Transfer 16 Week 1  Oct 17-23  

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder and Sister Knowles  

First day of school for Eldrex since surgery

Transfer 15 Week 6  Oct 10-16  Week B8

                There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious fact

Preaching:  This is the talk that I gave Thursday night at Justeen’s baptism in our Skyway Ward. (I had a beautiful gift, wrapped on the table.)  

     When you were young, was there a gift that you wanted more than anything else?  Look at this beautiful gift on the table for you.  December is coming quickly and we think of giving and receiving gifts.  

     The gift that I wanted each and every birthday, as well as each and every Christmas, was a horse.  And every year, I got clothes, or a jewelry box, or something else that I was grateful for, but I wanted a horse.  My father was a mail man, a letter carrier in Idaho.  One year at Christmastime, my mother told us that my dad could not be with us on Christmas morning.  We were disappointed and thought perhaps he had to deliver more Christmas cards and mail that needed to be delivered  by Christmas day.  We didn’t know why he was not home.  As we speculated, there was a knock at our front door, so I ran to open it.  There was my dad, and my horse - I thought the grandest of all gifts!

  

Biking along Lake Washington

  Oh, how I loved my horse and helped our neighbor to train her.  We named her Princess.  She was pinto, and had a lot of Arabian blood in her, so I became interested in Arabian horses.  This I have learned:    

     Arabian horses are trained rigorously in the  middle eastern deserts. The horses must learn to fully obey the whistle of their master. When the horses are young, the master whistles and the horse must come to his master for a reward.  This process is often done many times each day.  This obedience is tested when the horses come to maturity.  (Draw three circles, for three choices on the chalkboard.)  The horses are put in a pen with no water for many days.  They are deprived of water, which they need desperately in the hot Arabian desert.  

     Then, the horses are turned loose from their pen near water. As the horses get to the edge of the water, and just before they drink of the much needed water, the master whistles. If the horses have learned to obey they turn around and come back to the trainer who then gives them as much water and food as they need.  These horses that obey are the chosen horses.  These horses can be depended upon.  

     The master knows what his horses need and will not allow them to die of thirst, but they must trust him.   Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ know what we need and they love us and want to supply us with all things that we need, but we must trust and obey, as the Spirit whispers to us.  The Holy Ghost will speak to us, to guide us and direct us in all the things that we should do.  We will be wise to obey the Holy Ghost to keep us out of danger and in the path we should follow to get back to Heavenly Father and our Savior, Jesus Christ.  The Holy Ghost will not come in a whistle, but rather in a still small voice.  

    This gift of the Holy Ghost is the most precious gift that you can receive right now to guide you and direct you, especially as you have decisions to make and to keep you safe.  May you always listen to the still small voice and obey.  You are chosen of Heavenly Father.  You love Him.  I know He loves you and wants you to return to Him, but we are here on Earth to be tried and tested.  So, listen to the Holy Ghost, the greatest gift you can receive right now!

Monday: We had an early start in the morning.  Eldrex went back to school so we walked down to the Acostas to help get him on the bus at 7:05.  The bus didn’t come until 7:25.  We also needed to give the school the medication that Eldrex takes so we walked there and took care of that.  One of the things we have wanted to do was ride our bikes across Lake Washington on I-90.  Monday is usually our Preparation Day.  We knew we had to give Diane Nardi a blessing for her treatments that would start Tues. and her place was that direction.  It was a nice day,(the forecast is rain for the next ten days and it has been raining the past few days), so we rode the bikes along Lake Washington to the freeway.  We had to carry the bikes up lots of steps to get access to the bike path, and as usual we went too far and did some backtracking.  The ride across the floating Bridge of I90 was fun and lots of good pictures.  When you drive across the bridge its seems level, but looks can be deceiving.  Both ends of the bridge have a long

Dinner after zone training with young sister missionaries

uphill climb.  We are trying to get in better shape and still have a ways to go. We stopped and had a bite to eat, then saw the text that Diane had sent to us telling us she was getting a pizza when we came.  Diane is starting some shock treatments tomorrow for her problems and we certainly hope the treatments help!  She wanted a blessing which is a huge miracle, as she is questioning her testimony and why she was baptized.  She was very grateful to us for stopping by and to Elder Knowles for honoring his priesthood.  There was such a wonderful spirit as Art administered to her.  Diane felt it, as well as her friend, Linda, who was there.  Diane lives on Rainier so we had to fight the traffic to get home, which is not the safest thing to do.  We did take the back roads when we could.  The second Monday in

baptism

October is the Canadian Thanksgiving and Sister Beck got permission to have a dinner and invite any missionaries from Canada.  There was only one, Elder Nelson, that she knew about.   Sister Rasmusson was even there, even though President Rasmussen was sick.  There were many members of the ward (it was also Sister Meldrums 70th birthday).  It was a fun party and lots of good food (Thanksgiving food). Sister Beck had done a lot of work to make it nice.  She is excited for the Blue Jays, also.  Karen rode the link to our place after her work and she went with us, so after the lesson and cleaning up, we drove her back to her place in Kirkland by way of Fred Meyers.  It made for a long day. The one plus was: at 9:00, the traffic is not as bad and it wasn’t raining.  We are always willing to help her when we can.  She think is doing great at her new place, new ward, and her job.

Tuesday:  Today is our real p-day.  We made lots of phone calls in the morning.  Doctors offices, school district, and SRS class members to name a few.  Anyway, we got things lined up for later.  Our Self Reliance Service class for was cancelled for “My Job Search” since all but one have dropped out. (They got jobs!)  We called the Vreeken’s and they took care of cancelling the class and getting the one remaining member a place to go. We needed to pick up Joyce Johnson and drive her to an interview.  We tend her kids while she is in the interview.  Gideon is a handful still.  Joyce got the job.  It will be her second job, so no days off.  She is trying to get money to get her mom here from Africa.  On the way home we stopped for gas and then all of us went into Sam’s and got something to eat.  That was not a good idea with Gideon.  He ran away from Sister Knowles when she took him to the bathroom!  We made a stop at the post office but the line was out the door so we left.  Since

Canadian Thanksgiving

it was p-day and our SRS class was cancelled, we decided to have a movie night at the church.  Sister Stevensen wanted us to watch Amazing Grace.  It was a pretty good movie about the slave trade in England and how it was abolished.  We were told by Sister Rasmusson that we needed to get together once and awhile, with all the senior missionaries.  Next time we do this we will plan a little sooner and invite the rest of the seniors. 

Wednesday:  We stopped on the way to zone training at the post office and mailed the packages.  Zone training was for three hours.  It was a long time to sit, plus role playing.  Sister Leavitt is struggling so we took her and Sister Young to Applebee’s for lunch.  We don’t know Sister Young very well so it was nice to get to know her a little better.  After a stop at Walmart, to pick up supplies for tonight for achievement days, we went home until time to pick the kids up for achievement days and YM’s.  The girls worked on their scrapbooks and the boys played basketball. We took them home late so we didn’t make it back to the meeting with the Bishop. There is a big storm on the way tomorrow and we got a call from the Masseys to make sure we had flashlights, food, and water in case we lose power. The really big storm may hit Saturday so we will keep you posted.  There are lots of activities planned on Saturday so we hope the storm will miss us. 

false alarm

Thursday:  The rain and cold are back. We didn’t have any pressing appointments so Joyce made soup and Art packed a few things we aren’t using, not getting excited to go home, just cleaning a bit.  In the afternoon we took  Joyce Johnson to the school to see if Gideon can go back to a full day.  We found out it is a state law.  Sister Knowles has been making calls to the district office trying to get some help.  They are going to let him back in for the full day and check in every day with Joyce Johnson about his behavior.  The Hermanas’ came over for dinner at 5:00, that’s why Joyce made the soup, plus it is rainy.  7:00 was the baptism for Justine Salgatar.  It was  a great baptism.  There was a very good turn out even with the bad weather.  We picked up Princes Joy and the twins.  Joyce spoke on the Holy Ghost.

Friday:  The institute class was cancelled because of the big storm which ended up being not as bad as they said.  We spent most of the morning catching up on phone calls and started taking the pictures off the wall in our dining room.  It is going to be harder than we thought.  It seemed like a good idea when we started putting them up.  All the missionaries have enjoyed finding their pictures when they come over so it will be worth all the work it will take to clean the wall up.  The Primary Halloween Activity and cutting down trees have both been cancelled for tomorrow.  Thats when the bigger storm is supposed to hit.  Today it is just lots of cold rain and wind.  We did go do a little shopping and went to the Acosta to check on Eldrex.  He had some trouble at school and Estrella wanted us to take her to the school and talk with his teacher, but it was a teacher training work day so we will have to do it on Monday.  We came home and the building had the fire alarm go off.  The fire truck showed up and the building was

doing service

evacuated for a bit.  Luckily it wasn’t raining when we had to go stand outside.   We have never heard if there was a real fire or not.  Joyce had a call from Shelia Dean wanting our help for some family history, so Joyce got that set up.  We stay in and watched a church movie for our date night.

Saturday:  Since everything we had planned was cancelled it gave us time to go and help clean the church.  Pretty much the same were in attendance.  It takes about an hour it there is eight or more.  Since we were in the cleaning mode we came home and cleaned our place some. Cleaning the church gets us ready to go from cleaning an apartment to a house.  We were supposed to go to an activity at the Spanish Branch in the evening, but with the terrible winds and rain, we decided not to take the chance of driving there, so we stayed in.  We never did lose power, but many in our ward did.      

Sunday:  No one wanted a ride to church.  We only had Eleazar, Reymark, Princes Joy and the twins at church, with none of the adult Acosta’s.  We hope the two weeks of conferences (general and stake) hasn’t got members out of the habit of church.  Joyce Johnson was there with her kids.  Art went into primary so he could help Sister Knowles since Gideon was there.  Between Gideon and Lehi, and Hyrum, the Primary Class is

Mission Devotional

beginning to be a circus.  Sister Knowles asked Ruth to pray for her and that helped…  We left a note on their door, and invited our neighbors, Kaitlyn and Jorden, over for soup, after church.  We were late getting home so we figured they weren’t coming over since we hadn’t heard from them.  They did show up right after we got home, so we had a fun visit with them.  They are cute kids, and maybe we can interest them in our church.  We talked about Joseph Smith and the Sacred Grove, so that was good.  In the evening we picked up Sister Beck and Stevenson and attended the mission devotional in Enumclaw.  It is far south of us, so took us an hour to drive in the rain.  It was very good us usual.  The choir had about 80 missionaries and we only knew about 10 of them.  Most of the ones we know well have gone home already.  We did get to see Elder Lappalienen.  He came out when we did and spent the start of his mission in Skyway B.  There were a few that go home on Monday that we saw.  It rained all the way there and all the way home.  Even with all the rain and the storm we managed to get a few things done.  Hope you had a good week also, Love Joyce and Art.

Transfer 15 Week 5  Oct 3-9 Week B9

Insanity:  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Preaching:  At first glance, it is easy to look at a towel as a most ordinary object.  In boxing, one can “throw in the towel” and quit; or you can use the towel to wipe off the sweat of physical exertion!  Have you ever stopped to think that for thousands of years, the towel has been used for many wonderful purposes? For example, the mother who wipes the tears of a child, the physician who binds the wounds of a patient, or the woman in her home wiping her hands as she moves from task to task. 

     Perhaps the most significant use of the towel happened nearly two thousand years ago when our Savior, only hours  before He hung on the cross, took an ordinary towel in His loving hands.  He washed and dried the feet of His apostles!  This simple, loving act personifies the selflessness and loving service we seek to give during our lives.  It illustrates that an ordinary thing like a towel, in the right hands, and with a giving heart, can lighten another’s load.  As with every action performed by the Savior on this Earth, His act of service reminds us that simple day to day kindnesses to others are the Savior’s way to bless and comfort. 

  

Our district 

  Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin said, “ How can we ever repay our debt to the Savior?  He paid a debt He did not owe, to free us from a debt we can never pay.”  May we always be in the service of others, to show our great love to our Savior for His atoning sacrifice.  For the Savior said, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”  Matthew 25:40

     Towels are used in repair shops.  Christ will repair and bless our lives  through the atonement, if we will let Him into our lives.  When you use a towel this autumn season, think of doing works of goodness and service with it, as the Savior did so many years ago.  May the absorbing spirit of Jesus Christ blot our problems, soak up our sorrows, wipe away difficulties, and work to lighten the loads of others.  

Sister Bailey and her parents

Monday:  We did our usual things in the morning like laundry, and cleaning.  Joyce had made some brownies so we walked some down to the Acostas.  At 1:00 we picked up Diane Nardi and  drove to Kent.  She has a friend who is learning to become a massage therapist and she needed some practice.  So to help out, Diane asked us to volunteer.  After the massages we drove to Federal Way with everybody and went to dinner.  It was late when we got home.  The Hermanas did stop in to visit us for a bit.  We were going to get them a few things from Sam’s Club but ran out of time.  We are trying to decide if the massages count as a p-day or service.

Tuesday:  We had district meeting first thing.  Joyce had told Estrella that she would come down and help her so she walked down for an hour before we left for the stake center.  It was the last district meeting we will have before transfers so we took a picture afterwards.  We stopped at Sam’s on the way home for gas and a few groceries.  Joyce Johnson had an

Northwest Harvest

appointment at school for Gideon that she wanted Joyce to attend with her.  They still won’t let him into full day kindergarten.  He needs to learn, he is not the teacher, stay with his class and keep his hands to himself.  The principal wants us to go to the district office and see about getting him someone for one on one help.  She thinks we would get more consideration than if she asks for it.  We went to the SRS class and nobody showed up.   Joyce made a call and found that the Threshers were not coming.  Bob Thresher got a job, and his wife is in a machine class to get a job.  We didn’t have the # for Bro. Robinson.  We left after waiting 25 minutes and went home, then found out the Bro. Robinson showed up at 7:00 instead of 6:30.  He was told the wrong time.  We will see how it goes next week. The Hermanas came over around 8:30 to pick up the things we had bought them at Sam’s Club.

Wednesday:  We boxed pasta at Northwest Harvest, again.  Sister Bailey showed up with her parents.  She went home in September and has her mother and step-father here on a vacation now to tour the places she served.  It was fun to see her again.  She is another one

NAAM

of our favorites.  We took the Elder Sisters home and dropped the pick-up off at Toyota for an oil change and then walked across the street and had lunch with Sister Bailey and her family.  Sister Bailey’s mom picked up the bill and we had to say thank you.  It felt so different being on the receiving end.  We came home and Joyce worked while Art took a nap before picking up for achievement days and young mens.  For achievement days we took the girl shopping for the stake activity.  They are going to make kits for refugees.  The boys were dropped off at the church so they could do the potato derby activity with the Tiffany Park ward.  This is a small miracle, because a few months ago, these boys would never had stayed without us or without Dylan Sablan, their YM’s Leader.  They are becoming more confident and comfortable.  Before dropping off and shopping we visited the Sablans to see the baby and Beverlyn.

Thursday:  We worked out first thing in the morning.  Two days in a row now.  At 11:00 we went to the N.A.A.M. to give a tour to the members of Rev. Z. Bruce’s church.  We only had two show up, Pastor Shelia Dean and her daughter.  Sister Dean is the minister for the women’s organization that they have. It was fun to see many of the people we have met there.  It was

probably the last time we will go there.  The lady that schedules the tours doesn’t know us and she does most of them herself so we don’t go there as much as we used to.  After lunch we went to the Acosta’s to help get Eldrex on the Hope link bus for a doctors appointment.  The plan was to follow the bus to the hospital, since they won’t let us go with them.  Only Estrella can ride with him.  The driver said she would take one of us, so Joyce rode and Art went home.  This was the post-op appointment for Eldrex.  Joyce was gone for several hours, like six.  there was lots to discuss like school, physical therapy, and his constraint induced therapy that will be postponed until after the first of the year.  Instead of going to the missionary meeting late, Joyce caught up on all the phone calls that she had missed while at the hospital.  For some reason there is no phone service inside the hospital.

 Friday:  It turned out to be a pretty interesting day.  We did the institute class with the Elder Sisters but no lunch after.  We had to take Estrella and Eldrex to the school and teach them how to put his brace

on and take it off.  He will go back to school on Monday.  Joyce Johnson had an interview in North Seattle that she wanted us to take her to.  She is afraid of the traffic so we wondered why she would consider a job so far away.  We picked her up and when we got on I-5 she decided she was too scared to drive there so she cancelled the interview. Or she was afraid of Arts driving.  He did have to make a u-turn because he missed the freeway entrance. We went back home by way of McDonalds for burgers and ice cream.  Joyce Johnson didn’t want the day to be a waste so she asked Sister Knowles if they could read a few chapters from the Book of Mormon.  We did some shopping and filled the pick-up with gas before going home.  It is Friday night date night so we stayed home and watched The Testaments, while Sister Knowles crocheted.  There are still lots of new babies in the ward.

Baptism

Saturday: We took the twins and Princes Joy to the Stake baptism.  Angela Jackson from our ward was getting baptized.  After the baptism we were all invited to the Skyway building for pizza and cake.  Lots of people were there.  Several former members from the ward who had moved, attended, so it was fun to see them again.  Sister Bateman had decorated the cake.  She does this for a hobby/business.  We had to leave early to go to the Bishops Storehouse and pick up a food order.  There were two sisters from the mission that were there at the storehouse that work in the YSA ward.  We gave them the names of the Acosta girls and asked them to contact them about going to that ward.  The twins and Princes Joy love helping us get food orders.  We took them home, to the Holly house, (they always want to go there for some reason and play), delivered the order, and picked up Joyce Johnson and drove her to a nursing home to drop off an application.  She doesn’t like to drive.  This place is closer to her home and not as much traffic so it will be much easier for her if she gets a second job here.  At 6:00 we had a VT appointment with Sister Fabon.  She is doing the pathway program so we are going to try and get Sun Shine to visit with her and maybe try it out.  The Saturday session was at 7:00 so we didn’t stay too long, plus she was doing homework.  The conference session was very good.  Elder

Larry Echo Hawk from the 70 spoke.  The weather is terrible now with lots of wind, cold and rain.

Sunday:  We attended conference at the Skyway building.  It was a broadcast from the stake center.  It was another very good meeting.  Eleazar was the only Acosta there.  We are not sure that the Acostas understand what conference is about.  They just know that there is not regular church.   We came home and made a Snicker Salad for tonight and tomorrow.  Skyway A had us pick up Jazmine and Justeen and take them to the church for Justeen’s baptism interview.  We all drove to the Elder Sisters afterwards for supper, minus the Elders.  They usually have dinner appointments for Sunday night, but didn’t, so we said we’d call the Elder Sisters and see if they could come, they declined.  They said they needed to get ready for zone training next week.  We had a good time at dinner so they missed out. This has been our week.  It’s such a pleasure to have you all as friends and love you. We love our Heavenly Father and our Savior.  We love the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  We are so thankful for the Holy Ghost, for a living prophet, and for apostles to guide us and direct our lives.  Please keep in touch.  know5242@live.com  Sister and Elder Knowles

Transfer 15 Week 4 Sept. 26-Oct. 2  Week B10

        It’s getting dark early out here

Preaching: “It is no small thing, my brothers and sisters, to have a prophet of God in our midst. Great and wonderful are the blessings that come into our lives as we listen to the word of the Lord given to us through him. … When we hear the counsel of the Lord expressed through the words of the President of the Church, our response should be positive and prompt. History has shown that there is safety, peace, prosperity, and happiness in responding to prophetic counsel” Russel M. Nelson

Monday:  Eldrex’s surgery was this morning so we picked them up (Eldrex, Estrella and Michele) and drove to Children’s Hospital.  Art gave Eldrex a blessing before we went.  It was a long day at the hospital.  Estrella didn’t know they wanted the braces for his legs so we had to run back home and pick them up.  The surgery lasted for five hours. Sister Knowles was working on crocheting around a blanket for Eldrex, and Michelle wanted to learn.  She was a quick learner and ended up doing most of the blanket.  Estrella and Joyce had a long time for English lessons.  After talking to the Doctor, getting Eldrex in his room and eating, (two meals of hospital food, not good) it was pretty late.  The plan was for Estrella and Michele to spend the night, but Michele had to work early on Tuesday so Estrella asked Joyce to stay instead.  Estrella slept on the pull out bed, and Joyce got to sleep in the squeaky reclining chair.  (She wanted Estrella to sleep a little because she won’t get much sleep when she gets home!)  Joyce got to help the nurses change Eldrex and give him his oral medicine during the night.  From the time we picked them up Thursday morning, until Art got home, was almost twelve hours.  Not much of a p-

day, but the surgery went well so it was all worth it.  The Doctor is pretty sure this will get him walking and then she wants to help with the other problems that he has.  Another tender mercy. We did have a little time in the morning to do our laundry for Monday so that’s out of the way.

Tuesday:  District meet was in the morning and since Joyce spent the night in the hospital, Art went alone.  There was another meeting with President and Sister Rasmusson after district meeting, so it was 2:15 by the time Art was done.  Eldrex and Estrella could go home on the Hope bus at 3:30, but Joyce couldn’t ride with them, so Art went and picked her up.  We met the Bus at the Acosta’s so we could help carry Eldrex and wheelchair into the house.  The Elder Sisters had brought pizza for their supper, plus they had a pizza and chicken so we had to stay and eat with them.  Then, the whole family came over to see Eldrex, so it was a good thing there was lots of food.  Joyce was tired after sleeping in the chair at the hospital so we went home and called it a night.  We had made arrangements for Sister Stevenson and Larson to take care of the SRS class for us.  It ended up being another long day so we were glad not to have to worry about the class.  The Hermana’s were supposed to come over, but cancelled because it got too late, so our bed looked pretty good by that time.  

Wednesday:  Art picked up the Elder Sisters and went to Northwest Harvest and Joyce walked to the Acosta’s to help there.  Joyce was going to go with Art until Estrella ask her to come at 10:00 instead of 12:30.  At Northwest Harvest Art boxed pasta while Joyce helped Estrella with Eldrex and Nathalia, Mary Ann’s baby girl.  After picking up Joyce, we went shopping so we could make supper for the Acostas.  ReyMark loves baked potatoes with stroganoff ,so that’s what we made.  We delivered it then went to our Bishops meeting.  We don’t know what happened but we heard lots of gun shots, followed by lots of sirens just down the street from us.  Another exciting night in Skyway.

Thursday: We thought we would need to help the Acostas in the morning, but they never sent us a text.  Mary Ann was staying home from work so she was going to help out.  We are trying to make an effort to get up in the morning and work out.  It is hard to get used to that.  Joyce also spent some in the morning setting up some appointments for visiting teaching some of her 10 sisters.  Our day quickly went from not having much to do, to being out of control.  We made a visit to Joyce Johnson and Joyce read the Book of Mormon with her while Art played with Gideon and Eric.  Gideon burned the popcorn while we were reading, so we quickly had to get it out of the apartment.  He is still as rambunctious as ever, and we made an appointment for next week to try to get him back in kindergarten for the entire day.   We also got better news from her concerning Thomas.  He is calling more often to check on them.  We hurried home and had the Spanish Sister missionaries over and made pizzas. They have been wanting to visit Joyce since she was sick, plus Joyce had finished their blankets and they wanted to pick them up.  As soon as they left we walked down to the Acostas to check on Eldrex.  We did get a call from Mary Ann earlier that afternoon, but we couldn’t go to Acosta’s then, because of other commitments with Joyce Johnson.  Estrella had wanted Sister Knowles to help take out a line in his knee that was pumping medicine into his leg to deaden the pain.   The hospital had called and wanted Estrella to take it  out, but we were at Joyce Johnson’s house.  By the time we got to the Acosta’s, she had the line out and Eldrex was all settled in with his new wheel chair that the hospital had delivered.  After that visit we went visiting teaching to Margarita Sanchez.  She is always so thankful to have Sister Knowles come and visit and answer questions that she has.   Then, we went to our missionary meeting.  Same attendance that we usually have, but it was a pretty good meeting, with lots of yummy treats!   We had a lot of stuff for Sister Kemp from our visits.

Friday:  We went to the institute class first thing in the morning.  It was a good lesson about following the prophet. We are back in the routine of lunch after class since we had the Elder Sisters with us today.  We came home and Joyce made a salad for the Acostas and for the party for Sister Kakuda at the mission home, since she is getting ready to go home. After delivering the salad to the Acostas, we picked up the Elder Sisters and drove to Black Diamond to the mission home.  The traffic wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be, so we were way early, even with a stop at a fruit stand.  The apples are on so there are some good deals for fresh apples.  President and Sister Rasmussen had invited: the Elder Sisters, us, the employment office sisters (Sister Kakuda and Sister Johnson) and the mission presidency to the dinner.  Sister Kakuda didn’t want a big party.  She is going home this coming Wednesday.  It was a fun dinner and we were able to get to know Pres. Campbell a bit.  He will be over us and start having our Wednesday afternoon meetings again with the older missionaries.  The Rasmusson's are very easy to talk to and the Layman's we already know pretty well.  Pres. Campbell’s wife was out of town so we will have to get to know her at a later date.  

Saturday:  We attended General Conference at the stake center.  It is mostly just missionaries that attend there.  After the first session all the Sr. missionaries that were there went to lunch at Chopsticks. Another going away party for Sister Kakuda.  Both conference sessions were very good!  After the last session, we made a visit to one of Joyce’s V.T. families. Sister Fish lives way up north, but it was fun to get to know her better, since Lehi and Hyrum and in her primary class.  Art was going to take a less act with him to the priesthood session but he wouldn’t answer his phone.  We kind of expected this.  We ended up watching the Priesthood Session at home on our computer, since Art didn’t have anyone to take with him.

Sunday:  We got up in the middle of the night to make the taco salad meat, beans, and salsa.  We made two crock pots full, and it all was used.  We usually feed the elders and sisters between sessions of conference on Sunday, and today we again invited everyone there, watching conference, to join us.  We knew we had plenty of food.  We had the two

crockpots full, the chips, vegetables, toppings, and paper products, We think around forty people ate with us.  It was a fun party.  Lots of other people had brought food.  The elder sisters brought dessert, Ed, a newly baptized member who just got to go through the temple, brought egg rolls that he had made, and the Stephens brought a vegetable tray.  After eating and cleaning up, Elder Perkins told us his conversion story.  He has been a member less than two years and is a missionary now.   What an incredible young man!  The Stevens had brought Karen and asked if we could take her home to Kirkland so they could

go teach with Skyway A.  We drove to Kirtland and Joyce walked around the park with her while Art stayed in the pick-up to check out the baseball scores.  Seattle didn’t make the playoff as we figured they wouldn’t.  Art was hoping to attend one more game.  Jake and Josh called so we got to visit with them.  As you can see our week wasn’t as busy:)  We tried to keep it open in case the Acosta needed us.  They did great.  Conference was great and we hope you all got to watch it.  Love Joyce and Art

Transfer 15 Week 3 Sept 19-25 Week B11

                  And He shall reign forever and ever

Preaching:  In Hebrew, Religion, or to do something religiously is referred to as ligos, or to bind.  Thus, we get the word ligament that means to bind muscle to bones and organs.  So, our religion binds us to God.  As we think of Eldrex having his surgery tomorrow, the word ligament, to bind, has new meaning to us, as the doctor will lengthen his tendon in his hamstring by a process of unwinding some of it, and then will lengthen his Achilles tendon by a process of unwinding it and sewing it in the place that she want it to stay.  The doctor will put a bone in the outside of his left foot to lengthen the foot and also put pins in the arch of the left foot.  Anyway, the whole process of binding his leg and foot to make them longer and better has a real analogy with us as we think of us binding ourselves to our Savior, our Heavenly Father, and to our religion, the gospel of Jesus Christ.  May we listen to conference this next Saturday and Sunday and hear what our living prophets have to say to us about binding ourselves to what is most important.  The simple things will keep us on the path of binding ourselves to our Heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ, our Savior:  CPR:  Go to Church, Pray every day, Read the scriptures, every day, especially the Book of Mormon.  

Safeco Field

Monday:  Thank you for p-day!  We did our usual laundry, cleaning, letter sending and fixed two crock pots of soup for the Sablans and us first thing in the morning. We also had to do a little prep for the class Tuesday night that we volunteered for ?????? We got an e-mail from the Vreeken’s  thanking us for volunteering to facilitate the job search class.  Somehow we missed the volunteering part.  After a quick visit at the Sablans (their baby is so small) we made a stop for Joyce to get a hair cut and then made three more visits/deliveries. Joyce had made a blanket for the Martinez, Lopez, and Batemans. Art will be glad when members of the ward stop having babies. Only one more to deliver and we will have them all done.  We came home, did more cleaning and then met the Elder Sisters and Sister Kemp at our place and rode the link to Safeco Field. It was a great night for baseball.  Lots of Canadians there and the Blue Jays won.  That will about finish off any chance of Seattle making the playoffs.  We all had a great FHE.

Tuesday:  Our district meeting started at 11:15 so we didn’t have to get up to early after our night out.  Then the day fell apart.  Just as we were leaving to go to the district meeting we got a call from Children’s Hospital and they wanted Eldrex there at 2:00.  Eldrex is kind of a priority for us right now with getting his surgery done.  We left our meeting early so we could get him from school and make the appointment.  We had a 4:00 appointment to teach with

Skyway B which when Art called them to say we may be late, he found out it was at 2:30 so we missed it.    We also needed to help serve at Salvation Army at 5:00.  With the going home traffic and taking everyone to lunch, lets just say we didn’t make it there on time.  We did show up for fifteen minutes and then had to leave for the 6:30 SRS class that we supposedly volunteered for.  We were not very prepared which didn’t make much difference since when we got there we were given different books to use.  These pilot programs are so much fun.  The class went okay even though we felt unprepared.  Then to finish the day, Art stopped for gas and couldn’t find the credit card in his wallet.  We were glad to get this day over with.  He did find the card in his shirt pocket on the way home.

Wednesday:  Eldrex had a 9:00 appointment so we had to leave by 8:00 to get there on time.  At least this appointment we knew ahead of time.  Michele and Richel also went with us.  This was for a hearing test which was normal.  We stopped for breakfast on the way home and then back to the school to drop off Eldrex.  He wouldn’t stay so we took him home.  Joyce worked on things for achievement days before picking everyone up.  We picked up all the kids (Reymark, Ivar, Michel, Princes Joy and the twins) and drove to the

Sablans to see the new baby.  That was the young mens activity.  For achievement days, the girls etched temples onto mirrors while Reymark and Ivar played in the gym.  Art picked up Justine and Jasmine and attended a lesson, at the church, with them and Skyway A.  Afterwards we took everyone home and missed the missionary meeting with the Bishop.

Thursday:  We had a slow morning so we invited the Elder Sisters to ride to Dessert Book in Bellevue with us.  Elder Bodily is now a Spanish speaking elder and he wants a set of scriptures in Spanish.  We stopped at the temple first so Sister Beck could put some names on the prayer roll and found that the power was out.  Deseret Book was also closed.  With no traffic lights it was a mess.  We waited for a bit and then decided it wasn’t going to open so we slowly made our way back to Renton by way of Newcastle.  The freeway was a mess so we took the back roads and stopped on the way for lunch. We were

able to deliver the last baby blanket.  Skyway B called to change a few appointments that they needed our help with.   We picked up Eldrex, Estrella and Princess Joy and drove to Children’s Hospital for the pre-op appointment.  We were there for several hours.  Everything is set for surgery on Monday at 11:30 so we need lots of prayers.  Looks like he will stay in the hospital for a few days so that will be interesting for us.  Not sure how we are going to work around our schedule, plus Estrella will need to work out something with her family for tending Nathalia.

Friday:  Elder Holiday started teaching the institute class this morning.  It was so good to be able to attend his class again.  We are going to study The Teachings and Doctrines of the Book of Mormon. The Elder Sisters were sick so they didn’t go.  We stopped on the way home to do some shopping for tomorrow.  Joyce has to make a casserole for a funeral tomorrow.  In the afternoon we had our interview with President Rasmusson.  December 5th is our official release date so party on the 10th at our house.  He didn’t know about a

Aohy, Mary Ann, Irma, Geraldean and Ruth

replacement for us, as of now there isn’t one.  Art just wanted to see who really reads our letter thats why he said we would be home after Christmas. We had to give the zone leaders a ride home so we were at the church for a few hours.  The 7:00 appointment with Skyway B cancelled so we came home and Joyce made the casserole so that it will be ready for tomorrow. 

Saturday:  We took the Acostas on a field trip, on the ferry, to Bainbridge Island.  We have been wanting to do this before Eldrex has his surgery.  We had invited Holly and Green house but Jenefer from Green house wanted to go later than planned.  We wanted her to come so we put it off for an hour.  This gave Art time to go and help clean the church while Joyce waited for Sister Kemp to pick up her casserole.  We had fourteen of us on our field trip.  Estrella, Eldrex,Reymark, Eleazar, Michele, Sun Shine, Princess Joy, Jenefer, Ruth, Rubi, Ivar and Elder and Sister Knowles all went.  We rode the link to the ferry, rode to Bainbridge Island, walked into town, ate pizza and did some shopping.  Eldrex loved the crossing.  It gets cold out on the deck, but he couldn’t go inside.  Seeing his excitement made the trip worth it.  He loved being on the water.  We voted on going to the Discovery

Back: Eleazar, Michele, Sun Shine, Estrella, Ivar, Sister and Elder Knowles, Ruth and Jenefer
Front: Reymark, Eldrex, Rubi, Irma and Princes Joy

Center or the Great Wheel and the Great Wheel won.  A few were not sure about riding the Great Wheel but by the time we crossed back to Seattle and walked to the ferris wheel everyone wanted to go.  We had a great time and Eldrex loved this ride, also.  We were pretty tired by now so we rode the link home and walked to Holly house, but the day wasn’t over yet.  It was Natalia’s six month birthday, (24th) which they celebrate every month the first year so there was a big party waiting for us.  It’s not just cake and ice cream but a great big meal.  They had made our favorite soup and Joyce’s favorite dessert.  They asked Elder Knowles to bless the food and no one would start eating until we did.  They treat us like we are somebody important.  It was a fun party and a good ending to a fun day.  This is our kind of missionary work.

Sunday:  Church had its up and downs.  Several people we are working with showed up and several we thought would be there didn’t come.  Eldrex was hungry and had a rough time in Sacrament meeting so Estrella took him home after.  He was pretty tired from yesterday.  There is no Tagalog class for Sunday School because of Beverlyn having her baby, so Estrella has no class to go where she understands what is said.  Joyce didn’t have any help in her class so Art went with her to help out with the plays for Primary class.  We came home after church, made a few phone calls and took it easy the rest of the day.  We were tired from our fun time yesterday, also.  It has been a good week with lots of things set up for next week.  The big focus has been surgery for Eldrex and it will happen next week.  Keep him in your prayers.  Saturday went better than we hoped for with Jenefer and Irma coming with us.  We are still praying for them to take the missionary lessons.  We also got some good news from Karen so it was a good week for us.  Hope is was for you all too. Love Joyce and Art.