More Mail!

Three more letters from Specialist Yoder!

March 15th
"I can't believe it is already the 15th of March. This week went by so fast. Now that the first week is over and the boring classes are done, time is gonna fly by. We get to do first aid stuff this week. CPR, bandaging wounds, sticking people with IVs, you know the usual stuff. That will be on Tuesday. On Friday we go to the gas changer. That is gonna be fun and scary, but I will be alright. Today we learned how to take our weapon apart. We won't get to shoot it for a few weeks. Our drill sergeant is the most strict of all the platoons in our company. Sometimes we get CAPED for little stuff that other platoons don't get in trouble for, but our platoon is the most disciplined one and we have our act together."

March 16th
"Well I have had an interesting day today. I got to teach the 2nd discussion at church. It was hard, but fun. I left my canteen at church, the canteen that I am supposed to keep with me at all times and never let it be lost. I thought I was going to have to buy a new one (they are $250). Lucky for me the branch president brought it back to me. I will probably be CAPED for it along with the rest of my platoon." (I don't think he was since I asked him if he'd ever caused a "CAPING" on the phone and he said no.)

March 18th
"Getting to the news of today. It was great. I got to put and IV into a fellow soldier. It was so cool. I had a lot of fun. First we had to find a vein, then we had to tie a constricting band around the bicep to get the vein to stand out more. After we cleaned the location we stuck a catheter into the vein just enough to puncture the vein - go too far and you blow up the vein, if you don't go far enough then the catheter won't make it into the vein when you pull the needle out. I was able to get the needle and the catheter into the vein on my first try without spilling a drop of blood. It was so cool. I felt so good being able to do it painlessly for my patient. When I got stuck with the needle, my battle buddy didn't put pressure on the vein above the stick site and so before he could get the "saline lock" into place, my blood went all over the place. It was OK though. Usually I can't watch when I give blood and they stick me with the needle, but today I had to, to make sure he did it right. It went in painlessly, I was surprised. But I know it wasn't me that performed that procedure, but I was guided by the hand of the Lord. He also calmed me to be able to go through the procedure. I am so thankful for the gospel and the blessings I have been given. We get certified in the next few days to be Certified Combat Life Savers (CLS)."

When I talked to Joel on Thursday he had passed his CLS certification and was very excited. Hopefully we'll hear about the tear gas chamber soon - I forgot to ask him about it when I talked to him today. He loves the emails he gets - please keep sending them to him. Thanks for all your support everyone!