Utah Family Concerned About Safety Of Their LDS Missionary Son In Chile, Christopher Morgan, Who Has Been Assaulted Once By Chilean Thugs

Although all missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Chile have been reported safe and accounted for, that doesn't mean that couldn't change. A report published by KSL Channel 5 on March 4th, 2010, gives cause for some concern.

A family in Sandy, Utah is concerned about the safety of their son, Elder Christopher Morgan, who has already been beaten up once by some Chilean residents who believe a conspiracy theory originally propagated in January by Venezuela's socialist dictator Hugo Chavez that the United States deliberately triggered the earthquake in Haiti, and plans to trigger more earthquakes. Elder Morgan is now staying with a Chilean family who brought him in for his safety, and LDS missionaries have been told to not identify themselves as Americans or wear missionary name tags. KSL news video embedded below:

Video Courtesy of KSL.com

More details of this have been posted on the Morgan Family blog, which also includes an appeal for personal relief kits. Here's an excerpt from this post:

...He mentioned that all male missionaries have been instructed by the mission president of Concepcion South to: grow out their facial hair, wear grubby clothes, let their hair grow and to stop wearing their tags in the area because of all the racial profiling that is going on. Looting and fire wars are becoming more and more rampant. He mentioned that a group in Chile believes that we caused the earthquake there and in Haiti with a big machine here in the US. The missionaries are also carrying heavy pipes and in extreme cases machetes to protect themselves when they go out. It is complete and utter kayos [chaos]; all the buildings that were salvageable after the earthquakes are now all burnt from all the looters and criminals.

The following silent YouTube video shows the destruction:



You can also visit Christopher Morgan's own blog HERE, which includes a link to a short interview Morgan had on Good Morning America on March 1st.

KSL spoke to LDS Church spokesman Scott Trotter, who says the stories the Morgan family are hearing are possible, but from everything he's heard conditions are just the opposite: missionaries are safe, and helping in recovery efforts. Another LDS missionary in Chile confirms that, saying the earthquake hit them "pretty bad," but the recovery work is well underway. So Elder Morgan just happens to be assigned to a "bad" area.

Elder Jeffrey Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve also weighed in on the earthquake. Since he presided over the Chile Area of the LDS Church from August 15, 2002 - August 15, 2004, and lived in Santiago, he is more personally attached than the other apostles. Elder Holland said, in part: "I got the first indication of the earthquake on CNN and then received e-mails on my iPhone. I was greatly alarmed. Virtually every community they mentioned was a community I knew and had been in. It made me think of our people, our chapels, our missionaries, our friends. I could see faces and think of names all over the land, so it was a very emotional thing for me not knowing how they were all doing".

LDS Church leaders in Chile delivered six tons of food from local bishops' storehouses to the city of Talca on 2 March to help meet needs in several cities north of Concepción. A second shipment of 20 tons of food is expected to reach Concepción on 3 March. Two additional shipments of food have been sent to affected areas to the south of Concepción.

LDS Mission President Larry Laycock Warned Of Chilean Earthquake Two Weeks Before The Fact, But The Chilean Government Could Not Have Acted

According to a post on Grace For Grace, Santiago Chile East Mission President Larry Laycock was warned, by the power of the Holy Spirit, of the devastating 8.8 Chilean earthquake two weeks before the fact. This information is also published in Meridian Magazine.

President Laycock was already receptive to the possibility of such spiritual promptings. When he was set apart for this calling, Elder Richard Scott of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles told him, “At times, during your mission, you will be awakened in the middle of the night or the early morning hours with thoughts of specific things you should do for certain missionaries. Do not ignore these thoughts. They are promptings from the Holy Ghost who will communicate with you in the stillness of the night or the peace of the early morning hours. He will speak to you then because that is when you are still enough to hear.” Elder Scott further instructed him to keep a notebook beside his bed so that he could record these precious promptings. He said that by the next morning, we would be likely to forget the promptings if we didn’t write them down.

Thus armed, President Laycock was fully prepared when the Spirit whispered a warning to him. He describes it as follows:

Nearly two-and-one-half weeks ago, I was awakened at around 4:00 AM by just such a prompting. I did not hear a voice, but the thought was as clear as if it had been in the form of spoken words: “There is going to be an earthquake. Prepare your missionaries.” I sat up in bed and immediately remembered Elder Scott’s counsel. That morning I told Larry what had happened. He immediately set to work organizing our missionaries to prepare for an earthquake.

{snip}

We set a goal and arranged our schedule so that we could visit every apartment in the mission to check for safety and to review with our missionaries what to do in case of an earth quake. What a wonderful experience we have had as we have met with them and shared scriptures with them about being spiritually and physically prepared. “…if ye are prepared, ye shall not fear” (D&C 38:30).

We instructed every missionary to have a “go-bag” (36 hour kit). We reviewed our emergency action plan with them of where to go and what to do if they had phone service and in case they did not. We gave everyone a paper with all instructions in English and Spanish, and we reminded them that “this life is the time to prepare to meet God” (Alma 34:32-34). We shared with them our thoughts and feelings about the need for spiritual and physical safety.

{snip}

As the earthquake became more violent, the mission home groaned and wailed. The power died, so the whole city was black. The windows made a hideous screeching sound, and flying objects banged against swaying walls. The printer/fax machine, books, book ends, and fifty-pound television burst from the entertainment center and crashed to the floor, cabinets emptied, drawers flew open, the refrigerator moved, water sloshed out of the toilets, the floor jolted up and down as we ran across it trying to hold onto the walls to keep from falling down, and the piano toppled over like a small toy. As we made our way to the back yard, I remember thinking, “God is all-powerful. He is our only refuge from this horrible mess.” I prayed and prayed for Him to still the earth.

When we reached the back yard, we watched in terror. By the light of the moon we could see the swimming pool water form giant waves and crash out onto the rocks. House and car alarms screamed into the night…some from being crushed by falling debris and others, I guess, from the bizarre movement of the earth. I am not sure if the intense rumbling sounds came from the earth itself or from everything else that was shaking so violently. Finally, it stopped.

But because of the warning delivered to President Laycock, and he and his missionaries acting upon it, all 171 missionaries assigned to the Santiago East mission survived.

A question commonly posed not only by reprobate anti-Mormons, but also by honest people who don't understand revelation, is if the warning was given to the responsible civil authorities. The answer in this case is No, and for some good reasons:

(1). The Spirit prompted President Laycock to "prepare your missionaries". It didn't say "prepare your entire membership" or "prepare the country". When the Holy Spirit gives guidance, you obey the guidance given -- no more, and no less.

(2). No date, time, or location of the earthquake was provided by the Spirit. So if President Laycock had passed the warning to Chilean authorities, what could they have done with it? When would they begin evacuations? What part of the country would they evacuate? President Laycock wasn't given enough information to pass a credible warning to the Chilean government. Rest assured that if the Spirit had instructed President Laycock to pass the warning on to the Chilean authorities, he would have done so.

This may seem cold-blooded, but one of the secondary principles of the Gospel is that we are to experience adversity in this world at one time or another. To progress towards godhood, we must understand all the forces and emotions that govern existence; this requires us to experience BOTH good AND evil. Mortality provides us a learning opportunity where eternal judgment is temporarily suspended and man can repent. The Gospel of Jesus Christ mitigates adversity, but does NOT immunize against it. Our Heavenly Father takes no delight in the suffering of His creations, but He respects our voluntary decision to come down to this world, and His constant interference would defeat the purpose of that decision.

Our memories of the pre-mortal existence and the decisions we made may be obscured, in order to promote a more spontaneous mortal existence, but rest assured not only did each and every one of us volunteer to come to this earth, but we "shouted with joy" at the prospect.

LDS Church Begins Rendering Assistance To Chilean Quake Victims; Three Church Members Among The 723 Dead As Of March 1st

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced on March 1st, 2010 that it is now actively assisting in earthquake relief efforts in Chile after coordinating with the country’s Interior Ministry to determine how the Church can most appropriately assist in relief efforts. Church leaders have identified that food, water, tents, blankets, hygiene kits and sleeping mats are needed to assist people in the affected region.

As for the state of the Church in Chile as of this post, it is reported that of all the Church's meetinghouses, only five have been rendered unusable. At least three meetinghouses suffered extensive structural damage, and another was severely flooded. A house that also served as a meetinghouse was swept away in the tsunami triggered by the earthquake. The Santiago Temple was previously reported to be undamaged except for the loss of Moroni's trumpet, and construction had not yet begun on the proposed Concepcion Temple. The President of the Santiago Temple, Ted Lyon reported that they just had to close a few drawers and straighten a few crooked pictures.

As previously reported, all missionaries are safe and accounted for. Those unable to return to their apartments are either staying with members or in meetinghouses. Three members of the Church have been identified among the dead, out of an overall total of 723 fatalities reported by Chile's National Emergency Office as of this post.

In his letter published in the Milennial Star, Ted Lyon further reported that there was "lots of damage, virtually no stores open. Most parts of Santiago still have no electricity. Collapsed overpasses have closed major highways. The airport is closed because of damage, and planes have been rerouted to northern Chile or to Argentina." They lost power to the Temple for a while, but now they have it back; they were one of the first parts of Santiago to get electricity back on.

Other individual stories continue to filter out of Chile. Jason Allen of Sandy, Utah was attending an international music festival held annually in Vina Del Mar and was eating in his hotel when the earth gave way beneath him. He says he went two days without water and electricity in the midst of aftershocks ranging from 5.0 to 6.5 in magnitude. He also says he's tried to leave Chile, but the roads are torn in places and the bus companies have not been working. He called Delta and they said maybe he could fly out by Friday March 5th at the earliest.

Christopher Morgan of Salt Lake lives and works in Concepcion, which is 70 miles SSE of the epicenter of the 8.8 magnitude earthquake. He told Good Morning America that "It shook very violently for three to four minutes. All of my neighbors were running to the hills. The main destruction that there was was in the center part of Concepcion and buildings have toppled, entire houses were down and also there were bridges that had completely fallen."

Chile is no Third World dump like Haiti. It is considered the most advanced country in South America. Because of frequent earthquakes, they are experienced in dealing with them and with preparing for them before the fact.

Latter-Day Saints React To Chile's 8.8 Earthquake; All Missionaries Safe, Angel Moroni Atop Santiago Temple Loses His Trumpet

Three stories published by the Deseret News on February 27th, 2010 chronicle reaction by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, both in and out of Chile, to the 8.8 earthquake that rocked that country midway between Santiago and Concepcion. Church leaders in Salt Lake City and Chile are already working together to determine the appropriate humanitarian response to the earthquake. This will also include coordinating with government and other disaster relief organizations. The LDS Church has now published an official news release, which is already partially obsolete.

The latest story about the earthquake in general indicates that 214 people have been killed, 1.5 million houses have experienced some damage by the earthquake and 500,000 houses are severely damaged so as to be uninhabitable. The three-minute-long quake struck around 70 miles north from the southwest coastal city of Concepcion and around 200 miles south of Santiago. Read CNN timeline of critical events HERE. CBS gallery of 29 photos HERE.

In the first Deseret News story, LDS officials say eight of the church's nine Chilean mission presidents have checked in and are reporting that all missionaries in their respective districts are safe and accounted for. At press time, efforts were still being made to reach the Concepcion South Mission, which is closest to the epicenter, but a subsequent comment to the story by Howard Stevens indicates that Concepcion South missionaries are now safe and accounted for. In addition, LDS missionaries in Mendoza and Salta, Argentina are also safe and accounted for; because of their close proximity to the quake zone, those cities felt it strongly. The quake was even felt as far away as Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Local LDS Church leaders in the Concepcion area have reported considerable damage to the city, but they are unaware of any deaths to Latter-day Saints and indicate that all chapels appear to be just fine. No operational damage was reported to the Santiago Chile Temple, but the trumpet on the angel Moroni statue fell off.

The second story documents reports from ordinary Mormons in Chile. Gloria Auguita of Santiago reports waking up to the earth shaking around her. She awoke her son, Christhian Tomaduz, his wife Erika Villarreal, and their children, 3-year-old Lucas and 4-year-old Micaela, and they all huddled under a door frame of their Santiago home. Around them they heard furniture crashing to the floor and plates shattering. It was so loud and frightening that Micaela wet her pants. She said the whole earth was moving a lot, and they couldn't walk.

The building Tomaduz and his family live in survived, but Tomaduz said not all the surrounding buildings in Maipu, in the southwestern part of Santiago, were so lucky. Tomaduz's uncle lost his TV and fridge after the quake shook his 21st-floor apartment. Dirt houses collapsed, and bridges in Santiago are down.

Luisana Navarro, 25, was at a birthday party in Santiago with her boyfriend when the quake hit. She said that she's fine in Santiago, but is very concerned about her father in Rauco (a three-hour drive south of Santiago, closer to the epicenter), where everything is supposedly destroyed. Earthquake damage has made roads southward out of Santiago impassable.

In the third story, the Guerra-Jensen family in Santiago said many of the buildings in Santiago are earthquake proof. Most structures were still standing, although several sustained cracks and some standing facades had broken buildings behind them. Another Chilean, Romina Penailillo, reported that she was thrown from her bed to the floor from the intense shaking. She ran to a door frame, and watched her apartment collapse around her. The windows shattered, the walls fell down, and the floor of the house cracked open. She suffered a few cuts but was otherwise uninjured.

Additional LDS-oriented information published by the Milennial Star. As of December 2008, there were 554,749 Mormons in Chile spread out amongst 611 different congregations. The Santiago Temple is the only active temple, although a future temple for Concepcion was announced in October 2009.