Seth's Experiences with the Earthquake in Haiti & A Letter From Japan!

We have heard from Seth and his experiences in the Dominican Republic during the earthquake in Haiti. Thankfully, all the members and missionaries are safe and accounted for. This is his report to his family:

"You are probably wondering if I felt the earthquake that was in Haiti. To answer your question, yes I did. My companion and I were in the middle of a lesson when it happened. I was kind of observing the reations of our investigators at the time. I noticed one of our investigators point out some to her mom across the room but I didnt see anything. All the sudden I felt really dizzy and kind of sick. I finally realized it was an earthquake so I jumped out of my seat and was ready to run out of the house. I was waiting for my companion to do the same thing. I did not want to be in that house. Most of the houses here are just made out of cement walls that are held up be posts that are in the ground. There is no foundation at all usually. I did not feel safe at all. The member that was with us ran out right away. My companion eventually casually walked out and I followed him. Our investigator and her mom got on their knees and started praying to God for forgiveness. Eventually the quake stopped after 30 seconds. After everyone was calmed down we continued the lesson. Later on my companion said that he could see the house shaking a little and trees swaying like crazy. He said one of the first things he thought was that it was the second coming. I told him I thought the very same thing. I guess the quake was about a 5.2 where we were. Nothing where we are fell or was damaged. I have heard that Haiti is in disaster though. I´ve heard the capital has been destroyed, everyone in their government died except for the president who is in the hospital, and that there are 2 million orphans headed of the US. I am not exactly sure what is true and what isnt but I know the situation isnt good. I have heard though that the church headquarters there was one of the few buildings still standing and that all missionaries are accounted for. I guess Elder Coleman of the area seventy is working closely with the secretary of state in Haiti over relief efforts from the church. So ya, that was my experience with the earthquake."

I am also pleased to report that we heard from Travis. After over two weeks of waiting he has finally written home. This is what he has to say:

"Hey everyone! Sorry it took me a while to get to a computer. I sent a letter, but apparently it takes 10 days to arrive. Japan is definetly different. There`s no insulation or central heating, so it gets a little chilly. We can usually see our breath in the apartment. summer is supposed to be warmer though. my trainer is elder anderson, he`s from Idaho. We get along pretty well. My area is called kochi, right in the middle of the big city. Our area is enormous, it takes about 6 hours by car to cross it. Since we`re on bikes, we can`t cover it, but there`s more than enough work for us here around the main city. The missionary work here is a little slow; most people have no interest whatsoever in christianity. We have several investigators who are progressing slowly. We had one lady who was doing great, but then her family found out and now we aren`t sure what will happen. many people here just don`t like christianity, even though they know nothing about it. We did find one guy in a park who was interested, he was even willing to read the Book of Mormon! it was a good experience. I can probably understand about 10 percent of what I hear. I`ve only been here for a week and a half though, so I won`t get discouraged. I managed to put together a pretty good talk for sacrament meeting, it went really well. I know enough japanese to get my message across, Its just understanding and coming up with things quickly off the top of my head. It will come with time. I heard there was a massive earthquake in Haiti, I hope Seth is doing ok. well, I`ll write again asap. Love you all!"

Landen and Lillie...Seth and Travis

We are blessed enough to have the opportunity to have Landen and Lillie come for visits with us on the weekends. The kids thoroughly enjoy having them come to visit...and cuddle with the twins day and night. Landen and Lillie are nearly two years old now and are good talkers...especially Lillie who can repeat almost anything she hears. She is quite the singer too! She has invented a song that sounds like a combination of the "A B C's and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star". Landen loves anything that has to do with a ball..any ball.

It has been an anxious week for us as we have been waiting to hear from our missionaries. About one hour after the devastating earthquake in Haiti we received an email from Seth's mission president reporting that all the Santo Domingo West Missionaries have been accounted for and that no damage has been reported to any person or property related to the church. The next day we received an email from the church that spoke to the conditions of the surrounding missions. All missionaries were safe and accounted for. Although there are no full time missionaries in Haiti, the saints there are in need of our prayers.

We have not heard from Travis since he left Provo. We received an email from his mission president's wife asking if we could check with his bank. His debit card was not working well for him in Japan. We were able to make arrangements with the bank, and luckily he can now access his money! But, we have not heard from him. He left Provo on January 4th, and as of today (January 17th) we are still waiting! I realize that it has only been 13 days...so I am trying to be patient. Some friends have suggested that if I do not hear from him this week that I should email the mission home and ask them to remind Travis of his frantic mother back home. I don't want to embarrass him...but I really do want to hear from him. I do know that he is serving in Kochi, Japan and that his companion is Elder Anderson. Beyond that, we have no details!

Returning back to Seth, he emailed us this week an excellent letter. Here is an excerpt:

I am in this city called Azua that is two hours west of Santo Domingo. Our area is called Pueblo Arriba. Its a area that covers the whole end of the town. The people here are really nice and friendly. They have a really hard time pronouncing my name though. I have only heard one person pronounce it right the first time. Most people just say Rambow or something similiar. I guess rambow is some kind of party music which is kind of funny. anyways, the people here love their music and love to play it loud. I saw one truck that had four stadium sized speakers on the top of it. People will play their music late into the night also.
Every block as these little stores called colmados. we get most of our food there. They carry basic food necessites and other things. Stuff here is very cheap, at least the local stuff. Everything that is imported can be expensive.
I better tell you about our house. Its actually really nice compared to other houses aroung here. Most houses here are made of cement and have sheet metal roofs. Most of the houses have some kind of power and running water. They usually have cement or dirt floors. The bathrooms-showers are usually outside. They are usualy about 20x15 feet and have one or two bedrooms. Anyways, our house is really nice compared to others. Its on a second level of a building. It has tile floors, running water and electricity(when they aren´t shut off), and a small kitchen. No huge spiders or other bugs like I thought there would be. It basicaly like an apartment in the US. I have nothing to complain about especially when you compare it to the houses around us. We only have cold water which means cold showers. They arent too bad. Its not like the cold water in washington. I´ll send pictures of the house when I can.
The weather here is HOT. It´s not as humid as Santo Domingo because its farther from the water but its HOT. The mosquitos arent too bad. I dont even use the repellant that I have. The only bites that I have gotten are on my feet because I sleep with my feet uncovered. At night we just have a fan blow on us and that keeps almost all of the mosquitos away.
My companion´s name is elder Barnhurst. He is a pretty cool guy. He´s from Utah like every other missionary seems to be. He only comes up to my shoulder. He knows spanish pretty well and is very helpful. we share the house with two other missionaries that are from the DR. They are really funny. They also love basketball. They try to talk to bme about stuff but I dont speak very well. They are helpful too. They played a joke on me when I first got here. They took my bed out of our room and replaced it with two sleeping pads with bricks underneath it. when I saw it I was kind of disappointed. They told me they were working on getting me a bed. I believed them a course. They like to play jokes like those all the time. My companion´s old companions left a bunch of ties for me. I guess you can get ties at this market for less that a dollar each.
My spanish is coming along okay. I understand people a lot more and usually have an idea of what is going on but I cant speak well at all. I basically bear a really short testimony and sometimes say a prayer during lessons.That is all I really need to do though. My companion says that I need to work on my accent really bad because people have a really hard time understanding me when I do have something to say. All well, spanish will come.
The DR is really kind of like a big farm. When you walk around you´ll see stray dogs and cats, chickens, goats, pigs, cows, ducks, and what ever else that might be on a farm. Every morning you hear hundreds of roosters. It really is kind of like a farm. There are also naked kids that like to run down the street. We dont really go out and procelite until 3 beacuse most people are doind chores and realy dont want to be interrupted. we have study time until 11 or 11:30 and then we might go rum some errends or something else. Then we´ll have lunch.
Traffic here is really crazy. Everyone rides motrorcycles of some kind of motorbike. There arent any speed limits, no traffic lights, and no stop signs. It is basically a free for all. Its nuts. Traffic here doenst stop for pedestrians at all so we have to be very careful especially downtown. One reason our mission doesnt have bikes is beacuse an elder got hit by a moter bike and was seriously injured. If I die on my mission(don´t worry, I won´t) it will probably because I got hit by a moterbike.
Well, when I got to the field, my companion said that we had a baptism set up for saturday. And that is what happened. we baptised this girl named Yeraldina (pernounced like Jeraldina). she is 17. I got to help teach two lessons to her so that baptism counts for me too. we are now teaching her sister who seems pretty intersted. Our main focus right now is this 12 year old girl named Gladis. She is amazing and is a very special daughter of God. She has been going to church by herself for the last two years just because she loves it. She has a really strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the church. She is very mature for her age and you can tell that she is one of those elect that are talked about in the scriptures. I guess missionaries in the past haven´t thought about bapstising her because she was too young and the rest of her family arent members. We went and talked to her mom last night and she said that it was ok and that she supported Gladis. When Gladis found out that she could be baptised she had the biggest smile on her face. If she stays active in the church, which I am certain she will, she will go far. Elder Barhurst and I think that we could get her whole family to be baptised too. i guess her sisters has been coming to church too. Most people here are willing to hear our message at least once. we usually just talk about prayer the first lesson and if we think that they are really interested we will introduce the book of mormon. It is pretty effective. Right now we have about 5 progressing investigators and 4 others that we are still teaching. Oh ya, one thing that is different here than in the USA is that people here will just start breast feeding their babies right in front of you. Its kind of awkward. we just try to focus on their face or other people who are part of the lesson when teaching.

Hopefully, we will have some news next week about how things are with Travis!

Amanda Played Varsity!

Amanda is pleased to announce that she has officially suited up and played (although not for very long) on the varsity basketball team. This has been a goal of hers since she was a 9th grader last year. So, as a sophomore she is finally playing some varsity. Girls high school basketball is a painful endeavor. Painful physically sometimes, painful emotionally and socially almost always. However, she has handled it wonderfully and and we are proud of her.

We are assuming that both Seth and Travis made it safely to their respective first areas on their missions. We are waiting anxiously for their first P-day and hopefully an email home. We are so pleased to have both boys serving at the same time, twice the blessings! Hopefully we will have some exciting news to share early next week!

And They're Off!

Well, Seth and Travis leave this week for their first official areas as missionaries! Travis leaves Monday morning, and flies to LAX. He will call us from Los Angeles (I can't wait!) and then fly from LAX to Tokyo. From there, seven of the missionaries will be met by elders from the Tokyo mission. Travis will continue on (via the bullet train) to Hiroshima. He will travel from Tokyo to Hiroshima alone. I am a bit worried...hoping he will get there. I hope he will know when to get off the train, I hope that someone will meet him at the train station in Hiroshima. How will he get from the Tokyo airport to the train station? I am convinced that I am not the only mother to have such worries, but without having done this before I am worried! I have heard that the mission president will notify us that he has arrived safely. He is supposed to finally arrive in Hiroshima late Tuesday night, by my count that is almost 2 days of travel. I'm sure that the time difference makes it a bit shorter.

Seth leaves for his first area on Tuesday. Since he has been in the Dominican Republic for several weeks already, he will travel to his first area by car (or so we have heard). He is a bit nervous...he feels his Spanish is not great yet. We've tried to tell him to give it some time, he can't expect to be fluent in just nine weeks! Seth does not know if he will be in a city or in the country (which if poverty stricken). He hopes to have an American companion that will help him with his Spanish and can speak some English to! Funny how both boys are a bit nervous, as is their mom. I know that they will do fine. The Lord will watch over them.

The two missions are very different. Seth says his president is known for being very strict, sending Elders home quite often. They are not permitted to take a lot of pictures, and must abide by many mission rules. Travis' president stressed the importance of photographs. The Japanese people get to know each other with photos, and are a relaxed and friendly people. The Hiroshima mission is small, in fact Travis was the only elder in the MTC going there. It will be exciting to hear about their missions and how they differ.

Happy New Year!