Full time missionary attendance reports

As I read the handbook full time missionaries are not counted as attending the parent ward but are counted as attending the ward that they attend in the mission field. Years ago we counted missionaries as attending the parent ward even though they were not physically present. By not counting missionaries as attending their parent ward where they left it skews the attendance figures as they are counted as members of the parent ward yet not not attending the ward when they are in fact attending church somewhere. The same holds true for other things such as callings and home teaching. It seems to me that there should be some type of category for full time missionaries that does not penalize the home ward for non attendance when if fact they are attending another ward.

Can someone shed some light on this delema?

Thanks,

hadfieldgr wrote:As I read the handbook full time missionaries are not counted as attending the parent ward but are counted as attending the ward that they attend in the mission field. Years ago we counted missionaries as attending the parent ward even though they were not physically present. By not counting missionaries as attending their parent ward where they left it skews the attendance figures as they are counted as members of the parent ward yet not not attending the ward when they are in fact attending church somewhere. The same holds true for other things such as callings and home teaching. It seems to me that there should be some type of category for full time missionaries that does not penalize the home ward for non attendance when if fact they are attending another ward.

The instructions for the Quarterly Report are quite clear:

• For sacrament meeting, you count all people who are physically present, regardless of their membership. That will have the effect of skewing the numbers downward for full-time missionaries who are serving from the ward, and thus are not physically present; but it also has the effect of skewing the numbers upward for missionaries who are assigned to the ward, investigators they may bring, and of course any other visitors. As an overall average, it all evens out.
• For attendance in priesthood meetings and Relief Society, full-time missionaries are indeed counted as having attended (which is also true for members who are unable to attend because of other assignments related to their calling).