Full-Time Missionaries

Is there a way to get MLS to recognize those who are out on full-time missions so their names don't pop up on reports, etc? It would be helpful if you could put them in a "FT Missionary" status so they don't show up on singles lists and temple recommend lists.

<sigh> The old MIS system allowed you to put "C" (current) for the "Full Time Mission" flag in the membership record. I don't know if MLS ever got that feature. I'm not near a MLS help file right now.

The records of full-time missionaries remain in their home wards, and so you are going to see them on lists. The important things to remember are that full-time missionaries should be:

1. Marked as full-tithe payers at tithing settlement.
2. Marked as attending priesthood.
3. Marked as being home-taught each month.

smithgw wrote:The important things to remember are that full-time missionaries should be:

1. Marked as full-tithe payers at tithing settlement.
2. Marked as attending priesthood.
3. Marked as being home-taught each month.

The old MIS system took care of that auto-magically. (At least #2 and 3)

What's the odds of a feature request to add it to MLS?

It does not now. I have been asking for that from MLS for a few years

Here's what I do in our ward.

In stead of them being "Head of House", if their family is in the ward then I put them in as part of that family, then they don't need a second home teaching designation, they get "taught" when thier family gets "taught" as for attendance, you or your Statistics clerk have to "add" their stats in to the the quarterly reports as attending meeting.

Maybe this will help

But do we count them in attendance when counting sacrament attendance? We went back and forth on this last year, and I never got a comfort level. We currently do NOT count them as present at Church, but I could justify it from either side.

xrxtech wrote:Here's what I do in our ward.

In stead of them being "Head of House", if their family is in the ward then I put them in as part of that family, then they don't need a second home teaching designation, they get "taught" when thier family gets "taught" as for attendance, you or your Statistics clerk have to "add" their stats in to the the quarterly reports as attending meeting.

Maybe this will help

Ditto for us.

We have gone back and forth about counting them in the attendance metrics (Sacrament & Priesthood) as it seems to skew the results.

geek wrote:But do we count them in attendance when counting sacrament attendance?

I believe the answer would be no, do not count them for sacrament meeting. Reason being: those missionaries are actually counted in whatever ward they are serving in as attendees. So, I would just stick with the other suggestions already mentioned.

geek wrote:But do we count them in attendance when counting sacrament attendance? We went back and forth on this last year, and I never got a comfort level. We currently do NOT count them as present at Church, but I could justify it from either side.

It is very clear that you do NOT count missionaries when counting sacrament meeting attendance (I speak here, of course, of those members of your ward serving elsewhere, not missionaries who are serving in your area and happen to be attending your sacrament meeting).

From the MLS Help File under Review Quarterly Report:

Calculate the average sacrament meeting attendance by adding the number attending all sacrament meetings during the last month of the quarter and dividing by the number of meetings held. Count all persons attending sacrament meeting, including members, nonmembers, visitors, missionaries, and babies. Do not count any member not in attendance, such as members away from your ward and (a) serving missions, (b) on other Church assignments, or (c) attending other wards.

geek wrote:But do we count them in attendance when counting sacrament attendance?

No. "The [sacrament meeting] attendance count is the number physically present in the meeting" (Church Handbook of Instructions 2006, book 1, page 143).

The instruction for counting attendance in other meetings is different because it includes exceptions (cf. Church Handbook of Instructions 1998, book 2, page 170, 207).

There are no exceptions for sacrament meeting; you are either physically present in the meeting or you are not.

You do not count missionaries serving from your ward as attending your sacrament meeting, any more than you count a high councilman from your ward who is speaking in another ward. There is a simple rule to follow:

If they are physically in your sacrament meeting, count them. If they are not, don't count them.

As others have said, for sacrament meeting, count only the number of bodies present at the meeting.

For other meetings, a full-time missionary is present, accounted for, a full-tithe payer, home taught (usually with his family), and otherwise active.

Full-time missionaries serving from your ward should be counted as attending priesthood, but not as attending sacrament. For sacrament meeting, you count only the persons who are physically there.

I can see on the Stake MLS (so I assume it is also on the Ward MLS), when you look at the Quarterly Report, there is a QUESTION MARK icon in the second field that will give you the SPECIFIC information needed for each line on the report. This is a nice feature when filling out the report so that a Clerk can clear the cobwebs each quarter when wondering how to count for Sacrament, or Priesthood, or...

opee wrote:I can see on the Stake MLS . . . there is a QUESTION MARK icon

I think that is new with MLS 2.8 and it is a very nice feature. Whenever it started, it was added to the ward MLS, as well.

Yes. It is on the ward version as well.

I found it to be a very great help. BTW it was added in 2.8.1 and makes it very clear how to get the counts.

geek wrote:But do we count them in attendance when counting sacrament attendance? We went back and forth on this last year, and I never got a comfort level. We currently do NOT count them as present at Church, but I could justify it from either side.

I would say do not count them for sacrament meeting attendance purposes. Only the individual who physically attends the Sacrament meeting is counted. That count is a simple headcount and is not connected to any member's name. Full time missionaries are counted for Sacrament meeting in the unit they are attending while in the field serving, This makes sense, as we count visitors, members or non members, they are just bodies for the purpose of the report.
However, PH attendance would be counted in the home ward, as they are not counted in the field, since the membership record is still in the home unit.
The same principle applies to those who are assigned out of the unit, ie. Stake callings, temple and mission presidents. They are not counted for Sacrament attendance of the home unit if they are not physically in the meeting. They will be counted in the unit where they attend. Again, they should be counted for PH purposes in their home unit.

daddy-o wrote:Ditto for us.

We have gone back and forth about counting them in the attendance metrics (Sacrament & Priesthood) as it seems to skew the results.

I believe this is the correct information:

smithgw wrote:The records of full-time missionaries remain in their home wards, and so you are going to see them on lists. The important things to remember are that full-time missionaries should be:

1. Marked as full-tithe payers at tithing settlement.
2. Marked as attending priesthood.
3. Marked as being home-taught each month.

Attendance at sacrament meeting is counted where you attend that meeting. Missionaries are counted in the ward/branch where they attend.

znauga