We finished watching an awesome conference Sunday evening (we only get to watch 3 of the 4 sessions. Due to the time change the Sunday afternoon session is shown from 10 to midnight and obviously we are not allowed out that late). I really enjoyed conference a lot and felt that a recurring theme was the call to be happy and hopeful after all, as president Monson put it, “our future is as bright as our Faith.” Anyway we went home and went to bed and at approximately 3:30 a.m. I woke up to my companion saying “sister… Sister.. Earthquake…” ha ha and my bed was shaking and vibrating. It sounded like there was a really loud stomach grumbling. It only lasted for maybe 10 to 15 seconds and nothing really fell over in our apartment except for a drying rack that was leaning against the wall. Our neighbour upstairs was waling (kinda like the starfish on finding Nemo when he swims through the volcano of bubbles) and our next door neighbour was yelling up to her and saying how she was going down stairs! We are on the 5th floor in our complex which is really the 6th floor, so I can understand her fear. I was kinda tired and didn’t feel very worried so me an my companion just went back to bed after saying a quick prayer. My immediate thought was that it wasn’t a very big earthquake at all and that we probably got the little end of a bigger one. It wasn’t until Monday morning at our district meeting that we heard about the damage in l’aquila.
We are apart of the L’aquila zone and our Zone leaders had called and told our Elders that they wouldn’t be able to make it to the morning meeting like they had originally planned because all transportation in and out of the city was temporarily shut down. I guess quite a few apartment complexes fell down and the last I heard was that nearly 200 people had been killed. The 4 elders in L’aquila were all fine and their apartment (they are also on the 5th floor) was one of the few that received little to no damage. The church building there is pretty much gone and some of the branch members lost their home, but from what I hear all the members up there are fine. Elder Brother’s, our zone leader and his companion came to Pescara last night (they will be here for a few days and the other 2 elders have been transferred to Rome). He told us that somehow the news like CNN or something found out that there were American missionaries in L’aquila, tracked down his phone number and called him for a phone interview. I don’t know if you have heard it or not, but if you are interested in his first hand account I am sure it is on the internet somewhere, ha ha. Pretty much L’aquila is in shambles. It is pretty sad. A lot of people are scared to go back inside their homes, even here in Pescara. I don’t feel any danger or worry, and I just pray that those who have been effected will be able to quickly put their lives back together.
Yeah so pretty much that is the biggest thing that happened this week. 3 of the 4 Elders here in Pescara didn’t even wake up during the earthquake, that is pretty strange to me. The one elder who did wake up said that he immediately jumped up and ran outside expecting to see a building that had fallen over or something crazy. He said his first thought was “Wow conference was pretty intense, the world must be coming to an end!”
I really did enjoy conference and I was only slightly disappointed that 2 out of like 15 people who told us they would come actually showed up, one of which is a little bit different (politely stated) and the other who watched it in English with us for language study and not for content. Oh well, I sure appreciated it. I really like the talk that explained the destructive D’s, and the first presidency all gave awesome talks, way powerful! I wish I could see the last session of conference, but I will just have to wait for it to be printed and read it later. The Elders gave us the recap of the Priesthood session, which sounded way awesome all in all it was a good weekend… up until monday morning.
We have had a bunch of new contacts lately that seem really great and then they disappear or become unbelievably busy. Hmm.. Oh well I, know that as long as I am doing what the lord has asked all will work out. We are really trying to utilize Preach My Gospel and get the members more involved. I would highly recommend all of you reading and using preach my gospel for talks, lesions and family home evenings. It is such an amazing book!
Well I think I have rambled on long enough. I love you all and I am so grateful for this time I have to be a missionary! Take care and keep me updated!
P.S. I am attaching a couple of pictures, the first one is a picture of the ugly boots I talked about toward the first of my mission. The second picture is a picture of the torn up street outside my apartment from last week, enjoy!
1 comment:
Yay for finally seeing the Ugly boots!
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