Help from LDS/Mormon readers please!

Yes, it's Ok to quote from the BoM.

Mormons themselves use the word "Mormon" to describe themselves. You can even be a TBM (either a True Believing Mormon, or a True Blue Mormon) Mormon, which is what my family is. Or a BiC (Born in Covenant) TBM Mormon, if you're really into it.

There are many issues with the LDS missionary undercover cop thing. First, I don't think the church would allow it.
Also, most missionaries are young kids 19-21, or so. Your officer would have to be young looking. And preferably served a mission of his own, so he knows what's involved, otherwise his companion could blow his cover in about 13 seconds. Without the MTC (Missionary Training Center) program, it's physically impossible to fake being a missionary, even for an LDS.

Also, there would be other ethical bits with it, which I'm sure wouldn't sit very well with the church.

Send me a private message if you want to know more.

http://montchan.blogspot.com - my personal blog

montchan nailed it. What s/he said.

One fairly minor quibble. In my experience, outside of Utah or other areas with large populations of LDS people, not many people use the term TBM or BIC in everyday conversation. Perhaps every blue moon or so in a gospel doctrine class or so, but that's about it.

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Laurie, ML for Sri Lanka, Asia: Elsewhere
Why, yes, I am crazy. Why do you ask?

It's worth noting that LDS have no problem with ordinary police work as a career. An acquaintance of mine who was an FBI veteran told me once that the Bureau has many LDS members among their agents on all levels. Though as the other person said, missionary work is taken very seriously and I don't think any TBM would consent to it. Perhaps a "jack Mormon--" a person from a Mormon family but not a believer themselves--might be another matter. Perhaps.

"And the Lord did grin, and the people did feast upon the lambs and sloths and carp and anchovies and orangutans and breakfast cereals and fruit bats and large chu--" "Skip a bit, brother."

One thing that might be worth noting is that, while the terms LDS and Mormon are generally interchangable, LDS is considered slightly more respectful and formal. Mormon is more of a gentle slang term, really.

Also, posing as a missionary anywhere would practically require the approval of the local mission president, because local members or other missionaries in that area would quickly rat out the undercover cop to the mission pres. I could, hypothetically, see it happening, however, so long as the need was very great and the cop (and his companion) promised to uphold missionary standards while in the field.

OK, here's the scoop, from the horse's mouth, aka. former mish pres.

This would never fly, UNLESS, the crime that needs to be investigated undercover:
a. involved another missionary, who's now dead.
b. involved a living missionary suspected of doing something very bad. And by very bad, I don't mean sitting next to a girl on a park bench and drinking coca-cola.
c. be serious enough that local law enforcement couldn't handle it.
d. be serious enough that church's internal procedures couldn't handle it.
e. possibly only in a nefarious foreign country, where local law enforcement is corrupt and can't be trusted.

http://montchan.blogspot.com - my personal blog

I would also like to point out in a not-trying-to-be-nitpicky way that, while quoting from the Book of Mormon (which I've heard most commonly referred to as the BoM) is A-ok, only very pompous Mormons do so frequently and outside of the context of church discussions. In my experience, most LDS folks refer to themselves as LDS, except when talking to people who don't know much about the church or that they don't know very well. Then they'll refer to themselves as Mormon. Even ten years ago, a lot of people had no idea what you were tlalking about if you said LDS, but it has become a much more common acronym.

The undercover missionary thing, even if it were remotely possible, wouldn't fly well, I'm afraid.

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"This must be what going mad feels like."--Dr. Simon Tam, Firefly

Wow, thank you for your help everyone! I'm learning a lot here and really appreciate everyone's great comments. Thank you very much! :)

Basically, then:
-- Having an LDS police officer = totally OK on its own.
-- Having an LDS police officer pose as a missionary, even if he's been on a mission himself = really not OK, and with a lot of complications.
-- Mormon and LDS are both OK terms to use; but a person outside of the church would more likely use the term Mormon, while someone in the church would use LDS or TBM.
-- Quoting from the Book of Mormon is OK, but isn't done that often outside of church services.

The background to the scene is that the police would be trying to rescue two people being held hostage by an very unstable family, and I was hoping to have them visit undercover as missionaries so that they could come and go (in the weekly visits) to assess the situation and talk to the hostages without any danger to them. I was going to make my cop a returned missionary himself (so he'd know the procedures) and have his partner be a current missionary--but on second thought, even if the church did hypothetically OK the undercover police officer, they likely wouldn't want an actual current missionary to be endangered, yes?

Hmmm. I'm definitely thinking this idea might need to be changed completely...thanks very much everyone!

One more question (I know, I'm full of them today)...regarding the CTR ring. Would it be common for a man to wear a CTR ring while we was working (say, a police officer in uniform)?

A CTR ring is a piece of jewelry, so if a man would wear something like a wedding ring while he was working, then he'd probably wear his CTR ring as well. Though I don't really see alot of grown, married men wearing CTR rings, really. Mostly teenagers and children wear those.

I think everybody pretty much helped you out with the rest of the stuff, although I have never heard the acronym TBM. BoM, LDS, etc I have lol not TBM. anywayyyy

As for the CTR ring, I think it would be a very common thing. There are a lot of people that use them as a way to help teach more about the church or their standards and as a way to remind themselves of what they believe in. It would be as common as somebody wearing a WWJD bracelet or ring of some sort. So yeah, I would think a police officer would. In fact, I know a police officer that is LDS and wears his ring while on duty. So yeah, it would be logical lol

I would have the FBI/agents go in as the families Home Teachers. This would give them a reason to visit the family on a regular basis. Or even have two female agents go a Visiting Teachers.

Sounds like a good story. Keep going. Maybe the church would even publish it.

Midge, an LDS woman.

I've never heard of TBM either.

And I was thinking about things I commonly say in conversation with my friends. While we don't normally sit around quoting the Book of Mormon to each other, we'll use little catch phrases that refer to it, like "You know where liars go..." (in reference to 2 Nephi 9). Things like that.

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"This must be what going mad feels like."--Dr. Simon Tam, Firefly

TBM is something that Mormons around the ages of 19 to 25 use to jokingly describe themselves. You see it a lot in that age group, even outside of Utah and BYU. All my Utah friends used it, and so did we in South Africa. And so do people here in Sweden.

Very common on LDS dating sites, too.
;-)

PS. Good luck with your story.
My MC is going to be a convert, eventually. She's not there yet, though.

http://montchan.blogspot.com - my personal blog

Quoting from the Book of Mormon is OK, but isn't done that often outside of church services.

No problem quoting outside of church services - it's in front of nonmembers who are less likely to accept it as true gospel or even have a clue what you're saying that's not so wise.
And to be honest, I didn't make a distinction myself until I saw the looks other religious people gave me when I quoted a scripture they didn't recognise. A few conversations convinced me that if I wanted to participate in a discussion about Christianity, i had to stick with common ground, something they already believed in, or the conversation was dead and over.

In some mormon homes scripture is quoted and discussed and analysed morning, noon and night without pause. ('Scripture' meaning the content of any of the four books: Bible, BoM, D&C, PoGP).

I'd definitely fly with the home teacher/visiting teacher idea as an alternative.

Wow--thank you again everyone for all of your helpful comments and suggestions! I really appreciate them more than I can say here. Good luck to everyone with their novels too! :)

Midge and regolith311, thank you very much for the suggestion of Home Teachers/Visiting Teachers as an alternative...I looked those up and it seems as though it might be a way to go! I'm thrilled there's a way to make this doable. The research for this novel's turning out to be a crash course in LDS for me, and it's really interesting.

regolith311, in terms of the four books, would it be safe to say that the Bible and the Book of Mormon are the two that people would be looking at the most?

In my family (and a lot of families I know), reading the Book of Mormon is a daily activity, whereas the Bible, Doctrine and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price, isn't as much. I suppose the BoM and Bible are the most read, though I think in Sunday School and such all four are covered pretty equally.

Also, FYI, if you need more general information, I'm sure you could PM just about any of us, but also there are a couple good LDS church-sponsered websites: mormon.org outlines basic beliefs (it's geared towards non-members) and lds.org has more detailed information (it's geared towards members).

Hmm...for my family we go through: Old Testament, New Testament, Book of Mormon, Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Joseph Smith History and then start over again.

Add me to the list of PM-ables. I've been Mormon/LDS my entire life. Throwing in on the BIC (Born in the Covenant). It officially means born Mormon, or more specifically, born sealed. Meaning, your parents were sealed to each other before you were born, making you automatically sealed to them. I was BIC, my mom was BIC, my dad is a convert and is still not sealed to his parents (as they aren't Mormon). All of my siblings were BIC, but in some families, none of the kids or BIC or some are some aren't. For example, I know a family of five kids. The first two were born before the family converted and therefore were sealed at the same time as the parents were sealed to each other. The other three kids were born later and in the covenant. Sealing makes sense, right? Am I using a foreign term to you?

For quoting scriptures, Mormons do it to each other all the time. In fact, my brother and I sometimes fight using scriptures (yeah, I know. Like I'll yell, "Alma 41:10" which states "Wickedness never was happiness," and he might yell back some other reprimanding scripture). If someone's fly is undone, we have a scripture reference that we say and it states, "Woe is my for I am undone." So we jokingly use scriptures for a lot of things. However, it's rude to quote scripture in front of someone who doesn't want to hear it, and didn't ask for it or anything and isn't as familiar with scripture.

Nano 2005: Legend of Jael (Won)
Nano 2006: Diary in the Attic (Won)
Nano 2007: Reel Smuggling (Working Title, will not break the streak)

The church curriculum gives the four books almost equal time - usually focussing on one a year for a cycle of four years, from eight years old and up. But there's certainly heavier emphasis on the Bible and Book of Mormon for most people - especially since the last goodness knows how many prophets have emphasised the importance of reading the Book of Mormon.

And it's a short book, comparatively. So even giving it equal time as the others is a very intense study.

*edit* - that is, in the cycle already referenced - OT/NT/BoM with the remaining two books studied together in the fourth year. Parts of PoGP are studied alongside the OT.

Wow, thank you again everyone! Reading about everyone's experiences in the church is very interesting and very helpful too. :)

I'm bookmarking this thread, and I'll definitely PM if I'm still stuck after all this great help. I've been looking through some of the LDS sites and they've had great information too (I found one just about Home Teachers! Yes!).

Thank you again everyone! Best wishes to everyone with their novels. :)