The Cost of Serving a Mission

When thinking about the cost of serving a mission, people usually just consider the costs while in the mission field and these vary quite a bit. US missions are generally around $2000, while foreign missions can range from only $750 per month to close to $3,000. Johannesburg is estimates to be about $2500 per month, which doesn’t seem too bad since it covers everything including housing, utilities, food, personal items and transportation. There is also an additional cost for insurance, but it is only $180 a month—much less than other policies. 

Even before you start paying the real mission expenses, though, there is a good amount of expense in the preparation. We have spent approximately $2500 so far on such things as mailing  the FBI clearance requests, clothes, suggested medicines, and especially immunizations. We both needed a number of different shots and some were expensive so we’ve spent well over a thousand dollars on those. We’re happy to spend it though and feel blessed that we have the means to prepare and to serve.

Preparation!

Getting all of the things done to complete the missionary application seemed like a lot, but it was nothing compared to the many tasks that need to be done once the call has been received. When we submitted our application, we put as our availability date the first day of November. We would have put even an earlier date, but we wanted to be sure to be here to greet our newest little grandson, Peter.

When our call arrived with the date of January 20, it seemed like forever away, but now after the months of preparation, I can see that we could never have been ready by November 1. The immunizations had to be spread out and we won't finish the last until the first of January. Also the FBI clearance required for the VISA has taken a long, long time. Frank finally got his OK a couple of weeks ago, but my fingerprints came back as "unreadable" and had to be re-submitted. We're still waiting for those results. Hopefully, we'll have everything in order to go on the assigned date!

Here is a list of some of the things that we've done to prepare to go. I'm sure I've forgotten a few, but you can see that the tasks would keep you busy for a number of months :)

Acceptance: Writing our missionary acceptance letters

Profile: Creating a profile on Mormon.org

Family History: Have a four generation sheet complete and printed for both of us.

Temple recommends: Have our temple recommend renewed

Study in preparation: Read the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, Jesus the Christ and current conference talks and Ensign articles. Also watch episodes of a series called “The District” that follows the daily lives of missionaries.

Medical preparation: Complete medical tests and treatments—physical, dental exam, eye exam, and any other treatments needed before we go like dermatology appointments, podiatrists, etc.

Prescriptions: Arrange for twelve months of prescriptions

Immunizations: Make sure that we have required and suggested immunizations. These include Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis; Measles-Mumps-Rubella (if born after 1957); Hepatitis A (2 doses) and Hepatitis B (3 doses) These are available in combination shots, but since I had had one of them I had to do the separate ones; Polio; Typhoid; Pneumonia; Shingles; and Meningococcal Meningitis.

Emergency: Making sure that our advance directives are complete and have been recorded where they are accessible in the event of emergency.

Passport: Making sure that our passports are current and won’t expire when we’re in South Africa.

Obtain a VISA: Complete the FBI background check form and be fingerprinted in order to get a VISA to enter South Africa. This takes a number of weeks to be processed and the fingerprints often have to be repeated.

Insurance: Sign up for Aetna International insurance that offers a more complete coverage for missionaries serving abroad.

Finances: Make sure that financial obligations will be taken care of during our mission—putting as many things on automatic pay as possible, arranging for our son to receive our mail and transmit information on how much to pay for the ones that can’t be (like the water bill.)

Notification: Communicate with bank, credit card company or debit card company that you will be out of the states for 18 months so that you will be able to access funds.

Driver’s license, etc.: Making sure that drivers license, credit cards, etc. will also not expire while we’re there.

Clothing, etc.: Getting clothing and other needed items ready to go. Also assemble first aid kit, sewing kit, personal items. Two kinds of insecticide are required. One to spray on as needed, the other to spray on clothing, even before we arrive at the MTC.

Decisions on home, car: Decide who will watch over our house (Dan will be in charge) and what to do with our truck (Rachel and Rick will purchase and we will get a newer one when we return.)

Learn about destination and responsibilities: Read and talk to people about South Africa and/or about senior missions, CES missions, etc. trying to get a picture of what we will be doing. In truth, we really won’t know until we’re there, but we excited to find out!

Family Time: Spending as much time with family as possible. This includes a “holiday tour” where we will travel to see all eight of our children during December or early January.

The boy we waited to meet

If Frank had had his preference, he would probably have left on a mission the day that I retired (in June of 2012) but I wanted to give myself a year to regroup and enjoy retirement so we decided to wait until this year to go. We would probably have submitted papers and made our availability date sometime in the summer, but then we found out that we were going to get another addition to our family and we wanted to wait to meet his. He was definitely worth the wait. Here is little Peter Logan Davie, son of Tim and Sydney and brother of Oliver. He was born on October 15th just a few minutes before midnight.

The Call

After the application was submitted and the branch president and stake president and forwarded, we began the wait to see where we would be called. Our branch president told us after a few weeks that the application said "completed and call made" so we expected it that next week. It didn't come, though, or the week after that; we began to think it was lost, but of course, it finally came. Everyone was waiting anxiously including our kids and grandkids. The call finally arrived on August 26 and we went to Dan's house to open it that evening. The rest of the family all assembled via the Internet.

Frank let me open the envelope and I immediately turned it to the screen so everyone could see. We were all excited to read that we had been called to serve in South Africa in the Johannesburg mission.

The Application

For many years, Frank and I have talked about serving a mission when we retired. Although he has held many positions of responsibility in the church, he is a convert who never had a chance to serve a mission. I have also looked forward to the day we could go as an opportunity to serve and as a chance to get to know another part of the world and another culture. We were both hoping for a foreign mission. Frank was born in Germany and thought that would be a nice place to serve. In our application, I mentioned that country and of several other places. I also included the idea that ever since I have thought of a mission, I have pictured myself in Africa. That was the assignment I was hoping for. Finally, on about July 15 of 2013, we finished our mission application, pushed "submit." Then we had an interview with the branch president and the stake president. These were complete on July 22 and then we started waiting.