Mailing Christmas Packages to Missionaries - Guidelines - Repeat
* * * * *
Small packages, cards and letters
must be received
in the mission office no later than
December 1, 2015.
in the mission office no later than
December 1, 2015.
* * * * *
August 2015
To the Families of the Missionaries in the Italy Rome
Mission…
As we anticipate the upcoming holiday season, we want to
review with you some of the issues associated with mailing packages to your
missionary in the Italy Rome Mission.
Receiving a holiday package from home is a wonderful event
for a missionary. Unfortunately, the actual
process of getting a package to a missionary in Italy is heavily cumbered with some
difficult realities, and we want to make you aware of them so you can make an
informed decision about what to send to your missionary in the Italy Rome
Mission:
1. The
international shipping rates to Italy are substantial.
2. A
package coming to Italy requires a relatively long transit time, making it
difficult to send most perishables.
3. An
international shipment can be subject to rough handling, and it changes hands
several times before it reaches the Mission Office in Rome. As a result, a package sent to Rome may be damaged,
opened, delayed, or lost along the way…all of which we see with some
frequency.
4. The
Italy customs agency assesses a minimum import tax of 22% (sometimes higher) on
many of the missionary packages that arrive at the Mission Office, and their
estimates of the value of the items in a package are often (very)
generous. The missionary must pay these
customs fees (from personal funds) to prevent the package from being returned
to the sender. These customs fees (together
with the shipping cost) usually make the effective cost of the items unreasonably
high…sometimes more than double their original cost.
5. Due
to the size of the Mission, it’s difficult to get packages distributed to the
individual missionaries in the field in a prompt and efficient way. Often there are also additional costs and further
unavoidable delays.
With these issues in mind, we recommend the following
options:
1. Gift Money. Add gift funds to your missionary’s personal
debit or credit card account. This is
the fastest, safest, least expensive, and most convenient way to get a gift to
your missionary in Italy…by far. It also
gives your missionary the opportunity to participate in the process…and typically
the missionaries are excited to purchase an Italian
item. We strongly encourage you to
consider this option.
2. Small Envelopes. Send a personal letter, greeting card, photos,
etc. that can fit comfortably into a small
(and perhaps padded) envelope. The
mailing cost depends on the weight and size of the envelope, but it should be
relatively modest, and the envelope will generally arrive (from the U.S.) in 7-10
days.
The missionaries’ unique “life style” – of being transferred
around the Mission regularly – creates two related issues. First, items sent to a missionary’s individual
apartment often arrive after the missionary has moved on to another
location…and then these items tend to either “chase” the missionary around the Mission,
or to get pigeon-holed in a location that is soon forgotten. In either case, these items become a burden,
and sometimes a distraction, to other missionaries in the Mission. Unfortunately many of these items ultimately become
lost and tossed. For these reasons, we
request that you send items for your missionary to the physical mission office
address (not the P.O. Box) in Rome:
[Your Missionary’s Name]
c/o Missione Italiana di Roma
Piazza Carnaro, 20
00141 Roma,
Italia
Second, without really realizing it, most missionaries tend
to accumulate a growing store of “stuff” as they progress through their
mission. Such stuff can also become a
burden to keep track of and a distraction to their missionary work. Accordingly, we invite you to send small
gifts that are in harmony with the spirit of missionary work.
We hope these recommendations will help make the gifts you
send to your missionary in Italy both
meaningful and practical.
We’re deeply grateful for the opportunity to work with your missionary
son or daughter here in the Italy Rome Mission, and we appreciate your faith
and confidence in supporting them in this wonderful opportunity.
Sincerely,
Michael G. Waddoups, President
Italy Rome Mission
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