Once again it's Sunday and I have been really looking forward to this one. It hasn't been a really bad week, it was just kinda blah. After getting up at 3 or 4 in the morning everyday, it is always a treat to sleep in for that extra hour or two on Sundays.

Sundays are great for sleeping but Church was better. It's exciting to me to see the number of LDS members over here. When I first came to Kandahar in 2004 there were usually about 7 or 8 of us and we met in a bullet-riddled mud brick building with most of the roof blown away. Through 2005, 2006, and 2007, attendance was usually between 10-20 people. I left to Iraq for 18 months or so and now that I'm back, the Servicemen's Group is larger than my singles branch back in Denver.

I've been seeing it for going on 7 years but I always have to marvel at the sight of somebody with a machine gun blessing or passing the sacrament, or the mother of four conducting the music in uniform with a 9mm strapped to her thigh. With often amateurish musical ability accompanied by jet engine afterburners and helicopters buzzing the chapel, and under the leadership of men more accustomed to leading soldiers into battle, sacrament meeting is what has been tearfully described again and again by soldiers and civilians alike in testimonies as one of the most intense spiritual experiences ever. I wish everyone could see it a time or two. It is so unique that you never look at a traditional Sunday service in the same way again. I'm glad I was here, and I'm glad I went to church!