Mission Report No 77 - Going home (first week)

Sunday 17th September 2023

As per usual, we attended both the Cairns branches, and as it was our last Sunday in Cairns we were invited to speak briefly at the beginning of the meeting.

Sunday evening we had a very nice dinner with some of the other Cairns District senior missionaries, plus the Pattons and the Greenhalghs who were up from Cairns.

After dinner at the Carrs. Back row - Elders Greenhalgh and Carr
Middle Row - Ekder and Sister Patton, Sister Greenhalgh, Elder and Sister King
Front row - Margot and I with Sister Carr

Monday 18th September 2023

Early visit to the Taula's today to pick up some beautiful gifts (white crocheted temple bags) that Sr Taula had made for us. 

Back home to clean and organize stuff - lots to do! But before that we dropped in to see our friends the Wetzels, to say goodbye to them. Quite an elderly couple - he is German and she is a PNG native and they met and married many years ago when he was working for the Australia government in PNG.

Our last visit with the Wetzels

One of our favourite couples in Cairns (you know who you are - thank you!) took us out for dinner at a very expensive restaurant tonight - it was a beautiful last night in Cairns for us. 

Tuesday 19th

It was a crazy day - our last in Cairns - but would we even manage to leave today? So much to do! Aimed to leave at 12.00. Finally left at 6.00pm and arrived at the Smith's place in Townsville just after 10.00pm. We didn't even have time to drop in to cousin Glens at Ingham, which I felt bad about. And talk about feeling bad, the Smiths were cooking dinner for us and we didn't get to their place until after 10.00.

Here's a bunch of photos from the last couple of days - 

Our Cairns Elders - Vest, Long, Lyons and Rydalch - all wearing
an extra tie which I gave them as a parting gift.

Our Cairns Sisters - Boonsarn and Hales 

Our friend Amoy made this little guy (Ryu Hoshi from Street Fighter)
 for us, out of pipe-cleaners

...and he's done the
whole trip with us!

Wednesday 20th September 2023

We left the  Smith's Wednesday morning, not too early, heading down to Bowen to stay with the Stokes. Only about a two hour drive. Arrived at Bowen in time to go for a kitesurf. (Turned out to be the only kite session I got in the two week drive back to Lara.) The wind was actually a little bit too light for me, but I managed to get a couple of runs in. The highlight was meeting the young lady who runs the kite school there and she just happened to want to buy a foil wing that I didn't see myself using anytime soon, so she bought the little 850 from me. Can't even remember he name now. Elder Stokes talked to her about having kite surf lessons. He actually would probably have time to learn, and Queens Beach at Bowen is a great spot. It was the first time I had kited in clean water since leaving Victoria. There are so many rivers running out in Cairns area, all carrying brown farm water out in to the ocean, that I call the water there "chocolate milk". Makes it hard to see the crocs and sharks!

 

Car is loaded up. all ready to leave the Smiths early.

 

Thursday 21st September 2023

Went for an early walk with the Stokes as we were only planning to drive from Bowen down to Mackay today.

View from Cape Edgecumbe to Queen's Beach,
where I kited yesterday.

Elder Stokes and I on the walk around Cape Edgecumbe

Murray Bay at Cape Edgecumbe

The Whitsunday Branch chapel
seats 28 people. Elder Stokes is
the Branch President there.

This afternoon we drove to Mackay and stayed in Elder and Sister Webers house, sadly without them there. They had gone to Brisbane Temple with some other members from the Mackay Branch.

We met our friends Adam and  Jess Hanbury at a Thai Restuarant and had a very nice night with them. Some of you in Geelong will remember Jess as Sister Polsoni who served part of her mission in Geelong, when she was just a little bit younger. Forgot to take a photo with them!

Today we drove further south to Rockhampton to stay the night with Elder and Sister Beck, from Idaho. What an interesting story they have! They have only been married about 18 months. He is about 75 years old. His frist wife died two weeks after contracting covid. Her husband died several years earlier. In their early life, before they first married, he dated her big sister, and she had a crush on him. He didn't like being single and found out that her first husband and passed away. The rest is history, as they say!

Me with Aunty Doreen in Yeppoon

Aunty Doreen is not really my Aunty. She is my cousin Glen's mother. And Glen is not really my cousin, but he's one of the closest cousins I have. Maybe I could just say that he is a good friend with the same surname? Working out family relationships can be complicated with a family like mine with skeletons in the closet and adoptions etc. We dropped in to see Aunty Doreen in Yeppoon, after we had visited Margot's real cousin Penelope and her husband John, daughter Sari and her two daughters Imogen and Elizabeth.

 Saturday 24th September 2023

We arrived in Brisbane today. This was our longest drive for the whole journey - 650 klm roughly from Rockhampton to Brisbane and we stayed tonight with Elder and Sister Peterson, who we stayed with just a few weeks ago for the seniors conference. It was really good to see them again.

Before starting our long drive, we went to visit Judith Louden, who was baptised on King Island back when Margot was very young and being brought up there with her brothers and sisters. Bruce R McConkie was the Mission President at the time and sent missionaries to the Island.  Thomas S Monson has told her story about later living in Mt Isa and waiting for her husband to join the Church, in I think 2 General Conferences. I recorded her telling her story and hope to later publish it in my Gather In Podcast.

Judith Louden with Margot

Sunday 25th September 2023

This morning we attended Church at the Chermside Ward in Brisbane, with Elder Peterson. Unfortunately his wife was not well enough to come with us. After Church we went to have lunch with my old friend Shaun Smith, from Geelong. We spent time with Shaun 19 months ago, on our way north, so it was fantastic to catch up with him again.

Tonight we stayed with President and Sister Vongsawad, and they cooked a wonderful Thai meal for us. It was so nice to see them one last time! Maybe we'll get back up to Brisbane before they go home, in about 18 months time.