I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet

Santiago North Mission
Mission Conference
September 2015
Hermana Schomburg says she's in the middle-ish
I have yet to find her :)

LET ME JUST TELL YOU THAT I HAVE HAD ONE HECK OF A WEEK HOLY CANNOLI LITERALLY WOW JUST

ONE HECK OF A WEEK

Seems like some of you are under the impression that there was an earthquake here in Chile.

You are all correct.

AND JUST LITERALLY

OH MY GOSH

BUT THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THAT HAPPENED ON WEDNESDAY I HAVE TO START FROM THE BEGINNING

Okay, so, on Wednesday we had a big ol' conference for the WHOLE MISSION because of the Fiestas Patrias that we had this week. So, we all went to Pudahuel in the morning and there was a choral number sang (OH YEAH ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT THAT WE SANG 'I NEED THE EVERY HOUR' or 'SEÑOR TE NECESITO' BUT THE ARRANGEMENT BY SALLY DEFORD AND I WAS LIKE WAIT

I KNOW HER

SHE IS IN MY STAKE

LITERALLY I KNOW HER

BUT ANYWAY WE SANG THT OUR LITTLE CHOIR OF MISSIONARIES AND IT WAS SO COOL) and then something else happened

we had a visitor (how do you spell that)

The president of our area of the 70, Elder Viñas, came to our conference because he is neighbors with Pres Videla when he visits, so, he came! ANd he talked and it was so cool :)

and also, something that we do during conferences is like a little practice thing. We learn something that we're going to start teaching differently and then we practice, but usually the first one is with Pres and the asistentes and then after that another pair of missionaries does the practice. And nobody ever wants to do the practice. Because, well, it's in front of all these people and like, i dunno, it's weird?? 

But anyway, Pres finished the practice and was like 'okay and now we are going to make you guys practice but do you have any commentaries first?' 

and Hna Alonso

raises

her

hand

AND I WAS MORTIFIED WITH FEAR BUT THEN SHE WAS LIKE 'I JUST HAVE A COMMENT' BUT PRES WAS LIKE 'HAHAHAHAHAHA I DONT CARE HAHAHAHAHA COME NOW TO YOUR DOOM AND PRACTICE IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE MISSION AND ELDER VIÑAS OF THE SEVENTY' 

and so we went and did a practice in front of the entire mission and Elder Viñas

and rocked it. #SOMOSBAKANES

So that was super cool. And then we had empanadas for lunch and watched some real dancer people dance real cueca [Chilean national dance - a handkerchief dance] and it was so cool and so amazing and so Chilean let me just tell you

the Chile was strong with this conference

AND THEN

hahahah

then

AND THEN we went back to the house to drop off our things and use the bathroom, right? We live on the 15th floor of a 20 floor apartment building. No big deal right? Just droppin off our things

and so i'm washing my hands in the bathroom right and the world starts to shake a little

and i was like 'eh just a little tremor not a big deal' (i think i forgot to mention that it trembles here somewhat often) 

and then i start hearing other things

and the trembling gets a little more trembley

and Hna Alonso goes 'HERMANA SCHOMBURG'

and i was like 'yeah?'

and then tHE TREMBLING GOT A LITTLE MORE STRONGER FUERTE

AND SO I EXITED THE BATHROOM

AND THE WHOLE DANG BUILDING IS SWAYING AND TREMBLING AND HERMANA ALONSO HAD ABANDONED ME (please know that much of this is going to be a bit exaggerated but that's just to help you understand what it felt like) AND WAS STANDING IN THE DOORWAY TO OUR APARTMENT

SO I'M LIKE

WHOA

UH

AND THE WORLD STARTED SHAKING SO MUCH MORE AND WE WERE LIKE 'LITERALLY THIS IS NOT NORMAL IT IS NOT NORMALLY LIKE THIS' AND THEN I LOOK OUT THE DOOR WITH MY COMPANION TO SEE ALL OF OUR NEIGHBORS ALSO IN THEIR DOORS

and at this point we were somewhat tranquila still, because it trembles sometimes (that is not the right verb i know it but i literally have no clue what the verb is) and the chilenos are always like 'eh, it'll pass' BUT OUR NEIGHBORS

OUR CHILENO NEIGHBORS

WERE SCREAMING

AND CRYING

AND ONE MAN WAS HOLDING HIS BABY AND HIS WIFE AND THE WALL AND THEY WERE LIKE FREAKING OUT

THERE WAS A LADY ON THE FLOOR

AND THEN THE WORLD WAS SHAKING SO THAT WE ALMOST COULDNT WALK AND IT FELT LIKE LITERALLY THE BUILDING WAS GOING TO FALL OVER IT WAS SWAYING SO MUCH AND THE FURNITURE WAS MOVING AND STUFF LIKE WHAT EVEN 

AND SO HERMANA ALONSO AND I ARE LIKE GRABBING OUR EMERGENCY BACKPACKS AND SHOES AND STUFF AND WE GET TO THE DOORWAY AND WE'RE WAITING FOR IT TO PASS AND EVERYBODY IS SCREAMING AND SO THERE IN THE DOORWAY WITH ALL OUR NEIGHBORS I WAS LIKE

'Is it alright if I offer a prayer?'

AND THEY JUST KEPT SCREAMING SO I WAS LIKE

'Okay, I'm going to offer a prayer' and then I prayed BUT THEY ALL WERE SCREAMING SO MUCH AND THE LIGHTS WERE GOING ON AND OFF AND THEN HERMANA ALONSO WAS LIKE 'HUMILITY HUMILITY' AND KNEELS DOWN AND STARTS TO PRAY

AND I WAS PRAYING NORMAL I WAS LIKE 'we thank thee for this day' AND STUFF AND NOW WHEN I THINK ABOUT IT IT WAS ALL SO COMICAL MY COMPANION KNEELING IN THE DOORWAY ALL THE CHILENOS SCREAMING ME PRAYING OUT LOUD LITERALLY IT WAS SO FUNNY OH MAN BUT ANYWAY SO I'M PRAYING AND THE SHAKING GETS TO THE POINT THAT I JUST STARTED SAYING 'CUIDA TUS MISIONEROS CUIDA TUS MISIONEROS CUIDA TUS MISIONEROS' [take care of your missionaries] LIKE THE PEOPLE YOU SEE IN MOVIES THAT ARE LIKE PRAYING CRAZY AND THEN THE SHaking slowed and stopped after a moment and then we went down the stairs (after an abuelita [grandma] that was walking very very very very very slowly) and when we got to the bottom, we were like 'OKAY NOW WHAT DO WE DO THERE WAS JUST AN EARTHQUAKE AND HERE WE ARE DO YOU HAVE THE EMERGENCY INSTRUCTIONS IN YOUR BACKPACK' and Hna alonso is like 'YES I HAVE THE INSTRUCTIONS' and so we open up the one page of instructions

and we're looking for what to do in case of an earthquake and we see this line and it's like 'IN CASE OF AN EARTHQUAKE, SEE THE PAGE 'IN CASE OF AN EARTHQUAKE' 

and we were like

WE ONLY HAVE ONE PAGE

and so we keep looking and we're reading it and it says stuff like 'IN CASE OF A DISASTER, THE PRESIDENT OF THE MISSION AND THE ASSISTENTS AND PEOPLE LIKE THAT SHOULD MEET IN THE OFFICE OF THE MISSION. IF THE MISSION OFFICE HAS BEEN DESTROYED, THEY SHOULD MEET BESIDE THE RUINS' and we were like

LITERALLY

LITERALLY WHAT 

And so then, we knew that we were just supposed to wait at our apartment, but we couldnt go back up yet (they say that you'll be fine in your house during the earthquake, but the things that dont fall during the earthquake will fall during the aftershocks (is that what those are called?) so stay out of your house after the earthquake) so we were just waiting around and then the other hermanas that live in our building showed up and then we were like 'okay let's go up' after a whole lot of other calls and things and

oh shoot

i am almost out of time

OH NO

NOT NOW

but anyway

just know that there have been about 50000000 aftershocks and we feel EVERY SINGLE ONE AND I AM IN A CONSTANT STATE OF VERTIGO NOW AND IT'S KIND OF TERRIBLE BUT ALSO SUPER COOL AND I HAVE A STORY TO TELL MY GRANDKIDS

long story short, the world shook a bit, but we're fine :) 

BUT ANYWAY SHOOT UGH I WILL GO WRITE A LONG LETTER AND SEND IT TO YOU ALL ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED BECAUSE IT WAS SO GR8 LIKE AS IN 8 ON THE RICHTER SCALE HAHA also we had another 6 this morning 

and yeah

there have been many

but we are a lot more prepared now and we are going to find the other instructions of what to do in case of an emergency

OTHER THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEK TOO BUT I DONT HAVE TIME LEFT

BUT I LOVE YOU ALL SO VERY MUCH AND I WILL TALK TO YOU NEXT WEEK SOMETIME

and if you want to know

I'm in Plaza de Armas in this very moment for our P'day, so you can google it or something, haha, LOVE YOU ALL

CCCCCCCCCCCCIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIAAAAAAAAAAAAOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

also they dont have such a thing as frosting in cans here

just so you know ;)

**Just a note: The missionaries are supplied with 72-hour kits with food, water, and supplies to use in case of an emergency - that is the emergency backpack to which she referred. After this experience, I am sure that they will update their packs making sure they have everything necessary.