Week 17

  Face trouble with courage, disappointment with cheerfulness & triumph with humility         Thomas S. Monson                                                                            

Sunday:  Art spoke in church so we tried to get there early.  We picked up Bro. Baker and stopped to pick up Mary but she was sick and couldn’t go.  When we pulled into the church, the Skyway A elders met us and wanted us to go pick up an investigator for them (Maurice), so we didn’t make it early, but we were on time.  Brother Munson asked Art to speak on Doubts versus Questions and it was a talk that everyone seemed to need.  Maurice is committed for baptism, so that is exciting.  We like to keep the evening open for when the kids face time us

Monday:  So much for P-day.  We spent most of the day helping Bro. Johnson fill out job applications and took him to the D. I. so he could talk to the person that helped his wife get a job.  His wife worked as a cashier at the D. I. which trained her so she could get a job as a cashier at Wal-Mart, which helped her to learn better English so she could go to school and become a CNA.  It’s nice to see the program work.  When we were leaving the Employment office, they asked Art if he would stay because there were only sisters in the office then and they like a priesthood holder there.   One man was a little upset because Art stayed.  Joyce ran Bro. Johnson home, came back for Art, and we both waited until the last person left then they closed the office and the sisters went home.  In the evening we attended the FHE group.

and took him to the D. I. so he could talk to the person that helped his wife get a job.  His wife worked as a cashier at the D. I. which trained her so she could get a job as a cashier at Wal-Mart, which helped her to learn better English so she could go to school and become a CNA.  It’s nice to see the program work.  When we were leaving the Employment office, they asked Art if he would stay because there were only sisters in the office then and they like a priesthood holder there.   One man was a little upset because Art stayed.  Joyce ran Bro. Johnson home, came back for Art, and we both waited until the last person left then they closed the office and the sisters went home.  In the evening we attended the FHE group.

Tuesday:  It was back to the employment office with Bro. Johnson.  This time we spent several hours in the Social Security Office.  Bro. Johnson had someone steal his identity and he thinks maybe that is why he is having so much trouble getting a job.   The other person has a criminal record, so if they pull up his name and the bad person shows up, no job interview will happen.  It makes sense, since he is very qualified for the jobs he is looking for.  We help him because of his English abilities.   We waited at the S.S office for 2 hours to have them tell us that they couldn’t help him.  He has all the papers showing that he is the good Thomas Johnson so we now attach those papers to his applications, hoping it will help.  (Shred all your documents!) ARP was in the evening which was a very good meeting.

Wednesday:  Northwest Harvest was our first stop for the day. We did frozen green beans with the sister missionaries, 6,900 pounds of them.  We were running behind so we went in our work clothes to the Employment office with Bro. Johnson.  A company has called and wanted a copy of his driving record so we made a trip to the license bureau in Kent, then back to the office and filled out two more applications.  Help us pray for Thomas, so that he will get a job here in the city.  We had a surprise appointment with Ruth and Rubi so we had to go in our work clothes to that.  They promised they would stay for Joyce’s lesson on Sunday.  After the lesson we finally made it home so we could change and go to our appointment at the Acostas.  This is the lesson that is taught in Tagalog so we don’t understand much of it, but Elder Palo is good to translate and have us tell experiences and stories.  We talked about temples and we felt like the girls were very receptive.  Since we had walked to the Acosta’s home, we rode with the Elders to our meeting with the Bishop.  The Bishop is trying to set up a session for baptisms for the dead at the temple in Bellevue, and the Acosta girls could attend if they choose to come.  Driving to the church and home with the Elders was an experience we won’t forget.  Joyce thought her boys followed too closely, but the Elder surpassed all expectations!  Pray for our safety when we ride with themJ

Thursday:  We have been asked to check out the bus routes for members riding to church so we took the bus to an appointment we had in Seattle. Our appointment was an interview for teaching English, which we had also been asked to look into by President Eaton.   It was way out of the mission, but we were on assignment so it was ok.  They were very excited to having us work down in our area because there is a big need here and nobody wants to come down this way.  Since we had worked most of Monday we decided to take a few hours and look around, plus the bus fare is cheaper in the evening.   We thought maybe we should wait before going home so we walked over and checked out the canal that was dug to connect Lake Washington with Lake Union.  Someone had told us there were locks on the channel but they are on the other end of the lake towards Puget Sound.  We went home and found out the shooting was on the corner where we live.  No riots, just someone had tried to rob someone and the person being rob happened to have a gun so he shot the robber in the leg.   We did meet a nice lady on the bus that lives in the same building as us.  We visited for a while and she asked if she could go to church with us on Sunday.  She was very helpful since we didn’t know what we were doing.  Art left his jacket on the bus and she happened to ride the same bus going home and recognized the name badge so she picked it up and left it at the complex office.  She and Joyce are going to start working out in the mornings, Art maybe.   Our bus pass was still good, so we rode the bus to our 7:00 p.m. meeting with our ward mission leader.  We missed one stop so we ended up walking a bit which made us late for the meeting.  We had the senior sisters take us home after the meeting.

We walked around the U of W (UDUB) campus for a while and checked out the book store.  Art wanted to buy a hat but they were too much money.  We were just about to catch a bus home when we got a call from the mission office to check and see if we were ok, since there had been a shooting in our area and they thought maybe the riots were starting.

Friday: Our institute class was in the morning.  We had a tour at the NAAM at 11:00am and the class is in Auburn so we had to leave early to get back in time.  Because of May Day there were lots of protests going on and one was close by the museum so we took a different route.  The tour was with a 3^rd grade class.  23 people, so we divided them up and each of us did a tour.  The schools always do a project so it made it a little easier in the “Funky Turns Forty” Cartoon Room.  The tour ended up being about 40 minutes total, which was good since their attention span is pretty short.  After the tour we hurried home to change so we could help the senior sister move a member.  We loaded a U-Haul with her stuff and our pick-up with stuff for the D.I.  There is a thrift store close by so we took it there first but they wouldn’t take it.  Most of it was junk.    So, we drove to the D.I. in Federal Way and they took most of it.  Art had to beg them to throw the rest away for us.  Our plan was to go help unload the U Haul truck in Auburn, but with rush hour traffic and accidents, we were longer than expected.  By the time we finished, they were almost done and they had lots of help so they didn’t need us. It ended up taking 4 hours for this simple trip.  We had just gone to bed when we got a call from the Skyway A Elders (Zone Leaders) asking if we could go check on the Skyway B Elders that had just gotten in a wreck.   They had turned in front of someone on a yellow light and got t-boned.  It totaled the car and flipped it over.  Both Elders we shaken up but ok.  

Heavenly Father protects his missionaries! The May Day riots in downtown Seattle were over by now with 15 arrests and three officers hurt.  The part of town that we were in where the accident was has lots of restaurants and bars so things were rocking there.  If you wanted to see hand holding between same genders this is the place.  These are good elders so before we left they talked to the driver of the wrecker and gave him a pass along card.  They never miss a chance to share the gospel.  We took care of things there as best we could and got them back to their apartment.  It made for a short night’s sleep for old people.

Saturday:   Our morning stared with a trip to meet Skyway B elders so they could get the info from the accident.    We met them at the library so they could use a computer to file an accident report.  Next stop was Wal-Mart.  We needed some things so we can feed the missionaries.  After we got the crockpots going we walked to some members.  We weeded the burglar lady’s flower beds. We asked her if we could plant some beans and carrots and she said yes.  We think it will be fun for her to watch them grow.  The other member wasn’t home.  We had all the missionaries from our area over for dinner, ten counting us.  The senior sisters stayed so we could get Sister Harrison started on a photo book she wants to make.  That took care of the rest of the day. 

Your scripture to memorize this week is John 3:6.  Remember to read your scriptures and pray every day.  Heavenly Father loves you and wants to hear from you.  Hope you’re feeling better, to Grandma LouiseJ We are praying for you! 

Prayer

I know not by what methods rare,

But this I know, God answers prayer.

I know that He has given His Word,

Which tells me prayer is always heard.

And will be answered soon or late,

And so I pray and calmly wait.

I know not if the blessing sought,

Will come in just the way I thought;

But leave my prayers with Him alone,

Whose will is wiser than my own.

Assured that He will grant my quest,

Or send some answer far more blest.

    Love Art and Joyce

Joyce wants this boat

                                                                                    Week 16   April 19-25

        It is not easy to be a Latter-day Saint. It was not meant to be easy.

                                                                                Elder Q.L.Cook

 Here is our preaching: The standards established by revelation are contained in the scriptures through

 the doctrine of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  The principles of gospel life we follow

 are based on doctrine and the standards accord with the principles.  We are

 bound to the standards by the covenents as administered through the

 ordinances of the gospel by those who have received priesthood authority and

 keys of authority.  We do not set the standards, but we are commanded to teach

 them and maintain them.  Boyd K. Packer

Your assignment for the week is to memorize Jacob 6:12, even the little ones can do this one!

Sunday:  It was Stake Conference today and it was broadcast in the Skyway building so we didn’t have to go to the Stake Center.  Every time they moved the camera we would lose the feed so somebody called them and told them to stop moving the camera.  One of the notes from conference was to open up your home to single members of the church and let them feel of your love and activities, if you cannot open up your home, open up your pew in the chapel and have them sit by you. 50% of the people in our stake are single.  Several members asked where Joyce was last Sunday since she wasn’t in R.S. with Mary (she was teaching Primary).  They said Mary was very disruptive.  We asked the senior sister that was with Mary and she told us that Mary was no different than other times.  Some members just aren’t use to her yet.  The senior sisters had us over for dinner then we all went together to the Mission Devotional in Puyallup.

Monday P-Day:  The Skyway B elders needed us to meet them at the senior sister’s place so they could get their hair cut.  Sister Chamberlain cuts their hair but they have to have three elders present when they are around sister missionaries so they always invite Art along.  Since it was p-day and the weather was good, we drove to Mount Rainier and went on a small hike. 

Most of the park is still closed because of the snow so our choices were limited.  The 10 day forecast is rain every day so today might be are last good day for a while.  We were going to figure out the bus ride, to the church, in West Seattle, but we can do that in the rain.  The Mission President wants us to see if it is easier for members, who ride the bus, to go there instead of the Skyway building.  The hike we found to do at Mt. Rainier was called, “The Grove of the Patriarchs.  It is a hike where the Ohanapecosh River surrounds an island where some of the Douglas fir trees are more than a thousand years old and there are also Western Red Cedar Trees.  The trees were over 200 feet tall and so wide around that you could not get your arms even halfway around them.  Needless to say, we were in our heighth of glory when we discovered this forest!

Tuesday:  No two days are ever the same is Skyway.  We started with a district meeting in the morning with President Eaton and his wife showing up unexpected.  It is always nice to see them.  More role playing on using the Book of Mormon.  Our appointment at the Buddhist Temple was cancelled so we went out and knocked on doors.  One lady told us we had the wrong place then as we were walking away she came back out and invited us in to her home.  She said the person we were looking for did live there. We think they are cousins. We talked for a bit and Art tried out his Tagalog, magandong gabi.  She laughed and said it should be magandong  tanghali.  Good afternoon instead of good evening.  The member wasn’t too excited to have us there but the lady that invited us in said we could come back and she would take a Book of Mormon in Tagalog.  It was raining (Seattle Spit) most of the time we were walking.  A young Chinese girl answered a door and invited us in.  She was less active but very nice to us, not the way less actives treat us. When we were leaving she noticed Joyce’s coat was wet so she got a towel and wiped it off for her.  Our A.R.P. meeting was at 7:00 and it went very well.

  When you use the atonement as the source for addition recovery, the spirit is very strong.  Each week we have a few new people show up.  We had to hurry from that meeting to the Acostas for a lesson.  This is where we don’t understand much of what is said but they are such great lessons.  We even learned a few new words, adobo, obe, maraming salamath and mu sa rap .  They always feed us after the lessons and we feel such a warmth that radiates when Elder Palo teaches. 

Wednesday: On Wednesdays we always do service at Northwest Harvest.  The Elders and Sister now split up and each goes every other week, but we go every week.  We boxed up 6,000 pounds of dried beans.  The senior sisters (they like to be called the elder sisters) and Skyway B rode with us. Northwest is not far from WinCo so we made a quick stop there and then took the elders (sisters and Skyway B) out to lunch at Ivers, down along Lake Washington.  At 4:00 we met with Skyway A elders to teach Ruth and Rubi.  Ruth is getting baptized this Friday so it was mostly just a review.  In the evening we had our meeting with the Bishop.

Thursday:  Thursday is our W.W. day.  We took care of that which was good for Joyce and not for Art.  He shouldn’t have had the fries at Ivers the day before.  The Bishop had given us a food order that we needed to fill and then deliver so we ran to the Bishop Store House and then met Skyway B elders so they could help us with the food and teach a lesson.  It went well and the member committed to go to church on Sunday if we pick him up. It rained all day so we went back home and worked on a few phone calls we needed to make and some e-mails we needed to send out.  Art has to speak on Sunday so he worked on his talk.  Joyce has to play the piano at the baptism so she practiced and we made Emily’s peanut butter rice crispy bars and Rachel’s “pretzel recipe” with Rollo’s and, M&Ms, between everything that we were doing. The pretzels and rice crispy bars are for the baptism.

Friday:  We hate to say it but we were kind of lazy today. We started off with the institute class and then went to breakfast with the Bensons. 

Ruth's baptism

It was pouring rain so we went back home and Joyce worked on practicing the piano (keyboard) and getting ready for the baptism and Art worked on his talk.  We needed to go to the baptism early so we could runoff the music and set up for the refreshments so that took up most of the afternoon and the evening.  The baptism went well with a good turnout.  The ward is very supporting of the new converts.

Saturday: We did another tour at the Museum today.  The tour was for Mount Zions Baptist church in Bremerton, WA.  We were told it would be around 15 people, then maybe 30, but when we arrived there were 47 plus they came early and were waiting for us.  Our plan was to tag team the tour but we had to divide the group and each take a tour.  Large groups are a challenge to keep their attention.  Mostly it went well.  Our appointment to teach with Skyway B Elders didn’t happen so we went and made a few visit that we needed to do.  In the evening, we attended the Stake Dance.  Our ward was in charge and they asked us to help out. 

We helped with setting up decorations and the refreshments.  Art thought his job was to sample everything before, during and after it was served.  With clean up and taking members home it made for a late night, around 12:30.  That is the latest we have been up for a long time.  Thank heaven for tomorrow being Sunday, except for Art having (getting) to talk in church. Love you Art and Joyce

                                    Week 15    Transfers  April 12-18

Remember: The road that leads to Babylon or Zion is the same.  What makes more of a difference than where you are on that road is the direction you are facing.

We will do our preaching at the first, that way if you get tired of reading this letter, at least you will have gotten the important part.  The topic for the speakers on Sunday was repentance.  One of them is a surgeon and he made the comparison of sin and cancer.  If they are both taken care of early, they are much easier to treat.  If left untreated both can be deadly, one temporally and one spiritually. It’s not only sin but also apathy about the Gospel that can grow until it is very hard to overcome.  The cure for apathy:  Read the Book of Mormon every day!  

Safeco Field and Space needle

 Sunday:  Mary went to church today.  She wasn’t ready when we stopped to pick her up so we had to wait.  That made us late so we had to sit on the back row, which turned out to be a good thing.  After the last speaker she raised her hand and started yelling that she had a question.  Joyce had to let her know that you don’t ask questions in sacrament meeting.  We always worry when she talks because she tells the same story over each time.  Joyce taught primary (she teaches Ruth and Rubi when they stay for Primary).  That meant Art had to take Mary to Sunday school.  She said the opening and closing prayer and only interrupted the class once, (if you don’t count her telling her story again), to ask for a pen.  Art was glad to go to Priesthood so one of the senior sisters could take care of her.   We were going to pick up Brother Baker for church also, but he cancelled at the last minute.  After taking Mary and Diane home after church, we hurried back to the senior sisters for dinner.  It is always fun to be with them, since we both do the same things and we can compare notes.  These two are just amazing and an inspiration to be around.  On the way home we got a call from the Skyway B elders to see if we could meet them at the Acosta’s for a lesson.  This worked well for us since we were planning on stopping there anyway.  We talk, then Elder Palo translates for Sister Acosta.  The daughters all can speak English, sort of.  One time he forgot and just started to repeat what we had said in English until Sister Acosta stopped him.  We all got a good chuckle.  Elder Palo is still trying to learn English so he always speaks it when he can. After the lesson all of them bore their testimonies.   Even though we couldn’t understand them, it was pretty special. 

Monday use the umbrella day: 

We walked to the Filipino Cultural Center in the morning to see if they taught classes in English or Tagalog. We want to volunteer to teach English and maybe pick up a little Tagalog. They don’t have classes right now so we will look someplace else.  There are several other places that have classes. We started to knock on doors, but the farther we got from the apartment the harder it rained.  Plus no one answered the doors, so we went shopping for stuff to make a Snickers Salad for tonight.  We had dinner with Diane Nardi and the Skyway A elders.  Several of the missionaries in our zone are being transferred tomorrow.  Two that we see a lot, Elder Bennett and Elder Russell,  Elder Bennett is one of the Skyway A elders (our zone leader) and Elder Russell is a Spanish speaking elder that lives in our complex.  We will miss them!  After dinner we went to teach Ruth and Rubi with the Skyway A elders.  It was the last time we will teach with Elder Bennett.  The girls were sad to hear he was leaving, but he will get to come back when they are baptized.  We had a bunch of leftovers that Sister Nardi sent with us for the Skyway B Elders so we called them when we got home and had them come over and take them.  Sisters Peterson and Henderson (another set of senior sisters) went home today so we will miss them.  Two other sisters are coming this week to work in the employment office, but we don’t know if we will see them at our meetings.  There is another new couple in the office, but they don’t come to our meetings either. 

Tuesday P-day: First things first…cleaning and laundry.  Second must...shopping.  We had to make a trip to the mission office to pick up some things that the sisters had left for us when they closed their apartment. We were close to a mall so we had to stop there for a while then on to Wal-Mart.  By now it is pouring rain and cold.  Skyway B elders stopped over so Art could go online and order a part for a camera that somebody gave Elder Palo.

Mount Baker Station

  Our Addiction Recovery Program is on Tuesday night so we ran to the church for that.  This was the first night that we had a regular meeting with several people attending and it went very well.  We were pretty excited to get it started in the Skyway building. We had one member show up just because they had read the notice in the bulletin and just wants to be better and figured it would help. 

Wednesday:  Our district meeting was this morning because of transfers.  We met Elder Olsen’s new companion, Elder Ludlow. We did lots of role playing which we love.  After the meeting we spent the next few hours at on urgent care.  Art hasn’t been doing well the last couple of days.  He said it is the first time he has filled out a medical history form that has a question after marital status asking if it’s a male or female companion. We ate a late lunch and then hit the streets walking. Joyce’s new favorite song is “Primary Children sang as they walked and walked…” Arts favorite is " I love to see Safeco Field. I'm going there someday."

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 It was a fairly productive day.  We found someone home at every house we stopped at and they were all nice. This is a first.   One man did tell us that his house wasn’t the address we were looking for and he wasn’t who we were looking for.  Pretty sure he just wanted to get rid of us because we were pretty sure it was the right address. On one of the streets we passed a man working on his lawnmower.  He had a big boat in the driveway so Joyce had to stop and ask if he pulled water skiers behind it.  He only uses it for fishing on the ocean, but he said he would take us out fishing if we wanted.   That gave us a chance to talk about missionaries and the church.  If we come back after our mission he will take us fishing.  The area we worked in was up on a hill so we had a great view of Mt. Rainier on the walk home.

Thursday:   Our day started with a trip to W.W.  This gets us up and going early in the morning.  On the way home we stopped at a library to check on the English class.  The lady we needed to talk with wasn’t there so we left a message and hope she will call us.  The weather here has been great so we hit the streets again walking.  Not much results today.  We did find one member that has moved and one house that looks deserted.  Walking back to the apartment, a man asked Art if he was good with colors.  We stopped and talked to these two men who were trying to decide what color to paint a house.  Art told them to use whatever color was on sale, so they took Joyce’s advice instead.  We are finding that most people on the street are nicer than the less active that we contact. We helped teach (Joyce does) Ruth and Rubi in the afternoon with the Skyway A Elders then stopped to check on a member on the way home. 

Seattle

He has a family living by him that he takes food to so we had brought some for him to give to them.  He told us to go do it ourselves, so we did.  He was rather cold to us.  He is a less active member that the ward has been working with that was showing some progress, but has started to fall back into his old habits.  In the evening we met with all the missionaries for our coordination meeting.

Friday, a four Advil day: Spring time in Seattle is great.  The weather has been great since the rain stopped on Tuesday, and the weekend is supposed to be even better.  We started off with a trip to Auburn for our class and then out to breakfast with the Bensons.  It’s nice to visit with them every week.  We had an appointment to teach with Skyway B Elders up in the top of our area so we rode the train up and then walked and knocked on doors in that area.  We finished one section then went to our appointment.  The elders taught Bro. Baker a lesson on the Plan of Salvation.  He is one of those members that was baptized then stopped going to church and he has just drifted away. Now he is trying to get back that feeling he had when he joined the church.  We had a good discussion about the Good  Sheppard leaving the 99 and going after the 1.  It brings that message home when you see the 1 trying to be found.  After our appointment we took the elders out to dinner then worked on another section. It was later in the day so we found more at home this outing.   The section we were in is along Lake Washington so they are really nice homes with nice yards.  One lady told us she has not considered herself a member for over 30 years, but didn’t have her name removed.  She has been one of the first not active members that was nice and visited with us.  Most just slam the door.    We think that the Skyway Ward is where the church send records when they don’t know the correct address.  We seem to find a lot that are wrong.  After we finished, we wanted to get back to the lightrail station before it got dark, but we had to stop often to take picture of all the flowers and trees that are in blossom.  We did make the train before dark and a lady on the train saw our name badges and ask what we had been doing so we were able talk and give her a pass along card.

Cambodian New Year Celebration

Saturday an eight Advil day:  One of the housing missionaries told us we were not here to be entertained so we blew it today because were sure had fun.  We walked to the Buddhist Temple and just missed the dancers by a few minutes and lunch was ending.  They met us in the driveway as we walked in and insisted we come in to eat.  You would thing we are royalty and very important by the way they treat us.   Most get their food and sit on the floor on rugs when they eat, but they have us sit at a table and bring the food to us, bowls and bowls of it.  We weren’t sure what we were eating (except the rice) but it was good.  Different people kept bring us plates of dessert and by the time we finished we had six different plates.  One man that speaks English saw our name tags so he came and talked with us.  He wanted us to know that he was a Christian and he was there because of the culture.  We had a pretty good talk with him and found out he played basketball in the Skyway building when he was younger.  He said he may come to church just for the memories, but he would like to get with us and talk about Jesus.  He took a bunch of pictures and said he would give a copy to the Monks so they could give them to us.  We gave him a pass along card so he could watch the “Because He Lives” video and he gave us his business card so we can call him and order from his business. We will follow up next week.  It was a beautiful day so we were walking and the area we wanted to work in was father than we though.  We ended up on the west boundary of the mission next to I-5 where we had a great view of Seattle, the Space Needle and Safco Field.  We are so close to Safco Field, but it might as well be a 1000 miles away since it is just on the wrong side of I-5.

 We worked two different areas with fair success.  We did have to cross under I-5 just to say we did, since we were so close.  The walk home was pretty long.  If we would have had some cash we would have taken the bus.  It stops in front of our building, but the flowers are out and it was very sunny so it was a nice walk, we just have too many aches and pains.  In the evening was the adult meeting for Stake Conference in Renton.  We got back just in time to have a quick bowl of cereal and then head to Renton by 7 p.m.  We did have an 8:00 o’clock appointment but it cancelled so we were able to stay at conference.  It was a very good meeting.  We would say more about the meeting, but we have already gone on too long for today.   Love Art and Joyce

Pictures from the New Year celebration
  Joyce and her new friend. She wants Joyce to visit her daughters shop and have her nails done.

 Pictures from around the neighborhood

 We thought we were taking a short cut.  Seems like its always uphill both ways