So the last time I emailed we were prepping our house for Irma. Eventually we got the call that my whole zone and the Fort Myers zone would be evacuating Thursday night (the 7th) to a chapel in Bonita Springs. The next few days were spent mostly helping members put up shutters and prep the house and pack up for the hurricane. We packed our 72 hour kits and enough clothes and things to last us about 3 days. We waited in an hour long line to get gas and topped off our tank and then only used our bikes the next few days. There was lots of uncertainty in the air, and it was eerie riding around and seeing all the shutters and the worried looks on everyone's faces.
Shout out to Elder Anderson.
Eventually we all made it up to Bonita. There were 32 missionaries total living in the chapel, plus our stake president and his wife and 13 year old son. He kept an eye on the storm and would update us every once in a while and instruct us on what we were to do. It was pretty crazy once we knew that it was coming straight for us, especially since it was projected to keep it's intensity of about a cat 4-5. While in the chapel though we all had a lot of fun. We were allowed to play card games and board games, and there was also a lot of basketball and volleyball in the gym. Plus just being around other missionaries is fun so we talked a lot.
The storm ended up hitting us Sunday afternoon. Sunday morning we had a little sacrament meeting where we took the sacrament and shared some testimonies. It was a neat experience. Not too long after that was when we lost power. When the strongest part of the storm passed over us, we all gathered into a hallway to wait it out. We were definitely protected, because we were only hit by about cat 2-3 strength winds. It still caused some damage, which I'll talk about in a sec. After that we were pretty much in the clear and just waited to hear what they wanted us to do.
Monday we started cleaning up around the chapel. We mostly just cleared out trees that had fallen, there wasn't much damage to the building at all other than no power or water. Really most of what we did for the rest of the week was just a waiting game. Waiting for power, waiting for water, waiting for the all clear to leave the chapel, waiting for service to do. While we were waiting we played games and talked and really built up some good relationships with everyone there. It was like if you mixed scout camp and EFY and then threw in a hurricane haha. I'll be honest and say that I didn't really feel like a missionary, I still don't. It'll be tough getting back in the swing of things for sure.
At about this point we were told to evacuate up to Cape Coral to help out the church and people in that area. We were still pretty much on lock-down but at least we had power and water (on boil order). At this point it had been about a week when we had only planned for 3 or so days so we had no clean clothes and hadn't showered, so some members up there opened up their homes to us to let us shower and do our laundry. That was a huge blessing haha. Even though we were only up there for about 2 days, the members really took care of us, some even provided meals for all of us which was awesome. We were definitely blessed and taken care of.
After that we went back down to Bonita and from there split into 2 groups. We had some other missionaries coming from the Tampa mission as well as the Coral Springs zone to help out with cleanup through projects set up through the stake with Mormon Helping Hands. All the English missionaries stayed in Naples while the language missionaries went out to Imokalee, a little town by the everglades that got hit pretty hard. Naples and Imokalee pretty much got the worst of the storm, and it was pretty humbling going out to Imokalee and seeing the trailers that were destroyed and all the damage that was there. Everyone was still in high spirits though and ready to go out and serve.
We were out there from Saturday morning to Sunday night. We all put on our yellow t shirts and went to work all weekend long unloading semis, building wheelbarrows, chopping and hauling trees, and doing anything we could to help out the community out there. Member had come from all around Florida and were camping out to help. I think there were maybe around 200 people that came to Imokalee with us. Sunday morning at 6:00 we had a little pioneer sacrament where we gave everyone a sacrament cup, and after the prayer, came around with water bottles and filled each individual's cup. It was a pretty spiritual experience, especially being able to look up and see the stars since we're far from the cities.
That's the best summary I can do. I have lots of pictures, sorry I won't be able to caption all of them so you'll have to do some inferring. My status as of right now: Our house (in Naples) is still out of power, so as of today I'll be living with the Cypress Grove elders. (AKA Don't send mail to my home address please!) I'm not sure how long it will be, we're expecting at least until Friday probably. There are already some complications that've come up with that, but we're doing our best to handle it. Transfers are next week as well, it'll be interesting to see how they handle that. All in all, this experience has been about rolling with the punches and making the best out of what you've got. It's a learning and growing experience for everyone, and I'm sure it won't be the last. (Just pray that Maria doesn't hit us too haha). I love you all, just know that I'm safe and doing my best to help out.
One last thing. I've officially been out for 1 YEAR! WOW! My mission birthday haha! Didn't do much for it, since we were hiding from a hurricane, but it's crazy to think that I've been out this long, and that now the time starts to count down to going home. Ahhh! It's going by soooo fast!
Lanmou,
Eldè Stevenson
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