Dear Family, December 23, 2007\
Merry Christmas Eve Eve. :) Sorry for my poor communication. I have been so busy that I have not had time to do any thing but read my letters and clean the house. Last Wednesday we thatched a movie. It was OK. Other wise I shot all of last week. I did not shoot really well. I ended up shooting a 212. 250 is perfect so I dropped 38 points. All we have now is table II. Table II is moving targets. It should be fun. I can pick up another 10 points so I can move from sharp shooter to Expert. Other wise we did the 8 mile hike yesterday. It was fine except that I was the knowledge recruit and I had to scream for the whole time. I am hoarse today. I think that our platoon will take range as we had 2 recruits who shot 240s and 239 as well. There are a lot of experts. That is most of the news. Next week we are camping out for 3 nights. WE are not going out till Wednesday. So we are staying here till after Christmas. Camping should be fun. It is still cold here. Probably about 40 every morning and getting up to 65 or 70 every day. It rained one day last week so that was a little cold and muddy shooting. It is still hard to find time for devos as our square away time is cut down to 45 minutes instead of 1 1/2 hours. In that time we have to fit equipment, clean the house, and shower and shave. I still have opportunity to talk to recruits about the Lord. It is neat o see the interest in spiritual things. I cannot believe the immorality in America. I think I see the worst of it here at boot camp. You can pray I keep my language clean. It is still a challenge as I hear dirty language constantly.
Today the Church service was good. The sermon was on Joseph from Matthew 1. It was given by a retired chaplain that was LCMS. He preached the word. Well I had better go. Merry Christmas!
Christ's Soldier,
David Pillman
Prov. 4:24
P.S. Thanks for all the letters from friends and family. I love them. Please send me pictures!
Monday, December 31, 2007
Saturday, December 29, 2007
No new Letters
If you are wondering we have not received any letters from David for a few weeks. We will make sure that as soon as we get another, we will post it.
Monday, December 17, 2007
Christmas Cookies
Here are a few Christmas cookie favorites:
Spritz Cookies
1c. sugar
1 ½ cup marg.
3 egg yolks
1 tsp. almond extract
3 c. unsifted flour
Put through a cookie press. Bake at 300F for 20 min. 7 doz. pressed cookies
Mexican Wedding Cakes
½ cup marg.
2 T sugar
1 c. flour
1 c. walnuts, chopped
1 tsp. vanilla
Roll the size of walnuts. Bake 350F for 10-12 min. Roll in powdered sugar while hot. Roll again in powdered sugar when cool.
Peanut Blossoms
3 ½ c. flour
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
Cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup peanut butter. Add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup br. sugar. Cream. Add 2 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla. Blend dry ingredients together and add. Roll into balls. Roll in sugar. (May use red or green sugar). Bake at 350F for 8 min. Take from oven. Put choc, kisses on top. Bake another 2-5 min. more.
Spritz Cookies
1c. sugar
1 ½ cup marg.
3 egg yolks
1 tsp. almond extract
3 c. unsifted flour
Put through a cookie press. Bake at 300F for 20 min. 7 doz. pressed cookies
Mexican Wedding Cakes
½ cup marg.
2 T sugar
1 c. flour
1 c. walnuts, chopped
1 tsp. vanilla
Roll the size of walnuts. Bake 350F for 10-12 min. Roll in powdered sugar while hot. Roll again in powdered sugar when cool.
Peanut Blossoms
3 ½ c. flour
2 tsp soda
1 tsp salt
Cream 1 cup butter and 1 cup peanut butter. Add 1 cup sugar and 1 cup br. sugar. Cream. Add 2 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla. Blend dry ingredients together and add. Roll into balls. Roll in sugar. (May use red or green sugar). Bake at 350F for 8 min. Take from oven. Put choc, kisses on top. Bake another 2-5 min. more.
Friday, December 14, 2007
Here's what's cooking in our Kitchen! Ed. 3
Another one of our Christmas traditions. This cookie is Swedish, but is very similar to an Italian Biscotti.
Rusks
½ c. butter
1/2c. marg.
2c. sugar
2 eggs
4 1/2c.flour
½ c. nuts
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. milk
Cream butter and marg, add sugar cream again. Add eggs and beat. Mix dry ingredients and add to the rest. Form into four logs 12’ long 2’ wide and 1’ tall. Place two logs on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 35-40 min. Logs should be slightly browned and not sticky or raw to cut. Let logs cool slightly. Then, using a bread knife slice each log on a slight angle into ½” pieces. Lay each slice onto its side and spread all over cookie sheets. Place back into oven at 200F. to dry. They will be crisp. Can turn oven off and let dry over night.
Rusks
½ c. butter
1/2c. marg.
2c. sugar
2 eggs
4 1/2c.flour
½ c. nuts
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. milk
Cream butter and marg, add sugar cream again. Add eggs and beat. Mix dry ingredients and add to the rest. Form into four logs 12’ long 2’ wide and 1’ tall. Place two logs on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350F for 35-40 min. Logs should be slightly browned and not sticky or raw to cut. Let logs cool slightly. Then, using a bread knife slice each log on a slight angle into ½” pieces. Lay each slice onto its side and spread all over cookie sheets. Place back into oven at 200F. to dry. They will be crisp. Can turn oven off and let dry over night.
Here's what's cooking in our Kitchen! Ed. 2
One of our traditional Christmas cookies.
Rug Cookies 350F 10-12 min.
1 c. butter or marg.
1 ½ c. sugar
1 Tbs. corn syrup
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp. cloves
2 ½c. flour
Cream butter. Add sugar and syrup. Add egg. Mix flour and spices. Add to creamed mixture. Put through a cookie press or roll into balls, roll in sugar and bake. When we use a cookie press, we make the shape of a rug in strips down the cookie sheet. We cut them into desired size as we take them off the sheet. They must be removed from cookie sheet immediately as they will stick badly if allowed to cool.
Rug Cookies 350F 10-12 min.
1 c. butter or marg.
1 ½ c. sugar
1 Tbs. corn syrup
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp ginger
2 tsp. cloves
2 ½c. flour
Cream butter. Add sugar and syrup. Add egg. Mix flour and spices. Add to creamed mixture. Put through a cookie press or roll into balls, roll in sugar and bake. When we use a cookie press, we make the shape of a rug in strips down the cookie sheet. We cut them into desired size as we take them off the sheet. They must be removed from cookie sheet immediately as they will stick badly if allowed to cool.
Here's what's cooking in our Kitchen!
This is one of our favorite unique Christmas cookie recipes. Enjoy!
Finnish Cookies 375F 15-20 min. Makes 3 doz.
1 c. butter
1 c. small curd cottage cheese
¼ tsp. salt
2 c. flour
¾ c. br. sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
¾ c. finely chopped walnuts
2 Tbs. water
icing sugar for rolling
½ tsp. cinnamon
melted butter
Cream butter with cottage cheese; blend in salt and flour. Shape into ball. Divide dough into thirds. Roll each piece into a 12” round. Brush with melted butter. Combine cinnamon brown sugar and nuts. Sprinkle 1/3 mixture over each round. Cut into 16 pie-shaped wedges. Spread at wide edge, roll towards point. Place point down on greased cookie sheet; brush with combined egg yolk and water. Bake. Remove from pan immediately and sprinkle with or roll in sifted confectioners sugar.
Finnish Cookies 375F 15-20 min. Makes 3 doz.
1 c. butter
1 c. small curd cottage cheese
¼ tsp. salt
2 c. flour
¾ c. br. sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
¾ c. finely chopped walnuts
2 Tbs. water
icing sugar for rolling
½ tsp. cinnamon
melted butter
Cream butter with cottage cheese; blend in salt and flour. Shape into ball. Divide dough into thirds. Roll each piece into a 12” round. Brush with melted butter. Combine cinnamon brown sugar and nuts. Sprinkle 1/3 mixture over each round. Cut into 16 pie-shaped wedges. Spread at wide edge, roll towards point. Place point down on greased cookie sheet; brush with combined egg yolk and water. Bake. Remove from pan immediately and sprinkle with or roll in sifted confectioners sugar.
David's Dec.6-9 Letter
Dear Family, 6-9 Dec.,2007
Today we went to the pool and were sent back and so I basically cleaned the "house" and took a knowledge test all morning. Then, after chow, we went to the combat course. It was a course in which a team of 4 ran through with a rifle and flack jacket and helmet. Then you had to crawl under barb wire and use your bayonet. It was a lot of fun. Then, we competed in the thunder dome and did pugle sticks. I won all three matches and our plt. got first in it also. Anyway that was my day.
Friday, I had to go to med. and get 5 shots (ouch) and then I got to call home.:)
Praise the Lord! The rest of Friday, was spent standing @ attention, getting our pictures taken and going to the PX. Of course we also got I.T.ed and cleaned the house. I probably swabbed the house 8 X. Otherwise, we just packed up all our stuff.
Saturday, we played stupid games all day with our rifles and loaded all our stuff in the morning. I am sore from holding our rifles above our head for a LONG time. After chow, we stood for about an hour and I yelled out knowledge the whole time. Then, we were loaded into buses and taken to camp Pendleton. It rained most of the day so we got fairly wet. Once at Pendleton we moved into our house. Then, we had chow and cleaned everything.
SUNDAY Today, we had a great breakfast and cleaned the house and went to chow. Then we went to chapel. Church was great. Finally, we had a chaplain who preached the Word and knew the power of prayer. Finally God's Word was really preached. The sermon was from Psalm72 and Matthew 3:1-12. It was the fruit of repentance and the grace of God. Now it is free time till chow and then we get all of our gear for up here. You can pray I do well in range week--next week.
Christ's soldier,
David Pillman
Gal.6:9-10
Today we went to the pool and were sent back and so I basically cleaned the "house" and took a knowledge test all morning. Then, after chow, we went to the combat course. It was a course in which a team of 4 ran through with a rifle and flack jacket and helmet. Then you had to crawl under barb wire and use your bayonet. It was a lot of fun. Then, we competed in the thunder dome and did pugle sticks. I won all three matches and our plt. got first in it also. Anyway that was my day.
Friday, I had to go to med. and get 5 shots (ouch) and then I got to call home.:)
Praise the Lord! The rest of Friday, was spent standing @ attention, getting our pictures taken and going to the PX. Of course we also got I.T.ed and cleaned the house. I probably swabbed the house 8 X. Otherwise, we just packed up all our stuff.
Saturday, we played stupid games all day with our rifles and loaded all our stuff in the morning. I am sore from holding our rifles above our head for a LONG time. After chow, we stood for about an hour and I yelled out knowledge the whole time. Then, we were loaded into buses and taken to camp Pendleton. It rained most of the day so we got fairly wet. Once at Pendleton we moved into our house. Then, we had chow and cleaned everything.
SUNDAY Today, we had a great breakfast and cleaned the house and went to chow. Then we went to chapel. Church was great. Finally, we had a chaplain who preached the Word and knew the power of prayer. Finally God's Word was really preached. The sermon was from Psalm72 and Matthew 3:1-12. It was the fruit of repentance and the grace of God. Now it is free time till chow and then we get all of our gear for up here. You can pray I do well in range week--next week.
Christ's soldier,
David Pillman
Gal.6:9-10
Monday, December 10, 2007
David Letter #9
Dear Family, December 4, 2007
Well, it is swim week! Monday I qualified for swim 4. It was easy. You had to jump off a 10 foot tower with camies on and tread water for 4 minutes . Next, I had to swim 25 yards 2x with camies. Today I qualified for swim 3 it included getting on all our gear- including boots- jump off the tower and swim 25 yards.Next, we had to get on packs, guns, helmets, and flack jackets and 5 yards in chest high water, swim 25 yards with the equipment, and jump off a 8 foot tower and swim 25 yards. All the swimming with packs we had to swim toward our feet. That is a little tough. Got to go do devotions.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
to day I qualified for swim 2 it was not tough. All we had to do was have on a Kevlar, a flack jacket, and a rifle. Then, we had to swim 20 yards. Lets just say the equipment slowed me down a bit, but I made it. Then we had the buddy tow. We had to tow a buddy 30 yards and then switch. Both my buddy and I passed. Tomorrow we have one last swim day. Today we also packed for up North, got our debit card, a hair cut, and practiced for our oral and written tests. Those tests are on T 51- today is T 20. Anyway, time continues to pass. We also had to make our racks about 15x today and I spent time on the quarter deck. Praise the Lord for his strength and for a fun time here. I am feeling great! Pray that I stay healthy and can continue to witness to recruits.
Christ's Soldier,
Pillman, David
Is. 40
On out side of letter: P.S. I run in New Balance shoes. Cards are fine.
Well, it is swim week! Monday I qualified for swim 4. It was easy. You had to jump off a 10 foot tower with camies on and tread water for 4 minutes . Next, I had to swim 25 yards 2x with camies. Today I qualified for swim 3 it included getting on all our gear- including boots- jump off the tower and swim 25 yards.Next, we had to get on packs, guns, helmets, and flack jackets and 5 yards in chest high water, swim 25 yards with the equipment, and jump off a 8 foot tower and swim 25 yards. All the swimming with packs we had to swim toward our feet. That is a little tough. Got to go do devotions.
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
to day I qualified for swim 2 it was not tough. All we had to do was have on a Kevlar, a flack jacket, and a rifle. Then, we had to swim 20 yards. Lets just say the equipment slowed me down a bit, but I made it. Then we had the buddy tow. We had to tow a buddy 30 yards and then switch. Both my buddy and I passed. Tomorrow we have one last swim day. Today we also packed for up North, got our debit card, a hair cut, and practiced for our oral and written tests. Those tests are on T 51- today is T 20. Anyway, time continues to pass. We also had to make our racks about 15x today and I spent time on the quarter deck. Praise the Lord for his strength and for a fun time here. I am feeling great! Pray that I stay healthy and can continue to witness to recruits.
Christ's Soldier,
Pillman, David
Is. 40
On out side of letter: P.S. I run in New Balance shoes. Cards are fine.
Friday, December 7, 2007
David Letter #8
Dear Family, Dec. 2,2007
Today was church again. Church was really disappointing as we had a Woman Chaplain for the first time.:(...a very poor sermon on the end times.
Anyway on a more positive subject, yesterday my platoon #3271 got first in initial drill. Then we did a mini grind (a little drill inside the house). Then, we went to chow after a lot of standing at attention. Then we had chow. After chow, we did more mini grind and then had P.T. It was the circuit course and then had a huge tug-of-war. 3271 lost, but it was still a lot of fun. Tony is home sick somewhat.
Finally, we got ice cream in the evening as s treat and watched a movie as a reward for getting first in drill. You can continue to pray that I can be a light in word and action. I am making a lot of friends here. They are a rough crowd, but I can handle teasing because of my innocence. I am glad I have been protected my whole life. Thanks Mom and Dad! Well, got to run. Next week is swim week. Next week, we go up to Camp Pendleton. This address will remain the same.
Christ's soldier,
David Pillman
Rom. 13: 11-14
Today was church again. Church was really disappointing as we had a Woman Chaplain for the first time.:(...a very poor sermon on the end times.
Anyway on a more positive subject, yesterday my platoon #3271 got first in initial drill. Then we did a mini grind (a little drill inside the house). Then, we went to chow after a lot of standing at attention. Then we had chow. After chow, we did more mini grind and then had P.T. It was the circuit course and then had a huge tug-of-war. 3271 lost, but it was still a lot of fun. Tony is home sick somewhat.
Finally, we got ice cream in the evening as s treat and watched a movie as a reward for getting first in drill. You can continue to pray that I can be a light in word and action. I am making a lot of friends here. They are a rough crowd, but I can handle teasing because of my innocence. I am glad I have been protected my whole life. Thanks Mom and Dad! Well, got to run. Next week is swim week. Next week, we go up to Camp Pendleton. This address will remain the same.
Christ's soldier,
David Pillman
Rom. 13: 11-14
A Phone call from David!
We just got a ten minute phone call from David! It sounds like he has been continuing to be doing very well. He got first in the swimming and his platoon got first in the competition between all the platoon in his Mike company. He doesn't have much time to witness, but continue praying for those opportunities. He says people think that it is kind of funny that he can have high-energy, be up-beat and positive the whole time, so praise the Lord again for giving him that spirit.
We'll continue to keep you informed.
We'll continue to keep you informed.
Thursday, December 6, 2007
David Letter # 7
Dear Family, November 30, 2007
Well, life continues to be busy. Yesterday I had a hair cut in the morning and did a lot of drill. then we had chow and did a lot more drill. We are building up to the initial drill competition tomorrow. After chow we had a fake full PFT test. I did my best and did 15 pull ups. (Pull-ups here are hard because you have to go all the way down and up) Then I ran the 3 mile run. I came in first out of 200 recruits at 18:30 minutes. It was not that good, but I did my best. Next, was crunches and I did 100. I scored about a 275 on the PFT.
Today I was called up to our Series commander and they said I was one of the few recruits they think could make a 300 PFT. My Sr. Drill Instructor said that he has never had anyone get a 300 PFT out of the 4 plt. he has had. Praise the Lord for His strength. Pray that I can do well on the initial PFT next Friday so I don't get in trouble. Today was the first inspection which meant that DIs from another plt. looked us over and asked questions and of course yelled at us. Then we did more drilling inside. It rained all day today so we were outside only to walk to chow and back. We did a lot of drill and cleaned our rifles. Then we did PT inside our house, which included push-ups, pull-up, and crunches. I did a total of 1050 crunches, 75 pull-ups, and innumerable push-ups and dips off of foot lockers. My record was 300 crunches at one time. I also got put on the quarter deck for something my rack mate did. That was OK, but tiring. (I was 7 times on the quarter deck) :). Continue to pray for Cordinez- he seems like he will accept the Lord soon-Pray!
Christ's soldier,
David Is. 40:28-31
P.S. Please continue to write letters
Well, life continues to be busy. Yesterday I had a hair cut in the morning and did a lot of drill. then we had chow and did a lot more drill. We are building up to the initial drill competition tomorrow. After chow we had a fake full PFT test. I did my best and did 15 pull ups. (Pull-ups here are hard because you have to go all the way down and up) Then I ran the 3 mile run. I came in first out of 200 recruits at 18:30 minutes. It was not that good, but I did my best. Next, was crunches and I did 100. I scored about a 275 on the PFT.
Today I was called up to our Series commander and they said I was one of the few recruits they think could make a 300 PFT. My Sr. Drill Instructor said that he has never had anyone get a 300 PFT out of the 4 plt. he has had. Praise the Lord for His strength. Pray that I can do well on the initial PFT next Friday so I don't get in trouble. Today was the first inspection which meant that DIs from another plt. looked us over and asked questions and of course yelled at us. Then we did more drilling inside. It rained all day today so we were outside only to walk to chow and back. We did a lot of drill and cleaned our rifles. Then we did PT inside our house, which included push-ups, pull-up, and crunches. I did a total of 1050 crunches, 75 pull-ups, and innumerable push-ups and dips off of foot lockers. My record was 300 crunches at one time. I also got put on the quarter deck for something my rack mate did. That was OK, but tiring. (I was 7 times on the quarter deck) :). Continue to pray for Cordinez- he seems like he will accept the Lord soon-Pray!
Christ's soldier,
David Is. 40:28-31
P.S. Please continue to write letters
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
David Letter # 6
Dear Family November 26-28, 2007
Today was probably one of the best days at boot camp. It was tough but fun. In the morning we did the confidence course which was a lot of climbing over obstacles like rope ladders, towers, and huge monkey bar type things. Then we practiced falling and leg sweeps. this all took about 5 hours in the morning. Then we had a class on History 5 which was the Vietnam war with Capt. John Repply and Carlos Hethckock. Then we had a class on mentorship. During it one of the recruits asked why DI swear and as it was the first Sargent of the corps he got in trouble because no swearing is allowed. Anyway, the DI keep saying how easy boot camp is now and basically I can agree, though it is still mentally and physically challenging.
Tuesday they played mind games all day and tore our whole house apart and then made us run up and down stairs. Then we got a dummy grade for initial drill and we did very well. We had our last first aid class and our log drills. That was tough as I was one of the tallest recruits and had to be up front. I had a lot of weight, but it was a good work out. My shoulders are sore today.
Wednesday we had a GI bill class all morning with more signing of paper work. Next we practiced with rifles and I was forced to rough up a weak recruit by the name of Bailey, but he took it pretty well. Then we had Pugle sticks and I won once and lost once. Then we drilled more and got another dummy grade. Everything is building up to Initial Drill Saturday.
Pray that I can continue to witness to more recruits-especially Cardinous.
Christ's Soldier,
David
P.S. Everything is said to be easier here because of our female Commander General Salinous.
Today was probably one of the best days at boot camp. It was tough but fun. In the morning we did the confidence course which was a lot of climbing over obstacles like rope ladders, towers, and huge monkey bar type things. Then we practiced falling and leg sweeps. this all took about 5 hours in the morning. Then we had a class on History 5 which was the Vietnam war with Capt. John Repply and Carlos Hethckock. Then we had a class on mentorship. During it one of the recruits asked why DI swear and as it was the first Sargent of the corps he got in trouble because no swearing is allowed. Anyway, the DI keep saying how easy boot camp is now and basically I can agree, though it is still mentally and physically challenging.
Tuesday they played mind games all day and tore our whole house apart and then made us run up and down stairs. Then we got a dummy grade for initial drill and we did very well. We had our last first aid class and our log drills. That was tough as I was one of the tallest recruits and had to be up front. I had a lot of weight, but it was a good work out. My shoulders are sore today.
Wednesday we had a GI bill class all morning with more signing of paper work. Next we practiced with rifles and I was forced to rough up a weak recruit by the name of Bailey, but he took it pretty well. Then we had Pugle sticks and I won once and lost once. Then we drilled more and got another dummy grade. Everything is building up to Initial Drill Saturday.
Pray that I can continue to witness to more recruits-especially Cardinous.
Christ's Soldier,
David
P.S. Everything is said to be easier here because of our female Commander General Salinous.
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