Well, it was a busy week here
in the US, but also around the country and the world! I’ll do my best to
summarize.
First, we have a new US
President
Barack Obama won reelection
by a not-so-wide margin on November 6th. Here is the church’s
statement on the event:
The First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued the following
statement Tuesday:
We congratulate President Obama on winning a second term as
President of the United States.
After a long campaign, this is now a time for Americans to
come together. It is a long tradition among Latter-day Saints to pray for our
national leaders in our personal prayers and in our congregations. We invite
Americans everywhere, whatever their political persuasion, to pray for the
President, for his administration and the new Congress as they lead us through difficult
and turbulent times. May our national leaders reflect the best in wisdom and
judgment as they fulfill the great trust afforded to them by the American
people.
We also commend Governor Romney for engaging at the highest
level of our democratic process, which, by its nature, demands so much of those
who offer themselves for public service. We wish him and his family every
success in their future endeavors.
1.
Election Results
Candidate
|
Popular vote
|
Percentage
|
Electoral votes (270
to win)
|
Barack Obama
|
61713086
|
51%
|
332
|
|
Mitt Romney
|
58510150
|
48%
|
206
|
|
In other news,
THERE WAS A 7.4
EARTHQUAKE IN GUATEMALA!!!!!!
Drew, I think your
preparations on Halloween were inspired! I hope all is well with you and
the people in your area. I don’t doubt that you felt it and hope that
your email this week will be a happy one. We are very anxious to hear
from you!
Here is some of the coverage
we have heard from our end:
SAN CRISTOBAL CUCHO, Guatemala — The 10 members of the
Vasquez family were found together under the rubble of the rock quarry that had
been their livelihood, some in a desperate final embrace, others clinging to
the faintest of dying pulses.
As Guatemala tried to recover Thursday from a
7.4-magnitude quake, the country mourned a disaster that killed at least 52
people; left thousands of others without homes, electricity or water; and
emotionally devastated one small town by wiping out almost an entire family
seeing the first signs of success in a tireless effort to claw itself out of
poverty.
Justo Vasquez, a man known for his ferocious work ethic
and dedication to his seven children, was with nearly all his closest relations
Wednesday at a local quarry hacking out a white rock that is pulverized to make
cinder blocks for construction.
When the quake struck, thousands of pounds of earth
calved off from the wall above the pit, burying the 44-year-old and almost
everyone he loved: his wife, Ofelia Gomez, 43; their daughters Daisy, 14,
Gisely, 8, and Merly, 6; and their sons Aldiner, 12, Delbis, 5, and Dibel, 3.
Their nephews Ulises and Aldo Vasquez, both 12, also died.
Only the oldest son, Ivan, 19, survived. He had stayed in
the house when the rest of his family went to the quarry, taking care of some
last-minute details to receive his accounting degree – the first in his family
to have a professional career. His father had been saving for a party to
celebrate his Nov. 23 graduation.
"He died working," said Antonia Lopez, a
sister-in-law of the father, Justo Vasquez. "He was fighting for his
kids."
Dozens of villagers in the humble town of San Cristobal
Cucho ran to dig the family after Guatemala's biggest quake in 36 years. When
they uncovered some of the children, one body still warm, two with pulses, they
were in the arms of their father, who had tried to shield them.
"We have never seen a tragedy like this. The whole
town is sad," said brother Romulo Vasquez, whose 12-year old son, Ulises,
also died at the quarry.
The death toll was expected to rise as 22 people remained
missing, President Otto Perez Molina said at a news conference. Forty people
were killed in San Marcos state, where San Cristobal Cucho is, 11 died in the
neighboring state of Quetzaltenango and one was killed in Solola state, also in
the western part of the country.
Perez said powerful 7.4-magnitude quake, felt as far as
Mexico City 600 miles away, affected as many as 1.2 million Guatemalans. A
little more than 700 people were in shelters, with most opting to stay with
family or friends, he added.
There were 70 aftershocks in the first 24 hours after the
quake, some as strong as magnitude 5.1, Perez said. Damaged homes are among the
biggest problems the country will face in the coming days.
Life was returning to normal in the quake-stricken area
Thursday afternoon – electricity and mobile phone service had returned to many
neighborhoods, cafes and banks reopened and several main thoroughfares filled
with their weekly street markets.
But life remained stopped in the Vasquezes' home in San
Cristobal Cucho, a town of some 15,000 people so high in the mountains that
clouds swirl through the streets.
The streets were packed around the Vasquezes' small
yellow-and-red, cinderblock-and-adobe house. Inside, neighbors gathered around
the 10 wooden caskets with open lids, pressing against each other to see the
faces of the dead and pay their last respects. Wood smoke bathed the memorial
as more than a dozen women in the back of the house cooked rice, beans, corn
and eggs to feed the crowd.
The Vasquezes were the only ones to die in San Cristobal
Cucho. Like the rest of several thousand people in town, the Vasquez family was
humble, the parents without much education. Most of the people in the town are
subsistence farmers or sell things on the streets and in the markets.
The oldest son, Ivan, was too distraught to speak or even
stay at the house among the mourners.
"He was a very good father, he was a very good
neighbor," said Antonia Lopez, who was among the many paying respects.
Guatemalans fearing aftershocks huddled in the streets of
the nearby city San Marcos, the most affected area. Others crowded inside its
hospital, the only building in town left with electricity.
Volunteers carrying boxes of medical supplies began
arriving in the area in western Guatemala late Wednesday.
The quake, which was 20 miles deep, was centered 15 miles
off the coastal town of Champerico and 100 miles southwest of Guatemala City.
It was the strongest earthquake to hit Guatemala since a 1976 temblor that
killed 23,000.
Perez said more than 2,000 soldiers were deployed to help
with the disaster. A plane had made at least two trips to carry relief teams to
the area. The U.S. State Department said it was sending some $50,000 in
immediate disaster relief, including clean water, fuel and blankets. It also
said it had offered U.S. helicopters if needed.
Not much of that magnitude happened around here.
Just the Powder Puff game! Lainey made an interception which resulted in
a touchdown a few plays later. Go Lainey! It was a fun game and the
juniors lost by only two points in the end.
Lainey
is the one folding her arms in the middle. She looks like she means
business!
This Breanna
Ray and Kayla Marsh celebrating the Seniors win.
Lainey and Aaron have been asked to help in the orchestra
for the Beaverton Stakes production of Seussical the Musical. They
started rehearsals this week and the production is next week. Not much
time to prepare, but it should be a great time for them!
Now, one more thing that I want you to know this
week. I’m writing about it last, not because it is less important, but
because it is to come this next week:
Annie’s one year anniversary is Wednesday! I cannot
tell you how proud I am of her and the long way she has come in this one short
year! You have to know: She is AMAZING! So responsible. Such
a leader. Smiling every day again! Looking forward to her future
and really contemplating her plans without worrying so much about her past
getting in her way! So much has changed and she has done so much to put
her life right where it needs to be! I am just proud that I was able to
be here to watch her go! The future is bright!!
Oh, so Drew. You were asking about the hurricane
that hit the east coast a week or so ago. Here is the Wikipedia entry
about it. They had a nor-Easter come through this week and dropped a
bunch of snow and hampering efforts to get power back on and people back to
normal. It’s quite the big deal over there!
Hurricane Sandy was the largest Atlantic hurricane on record, as well as the second-costliest
Atlantic hurricane in history, only surpassed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. The eighteenth named storm
and tenth hurricane of the 2012
Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Sandy devastated portions of
the Caribbean, Mid-Atlantic
and Northeastern
United States in late October 2012. Sandy is estimated in early
calculations to have caused damage of at least $20 billion (2012 USD).
Preliminary estimates of losses that include business interruption surpass $50
billion (2012 USD), behind only Hurricane Katrina. At least 191 people were
killed along the path of the storm in seven countries.
Sandy developed from a tropical wave in the western Caribbean Sea
on October 22, quickly strengthened and was upgraded to Tropical Storm Sandy
six hours later. Sandy moved slowly northward toward the Greater Antilles and gradually intensified.
On October 24, Sandy became a hurricane, made landfall near Kingston, Jamaica, a few hours later,
re-emerged into the Caribbean Sea and strengthened into a Category
2 hurricane. On October 25, Sandy hit Cuba, then weakened to a to Category
1 hurricane. Early on October 26, Sandy moved through the Bahamas.
On October 27, Sandy briefly weakened to a tropical storm and then
restrengthened to a Category 1 hurricane. Early on October 29, Sandy curved
north-northwest and then moved ashore near Atlantic City,
New Jersey as a "post-tropical cyclone"[In Jamaica, winds left 70% of residents
without electricity, blew roofs off buildings, killed one, and caused about
$55.23 million (2012 USD) in damage. In Haiti,
Sandy's outer bands brought flooding that killed at least 52, caused food
shortages, and left about 200,000 homeless. In the Dominican Republic,
two died. In Puerto Rico, one
man was swept away by a swollen river. In Cuba, there was extensive coastal
flooding and wind damage inland, destroying some 15,000 homes, killing 11, and
causing $2 billion (2012 USD) in damage. In The Bahamas, two died amid an estimated
$300 million (2012 USD) in damage.
In the United States, Hurricane
Sandy affected at least 24 states, from Florida to Maine
and west to Michigan and Wisconsin, with particularly severe damage
in New Jersey and New York. Its storm surge hit New York City on October 29, flooding
streets, tunnels and subway lines and cutting power in and around the city.
Sounds like Guatemala is getting some aftershocks today
(Sunday). Just got home to see reports of several quakes over the 4-5
mark on the richter scale. I sure will be happy to get to
email with Drew this week! Hope it happens!
Also, at church today, this is what we saw when the
elders arrived!
Apparently,
they were wrestling in the their room (at Carstens house) and Elder Peterson
got knocked out by a desk! Two separate cuts = 15 stitches! Go
figure! The earthquake is in central america, but the domestic elders get
the injuries!
Also, couldn’t resist sending this one:
I love you all! Have a good week and stay safe!!!
