"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."

Nancy Miller of Mapleton also combines her religious beliefs with pragmatism as she considers her 23-year-old daughter Allison, who's been serving an LDS mission in Guatemala since mid-May.

Her daughter has never indicated in her e-mails that she is unsafe, Miller said. And other parts of Miller's life would suffer if she lived in constant fear for her daughter, she said.

"I pray for her safety," she said. "I pray for her every day. I'm not saying their parents (of the missionaries in South Africa) didn't. I just figure, if she's killed on her mission, it's supposed to happen."

Miller has had three sons return from missions safe and sound.

A Deseret Morning News analysis in January showed that LDS missionaries are comparatively safe. The church has more than 50,000 missionaries around the world at any one time. The analysis found 25 missionaries were killed in the past seven years, and most of them died in accidents. Three were murdered.

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E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com; nwarburton@desnews.com