Hey, everyone. I recently heard from a slightly unreliable source that my sister (who is leaving for a mission soon) had to buy all of her mission supplies through a designated LDS website. This included a cheap bike that cost $600!!!

Like I said, the person who told me this likes to exaggerate and make things sound much worse, especially in regards to the mormon church. Can someone confirm this information?

If it's true, it REALLY pisses me off! Missionaries save up 10,000 for their missions, don't they? And then on top of that they have to buy certain items from a LDS website as well? So how much is the church making off of these poor missionaries really? How much does a mission actually cost? The whole thing just sounds like a terrible scam to put more money in the church's pocket.

We know what a mission costs:

Your conscience.

Current monthly cost is $400 for North American missionaries. It varies globally -- if you are from S. America, your family is probably not going to pay that much.

Over 24 months, you're looking at about $9600. On top of this, add the following (in order of most to least expensive for me):

-- Clothes. This will vary a lot. I spent $500 on a couple mediocre suits and some shoes
-- Pre-mission dental and physical exam. I had to get wisdom teeth pulled, so that was $360 ($90/tooth). Physical was $70.
-- Transport to the MTC. About $150 in gas and depreciation.
-- Additional shots. I had to get another MMR, and some other vaccine. About $70.

That was all 10 years ago. Factor in some inflation, and a modern mission is about $12,000, give or take, for the missionary and his family.

The biggest cost, however, is opportunity cost. If I'd started my career two years earlier, I could have a substantially greater amount of money. Or I could have completed a doctorate prior to working. There are a whole slew of things I could do with two years of my life. That's the biggest price. I'd gladly pay $12,000 - or $50,000, or $100,000 -- if I could get those two years back.

Don't forget the extra money you have to spend each month just to have enough food to eat because the stipend the church gives you is too small (or was this just my mission?)

Our stipend was $120... so $4 a day to eat on. SNAP (food stamps, basically) provides $4.50-$5.00/day, depending on some factors, as a point of comparison.

I never had to dip into personal savings, though. I bought a 20-pound bag of rice every few months, and lots of canned foods when they went on sale. I went from a size 34 waistband to a size 32 within a couple months; at my low point, I was 6'1 and weighed 160 pounds.

Not eager to repeat those days. I love cooking and can afford quality ingredients, but it took me a while to understand that it was okay to spend more than 5 bucks a day for food.

When I was doing missionary work, we had to buy our Books of Mormon, and all church material from the mission home...even garments.

Then we were to report each month how many BoM's we had "placed." If you were below average in placing Books of Mormon, you were a slacker missionary.

We usually sold the books to investigators back in those days. We told them it was the "printing cost" of the book. If the people were poor, we just gave them away without reimbursement. the blessings we got were enough repayment....NOT.

Some of the missionaries who did not want to appear as slackers, were leaving copies in movie theaters and calling them "placed."

So, buy the books, and then be looked down upon if you didn't sell, or give away enough. What a racket. Cult cult cult.

So for TBMs from TBM families...the family and soon missionary pay the cost correct??

BUT...if some kid wants to go and the parents won't pay, just left the church, etc...then the CHURCH pays for this??

As a TBM, that would piss me off.