They kept repeating over the radio that we should stay off the phone in order to free up the lines for emergency services. I am the type that when emergency services make such a request, I happily comply. The other missionaries assigned to Watsonville, however, all called home. Our distract leader was even interviewed over the phone by his hometown newspaper. I did ask my companion to ask his parents to call my parents and let them know that we were safe and well. Unfortunately, something got lost in transmission; not understanding that we were all okay, my parents worried even more.
My next mistake was not immediately writing home. Instead I spent the next week and a half writing first a very long journal entry, and then a very long letter, recounting everything that had happened, with plenty of details. Naturally, this did not make my parents happy. The lesson here is that if you're not going to call home, you should at least drop a postcard in the mail the next day saying that all is well. Another suggestion, don't write home suggesting to your parents that they should prayed to know if you are safe and well.
Still, it could have been worse. A month after the earthquake I got a new companion; he transferred in from Hollister, on the other side of the mountains from Watsonville. Apparently, the missionaries in Hollister spent more than one night in a tent. My new companion told me that they spent a couple of weeks in a tent, apparently waiting for someone to tell them it was safe to go back inside their apartment. My companion made the unfortunate mistake of writing in a letter home that he was still living in a tent. You can imagine what happened; his parents called the mission president demanding to know why their son was still living in a tent, after which the mission president called the elders in Hollister wanting to know just what in the world they were thinking.
Another lesson is no matter how bad things get, don’t tell your parents the worst of it. As long as you are safe and healthy, that’s the important thing. As I wrote to my nephew, then serving in Michigan, instead of writing, “Door knocking in a blizzard is fun,” it should be, “More snow this week, all is well.” Mothers are known to worry about their sons. “What do you mean you’re living in a tent?!” “You’re tracting in a blizzard?! What is wrong with you?!” Even though they announced on the news after the quake that all the missionaries in the area were fine, mothers will still worry.
Even when there isn't a major disaster, parents will worry any time they don't get a letter. Yet there are some weeks, particularly later on in a mission, where you just don't feel there is anything to write about. "Another week tracting, no teaching appointments, all is well," might seem like a rather unexciting letter, but it's probably better than no letter.
At the same time, some parents will not realize that it can be a big disappointment when their missionary does not receive letters from home. I found it particularly troubling when, after I missed writing home one week, I got a lecture from my parents. I had the temerity to fire right back about the weeks they missed writing me. Don't do that.
Instead, you might try sending home a photo of you standing next to an empty mailbox with a sad countenance. Or you can quote from Alma 60:6: "And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state."
Meanwhile, as Watsonville recovered from the earthquake, we essentially forgot about proselytizing for the next month -- outside of a few teaching appointments. Instead we volunteered with the Red Cross at the Buddhist Temple, as well as volunteering to help many families clean up. We helped one family whose chimney had collapsed, obliterating the easy chair the husband would have been sitting in to watch game three of the world series if he hadn't had a dentist appointment instead.
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