Dear Elder and Sister Leavitt,
It is fast approaching that time when we have to start making preparations for your missionary's journey home. The departure date is set for July 21, 2015. In order to schedule flights at the best rates available, we need to have some information returned to us within 7 days. Please let us know if you plan on picking your missionary up from the mission field or if your missionary will be flying home. If your missionary is flying home, which is the closest large airport to your home?
Each missionary in the days preceding his/her departure will have a final interview with me. On the evening prior to departure we have the opportunity to have dinner with your missionary and a testimony meeting in the mission home with all departing missionaries.
Missionaries are released from service by their stake president upon returning home. This is usually by the Stake from which they were called unless the family has moved and their records are transferred to another stake and ward.
The Church encourages missionaries to travel directly home from their missions and discourages post-mission tours with parents. However, if parents choose to pick-up their missionary it should be noted that the missionary must be accompanied by one or both parents at all times and the travel time is limited to one or two weeks. Missionaries are not to impose on members, missionaries or other missions as they travel. During this time the missionary should maintain the standards for missionaries as outlined in the Missionary Handbook (dressing as a missionary) until released.
Missionaries traveling directly home will depart for the airport Tuesday morning. Missionaries traveling home with their parents should be picked up Tuesday morning, 10:00 am at the mission office.
As missionaries near the end of their service they should be at peak performance and able to make significant contributions to the work. Please help your missionary to keep focused and not become absorbed with returning home. This is a great concern because it affects both the work in the assigned proselyting area and companions who want to work hard. This problem can be exaggerated by well-meaning parents who continually comment on the excitement that they feel as they prepare for their missionary’s return home or who ask the missionary to make family travel arrangements. Please be sensitive to this and help your missionary serve in a focused, right up to the date of release by minimizing distractions and excitement about things unrelated to missionary work.
" And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end, they shall be lifted up at the last day" 1 Nephi 13:37
Your wonderful support and dedication are so appreciated. The encouragement, prayers and continued reinforcement that you provide are an essential part of the growth and development that comes from full time missionary service.
Thank you for all you do. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
Sincerely,
Mark D. Cusick, Mission President
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