239 Years of Service

Saturday, August 2, 2014

Yesterday, we had the opportunity to attend a celebration for the Chaplains as they celebrated 239 years of military chaplains service to the country. They had a  nice luncheon and short program. We missed the program because we were in Douglas and Bisbee inspecting missionary vehicles, but we made it in time for the lunch and to mingle and talk with some of the chaplains and other workers in the  chaplain office.

Chaplain (LTC) Maglio is the Acting Senior Chaplain at the Garrison and a really good man

Chaplain in center recently left Ft Huachuca. We work closely with the Assistant Chaplain on the left

Monday, our daughter Lori brought the kids down to spend the day. We enjoyed nachos and cheese for lunch, then went bowling. Lori beat me the first game but could not maintain the pressure the second game and collapsed. We will not talk about grandma's score as several of her grandchildren topped her. After bowling, we came back to the apartment, the kids played ping pong and we had pizza for dinner. It was fun spending the day with family.

This week was vehicle inspection week, so we have traveled the area inspecting missionary cars to make sure that they are keeping up on cleaning and maintenance. Our group is doing a very good job overall taking care of these valuable resources.

The past couple of weeks our group leader and his wife have been away on vacation. The assistant group leader lost his father a couple of weeks ago so RoLayne and I have been trying to fill the gaps. We do not have any presiding authority, we are here as support, so a member of the bishopric comes out and conducts sacrament meeting when these brethren are away. We are happy that they are back in town now to resume their responsibilities. We did really enjoy taking care of the Kovak's garden while they were gone. We enjoyed, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, peppers, beans, beets, and some apple pears. It was really yummy. RoLayne's garden continues to do well and it looks like we will soon get some more tomatoes from it.

RoLayne's Garden

The monsoons continue as it has been raining almost every night. Fortunately, so far no more floods, but things are really greening up here and the temperatures are much more reasonable.

We have been working hard to improve attendance at church with mixed results. Our attendance remains about the same each week with 8-10 soldiers attending. They are not always the same soldiers however. We did have one soldier graduate this past week and we will miss him as he was a regular attender.

Three Lieutenants who have been attending, two returned missionaries and the young lady who is investigating

A couple of the Lieutenants who are here attending the basic officer course have been bringing one of their classmates to church the past three weeks. The missionaries have started teaching her this past week so we are hoping for some success there.

This is a Vancouver, WA soldier who graduated this month

For those who have wondered what kind of place we live in, this apartment has been our home for the past year. (Bottom right apartment)