Earthquake!

HI!!  :)

 

Being in an earthquake is weird.  It's like being on a boat, only bigger.  It makes you really dizzy, too.  All the missionaries in the Japan Tokyo Mission are accounted for and safe.  I was actually at the Honbu (the mission home) at the time of the earthquake.  We had just said a closing prayer to our 3 Zone Special Training.  It was the weirdest sensation.  I was sitting and talking to someone that was standing up and they started to sway.  I got dizzy and then noticed that the lights hanging on the ceiling were shaking, too.  President Albrecht ordered us outside and on to the field by the church.  It lasted about five minutes.  The trains all canceled and we were all stuck at the Honbu.  Three zones worth of missionaries (about fifty missionaries) all stayed at the honbu last night.  It was definitely a mission memory.  We watched The Other Side of Heaven at the church and then we all slept on the mission home floor.

 

This was such a blessing to be together when it happened.  One of the zones at the honbu, Chiba, was the most damaged area in our mission.  Yet we were all safe at the mission home.  Not a coincidence.  There was an oil refinery that blew up right by one of the Chiba missionary apartments.  The Lord knows how to time things.  He is in control.  We still haven't heard from the Japan Sendai Mission.  They got hit really really bad; power, water, cell phones, and Internet are down.  The Tokyo Mission is okay though.

 

There have been about ten to twelve after shocks, but they weren't as bad as the first one.  The last one to happen was at breakfast this morning.  The trains that Elder Beazer and I needed were working so we made it back to our apartment by lunch.  Some missionaries are still stuck at the honbu though, because the trains aren't running.  There were a lot of people on the streets last night; a lot of people slept at work and at school.

 

Well, this email is on orders from President Albrecht, but I think it is long enough.  I am safe and unphased.  Fussa was far enough to have been shaken but remains undamaged.  One can fell off the shelf at our apartment; other than that there is nothing wrong in Fussa.  Please don't worry about me, and send me any brief information that you have about the earthquake.  Missionaries gossip like middle school girls so I don't trust the information that I am getting from them.  :)  I heard that where we were (at the honbu), it was about a 5.0 on the magnitude scale.  Being in an earthquake is weird and nauseating.

 

I am totally fine.  I love you!  Pray for the people in Sendai, Japan, the people along the coast, and the missionaries in the northern missions.  I love you!!  Don't worry about me.  I am totally safe where I am.

 

Talk to you on Tuesday!

 

Jenkins Choro

 

PS:  Welcome home Trevik!