Week 37 Sept. 13-19

Together again!

Sunday:  Testoach and one of his friends were going to church today with me so I would have a second person when I picked up Karen.  He cancelled at the last minute.  That made it a little awkward for me but I had no choice with the late notice.  It all worked out okay in the end.   Reymark and Eleazar were both ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood today and they even had a Young Mens class.  Most of the Acostas and Bacus were there but didn’t stay passed Sunday School.  Brother Valdez was confirmed so that was good. Everyone wants to know when Joyce is coming back, even President McKinney called me.  A lady called Joyce as she was driving from Idaho to Utah, requesting a blessing in the morning.  We had left our card with Joyce’s # on it at her home when we were knocking on doors doing our “quadrants”.  Joyce called to tell me so I made arrangements to take care of it Monday morning with the Skyway B Elders.

Joyce went to church at Fair winds with her Mom and Dad.  Dad had fed Mom breakfast and she is eating better.  He had dressed her in a pretty dress and they both looked so nice!  Mom and Dad were waiting with Donna Denning when I got there.  Jody Denning’s mom, Viola, is living at Fair winds and Jody was up getting his mom ready for church.  It was so good to visit with Jody and Donna to talk about everything.  Donna said that growing old is a refining process and I can see it refining Mom and Dad.  Mom has always been the care giver, and now, sweet Dad is being so thoughtful, kind, and compassionate each and every day as he takes care of her every need, feeding her, dressing her, and getting up with her all night long.  After church I visited with Mom and Dad, Allison’s family, Phyllis, John’s family, the Rockwoods, and then to the Woodward’s before I left town.  Ron has been in the hospital and it was so good to see Ron and Karla and catch up with their lives.  Then, I left for AnJ’s home in Chubbuck and told them good bye, then I stopped at Christie’s new beautiful home in Bountiful with deliveries, so by the time I got to Joshua’s home in Heber it was late and the kids were in bed.  I missed telling them good bye, as Joshua and I had to leave for the airport by 4:30 a.m. on Monday morning.  They will have to come and visit!

 

Monday p-day:  Art took care of the blessing with the Skyway B elders first thing in the morning with Ethel Skipps.  Sister Skipps was very nice and we got to meet her non-member husband also.  She had told us that he probably wouldn’t be around, but he came into the house and was very nice to us.  After the blessing I took the Elders to breakfast at McDonalds.  The only eating places close to us are all fast food or Oriental, so we didn’t have a big choice.  Joyce came home around 2:00 so I met her at the airport.  Happy day!!!!  We came home and unpacked and needed to drop off some clothes to Joyce Johnson that Joyce had hemmed for her, but she was at work.  At 7:00 we met the Elders (B) at the Acostas and had FHE.  It was pretty fun.  They asked some very good questions. Mary Ann was there.  It is the first time we have seen her in months.  As usual, after the lesson they brought out the food; pizza, sticky rice, some kind of noodles and chicken and chomporado.  When we tried to help clean up we were informed that in their culture they served us and we were not to help.  After the lesson we walked home in the dark and the cold.  Notes from Joyce.  When I flew out last Monday, Labor Day, it was clear and we flew right over Mt. Rainier.  It was so beautiful from the plane, all snowcapped!  Then, a week later, I am flying back to Seattle and sitting by a window seat.  I had to fly to Phoenix from Salt Lake (where I met our Bishop’s sister in law) and had a layover.  Anyway, the flight from Phoenix to Seattle was incredible because we flew right over the Grand Canyon!  Oh, what gorgeous colors of all the rock layers from way up there!  Heavenly Father does love us, he made a most beautiful world!  Interestingly, all the women that I sat by on the planes coming and going were going home to take care of their mothers, or just had a grandmother pass away that had been being taken care of by a dedicated husband.  Do you thing that this was coincidence, or a tender mercy.  I call it a tender mercy.  Each of the women were so strong in their beliefs in God and in family.  They each gave me advice, hope, and courage in their own way.  Needless to say, we had good conversations on the flights going and coming and I am thankful to have made their acquaintances.

 

Tuesday district meeting:  Before we could go to our meeting we needed to deliver the clothes to Joyce Johnson.  She gave Joyce more clothes (pants) to hem for little Eric.  He is growing so fast!  Our meeting was good with more role playing.  Art even had to role play with the APs watching. All the missionaries were glad to have Joyce back. Elder Goodel was especially glad to have Joyce back so we would have someone to play the piano.  Since Art hadn’t done any shopping while Joyce was gone, we needed to go get things to eat.  Tesloach and his friend, J.B., stopped by as we were carrying in the groceries, so we fed them lunch. In the evening we had our classes.  No one showed to the English class again so we will probable drop it and we had a new person show up to ARP.  A lot of people are hit and miss with this class so we are happy to have people show up. 

Wednesday Northwest Harvest:  We always start our Wednesday with service at Northwest Harvest.  We always pick up the elder sisters.  Today we also needed to pick up the Benson Hill Elders that are on bikes.  We packed apples which are not fun.  There were lots of bad ones to sort through.  Now that school has started the # of volunteers has dropped. .  The Seattle teachers have settled their strike so all the local districts are finally all back in school. They wanted us to stay and do the afternoon shift but everyone had appointments.  The graduation (for Karen Vargis it was here first phase) was tonight so we spent from 6:00 to 9:30 at the Seattle Union Gospel Mission (Hope Place).  The Elder sisters covered our English class and our Bishops meeting for us.  Lots of singing and clapping at the graduation (all before they announced who was graduating) as you can imagine with a name like Union Gospel Mission.  It really is a good program for drug and alcohol abuse (Oaks Program).  It is Christ centered and they are very strict. This is the first time we have been able to get inside and we have a member there we have been trying to contact.  Karen tried to introduce us to her but she doesn’t want anything to do with us.  There is a graduation every three months, so we have four more graduations to go through for Karen before she is done there.    There were six women that were honored, as they had completed the program and will be going out on their own now. 

Thursday W W:  We went and weighted in first thing in the morning except Art wouldn’t weigh, he thinks he may have gained weight, so we just stayed for the lecture.  We stopped at the grocery store before we went to the museum for indexing.  They haven’t fixed the computers yet so we didn’t stay there very long.  At 3:00 we taught English at the Acostas.  Reymark was supposed to go do Baptism for the Dead, but we couldn’t get him to commit.  We took Michele and Joshua to the church with us to help Sister Foster set up for Travis’s wedding reception tomorrow night. We finished early so we took Joshua and Michel home then came back for our meeting.  We desperately need a new Ward Mission Leader, but we did have lots to report and the elders coordinated teaching appointments with us for Saturday, so we are booked solid.  We still managed to make it a late night.

Friday:  This is the day we try to do good companion study.  We have been studying the Book of Mormon. There are a few people in the ward that are having problems so we made soup so we can visit them.  That means a few more trips to the grocery store.  We stopped at an Asian store, not too far from us.  It is interesting to shop when you can’t read any of the labels.  We did find what we were looking for but it took some time.  We were planning on visiting Sister Skipps but she was at the doctors so we will go tomorrow. Most of the afternoon Joyce spent hemming the pants for Joyce Johnson.  Tesloach and J.B. stopped by again for a visit, so we gave them the leftover shrimp and fries we had for dinner.  In the evening we went to the church to help with the reception.  They had plenty of help so we walked up and down the hill with a breath taking view of Lake Washington and then came home.  Karen was with us and she wanted to use our computer so she stayed for a while to visit. 

Saturday:   We rode the train to Columbia City and then walked to Sister Skipps house to deliver the soup to her. We had a good visit with her and are going to start going there once a month as HT and VT (we kind of assigned ourselves), if her husband approves.  We learned so much about her Samoan background and the history of the church in her country.  From her house we walked to the Women’s Clinic where we have been doing service.  They finally got it done and are having the open house today.  Tara wanted to give recognition to all the missionaries that have helped there, but many of them have already gone home or been transferred since to has taken so long to complete.  The open house went well with lots of people there.  They even delivered a baby there this morning.  Our plan was to leave after the awards ceremony and then come back later to help clean up.  The Elder Sisters wanted us to take them to a Buddhist Temple so we waked across the street to a Vietnamese one and walked around for a bit.

  Art talked to the Monks to make sure it was okay.  They did see us when we walked in because they pointed at us. None of them could speak English, but there was a man there that could, so he helped us out and told us to walk around and take all the pictures we wanted.  This was Vietnamese, so it was a little different than the Cambodian one that we visit, yet still much the same.  The man Art talked to explained it was more of a cultural difference than a belief difference. We walked home after our visit and ate lunch.  The Sisters called to tell us not to come back to clean up since the clinic folks had done most of it.  This made it so we could make it to our 3:00 appointment on time.  We met the Skyway A Elders at the Freylinger’s and taught the daughter, Crystal Silverhorn and her children, Mhina, Joanna, and Daniel.  Sister Freylinger is the mom and grandmother.  The whole family is less active and Mhina hasn’t been baptized yet.  There are a couple of daughters that do come to Young Women’s and church once in a while.  This is the family we did the service for last Saturday.   We hope that we can pick them up for church on Sunday.  Joyce is supposed to call them around 12:00.  After that lesson we had to hurry to the other end of the ward to teach with the Skyway B Elders.  They were teaching Annie Dubaw and a couple of her friends.  It was very crowded so we just invited them all to dinner this coming Monday and left.  We were going to walk to Seward Park with Karen, but she went to Federal Way so no walking.  This was okay since we were pretty tired.

 

Our preaching for the week:  We got this for one of our grandkids.  Guess which one.  “Life will always throw you curves, just keep fouling them off….. The right pitch will come but when it does, be prepared to run the bases.”   Rick Maksian (thanks Caden and all the Christensen’s for all the thoughts on our pillowcasesJ)  Love ya Joyce and Art

                                      Week 36 Sept. 6-12

                    Leaving on a jet plane

Sunday:  Another interesting day at church.  We gave Joyce J. and Karen a ride there and then home plus Clarine a ride home. It was also a frustrating day.  They announced that the Gospel Doctrine and Principles class would be combined because of no teacher for Gospel Principles.  Members never get subs, they just don’t show up.  Art had had enough so he told them to announce there would be a Gospel Principles class and he went in and taught it.  He should have prepared a Young Men’s lesson also because the two young men that we have worked so hard to get them stay for Priesthood Meeting, had to go in with the Elders and High Priest. The High Priest and Elders were combined because the elders had no teacher even though members of the Presidency were there and the Young Mens President just didn’t want to teach and cancelled Young Men’s class.  This is the second week in a row that we have gotten Reymark, and Eleazar to stay and no lesson for them.  On a positive note, Ruth, Rubi, and Princess Joy were in their new dresses that Joyce had bought them.  All the

Acostas (and Bacus) stayed and went to Joyce’s primary class.  She also had Kenzie stay for her class even though her grandpa wanted to leave. She begged to stay and he let her.  We did find out that Estrela’s older girls, (Sunshine, Michel, Richel,) go by Bacus which is Estrela’s maiden name.  It is a Pilipino tradition of some sort to take the mother’s name.  And Eleazar, Reymark, Princess Joy and Eldrix, have the Acosta last name for their father, Ric Acosta.  It is very interesting.  Joshua, Ruth and Rubi’s family go by Acosta.  We have always told them apart by the green house and the Holly St. house.  This should make it easier.  After church, we had Skyway A, Skyway B, Elder Sisters, Karen, Joyce J. and little Eric over for dinner and a short message from the elders.  Joyce Johnson wanted Joyce to hem some pants for little Eric, but she will have to take them to Idaho because with packing, “Sister Knowles” ran out of time. 

Monday Labor Day:  We are having Zone Meeting on Wednesday so we work today and have p-day on Tuesday.  Plus with the holiday the elders catch more people at home.  Joyce flew home so the airport was our first stop.  After she got on the plane and it took off, (the ticket counter said that she wouldn’t make the boarding time, so I waited to make sure she got on the plane okay) I rode the train back to Rainier Beach.  Joyce though she may have left her I-pad at the church so I rode the bus as close as I could then walked to the church.  Her I-pad was in the primary room, thank goodness.  I walked back to the bus stop, rode the bus to Rainier Station for the train, but decided to walk home since I had lots of time on my hands.  I worked on what we use for an area book until time for FHE.  I would have stayed home except I had to teach the lesson.  We have been thinking that the lessons need to be spiced up a bit so we played a church version of pass word for the lesson.  Josh picked up “Sister Knowles” from the SLC airport and took her to dinner and to ride the Ferris wheel.  It’s a good thing that the grand kids needed their grandma to ride with them!

Roland Valdez baptism

Tuesday p-day:  The pick-up needed an oil change and the cover needed to be treated so I took care of that in the morning.  I stopped at the church to see the Elders and they wanted me to run to the mission office for them.  Not much going on so I was glad for something to do that was worthwhile (verses taking a nap).  The English class had no one show up and we have though we may drop it, then one of the ladies called to say she had to work and would come next week.  We will see.  Two showed up for ARP and we had a good lesson there.  The elder sisters helped me so I wouldn’t be alone.  “Sister Knowles” spent Monday night with Joshua, Rachel, Maddox, and Haley in Heber City. Josh and Rachel are building a new home, so after a quick walk through of their new home Tuesday morning before school, Rachel mapped me out a route to the Draper Temple.  I thought I needed a little calming and peace before driving to Idaho.  On the way to Idaho Falls, I got to watch Lexi play volleyball and cheer for her with Beau, AnJ, and Braeden.  I got to I.F. and I offered to help Dad with Mom. Mom is pretty much in a wheel chair, though she can walk with her walker a little.  She also has tremors in both of her hands, and other problems.  I invited them to come and live at our home and have the top floor and Art and I would settle in the basement so that I could help, but Dad said they felt really good about moving into Fair Winds Retirement Center.  At Fair Winds, they serve 3 meals a day, and everything is wheel chair accessible, which is perfect for them right now.  Plus, they have activities and church right there. 

    

Wednesday:  Zone meeting all morning.  We talked about having lessons in member’s homes, contacting as always, and developing greater faith.  We had an activity the last hour, which is just another name for role playing.  Two sets of biking elders needed a ride home so I took them home after a stop at Jack-in-the-Box.  At 5:00 the missionaries met at Salvation Army to serve dinner.  This is always an interesting experience.  I had to hurry form there to teach English at the church, but I did take time to talk to two men and a lady and give each one a Book of Mormon.  I only had two so I gave the third one a Bible.  This made me late, but the lady was also late so it worked out.  The elder sisters helped again.  After the class we had our meeting with the Bishop.   Allison packed the kitchen cupboards for Mom and Dad.  Dad packed and cleaned, and “Sister Knowles” had an organ lesson with Mom.  It was delightful!  Then, Joyce, Allison, and Mom put labels on the bottoms of all of Mom and Dad’s china sets and antiques, so that all kids, grandkids, and great grandkids will have a memento from Grandma and Grandpa Allen.  It was fun to put all the treasures in boxes and we hope everyone will cherish their keepsakes. 

 Thursday:  I wasn’t going to go to WW until Joyce sent me a text telling me to go.  She has her flight booked to come back so that was good news. It has been a long three days since she left.  Glad I went to WW since I had lost weight.  The missionaries need leather gloves for the service project this Saturday so I went to Lowes and picked those up.  I have been wanting to build a frame so the groceries won’t slide to the front of the pickup bed so while I was at Lowes I picked up some 2x4s and built it out in there parking lot.  They cut the 2x4s to the size I needed.  Most of the afternoon was spent working on the area book (may have been a short nap somewhere in that time frame).  I can’t do much else because I was told to keep a low profile.  In the evening I went out with the Skyway B elders to three different places but nobody let us in.  We did go to the wrong house once and the man there was very friendly and we talked to him a lot.  They were from Vietnam and both husband and wife were Buddhist.  After the visits we went to our missionary meeting and I rode home with the Elder Sisters.  AnJ and Beau both came up to help today.  So, while Gary Adams (my cousin,) and Dad took a big load to the Deseret Industries, Beau and AnJ moved the three China Cupboards to my front room, so that the three girls will each get one.  They also moved a ton of stuff to our shop to store.  Lexi had another Volleyball game, so we went to that and had fun.

Friday: The pick-up needed new tires and some brake work so I took it back to Firestone and then rode the bus as far as Henderson and walked the rest of the way home, then did the same route to go back and pick it up.  In between times I worked on the area book some more. The Dangs had invited us to dinner in the evening so I went by myself.  Sister Dang’s Aunt and Uncle were there for a visit and wanted to talk about a mission.  They have put papers in and are waiting for their call to come. She is a retired school teacher so we talked a lot about the teachers strike in Seattle.  I was going with the Elders at 7:30 but dinner was longer than planned and their appointment didn’t work out so it all worked out for me.  I had rode the train and walked to the Dangs, planning on having the Elders pick me up there.  I forgot they were on exchanges and were riding bikes.  It all worked out since their appointment fell through.  I had to walk to the train station in the dark.  I keep forgetting the days are getting shorter.  It wasn’t a problem since the firetrucks were out all over the neighborhood so lots of flashing light plus they live in one of the nicer neighborhoods here.  On Friday, we had Ryan, Allison, Beau and AnJ to help us.  First, more loads went out to our shop.  Then, we packed up all that we could and put it all in the garage to store for the night, so we could just load it on Saturday, moving day!  I got to visit with Phyllis, Rod, John, and SanDee, and they fixed the best stew ever! 

Day of Service Skyway Ward

Saturday:  Today was the Renton service day.  The ward had a few people that needed some help and then lots of community projects going on.  I went with the Skyway A elders and several other members to a part member family and did some yard work.  Mostly we cut down blackberry bushes.  They are a mess to deal with.  They should have been sprayed and then burned but you can’t do that in the city.  We worked for three hours and made a small dent in them.  We did get a T-shirt for working.   After dropping my car load off, I went home, showered, ate lunch and took a nap.  My back was so stiff I thought maybe walking would help so I walked to Henderson and caught a bus to the church for Brother Valdes baptism at 6:00.  I thought that Skyway B elders would be there and they could give me a ride to our 7:30 appointment, but they never showed up and the appointment cancelled anyway.  The church needed to be cleaned so I stayed and helped and the Elder Sisters clean and they gave me a ride home.  I was glad to stay and help because it is scary riding the bus

Sister Heiner, Bro. Valdez, Sister Lucky

after dark.  The walked helped some but it will still be Advil for a few days. Josh’s family was planning on coming to help on moving day, but Rachel, Maddox, and Haley all got very sick on Friday, so Joyce made a call to Ann Rockwood Friday night and explained that she desperately needed a “Joshua” to help with the moving. Well, to her wonderful surprise, she got three Rockwood brothers that were sent from heaven to move Mom and Dad.  We had Allison, Ryan, AnJ, Reed, Rod and Scottie, plus they brought over the snow mobile trailer to load! Needless to say, by the time we loaded the trailer, my pickup, Allison and Ryan’s van, and AnJ’s car, we only had to make one trip!  It was amazing how strong they were, how quick to help out, and willing to do service for loved ones!  Rod even brought Mia, and Macey and Tyson had so much fun with her riding on all the carts!  We unloaded and put things away. Thanks Ryan for changing your schedule.  AnJ and I even helped hang some pictures and picked up a few things that Mom and Dad needed from the store.  AnJ and I then, made it to part of Macey’s softball game and got to visit with Darla and the Petersons.  Ann got some friends together for dinner in the evening and it was nice to see the Rockwoods, the Belnaps and the Wheelers!  Thanks, Jeff, for the delicious food!  Love Joyce and Art

Week 35 Aug 30-Sept 5
It’s easy to miss what you are not looking for
Sunday: Karen was the only one that we gave a ride to church. We invited several others but nobody took us up on the offer. Rubi, Eleazar and Reymark Acosta were all confirmed with Elder Knowles confirming Reymark. Joyce spoke in Sacrament meeting on the Priesthood and she did a great job. Ruth and Rubi stayed for primary, but it took lots of coaxing. In the end, Joyce ended up with Ruth and Rubi and their mom, Jennifer, Estrella and Michel and Tesloach in her class. There was a joint meeting with the R.S. and Priesthood so there was no Young Men lesson. We did get Joshua, Eleazar and Reymark to stay, but they weren’t very happy.

Reymark thought he was starving to death. We are having trouble getting them to stay for priesthood because there is never a lesson for them. We can’t get the youth leaders to step up. Ezekiel and Tesloach were coming over for dinner, until Ezekiel decided he needed to go to bed, (he needed to go to work early) so we only had the elder sisters, Tesloach, and Karen. We had lots of left overs. Joshua face timed us, which he does every Sunday and Karen didn’t know we could do that, so we let her face time her daughter in Minnesota. She was pretty excited.
Monday p-day sort of: First a quick stop at the elder sisters so Sister Chamberlin could cut Joyce’s hair. Then, we went with the elder sisters to Enumclaw with a member of our ward that is moving there. She (Margaret Foster) is elderly and can’t live alone anymore, so she is moving in with her son’s family. She wanted us to know where she was moving to so we could come
and visit her. After the visit we stopped at a little diner along the road and had lunch. Enumclaw is a nice little town with lots of farms around it and a nice view of Mount Rainier. We could live there if forced to live in Washington. We came home and Joyce worked on the area records while Art took a nap. We took all the leftovers from Sunday, to FHE, where they were all eaten. We were glad to get them used up, then came home and found another container full, so guess we will still be eating leftovers this week.
Tuesday: We had District meeting in the morning.

Sister Missionaries At Northwest Harvest

Elder Walters was sick so we combined with his
district which gave us a few more missionaries to role play with. We worked on contacting.
Something that we do very little of. We had a fun lesson teaching English at the Acostas. Estrella, Eleazar, Eldrix, Princes Joy and sometimes Reymark (you have to love Reymark, her has the attention span of a flea) were all there. On the way home we stopped at a Filipino market to buy some banana leaves. It’s a pretty interesting place. Lots of things that we have never heard of, or thought of eating. The English class, at the church, was a bust but we had several at the APR class. We showed an awareness test on u-tube and talked about it. If you haven’t seen it, google moonwalking bear and watch it. Karen went to the ARP class with us so we were able to visit with her a bit.
Wednesday: All the senior missionaries are supposed to meet with President McKinney the first Wed. of each month. We haven’t met since April and he canceled again for this month. It’s not the meeting we feel bad about missing, it’s going to lunch after the meeting that we miss. We had Northwest Harvest with the sister missionaries in the morning doing frozen beans. Since we didn’t have our meeting with President McKinney, we rode into West Seattle with the Elder Sisters and visited Kathy Pang in the hospital, then went to lunch. Most of the afternoon was spent getting our report for the Bishop typed up and getting ready for another English class. We had one person show up. A lady from Vietnam that the elders had invited. It was a pretty fun class. Our meeting with the Bishop ended the day, with no Ward Mission Leader called yet. Sounds like members keep saying no.
Thursday: We went to W.W. first thing as usual then up to the museum to index. They haven’t fixed the computers yet so we didn’t stay too long. The Acostas taught Joyce how to make sticky rice so we spent most of the day there. Of course, they have to feed you when you visit so we had fried chicken wings, some kind of noodles with spam, shrimp, and some kind of fruit (mabutin). While Joyce made the sticky rice, Art talked to Reymark and Eleazar about going on a mission, country western music, and school. They told Art what you have to do in the Philippines to become a man. Not to pleasant. We’ll just say it involves a knife and a hammer. In the evening we walked to Sister Nielsen’s home for our missionary meeting. We still can’t get any of the auxiliary leaders to attend except the R.S.

Friday: Joyce was taking soup to two ladies in the ward that she V.T. so we spent most of the morning cooking. One just had surgery in Utah and the other is less active and will only let us in if we have food. We had some extra so we gave some to the R.S. President who has been sick. After dropping off the soup at two of the homes we stopped at Wal-Mart for some more groceries for dinner on Sunday. We have more people coming over. In the afternoon we took Ruth, Rubi, Reymark, Eleazar, and Princes Joy shopping for clothes. It was pretty fun. Eleazar and Princes Joy are very quiet and Reymark, Ruth and Rubi never stopped talking. Ruth and Rubi are usually quiet, but they like Joyce so they talked a lot. They don’t have any church clothes and the boys will start passing the sacrament soon, we hope. Ruth and Rubi don’t have any dresses. We split up: Joyce with the girls and Art with the boys. Of course the boys finished sooner than the girls so they went to the food court and ate while the girls continued to shop. Not only does Reymark talk a lot, he never stops eating. We took them all home and then had to hurry to a 7:30 teaching appointment with the Skyway A elders which turned out awesome and Joyce might have a new member for her Primary class. Kenzie is very interested in the church and hopefully will be to church Sunday.
Saturday: We spent the morning doing some business for home (Idaho Falls). At noon we needed to take lunch to another lady in the ward that Joyce has been working with. We weren’t sure if she would let us in, but she did and we had a nice visit. She said we could come anytime, just can’t bring the elders. The young lady that the elders taught last night needed the Book of Mormon Reader so we took one to her on the way home. We have permission for Joyce to fly home so we spent the afternoon preparing for that. Art will stay and take care of the classes we have so we should have everything covered. The Elder Sister will help Art with the classes and he will still be available to go with the elders if needed. They will be disappointed to not have Joyce there. Karen came over at 5:00 with dinner and then went with us to teach at 6:00 to the Acostas. They had all gone to a movie, except Reymark and Eleazar so we had a lesson with them. Allison and Ryan will understand when we say that Reymark and Tyson would be best friends. We are understanding the Filipino culture when it comes to keeping appointments and being on time. The 7:00 appointment canceled so we came home and then walked Karen home. The Safeway parking lot was full of police cars and when we got home our parking garage had several police cars in it. A usual Saturday night in Skyway. It does make a nice light show when the pavement is wet, which is was tonight. Joyce bought her plane ticket so, Allison, you may see her in Idaho Falls by Wednesday. Joshua and Anj, you will see her sooner, and Jake and Jared, you are out of luck, but we will keep you up to date on what is going on.
Our preaching for the week: At our last zone conference they talked a lot about non-linear blessings. (They don’t line up with what you are doing, but are blessings anyway). We watched the video of the moonwalking bear and after you watch it this will all make more sense. The elders have been using the I Nephi challenge (read 15 min. every day and you will finish I Nephi in 10 days). I Nephi has lots of examples of non-linear blessings. So here is your assignment, do the Nephi challenge and then see where you are getting non-linear blessings in your life and your family’s life. We count your friendship and support as one of our greatest blessings! Love Art and Joyce

              Week 34    Aug 23-29

               News from the ghetto

                 (A lady on the train told Art this was where we lived)

Sunday:  It was a good day but Karen was the only one that went to church with us. None of the Acosta stayed for primary so Joyce didn't have her class. Allison and Ryan drove to Seattle after Caden's last ball game, which they lost in extra innings. They were at our apartment by the time we got home from church. Webster's were also with them. We had dinner prepared and after eating and walking around on our roof, they decided to ride the train into Seattle, so we drove to Walmart and bought some air mattresses and sheets. Art was given a HT assignment by the HP group leader. His new companion, Brother Cabiao, is a Filipino member who just went to the temple with his family, and is a recent convert.  All of the families, five of them, are Filipino, and are either new members or have been less active and are working towards the temple.  Time to get out the Tagalog dictionary again.  Art was told that he needs to show Brother Cabiao how to H.T. and how it works, since he is such a new member.  He thinks that is pretty funny that they would ask him to teach someone how to be a good H.T.

Monday:   We were glad it was our preparation day, so we rode the train into Seattle with the Christensen's and the Webster's. We decided to get off at the ball diamond and walk around. After debating for a while it was decided that the men would go on a tour of Safeco Field and the women would go into Seattle to go to the aquarium. After the tour of Safeco Field we all met at the Crab Pot and ate dinner. After dinner, those who wanted went and rode on the Ferris wheel, then we got to experience riding the train home during rush hour traffic. We only made it as far as Safeco Field and stopped to watch a ballgame. Ryan and Nick got us very good tickets that were six rows up down the left-field line. Of course the Mariners lost as usual. We did get free T-shirts, because the starting pitcher had thrown a no-hitter his previous start. He didn't do so well tonight, only lasting three innings. The Christiansen’s and Webster's had planned on leaving Monday to go home so they had packed all of their luggage. When we got home from the ball game we had to unpack and make the beds up again. It was worth it since we've had such a fun day.

Tuesday: This is always one of our busy days. The Christiansen’s and Webster's left early in the morning, and we got ready for our district meeting at 11. More role-playing. We did have a very good meeting. We had to hurry home and walked down to the Acosta’s, to teach sister Acosta an English lesson. We have also started to teach Princess Joy a little bit of English so she will be ready to start kindergarten. Art was tired, so we came home and he took a nap and Joyce prepared for our English class at the church. At 6 o'clock we started our class with only one person showing up and then followed with our ARP class with three people showing up. The Elder sisters are so good to give people rides to both classes and take them home afterwards. We had taken Karen with us.
Wednesday: We started off our day at Northwest Harvest like we do most Wednesdays. Today we were working with the sister missionaries and we packaged rice. Most of the afternoon was spent running errands, Sam’s Club for gas and groceries, Edward Jones to sign some papers, the Acosta's (Green house) to fill out some forms and to the church to make copies for the English class.  Because of Rubi's interview tonight, Joshua couldn’t go to the activity, so the forms weren't needed.   When we went to pick up the other Acosta family (Holley St. house) all of them had backed out of going to the activity.  None of the Acostas wanted to go if Joshua wasn’t going to go to the YW/YM Activity.  They are very shy. Too bad, they were doing a boating activity on Lake Washington and it would have been fun. .  We were disappointed that none of the Acostas were going since we had worked so hard to invite them and fill out the forms, plus we wanted to go.  Since we didn’t need to be the taxi service, we went home and Joyce worked on her talk for Sunday, until our meeting with the Bishop.

Thursday:  We did make it to W.W. this morning with okay results.  We ran to Sam’s for a few things for dinner on Sunday (more people are coming over), then to the museum for our indexing class.  Again nobody showed, but we were able to set up a few things that needed to be taken care of on their computers and they want us to speak at a seminar they are having in Oct.  Next on the schedule was a stop at home for more work on Joyce’s talk and fixing dinner for a member who had surgery.  Karen wanted to walk so we stopped and picked her up, after the dinner run, and walked around Kabota Gardens until our missionary meeting at 7:45.  The meeting was short since we are still waiting for a Ward Mission Leader to be called.

Friday:  We walked to the Filipino Cultural Center and spent all morning and afternoon there, working in the photo room and the copy room.  The Center becomes a mini consulate/embassy every few months, so people can renew passports, take care of any legal papers (like marriage, death and birth certificates), and apply for dual citizenship. They would have to drive to San Francisco to do it.  Lots of people think we are from the consulate since we are dressed up.  They read are name badge and can’t put the church and consulate together.  At 4:00: we picked-up Michel and Richel and took them to lunch since they were working when we went with the rest of the Acostas. They wanted to go to the Vietnamese place we said that we wouldn’t go back to.  A little direction on what to order really helps and it was pretty good.  We can eat rice with chopsticks but haven’t figured out soup yet. At 7:30 we met the Skyway A elders and taught a lesson.  They are teaching the granddaughter of Brother and Sister Sale’ (Kenzie) plus helping them become more active.  After the lesson they wanted us to go help teach another investigator, but Joyce had a V.T. appointment.  (She has 10 ladies to go visiting teaching to.)  We should have went with the Elders because when we found where we needed to go, it was gated and we couldn’t get in.  Margarita had forgotten to give us the code.

  

Saturday:  We woke up to pouring rain.  It has been so nice here and the day the ward plans an outdoor activity, it rains.  They need it bad here so we can’t complain.  Most of the morning was spent at the cultural center again.  The walk there was nice, but the walk home was windy and rainy.  Good thing we took the umbrella, but the wind made it bad, kind of sideways rain.  At 2:00, after a stop at Safeway’s for a cake, we headed to the church for the baptism and to help set up for the ward party.  The baptism was a little miracle.  When the Elders got to the church there was no power because of the high winds.  Kind of made us home sick for Idaho.  There is a big tree across the street from us that has blown over.  Anyway, they said a prayer and the power came back on.  The baptism was great.  Having Eleazar, Raymark and Rubi being baptized today was a huge miracle!  We had a good turn out and lots of investigators, also.  Joyce played the piano and that was another big miracle. Keep practicing.  You don’t know when you are going to be needed…Lots of less actives and investigators were there, plus good food.

Some preaching:  One reason to live the Word of Wisdom….

A Cup of Tea for Grandpa

One day when my Grandma was gone for a while, my Grandpa was in charge of me. I was maybe 2 1/2 years old.  Someone had given me a little ‘tea set’ as a gift and it was one of my favorite toys.  Grandpa was in the living room engrossed in the evening news when I brought him a little cup of ‘tea’ (which was just water).  After several cups of tea and lots of praise for such yummy tea, my Grandma came home.  Grandpa made her wait in the living room to watch me bring him a cup of tea, because it was ‘just the cutest thing!’  Grandma waited, and sure enough, I came down the hall with a cup of tea for Grandpa.  She watched him drink it up.  Then she said (as only a grandma would know), “Did it ever occur to you that the only place she can reach to get water is the toilet?” 

Love ya! Have a good week….

Sister and Elder Knowles

                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