Elder & Sister Knowles

Transfer 15 Week 2  Sept. 12-18 Week B12

               Don’t believe everything you read

Preaching:  “Like two sides of a coin, the temporal and spiritual are inseparable” (D&C 29:34) President Uchtdorf  We had an interest discussion about this topic last night at our meeting.  Try this topic at a family home evening.  See what your family comes up with on how earning money, going to school, working or what other activities you may be involved in can be both temporal and spiritual.  Also, ask yourself if you are spiritually self-reliant and what that means to you.

 Monday: It was a beautiful day so we picked up the Elder Sisters and drove to Crystal Mountain to ride the Gondola.  It closes next week so today was our last chance unless we wanted to go when it snows. Joyce is still not a 100% but a lot better than yesterday. It was a very nice drive except for all the road work we had to go through.  We rode the gondola to the top, took some pictures, and then decided to eat at the restaurant.  It was a little expensive and not a big choice for things to eat, but a great view.  The drive home was a lot faster through the road work.  Joyce is still not better so we stayed in after we got home.  It was late anyway.

Tuesday:  Joyce had a rough night so we skipped zone training in the morning.  Today’s meeting didn’t apply much to what we do, so no big deal.  Art ran some errands while Joyce slept other than that we stayed in and let Joyce get better.  We both read and Art worked on a puzzle.

Wednesday:  We did Northwest Harvest in the morning.  Joyce still isn’t 100% so she sat in the pick-up and rested.  We thought the medicine would have worked by now. They called to say if she wasn’t better to come back in. Joyce stayed in the pick-up and Art put meals together with the Spanish Sisters and the Elder Sisters boxed beans.  There was only the missionaries and the regular volunteers so not a real big crew.  We are going to talk to the Zone leaders about the missionaries making more of an effort to fill the commitment we have made at Northwest Harvest.  The missionaries are thinking it is a thing to do if nothing else is going on.  We

took the Elder Sisters home and then picked up Joyce Johnson.  She needed a ride to a job interview, to K mart to look for Gideon’s uniform, to the mall to look for clothes for Eric and Gideon, and to Costco.  She wants to start working two jobs.  We aren’t sure how she will do this and sleep sometime.  After coming home from Costco she asked Joyce to go with her to a school meeting about Gideon. She said she was afraid to go alone. The school doesn’t know what to do with Gideon because he doesn’t behave.  We have experienced this first hand when we take him shopping and he still speaks no English.  The suggestion at the meeting is that they are going to put him in a half day kindergarten instead of all day kindergarten, with some support in the mornings.  They will try this for three weeks and then we will meet again.  In the mean time, they will see if funding is available to see if they can hire a safety person for him in the afternoons.  That will mean for right now, Joyce Johnson having to pick him up at 11:30 each day.  She is still working nights and needs to sleep sometime, but  Gideon tries to run away and they want somebody to be one on one with him, so, this is the solution for a few weeks.  With that all done, we went back to the Urgent Care again.  The medicine isn’t working for Sister Knowles. Her fever was down from 101.6 to 101.2. They gave her a shot and a stronger antibiotic.   We hope this will work.  We finally got home at 8:00, so much for a restful day.  Beverlyn Sablon had her baby today and Dylan wanted us to bring the young men to the hospital for their activity, but we were too long at the urgent care and Wal-Mart picking up the prescription.

Thursday:  Today we stayed in again so the medicine will have a chance to work.  We only had to cancel one appointment and that was with Skyway A.  We did get a text for Skyway B wanting us but Art said no.  Joyce is doing much better so the medicine must be working.  Mostly Joyce organized the receipts from our finance class and Art worked on a puzzle and read some. Joyce is having a reaction to the antibiotic and has a rash. We did walk around the park for a little sunshine and fresh air. We also skipped the missionary meeting.  The Elder Sisters brought us supper.  Art did manage to buy some tickets to the baseball game that we will go to on Monday night.

Friday:  After making a few phone calls in the morning we just took it easy.  The recovery has been slow.  Joyce feels pretty good in the morning and then not so good by evening.  We picked up Eldrex, Estrella and Richel and went to the Children’s Hospital at 2:00.  Things are not good with Estrella and Ric, but it was fun to have Richel with us.  The hospital did call while we were home and scheduled Eldrex’s surgery on his foot for Sept. 26.  On the way home we were all hungry so we stopped at our favorite fish place and the owner gave Art a shirt, Emerald City Fish and Chips.  It does pay to get to know the owners of places.  Eldrex did good at the hospital with the therapy.  We came home and Joyce sent a bunch of texts so we can line up the next few days and Art needed to get more tickets for the game on Monday. The R.S. president , Sister Kemp, wants to go with us. We have lots on conflicts the next few days so we need to let people know what we are attending and not attending.   Joyce is feeling much better.

Saturday:  The High Priest are  cleaning the church this month so thats where our day started.  After that project we drove to Kirkland to deliver Karen her bike.  We delivered the bike and then took Karen shopping for groceries.  We didn’t want her to have to carry the groceries on the bus,.  We also took her to lunch.  After taking the groceries home we dropped Karen off so she could shop for some clothes and we drove home.  She would ride the bus back to her home.  We just made it home in time to go to the Jacksons for dinner.  They are a delightful little family.  Sheila is our Primary President and they have been trying to have us over for a while.  After dinner and a fun visit, we went to the SRS devotional at the Stake Center.  There was not a real good attendance.  We thought we were finished with the program, then found that we are running the job search class for the next twelve weeks.  Only three signed up and we were told by some of their ward members that they have a pattern of not following through with what they start.  That will work for us since we may go home before the class is

over.  We will find out more what is going to happen next week when the class starts.  We do have the option with this class of having longer classes to finish sooner and if those in attendance find a job they will probably stop coming.  It was another long night and a long day.

Sunday:  It was a good day at church.  Ivar, Eleazar and Reymark were there for the sacrament.  Ric took them early so they could bless and pass, but still no Ric or any of the older girls were there for the meetings. Still work to do.  We took Eldrex, Estrella, and  Princes Joy with us.  Diane Whitney also rode with us.  She is doing so good.  After rain all day yesterday, the sunshine is back.  In the evening we drove to Graham for the mission devotional.  Graham is about as far south as the missionaries are assigned and takes about one hour from our place.  We wanted to go because we get

to see a lot of the missionaries that were once in Renton and we may not get the chance to see them again before we go home.  We did find out that Elder Bodily is back with Elder Richards.  There was a conflict with companions so there was an emergency transfer.  The best thing about this week is that Joyce is feeling better.  Love you all Joyce and Art  

P.S.  We got some information this week that our replacement is coming the week after Christmas so we can go home when they get here, we just don’t know the exact day yet.  

P.S.S.   We are really coming home on the 5th of December as far as we know, so if any one asks, tell them sometime in December.  The 5th is a Monday so we will be home by Wednesday or Thursday for sure.  We just want to see how many really read our letters.  So, the plan for a family/friend dinner on the 10th is a go if any of you can make it.