EARTHQUAKE JOURNAL: Tohoku, Japan (March 11, 2011)
Conan Grames

Former Sendai Mission President Conan Grames on site with the devastation in Ishinomaki
Photo courtesy of Elder Grames

Tuesday (3/15). We have had quite an experience here the last few days. Cindy and I were in the office in Tokyo when the Tohoku earthquake hit on Friday. We have experienced several of these over the years we have lived here in Japan, but I immediately knew this one was different. It was the first time I decided to get under my desk. It took very little encouragement from Cindy to do so. While under the desk, the shaking continued to grow and seemed to last forever. At that point I began to wonder, “How bad can this get?” It lasted so long I think I even had time to say a real prayer. Coincidentally, last week I had read two first-hand accounts of Mormon missionaries who were in Japan during the great Kanto earthquake of 1923. I wondered if this is what was happening to us. It actually turned out that the Tohoku quake was probably stronger than the one in 1923, but they didn’t measure back in those days. This one registered 9.0 in Sendai. We suffered little damage here—lots of noise and things falling off shelves and shattered nerves.

The area presidency and church office building staff immediately went into action to determine the whereabouts of missionaries and members, but communications were down and it was impossible to use even cell phones in Tohoku. The anxiety level was extremely high. Pres. Stevenson later shared with us the following experience. He reached church headquarters in Utah and organized a conference call with humanitarian, welfare, and missionary department people, as well as other general authorities to discuss the situation. At the end of this lengthy call, President Boyd K. Packer’s voice came on the line. No one knew he had been there. He thanked everyone for their efforts and approved the plans that were being made. Elder Stevenson was quite emotional when he related Pres. Packer’s counsel. He told Elder Stevenson that the area presidency could exercise the same power and authority of the apostles to “invoke the blessings of the Lord” on the missionaries, members and all the land of Japan. Pres. Packer added that this would be done only, of course, if Elder Stevenson felt prompted by the Spirit. Elder Stevenson told us, “I felt prompted!”

Elder Choi was traveling in Korea. Elder Aoyagi had gone to Shinagawa to catch a Shinkansen to attend a conference. The bullet train was scheduled to depart at 2:51. The earthquake was at 2:46. Elder Aoyagi left the station but could not catch a cab. It took him three hours to walk, dragging his luggage, back to the area office building. He and Elder Stevenson were finally together and able to get Elder Choi on the telephone after midnight Friday night. Elder Stevenson said, with emotion in his voice, that they knelt together and “invoked” the blessings of the Lord on the land. It was not long after that they heard from Pres. Tateoka of the Sendai Mission for the first time. By the end of the day on Saturday, we knew all the missionaries were safe. Elder Stevenson feels deeply that this was a miracle from the Lord.

Reports on missionaries came in through the day on Saturday. We knew who was missing by name and location. Two by two they started to report in. The last two elders had been stranded at the chapel in Tagajo which was flooded by the tsunami. They walked several hours to get into Sendai. Although we knew the sisters in Ishinomaki had been seen after the quake, it took us four days to find them and get them out of the area. So far we have had no reports of serious injury among members of the church, although many have had to leave their homes.

Seeing the devastation on TV is really is unbelievable. We feel there has been much divine help in finding people given the size of this disaster. The people here at the area office have been sleeping on the floors and some of them have been in the apartment upstairs from us while the senior couple living there are in Sapporo. Now the members and missionaries have been accounted for, attention has turned to providing relief.

Cindy and I have responsibility for communications. Much of our time has been spent coordinating with Diane Sawyer’s ABC news team. She wants to do an interview with a missionary who experienced the tsunami. It turned out Diane couldn’t get into the area, even by helicopter, but their 20/20 team was there and they were still seeking an interview. The missionary who was to do the interview had, at the time of the tsunami, climbed to the second floor of the chapel with his companion. They watched the water come through the parking lot, sweep away their bikes, and flood the first floor of the building.

Today, we sent our first team into the area since there was no transportation until now. Darwin Halvorson, the Area welfare manager, and Satoshi Nishihara, the area seventy responsible for Tohoku are driving through Niigata in an effort to reach Sendai. They will assess needs so we can begin to send relief. We have met with the Red Cross and the government and have offered cash contributions in addition to in-kind help. The greatest physical need is gasoline, diesel fuel, food, water, blankets, and warm clothes.

Wednesday (3/17). We received instructions from church headquarters to evacuate all our missionaries out of the Sendai and Tokyo missions. The decision had been made in a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. This decision was due in large part to the radiation threat that has developed from the nuclear reactors in Fukushima and the fact that many of the missionaries have no food, water, and electricity. This is a real blow to the members who love the missionaries and depend on them, but they also want to feed and clothe the missionaries when they can’t even take care of themselves at this time. All of ABC’s crew has also left the area, so that interview will not happen.

This day was spent putting together a plan to move 200 missionaries in what may be the largest transfer in Church history. All 72 missionaries from Sendai were to go to Sapporo except those due to go home in three weeks. They will go home tomorrow or Friday. Tokyo will send 130 missionaries in equal groups to Nagoya, Kobe, and Fukuoka. Pres. Albrecht did an amazing job of organizing this transfer—who would go where. He said he basically went down the list so each mission would get an equal number of experienced and new missionaries. Cindy spent the day calling the parents of the Sendai missionaries and telling them of the transfer.

A few days after moving out the missionaries, Pres. Stevenson called into his conference room the five senior couples who work here in the area office. I thought, “We’re out of here.” This was not a happy thought for me. But he explained that he had received no instructions from church headquarters about senior missionaries. There might be some in the future, he said, but there is nothing now. He then gave us the choice whether to stay or go home. He made it very clear that he would be fine with either decision and opened the door wide open, asking about our health, family, and other possible issues. Although Cindy had some concern about the radiation, I looked at her and knew what she would say, so I did not have to hesitate. “As long as you are here, we are here.” All five couples are staying. He did the same with the temple missionaries. They are all staying. Only the couples from the Tokyo and Sendai mission offices chose to go home. But two of the three couples spoke no Japanese and would have no place to serve since there are already couples in the other mission offices. There is a job for us to do here. If we have to leave, we would like to set up in Sapporo or Nagoya and see this out.

Thursday (3/17) started out freezing cold here in Tokyo. I can only imagine what it was like up in Tohoku. I was in the parking lot of the temple sending off missionaries from Niigata who were flying to Sapporo. Some were being sent home a few weeks early, but their passports were now in Aomori with the office elders from Sendai—one of the many challenges facing these poor missionaries. But there were smiles and hugs all around. The missionaries in Aomori couldn’t get a ferry to Hokkaido, so they flew down to Tokyo, handed over the passports, and flew up to Sapporo! Cindy called parents of the Tokyo missionaries to tell them which mission they would be in. There were many questions, of course, and not very many answers other than to tell parents their missionaries are safe. We do not know when missionaries will come back to either mission.

I worked on finding a way to move supplies into the area while the roads are still restricted and there is no gas in the region. One American member had complained bitterly about evacuating the missionaries so I decided to call and calm him down. After he understood the decision made by the apostles in SLC we talked about the challenge to send supplies into the area. He said his neighbor was a McDonald’s executive and that they were sending trucks of food into Tohoku. A few calls later, McDonald’s had agreed to ship some of our supplies to the Ronald McDonald House in Sendai. The Lord works in mysterious ways…. We have ordered 15,000 blankets from China. Tomorrow we need to find a place to put them when they arrive so McDonald’s can pick them up. I’m expecting another miracle.

Friday (3/18) was mostly spent on trying to get our shipment of blankets up to Sendai. The blanket project in China has been handled by Icon Health and Fitness, the company Pres. Stevenson (our Area president) founded—now the largest supplier of equipment to fitness centers in the world. They have operations in China and took care of ordering, packing, and will be shipping the blankets to Narita in record time. It is a lot of blankets! We are not sure McDonald’s can handle the whole shipment, but I had some very positive conversations with their logistics manager today. They are anxious to do whatever they can.

Saturday (3/19) was more of the same. It started off with the Area Presidency on a conference call with the 60 stake and district presidents in Japan to inform them of what is happening and comfort them. I stepped into the room as they were kneeling in prayer. I was reminded of who is in charge. After the call, the presidency and Takashi Wada (Director of Temporal Affairs) left for Sendai to meet with members. They took a train to Niigata where a van met them and drove them on the back roads up away from the radiation and into Sendai. The media has surfaced again. MSNBC was supposed to do a live telephone interview with the same Sendai missionary who is now in Sapporo. It was scheduled for at 4:30 am. Pres. Daniels in Sapporo had graciously agreed to get up and work with the reporter. When I read email in the morning MSNBC had cancelled at 2:30 am to give priority to Obama’s announcement on radiation. Ugh. But, they wrote a very nice article on their website from an interview they did with the missionary the night before.

Sunday (3/20) we spoke in church in Shibuya. Cindy talked on service. I gave a report on what the church is doing to help. It was a nice meeting. There were only a few people in attendance. The majority of expatriates in Tokyo have been evacuated. After church I got an email from Wada saying that Pres. Stevenson had asked me to come to Sendai ASAP with Sekiguchi to document what is going on up there. Our welfare people are deep into relief activities. We came home, fed dinner to our home teaching families, and I made preparations to leave—going through endless emails and emergency supplies. Cindy found film and packed food. I received a call from Pres. Stevenson who said that there were very tender meetings with the members today. “You cannot even imagine the scene of devastation here,” he said. You have to be here. He had made it clear into Ishinomaki, one of the worst areas, where our branch president lost everything but his family.

The best news of the day came when I talked to Kurt Frost, the McDonald’s manager. He said they would take all 15,000 blankets, guaranteed, even if he had to pay for extra trucks out of his own pocket. I will eat a lot of their hamburgers from now on.

Sekiguchi and I flew to Yamagata. I took an extra suitcase of food and toilet paper. We arrived at 10 pm and took a taxi to our hotel. There were cars lined up for blocks, no one in them, waiting for the gas station to open the next morning. They will get a ration of 20 liters (5 gallons). Another piece of good news—BYU beat Gonzaga to move into the “Sweet Sixteen!”

Monday morning (3/21) we walked down the street near our hotel. It is a holiday—Spring Equinox—but it sure doesn’t look like spring. It is cloudy, cold with lots of snow on the ground, and not a car on the road. We walked down to Jusco to look at the shelves. There were plenty of kimonos, stuffed animals, and lingerie in the store, but there was no bread, candy, or face masks. I later learned the candy was gone because it has high energy and keeps for a long time. Elder Kusume, an area seventy, brought the car up from Sendai. We met at the Yamagata airport and drove it back to Sendai. There was no sign of destruction all the way into Sendai, just long gas lines and closed stores. Downtown Sendai was spooky. The station was dark and lonely. The streets were mostly empty. The elevator in our hotel is not working. But the church was a beehive of activity. The “war room” was stocked with computers, phones, printers, and lots of people working them. There were white boards and posters with the names of each unit and a status report on members. All those found are alive and well, although many, many without homes, and some have not yet been located.

There is a long list of people and what they need. There is also a list of volunteers who are headed into the area and what they are bringing. One guy is riding his bicycle up from Tokyo. There are boxes of supplies stacked everywhere. The Relief Society sisters are putting on some surprisingly nice food under the circumstances. We rode around with Elders Choi, Aoyagi, and Pres. Tateoka. We went to the hospital and gave a blessing to an elderly, single sister who had double hip surgery, not related to the quake, but pretty lonely and scared. There were many tears. We visited two ladies confined to home with no gas for their car. Elders Choi and Aoyagi blessed; I interpreted. Back at command center we held a conference call with all the area leaders and got reports. The Area Presidency gave deep expressions of gratitude, faith, and encouragement to the very tired brethren on the phone. I had always wondered what it really meant when the Lord and His disciples “ministered” to the people. I am now a witness of what it means.

Photo: © Intellectual Reserve Inc. "Helping Hands" Sisters at Sendai Kamisugi Ward Building

The blankets arrived at Narita last night. I spent the rest of the evening and late into the night trying to see if we can get US military transport for some of them. McDonald’s took 3,300, but they couldn’t take the rest immediately so we are working on other options. We ate breakfast with a Red Cross team this morning in Yamagata and checked into the hotel at the same time as a Nagoya emergency medical team tonight. They all have cool uniforms! I have a “uniform” but it’s not that cool. I’m ready for bed—but not looking forward to a cold shower in the morning.

Tuesday (3/22). The water was as cold as I feared. I filled the tub the evening before thinking it would warm up to room temperature during the night. I learned that even room temperature is not warm! We walked back to the command center at the church and prepared to go to Ishinomaki about 90 minutes east on the coast. Before we left I received an email telling me they had found Taylor Anderson’s body. Taylor was a teacher at one of the schools in Ishinomaki. I had received an email from Mauri in our Washington, DC, office about Taylor. Mauri’s friend, Lisa, had a connection with Taylor’s family. They were not members, but they asked if there was anything the church could do to help. I had seen her pictures on CNN. I sent an of email to Darwin in Sendai about her. He is coordinating the entire rescue effort but said he would try to do something. I felt a great sadness when I heard the news as I was hoping to look for her apartment when we got to Ishinomaki.

As we approached the city we began to see signs of the tsunami. The roads had been cleared. All the debris from the roads had been piled along the side, including the cars that had been stalled. I wondered if the people had escaped. There were flat fields on all sides with no high ground. Hopefully the water was not deep in this area. The closer we got the worse it became. My companion, Osamu, described it as how Japan must have looked after the war. We drove to the church. There was no one there. It was on high ground and there didn’t seem to be much damage outside. We decided to walk toward the ocean. It was eerie. Except for the crows, it was quiet. We walked for two hours and saw almost no one. There were large bundles of paper everywhere. They were probably 6 feet long and 4 feet around. We discovered that there was a paper recycling center near the ocean. The bundles had floated for miles being scattered all around the town.

I’m afraid I will not be able to explain the scene of destruction we saw as we walked. Here and there we saw a house standing. Mostly there just piles of debris. The houses still standing or partially collapsed were covered with the remains of other houses. We couldn’t help but think that some of the missing bodies were still in these houses. There was a definite stench of dampness and decay. Perhaps more poignant to me were not the signs of death but the symbols of life. There were toys, dishes, jewelry, and photo albums strewn around the ground. I saw a small wooden statue of the “happy Buddha” standing among the debris, his face smudged with mud but still smiling.

There were a few people riding bikes along the road, all with distant expressions. There were almost no people searching the debris. We found a young woman trying to retrieve belongings from their car which had come to rest on top of two other cars, worse than a demolition derby. We offered to help, but she pointed to her husband who had made his way through the shattered windows and was holding a box he had found. We came across a lone man in his sixties standing in front of a small restaurant. He told us he lived alone on the second floor. He heard the tsunami warning but didn’t think much of it because there had been one many years ago and the tsunami didn’t come. But when he went outside, the street was jammed with people fleeing from the neighborhood in cars. He got in his car but could see there was no escape through the traffic. He turned around and headed in the opposite direction—back toward the sea—and found safety on top of a nearby hill. He told us the people going the other way did not make it out. The tallest sea wall in the world was here in Ishinomaki—around 10 meters (30 feet high). The tsunami easily washed over it.

Walking back to the church we could hardly speak. There were large, heavy metal plates on the sidewalks which had lifted up and “floated” away when the sewer filled with sea water. We passed a water truck at the police station. People were filling any container they had, some of them using small 250 ml PET bottles. At the church we found some members unpacking boxes of food and supplies which had been sent to them from the Kamisugi church. I spoke to Brother and Sister Asano who still had a car with a little gas. They had driven several miles from their shelter at an elementary school to get some of the items. They told me in detail how their home had been flooded and destroyed. Cindy had given me a supply of oranges to bring in case we couldn’t find food. They were in the trunk of the car. I passed them out among the members. The Asano’s bowed and bowed. They said their biggest need was fresh fruit and vegetables.

The drive back to Sendai was torture. We couldn’t find a restroom anywhere. There was not a store or restaurant open. But the Relief Society had saved food for us. I was touched that they even remembered we had not yet eaten given the numbers of relief workers in and out of the building. Back at the hotel I opened up my computer and was disappointed to find that we were going to get no help from the US military. I have spent 5 days working on this with repeated offers to help coming in calls and emails. “The marines are sitting around itching to help.” Without detailing the calls and emails—there must have been a hundred—the request was passed from one place to the next and eventually came full circle. The military passed it to USAID who said, “Go talk to the Japanese government. The Self Defense Force is taking the lead.” The implication was that the Japanese didn’t want help from the US military, but I’m not sure this wasn’t just bureaucracy blaming bureaucracy. In the meantime, we have 15,000 blankets coming with no way to get them to the people who need them. I went to bed late, tired, and discouraged.

Wednesday(3/23) the alarm went off at 6:00, way before I wanted to get up and face another cold bath. I opted for a straight shower this time. It was colder but did a better job of getting me clean. We walked to Kamisugi, got a car and went to the Nagamachi chapel where we met a 10 ton truck with 150 bales of blankets weighing 36 kg per bale (72 pounds)—6000 blankets. Fortunately we also had a corps of energetic, smiling, young people in yellow “Helping Hands” vests who seemed to be having a very good time lugging, dragging, and lifting these bales into the church where they filled the back of the chapel. There were smiles of satisfaction when we lined them up in front of and on top of the blankets for a picture.

Osamu scrounged up some gas from the supply in the church parking lot and we drove to Ishinomaki again. We only had the little car and couldn’t take any of the blankets. We decided to look for Brother and Sister Asano whom we met at the church yesterday. They told us they were staying in an evacuation center at the Oshio Elementary School in Higashi Matsushima. It took a little doing but we found them and gave them some apples, oranges, carrots, tomatoes, egg plant, and daikon (giant radish). They were very excited to see fresh produce which has not been available at all since the earthquake. Sister Asano was most excited about the daikon, further evidence that we come from very different cultures. We were lucky to find what we did. When we passed the mall in Sendai this morning, they were selling vegetables in the parking lot, but there were more than a hundred people in line. Amazingly, while we were driving along one of the back roads to Ishinomaki we found a small vegetable store with no customers. I bought $112 worth of produce, a good portion of what they had. It barely filled two boxes, but the Asano’s took it inside the shelter and distributed the food among their new friends. I felt they are better Christians than I am. We filmed a brief interview with them in front of the school where a sign hung on the door—“Graduation Ceremony.” Apparently they actually held the ceremony today. It was encouraging to see that life goes on.

There are still no restaurants or stores open anywhere. We found a quiet spot along the side of the road in a very scenic valley and practiced an ancient male custom which persists to this day in times of crisis. Feeling much better, we went to the church in Ishinomaki and bumped into Pres. and Sister Tateoka who had been to the sister missionaries’ apartment to pack up and send their belongings to Sapporo. We interviewed them and the branch president. Everyone has an incredible story. On the way home we searched for the McDonald’s where some of the blankets were to have been delivered. Like all other stores, it was closed, but there was a little light in a back window. We knocked and found five young people inside organizing the supplies which arrived on the truck from Tokyo today, but there were no blankets. We found out later the truck could only hold 300 blankets which were all delivered to the church in Kamisugi, but they had arranged for commercial trucks to take the rest. The trucking company donated a third of the expense. We returned to Sendai hungry and tired, but the Relief Society ladies, bless their hearts, had food waiting for us again.

The bishop’s wife was still at the church. “Elder Grames, don’t you want to go and see Sister Kamiya? The bishop will take you.” Sister Kamiya is the Public Affairs director in Sendai, part of my organization. It was late. I was tired and tried to ignore her suggestion. Bishop Sato then cornered me and said, “Elder Grames, you want to see Sister Kamiya, right?” We went. When we got in the car I suggested we call, hoping that she wouldn’t be home. He said we should just go. She is in a different ward and Bishop Sato hadn’t been to her house for 7 years, but he drove right to it. It was dark. No one answered the door. He called. No one answered. I started to walk to the car. He didn’t come. He rang the doorbell again and just stood there. Finally he also came to the car. I opened the door to get in and a car pulled up behind us. There she was. She got out and had a look of disbelief in her eyes. She walked up to me, put her arms around me, and with her head on my chest, sobbed for a long time. I had never experienced this kind of demonstrative emotion from a Japanese person. I then realized what a tragedy this earthquake had been for these people and how much it meant just to know that someone cared about them. We went into her cold house and saw the cracked walls and furnishings in disarray. But she was, after all, Japanese and insisted on serving us something in spite of our protests—hot water, a chocolate wafer, and a loaf of homemade bread. She also offered to let us take a hot bath, but I was expecting one at the hotel so I gave her a blessing and went home tired, but feeling humble, repentant, and happier than before.

I was so glad to be at the hotel. They had advertised that the o-furo would be open tonight. I went to buy a $6 ticket so I could have a hot bath, only to hear, “We can sell you a ticket, but the bath is full and there is no room for anyone else tonight.” It was a blow, but when I found out that it was actually a 15 minute walk to the bath on bitter cold and windy night, I was content to go to my warm room with cold water and call it a day.

Thursday (3/17). Osamu, the cameraman, and I stuffed a van with blankets and headed back out to Ishinomaki. The gas lines were shorter and the roads were jammed. It took us three hours to go 60 km. We found the Ebita Middle School where 600 refugees are sleeping on the floor of the gymnasium. Our members were there preparing and serving food, but it was a drop in a large bucket. The people have been getting a piece of bread in the morning and a strawberry in the evening. I had heard that this is what Japan was like after the War. I never thought I could see this here now. We left three bales of blankets feeling like it just isn’t enough.

We met the branch president and gave him a bundle of blankets and a box of vegetables. He, his wife, and three sons lost everything but their lives. The blankets are a soft fleece fabric in a bright lavender color. When they popped out of the wrapping, the Ohnuma’s little guy gleefully jumped on the pile. “Yawarakai! They’re soft!” It was a nice moment. President Ohnuma insisted we deliver the blankets to another refugee center where three families from his flock were evacuated. We found the Jieitai—Self Defense Force—there with their water trucks. There was mud everywhere, even through the halls, an unwelcome site in Japan where the kids are normally required to take off their shoes and put them in a box before going inside. We carried the blankets to the 4th floor, found the families had moved to the 2nd floor, took them down again, and went in the room. It was a tatami room with people sleeping on the floor next to bags holding the few possessions they had saved or acquired. We left the blankets with the son of one of the families and asked him to distribute them among everyone in the room. I only wish we could have brought enough for everyone.

Our next stop was at the Ohnuma’s apartment—a dark, wet, and melancholy memory of their home of 18 years. They showed us through. To their credit, the Ohnumas’s were not as melancholy as the rooms themselves. They understand what is important in this world. When they told me the missionaries used to live next door, I remembered being there 12 years ago on an emergency visit, late on a rainy night, the first week after we came to Sendai. This is a dark, wet, and melancholy memory as well. I hope the family will move out of this building and settle in a different place. After our visit, they suggested we drive to the top of a mountain overlooking the coast line. It was where the shop owner had driven to safety. When we arrived we found a small Shinto shrine at the top with a beautiful park, but with a view of an apocalypse for miles along the shore and up the river. I had to leave. I had seen enough.

Back in Sendai I did a quick interview in front of the blankets at Kamisugi, describing the small “miracle of McDonald’s” and their delivery of the blankets using their food vans and hired trucks. We ate another simple but loving meal prepared by the sisters and went back to the hotel to check me out. While I was standing at the counter paying my bill, there were three gaijin standing nearby in the lobby. Osamu asked them where they were from. Two were from Richmond, VA, and one from Jamaica. There were a lot of cameras in the area so Osamu asked if they were also here to take pictures. The older gentleman said, “No, I lost my daughter in the tsunami.” It hit me. “Are you Taylor’s father?” She was the missing girl I had hoped we could find when I received the email from Mauri in our DC office. When I told him we were from the church, he knew who we were and seemed genuinely grateful for our concern. The father and her boyfriend are leaving for home with her body tomorrow. It was an emotional moment for me.

I am now on the bus to Yamagata tonight to fly back to Tokyo where I will interview Elders Stevenson and Aoyagi in the morning. I will then give all the film we have taken to the video company to download and send to Salt Lake City. Even the video we have taken will never tell this story which is beyond description in its depth and breadth. Part of me wants to stay, deliver blankets, and try to administer comfort. Another part of me is relieved to leave this scene of devastation. I will continue to pray that the Lord in His mercy will warm and comfort the survivors—and use us as His tools in doing so. The words spoken by the Ishinomaki branch president in his interview are ringing in my ears. “I am thankful that the Lord has given me more time to repent [before I am called home to meet Him].” To me, this will be the most important lesson learned in Tohoku.

Conan and Cindy Grames
Directors, Public Affairs
Asia North Area
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
Tokyo, Japan

NOTE: The following comes from the Newsroom on the Church website, materials which we helped prepare. I was with Elder Jeffrey Holland for two days during his stay in Japan. The blessing he pronounce while here gives us all hope for the future of this country which we love.

During February, just before the earthquake, Elder Holland’s ministry had brought him to visit with members, leaders, and missionaries in Japan and Korea. At that time, he expressed his love for them, reassuring them that they are also loved by Heavenly Father and the Savior. Looking back at those meetings now, a statement he made during a blessing he pronounced on the nations of Japan and Korea, along with other island locations in the area, may bring comfort to those who have suffered so much in recent days.

“Father,” he said, “bless the people that they will be responsive to the Spirit, that they will feel a hunger in their heart to find the truth . . . I turn the key again, as keys have been turned before, to bring a new chapter, a higher achievement, greater success in this most important work in the world. Such success can only come from heaven. We can work hard to prepare the way and deserve success, but the blessings come only from our Father in Heaven. In that, we honor Him, give praise to Him, vow to be clean and worthy, and diligently labor before Him to see a new era of the gospel rise in this Land of the Rising Sun and neighboring nations.”