Convert Baptism & Confirmation Record Concern

When we receive new convert membership records sent to the Unit from the Mission Office the Ordinance information is always missing. Last, First & Middle name of person who preformed the Baptism & Conformation, the Date of Birth, Priesthood office, and Record number are also not showing up.

As Clerk I either have to hunt down the missing information or sometimes the missing information in MLS can be found on the yellow canary copy I get from the Missionaries. This has to be corrected before one can print out the important baptism and confirmation certificate for the new convert that the Bishop signs.

It makes new converts feel good when they get a Baptism & Confirmation Certificate.

I do not understand why the mission office cannot fill in the name of the person who did the baptism and confirmation along with the priesthood office of the person who preformed the ordinance.

From the beginning of MLS I have only seen Baptism and Confirmation dates appear on the new convert record which is created at the Mission Office. All of the other Ordinance information is always absent and missing.

Maybe the Mission Office is not able to enter the information because the fields are missing or there is a programming bug? I am planning a visit to the Mission Office to better understand the problem.

Anyone have any thoughts or other ideas about this topic?

One thought is that the Mission probably doesn't have direct access to Member information, so they would not be able to verify the person/s making the ordinance/s. At local level all this information is available. If the person carrying out said ordinance/s comes from another ward, his authority would be known to the presiding officer.

If I have the terminology wrong, someone on the forum will hopefully correct me!

daryl1 wrote:When we receive new convert membership records sent to the Unit from the Mission Office the Ordinance information is always missing. Last, First & Middle name of person who preformed the Baptism & Conformation, the Date of Birth, Priesthood office, and Record number are also not showing up.

Maybe the Mission Office is not able to enter the information because the fields are missing or there is a programming bug? I am planning a visit to the Mission Office to better understand the problem.

We require (as best we can without invalidating agency) that the recommend be completely filled in before the baptism, updated after the confirmation, and then that the missionaries provide a copy to the ward. This copy is used as a temporary membership record while the mission home processes the white copy through the Church to create the membership record.

When the new membership record is returned through MLS, we use our copy to make any corrections or additions that are needed to make the new membership record accurate and complete.

Thank you lajackson.

I have been doing the same thing as you have specified. I always have to make corrections also. Yes I get it. We live in an imperfect world and we are doing the best we can with what we have at this time. I understand that. I am not pointing fingers or placing blame with anyone.

I have no further comments until I go to the Mission Office and understand and see how they enter the temporary membership record.

Stay tuned.

Do you have any update from your Mission Office visit? We have been discussing this exact question in our stake. I was about to call our Mission Office, but would like to hear from others on this if you have more info.

Mission offices do not have ability to specify who performed the ordinances in Convert Data Entry (CDE), only the dates. The individuals who performed the ordinances will need to be specified on a local unit level (ward/branch), once the membership record is received.

(Note: CDE is the software program used by mission offices to create membership records for converts)

Yes. Our CDE doesn't have that field where you can fill-in who performed the baptism and his priesthood office. Does the church have any updates for CDE to resolve this issue?

2012383 wrote:Yes. Our CDE doesn't have that field where you can fill-in who performed the baptism and his priesthood office. Does the church have any updates for CDE to resolve this issue?

To my knowledge, the information isn't stored in CMIS. Which is to say that CDE has no where to send the information.

The data in question is only used for the certificate. Other then for Priesthood ordinations, the church doesn't record the "by whom". A long time ago, it used to be. But it was simplified out about the same time (and for the same reason) that magstripes on temple recommends was dropped. This was all well pre-MLS. But I don't think the baptism certificate was ever re-designed.

The "by whom" might be a nice to have but it serves no gospel purpose. So I think the odds of it being added back in are nil.

That's not to say there isn't room for improvement in how baptisms are handled.

This is one of the reasons it is so important for the ward to keep a copy of the Convert Baptism and Confirmation Record. It used to be the pink copy, but I think now it is usually a photo copy from the meetinghouse library. Either way, the ward needs it to correct/complete the record after it is created and returned.

What should the missionaries do if their investigator who is a candidate for baptism doesn't have a birth certificate or anything that could be use to know his/her birthday and age?