Church records to find a missionary.

I am trying to track down a missionary I knew. I have been told he is currently serving as a Bishop in the LDS Church. Would it be appropriate for a LDS Bishop in my area to search the records of the Church for the persons name? Would it be appropriate for the Bishop in my area to provide the contact information of this former missionary? Is there a list of Bishops that can be searched?

If he's a bishop, then the odds are that he's listed in the telephone white pages.

If he has a common name, then I don't know as anyone will be of much help since they won't have the information to know if he's the one that served on a particular mission at a particular time.

jsim wrote:Would it be appropriate for a LDS Bishop in my area to search the records of the Church for the persons name?

That is not possible. A bishop cannot search membership records outside his unit. Privacy laws prevent this. A similar topic was discussed several years ago in the Finding a church member thread.

You may be able to find him using the instructions here:
http://www.mission.net/en/main_memberlocator.html

Or as stated, you could simply try this site:
http://www.whitepages.com

If you know where the person lives, you could try the maps tool at www.lds.org. Just click at the top right of the page where it says Sign In/Tools. Select Maps. You can search an area and find church buildings. Click on church buildings and you'll see all the wards or branches that meet there. If you click on the ward or branch, you'll see the Bishop's last name and a phone number. This can be tedious, and if he lives in a place like Utah, near impossible, due to the number of units in a given area.

jsim wrote:I am trying to track down a missionary I knew. I have been told he is currently serving as a Bishop in the LDS Church. Would it be appropriate for a LDS Bishop in my area to search the records of the Church for the persons name? Would it be appropriate for the Bishop in my area to provide the contact information of this former missionary? Is there a list of Bishops that can be searched?

Contact info for bishoprics and stake presidency members across the church is accessible to other church leaders at cdol.lds.org. Your bishop or clerk may be able to locate him, if he is a bishop and especially if he has a less-common name or if you know the geographical area.

Best practice would probably be for your bishop or clerk to call him first, and give him your contact info, then leave it up to him to call you.

[Moderator edit: Personal information removed.]

Please don't post personal information here. This is a public forum.