Young men on a mission: 20-year-olds take time from college for their Mormon outreach work

By Katherine Didriksen
Special Correspondent

Published February 20 2006


STAMFORD -- Cameron Tanner and Matthew LeCheminant are on a mission from God.

Like "The Blues Brothers," they wear dark suits, but that's where the similarities end. The two are missionaries with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Mormon rules strictly forbid packs of smokes.

They also forbid alcohol, coffee, tea, and being in the same room with unaccompanied women.

That doesn't stop them from getting up at 6:30 a.m. and hitting the streets to spread the word.

The outreach work is part of their two-year service with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There are about 150 missionaries in the New York and Connecticut region, including eight in Stamford.

Tanner and LeCheminant, both 20, are elders in the church and now serve in Stamford's Spanish-speaking mission. Other elders serve in the city's English-speaking mission. The church operates more than 338 missions around the world.

"We come out here to help people to know the truth and come into Christ," said LeCheminant, a native of Santa Rosa, Calif., who has served in missions in Washington Heights, Ossining and the Bronx, N.Y., in the past year.

The duo, known as a companionship in the church, live in a house owned by the church on Clinton Avenue with two other missionaries.

The two young men attempt to greet people on the streets and in their homes to talk about faith. They schedule times to meet with families and try to persuade residents to attend their church. Though they are recognized for outreach activities, teaching is the focus of their mission.

Their work requires knocking on many doors. Many go unanswered. Others get closed in their faces, sometimes politely, sometimes not.

"I don't believe in anything," said one person who identified himself as a retired military man.

He's seen too much death and destruction during tours of duty in Kuwait, Somalia and Iraq to keep his faith, he told the young men. He questioned them about free will, heaven, hell and the existence of God.

"What do you really know is true?" he asked.

The elders did not shy away. In a discussion punctuated by smiles and laughter, they were steadfast in their beliefs even as they admitted their limits.

Occasionally, they meet people who are hostile. In such situations, the elders thank them for their time as gracefully as possible and go on their way.

"It makes a good journal entry," LeCheminant said.

"You get a good chuckle out of it," Tanner said.

The decision to enter the missionary program is not easy.

LeCheminant, who grew up in the Mormon faith, said that as a teenager he questioned what he had been taught.

"It just came to the point where I had to ask God myself," he said, pointing to the final promise written by the prophet Moroni in the Book of Mormon.

They understand why people doubt. They have heard the word "cult."

As a prospective missionary, LeCheminant was interviewed to make sure he was worthy of the work. To be effective, missionaries must live by the commandments they teach, he said.

"If we don't know what's true, then what are we doing?" he said.

Once approved, applicants receive a letter indicating where in the world they have been called to serve. Every American missionary completes a program at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.

Some students, like LeCheminant and Tanner, also elect to take one of 50 language classes taught at the center.

Men are expected to serve two years from ages 19 to 26. After that, they are expected to have a family. It is possible for a man and his wife to serve together later in life, after their family has grown. Single women and older couples generally serve for 18 months.

"This is the best time of my life," LeCheminant said. "It's such a spiritually growing experience. I was a very shy and timid person back home."

Members of the Latter-day Saints are not required to serve as missionaries, but it is considered an expectation for all Mormons, LeCheminant said.

Tanner, a native of Gilbert, Ariz., said missionaries live a relatively secluded life.

They are more than 2,000 miles from home and are permitted to write their families and friends only once a week and call home only once every six months for their entire two-year mission.

It is different, Tanner said. "But it does help you focus."

The elders keep a strict schedule, leaving the house at 10:30 a.m. daily to pound the pavement, retiring at 10:30 p.m.

The closest thing they have to a day off is Wednesday, when they wash their clothes, buy groceries and other necessities and have time to e-mail home or write letters.

The church provides a monthly stipend for missionaries to cover rent, groceries and other necessities. Missionaries' families are expected to contribute $400 each month toward this expense, if possible.

The church encourages the elders to raise much of the money themselves. Tanner, for example, earned nearly all of it in advance through a car-detailing business he ran before he left home.

LeCheminant and Tanner plan to return to Brigham Young University in Provo to complete their education after their missions have ended. LeCheminant completed one year of school before he left; Tanner finished one semester.

Tanner's father served as a missionary in Sweden 25 years ago.

"It's been an interesting experience to now have my son 25 years later doing the same thing," Sterling Tanner said. "It's a whole range of emotions. It's exciting knowing the opportunities that he's having . . . what I know, for me, was a life-changing experience."

Sterling Tanner said he and his wife still worry.

"It's very heartening as a parent that he certainly in my mind is grounding himself for the rest of his life," he said.

LeCheminant's mother, Renee LeCheminant, said her family misses Matthew, particularly his upbeat attitude and the example he set for his younger siblings.

"We used to call him our go-to guy," she said.

Missionaries give up school, work and the comforts of home, said Nelson Boren, president of the New York metropolitan area's Latter-day Saints Church mission.

"These are really extraordinary young people," he said.

As president, Boren, who lives in Scarsdale, N.Y., supervises the missionaries in his region, which covers Manhattan, the Bronx, parts of upstate New York and the Connecticut coast.

He meets with the elders twice a month for training.

Boren said the missionaries must abide by certain rules while they serve, including no alcohol, no drugs and no dating.

"They just live a really moral life," he said.

LeCheminant and Tanner are "tremendous," he said.

"I don't worry about them for a second," Boren said.