Ceff Mission Blog

June - from Port Douglas What I am not writing about in my mission reports is much detail about the actual work we are doing, mainly for confidentiality reasons. Sometimes I will mention some of the work we do in helping people, without mentioning their names, and sometimes I will mention their names without mentioning much in the way of personal details. In any case, please don't think that what I write here is a complete description of all that we are doing. More than anything, it's really about events and people that I would like to remember. The older I get the less I retain and writing about things both helps me to retain the memory and will act as my memory in years to come. I'm also trying to write a fairly realistic description of what it is like to serve a Senior Couple mission for the Church. I think that a lot of potential Senior Couple might avoid making themselves available, thinking that the demands and disciplines that apply to young missionaries will apply...

Possibly the world's first kitesurfing missionary  Sunday 10th April Second day of General Conference videos. First time that I got through all sessions in the one weekend! Great to hear all the talks from the leaders of the Church. I've always struggled to stay wide awake through conference sessions, so this weekend I was reading the talk in the Gospel Library App, while it was being delivered by the speaker. I was focusing on mentions about "attachment" or "connection" either in our earthly relationship or in our relationship with deity, and tagging the words in the App. I did manage to stay much more alert, plus I learnt more as I was concentrating more. Monday 11 April My Mum's birthday today. She would have been celebrating her 94th if she was still with us. Morning walk in the neighbourhood, then lunch with Br and Sr Davies. We learned a little more about them, particularly that they are Touch for Health practitioners and teachers. They're a ve...

Stand Up Paddling at Palm Cove   Monday 4th April - Took off early to Palm Cove for a SUP session. Nice to get on water and get some paddling in. No waves of course here, so I just paddled a few k's up and down the beach, keeping a sharp eye out for crocs. Couldn't find one. I hope to make this my regular early Monday morning exercise, just to keep my paddling muscles working. Palm Cove is a beautiful spot - very tourist oriented but not very busy this time of year. I suspect in the middle of the dry season it may be very busy with people coming up from down south. Tuesday 5th April Early walk together. We were asked by the 2nd Branch Mission Leader, Br Gardner if we could go and give a blessing to an older single sister who was suffering some severe back pain. We met the young Elders there. If I am administering a priesthood blessing to someone outside of my own immediate family, I like to have another elder come to assist. Margot and I stayed for a lengthy chat with S...

Saturday 26th March Drove to Tully Seventh Day Adventist church to meet Glen Ceff. Glen is a cousin who I keep in contact with regularly. With him being SDA and me being LDS, we have some interesting discussions, always respectful, never boring! Neither Margot or I had ever attended an SDA meeting, so we were very curious to learn what we could about the SDA Church and to spend some time with Glen. It was very enjoyable, and the people were very friendly. They even asked us to introduce ourselves at the start of the meeting, so Margot nudged me to get up a say hi to everyone and tell them where we were from. The meeting was a little less formal than our meetings, but it was a little country church, and Glen says that if we attended a bigger city church it would probably be a little more formal. Part of the meeting was aimed at what we LDS would call Primary Children. A lovely lady sat down up the front and invited the kids to come and sit up close to her while she read a story about ...