Not for little children or weak minded persons......Just kidding.
On Friday, after district meeting, Elder Lott and I got right to our missionary work. We had an appointment with a potential investigator. The lesson went well and he became a new investigator. We walked about 3/4 of a mile back to our apartment where we noticed the sky starting to get cloudy. We hadn't had lunch yet so we started to "eat us some food" in our apartment. We knew that a storm was rolling in so I decided to eat outside to watch the famous Oklahoman storm pass over.
We had heard that the storm had a chance of tornadoes but Norman has been famous for NEVER being hit by one. EVER.
Being in Oklahoma as a missionary we always hear about what to do and what you see when there is a tornado. While I was looking at the dark, nasty storm roll in I noticed the sky begin to turn green. It was so cool! The temperature was still about 80 degrees when the storm was over us. Then all at once rain started pouring down. POURING! It was raining sideways with big gusts of wind. Of course Elder Lott and I are still outside trying to watch the storm. Then the rain died down a little, just enough for us to see a large funnel cloud start to form in the sky. It looked like it was right above the building next to us. It formed high in the sky but quickly grew towards the ground.
It freaked me out so bad because at the time I noticed it was a tornado, we heard the warning sirens go off and our phone started ringing. A member called us an was yelling "There is a tornado on the ground! Get inside NOW!" I was half tempted to say "Yah, I know. I'm looking at it right now." But I didn't. Elder Lott and I quickly put on our bike helmets and huddled up in a tiny closet underneath the staircase in our apartment.
We kinda felt stupid after the sirens went off and we were fine. But then the sirens went back on a couple minuets later! We had no clue where the tornado was so we went back in our little closet. Finally the tornado was gone and we went outside. There was no damage as far as I could see from the parking lot in front of the apartment, which was now a pond.
Then our phone started ringing off the hook! I had to make sure all of my district members were ok and report to the ZL's. There was supposed to be another Tornado threatening storm roll through in about an hour so we got dressed into jeans and went with a couple other missionaries in the area to clean up by the north side where the tornado decided to sit on a few neighborhoods. The other storm never came around so we ended up doing service and looking at some cool damage for the rest of the night.
Notice the traffic lights are all facing the same direction.
There was supposed to be a third storm the next day that was going to be "bigger and badder" than the first one so the whole mission was on alert. We did service all day on Saturday, cutting trees off of people's houses and off of cars and everywhere. There was some amazing damage. The tornado was only an F2. The biggest tornado you can get is an F5. Because most of the damage was knocked down trees, people think that it never quite touched the ground. From the looks of the damage across town, it looks like the tornado kinda skipped up and down at an angle right through the middle of town and the middle of my proselyting area.
This experience was SO SO scary at first, but super cool and awesome too. I even was on the news while cleaning up on Saturday. There have been some cool sights. Some of our investigator's homes don't have roofs anymore. That's a big bummer because they will be staying at their relative's homes and in hotels until everything gets fixed.
Being a DL during storm season is going to be stressful. Especially when a companionship in the district is way out in Purcell; out on their own. The last couple of nights I've been staying up way late calling and texting the district members, then following up with the ZL's and getting updated weather texts from Prez Taylor. I'm sore and tired, but this is an awesome experience. I'm so happy to be here in Norman.
