Elder & Sister Knowles

       Transfer 16 Week 1  Oct 17-23  

When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates….Pres. Monson

Preaching:  We talked a lot about the attributes of Christ in our last zone training and key indicators in our district meeting this week.  As we are trying to become more like our Savior we have come up with Christ like attributes that we want to work on and some key indicators to measure how we are doing and then we will report to our District Leader each week on how we are doing.  Give it a try.  We will let you know how we are doing.   Here is our example of using key indicators, if you are trying to have Christlike attributes.   Some of your key indicators may be (1) daily scripture study with your family and yourself, deciding on a time and then following through (2) on Sunday, yes, attending church, but also preparing for the Sabbath by reading the lesson and /or preparing for the sacrament and asking yourself “What lack I yet?”  (3)Another key indicator that you could report might be in

observing the commandment of service.  Are you serving your fellow men with charity in your heart, or are you serving with an attitude of helping others  begrudging?  Christlike love needed to have a word of its own to describe it.  We call that Christ like love;  charity…(4)Another key indicator could be in your daily prayers, both morning and night; by yourself and with your family.  Are you doing prayers quickly to get prayers said, or are you doing mighty prayer?  I have to tell you about Primary today…In my lesson today,  (I always have an aluminum tray to do my object lessons on in case they explode:))  Anyway, today, I carefully unscrewed a liter of diet soda (I use the cheap diet because it works and it is cleaner if something happens = no sugar mess.)  I unscrew it carefully so that the carbon dioxide stays in the liter of pop and doesn’t shoot all over.  Over the aluminum tray, Rubi poured salt into the balloon, using a small funnel. She actually poured in quite a bit of salt. 

Then, still over the aluminum tray, I carefully stretched and attached the balloon (with the salt in it) on top of the diet soda. Then, Rubi held up the end of the balloon so the salt all ran down into the soda pop, and the balloon filled up with carbon dioxide and a lot of pop went into the balloon while we talked about the lift that mighty prayer brings into our lives.  (Sister Munson, yes, we did get our bishop’s wife! (she just got called to the Primary!), ran, because she thought she was going to get pop all over her, but it always stays in the balloon; well, unless the balloon would happen to have a hole in it.) 3 Nephi 9-13 was our lesson today, about Nephi praying mightily unto the Lord, so that the believers would not be put to death.  We read the scriptures and then had a good discussion about what mighty prayer is and what it would be like.  Then, we contrasted mighty prayer to lame prayers.  Needless to say, when Ruth closed the class in prayer  today, it was a mighty prayer and she prayed about specific things that are important.   This was a little miracle in itself, because Ruth and Rubi both are always so shy and have to be coaxed to say a prayer.   Usually, at the end of primary class they both say, in unison, “not it.”  So, for Ruth to volunteer to say the closing prayer was a tender mercy for Sister Knowles!

Monday:  We started early at the Acostas again so Art could help get Eldrex on the bus and Joyce and Estrella could talk to his teacher before school started.  Something has happen at school so Eldrex doesn’t want to go.  He stayed home again today so we all walked to school and visited with the teacher.  We still can’t figure out what happened but the teacher is trying to find out.  We came home long enough to get ready for the day then back to the Acostas with the R.S. President.  We then took Sister Beck with us to do some shopping at Christopher Banks, Winco and Sam’s Club, also out to lunch and a stop at See’s Candy.   Art sat in the pick-up and read while the girls shopped for clothes at the Christopher Banks sale.   Sister Stevenson stayed home and prepared the Family Home Evening lesson on friends.  We think sometimes they need a break from each other.  In the evening we took Debra Driggs to FHE and Sister Stevenson did her lesson.  We wrote things about ourselves and guessed who did what as the sisters read the experiences. It was fun to learn about each other!

Tuesday:  Today is p-day plus transfers.  We rode the link to UW and then walked to the library.  It is supposed to be the most beautiful library in the U.S.  We were not disappointed with all the sculptures, stained glass windows, intricate wood work, and vaulted ceilings.  We had seen the outside but never the inside.  There were lots of different groups in Red Square and one of them were selling homemade tamales for a fund raiser so we got some for lunch and to take home.  After walking around the campus a bit we went back home for our afternoon appointment.  Bro. Neuss wanted us to visit a Sister that was stay at the

Marriott Suites.  The Veterans Hospital here houses people  at the Marriott Suites.  These people  are waiting for transplants or recovering from a transplant done at the V.A. hospital.  This Sister is there helping her son recover from a bilateral lung transplant.  They have been here a long time and might get to go home in December if her son recovers from infection.  He was quarantined in his room, so we only got to visit with Anita, his mother.  We had a nice visit with her then went and visited the employment office Sisters, Bro. Marler (who is 98 and just got our of the hospital), and Sister Jones.  Sister Jones wanted us to join her for dinner in the retirement home she lives in so we did.  It ended up being a p-day/ work day.  It was so nice to get to see Darlene and catch up on her life!  We needed to get these visits gone so it worked out well for us.  It’s nice that the people in our Self Reliance Job Search Class all got jobs so we have Tuesday evenings free again for a while.

Wednesday:  Our first district meeting of this transfer was today.  Skyway A/ Zone Leaders asked us to pick up the Maplewood Heights Elders, Elder Farnsworth and Ovard. We weren’t sure how long it would take and we ended up being early to our meeting.  Elder White is our new District Leader.   We took the Maple Heights Elders out to lunch on the way home.  We wanted to visit Nancy Hales who lives close to the elders so we called her to make an appointment.  We had to wait a bit so we shopped at JoAnn’s.  They had a big sale which always means you will spend lots of money.  We visited Nancy and gave her the gifts we had for her kids and her.  Joyce has made a little handout with our address on it, that we are giving to those we would like to stay in contact with.  In the evening we went to the missionary/Bishops meeting.  We told the Bishop how concerned we are.  He asked for names and we told him who we wanted.  Our primary president is concerned as well,  about getting people in place to replace us, so, hopefully, there will be some help for our Primary class on Sunday.   

Thursday:  We got up early and walked to the Acostas to get Eldrex on the bus.  He stayed home again, so we walked Princess Joy to school and then Joyce talked to Miss Weaver.  If Eldrex gets ten absences the school system will drop him so they don’t have to pay for the extra services.  He is getting close so we need to get Estrella on board and get him back to school.   We picked up Joyce Johnson at 8:30 to take her to a hair appointment.  We ended up tending Eric for her.   Her appointment takes a couple of hours so we went back to Renton and Art joined W.W again.  Maybe this time it will work.  Then back to Kent to pick up a food order at the Bishops Storehouse.   Joyce J. called while there and was done with her hair appointment, which worked out good for us.  After taking Joyce J. and Eric home, Joyce K went V.T to the Salgatar twins.  It was interesting, as Justine just got baptized and her and Jazmine both are so new to the gospel.  We dropped off the food order then ran home for a late lunch before we started the next round.  Most of this was done in the pouring rain, but it did clear up a little later in the day.  We took Princes Joy and the twins to the church for achievement days and they made birthday cards and get well cards by coloring over leaves.  We practiced our song that the girls will sing in the Primary Program in November.  This is a huge miracle, considering the fact that they were so shy last year for the Primary Program, that we had to coax them just to sit in the front of the chapel and sing.  After taking them home we got ready for our missionary meeting, drove to the church, and found out it had been canceled.  We may be done going to those meetings if Art has his way, but we still are praying for more charity.

Friday:  The institute class was in the morning as usual.  First we went to the Acostas and put Eldrex on the bus. Yea!  He went!  We also walked Princess Joy to school.  We are so glad to get Eldrex back into school.  It was a bit of a rush to get back to the apartment, get ready, pick up the Elder Sisters, and drive to class and be on time.  We made it.  After class we did our lunch stop and then a stop at Sam’s for gas and a few things. We had dry cleaned the suits for Reymark and Eleazar and needed to deliver them, plus talk to Estrella about a few new appointments.  Eldrex had a great day at school so we will count that as a tender mercy.  Joyce made a bunch of phone calls trying to line up our schedule and the schedule for Children’s Hospital appointments.  There is a lot going on in the mission the next six weeks and lots of doctors appointment for Eldrex so we are trying to work all those together, plus teach the Acostas to get the appointments without Joyce’s help. Language is

a real problem for them.  We are still praying that we get replaced so your prayers would be appreciated.  We had a V.T. appointment in the afternoon, so we rode the Link to Mt. Baker station and walked the rest of the way.  We visited Sister Ledwina Yuson, another wonderful Filipino member of our ward.   Since Diane Nardi is in the same building, we made a visit to her.  She is undergoing shock treatments for her depression, so we check on her often.     We got home and were almost done for the day.  It was dark by now and starting to rain.  Joyce had to make lunches for the twins, Princes Joy, Angela, Ashely and some leaders for their achievement day stake activity tomorrow morning.  Angel and Ashley have had birthdays and have joined our group.  Joyce cannot attend, since we get to meet with leaders and with an apostle of the Lord on Saturday morning.  Sister Jackson, our Primary President, will pick up the girls and stay with them, which is good.  They need some connections with other people in the ward.   

Saturday:  After dropping off the lunches for the girls, we picked up the Elder Sister and the Spanish speaking Elders and went to the Federal Way Stake Center.   We had to be in our seats by 9:00.   We had a meeting with all the missionaries, President and Sister Rasmusson, Elder Call and his wife, (area Seventy), Bishop Waddell, (Second Counselor Presiding Bishopric), Elder Clayton, (President of the Seventy) and Elder Rasband (Apostle).  Not a bad line up.  It was one of those meeting you hate to see end.  Before the meeting we all got to shake hands with all of them and then after the meeting we took a group picture with everyone.  Notes from the meeting will come later, but it will be hard to put our feeling into words. There is something special about singing and meeting with the young missionaries and then having all those General Authorities there was icing on the cake.  After the meeting and the hello’s and good-by’s with the missionaries that we know, we went to lunch with the Spanish Elders and Elder Sisters.  In the afternoon we picked up Debra Driggs, Princes Joy, the twins and three of their cousins and went to the Primary Halloween Party.  Debra Driggs was going to the clothes swap for the R.S.  Art had to run her back to the pharmacy on Henderson so she could get her medication before they closed.  Another opportunity to learn charity. It was a good thing we had attended the meeting this morning.  Art has decided that some people want to be the key indicator for how he is doing when it comes to charity.  Enough said. The kids loved the Halloween party and had a great time.    Elder and Sister Knowles got to run the bean bag toss.  There were so many fun games!  A favorite one was building a catapult out of clothespins and shooting an eyeball at the target!  They also loved to paint and decorate their Halloween mason jars.  When we took Princes Joy home, we were able to see Richel.  We don’t see her very often so that was a treat.  Joyce worked on her primary lesson when we got home.  It was another long day, but worth all of it.

Sunday:  We picked up Estrella, Princes Joy, and Eldrex, yes, Estrella let “B Boy” come to church today!  They all call him B Boy because Bacus is his middle name, which is Estrella’s maiden name.  Anyway, Ric even came and stayed at church today!  He brought Michelle, Eleazar, and Reymark.  Art took Michelle to work after the first hour of primary and Ric stayed to Sunday School with Estrella!  Hope that continues.  At church we got to talk to Reymark, Eleazar and Ivar.  They got to go to a face to face fireside last night with our apostle, Elder Rasband.  They were so excited to tell us how wonderful the meeting was.  He shook everyones hand at the fireside and they were very impressed with this wonderful man who is a servant of our Savior.  They also helped with the sacrament which is another tender mercy.  Most of the rest of the day we took it easy.  Anyway, have mighty prayers and feel the spirit.  Enough preaching, try some key indicators to get closer to the Savior, and report to your family about how your are doing.  We love each of you so very much!

Elder and Sister Knowles