Missionary Payments for a splitting Ward

Our ward is undergoing a split. One affected family has a missionary still serving for the next few months. I know when a family moves wards, the missionary payments still come out of the same ward. But if the ward splits, resulting in the family being in a different ward, where do the missionary payments come from?

To make it clear, say we are Currently the Ohio Ward. We will be splitting into The Ohio 1st Ward and the Ohio 2nd Ward. The Ohio 2nd Ward is technically the "new" ward, and is where the missionaries family wil possibly end up. Will the missionary stay with the original 1st ward or move to the 2nd ward.

Thank you for your help.

Lynch27 wrote:Our ward is undergoing a split. One affected family has a missionary still serving for the next few months. I know when a family moves wards, the missionary payments still come out of the same ward. But if the ward splits, resulting in the family being in a different ward, where do the missionary payments come from?

To make it clear, say we are Currently the Ohio Ward. We will be splitting into The Ohio 1st Ward and the Ohio 2nd Ward. The Ohio 2nd Ward is technically the "new" ward, and is where the missionaries family wil possibly end up. Will the missionary stay with the original 1st ward or move to the 2nd ward.

The wiki has information for handling missionary funds. In the article Ward Missionary Funds is an article, Transferring Missionary Funding to another ward, that provides information you may want to look at.

Lynch27 wrote:Our ward is undergoing a split. One affected family has a missionary still serving for the next few months. I know when a family moves wards, the missionary payments still come out of the same ward. But if the ward splits, resulting in the family being in a different ward, where do the missionary payments come from?

A ward split is no different from a family moving. The missionary payment responsibility remains with the original ward until the funding is explicitly transferred, using the process jdlessley linked to.

It seems to me that the ward which retains the "old" unit number will be responsible for the missionary's support. Maybe you'll get lucky and the family will stay in the ward with the old unit number. Then you won't have to do anything. Otherwise, follow the instructions in the link referenced earlier.

This seems like a hassle because you have to make a phone call to church headquarters during normal, weekday office hours but you usually only think about this problem on Sunday afternoons. However, if you already know what to say before you call then it can be a quick-and-simple call and then you're done.

GregAnderson wrote:This seems like a hassle because you have to make a phone call to church headquarters during normal, weekday office hours but you usually only think about this problem on Sunday afternoons. However, if you already know what to say before you call then it can be a quick-and-simple call and then you're done.

You can also do it via MLS message if you provide all the needed information as outlined in the wiki article. That way you can do it on Sunday when you think about it.

GregAnderson wrote: This seems like a hassle because you have to make a phone call to church headquarters during normal, weekday office hours but you usually only think about this problem on Sunday afternoons. However, if you already know what to say before you call then it can be a quick-and-simple call and then you're done.

From the article one of the options is to send an MLS message, which should be an easy thing to do Sunday afternoon.

Lynch27 wrote:One affected family has a missionary still serving for the next few months.

Since there's only a few months left, one option is to have the family continue to send the payments to the old ward. If the old ward will be in the same building as the new one, especially with overlapping hours, that could be a viable option.

The article said you had to call the Missionary Department to update the family's contact information in addition to contacting "Local Unit Support" (which is possible through email). So I wasn't about to suggest that you didn't have to do the phone call (although I have neglected that step in the past).

Perhaps the article should be clarified to include the situation addressed in this discussion. Do I need to call the Missionary Department when the only thing different about the "contact information" is that a ward boundary change has placed the family in a new ward?

Lynch27 wrote:Our ward is undergoing a split. . . .

To make it clear, say we are Currently the Ohio Ward. We will be splitting into The Ohio 1st Ward and the Ohio 2nd Ward. The Ohio 2nd Ward is technically the "new" ward, and is where the missionaries family wil possibly end up. Will the missionary stay with the original 1st ward or move to the 2nd ward.

In your example, the Ohio Ward will become the Ohio 1st Ward and keep the same unit number. The missionary payments will continue to come out of the Ohio 1st Ward.

If the family wishes to continue contributing to the ward missionary fund of that ward, you need do nothing. If the family wishes to make all their donations to the new Ohio 2nd Ward, the bishop of the 2nd Ward needs to call the Finance Department and let them know he is willing to accept financial responsibility for the missionary, and identify the month in which the 2nd Ward will begin to make the payments.

lajackson wrote:If the family wishes to continue contributing to the ward missionary fund of that ward, you need do nothing.

That refers to finances. If the family is now living in the 2nd Ward, you do need to call the Missionary Department and inform them of the ward change, letting them know that the other information (stake and home address) has not changed.

The Missionary Department will not know that the family lives in a new ward unless that call is made.

lajackson wrote:...the bishop of the 2nd Ward needs to call the Finance Department...

The bishop doesn't have to make the call; he can ask one of his clerks to do it. Bishops are busy enough -- they shouldn't have to deal with the busywork of making a call, unless they really want to. All the bishop has to do is approve the change (in conjunction with the bishop of the other ward). A clerk can make the call.

Alan_Brown wrote:The bishop doesn't have to make the call; he can ask one of his clerks to do it. Bishops are busy enough --

Quite correct. My old age is showing again. Things have changed since the time when the new paying bishop had to personally convince CHQ that he was willing to make the switch.

But, as Alan says, if the clerk calls, he needs to be prepared to state that the new bishop has approved the change.

RussellHltn wrote:Since there's only a few months left, one option is to have the family continue to send the payments to the old ward. If the old ward will be in the same building as the new one, especially with overlapping hours, that could be a viable option.

If it were me, I would make sure the missionary deductions transferred to the new ward with the move (unless the family wanted to "pre-pay" for the remainder of the mission). This way, if the family had an unexpected financial need - their appropriate new ward would cover the future expenses. But of course, in this situation, everything could be done retroactively.