Missing Missionary from Online Donation Dropdown

We have two sons who will be serving missions this year. The first was set apart today, and the other will be set apart in about a month. About a month ago, we noticed that both of them appeared in the online donation dropdown. Today, we went to actually begin the donations for the one who will start next month, but his name no longer appears in the dropdown. Can anyone provide any help on what needs to be done to get his name back on the dropdown list. (I am the Assistant Clerk over Finance, and went to Leader and Clerk Resources and see that his name still appears in the Ward Missionary Fund section, which makes this issue all the more puzzling.)

I currently serve as assistant ward clerk over membership. By interesting coincidence, leadership of my ward noticed about a week ago that a missionary just starting full-time service was not in the ward's drop-down list. I had seen this missionary in the list a few weeks earlier. Last I had heard, our ward leaders had not yet contacted support or the GSD to ask about the situation.

I don't have an answer either but you're definitely not alone. My son showed up a month ago but doesn't now. He doesn't leave for another 2 months though. But he does have a sub-category. Maybe they are trying to hide names for missionaries that don't start in the immediate future.

eblood66 wrote: Sun May 15, 2022 8:59 pm But he does have a sub-category. Maybe they are trying to hide names for missionaries that don't start in the immediate future.

That's a possibility. I think the church discourages pre-payment. If something happens that the missionary isn't able to serve, or comes home early, it creates hard feelings as the donations are non-refundable.

I'm not sure what details the stake sees, but if there's too much money in the Ward Missionary account, they might want to the ward to share. The ward is then put into the position of justifying the balance as not being an excess.

Bottom line, paying more than a month in advance can lead to problems.

In rmrichesjr's case, the missionary already stated in home MTC on May 2nd and will be going to the Provo MTC this week. So there is a need to enable payment since the missionary is actively serving.

Do the missing missionaries already have a good balance in their accounts? Maybe the system hides missionaries who already have enough funding for more than a month ahead, to prevent it from getting too far ahead.

russellhltn wrote: Sun May 15, 2022 9:53 pm I'm not sure what details the stake sees, but if there's too much money in the Ward Missionary account, they might want to the ward to share. The ward is then put into the position of justifying the balance as not being an excess.

The stake has a full view of everything related to ward missionary accounts except who each donation is made by. But I know this isn't coming from the stake level because I'd be the one who would do that in our stake if it were possible . And in this case I know that our ward does not have an excess.

We have at least 3 other missionaries who haven't entered the field who do show up on the donation drop down but I'm not sure of exactly when they start their missions. But I'm pretty sure they don't all start within the next month. So it seems a bit haphazard if it's intentional.

eblood66 wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 1:54 pm So it seems a bit haphazard if it's intentional.

I find sbradshaw's theory interesting. It might explain things.

russellhltn wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 2:56 pm

eblood66 wrote: Mon May 16, 2022 1:54 pm So it seems a bit haphazard if it's intentional.

I find sbradshaw's theory interesting. It might explain things.

All of our missionaries who are in the field show up even though 2 of them have a substantial positive balance (>3 months). Of those with a call who have not entered the MTC yet, 3 show up and 3 do not. The 3 who do not show up got their calls before the last week of February and the other 3 got their calls at the very end of February or in April. I only know when 2 of them enter the MTC but one, who does not show up, enters in mid-July and the other, who does show up, enters in August.

So I don't think any theory so far fits with what I'm seeing.

At this point it sounds like "have the clerk call support" issue.

I contacted GSD and they said that missionaries are not supposed to show up on the donations drop down until after they have completed their first month and the ward has had their first charge. They weren't sure why some missionaries were showing up sooner but it was being looked into. They advised watching to make sure missionaries show up after their first month and to contact the GSD if they haven't by that time.

I ask whether this was recent change but didn't get a response to that part of my question (this was via email).

eblood66 wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 6:55 am I contacted GSD and ...

Thank you for posting the information. I have informed out bishop other affected ward leaders.

eblood66 wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 6:55 am I contacted GSD and they said that missionaries are not supposed to show up on the donations drop down until after they have completed their first month and the ward has had their first charge.

Wow. That seems kind of late. It also sounds like the last charge will be after the missionary arrives home. I'd think families get a bit reluctant to make a payment after they've returned.

Also makes it more difficult for the clerk to manage as (at least in my experience) most families pay that first month. Then the clerk will then have to remember to move the donation into the proper fund once it is created...

davesudweeks wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 10:04 pm Also makes it more difficult for the clerk to manage as (at least in my experience) most families pay that first month. Then the clerk will then have to remember to move the donation into the proper fund once it is created...

Agreed. I'm going to ask my clerks to pass along any cases of this happening and will send feedback about it if and when I have concrete instances.

russellhltn wrote: Wed May 25, 2022 9:17 pmWow. That seems kind of late. It also sounds like the last charge will be after the missionary arrives home. I'd think families get a bit reluctant to make a payment after they've returned.

There was an announcement that went to priesthood leaders a while ago that missionary support payments are now being billed in arrears. That means that the charge made to the ward mission account is made after the missionary has completed service and it almost certainly means that there will be a final charge for a partial month that is applied after the missionary has returned home. Our daughter completed her mission on the 30th day of a 31-day month and the ward mission fund was charged $387.10 at the end of the first week of the month after she returned.

If ward clerks aren't communicating this information to families who have committed to supporting missionaries, they will need to work with the families to account for payments that were made to and charges that were charged against the missionary support funds. The details are in LCR-Finance so they will be able to reconcile everything. On the plus side, after going through that with one or two families, the clerk will get better at communicating that in advance.

There was an announcement that went to priesthood leaders a while ago...

Hmmm, I'm not seeing anything either emailed directly to me or in the Official Communications I have access to. Are there Forum members who received or can point me to this communication? I'm not certain if it just went to clerks, or should have gone also to Bishops, etc. I'd like to get my hands on this for reference (and yes, I'm somebody who should have access to this update about missionary payment info). If something like this just goes to clerks with the expectation they'll tell their Bishop, I'm not sure about that.

I suspect that the notice is the one referenced in this post: https://tech.churchofjesuschrist.org/fo ... 36#p211036

Personally that letter does not come up for me. If it's a rights issue, that seems strange since a notice about missionary finances seems very relevant to a stake finance clerk. In any case, I can't see who it was addressed to.

And that post references a previous thread: Change to missionary payment withdrawal date. It seems this has been in place since May 2020? It also seems like it would be helpful to have either the original letter, or a Help Doc, that we all could reference since it appears many of us still are trying to work under the old paradigm...

Perhaps somebody can find that and point us to it...

eblood66 wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 12:44 pm Personally that letter does not come up for me. If it's a rights issue, that seems strange since a notice about missionary finances seems very relevant to a stake finance clerk.

Just out of curiosity: If you go into the Official Communication Library, and click on "Presiding Bishopric", do you see any communication?

BrianEdwards wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 1:43 pmIt also seems like it would be helpful to have either the original letter, or a Help Doc, that we all could reference since it appears many of us still are trying to work under the old paradigm...

The help doc exists but the information is kind of buried. See Missionary Finances in the Help Center. Under General Guidelines there is a 5 point numbered list toward the end of the section. Point number 4 describes how wards are charged now.

russellhltn wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 2:00 pm Just out of curiosity: If you go into the Official Communication Library, and click on "Presiding Bishopric", do you see any communication?

No, I don't have anything listed there and haven't for a while. But at one point I did (but that might have been when I was ward finance clerk instead of stake finance clerk).

eblood66 wrote: Thu May 26, 2022 3:41 pm No, I don't have anything listed there and haven't for a while. But at one point I did (but that might have been when I was ward finance clerk instead of stake finance clerk).

That's likely why you can't see it. I'm guessing it came from the office of the Presiding Bishop - but all of those are hidden from you.

As as STS, I'm in the same position. I can't see the letters regarding Zoom. I've complained a couple of times with no results.

As a ward clerk I don't see anything from the presiding bishop either.

Not sure about Bishops, but Branch Presidents also cannot see anything in that tab.

@eblood66, thanks for finding and sharing that reference. I read it all the way through, it's always helpful for me to review things to see what I've forgotten, or maybe hadn't known about yet.

The Missionary Finances link is wonderful. Thank you, eblood66, for pointing out that resource.

And as another interesting data point, I have never seen anything at the OCL under the Presiding Bishopric tab.

I have a sister missionary that has been out a year next month and son who just started this past month. I was able to pay for my daughter using drop down at the beganning of October, but two weeks later and the drop down feature wasn't available for either of them. I see others on this chat with the same problem, but didn't notice if there was an answer.

carolynpantlitz wrote: Mon Nov 07, 2022 11:20 am I have a sister missionary that has been out a year next month and son who just started this past month. I was able to pay for my daughter using drop down at the beganning of October, but two weeks later and the drop down feature wasn't available for either of them. I see others on this chat with the same problem, but didn't notice if there was an answer.

New missionaries should not show up in the drop down until they have been in a physical MTC and/or in the field for about a month. But your daughter should continue to show up until her mission is complete and the account has been brought to zero. Let your ward clerk (or finance clerk) know about your daughter. They can contact the global service department to look into it.

Quick question.
I am a Ward Clerk
A family just moved in last month, the records are now and have been for a couple of weeks in our Ward, they have a Son who's serving the mission and has been for over a year.
They want to make the donation but I can't find him in the dropdown of missionaries.
I checked and his record shows he is in the Ward and in his calling I can see "Missionary".

Does someone knows if I should do something given that it's the first time his family is making the donation in this new ward? (Like adding him somewhere?) Or should I just wait until he shows?

Regards,

martincabrera33 wrote: Sun Nov 13, 2022 10:29 am A family just moved in last month, the records are now and have been for a couple of weeks in our Ward, they have a Son who's serving the mission and has been for over a year.
They want to make the donation but I can't find him in the dropdown of missionaries.

Please see Missionary Finances down at the bottom, under Change in the Missionary’s Home Ward.

Short version, the missionary responsibility doesn't automatically change when the parents change wards. There's a procedure you have to follow.