Personal Daishinsai Stories

The missionary stories below were compiled by Elder and Sister Goth, who served in the Tokyo Area Office and were on a scheduled visit to Sapporo when they were assigned to medically evaluate each Sendai missionary who was evacuated to Sapporo. The experiences were so dramatic that they began recording them in detail for the Area's historical record. The Goths forwarded their compilation to President Tateoka with this message:

"There were some tender experiences that came out of our medical evaluations with the missionares. We pass them onto you in view of the fact that they are your missionaries and your missionary's experiences. We appreciate so much being able to assist these wonderful young men and women. Bless you all in every endeavor in following the Savior. He always takes us where we would not go ourselves. With deep respect, Elder and Sister Goth"

President Tateoka kindly shared his missionaries' stories with us. Thanks also to all others who shared stories posted here.

Index (Click on link to go directly to that story)

Missionary Story: Sister Emi Maki (Serving in Ishinomaki-from Kagoshima)

"We were in our apartment planning and everything started shaking. We scrambled under the desk and then we prayed as soon as the earthquake stopped. The high-school was really close and we walked there. It took us about five minutes. We were at the field of the high-school and someone among the people gathered there had a radio and we heard that there was a tsunami. We had been taught that if there was an earthquake that we needed to go to the high-school. We heard this from our trainer. The teacher told everyone to go into the gym. The gym was on the second floor. When we were in the gym, there were a lot of earthquakes. The water started coming within 30 or 40 minutes of when we heard that the tsunami was coming. We called our Bishop on our cell phone. We tried to call our Mission President too. There were many students sitting around us. There were too many people in the gym. The teacher told the students to go into another building next to us and they were taken to the third floor. Anyone who wasn’t a student went into the gym and anyone who was a student went into the other building.

The water came in on the first floor. At first we all thought that we were going to die. The whole time I was praying and singing hymns in my heart. After singing and praying I felt that whether I lived or if I died it would be okay. I saw the stars through the gym windows and thought that they were really pretty. I also saw the water through the windows and could tell that it was all around the school and I could see that it was deep. I slept for a while and then woke up and slept again and kept waking up. I slept right next to my companion. We tried to comfort each other.

The next day we helped to clean up mud and water in the school. Until twelve we were cleaning up the dirt and mud. The water had receded a great bit.

We waded through the water to go to our apartment. It was about two feet deep. I am short and I pulled up my clothes to keep as dry as possible. Our apartment was on the second floor. We packed food and water and clothes. There was no water on the second floor of the gym and we wanted to go back there.

We slept again at the gym. We did not have any bedding. The next day we went to our apartment again and got blankets and our futon. On Sunday we got bread and water from our apartment and we were able to go to the church. When we went to the church there was no one there. There was a little bit of water in the church but it was mostly okay.

All the members were in different kind of refuges or shelters or evacuation centers. Any member we could find we gave bread and water too. We were going around trying to find the Bishop. We could not find him.

We were able to find our recent convert. We were so very happy. Brother Takahashi was our recent convert and the Relief Society President said that he had gone back to his house. His house was only one floor and it did not have any water in it. We went to his house and his daughter was with him and he was okay. All the members were okay too. We then went back to the gym but the toilets had not been working since the tsunami. A room was designated for the bathroom and boxes and buckets were used for the waste. We had to clean up that room. There was only a limited amount of paper supplies.

In the gym we cooked on a kerosene stove. We cooked fruit and steamed some canned shrimp and put salt and pepper on it. We also cooked a vegetable. We had some small fish. This is what my companion and I ate. Other people ate other snacks and supplies that they had. We got the stove from the school teacher. On the fourteenth when we went to our apartment there was a message on the door. The message said to come back to the apartment at a certain time the next day. 

Sisters Maki and Kado-safely on the bus

Photo: Tokyo Area Office

An older couple came for us and we went to Sendai. We went by car and drove there. We went to Aomori with many missionaries on a bus and then we flew to Tokyo and then flew to Sapporo." (Translator: Sister Drasso) Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Sister Mai Kado (Serving in Ishinomaki-from Hokkaido)

"The earthquake began suddenly, I was in my apartment with my companion. We were doing our weekly planning. Then when the earthquake came we went under the desk. We were on the second floor of our apartment called ( Sefiira Town). We could hear objects and furniture moving in the apartment below. The earthquake became more violent and we ran nervously outside and then we ran to the nearest high-school. We went to the high-school since in Japan from the time we are small if there is an earthquake we are taught to go to the schools. The earth kept moving and it was very loud. This was about two forty or two fifty in the afternoon. When we got to the school, everyone was outside because of the quake and the Japanese high school teachers told us that a tsunami would be coming. The teachers took everyone into the gym. The gym was on the second floor. We stayed there all day and night. We had no food for that day and night. It seemed that there were several hundred students but in our frightened state I cannot say for sure. The name of the high school is Kobunkan High School. We stayed there until the next morning. We helped the teachers clean the school because water had come in. The water had come into the first floor. When we went to our apartment the next day in some places the water was up to our waist.

We picked up food, water and clothes and then stayed at the school for the night. The apartment was on the second floor so it was okay. There was water on the first floor. The next day there was still water in the streets but not as high and so we went to the church (Ishinomaki branch) to see what damage was done. We decided to visit other schools to see if we could find members and look for our investigators. After that we went back to the high school and stayed again in the gym. This time we had more clothes that we brought from our apartment.

The next day was Monday and we were able to ride our bikes so we went to visit schools that were further away to check on members and investigators. The phones were still not working.

We came back to the school and stayed there again. The next day Elder Higashi came and picked us up. We did not know it but he had visited the day before. He came on Tuesday and drove us back to Nagamachi and there we stayed with the Nagamachi Sisters. And then on Wednesday a driver came and picked us up at our apartment. We were picked up at the Nagamachi church. At the church were the Nagamachi sisters, Sister Sato and Sister Semba. We were driven to Aomori. We flew to Tokyo and then to Sapporo.

During the quake and the tsunami I had a very sore throat and nose and thought that it was because I had a sore mouth before the earthquake and I was supposed to see a dentist. In the next few days after arriving at Sapporo, we were able to see a dentist many times." (Translator: Sister Dotsen)

Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Sisters Rachelle Dotsen and Meruia Taurira (Serving in Furukawa-from Seattle WA and Tahiti, respectively)

"When we talked to the members and they told us about the tsunamis, we thought about the plan of salvation and how wonderful it was to have the gospel and to know about the plan of happiness . Just knowing that there is a God and a God who loves us was very calming. We never felt despair. We felt the hope and peace of the gospel. We still tried to Dendo (do missionary work) and there were some lighter and more positive moments. We still tried to have some fun and make things brighter even though things were not normal.

We were riding on our bikes going to visit a member. We were riding on a road further away from the city next to a canal. Suddenly the earthquake happened. It was violent and the water in the canal rose up about ten feet or more. We moved away a bit and crouched down by our bikes. The earthquake didn’t stop and it grew in intensity and kept getting bigger and so we moved over to a field and crawled to the middle of the field. We didn’t want telephone poles above us and we didn’t want to be next to the canal. We wanted to be safe. The quakes kept coming and we were very frightened. We finally realized that they were not going to stop. We hugged each other and decided to pray. The quakes were continuous. There was a really, really big earth quake and then there were many smaller earthquakes. There were times when it felt like it was done and then they would start again within a minute.

We went back to our bikes that we had left on the road and tried to get to our apartment. We had to stop and wait many times. When we were riding it was more difficult to feel the earthquakes but when a big shock came we had to stop and all the cars stopped too. It took us under an hour to return to our apartment. The apartment inside was in chaos. The toilet and sink were still in place but everything else was thrown together. Dishes had come out of the cupboard and were broken. Our desks were jammed together. Our dryer fell down but nothing had come out of the fridge. We turned off the gas the next day but not until we had read about it in our blue books for companionship study.

I did not feel we should clean up right away. Instead we felt that we should go and help some of the members. Three of the members came to our minds. Chiba Kako, Brother and Sister Murata and Sister Harue whose husband was away at work much of the time. It seemed that things had fallen in their homes and dishes were broken but there were no fires. We did not see inside Sister Kako’s home. The outside of their homes were intact. They were all frightened especially Brother Murata. We prayed with each of these families and comforted them and reassured them. It began to get dark. In the evening it became cold and began to snow. It snowed for several hours.

In the evening we went back to our dark apartment and put everything we could in one room. There was no power or electricity. We had our water bottles that we filled up earlier in that day and we had some juice in our fridge. We filled up some containers with the last bit of water from the tap but it was dirty. We pushed the beds to the door and jammed the door open. We created two backpacks with some clothes and food and flashlights. We slept in our clothes. We were hoping the power would come back on and we wanted to get back to missionary work but people were not interested so much.

We both had only been out about seven months and neither of us spoke Japanese really well. We could not understand most of what was being said around us. The members would talk slow for us but we were not always around members. We were not aware of the extent of the earthquakes and did not know about the Tsunami for about two days. We decided to camp out so to speak in the apartment instead of going to the evacuation center. We had sufficient food and thought we could help the members. The earthquakes continued all of the time and we could not sleep. During the day we tried to nap a little. On Saturday morning, our AP (Elder Ogaki) called to see if we were okay. The phones went dead then. We also had heard briefly from the MP when we were in the car going to Kamisugi. It wasn’t until then that people were able to get through on the phones. The Mission President asked if we were okay and then said that he had to call other missionaries.

There were food lines but we had food in our apartment. On Monday we were picked up by President Takahashi and driven to Kamisugi and we stayed in the Sister’s apartment. Six Sisters were there together. ( Sister Bennett, Sister Tehei, Sister Kumagai, Sister Hori and ourselves.) By that time the earthquakes were just every few hours.

In Furukawa, the road and sidewalks were broken up or there were depressions where the ground was lower than it had been before, the older buildings had noticeable cracks in them and some windows shattered. There were a few old buildings where the outside of the walls had crumbled. People would wait patiently for hours in the food lines and everyone was very helpful. Members kept asking us if we had food and water." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Sister Adelaide Tehei (Serving in Kamisugi-from New Zealand)

"When we saw the pictures of the devastation in other areas we were very worried about the missionaries in those areas. We knew we could not do anything for them but we knew we could pray for them. I have had a great lesson about the power of prayer. Although we couldn’t find three Sisters, we knew that they would be okay and that Heavenly Father would protect them. I am very grateful for Heavenly Father for watching over us all and keeping us safe. There were a lot of miracles and I am grateful for the wonderful opportunity to teach the reality that He lives and he is offering us through the gospel a chance to have real happiness in this life and eternal salvation in the life to come.

We had just finished teaching a recent convert ( Sister Haruka) a lesson when the quake started. We had watched the film Legacy and we taught her the doctrine of eternal families. We were at the Kamisugi ward church. Sister Haruka had all ready left. She lives close to the church. The building was in motion and we knew that it was a serious quake. It felt like the ground was going to open up and that we would be swallowed. That is how bad the quake was. It went on for a very long time and we were frightened. We were in the church with the zone leaders who were having a lesson with a member ( Brother Tagago) and they were just walking out of the church when the quake hit. They ran out onto the carport and they were telling us to come out to the car park. We went out with them. The earthquake grew in intensity. Sister Bennett said that we needed to pray and we knelt down in the middle of the car park and prayed. Sister Bennett prayed. She said, Heavenly Father please help us stop the earthquake. After our prayer even though the earthquake was still shaking we remained kneeling until it stopped and were talking about the quake and across the road from us were a few people who were listening to a radio outside. We went over and asked if they were okay and we listened to the radio and heard about the tsunami that was going to hit which would be at least twelve meters high. We talked to people who were going past and asked them if they were okay. There were aftershocks. We went into the church but when the aftershock came we came out again into the car park. There were two larger aftershocks.

We had a few members drop into the church and we decided to go see the Bishop who lives near the church. We went to his house and he wasn’t home but his wife was. She said that he was out of town. The Bishop’s family lives on the sixth floor of an apartment building close to the church. The TV was thrown across the room and the apartment was in disarray. We were trying to help the Bishop’s wife clean up the apartment when the second quake started. We all ran down the stairs and to the church. The aftershocks came in a continuous sequence, one ending and another starting.

We went to see the senior missionaries Brother and Sister Phillips. While we were walking to their house there was a big snow blizzard. The Elders (Woodrow and Ikeda) were still with us .The other ZL was in Izumi ( Elder Kameya )and Elder Ikeda was on this exchange. We left them a note to tell them that we had come by to see if they were okay. We then returned to the church and there was a young girl there who was a member from a different ward who could not get home because the buses and trains were out. She was from the Izumi ward which was about a half hour away.

We then went to the outreach center behind the church and cleaned up there. Food had come off the shelves and so we picked it all up and put it back. The Phillips arrived shortly thereafter and we talked to them and by that time it was getting dark and there were no power in the church but the water was running. The Elders picked up some blankets from their apartment and we made beds in the chapel. We decided that we would stay together and sleep there for the night.

We walked with the Elders and the young girls to our apartment and everything was off the shelves and all the books were scattered. Some dishes were broken but the whole dish shelf fell over and everything was out of the shelves. It knocked the fridge over and it was half open. The microwave and the oven had fallen over. We picked up a coat and other things we needed for the night. There was no power in the apartment.

The Elders went back to their apartment to pick up more futons and blankets. Elder Phillips drove. Brother Endo and the schoolgirl from Izumi and Bishop Satou and his wife stayed in the church with us.

During the night a family of Mongolians came to the church and slept on the other side of the church where RS is held. There were twenty of them and their apartments were ruined and they travelled by car to get to Kamisugi. Some were members of the church and one served a mission in Sendai and so they knew a few of the members. They had come in cars from their ruined apartments and asked if they could stay the night and also stayed the next night. We went with the Bishop next day and from the outreach food we fed the Mongolians, some of whom were not members. After that we went with the Bishop to see all the members close to the church. Everyone was okay. There was some displacement in all of the homes.

We stayed at the church and later on in the day two elders from Tagajo arrived and we were talking with them and they were telling us the state of Tagajo, One of the Elders was Elder Hiltbrand and one was Elder Aiura. Elder Phillips got a call to go and pick up the missionaries from Izumi. He picked up two sets of missionaries ( Elders Kameya and Ellsworth) and also two Sisters who were from (Hori and Kumagai) Izumi ward and we went back to the apartment . When we heard that the sister missionaries were coming, we went back to clean up and prepare for them. One other set of missionaries came from Furukawa.( Sister Dotsen and Sister Tauira)

We rang home and most of the missionaries called home except for Sister Dotsen and Sister Tauria but most of the American missionaries called home and then we got a call from President Tateoka to tell everyone to keep proselyting and do the best we could to help people. Then we got a call that we would be receiving transfers. We received new areas and we were told that we would be transferred too and that we needed to be ready by nine o’clock Wed morning. We thought we were being transferred to different areas of Sendai At the church, many people began to gather and the Bishop finally came. We all went into the chapel and each of us chose a pew and decided to spend the night there together. We would just get to sleep and another shock would start. Finally I was so tired that I just went to sleep. When we were evacuated I forgot my long down-filled coat hanging up in the foyer of the church. I miss my coat." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Elder Patrick David Hiltbrand (Serving in Tagajo-from Pocatello ID)

"We were preparing to go and meet with a less active member (Sister Fujita) at a restaurant called Marumatsu and we were meeting with her friend also to talk about the gospel and help this member to convince her friend that Sister Fujita did not want to join her church. Her friend was not interested in the gospel. Her friend was of another religion and had been insisting that Sister Fujita should leave the church. Sister Fujitas’s friend kept saying over and over that God does not exist.

“God does not exist.” she said. How can there be so much suffering in the world if God exists?” She kept insisting God does not exist. About the twelfth time she said it, the earthquake started. I turned to my companion and said , “ Earthquake!.” My companion stopped the conversation and we felt it for a minute and shrugged it off because we thought that it was just a normal earthquake. It increased in strength and continued getting stronger. Some things started falling from the ceiling. I know this sounds funny but the first thing we thought of was to protect our food. We didn’t want any dust falling into it.

It became even stronger and rumbled for a very long time. After an endless amount of time there was a huge bang and everything started shaking so much more. There were large glass lights just above us. I turned to my companion and said, “we should probably get under the table.” He agreed. A waitress came and told everyone to get under a table and stay calm and she got under a table herself. Dishes were falling, everything was falling off the shelves and the windows were shaking and you could see the cars trembling violently on the ground and waving back and forth. As it slowed down a little bit, the waitress stood up and told everyone to go outside and then surprisingly she pushed past everyone running outside. She seemed really scared. So were we.

We followed everyone outside and we noticed a young girl of high school age who was in tears. She was very upset. Her friends were trying to help her. I tried to smile and say hello. We looked around and realized that Sister Fujita and her friend were still in the building. We went back in to check on them and to pick up our bags and they were still under the table. We encouraged them to come with us. All of us started out together. We tried to pay for our food but there was no power so we didn’t have to pay. As we were getting ready to leave, my companion discovered he had left his gloves. We went back to pick up his gloves. As he grabbed his gloves, we looked at our food ( katsudon) and wondered if we should sit down and eat it. It was really good katsudo. We really wanted to eat it. We were hungry. We decided to go.

As we got on our bikes, and began to head to the apartment, I asked my companion how big he thought the earthquake was. He said he thought that it was maybe a seven. We rode down the street a little ways and began to see manhole covers that had been shaken out of the ground, sidewalks were torn to pieces and the street was raised in many places. We were thinking over and over that this had to be pretty strong.

All of the people in our apartment were down on the ground and the emergency lights were the only lights that seemed to be on in the entire city. The building was fine so we grabbed flashlights and batteries because the power had gone out.

Our desks had been moved but everything seemed okay. After making sure the apartment was okay, we decided to go to the church to see if the church was damaged. We talked to a few people on the way to the church. One of the people had their head down and they would not look at us. They told us that the earthquake was very close to Ishinomaki and that it was a 7.9. Again we thought that was really big. We talked for a little more and went towards the church. On the way to the church, I said to my companion that our job today is to help everyone we meet to be happy, to be “genki” and we continued saying hello to everyone that we could. A few blocks before the church, we met a family of investigators as they drove by in their car. As we went a block or two farther, a police car was screaming through their speaker system out to everyone, “ the tsunami is here, it’s here, it’s, here.” This really did not register with me to what level of seriousness that this could be. Mothers were running with little children as quickly as they could to get to higher ground.

We entered the church and began climbing the stairs up to the second floor. The water started surging up to the church. We looked out the second floor window and saw it come. I immediately thought about our bikes and ran downstairs to the front door of the church just in time to watch our bikes wash away. At that point, the only thing I could think of was what my parents would think about me losing my bike. We raced back up to the second storey and through the windows watched the sudden rush of water filling the parking lot and were horrified to see people running away ahead of the water. Within a short while, we saw cars on a nearby street start floating down the street. The water was probably a little over a meter in front of the church. There was lots of gasoline and garbage in the water and we could see our bikes floating in the water. You could smell the gas. We watched a few cars float by and some mail delivery trucks float by and at one point a car floated up against a nearby supermarket and we watched the people on a higher level of the supermarket help the people from the car.

At this point the water impressively increased in height. The water was now running over most cars. The water surged into the church. We tried to make sure the door of the church was open so that it wouldn’t break. The current was so strong that it slammed the door shut to the church and there was only a small crack that was left open. I heard a loud noise and water was still trying to come into the postage slot. The water built up behind the glass door and then the door burst. I was so scared I ran up the stairs. The water rushed up to about four or five feet in the church. The water was above the kid’s slide in a nearby park just in front of the church and the slide was taller than most adults. We looked through the windows. It was getting later but it wasn’t until about five thirty when the water started going down.

At about nine o’clock the water seemed to be at a point where we could walk through it. It was up to our stomachs in the parking lot area. As it was getting later at night, we were not sure if we could get to our apartment. We decided it was safer to stay where we were. It was very cold and gave us a lot of time to think. We were worried about the Sisters in Ishinomaki and whether or not they were okay. I thought about the family of investigators that had gone by, (I found out later they had gotten out and gone to an evacuation center.) We could see a lot of fires and one of them was in the direction of our investigators apartments. I wondered if their apartment was burning. I wondered about all of our members and investigators.

As the night went on we were still feeling the aftershocks. They were decently strong and the entire building would still shake. At one point I was very tired and I lay down and thought, “ if I die, I’ll just do what I can in the spirit world.” It was that kind of feeling. I wasn’t worried anymore about what would happen to me. I was worried about the people around me but as for myself I was not concerned anymore.

I could not sleep because of the many earthquakes and because of the cold. My body would wake me up and I felt that I needed to walk around and shiver until I got warm again. My companion seemed to be able to sleep better than myself. He got up from time to time but not as much as I did. We were on carpet but it was still cold very. I got up and began thinking of the loud and emphatic statement that Sister Fujita’s friend had made earlier about there not being a God and this statement which had seemed so foolish a few hours before started playing through my mind,” Is there really a God? ” I tried to resist this impulsive and foolish question but again it rolled through my mind and I began asking myself the same question. I had been feeling many emotions and we were shocked and numb and frightened and uncertain about what would happen and I wondered amazedly why this would happen.

The answer came so clearly and with such love and sureness to me as I looked up at the stars that night. I walked back through the emergency exit of the church and looked out of the window. You could see them very brightly and clearly. I had this amazing feeling which I cannot even really describe that it was going to be okay. Then I remembered something that a member had told me. When you can clearly see the stars it means the next day will be a good day.

I realized that I knew in a way that I had not before that there was a God. I just knew it. I knew he was there. I felt it. I felt his love for me and the people around me and for everyone in the earthquake and tsunami. I knew God was there and that he would help us and all of the people after the earthquake. I know there is a God.

I tried to sleep a few more times throughout the night but many times I would be woken up by yells from a nearby building where other trapped people were giving information from the radio.

In the morning we watched helplessly as boats floated by to save people and wondered if they would come to us. The people in the nearby apartment had told them that we were in the church. The boats were trying to save people who were still in the water. People were milling around in the water and it was up to their chest. The next morning finally came and I was up at about four o’clock waiting for the sun to come just hoping it would come and make it a little warmer. At about five thirty the sun began to come over the hill. As it came out it was the happiest thing I have seen in my life. Again I knew that God was there and that he loved me and that he loved the people in Japan especially today those who had been hit by the earthquake and the tsunami.

I woke my companion up and by that time the water had left the church and so we went down to the first floor to see what the damage was. We found heavy dirt and mud covering on the floors through-out the entire first floor. Desks were turned on their side and other things moved around. As we looked at the sacrament meeting door to the chapel, the door was broken –the bottom half of the door was broken away leaving the top half jammed in the doorway. The chapel was ruined. I looked around into it with my companion and saw chairs scattered, the TV on its side and the wall next to the pulpit had been broken and it was a mess. Looking in the kitchen for bags to put on our feet, we found the refrigerator pulled out from its normal slot and laid in the middle of the floor. We pulled open the drawers for bags to give us some protection from the water and mud and here was dirt throughout all the drawers. We went back upstairs and waited for an hour and finally I decided I was going to walk out into the parking lot. There were fish and frogs in the water. I wanted to see if I could jump over to another area where the water had receded quite considerably. I found that I could and looked for my companion who was still in the church.

After we walked through the parking lot there was a small stream still left in the road that was up to the knees. We went to higher ground and tried walking through the center of the city. On both sides there was still water. There was damage everywhere and ambulances taking people to hospitals. Our apartment was water damaged. We could not get to it. Cars were wrecked all over.

I remember thinking that it was hard to believe that it was the same city that it was yesterday morning. My battery on my phone was almost gone so I could only turn it on for short periods of time. As we walked through the city we found one person whose car was still okay and he was charging his cell phone. He willingly gave us his charger. I called zone leaders in Sendai but could not reach them. I called the first number that came to my mind which was the Elders from Tsuruoka. This was my area before Tagajo. I called them and was finally able to get through. I asked my previous companion if it was an okay time to talk and he said not really but I told him that our area was gone in the tsunami. That got his attention. We ended the phone call and another girl came needing to charge her phone. I gave her the charger and we continued to walk toward Sendai. When we reached the city limit, the water seemed to stop. There were no signs that the tsunami had come that way. I continued to look for ways to charge my phone. We got to a place where cars were still driving and a member found us. I asked if I could charge my cell phone. We got in his car. He explained what was happening in the area. As we told him we were planning on walking to Sendai, he talked with his family in the car and decided to drive us. It would have taken us several hours to walk.

He first drove us around the back way and the streets were torn up and many bridges had been closed because they were unstable and he took us to our apartment which happened to be just fine. We went to our apartment and we quickly got as many things as we needed. I grabbed a pair of garments and sleeping clothes and as much food as I could. I took my English Book of Mormon. We were on our way to Sendai." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Sister Heidi Beaven (Serving in Sanjo-from Brisbane Australia)

"Even though it is really hard, I will go and do whatever my MP and my Heavenly Father wants me to do because I know that I will be helped.

I was working in Sendai in December and January and I had a dream over and over again that there was going to be an earthquake in Sendai. I had this dream many times. There were differences in the details of each dream but the earthquake was always the same.

On the 3 of March before the earthquake I was transferred to Sanjo. On the Monday before the earthquake while we were out working, I had the definite impression that I should buy bottled water. I had never had that impression before and so I did. We were at a member’s home (Sister Tanabe) teaching a lesson to a less active member when the first quake hit us. We kept teaching and working throughout the day. That night I put my jacket and my bag with my money and important things at the foot of my bed because I felt there might be another large quake. In the early morning about 4 AM the phone started vibrating. On the phone is a mechanism that tells you if you are going to have an earthquake. No sooner had the phone vibrated than a quake started. I got up and ran to the door. Between 4 AM and 6 AM there were three smaller quakes. We kept working in the days following until we were evacuated. There was neither damage to our apartment nor significant damage to our community.

We were shocked that there had been so much damage in Sendai and then shocked again when we heard that the mission was being closed. I had served in Kamisugi which lost power and water. I had also served in Izumi. I was worried about investigators in Kamisugi that we had left there and do not know if missionaries were able to contact them before the evacuation.

We feel that there was so much that we could achieve in Sendai and Sanjo but we know that Heavenly Father has work for us to do in Sapporo and although it was hard to leave, I am excited to embark on this new adventure.

Anytime there is a change, there are always different way of doing things but I know there must be different revelation for a different area and I will apply that revelation to the way I work here in Sapporo and try to do what Heavenly Father wants me to do here." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Sister Yuri Bennett (Serving in Kamisugi-from Highland Village TX/Pleasant Grove UT)

"I was in the copy room by the door when the earthquake started. We went to the door but did not know if we should be inside or out. The Elders were all ready out in the middle of the parking lot. They invited us to come out and I did not know which would be safer. We went out because there were no buildings nearby to be falling onto us. We knelt down because the quake was lasting too long and I told them we should say a prayer and they looked surprised but we said a prayer. I said the prayer and asked the Lord to stop the quake. We ended the prayer and the quake was still going on but nothing was falling and there was no structural damage around us. We could not tell how bad it was. All that we knew was that it lasted so long and it was quite strong, my leg was shaking, I do not usually get upset but with this quake I was shaking a lot after the initial shock. We had two Elders and one member with us. When it ended we went to the street and saw some people rushing and running going home and then we noticed again the owner of the home across the street. She was standing the whole time holding onto the corner of the house for support and she had a radio out and so we crossed the street to see if we could hear about the tsunami and the damage. She said she couldn’t go into the house because everything was upside down.

After that, it was a little while later, maybe twenty minutes later, we saw a man staggering out of the church. He was very excited and frightened. He was an electrical worker for the church and not from the area but he said that he was up in the ceiling of the church fixing the electrical wiring. The Kamisugi building is very tall. It should be a two storey building because the ceiling is so tall but it has something like a cathedral ceiling, very tall. He came out and said he thought he was going to be shaken out of the ceiling and he said he was so frightened. He doesn’t live in Sendai but he was in charge of all of the electrical wiring. We knew we could not go back to the apartment and it wasn’t long until we had the after- shock and it was and shaking quite a bit/we were afraid to go anywhere. When we heard how big the earthquake was, we were terrified.

We waited for the President to tell us what to do. I was very anxious to help the members. Next morning we went around to the members because we could not contact them by phone and so we walked a long way to members and investigators. There were so many after-shakes that we did not know how long we could stay anywhere." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Elder Michael Daniel Jucahau (Serving in Niigata Zone-from San Jose CA)

"When the earthquake hit, we were in the middle of planning in our apartment. We rode it out. Nothing was shaking really hard in our apartment. We got a call from the zone leaders who were in Niigata to ask us if we were okay. We were told that it was a huge earthquake and tsunami. I knew from my experience in California that cell lines and phone lines go down very fast. I began to worry because I was only into the transfer one week. I had been in the city of Tagajo one week earlier. I was concerned about the Tagajo district because it consisted of everyone living on the coast. I had been the companion of the district leader, Elder Hildebrandt. These were my friends and my investigators and members and loved and knew them. When we got the call we did not know if the missionaries were safe yet.

Immediately I said a prayer in my heart that all the missionaries would be safe. On Monday, at the specialized training, President Tateoka said that he had come in contact with everyone but that he had not been able to contact for a second time the Sisters in Ishinomaki. He had been able to make an initial contact. These Sisters were my fellow missionaries and my friends and this was my last district and we had helped them with a baptismal interview.

Before the meeting began with President Tateoka, we all got on our knees and he offered up an immensely powerful prayer. He pleaded with the Lord for help and said we cannot do this on our own and we need to contact the Sisters. He said many things. A great peace came over me that they were okay even though we did not know where they were. He committed us to find a special place in our apartment that night and to offer up a prayer. As I did so I asked for everyone to be okay and asked that we could find the Sisters in Ishinomaki and I asked for the safety of all the missionaries and if it was his will that all the members would be okay. I prayed for all the investigators, their lives and homes and family. I prayed for the love and peace of Heavenly Father to be upon everyone even though many of their possessions might be lost. I asked him to help them find strength in their members and to be able to overcome the day to day trials.

On Monday, we had P Day and we were able to find an e-mail in a library which also had news coverage. Seeing all the destruction made me even more worried because we had no word about the overall picture. Seeing pictures of where I had walked and biked and buildings that I had been in really hurt and terrified me. These places were dear to me and were very familiar and now they were all destroyed and I had been there only one week earlier. I kept thinking that I had just left there. It was almost unbelievable to me. It was hard to take in.

The next two days we got a call that they had found the Sisters and that we were leaving. Everyone was going to be evacuated from Sendai. We were in the middle of teaching a lesson when we got the call to evacuate. We finished our lesson and phoned back the zone leaders who told us that we were to head home, pack and use our own money to go to Tokyo. We got on the train and as we were riding I despairingly watched a news ticker that ran across the top of the doors of the Shinkansen. The train ride was about two hours away and every hour the death number and the missing number increased. I knew that all of the missionaries were safe but I did not know about any of our investigators or members or people in the community. I was able to call a member in Tagajo. His name was Brother Terai Jun and he was able to inform me that all the members were safe but the church had flooded. The church was the Tagajo building. It is two stories high. Tagajo is about two miles from the ocean. I was able to find out about my former companion Elder Hiltbrand and his new companion Elder Aiura. They had ridden to the church to check on it just before the tsunami and ended up staying the night and in the morning they waited for the water to go down. Brother Terai Jun was able to give me Brother Shiga’s number. He was my first baptism that I was able to perform as a missionary. Bless his heart that he was so overjoyed that the members of Tagajo were safe because of God’s love and because God loved Tagajo. It was very comforting to me to hear my recent convert say this to me. I felt a lot of joy that someone baptized three weeks ago was thanking God and owing it all to God that everyone was safe. We had another baptismal date scheduled for the Saturday after the earthquake but I was not able to contact this investigator on the phone. Later Elder Hiltbrand told me that he still wants to be baptized. This also was very comforting to hear.

In Tokyo we then took some trips on the subway to the stop where the Temple is. The most interesting thing about this is that I have been passing out pass along cards and encouraging people to go and see the Tokyo Temple. I wanted them to visit the temple or investigate the church but I personally had never been to the Tokyo Temple. We got off the subway and turned the corner and walked up the street and there was this huge temple. It so amazed me and gave me feelings of happiness to see the temple that I had been encouraging others to go and see. Especially at this time was this very comforting and strengthening to me. We went to the temple annex.

The O’Bryant family took us to their home and allowed us to stay in their home. We then got on the plane and I was able to see missionaries that I knew. I was so happy to see old friends and new missionaries. Everyone was white-faced and frightened and unsure of what was happening and we were trying to comfort each other. It was a great feeling to be together and help each other and we were so relieved that we were safe and able to be together. We arrived to the airport and the smile on President Daniels face let me know from somewhere deep in my soul that it was okay to be here. I knew then that everything was going to be all right. I had a refugee feeling but I could feel his love and I felt from him that he was welcoming us sincerely and that it was okay with him to be there and that we were all missionaries teaching the same gospel with the same goals and the same purpose. It was a really calming feeling.

From there he took us upstairs to another level of the airport and bought us lunch. Not two minutes into lunch, another earthquake shook the airport. Everyone stopped eating their food and looked around nervously. Thank-goodness it was just a jolt. From there we had a special meeting with President Tateoka. That meeting in the Kotoni ward building was full of tears of joy that we were safe and accounted for and we all had the feeling that we were going to move on. We were so thankful to see him again.

President Tateoka told us that we were the most loved missionaries at this time because every member had prayed for us. This really touched my heart. A favorite statement of his was, ” …now that this is all over, let’s hit the pavement! Let’s bring people to Christ.” Our constant praying that we would be able to see President Tateoka again was answered. Some missionaries had only the clothes on their backs but we were still able to be with one another and rejoice in this great blessing and find comfort with each other." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Elder Josiah Dick (Serving in Miyako-from Birdseye UT)

"We were in Miyako which is right next to the ocean. My companion ( Elder Kurita) and I were at a member’s house ( Brother Sasaki ). We were there to do a practice lesson. We were going to teach about faith. My companion had not even sat down yet. The earthquake began really strong. Everything in the house started falling down and breaking. A big oak dresser was about to fall but I was able to break its fall. I jumped up and grabbed it, and I prevented it from falling. The china unfortunately fell down and broke. The earthquake lasted a long time. The sirens were going on all over the city. Many warnings were sounded about the tsunami. We were in Miyako which is right next to the ocean.

We helped Brother Sasaki out of the house. He was elderly and was quite shaken up. His Sister was there and they went over to the evacuation center which was an elementary school nearby. We went to our apartment to make sure there were no gas leaks, and then we went to the church.

The streets were flooding even before the tsunami and we wanted to go and look for more members but the streets were flooding and the streets were being closed down so you couldn’t go anywhere. Policemen were not allowing people to cross over and they were telling people to go to the evacuation center.

We went to the elementary school which was elevated a bit and stayed there until after the tsunami was over. It came all the way up to the school. We were on the second floor in a classroom. We left the school to see what happened and all the streets were flooded and the cars were destroyed and the buildings were destroyed. We tried to walk in places that were not flooded. We heard some people calling for help. They were yelling out of a second floor window. There was no one around to help. We were the only ones there. They did not get out of their house quick enough,. They had an old man with them and he could not walk very well. Elder Kurita and I jumped into the water. Everything was in the water. There was garbage and oil and all kind of debris. It was just above our knees. We waded over to them and picked up the older gentleman and carried him over to the evacuation center. The center was about a block away. We both carried him. He was not a heavy man. He was Japanese. His family walked behind us. There was a man and his son. We took them into the evacuation center where all the people there. There were a lot of people there helping out and trying to get organized. He was able to slowly walk a bit like an old man when we got there. We did not see them again.

The first time we were able to go to our apartment was after we helped the people out of their home. We grabbed some dry pants and then we went back to the school. We couldn’t take anything because of the water. Everything had fallen over because of the earthquake.

That night we stayed at the school. That night about thirty people were with us. The first night we had no food. We slept on the floor for two nights and on the third night we left. Our apartment was close to the school. It was blocked off by a number of cars that had been washed up by the tsunami. The cars blocked the stairs. We live on the second floor and the first floor was hit by the water.

The second day we went back to our apartment to get some spaghetti. At the church the water and gas were still on and my companion cooked two big packages of the spaghetti and we gave it to the kids there. We had basil sauce and everyone had some. They had some paper bowls at the school. There was not a lot of food. There were mostly kids in our room. There might have been fifteen children. They were elementary age and there were girls and boys. These were children that were in the school when the tsunami hit. We taught them a little English while we were there and played with them and talked with them. There were a lot of books where we were and the children mostly read books the whole time. There were teachers in the school keeping track of anybody. While we were talking to the kids, one of the teachers came up and said, “ Okay teach us English.” We were all together about three days and two nights. Food was scarce. Usually for lunch we got one half a rice ball and for dinner we got the other half. There was water in the school but not where we were. I was worried about the people in Miyako.

The third day we went down to the ocean and all of the buildings were destroyed. We were about twenty feet from the ocean. The ocean was calm and looked normal but about three hundred yards from the ocean there were huge boats in the middle of the street and cars tipped over and crushed everywhere and houses that were just a pile of sticks. There were other people looking around still in shock and disbelief and we were all wondering what happened to our city. People were looking through the debris. There was nothing of value around. It was all gone.

I was feeling really sad for everyone. Because of the tsunami, there were no buses or trains or taxies so we couldn’t leave and nobody could come in and get us but eventually a member was able to drive us out and take us up to Morioka. There we met up with our zone leaders." Back to Index

 

Missionary Story: Elder Michael Ellsworth (Serving in Izumi-from Las Vegas NV)

"We were in the middle of a companion exchange and my companion was in the middle of writing down the changes and the room started shaking horizontally. We looked at each other and I thought this is going to be kind of interesting. It started getting a little worse and the pictures started shaking left and right. We wondered what was going on. It shook even more and we heard a crash and we both dove under a desk. My companion yelled “Inori!” (“Pray!”)

Everything started crashing. The sink crashed and fell. The refrigerator crashed down and food fell out everywhere. My companion yelled again, “pray, pray!” The earthquake kept shaking for a few minutes and I just remember in those few minutes some really horrifying thoughts. I was honestly thinking that it was the end of me, that life was going to end right there. The earthquake kept happening but I found that I had time to think while believing that I was going to die. In that moment, I thought, “I could have gotten married and could have had kids. This is pretty sad.”

I was waiting for it all to end and thinking that it was my time to die and the earthquake stopped. I jumped up and grabbed my pack-back and we raced out of the apartment. The stairs cracked in half as we were running down the apartment stairs. In the street all the construction workers were looking shocked and disbelieving. No one was talking but everyone was staring at everybody else. Everyone seemed really humbled by the quake. I still had the feeling that we were going to die. To my left a huge granite statue had fallen and broken into pieces all over the road. We could not have moved these huge pieces. It was shocking to see the statue broken in the road. Big buildings had their windows smashed out. We were wondering whether the Sister missionaries were okay. We decided to go to the church to see what had happened.

As we were walking to the church, I saw the weirdest thing. There was a cat showing the weirdest behavior that I had ever seen in an animal before. It looked savage and in a rabid state. It was completely broken down to its animal behavior. It had lost all of its domestication. I felt the same way as the cat. We felt like we had been broken down in all of our feelings. The only thing left was to survive. There were old grandmothers on the side of the road crying. They were hysterical. We tried to help but they were hysterical and did not want help. We felt in a crazy state of mind and did not know how helpful we could be anyway. On the way to the church there were kids running through the streets and there were power lines hanging down everywhere. You never see power lines hanging down… Again there was the feeling, of “Can you believe this is happening!?” It was very surreal like being in a movie that you were thrown into but really did not have a part in. We got to the church and hoped that the Sisters would be there . They ended up showing up about three or four minutes later. We stayed there a little bit later and then the weirdest thing started happening. A snow storm suddenly started. It was freezing outside and I was regretting the decision not to bring a jacket with me.

I went back to the apartment to get a jacket. While we were returning back to the apartment, there were still tremors going on. They were pretty big but small in comparison to the first one. My companion waited outside and I went in and grabbed my jacket and my wallet and we headed back to the church.

This is completely a miracle what happens here. We had a baptism date with a Chinese gentlemen (Leonardo Ruyao) for the Sunday. I am walking along wondering if he is okay. The craziest thing happens. On our way back, we saw him in the midst of this huge catastrophe. He had been posting pamphlets for his job and we happened to see him on the little road going to the church. Of all the places he could be, he was working there. We asked him if he was okay. “Man, are you okay?” We invited him to come over to the church with us. He said,” I am going to finish up and then I will come over to the church.” The Sisters had managed to get a little bit of food and it was some kind of fruit, an orange I believe. So after this, I came into the church-Oh did I tell you his name was Leonardo? - and we came in and talked to him. Are you safe? He said he was good and that he wanted to talk to his parents. He said he was going back to his apartment. That is the last time I saw him. We found out after we got to Sapporo that he had left Japan and gone back to China. At random times we went to get food and water from the apartment. We tried to get everything we could from the apartment and took it to the church. We slept at the church and it was freezing because it snowed the whole time.

At one point we went to get water and the line was three miles long. As we joined the line, the line broke off into ten lines and we thought that we would never be able to get any water. Just then we got a call to go to Kamisugi and on our way we met people who were coming to find us. It was Elder and Sister Phillips." Back to Index

Blog post by Nate Farnsworth, a Sendai RM, who volunteered for two weeks as a translator for a search and rescue team in remote "fall through the cracks" kinds of locations in Tohoku, posted about two weeks after the quake. The group is headed by photographer Michael Andrew, whose blog is where this was posted. Michael seems to post often on his blog and his 'in the trenches' reality stories are awesome. I highly recommend it.

"Today was just one of those days that will jog my memory forever. It was my first time being able to make it out to the small fishing village Babanakayama. Mike literally found a village that had fallen through the cracks and had been forgotten by the main distribution centers and Japanese self defense forces. Anyone that has ever sat alone or been ignored might be able to somewhat grasp the situation of being lonely, however; The people in this town were much more than just lonely, they were freezing, exhausted, homeless, hungry, terrified, and overcome by a feeling of defeat. It's one thing to survive a catastrophe, but it's also crazy to survive and to be left with nothing.

Babanakayama is not only an awesome name but it literally has some of the most beautiful coast line that you could ever imagine. Standing together high above the town and being taken back by the sheer devastation, a 60 year old man told me his story of the quake and tsunami. When the quake hit he was eating lunch on his tatami mat, and he said that the magnitude was so fierce that his soup and bowl were rocked off the table, his cabinet doors flung open and nearly everything inside was thrown out. He said the main support beams in his house were moving like waves, and he could hear the crashing of glass in the background, books covered the floor and little statues were falling off his dresser, he knew that this was a big one. After a minute he thought that the quake was just about over, but the chaos continued for another four and a half minutes! From a young age he was taught that if there is a big quake, head for high ground, so that is exactly what he did, he lived hundreds of yards from the coast line, but he decided to head inland in his small work truck. Taking nothing with him but the clothes he had on his body and his truck he made it to a very high place that looked over the town. Within three minutes of getting to his spot, he literally watched his whole town get blindsided by a tsunami wave. Everything that he had ever worked for was instantly gone. His house is nothing but a concrete slab, his field can no longer harvest rice because of salt water damage, his life literally changed in the blink of an eye. He escaped with his life, but his life will never be the same.

This story fueled my heart and soul, and it made me think deeply about how fragile life really is. I have heard several stories like this, and some that are much more tragic, but I can't help but feel the need to reevaluate my priorities in life.

Today is where the hammer hit the nail, and it seems as if a new phase of disaster recovery was underway. More than 200 people are in need of a immediate shelter in Babanakayama, so today we worked on building a huge permanent tent that will be able to sleep up-to eighty people. The frame, walls, roof and doors have all been put up, and it will be strong enough to handle high winds and the ever changing weather conditions. I spent most of my efforts today building a six inch deep drainage system around the outer walls of the tent to keep the water from coming in. Anyone who personally knows me, knows that I'm not fond of shoveling through rocks and clay all day, but I found it so much easier to be digging when I knew that this was going to be used for these people who had lost their homes. 

Nate Farnsworth and tent project

Photo: Nate Farnsworth

Tomorrow a floor will be put in, and they will hopefully be able to find some peace in their new living quarters. While working on the tent, our work was stopped because the people of the town prepared us a feast. I truly was taken back emotionally by the generosity of these people, they were literally feeding us like kings, yet they have nothing; their charity touched me greatly.

Mike went GPS tagging up and down the coastline today, and was able to find a refugee camp in need of supplies. It is because of his patience and desire to keep going that groups like Babanakayama are found. Teamwork is key in disaster recovery.

The Meysen team that has taken us around is truly filled with the most humble and hard working people that I have ever met, I honestly feel at home with them.

I need to wash my feet, I'm looking forward to tomorrow!" Back to Index

Email from an American English teacher who has lived in Sendai for 10 years - poignant description of conditions and humanitarian actions in her neighborhood, a few days after the quake:

Hello My Lovely Family and Friends,

First I want to thank you so very much for your concern for me. I am very touched. I also wish to apologize for a generic message to you all. But it seems the best way at the moment to get my message to you.

Things here in Sendai have been rather surreal. But I am very blessed to have wonderful friends who are helping me a lot. Since my shack is even more worthy of that name, I am now staying at a friend's home. We share supplies like water, food and a kerosene heater. We sleep lined up in one room, eat by candlelight, share stories. It is warm, friendly, and beautiful.

During the day we help each other clean up the mess in our homes. People sit in their cars, looking at news on their navigation screens, or line up to get drinking water when a source is open. If someone has water running in their home, they put out sign so people can come to fill up their jugs and buckets.

Utterly amazingly where I am there has been no looting, no pushing in lines. People leave their front door open, as it is safer when an earthquake strikes. People keep saying, "Oh, this is how it used to be in the old days when everyone helped one another."

Quakes keep coming. Last night they struck about every 15 minutes. Sirens are constant and helicopters pass overhead often. We got water for a few hours in our homes last night, and now it is for half a day. Electricity came on this afternoon. Gas has not yet come on. But all of this is by area. Some people have these things, others do not. No one has washed for several days. We feel grubby, but there are so much more important concerns than that for us now. I love this peeling away of non-essentials. Living fully on the level of instinct, of intuition, of caring, of what is needed for survival, not just of me, but of the entire group.

There are strange parallel universes happening. Houses a mess in some places, yet then a house with futons or laundry out drying in the sun. People lining up for water and food, and yet a few people out walking their dogs. All happening at the same time. Other unexpected touches of beauty are first, the silence at night. No cars. No one out on the streets. And the heavens at night are scattered with stars. I usually can see about two, but now the whole sky is filled. The mountains are Sendai are solid and with the crisp air we can see them silhouetted against the sky magnificently.

And the Japanese themselves are so wonderful. I come back to my shack to check on it each day, now to send this e-mail since the electricity is on, and I find food and water left in my entranceway. I have no idea from whom, but it is there. Old men in green hats go from door to door checking to see if everyone is OK. People talk to complete strangers asking if they need help. I see no signs of fear. Resignation, yes, but fear or panic, no.

They tell us we can expect aftershocks, and even other major quakes, for another month or more. And we are getting constant tremors, rolls, shaking, rumbling. I am blessed in that I live in a part of Sendai that is a bit elevated, a bit more solid than other parts. So, so far this area is better off than others. Last night my friend's husband came in from the country, bringing food and water. Blessed again.

Somehow at this time I realize from direct experience that there is indeed an enormous Cosmic evolutionary step that is occurring all over the world right at this moment. And somehow as I experience the events happening now in Japan, I can feel my heart opening very wide. My brother asked me if I felt so small because of all that is happening. I don't. Rather, I feel as part of something happening that much larger than myself. This wave of birthing (worldwide) is hard, and yet magnificent.

Thank you again for your care and Love of me, With Love in return, to you all.