Missionary Email Problems

We've long suspected that our missionary has not been getting all of his email so we tracked it this week. He should have received 17 emails, but only received 8. None of those messages had pictures and many were only one sentence comments. It was completely random. If you were to put all of the emails in order of sent times/dates, he'd get one or two and then miss one or two. We've double and triple checked to make sure his email address was correct in every one (it was). Most emails were sent via gmail addresses. Several were sent from BYU (those were proportionately most likely to be lost, but many gmail messages were never received also).

We're concerned that so many messages are being lost, especially because he is really struggling right now and could use the support.

Do you guys have anything to do with this? Any suggestions?

Has checked his spam folder?

When you say you're sending via GMail, just how are you sending it? Via a GMail web page or a email client?

They are not going into the SPAM folder - we checked.

I'm logging onto a web-based gmail account to send email. My husband was sending email via the BYU system, but switched to his web-based gmail account (but still sending through BYU servers) once we figured out that the emails from BYU were most likely to be lost (or slow - see below).

We are also trying to determine if the emails are actually lost forever or just so significantly delayed that he doesn't see them until the following week (which would also be a problem).

wendyhickman wrote:We've long suspected that our missionary has not been getting all of his email so we tracked it this week. He should have received 17 emails, but only received 8. . . .

We're concerned that so many messages are being lost, especially because he is really struggling right now and could use the support.

Do you guys have anything to do with this? Any suggestions?

No one here at the Forum has anything to do with this. But I may certainly comment and suggest.

First, since a missionary only checks email for a short time on preparation day each week (30-60 minutes, depending on the mission), it would be surprising for him to receive 17 emails from his family, unless you have an extraordinarily large family. Nevertheless, I am not aware of any restriction placed on the email system by the Church that would keep them from getting through. And if this is a situation where some weeks he does not receive any email at all from home, the situation is not normal.

I would suggest that you counsel with your bishop, who may ask your ward clerk or the stake clerk to look into the matter. You may also wish to email his mission president and let him know of the problem. Either of the clerks will be able to provide you the mission president's email address.

Your son's mission president is very interested in the well-being of your missionary. Although he will not want anything to detract from the work your son is doing in the mission field, if he is not receiving email from home each week, I expect he will be more than happy to look into the situation. And he certainly needs to know that your son is struggling and you are having trouble getting communication through to him.

From the home front, your clerk will be able to contact the Missionary Department to see if there is a problem with the email system at present. I suspect that if there is a general problem, others would have mentioned it.

If he is not getting email some weeks, you might even wish to write a personal letter the old fashioned way and mail it to him. That worked for the last 100 years or so.

Every missionary needs to hear from his mother every week, and every mission mother needs to hear from her missionary every week. Although there is no one at the Forum who has any effect on the missionary email system, I hope some of these suggestions will help you get started in resolving the problem.

Here is where we stand at this point (we're still tracking several missing emails - I'll update if there is additional information).

1 - We received his email around 6 to 10 minutes after he sent it.
2 - Out of 18 emails sent to him, 8 were received within 8 to 10 minutes (similar to his send-time).
3 - 4 additional emails were delivered to his account with a 1-hour delay.
4 - 2 additional emails were delivered to his account with a 2-hour delay.
5 - 4 emails have still never been received.

The significantly delayed and missing emails are completely random in order and from sender as mentioned above.

lajackson wrote: No one here at the Forum has anything to do with this. But I may certainly comment and suggest.

First, since a missionary only checks email for a short time on preparation day each week (30-60 minutes, depending on the mission), it would be surprising for him to receive 17 emails from his family, unless you have an extraordinarily large family. Nevertheless, I am not aware of any restriction placed on the email system by the Church that would keep them from getting through. And if this is a situation where some weeks he does not receive any email at all from home, the situation is not normal.

I would suggest that you counsel with your bishop, who may ask your ward clerk or the stake clerk to look into the matter. You may also wish to email his mission president and let him know of the problem. Either of the clerks will be able to provide you the mission president's email address.

Your son's mission president is very interested in the well-being of your missionary. Although he will not want anything to detract from the work your son is doing in the mission field, if he is not receiving email from home each week, I expect he will be more than happy to look into the situation. And he certainly needs to know that your son is struggling and you are having trouble getting communication through to him.

From the home front, your clerk will be able to contact the Missionary Department to see if there is a problem with the email system at present. I suspect that if there is a general problem, others would have mentioned it.

If he is not getting email some weeks, you might even wish to write a personal letter the old fashioned way and mail it to him. That worked for the last 100 years or so.

Every missionary needs to hear from his mother every week, and every mission mother needs to hear from her missionary every week. Although there is no one at the Forum who has any effect on the missionary email system, I hope some of these suggestions will help you get started in resolving the problem.

We are able to email "chat" with our son when he emails on p-day. This is allowed by his mission president (I know that it is not allowed by some). This is why there is a larger number of sent messages in a small amount of time.

We also send him snail-mail letters once a week, so he is getting some communication. But the email chats are a wonderful chance to reassure him. Our son has communicated with his mission president that his is struggling. So, the problem isn't a lack of communication generally, but frustration with the email system in particular.

lajackson wrote:Although there is no one at the Forum who has any effect on the missionary email system, I hope some of these suggestions will help you get started in resolving the problem.

If you guys don't deal with the email system, who can I contact to see if there is a way to resolve this problem?

wendyhickman wrote:We are able to email "chat" with our son when he emails on p-day. This is allowed by his mission president (I know that it is not allowed by some). This is why there is a large number of sent messages in a small amount of time.

Ah, very good. It is hard to "chat" when even the fast emails are taking that long to get through.

I am not sure there is a solution. So much depends on the routing of the specific email. I wonder if it might be a country specific problem once the message leaves the servers here. Even though the message is gmail to gmail, it still has to travel over the Internet to get to his location.

When a message does not get through the first time, it is not immediately resent. If you get a return note that a message is delayed (which often comes quickly), you might just want to resend it again, even though the message will tell you you do not need to send it again, and the original may eventually get there (with a 1 or 2 hour delay).

And, alas, some emails never do make it to their destination. Email is not always as instant as we have come to think.

wendyhickman wrote:If you guys don't deal with the email system, who can I contact to see if there is a way to resolve this problem?

Last I heard, the missionary email system was a version of GMail. All I can suggest is working though the Mission President and Missionary Department.

But one thing you might want to look at first: There's been a recent crack-down across the Internet on emails that are being delivered by servers other then the one the email claims to be "from".

For example, if you send a email from a GMail account using Outlook (or other email client), and it's delivered via the BYU SMTP servers instead of going though GMail, it may be discarded because it's going though the wrong server.

For the time being, I'd stick to using the GMail webpage for all sending. It cuts down the number of servers involved. See if that improves things.

Thanks. I'll have to be patient. Somehow, I think this is an LDS server issue (filter bottleneck, perhaps) because we don't have problems in any other situation (email chatting between me and my husband, for example). We didn't have any problems either when our son's p-day was on Tuesday (and he was in the Mexico MTC). The problems started when he his p-day switched to Mondays (which is also when every other missionary in the world is trying to use the same email system at the same time). I'm also hearing many other parents that are having the same frustration.

He is serving in the United States, just two states away.

By the way, of those four still-undelivered emails, two have gone through now. Both had three-hour delays. There are still two that are undelivered.

The last two emails finally came through. Those two had around a 4-hour delay.

So in the end, the emails aren't getting lost, they are just getting significantly delayed through the system. That's still something likely worth fixing and adjusting. It would make a huge difference for us.

For some time now, we have figured there is weird/unexplained delays in the email system with our missionary, and my wife's "rule of thumb" has been to allow 4 hours for our emails to our missionary in the field. I'm sure she has heard this from somebody else....

I don't speak for anyone at the church, but as a parent of a missionary, I think you will not be able to solve this issue for several reasons.

• 1) The church LDS mail system delivers emails to missionaries, but does not make "email chatting" between family and missionaries a priority, especially since it is actually prohibited in some missions, like the one our missionary is in. Your mission policies may differ... but speed and capacity cost money, and if it isn't a priority...
  2) We know that different computers and browsers deliver emails at different times, because both myself and my wife await our weekly email, Carbon copied to both of our different emails on different devices. We never get it at the same time. So the computer your missionary uses, and the computer you use could actually be the cause of your delays. For example, my Gmail checks for emails from my account once per hour, unless I go into the settings and tell it to check "now" or am using features in gmail that require it to refresh. Sometimes my laptop shows the email hasn't come, and my wife will say she read it 20 minutes ago! If your computer does this AND your sons mission filed computer is doing this, it may account for some of those delays and late deliveries

When I was on my mission, letters took 1-2 weeks to arrive. Isn't it wonderful that we can now have the discussion where a 1 hour delay is considered a problem?

I'm very grateful for technology that allows us to be more in touch with our missionaries!

We had similar problems with our son receiving our emails today. [You need to know that I am extremely grateful that we have such fabulous technology that allows us to email now. I wrote to my husband 20 years ago with more than a three-week delay in receiving letters. That was excruciating - this is just a mild frustration comparably.]

Just to let you know that this is a wide-spread problem, here is an assortment of comments from parents (all different, posted today). Most of these parents are just trying to get a single email through:

Trouble with the server again. I've sent my email 4 times so far and he still hasn't gotten it.

Slow for me this morning as well!

I wish they could fix it.

It's not my server it's LDS.net

I had the same problem last week. Someone suggested going into his email and emailing him from his own email so he can see it in his sent file.

I sent a couple short emails via gmail 90 minutes ago that still haven't hit his Inbox. Text to email works better on Mondays.

My husband is an electrical engineer and computer engineer and he said it's luck of the draw if certain emails go through, it could be gmail, hotmail, etc... but that it is definitely THEIR server.

He still hasn't gotten it.

Moms, you have to call and tell them, I complained and they said I was like one of the only ones. They need to know.

So glad to hear, I thought he just wasn't writing.....how do I call??

And some from previous Mondays:

A friend of mine said her missionary"s emails weren't going through, and I came home and found out mine had not gone through. Is anyone else having this problem?

I've received messages that the server was too busy, or that the email just didn't go through. Once when that happened I resent about 5 different emails ... LOL ... my daughter got them ALL eventually, even the originals.

My email didn't get to him. It' is the same email I have been using. I sent three emails. One letter and two with pics. He got the two with pics, but not the letter. I got an error message saying it didn't go through.

But today, when I checked for his email I just had an error message saying the email didn't go through. I resent it though and he finally did get it. I just wondered if the "myldsmail.net" was having issues since my friend had the same problem.

My sister had this problem. Her missionary did not get her letter last week in Romania

Last week my Son in AZ didn't get the first email I sent him until later that day...it was weird.

Well, he got my email, but I haven't been getting his. It's been few weeks. I was starting to get really annoyed with him. He emailed the last one he wrote me, to his dad and he sent it to me. It's really weird.

I resent my email to my daughter just in time for her to get it. She confirmed that the original email did not go through, and was very grateful to receive the second one. It was a tough week for her and the email was a bright spot with a funny story that made her laugh.

I reply to every email sent but he sometimes doesn't get it until he opens his mail the following week. I'm sure with the amount of missionaries and emails it's probably experiencing an influx if emails. My question for you MM is has anyone else had this problem and is there anything I can do about it?

I have the same problem with my daughter every week.

I posted about this on Monday because I have the same problem for several weeks! I do think it is because of myldsmail because we have used several different accounts during the same session to email him with bad luck.

Ours had been great until the past few weeks...it's SO frustrating.

This past week was the 3rd time in the 13 months he has been out that we have had issues with delayed emails.... and that was with gmail.

When we were having our problems ( we had one in DC and one in Hawaii) My "computer nerd" husband traced some of the emails...we found that kinda on a rotation....when it OVERLOADS is our thoughts...some goes to SLC and was kinda stored for a few hours then we received the rest of our emails.

I've been having this same problem for months. The only way my son gets the emails I send is if I reply to one he had sent to me. If I start a new email and send it, even 3 days early, he didn't get the email.

Been having the same issue for three weeks. So frustrating!!!

I just had that problem! I sent it 3 times before she received it in Mexico. She too thought I didn't email her.

So it did get sent yesterday but to late for him to see it, so it will be Monday before he gets it. It makes me so sad. The first time he has not got an email from me.

I think something must have been wrong with the mylds server yesterday. My son did not get his email yesterday either and I saw another post from a momma about the same issue. Hopefully they get it fixed by next week

I'm so sad and freaking out a little. Our missionary didn't get our emails. I sent mine 5 more times and my husband sent his twice and they are not in his myldsmail account. He sent us an email saying "Am I going to hear from ya'll today?" (Texas accent:) I think something is wrong with the server? Anyone else have a problem today?

I had that problem once with my emails to my daughter. I actually got messages saying they hadn't gone through at all ... so I resent. She got a bunch of messages. LOL. Finally the original ones showed up the next week, if I remember correctly. There was an issue with the ldsmail servers.

etc., etc., etc.

wendyhickman wrote:We had similar problems with our son receiving our emails today.

I know this doesn't help with your specific situation, and you have quoted someone who said an email took three days to arrive. Nevertheless, I never had a problem emailing our missionary.

He wrote on preparation day, usually Monday. His email was always in my inbox when I got home from work. I wrote on Saturday or Sunday, knowing he would get my email when he looked on preparation day. My email was always in his inbox on Monday, even when they checked early because of a schedule change or other mission activity.

I agree that part of the problem seems to be the Church server. Another part of the problem is that everyone is trying to communicate on Monday. I would guess that the email that took three days to arrive was sent on Monday at the peak of the email load. But, as I mentioned, our emails always got through to our missionary when we sent them a day or two early, and emails from our missionary always got through to us the same day.

We never tried to "converse", of course, and probably would have run into the same busy signals if we had.

We have personally modified our email-writing patterns to make sure our missionary hears from us. We, too, send our emails by Sunday evening at the very latest. After hearing all of the stories of delays, we figured that no matter what else worked (or didn't work) on Monday, by emailing way in advance of him accessing his email, our missionary son would have at least an email from both of his parents. At this point, there is no "chatting" happening anymore. We just hope we will eventually get all of his emails and that he will get ours.

wendyhickman wrote:We have personally modified our email-writing patterns to make sure our missionary hears from us.

I think this is a good solution until things change.

What we do:
I send an update email, one per week, which I keep short. My spouse sends one or two as well. I then send an additional QUESTIONS email, labeled as such, with all those questions parents need to ask, like "what do you mean your tooth still hurts? What have you done about it?" and "how much money do you need in your account for 'bike repair'?" I tell them they must hit reply and then give a short-answer reply to every question. Sometimes the questions are "tell me three things you like about your companion" or "tell me about a funny language mix-up."

Until I separated out the emails into UPDATES and QUESTIONS, e-mails were frustrating, and emailed questions would go unanswered. Now, we've added a "throw-back;" using actual letters for non-time sensitive updates, and send them via the post office or "pouch." We've found they just don't have the time to read long emails and respond. To our surprise, we've started getting letters back, and they have been "packed" with additional information, and sometimes just plain fun to read as they've added drawings and we see their personality shining through...you just have to live with a month delay for your letter response!

Update: We still experience delays at times, but things are a lot more consistent. One thing that made a difference with emails going to our missionary was to delete all attached threads that might appear below the new message. If I do that every time, my message is more likely to arrive with only a three or four minute delay on average. Every once in a while, nothing gets through. We always make sure to send our emails on Sunday to ensure that email to our missionary has plenty of time to arrive before he accesses it on Monday.

Both myself and my wife have been logged on "waiting" for our missionaries email (because he seems to do it at about the same time P-day)- me on my laptop logged onto my gmail account, and my wife on her IPAD using the IPAD's email function (not the gmail app.) Both connected wirelessly to our household router. He never chats, but sends his one "big" email CC'd to both of us, on our separate gmail accounts. So, the emails leave the "starting line" at the same time for us both.... do we get them at the exact same time?

We NEVER get them at the same time...one or the other is delayed by several minutes, sometimes as little as a few, or as much as ten or twenty minutes! I just can't account for the delay factor, as it is never consistent. They must travel via different channels once sent from the church's email system to our separate devices, and encounter different "traffic jams" on the way.. I imagine the email "handoff's" between systems just like at a track meet as runners hand off a baton- Sometimes they are smooth and quick, and sometimes not so smooth or quick, with an occasional drop.

However, we have never actually not recieved any of them...

Hi there im from Philippines theres a little problem about my account please help me.
i received my mission call and ill report to mtc in september 16. everytime i go to the missionary portal its the default page and the tab says non-missionary... different from my friends account who also have his mission call. i cant send my pin cause i dont know how to fix it. the manual says i should enter my missionary pin there but the site is still a non-missionary site for me please help... carl.ferrer@myldsmail.net is my e-mailing address my account username in lds.org is ferrer.carl please help!!!!!!!!!!!

Elder Ferrer - the best way to receive help is to go to the Help menu of Missionary Portal, and click "Report a Problem". This will get your issue to the correct support group.

I have both of my missionary email accounts on my phone so that I can go in and clean it up and set up their group emails for each week, my daughter is in Peru with very limited email time 1hour and poor internet at that - this has just helped to use her time writing her emails. This week it stopped letting me go in and says that this account is disabled and on the lds page it says unidentified. Need help fixing this. My sons account is still working fine and he is in Portugal Thanks
Maureen

My son has tried to send several videos via email. My wife and I have been unable to see any of them. We get an LDS.org log in challenge every time we click on the video. When we log in, it says, "I'm sorry, you are not a Full or Part time Missionary." Can you help me fix this problem?
signed,
Desperate...

Please I can't open my missionary email because the biometric authenticator refuse to open .I need help to open it Please

Adzrado wrote: Fri Nov 18, 2022 9:57 am Please I can't open my missionary email because the biometric authenticator refuse to open .I need help to open it Please

The forum is primarily user-to-user help. Unless someone else has run into this situation, we're unlikely to be able to help. I'd suggest you contact your mission for information about how to contact your tech support.

Hi, I am not sure how to access my church email. Thanks Sis Gerstner

gerstnercheryl5 wrote: Sun Nov 12, 2023 6:10 pm Hi, I am not sure how to access my church email. Thanks Sis Gerstner

As suggested in the post immediately before yours, if you're a current full-time missionary, contacting your mission office is probably the approach that will give you the quickest answer/solution. If you're not a current full-time missionary, a little more detail to your question would likely be helpful.