It has been a few weeks since I have updated my blog, for that I apologize. Things have slowed down somewhat compared to this past summer, but we are still pretty busy. We were told just the other day that we are the single busiest FST in all of CENTCOM. That means we do more and see more patients than any other area, including Iraq.
As you can see by the pictures, things have changed around here. We woke up in the morning to find the whole valley covered in snow. This was fun and beautiful for about 2 hours, then it just started getting wet, cold and slushy. Many of you who live in areas that snow know about "slushy". Except this is slushy with mud underneath. We had a fun snowball fight and built a snowman. I then spent the rest of the day underneath an electric blanket watching movies. Not a bad "snow day".
There are other changes afoot here at Shank. This week I will be moving locations on a back-fill mission for about a month. I will be going way far down south with a FST that is supporting the Marines near Helmand Province. It is kind of a bummer to be leaving my "family" during the holidays, but it will be good to have a change over the next couple of months. By the time I get back I will be down to single digit weeks before my return to civilization. I am going to fill in for a surgeon who is going home of R&R during his year long deployment. It also happens to be a good friend of mine from medical school. That to me, makes it all better. It will be quite an adventure just getting there and then we will see what life is like. I have been very fortunate to be in a "busy" FST and this experience has been one of a life time.
Change is really what we as humans and children of God are all about. Our adaptability is one thing that separates us from most all other species on earth. Moreover, the ability to change one's soul is what Christ is all about. To understand how this occurs through the atonement, we have to understand the fall of Adam and the effects of the fall.
"The fall" is a term to describe the sentinel event where Adam and Eve used their agency to partake of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and separate themselves from the presence of God. The act was what allowed our own existence, yet is also introduced sin and death into the world. They became mortal, imperfect and unable to stand in the presence of God. All of our imperfections, are a result of the fall. Addictions, sins, sickness, pain, and punishment are a result of this action. In order to prepare a way for us to be worthy to return to the presence of God, He sent His Son, Jesus Christ who in Gethsemane and on the cross, paid the price for all of these effects of the fall. It is written that he "descended below all things.." so that he would know how to help lift us from our misery. Christ doesn't just empathize with our pain and suffering, he experienced our pain and suffering. As we come unto Him, and embrace the atonement, become justified and sanctified in Him, He changes our hearts and our souls. Through him, we are in essence "born again" and He changes us. This change is a process, sometime an arduous process. We repent and allow the atonement to change our lives.
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