So cool – thanks for the report. (Makes me a little “homesick” for the Branch we used to attend in the Gulf.)

Maybe I missed it – do you meet on Sunday. or on Friday? (Since Friday is the Muslim “sabbath,” LDS units in the region typically meet on Fridays). In our Branch we would refer to our lesson time as “Sabbath School” rather than “Sunday School” for that very reason. And just to clarify, the name of the Stake was recently changed from “Arabian Peninsula” to “Manama Bahrain.”

Like Mack mentions, there’s a program where you are set apart as a Group Leader beforehand in your home ward and then it only takes effect if needed. I have discovered, however, that this only applies where the church is not established. Because there is an actual stake that covers Iraq, Group Leaders can be called regardless of whether they were set apart as such beforehand. Also, our stake must have recently merged or renamed, because we used to be part of the Arab Peninsula Stake, but we’ve been told we’re now in the Manama Bahrain Stake; I’m not sure what accounts for the change.

I think the Stake is supposed to provide us with stuff, but we were having difficulty with that, so recently I just went ahead and purchased ten additional hymnals from the church website because we were short.

We don’t do home teaching. And we’re not going to try unless the Stake Representative starts pressuring us to. We had heard from the guys before us that they had tried some time ago, but it was kind of silly. Everyone would just stay after church and “home teach” each other just to check the box. They also did a weekly FHE, but we tried that and no one ever came, so that’s on hold for the moment. We report our monthly Sacrament meeting totals up the Stake Representative, but other than that we’re pretty independent of oversight.

No one knows how to play piano, so we use the CD accompaniment with speakers. One time I was conducting the music and I set the hymn to the wrong number and somehow I was the last one to figure out it was the wrong hymn. Everyone had just stopped singing and there I was still flailing my arm around. Kind of embarrassing.

I’ve eaten with people in the chow hall, and rank isn’t really an issue there, but I did ask the civilian group leader if he would do the calling and setting apart for a Major we called to be an instructor, given that he outranked than me. I’m sure it wouldn’t have been an issue, but it’s just kind of weird. He and I meet once a week to discuss callings, business, etc.

Being deployed seems to affect people differently. I know that a number of our active members were less active or altogether inactive back at home. At the same time, I also know a number of active members from my home ward who are out here that never come at all. It very well could be work issues, so who knows.

There is no ideological opposition to any kind of fraternities; the military tries hard to make religious services available. Also, strangely, back home I’ve noticed an unusually high frequency of Masonic symbols on cars on base and I’ve never heard anything frowning on it.

Also other details about the group administration. How much interaction between your unit and the leadership over you? Do you have leadership meetings (equivalent of ward council/PEC)?