Monday morning was MLK day so
slept in this morning and didn’t get up until almost 7:00 am (record)! Wrote
the weekly Blog and got it published and then studied for an hour. When Pam was
up, we did some laundry and cleaning and at noon drove to a couple of military
members’ homes, but neither were in so couldn’t confirm their status. We shopped
and had lunch at Costco and then returned to our apartment in mid-afternoon.
Planned to do something significant but ended up laying down and promptly going
to sleep! We had a pretty quiet MLK day. Called the Mason’s in Orange Park and
talked with Michael and learned about his family and status. Seemed to be a
good family and would be in Jacksonville for over 2 years as an Army recruiter.
Received texts from Alexis and she was celebrating a significant accomplishment
at the clinic over the weekend and was doing fine.
Tuesday morning, we left for the
USO at 9:30 am and the place was busy. Coast Guard personnel were helping to
get ready for another food giveaway on Wednesday and those young men and women
did a wonderful job throughout the day. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) opened the
facility and Pam and I were the only volunteers. Throughout the morning we
received donation after donation from organizations and individuals. Seemed
like the back door was a loading dock as load after load of food and commodities
came into the facility and were stacked in the middle of the room. A decision
was made to open up the south side of the main room as the north side was
completely filled with food and commodities. All non-food products were placed
on the tables on the south side and the north side reserved for food items, so
we spent the morning going through the donations and vetting all the food and
placing the items on their respective tables. Pam worked in the office with
Joyce as the phone was ringing off the wall concerning donations and she also
had a floor full of small individual donations that she was going through. We
also received two large donations of bread and pastries from Publix and also
from a bread distribution center and the pool table and 3 other tables were
awash with bread and pastry products. At 2:00 pm I made a deposit for Joyce and
also helped her count gift cards she had received throughout the morning. I was
astounded at the generosity of the community—hundreds of cards totaling
thousands of dollars, not to mention cash and all the food and commodity
donations. Two news stations came during the day interviewing several Coast
Guard personnel and Mike O'Brien (Executive) about the effort to help the Coast
Guard families during the government shutdown period. At 3:00 pm Joyce told us
to leave as the pace slowed down considerably and we had everything sorted and taken
care of.
Wednesday morning, we arrived at
the USO shortly after 9:00 am. The parking lot was filling up and the Coast
Guard Chiefs association was there to help with the food distribution, and it
looked like they had things in hand. Joyce didn’t have anything particular for
us to do, so Pam and Carmel (another volunteer) went into the kitchen and
cooked “sloppy Joes” for lunch and I worked in and out of the office processing
donations and helping where needed. Food distribution actually began at 9:30 am
and we had a steady flow of families until 1:00 pm and it was fun watching them
as they walked up and down the tables checking out the food and paper products
and filling boxes, bags, shopping carts, etc. with things they needed. A great
outpouring of support from the community. Around noon Joyce asked if I would go
to the Navy Exchange and take 8 gift cards and have them checked to determine
their value. I located Pam, the manager, and she took care of it for me and
they were all $25 cards. I also made a deposit for Joyce while I was out. By
1:30 pm things had slowed down considerably, and we helped consolidate the
tables and then Pam and I left for the day. Tomorrow was another food day as
Feeding Northeast Florida was coming with produce and meat for the Coast Guard
and all E-6 and below Navy families. We returned home to our apartment and Pam
prepared a meal for the Arlington Sisters who joined us for dinner at 5:30 pm.
Sister Dreiling and Abril were real characters and we enjoyed having them in
our home. Sister Dreiling grew up in Colorado but was from Logan and came from
a less active home and only decided on a mission recently. Sister Abril from
Corona, California was a convert of a few years, so they both had stories to
tell. After they left a message, we had a prayer with them and they left, and
we cleaned up the kitchen and called it a night.
Thursday morning, we arrived at the
USO at 9:15 am and the Feeding Northeast Florida truck was unloading in the
back-parking lot and the Coast Guard Chiefs Association were helping and had 3
tents setup to cover a half dozen tables getting ready for families. We went
inside and the food and commodities wings of the center were closed, and
learned that patrons would be checked in and taken directly through the center
to the tables out back where there was meat, fresh produce and other
commodities. Dave Ostrum was running things until Joyce Schellhorn (Director)
arrived about 10:00 am. We had a few other volunteers, Julie Davis and Pam from
the Navy Exchange. Pam and I worked in the office, Pam checking in patrons and
myself vetting donations as they came in. Julie and Pam (Exchange) took down names
and other vital information for the Coast Guard and directed the families out
back and Coast Guard chiefs were station at the doors and out back to help with
the food distribution. We had a busy morning with hundreds of families and
individuals coming for donations. Coast Guard Officers set up our grills and
cooked hamburgers and hot-dogs for families, so it was a festive morning. Pam
and I continued to be amazed at the generosity of the people here in the Beach
Communities. Truckloads of items continued to come in and thousands of dollars’
worth of gift cards and cash were donated. At 11:30 am the event was opened to
Navy families, E-6 and below, so we had another influx of people, but it wasn’t
bad. I had texted Tara Alexander, Shay Tuttle, Samantha Lagae and Nikki Head
about the event and Shay Tuttle came with her baby and Tony Head also attended.
I made a trip to the NEX for Joyce to validate gift cards but when I returned
the flow of patrons was almost ended and Coast Guard volunteers were consolidating
things inside and outside to help the USO prepare for a No Dough dinner on
Monday. Most of what was left would be put into the outside storage food pantry
for next week’s events for the Coast Guard. The USO was committed to continuing
the distribution as long as the shutdown continued. Pam and I said our goodbyes
and left for the day.
Friday morning began early for us
as we left the apartment at 7:30 am to perform missionary apartment inspections
for 3 sets of sisters and 3 sets of elders all in the Jacksonville East Zone.
We enjoy meeting the missionaries, even early in the morning and their
apartments looked good with some minor issues that needed to be corrected,
mainly changing filters and cleaning that needed to be done. From the last
apartment we drove to the USO, arriving at 10:30 am. Dave Ostrum was there
along with volunteers Carmel and Jim. Several Coast Guard personnel were
loading the USO truck with food and commodities to take to a Coast Guard
Helicopter Interdiction Squadron (HITRON) at Cecil Field. They also helped me
set up the main room for the No Dough dinner on Monday and we were done in no
time. Dave had planned to take the truck to Cecil but had injured himself and
wasn’t feeling well. I told him I would make the trip. Pam was going to
accompany me, but the passenger seat full of commodities also, so she stayed at
the USO. I programmed the location into my phone and headed toward Cecil Field (former
Naval Air Station) and wandered around a bit but eventually found the building
and was met by Coast Guard personnel who quickly emptied the truck and were
very appreciative of the donations. I had been on the base in 1986 for night
vision training and at that time it was home to A6, A7 and A4 Attack aircraft.
The drive back to the USO was uneventful, and Joyce Schellhorn (Director) was
there and Dave had gone home. Pam met me and said, “guess what Joyce gave us?”
I had no idea, but she opened up an envelope which had two tickets to tonight’s
performance of Les Misérables at the Times-Union Center in downtown
Jacksonville. We knew the national touring group was in town, but tickets were
very expensive, so we never seriously considered attending. Two tickets had
been donated to the USO and Joyce gave them to us—what a gift! After some
discussion about Monday’s No Dough activities we said our goodbyes and left for
Arlington Hills. We had a late lunch and then returned to our apartment and looked
up the location of the theater and purchased some parking passes and then
relaxed for the rest of the afternoon. At 6:45 pm we headed downtown, and we
quickly located our parking area across the street from the theater. People
were waiting inside for the Moran Theater doors to open and we watched with
interest the variety of people in various styles of dress from casual to formal
wear. A couple came by and looked at our name tags and introduced themselves,
Steven & Deborah Mortensen. They were members from the Bartram Trails
Branch of the Jacksonville South Stake. However, they had moved to St. Augustine
from the Jacksonville Beach area before we arrived, and he had served as Ward
Mission Leader. We had a very interesting discussion with them for about 15
minutes until the theater doors opened and then went inside and found our
seats—very nice seats indeed. Our only introduction to Les Misérables was the
movie which we saw a few years ago, but this performance was equally as
wonderful with beautiful staging and the most wonderful music. The cast was a
national traveling cast and were very professional and performed beautifully.
The entire performance took just under three hours with an intermission about
90 minutes into the performance. While waiting I stood up and looked around and
a lady just behind us two seats over introduced herself as “Sister Camille
Alexander” from the Fort Caroline ward and a young woman next to her was a
daughter-in-law from one of the Mandarin wards. Sister Alexander’s husband had
been the Bishop when we arrived and was now a high councilor in the
Jacksonville East Stake. We had a delightful visit with them for 10 minutes and
then the production began again and proceeded to a most dramatic conclusion. It
had been a wonderful evening, one we would never forget and a much appreciated
the gift.
Saturday morning, we left at 8:00
am for Jacksonville Beach to finish apartment inspections with the full-time
missionaries. We first met with Sisters Paulsen and Topham (Sister Davis was on
exchanges with Sister Wasden). Next, we visited Sister Roderick and Horikami in
the Hendricks District and then Elders Cigarroa and Castillo in the San Jose
District followed by Elders Birchall and McCormick also in the San Jose
District. These last three appointments were new for us, but we enjoyed meeting
these young men and women. They all lived in nice facilities which had been
used by missionaries for years. We were near the St. John’s Center and returned
an item at Joanne’s and then headed back to Arlington Hills with a stop for
lunch and also at Wal-Mart where we bought some furnace filters for the missionaries
and to a Dollar Store to purchase some microwave covers, also for the
missionaries. Finally, at 4:00 pm we were done and returned to our apartment
for the evening. I entered the information on apartment inspection forms and
emailed them to Elder Alexander, the housing coordinator. Pam started laundry
and had a long visit with Ann Marie and also Erin and everyone seemed to be
doing fine.
Sunday morning, we left for ward
conference in the Jacksonville Beach ward in a steady rainstorm. We entered the
chapel and Shay Tuttle was there with her baby, Jenny Black and Olivia, the
Jarvis’ and Tyler Gneck with a friend from work. Samantha and Clive were sick
today and so the Lagae’s stayed home. Sacrament began on time and we enjoyed
having the stake family with us; President Heywood and counselors and others.
After the ward business President Bridegan stood and conducted the sustaining
of General Authorities, Stake Leaders and Ward Leaders. It was always nice to
go through this process occasionally. Following the sacrament, we heard from
Bishop Currie and then from President Heywood. Both gave wonderful messages and
bore strong testimonies. In the second hour the adults met in the chapel and
the youth in the young women’s room and the Primary did their normal thing.
President Bridegan and Heywood both spoke in the adult meeting and talked about
testimony bearing and the need to bear simple pure testimonies—not talks, not
stories. This direction came from an area meeting in Atlanta last year presided
over by Elder Bednar where this subject was emphasized. President Lee mentioned
it in our last zone conference and he always encouraged missionaries to take
less than a minute in bearing their testimonies. There were a couple of
comments from those who insisted stories were so good, but President Heywood
reiterated there was a time and place for those—talks, firesides, in family
councils, etc. Testimony meetings were for pure testimony. Great council.
Following the meeting we visited for a few minutes and then braved the rain and
head to the Naval Station where we took lunch to Samantha Lagae. The surprise
was the quiet in her home. Clive and the girls were napping. Pam fixed lunch
for Sam and we visited for a few minutes and then left and returned to our
apartment. We had some leftovers and a pizza for lunch/dinner and spent a quiet
afternoon watching some byutv programming and napping. At 5:30 pm we stirred
and dressed again to attend a musical fireside at the Beach this evening.
Sister Davis and Paulsen had organized the event about a month ago and we
planned to attend. Sisters Dreiling and Abrim rode with us and missionaries
from the Jax East and Mandarin zones were assembling, and President &
Sister Lee were there with Sister Lee’s sister. They practiced “One by One” and
it was beautiful. At 7:00 pm the fireside began with Brother Simmons
conducting. President Button and Bishop Currie were also on the stand. The
programmed followed an opening prayer and it was a beautiful night of music and
spoken word from “The Living Christ” the testimony of the first presidency and
quorum of the twelve. Music consisted of a missionary choir, vocal duets,
solos, small groups, instrumental pieces involving the piano, violin, cello and
harp—about 12 numbers in all. Sister Newman and Elder Carter did the narration
of the Living Christ between the numbers and the overall effect was wonderful.
Bishop Currie was invited to offer some parting words and then following the
closing prayer refreshments were provided in the back section of the cultural
hall. We were also invited to attend the opening of Elder Beal’s mission call
from the brethren. His 2-transfer mission had been successful, and he was
recommended to continue missionary service. We met in the relief society room
and Sister Lee face timed with his parents as he opened his call to the Florida
Jacksonville Mission (which is what he wanted). He would enter the MTC on the 6th
of February and then return to continue is mission here. He was really excited,
and the missionaries were excited for him. He’s been a great missionary. We
gathered up Sister Dreiling and Abril and braved the rain again and headed back
to Arlington Hills where we dropped them off at their apartment and then
returned to ours. It had been a wonderful day only topped by a Marco Polo call
from Andrew and Sarah and family.
