What Happens to Missionary Email After the Mission?

The short answer

The church removes the missionary Google account about 60 days after the missionary returns home. Once it's gone, any weekly emails, photos, and videos kept only in that mission email account can be lost. If those letters matter to your family, the time to save them is before that window closes, or better yet, while the mission is still going.

Why the timing catches families off guard

Homecoming is a happy blur. There are reunions, unpacking, catching up with friends, maybe school or a new job to start. Nobody sets a calendar reminder for the mission email account, and about two months goes by fast.

It isn't that anyone forgets the letters matter. It's that the account feels permanent right up until it isn't. A little planning now saves a lot of "I thought someone saved those" later.

What's worth saving

When you sit down to save things, think wider than the weekly letter itself:

• The weekly letters. These are the heart of it: the stories, the funny moments, the hard weeks, and how your missionary grew over time.
• Photos and videos attached to emails. Pictures often come attached to the weekly message, and they're easy to overlook if you only copy the text.
• Letters family forwarded around. A parent may have forwarded each week's letter to grandparents or siblings. Those copies can help fill gaps if something is missing from the original account.
• Replies and notes from home that your missionary treasured, if they want to keep them too.

Ways to keep mission emails

There's no single right way. Here are some common options, with honest tradeoffs:

1. Forward letters to a personal email address. Simple and free. The downside is that letters end up mixed in with everything else in an inbox, and photos can be scattered.
2. Download or archive the messages. Saving copies to a computer or cloud drive works, but files can be hard to browse later and easy to misplace when devices change.
3. Print them. Paper copies are lovely to hold and share. It takes time, and photos may not print the way you'd like.
4. Keep them in a journal that stays forever. A Follow My Mission journal gathers the letters, with their photos and videos, in one place, in order. Journals stay forever, so they aren't tied to the mission email account.

Whatever you choose, the key is to do it before the account is removed. Want the letters in one place for good? Start a journal — $49 one time.

Already home? You can still backfill

If the mission is already over, it's not too late, as long as you still have the emails somewhere: in the mission account before it's removed, or in the inboxes of family who received forwarded copies.

Families can forward or import past emails to backfill a journal, whether the mission is still in progress or already finished. A few helpful details:

• There's no maximum number of past emails you can add.
• You can forward them one at a time, or put several letters in one forwarded message.
• Attached .eml files are read, so saved email files can be brought in too.
• Photos and videos attached to the emails are saved. Google Photos shared albums are also accepted, and HEIC/HEIF photos are saved as JPEG.

See how it works for the overview.

Start before the mission ends

The easiest time to set this up is during the mission, so each week's letter lands in the journal as it comes and nothing piles up for a homecoming scramble.

A few things that make it easy for the whole family:

• A parent or delegate can run it. They have the same access as the missionary, so the missionary doesn't need to manage anything.
• Followers read for free. Following is free, though each follower needs a free account. You can have unlimited followers, as long as they're approved.
• It's a one-time cost. The journal is $49 one time, with no subscription. Details are on the pricing page.

Have questions about accounts or followers? See the FAQ.

Turning saved letters into a keepsake

Once the letters are safe, some families like to have something to hold. The optional photo book is built from the journal, up to 300 pages, for $119. It requires the journal and isn't sold on its own. No pressure; the journal itself keeps everything either way.

Save the letters for good — start a journal, $49 one time.