Monday (Patriot's Day in Boston) we started at 3:00am to go
watch the re-enactment of the "shot heard around the world". We then went back to a member's house and they
had breakfast ready for prolly 100 people or so. It was really good
breakfast!! I was impressed! From there we went to the temple and did some
work in the temple and it was really good like always.... so then we went
straight to downtown Boston to go watch the Marathon. We got split up because there were 7
missionaries and we had 2 cars so it was a group of 3 and a group of 4. I was
with Elder Dantas and Elder Spencer (I call him Elder Tim Tebow because he
looks so much like him it's unreal!!)
We drove to the Cambridge Stake center and
jumped on the train from there. We were asking people the best stop to get off to watch the Marathon. They told us the Copley stop was where the finish
line was, but we couldn't get off at that stop because of the race so we
went to the next stop and got off the train (pretty much right where the second
bomb blew up) and started walking. There were SOOOO many people it was
unreal!! It was insane trying to even
walk because there were so many people!!
We made it all the way up to the finish line right on the other side of
the street from where the first bomb went off - maybe 15 or 20 yards away!! We were sitting there watching and it was
actually really cool. I thought it was
going to be dumb to just watch a bunch of people running, but whenever someone stopped
and bent over because they were super tired or if they were walking because
they were tired everyone just started cheering and yelling and clapping and
screaming for them and was like "Come on! You can do it!!" It was really
cool!!
We were there and planning on
staying for a little while just because there were so many people and we didn't
wanna go back into the crowds, but Elder Tim Tebow had to go to the
bathroom!! He was like, "Guys I can't stay
any longer I gotta go!!" We were trying
to find a close bathroom for him so we could still watch the race and he could
go to the bathroom, but all the stores were closed because of the race. We went
about 3 streets over and finally found a place for him. We then talked about what to do next. We could go back and watch the race and find
something there to eat -- we could go to
the Prudential building and eat there or at another restaurant. We decided to go to "Al Capone's"
(a really good sandwich shop by the way) so we walked for about 15 mins or so and made it to Al
Capone's. After eating we went to some
stores because we were in the heart of downtown Boston.
While we were shopping we heard there was a
rumor of 2 bombs in Boston and we were like 'I don't really think so' but anyway we
went into another store and we were looking around and I was actually buying
something when over the store intercom they announced "Everyone stay calm!!! Please
exit the building in an orderly fashion!! This store will close and will not be
opening again!! Go home and stay home!!" So we were like freak this is
real!!
So we go outta the store and we see on a TV that there were
really bombs and we were freaking out because we were right there a few minutes
before. We called the other elders and
decided to meet up at a park. It was nuts because there were sirens and
police flying all over the place. We met
up with the other elders and they had a member with them that was visiting from
Salt Lake, Utah to run in the race. He
went to the ZLs church Sunday and then ran in the race Monday. He had
finished the race and was starting to go to the train to get back to the hotel
where his family was, but they had shut down the subways. He didn't know how he was going to get home
because his family couldn't drive into the city to pick him up so he was
stuck. He said he was sitting there and
said a prayer and then stood up and saw the 4 missionaries from our group right in
front of him. He was like they are my
angels!!
We met up with them and then
started walking back to the Cambridge Stake center. It's a long walk from Boston to Cambridge!! We had just started our walk and 2 ladies were
like "Oh thank goodness!!" They
were also members - one had run the race and the other was there supporting her.
Their car was prolly 30 miles
away!! So they walked with us to the Cambridge stake center too!! Well while we
were in the Commons park we started walking and the cops were like, "Don't come
this way...it's not safe" so we had to go a different direction. We made it back to the stake center and took
some pics with these people and some missionaries took them home and we took
some other missionaries home, then we went home.
We saw some of the news reports and though,t" Wow, we were right
there." It was really sad to see all
those that got hurt. Just glad we chose
to eat at Al Capone's instead of going back to the finish line.
We were blessed!
