Week 11: Earthquakes and Tender Mercies

"Downtown" San Clemente

Elder Olson on the streets of San Clemente

His "healthy diet" as he proudly termed it. He shared this with another Elder. He says most days they eat little and are kind of hungry, but on Pdays they make up for it.

Evangelicals singing in the street

Talca Zone 1 at the last meeting before transfers

Elder Pulla drew this of their zone.

Friends and Fam,

Busy week as always, not a ton has happened since I wrote last, seeing how it's only been 4 days.

I experienced my first earthquake down here this week. The locals called it a tremor, but it was like a 6.4 on the Richter Scale so I'm pretty sure that qualifies as still being an earthquake. It didn't destroy anything in my area, it just totally surprised me. Honestly it was a lot cooler and scarier than I expected.

In my time here I've had a lot of great experiences that have developed my testimony of tender mercies. One of these happened yesterday as we were contacting. After a couple of particularly rude rejections, we were passing a house with an older man on the porch. Old people here are usually the least interested in our message or even conversation, because they're very stuck in their ways. At this point in the day I was tired, hot, and frankly just thinking about how sick I was of my mission work.

When we had almost passed the house we both stopped, and decided to ask for some water. The old man went inside for a moment and afterwords his daughter invited us in for some food and drink, and we were able to share a really awesome message with her. It lifted my spirits more than I can say and I really felt that that visit was a mercy of the Lord.

In other news, I accidentally broke the Word of Wisdom yesterday. Just some coffee in a drink that an investigator made, and very very little at that. We felt bad telling her that we couldn't finish the drink, but we were definitely blessed in the lesson because of our faith.

I love you all, stay righteous

Elder Olson

To his mom: "Everything is going well as can be hoped for, the earthquake surprised me and kind of freaked me out, but I'm totally fine."

To his Dad: "I don't have nearly as much time as I'd like to describe what's going on here. The father of the family still wants to be baptized on the 19th of this month, and I'm praying hard that he can stay on track to meet that goal. The daughter has accepted a date in early december and the son is going to have to as well because he didn't attend this sunday, although I think that wasn't so much his fault, the Dad couldn't come and he didn't want his kids going by themselves. This week has been a little tougher, but I'll happily take the challenge. I'm interested to see what happens with the coming transfer."
------------------------------------------------

Here's a video someone down there posted to Youtube of their apartment shaking

Here's a copy of an online article about the earthquake

Magnitude 6.4 quake shakes central Chile; no damage, injuries reported

Published November 5, 2016 12:44am
Updated November 5, 2016 8:38am

SANTIAGO - A 6.4-magnitude quake rattled central Chile on Friday, shaking buildings in the capital, but authorities said there were no immediate injuries or damage to infrastructure or mines reported.

Chile's emergency office Onemi called it a "major" seismic event, and said it was evaluating whether any damage had taken place.

The US Geological Survey said the epicenter of the quake was about 45 miles (72 km) northeast of Talca and around 119 miles south of Santiago, at a depth of about 56 miles.

The quake did not meet the requirements to generate a tsunami off the coast, the Chilean navy said.

Most of the copper mines in Chile, the world's biggest copper exporter, are in the north of the country, far from the epicenter.

The main exception is Codelco's El Teniente copper mine, which is located around 50 miles south of Santiago. A Codelco spokeswoman said operations at the mine had not been affected.

Situated on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," Chile runs along a seismic zone where tectonic plates rub up against each other. It is one of the most earthquake-prone countries in the world, and in 1960, was hit by a 9.5-magnitude quake, the strongest in recorded history.

The biggest quake to hit Chile in recent years was an 8.8-magnitude tremor that struck the central-southern region in 2010, triggering a tsunami and killing more than 500 people.

Practice drills are frequent in Chile and builders follow strict construction codes, which help to limit death and destruction when tremors hit. —Reuters

- See more at: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/587593/news/world/magnitude-6-4-quake-shakes-central-chile-no-damage-injuries-reported#sthash.q4xudQRE.dpuf