6/22/2016 Severe Weather- A Post From Mom

Anyone that really knows me understands that I love weather. I have always been terrified yet fascinated by tornadoes. When my son was called to this mission one of the first things that popped into my head was he is going to have to deal with severe weather and possibly tornadoes. Now that he is out in the field, I have to admit that I check the weather where he is at almost daily. Not that I worry about him but because I love weather and want to know what type of weather he is dealing with. I do have to admit though that I do have weather alerts sent to me from his area. Surprisingly, I don't worry (too much).
June 22 was a severe weather day that led to multiple tornadoes in Illinois. I watched the weather radar quite a bit and prayed for the safety of not only my son but for all of the missionaries serving there.  I thought about the fact that he lived on the top floor of his complex and that he was not aware of any basements near him. (Yes, I asked him about that when he moved to the area.) He also lived on the edge of town with the fields next to him going for miles. But...I did not worry (too much) and I knew that he would be safe.


This picture shows the closest tornado to him. The tornado is the blue mark in Pontiac. His apartment was below and to the right side of where Normal is. This is what Elder Eddenfield wrote to me about the storm: 

We got a test from our zone leaders saying that there was going to be some really bad weather coming and to remember the power of prayer. Elder Jepsen and I immediately went to our knees to say a prayer of safety. When we went to bed we looked out of our window and saw the clouds maybe a mile away. They were super dark and lighting filled the clouds nonstop. The storm stayed there pretty much the whole night, it stayed so close yet never touched us. Multiple tornadoes touched down in the area, but because of our prayer the storm passed us by. Right once we got the text I told Elder Jepsen "well, my mom's probably freaking out right now because she already knows about this." Hahahaha. It was a really cool and testimony building experience.

 This is the report after the storm had passed:

 He may or may not have ended up with an email with this in it: