Week 63 - October 17, 2016 - Typhoon Karen

From: dale.kotter@ldschurch.org <dale.kotter@ldschurch.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 15, 2016 12:43 AM
To: Lauri Merrill
Subject: Typhoon Karen

15 October 2016

Dear Brother and Sister Merrill,

I am writing to inform you that we are currently being impacted by a moderate typhoon named Karen. The Church has been observing this storm for days and has made numerous preparations for its arrival. The main track of the storm is north of our mainland mission, but headed close to our Island of Catanduanes. We are experiencing high winds and heavy rains as the outer edges of this typhoon are currently being felt. I have asked for the missionaries to stay in their apartments—particularly in Catanduanes—and not be out during the worst of the storm. All our missionaries are in safe, secure locations and prepared for the impact of the storm.

We alerted all of our missionaries to purchase enough water and food to last them through next Tuesday. They have also been instructed to keep their cell phones charged. We have a calling tree in place for rapid communication across the mission. Each missionary also has cash to use, if needed, in an emergency.

If the storm compromises our electrical or Internet infrastructure, you may receive your email late next week form your missionary. Be assured, I will be constantly monitoring the situation, and my first concern will always be the safety of the missionaries. We love each of them!

Join us as we pray for any in the Philippines who may be impacted by this typhoon. We pray for their safety and protection. If there are any further developments that would impact our missionaries, I will let you know.

Sincerely,

President Dale Kotter

Philippines Legazpi Mission

From: Jordan Mark Merrill <merrill.j@myldsmail.net>
Sent: Sunday, October 16, 2016 10:24 PM
To: Lauri Merrill
Subject:

Yay I’ve survived the 2nd worst typhoon in my mission so far:) Nah it wasn’t even that bad, maybe it was? But we were safe and sound in our little apartment with no water or electricity for 3 days, all is well:) But the storms are weird, it’s such a nice day then you hear that a storm (Bagyo) is coming and then bam it just hits us! But maybe it was a good thing to get a little extra water cause lately the Mayon Volcano has been acting really grumpy cause of the lack of water it has. So saved by the rain I guess?! Other than that, I’d say my week has been a little better than last week. I’m finally getting used to the area, it’s simple but for me its weird cause it a city stretched out over the main highway that circles the Mayon so we take jeepnys every time to get places and I still haven’t gotten down the streets yet. But it’s a great area don’t get me wrong. The members are great and excited for the missionary work so that’s a plus! So a pretty cool thing that happened to me was I was able to go on exchanges with the Elders in Bacacay, my first area in the mission. Man was it great to be able to actually communicate with them in a decent amount of Tagalog compared to my first months here ha-ha. They all, no kidding, all, said I got skinnier so yes!! Not much has changed with the work there. Oh! During the typhoon a member that lives alone texted us asking us for a blessing and we were like uhhhh sure?! So we braved the storm and trekked our way to her house and visited. It was ok if we got drenched because we were just giving the blessing and going back home so we had a great time dancing during the storm:) I seem to have more fun than my comp who is a Filipino where almost every Filipino hates the rain ha-ha!   So I’d say I’m doing good all in all:) Time is flying by at a slow pace if that makes sense ha. Love you all and please remember to magsisi mga pasaway;)

**Elder Merrill**

Back in Bacacay