Matt Olsen admits to occasional weak moments when he wanted to dip into his mission savings, head west and carve a few paths down a snow-covered mountain.

Many of his friends attend western schools like BYU "and the [mission] money could have been used to pay for a few ski trips," said Matt, a ski lover and member of the Fargo 2nd Ward, Fargo North Dakota Stake.

But Matt has kept a promise he made to himself. On March 15, he will enter the Missionary Training Center in Provo knowing that a good chunk of his mission will be financed via his own sweat and toil.

Like thousands of other young LDS men and women, Matt is putting aside a portion of his own earnings to help pay for a full-time mission. Those dollars, Matt said, will be regarded as sacred funds when he begins his labors in the Utah Salt Lake City Mission.

For decades, Church leaders have admonished parents to instill in their children the value of saving money for missionary service. Savings a young person accrues tossing newspapers, mowing lawns or helping with the family business can ease the rising costs of full-time missions sometimes assumed entirely by parents. Future missionaries, Church leaders add, will also want to get the most out of mission money earned themselves.

"Teach your children to work and show them the value of working toward a worthy goal," said President Ezra Taft Benson in an Oct. 3, 1987 general conference address. "Establishing mission funds and education funds for your children tells them what [you] consider important."

For Matt, establishing a personal mission fund meant taking a job last year with a ward member's construction company. When the construction season ended, he found work in a Fargo clothing store working in the back room and, later, on the sales floor. Matt also opted to stay home to go to college and, of course, forsake a few ski trips.

"My goal was to work as much as I could and earn as much as I could for my mission," he said.

Matt's fellow stake member, Jesse Smith, has been building houses for the past few years. Before that, he worked as a lifeguard.

"At least 50 percent of what I have earned is going toward my mission," said Jesse, who plans to put in his mission papers in a few weeks, after he turns 19.

Jesse has watched his brothers earn money for their missions. Like Matt, he admits being tempted to spend mission money deposited in a special savings account. But serving a mission has been a lifelong goal for Jesse, "and if you know you want to go, you won't want to touch the money," he adds.

Kevin Ross, 21, comes from a family of eight children. Earning his own mission money, he said, allows his parents to focus their money elsewhere.

For the past several years, Kevin has sold pest control products to households across the country.

"I'm going to be able to pay for all of my mission — that feels good," said Kevin, an elder in the Lakeland Ward of the Winter Haven Florida Stake.

Establishing a mission fund hasn't been easy, said Kevin, who is waiting for his mission call to arrive. First, he had to pay off debts and curb his spending habits. Then he set-up a special account in his mother's name designated entirely for mission savings. The account has helped him stay disciplined with his dollars. He recently bought suits and other missionary clothing and paid to have his wisdom teeth pulled.

Wasting the money on his mission won't be acceptable.

"I think I'll value the money for my mission more — I had to earn it," Kevin said.

Young people earning money for their missions insist there is no secret to saving mission money: Start early and stick with it.

When Bill Herlin of Frisco, Texas, was a little boy, his parents gave him an allowance "about twice the size of what they thought I really needed." But there was a catch: half of all the nickels, dimes and quarters he was given went into his mission fund. As Bill got older and found work delivering newspapers and umpiring little league baseball games he continued with the "half in the mission box" rule.

Later, he was called to serve in Japan. He was proud knowing part of the money paying for his mission was his own — and later surprised to learn his parents had not touched his personal mission fund, allowing him to return home to a nest egg for school and a future family.

Today, Brother Herlin and his wife, Julie, have four young children — and yes, half of their allowance is dropped into their mission funds.

It is never too late to start.

Ed and Kathleen Richardson of Taylorsville, Utah, were grandparents before they started their own personal mission fund. A family trust gave them the peace of mind to send their youngest son, David, on a mission to New Zealand — and accept a call of their own to Guatemala.

The special account blessed the Richardsons with a "safety net," giving them assurance that they could essentially support three missionaries in the immediate family.

Jesse Smith said earning and saving his own mission dollars will pay off long after he has returned. The money skills he's developing will serve him for a lifetime. For now, he knows financing his mission will mean money well-spent.

Working hard for your mission, Jesse said "makes you want to want to work hard on your mission."