Problem with newly baptized convert records when ordinance performed by out-of-unit

[jgoggan]

We're seeing this problem repeatedly lately and I wanted to see if others were too. When a new convert is baptized, the missionaries submit the record to be added -- and then it comes to the unit as a Pending New Record to be reviewed and created. The missionaries can pre-fill most of the information and then the clerk can confirm it with the new member.

Our problem is that if either ordinance is performed by someone from outside of our unit, then the data submitted by the missionaries is lost. Here, we only have Sister Missionaries and they sometimes have an Elder Missionary come in to perform the baptism. So this happens quite a bit.

When going through the process to create the record, it asks "Who performed the baptism/confirmation?". If the choice "A member of this ward or branch" was selected by the missionaries when they submitted it, then it shows up pre-selected that way as expected with the name filled in. All works great and we can save that section just fine. But if it was performed by someone outside of our unit, even though the missionaries filled it all in properly, when it gets to us, the "Who performed the confirmation?" button is not selected at all -- you HAVE to pick one manually. Just below that, it shows the NAME of the person who performed the ordinance -- the out of unit person. So, it is like it knows it is an out of unit person, but doesn't think anyone picked a choice to indicate that (even though it has the manually entered name already). As soon as we select "A member from a different ward or branch" as should be selected (and WAS selected by the missionaries that submitted it), it CLEARS out the name that was visible (which is now gone forever -- even if you leave the section without saving and try to come back) and wants us to enter the full name or MRN and do a lookup -- which means that we need that persons DOB or MRN. Which becomes a bit of a hassle having to go back to the Sister Missionaries and ask them to track down the DOB or MRN of the Elder Missionary who came in that day to do the baptism.

Anyone else seeing this or have a workaround that maybe I'm just overlooking? Again, the missionaries are submitting everything properly -- it just gets lost in the review process.

If not, I'll file a bug report. I just thought that I'd check here first to see if it was widespread or localized.

[garystroble]

I would report that right away, although there is more than one problem with the software for handling convert baptisms. In addition, often the GSD cannot help us with these problems, saying it is a missionary department problem and the missionaries need to report it to that department. Silos exist on more than just farms and missile bases.

[jgoggan]

I thought the same and ended up reporting it right after posting about it here. I'll post when I hear anything back.

The "funny" thing is that the Missionary side works fine. They filled it all in properly and it was there. It is just when we go to actually review it and add the record here that it seems to get confused.

[garystroble]

I thought the same and ended up reporting it right after posting about it here. I'll post when I hear anything back.

The "funny" thing is that the Missionary side works fine. They filled it all in properly and it was there. It is just when we go to actually review it and add the record here that it seems to get confused.

It's an interface problem between the missionary department and the membership department as far as I can determine from here.

[callmebat62]

I'm seeing the same problem. We had a convert baptism not long ago and ran into the same situation and had to track down, not just the ordinace information, but also the information on the place of birth, parents info etc.

I thought it was on the missionary side as well and followed up with the Elders on the next baptism. They showed me the completed form they fill out on their side (in the Come Follow Me app), it was all there, but it never made it into LCR when they submitted it. It's happened three times so far for us.

[BrianEdwards]

Besides the GSD avenue, I'd also consider asking your Stake President to bring this up with the Mission President in their next council meeting. Even better, if this was discussed in the Coordinating Council Meeting where the Area Seventy is presiding, he might take it upon himself to escalate the issue to help support coordination between the stake and mission efforts.

I know that we're all frustrated at times when we report issues but there's no traction. There's nothing guaranteed with going down the "Priesthood Leadership" route, but it's always worth trying if the standard "Church Support" route is languishing.

[jdlessley]

The GSD support people are asking those who run into missing convert baptism information in LCR that has been entered on the missionary side to send in screenshots of both the missionary phone screen(s) with the data and the LCR screen(s) with the missing data. The developers apparently need to see both sides to help track down the problem.

[jgoggan]

Are Missionaries able to pull it back up in the Come Follow Me app to show what they submitted? Or is this something where we need to tell the Missionaries to screenshot everything before they submit it so that we can take action if it happens again?

[sbradshaw]

Are Missionaries able to pull it back up in the Come Follow Me app to show what they submitted? Or is this something where we need to tell the Missionaries to screenshot everything before they submit it so that we can take action if it happens again?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I assume you mean the "Preach My Gospel" app (not Come, Follow Me).

[jgoggan]

Are Missionaries able to pull it back up in the Come Follow Me app to show what they submitted? Or is this something where we need to tell the Missionaries to screenshot everything before they submit it so that we can take action if it happens again?

I don't know the answer to your question, but I assume you mean the "Preach My Gospel" app (not Come, Follow Me).

I guess so. Sorry for the error. I don't know what app the Missionaries use to submit this. But a user above that had spoken with the GSD support people said "They showed me the completed form they fill out on their side (in the Come Follow Me app)". Maybe he misspoke also. I was just repeating what they had said.

In any case, it is hard to gather the "both sides" that have been requested if the Missionaries aren't able to pull back up what they submitted. Otherwise, we'd have to have them screenshot everything and then wait to see if the problem occurs. Then go back and gather that data to submit. I admit that that feels a little frustrating to me. Sometimes the GSD asks for things that I feel someone on the development side should be able to much easier test than waiting for live data. But, maybe that's because I wrote software for a living for 20 years and would simply have done it differently. When users reported bugs to me that I could easily test myself, I didn't ask them to spend their time repeating the bug over and over so that I could see it...