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Missionary Payments for a splitting Ward

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 8:54 am
by Lynchfam27
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:30 am
by jdlessley
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 10:30 am
by aebrown
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:10 am
by gregwanderson
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:29 am
by eblood66
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:31 am
by jonesrk
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.;)

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 11:53 am
by russellhltn
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 5:40 pm
by gregwanderson
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?

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:35 pm
by lajackson
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.

Posted: Thu May 06, 2010 9:42 pm
by lajackson
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.