earthquake

yesterday was a horrible day for the people of japan and families of missionaries in japan.  an 8.9 magnitude earthquake was recorded near the city of sendai just north of tokyo, japan.  with that have come many, many aftershocks.  it took a full 24 hours and then some to account for the 80 missionaries in the sendai mission, but finally the last two, who had to walk some distance to find a shelter with communications, checked in.  the area around sendai is really devastated by fire, tsunami, and earthquake.  it is a very sad situation and i'm so sad for these people that i now have another bond with.  the news coverage of the disaster consumed my whole day as image after image was shown on tv.  of course, i'm worried about sending evan to this land of many earthquakes.

jake is in philadelphia having a grand time.  he is at a leadership conference taking place on the actual grounds of valley forge.  they got to debate parts of the constitution, ask questions of a thomas jefferson impersonator, meet the philly phanatic (and his two world series rings), and really just have a great time.  his roommate is from nebraska.  we miss him though.

tonight we watched the mountain west conference semi-final game between new mexico and byu.  nmu had already beaten us twice this year (2 of our 3 losses), so we were raring to go.  jimmer had an other-worldly performance, scoring 33 points IN THE FIRST HALF.  he went on to finish the game with 52, only one point coming on free throw shooting.  i think he could have closed his eyes and shot the ball and it still would have gone in.  he was amazing. we advanced to the finals tomorrow night against san diego state--a team we have beaten twice this year already, but they are very, very good.