Sunday, May 23,2345 EST

An emotionally draining night. In talking with Katherine, David's Sweetheart, she told me that a couple days before David's incident, he called and expressed concerns about the way things were going in Afghanistan. David has developed a great amount of respect and admiration for the Iraqi and Afghani people and his mission is to always promote peace and great relations between us and them. We are only fighting those who stive to take away the freedoms and liberties of the people in Afghanistan and Iraq. David immediate personal mission was to promote the overall respect of and service toward those people.
When this whole incident took place, Lynnette couldn't sleep so she went and read the conference Ensign in hopes to find a little comfort. Now for her, that's an hour or so, for me that would be a week without sleep. She found this... "for those who eschew evil and live good lives,who strive for a brighter day and keep the commandments of God,things can get better and better even in the face of tragedy." I can think for so many things he was trying to do to bring forth a brighter day and I can think of several commandments he was following to help make other lives better.
David is currently half way in between being delirium and reality. David would say, "Dad, I need your help!" Help in doing what? "I need to stand up." I asked if he knew of his injuries? "Yes, but help me anyway!" Then he instructed me to put my arm behind his shoulders and grab his hand and then he would count 1 2 3, and then he pulled will all his might and I helped to point that he was setting straight up and then he would start counting again and again and again until I was hiding my tears and he was sweating. We went through that exercise many many times until we had to have the Captain, his nurse, order him to stop.
David's will, his heart, and his determination have not been broken in any way.

The Kaysville 3rd Ward has requested to participate in a fast with any in our family that would like to join us. The fast will begin after the evening meal on Wednesday evening and will continue 24 hours. Please do not feel obligated to go the full 24 hours, you do what you can and, as we all know, the Lord will take care of the rest.

Lynnette and I have decided to leave David in Katherine's capable and loving hands while we take a couple hours on Thursday evening to attend a session in the Washington D.C. Temple.

With all the damage done to David's right arm, I am incredibly impressed with the fact that he just fights through all that pain just to get up and out of that bed.

He keeps asking for and MRE (Meals Ready To Eat), but they can't give him any food because of another day of surgery tomorrow.

I snuck the cell phone in and made a couple calls to JJ and Rachelle so he could hear their voices and was going to do more but the nurse was with us the rest of the night.

Good Night and Thank You For All Your Prayers

Gordon / Dad