Two men with white shirts and name badges may be *the* stereotype of Mormons. 85,000 missionaries are currently proselytizing for the LDS Church, but that’s not all a mission is for. The scholar Patrick Mason says it’s a rite of passage, as much about making and keeping the missionary a member of the church as it is recruiting new converts. Monday, Mason and historian Greg Prince join Doug to discuss the history of LDS missions, what’s changing and what it all means for the young men and women who serve.

Patrick Mason is the Howard W Hunter Chair of Mormon Studies at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California. He's co-author of War and Peace in Our Time: Mormon Perspectives [Indiebound|Amazon] and The Mormon Menace: Violence and Anti-Mormonism in the Postbellum South [Indiebound|Amazon]

Gregory Prince is an independent historian and the author of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism [Indiebound|Amazon] and Power from on High: The Development of Mormon Priesthood [Indiebound|Amazon]

Visit VideoWest for the story of one missionary. In 1974, Tom Clark served his mission in Italy. While he was there, he met a young communist named Gianni and had to make a heart-wrenching decision between his church and his his love. Directed by Utah filmmaker Genea Gaudet and co-produced by VideoWest. Watch it here