COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 60 (25

Monday morning, we arrived at the USO at 9:00 am to help with No Dough preparations. Dave Ostrum opened and Joyce Schellhorn (Director) arrived a half an hour later. Pam worked in the kitchen with other volunteers as they arrived, and I did some work in the No Dough storage room adding two shelving systems along the side walls and storing all the items that had been sitting on the floor. I helped Joyce and Dave remove a carpet out of Charlie Tramazzo’s office and brought out the “sneeze guards” for the salad and dessert tables. Joyce had me count the travel kits that were available and took 135 to the Naval Station golf course for gifts for an upcoming golf tournament. Pam and several ladies made the Shepherd’s Pie in the kitchen and it wasn’t hard, just took time as the new stove was not as handy as hoped. Later in the pm I helped wash dishes and pots and pans. By 4:00 pm dinner was ready and volunteers from a local MOAA group arrived and manned all the food stations. We left at 5:00 pm as there were plenty of volunteers. We drove to the Lagae’s home on the Naval Station and Pam picked up a white jumper top for Jerald who needed help with new patches for his uniform. He had his 1^st class insignia, career stripes and ship patch that needed updating. On the way home we stopped for a late dinner and then returned to our apartment for the night.

Tuesday morning, we drove to the Naval Station and met Samantha Lagae and Shay Tuttle out for a morning walk and gave Samantha Jerald’s jumper top with the new patches. It was nice to see them together. From the Naval Station we continued to the USO for the morning. Pam busied herself in the kitchen preparing chicken for next Monday’s No Dough dinner. She trimmed and cut 80 pounds of chicken into strips and placed them in roaster ovens to cook. I helped Dave Ostrum set up the “free” table with items that came in yesterday and also unloaded two carts of leftover food from last week’s food distribution. Dave and I also gathered all the Costa shirts and hats put them in bins by size and stacked them in the storage room. I helped Pam in the final hour with the meat and then we left for a dental appointment at 1:00 pm. We drove to Doctor Patch’s office in Mandarin where I had a cavity repaired. On the way home we stopped at Wal-Mart for some shopping and had a late lunch before returning to our apartment.

Wednesday morning, we arrived at the USO at 10:00 am and Dave Ostrum opened the facility. Pam went into the kitchen and frosted a cake she made as a birthday present for Sue Lowthian (volunteer). I helped bring food out of the storage room for the give-away table and while we were doing that, Beam’s made a delivery of fresh vegetables (squash, cabbage & corn) plus 35 boxes of milk. We put the vegetables on the pool table and filled up a cooler with milk and put the remainder outside in one of the new refrigerators. When done I suggested moving an empty shelving system into the maintenance storeroom and Dave approved, so I spent the rest of the morning cleaning out that room and moving the shelf and it fit perfectly. When done the room was clean again for another day or two. Sue Lowthian came shortly after 1:00 pm and we all surprised her singing “Happy Birthday” and gave her a card and the cake. Surprise was an understatement! Joyce was there by then and Pam and I left at 1:00 pm and drove on base and had lunch. While there we took a couple of pictures for Miles with his “Flat Stanley” figure. We hoped to take a few more pictures around the Jacksonville area before mailing it back. Back at our apartment, Pam finished preparations for an Elder’s dinner for the Arlington Elders, Elder’s Smedley & Swann. When they arrived at 5:30 pm, we were surprised to see Elder’s Smedley and Yentes as both their companions had flown home this morning for medical and personal reasons. We had a nice dinner and learned that Elder Smedley & Yentes would be a companionship for the remainder of the transfer and would be working in the Arlington area.

Thursday morning, we arrived at the USO at 9:00 am. Bread and pastries had been delivered last night and we got it arranged and patrons began arriving to look it over plus the other items on the free table. Pam and I did a lot of little things this morning to keep busy. Dave Ostrum came and was in and out and mid-morning Julie Davis came to work with Charlie Tramazzo. We had a college representative set up shop in the south wing and at 11:30 am Pathfinder had a meeting with a couple of military men who were getting out of the Navy. In the south storage room, Dave and I discussed the drink pallet and moved it to the west wall providing better access to the cabinets and the education bins. We left at 1:30 pm and returned to Arlington and had some lunch and then on to our apartment for the afternoon. Pam did some sewing on a quilt top and I took a nap and prepared a lesson for a Temple Preparation class at the Lagae’s. We drove to the Naval Station at 7:30 pm and met with the Perry’s and Lagae’s at 8:00 pm for our 3^rd meeting. Stephanie Jarvis came but ended up in the bedroom with Fiona who was still awake when we arrived. The kids were very good, however. We finished up the Plan of Salvation and had very good discussions on the afterlife and resurrection and many questions.

Friday morning, we were up early and on our way to the mission office by 7:15 am. There we met all the other senior couples in the mission to participate in an Ozone Conference to the Orlando Temple. We drove in a 15-passenger van and started with Elder & Sister Wining, Mann, Hagedorn, Whitehead and President & Sister Lee in the van and we picked up the Alexanders near Palatka. The Schroeder and Waite’s met us at the Temple. We had a little traffic issue in Orlando, but eventually arrived at the Temple by 10:40 am and changed into white clothes and went downstairs to the Women’s training room where President Duke welcomed everyone and showed a video the Temple used to train new ordinance workers. Following the video, we heard a short testimony from Sister Duke and then from President & Sister Lee. We returned to the changing rooms, picked up our packets, received a “new name” and on to the chapel for the 12:00 pm endowment session. Pam and I were invited to be the witness couple. The session began shortly after noon and we enjoyed the proceedings and learning the nuances of the new dialogue. This was the 2^nd time we had been to a session with the new presentation. Following the session, we visited in the Celestial room for a few minutes then changed and went to a nearby restaurant, the “San Jose Original Mexican Restaurant” for lunch. It was a nice restaurant and they served good food and treated us very well. Following lunch, we loaded up again, said goodbye to the Schroeder’s and Waite’s and departed for Jacksonville. It was slow going out of Orlando and through the Lake Mary area, but eventually we got up to speed and made it back to the mission office by about 7:00 pm where we got our van and continued to our home. It had been a long, but wonderful day with good friends and the Temple.

Saturday morning, we were up early, and Samantha Lagae arrived at 8:30 am to help Pam with a permanent. They worked in the dining room area and were hard at it for the next 3 hours. I took the van to the car wash and cleaned inside and out. Back at the apartment I moved the laundry along. Ended up doing 5 loads of laundry and when the sheets were done made the bed and folded and put things away as they came out of the dryer. By 12:30 pm Pam had the rollers out and her hair rolled and combed out and it looked very nice. She was very happy. We had some lunch and then back to our apartment for the afternoon. We finished housework and spent a leisurely afternoon and evening, catching a few zzzz’s here and there.

Sunday morning, the last day of March and also Fast Sunday here in Jacksonville. We left for Jacksonville Beach at 9:30 am and arrived in time to visit with the missionaries and members before sacrament meeting commenced. Jenny and Oliva Black were there along with the Lagae’s, Shay Tuttle and Stephanie Jarvis. Tyler Gneck also was there along with a young military man from Kings Bay Sub Base. He was just visiting, and it was nice to meet him. We heard some wonderful testimonies, including one from Samantha Lagae and that was especially sweet. In the 2^nd hour they held a combined meeting for youth and adults and went over family history programs and it was interesting. After the meeting I talked with Bishop Currie about attending Thursday’s Temple Prep class and we also visited with our families before leaving. We drove back to our apartment and rested for a while and had some dinner about 3:30 pm and settled in for the evening. I worked on our monthly report and blog to post tomorrow morning.