We picked up our daughter from Sweden. In her mission, the MP didn't discourage families from coming to pick up their missionaries. In fact, it was the norm. To put that in context, almost everyone who gets called to Sweden has Swedish ancestry, so it is a homeland pilgrimage to go pick up a missionary. We spent a week touring areas that she served in. In fact, I baptized her last convert. She wore missionary attire the whole time and my wife and I dressed similarly. We concentrated on visiting her converts and activations. It was a spiritual feast.

Our son was serving in Taiwan at the same time. His MP sent a letter to parents that went much further than the handbook in discouraging pickups. We respected his wishes. However, we went to his mission five months after he returned home. His younger brother had just been called to that mission and was about to serve there, so we brought him along. It was preview tour of the mission for him. Our sons made no attempt to dress like missionaries. In fact, my son who had served there went on a couple of dates. And why not--if they were not missionaries? We went to China at the end of the trip for a few days. For us, it would have felt wrong to do that on a pickup. The trip was a nice experience and it was touching to meet the people our older son taught and worked with. However, this trip wasn't a spiritual feast like the trip to pick up our daughter was.

My bottom line is that I think this issue is situational. I understand the handbook's 'discouragement' but note that it isn't nearly as strong as the outright ban on over-the-top farewells and homecomings. However, I frankly don't understand the MPs that go beyond the handbook. I think they would be better served by "teaching correct principles and letting the people govern themselves." But I'm not going to challenge any MP who has that preference. We are going to play the next pickup (in a year) plus hopefully two more in a few years by the Spirit.