I once had a discussion with someone in the Church Finance Department, and they said that the last part of your statement is incorrect. The Church handles surplus Ward Missionary funds differently from General Missionary Funds. If they were equivalent, then stakes or wards could simply deposit surplus Ward Missionary funds into the General Missionary fund, and there would be no need for the Church to be involved. Yet stakes are given specific instructions as to what to do with surplus Ward Missionary funds. I don't know if some of those surplus funds might make it into the General Missionary fund eventually, but it's not as simple as you stated.johnshaw wrote:The general missionary fund is used OUTSIDE the area where ward missionary funds are used. When a ward has excessive ward missionary monies, they send to the stake, they stake then sends to the church and that money is converted to the general fund.
You make some excellent points. But I would note that the notion that a mission is funded by an individual and family is not just in "our mythos" -- each missionary application specifically asks about the Source of Funds, and the applicant is required to "indicate how much money will be contributed per month in support of your mission from [Self, Family, Ward/Branch, Other]." I've always found that wording to be at odds with my understanding (which matches yours) that the obligation is fundamentally the ward's. But given that these funding commitments were made at the time of the missionary application, it makes sense that it is helpful to provide reports along the way to those making the commitments, and we can only do that if we track those donations and expenses per missionary.johnshaw wrote:BTW, do I think this will ever happen? No, of course not, we're too invested in seeing this as a mission funded by an individual and family, its in our mythos, it's part of our culture, and we have a way to 'obfuscate' it for tax benefits, so that's nice...