We've Been Blessed and Protected This Week

How did you guys find out about the earthquake?? Was it on the news? Well I heard out of all the cities that it hit mine was the worst damage. We had about three days without water and electricity. Well only one day then the other one hit and that made it two days. Not being able to shower was torture but that is about the worst that happened. 


Yeah we slept in the church parking lot. It was actually nice I slept a lot better not being in a building. ha The first night I barely slept. Glad you got the pics and the email! 

This really was a good conference I loved it. I would say my favorite was probably Elder Ballard's talk. I like how he is such a missionary! He's a stud! Sounds like that will be fun! Today I got my flight trips... It is blowing my mind! I'm glad you guys are all good and the house and the fam. Even Max looks good!


I don't really know where to start in this week. Uhh we could start with Tuesday. We were visiting people and we had just got done teaching an investigator and were thinking what to do because two of our appointments fell through. So we decided to go visit a less active who always gives us good references. When we got to their house they invited us to have like a small dinner thing. Around like 8:30 we got there and were talking with these two guys and trying to get references. As we talked and ate pancakes (that were really good by the way) it started to shake a little. It has been shaking a little for the last couple of weeks so its normal. The daughter goes "temblor" but was laughing cause it was little. Then it got a little stronger. And she got serious and then it started and the lights went off. 


It felt as if it was like a Disneyland ride but ten times stronger. Like the whole house was moving like crazy. I ran to the door kind of falling into the door and grabbed the younger kid and the daughter. We stood in the doorway crouched until it slowed down. When it slowed down we took them to the middle of the street and ran back in to get the mom out. She was with the baby so we got them all out in a safe spot and the ground just kept shaking. During the earthquake I stayed actually really calm. Just like ok this is happening so what have we gotta do. But after that the ground just kept shaking but lightly. We went back in after about 5 or 10 minutes to get emergency stuff and see the damage. The plates on the table were all still there but the stuff in the pantry was all over the floor. And I finished my pancake :) 

Then we went to go get gas, and help a few ladies that we knew were alone. There is a lady who lives in front of us who just sat in her house waiting for us. haha We send her to the neighbor and kept going.  We had to wait in a line with a tank thingy for gas to fill it up to help them out. It felt like I Am Legend. ha Then we went to their cousins house because he had a generator. We chilled there for a while because they filled their tub up with water so we could go to the bathroom and everything. Then around like 2 or 3 in the morning we slept with them in there house cause it was the safest. BUT that whole night was when I was the most scared. The WHOLE night every 30 seconds the ground shook just like it did before the big one. So you never know if it will be a big one or not. I slept like three hours.


The next day, we went to the church at like 10 in the morning. We started helping clean up the ceiling that fell and what not but they made us stay in the church all day besides getting stuff from our house. Nothing really happened to the house except a huge crack in the wall that you could see daylight through and stuff fell. My cologne fell in the toilet so that was a bummer. 

But it was a boring day we just played soccer and did what we could to help in the church. Members that couldn't stay in their houses came to the church. But then the night got interesting. Around like 11 it shook but just a little but enough for everybody to get up and go to the doors. But it stopped. That woke us up so we starting to talk. Then at 11:45 the other one hit. I was in the corner of the church close to a door so we just walked slowly to the door and we were fine. But we were in charge of kinda everybody so after it stopped we got them all out on the field. Out there it was fine. We stayed outside until like 2 I think and then we got cold and the members slept outside while all the missionaries went back in. A few times during the night it shook. But none of them were earthquakes. I slept on a church bench. ha It was comfortable. After that we got up and that day we were able to leave and do service. We did service in the morning and then in the after noon Pres. Dalton And Sister Dalton got there. They brought us beds and we set everything up and had granola bars for dinner. ha But it was a good night. That night I slept amazing after sleeping crappy the nights before. 


That next day, Friday is when we took the picture. We got everything set up. But there is a few houses of the missionaries that were like falling. So the president got everything out for them. And they had to smoosh all the missionaries in two pensions. They took all the mission who got transfered (cause this is transfer week haha) out of the city and are waiting a week to put all the other who are coming in. So I'm with Elder Paez for a week then my comp (who is a gringo) will get here this week. After getting all the missionaries out we were able to shower and get to work. Friday night we visited a few people to make sure they were good and to teach a little. We didn't have electricity til Saturday night in our sector of the city but the church did so we got to see the conference. It was awesome and really spiritual. I felt like all the best talks were Saturday. 


But that was basically my week. It keeps shaking but just a little and it's settled down so we don't think there will be anymore. How did you guys here about it? Were you scared? I was proud of the missionaries cause nobody was really scared even though our city was one of the worst hit. Everybody stayed calm and just wanted to help really! It was good. 


THEN Sunday night we got two references who accepted getting baptized. So I expect to finish baptizing. We've been blessed and protected this week. What a week to remember!! I won't forget it. haha My camera was unfortunately dead during this week. haha Just my luck and I don't have a cord. Got lost. But I will get pics around and will get them to you ASAP. Love you all! 

Elder Farnworth