March 14, 2011

Dear Family,

Well now I feel bad because I’m hearing so much about the earthquake from you. I didn’t know it was that big of a deal. We were in Nagoya in the middle of our training meeting and President Baird was having us write down our impressions on the topic we had just finished. I of course being the sensitive guy that I am felt the earthquake first. We all kind of stopped and stood still. We waited. President Baird was writing on the board and turned around. After about 30 seconds (not an exaggeration) he said, “This is a long one.” The Elder Dasilva yelled. “it’s revelation!” Then it went for about another 30 seconds and we started to get worried.

The dividers that are used to separate the parts of the room that we were in were all up against the walls so that the room was as big as possible. They started to rock back and forth and hit the walls. I thought for sure it would start to settle down but it got a little stronger and just kept going. People were getting sick and had to lean up against the wall. Also President Baird had to lean on the stage because he couldn’t keep his balance standing. It lasted probably 2 minutes. I was shocked at how long it was. President Baird then said, “we don’t have a lot of time so let’s get back to writing and we’ll move on.” We just kept going with the meeting.

About 30 minutes later we had an aftershock while Elder Otahara was reading. He just kept reading and no one said anything for the 15 seconds that it was shaking. We didn’t stop the meeting at all. Oh I forgot to mention that during the first one after about a minute or so elder Dasilva got really scared so he yelled, “under the tables!” He jumped under a table we all kind of laughed and I said, “That’s how you get killed.” It really is. You are supposed to make triangles of safety. Never go under something. Look up triangles of safety online. Elder Valentine got on his knees and started praying. We can probably thank him for the building not coming down. I wasn’t scared at all. If the building started to come down I felt like President Baird would just rebuke the ceiling as it was falling and it would stop. Also, if the ceiling did start to come down I think I’m fast enough to not get hit. I’d be out the window pretty fast.

We finished the meeting and sister Baird walked in and said in her cheerful voice, “that earthquake was a 8.9. I made cookies for everyone, you can take 2.” The sisters started to cry (but they still took the cookies, darn it). I don’t think sister Baird understood how big an 8.9 earthquake was. I turned to Elder Howells my old companion who I knew would know what that meant and I said that an 8.9 is incredible and it must have happened way out in the ocean for us to feel it that weak here in Nagoya.

No one in Fukui felt it. Fukui was too far away. We couldn’t call my cell phone though so we couldn’t contact my companion. We started to worry about that. We took the subway to the big train station and found out that the mission was evacuating all areas touching the ocean and one tsunami had already hit and another one was maybe coming. Luckily my whole zone was on the other side of the island so once we got the okay from the mission home, we started to head home. We had to take a really slow train thought because they weren’t running the express trains and they were too scared to run the shinkansen. On the train we were trying to look over people’s shoulders and see the news because they were all watching it on their cell phones. We didn’t realize the destruction was so bad. We then asked someone where the epicenter was and found it was actually just off the coast of Sendai. I didn’t think people were freaking out as much as they should be but I guess it was because we were on the safe side of the island.

I called a member who was visiting in Tokyo for her break from college. She said that they felt an after shock a couple times each hour. It’s pretty crazy. I think the mail system is still going. I had to send an email address to the mission home so that they could email you. I’m obviously fine and safe. I don’t think anywhere in our mission was too damaged so I don’t think we will be doing a lot of that type of service, especially in my zone. No one even felt it.

That was pretty much the only thing that happened to me this week. I went to the training all week. It was from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm for three days. Then my assigned companion and I would do some streeting until 9:30 pm. We only had one break for lunch (I lost six pounds). It was pretty intense. I learned a ton though. I’m okay so don’t worry about me. Life is pretty much the same but people keep asking why God would let so many people die. Other than that I’m just doing the same old same old. But missionary work will change forever after this meeting that we had. The President of the Quorum of the Seventy is watching our mission very closely now. We have over 1000 referrals in the Nagoya zone alone. I have about 20 right now which I bet Quincy, Jason, or Dad never saw on their missions and I have a lot more that I need to get. I love you all. Have a great week. Remember triangles of safety and keep praying for the people here please.
Love,

Tyler