The Mormon Missionary: Who Is That Knocking at My Door?

Abstract

I have encountered Mormon missionaries in various regions of the United States and the world—but I never could find any detailed information about them written by a non-Mormon. I found this absence surprising, since their church has sent over 1.1 million missionaries around the world since its founding. With encouragement from my students, I, a non-Mormon, wrote the book The Mormon Missionary: Who Is That Knocking at My Door? (2015, 576 pages). This article tells the story of my interviews with nearly three hundred Mormon missionaries, my findings, and the book’s reception by the Mormon scholarly and missionary communities.