Here's news from La Hermanita concerning the earthquake that hit Chile recently:
"Well two days after the quake things still seem hectic. Now that I have time to write, let me share with you my experiences. I woke up to, ¨Hermana, do you feel that?¨ I jumped off the top of the bunkbed and got into my companion's bed. Almost right after I got in is when the worst hit. I heard it was an 8 on richter in Santiago. I can't even explain how it was. As I said, I was really calm throughout it. I knew that everything would be ok. But now, with time and seeing the destruction of other homes, I realize how terrifying it was! I am just glad I didn't realize it the time I was going through it. It was like a really shaky rollercoaster. And the sound, the entire earth trembling, I won't ever forget. They said it lasted for 3 mintues. No way. It had to have been like 15-20 seconds. We said a prayer and it stopped not much longer after that. We have felt some good aftershocks. We had an aftershock of 7 on richter yesterday. There is so much to tell! Our apartment has some damage, but nothing really bad. Cracks and a little part of our wall looks like a sledge hammer got to it. But we are in a new building. It hit Saturday morning at about 3:40 am. By 4:00 pm that day our Zone went to our area, the poor part, and we helped families move stuff out of their homes. There were holes in the walls, stairs on staircases were not there, walls had fallen out. These people's apartments were destroyed. I was up on the 3rd floor with Hermana Talbot (she was my comp. in the MTC, we live together) this building that we were helping has 4 floors. There was like this weird silence. Then you could hear it. It was like that scene in Jurassic Park when they are in the stopped car and they hear the ground shaking because the T Rex was coming. It was like that sound. You could hear the earth tremble right before it got to us. So we ran under the doorways to get through the aftershock. Oh, that sound, it is just crazy. It makes me realize more that the Earth is real and what I learned in Science is real!!! We felt the building sway. Freaky. I was really fine until I had that experience. I keep having dreams about earthquakes and am trying to prepare in case another hits. No worries families. I am ok. I think Saturday was the most fulfilling day of my mission. Helping people. They were all like, where did you come from? Those people needed help and I am so happy we got to help. The pictures in the emails are from the apartments that we went to help. You can see the damage! Its incredible."
