WOW!! What a ride!  This morning at 1:30 AM we were jolted from a sound sleep by an earthquake the like of which we have never before felt!  

We have experienced a couple of quakes in Washington - they were interesting but infrequent (as evidenced by the fact that we have lived in Washington for 44 years and have only felt a couple, in spite of the fact that we lived about 50 miles from Mt. St. Helen's while it was doing its best to move things around.)

Since coming to Alaska, we have felt several, but they were generally very mild, just enough to catch your attention and disrupt the conversation.  I think the biggest we have felt was 4-point-something and it was far enough away so as not to be alarming.

Last night we were alarmed!  It started rough enough to wake us but wasn't really bad.  However, it kept going and building in the process, and then really hit.  I don't know how long it lasted, but it was much longer than usual. (A few seconds feels like several minutes.)  The building we live in was really shaking and moving around.  I'm sure that being on the second floor doesn't help.  Fortunately for us, we only had a couple of pictures fall of the shelves, Linda's bottle of Arctic Sea sand fell off the bookcase and spilled, the bedroom doors all closed part way, the dresser drawers all slid open and several things fell inside closets and cabinets.  Because it was in the dark, with no reference point to fix on, and the fact that it went on so long, I was getting close to losing my dinner before it finally ended.

Afterward we jumped up, checked out the apartment and texted the sister missionaries below us to make sure that they were okay.  As we were checking out the apartment, a couple of minutes after the quake ended, we were greeted by this --

It must have really been swinging during the quake!

No, this is not bad housekeeping.  We were greeted with this when we turned the light on. 

During the quake one of the things that came to my mind was that big mirror on the dresser.  It wobbles pretty freely when you walk by.  I'm sure that it was really waving during the quake, but when we turned on the lights it was alright.  Sister Taylor had the presence of mind to worry about the two large pictures on the wall right over our heads, but they stayed in place. (Must have been the skill of the handyman who hung them in the first place!)

Although it was reported as a 6.4 right after the quake, they have finally settled on an official 7.1 this morning!  The epicenter was about 160 miles from Anchorage down the Cook Inlet.  It was right across the Inlet from Homer, which is on the Kenai Peninsula.  We have elders in Homer and several other spots on the peninsula.  We texted the ones in Homer this morning and they said that they were a little shaken, but alright.  All of the missionaries in the mission were contacted first thing and all reported that they are fine.  The mission sent out a group email this morning to all the parents letting them know that everyone made it through alright.

If you check this link - http://www.aeic.alaska.edu/recent/macsub/index.html - you can see that we have a lot of earthquakes in Alaska.  Most of the ones that have happened in the last 16 hours or so have been aftershocks in the Cook Inlet region.  There was a 4.32 at about 3:30 AM, and a 4.7 at about 5:30 AM, both in the same area.  We would normally feel those, at least a little, but we apparently slept right through them.

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But, enough of that.  

This last Wednesday, at 8:00 AM our time, the whole mission attended a world-wide missionary training broadcast at the local stake centers around the mission.  All the missionaries around the world, who could view it during waking hours, were in attendance.  Those on the other side of the earth saw it when they were up. A total of about 75,000!  The training by the brethren was awesome.

We continue to work hard and are busy all hours of the day, everything from late afternoon doctors appointments in Wasilla (getting home at 7 in the evening) to a Relief Society Breakfast for the Bush Branch tomorrow morning at 6:30.  Woohoo!  

We'll write more soon.