COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 17

Week 17 began with the threat of some kind of major weather phenomena. It appeared like Alberto would be a sub-tropical depression and remain in the Northern gulf, but we expected to receive heavy doses of rain for the next few days. Monday was also Memorial Day and for us a day of rest and relaxation. Later in the day we did a little shopping and had lunch and later Pam worked on a baby quilt she is making. I called all of the phone numbers we have on households we have not been able to contact yet and got one answer—a young man who transferred to Mayport from NAS Pensacola. Later this evening we contacted Shay Tuttle, whose husband Chris, left on deployment last Friday on the USS The Sullivan’s. We know how that feels.

On Tuesday morning we arrived at the USO at 10:00 am and Cheryl Vandiver asked us to make a delivery to NAS Jacksonville USO and we had a nice ride across the St. John’s river to the base. We also picked up some event tickets for a coming weekend event on the Naval Station and returned to Mayport. We left the USO in the early afternoon and had a late lunch and returned to our apartment. Around 3:30 pm we heard a funny “thumping” noise in the house and when it happened Pam was on the phone with Erin and she also heard it and wondered if it was in her house. We didn’t think too much of it until later when we noticed water had backed up in the kitchen sink. That was the noise we heard! It was awful looking. I began cleaning the sink when the water was shut off. Housing maintenance shut off the water and told us there was a major blockage and they had called a plumbing service. They arrived about an hour later and spent the next couple of hours trying to troubleshoot and fix the problem. They worked in our kitchen and opened up the drain under the sink and ran a roto rooter into the drain system, trying to get it to go up the vent stack, because there was blockage in a “T” joint between our apartment and the one next to us. They tried getting to the vent from both apartments and eventually had to go on the roof and down the stack. By 9:30 pm they were successful and cleaned up their tools and left. We appreciated their hard work and hoped it was the end of the problem. We spent a half an hour cleaning the sink thoroughly and washing all the affected dishes again.

Wednesday we were at the USO again and found some jobs to do. Pam stayed in the office and took phone calls and helped patrons. We had a lot come in for the free BaseFest tickets for this weekend. My project was identifying donated canned and boxed food products in the storage room that were expiring by July. We put those items out on the “free” table and I sorted the rest by years. We departed the USO at 3:00 pm during a torrential rain storm. In fact, we had wave after wave hit the beach throughout that afternoon. We had a late lunch and drove to a local Wal-Mart and bought a couple of Poncho’s and then returned to our apartment.

Thursday, we opened the USO, but the night before the USO received no bread, pastries, or newspapers, so our morning was quiet. We had a few people come looking for bread but when they saw the sign they turned around and left. We did, however, give out a lot of BaseFest tickets and sold tickets to other upcoming events. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) arrived at noon and gathered up things for a presentation she was making on the base and I helped load her vehicle. She was gone for a couple of hours and returned about 3:00 pm. Pam and I turned over what information we had and left for the night. I called the young man who had arrived from NAS Pensacola and arranged to pick him up for church on Sunday.

Friday was a day we had been anticipating for some time. President & Sister Lee organized a gathering of all the Senior Missionaries and it was called O-ZONE. Sort of a Zone Conference for Senior couples. Actually, it was a trip to the Okefenokee Swamp Park in Southern Georgia. We met the other couples at the mission office at 8:00 am and all road together in the mission van and the President’s SUV. There were 17 in all—President & Sister Lee, Elder & Sister Whitehead (Office-Cars), Elder & Sister Mann (Office-Apartments), Elder Grieve (Finances), Elder & Sister Waite (CES Gainesville), Elder & Sister Schroeder (Records Preservation Gainesville), Elder & Sister Gilland (MLS Hilliard Branch), Elder & Sister Youngberg (MLS Crescent City), and Pam & I (Military Relations Navsta Mayport). We drove for an hour and a half north and enjoyed the ride through beautiful forested areas. President & Sister Lee have an activity like this for the Senior Missionaries about once each quarter. Also, Sister Lee had the reservations arranged for we just walked through the information center out into the park. It was part of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, and the park was a convenient point of entry and a magnificent show-window for the “Land of the Trembling Earth.” The park’s lily-decked water trails, with their miraculously reflective waters mirroring the overhanging beauty, lead to all points in this vast wilderness of islands, lakes, jungles, forest and prairies. Boat tours on original Indian waterways, wilderness walkways, Pioneer Island and native animals in their own habitat, all combined to weave a spell of pioneer American life. The refuge is the headwaters of the Suwannee and St. Mary’s Rivers, and enclosed nearly a half million acres. We really enjoyed the day, saw a lot of live Alligators, did a walking tour, road a train, and took a boat ride through the waterways. Of particular interest were the guides. Both the train and boat guides had been doing this work for many years and were closely tied to the refuge area. They spun numerous historical tales and you really had to concentrate to understand their drawl. The ride back to the mission office was quite difference for as we approached the outskirts of Jacksonville, we were drenched with a downpour of rain that lasted until we arrived at the Mission Office almost an hour later. We truly were blessed to have spent the day in beautiful sunshine (albeit hot and humid), but dry! We said goodbye to everyone and Pam and I returned to our apartment. That evening we enjoyed the broadcast of the “Be One” Celebration from the Conference Center. The messages from President Oaks & President Nelson and performances by Gladys Knight, Alex Boyé, the Bonner family, the Unity Gospel Choir International, and members of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir were wonderful. Don’t we belong to a talented church?

Saturday morning, we were up and going early as we went to the home of Greg & Shauncy Lines, a military family who were transferring to Naval Station, Sasebo, Japan. We helped clean their home prior to leaving. Greg was a Navy LT attached to JAG and would ply his trade as a lawyer in Japan for the next few years. They were very well organized and had checklists on the refrigerator for each room. We helped clean and scrub, sweep and dust for the next couple of hours and it went quite rapidly. They also asked if we could give Shauncy a ride to the airport to pick up a rental car and so we were off. The drive was enjoyable and in 20 minutes we dropped her off at the rental car area and then came home. We got cleaned up and went for lunch and spent the rest of day doing laundry and resting.

Sunday morning, we had planned to attend the Jacksonville Beach Ward with Alexis Connelly and Tyler Gneck (2 single members from the base), however Tyler had wisdom teeth removed on Friday and Alexis started another migraine headache this morning so they both cancelled. We changed our plans and at 9:00 am went to the Arlington Ward sacrament meeting and Tara Alexander arrived by herself and sat with us. Wes was home with sick kids. Tomorrow Tara is having her tonsils removed so we were a little concerned about her. Wes’ mother is coming to help with the children. Following a wonderful sacrament meeting we visited for a few minutes and then drove to the Jacksonville Beach ward meetings hoping to see the LaGae’s. We slipped into their sacrament meeting about mid-meeting and enjoyed the testimonies. We attended the gospel principles class and I went to priesthood meeting and Pam to relief society. Both good meetings. The LaGae’s were not there and that was concerning. We will follow up. We did, however, get to see the Jarvis family and Shay Tuttle and she is doing fine despite having her husband gone on deployment. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at home and in the evening watched the broadcast to Youth by President & Sister Nelson and it was very enjoyable. We especially enjoyed a phone call and video from a double birthday celebration for Jane and Norah from Denver. Always wonderful to see the family gathered.