We were down town Seattle today, doing our usual, trying the find lost members. We have kinda complained about the stairs and streets we have had to climb.  These stairs take the cake!! I guess, so far!!! We went up and down stairs, up and down steep streets for about four hours. Along the way we saw alot of interesting people  from well dressed to homeless, talked to a few, none interested in the Church any more,We even had an address for a member which turned out to be a half way house for serious addicts. Fortunately, he was not a patient or an employee, he is still a lost sheep though!!  Mom, loves all kinds of Nature, Trees, flowers, animals, what ever, so here is some color on the streets of Seattle. The cabbage is beautiful surrounded by the other types of flowers.  We have noticed that Flowers are lasting much longer into the fall, than at home. Must be the temperate  weather.  Mom thinks it is COLD! because of the humidity.  The locals must think it is cold, they are bundled up and I'm sweating with a suit on, Drives Mom crazy.

 While we are walking, Mom has to pick up all the different leaves that have turned for winter.  Here is a sample of what she had found so far all over the coffee table. They are pretty!

The following pictures are for those that have been to the Puyallup Fair.  We were walking along 3rd Ave and saw a big sign over the door advertising these chocolate chip cookies.  They come in calf, cow and of course the biggest size the BULL.  We had to buy the biggest to remember our previous life, when we traveled so much. Each fair we went to had some food item that was unique to just that fair. Puyallup actually had three items.  These cookies, then they had a hamburger called the "QUAKE BURGER' the bun was about 10 inches in diameter and had grilled sweet onions about an inch thick on the meat as the only condiment.  If you wanted to spoil it, they had mustard and ketchup to add. The third item was a scone covered with fresh strawberry jam.  All were great, but my pick is the cookie.  If we are on 3rh Ave again and we will be! We will have to do some more remembering.

  

On Friday we were scheduled to take a part member family to the Temple grounds and show the non-member husband the beauty of the Temple and then take him on a tour of the Chapel next door.  When we went to pick them up, we found out the wife(member) was in the emergency room with stomach pains.  They were running tests. She came home late Saturday night, very tired, but with no results.  more tests I guess. The gospel progress gets delayed for a week or so.

This weekend has been stake conference.  Saturday evening was as usual the adult session.  All of the speakers were fairly recent converts (all less then 1 Year).  The North Seattle Stake has 18 full time missionaries assigned to the various wards and the Stake averages 25-35 baptisms per month. One young man, 18 years old, gave as he said "His Story".  He was raised in an Atheist family, who's God was Science. At age 14 he told his parents that he believed there was a God. He said they laughed at his ignorance.  Thus began his search for God's Church. In the next year he dated four different girls, belonging to four different religions.  He went to their Church's and still wasn't satisfied. He said he prayed very intently for guidance and a new girl friend.  He got both the next day.  The girl was a Mormon.  He started his lessons in August and was baptized on Sept 8, 2010. His family kicked him out after he was baptized. He broke up with the girl after General Conference in Oct.  She had decided that Mormonism wasn't for her and quit coming to Church. This young man had a testimony and domineer of a much older man. He definitely knew what he was going to do with his life.  Another young man a little older, age 24. joined the Church less than 1 year ago and is now in the bishopric of a Ward.  His conversion was patterned after the Alma 32 almost exactly. He had the faith to try each principle and then got a testimony of that principle.  There were two other speakers, also recent converts, with the great testimony building stories of their conversions.  This Stake has an early morning Sunday meeting for just recent converts and newly re-activated members (there were about 80 present).  In the regular session of Conference the speakers were the Mission President and the Temple President.  The entire week end was about Missionary work and Families.  What a Grand experience!  By the way the picture is the flower arrangement(Orchid) in the chapel for stake conference.      

This small tree is just the small version of the great big one.  The trunk and branches are all prickly, top to bottom.  We have never seen anything like it!!! It's very different.

Today 11/5/2010 We spent over an hour trying to find an address for a member on and old World War II army base. There were roads going every where.  The GPS wanted us to go down roads that had been blocked off with pipes in the road.  We kept going in circles. Finally we stopped the car and decided to walk on some of the blocked roads. All of sudden we came upon this Indian Tribal building.  These are the pictures of the building.  We never did find the address.  It was Hawaii St. We found Utah & Montana Streets. We guess at one time all the streets were State names, the old fort is big enough.  At least we got some good pictures.

We still have colds, and don't seem to have much energy today. We only tried to find 15 Lost Sheep (we actually only talk to a maximum of 3-4 people, the rest we leave a note about trying to visit them) instead of our goal of 25-30 per day.  We have our second appointment tomorrow with Ben.  We are planning, which idea we should discuss with him.  We can't decide, I guess the Spirit will tell us.  I hope we have the knowledge to respond.  We also saw a light house.  It was very small and there was no where to park to take a picture, except back up a steep hill, we decided we had walked enough for one day. We are finally getting to know the roads a little better, especially around were we live and the chapel.  When we go down town we still have to use the GPS.  There are so many one way streets. I tried one day with out the GPS and I got soooo lost and confused.  I have kinda ignored the down town,  since almost all the dwellings are high rise apartments and you can't get in them, unless the tenant buzzes you in.  We spent one whole day down town and never talked to a person. We are concentrating on the zip codes where there are at least 1/2 individual homes.  Better success rate.

These two Elders live on the floor below us. The one on the left is Elder Dixon from Kaysville Utah.  He is our district Leader. The one on the right is Elder Geddie from Houston Texas.  They have had a baptism each week for the entire month of Oct.  They do there finding on the University of Washington campus. They talk to students that are walking on the sidewalks or on public areas.  They make contact with at least 80-120 people a day.  If anyone wants to talk further then, they take them to the Institute Building for a short get to know.  Then arrange for further discussions with members present from the Ward where the student lives.  We just found out that Elder Dixon is being transferred Tues. and we will be in Different Dist., since we will be giving rides to two Sisters being transferred to the University Area when we need to go to District Meetings or Zone Meetings.  To save time we will be assigned to their District.

We think Elder Dixon looks like our grandson Andy.  There personalities are similar also. Ya think?