Cause they're suckers, just like the rest of the fanclub

"Sacrifice brings forth the blessings of heaven," or so says one of our hymns. If missionaries pay for their own missions, they will take their calling much more seriously. I saw a huge difference between the missionaries serving in order to get that new car from their parents and the missionaries who had to save up money themselves. Besides, for those who truly want to serve, but don't have sufficient money, there is a missionary fund to help them out.

While laie_techie’s response is dead on, I’d like to add another dimension to the mix: what makes you think the Church of Jesus Christ (please don’t call it “the Mormon Church”) has so much money at its disposal? Several years ago, *Time* and *Newsweek* reported, respectively, that the Church takes in some $5.9B/year, and has a net worth of about $25B. While the President of the Church responded that these figures were severely inflated, let’s look at what the Church *does* have. The Church has about 30,000 congregations around the world. Let’s suppose that translates into 10,000 meetinghouses (which is probably way off, but let’s just suppose). Let’s also suppose that each meetinghouse (and its lot) be worth, on average, $1M USD (again, just picking a number). That means that $10B of the Church’s assets are tied up in meetinghouses. The Church also has about 125 operating temples around the world. Let’s suppose that each temple (and its grounds) be worth, on average, $16M USD. That means that an additional $2B is tied up in temples. We’ve already accounted for almost half of that original, “highly inflated,” $25B figure. Now let’s tack on the 16 (last I knew) missionary training centers, hundreds of mission homes, hundreds of seminaries, several universities (including three campuses of BYU alone), the Family History Library and thousands of Family History Centers throughout the world, the Polynesian Cultural Center…. The list goes on and on. And last—but *certainly* not least—you’ve got the welfare arm of the Church. I can’t even imagine how many billions go into Welfare Square, the various bishop’s storehouses throughout the world, and even the semis and jets that bring food and supplies to the needy throughout the world, even to those that have never even heard of the Church (and especially in times of disaster). How much does it cost to feed and clothe, say, the population of New Orleans, even if only for a few days? (And yes, I also know not *everybody* in New Orleans received Church aid after Katrina, but you’ll hopefully understand what I’m getting at.) And after all this, here’s the kicker: with the possible exception of the universities (which of course charge tuition), not a single one of the aforementioned properties generates even a penny of revenue for the Church. In fact, quite the opposite, as they *all* require substantial investment, if only to keep them in good repair. All of a sudden, even that purported $5.9B/year seems pretty darned small. So the bottom line here is simple: even if it weren’t good for the missionaries to pay their own way (and that’s coming from a returned missionary that had to put off my mission, for financial reasons), there’s just no way the Church could do it. In fact, I expect that giving an all-expenses–paid, 18-to-24–month vacation to each of the Church’s 50-some-odd–thousand missionaries would bankrupt the Church, in a matter of weeks. As always, HTH! :-)