Care packages, wherever they serve.

Before you mail a care package to your LDS missionary, ask them which address to use. The Church says some missions have mail and packages sent to the mission office, to help keep missionaries safe and prevent mail theft and mail lost when missionaries are transferred. Then follow the guidelines your missionary's mission gives. That's from the Church's Missionary Standards, section 3.9.4  (opens the Church's page in a new tab).

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Ask for the address.

This guide is for packages once your missionary is in the field. For the MTC, read letters and packages to the MTC.

Ask your missionary on P-day which address their mission uses: the mission office, or where they live. A missionary can move to a new area at a transfer, so if packages go to where they live, ask again after each transfer.

If packages go to the mission office, ask how they reach your missionary from there and how long that usually takes.

The mission's guidelines come first.

The Church asks missionaries to follow the guidelines their mission gives them for mail and packages.

A 2007 article in the Church's New Era  (opens the Church's page in a new tab) said some missions discourage packages, and some ask families to hold back on food, music and other items. Ask your missionary what their mission asks.

To another country.

If your missionary serves in another country, mail with more time to spare. The same New Era article warned that customs fees on packages to missionaries abroad can be expensive, and suggested checking before you send.

The carrier you ship with can tell you what a package to that country needs and what it costs to send. Your missionary or the mission office can tell you if anything can't be sent where they serve.

The article also said some things may cost less to buy where your missionary serves, and that buying them there can help avoid theft and customs fees. What a missionary buys for themselves comes from personal funds, the money sent from home: read what a mission costs, and who pays.

What to send.

Ask your missionary what they need. They know what is hard to find where they serve, and what has worn out.

Small and light travels best. The New Era article noted that missionaries pack everything they own into two suitcases for transfers, so bulky things may be left behind.

A few ideas that fit in a small box:

  • photos from home, and a short note from each person in the family
  • a favorite food from home that keeps well, and won't melt if they serve somewhere hot
  • something they asked for, such as socks or a replacement for something worn out
  • notes from their friends or your ward, gathered into one envelope

For Christmas and birthdays, read Christmas, birthdays and the halfway mark.

Something for their companion.

A 2003 article in the Church's Ensign  (opens the Church's page in a new tab), by a former mission president and his wife, suggested including something for your missionary's companion when you send a package, and keeping birthday and holiday gifts modest. A companion may come from a family that can't send packages.

What not to send.

Don't send medicine. The Church's handbook says family members and others must not send or deliver medication to missionaries. If a medication your missionary needs isn't available in the mission, they counsel with the mission president.

Don't send what the mission has asked families not to send, or anything your missionary or the mission office says can't go to that country.

Where this comes from.

This guide follows the Church's own pages, checked in November 2026. If anything here has changed, follow the Church's page. The New Era and Ensign articles are from 2007 and 2003. The ideas for what to send are ours.