March 15, 2011 - Earthquake Update

Hello again everyone!! So things are going crazy here. Everyone is safe and sound, but things are a lot different here. You go to the stores, and food is gone, you go to the 711s and the onigiri (rice ball) and all the water, and everything is gone. As soon as the store gets more, its all out. I took a lot of pictures and its quite amazing. Every one is trying to get the food storage in case something else will happen, which some say will. But yea the only thing with us down here, is that everyone is even busier, stores are closed/out of food, trains are down often, etc. Yesterday me and my companion tried to go meet up with the Yamato Elders, but the trains were down, so we couldnt go. They are not permanently down, but just temporary to save energy. It doesn't feel like the same though. There really is an interesting feeling in the air. They predict another big quake is coming, but they`re not sure. There has been dozens since the big one on Friday, but there in other places, so they haven't been too big here. But its still really crazy. Its almost like we cant do anything, except wait. Either for the next one, or for this to all go away.

But to look at the bright side, Yuji was able to come to Church on Sunday because his basketball got canceled due to the Earthquake and stuff. The last time he came was about a year ago, and now were just trying to help him understand that he needs to be baptized. Like I said with Ito, she unfortunately called us and said that her dad really doesn't want her to get baptized, and that she wants to make him happy. She told me, I'm not going to get baptzsed, im not going to go to church, and this was the hardest. She told me please don't call. I asked if we could just meet once more and talk about all of this, and she said no. I don't want to meet. Please don't call again, then hung up. It was really hard. She was two days away from getting baptized. 2 days. then she flaked out because of her dad. She said she believes our church is true, but she wants to make her dad happy. That was really hard. Were hoping and praying shell come back though. This isn't the first time shes done this, so we think she might.

As far as whats going on here, I'm not sure about the plants and stuff. I do know there was one in Mito which is right by Ushiku where I used to be, that has the potential of exploding. So President is evacuating a few missionaries there. At first they thought that we were all in possible danger to the radioactive waves, so President told us not to go outside yesterday but to stay in the apartment, because of the potential rain. But it didn't rain, and we found out that there was no threat to us. Some people have been effected by the radioactive waves, but here in Shonan we are far enough away that there is no problem. As far as Tsunami goes, we saw some news of the tsunami up north, and its amazing. over 10 meters of water destroyed a lot. Cars were getting tossed around like nothing, and houses were destroyed etc. It was amazing. I don't know what the news there is showing, but its crazy. They had only 9 minutes to get out before the tsunami came in. Only 9 minutes.... They are still finding people, but so far about 3000 people are missing, and about 2400 people are reported dead. That is what were hearing here. This was the biggest quake in all of Japans history. Its intense. We didn't get any big tsunamis here in Shonan. Were tucked in nicely protected. The city has scheduled some power outages to save power. These aren't really affecting us much at all. Its only for about 3 hours. They had some planned for yesterday, but it never happened, so were not completely sure. Everyone is trying to get all the food, and water they can get. The stores are all out of water, bread, nato, tofu, its quite amazing. The Church has an article about it on the home site. Its pretty accurate. I'm not sure what you guys are hearing there, but people are in high alert, and preparing in case something else comes. Don't be worried though. Well be completely fine. I'm confident in that. I love you all so much.

Elder Stewart