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!

Tender Mercies and Transfers

This is a dear friend who used to come out to our Ft. Eustis Group to teach some of the Sunday lessons to the soldiers.  Just before Christmas she and her husband were blessed with a sweet little son who will soon be legally adopted and sealed for eternity.  What joy!

Elder "S" (middle) was transferred back to work with us after being in a different Zone for a while.  His companion decided not to be a missionary any longer and went home.  So Elder "S" was in this 3-some for a couple weeks.  It was fun getting to know Elder "C" and Elder "W". 

Yesterday Elder "S" got his new companion fresh from the MTC.  When Elder "S" came to Ft. Eustis, about 6 months ago, he was the greenie -- now he is the trainer and District Leader.  That should tell everyone what kind of missionary he is!

We had the privilege of attending "transfer meeting" yesterday in Richmond.  This is where all of the new missionaries are matched up to their companions, who will be trainers.  We had wanted to attend one of these and when we were asked to give a ride to a couple elders, we were delighted.  It was "the biggest transfer day of the mission".  There were 16 new missionaries and lots of transfers.

We have 3 missionaries from Africa in the mission. This sweet sister is from Uganda.  We have an elder from Ethiopia and one from Nigeria.

Loading up the bikes and suitcases for transfers.

Elder "C" got a new companion from Korea.  (The two elders facing in our direction on the right side of the picture.)

This morning we went to the graduation of an inactive soldier only to find that he was graduating another day, so he wasn't in today's program.  However, we were approached by Colonel "M" one of the kindest leaders that we see often at the graduations.  He always thanks family members for supporting their soldiers.  He always acknowledges us.

Last week he asked us for our first names but didn't say why.  Today he presented us with these certificates. He is transfering to a different department and won't be attending the graduations so he wanted us to know how much he has appreciated our support of the soldiers.  What a kind man.  We have had no direct contact with him except for graduations. 

A challenge coin is a tradition in the military that I didn't know about.  The officer shakes the hand of the recipient and within the hand is a coin.  It is an honor that is not given out lightly, and represents recognition for some kind of achievement or service.  I've seen that handshake given to Distinguished Graduates at graduations, and witnessed the grin of appreciation. 

Imagine how happy I was when Colonel "M" asked to shake our hands after giving us those nice certificates.  On the coins are the symbols of the aviation training that our soldiers learn in their classes.  It is meaningful for so many different reasons.  This was his own private recognition and did not involve getting up in front of anyone.  It made me want to cry and feel humble for his kindness.

These are the "muckety mucks" of AIT at Ft. Eustis before a graduation.  Colonel "M" is second from the right and is the Director of Training for all aviation AIT soldiers.  Colonel "H" (center) is the Batallion Commander for all aviation AIT soldiers, a member of our church, and a very nice person to work with.  He actually gave us each one of his own special coins a few months ago. The two on the left are the Commanding Officer of USAALS and his Sgt Major.  On the right is the Sgt. Major who works with Col. "M".

The Lord's tender mercies help us know how much he is aware of us and helping with our mission here.  Blessings come to anyone who is trying to serve His children.

If I shaved my head would you recognize me?

It is an interesting experience attending the graduations of our soldiers.  We attend all graduations of those who sign in with us at in-processing, whether they attend church after that or not.  In fact we have many who identify themselves as LDS and then never show for any activity or service.  The challenge is recognizing them again after not seeing them for about 4 months.

This picture shows the typical scene that awaits us when we walk in to a graduation.  In order to take the special pictures of the correct soldier when it is his turn to receive his diploma and have his "wings" pinned on, we have to be able to tell which one he is.  At in-processing we take one picture of the soldier, from the front, of course.  So we have that picture to look at and decide what the back of his head would look like. 

Of couse, depending on skin color, we can eliminate a few right away.  After that, it is height (which isn't always obvious from everyone sitting down), hair color (which isn't always obvious for obvious reasons), size and direction of the ears, and general shape of the head.

Given those challenges, it is funny how I get it right 98% of the time.  After I think I know which soldier we are looking for, I generally go up to him shake his hand, offer to take graduation pictures, and verify his mailing address to know where to send his pictures.  To tell the truth, we also do this for another reason.  By getting his home address, we know where to send his records if they followed him to this base. (Most records stay in the home ward, but sometimes, for various reasons, they come here.)

After the graduation all of the soldiers are standing up front and we are invited to congratulate all of the graduates.  I love the privilege of shaking the hand of all those who choose to serve their country.  There are a few that I even get to hug (those we've become close to). Some are lucky enought to have family attend the graduation, and it is fun to meet them.

Here is a typical in-processing picture. 

Here is the same soldier sitting in the position of Distinguished Gratuate at his graduation.

"You may not remember me, but we have come to take your graduation pictures if you would like us to.  Can I verify your address?" 

Wings are pinned on. 

The Graduate! 

Clapping for the graduates. 

We often take pictures of family and friends afterwards.

WE CAN'T HELP BUT LOVE THESE MEN AND WOMEN WITH ALL OF OUR HEARTS.

Ok, I'm going to make another comment here because this blog won't allow me to answer a question that someone made in "comments". (I don't know why it is being so stubborn)

Yes, sometimes we do get a soldier who does not want us to take their picture.  I usually ask first, "Do you have some family here to take your picture?"  (Most do not.) Then I ask if it would be OK if we took graduation pictures for them. If they look hesitant, I say, "Just for fun!" so they know I'm not going to ask for $.  Then they relax and say, "That would be nice, thank you."

But we have had a couple just say, "No ma'am."  so I just shake their hand and say, "Congratulations on your graduation." and we don't take any pictures. At least for those, we get to hear where they are going, because it is announced when they receive the diploma.

December in Virginia

I absolutely love these natural Christmas trees that grow here.  The little red berries are so festive and fun!  There are trees with red berries everywhere.  Some have leaves, some are just berries, some are trimmed like this into a Christmas tree shape.  I would like to steal one to put in my house.  I wouldn't even have to decorate it!

We said good-bye to one one of our favorite Elders who finished his mission and went home in time for Christmas.  What a joy it was to work with Elder D.

We babysat our "honorary" grandson one evening so that his parents could go to the officer's ball.  He was so much fun and really enjoyed Grandpa Elkins.  His favorite toys were: the bears, the aerobic step, a bucket full of potatoes, a laundry basket, and a phone. We have become good friends with his parents and will miss them when they transfer a month before we do.

At the mission conference it is always fun to see some of our favorite Elders.  Elder S was transferred back to work with us again as a District Leader and Elder R is the Zone Leader in another area now.

We were happy to have permission to spend Christmas with our daughter and her family.

It is so fun to be with family for Christmas.  It was a nice day, even if the kids were wishing for a white Christmas.

Our oldest grandson turned twelve a couple days before Christmas and is ready to be ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood.  What a wonderful blessing.

My sister sent these "stockings" for our Christmas.  What fun. 

We stopped by the DC Temple grounds.  Unfortunately the live nativity display is only in the evenings but they left this camel just sitting around so we had to get a picture or two.  We did enjoy seeing the creche displays in the Visitor's Center.

Soldier "Mom" gets a salute from her son at graduation.

She is one of our LDS soldiers who just got transferred to Korea.

A Missionary

The other day someone asked me how long we had been on our mission. My mind went blank and I said, "I know that it's been more than a year, we have 3 1/2 months to go."  Then I realized that after we passed the one year mark I stopped counting how many months we had been out and started counting down how many months till we get to hug our kids and grandkids again.  It's not that we want to leave.  We love every soldier and every moment that we are serving.  We savor every experience.  But we do sometimes long for home and the time is passing by very quickly.

The Chaplain called us!

     Monday was a busy day even though it was a holiday (Labor Day).  Many of our soldiers had left for the 4-day weekend. In the morning we picked up Soldier M from the Newport News airport, then took him around to some apartments to find a place for his family to live. (Some of our soldiers have training for 6 months, so they can move the family to the area if desired - even though they themselves still stay in the barracks most of the time.)  He was successful in securing a place that had a fence for the 3 kids and a dog only a few minutes drive from the base.

     In the afternoon we drove to the Norfolk airport (1 hour away) to get Soldier K.  After a couple calls and 1 1/2 hours of flight delays we were finally able to pick him up.  The poor man had been travelling all day from California and had a major headache. I knew how he felt because flying makes me sick too.  We finally got him delivered back to the base.

     At 10PM we drove back to Norfolk to get Soldier L.  His wife gave birth to twins the previous week so he was happy to go home for a few days.  We didn't know if he would be depressed for having to leave his wife and babies, but he was very happy to have been home. His flight finally came in at 11:30PM.

     We fell into bed just after 1AM, having missed the Senior Missionary Couples dinner earlier that evening.  Most of the missionaries have P-Day on Monday, but we take our breaks when we can get them and Monday isn't usually that day!

     Tuesday we had to be on base early for In-Processing which is usually on Monday, but was delayed because of the holiday.  We received 8 new LDS soldiers from the group.  Normally we get 1 to 4, so eight at once is a fun surprise.  All of these new soldiers are 18 years old, just out of High School.  They are so young!  We really pray that they will choose to attend church and make their army life much easier.

     Next was our mid-day Family Home Evening.  We usually bring sandwich fixings and share with the full-time Elders while we wait to see if any soldiers show up.  This FHE session is not as well attended as the evening session. We had been too rushed to bring food so we took the Elders to the food court at the PX (Post Exchange or base "mall") to buy some lunch. As we were preparing to leave with our take-out lunch a female soldier walked up to us with a big smile. "I haven't seen missionaries on the base for years!" she said. Obviously she was an inactive member.  Elder R took down her contact information and will follow up because she said, "Call me!"  We decided that was why we needed to be there that morning. 

     I am glad that I took this picture of our chapel a few months ago because the look is changing.  The cross has been removed and will be displayed someplace else instead of the front of the chapel.  The chaplain assistant has always been worried about it offending us, since we don't display the cross, but we have assured him that it is not offensive to us at all, since we do honor and remember the crucifixion.  The reason it has been removed is because of the large 60 inch screen TV that will be installed.  Those curtains will also be removed. I guess the drum set will stay since the Protestants use those for their service.  We are really excited that they are working to get an internet connection so that we can watch general conference in this building instead of transporting soldiers to the stake center.  Hopefully it will be more convenient and available for the soldiers - and ready in a couple weeks as promised.
     Wednesday we got a call from the battalion chaplain.  He said that he met with a soldier who should meet and counsel with US.  Imagine that!  We met with the soldier the next day.
     Soldier W is an inactive church member who has been at Ft. Eustis for nearly 2 years trying to complete his training.  He and a couple battle buddies became particularly close. The plan was for the 3 friends to go to Germany together for their next duty assignment. Through a series of test failures and medical problems, he did not graduate with his friends.  The two friends moved on and he stayed behind. Recently he learned that those friends were killed in an automobile accident in Germany.  He certainly would have been with them if he had succeeded in his training.  He was trying to figure out what God had in mind for him through all of this.  He had been raised in the church but at some point fell away.  He was one of those soldiers who did not identify himself as a member, so we were not aware of him on the base. 

     Elder Elkins gave him a blessing which told him how much his Father in Heaven loves him.  He seems like a really nice young man who is at a turning point.  He can choose to come back now and have some real peace in his life.  We hope that is what he will choose. We invited him with all of the energy and love that we could offer.  At his request I called his parents that evening.  They have been praying for him and love him very much.  There must be reasons for him to be here, and he is trying to figure it out.
    Soldier N is one who has recently come back into activity and has been attending faithfully.  By requesting his records we learned that he is a Priest.  He wasn't sure what Priesthood he had been given before he fell away.  He will now have the opportunity to use that Priesthood as the other soldiers guide him. His great desire is to receive his Patriarchal Blessing.  Because of the changing of leadership in the ward, we have been unable to get him an interview.  We had hoped for this Sunday, at Stake Conference but he will be in FTX (Field Training Exercises) and that makes it impossible for him to attend conference.  He only has a few weeks left here. Ahhh...the challenges of Army life at Fort Eustis.
     This morning we attended the graduation that was supposed to be for one of our dear soldiers.  He has been trying to pass his PT (Physical Training) tests, getting closer, but ultimately failing each time. Since he was not in attendance at the graduation we knew that he had failed once again.  He has such a tender heart it is sad to see him not be able to succeed.  His instructors must have felt the same way about him, since they have given him extra tries.  We don't know yet whether they will give him one more try or if they are processing him out of the army this time.  He volunteered to lead the music in our meetings for the past few months and we will miss him terribly.  The army is not the right place for everyone.
     Zone Meeting today made it a good day for feeling the Spirit.  Our young Elders and Sisters are so wonderful.  It has been a busy week and we will not get much rest till after Stake Conference on Sunday.  We had to find a new driver for the church van to transport soldiers to the Stake Center. (Brother D got transferred to Hawaii!)  Hopefully that will work out along with the meal and everything involved.
      Keep praying for us.  It does help.

Hurricane Irene - A Slight Inconvenience

Calm before the storm, a nice sunset and trees over the pond the night before Hurricane Irene arrived.

One of the drains on our apartment building.  You can see that it is putting down a LOT of water.  We got somewhere around 12 inches of rain in 24 hours.

The level of the drainage "lake" behind our apartment rose 5-6 feet during the storm.  The edge of the water is normally on the other side of those trees.  It could have gone up a few more feet before we would have been in danger of getting flooded.

In the afternoon the windows in the study began to spring leaks. We soaked up the steady rain with towels around the windows. Evidently the seal wasn’t adequate for this kind of torrential rain. We changed the towels often and wrung them out as they got soaked. We were grateful that I had thought to remove all papers and a small filing cabinet away from that side of the room, away from the windows, and also that we had decided to stay home. The carpet would have been very soggy and in need of being replaced, not to mention the mold which is a problem in this area. Eventually one window in the bedroom sprang a leak as well, but not till the rain had slowed down quite a bit.

This crawdad walked across the lawn and visited our patio.  I guess he was evacuating from the pond out back.

This was the landscape pretty much everywhere along with lots of branches and a few trees down.

Our power quit at 1:00pm on Saturday and came back on at 4:00pm on Monday.  We stayed away from the roads for 2 days because people don't know what do to without traffic lights and there were many accidents. We were disappointed that our land-line telephone quit working a few hours after the power went off.  We thought that would keep working and found out that the current technology only supplies battery power for a few hours.  Even the cell phones didn't work.  We were able to finally get a couple text messages out to let people know that we were  OK.

The entrance to our apartment complex is usually immaculate.  It took a few days to get back to normal.

This is just one small branch that broke off. All roads were lined with broken trees and branches.

On the army post, this used to be a covered area (gazebo) where the soldiers could get out of the sun when they were outside doing field exercises.  The tree that took it out is lying there.

Some of the smaller trees had problems too.

The top broke off of this poor tree.

On Sunday all church services were cancelled in the area.  We were encouraged to go out and help our neighbors with chainsaws and tools.  Since we didn't have any of those things we went outside at our complex with some bags and began picking up pinecones, branches, and debris.  One young couple saw us and asked if they could help.  We filled 6 bags in 30 minutes.

     Hurricane Irene wasn’t as fierce as expected, but it still took out enough trees to leave over 7 million homes without power along the east coast. The prediction was for a category 2 or 3 to hit our area but it was mostly a category 1 with gusts that would measure a cat. 2. We had prayed for safety and also that the hurricane would be turned away from the land. It was definitely moderated from what it could have been. The Mission President moved all of the young missionaries to the Richmond area to keep them out of the direct hit.  Richmond got as much wind and rain as we did here. We were given the choice whether to relocate or stay in our apartment for the storm. We opted to stay since we weren’t in a mandatory evacuation zone. We never felt panic or promptings to leave the area. We would have had to leave Thursday or Friday because once the storm began on Saturday, many roads were closed because of flooding and other major roads were clogged with traffic. We did know that we would likely lose power, and that came true. We had a full gas tank, batteries, flashlights, water and food. Fortunately it wasn't winter so we didn't have to worry about getting cold.  It did get hot though, without air conditioning.
     We went to Costco to print the graduation pictures on Friday and were amazed at the feeling of panic in the air as people grabbed armloads of batteries, bread, cases of water, and other provisions. I thought to myself, “Where have these people been? Haven’t they been aware of this hurricane for several days? Don’t they LIVE in a hurricane prone area?”  I heard one news reporter saying that she was in Walmart buying water and saw a lady put her hand over her ears and exclaim, “I just can’t deal with this!”                       IF YE ARE PREPARED YE SHALL NOT FEAR.
     We felt blessed during and after the hurricane.  We were a little inconvenienced by the loss of power, but knew that it could have been much worse.  We also missed meeting with the soldiers on Sunday because all services were cancelled on the base.  Our poor chapel building had some roof leaks and seriously needs repair. (They knew this long before the hurricane.) 

     We continue to pray for those up the coast who have been devastated much more than our inconvenience.