Monday, September 17, 2018

This was crazy time for our family. Due to some rapidly growing fires on the mountains behind our home (the Pole Creek and Bald Mountain Fires), Jared had to evacuate with our family and the rest of Elk Ridge and Woodland Hills the Thursday before leaving on his mission. Everything happened pretty fast for all the residents. At the time of evacuation, Jared just had to throw all his mission stuff in suit cases to be repacked later - hoping he had it all. We didn't know when or if we would have a home to come back to. Being on evacuation status made for interesting circumstances. We had our final dinner as a family with the rest of the evacuees at a dinner being served by the Red Cross at Salem Hills High School. Our bishop and members of our stake presidency had to go back to their homes to get the suits they hadn't evacuated with (residents had to be escorted to their homes to retrieve items left behind). Normally in this area, a missionary is set apart at his home. However, since neither our home nor church were available, we met at a church in Payson. Just before being set apart, Jared ran into a bathroom at the church with his suit to quickly change. While things were chaos on the mountain outside, things were far different inside. Such a feeling of peace and joy was present there. Testimonies were born and the Spirit was strong.