This is a series of emails from Elder Tripp’s mission president regarding the covid-19 pandemic and the evacuation of all missionaries from the Phillipines.
President Peterson’s letter to parents
March 15, 2020
Hello parents of Philippine Laoag Missionaries,
Thank you for your patience and faith as we move through this challenging worldwide issue of COVID-19. It seems every day we are receiving new mandates and orders from the government. Although there have been no reported cases of COVID-19 in our mission boundaries, the Government of Ilocos Norte has been one of the most aggressive of all the provinces in the Philippines. Today, they issued a community quarantine throughout the province (executive order no. 60-20) and we are still waiting to see exactly how it will be implemented. This will delay our transfers and probably change the way we are doing missionary work to some degree. Whatever the challenge we know this is the work of the Lord and that he will guide us through every obstacle or concern. We feel his hand constantly as we continue to seek his will in fervent prayer.
Rest assured that the safety and well being of your missionary son or daughter is of our utmost concern. Missionaries have now purchased an additional 2-week supply of food and water to supplement their 72 hour emergency kits. Missionaries are also continually reminded to follow these health guidelines established by the Area Presidency:
Washing hands thoroughly with soap often; - Use hand sanitizer frequently; - Sanitize and clean all surfaces in their apartment often; - Avoid touching their face, eyes, mouth or nose; - Cover their mouth when coughing or sneezing, followed by washing their hands; - Avoid sharing personal items such as towels, drinks, and other personal items; - Wear a mask if they have any flu-like symptoms, including sore throat, cough, fever or shortness of breath; and - Report symptoms to a nurse or the mission president’s companion immediately.
And also if you weren’t already aware:
The Church’s Newsroom has created a webpage where they are posting updates on how COVID-19 is impacting members and missionaries worldwide (https://newsroom.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/coronavirus-updates). We encourage you to regularly review that webpage.
Finally, the Area Presidency also issued the following good news about the sacrament: “You are authorized to grant permission to Elders to administer the sacrament for themselves and other missionaries. Please counsel with your missionaries to receive the sacrament where practical on a weekly basis. Please ensure that your Sister missionaries are not forgotten in this sacred ordinance.”
Thank you once again for sending us your wonderful sons and daughters. We love them so very much! They continue to amaze us with their diligence and dedication to the Lord and his work. They truly are the best of the best!
Our warmest regards,
President and Sister Peterson
Coming Home Information
Dear President,
We are underway in our efforts to return your foreign missionaries to their home countries. The planned departure of missionaries has been announced by the Church. Will you please communicate with the parents of these missionaries to inform them of what is being done.
We would like to have a degree of uniformity in the way we describe what is happening in the Philippines. We thought it may be helpful to have a suggested letter for your consideration and use.
Elder Schmutz
Elder Wakolo
Elder Bangerter
Dear Brother and Sister Tripp,
We have been following the situation related to the spread of COVID-19 in the Philippines very carefully. We have been monitoring the governmental actions being taken to fight the spread of the virus. We want to assure you that the First Presidency and the Twelve have the welfare of missionaries uppermost in their thoughts and prayers. We have received ongoing guidance from the Missionary Department and the Philippines Area Presidency.
Sister Peterson and I want you to know that your missionary is safe and protected. We love your missionary and are grateful to have the opportunity to preside over this mission.
Last evening, the President of the Philippines issued a presidential proclamation raising the level of alert throughout the Philippines and implementing a heightened level of community quarantine. This was done to limit social interaction and slow the spread of COVID-19. This “enhanced quarantine” will have the effect of prohibiting public transportation, limiting movement from place to place, and requiring people to remain in their homes, except to shop for food, medicine and necessary essentials. All community, social, work-related, and religious gatherings have been suspended. It has quickly become much more difficult for our missionaries to proselyte or even work with their investigators, as most missionaries are now restricted to their apartments.
The presidential proclamation encourages foreigners living in the Philippines to return to their home countries. It provides a 72 hour window for foreigners to travel freely to the international airports in the country and board a departing flight for their home country. At the end of that period, we are told that all outbound flights will be suspended until the situation stabilizes.
The Church has made a decision to return all foreign missionaries to their homes. We expect shortly to receive a flight itinerary for your missionary’s travel. As we receive more information we will provide it to you. As you might imagine, we are working against a closing window of time to move a great number of missionaries. It is possible that some will not be able to secure flights within the window of opportunity. If your missionary is not able to fly home, they will be returned to the mission field. In that case, please be assured that your missionary will be safe but may be limited to the apartment for some time, where there will be adequate food and water.
We want to assure you that all missionaries are safe. There has not been a single incident of a full-time missionary catching the COVID-19 virus. The Church is not reacting to fears about the virus as much as it is responding to the increasing limitations on the missionaries’ ability to proselyte and to the limited time the Philippines government has allowed for foreign citizens to leave the Philippines.
When your missionary returns home, he or she will almost certainly be required to self-quarantine for 14 days. Thereafter, we are told that the Missionary Department will communicate with you relative to the possibility of returning to complete your missionary’s mission in the Philippines or being reassigned, depending in large part on the time remaining in the missionary call.
Because of the speed of recent events, your missionary may not have been able to make contact with you. But we will encourage them to contact you as soon as they are able to.
We will keep you informed as we learn more details about flight arrangements and travel home.
With love and appreciation,
President and Sister Peterson
Getting foreign missionaries to Manila
Hello again wonderful parents!
We said goodbye to your beautiful children. How we love them! We have shed so many tears during this hurried and abrupt farewell. We realize that this is our final goodbye to many of these beloved missionaries. Missionaries who built the righteous and hard working culture that the Philippines Laoag Mission is now known for. We are excited they are going to see you now. We hope that we will see many of these great missionaries back again…
All the foreign missionaries from the Laoag Mission are now approaching Manila and it looks like the curfew will not stop them. The first group should arrive around midnight and the second group around 2 a.m..They will spend the night in the MTC so they will get some rest and good food before they head out. Our Americans and Canadians will be on a charter flight to the U.S. tomorrow our time, but I don’t know what they will do from there. I’m sure the missionary travel department will have it all figured out and hopefully they will inform you of the itinerary…Our other foreign missions are receiving their flights one by one and will fly out tomorrow as well.
This has been a tiring two days for all of us. Just trying to travel through this country during a crisis like this is so very difficult. Your sons and daughters have had great attitudes and have shown such remarkable Christlike attributes. You are going to welcome home some incredible Saints.
May the Lord bless you now and always. We love you through your amazing children!
President (and Sister) Peterson
Emergency evacuation #3
Hello again Philippines Laoag Missionary Parents,
I recently communicated with some of your missionaries in Manila. All the foreign missionaries from the Philippines Laoag Mission have arrived safely at the MTC in Manila! They slept there last night and have the MTC food to eat which are good things! They were assembled together as a group when I called this morning and Elder Childers and Elder Burton are leading them. They have seperated into companionships and are doing missionary things.
The polynesians are being sent directly home on commercial airlines as flights become available. The Americans are flying out on Sunday night on chartered airplanes from Delta. They will all fly to Salt Lake City and then on to their homes. It is my understanding that the intention is for all missionaries to complete their quarantine in their own homes with you (14 days?).
We have missionaries flying to Samoa and it seems they have additional requirements to enter the country and may be delayed. I am not sure how the church will address those travel arrangements but I will try to get updated information as it becomes available.
They gathered all the missionaries together at the MTC this morning and told them that anyone with under 20 days to serve will be released and all others will be either reassigned or receive a temporary assignment. I am not sure how all that will be determined and it will take the missionary department some time to figure out. Our hope and desire is to one day have as many of these great missionaries as possible back in our mission. We love them so very very much (almost as much as you do)…
Sister Peterson and I will now turn our focus to our 75 wonderful filipino missionaries. They are quite strong and capable. We know they will rise up to the challenge. We are excited for our opportunity to help strengthen them.
Thank you so much for your patience and faith. The Lord moves in mysterious ways his wonders to perform. I believe one day as we look back on this experience we will more clearly recognize and understand the Lord’s hand in guiding the gathering of his people both individually and collectively.
We love you all, President and Sister Peterson
Update from our Area Presidency
Hello parents of Philippines Laoag Missionaries,
Thank you so much for your patience during this difficult time for all of us… Since we sent your missionaries to the MTC in Manila we have had little if any updates on their specific flight plans. I know that the area office has been working around the clock and have overcome numerous obstacles. I can only assume that thousands of missionaries arriving all at once has caused great difficulty in communicating. The bits and pieces I have been able to find out I have emailed you already. I received flight plans for some of the New Zealand missionaries and forwarded them to you but from the sounds of it they did not arrive as scheduled.
Here is the email Mission Presidents just received from the Area Office who have been working non stop to secure travel for these stranded missionaries:
Dear Presidents,
We have had you in our prayers and we are sure that you have been praying for us. Thank you. We have certainly felt that prayers have been answered.
We have all witnessed many miracles this last week as the Lord has protected and directed the movement of his missionaries to Manila. We have certainly seen the Lord’s hand in causing what seemed to be insurmountable problems to vanish or be resolved in expected and amazing ways. We should all be keeping our journals and recording the miracles small and large that we have witnessed.
We are pleased to tell you that the ever shifting date for departure looks like it is now firm for Sunday afternoon. Delta airlines is providing six charter planes to carry more than 1,500 missionaries to Salt Lake City. The missionaries traveling on these planes are those who live in the United States or Canada. Barring any unforeseen problems, the planes will depart from the Manila International airport on Sunday afternoon, about 1 hour apart. The missionaries should arrive in Salt Lake City Sunday evening. For missionaries on these Delta charter jets who do not live in Salt Lake City area, the Missionary Department is scheduling additional flights to get them to their home airports.
We are also continuing to book flights for foreign missionaries living in other parts of the world. Some have already departed. Others will be flying out at different dates and times into next week. We have encountered problems flying missionaries who live in the Pacific Islands because of a lockdown at the airport in Sydney, Australia. For missionaries who are required to pass through Sydney on their way home, they will be delayed or prevented from returning home. Australian citizens will be permitted to enter back into Australia, but non-citizens will be denied entry. There are other destinations which are not accepting any flight arrivals, such as Sri Lanka. After the charter flights to Utah have departed, we will inventory the countries that will not accept returning flights and inform you of any of your missionaries who might be required to remain in field.
As your missionaries have arrived in Manila, we have kept many of them at the MTC. Others have been housed at hotels near the airport. Yet others have remained in apartments in the nearby missions of Antipolo, Quezon City, and Manila. Missionaries arrived from Legazpi today and are at a hotel near the airport. We will receive missionaries from Iloilo, Bacolod, Cebu, Cebu East, and Tacloban tomorrow evening. They will be arriving by charter flights operated by Philippines Air. Many miracles were required to obtain governmental approval for those flights from locked down airports.
We ask you to inform the parents of your missionaries of these details. We will try to keep you informed as additional missionaries depart for other international destinations as such information is known. Please thank the parents for the service of their children and for their patience in these trying times.
We love you Mission Presidents and companions and we appreciate so much the amazing work you have done to assist in this great gathering.
Please express our love to all the faithful Filipino elders and sisters who will so valiantly carry on the work of the Lord in each of your missions. We know that it will be a difficult transition as missionaries have lost companions and friends who have been required by the Church to return home. We know your hearts are breaking to have so abruptly lost beloved missionary sons and daughters. In many missions, the remaining Filipino missionaries are home bound and not able to proselyte at this time. We are praying for all of them.
As we monitor the conditions and spread of the virus, as well as changing government reaction to the coronavirus, we will work with you to adapt to circumstances in your mission. We have felt that our Filipino missionaries are safer in their missionary apartments, where there should be adequate food and water, than they might be at home. We trust that you will counsel with us if any parents of Filipino missionaries become concerned and request that their missionary returns home during this unusual time.
With love and appreciation,
Elder Schmutz
Elder Wakolo
Elder Bangerter
I will continue to seek for answers to your questions and relay the answers should I receive them. I am so sorry I cannot be more definitive as the information has not been made available to me…
Please accept my apology, especially the pacific island parents…
Love, President Peterson