Just after the earthquake in Chile

March 1, 2010

Hola como estan?
Everything here is all good, but ya I'm going to start from the top. First I was having was some weird dream, I don’t remember what it was, but I felt this shaking, and I woke up an just kind of laid in bed admiring what was happening, because I had heard that Santiago always has temblores which are just soft and you can feel them for a couple seconds, I was kind of scared, until the shaking continued, and got a lot harder. I jumped out of bed and my companion was like ELDER ELDER POR ACA! so I went on his bed. We have a bunk bed and I was on top so we were both in the middle of the bunk bed.

We started to pray, and my comp was just saying forgive Chile forgive Chile! And I was looking around for a minute and the walls were like shaking and bending, I could here some things falling off the shelves and stuff and it was pure dark. I really thought it was the second coming for a sec. It was actually way cool and a huge adrenaline rush and really strong. The strong shaking lasted for like 30 seconds and after we got my head lamp ( I'm glad I brought that) we went out to the street.

We live in a house not an apartment and the bishop and stake president live in front of us. So we went out and everyone was all freaking out and trying to find light. There was no damage really in our sector though. All the houses are fine and there is only a wall here and there knocked down. A school by our house had a little damage. Honestly, at first I just thought it was a big temblor and wasn't anything way huge because there wasn’t any apparent damage. It took a little while for me to go back to bed, and when I woke up at 730, I started to pray and again there was another temblor. I thought there was going to be another earthquake and I said ELDER ANOTHER ONE! It was pretty soft but made all the walls move and my bed shake.

So that morning we turned on the radio and heard all these bridges knocked down and streets torn up. I was thinking wow, I didn’t think that it would do much damage. Then I heard it was an 8.8 Richter scale and I was amazed. We listened slowly as the death toll went up from 7 to 100 in a couple hours. The zone leaders came to our pension and told us to GUARDAR LOS LIBROS which means to stay in the pension until further notice, so we just kind of chilled there, had study time until lunch. I felt way weird studying because i wanted to know everything that happened. We went to lunch and watched the news and really saw all the damage that was caused. It was so crazy seeing all the things that happened in the earthquake. Really nothing big was damaged in our sector. It just felt way way strong. We just stayed in our pension that whole day, I took a nap, and that whole day all we heard were ambulances.

We went and talked to the bishop that night and there was this huge plume of smoke close by. In our house, nothing was damaged. all the shampoo bottles and stuff got knocked down, and the fan fell and broke. We felt little after shocks like every couple hours. We still had church Sunday and there were lots of menos activas ha.
Concepcion really got it the worst. On the news all the big grocery stores were straight up getting robbed. And the tsunami destroyed all these little towns. A lot of our sector still doesn’t have light. We have light and water though. Today was the worst though. I swear there was one grocery store open all in Puente alto and we had to wait in line for an hour and a half to buy stuff. None of the atms had money and everyone was freaking out. Me and my comp could only buy bread and a couple other things for the week. It was good news to hear that Pizza hut was still open so we went there and waited another hour for pizza ha-ha.
Its crazy though all the damage in the south, were going up to the north of our mission today at 6 we have a mission activity so I will get to see all the damage there too. Really the work is going to stay the same for me. We worked normal all day Sunday, I'm sure there will definitely be more service opportunities now ha-ha, But really never going to forget how small and weak I felt during that. I thought our house was going to fall down.
That lady who got shot was on Thursday, we were walking down the street and we heard these people arguing and this guy just pulled out a gun shot her and ran to his car and the driver flew off after hitting his way nice car against the curb pretty hard. After that he shot again. I thought he did a drive by, but I think it was just a wild shot. Everyone in the street froze. Is was in the middle of the busiest street in our sector! The lady fell to the ground and everyone rushed to her. I don’t know if the guy got caught. There was nothing we could do.

It just started to rain the first time here in my mission! I really think Chile is going to get destroyed. But anyways mom I kept a good journal entry and hmmm... that’s about it. Yes it freaked my comp out pretty bad too... I have had a hard time sleeping these last couple nights. Sometimes I hear a rumbling and it freaks me out but its just a car outside. I can scare my companion pretty bad now by kicking the walls at night. But it was freaking sweet overall, I’m sure I will hear it the rest of my mission, I can say I was in the 5th biggest earthquake recorded in the world.

It was a testimony for me because the week before this, President came to all of our pensions and dedicated them and told us to prepare an emergency backpack. This change we got a paper that said, What to do during an earthquake. He definitely receives revelation for us.

Well I'm really glad all you guys are doing good, I have to go, but I love all of you and know that this gospel is true,
Chow! co mucho amor elder Whitney