How Much Does an LDS Mission Cost?

There is no single worldwide price for a mission. Under current Church guidance, missionaries from some countries take part in an equalized contribution programme — the same monthly amount is contributed for every missionary, wherever they are sent — and in other countries the missionary, their family, their bishop and their stake president counsel together about what the monthly contribution should be.

Is there one fixed price for an LDS mission?

No — and this is the part almost every other page gets wrong, usually by quoting a single monthly figure from one country and one year as though it were a global price list.

What the current Handbook describes is a monthly contribution made by the missionary and their family, arrived at in one of two ways depending on where they live, and paid through the ward missionary fund rather than to the mission directly. That structure is stable. The amount is not a single number, and the Church does not publish one figure that answers the question for everybody.

So the useful version of the question is not “how much does a mission cost?” but “what will our family be asked to contribute each month, and what else should we budget for?” Those both have answers. The first comes from your bishop; the second is most of this page.

How missionary contributions work

The mechanics are the same everywhere, even though the amount is not.

• The commitment is made during the recommendation. The monthly amount the missionary and family commit to is part of the missionary recommendation, worked out with the bishop before the recommendation is submitted.
• It is paid to the ward missionary fund, not to a mission or to the missionary. The ward fund exists specifically for donations relating to ward members serving missions away from home.
• It goes into the general missionary effort. Funds are drawn from ward missionary funds each month to support missionary work worldwide. A family in a high-cost country and a family in a low-cost one are contributing to the same effort, and the contribution is consecrated rather than held as a balance for one named missionary.
• The missionary is funded in the field separately. What the missionary lives on while serving comes from the mission, not from money they carry with them. More on that below.

One practical consequence of that structure: contributions are not refundable, and they are not a balance that follows a missionary who returns early or transfers. If circumstances change, that is a conversation to have with the bishop.

What is the equalized contribution programme?

Missionaries from some countries take part in an equalized contribution programme. Under it, the same amount is contributed for each missionary regardless of where he or she serves.

The point is fairness in both directions. A missionary assigned somewhere expensive does not cost their family more than one assigned somewhere cheap, and no family has an incentive to hope for a cheaper assignment. It also means the figure you may have heard from a friend in the same country is likely to be the right shape — while a figure from a different country tells you nothing at all.

What this page will not do is print the current equalized amount for any particular country. Those amounts are administered and updated by the Church, an out-of-date number here would be worse than no number, and your bishop can give you the current one in a single conversation.

What happens in countries outside the equalized programme?

Where the equalized programme does not apply, current guidance is that the bishop, stake president, missionary and family counsel together about the monthly contribution amount, with the bishop and stake president considering guidance from the Area Presidency.

That is a genuinely different model, and it is why a global figure cannot exist. In these countries the contribution reflects what the family and the missionary can reasonably provide, in a conversation rather than from a table.

If you are in one of these countries, the single most useful thing you can do is have that conversation early — before the recommendation, not during it — so that the figure you plan around is a real one.

Plan your mission savings

Whatever the contribution turns out to be, most families are also saving toward it and toward the one-off costs before departure. This planner works backwards from a target you set yourself.

Enter your own savings target and the date you want to reach it by, and it will show how much that means putting aside each month, week and day. It is a personal savings plan and nothing more — it does not know and does not assume any official amount.

If you do not have a figure yet, a reasonable way to build one is: twelve or eighteen months of the monthly contribution your bishop gives you, plus the pre-mission costs listed further down, plus something for the things that turn up late.

What does the mission cover?

Under current guidance, young missionaries serving away from home receive funds from the mission each month for their living costs — described as adequate funds for healthy food, transportation and other living expenses.

That is the answer to the question parents most often actually mean: missionaries are not expected to fund their day-to-day living from savings they brought with them. Housing, getting around their area and eating properly are provided for through the mission.

Two qualifications are worth stating plainly rather than glossing over. First, these are described as sacred funds for mission purposes — they are not spending money, savings, or support for family at home. Second, what “other living expenses” covers in practice depends on local circumstances and on the mission; the amount is set to the cost of living where the missionary is serving, so it is neither a fixed global figure nor a personal allowance.

What might a missionary still pay for personally?

Current guidance is that personal expenses are paid from the missionary’s own funds and should generally be minimal. A mission is not structured around discretionary spending, and a missionary who is spending a lot personally is usually doing something the standards do not contemplate.

In practice, the personal spending that does occur tends to be things like:

• replacing clothing, shoes or a bag that wears out;
• personal toiletries and similar items beyond ordinary living costs;
• occasional approved recreation or small purchases on preparation day, where permitted in that mission.

What none of that amounts to is a second budget running alongside the contribution. Families who set aside a modest personal cushion — not a large one — are generally planning correctly.

Pre-mission expenses to budget for

These are the costs that surprise families, because they land in the weeks between the call and departure and are separate from the monthly contribution entirely. Which of them apply, and what they cost, genuinely varies by mission and by country, so treat this as a list of categories rather than a price list.

• Clothing and shoes — usually the largest single item, and the one most affected by where you are called. Buy after the call, not before.
• Luggage — sized to the airline limits in your instructions.
• Passport — apply as soon as you can; this is the item most likely to hold up a departure.
• Visa-related requirements, where the assignment needs one. Costs, documents and timelines vary widely and some assignments need none at all.
• Medical and dental preparation — the assessments themselves, plus any work they identify. Dental work is the commonest source of both unplanned cost and delay.
• Immunisations, where required for the assignment.
• Personal equipment and mission-specific items — whatever your call packet and mission instructions specify.
• Travel to the MTC or mission, where that is not arranged for you.

The detailed version of the clothing and equipment side is in the LDS missionary packing list, which is also the best defence against the other common financial mistake — buying things nobody ends up using.

How much should you save before a mission?

There is no official answer, and any specific figure you read online is somebody’s own situation rather than a rule. What there is, is a sensible way to build your own number:

1. Ask your bishop what the monthly contribution will be for your situation. This is the only figure that matters and it takes one conversation to get.
2. Decide how many months of it your family intends to have saved before departure, rather than paid month by month during the mission. Both approaches are normal.
3. Add the pre-mission categories above that actually apply to you.
4. Add a modest cushion for replacements and for the things that turn up late.

Then put that total and your expected departure date into the savings planner above to see what it means per month. Starting eighteen months out rather than six changes the monthly number far more than any amount of economising does.

If you do not yet have a date to plan toward, the current age requirements and the 150-day submission window are what set the earliest one — and therefore how long you have to save.

What if your family cannot afford the full contribution?

This is answered directly in current guidance, and it is worth reading in the original: any young man or young woman who has a desire to serve God and has prepared according to his or her ability should not be delayed from serving for financial reasons.

The mechanism behind that sentence is ordinary and local. The bishop works with the missionary and the family to establish what they can contribute. Where there is a shortfall, the bishop — or the stake president — may invite members of the ward or stake to contribute to the ward missionary fund. That fund exists for exactly this.

Two things follow. Have the conversation early and honestly, because it is a normal conversation your bishop has repeatedly. And do not decide in advance, on your own, that a mission is financially out of reach — that is not a decision the current guidance asks a family to make alone.

Senior missionary costs

Senior missionaries serving away from home are funded differently from young missionaries, and it is a genuinely different financial picture.

Under current guidance, senior missionaries commit to a monthly amount based on the cost of housing in the mission they are assigned to, which helps cover housing and vehicle costs. Beyond that commitment, senior missionaries are responsible for their own expenses — food, personal items and fuel among them.

So senior service is not equalized in the way young missionary service can be, and the total depends on the assignment. Prospective senior missionaries should work through the numbers with their bishop and stake president before a recommendation goes in, because the range across assignments is wide.

Service mission costs

Service missionaries live at home, and under current guidance they and their families are responsible for their own financial needs. Ward and stake missionary funds may not be used for the needs of a missionary serving at home.

That reads harsher than it plays out in practice: the costs of serving from home are mostly the costs of living at home, which the family is already meeting. There is no monthly contribution to the missionary fund of the kind young missionaries serving away from home commit to, and there is no field allowance either.

The ages and the assignment differences between the two kinds of young mission are set out in the current LDS missionary age requirements.

Frequently asked questions

How much does an LDS mission cost per month?

There is no single worldwide figure. In equalized countries the same monthly amount is contributed for every missionary regardless of where they serve; elsewhere the amount is settled between the missionary, the family, the bishop and the stake president. Your bishop can give you the current figure for your situation.

Is the cost the same whether you are sent abroad or stay local?

Where the equalized contribution programme applies, yes — that is the point of it. The same amount is contributed for each missionary regardless of the assignment.

Who pays for a missionary’s food and travel while serving?

Young missionaries serving away from home receive funds from the mission each month for healthy food, transportation and other living expenses. Those funds are for mission purposes, not personal spending.

Do parents have to pay for a mission?

The contribution is made by the missionary and the family together, and how it is divided between them is theirs to decide. Many missionaries save toward it themselves for years beforehand.

What if we genuinely cannot afford it?

Talk to your bishop. Current guidance is that a prepared candidate should not be delayed from serving for financial reasons, and the bishop may invite ward or stake members to contribute to the ward missionary fund where there is a shortfall.

Are contributions refundable if a mission ends early?

No. Contributions to the ward missionary fund are consecrated to the Lord and are not refundable. If circumstances change, speak to your bishop.

Does a service mission cost the same?

No. Service missionaries live at home and are responsible for their own financial needs, and ward or stake missionary funds are not used for them.

How much should I save before I leave?

There is no official figure. Build your own from the monthly contribution your bishop gives you, the pre-mission costs that apply to your call, and a cushion — then use the planner above to work out what that means per month between now and your departure date.

Sources and further reading

Everything on this page about how mission finances work was checked against the current published guidance below. No monthly amount is quoted here because no current official source states one that applies generally.

Next: the complete mission preparation checklist puts the financial preparation in order alongside everything else, and the mission papers guide explains where the contribution commitment fits into the recommendation. If your call has already arrived, what to do after receiving your mission call covers the spending decisions in the right order.