A Mormon missionary's mother states that her son's food budget of $145 per month has been cut to $130 permanently while serving as a Mormon missionary in North Carolina.  She entitles her message "Missionary budget cuts...  Paper or Food?"  

The Mormon church is currently spending over $2 Billion on a new shopping mall in Salt Lake City.  [June 2007]

In June 2007, this mother and her husband rescued their son from a Mormon mission and brought him home.

 

 

Subject:

Missionary budget cuts.... Paper or FOOD?

Date:

Jun 06, 2007

Author:

A Musing Grace

When I first discovered the board three weeks ago, I read the archives for days. I found a post about the BILLION dollar mall [now at 2 BILLION] and all the other stuff the church spends its money on. I was angry and immediately told my husband what I'd been reading. He kept trying to come up with a good reason for the mall, but finally gave up because there is NO WAY to spin it or wrap your brain around any reason good enough for doing this...if it's truly Christ's church and not a corporation.

Well, lo and behold the next day...we get an email from our missionary son in North Carolina. He informs us that his personal budget for food and essentials is being cut by the "church". (WHO in the HECK IS the CHURCH anyway???) His budget of $145 is being cut to $130 permanently. He mentioned that is it "pretty hard to eat good" on $130 and that when he was in his first area, his budget had been $130 and that the members were not feeding them at all. He and his comp got the "award" for least fed in the zone - three meals in a quarter. When I'd found out about the award I'd sent him some money because I didn't want him to starve. I didn't know at that time he was living on $130 a month.

We were sending $400 a month for my son to have the privilege of serving and giving 100% of himself and they only give him $130.

My husband and I discussed the situation when he got home from work. We were so upset, especially in light of the BILLION dollar mall. This was a chink in the armor of the church in my husband's eyes. He made the point that groceries never go down in price, only up. Why would the "church" cut their budget, and not expand it? To the MP's credit, my son said he was trying to convince the church not to cut their funds.

I have to say, this was the last email my son wrote home to us. We were there in North Carolina the next Sunday BRINGING HIM HOME.

When I went to his apartment in was a disgusting mess. It smelled horrible and the kitchen was the worst thing I'd seen in a long time. As I cleaned up I noticed that the basic essentials of a household were not to be found. No napkins, no paper towels, no dish towels, limited cleaning supplies. And why? Because what are you going to buy with a $130 a month? Food or paper products?

I'm so glad my boy is home!

 

Subject:

THANKS for sharing this!!!.....

Date:

Jun 06 13:26

Author:

Tahoe Girl

We really need to hear this stuff from people who have or are going through it. I hope you're keeping a record of this and that you write a book about it all. :)

I'm so glad your son is home, and glad that my son (now 14) will never go on a mission.

 

Subject:

Ugh, food budgets! Don't get me started . . .

Date:

Jun 06 13:34

Author:

Ex Useful Idiot

I was in a brand-new mission - as in, while I was in the MTC [missionary training center] it was officially made a mission. There had been missionaries there for 2 years, most of them couples, but it was considered a service mission and so there was no MP and they were actually given quite a lot of money because nobody in Hong Kong (on the other side of China from Mongolia) had a clue how much money they really needed.

Anyway, as soon as it became an official mission (right before I got there) they had a big increase in costs - they called an MP and had to set-up a mission office and buy him a jeep and hire a driver and get him a satellite dish so he could sit on his ass and watch American news and whatnot. (no, I'm not bitter!)

At this point somebody in Hong Kong decided that they needed to find out exactly what we really could live on. Did they send someone up to check out prices? Hell no. They just lowered (drastically at first) our allowances every month until it got to the point that we were really starving and complaining and then they bumped it up just a few bucks and called it good. VERY un-F-ing scientific!!!

There was one place where peanut butter and ketchup could be gotten but it was outrageously expensive because there was only the one guy IN THE WHOLE COUNTRY importing this stuff (virtually no Americans = no demand). Until a few other vendors caught on and started bringing it back with them from China (thus lowering the price thru competition) we couldn't even afford peanut butter or ketchup. How sick is that?

I think this is the way they figure out food budgets - they cut and cut and cut until the MP gets tired of hearing about it he goes and kicks some ass. If the MP won't step-up to bat for his missionaries then they get screwed.

Your post brought back memories of rice, rice, sheep necks, more rice, and canned horse-meat.

PS - when I got back from my mission I weighed 10 lbs LESS than my lowest wrestling weight! And I worked very hard at cutting weight, too.

 

Subject:

All I can do is shake my head.

Date:

Jun 06 13:44

Author:

runner

I can't believe that "the church" would starve their missionaries. This needs to be changed! I know that I will have plenty of nephews and nieces serving missions, and maybe even my own children. Just one more thing to really worry a mother about.

It does seem that the only thing TSCC [This so called church] wants to spend its money on, is the buildings. We have practically no money for activities.

 

Subject:

I don't think anybody really wanted us to starve but . . .

Date:

Jun 06 13:54

Author:

Ex Useful Idiot

. . . there is just such a disconnect between what the MP [Mission president is a paid position] experienced and what we experienced. Like I said, he had a paid driver and a cleaning lady and office staff AND his food was shipped from Hong Kong (meaning he had "real" food). He and his wife just didn't get it. They were living in the same place but they were living in a different world.

Like I said, when they got sick of hearing about it they told somebody in HK and I wouldn't be surprised if someone there said something like, "I'm sure they can make do with a little less - they'll have to because the Lord doesn't want them wasting sacred funds . . ." I'm sure this game goes on back and forth for awhile before the MP really puts his foot down.

From my experience the food budgets have nothing to do with reality and everthing to do with how good the MP is at negotiating with his higher-ups.

 

Subject:

Re: Ugh, food budgets! Don't get me started . . .

Date:

Jun 06 14:05

Author:

A Musing Grace

Sheep necks and canned horse meat...

I want to cry.

I'm so sorry. Bless your heart.

If you lived near me, I'd make you a restitutional dinner. I'll make one for my son and he can be your proxy. :-)

I feel so bad being a part of something that required so much suffering on behalf of "the Lord."

I've heard of Elders in South America shaking iguanas out of the trees for their supper. I wonder what their budgets are like?

 

Subject:

Sounds like they were using one of my dad's old jokes as a guideline.

Date:

Jun 06 15:29

Author:

Stray Mutt

The joke goes that a cheapskate farmer wanted to see how little he could get by feeding his plow mule. Each week he'd feed it a little less. A neighbor asked how the experiment was going. The farmer replied that he wasn't able to finish the experiment. "Just about the time I got the dern thing living on nothin' it went and died me."

 

Subject:

Start of mission: a muscular 196 lbs. End of mission: a scrawny 168 lbs.

Date:

Jun 06 13:45

Author:

tigerbiter

We lived on rice, that was about it. But we kind of did it on purpose. At the end of my mission I saved about 800 dollars MSF to waste on souvenirs. I was stateside too and had a total of 25 dinner appointments my entire mission. if it wasn't for the generosity of the people we were working with we probably would have starved

Grace, your son didn't happen to work with any of the Hmong population down in NC, did he?

I've been on a hiatus from RfM for a while and completely missed your introduction etcetera, so add to this my welcome to the post-mormon/exmormon community.

 

Subject:

Re: Start of mission: a muscular 196 lbs. End of mission: a scrawny 168 lbs.

Date:

Jun 06 13:54

Author:

A Musing Grace

Hi Tigerbiter,

No, he didn't work with the Hmong. He was only out seven months in the Charlotte mission.

He talks of some elders blowing their church money early in the month and then living on Ramen the rest of the month. There are other elders who have big personal spending accounts funded from home and they go out to eat all the time and their companions (my son) would sit and watch them eat because they can't afford to eat out and they have to be with the companion.

According to my son, these missionaries with the extra funds are the reason the budget is being cut for the other elders. When they church debit card comes up with restaurants on it, the church thinks they have too much money. What they don't realize or don't care about is that these young men are buying stuff with their own money on the side after they use up the church funds for restaurants and recreation.

Ugh! I could just scream.

Thanks for the welcome, if you read my whole sordid story. I had quite the intro to the board. :-)

Again, I don't fault anyone for not believing me at first.

I'm reading some posts today that have me scratching my head.

 

Subject:

Re: When my son returned from his mission to Bolivia,

Date:

Jun 06 14:06

Author:

LC

we were at the airport (1998), and as he walked into the waiting room, I couldn't believe how thin he was. And then he was sick for a while after he came home, because his stomach wasn't used to eating much at all. He's on the lean side anyway, but it was a shock to me at the time to see him so thin. I was TBM at the time.

Here's something else--we went to a Luau recently at my sister's ward where her husband is the bishop; her daughters sold us $10 tickets to attend; it was a YW luau to raise money for their girls' camp, so we went to support them as they were dancing in it. Here's what the luau meal consisted of:
pots of shredded pork, and some chicken thighs in some kind of watery sauce; white rice, and a macaroni salad with nothing much in it but macaroni. OK--nothing there for me--I thought since it was a luau there would be some fresh fruit, and maybe some vegetables. Oh well, maybe for dessert there will be some fresh fruit. Guess what dessert was? Pineapple upside down cake! The only thing really nutritious was the thin slice of lemon floating in the water.

 

Subject:

Now you need to read Steve Benson's recounting of how the GA's dine between conference sessions. nt

 

Subject:

This cutting of the food budget is ...

Date:

Jun 06 15:55

Author:

Skunk Puppet

especially odious when you realize that MP's [mission presidents] in some missions have implemented some restrictive rules regarding eating meals at members' homes.

From what we've been told by various posters on RfM, some MP's have decreed that mishies cannot dine at a member's home unless there is an investigator present. Or that meals must take place at some ridiculously early hour like 5:00 p.m. so that these kids can get back to knocking on doors.

I propose that Gordon Hinckley's budget be placed at $130 a month.

 

Subject:

My husband wouldn't believe me.. until last week

Date:

Jun 06 16:10

Author:

Frtl Mrtl

I have been blasted in the past for feeding the missionaries. However, My dh [dear husband] still believes, though he sees real problems with the church.

Just this last week (a week ago tonight), dh was at church for one of our son's (pack meeting), and noticed the missionary dinner sign-up sheet. IT WAS BLANK for ALL BUT ONE day for May, and no one had yet signed up for June!

We are NOT in an area that the missionaries have to have an investigator to have dinner with members. We are not in an area that members openly object to feeding the missionaries...and by all means we are NOT in an economically repressed area (SW Houston area).

So, the missionaries were invited to our place for 3 nights during this last week. They did eat well.

We were also really shocked, and thought we had discovered why no one was signing up for meals, when we were asked if we could come pick them up! They are only allotted 100 miles on their car a month. EXCUSE ME? This IS TX after all. If they were to drive from one end of our ward boundaries to the other, and then back, they would have used their mileage allowance in just ONE DAY!!

I also found out their apartment (still living there, no word on moving in with other members yet) was barren of groceries. We aren't in the best of financial situations, but MAN, WTH? I sent these boys home with non parishable foods to hopefully last a week. I couldn't believe how excited they got over a stupid jar of p-nut butter!

What got me, was when I called my dad on Friday, he told me it isn't just "our missionaries" going hungry. My dad was fit to be tied. His only grandson on a mission is constantly going hungry ("working on faith" according to his MP). They count themselves lucky to have 2 dinner dates a week.

My dad was also furious over the fact that he KNOWS that this grandson (a step nephew to me) has $450 donated to him each month (my dad has been personally sending a check of 100.00 a month IN HIS NAME to the church), but he is only getting $75.00/mo (in Guatemala)! I have never heard my dad be so upset. I finally told him I could put him in contact with MANY people who are looking for ways to sue the church over their finances (he may have found a way - if you donated to a specific person, isn't the church obligated to give to only that specific person? I told him no because of the legal status of the church and it's accounting practices).

I also told my dad to stop sending the church his money, but to set up an account for his grandson, and put his money directly into that account and let his grandson get the money from there.

 

Subject:

Frtl Mrtl -- you are a ... [a wee bit of swearage]

Date:

Jun 06 16:57

Author:

Skunk Puppet

You are a very kind-hearted woman to extend meals to these hungry kids. I am sure the mothers of these boys appreciate your kind gestures.

It's so true that the morg's demand for 10% of your income is just the START. After that, they squeeze you for fast offerings, sending your own kid(s) on a mission, the ward mish fund, temple fund, etc. The mormon church is a greedy gut.

As far as the morg skimming 25% (!!) of the stipend your dad sends to his grandson, don't these mishies sign all sorts of forms when they go on their mish? The morg is savvy and I would bet they have their asses covered in this regard.

And you gave your dad good advice to find a way to send these funds directly to your nephew. It is **BEYOND** shameful that this huge, cash-heavy corporation would LITERALLY take food from the mouth of a hungry boy while it callously extends its real estate empire on the backs of its members.

"Working on faith" my ass. Let's put Hinckley and the rest of his fat cats on a diet of "faith" and see how they fare. Insensitive assholes.

Skunkie

 

Subject:

VISABUXX.com "Allowance" card that can be used like a credit card.

Date:

Jun 06 20:19

Author:

Jenny

Multiple people can contribute to the card that the holder, usually a teen, uses. I've set one up for my daughter because she recently went on a school trip and needed several hundred for it.

I could track her purchases and when she spent the balance down, as we knew she would, I could add to it right away. I also schedule her allowance to be added in weekly so there it is, on Friday. The fees are relatively low on visabuxx compared to other allowance cards like this.

The neat thing is my parents or anyone can log in and make gifts to the account.

I guess another thing would be to send them the pre-paid visas you can buy at the grocery store. But the visabuxx is a more immediate way to get cash on their card.

 

Subject:

This is a huge story. Someone should talk to the news.

Date:

Jun 06 17:07

Author:

Stray Mutt

Start with the Trib, or if you're "in the field," your local paper. On the heals of the PBS show and in the midst of Mitt's campaign, a story about cutting allowances to already underfed missionaries should be of interest to some one. Get it placed in one paper and it will spread.

 

Subject:

I'm glad your boy is home too!

Date:

Jun 06 17:20

Author:

ANON

What a relief it must be for you to have him home - I'm SO happy for you! I've been reading your posts, and think all of this would make a fantastic book. I'm glad to say that our family left the church three years ago (all at the same time) right as my oldest son turned 19 - so none of our 3 boys will be going on missions (yea!) Instead, our oldest will be graduating from college this weekend (super yea!!)

 

Subject:

$4 per day for food

Date:

Jun 06 20:02

Author:

Eric K

That is insane. These are active young men and women who are expected to take care of their health for a little over $4 per day in the USA? The church abuses the missionaries.

Let's see. There are about 18,000 (guessing) missionaries in the US. $15 was cut from their monthly food budget. That is $15*18,000*12 or a savings of $3,300,000 per year. That is less than 1.5% of the cost of the new mall now estimated at over 2 BILLION dollars.  The shopping mall is clearly more important than the health of missionaries.

Folks wonder why we are angry at the church. It is not a benign organization you grow out of, as some people feel. It is a cult that ruins lives.

Eric

 

Subject:

Sounds like it's not just food. They have to buy the household items, too.

Date:

Jun 06 20:12

Author:

Jenny

Cleaning supplies, non-food items, medications?, first aid, soap and hygiene stuff, and I'm sure there's more. Laundry detergent, quarters for the washing machines and dryers. Gas? Who pays for gas? Does this come from the $130 also or do they get a car allowance? What happens when they go over?

AND considering they're not always in the area to come "home" for every single meal, they're eating cheap fast food, like what 99 cent hamburgers and a cup of water?, on the run.

I can cook good cheap meals for my family for under $10 a meal, but I have a stocked pantry and decades of experience in pulling it together. Kids with no money for the extras would struggle.

the deal is this: in addition to the Missionary Fees or whatever they call them of $400 that families are paying for the privilege, they're also shelling out additional money just to keep the kids alive.

Very, very different from the Army, where my son has just finished his 5th month away from home. They feed them plenty during Basic training. The only deprivation is they can't have sodas or cake. They don't let them eat cake, imagine. Son got in great shape and went from a slim 160 to a slim 165. He's one of the lean and limber types. But was very proud of his new musculature, as shown in his new myspace photo. They mess up his paycheck every time he turns around, so he hasn't always had money, but there was plenty to eat!

 

Subject:

I smell a problem (SWEARAGE)

Date:

Jun 06 20:12

Author:

Matt

An organization of the size of TSSC would only claw $3.3 million per year back IF::::

1) The person in charge had gone stark, raving mad

2) The organization is, in financial terms, up sh*t creek without a paddle.

 

Subject:

Or maybe it's worse

Date:

Jun 06 21:20

Author:

Concrete Zipper

Perhaps the idea came from an MBA showing off a spreadsheet and trying to make a name for himself with the bureaucracy.

"Look, we can save $3.3 million by..."

Large corporations don't always make well-optimized or even rational decisions. Do you think the bureaucracy of gerontological cult is going to do better?

CZ

 

Subject:

Thinking about this horrible situation makes me want to

Date:

Jun 06 20:25

Author:

Jenny

invite the missionaries in and feed them instead of berating them for darkening my doorstep next time they come by...which they never seem to do in my little Valley cul-de-sac. I could send them away with a bag of things from my pantry, too.

I could still tell them I'm a former mormon and don't want to talk about my relationship with Jesus Christ with them. I just want to feed them because I know they only have $130 a month to spend on themselves.

That might send a stronger message than sending them away with my clever and witty retorts. Plus, they're 19 year-olds. Misled but still just 19, 20, 21 year-olds.

 

Subject:

Re: Missionary budget cuts.... Paper or FOOD?

Date:

Jun 06 20:32

Author:

notamomo

I heard on a news program the other day that people on food stamps had about $3.00 a day to spend on food. This is criminal when parents are sending monthly checks. My father has been sending all my TBM nephews and nieces who went on a mission $100 a month while their parents sent $300. This is a travesty! Someone please alert the media!!

 

Subject:

I'm curious. In what missions do the mishies get *more* than $400/month?

Date:

Jun 06 21:06

Author:

winter

I mean, if it really costs $400-450 on average to fund a missionary, and all the mishies described here get much less than $450, then who gets more than $450 to get the "average" that high?

Ya think the missionary program is a Morg "profit center"? Sounds like it to me.

winter

 

It is fascinating to note that ex-Mormons are more interested in the well being of Mormon missionaries than the Mormon Church.

 

Additional topics on Mormon Missions:

3. Mormon Missions - regrets?      

29. Missionaries Were Here 

39. Missionary and Death of a Parent 

50. Missionaries Use Manipulation 

74. Missionary Companions

76. Crazy Mission Rules 

85. Regrets of LDS Mission II 

 94. New Missionary Standards

99. Missionary Farewells 

120 Missions Promote Lying 

116 Met with Missionaries

142 Regrets Mormon Mission III

151  Saying  'No' to Mormon Missionaries 

154  European Mission Experiences

181  1st Presidency on Missionary Work

205  Missions - Future Apostasy 

209  Control at the MTC 

214  Breaking Mission Rules 

241  Suicides after a Mission 

244  Some Mission Rules 

257  Mormon Grandparents are Stalkers

289 Not Allowed to Serve a Mission

298 Mormon Malignancy Seen in Missions

299 "Get the Fire" PBS Film - Missionaries

309 Happy that Your Mission was Finally Over?

328 Mormon Parents Rat on Missionary Son

361 Missionaries Pressured to Marry Soon after Missions

364 Breakdown of a Mormon Missionary in Japan

404 Missionary Program and Immigration Fraud

395 More Mormon Missionary Abuse

425 More on Mormon Missionary Abuse II

431 More on Mormon Missionary Abuse III

454 Depression and Mormon Missions

 

 

 

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