South Africa attack puts safety on Utahns' minds

Madison Phillips wasn't shaken when she heard that two sister missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had been attacked and raped Friday in South Africa.

The 20-year-old Brigham Young University student filed papers on Sunday announcing her intent to serve a mission for the LDS Church. She expects to learn where she will be serving in two to three weeks.

"I'm not afraid at all," Phillips said. "I guess it's because things like that happen all the time to so many people, and I suppose it was going to happen to a missionary at some point. I'm surprised there are not more situations like that."

Phillips believes the Lord will send her to "where I need to be." She also believes she will be safe, but if she becomes a victim of a crime, that's God's will, too.

On Friday night, four men attacked two sister missionaries — a 23-year-old woman from Kenya and a 21-year-old woman from California — in the city of Port Shepstone, South Africa, according to the LDS Church.

Police said the women were robbed of their handbags, and the Kenyan woman was shot in the stomach. The two women were then raped, according to police. Both women were taken to a hospital, where the California woman was treated and released. The Kenyan woman remained in the hospital but was expected to fully recover, the church said Tuesday.

No new information was available Wednesday, church spokesman Mark Tuttle said. "They're expected to recover fully and be back and work," he said.

The Deseret Morning News does not usually release the names of sexual assault victims. The women were serving in the South Africa Durban Mission, the church said. All four men accused in the attack have been arrested by police, according to South African press reports.

Kaelynn Bauer, who returned just over a year ago from a Spanish-speaking mission in Cherry Hill, N.J., hopes the attack in South Africa will remind all women to be cautious.

"Awareness could definitely be raised," said Bauer, a Murray resident who teaches Spanish at the LDS Church's Missionary Training Center in Provo. "A lot of missionaries think they're invincible, and some aren't as cautious as they could be."

In terms of safety training, Bauer said sisters in her mission were told not to walk outside after dark. All sisters are forbidden to go inside a home to teach unless there is another woman present, she said.

Bauer said no one ever talked to her about the possibility of violent crimes occurring while she was on her mission. Women who are preparing to leave should be aware of that, she said, but should not let it frighten them into staying home.

"You have the Lord's protection, but you also have to follow the spirit," Bauer said. "At the same time, even when you're doing that, you're vulnerable. All women should follow their gut feeling."

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