How to Keep Track of Multiple LDS Missionaries

Keeping track of one missionary is mostly a matter of remembering two dates. Keeping track of three is a different problem. The dates overlap, the time zones do not line up, and the areas are scattered across continents nobody in the family can place without looking them up. This is the situation Missionary Tracker was originally built for — its developer had three relatives serving at the same time and could not reliably answer where any of them were or how long they had left.

Why three is harder than three times one

The difficulty is not volume, it is interference. With one missionary, “eighteen months left” sticks. With three, the numbers blur into each other, and you end up confidently telling someone the wrong release date for the wrong person.

The same happens with areas. One mission name is learnable. Three, each with its own rotating set of areas, is not something anyone holds in their head — particularly for extended family who only hear an update every few weeks.

Give each missionary their own record

The first rule is one record per missionary, not one combined list. Whether that is a page in a notebook, a tab in a spreadsheet or a profile in an app, each person needs their own entry date, expected release date and current area. Combined lists are where mix-ups start.

Each record needs its own countdown too. Two missionaries who left four months apart are at genuinely different points, and a single family countdown to “when everyone is home” hides that — it also means the first homecoming arrives with no build-up.

Put them all on one map

The exception to keeping things separate is location. Seeing everyone at once — one in Auckland, one in Tokyo, one in Córdoba — is the thing that makes the scale land, especially for grandparents and younger siblings. Separate records for the details, one shared view for the geography.

This is exactly what the missionary map does: every missionary you follow appears as a pin on the area they are serving in, with their mission listed underneath, and tapping a name centres the map on them. It reflects the assigned area recorded on each profile — it is not live GPS and does not follow anyone’s phone.

Track the time zones once

With several missionaries in different parts of the world, working out whether it is a reasonable hour to write becomes a recurring small annoyance. Note the time zone with each record, or use something that shows the local time and weather where each of them is serving, and stop doing the arithmetic.

Share one set of records with the whole family

The multiplier on all of this is how many people are asking. With three missionaries out, an extended family generates a constant background hum of “which one is in Peru?” and “when does she get home?” — and if the answers live with one person, that person becomes a full-time reference desk.

Sharing the records directly solves it. In Missionary Tracker each profile has a join code, so anyone the family chooses can follow along and see the same countdown, area and updates without asking. Someone who wants to follow all three simply joins all three; each appears in their list with its own countdown, and all three show on the map together.

A workable setup

1. One record per missionary — never a combined list.
2. Entry date and expected release date on each, so each has its own countdown.
3. Current area kept up to date as transfers happen, with a note of where it actually is.
4. One shared map view so the family can see everyone at once.
5. Direct access for the wider family, rather than one person answering questions.

If you want to check the numbers for each missionary before setting anything up, run the two dates for each of them through the missionary countdown calculator. For the general version of this, covering a single mission, see how to keep track of an LDS missionary’s mission.