COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 69 (27 May

Memorial Day today. The USO was closed and Pam and I had a lazy morning. I published our Blog for last week and vacuumed the apartment, something I didn’t do last Saturday, and then dressed for the day. Pam and I drove to Jacksonville Beach and met Tyler Gneck and took him to lunch. Tyler’s an outstanding young man and we hoped the best for him. He had orders to a squadron on North Island in San Diego and he will be missed. He has been steady as a rock regarding church activity and served as secretary in the new Elder’s quorum presidency. Following lunch, we returned to our apartment and spent the rest of the day at home. Pam baked cookies to take with us on apartment inspections and I sent out a text to missionaries we would visit. I had a long visit with my brother Lynn, and he seemed to be doing okay. He would go home from a rehab hospital on Wednesday and seemed confident he would he would be able to manage at home.

Tuesday morning, we left for the USO by 8:30 am. Dave Ostrum opened the facility and we looked around to see what happened in the back offices over the weekend and it appeared like Charlie Tramazzo and Megan DeGance had put new desks in place and wires strung to give them the internet. At 9:30 am Dave went to a USO storage facility down the road and met Megan and they loaded their vehicles with boxes of marathon giveaways from last year. When they returned volunteers began removing bags from the boxes and emptying the contents and placing individual items into separate bins for future use. Unfortunately, most of the items had an advertiser’s name embossed on the item and that advertiser backed out of sponsorship! Throughout the morning Pam worked in the office and I did a couple of odd jobs for Dave outside and Joyce Schellhorn (Director). When done I broke down boxes and helped unpack bags and there were a lot of them. Dave said they had 7,000 entries last year but only about half show up for the race, so 3,500 bags were being unpacked. I guessed the next task would be to get new items with current sponsors logos and repack the bags as the 2019 race was in about 2 weeks. Pam approached me at 1:00 pm and said she wasn’t feeling well and felt we needed to leave. I stopped what I was doing and talked with Joyce and we left ten minutes later. She had pains in her stomach and was nauseated which brought up memories of a previous illness earlier in the year. We drove to our apartment and Pam lay down and promptly went to sleep. Later in the afternoon Pam indicated she was hungry and after a few minutes said she wanted an Arby’s sandwich and some fries, so we drove down the street and enjoyed the meal. We spent a quiet evening and Pam felt much better.

Wednesday morning, we were up early, and left for the USO at 9:30 am and made a stop at the Dollar Store and purchased a card and balloon for Eleanor Lagae who graduated from Kindergarten this week. Upon arrival at the USO Joyce Schellhorn (Director) was there along with Dave Ostrum, Charlie Tramazzo and Julie Davis. Charlie and Julie were busy in the back offices moving in. A volunteer was moving all the leftover food from the north end to the storage room and I helped in the storage room. When Megan Degance arrived, she, Dave and Joyce took all the filled bins and boxes back to the storage facility and brought back more boxes of shirts to sort out—never ending process. Pam and I left about 1:30 pm and drove to the Naval Station to see our families. We stopped at Nikki Head’s home and she was there but said her home was infested with fleas (ugh). Tony’s family had visited and brought a dog with fleas and she was planning to “bomb” her house. She was also still sick, and the boys recovering from various things and have flea bites all over themselves. We don’t know how she manages. Tony was coming home on the 8^th of June and hopefully that would help. She was also going away for a few days and would bomb the house then. From the Head’s we went to the Lagae’s and visited with Samantha. The kids were home from school and Eleanor loved the balloon and card she received. Another lady was visiting; a therapist for Eleanor, so we didn’t stay long and then returned to the Arlington area. We had a late lunch and returned to our apartment.

Thursday morning, we left for the USO at 8:30 am to help with “Feeding Northeast Florida” food distribution. Dave Ostrum was there and opened the facility and Pam manned the office and I helped Dave and other volunteers set up tents and tables out in the parking lot. The FNEF truck arrived and began unloading pallets of food and commodities and other FNEF volunteers and our volunteers set out the food. I did parking control and before we knew it the lot was full to overflowing. Joyce Schellhorn (Director) arranged with the owner of the vacant lot to the north of the USO to park in his field but vehicles had to go over a curb to get into the field. Dave had put some small ramps, and a few tried, but it wasn’t very easy. One car high centered and remained there all day long waiting for help. I brought two heavy pallets from the dumpster area and put them by the curb and then used the ramps and that seemed to work better, but it was difficult getting drivers to maneuver to make it to the ramps at an acceptable angle. However, we made it through the morning. Along with the food distribution was a USO Council meeting at 11:00 am and all the “heavy hitters” from the USO gathered and we had to provide parking for them also and Mike O’Brien wanted special places for them. I was up front and pointed the cars in the right direction and we made it through. Once the food distribution began and people began leaving the pressure was off. I didn’t see much of the food distribution, but everyone was happy, and we had a lot of volunteers to help patrons to their cars. The food drive ended at 1:00 pm and I went inside. The council meeting was ongoing, and excess food was being placed on tables in the south end for later distribution. Pam had been at the registration desk all morning with another volunteer helping her. All the regular volunteers and staff from the Mayport USO were ushered into the council meeting and tribute given to us for our service and that was nice. Pam and I left at 1:30 pm and had some lunch and then returned to our apartment.

Friday morning was the official start to the 2019 Hurricane Season, we conducted apartment inspections and left at 7:40 am and visited Sister Larsen/Oakes, Sister McCombs/Densley, Sister Baird/Gillins and Elder Carter/Minson—the last two in the Dunn Avenue area. We were assigned to inspect Elder Yentes/Young’s apartment here at the St. John’s Forrest, but they moved into a new apartment this morning and will catch them next time. Elder Whitehead also called and wanted to give our couch and chair to Elder’s Yentes/Young and would bring by a new couch and chair for the Kelley’s. We also received assignments for the 9^th of June trip to Orlando and were looking forward to seeing the Prophet. By 10:00 am we finished inspections and headed to the USO. Joyce Schellhorn (Director), Charlie Tramazzo and Julie Davis were there and not much was going on. The most significant item was finding a place for leftover bread and pastries and potatoes from yesterday’s food distribution. I took 3 bags of bread and a cart full of potatoes and delivered them to the Navy Exchange for their employees. Julie Davis and I also delivered more potatoes to the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars. Tyler Gneck came by the USO and picked up two packages that had come in the mail for him and it was nice to see him and a friend from his squadron. Pam and I drove to the Commissary and did some shopping for next week and then to the Naval Station and had lunch. At 2:30 pm so drove to Neptune Beach and visited with Sister Weyland/Hall and inspected their apartment. They had been to the Celestial Farms that morning and were getting ready to leave again for the day. We had a nice visit with them and then left for Arlington Hills. Elder Whitehead and two elders came by about 3:30 pm and changed out the couch and chair.

Saturday morning, we discussed our morning chores and vacuumed the house, dusted the living room and our bedroom and Pam started laundry and cleaned the bathrooms and kitchen. We made up the twin beds in the dining room and moved beds in the guest bedroom to accommodate Alex and Cynthia. By noon we were pretty much done, had showered, dressed for the day and had some lunch. After shopping we took a drive north across the Dames Pt. Bridge and took Heckscher Drive to Amelia Island and wound our way up to Fernandina Beach, stopped at the historical center and checked on river rides and then returned to our home via I-95. It was a nice afternoon, and everything is greening up and is beautiful.

Sunday morning, we were both ready to leave for church by 9:30 am. A lot of visitors today at church with the blessing of the Wilkes baby. The Tuttle’s, Jarvis’, Noblit’s and Tyler Gneck were the only military families in attendance. We were hoping the Lagae’s would be there as Jerald got home Saturday (we thought). Probably just slept in. Good testimonies today and also a good Sunday school class. Following the meeting we drove to the Alexanders and returned their house key as they arrived home from their trip to Tennessee on Saturday. They had a good trip but were glad to be home. At our apartment we watched videos from Emily Freeman’s “Come Follow Me” syllabus on John 13-17 and it was very good. We also re-watched last week’s video and discussed the subjects of both lessons. We broke our fast at 4:00 pm with a pizza and settled in for the evening.