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Serving a mission for the LDS Church will cost more in 2020

(Kim Raff | The Salt Lake Tribune) Missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, like these on Temple Square in 2012, will have to pay more for living expenses starting in 2020, church leaders announced Thursday, June 27. 2019.

  | June 27, 2019, 7:39 p.m.
| Updated: 10:44 p.m.

A year from now, it will cost more to serve a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

The monthly amount families and congregations pay to cover a missionary’s living expenses will increase to $500 beginning July 1, 2020, according to a letter from the church’s First Presidency. The letter was sent to mission leaders around the world, and released to the media.

That is a 25% increase over the current rate of $400, which has been in place since 2003, said the letter signed by President Russell M. Nelson and his counselors, Dallin H. Oaks and Henry B. Eyring.

“This adjustment will better help cover costs for missionary needs,” spokesman Daniel Woodruff said in an email. “We hope that missionaries will use the time provided before this increase takes effect to carefully plan for meeting the expense of serving a mission"

When the new price kicks in, the overall cost for a man to serve a two-year mission will be $12,000, while women, who serve 18 months, will pay $9,000.

The increase affects all missionaries living in the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan and more than a dozen European countries. Those in Africa, Central and South America, and other Asian countries are not affected.