Missionary Email Problems

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wendyhickman
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Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:39 pm

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#11

Post by wendyhickman »

The last two emails finally came through. Those two had around a 4-hour delay.

So in the end, the emails aren't getting lost, they are just getting significantly delayed through the system. That's still something likely worth fixing and adjusting. It would make a huge difference for us.
kisaac
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Location: Utah, united states

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#12

Post by kisaac »

For some time now, we have figured there is weird/unexplained delays in the email system with our missionary, and my wife's "rule of thumb" has been to allow 4 hours for our emails to our missionary in the field. I'm sure she has heard this from somebody else....

I don't speak for anyone at the church, but as a parent of a missionary, I think you will not be able to solve this issue for several reasons.
  • 1) The church LDS mail system delivers emails to missionaries, but does not make "email chatting" between family and missionaries a priority, especially since it is actually prohibited in some missions, like the one our missionary is in. Your mission policies may differ... but speed and capacity cost money, and if it isn't a priority...
    2) We know that different computers and browsers deliver emails at different times, because both myself and my wife await our weekly email, Carbon copied to both of our different emails on different devices. We never get it at the same time. So the computer your missionary uses, and the computer you use could actually be the cause of your delays. For example, my Gmail checks for emails from my account once per hour, unless I go into the settings and tell it to check "now" or am using features in gmail that require it to refresh. Sometimes my laptop shows the email hasn't come, and my wife will say she read it 20 minutes ago! If your computer does this AND your sons mission filed computer is doing this, it may account for some of those delays and late deliveries
davesudweeks
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Location: Washington, USA

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#13

Post by davesudweeks »

When I was on my mission, letters took 1-2 weeks to arrive. Isn't it wonderful that we can now have the discussion where a 1 hour delay is considered a problem?

I'm very grateful for technology that allows us to be more in touch with our missionaries!
wendyhickman
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Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:39 pm

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#14

Post by wendyhickman »

We had similar problems with our son receiving our emails today. [You need to know that I am extremely grateful that we have such fabulous technology that allows us to email now. I wrote to my husband 20 years ago with more than a three-week delay in receiving letters. That was excruciating - this is just a mild frustration comparably.]

Just to let you know that this is a wide-spread problem, here is an assortment of comments from parents (all different, posted today). Most of these parents are just trying to get a single email through:

Trouble with the server again. I've sent my email 4 times so far and he still hasn't gotten it.

Slow for me this morning as well!

I wish they could fix it.

It's not my server it's LDS.net

I had the same problem last week. Someone suggested going into his email and emailing him from his own email so he can see it in his sent file.

I sent a couple short emails via gmail 90 minutes ago that still haven't hit his Inbox. Text to email works better on Mondays.

My husband is an electrical engineer and computer engineer and he said it's luck of the draw if certain emails go through, it could be gmail, hotmail, etc... but that it is definitely THEIR server.

He still hasn't gotten it.

Moms, you have to call and tell them, I complained and they said I was like one of the only ones. They need to know.

So glad to hear, I thought he just wasn't writing.....how do I call??

And some from previous Mondays:

A friend of mine said her missionary"s emails weren't going through, and I came home and found out mine had not gone through. Is anyone else having this problem?

I've received messages that the server was too busy, or that the email just didn't go through. Once when that happened I resent about 5 different emails ... LOL ... my daughter got them ALL eventually, even the originals.

My email didn't get to him. It' is the same email I have been using. I sent three emails. One letter and two with pics. He got the two with pics, but not the letter. I got an error message saying it didn't go through.

But today, when I checked for his email I just had an error message saying the email didn't go through. I resent it though and he finally did get it. I just wondered if the "myldsmail.net" was having issues since my friend had the same problem.

My sister had this problem. Her missionary did not get her letter last week in Romania

Last week my Son in AZ didn't get the first email I sent him until later that day...it was weird.

Well, he got my email, but I haven't been getting his. It's been few weeks. I was starting to get really annoyed with him. He emailed the last one he wrote me, to his dad and he sent it to me. It's really weird.

I resent my email to my daughter just in time for her to get it. She confirmed that the original email did not go through, and was very grateful to receive the second one. It was a tough week for her and the email was a bright spot with a funny story that made her laugh.

I reply to every email sent but he sometimes doesn't get it until he opens his mail the following week. I'm sure with the amount of missionaries and emails it's probably experiencing an influx if emails. My question for you MM is has anyone else had this problem and is there anything I can do about it?

I have the same problem with my daughter every week.

I posted about this on Monday because I have the same problem for several weeks! I do think it is because of myldsmail because we have used several different accounts during the same session to email him with bad luck.

Ours had been great until the past few weeks...it's SO frustrating.

This past week was the 3rd time in the 13 months he has been out that we have had issues with delayed emails.... and that was with gmail.

When we were having our problems ( we had one in DC and one in Hawaii) My "computer nerd" husband traced some of the emails...we found that kinda on a rotation....when it OVERLOADS is our thoughts...some goes to SLC and was kinda stored for a few hours then we received the rest of our emails.

I've been having this same problem for months. The only way my son gets the emails I send is if I reply to one he had sent to me. If I start a new email and send it, even 3 days early, he didn't get the email.

Been having the same issue for three weeks. So frustrating!!!

I just had that problem! I sent it 3 times before she received it in Mexico. She too thought I didn't email her.

So it did get sent yesterday but to late for him to see it, so it will be Monday before he gets it. It makes me so sad. The first time he has not got an email from me.

I think something must have been wrong with the mylds server yesterday. My son did not get his email yesterday either and I saw another post from a momma about the same issue. Hopefully they get it fixed by next week

I'm so sad and freaking out a little. Our missionary didn't get our emails. I sent mine 5 more times and my husband sent his twice and they are not in his myldsmail account. He sent us an email saying "Am I going to hear from ya'll today?" (Texas accent:) I think something is wrong with the server? Anyone else have a problem today?

I had that problem once with my emails to my daughter. I actually got messages saying they hadn't gone through at all ... so I resent. She got a bunch of messages. LOL. Finally the original ones showed up the next week, if I remember correctly. There was an issue with the ldsmail servers.

etc., etc., etc.
lajackson
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Re: Missionary Email Problems

#15

Post by lajackson »

wendyhickman wrote:We had similar problems with our son receiving our emails today.
I know this doesn't help with your specific situation, and you have quoted someone who said an email took three days to arrive. Nevertheless, I never had a problem emailing our missionary.

He wrote on preparation day, usually Monday. His email was always in my inbox when I got home from work. I wrote on Saturday or Sunday, knowing he would get my email when he looked on preparation day. My email was always in his inbox on Monday, even when they checked early because of a schedule change or other mission activity.

I agree that part of the problem seems to be the Church server. Another part of the problem is that everyone is trying to communicate on Monday. I would guess that the email that took three days to arrive was sent on Monday at the peak of the email load. But, as I mentioned, our emails always got through to our missionary when we sent them a day or two early, and emails from our missionary always got through to us the same day.

We never tried to "converse", of course, and probably would have run into the same busy signals if we had.
wendyhickman
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Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:39 pm

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#16

Post by wendyhickman »

We have personally modified our email-writing patterns to make sure our missionary hears from us. We, too, send our emails by Sunday evening at the very latest. After hearing all of the stories of delays, we figured that no matter what else worked (or didn't work) on Monday, by emailing way in advance of him accessing his email, our missionary son would have at least an email from both of his parents. At this point, there is no "chatting" happening anymore. We just hope we will eventually get all of his emails and that he will get ours.
kisaac
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Location: Utah, united states

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#17

Post by kisaac »

wendyhickman wrote:We have personally modified our email-writing patterns to make sure our missionary hears from us.
I think this is a good solution until things change.

What we do:
I send an update email, one per week, which I keep short. My spouse sends one or two as well. I then send an additional QUESTIONS email, labeled as such, with all those questions parents need to ask, like "what do you mean your tooth still hurts? What have you done about it?" and "how much money do you need in your account for 'bike repair'?" I tell them they must hit reply and then give a short-answer reply to every question. Sometimes the questions are "tell me three things you like about your companion" or "tell me about a funny language mix-up."

Until I separated out the emails into UPDATES and QUESTIONS, e-mails were frustrating, and emailed questions would go unanswered. Now, we've added a "throw-back;" using actual letters for non-time sensitive updates, and send them via the post office or "pouch." We've found they just don't have the time to read long emails and respond. To our surprise, we've started getting letters back, and they have been "packed" with additional information, and sometimes just plain fun to read as they've added drawings and we see their personality shining through...you just have to live with a month delay for your letter response!
wendyhickman
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Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Mar 09, 2012 2:39 pm

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#18

Post by wendyhickman »

Update: We still experience delays at times, but things are a lot more consistent. One thing that made a difference with emails going to our missionary was to delete all attached threads that might appear below the new message. If I do that every time, my message is more likely to arrive with only a three or four minute delay on average. Every once in a while, nothing gets through. We always make sure to send our emails on Sunday to ensure that email to our missionary has plenty of time to arrive before he accesses it on Monday.
kisaac
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Joined: Sun Oct 21, 2007 6:04 am
Location: Utah, united states

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#19

Post by kisaac »

Both myself and my wife have been logged on "waiting" for our missionaries email (because he seems to do it at about the same time P-day)- me on my laptop logged onto my gmail account, and my wife on her IPAD using the IPAD's email function (not the gmail app.) Both connected wirelessly to our household router. He never chats, but sends his one "big" email CC'd to both of us, on our separate gmail accounts. So, the emails leave the "starting line" at the same time for us both.... do we get them at the exact same time?

We NEVER get them at the same time...one or the other is delayed by several minutes, sometimes as little as a few, or as much as ten or twenty minutes! I just can't account for the delay factor, as it is never consistent. They must travel via different channels once sent from the church's email system to our separate devices, and encounter different "traffic jams" on the way.. I imagine the email "handoff's" between systems just like at a track meet as runners hand off a baton- Sometimes they are smooth and quick, and sometimes not so smooth or quick, with an occasional drop.

However, we have never actually not recieved any of them...
ferrer.carl
New Member
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2016 10:59 pm

Re: Missionary Email Problems

#20

Post by ferrer.carl »

Hi there im from Philippines theres a little problem about my account please help me.
i received my mission call and ill report to mtc in september 16. everytime i go to the missionary portal its the default page and the tab says non-missionary... different from my friends account who also have his mission call. i cant send my pin cause i dont know how to fix it. the manual says i should enter my missionary pin there but the site is still a non-missionary site for me please help... carl.ferrer@myldsmail.net is my e-mailing address my account username in lds.org is ferrer.carl please help!!!!!!!!!!!
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