April 13, 2009

Sorry it has been so long since I updated all of our Australian goings on. First I was put into the Young Womens Presidency and I love it! The girls in this branch are awesome and such good girls. Quintin has been having such a hard time understanding his school work and I get frustrated because I want to help him but I don’t know a thing about Chemistry, Biology or Math. I have been looking desperately for a job with no luck, it is tough to find a job around this area and because I am not a resident of Australia.The good news is that Melanie Ledingham (my BFF) came to visit for a week! We had so much fun, most of the time Q was in school so Mel and I were able to do a ton of fun stuff together. When I went to pick her up from the airport it seemed like we hadn’t gone a day without seeing each other, it was great to see her. We went with Quintin and our friend Jonno out to the Great Barrier Reef the next day. We drove us to the beautiful Port Douglas to get on our huge Quicksilver boat. We picked the roof of the boat to travel on and thank goodness, we all took motion sickness pills that the crew was handing out. I say thank goodness because on the way out to the Reef we went through a bit of a storm so the boat rocked quite a bit. When we pulled into the Pontoon out on the Reef we weren’t thinking that stingers (jellyfish) weren’t going to be a problem until we saw everyone else renting out bright blue lycra suits.. Quintin was pretty sure that he wouldn’t need one but than he saw that he was the only person without one. All four of us put on these awful/wonderful blue suits that covered everything but or faces, which would be taken care of with our masks an snorkel gear. Mel and I were laughing so hard that just getting into the blue suits was well worth the money of coming out to the reef.

 We all got in the water, Mel and I in life jackets. I swam out about 6 meters from the boat when I popped my head out of the water and panicked because I couldn’t breathe and I had no strength to get back to the boat. Luckily Mel was close and toted me back to the snorkel deck. I spent most of the time there. Looking under the water while clinging to the boat. Sometimes I forget that I have medical problems and realize it a little too late….like being in the middle of the ocean with large fish and sharks swimming around me going “Oh Ya, I shouldn’t probably be doing this!”

After a little while Q, Jonno and Mel came back on the boat and we ate lunch than took a little semi submersible submarine. It was so awesome! We saw turtles and blacktip reef sharks (not dangerous), large clams and yes, I found Nemo! After this I decided to try snorkeling again without the squeezing of the life vest. I grabbed a noodle and did a lot better! I dove and saw fun little fish and took a ride back to the boat via Quintin. The whole experience was well worth it and it just made me so much more grateful to a Heavenly Father that gives us so much joy through the beauty of the earth.