Cannot see our missionary in online donations dropdown for our new ward

[garr]

I just moved my family to a new ward in our stake. This past Sunday our new bishop made an online request to move our son's mission funding account to our new ward. I believe our previous bishop got online to approve the request that evening.

How long will it take before my full-time missionary's name shows up in our new ward's online donation area?

Thanks!

[lajackson]

How long will it take before my full-time missionary's name shows up in our new ward's online donation area?

With no experience to go by, I would think that the Missionary Department has to begin by requesting that the Finance Department make the change, and that after they actually do it, it would take a day or two for everything to sync up again. So if the Missionary Department got the request Sunday night (Monday morning, actually), and were not too far behind and validated the change that day, and the Finance Department made the change the next day, you might see something by today or tomorrow.

I think that would be absolutely optimal, and so I would not worry about anything until a week has passed, mostly because I did not know you could make the change online. I thought you still had to call and speak with someone.

And please rest assured that your missionary will not even notice any of this. The mission president will continue to see that your missionary has the necessary funds to serve, even if it takes a short while for the Church and the wards to make the change.

[johnshaw]

It used to be, can't be certain it still is the case, but Missionaries never transferred because 'technically' the WARD is the one that sends the missionary not the family. It used to be that BOTH Bishops were to 'talk' and Agree on a Date/Time to make the change. It is now available in the Missionary online tool, but it must be coordinated - and if your in the SLC area I'd be surprised that the clerks don't know the process. You should talk to them,

[mlwood]

Does anyone have a solution to this? We just got two new families in my Indiana ward with missionaries. Their records have been in for a couple weeks but still the missionaries' names are missing from the donation drop-down list.

[russellhltn]

Does anyone have a solution to this? We just got two new families in my Indiana ward with missionaries. Their records have been in for a couple weeks but still the missionaries' names are missing from the donation drop-down list.

Have the missionary sub-accounts been created by CHQ in the Ward Missionary citatory in MLS? I would not expect it to appear in on-line donations until that's done.

Secondly, moving membership records does NOT automatically transfer the responsibility for missionary finances. That's a completely separate action and involves a call by the bishop or ward clerk to CHQ to set up.

[lajackson]

We just got two new families in my Indiana ward with missionaries. Their records have been in for a couple weeks but still the missionaries' names are missing from the donation drop-down list.

As russellhltn said, the bishop needs to determine when his new ward will take responsibility for funding the missionaries in the new families, and then he or the clerk must contact the Missionary Department to ask that responsibility be changed, based on the agreed upon transfer date. The Missionary Department will make the transfer, create the new ward missionary sub-accounts, and you will then see them in your ward Online Donation drop-down menu.

[johnshaw]

I thought this moved online years ago, is that not the case anymore?

[lajackson]

I thought this moved online years ago, is that not the case anymore?

If the transfer of responsibility was available online, it probably is still available. Would it have been in the Missionary Online Recommend System? Check it out. Either way, you will need to know when the bishops are willing to make the switch in responsibility.

[johnshaw]

Last I knew this could all be handled through the system. Though, frankly, it was always easier to just send an MLS Message.

This was an issue back in 2009, and is still one today. I wish there was a way for Bishops to have some kind of training about how this (and many other things) work, A fundamental thing like sending a Missionary out is not well understood throughout the church. In essence, it is the WARD that sends the missionary, it is the WARD that agrees to take on the financial burden of the missionary in the field - resulting in these lessons we continue to learn (remember this is all due to IRS stuff).

If anyone is reading this - one of the reasons it isn't automatically transferred is what if there is a positive or negative balance on the account? As a stake clerk I ALWAYS advised Bishops NOT to accept any financial responsibility if there was a negative account - in the spirit of the above the ward should cover it, nobody should ever be negative, if a family falls behind, it should be covered every month (in the future if they feel like contributing when they are in a better financial position they can 'pay it forward'). If there was a positive amount, and it came from the family specifically for that missionary, then forward the positive amount as well - but if there was a positive amount because of ward members, that was a negotiation between Bishops.

[russellhltn]

I thought this moved online years ago, is that not the case anymore?

If the transfer of responsibility was put on-line, I'm not aware of it. It might have happened, but I can't remember it being mentioned here.

Although, given that this affects two units, I suspect CHQ may want to be the arbitrator of the final transaction - the on-line system would be only a request to make changes.