Mission Report No 75

Zoe's picnic at Yorkey's Knob

This is our second last week here in Cairns. We are getting very busy. As always, not everything we do gets a mention here. It's just too much. And we want to get all our reports up to date before we actually leave, because once we are on the road (in a few days as I write this on Saturday 16th) we won't be able to get much written.

Monday 4th September 2023

We arrived back in Cairns this morning, from Brisbane, at about 10.00am. Sister Hales and Sister Boonsarn picked us up, which was very nice of them. We drove Elder and Sister King down to the Carr's place at Mt Peter, where their car was parked. We stopped at Earlville Shopping Centre on the way, and somehow lost a set of car keys for the Carr's car, possibly while there. We had a walk around our usual route in Edge Hill late in the afternoon. Then we got a call from the local police station saying that someone had dropped a set of car keys in there, which was a total surprise to us as we had no idea that we lost them. I'm only guessing that we lost them at Earlville.

Tuesday 5th September 2023

I rode to the Esplanade pool to do laps again this morning. 

This afternoon Margot made a meal to take to some friends who are doing it hard at the moment, with the wife having a broken ankle. 

While Margot was busy, I went out to Yorkey's for my best kite foiling session ever. I'm trying to make the most of my last couple of weeks here to build up my skills, and the conditions were just perfect today. If you're on Strava you can follow me there and I would love to follow you too, in whatever sport you are doing.

We picked up Amoy to take to institute in the evening. 

Wednesday 6th September 2023

This morning we did a flat inspection with the young sister missionaries. Tonight, we had our second last Come Follow Me class, and the last one that I was to teach, with Elder Carr teaching next week. Brett Marr, our most regular class member was there as usual, as well as Sister Jones for the first time, and Elder and Sister Carr.

Mark and Lorraine, and me.

We went shopping this afternoon and bumped into my old friend from Geelong, Lorraine Fimmel and her friend Mark, at Cairns Central.

Weather conditions were very similar to yesterday so I dashed out to Yorkey's for another quick session, which may probably be the last good session I have up here, I think. Wind is forecast to be quite strong over the next couple of weeks, in the 20-25 knot range. (10-15 knots is ideal for me.)

Thursday 7th September 2023

This morning we had some shopping to do to help set up the new flat for the sister missionaries. Then at lunchtime we helped Zoe move to her new home, after which we had a picnic at Yorkey's Knob. Zoe had made all the food for us, which was beautiful. Zoe is our young Chinese friend, and she is a great cook, so the food was very nice.

We had Sister Hales and Sister Boonsarn come for dinner, which, as always, was very nice! We love both of them and it is really good for us to have them come around to our place and share our food.

Friday 8th September 2023

David and Leila Cashmore

Today we went up to Atherton and Yungaburra to say goodbye to our friends Leila and David. Leila is our Ethopian friend who we met at the kebab shop in Atherton last year. She and David have been wonderful friends to us, and they have introduced us to the African and more specifically the Ethiopian community here in Cairns, which has been very culturally enriching for us.

David, back in 1993, was a Liberal party candidate in a federal election. Someone accused him of being racist. His reply - "Have you seen my wife?" 

Saturday 9th September 2023

Tonight we spent with our friends, Brigham and Nai Taula, and their little girl Nailor (spelling may not be right there). We've been spending quite a bit of time with them over the last little while, as Nai has lots of questions for us. We really love them all!

Sunday 10th September 2023

Busy day attending both Cairns branches today, especially busy in Branch 2 as it was their branch conference. At the start of the meeting, Rubina and Lotu Kimi'ia and Rubina Ulises (spelling?) sang for us, which was a great start to the meeting. In the Elder's Quorum meeting I looked after the AV, had problems, but I think we have it sorted out now.