"I HATE TORNADOES!!! THE ONLY THING THATS WORSE IS MY MOM!"- R

I was let into some ones house this last week by using family history in finding, the guy was NOT interested in our religion but when I chained it to family history he opened the door and let us in, I then chained with a " SO what do you think happens to our Ancestors who died with out a knowledge of the Gospel".......GOTCHYA!!! He didn't know and he let us teach but he gander ranted way too much so eventually I made up a lame excuse so we could leave. 

We had a lesson with our investigator. We taught him the Law of Tithing since he had questions about it and he wants to be baptized and he knows he has to live it (minus he doesn't have a testimony so we arent gonna let that happen, till he gets a testimony at least.). before we taught it he told us he finally believes Jesus to be the savior of the world, but he only believes Joseph smith was "a teacher of Love".... So we taught him it after we tried to work that out. We tried to teach it like usual but he wigged out about it. He had a problem wanting to pay tithing because God wanted him to pay 10%; but he was totally fine with it if the church made up a random percentage of money to donate to build it.... Yah he has a lot of work still.

We keep getting soaked here recently, there has been a few huge storms this last week and we have been without the car both storms causing us to be drenched down all the way to the bone. All of the scriptures we carry with us are all water logged and our planners are destroyed because of the storms. I'll tell you about this last one.

We got out of a lesson with a man that only spoke some african language, we left because there was no way for us to communicate at all what we were trying to convey, but he invited us back when his son who could translate would be there since he referred himself. we got outside and the rain was coming down pretty good. We ran over to our bikes that we locked up to the speed limit sign and I put my camera and pocket book in a walmart plastic bag and then put that in my bikes saddle bag (my bag I used to carry I strapped to the Specialized so I don't have to carry anything and since it has a lock on it it's perfect! I am gonna leave it here when I go home because of how useful it is, and it's pretty beat up)

We rode to a couple's house to avoid the rain storm which started to pick up. We were pretty wet by then and we taught a quick principal to prepare her for her baptism. The rain had picked up even more though in our time there, and we had to leave to go to our appointment so we left. He is a man who is into the rougher things in life who I have only seen wear a shirt on 2 occasions told us to be careful in the rain; I thought that was a little too tender for him and not normal behavior so I told him "Don't tell me how to live my life" as I rode away he then burst a huge smile and started swearing at us like usual until He left my view. 

This rain storm was bad, it was worse than the one a few days back. As we rode my road bike started to loose traction on the road and I was hydroplaning as I would turn sharp to miss a huge puddle or a car, which is a unique experience on a bike! Thunder roared over head and the rain kept picking up, in less than 10 minutes we were drenched all the way through.

 We then heard it. The Tornado siren for the city went off. I didn't tell my companion what it meant but it freakin got real when that happened! I started pedaling faster and we tried a short cut so we could get there quicker. a good 5-9 minutes after taking that road the road ended and we ended up under a over pass covered in graffiti. 

We dismounted and took some "thug life" pictures while we could and then we hopped back on the bikes when the second siren went off. I told my companion what that meant the second time he asked. The rain was beating us pretty hard and the wind was picking up, i hit a bump and my back tire popped! We were in a unknown place but we back tracked to find the way back to the house. I said several prayers for protection. It was so hard with my bike not having a back tire or traction but we were faster on them so I worked my self super hard to keep pumping those pedals over hills and through intersections and down infamous steep hills in the city (which was terrifying with out traction and my bike rims soaked with water). 

We had one more steep hill and I popped the bike into first gear in the front and it wouldn't move!!!!! The third siren went off. The wind was picking up. I FIXED THAT STUPID DERAIL-ER PROBLEM THE DAY BEFORE! It never did shift down so I pumped the big hill in 2nd. We locked up the bikes and walked up to the house.

He rushed us in the house where we were there with several other random people who I had never met from the neighborhood before. Most of them were hiding in the basement. He pulled up on the phone and showed us where the Tornado was. It was 1 mile away from our apartment. 

He kept telling us where it was from the news updates and it just kept moving closer and closer to us. The random lady in the house was freaking out and getting all worked up. The others hid in the basement. I wanted to see it so I stayed up stairs with my helmet attached to my belt so I could put it on in a moments notice. The tornado grew closer and closer to us according to the news reports. I said another prayer for protection and then God touched my heart.

The rain out side just kept picking up it got so dense that there was almost a white veil that you couldn't see through because of the water coming down in such amounts. I was making puddles of water every where I sat or stood in his house. There is a small forest behind the house, and I looked again to see now unlike before all of the trees were in violent motion. Almost as if an adult was shaking a smaller new fruit tree to get an apple off it instead of plucking it; it was the same with these fully grown thick 60 foot trees. 


With every one else in the basement but us  and R after he had called every one he could think of, he looked outside and exclaimed  "I HATE TORNADOES!!!! I am so afraid of them! I am as afraid of them as I am Sharks, and Snakes.... And my MOTHER, and..." I busted out laughing at that, which cut him off he then explained that his mom is like all 3 of those combined though. We all died laughing about it! He then sat down with us and chilled and we joked around and told stories and talked. I kicked my leg ontop of my knee and a bucket of water spilled out into his carpet. The next time we looked outside light was coming through the clouds. Who knew even in a raging storm one could be at peace.

The tornado died off and the earth stood still.

We were in R's house for over 2 hours and we didn't teach anything in fact we never even followed up on any commitments, but it was obvious that it wasn't the time or the place for that. We went outside still leaving a trail of water behind us and we sat and waited for the next city bus, since there was no way we would be able to walk to our dinner appointment in time or ride my bike. We eventually caught on that it wasn't gonna happen and the zone leaders picked us up.

We drove around to see trees every where! no houses were effected too bad but the trees destroyed so much! they were all up rooted, on top of cars, and houses, and street signs, and electric poles. but all that damage stopped less than one mile away from the house where we hid. The Tornado stopped throwing trees around when it got within less than a mile of us until it died. I didn't get any good pictures of the damage but streets were shut off and over 27,000 people have been without electricity here because of that. I wish I could say more

Bye i love you have a good day!

Don't get shot!

EMAIL you on saturday!

-- 

- Elder Truman Rex Crockett