COTTLE MISSION NEWS: Week 75 (8

Monday morning, we left for the USO at 10:30 am and Joyce Schellhorn (Director) was there along with Julie Davis, Megan DeGance and Charlie Tramazzo. Other volunteers were arriving to help with salad preparations for today’s No Dough dinner. Pizza was the menu item and it was being delivered later in the day. Pam helped in the kitchen getting salad items cut up and I helped setup the main room for the dinner. Some volunteers from Fleet Landing came and we appreciated their help. I drove to the Atlantic Beach Urban Farms and picked up a dozen containers of Kale and brought them back to the USO. Pam and I checked with Joyce about the rest of the week and then left for the day at 1:30 pm. We drove to the Naval Station and returned Fiona’s dress (Pam took out the elastic from her sleeves) and delivered Eleanor’s birthday present to the Lagae’s. Jerald was home and they were enjoying a last day with Jerald’s mother who returned to California on Tuesday. We also dropped off some sun block to Shay Tuttle and she was happy to have it for her baby. While on the station we had lunch at Panda Express and while eating called Tyler Gneck to see if he was back from his trip to the Smoky Mountains. He was and came to the restaurant and visited with us for a half an hour. He would leave for San Diego and an assignment to HSM-70 at North Island on Wednesday. Great young man and I showed him texts with the military relations missionary at NAB Coronado.

Tuesday morning, we did some organizing and cleaning at the apartment and later in the morning drove to the River City Market place and got information from the Xfinity store about turning in our Modem and cancelling our internet account. We then took I-95 and drove south through downtown and across the river to Baymeadow Road and the Mission Office. Elder and Sister Hart were in residence and we got to meet them for the first time. They replaced the Whitehead’s and came from the Florida Tallahassee Mission. They brought an office full of new furniture and the office was renewed in appearance and utility. The Harts were from Draper Utah and we had a nice visit with them and received a check from Church Travel for our drive home. On the way back to our apartment we made stops at Costco and also had some lunch and then spent the rest of the afternoon and evening making calls and texting missionaries for apartment inspections and checking on families.

Wednesday morning, we were not needed at the USO today so utilized our time during the day a little differently. Pam did some shopping and then baked cookies. I made calls to several relief society presidents to check on names and had good success. The area book for the Kelley’s is about finished. At 1:30 pm we drove to Costco and purchased some muffins for the missionaries when we do apartment inspections. We also had lunch while there and then returned to our apartment. Pam made some banana cream pies and I made a few more calls. We were planning to take the Jacksonville Beach Sisters to dinner tonight, but they called about 5:15 pm and indicated they were still in interviews with President Wood and asked to re-schedule, so our evening was simplified.

Thursday morning, Pam and I left for apartment inspections at 7:55 am. We began with the Arlington Elders and proceeded through the Arlington, Fort Caroline and eventually Jacksonville Beach missionaries. We saw Elder Young & Stevens, Sister McCombs & Handy, Elder Forsyth & Wyatt, Sister Morse & Oakes, Sister Weyland & Hall and finally Elder Karl & Murri. The missionaries were doing a good job. From the last apartment we drove to the USO and Dave Ostrum had opened, and volunteers were sorting meat from a Beam delivery. Pam ran the office and I jumped in and helped with the food. We put as much as possible in the coolers and the rest went out to the storage room freezers. Dave took pictures and posted to a Facebook page and before we knew it patrons were coming for the meat and other items. We were busy for the next 3 hours as a steady stream of new people came and went with boxes of meat and food. As the coolers emptied, we brought more boxes of meat from the freezers and by 1:30 pm had emptied the freezers. Dave left to take a son to an appointment at 1:00 pm and Pam and I managed the place until both he and Joyce returned. By the time we left at 3:00 pm all that was left was some fruit and vegetables and probably 20 pieces of meat. It had been a good day. We drove to our apartment and Pam prepared a meal for the Arlington Sisters (McCombs and Handy) who arrived at 5:00 pm. We enjoyed a wonderful meal and visiting with these two excellent missionaries. Sister McCombs was from Colorado Springs and Sister Handy from Salt Lake City and they were in the MTC together.

Friday morning, we noted the progress of Tropical Storm Barry in the Gulf and it appeared that Louisiana was going to be threatened again. We opened the USO at 9:00 am and Dave Ostrum came by but left shortly thereafter to attend a Coast Guard Change of Command at the Naval Station. Beam’s arrived with 40 boxes of meat at 9:20 am and Pam and I got unloaded 30 of them into coolers and set up ready for patrons. I stored the remaining 10 boxes into the freezers outside. Dave returned about 10:30 am and posted on the Facebook page for the meat and almost instantly we began to get people responding. It was a nice selection, especially of beef and pork products. I straightened up the north end of the center and consolidated the food, then noted to Dave that the Cauliflower received earlier in the week was going bad (mold) and we had to discard it. By noon we were done, and another volunteer arrived, so we left for the day. We took a ferry ride across the river and drove north to Amelia Island and had lunch and enjoyed the scenery and the lushness of the green trees overhanging the highway. When we returned to our apartment about 2:30 pm Pam got busy cooking food to give away to families this evening. I texted the Alexanders, Heads and Lagae’s to see if they would accept dinner and then took dinner to the Alexanders first and both of us went out to the Naval Station and dropped off dinner at the Head’s and the Lagae’s.

Saturday morning, we learned that Tropical Storm Barry would go ashore in Louisiana today and the threat from rain was serious. Pam and I left at 8:00 am to finish apartment inspections. We drove south to the Hendricks and San Jose Districts and saw Elders Filion & Munns, Sanders & Burt, Turner & Rice and Sisters Bake & Pack. The Elders all lived in quite modern and well-kept apartment complexes and their apartments were in good condition. The Sisters were in an older complex, but very well maintained and had accommodations for 8 missionaries if needed for transfers or storm consolidation. When we left our apartment, we set off 3 insect “bombs” and returned home and opened up the sliding doors and bedroom windows and turned on the fan and left again. We drove to the Regency area to see what restaurants were available as we were taking the Fort Caroline Elders to lunch today. We ended up in a Target parking lot and sat for about 45 minutes and then picked up the Elders (Elders Forsyth & Wyatt) at noon. They suggested a restaurant we hadn’t considered. It was a Mom and Pop restaurant in a strip mall and as we drove into the parking lot the place was packed. It was called “Grinders” and was very popular and we soon found out why—good food! The menu covered just about everything and we ordered our meals and enjoyed time with the Elders. Elder Forsyth was from a small town in southern Missouri and Elder Wyatt from Anchorage, Alaska so they weren’t typical “Utah” missionaries. They were fun to visit with and at the end Elder Forsyth gave us a short message from the Book of Mormon and we returned them to their apartment. Pam and I returned home and cleaned up from the “bombing” and hoped it helped with bugs. We did laundry all afternoon and Pam baked a couple of pans of brownies to give away.

Sunday morning, we left our apartment at 9:30 am and drove to the beach and attended the Jacksonville Beach ward and had a large crowd. Only the Tuttle family were with us which was a disappointment. Jerald Lagae left for an at-sea period yesterday, so we weren’t sure about Samantha and the Noblits and Jarvis’ were out of town. Sacrament meeting was excellent, and we heard from Collin Moore (new convert) and he gave a wonderful talk. Following sacrament meeting we attended elder’s quorum and relief society and following the block visited with ward members and I gave away coins to Chris Tuttle and Christian Perry and they were both pleased to receive them. Back at our apartment Pam fixed pizza for lunch and we studied Acts 10-15 in “Come Follow Me” by watching last Monday’s video by Freeman/Butler and it was very enjoyable. We also watched some BYU television programming into the evening.