“I’ve missed you”. These were words said to the missionaries from a member of the cast of the Book of Mormon Musical.
In October 2021 the Book of Mormon musical began its performances in The Millenium Centre in Cardiff. On the opening evening I had the privilege of going to the Millennium Centre along with our Stake President and the Bishop of Cardiff ward. Myself, President Spragg and Bishop Liassides had all attended training in preparation to answer any questions from media or audience members. We waited as the audience began to make their way outside after seeing the show where they were met by 40 missionaries in bright white shirts with their missionary tags clearly on view. These young men and women stood firm in their beliefs and were a shining example to all of us that stood by. They were polite, friendly and answered all questions. Some people stopped to listen and then while walking away would exclaim “They are the real ones”. I remember seeing one young missionary run to his mission president in excitement proclaiming “we need more, we need more!”. What he was referring to were the pass along cards and leaflets with more information about our church.
Due to Covid restrictions these were missionaries who had spent the majority of their mission working hard on social media to share the gospel and contact people. Now they had the opportunity to meet face to face and share their beliefs. After the audience had all left the cast members then made their way out. They were excited to see the missionaries and asked to take photos with them. One member of the cast approached us and told us he had seen the missionaries outside every venue they had performed at but when Covid hit they had not seen the missionaries for a while and that he had missed seeing them. What a wonderful example these young men and women are to us. Even though some people rushed past or said they weren’t interested, they were not disheartened and carried on sharing what they knew to be true. How lucky we are to have the “real“ missionaries in each of our wards and stakes.