Mission Report No 21

Monday 22 August 2022

Not a lot to report today. The "house hunting" continues. Inspected a nice place at the Lakes today. Nice but too small!

Had a swim this afternoon. 

Quiet evening at home.

Tuesday 23 August

Lots of shopping. We are buying stuff to fit out the new missionary flat up in Atherton.

Kiting this afternoon.

Wednesday 24th August

Trip to Atherton today. Had to be at the new flat to await delivery of white goods and furniture.

We had an appointment to teach Gypsy today, but she wasn't feeling too well so we will reschedule for next week. 

We had a really good visit with Leila and her husband David. We met Leila two weeks ago at the Kebab shop in Atherton. She is from Ethopia and David is an Aussie, but born in the UK. We had a much longer chat with David as Leila had a tradesman visit to do some work and then she had her afternoon at the lawn bowls club, which she invited us to so we could meet her friends there. We declined and opted to stay and talk with David, which was very interesting. He was trained in military as a communications engineer and met Leila while he was working in Sudan. He also spent some time in Vietnam and some other countries which I can't remember. After resigning from the military he worked at Mt Isa and then bought a motel, which they still own. As we were leaving he casually mentioned that he had some conversations with our missionaries in Melbourne back in the early 80's, and that he had some genuine questions that were possibly misinterpreted as being "challenging" questions. Anyway, we thought that he and Leila were both lovely people and we very much look forward to seeing them again this coming week.

Thursday 25th August

Margot called her older brother Greg for his birthday today, so that was nice to catch up a bit with him.

And then we did more shopping for the new flat in Atherton. It's a very time consuming process.  We have to buy everything that you would need to live in a flat. White goods, furniture, bedding, kitchen utensils etc. Fortunately we have a list to work off, which makes it a lot easier.

Friday 26th August

Baking day today, so some deliveries of "Elder Ceff's Famous Homemade Bread" could be done later today.

Here's the recipe.

4 cups unbleached white flour

1 cup wholemeal flour

1/2 Cup flaxmeal

1/2 cup psyllium seed husk

1/4 cup chia seeds

Yeast, sugar, water, oil salt. If you've made bread before you'll know roughly how much of these ingredients to use.

Turns out great! Everyone loves it. Opens doors and wins hearts!

We took some bread to the Taula family and another family who weren't home so they missed out! We got to meet the Taula's son, Brigham tonight. I had to get a photo with him. He is like the antithesis of me. Young, handsome, muscles and hair!

Yep, that's all real. Best Fro ever I think!
Brigham on the left, and yes, that's me on the right.

Saturday 27 August

We visited Nimai, Marcella and family this morning and they got the bread that the other family missed out on last night. What we thought would be a very short visit turned in to a long visit as we had a wonderful conversation as Nimai's mother, Carolyn was visiting from New South Wales. She had lots of questions for us, about the Church, and we had lots of questions for her, as she is a former Hare Krishna devotee.

Kitesurfing at Yorkey's this afternoon.

Sunday 28th August.

We received a message yesterday from 1st Branch President, asking if Margot might be able to talk today in Sacrament meeting, as the person assigned was unable to attend. Twenty-four hours notice is a bit less than we would really like, but to help out and do what we are meant to do here "Member and Leader Support", Margot was up to the job and she gave a great talk today.

In between Branch 1 and 2 meetings, we drove up to Clifton Beach to bring Sister Leonie Stewart to Church, which was the first time she was able to come for about 3 weeks. And before Branch 2 meeting this morning, we picked up Elder and Sister Bennet (Area Medical Advisors) and Sister Burt (office assistant) who were visiting from Brisbane, to bring them to Church. As usual, Sunday was our busiest day this week.