Trinity Beach

We’d only been away from the beach for a few hours when we arrived at Trinity Beach, a suburb of Cairns, Queensland.  When we arrived our room wasn’t ready.  So we decided to walk down to the beach a couple of blocks away.  We hadn’t been there 15 minutes before the kids were in the ocean – and not in their swimsuits. 

 

It started out that they were just getting their feet wet, then they got in a little deeper.  Before we knew it they were wet above their waist.  It was actually pretty funny to watch. 

 

It wasn’t until later when we were walking down the beach that we saw this sign. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As we were leaving for church we saw this walking stick bug on the top of our car.  It was so cool.  Yes, we moved him to a safe place before we drove away. 

We looked up the church in Cairns and found there were two branches.  This is by far the biggest congregation we’ve found since we left the States. 

As always it was wonderful.  The Saints welcomed us with open arms.  We met lots of people, including one sister whose son works in Provo at the Riverside Country Club.  She really wants us to look him up when we get home. 

During Sacrament Meeting the Branch President spoke about the upcoming missionaries in the branch.  He mentioned in the next year if all who planned on serving actually did they’d have 11 out from their branch – that’s 10% of their active membership.  That’s amazing!

 

As with many of the other Australian branches, Cairns has a lot of Polynesian families.  I thought these little guys were so cute in their lava- lavas. 

Shoes are somewhat optional in Australia.  Most members wear them to church but it’s not uncommon at all to see people walking around the grocery store, mall and other places without shoes. 

 

 

This is the inside of the church.  You enter the building and walk down a hall to this area.  The chapel would be on the right of this picture.  All the classrooms, chapel, cultural hall (really small) open to this courtyard.  It’s really pretty.  Hannah was wondering why we don’t do this in Utah.  Nicholas quickly reminded her that we’d have to shovel snow both inside and outside of the church. 

 

 

Nicholas went out the car, when he came back in he gave a little scream. We looked over to see what was wrong and found that somewhere along the line picked up this newt. It had somehow got in his hair.

These little guys (he was about 5 inches long) are super fast. Once Nick realized he was there, he jumped from his hair to the wall before he had a chance to react. He was pretty cute although I still wouldn’t want him in my hair.

 

 

 

 

This huge chess set is at a local shopping center.  The kids thought it was great to play with such big pieces. 

The two white birds you see in this picture are cockatoos.  They’re all over the place.  It’s strange to see such large birds flying around.  Parrots are also pretty common.  I have to say Australia does have some incredible birds.  On more than one night this week we wanted to strangle one of these gorgeous birds (we’re not sure which one it was).  It would start shrieking loudly around 4:00 in the morning and didn’t stop till the sun came up.  It was so annoying!  I suppose people just get used to it or perhaps that’s why shooting is not allowed in the city.