Breakfast of Champions!

Yesterday I was a bit late getting breakfast on the table so my girls took things into their own hands-they took their buckets and went in search of food. Good thing we have peas in the garden or they may have starved to death!

We got an e-mail TODAY! Many tears of joy!

Hey Nat!

How is everything going? I really want to know
what the news is saying because we havent been
able to watch anything yet. Here in Curico there
are certain parts that are fine. They have water
and electricity and our house got water back
yesterday. We are in a nice sector of houses
and so we are doing just fine. We dont have
electricity back yet but i think it will be
coming here in the next day or two. There are
certain parts of our sector that has electricity
and right now we are in a little internet cafe
so we are really lucky. Every city in Chile has
a centro (which is the center of town) and
in Centro is where we had most of the damage.
The old adobe houses and buildings that are made
out of mud are the ones that didn´t hold up.
I am not kidding you it was literally like
a movie. What happened was so crazy. We woke
up to it at 3:30 in the morning and i just sat
up in bed while the house sounded like it was
going to come down and it was swaying back
and forth. It was like a roller coaster ride.
So anyway we just kind of road it out for as
long as it was and then when it was over we
started laughing, we had know idea what had
just happened.We went outside and people were
coming out of there houses but all the houses
in our neighborhood looked fine we had no idea,
so we went back inside and went to bed. None
of us could sleep,but we laid there anyway
until 6:30 when our phone rang and it was one
of the elders in our zone that told us how big
it was and how their bishop came to get them to
go start helping people so we went outside
and talked to our neighbor who was listening
to the radio in his car and he told us that
Centro was in shambles so we got out our safety
kits and went toward centro. I cant wait til
I can send you pictures. This is the part that
was like a movie. People were walking around,
not saying anything, just looking at stuff.
The old buildings that were made of adobe
were falling over in the streets and one of
the big buildings in Centro is (its only like
3 floors and it wasn´t an apartment building
so I dont think anyone was in it) but it was
just totally demolished. Some of the old catholic
churches are in ruins and the whole front
of one of them just completely fell. Our chapel
however is as strong as a brick and nothing
happened to it. They said that this earthquake
was like 50 times stronger then the one in Haiti
and they said that the only difference is that
they build the houses better here. You should
see our house Nat. Looking at it you would think
that it should have came down, but it all of
the houses in our neighborhood were fine so we
are just lucky I guess. The beach that everyone
here in Curico goes to is about 2 hours to the
west of us and I guess that it got hit by a
tsunami and a lot of people died there. The mom
of one of the ladies in our ward was there for
the weekend and they haven´t received any word
from her yet so we are just praying that they
can find her. Other than that all of the members
in our ward are doing well. From what we hear we
are on the good side of things. Concepcion is a
mess right now. We have only been able to call down
to certain zones a few times this week and I guess
that it is just a mess. I have heard that on CNN
there are pictures of Curico so you could get on
and try to see what you can see about it. We have
only heard little bits and pieces hear and there. But
anyway I am just writing to let you know not to
worry, we are doing well. We have food and water
and we are in good shape. Keep me posted cause you
probably know more about it then I do. All around
Curico is doing well. I wrote you first Nat cause
I wanted to be able to tell you all that has happened.
I don´t really know how much I should tell mom cause
I don´t really know how worried she is so I will keep
my email to her a little bit on the lighter side. But
in all seriousness we are doing fine. Love you guys
so much and thanks for the emails.
I love you.
Elder Dalton
ps... We have felt some good aftershocks the last
few days but they are just little rumbles.
It really was quite the experience.