Arkansas Bentonville Mission

Crazy weather is definitely a thing there, with it being right in the middle of Tornado Alley. Definitely have a lot of weather warnings and stuff that you want to pay attention to. There's also hail storms and ice storms, those are you want to be careful in. And definitely pay attention to the tornado warnings because they kind of happen everywhere in the mission. There was one night my companion and I slept through the tornado warning and luckily nothing hit in that town. But we had our ward mission leader messaging us like crazy and stuff. So definitely pay attention to the weather warnings.

I have one specific memory of when there was a tornado watch, tornado warnings going on everywhere and we were on the phone with some elders in another area in our zone and they were in their garage surrounding themselves with mattresses and we were in our car watching everything, watching the lightning off in the distance, listening to AM radio. Nothing's happening so we go to bed and we get woken up at 1am by the assistants saying there's a tornado coming towards you and I said okay what do I do and they said just be aware. So I get up and my companion's like what's going on? I said I think there's a tornado. I open the door, there's the lightning, a big wall of green clouds, it was just totally quiet just off in the distance you know we see this lightning and I go and I lay back down to my bed and all of a sudden it's like someone is throwing rocks at the wall and I open the door again, run outside and there's just hail coming down everywhere and yeah this went on for a while but everyone was safe, did not get hit.

If there is one thing I remember, just about the abium, not necessarily about the mission arc but just about the area, was the weather. The weather there was crazy. There were times where you had ice storms that would shut the mission down. In the summer you would have temperatures that were 120, it felt like 120 with the humidity that you'd have to go track. And there were thunderstorms that were more powerful than anything you've ever seen. I've been through tornadoes on the mission. There's literally everything that you could see on the mission, wind, microbursts. The weather there is insane, but just be aware. I would recommend, honestly, having a weather radio with you. I had one on my mission. It was really nice, just in case, especially if you get, especially in Missouri, honestly any part of the mission, just have a weather radio. It's really nice. Keeps you warm sometimes and can get annoying. But the weather's crazy. Always be aware of what's happening so you don't get caught out.

The Midwest can get some crazy storms. We had a lot of tornado warnings. I think I was only there for one brief tornado touchdown. If you've never been in a situation like that, it kind of sounds like a loud train going past and a lot of rain and it's kind of crazy. But that only happened once. There was also a couple earthquakes. I only felt one of them. I was standing in my room and it happened and I just kind of fell onto my bed. But nothing extremely violent. But they have some good thunderstorms as well.

So the summer is just really hot, really humid, but the winter is where you gotta watch out because we have something called ice storms where everything just turns to ice and there were some times where we weren't allowed to go outside just because it might hail and it's really dangerous to walk around and to drive around and so the roads turn to ice, the pipes will freeze, the trees will freeze. It's really pretty but it's really hard to get around and to do what you need to do. If you can't go outside because the weather, it's okay. Don't feel bad because that's something that you can't control but that is something to look out for and it gets really cold in the in the winter. So guess what?

Definitely got to watch out for hurricanes. I don't remember exactly when hurricane season is but they just tell you the sky is going to turn green and that's true. It gets kind of like a dark greenish gray and ominous look in the air and then a lot of times you'll hear the sirens going and then you just got to obey the rules when it comes to uh you probably get a text hopefully from the mission mission leaders telling you what to do but we spent a night or two in a mattress fort while we were out there so it it can easily happen.

On my mission, I didn't experience any tornadoes, though that is very common, especially in Missouri and Kansas and Oklahoma. Outside of the Ozark Mountains where it's really flat, there's tornadoes. I didn't really experience it though. What I did experience though was freezing rain, and that stuff can be very dangerous, especially if you're driving a car, and so just be aware of that, just be cautious. It definitely freezes on the road, black ice, and it's brutal to be biking in, so bring some warm clothes for the winter. Doesn't happen a ton, but it can be pretty brutal.

So the weather in Arkansas is absolutely insane. The storms there are crazy, crazy cool. The thunder literally sounds like someone is like shooting a cannon like right by your head. I don't know. The lightning like lights up the sky like it's noon even in the middle of the night. It's crazy cool. They do get a ton of rain and flooding but I would say that for the most part they have nice weather. It was like 73 degrees on Christmas one year so they have very short winters which I personally love. But in the winter it's like humid cold so it's a different kind of cold if you're from some place that is dry but overall the weather there is it's pretty cool. Pretty cool.

So the mission is right smack dab in the middle of Tornado Alley, covers four states in the Bible Belt area, and I never personally experienced an actual tornado, but every area I was in, the sirens went off at least once regardless of the season or time of year. And so you get the greatest, absolutely most incredible thunderstorms over there, like lightning, blazing, better than the 4th of July, storms go all night, crazy rain, sometimes hail if you're lucky. It's a great time. Don't recommend getting caught out in it. We got close to getting a tornado a few times when I was there, but nothing ever touched down, but we did get some very nice winds and one that got classified as a miniature hurricane. So bring a good coat.

So in the Arkansas Bentonville Mission, you will get some pretty fantastic rainstorms. Those are really, really fun. Not so fun to drive in, especially on dirt roads, but they're fun to watch. As far as tornadoes go, because it is right smack in Tornado Alley, you will hear about tornado warnings that happen. And if that is the case, then you'll want to keep your phone on you. We were serving in a very rural area once, and so there were no sirens anywhere. They were just in the town. And we went into a lesson and we didn't have our phone on us. And we came back to the car and the phone had blown up with text messages and voicemails from the sister training leaders and the zone leaders and the assistants, like, sisters, there is a tornado warning in your area and you need to get inside now. So keep your phone on you if there's going to be severe weather. But yeah, look out for the rainstorms, look out for the tornado warnings, listen for sirens, and stay safe.

Something that's very common are tornadoes. So there's tornado watch, tornado warning, and all that. So that could happen. It's not, you know, it could happen while you serve your mission. It's not like super common that it actually hits, that it lands, but it could happen. So that's something interesting. It never happened while I was there. We had like a watch, so just like a warning, but nothing happened. Something as well is that when it's winter, it's humid cold. So it's super cold, like it could be like 30 degrees, and it feels like if it's 20 or something. Also, in the summer, it's so hot, like you walk out and you are sweating. It's super, super crazy like that, but it's super beautiful. It's known as the natural nature state.

The weather can actually be pretty diverse in Arkansas. I'm from Utah so before I went I looked up like how hot and cold it gets. It says that it gets to be 60 degrees in the winter. That's a lie. It gets to be way colder than that. Plus with humidity and wind chill it gets really cold. So bring a good coat but definitely be prepared for some heat in the summer. Every once in a while you get like little tornado warnings and everything but it's usually like you're not gonna be in danger or anything. It's pretty chill. We did get some crazy hail once but just be prepared for hot humidity and for cold humidity.