Tech Forum

Not a very technical topic, but does anyone know how I can calculate my missionary son's coming-home date? Need to know to plan school, travel, etc. Do they arrive and depart from the mission field on a standard time? I heard that there is a link with the transfer schedule, but don't know where I can find out. I hesitate to ask his mission office for fear he will be branded as trunky or fixated on going home, when he has over a year to go.

pburt wrote:Not a very technical topic, but does anyone know how I can calculate my missionary son's coming-home date? Need to know to plan school, travel, etc. Do they arrive and depart from the mission field on a standard time? I heard that there is a link with the transfer schedule, but don't know where I can find out. I hesitate to ask his mission office for fear he will be branded as trunky or fixated on going home, when he has over a year to go.

You can't reliably calculate a return date. There are too many variables that vary from mission to mission.

But I wouldn't hesitate to contact the mission office. It's entirely reasonable to make plans for school and travel. We recently had an exchange on this very topic with the mission office of my daughter's mission, and she had 10 months to go at that point. They were very kind and helpful. They were very understanding with our desire to determine what semester she would be able to start school (for her, 18 months ended right near a semester break).

pburt wrote:Not a very technical topic, but does anyone know how I can calculate my missionary son's coming-home date? Need to know to plan school, travel, etc. Do they arrive and depart from the mission field on a standard time? I heard that there is a link with the transfer schedule, but don't know where I can find out. I hesitate to ask his mission office for fear he will be branded as trunky or fixated on going home, when he has over a year to go.

Mission transfers normally happen each six weeks, and there often will be clues in the e-mails or letters that will allow you to figure out when a transfer takes place (new companions, etc.). From that, you can run some six-week increments on a calendar and figure out a likely release week. (Actually, you can calculate it from the week he flew from the MTC to the mission, if you really want to.)

As Alan said though, things can change, but this has worked fairly well for us.

Mission presidents are aware of the affect a release date has on schooling. Our most recent to serve son was due to finish in late September. His president asked him if he would be ok going home one transfer (six-weeks) earlier so he could get in a full semester at school. They agreed.

The mission president initiated this conversation about six months before the end of his mission. After the decision was made, we worked out school housing, registration, and other things for him. He served diligently until the end. The mission office sent us his exact flight schedule when he had about three months to go.

He came home in late August, was with us for five days (including a Sunday to speak in Church and a Wednesday evening to report to the high council), and flew off to the Fall semester the day before it started.

The mission presidents of all our missionaries have done it about this same way, at about the same point in time of service in the mission.

Thank you both, belatedly. I will gird up my loins and contact the mission office.

One odd situation we ran into when the mission president arranged to let our son (and others in his group) return early in order to avoid missing a semester of school.

When we called BYU to confirm his acceptance and start the class registration process, they said he was ineligbile because the time frame did not match his normal mission release date.

It appears that BYU has some information about start and end dates for those serving missions that have been accepted at BYU but not the actual release date as determined by the mission president.

RWoodmansee wrote:One odd situation we ran into when the mission president arranged to let our son (and others in his group) return early in order to avoid missing a semester of school.

When we called BYU to confirm his acceptance and start the class registration process, they said he was ineligbile because the time frame did not match his normal mission release date.

It appears that BYU has some information about start and end dates for those serving missions that have been accepted at BYU but not the actual release date as determined by the mission president.

I would guess that the Church discourages sending missionaries home early so they don't miss a semester of school. Of course, mission presidents are taught this, but they can still 'govern themselves'. I recall a missionary that wanted to go home a few weeks early so he could attend BYU football camp - he had been on the team before his mission. The mission president called Coach Mendenhall, who said something like "I don't want football to be the reason a young man misses one day of missionary work!"

bcpalmer60 wrote:The mission president called Coach Mendenhall, who said something like "I don't want football to be the reason a young man misses one day of missionary work!"

I'm happy to hear stories like that.
When my sister was at BYU she knew a guy on the basketball team preparing for his mission, and his coach came just short of discouraging him from going.

Our son left January 23, 2019, so we thought he would miss the winter BYU of 2021, but he is telling us his missionary visa expires January 5. School starts January 4. It looks like transfers is the 7, but do they ship out the returning missionaries a day or two before transfer day or that day or the next day? I'd be great if we could spend more than 24 hours with him after two years away. Just trying to plan for housing, scholarships, registration etc.

julietteq wrote:Our son left January 23, 2019, so we thought he would miss the winter BYU of 2021, but he is telling us his missionary visa expires January 5. School starts January 4. It looks like transfers is the 7, but do they ship out the returning missionaries a day or two before transfer day or that day or the next day? I'd be great if we could spend more than 24 hours with him after two years away. Just trying to plan for housing, scholarships, registration etc.

Our mission shipped missionaries home the day after transfer day -- transfers were on Tuesday and missionaries went home on Wednesday. Our son said he thinks his mission sent them home the day before transfers. Our daughter's mission sends them home the day after. How is that for not being helpful?

Our son was scheduled to come home two weeks after school started. The mission president and area president decided to send several missionaries home a few weeks early so that they wouldn't miss the start of the semester and have to sit around an entire semester with nothing to do. That discussion started about three months before his group came home, so that's probably not the case for your son.

I had a niece who came home a few days after the beginning of the semester. She had her sister take care of registration and then her sister talked to each of the professors and explained the situation. They were pretty flexible about letting her show up a week late and get caught up.

Different missions might have different patterns on when to send missionaries home, so you could try calling or emailing the mission office to ask what the normal pattern is there. I expect that missions that require visas would probably want to send missionaries home a day or two before the visa expired, just in case there are delayed flights, etc. – it wouldn't be good for the missionary to travel with an expired visa.