October 18, 2015 - Typhoon hits Angeles Philippines Mission

Typhoon Koppu (Lando) hit the island of Luzon this weekend, including the Angeles mission.  The typhoon is a Category 4 and moving slowly, so several days of heavy rain and high winds; widespread power outages,  roads/bridges washed away, mud slides, flooding, etc.  We don't expect to hear from Elder Ball tonight, but missionary parents have received emails from President Clark with status updates the last few days, including tonight saying all missionaries are safe and accounted for.

10/19/15
Parents Letter - Update on Typhoon Koppu (Lando)

We are pleased to inform you of the safety and well-being of the missionaries of the Angeles Mission this Monday morning, October 19, 2015. All missionaries are accounted for. All have endured well a soggy Sunday and are ready to begin our new work week. Your prayers on behalf of your missionary and our mission have been answered.

Our missionaries spent Sunday in their homes in safety and relative dry conditions.  Today the typhoon is still with us so we continue to have restrictions on missionary travel outside the immediate area around their homes.  Though we are on the back side of the storm, we continue to have strong (gale force) winds and intermittent rain. We have a great deal of high standing water, rivers are running very high and many streams are out of their banks.  It is not a time to put down our guard.   Much of the mission is without power, trees are down, homes have been damaged and other risks still exist.  We remain vigilant so limitations on missionary conduct will be in place.

We monitor the well-being of our missionaries and their homes every few hours by text/phone call. We have been generously blessed by continued phone service. We are secure in knowing that all missionaries have food and clean water. Some homes had water ingress yesterday so emergency relocation was necessary. This morning water has receded from most homes and things are going in the direction of “normal”.

Today is Preparation Day but it won’t be a regular letter writing day. Missionaries will be mostly in their homes working on post-typhoon clean-up. They will also be allowed to help people near them who have problems. Because of massive power outage, we will move our emailing to Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. You will get a letter, but a few days late. Thanks for your understanding.

We are grateful for your fervent prayers.  The Lord loves and watches over His missionaries (and their families).  It will be several days before we are free of the typhoon and its affects.  Please continue to pray for us.

President and Sister Clark