I got woke up by an earthquake

Sunday February 28, 2010
Dear Family,

First, I´m ok. We got permission to write and say that we are ok. We had to stay in the house the whole day yesterday, except for when we left to eat lunch. The communication within the mission is still unstable, I haven´t spoken with my district leader for more than 24 hours, but I spoke with the zone leaders this morning and we can leave and do everything normal today until 8pm. Today is the last day of the transfer, so I don´t know if we will receive transfers tonight or not. They canceled church and we are going to visit all our investigators to make sure they are all ok. It killed us yesterday to not be able to go out and help with all the damage, but the government advised everyone to stay in their houses and missionaries always have to follow what the nation says.

I really don´t know what to say. It was pretty traumatic to wake up to an earthquake. We didn´t know actually how big it was until lots of hours later, because we don´t have radio or tv. It was scary. We are still feeling aftershocks. We have experienced about 5 big ones. Nothing happened to my apartment, we live on the first floor and we have only seen two cracks. When I woke up I looked at my companion and we realized what was happening and ran to get in the door frame. I was in shock and kept saying, "What do we do?" I had lots of images going through my mind of buildings falling down in the attacks on September 11. I was sure that our building was going to fall down. We heard lots of screaming from the floors above and the growning from the earth. H. McNeil started to pray outloud and I was pleading in my head to let it stop. I kept thinking about how worried my mom was going to be. I never felt like I was going to lose my life, but was scared for what was happening to others. We thought the shaking lasted for only a minute, but it actually lasted for three. When it stopped we thanked our Heavenly Father and then started worrying about what we should do next. After going outside and talking with a few people we decided that it was safe to be inside. The electricity was cut and we decided to try and get some sleep. After counting 15 aftershocks I fell asleep.

There is a lot of damage and it was hard to leave the apartment yesterday morning. The air was somber. I am so grateful for all of your prayers. I really felt the protection when I prayed to Heavenly Father thanking him for keeping us safe.

I love you all and want you to be calm and not read too much about what happened.

Loves, kisses, and prayers,
Hermana Arnold