The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church) is the official name of the Mormon Church. This month, the church opened its newest temple, which is in Manhattan. The LDS Church is associated most heavily with Utah, where the church has its headquarters in Salt Lake City and which has the highest concentration of members. But the Mormon Church has its beginnings in New York State. Founder Joseph Smith started the church in upstate Fayette, New York in 1830.

New York City is proud of its depravity as well as its diversity. The New Yorker values his or her skepticism as an essential part of their protective social armor. The same stony façade we wear to ignore or shake our heads at panhandlers is the same one that greets religious missionaries. New York is one of America’s capitol cities of social liberalism, secular humanism, and political radicalism. Billy Graham once compared New York to Sodom and Gomorrah. Mormons are forbidden to drink alcohol or partake in many other staples of the New Yorker’s diet such as caffeine, pornography, or premarital sex. That the LDS Church would thrive in New York City seems almost counterintuitive, yet the church says that its missionaries in New York City are about as successful as they are anywhere else in the U.S.

The LDS Church announced that it was opening a new temple in New York, located in the building where it already has offices near Lincoln Center. While non-Mormons cannot normally go into a Mormon temple, the church was offering tours of the new temple before it was dedicated and put to use. I decided to visit the new temple and meet some of its missionaries in the field and see for myself how Latter Day Saints got by in our sinful city. I scheduled a tour of the new temple and asked to meet and accompany some Mormon missionaries.

Just outside the temple a security guard wearing a suit and tie with a wire in his ear asked me to turn off my cell phone and looks inside my briefcase. Inside I checked my bag and was met by Jason Howell from the church’s public affairs department. The church manages its public image very aggressively, and Howell accompanied me throughout the tour. Two years ago, the church’s head media representative in New York at the time cancelled a meeting I had scheduled with two missionaries because he thought one of the magazines that carried ‘Notes from a Polite New Yorker’ (Too Square, which unfortunately ceased publication in late 2002) was pornographic.

Howell is originally from Utah and was a missionary in New York after his freshman year at Brigham Young University. He did his missionary work in the Bronx and parts of upstate New York.

The tour begins in a chapel where our tour guide takes the tour group to a room to watch an instructional video. On each chair we find a pair of plastic foot coverings and we are asked to place them over our shoes to protect the new carpet in the temple. The video consists of images of various LDS Church temples throughout the world along with a brief history of the church and the significance of temples to church life. Temples are used for special ceremonies and are for church members only. Regular Sunday services (which last for three hours) are held in churches that are open to the public.

Unlike most temples, which are large stand-alone buildings, the new city temple is built on the first, fifth, and sixth floors within the building that the church already owns and has its offices. Most of the tour group appeared to be Mormons from out of town and look like they had seen all of this before. We crammed ourselves into an elevator to move between the floors.

The first floor entrance to the temple consists of double doors that open onto a foyer. There is a counter with two seats where members entering for services show officials their “recommend,” an ID card that shows them to be an LDS Church member in good standing. Howell shows me his recommend and I tell him that it could be easily counterfeited. I doubt anyone would want to make a fake Mormon Church membership card, since it would be the only fake ID in the world you couldn’t use to buy alcohol. The entrance has a stained glass window that depicts Jesus and two disciples. The first floor contains a baptismal font that sits on sculptures of 12 oxen representing the 12 tribes of Israel. The font is large and the church baptizes members with full immersion in three feet of water. Members are normally baptized at the age of eight.

The temple is a pristine maze of polished wood, spotless wall-to-wall carpeting, and white walls. The rooms get progressively brighter with each floor. There are wall paintings of Jesus and other figures from the Book of Mormon, but no crucifixion scenes or crosses. There are beehives carved into doors and hand railings and brightly polished furniture. The tour groups had a leader and someone who stayed behind the group and we were never far away from a smiling, well-dressed usher wearing a nametag. Howell, the public affairs representative, was genuinely friendly and answered a lot of my questions as the tour progressed.

Different rooms in the temple have different functions. On the fifth floor is an Ordinance room where religious instruction is given. It has cushioned seats and walls painted in murals depicting natural views from a mountaintop. There are dressing rooms for men and women, since church members change into special white clothes for ceremonies. There are small rooms for “binding” ceremonies where couples are married, and a bridal room connected to the women’s changing room.

The most sacred room in the temple is the Celestial room. In that room the tour guides asked that no one speak but stand around silently and simply observe the room. The room has very high ceilings and is a very bright white with white carpet, polished tables, and couches and chairs. The room is lit brightly enough to perform brain surgery, and we stood around silently with no noise but the electric buzz of overhead lights.

The LDS Church does not describe temple rituals or allow non-church members to enter the temples once they are in use. Former members who have written about the LDS Church claim temple ceremonies are similar to rituals found in freemasonry. LDS Church members dispute this, and there are competing versions of the church’s early history between the church and groups of former members.

The tour ended with water and cookies in a gymnasium back in the church section of the temple building. Howell explained church history and organization and filled me in on details about the missionary program. He recounted his own mission in New York and said he found it to be a very important time in his life, a time when he solidified his own relationship to his faith and built lasting friendships. He arranged for me to meet with two church missionaries.

A week later I meet two missionaries in the Midwood/East Flatbush section of Brooklyn – Daniel Lattin and Skyler Nelson. They are dressed neatly in slacks and white shirts and ties. They wear large nametags and carry backpacks. Like others, they are exceedingly and sincerely friendly and polite. The missionaries go by the title of “Elder” and refer to other missionaries and church members as either “Elder” or “Sister,” depending on whether they are male or female, respectively. Elder Lattin is 22, from Virginia, and has been on his two-year mission for about a year and a half. Elder Nelson is 19, from Arizona, and has been on his mission for about four months.

Mormon missionaries go on a mission for two years wherever the LDS Church sends them. They can’t request where they’re sent and they get to call home only twice a year, on Mother’s Day and Christmas. If a family member happens to come through town, they can only visit with them like they would any other church member. They also get no money from the church. The missionaries, their families, and helpful church members pay their expenses. “You learn to love oatmeal and the simple things in life,” Nelson says.

The church very closely controls the missionaries’ lives. No television, no newspapers, no books or movies (they didn’t even get to see ‘The Passion of the Christ’) except for pre-approved books and G-rated films. Their one day off isn’t even a day off. They get one “preparation day” to do laundry and have some free time to check their email. Even on their preparation day, the missionaries have to be out on the street proselytizing from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Missionaries work with specific congregations and cannot leave the area of their congregation without permission.

We board a bus outside the Newkirk Avenue subway station. On the bus are two missionary women, Sister Bartsch from Germany and Sister Naine from Guadeloupe. When we board, Sister Bartsch is speaking to a woman sitting beside her, who does not look too interested in visiting her local LDS Church. Bartsch gets her to take a pamphlet anyway and doesn’t go on too much. A man gets on the bus at a later stop and sits next to Lattin, who begins to talk to him and eventually gets the man to take a business card.

As we get off the bus on Avenue D and 45th Street, Lattin and Nelson strike up a conversation with a Haitian man who is with his two children. They managed to get him to take a pamphlet. “We’d love for you to visit church with us tomorrow if you’d like,” they tell him.

They turn down a side street and warmly greet people they pass along the way. They have a point mapped out where they begin ringing doorbells and going door to door in what they call “tracking.” They start on Foster Avenue. Haitian and other Caribbean immigrants populate the particular area the two missionaries are working. The neighborhoods are made of neat houses, many with multiple apartments, and well-tended lawns.

Lattin says that this is a good area, since Caribbean immigrants are generally very polite, even if they're not interested in speaking with the missionaries. “Some areas are really hostile,” he says. I ask where. “On Long Island where it’s a little more affluent they threaten to call the police or they sick their dog on you,” he says, adding that he has learned to take it in stride. “You just smile and laugh.”

“It’s more funny than anything else,” says Nelson, who mentions that while the more affluent areas have been more hostile, the nicest person he met on his mission so far was in an impoverished housing project in Brooklyn. “Brooklyn gets a bad rap, but it’s a great place.”

“Brooklyn’s my favorite place so far,” Lattin adds.

“You just have to look at it like another adventure,” says Lattin. Early on in his mission, Elder Lattin was crossing a street in an attempt to get an Italian ice when he was hit by a car. He was flipped in the air and landed on his head. Somehow he escaped serious injury.

Different areas of the country and world have different reputations for levels of difficulty. Europe is supposed to be one of the more difficult areas to work. The church says that its efforts in Latin America are more successful than its American missions. The missionaries estimate that there are as many or more Spanish- speaking congregations in New York City than English-speaking congregations.

The missionary pitch is basically a nice hello and explanation of who they are. “Good morning, we’re missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints…” This moves on to an inquiry as to whether the person knows of the church, goes to church anywhere now, or knows where their local LDS Church is located. They always try to arrange a follow-up visit or phone call and at least will try to leave a pamphlet.

At the end of every encounter, they ask, “Is there anything else we can do for you today?” This leaves the door wide open for people to take advantage of the missionaries as a source of free labor. “It’s offered service and not given grudgingly,” says Lattin. “Sometimes somebody’s just tired enough or smart enough to say ‘yes.’”

“We’ve painted,” says Nelson.

“I’ve washed cars,” says Lattin.

“You’d be amazed at what Mormon missionaries can accomplish in white shirts and ties,” says Nelson. “I’ve mowed lawns and painted.”

Missionaries are not allowed to enter a woman’s home unless another, non-missionary male over 12 years old is with them. Lattin says that only twice have women invited him into their homes for what he thought was going to be something other than missionary work and he declined the offers.

Lattin and Nelson say they get a lot of odd questions and meet people with a lot of misconceptions about the LDS Church. A frequent topic of these inquiries is polygamy (which was practiced by the LDS Church until 1890) and accusations that the Mormon Church is racist (blacks were barred from the priesthood until 1978).

They encounter an interesting variety of people on their rounds in Flatbush. Most politely listen and take a pamphlet and a few even agree to a follow-up visit. One woman opens the door and quickly closes it again in their face after a friendly wave. Another waves an admonishing finger from her window as soon as they enter her yard. A deeply religious postal worker stops to talk to them and voices her admiration for their work. “Keep letting Him use you like that,” she tells them.

When it is time for lunch, they visit the home of Sister Pierre, a local church member. She welcomes us into her house, which is filled with stacks of motivational tapes and booklets. A boom box on the floor of a sparsely furnished living room plays a sermon. She shows us into the kitchen and finishes preparing a large lunch for the missionaries. She packs hard-boiled eggs, rice, chicken, and pasta into various bowls and containers and puts them all into a large shopping bag. They say a brief prayer and then we’re on our way to the local church to eat. They insist I eat with them and say grace. A little later a local church member named Joe joins us. Joe, who is originally from Ohio, is a student at Brooklyn College and helps coordinate local missionary work for the church.

The two missionaries, while having only good things to say about their mission, admit they miss home and their normal hobbies. They look forward to catching up on the movies and books they aren’t able to read and being with old friends again. They have developed a great appreciation for getting mail to the point that they even look forward to getting bills in the mail. They say that friends from home emailed them frequently when their missions first began but that it tends to drop off quickly after about six months.

“You really do go all day, every day,” says Nelson. “You learn a ton. It lets you really put life in perspective.”

“The reason we’re here is to teach people about Jesus Christ and improve their lives,” says Lattin. “You find a lot of joy in it, but it is hard.”