I saw my TBM friend at a social event this weekend, and she mentioned that an acquaintance of hers will be holding a fundraiser of some kind for a (non-Mormon) missionary group. I said, "Speaking of missionaries, I was surprised to learn that LDS missionaries have to pay for their own missions. That must get expensive."

She said in a quite defensive tone, "Well, I'm SURE the church has a way of helping people from poorer families to pay for their missions."

We didn't discuss it further, but I couldn't help thinking that her own family was far from well-off, if not technically poor. She is one of eight kids, and her dad was in the army but not in a high-ranking position. Her mother of course was a stay-at-home mom. I know my friend's brothers all served missions, but obviously, given her reply, her family did not receive any assistance with paying for those missions.

I realize that compared to a polygamous eternity on one's own planet, baptizing dead Jews, and so on, missionaries having to fund the cost of their own missions is hardly the most fascinating aspect of Mormonism, but it is still the fact I have learned from this board that most surprises me. I just can't comprehend why, on top of tithing, faithful Mormon families, many of whom are no doubt already struggling financially, should be expected to underwrite the cost of growing the church--and that they don't seem to question the unfairness of this. Anyway, just curious.

Oh my goodness, no - the mormon chruch is far to underfunded to pay for missions. What a silly question!

Many years ago - when I attended church - the ward would cover the cost of poor kids who went on missions. The family was still expected to contribute, and any deficit would be made up by certain well-to-do benefactors in the ward, and sometimes the high priest quorum would 'sponser' a missionary. I don't know if they also used this method at the stake level. There was also a category on the tithing slip for "Missionary Fund." But I would seriously doubt if the main LDS corp would EVER fund any missions - it's just not cost-effective for them; it's better to get the sheepies to do it themselves. And besides, tithing money is too precious to invest on missions (when there are so many business available to invest the money into).

I had friends who were unable to fully fund their own missions (as were their parents) & so local members would chip in to help them through their mission. I assume that the missionary fund is also used for this purpose? One of my Stake Presidents said from the pulpit on more than one occassion "No young man should let lack of money stop them serving a mission, there are plenty of rich members in this stake that will help out"

To be fair to the morg this seems to be one thing that they will contribute $/£'s to. I suppose they see it as tying the mishie into the morg for the rest of their tithe paying life......speculate to accumulate & all that!

When I was at that age, the bishop kept asking me if I would go on a mission. I told him we couldn't afford it - we were poor (the tithing alone was killing us, and we ate crap because of it). But he kept asking, and said, "If money wasn't a factor, would you go?" I knew that my mother would NEVER accept 'help' from the ward, and she would have let the telephone, lights, heat, and mortgage go in order to pay for my mission. So I told him that it would be difficult for me to go on a mission to try to get others to believe in something I didn't really buy into 100%. He left me alone after that.

My entire mission was funded by my ward. We were a poor family.

How long ago was that TNA?

2000-2002

I remember the bishop getting up and asking members to help with one of our ward's missionaries. I felt really embarrassed for the family.

the CHURCH is FUNDED BY MEMBERS, not the other way around!

I was thinking the same thing. The money comes directly from members, not from some slush fund in SLC (that's used for building malls).

I have a 20 year old son who is not, and never was, interested in going on a mission. The minute he turned 19, leaders and members of the ward were quick to let him know they would help pay for one.

Ten years or so ago when my only daughter who's a member went on hers, I dunno who paid but it certainly wasn't me.

I doubt it was her mother (divorced) either, don't think she had the money. In my case, I sent her a couple bucks here & there for personal use, but she knew very well when she started talking about it that I wouldn't float the costs of a mission.

It would've had to be somebody from the church, somewhere, somehow.

It was 1980-1981. My father refused to assist me in raising the money for me to go on a mission even though he was well off. He claimed that the Lord would provide if I prayed and worked hard enough. I needed to learn to be self-reliant.

The ward members are usually asked to help pay, but unfortunately that doesn't always work out, especially if you have multiple boys the same age all trying to go. The church itself doesn't pay for missions. Pressure is applied to the more affluent members of the ward to take up the slack, but that only goes so far.

In my age group, we had 9 boys all going on missions. 5 of them had family help. 2 of them had ward members pay for them to go because they didn't have fathers. The remaining 2 of us were out of luck. My good friend committed suicide over the shame of not being able to afford to go on a mission.

Even at his funeral, there was murmers that he was either masterbating or doing drugs, which is why he took his life. He couldn't live with not being able to go on a mission.

I have never been more sad or pissed off in my life. These acusations were baseless and deeply hurt his family. Their only crime was being sick and poor. His mother had heart trouble and his father had kidney failure. Money was tight because they had trouble holding jobs. They were the nicest people, yet were totally shunned because they couldn't afford to send their son on a mission. Lester, wherever you are bro, I'm sorry. To this day it makes me cry thinking about what a horrible church this is and what a tragedy that was.

I decided to go into the military primarily because I really didn't want to go on a mission especially after Lester and there was no way I could pay for it all. I was *excommunicated from my family* for not choosing to struggle to go to on a mission. I found out later from my grandfather via a letter he send me during basic training that my father was testing me. Once I had saved 50%, he was going to kick in the rest. So nice of him to tell me, but in truth, I'm glad he did what he did. Even so, 50% would have taken me more than a year to earn. I might have done it had he been up front with me, but he wanted to play stupid powertrip priestood games, so the situation looked hopeless. Minimum wage jobs don't pay squat.

I went through sheer hell for making the obvious decision based on the information I had at 18. I would have gone to college, but same deal-father was making me pay it all, especially since having college paid was contingent on my going on a mission. Plus, when I turned 18, he started demanding room and board, etc. It was an impossible situation. I could save if I had to pay out most of my savings. Again, later on, I found out this was to teach me discipline and appreciation for money. What it taught me was shame and abuse.

The long and short of it is that the members pay for missions 100%. If not you or your family, then the membership pays.

I can say without a doubt it is extremely embarassing to not be able to afford to go on a mission when that time comes. You are treated (at least I was) like a selfish parriah. You are shunned. I wasn't allowed to pass or bless the sacrament. I wasn't allow to advance to the office of Elder in the Priestood.
The leadership went out of their way to make negatives examples of those that couldn't/wouldn't go. So much for free agency.
So much for love. We weren't bad guys. Just young and poor.
Even though my father was rich, I was in fact poor.

I even had local ward girls refuse to date me because I wasn't going on a mission. I was interveiwed multiple times by the bishop which was m.i.s.e.r.a.b.l.e. Since I wasn't going on a mission, there must be some kind of unconfessed sin.

It was abusive criminal behavior, but of course my parents went right along with it. I was a difficult child. I was a hardship. It really *sucks* to be the subject of prayers over and over, especially when their public. I'm not stupid. When your parents are constantly being asked to give the prayers or bear their testimony in every meeting, you know there is collusion. Mother was always fasting and praying that my hard heart would be softened. I just need to have faith. God would provide. Sure, if god was dad. It was classic brainwashing.

All because they had information I didn't have. Even to this day, I am so pissed when I think about it. I would NEVER to do this to my children, children that I claimed I loved and cared for.

It was all done to shame me into making the right decision. Even if I had wanted to, where was the money supposed to come from? The whole thing was ridiculous.

Sorry for the semi-rant, but this really is a sensitive topic for me and probably for other former young men.

So much misery. So unneccesary.

you're not Lost, not at all.

when I was active, 10+ years ago, there was a place on the tithing slip for Missionary fund. I never knew what that was used for, exactly, but you could donate to the missionary fund if you chose to.

When my youngest son decided to go on a mission, my ex had promised to pay for it, even though he had long left the church.

What I found out much later is that the last 6 months or so of the mission, he never sent the ward any money. I never heard a thing about that, so some way the last few months of his mission got funded in some fashion.

Now my TBM daughter is counting on the ward paying for her son's mission next year. Good luck with that, I say. I'm not going to pay a dime to help him.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2012 04:07PM by gemini.

My dear departed Dad, one of the most generous people I ever knew, payed for many missions....anonymously. I and my brother didn't go so maybe this was his way of making up for that...never asked him...I found out about his philanthropy at his funeral from more than one person.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/11/2012 09:10PM by andyb.

the receiving ward also helps with the daily feeding of the missionary. The goal on the part of the mission/ward leaders is usually to provide member dinners daily to the missionaries serving in that ward.

In Mexico, during 1992-1994, this was explicitly part of the way we as missionaries were to manage our weekly schedules. We were to work with the RS president in finding out who would be our dinner appointments for the week and in many of the smaller branches we basically ate with the same families on "their day" every week. I was only in one branch large enough to have a monthly calendar. Most of the time we had our rotation of seven families for the week over and over again until the RS president let us know that a new weekly rotation was in place.

I mention this other aspect of supporting missionaries, because I am almost certain that in making decisions to open and close new areas or on how to distribute missionaries among the branches (because some branches had 2 or 3 sets of missionaries, not just one) the number of member provided meals was a huge factor. I'd venture to say that it was the largest factor, because how hot or cold an area was in terms of baptisms was irrelevant (and usually more correlated to individual missionary performance rather than geography or branch boundaries). It was all about the mission president finding out from the local branch how much support, in terms families signed up to provide meals, the branch could commit to. Branches with lots of families ready to provide meals got lots of missionaries. The mission president did not want us going home every day to prepare lunches and dinners (because we'd cover less ground that way, waste time cooking and cleaning, and take naps).

Ideally, the MP wanted us to wake up, study, prepare breakfast, then leave and be on the streets until lunch and eat with a family and grill them for investigator contacts during the meal, then back to the streets until dinner and then grill another family for investigator contacts during the meal, and then back to the streets until curfew and then be indoors until the following morning.

Funny! I'm a non mo, married to a mo, and under constant attack for recruitment. A freind of ours published an appeal for donations for her son's mission.

I playing dumb, asked "Why does he need the money?"

She replied "For expenses on his Church Mssion."

I replied: "Why doesnt the Church pay for that, since he will work two years for no pay."

No response.

because you are supposed to sacrifice, suffer, and bleed yourself to death for the cult, and consider it a priviledge, don't you get it delt1995! ;)

NeverMo, I was YM Pres in my ward in 2001-2003 and a poorish kid said he wanted to go on a mission. I volunteered to pay for half of his cost (about $180/month) and the ward came up with the other half. I paid about $4,000 in total, the ward the same amount.

It's my understanding that each ward is responsible for covering the costs of the missionaries in its ward, whether parents pay in full for each kid or the collective ward pays for each missionary. It's a ward issue.

As a backstop, the general church mission fund pays for missionaries who don't have the resources. The Morg considers it an investment. I don't know of any bishop or stake president who has turned away a willing missionary from that calling.

so the real answer is that NO, the church will not help pay for missions. It is left up to the wards to figure out how to pay for those who cant afford to go, ON TOP OF tithing and other offerings. I have never heard of the Stake or SLC covering the $400/mo for a missionary.

Thank you everyone for the information. It's nice that poor families can (usually) get others to defray the costs.

@Lost: I am extremely sorry to read of what you suffered and about your friend's suicide. I cried reading your post.

All five of my brothers kids (both male and female) went on missions. They put up some money then went to my father for the rest.