Note from my brother, Joel

Here's a note from my brother, Joel, who is serving in Mito, Japan...



I am right now in a church in Abiko (closer to Tokyo). We were evacuated out of Mito yesterday by the Mission Office because of the continual tremors (I always think of Kevin Bacon whenever I say `tremors`) and because of the exploded Nuclear Power Plant 11 miles to the north. Mito was also hit by a tsunami and this was a problem, too. We were told to pack for a week. But, the problem was that there was no way out of Mito. The express way was closed, the train line was broken, the local roads were bumper to bumper, and no one could give us a ride out of Mito. However, our Super Hero senior couple, Elder and Sister Hobbs, took the 5 hour drive and picked us up and got us out of Mito last night. Thank you all for all of your prayers. I am so grateful for every single prayer that was said. So, the big 9.0 earthquake happened last Friday at 3-ish o`clock. From Thursday afternoon, I was in a town called Tsukuba on splits with an Elder named Elder Cooper. Friday afternoon, we took the train back to Mito to meet the other Elders to switch back. We said goodbye, then started to walk out of the station and to our bikes. Tiny earthquakes here and there are pretty natural here in Japan. When we got to our bikes, we started to feel an earthquake. It started off really small, and we shrugged it off. We were under a bridge, and then the shaking got worse and we started to see dust and rubble falling down from above us. We ran away from the bridge, and then the ground started to crack and sink and slant and the glass in all of the buildings began to crack. All we could do was just crouch down, cover our heads and watch the buildings sway back and forth and side to side. It went on for what seemed about 3-5 minutes. Once it ended, the first thing we wondered about was `Where are the Tsukuba Elders?` So we ran back into the station to find them, but we couldn`t find them anywhere. As the streets flooded with people evacuating the buildings and searching for shelter, there was no hope to find the Tsukuba Elders. Another quake came right then that wasn’t as strong, but shook us up none the less. Our cell phones wouldn’t work and we couldn’t make any calls. We tried to call them several times, but no luck. We went all around looking for the Tsukuba Elders (we thought they were trapped inside the Station). The phones everywhere were down. We were having more tremors and we were getting pretty worried for ourselves and for them. We were ready to go and look somewhere else. However, we received a miraculous phone call, out of nowhere. It was from the Tsukuba Elders. How we received that call at that time, and weren’t able to make or receive any other calls, I don’t know, but we received that call and were able to meet up with them. To make a long story short, we decided to walk back to the apartment and as we were on our way, we found a lot of people that needed our help. As we went, there were houses that crumbled, and shops that were crumbled and glass everywhere. We helped an old man and his wife clean up there shop (which was also their house). They didn’t want to bother us with helping them, but we took the brooms and pans and helped them clean the glass and broken stuff as quickly as we could. The man thanked us, but really, it was such a wonderful thing to be able to help them. They were so frightened by everything and didn’t know what to do. As we walked away, the man walked out onto the sidewalk and thanked us in a loud voice. It was a pretty humbling experience. I don’t want to take all this time by just telling about the effects of the earthquake and what not, but that is just a little bit of what happened. I would just like to show my gratitude and testify of a God of Mercy and Miracles. I am so grateful to be here and have the opportunity to serve among these people and see the Light of Christ evident in every single good deed anyone does. So many people were helping others as much as they could. Seeing acts of kindness which receive no recognition and seeing people serve their fellow men during this time was so amazing. This time is definitely a time to count the blessings, focus on the things that matter most, and strive to lose yourself in the service of others. I love the work and I love being a missionary!

Love, Elder Einfeldt