Sept 11, 2001 in Rigby, Idaho

The nice thing about having a blog is being able to express my thoughts and emotions as they arise. Today has been an emotional day for me, as I revisit the tragedy that occured in my home town 4 years ago. I hope you don't mind my self-indulgent effort to understand my personal experience that day.

Here's how I remember the Towers. The first thing I would do when walking out of the subway in lower Manhattan was look up to see which direction is south.

May 2001 - With only a couple weeks before I left to go to Idaho for 2 years, my girlfriend at the time came to NYC with some friends to say good bye. Here's a picture of Celeste (on the left) dancing in the fountain between the two towers.
Below is what the globe looked like by the time it was moved to nearby Battery Park as a memorialThis is the trailer I lived in with my two my missionary companions during Sept 2001. Things were so confusing and chaotic, especially without a TV, that throughout the week I learned that I was being sent home to be drafted for WW3, and that there was a bomb threat on the bridge outside my NYC bedroom window.
Sept 16, 2001 - Roxanne's baptism. For two years, I was in Idaho going door to door bringing a message of peace and hope to all those who listened. I think the only way I coped with the experience of 9/11 was the knowledge that I was working my butt off, 10 hours a day for 729 days, without a single day off, bringing peace to the lonely, worried and sad. I still believe that no force of evil could match the force for good I brought to Rigby, Idaho, my little corner of the world at that time. Baptism is a symbolic reminder of this fact, serving as a chance to celebrate re-birth, bringing hope to those who need it. Perhaps I needed to help Roxanne be baptized as much as she needed to be baptized.