April 16, 2013

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!