You should all be very jealous of me right now because i am serving in paradise, haha and im a missionary, so that is always a blessing! :) but i really really love this area! its is so tropical and i'm starting to feel the humidity, haha oh boy! there are "mountains" all around us completely covered in bush and the ocean and beaches are really close by. its so beautiful!  it is also so diverse here, there are aboriginals, people from islands all around australia, samoans, tongans, tahitians, fijians, and a lot from papa new guinea and the torres straight islands (islands inbetween australia and papa new guinea). but the people here are so humble and receptive to the gospel! we also share a car with the sisters but we haven't been able to use it because they live in our area and their area is far away so we have been walking, a lot. but i really like it! it feels good to walk all day and then at night my feet are just killing me that i can't walk anymore, thats when i know that I worked my hardest :) and we also get to talk to a lot of people on the streets by doing that! This past week we were able to get 7 new investigators and we have a lot of people we are teaching as well, so i'm really excited! 

So sister Yee is the best! she is seriously the sweetest person on the planet and she is such a powerful teacher! She is also very funny and so thoughtful! i dont think i could ever get mad at her, even if i wanted to. haha but she is 24 and she has an older sister and a younger brother. she goes home in february and she is on her 3rd transfer up here in cairns so i might only get to be with her for 2 transfers :( but we are going to make the most of them! she is a hard worker and she is so easy to get along with! we have already witnessed so many miracles together and ive already learned so much from her example! 

we have this one investigator named Song, she is from china and she lives in this huge mansion up on a hill that overlooks all of cairns, its so beautiful. but its kind of hard because she doesn't speak much english and she doesn't have a belief in God but luckily Sister Yee knows chinese so we try to teach her in english so we can help her learn but when she doesn't understand me sister yee translates for her. but its been awesome to see her progress and start to read the book of mormon! but im excited to start teaching people more so I can see them progress and come to know for themselves that it is true, because that is the most rewarding thing ever! 

But want to hear some sad news, so this month is the month that every quarter they have interviews with president and they have zone trainings with president for everyone!, except for those up north because we are too far away. so sad! i'm not going to see president until next april probably, and he leaves in june, but its ok :) also another sad thing, we have to wait an extra week for general conference because we are so far north.

so on sunday, we went to church and i am in a branch now! so i'm going to have to get used to saying president instead of bishop and stuff like that. pretty crazy! but my whole branch is all islanders and brown people, so i'm pretty much the only blonde hair/ white person but they are awesome! I love these people!  and we have already had a couple people come out with us for lessons, they are really good about that! Also it was the primary program this week, surprisingly there wasn't one little kid that was yelling or doing anything crazy like, but it was still cute! :) but it made me miss our home ward and seeing the little girls sing but i got over the small moment of homesickness as soon as i started working hard! working hard is the best medicine ever. 

well i love you all! and i would like to invite you all to pray and ask your Heavenly Father for something that you can let go of, something that is dragging you down and holding you back from becoming more like our Savior Jesus Christ. our mission president asked us to do this awhile ago and I just love it! there is always something we can let go of, and it is only through the atonement and his enabling power that we are able to do so. i love the scripture 2 nephi 2:25 "adam fell that men might be, and men are that they might have joy." if you look in the footnotes, joy is the potential to become like our Heavenly Father. that is true joy! putting off the natural man and having that eternal perspective that we can be with our Heavenly Father again as long as we use the atonement. i would also like to invite you to think about what the atonement means to you, and if you aren't quite sure, then study and pray for understanding and then apply the atonement, everyday. everyday. everyday. all day. :) and if you don't know how to apply the atonement, pray, and ask your Heavenly Father, and the spirit will tell you. i can promise you that. and i can promise you that you will be happier and feel the spirit more in your life as you do that! i cannot begin to express how happy i am right now! i love my Savior and for what he has done for me and for all of us! His love is infinite, and will never be able to pay him back but i can do my best, and use his atonement to show him my willingness to become more like him! 

well i love you allll soooooooo much!!!!! and sorry my emails are always so scattered and crazy, but i hope that you all have a great week! LOVE YOUS!!!!!!!!