Mission Report No 38

 

Christmas day with our Ethopian friends,
the Cashmore extended family and friends.

Monday 19th December 2022

Typical Monday - bit quiet but a bit of running round catching up on things.

It looks like wet season has started. It was too wet to do any exercise outside this morning, so we just did Tai Chi inside.

We had a mission wide Zoom call this evening with President Vongsawad. He told us that our Mission has been selected to integrate full-time young service missionaries in with the full-time proselyting missionaries. I can't remember all the details now, but it sounds like it will be really good.

Tuesday 20 December 2022

This morning we had a District Council meeting, and it was my turn to teach the financial self-reliance lesson to the young elders.

After the meeting, we had an appointment to visit a young lady from Utah named Carolyn, who had a boating accident in the Torres Strait and had been flown to Cairns for surgery. Her best friend's mother had contacted us and asked us to go and visit her and see if we could help her in some way. Carolyn injured her foot quite badly and had to have her little toe and the metatarsal removed. This happened two weeks ago, and she now needs to have a skin graft and is deciding whether to have it done here or back in the US, which is a complicated decision to make as it involves insurance companies, doctors, hospitals, airlines etc. We sat down and had a chat with her to work out how we might be able to help her. With permission from the Branch President we went to buy her some food and delivered it back to her. Whether we do more to help her really depends on if she stays in Cairns and has the surgery here, or if she goes back to the Utah.

Wednesday 21 December 2022

Went for a morning ride out to Stratford and then took all morning to recover from it. It was only 13 klm, but I lost a lot of fluid, that's for sure! Exercising in the heat in Cairns is way different to back home!

Thursday 22 December 2022

We started the day with a big Polynesian style breakfast with the Kimi'ia family, which, as ususal was amazing, and a great way to start the day, where we would not be eating till quite a bit later.

We picked up a 4 ton rental truck to move our friend Deb up to Ravenshoe today, which is a 2 hour drive up on to the Tablelands. Deb says that it is at the highest elevation of any town in Queensland, and it is certainly a very beautiful place. We hope she settles in there nicely! She's had a difficult time with accommodation in Cairns and was kindly offered a place to stay up there by one of her friends in Cairns 2nd Branch.

We arrived back in Cairns in time to go caroling with Elders Hamilton and Schick. We only successfully did one song - Feliz Navidad - with Elder Hamilton playing guitar. We started off at the Etheridges, then went to John Manantan, then to the Lee's, then to the Johnsons and finished off at the Mitchells. And I spent the whole night trying to sleep with Feliz Navidad running around my brain!

Friday 23 December 2022

This morning there was a really big funeral at our Chapel. Long term indigenous member, Rodney Stafford, passed away recently. He and his wife served two missions together and had a large family and lots of friends.

Our friend Yoriko came for dinner tonight. As always it was a pleasure to have her company. She gave us some really presents too.

More caroling tonight - out to the northern beaches - the Lawrence, Walker and Franco families, as well as our young single friend, Alberto.

Saturday 24 December 2022

We spent a fair bit of today getting ready for this evening's activities.

The Mitchell family in 1st Branch do an annual "feeding the homeless" run and have asked all of us missionaries to help out and we need to be there about 4.00pm to do that, and we have been invited to be at the Etheridges home at 5.30pm to share their Colombian Christmas Eve with them, so Margot will do a fair bit of cooking to help out there.

Christmas Eve with the Etheridges was fantastic! Another young family, Jack, Orietta and their little girl, Penelope, were there too. And Elders Hamilton and Elder Schick were there too, of course.

Sunday 25 December 

We had a joint 1st Branch and 2nd Branch Sacrament meeting at 10.00am this morning. It was really well attended and a great Christmas service, with good readings and musical items. 

In the afternoon we had Christmas dinner at the Cashmore's place up at Yungaburra. Hana and her kids Endreas and Emebet were there, as well as Hana's ex-husband, and also Mandy and her son David. Elders Black and Chadburn also joined in on the fun but left before I remembered to take a photo. After lunch we exchanged presents. We bought board games for the kids, so we spent the afternoon playing those games - Bananagram, Rummoy-O and a flat version of Rubik's Cube. It was a great day and a pleasure to spend the time with them all.