Garretts Phone Call: March 5, 2010

Garrett asked me to relay his story from our phone conversation on his blog, so his family and friends could know what happened with him.

At around 3:30am (Chile time,Feb. 27th) Garrett and his companions were woken up with their home shaking, things falling off the shelves and breaking. Garrett and his companion jumped out of bed screaming and ran to get under the kitchen table. Once the shaking stopped, they heard people screaming through the streets that a tsunami was coming and people needed to get to higher ground. Garrett and his comp threw on their shorts, sweatshirts, and shoes, he grabbed his wallet, scriptures and camera, threw it into his backpack and was out the door. He said it was as if he had just run out onto a movie set. People were running and screaming all over the place. He and his comp. were running along with everyone else up into the hills. Once they were up in the hills, people began to light fires as there was no source of light, but the moon. Garrett said they could see the ocean, and said they saw it split in half as though it was the parting of the Red Sea. As soon as they saw that, they heard very loud crashing coming from the ocean below. They remained on the mountain until the sun came up. They were then able to head down the mountain to see the village of Dichato. Unfortunately there was nothing left of the town. 80% of it was under water. Garrett had found where his house once stood, all was left was the foundation, they were unable to find any remnants of his house. There was no electricity whatsoever, but somehow between 7-7:30am, the phone lines opened up for that short period so they were able to contact their zone leader to let them know they were okay. Garrett attributed that moment to calling it "God's Satellite". From that point they hitchhiked to a town called Tome. The chapel for Dichato members is there in Tome. That Sunday Feb. 28th, they realized they had no food, so they thought it best to head to a store in order to purchase some food. When they got there the doors had been smashed open, no lights were on inside, and people were running out with arm loads and shopping carts full of food. He said he could see empty shelves. So they decided not to get involved with that situation and found a members house to visit. The members were able to feed them, and have been able to feed them since. They have been put on a curfew and can leave from the hours of 12pm-6pm. The robbing and the looting have become worse as prisoners from a prison have escaped. A few days ago, the church was able to send in a truck load of food to go out to people. There was another earthquake that hit that morning in Chile, it was an 8.3, as Garrett and I spoke he was feeling the aftershocks of it. The area general authorities are there now assessing the situation as to what will happen next with the missionaries. Garrett said that he will let the family know what he needs when we are able to start sending things to Chile. He said to send his love to everyone.