Stake Conference

Manwiches for the soldiers.

Today was the last Stake Conference that we will be participating in here.  We had 5 soldiers that we were able to take in the army van.  In the second picutre is our van driver and his family.  We really appreciate his help.  He has the army drivers license which allows him to drive the soldiers, so he gives this service to the LDS soldiers.  It is so nice when we have an LDS driver instead of asking for a chaplain assistant from the base. 

We got a new stake presidency today. The "old" president is getting deployed to Bahrain.  He would have been released anyway in a year so they decided to do it now.  The new president was a bishop and a wonderful man.  He had heard him speak a few times, and he is also in the army.  The first counselor was on the High Council.  The second counselor was a counselor in the Virginia Richmond Mission so they will have to replace him.  We love him already and have heard him speak and enjoyed his spirit.

We feed the soldiers at the stake center before returning them to the base.  It is always a traumatic experience to provide for the soldiers, not knowing how many there will be, etc.  It worked out again. We would have had 2 more soldiers but they started their field training exercises today and couldn't attend.

One of the soldiers' favorite foods is Nutella.  Here is a chocolate chip cookie Nutella sandwich.  I saw another soldier make a 2 bread slices/Nutella sandwich with a cookie in the middle.  I guess they work it off!  They can't take goodies back to the barracks, so they really enjoy treats at our meals.

These two Elders serve with us on Fort Eustis, and also in the regular ward.  They enjoy meals along with the soldiers whenever they can!

Elder S got the staples out of the back of his head this week.  He was jumping into a foam pit on a P-day activity and hit the padded wooden edge of the pit.  I knocked him out for a few minutes and he had to go to the emergency room to get his head fixed.  Ouch!