Christmas, birthdays and the halfway mark.

Besides P-day, your LDS missionary is encouraged to contact family on special occasions, which the Church says may include Christmas, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and parents' and siblings' birthdays. Your missionary starts the call. For a package that should arrive by one of those days, mail it early. That's from the Church's Missionary Standards, section 3.9.1  (opens the Church's page in a new tab).

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Christmas.

Christmas is one of the special occasions on which your missionary is encouraged to contact family. They start the call or video chat, so wait for them to reach out. For how calls work, read how your missionary writes home.

The mission president may adjust missionaries' schedule for holidays, so the time of a Christmas call depends on the mission. Ask your missionary as the day gets closer.

Mail a Christmas package early. Check your carrier's holiday mailing dates, including its dates for the country where your missionary serves. If packages go to the mission office, ask your missionary how long they take to reach them from there.

For what to send, customs in another country and something for their companion, read care packages, wherever they serve.

For a Christmas card, a line from each person in the family, a favorite verse and a photo of home at Christmas fit in one envelope.

Mother's Day and Father's Day.

Both are on the Church's list of special occasions, so your missionary may contact you on those days as well as on P-day.

Their birthday, and yours.

A parent's or a sibling's birthday is on the Church's list of special occasions. Your missionary's own birthday isn't on it, and the list isn't complete: for a day other than P-day or a special occasion, your missionary checks with their mission president before contacting family.

For their birthday, send a letter from each person in the family, or a package mailed early enough to arrive.

The halfway mark.

Elders serve for 24 months and sisters for 18, so the halfway point comes at about 12 months for an elder and 9 for a sister. Some families call it hump day.

It isn't one of the Church's special occasions, so mark it with a letter or a package rather than a call.

A few ideas:

  • a few lines from their own letters, read back to them
  • photos of home as it is now, beside ones from the day they left
  • a note from each person in the family about something they've learned from your missionary's letters

Keep it about the mission, not a countdown. 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, asked families not to let their excitement about the homecoming carry into their letters, so a missionary can stay focused to the last day.

Visits.

Family and friends generally don't visit a missionary during their mission, at Christmas included. The Church says the mission president may approve an exception in special circumstances.