mrmarklin Posted September 19, 2018 Posted September 19, 2018 13 hours ago, rongo said: Well, the way the paperwork is worded (several pages worth), it emphasizes repeatedly the cost to the Church, and the importance of defraying this cost through privately-held insurance. That made me wonder if uninsured missionaries go into a separate "bucket" for assignment --- with actuary tables and risk management being the primary consideration. It wouldn’t surprise me. My son in the Wash. DC mission was involved in a serious car accident. He broke his jaw. Instead of handling it locally they sent him home to us so our insurance could pay for everything. This was twenty years ago. It came at a bad time as we were only days away from a month long South American vacation. My wife ended up staying home for part of that time. We were picking up my twin sons from their missions in Bolivia and Mexico.
rongo Posted September 19, 2018 Author Posted September 19, 2018 On 9/18/2018 at 12:49 PM, MiserereNobis said: You'll have to keep us (me, ha) updated, like what cities they are in, etc. My favorite city by far was Uherske Hradiste, in the southeast of the country in a region known as Slovacko. It is such a lovely place of traditions, folklore, old babickas with headscarves stopping traffic as they cross the road with their goats, fun accents and dialects, beautiful rolling hills, and wonderful friendly people. Hopefully they can spend some time there, especially in spring/summer. This just in, hot off the presses ( I literally just got the email). My dad was called and set apart to be the new branch president in Liberic (I'm not going to copy/past unique characters and accent marks). So, he's going to have to get his Czech up to speed! Liberic is about an hour east of the Freiberg temple in Germany, and about a half hour from Poland. So, in the Sudetenland, in Bohemia. My dad speaks German, so hopefully German is still spoken there, although it may not be. They were introduced to the Czech national drink by the mission president: Kofola. Tastes like black licorice. Yuck! My dad likes it, my mom does not. Unlike in Warsaw, where my parents were the finance/mission secretary couple, my parents will spend their whole time running the branch in Liberic this time around. 2
MiserereNobis Posted September 19, 2018 Posted September 19, 2018 44 minutes ago, rongo said: This just in, hot off the presses ( I literally just got the email). My dad was called and set apart to be the new branch president in Liberic (I'm not going to copy/past unique characters and accent marks). So, he's going to have to get his Czech up to speed! Liberic is about an hour east of the Freiberg temple in Germany, and about a half hour from Poland. So, in the Sudetenland, in Bohemia. My dad speaks German, so hopefully German is still spoken there, although it may not be. They were introduced to the Czech national drink by the mission president: Kofola. Tastes like black licorice. Yuck! My dad likes it, my mom does not. Unlike in Warsaw, where my parents were the finance/mission secretary couple, my parents will spend their whole time running the branch in Liberic this time around. Sweet! I've visited Liberec a couple of times. I spent some time in a small village in the general area called Nova Paka. It was about an hour away. A lot of younger people in the Czech Republic speak German and English, since they learn 2 languages of their choice starting in elementary school. During communism, everyone had to learn Russian, so older people speak it but don't want to (a common name for cockroaches is "rus" which also means Russian... there's not much love from the Czechs to the Russians). Technically, the Czech national drink would be a Pilsner beer or a cocktail called beton, but I'm guessing your parents won't be enjoying that Kofola is a soft drink like coke but with a more roasted flavor. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other country by a long shot. 143 liters per person per year. Second on the list is Namibia at 108. Czechs looooooove their beer. It's damn good and really cheap. Anyways, thanks for the update. I'm excited by proxy for you and your family 2
RevTestament Posted September 19, 2018 Posted September 19, 2018 On 9/18/2018 at 12:25 PM, rongo said: Well, they want to know how much your family *could* help you with school, if they really wanted to. That sounds like we should be okay if he files his own. He's looking at about $10,000 in income (his mission money, surplus in savings). He would have to file our tax returns with his FAFSA, anyway. There are no hidden resources there! What's dumb was that we filed his FAFSA last year on October 1, when it opened, because some grants are based on availability, and filing date prejudices selection. It didn't sync with the IRS like it did for my wife's FAFSA, so we had to input all of the tax info. The syncing made it super easy, but it also means that FAFSA trusts your numbers. We had to do the "Blue Verification" process to prove our tax returns were valid. We couldn't just provide copies of our tax returns for the last three years, we had to obtain a "tax transcript" from the IRS (which is just a "certified" copy of tax returns). It was a huge hassle, and I've been told by other early filers that they had the same problem. So, as our high school makes their big FAFSA push for seniors on October 1, I'm thinking maybe it might be good to wait a few weeks at least . . . Do you know if my son needs to do another FAFSA this year (mission summer 2019- summer 2021)? Or, does he/we need to do it fall of 2020 for reentry fall of 2021? New territory for us! I didn't even file a FAFSA (not sure if it even existed in the late 1990s). As indicated Pell grant won't be affected. However, there could be different tax ramifications. If he doesn't have much income, he may not be able to take full advantage of tax credits like the Hope tax credit. Therefore, you could claim the credit if you pay his tuition and claim him as a dependent. You indicated $10,000 in income, but your parenthetical made it sound more like $10,000 in the bank. That's not income, but assets. My son got a part time job, so claimed the credit himself. However, he received a full Pell grant for this semester. 1
rongo Posted September 20, 2018 Author Posted September 20, 2018 16 hours ago, RevTestament said: As indicated Pell grant won't be affected. However, there could be different tax ramifications. If he doesn't have much income, he may not be able to take full advantage of tax credits like the Hope tax credit. Therefore, you could claim the credit if you pay his tuition and claim him as a dependent. You indicated $10,000 in income, but your parenthetical made it sound more like $10,000 in the bank. That's not income, but assets. My son got a part time job, so claimed the credit himself. However, he received a full Pell grant for this semester. He has a full-tuition scholarship, and the Pell Grant and three other grants completely pay for the remainder (including housing and food). So, no out of pocket for this school year. The ca. $10,000 he will have earned by the end of the year (this is still in progress; he works around 30 hours a week for grounds crew on campus, and he did a lot of construction all summer long) is all income (he will get W2s for them). I'm not particularly worried that I or he won't get to use Hope credits or anything else. Our "refund" has always been kind of a sham, although we do take it and don't send it back to the IRS. I pay no federal withholding, and get ca. $7000 "back" every year. As my children reach their majority and start claiming themselves, this "refund" will begin disappearing. I fully expect that. My only interest is seeing that his grants don't go away after his mission because he filed his own return and we don't claim him as a dependent any more. It appears from what has been said here that we don't have anything to worry about on that score.
Rain Posted September 20, 2018 Posted September 20, 2018 (edited) On 9/18/2018 at 12:25 PM, rongo said: Well, they want to know how much your family *could* help you with school, if they really wanted to. That sounds like we should be okay if he files his own. He's looking at about $10,000 in income (his mission money, surplus in savings). He would have to file our tax returns with his FAFSA, anyway. There are no hidden resources there! What's dumb was that we filed his FAFSA last year on October 1, when it opened, because some grants are based on availability, and filing date prejudices selection. It didn't sync with the IRS like it did for my wife's FAFSA, so we had to input all of the tax info. The syncing made it super easy, but it also means that FAFSA trusts your numbers. We had to do the "Blue Verification" process to prove our tax returns were valid. We couldn't just provide copies of our tax returns for the last three years, we had to obtain a "tax transcript" from the IRS (which is just a "certified" copy of tax returns). It was a huge hassle, and I've been told by other early filers that they had the same problem. So, as our high school makes their big FAFSA push for seniors on October 1, I'm thinking maybe it might be good to wait a few weeks at least . . . Do you know if my son needs to do another FAFSA this year (mission summer 2019- summer 2021)? Or, does he/we need to do it fall of 2020 for reentry fall of 2021? New territory for us! I didn't even file a FAFSA (not sure if it even existed in the late 1990s). I'd consider doing the FAFSA . I know it is not usual, but my son's friend waited for his call something like 9 months and then had to wait something like another 6 months before he was sent out - unfortunately he lost his scholarship because he deferred it, but because the wait was so long they wouldn't hold it till he got back.. It hasn't been unheard of that many of my youngest sons friends have had to wait 6 months to go out after they got their call. Your son may be able to get another semester of school in depending on how long he has to wait, especially if it is the summer one. Edited September 20, 2018 by Rain 1
cinepro Posted September 20, 2018 Posted September 20, 2018 On 9/18/2018 at 7:30 AM, rongo said: but it is much more cost-effective not to have it (if you are healthy, of course). I don't think anyone would argue that it's not more cost effective to not have insurance as long as you don't need it. 2
rongo Posted September 21, 2018 Author Posted September 21, 2018 On 9/19/2018 at 2:52 PM, MiserereNobis said: Sweet! I've visited Liberec a couple of times. I spent some time in a small village in the general area called Nova Paka. It was about an hour away. A lot of younger people in the Czech Republic speak German and English, since they learn 2 languages of their choice starting in elementary school. During communism, everyone had to learn Russian, so older people speak it but don't want to (a common name for cockroaches is "rus" which also means Russian... there's not much love from the Czechs to the Russians). Technically, the Czech national drink would be a Pilsner beer or a cocktail called beton, but I'm guessing your parents won't be enjoying that Kofola is a soft drink like coke but with a more roasted flavor. The Czechs drink more beer per capita than any other country by a long shot. 143 liters per person per year. Second on the list is Namibia at 108. Czechs looooooove their beer. It's damn good and really cheap. Anyways, thanks for the update. I'm excited by proxy for you and your family Here's a bit more (quite a bit more): http://gregevelynczechout.blogspot.com/ 1
MiserereNobis Posted September 22, 2018 Posted September 22, 2018 11 hours ago, rongo said: Here's a bit more (quite a bit more): http://gregevelynczechout.blogspot.com/ Thanks. It's interesting reading over my beloved Czech Republic from an LDS missionary's point of view. 1
Storm Rider Posted September 22, 2018 Posted September 22, 2018 11 hours ago, rongo said: Here's a bit more (quite a bit more): http://gregevelynczechout.blogspot.com/ What a great letter to receive from your folks. I have never visited this country, but it is certainly on my bucket list. I think the world needs as many people who believe in God and his Son to stand firm in their witness, born of the Holy Spirit, of the glory of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am not nearly as concerned about which church as I am about bringing others closer to their Father in Heaven.
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