Monday, May 2, 2016

April 18, 2016

He sent this quick email on Sunday April 17, the morning after the earthquake:

hey president told us to write our families real fast there was an earthquake yesterday like at 7 in the night but were i was it wasnt really strong so nothing happèned to us over here in babahoyo but in other parts of ecuador its kinda bad in guayaquil and in Esmeraldas but here just a bunch of scared people and happy birthday Dad!!!!!

I will also just say he is such a good boy because before we received this email from him, he had already given our email address to a sister in his area and asked her to let us know that he was ok. (not anticipating that President Riggins would have them send their own email out.)

This is what he wrote for his normal email on April 18:

hi mom!!!!

I asked him how bad the chaos was.

haha its not that bad but do you want me to tell you were i was when it happened?

Then our email wouldn’t refresh for about 10 minutes.  GREAT timing!

ok so we were teaching this member family and asking for a reference and when we finished up she was like come and eat So we ate really quick and we were just about to leave and the dad started to talk to us so we talked a bit so we were talking to him but i knew we had to leave cause we had a bunch of appointments but then the kid in the family was like look and he pointed to the tv and it was shaking and in ecuador there is all ways these things called temblors and the ground just shakes a bit and they happen a lot so i thought o cool then it got really strong and i was like ok this might get bad so my companion was holding the tv to make sure it didnt fall and i was holding the fridge! which a thought about later if it was stronger the fridge would have killed me so i learned something there but then the power went out and then i got kinda scared hah but it stopped after like 60 seconds then and the family was like crying and stuff so we sang some hymns and said a prayer and we had to go straight home after that. 

oh also i bought fabric today for like 13 bucks to make some pants im going to send it to a guy in the ward that can make pants

I asked if he anticipated doing a lot of service now or if things would be mostly normal teaching.

regular work there were a few houses that fell in another sector and all of sunday the other missionaries were helping out but we literally got un invited to do that cause i guess the zone leaders wanted us to work ugh but i really wanted to help cause its not like everyday you get to help clean up after and earthquake!!!!!

oh and we were going to have multi stake conference with colombia and peru and venesuela but cause this happened there were people that had to sleep in the church so it all got canceled for Ecuador but i heard in the other countrys its they all had there

I reminded him to trust his leaders and that maybe there was a reason that he wasn’t on clean up duty.

ya i was kinda ticked up oh well i guess there is a reason we have leaders and we should trust them...

i heard colombia could feel it but im sure they didnt have to cancel anything

but last night was funny cause all the members were like oh theres going to  be another one! and it going to be bigger!!! hah so we had to pack a backpack with clothes and stuff that we may need but nothing happened but it was sure hard to sleep

I told him I was surprised that things were so bad in Guayaquil because they are further from the epicenter.  They are more developed and have more cement infrastructure.  Cement doesn’t do well in earthquakes.

ya its kinda weird but i guess people died and everything!!!  in the mall apparently a lady was just walking and a giant peice of cement fell on her head and she died instantly! but i guess we are super blessed here in ecuador

I told him that I was glad the home he was in did not suffer damage.

ya and we were in a bamboo house and still nothing happened it was super crazy and we were just swaying back and forth

only stick houses fell that are over water

only like 50 houses fell and there not even in our ward or my district only in one ward called barrio lindo and the zone leaders are over there

my sector is the poorest in babahoyo and almost all the house are made of bamboo and nothing fell it was pretty much a miracle haha

its good but i have to go now but everything is ok here thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers and i love you all

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