawals.  In the evening we picked up Reymark and Eleazar and the plan was to take them to YM until we found out that the Tiffany Park ward had cancelled the outing to Renton Airport.  We go with that ward since we haven’t had any YM before.  So,  we ended up picking up the twins also and went and played basketball. Reymark threw the basketball on top of the church,accidentally.  Eleazar climbed up the side of the building and then, Reymark went to get a ladder.  As soon as we got a ladder from inside the building so we could get the ball down, the wind came up and blew it off, so Eleazar jumped down. The boys did go to opening exercises.  It still worked out good because Bro. Green from the bishopric came and played basketball with them.  We had to run them home then come back for the meeting with the Bishop.  Bishop Munson is very different from different from Bishop White.  It was a fun bishop’s meeting.  Bishop Munson is a lot more open and not so serious.  Thankfuls:  each other, family, (we got letters in the mail),the Eatons, cooler weather, our Bishop, Karen has stopped smoking (that was an answer to lots of prayers), and missionaries.  Time to take a short nap was also pretty good.  

Thursday: We spent a lot of the day catching up on some stuff that needed doing.  Estrella had us come over in the afternoon to teach English.  Joyce does the teaching while Art watches Filipino soap operas.  Then, we picked up Ruth and Rubi.  They wanted us to play a game with them so we went to the church and played “Would You Rather” and then some soccer and basketball.  Its fun being with them, but makes us miss the grandchildren!  After taking them home we needed to run to Sam’s for gas and groceries before our Missionary meeting.  The meeting was supposed to be cancelled but the message didn’t get sent so we all showed up except the Ward Mission Leader, so the Elders ran the meeting.  Thankfuls: Playing with the twins, reading the Book of Mormon with Estrella, short meetings, turkey bacon for the diet, each other again and cell phone to call home with.

Friday:  We went with the Elders in the morning to teach a lesson to Tasha.  She has been sick so they haven’t taught her for sometime now.  She still has many concerns about the Book of Mormon but she is reading.  It was good to see her and teach her.  After, we made a run to Winco for more groceries.  Wish we could find one place that had everything at one stop.  We still need to go to Walmart, which we did.  Karen flew out to Minnesota today to be with her daughter and family for a week.  We’re so proud of her for quitting smoking and hope she can keep it up!  Our afternoon appointment cancelled so we spent the rest of the day getting ready to knock on doors tomorrow by mapping out where members live.  We got a great picture of Grandma and Grandpa Allen with Josh and Rachel’s family.  We thought is was an old picture until we talked to them on Sunday and found out that they had made a trip to Utah to stay in Heber City with the kids.  Thanks Mom and Dad for going to see out kids!  And thanks, Josh, Rachel, fMaddox, Elayna, and Haley for making them feel so welcome!  More Thankfuls:  Not smoking and not having to go through withdrawals, Prayers:  so many times we pray for protection and when we are out walking, we could step in a big hole, slip, or fall somewhere and we have the safety we need! the computer so we can keep in touch! 

Saturday:  It rained, so we only walked to Safeway and the Acostas to let them know about more doctors appointments that we scheduled.  Instead of going out, we cleaned the apartment, which was desperately needed.    We had dinner at Sister Beck’s and Sister Stevenson’s apartment with the Elders.  They must invite us, so that there will be 3 males present at the sister’s apartment.  It was good.  They had turkey, dressing, potatoes, gravy, rolls, yams, vegetables, and all the trimmings for an early Thanksgiving feast.  It’s hard to be on a diet!   When we got home we got to talk to Braeden on face time - always fun!  We had a teaching appointment with Milagros at 8:00 with the Elders, so we decided we better walk to the appointment to walk off our dinner!  The Elders taught Mila the importance of being obedient and going to church to partake of the sacrament.  They talked about following the prophets message of  taking the “harder right instead of the easier wrong.”   It was much like the talk that Jacob had just mailed to us.  He mailed us his talk that he gave in sacrament meeting before they moved. Thankfuls:  for Jacobs, talk, FaceTime with Braeden,  friends and family that love and support us, being married to my best friend. It seemed like it was a slow week or maybe the others have just been to busy.  Next week is shaping up to be very busy again.  Love Joyce and Art