When something is wrong: illness, emergencies and the mission president.

If your family needs to reach your LDS missionary in an emergency, contact their mission president first. If your missionary has an emergency, mission leaders will contact you. That's the Church's rule, from its Missionary Standards, sections 3.9.1 and 3.9.7  (opens the Church's page in a new tab).

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Keep the mission's contacts.

On an early P-day, ask your missionary for the mission office's phone number and email, and the mission president's name. Keep them where the whole family can find them.

If you can't reach the mission, call your bishop or stake president.

If your missionary is sick or hurt.

The Church asks missionaries to tell the mission medical coordinator about any medical issue, such as a medication, an allergy or an activity to avoid. When they need care that isn't an emergency, they call the coordinator right away, and the coordinator can direct them to a medical care provider in their area.

In a health emergency, missionaries are asked to take commonsense steps for their safety, call local emergency services unless their mission has given other instructions, and contact their mission leaders as soon as they can.

For serious injuries and health concerns, the Church says the mission president talks with your stake president and your family.

So if a letter mentions an illness, you can encourage your missionary to call the medical coordinator. The Church tells missionaries that advice from family can be useful, but to call the coordinator rather than rely on it, or on their own guess.

For who pays which medical costs, read what a mission costs, and who pays. For homesickness, discouragement or emotional health, read when the first letters are hard.

Don't send medicine.

The Church's handbook says family members and others must not send or deliver medication to missionaries. Missionaries are responsible for the medication they need, and if one isn't available in the mission, your missionary counsels with the mission president.

Hard news from home.

If there's an emergency at home, you can tell your missionary. The Church asks them to let their mission leaders know, so they can support them.

If news needs their immediate attention, your missionary is asked to tell the mission president, and to check with him before contacting family on a day other than P-day or a special occasion.

If a family member dies.

Contact the mission president first. A 2003 Ensign article by a former mission president and his wife suggested that he be called first, preferably by your missionary's home stake president.

The Church's handbook says that if someone in a missionary's immediate family dies, the missionary may choose to go home for the funeral for a short time, but is generally counseled to stay in the field. When possible, they may watch the services streamed online. If they go home, the mission president contacts the Church's Missionary Department.

If they're not safe.

If something in a letter makes you think your missionary isn't safe, don't wait for P-day: contact their mission president.

The Church tells missionaries that abuse by anyone, a companion included, is unacceptable, and to contact the mission president, his wife or another trusted leader right away if they experience or hear about harassment, an assault or a threat.

It says mission leaders have the resources to support a missionary with medical attention, professional counseling, a move to another place, or other help. It also tells missionaries that an assault is not their fault, and that whether to involve the police is their decision.

Disasters where they serve.

Each mission has an emergency action plan. The Church asks missionaries to know it, to keep the emergency contacts for their area in their phone, and to keep the phone charged and with them.

In an emergency such as a natural disaster, missionaries are asked to get to safety or medical care first, then contact their mission president or the missionaries who lead them as soon as they can. So after news of a disaster where they serve, you may not hear right away. Mission leaders will contact you if your missionary has an emergency.

If they come home early.

Sometimes a missionary is released early, for health or other reasons. The handbook says the home stake president, the mission president and the Area Presidency counsel together to decide whether a missionary stays in the field or is recommended to return home. Read when a missionary comes home early.

Help for you.

If you're carrying worry yourself, talk with your bishop. The Church's Family Services  (opens the Church's page in a new tab) offers counseling and other support to members, family members supporting someone included, through a referral from a bishop.