Hey ya'll! Thanks for your e-mail regarding my safety. It made me laugh. Saturday was super hectic, and I'm glad it's over. So I’m sure you are all super curious about what happened.... (And if you're not, then you don't have to read....)
So Saturday morning we woke up to the tsunami alarms going off all over the Islands. It was super early, and of course my first reaction is to get dressed, grab my backpack and go. So that's kind of what I did. I was dressed super, super fast... it was funny. It brought back good memories... :D then I kind of woke up a little bit and started thinking clearly. Sister Latu's investigator had called her at 0300 and told her what was happening, so she was already dressed. We went outside and our zone leaders were there with info from the Mission President. By now it's about 0600. *I feel kind of bad, but things like this really excite me. We were told that the tsunami wasn't expected till 1100, and our apartments are well above the safety line. So we asked what help we could offer to the emergency teams. By this time the whole city had started to move to high ground, which is where we live. So cars had started arriving at the field by our pads. There was nothing we could do for a while, and apparently a ton of parents had called the mission office. So president told us all to call our families. That was kind of weird. Don't worry mom and dad, I wasn't being disobedient. Mom, your advise was the best part... "take pictures?" Only you... honestly. But I did. So no worries.
We were told that because we had plenty of time, we should do our studies, then we could decide to stay in the houses, or head to the hill behind the temple where everyone was gathering. Of course I'm not going to stay in my apartment when there's a tsunami to see. And of course lots of tourist and potential investigators to talk to. We walked up there and found our investigators to make sure they were all safe, then we just walked around for a while. We met a ton of people, got a new investigator, and watched from the top of the hill for the waves.
There wasn't much to see... which is a good thing. I'm glad the tsunami died down. After we got the all clear we went to the Visitor Center so Sister Watanabe could call her family in Japan. They were glad to hear from her. We then put on our mu'umu'u's and went to work at the Visitor Center.
So that was kind of it... I hope everyone had a good look at how their food storage was. And if it was adequate of not. I'll try to send pictures, I took a lot from the Hill behind the temple. There was some receding of the water for a bit. I tried to get pics of that.
Other than that, this week has been great. Unfortunately, the tsunami canceled our baptism. It has been re-scheduled for this Saturday, and I'm super excited for it. We have a few more coming up in the zone that are total miracles. Including one that Sister Latu and Sister Stringer (my pad mates) have that is right after ours on Saturday.
This week Sister Watanabe and I really learned the importance of following the spirit in our tours, and have seen so many miracles as we've tried to implement all the different visuals and tools we have here. I studied genealogy a lot last week, and decided that I was going to use the Genealogy exhibit a lot more. Oddly enough that's exactly what so many people needed to see this week. It opened the door for missionaries all over to go teach them about eternal families after their vacations :D
I'll send pics so I don't have to write more :D love you all lots and lots!!!
Aloha, Sister Bridge
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