Well the phone call came and it was good to hear from him. I was able to talk to him about the pictures so have updated the information on them. He says the weather is starting to get a little cold, he had to get up in the night and put sock on as he was cold. He will have snow for winter, so it is very much like Utah.

These two pictures are of the road project they are working on. I asked him what the pile of rocks in the fields are and he said just that. He did say some piles are for an old water system that runs underground, but he doesn't think these are them. The structure in the background are of another village.

He had been out again on these roads and he said that going out is always and adventure. They don't have driving school over there and the main rule is just that if your leg is long enough to reach the gas pedal you are eligible to drive!! He says it makes for some pretty interesting stuff. Both of these pictures are taken at the same place.

You can see some of a water system in this picture. He said this is like a canal they use and the water is a real blue-green color. You can see a little of it in the bottom left hand corner. He got other pictures of it, but he wasn't in them. He said there is a huge dam further up that is about two football fields high. The building in the back is a village that is close to Kabul.

My phone call came last Friday and I didn't know if I would get one this week or not and as of yet, no. He sounded good as always. We talked a little about the pictures he sent and so I updated the pictures explaining what we had talked about. It was late when he called and he had just climbed into his bunk so we didn't talk long.

You can see all the gear that he is required to wear when he goes out. He says it is about 100 lbs extra that he has to carry when he goes off base. I asked about the round cylinder on the gun and he says it shoots grenades. You can see that there is a second trigger that is used to shoot the grenades.

I asked him about the path that you can see in the back ground of this picture and he says that's they way it is all over. They really don't have structured roads like we do and these paths are as close as it comes to a road.

He says there aren't many cows, mostly goats that jump and get into everything. Most of the cows have these colorful bands around their necks. Andrea said they were like this in Costa Rica also.

Well it's Monday and the phone rang about when I exptected it. He sounds good and it's hard to believe that he is that far away. I still haven't received any pictures and I am running out of pictures of phones to post so am hoping for some this week.

He said he has been out on another mission and doing some other things. Much of the day to day stuff is the same. We talked for quite a while, but it was just "stuff", but wanted to post and let everyone know the phone call did come in and he sounds really good.

My call came Sunday afternoon this week which made it 2 a.m. for him. He had just left the hospital saying good-bye to someone in his unit who was being sent to another base for gall bladder surgery.

He has been attending his church meetings but keeps telling me he's going to stop going as they keep asking him to pray. He is just joking of course, I keep telling him this is his missionary experience. They have two different times for meetings and with his schedule he is attending an evening meeting. It is a smaller group and so prayer duty rotates through faster. I think he told me the earlier meeting has about 50 that attend, but the one he is going to is much smaller.

He also met someone who is at another base in the area that is trying to get church going at that base. They have 4 of them that are returned missionaries, but as of now they are doing only a study group. This soldier is working with the Branch President (I think that's what Shane called him) that is over Shane's trying to get things going at their base.

I did get his camera to him, but as of yet haven't received any pictures, I will post any as soon as I get them. He still sounds good.

Just for your information, I sent his box in one of the post office's flat rate boxes. If you are interested in sending him "stuff" especially with the holidays coming, you can but as much as you want into the box and the rate is the same no matter how heavy it is. I sent the box on Monday and he had it by Friday and it was $11.95 to send it.