Save your missionary's email account before it closes.

The account is the @missionary.org email your missionary used on their mission. It closes about 60 days after they're released.

You may read 90 days elsewhere. That was the time until March 8, 2026, when it became 60.

Some of what's in the account isn't saved anywhere else:

• Mail your missionary received, from their mission president, companions and friends
• The photos and Drive files they kept in it
• Any weekly letter that never reached your inbox

The weekly letters you received stay in your own inbox after the account closes. Saving the account keeps your missionary's own copies of them too.

Google Takeout copies what's in the account into files you download and keep. Only someone who can sign in to the account can make the copy, so these steps are written for your missionary.

1. On a computer, go to takeout.google.com  (Google, opens in a new tab) and sign in with the @missionary.org address. Google recommends a computer, not a phone, for downloading and opening these files.
2. Every Google product with something in the account starts out checked. Leave them all checked to save the mail, photos and Drive files together, or at the least keep Mail checked. Then select Next step.
3. For the delivery method, choose Send download link via email.
4. For the file type, choose .zip, and for the size, choose 50 GB. A .zip opens on almost any computer, and it's the type our letter import reads. Choosing 50 GB makes it less likely that Google splits the export into several files.
5. Select Create export. When the files are ready, Google emails a download link to the account's inbox.
6. Download every file while the account is still open. The link takes you back into the account, and Google may ask you to sign in again. The export can be downloaded up to 5 times, and it expires after about 7 days.
7. Keep the files in two places, such as the computer and a USB drive. There's no need to unzip them.

If Takeout won't let you.

Mission accounts are run by the Church, and Google lets the organization that runs an account turn Takeout off. If the account can't make an export, the Church's technology message to departing missionaries includes its own steps for exporting the account: follow those instead.

If an export fails, Google suggests making another, or exporting one product at a time. Start with Mail.

Some accounts can be opened again for up to 90 days after release. A post on the Church's Tech Forum gives the steps:

1. In a web browser, not the Gmail app, go to mail.missionary.org.
2. Sign in with your missionary's Church Account.
3. Select Extend Access.
4. Select Go to Individual Email.

If the account opens, save it with the Takeout steps above before its new closing date.

If it won't open, the weekly letters may still be in the inboxes they were sent to: yours, and those of family and friends. Every MyMissionLetters product comes with a Save-to-Archive address. Forward the letters to it from your own address, or from one you've approved, and each one is saved at the date it was first sent.

MyMissionLetters turns your missionary's weekly letters into a printed Memory Book. If you saved the export, Import letters from Gmail reads the letters from those files whenever you're ready. It comes with every MyMissionLetters product.

It lists the letters your missionary sent to at least 20 people, for you to choose from, and each one comes in with its photos.

What it can't bring in:

• A letter sent to fewer than 20 people, or to one address that passed it on, such as a family email group or a parent who forwarded it. Forward those to your Save-to-Archive address instead.
• The account's own photos aren't part of this import. If your export includes Google Photos, try Import from Google Photos, which reads those files. For a few photos, use Upload Photos.