Well, here is my second post from Columbia, SC.  Seems like we have been very busy over the past few weeks.  On May 31st we attended our first Family Day Celebration at Fort Jackson.  We began the day early.  Arrived at Fort Jackson at 8:00 a.m. where we waited for the ceremony to begin.
Each ceremony begins with a prayer and then the national anthem.  Following that there is a brief introduction and speech by the company commander, after which the smoke starts.  Smoke bombs are thrown onto the field and the soldiers appear through the smoke.  It is fun to see all the families that are there get so excited to see their soldiers.  You can hear them shouting out their soldier's same or point him/her out and shout, There his is!  It is wonderful to hear and see the excitement in the voices of the families.  The soldiers are then allowed to go with their families for the rest of the day.  They are not allowed off base however.

In the afternoon, we have a meet and greet informal get together at the chapel where we have church. We were able to meet with the families of two of the LDS service men that graduated this week. It was nice to be able to visit with and get to know them.  They were so happy to be able to spend some time with their soldier and see that he had been attending church while he was at basic training.  Both of them seemed to be strong members of the church.  We visit with them for an hour or so and provide some refreshments for them.

The next day, June 1st, was graduation for the soldiers.  Again our day starts out early as we are at the Hilton Field at 8:00.  Here we enjoy listening to the Army Band entertain us while everyone arrives and gets ready for the ceremony.  They are very good and very entertaining.  Again we start with a prayer, national anthem, and speeches.  They then have a ceremony where the soldiers who are not citizens of the United States sworn in to become citizens.  There were 30 soldiers this first week. After that they recognize the outstanding soldiers in different areas and then the soldier march by the stadium in their dress uniforms.  They look very sharp!  From there they are able to leave with their families for the day.  Some go with their families to their next training station and some stay and ride the bus if their families are not there or cannot take them..

After graduation we went to the security building to see what we needed to do to be able to get President Turner, the mission president on the base for church on Sunday.  We also visited a museum that had relics from the 911 attack.  We talked to a lady there about the possibility of doing some service at one of the museums.

On June 2nd we went to a training with the other missionaries that work at Fort Jackson on Sundays.

On June 3rd we had more training with the other missionary couple and sent some letters to the soldiers and their parents.

On June 4th we sent letters to the branch presidents letting them know information about the soldiers that had graduated this week.  We send these letters so their new branch president can contact them and keep them active wherever they are.  We know where they are going based on the area they are being sent to for additional training.  It is nice to have the continuity.

These activities keep us pretty busy.  We don't have any contact with the new recruits except for two hours on Sunday so we do all we can to make them feel welcome and let them know we are thinking about and praying for them.  A lot of them bring their battle buddies and we are able to introduce them to the gospel as well.

Better go, we have another training this morning and need to pick up the sister missionaries and take them with us to the training.

Hope all is well with everyone!