Week 33 Aug 16-22 transfers

 The first shall be last and the last shall be first

Sunday:  A good day at church.  Several of the members we give rides to were sick or gone, but we seem to always have plenty to take home.  All of the Acostas, that were there, went to Joyce’s primary class after Sunday School, which is good.  She likes to do a science experiment with them and then relate it to a gospel message.  They all love it so they have been staying more.  The adults usually leave and take the younger ones with them after Sunday School because of the language problem, so it is nice when they all stay.  They all love Joyce and her lessons.  Also, several of the less actives that we work with were in Sacrament meeting. We fed all the missionaries after church and Sister Harrison brought her cousin who is visiting.  It was a quick meal since we had to leave to drive to Federal Way for the mission devotional.  The Spanish Elders came late so we sent them home with leftovers.  Eleazar was going with us to the devotional, but after waiting twenty minutes for him, he decided not to go.  So much for hurrying.  Because he didn’t go, the Skyway B elders couldn’t go.  They have to have an investigator there to be able to go.  It was very good as usual.  The mission choir is so fun to watch since we know so many of them.  It is like watching your own kids perform.  President Eaton made the comment that since they have started a choir that they are being sent more talented singers.   We always see the Bensons there and the employment sisters came and visited for a minute.  They never get to see other couples, so they asked if they could do something with us on a Saturday when the employment office is closed.  We have gotten to know them pretty well since we are there a lot. It will be a big sacrifice, (JK) but we need to do all we can to keep all the missionaries happy.

Monday: We talked to Skyway B elders this morning and found that Elder Synder is being transferred.  We try not to get too attached, but it still happens.  So glad now that we had the elders over for dinner last night, even thought we had to hurry to make the devotional. We took the elder sisters and drove to Puyallup and met the senior couple (the Hunts from American Falls.) They are serving in that area.  They came out in June and it is there second mission.  They are also MLS missionaries like us.  The Bensons met us there, also.  We usually get together the first Wednesday of each month with President McKinney but we haven’t done that all summer, so we did it on our own.  There is not a lot of older missionaries so it is nice to get together once in a while.   We got back just in time to go to FHE, after a quick stop at the Mall. Karen went to FHE with us and then after she wanted to walk around Seward Park.  We did that until it got dark.  It’s not the best place to be after dark unless you are trying to get robbed.  One of the very active members, Thelma, who is African American and she is our Compassionate Service Leader, announced at FHE that she is moving to Utah.  This ward just can’t hold onto active members.

Tuesday:   Another early morning so we could take Joyce Johnson to Kent.  She was getting her hair done.  We didn’t know until she got out of the pick-up that she was leaving the baby with us.  We are not supposed to baby sit, but what do you do?  Her two hour appointment ended up being five hours.  We had a few errands to run so we did that while waiting and babysitting.  As usual we needed to stop at Sam’s Club and Wal-Mart.  Mary had all her teeth pulled, so we stopped by to check on her, but she was at the doctors.  Karen had left her phone in the pick-up the night before, so we returned it. The shelter where she lives has very tight security, so they wouldn’t admit that she lived there.  They kept telling us to call her and let her know we had her phone and we kept telling them we couldn’t call her because we had her phone and we were trying to return it.  Finally one lady caught on and told us that they couldn’t tell us if she lived there for sure as she is shaking her head yes the whole time. They took the phone and had us leave our number just in case she didn’t live there.  In the end Karen got her phone back.   We’ve never had so much fun returning something; We are easily entertainedJ  

In the afternoon Josh came for a quick visit.  He had business in Yakima, so he flew into Seattle and spent the night with us.  Joyce is happy!  We didn’t have a lot of time to visit with our English class and ARP in the evening.  We did get to take him to dinner and he went to the church with us for the classes.  The classes went well with a new investigator in our English class and we had a very spiritual ARP meeting.  We think Josh enjoyed it, as well.  The ARP class is all about the atonement helping us overcome our bad habits so we love having it.

Wednesday: Josh left at 5:30 for his meeting in Yakima.   We had a zone meeting in the morning because on all the transfers yesterday, instead of district meetings.  It was a good meeting and lasted all morning.  We discussed what physical tools we have to work with, like members, activities (like ARP, English class, family history and ward activities), videos, the Bible and most important, the Book of Mormon.  We even took time for a zone picture, which we like because we have a lot of new Elders and Sisters.  Josh stopped by, after his meeting in Yakima, on his way to the airport so we met him at our apartment.  The elder sister had invited us for lunch so we all went over there and ate.  As we were leaving we noticed a helicopter in the sky, which usually means they are making an arrest somewhere and several police cars came down our street with their lights flashing, so we figured it was close by us.  It’s something we see all too often. We ate lunch, Josh left for the airport, and we drove home to find five police cars parked on our street. This confirmed that something was going on until we saw them all coming out of the restaurant that is in our building.  We were relived and had a good laugh. 

Joyce made cookies, then we went and made a few visits.  In the evening we had a lesson with both sets of Elders and the Acostas.  Rubi, Reymark and Eleazar are ready for baptism next Saturday. The Zone Leaders spent some time planning the service so we can line up the talks and the people they want to baptize them. Eleazar does need to attend church this Sunday.   We have to pick up Ruth, Rubi and Joshua.  Sunshine (the only one of the Acosta children who drives) brings the other family.  After the lesson we had our meeting with the Bishop.

Thursday: W.W. first thing in the morning, but Art wouldn’t weigh in since he was sure he had gained weight.  We went to the museum, indexed a couple of batches of African American records from the Freedmen Bureau that have been released, and then home.  The Bishop had asked us to help Karen, so Art took care of that while Joyce worked on supper for a member whose husband was having surgery. We walked over to Sonia to check on her since we haven’t seen her at church for a couple of weeks and we wanted to see how the garden was doing.  The beans and the peas were good, but that’s all that made it.  Sonia was pretty excited that she had gotten the peas and beans so it was worth planting it. 

Friday:  We bent the rules a bit today and drove to Centralia and watched Caden play a couple of games.  They did well except for a couple of innings and ended up losing both games.  We think we are bad luck since we were out of the mission, even though just by a little.  It was fun to see the family and that was the main reason for going.  Tyson wanted Gram Gram to stay and watch him jump off the diving board, but we needed to get back for a lesson.  It was a good thing we left when we did because we ran into bad traffic because of a fire on the side of the road. It was kind of a Rockwood experience…  We did make it home in time, barely, for the lesson.  We had a FHE with the Acostas where we all shared our favorite scripture and then they brought out the food, as they always do.  They fed the new Elder, Elder Bohne, balo’t.  He just ate it with no trouble, so not too exciting.   It was a very fun night.

Saturday:  It was clean the church day to start our morning.  Art worked on trying to get the Apple TV to work so we can watch a video when teaching a lesson at the church.  All the TV’s have locks on them so he couldn’t add any new devices and he couldn’t get the pass word to make the change.  He will try again this Sunday.  It would make it so much better when teaching to be able to watch a video on the TV instead of all crowding around Joyce’s I pad.  We found out that Caden pitched and they won the first game. Then, they lost the next one.  We spent most of the day working on the ward list to see who needed to be visited. Skyway B elders came over and we traded the info we have so we aren’t visiting the same members.  At 7:00 we walked over to Sister Fabons and taught a lesson with the elders.  The lesson went longer than we thought it would and it is getting dark earlier than we remembered, so we ended up walking home in the dark.  Not the best thing to do from the part of town she lives in, but we made it.  We appreciated all the street lights!

Here is the preaching for this week:   Brothers and sisters, as surely as the Lord has inspired more missionaries to serve, he is also awakening the minds and opening the hearts of more good and honest people to receive his missionaries.  You already know them or will know them.  They are in your family and live in your neighborhood.  They walk past you on the street, sit by you in school and connect with you online.  You too are an important part of this unfolding miracle.  If you’re not a full-time missionary with a missionary badge pinned on your coat, now is the time to paint one on your heart.  The Lord needs you now more than ever to be an instrument in his hands.  All of us have a contribution to make to this miracle…..  Elder Neil A. Anderson April 2013.  This is from an Apostle and we know it is true.  Love ya,  Sister and Elder Knowles

               Week 32      Aug. 9-15

Constant use can never wear out the fabric                                of friendship!

Sunday:  Mostly a normal day for a Sunday.  Joyce Johnson didn’t come to church because Eric was sick, so we just picked up Karen and Tesloach.  We did have three investigators at church, but not Ruth of Rubi, so Joyce didn’t have a class to teach.   They have called a new Gospel Principles teachers who will be very good.  She was the early morning seminary teacher.   Doug and Ann are driving here so we waited for them to arrive while taking calls from the kids.  It is always nice to hear from them.  The Rockwoods got caught in traffic because of a fire, so they were later getting here than planned.  (They went a whole 4 miles in one hour, at one point!)  We were pretty excited when they called to ask us where to park! 

Monday: 

 With the Rockwoods , we rode the Light Rail into Seattle and walked to Pikes Market.  Anj and Beau had told us how much fun the boat tour was, so we gave it a try.  We picked the one that took us through the Ballard Locks into Lake Union.  It went along the coast from Elliot Bay into Puget Sound, then to the lock, and into Lake Union.  A guide was giving an interesting narration of the history and what we were seeing as we went along.  We pulled into the locks at Ballard, the gate shut behind us, water filled up the lock where we were (11 feet) so the other gate could open in front, and we could exit into Lake Union.  So cool!   We also learned the difference between a house boat and a floating house. Doug and Ann were wishing they had more time so they could shop for a floating house.  If anyone is interested in buying a floating house, they start at $300,000.00 and go up from there.  It was pretty fun. 

After we got off the boat, we rode a bus back to the water front, where we ate lunch at the Crab Pot. It was a sandwich Monday, but we had more than a sandwich. You always have to ride the Big Wheel, when in Seattle, so that was our next stop.  We walked back to the Light Rail Station by way of the Gum Wall and rode back to the Apartment.  We got to experience rush hour on the Light Rail and a lady asking for money.  She only stayed on one stop because she wasn’t having much success in the car we were on. It was a full day and lots of fun to be with good friends.  Thank you,” Annie and Douglas” for driving all this way to spend our Preparation Day with us!  We needed to see you both to revitalize us! 

Tuesday:  After the Rockwoods left we got ready and hit the streets.  We had two areas we needed to finish to have our half of the ward covered.  (The elder sisters had theirs done months ago. They have more active members than we do).  The husband of a lady in our area that attends the Tongan Ward, passed away so we stopped and checked on her.  We have taken her to the doctor a few times and fixed her steps.  The R.S. President was there from her Tongan ward so we didn’t stay long.  They were getting ready for a Tongan funeral with lots of food and making decorations.  We didn’t have a lot of success with our other visits.  We did find a few at home and only had one door slammed on us and one home that we will send the elders back to. One of the active members we visited, the Cabaios, told us about their car being stolen Saturday, but they got it back that night. It was out of gas, so who ever stole it went to another parking lot and stole another car and left theirs.  They are very humble because he just had a kidney transplant, so they had prayed a lot and their prayers were answered.  In the evening we had our classes.  No one showed up to the English class, but we had two at ARP.  One was for the first time so that was good. 

Wednesday:  We did Northwest Harvest in the morning.  The Elder Sisters were busy so it was just us and the elders.  We did rolled oats.  There wasn’t a big crew.  We stopped on the way home and bought some groceries, so we could go to Joyce Johnson’s and read with her and take her some fruit.  Eric has been sick, (he is getting a new tooth) so we wanted to check on them.  We needed to do some more shopping, when the elders called and asked if we could pick up the Acostas for the 6:00 lesson at the church.  We needed to get both families and a few extra came so we ended up with a large group for the lesson.  Both sets of elders taught, Skyway A and B, since they are both teaching parts of each family.  There are three committed to baptism, so that is wonderful!  Our meeting with the Bishop was cancelled, so after taking the Acostas home we came home, made one more trip to Safeway, and called it a day.  Walking to Safeway is always exciting in this neighborhood.  This is where the Cabaio’s car was stolen from.  They need to change their name because there is nothing safe about their store.  While standing in line we saw two ladies almost get into a fight.

Thursday:  Joyce is still fighting her cold so it was a long night, or short depending on how you look at it.  We skipped W.W. because we haven’t been very good this week, plus we got up late.  We did go to the museum for our indexing class; we both did one batch.  The Freedman records are hard.  Most of the rest of the day was spent doing paper work.  We needed to get all the information caught up that we have gotten put together for when we get a new Ward Mission Leader.  We did have our last meeting with Brother Kigin.

Friday:  Zone Conference was wonderful, and lasted most of the day. President and Sister Eaton are so inspiring.  It was a good spiritual uplift for us.  After zone conference we took dinner to a Dianne Nardi, who just had surgery.  We did get a letter from Allison and the kids – THANKS, we loved the letters! They may be coming for a visit, thanks to Caden making the traveling team that plays in Centralia, Washington!  Jake drove safely to Pittsburg with the furniture and with BostonJ Lara and Mariah flew safely on Wednesday and by then, Jacob had talked to the Bishop of the ward.  They got the place that they wanted and got moved in, so that was all a tender mercy for them.  They even have nice neighbors that have brought them stuff and welcomed them!  Jared and Emily are having mice for visitors, along with a thief, so their life is exciting…, Joshua’s family is still working hard on the house after their fun vacation to St. George (thanks for the pix), and AnJ’s family is getting ready for school to start and Braeden is excited.  Good luck, Lexxi, with your tryouts for volley ball. Dad took Mom in for more X-rays on her back.  She is still in a lot of pain and we pray for them always.  Well, that catches everyone up on the family.  One of the interesting things from Zone Conference was how many times President Eaton referred to the Skyway ward and the need to be careful there.  We don’t watch the news so we find out about the shootings and robberies after the fact.  We are not looking forward to the day light getting shorter. It also rained all day which is needed here.  We had a few appointments that we had to cancel because Zone Conference went longer than we had planned. 

Our preaching for this week: President Eaton focused on writing the mission purpose in our hearts.  He asked that we all fast on Sunday, write a 3 minute talk on one of the purposes of missionaries, read Elder Christofferson talk on “Why we preach the Gospel” and several pages from Preach My Gospel.  It all comes down to invite, invite and invite people to come unto Christ.  Everyone has agency so all we can do is invite.  Being a good example is important, but we still have to invite.  This is not just a good idea, it is a commandment.  President Eaton gave the stats for the mission, that 1 out of 19 investigators are baptized when contacted by missionaries, but 2 out of 3 are baptized when invited by a member to hear the message of the restored gospel.  The lesson the missionaries teach about keeping the commandments, before baptism, includes sharing the gospel.  Enough of that, we hope you get the point.  P.S. If you don’t know the missionaries purpose or members invite the missionaries over. They will be glad to teach you.  

Pres. Eaton and Pres McKiney

Saturday:  This is our clean the church day.  At 10:00 there was a baptism in the Tiffany Park ward for one of the young men that Tesloach goes to scouts with so we attended there.  We mostly went to support the sister missionaries, but wish we wish we would have invited Tesloach.  Most of the rest of the day was one cancelled appointment after another.  We were going to teach English, teach with the Elders, read the Book of Mormon with the Elders and some members, and walk with a lady we are fellowshipping.  All of them cancelled.  We needed something to pick us up so we tried a Vietnamese Restaurant down the street from us.  Wasn’t bad but we don’t think we will eat there again. There is a big push here to clean up the area, so they have put up signs on the street saying “Hello Othello” in 40 different languages.  Kind of interesting.  There was another fire down the street from us which is a pretty common sight, and while we were walking around we ran into a Muslim lady we had met months ago that recognized us, so we visited with her for a while.  In this area you can’t have too many friends. Also, our friend, the security guard at Safeway told us good news yesterday, He is getting baptized on 9/11.  It will be a day he will always remember and we were happy for the good news.  He is always so friendly to greet us and talk to us when we get groceries at Safeway, and our cashier ask us to pray for her, her name is Yolinda and she needs a new job and a place to live.  Requests are interesting in the big city… 

Hope you all have a good week and remember to invite.

Love, Joyce and Art., Mom and Dad, Elder and Sister Knowles

                           Week 31  Aug 2-8

 Eternal decisions have eternal consequences 

Sunday:  A pretty good day at church.  We picked up our normal group and gave them a ride home also.  In High Priest two members got in an argument so that livened up the lesson.  Joyce had ten in her primary class (all of the adult Acostas stayed to her class). She used the egg in salt water for an object lesson.  We came home and all of the children called and we were able to face time with Joyce’s mother and dad thanks to Allison and her cute family.

Monday p-day:  It was supposed to be sunny, but lots of clouds when we got up.  Our plan was to try Crystal Mountain again.  The elder sister had hair and doctor appointments until ten and by then it was clearing off so we made the trip.  First came a stop at the mission office to pick up the zone packages and supplies for the Zone Leaders.  When we got to Crystal Mountain it was still cloudy but they were high clouds so we went to the top in the gondola and ate our lunch on top.  The sun would break through every once in a while and shine off of Mt. Rainier.  The view from the top was great. We had a chipmunk that wouldn’t leave us alone.  It was climbing up our legs and even got onto the table while we were eating.  After we got home, we texted Karen to see if she wanted to go for a walk.  She was having a bad day so she was ready to go.  We walked to Seward Park, then around the lake.  Our plan was to ride the bus home until we missed it by a minute.  The next bus wasn’t until after 9:00 and Karen has to be in by 10:00 so we ended up walking the mile and a half back home, making our evening walk about six miles round trip total.  Another late night, but we made it by 10:00.

Tuesday:  Tuesday are always our busiest day because of district meeting and our evening classes and teaching during the day.  District meeting was good with lots of role playing. We worked on challenging investigators to read every day for 15 minutes so they could finish I Nephi in ten days.  After the meeting we came home and ate lunch and prepared our lessons for English.  Joyce went visiting teaching to the Acostas.  Art came later for the English class, but Sister Cabiao was late so Joyce did English first and V.T. last. Art got there in time for the VT lesson.  Joyce taught a great lesson on preparing to go to the temple.  The Elders showed up just as we were leaving to teach Eleazar.  They wanted us to go with them later but we had our classes to teach.  We had two to the English class and two at the ARP class.  Several more had called about the English class because there was some confusion about the time when it was announced in church. Seems like we always get the texts or voice messages an hour too late. We hate to walk around checking our phone every few minutes and it’s on vibrate when we are teaching.  Maybe by next week we will get it straightened out.

 Wednesday:  We did frozen peas at Northwest Harvest, 8,000 pounds.  Art was taping the finished boxes with some guy who thought it was a race.  He never wants to work with him again.   After the service project we stayed in our work clothes and went and did some work for Tara Mudaliar at her clinic she is trying to open.  She needed some ceiling tiles replaced. We only got a good start when we had to leave for the next project which was serving dinner  at the Salvation Army, which is always an interesting night.  It was supposed to be a light night, but people kept coming in.  We ran out of refried beans and rice and went through three big pans of enchiladas. About 120 people.  They only had to throw one guy out.  We didn’t have time to change before we went to a teaching appointment with Skyway A at the Acostas (Ruth, Rubi and Reymark) and then our meeting with the bishop.  The teaching went well with Rubi and Reymark committing to be baptized on the 29^th of August!

Thursday:  We had to face the scales first thing in the morning at W.W.  The teaching appointment last night went a lot better than the scales.  We ran from there to the museum to do our indexing class, which still needs a boost.  A lot of people express interest, but nobody has showed up yet.  That’s ok since we are still try to figure out what we are doing.  We ran from there back to the clinic to work on the ceiling tiles some more.  Skyway B needed us to help teach Eleazar at 4:00.  He is just a block from where we were at, so we took a break and went and taught in our work clothes again. Eleazar committed to be baptized also on the 29^th. He is Reymark’s older brother, and Rubi’s cousin.  We planned on going back and finish the tiles, but Tara called and said she needed us to come back on another day.  She had some kind of emergency.  That gave us time to go home and change for our 7:00 meeting with the Ward Mission Leader and all the missionaries.  There is a good possibility that we may get another set of elders in our ward on the next transfer.  (We know it will be elders since they won’t put young sisters in Skyway).   We have a hard time keeping up with two sets, so it will be interesting to see how we do with three. We have other commitments and members that we are working with besides the ones the elders are working with and there are two sets of elders that we work with, maybe three soon.  We love teaching with them so we hate missing a teach opportunity when we can’t go. The Kigins are moving so the Bishop is in the process of calling a new Ward Mission Leader.  We hope it happens soon as the Kigins are leaving in two weeks and we want a smooth transition. There is a lot going on and we don’t want the ball dropped.  Since we rode the bus and walked to the meeting, we had the elder sister give us a ride home.

Friday:   Our morning started with a 7:30 call from Renee to see if we could take her the E.R. at Harborview hospital. She has been having left shoulder/arm pain and weakness for the past four days.  Now we know why she hasn’t returned our calls. We checked on her later in the day and nothing serious was wrong, just some inflammation in her shoulder. After the trip into Seattle, we came back home and did our study class for the Book of Mormon. We had to cut our study a little short so we could get to our English lesson with Sister Acosta.  After the lesson we went to the Gene Coulon Memorial Beach Park with Reymark, Sunshine, Princes Joy, Joshua, Ruth, Rubi Acosta and the Elder Sisters.  We bought them all lunch then the kids went and played in the water.  The park is at the southern end of Lake Washington.  We planned on a few more, but work gets in the way sometimes. While there we ran into another missionary couple for the Seattle Mission.  They are in the mission presidency so it was okay for them to be out of the mission boundaries.  The wife was from Arco and her husband said we were the first people he had ever met who knew about the Lost River and where it was at. We did buy a few more hamburgers to take to the Acosta’s that couldn’t come with us. 

After a quick stop at home we bought some groceries and made a visit to Joyce Johnson so Sister Knowles could read with her.  (We always try to take her some fresh fruit when we visit.).  While there the Skyway B elders called to see if we could go to a lesson at the Acosta’s at 7:00.  This was at 6:30.  Sister Knowles was just finishing so we made another quick stop to put our groceries away and then walked to the Acosta’s.  The lesson was not the best, but it was okay.   We did teach them the 10 commandments and the signs to remember each one by and they liked that.  Reymark seems to have trouble paying attention when he is taught in his home and Eleazaz seemed tired.  The elders are working on a way to teach all of the Acosta’s at the church.  The elders did show a Mormon Message at the end so the lesson ended on a real positive note.  On the way to the Acosta’s we ran into Karen and she has invited a friend of hers, from the shelter, to go with us tomorrow.  We will see how that works out in the morning. It was a long day and not much of a date night.

Saturday:  At 09:30 we picked up Karen and drove to Crystal Mountain and rode the gondola to the top.  Her friend didn’t show up and we had no way to get a hold of her.  It was cloudy over Mt. Rainier so we couldn’t get a clear view of it, but the rest of the weather was great. We ate lunch on top of the mountain before stating to hike.  We hiked along the ridge trail about a mile or two and then turned around and hiked back.  They were setting up for a wedding by the gondola, but by now the clouds were starting to get a lot heavier.  We even had a few sprinkles of rain on the way home. We thought we needed to get home for a 7:00 meeting, then found that it didn’t get set up.  That was good because Joyce needed to clean the apartment and work on her lesson for Primary, and Art was tired. 

Here is our preaching:  “The Spirt of the Lord usually communicates with us in ways that are quiet, delicate and subtle… The standard is clear.  If something we think, see, hear or do distances us from the Holy Ghost, then we should stop thinking, seeing, hearing or doing that thing.”   Elder David A. Bednar

Hope you all have a great next week.  Love Joyce and Art

              Week 30   July 26-Aug. 1

The field is white, already to harvest

Sunday:   We had a little rain most of the day which is needed badly.  We had our usual group for church that we give rides to.  We had checked on Mary earlier so we knew she wasn’t going.  Joyce Johnson’s husband (Thomas) called her on our way to church.  We knew things were not good between them.  We knew by her tone that she was talking to Thomas.  Some languages seem to express emotions very well and whatever they speak in Ghana (Tsi) was getting the job done.  We were feeling sorry for Thomas by the time we got to church.  She told Sister Knowles she would tell her all about it later.  Sister Knowles and Karen were in the front seat and really didn’t know what to do or say, and Tesloach was sure quiet in the backseat!  Church went well with a few investigators there and several less active members.  We did question why they combined the Gospel Principles class with Gospel Doctrine when there were six missionaries sitting there, and that was with Sister Knowles and Chamberlin in Primary.  The Bishop needed to visit with three of the people we give rides to, (everyone but us) so it was late getting home. We did get to talk to four of the kids.  Karen came over to use our computer to get bus direction and by then it had stopped raining so we walked her home The Blue Angels will be putting on a show this weekend and they practice right over our building.  We could hear them but couldn’t see them for the clouds.

Monday P-day:  Our day started with a chiropractor appointment for Joyce.  It was Sister Harrisons one year mark so we all went to Crystal Mountain, a ski resort near Mount Rainier.  Our plan was to ride the gondola to the top, but it was so cloudy when we got there, so we decided to wait for a better day. It is a little expensive. Instead, we drove to the Grove of the Patriarchs in Rainier National Park and hiked that trail.  The elder sisters had never been there. On the way home we stopped in Enumclaw and they bought us dinner at Mazatlán.  It was good. 

Tuesday:  We had district meeting in the morning.  We worked on evaluating how well the previous lesson was understood and what to do when an investigator didn’t follow through with a reading assignment.  More role playing.  We also had a good discussion on what key concepts that need to be understood for investigators to progress.  We needed to make a stop at Wal-Mart and then pick up the Skyway B elders and go to Joyce Johnson.  Elder Palo is checking a few things on her car.  The check engine light is on and she thinks it has an oil leak.  Elder Palo was a mechanic for six years before he came on his mission.  He checked it out and couldn’t find a leak and the engine is ok.  Art took the Elders to lunch or dinner and the two Joyce’s took Eric for a walk in the stroller and got something to eat.  After their walk, they read and discussed the first three chapters in the Book of Mormon.    Joyce told Joyce that Thomas wants her and Eric to go to Africa and live with her parents.  He wants to keep working in North Dakota and build a house.  Joyce Johnson is not going to do that.  She wants Eric to be raised and educated in the United States.  She already has Gideon, her first son over there.  After we got back together, we walked over to the Acostas to invite them on a picnic this Friday.  We had our English class at 6:30 and ARP at 7:00.  Three people showed up for English, but they were late so the Elder Sisters started the ARP class for us.  We did have one person for it.  After all the classes, we stopped at the other Acostas with another invitation.  We are hoping to fellowship Ruth and Rubi’s parents (Jennifer and Ruben) and their uncle, Ric, from the other family, plus Reymarc and Eleazar and the rest of the Acostas.

Wednesday:    Today was a test of Elder Knowles patience, which he failed.  We couldn’t do Northwest Harvest in the morning because of a scheduling problem and they moved our time slot to the afternoon when we already had an appointment so we didn’t go. The apartment needed to be cleaned before our dinner tomorrow, so Joyce worked on that and Art worked on the computer all morning.  At 2:00 we picked up Joyce Johnson and took her to the mall in Auburn to shop. 1^st test: Got the wrong directions and ended up in Federal Way during rush hour. 2^nd test:  Shopping took forever. 3^rd test:  On the way home we stopped and got a sandwich and Elder Knowles ended up with the wrong one.  When we took Joyce home we had to stay and put together the toys she had bought. At least a little charity came through even if the patience didn’t.   4^th test:  Joyce had a Visiting Teaching appointment for 6:30 so we stopped there, but the sister wasn’t home and the parking at her apartment is terrible, an accident waiting to happen.   What a waste of time.  Skyway B wanted us to help teach Eleazar at 7:15, but as we were walking out the door they called to say he had cancelled.  It could have been an early night home until we decided to walk to the Buddhist Temple and see Soveth.  He became a citizen on the 4^th of July and was pretty excited to tell us all about it.  We thought he was talking about becoming a Christian, then figured out he was saying citizen not Christian.  404 became citizen from 82 different countries. The temple is having some kind of a celebration on Saturday and Soveth invited us to come, but we are booked pretty tight. Another strange thing happened while we were talking.  A man come in and knelt down in front of Soveth and stated bowing to him, like putting his forehead on the floor.  Soveth never acknowledged him just kept talking to us, and then the man got up and left, never saying a word. We’re still trying to learn their ways. We do know that Soveth is the chief monk and is very important.  Prinze was also there and he helps us to fills in the gaps, since we don’t understand all that is said. The black berries grow wild here and they are just starting to get ripe, so when we walk, we always stop and eat a few.  You eat the ones that are high to make sure the rats haven’t been into them or the dogs haven’t peed on them.  There are a lot of rats and dogs here. It was a very nice evening so the day did end on a positive note.

Thursday:  Our day started interesting.  On the way out of the parking garage we ran into the missionary housing coordinators.  They had been inspecting the Spanish elder’s apartment.  Instead of giving us the supplies we asked for, Sister Massey gave us all the extra stuff they had collected from their apartment inspections so she wouldn’t have to deal with it. (The Masseys inspect the missionary’s apartments every month.) Some of it was good, but we did throw a lot away.  Next stop was W.W. then to the museum for indexing.  While we were there two ladies came in.  One had been on a tour we had done with the Jewish group, and when she saw us she asked if we could give a tour for her friend.  Stacie asked Joyce if she would do it, so she gave a tour and Art indexed.  He found some cool records from the Freedman Bureau to show Stacie what they were about.  We are still trying to get some interest with the black community.  The Black Genealogy Society is meeting at the museum on Saturday and she is going to show the records to them.  We hope it will spark some interest in indexing. It would be nice if we could attend, but not this Saturday.  This weekend it an airshow down by the lake, so they have been practicing the past few day.  We get a good show from our roof. The Blue Angles are pretty impressive.  Because of the airshow, we rescheduled our picnic with the Acostas for next Friday. We didn’t think the crowds would allow us to fill the purpose of why we are having it and they close the lake and the kids want to swim. Most of the afternoon was spent getting ready for dinner and two lesson in our apartment. Skyway B taught Renee at 7:00.  Renee and Karen came to dinner at 6:00.   After dinner and our lesson we walked to the Acostas and had a lesson with Eleazar.  Jeramiah was coming at 8:00 but he cancelled.  Both lessons went well, but still no solid baptism date from either one.  We’re beginning to wonder if Renee just comes for the dinner and Eleazar answers what the missionaries want to hear.  Time will tell.

Friday:  Today is our Book of Mormon study time from the institute manual in the morning.  The Seattle Seafair is going on this weekend so we rode the train, then the shuttle bus to Genesee Park.  Our plan was to just walk around, but when we got there we found out it was free Friday.  We were able to walk by the lake and watch the Blue Angels perform (airplanes Anj).   Seattle is having another heat wave so it is hot. The whole thing reminded us of the Blackfoot Fair.  Lots of expensive food and drinks, live bands, booths, and hot and dry, but no Tiger Ears.  We planned on getting back by 4:00 to walk with Karen, but the shuttle was slow because of the traffic so we ran a little late. Since we didn’t walk with Karen, it gave Joyce some time to practice so she can play the piano tomorrow for the baptism.  At 6:00 we taught with Skyway B elders at Eleazar’s house.  They were on exchanges so we had Elder Snyder and Elzey.  At 7:30 we taught with Skyway A at the church.  Karen went with us.  We taught Sister Jasmine Wiley and afterward she had her interview for baptism tomorrow.  We thought we would have time to walk with Karen after the lesson, but it was too long and she has to be in by 10:00.

Saturday: Today was clean the church for the R.S., so that’s where our day started.  After the church was cleaned we set up for the R.S. social.  They had a light lunch and a fancy hat parade.  We had been invited to watch the Blue Angels with Pres. and Sister Eaton at the Skyway building.  We thought maybe there would be a better view from our apartment roof so we invited them to come there.  We all went up on our roof (Sister Harrison and Chamberlin, Pres. and Sister Eaton and us) and watched the show.   It seemed like we were closer to them today than we were yesterday.  After everyone left, Joyce practiced the piano for the baptism, which we went to at 6:00.  There was a good turnout.  Bro. McQueen baptized Sister Wiley and she bore her testimony afterwards.  It was all pretty special.  After the baptism we made our usual Saturday trip to Wal-Mart so we would be ready for Sunday. 

Here is our preaching

: We really like the talk by Hugh B. Brown, Profile of a Prophet.  We have come up with a few scriptures that we used to make a profile of a harvester.  Here is your challenge.  Read these scriptures and come up with your own profile and see how you measure up. 1^st: Start with this scripture.  Every time we meet with the missionaries for district or zone meetings we quote D&C 4 and we try to do it every morning for companionship study. 2^nd:  Matthew 13 Parable of the sower and the wheat and the tares. 3^rd Luke 14: 16-16-26, 4^th: Luke 15, 5^th: John 21:7, 6^th: Matt. 9:37-42, 7^th D&C 101:64, 8^th D&C 123:16-17, 9^th 1^st Nephi 16:29, 10^th D&C 86:4-7,  We had this discussion in our district meeting.  When a field, orchard, garden or whatever ripens, it isn’t all equal.  Some is over ripe, (brown), some is ripe, (white), and some is under ripe (green). Ask Doug and John if you don’t believe us. As a harvester of people, how do you deal with all three?  Let us know your thoughts.  We really appreciate those who write. All missionaries love to hear from home! Love you all!

Joyce and Art