Mission Report No 39
Monday 26 December 2022
A day at home mostly today, except this evening we were able to go a share a movie and meal with our friend Tara, who is THE best member missionary in 2nd Branch. (Apologies to anyone else who thinks that they may be the best!) Naomi Benioni and her son Kash also joined us. The young Elders (Ricks and Spackman) also dropped to assist in giving Sister Benioni a blessing.
Tuesday 27th December 2022
Today was a significant for the Erueti family (pictured above). I'm pretty sure I've told their story in a previous report, but I can't find it, so I'll tell the story again. Heta Erueti has been a member of the Church for a long time, but he openly admits that it's been a fairly up and down sort of journey. He married his second wife, Fiona, around 20 years ago. I think they each have kids from previous marriages, and they have had one son together.
Until today, Fiona was not a member of the Church. Heta had become more active in the Church in recent years. If he was flying around in small planes as part of his work servicing rural communities up here, he would have a quick prayer "please keep this plane in the air, I'm not ready to die yet!" He decided to become an active Church member again, and when we arrived here nine or so months ago, he was serving at the Elders Quorum President in 2nd Branch.
For quite a while, Fiona has been working up at Weipa, and so they were not able to spend much time together, as Heta's job was based here in Cairns. I think they are both social workers. They had decided that this situation was not very good, and so he resigned from his job here in Cairns and got a job at Weipa, so he and Fiona could live together again. Not long after moving up there, the President of the Thursday Island Branch, which covers Weipa, called Heta to be the Elders Quorum President and the Branch Clerk. The Branch is huge and does meet together regularly by using Zoom, simply because of the distances the members are spread out over.
Heta was having some health problems before moving up to Weipa, but the doctors here in Cairns were not able to diagnose him. His health continued to worsen in Weipa and he attended the local hospital. The doctors there investigated the situation with more diligence it seems, and they discovered that he has cancer of the stomach, near the duodenum. Unfortunately, the cancer is quite advanced and terminal, but the surgeon here in Cairns was able to operate and bypass that part of the stomach.
Heta's attitude to all this is amazing. Everyone else seems to be in a stage of grieving before he even dies, but he is soldiering on, going back to work in Weipa as much as he can. He is using his time left on Earth to talk to his family, most of whom have drifted away from the Church. But of course, the most important person that he has talked to is Fiona. I don't know why Fiona did not join the Church earlier. But now that she has been taught by our young Elders, and she has a good reason to, she is flourishing!
So today, their son baptized Fiona, and Heta confirmed her. There was a nice crowd of members there from both branches and even President Fell and his wife came down from Thursday Island branch. Quite a few members here in Cairns have lived up at Thursday Island, so there was a nice spirit of reunion there as well.
A month or two back I invited Heta and Fiona to a YSA Institute class I was teaching and had him speak to the class. It's not every day you get to speak to a terminally ill man who has a great attitude to life. I know some of the class were quite moved by his story. I think a video interview or podcast with him could be a really good way to share the story. What do you think?
Wednesday 28th December 2022
Quiet day at home today.
Last Friday I spent the most that I have ever spent on a pair of earphones. Got them at Specsavers. They are tuned in to amplify 2khz and above, as I don't hear those sounds anymore. Yes, they are hearing aids! I've decided that gearing hearing aids is no different to getting glasses. At a certain stage of maturity in life, most of us will need them, even if we don't like to admit it.
The audiologist advised me to wear them all the time, except when I sleep, shower and kitesurf. It will take some time for my brain to get used to hearing all the things that I have not heard for quite a while. Things like the clatter of the keyboard as I type, the rain on the roof, some birds singing, but most of all, what all you mumblers are saying! I no longer need to be in the same room to hear what Margot is saying to me - when I go to Church, I can understand every word that is said.
(If my former business partner, Alex Gillan is reading this, he'd be saying, "Why didn't you get them years ago Muzz!" How many times did I have to ask him to repeat himself?)
Thursday 29th December 2022
Today we went with Tara to Babinda Boulders. What a beautiful place! Maybe I'll just let the photos do the talking!
Friday 30 December 2022
Today I made a big batch of bread to take to Tara's for dinner tonight. Tara had invited the Gordon family and the Kelsall family over for dinner. It was a lot of fun with lots of adults, even more kids and a ton of food and it was a great chance for everyone to get to know each other.
We need more "Taras" in the world. What she does is connect people, simply by inviting two families or individuals who don't know each other very well, if at all, over for dinner and a movie or games and that's it! Very simple and effective!
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| I think I got most of us in this photo at Tara's place! |
Last day of the year. We had the President and Sister Fell from the Thursday Island Branch of the Church, and our friend Polly, come and have lunch with us today. The Fells also had their 3 year old grandson with them. Both Brother and Sister Fell spoke at Fiona's baptismal service on Tuesday. I looked at Sister Fell and thought, "I bet she's related to Polly", so I showed Sister Fell Polly's Facebook page and she said yes, they are distantly related, but more importantly, Polly was their next door neighbor on Mabuiag (in Torres Strait) and the Fells brought Polly and her family into the Church! They had not seen each other for years, as Polly and family moved down to Cairns a while back.
Sunday 1st January
Church in Atherton today. No assignment up there, but we went up thinking Leila would come to Church with us, but she was too tired after being up late for New Year's Eve. After Church we drove to Mt Molloy to see Shawn.
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