New York Newspaper Impressed with Mormon Missionaries

The “Book of Mormon” musical has reached Syracuse, New York, but The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is making sure this audience gets introduced to the real thing.

Rather than openly attack the production, the Church has posted a group of its missionaries outside the venue to talk to audience members after the show and hand out copies of the Church’s Book of Mormon.

A group of full-time missionaries, including Elder Smith and Elder Moss, got special permission from their mission president to stay out in front of the Landmark Theater in Syracuse until after the show gets out, which Syracuse.com noted goes later than the mission rules allow for their normal curfew. The ward mission leader, Seth Merrill, had approval from the theater’s executive director Thomas Kazmierczak to have the missionaries there.

Chris Baker, writing for the news website, took special note of the Church’s attitude towards the irreverent Broadway musical, stating that the Church has maintained a sense of humor in dealing with a play devoted to mocking it. The Church also took out three full-page ads in the program in an attempt to bring awareness to the Church’s religious book. One such ad, featured below, stated “the book is always better.”

The newspaper went into detail about the rules and daily routines of full-time missionaries. The newspaper also talked to James Gage, a returned missionary.