8.8 Earthquake in Concepcion, Chile

So last weekend was kind of a scary time for our family. As I'm sure everyone is aware, last Friday night/Saturday morning there was an 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile. Early last year my Brother Christopher was called to serve a LDS mission, he was called to the Concepcion, Chile mission, the epicenter of where the quake had hit. I found out about the earthquake when my sister Renee called me shortly after the quake happened to inform me of what was happening in Chile. Calls at 2am are never good. We had no idea if Christopher was okay or not. Just that there was a major quake. Ginger and I stayed up watching TV for news constantly switching between channels trying to get more information. After watching for almost two hours not getting really any info or updates on what was happening, we decided to try and get some rest and try and sleep. I play basketball every Saturday morning so as always my alarm woke me at about 7:30am. I immediately went to see if there were any new updates on the status of the missionaries in Concepcion. No luck. Didn't find really any information other than there had been a major quake. No news about really anything else. I decided to still go to basketball, maybe try to get my mind somewhere else.Frustrated I wasn't able to get any resolution as to the status of my brothers safety. On the way to ball driving up I-15 I got hit really hard with emotion of what was going on. I had a brother in the middle of a major disaster on the other side of the world and had no idea if he was okay, hurt or even alive! I Broke down crying while I was headed down the freeway. From the moment I got the news from my sister to the moment I talked to my Mom just after it happened I told them, "I'm sure Christopher is fine. He's a smart kid." I was telling everyone that he'd be fine but I wasn't so convinced myself. I had no idea whether he'd end up being fine or not. On the way home I finally got word from my Dad that all the missionaries were accounted for and okay. I heard shortly after that not all the missionaries were accounted for just yet. I still had no idea. At about 5:30 pm Saturday it was confirmed that the missionaries were all okay. It was a rough 18 hours not knowing how my little brother was doing. My Mom finally got in contact with him when he called briefly Sunday early morning. Since then I've had a chance to chat with him through facebook and listen to him through Skype. He seems like he's doing okay considering the circumstances. Since the quake, he's been instructed to grow out his facial hair to grow a beard, he's supposed to wear a hat, no badges or anything. They don't want him to look like an American at all. They even are instructing him to have some kind of weapon he can use to protect himself from looters.

As of now he's okay. We pray every night that he will be protected.