Week 13   March 28-April 4

     “Never answer an anonymous letter”

Sunday:  It was fast Sunday today.  Mary came to church so that is a worry with her.  She wanted to go up on the stand this time, so Joyce helped her up and she did ok.  Two different men talked about how they had turned missionaries away for 30 years, then finally let them in and came back into activity in the church.  Joyce had to elbow Art to make sure he heard them so his attitude will improve about knocking on doors.  Mary sang to us all the way home. We took a new member, Diane, home from church and we don’t know what she thought about Mary, but she’ll get used to her.   Everyone is usually so nice to her at church, even when she gets way off the topic of discussion.  In the evening, we took the senior sister to the Puyallup Stake Center to watch the “Lamb of God” production.  It uses a choir, orchestra and soloists to present the last week of the Saviors life and his resurrection.  If it is ever done in your area, go see it.  They use local talent so it takes months of planning and rehearsal to present it. This was a multi stake production and was “super” as Jace would say!

Monday:  It was supposed to be p-day but we spent most of it with Brother Johnson at the employment office.  They are very good with helping him to fill out applications. ^st hour was spent working before any classes would start.  They had to clean and maintain the school.  He has had a rough life, working hard growing up, his first wife died in childbirth, he had to leave a daughter he had raised in Ghana because he is not the physical father (the government wouldn’t let him take her out of the country) and his grandmother took one of his sons to raise (we think it was a cultural thing). We really have gotten to love his family.  He also told us that when he joined the church several years ago, his brother made fun of him, telling him he had joined a cult.  Six months ago his brother and his family joined the church in Ghana. He and his wife are the kind of people that you can’t help being happy when you are around them.  They are so thankful for anything you do for them.   Art stayed with Thomas and Joyce took the pick-up and went to the senior sisters to get her hair cut.  We had to go to the store then hurry home and fix dinner for six missionaries.  The ward has signups for dinner on Sunday and Monday nights, but they know to call us if no one signs up, which nobody did. We had a teaching appointment with Skyway A at 6pm, but it cancelled.  Probably a good thing because Elder Bennett was hurt play basketball today and he is not doing well.  He may have broken his nose.  He has torn a big chunk of skin off of it. The other elders didn’t have much sympathy for him.  They were worried that the President would ban basketball if he found out. We have noticed that basketball and backing up the cars are two of the hazards the missionaries have.  One has to stand behind the car when they back up.  We think that missionaries are easier to replace than the cars.  JK  It sure has a domino effect when they wreck one. Isn’t that right Elder Schwieder?

He has a hard time because of his English.  He is a truck driver and is very qualified in that job, but he needs a job where he can be home at night.  Because of the new baby he needs steady hours.  He told us when he was growing up in Ghana that he would get up in the morning at 4am so he could fill the water barrel for his home.  He would carry buckets of water 2 miles and make several trips to fill the barrel.  School stated at 8am and the 1

Tuesday: District meeting in the morning from 10:00 till 12:00. They have put us in a new district since they don’t know what to do with us.   We had to meet Soveth at 1:00 to help him with his computer class.  They are working hard trying to get ready for the New Year Celebration. 

We should go help them but can’t seem to find a good time.  At 4:00 we helped the Skyway A elders teach Ruth and Rubi about making promises.  From 5:00 to 6:30 we served supper at the Salvation Army kitchen.  We had a 7:00 appointment at the Acostas so we hurried home and walked to their house.  We thought we were late but the Skyway B elders weren’t there yet so Art pulled out his phone to call them and saw that they had sent a text at 6:30 telling us the appointment was cancelled.  He puts his phone on vibrate during lessons and forgets to take it off after the lesson so we sometimes get the messages late.  We seem to learn the hard way sometimes.  Oh well, it was a nice evening for a walk. 

Wednesday: Our service project at Northwest Harvest was cancelled, which was a good thing for us. We had to spend most of the day getting ready for a dinner at 4pm that we were having with the senior sisters and Shanchata, (a less active member) and Ravyn, her daughter.  Her husband and nephew were going to come but didn’t show.  Since we had spent Monday doing other things we needed to clean and do some shopping. The dinner went well and Art gave a short lesson, then we watched the new church video “Because He Lives”. Somewhere we had not communicated with the Skyway A elders because they we expecting us to teach with them at 7:00 and we didn’t know about it.  We made a quick trip across town to get there on time and we made it.  They are teaching a new investigator named Patti Delaney.  She has a big dog that loves attention so the lesson was distracted a lot by the dog. Patti is very spiritual and very interested in the gospel.  After the lesson we had another quick trip to our meeting with the Bishop and all the missionaries.  The Zone Leaders said in our meeting that many of the elders had received packages, so a big Thank You to those who helped us out with this project. Several missionaries had a good day because of you.   The Zone Leaders told us how surprised they were because some who got packages never get them. It seemed like we hadn’t done much during the day but we sure were tired when we got home. 

Thursday:  One of the Skyway elders wasn’t feeling well so they came over to get some hot packs we had.  It was early so we fed them breakfast.  We met Thomas Johnson at the Employment Office to help him fill out more job applications.  He had one place to go at 3:00 to see about a job, so we left and went to pick up a few more groceries.  It takes a lot of food when you feed missionaries.  Joyce told them she was going to start feeding them healthier meals and they begged her not to.  They said that the only good meal they get is when members feed them. We dropped off some fried chicken and a book about temples at Mary’s.  She likes to look at pictures.   We had to hurry home so Joyce could prepare a lesson for Ruth and Rubi at 6:00.  We tried something new.  Since they are 9 years old, (identical twins) we thought it would be fun to face time Elayna (who is also 9) in Heber City and let her tell them about the blessings she has received by being baptized.  It went very well thanks to Elayna and her sweet testimony of baptism, the Holy Ghost and being a member of the church.  The elders that are teaching Ruth and Rubi were in awe of Elayna because of how well she spoke and the experiences she shared!  Then, Joyce hid some Easter Eggs and had Ruth and Rubi look for them.  The last one was hard to find, and she compared that to finding the gospel.  It was a fun lesson for them, but we had to cut it short so we all could get to our 7:00 meeting with the Ward Mission Leader. A long meeting and another late night.  It takes a lot of time to coordinate 4 sets of missionaries and all of us are busy, so there is lots of info to discuss.

Friday:  We were heading out the door to go to the new institute class that started this week when Skyway B elders called because they needed some help in finding an ER they could go to that would take the mission insurance.  The elder that was sick had a very bad night and President Eaton’s wife told him to go to an ER.  We heard that several other missionaries have had the same problem.  Joyce took care of them while Art drove to Auburn for the class.  Our plans were to go knock on doors but after class it was pouring rain so we went to lunch with the Bensons and shopping for some things we needed. We are planning on making lunch for the missionaries between conference sessions.  It’s too far to drive back to our apartments for lunch.  We got to experience shopping at IKEAs. By the time we got home it had cleared up so we were going to go out when the Skyway B elders called to make sure we had gotten the message about the cancelled appointment we had that night.  We wanted to check on the one that was sick so we invited them to come over for supper.  We went all out, grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, but we did send them home with chocolate chip cookies.  By now it was too late to go out so we did some paper work that we have put off for too long.  The boiler in the complex broke, so we get cold showers for the next few days. 

Saturday: Thank heaven for General Conference.  It got us up early so we still had hot water to shower with.  We went to the stake center to watch conference with all the missionaries in our zone.  There were a few members there but most stay at home and watch over the internet.  In between sessions we went out in the parking lot and made sandwiches. .  Big thanks again to those who helped (Nancy and Jerry, and Fritz and Amy).  There were some happy missionaries, us included!  Thank you!   After the last session we took the Elders in our area (Skyway A, Skyway B, and the Spanish speaking Elders) to Arby’s for supper then back to the stake center.  Joyce and Art went home and Art watched the Priesthood session on the internet.  We did have to make a stop at Wal-Mart to restock for lunch between sessions tomorrow.  The senior sisters want to help so they are bringing food tomorrow, also.  We very much enjoy being with the missionaries no matter what we are doing.  At 8:00 we walked down to meet the Skyway B elders at the Acostas.  They weren’t home so we walked to McDonalds for a drink and then home.  The airport is south of us so we can see the planes lining up to land. It reminds us of Grandpa Phil.  He would have loved watching them.  At night they really show up plus it was a full moon so it was a nice walk home.

We had brought the stuff and let the missionaries make their own.  We didn’t know how many would stay so we ran out of bread, but we had plenty of other stuff.   The Zone leaders handed out the packages to those that got one.  That was pretty fun for us since they didn’t know who they were from and several there were lots of surprised comments from those who had received a package that never get one

Now for some preaching: “It isn’t as bad as you sometimes think it is.  It all works out.  I say that to myself every morning. It all works out in the end.  Put your trust in God, and move forward with faith and confidence in the future.  The Lord will never forsake us.  He will not forsake us, if we will live worthy of this blessing.  He will hear our prayers:”       President Hinckley

  We hung this on our door to remind us that we are not alone in this work.  This week had a few challenges at the first.  Our sick elder had to have some minor surgery and is now doing well, Soveth finished his computer class, good news about our taxes and many more tender mercies so it does all work out.

                   Love Elder and Sister Knowles

Skyway D.I. dropoff

                       Week 12 March 22-28

“Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”   The Lorax

Sunday: We picked up Bro. Q. Baker for church and then stopped to pick up Mary but she wasn’t feeling well so she didn’t go.  Church was good with lots of less active members there and a few investigators, also.  We have a new lady in the ward now that we take home after church now, so we end up with a car load.  We usually have a walker or a wheelchair in the back of the pick-up. In the evening we had dinner at the Meldrums with Skyway B Elders and the Kolars.  Just to let everyone know how the Chinese Book of Mormon turned out, we had the correct one, but found out that he can read English better than Chinese.  His mother wants to read the Book of Mormon and she does read Simplified Chinese so it worked out ok.

Monday:  We walked to the Buddhist Temple to work on Soveth’s computer assignment.  They were very friendly to us.   They really make you feel special.  Joyce and Soveth worked on the power point while Art searched for the info on the iphone, then Art would pass the info to Joyce and Soveth so they could put the power point together. It was a slow process, but we got it done.  While we were working on the project Art thought he heard them talking in the next room and he heard the word Mormons several times.  We’re not sure if they were talking about us, but they did come and close the door so we couldn’t hear them. It’s hard to tell because when they speak Cambodian it all sounds the same. They also had us look over the letters they are sending to the city council inviting them to the New Year Celebration in April.  We made a few changes in the grammar and changed a few words. We are pretty excited to help with it and it sounds very entertaining.  They invited us to stay for lunch, but we know they are on a limited budget so we thanked them for the invitation, but didn’t stay.

Soveth Moun

 It rained all the way home, but we had our umbrella this time. Since it was p-day we spent the rest of the day cleaning.  There is a big push in the mission for the missionaries to spring clean their apartments. We needed to go shopping, but ran out of time.

Easter package from Rachel

FHE

Meldrums

In the evening we went to F.H.E.  We pick up a couple of sisters from the ward and give them a ride.

Tuesday: We had our district meeting in the morning, as we do every Tuesday. We were asked to set two goals. 1. better companion study time  2. act on the promptings we get, are the ones we decided on, and we were also asked to come with a question, so we asked how do you help members rediscover the faith and desire they had when they joined the church. Any thoughts or scriptures you have would be helpful and no Sunday School answers. Shonshata is struggling with that.  Since we cleaned yesterday we ran to the store and did some shopping.  Mary H. asked us to bring soup because she was supposed to have her teeth pulled yesterday so we bought her some soup and dropped it by, but she was gone and she didn’t get her teeth pulled.  We had to hurry home and prepare a lesson (Joyce did), and treats, so we could teach the Galbraith family a F.H.E lesson.  We are never sure if they will let us in but they did and our Easter lesson went well.  Our next appointment was with the Acosta family just down the street from where we were at so we knocked on a few doors on our way there. 

its pop in the mugs

The Acostas are fun to teach even though we can’t understand much of what is going on. We have a few appointments tomorrow so we got our assignments from the Elders so we can do our companion study on that topic. Nothing like a little motivation to help meet your goals. (Goal #1).

Wednesday:  We did service at Northwest Harvest for 2 hrs. in the morning.  The new policy for the mission is no projects with elders and sister combined. Our zone sent elders and the Kent zone sent sisters so we have to get it worked out for next week. The Z.L.s want to make sure President Eaton doesn’t find out since they are the ones in charge.  Doesn’t matter to us since we go both weeks.  We did box 15,120 lbs. of oranges.  We made a quick trip to Beehive Books in Puyallup to pick up some teaching supplies, then hurried home for an appointment that canceled.  We had another appointment an hour later with Skyway A to teach Ruth and Rubi Acosta.  The cancelled appointment gave Joyce time to prepare a lesson for them on the Word of Wisdom.   The Elders were very impressed with her lesson, now they ask whenever we teach there for her help.  Art just holds up the pictures.  We are trying to start the A.R.P. in Skyway so we skipped the Wednesday meetings we had and went to Renton to attend there and get familiar with the program.  It was a good meeting.  All we need now is to contact LDS Social Service and we should be able to start the program in Skyway next week. 

Thursday:  We did our first real tour at the Museum today.  It was a group of 60, 6^th graders, plus teachers and some parents.  We divided them into two groups and Joyce took one and Art took one.  They got a 40 min. tour and then an activity.  It must have been ok because they asked us to do two more in April, or maybe they are just short of docents.  All the kids went outside to eat lunch since it was such a nice day.  It would have been nice to join them but we had to hurry to the Buddhist Temple to help Soveth with his computer assignment.  We hope we did it right.  He will find out tonight.  They are getting ready for the New Year celebration and want up to come back and help later this week if it doesn’t rain.  We hurried from there to an appointment with Skyway B and Nola, but she forgot and wasn’t home.  That gave us time to hurry back home so Joyce could make dinner for the Johnsons.  Joyce Johnson had her baby on Monday and was coming home from the hospital today.  The trip to the Jonhsons made for an eventful end to the day.  We parked and were getting out of the pick-up when this lady started yelling for Art to come and talk to her.  She thought he was with the apartment complex and wanted to complain about somebody.  He told her who we were and that we were here to see the Johnsons and their new baby and bring then supper.  As we were talking to her the security guard came up and ordered us off the property yelling at us “right now.”  He thought we were going tracting. We explained that we were here to visit somebody, then the lady started yelling at him for bothering us.  We left them yelling at each other and went and visited the Johnsons.  Their new baby is so cute, but we think that because Brother Johnson has stayed home to help his wife (she had a C-section) he may have lost his job. He said he wanted to find a new job anyway.  Sister Johnson wanted a blessing so Art took care of that and we talked about them coming to church so they can have the baby blessed.  Brother Johnson walked out to the parking lot with us. He wanted us to know about the rest of his family and the problems he has with them. He has a daughter in Ghana that he raised, but he is not the physical father so they wouldn’t let her come to the U.S. with him. He is trying to find some way to get her to America.  The security guard was also out there, but he just wanted to apologize this time. 

The Johnson's new baby boy

Friday:  It has been a long week or we are getting old.  Lots of errands first thing this morning.  We needed to check with Family Services so we can start the ARP next week.  After wandering around a bit we found it only to find the director not there.  He did call us later so we got the info we needed.  From there we made a trip the Employment Office to see what help they could offer. 

Debra Driggs

At noon we had an appointment to help a lady weed her flower bed.  After we finished we had to hurry home and change then hurry to the far end of the ward.  Our plan was to take Brother Johnson to the employment office, but he was stuck in traffic on the freeway.  He went to get a prescription for his wife.  Last week, because of an accident on the freeway, some people were 6 hrs. getting home.  He was very sorry, but we did get to check on his wife while we were there and take more food. We wanted to take him to the Employment office because his English is fair when he speaks, but he has a hard time with reading and writing. Plus we really like them and wanted to help them out. Another quick trip across Skyway for our appointment with Ruth and Rubi.  Joyce taught most of the lesson and it went very well.  The pick-up was very dirty so we stopped on the way home and washed it, then came home to relax a bit.  Tomorrow looks like more of the same. 

Saturday:  We ran to W.W. first thing in the morning.  We had a few minutes before the meeting started so Art went and bought a new hat.  He needed something to keep the sun off his bald head. The afternoon was empty so we took to the streets.  Joyce doesn’t mind it and Art hates it.  He thinks it a waste of time and that we should be doing service instead.  The ward asked us to do it so it has got to be done.  We didn’t have a lot of luck, but we did talk to a nice group of young adults that were moving somebody into a house so we left cookies with them.  Joyce was going to go to the Womens Broadcast, but Art messed up on the schedule and booked us to volunteer at the museum.  Since Joyce couldn’t go there we went with Skyway B elders to visit a lady Joyce wanted to meet.  She wasn’t home (we did have an appointment), so we visited another lady that lives in the same complex and showed her the new church video, “Because He Lives.”  It is very good so take time to watch it.  We next went to the museum to do our volunteering job there.  The program was about black cartoon artists.  We directed people on where to go.  Some important lady from Hollywood that was on the panel read Joyce’s name tag and wanted to know why she volunteered at the museum (we were about the only white people at the program.) Joyce explained to her that our church had put in the genealogy library there at the museum and that she and Elder Knowles had come to volunteer there, but while at the museum they were asked to train as docents and take tours through the museum.  She read her name tag again out loud and walked off.  That has been our week.  We thought it was going to be a slow week but it seems to fill-up in a hurry.    Here is our preaching:  Watch the clip of President Monson’s “Dare to Stand Alone”.  It is on Mormon Momments.  Watch it and think about if you are willing to stand alone, then watch the new clip “Because He Lives” and see what you think then.

FHE

Love you all Elder and Sister Knowles

P.S We loved the pictures you have sent us!!!

Sunday dinner

The light rail

Northwest Harvest

Packing oranges

new hat

museum

museum

                                  Week 11   March 15-21

Lift where you stand…….Grow where you are planted

Joyce went to a womens conference and for lunch sat by 4 cute ladies.  They reminded me of my cute daughters and daughter in laws.  I would have expected them to all have been born and raised in the gospel with few problems.  Boy, was I wrong.  The cute mom sitting next to me had 3 boys ages 8, 10, and 12.  I commented on how fun to have someone passing the sacrament and just baptized.  She explained that her boys were not baptized nor passing the sacrament.  She had just been through a messy divorce and was just coming back to church, because of her dear bishop that was in tune with her needs.  The one diagonally across the table was going through deep, dark depression and was trying to work through it.  The one across from me was a tiny little thing that was suffering from diabetes and couldn’t seem to get it under control, and the one on the end had just moved here, has a family of small children, and the first Sunday at church was yelled at by some women that told her to control her children.  She had cried, and she and her husband had decided to just take a vacation from church while their children were so small, so as to not disrupt the ward.  Thankfully, some sweet people in the ward were able to change their minds.  We never know what people are going through that we meet randomly.  Each has their own problems and challenges and I know that is why we are here.  So thus: Lift where you stand, and grow where you are planted.  Memorize Ether 12:27.  It’s a favorite!   

Sunday:  We woke up to pouring rain and cold.  Mary didn’t feel well so she didn’t come to church, but we had pulled some pictures out of a Gospel Principles manual that she wanted so we dropped those off.  

Joyce is going to start teaching primary to 3 new investigator that want to stay together so they are going to have a class just for them.  A new sister in the ward needed a ride home so we took care of that.  Skyway A Elders had their dinner appointment cancel at the last minute so we had them over for supper and then picked up Brother Nguyen and went to the mission devotional in Renton.  It has rained hard all day.  We heard it had only rained twice all week, once for three days and once for four days.

Monday:  Joyce needed a haircut so we went to the mission office with the sisters to take care of that. Sister Nowlin told Joyce she would do it for her.  Art likes to go there because they always have a bowl filled with chocolate in the office.  The sisters wanted to stop at Costco on the way home so we went there for lunch and bought Mary some chicken, so on the way home we dropped that off at her place.  We needed to go to Wal-Mart and while we were there the sisters called to tell us that Sister Chamberlain was cutting the Elders hair and Joyce wanted to learn how, so we ran back to their place.  Since we were in our p-day cloths we walked to the Balukas and took them some granola bars.  Sister Fely Baluka is flying to SLC on Wednesday and Joyce thought it would be nice if she had something to eat on while in the airport.

On the way home we stopped and weeded Sonia’s (the burglay lady) flower bed.  She sat on the step and talked to us while we did it.  She is pretty entertaining, but she does come to church now.  Some of the ward members are picking her up and taking her home.   Because of the weeding it was too late to go to FHE so we missed it.

Tuesday: We had District training in the morning that lasted a couple of hours.  The nice thing now is we are the odd couple, (in lots of ways) so we split up and the missionaries do the role playing with us as the investigators.  Our tax info came in the mail – thanks Jacob and Lara!  We worked on those and Joyce made a card that we can leave on doors when nobody answers.  It rained so we didn’t go knock on doors as planned, and we needed to be at the Salvation Army to serve food at 5.  That was an interesting experience with lots of interesting people we met.  We had to hurry home so we could meet at the Acostas with the Elders (Skyway B) for another lesson.  They are trying to teach the new members, plus teach two of the family that haven’t been baptized yet.  They taught them how to have a FHE and taught the restoration as a lesson, so we covered both bases.  As per our teaching, we find out what they want us to do before we go in the house.  It works a lot better than just winging it.  We really enjoy going there.  We have learned how to say good evening and good morning in Tagalog.   Next we want them to teach us how to pray in Tagalog.

Wednesday:   In the morning we finally got the taxes done and sent off, now we just wait for the bad news to see how much we will owe.  After emailing the taxes, we hit the streets and had a pretty good day.  We found more at home than not and only one was rude.  We also found a few more churches that we can stop at to see if we can do any service there (when we are feeling brave). The Skyway A Elders wanted us to help teach so we hurried there and waited for them.  They never showed up so we checked the phone and found that they had sent a text about 5 minutes before the appointment telling us that it was changed to Friday. Art puts the phone on vibrate when we are in a meeting and he forgets to take it off so we miss calls and texts until he checks it.   The county library was close so we stopped there and checked out a couple of books on teaching English.  We have ordered Daily Dose from the church but we need something for Friday.  Thanks to all who told us about Daily Dose.  It will really help. In the evening we walked over to the care center to read the Book of Mormon with Sister Waters and the Skyway B Elders.  She always has an excuse why she hasn’t read more, so we just keep trying.  Also, had our meeting with the Bishop and got a few more assignments from him.

Thursday:  We made it to W.W. in the morning which was good since we haven’t been for two weeks.  Getting there was good, not the results.  We needed to go to Bellevue to Dessert Book and pick up a picture that we had ordered weeks ago and we needed some manuals for the 12 step program we are going to start in the Skyway building. 

The Interstate 405 access is close to W.W. so we headed north.  We picked up what we needed and wanted to go to lunch at this famous Chinese place but it wasn’t opened yet so we ran to the Temple and walked around for a while.  The trees and flowers, especially the tulips, are all blooming now and it looks great.  While we were eating we got a text from Skyway B asking if we had a Cantonese Book of Mormon.  We ordered one for Skyway A in simplified Chinese and they needed one now.  We checked at Desert Book but they didn’t have one so we left.  As we were pulling out the clerk ran out and said she had found two in the back so we got those.  We’re not even sure if they will work for what the Elders need.  We have the Schwieders checking for us to see what is available. On the way home we stopped at the Johnsons to check on them.  No baby yet.  We needed to take some material on family history to the museum and check on a member up north that the Bishop assigned us, so we rode the train there as far as we could, then hit the streets.  We meet a lot more people when we walk and get to know the streets better so we don’t get lost as much.  Art was going to take a Chinese Book of Mormon in case we ran into the Elders but decided it was too much to carry and it was a slim chance of running into them.  Guess who we ran into when we got off the train. That’s the way it goes sometimes.   The member we needed to see wasn’t at home, but we did find another that we were looking for.  We finally tracked down the one we were looking for and reported to the Bishop.  Sounds like we will be back there on Saturday to help him out.  It was raining off and on most of the time so we walked back to the train station and called it a day, plus we were tired.  Going to be an Advil night, but we did get 3 letters in the mail so that helps.

Friday: We walked to the Filipino Cultural Center for a service project first thing in the morning.  They act as a U.S consulate, for three days every three months so people won’t have to travel to San Francisco to get documents.  Art took photos and Joyce worked in the copy room.  We had to leave at 1 for another appointment just as it was getting very busy so they asked if we would come back later, so we did.

Our appointment at 1 was with the Buddhist Monk, Soveth Moun.  We thought we were going to teach English, but we ended up helping him with a computer class that he is taking.  Joyce did most of the helping, Art ran the calculator when needed.  We did help him with correct English for a few letters he is writing so his father can come visit him from Cambodia.  After our visit there we ran back to the Cultural Center, then onto an appointment to teach with the Skyway A Elders.  They are teaching a set of 9 year old twins, Ruth and Rubi.  There brother, Joshua, was baptized a month ago.  Tonight their mom sat in for part of the lesson.  Thanks to Elder Schwieder for explaining how the Chinese Book of Mormon works.  We think we have that worked out now.  We will find out for sure on Sunday if we have the right one.  In the evening we worked on trying to get our area book straightened out.

Saturday:  The Cultural Center wanted us to come back this morning to help.  We left at 8 with blue skies, but not 200 yards from our apartment it started to rain, sideways and cold.  We had to walk about 2 miles so by the time we got there we were soaked, even with rain ponchos on. (Thank goodness Joyce carries the ones from Lara in her bag!)  We should have taken the umbrellas, but not too sure if they would have helped anyway.  

Joyce had to start “Singing in the Rain” which didn’t help Arts attitude much.  Of course it stopped raining when we got there.  After 2 hours we had to leave and sure enough, it started to rain again.  After a quick change of clothes we drove to the church to meet the bishop and get a food order from him, (not for us, for a member), then headed to Kent to fill the order before the store house closed.  By now the sun was shining and it turned out to be a pretty nice day.  At 1 we picked up our D.L. (Elder Jones) so he could split with us.  We had to drop his companion off at the Z.L.s (Skyway A Elders).  This gave us an extra hand to help deliver the food order we had.   Elder Jones went with us to meet a less active member (Q. Baker) and we taught him a lesson on the restoration.  He said he would come to church so we will pick him up tomorrow. Elder Jones is a very good teacher and very spiritual, so we were glad he was with us.  Next we took Elder Jones to the museum and gave him a practice tour.  We have to do a real one next week so we wanted to brush up a little.

 We also took him to an overlook of I-90 so he could see the top edge of the mission and a nice view of downtown Seattle.  Not many Elders get this far north.  We made a quick stop to check on a member and then picked up his companion and took them back to their area. The evening was spent in the lounge in our complex using the computer so we are ready for our next lesson with Soveth Moun, our new friend, who is a nice monk... 

Here is our preaching:  CPR for the spirit………church, prayer, and reading the scriptures

         Hope you all had a good week, we did.  Keep those cards and letter coming.