Mike and Becky Higginson have faithfully built their home storage over time, and while the tornado destroyed their home, their food storage shed survived the destruction.
The Higginsons are grateful for this blessing, but they are quick to point out that physical preparation alone is not enough to sustain someone through this kind of event. They know that obedience to the counsel of prophets and apostles builds another kind of storage.
"We've had hard experiences before, and the gospel is what sustains you through everything," Sister Higginson said. "So although this was a shock and a trauma … it didn't change anything. You revert to your gospel roots, your spiritual roots, immediately."
The morning after the tornado, Bishop Chris Hoffman of the Joplin First Ward met with several other priesthood holders at a central spot in town to begin accounting and assessing. With communication lines down, "it was hard to determine where to start," said Bishop Hoffman, but they relied on prayer for direction.
"You recognize very quickly—if you didn't already—how reliant you are on Heavenly Father for answers, because you need them, and you need them quick," he said. "But the answers came. They always did. They always will."
That kind of faith and reliance on the Lord has continued to buoy up members in Joplin. On the Sunday following the tornado, Elder Jonathan C. Roberts, Area Seventy, attended a joint testimony meeting of the Joplin First and Second Wards.
"People who had lost everything—their homes, their workshops, everything—stood up and said, 'We're some of the most blessed people.' How does that happen?" Elder Roberts asked. "How could anybody in those circumstances have the courage and the backbone to square their shoulders, lift their chins, and say, 'We're fine'? Well, it only happens one way. They have a perspective of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
"In this case, the 72-hour packs, as important as they were, the food storage, as important as it was, went away because of the calamity," he continued. "And yet the things that were deep rooted, the foundational things of priesthood keys, of testimony, stood strong. And as the Saints gathered together, it was spectacular to watch the preparation that came from spiritual roots that had been set deep; that windstorm, tornado, or hurricane weren't going to take away; and that extends beyond mortality and to eternity."
Watch a video about the Saints in Joplin at news.lds.org.
Spiritual and temporal preparation has blessed the lives of Latter-day Saints and others in Joplin, Missouri, following a devastating tornado on May 22.
Photograph by Carmen Borup
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