Other efforts by the LDS Church seeking to clarify its identity include several new video interviews on the church Web site, including former Brigham Young University and Houston Oilers quarterback Gifford Nielsen, a director of community theater, an orthopedic surgeon, a justice of the peace, Texas news anchor Tracy Kennick, and a young woman with aspirations for medical school.

All of those featured live in Texas, and the young people talk about growing up there as Latter-day Saints, as another way of distinguishing LDS members from the polygamous group in Eldorado.

Elder Quentin L. Cook, an LDS apostle, said in a statement on the Web site that the results of the church's survey confirm what church leaders and members in Texas and elsewhere are seeing with respect to the confusion.

"We'd much rather be talking about who we are than who we aren't," Elder Cook said. "While many news reporters have been careful to distinguish between our church and this small Texas group, a lot of confusion still remains."

"People have the right to worship as they choose, and we aren't interested in attacking someone else's beliefs," Elder Cook said. "At the same time, we have an obligation to define ourselves rather than be defined by events and incidents that have nothing to do with us. It's obvious we need to do more to help people understand the enormous differences that exist between our church, which is a global faith, and these small polygamous groups."

In San Angelo, Texas, LDS missionaries have endured struggles trying to work in the city that has been ground zero for the legal war over the hundreds of children who were seized from the Fundamentalist LDS Church's compound. In the days after the raid, missionaries endured threats of violence and cruel taunts about polygamy.

"We laugh it off. There's plenty of people that have questions and want to know if we're part of the FLDS," Elder Auro Sosi said in an interview with the Deseret News last month. "There's 50,000 other missionaries just like us throughout the world. I know they're probably going through the same thing."

Elder Nicolas Librandi said the situation has opened some doors with people curious about the LDS Church Mormon church and the differences between the two faiths.

"Some people make jokes like, 'I want to have 50 wives like you,"' he said. "We say, 'Go to Eldorado!"'

The San Angelo LDS wards actually provided copies of the Book of Mormon to FLDS children who were being sheltered at the San Angelo Coliseum. At one point, the judge in the custody case inquired if local LDS officials would be willing to monitor the prayer services of FLDS members. Local LDS leaders politely declined the request. -->

The LDS Church banned the practice of polygamy in the late 19th century and excommunicates any of its members who practice it.

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Contributing: Ben Winslow

E-mail: carrie@desnews.com