Heaps of Time

We have been told we'd have heaps of time with which to think of creative ways to serve the people of the Tablelands but so far this has not been the case. With settling in to a new country with its laws and regulations and just doing the normal day to day of a branch president we've been very busy. But I think that's a good thing.

We are spending a great deal of time traveling around visiting the people in our area who haven't been attending church for one reason or another. Our branch (Congregation) is the size of the state of Utah so when we go on these visits we get to see a lot of the beautiful areas. It's really remarkable what a beautiful area we have been assigned to. These pictures are all within 30 minutes of where we live and most we just run across as we visit people.

One of the projects I've taken on is to help a branch member kick her smoking habit. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has a 12 step program which can be a great way for people who want to drop those addictions and move on with their life in a healthier way. This sister I'm working with is about my age and suffered from anxiety when she was young and was told by a Dr. when she was 16 that smoking would help her calm down so now here we are. She hasn't come to church for a while but she does live a ways away and so she usually participates over zoom. But she came today! She's been lonely and feeling isolated so I was so glad she made the effort to come and feel the love and fellowship with her old friends at the branch.

These beautiful sisters are the missionaries serving in our branch. Wouldn't you listen if they showed up at your door with a message of love from our Saviour? They have been so helpful to us as we learn the ways of our area. One of them, Sister Dubios on the far left, has been serving in this area for 6 months. She is heading home next week to Washington State. We had a farewell luncheon at the Sunday meeting to send her off after all her hard work and to give a reason for the many people who love and appreciate her to come to church and join in celebrating her farewell. We had over 30 people who listened to all three of these sisters share their testimonies of the Saviour. Here is a picture of a few of the branch members!

We had a visit from Elder and Sister Hull this past weekend. Their job is to make sure the missionaries in our entire mission have places to live. This couple is in charge of over 100 residences. Keep in mind the bulk of these are filled with young men 18-21 years old so things get broken, keys get lost, walls get damaged. They are after all just young men at heart so the Hulls are hopping people. They came up here from Brisbane to inspect the apartments in our area and to see some sights of our beautiful Northern Queensland. Joel and I got to take a couple days to tour with them. I know....life is rough.

We walked through a rain forest and even got to participate in the mission zoom meeting that day.

I would imagine we made all the other missionaries a little jealous! That picture is of President and Sister Gomez who are our fearless and sleepless (their job is a Herculean task) leaders. They are both from Sydney but are living in Brisbane as the Mission leaders for our mission. They started serving in July and will be at it for 3 years.

At the end of our short rainforest trek we found Josephine's falls.

We even got to try a little rope swinging not quite George of the Jungle style but still cool.

We ate our first meat pie and sausage roll at this cute little bakery in Babinda just up the road. Also had delicious eclairs.

Do you see the black mold on the sign? It's everywhere. I think rain is a coming.

Then we went on to Babinda Boulders.

These are huge boulders in a fast flowing river and it's quite treacherous to try to swim here. We kept seeing signs of names of people who had died not obeying the "No Go" zone. But it was beautiful from the safe trail behind the railing.

We also took a lake cruise on Lake Barrine which is a crater lake created by a volcano that collapsed. The water is clear and you can swim in it but we did see a python on the shore so I might think twice about it.

That about catches you up on the happenings here in the land of plenty. Oh speaking of the land of plenty, here's a picture of a blue berry I bought just a mile from my house.

It was as delicious as it was big. And don't worry, I was not driving when I took the picture. Remember our steering wheels are on the right side of the car! Haha! We'll update more in a fortnight!

Oh also! We went when our mission district here, well there's a couple missing who are serving in Thursday Island. Look that one up. Too far to travel down where this Crocodile Preserve was. We took this river cruise in some croc infested waters. The boat driver said if something happens and she falls off the boat go ahead and throw the life preserver out for her. It won't do her a bit of good but it may make us feel better. Haha!

We also got to see these cute creatures!