10 Year Anniversary of 9/11

On this day 10 years ago, I was a missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. That morning we woke up and did our scripture study and got ready to meet the English speaking elders to teach a discussion to a single woman. Right before we started teaching the discussion, the Elders said that one of the members of their ward said that a plane hit the world trade center. I seriously laughed and said that could not be possible. We left the discussion and went to our next appointment. Our investigator opened the door. The TV was on and they were sitting there watching in disbelief. We sat there and watched the 2nd plane hit the tower and the tower collapse. Afterwards we asked them to mute the tv. We sang Nearer my God to Thee and said a prayer with them and left.

I must back track a little bit. I was serving in Freeport, TX, which is an island on the Gulf of Mexico, where the refineries are massive cities. We had to take a bridge in between the refinery to get to our apartment. We went home for lunch and had several messages from the rest of our appointments for the day saying they were evacuating the island. Panic started to set in and we called our mission president to see what we should do. He said to pack several items and if a mandatory evacuation was asked of us to head to Austin. Also, he told us to always have a full tank of gas.

We had no more appointments, so we decided to go tracting through the streets. As we got out and walked down the street there was not one person on the streets and it was eerily quiet.

After I came home from my mission in 2002, I had so many questions. I had to ask my dad who Bin Laden was. It was hard not being able to use the internet, tv or read newspaper, when such a huge event in American History took place. At college, I was part of a play that was written about the events of 9/11. We posted newspaper articles all over the building from the events of 9/11. I remember spending hours reading about the events that occurred, because I felt disconnected from that day.

I am so thankful for those who have sacrificed everything to defend our country.

I will never forget.