Mission Report No 13

 Monday 13th June 2022

This afternoon we visited Sister Adidi Wigness, who was a convert to the Church about 4 years ago. Sister Wigness, like many of the Church members here, is a Torres Strait Islander. The locals seem to think there are more TSI people living in Cairns now than in the Islands. Cairns is "their city". There is also a TSI community up at the Cape York towns of Sesia and Bamaga, from what I've been told.

Lto R Dollery, Pollock, me, Margot,
Tuave and Pemberton.

We had the four young Elders over at our place for dinner tonight. Elders Pollock and Tuave arrived at Townsville from Brisbane at at 8.30am today and then drove up to Cairns.

Thursday 16th June 2022

Oops! I just skipped a couple of days. With a new pair of missionaries (Dollery and Pollock) moving in to a new flat in Manoora (in Cairns 1st Branch) we have been doing a fair bit of preparation to get all that they need in the flat. Mainly just working out what we need to buy and where we need to buy it.

But today, the exciting thing was that I was able to take my friend Iamin for his first kitesurf lesson at Yorkey's Knob. It didn't get off to a great start as his 10m kite didn't hold air and it now needs to be sent off for repair, so I let Iamin use my 9m kite instead. This is something that I don't normally do as I try to treat my kites delicately and a learner will usually crash kites on to the water frequently when they're learning, as they over correct and send the kite vertically down to the water at a great and accelerating pace. My method of teaching kiting is this (and it applies to a whole lot of things in life) - teach the basic principles of how a kite flies and how you control it. When the student understands that, they know what they need to do to successfully fly the kite. But it does help when you have a very intelligent student, and Iamin certainly qualifies in that department!

Friday 17th November 2022

After getting a few things done in preparation for the new missionaries flat, I went kiting myself in the late afternoon on the foil. Trying to learn to kite foil is basically like trying to learn to kite surf all over again, and because I've been swapping between the foil and the surfboard a bit lately it was really hard yesterday afternoon for me to even get my feet on the foil board. I did much better this afternoon on the foil, mainly just through moving my back foot forward a few inches. Life is like that sometimes. Applying the basic knowledge  of how something works, and making small corrections, can have a big impact on your performance.

Saturday 18th November

Housework this morning, followed by yet another real estate inspection. We'll be glad when a contract is finally signed, except then the fun will begin in trying to find a new place to live.

Iamin's second kite lesson today. He did really well again, and still hasn't really crashed my kite. Learning conditions aren't great at Yorkey's, with the water being quite rough, but he's not at the stage of getting his feet on to a board yet, so it doesn't really matter.

Margot and I have been in the habit of playing Upwords in the evenings when we don't have any mission work to do. Margot has won the last seven or eight games. I jokingly asked if she prays and asks if she can win, and she said she didn't, but if she did it would be worth it to keep me humble. Anyway, I celebrated tonight as we started early and played two games and I won both! Miracles do happen!

Rosie, Sophia, Patricia, Shane and
Christine doing Dancing Queen

We had a really fun night at the Cultural Hall with the Church members with a Karaoke night. I sang one of Margot's favourite songs, Unchained Melody. I'm sure none of you can imagine me hitting the high notes - well your imagination is 100% correct there! Karaoke is not for real singers and I, along with a bunch of others, all proved that tonight!

While the karaoke was happening we met with Pres Mark Luki who called us as Young Single Adult Advisers and to serve on the District Council (equivalent to the High Council in a Stake)

Sunday 19th November

We attended both branches here in Cairns today, starting with an 8.15 meeting with Br Thomas Gosney as we coordinated the missionary work in 2nd Branch.

In all the Branch meetings in the District, someone from the District Council or Presidency asked for a sustaining vote for Margot and I in our new roles here.