Today was a day unlike any other day of my life

*this post title was what I wrote in my mission journal on 9/11*

 

I think I have done a 9/11 post for every year that I've had this blog.

 

There is likely nothing new to say that I haven't said before.

 

 

I was standing right about here the morning of 9/11/01. 

 

Where this picture was taken in this very apartment.  

 

 

Serving with this amazing sister- a little less than half way through my mission in Illinois, Chicago.

 

We got a call from one of our members and we drove to the home of our newest members.

 

 

 Los Nunez. They'd been baptized about 2 months before.

 

 

And I spent the next hour or two watching 9/11 coverage from this very couch.

 

Surrounded by this family.

 

Further evidence that God watches out for all of His children because, other than my own family, there wasn't a place I felt safer and more at peace then with this wonderful family and my amazing, calm companion.

 

 

I'll never forget that day.

 

I spend every anniversary feeling mildly sick to my stomach.

 

I can only imagine how hard it must be for the families and loved ones of those who were lost.

 

 Or who have been lost in the conflict since.

 

 

 There have been a few moments in my life when I was able to see immediate growth and immediate change in myself.

 

The day I became an aunt.

 

After my first car accident.

 

That first night in the MTC.

 

But nothing changed me more instantly than this day 13 years ago.

 

I grew up so much on that day.

 

13 years later...

 

I still believe America is the promised land.

 

That 'City Upon a Hill' that John Winthorp talked about all those hundred of years ago.

 

I pray that we will be safe.

 

 That we will have peace.

 

And that my nieces and nephews may never know a day like 9/11.

 

Lori Ann