COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 63 (15

Monday morning was highlighted by the celebration of our 53^rd Wedding Anniversary. Seemed just yesterday that we were on our way to Puerto Vallarta with our children to celebrate our 50^th. But each year gets sweeter and this past year wonderful being here in Jacksonville, Florida. We loved the work we were doing, the families we’ve met, the association with other missionaries and senior couples and our wonderful Mission President and his wife. We left for the USO at 10:00 am. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) had opened and a community service worker was busy moving tables and resetting the main rooms after Saturday’s activities and I joined him in that task and Pam worked in the office. Pam and I emptied the leftover bags of gifts from the “baby shower” activity and boxed them up as Megan DeGance had to mail them back to headquarters. Tax service personnel arrived at 1:30 pm for their last day and they had a full slate of applicants. Pam and I left about 2:00 pm as things were slow. We spent a few hours in the afternoon purchasing a new van. We’ve been having more and more transmission issues and with the miles on the van decided to replace rather than repair. We celebrated our anniversary with a dinner at Texas Roadhouse—wonderful! Later in the evening we were stunned to hear the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France was on fire! We tuned to a news service and learned the cathedral was being renovated and somehow a fire started in a roof area and throughout the evening destroyed a good portion of the building. Very sad.

Tuesday morning, we left for the USO at 10:00 am and Dave Ostrum had opened. Beams had made a huge bread delivery and they had bread products all over the place. We did a lot of odds and ends throughout the morning and Dave posted the bread on a Facebook page, but not many takers. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) arrived at noon and we did a few things for her and talked about the schedule for the next few weeks. Pam had been helping bake chicken with a community service volunteer, but Joyce wanted Pam to sit down in the office and take it easy—I appreciated that. We left at 1:30 pm to check on the Lagae’s as Samantha and Eleanor were at the NAS Hospital. Jerald, Fiona and Clive were home, but Eleanor had been admitted for severe dehydration following a trip to Orlando over the weekend. They weren’t sure exactly what happened as she was fine in Orlando, but on the way home began vomiting profusely and became dehydrated. We offered Jerald help at the house, but he said they were fine. We wanted to do some laundry or clean or something, but everything look good. While at the USO we received a call that our van was ready, so we drove to the dealership and completed the sale and became owners of a 2018 Chrysler Pacifica. Before leaving we called USAA and transferred insurance coverage and then drove away to a new adventure.

Wednesday morning, we left for the USO at 10:00 am and Dave Ostrum had opened, and it was pretty quiet. Pam checked out the chicken that was baked yesterday and I worked in the back rooms off the office, cleaning and organizing and doing a list of jobs that Joyce Schellhorn (Director) asked about yesterday. Julie Davis came mid-morning and took over the baking project and Pam worked in the office. At 12:30 pm we loaded up all the leftover bread in our van and took it to the Navy Exchange where it would be distributed to employees. From the exchange we had lunch, did a little shopping and returned to our apartment. I spent the afternoon going through the owner’s manual on the van and Pam had a much-needed nap. The van was nice to drive and smelled fresh and new. Hoped we keep it that way for a while.

Thursday morning, we opened the USO at 9:00 am and there was a small amount of bread and pastries which we arranged for patrons. Dave Ostrum arrived shortly thereafter and then a truck pulled up loaded with Girl Scout Cookies for the USO. Annually the USO received a donations of cookies and they distributed them to commands at the Naval Station and other facilities in the Jacksonville area. Dave was expecting the truck at noon, but it was early and needed unloading. It backed up to the double doors of the outside storage room and we began—Dave, Yao Li and me and for the next several hours we moved thousands and thousands of boxes of girl scout cookies from the truck to pallets laid out on the floor of the storage room. Later in the morning two seaman from the chapel on base helped us and around 11:30 others arrived, including girls scouts themselves from a local troop. Also, at noon commands began arriving to pick up cookies so the last of the cookies in the truck were moved directly to command vehicles as well as from the warehouse. It was quite an activity and I don’t think I had worked so hard in a long, long time. To top it off when that truck left, another truck from MWR on the Naval Station came with a pallet of water for the USO which had to be manually unloaded as the pallet of water was too heavy for their lift. Pam had manned the office throughout the morning and when I finished with the water, we were more than ready to leave. We returned to the Arlington Hills area and had lunch before returning to our apartment. We spent a quiet afternoon and evening and made contact with the Lagae’s and Eleanor was fine and Samantha wanted to know if we could have a Temple Prep class Friday evening—wonderful!

Friday morning, we were off at 7:45 am to perform apartment inspections and started with the Fort Caroline Sisters (King/Oakes) and had a nice visit with them. Next was Arlington Sisters (Dreiling/McComb) and they were doing well. When we got to the Arlington Elders we were surprised when they were a trio (Smedley/Yentes/Jensen) as we learned that Elder Hafen went home. We were saddened with that news because he seemed to be doing so well. Next, we crossed the St. John’s river to the Dunn Avenue area and visited the Dunn Avenue Sisters (Kennedy/Baird) and then the Elders (Carter/Shirtliff) and enjoyed visiting with them. All the apartments were okay, fairly clean and Elder Anderson wanted to know which leases should be renewed. When done we returned to our apartment and I worked on the report and Pam did some baking and sewing. We had a late lunch during a significant thunderstorm which covered Jacksonville and, in some areas, uprooted and destroyed trees. Following lunch, we did some shopping and then returned to our apartment. In the evening we drove to the Naval Station with the intention of holding a Temple Preparation class with the Lagae’s and the Perry’s. Upon arrival we learned the Perry’s would not be able to come, so we just visited with Jerald and Samantha for a couple of hours and enjoyed the evening.

Saturday morning, we learned of the upcoming closing and renovation of the Salt Lake Temple and Temple Square. We were impressed with the changes and it would certainly open up Temple Square. We had one final apartment inspection and drove to Jacksonville Beach to see Sisters Tidwell & Weyland. They were home and we visited with them for about 20 minutes and their apartment was fine. We were invited to Trista Alexander’s birthday party, also in Jacksonville Beach, so located Sunshine Park where Tara and Wes were setting up their things. Trista was 4 years old this week and happy to see us. We visited with them and two other families with children. Wes cooked hotdogs and we had lunch with “dogs” and fruit, and it was nice. Adjacent to the pavilion was a playground and the kids had a great time playing on all the apparatus built out of wood, similar to a playground we had seen in St. Augustine. “Happy Birthday” was sung to Trista, cake eaten and presents opened and it was a fun time. We left at 1:30 pm and drove back to our apartment; finished our laundry and house cleaning duties and spent a quiet evening.

Sunday morning, we drove to the Stake Center on Hendricks Avenue and attended Stake Conference. We arrived early but it was nice to have time to visit with missionaries and other families as they arrived, and the best benefit was a seat in the chapel on soft benches. Stephanie & Lance Jarvis joined us on our pew. President Heywood presided and conducted, and visitors included President & Sister Lee of the mission and President and Sister Duke of the Orlando Temple. We heard wonderful talks from the visitors, stake members and President Button and Heywood of the stake presidency. Additionally, a stake choir provided beautiful music. It was a perfect Easter Morning. Following the closing hymn and prayer we visited a little as we made our way back through the cultural hall and outside to our van. The only military families that we saw were the Jarvis’ and Tyler Gneck, but there could have been others. At our apartment, Pam began dinner and we ate and watched some byutv programming during the afternoon. In the evening we joined the family in Denver via “FaceTime” in a family “Come Follow Me” lesson on the last week of the Savior’s life and it was wonderful to watch and listen to the children and their parents discuss each day’s activities leading up to Easter morning and the resurrection.